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Hollywood has a long history of taking a successful film and tacking on an unnecessary sequel to cash in on the popularity of the original. It has often been the case that following on from a critically and commercially buoyant original picture, Hollywood producers’ eyes are consumed by a giant dollar sign. Such a strategy rarely works out, and there are few better examples of that fact than Denis Villeneuve's 2015 action-thriller Sicario and its 2018 follow-up Sicario: Day of the Soldado.

Update June 2nd, 2023: This article has been updated with additional information regarding the future of Sicario: Capos.

It is well-documented that the pair of Brolin and Deakins have been long-term friends and collaborators, having worked on several projects together, including 2010’s True Grit, the critically adulated, No Country for Old Men, as well as In The Valley of Elah and Hail, Caesar! making for a prospectively insightful, open,...

“Sicario” almost had the same location as “Spring Breakers.”

Denis Villeneuve’s 2015 crime drama centered on Mexican drug cartels was almost filmed in Fort Lauderdale, according to cinematographer Roger Deakins. The Oscar winner recalled the filmmakers having to convince producers that it was worth shooting in Mexico City in lieu of Juarez even due to the high cost of insurance.

“We had to convince some producers to go to Mexico City because they didn’t want us to go there for insurance,” Deakins said during a panel discussion moderated by Annette Insdorf at the 92nd Street Y.

Deakins’ wife and collaborator James Deakins added, “They wanted Fort Lauderdale.”

Deakins continued, “I was actually in a production meeting and I said, ‘Has anybody read the script?’ So anyway, they let us go to Mexico City for a few days. I have to say, the cops in Mexico City were fantastic. We...

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan is ending with season 4, meaning it's the last chance for another major figure from the books to appear. While Jack Ryan has changed actors nearly as often as James Bond, the key difference is that Jack used to swap faces in almost every outing. On the big screen, only Harrison Ford has played the CIA analyst more than once, but with Amazon's Jack Ryan, John Krasinski has been given multiple seasons to make his mark on Clancy's most famous hero. While Jack Ryan will end with its upcoming fourth series, a spinoff fronted by Michael Peña is currently in the works.

One figure whose been noticeably absent from Jack Ryan is John Clark. Readers of Clancy's so-called "Ryanverse" will know Clark well, with the former Seal being the brawn to Ryan's brain in many novels, including Clear And Present Danger or The Sum Of All Fears...

John Wick‘s Chad Stahelski is locked and loaded for Paramount‘s adaptation of Rainbow Six starring Michael B. Jordan. Details about the plot remain in shadow. Still, we’ve got word Stahelski is directing the film based on Tom Clancy’s extensive military franchise. Paramount Pictures is still determining if Rainbow Six will debut in theaters or on Paramount+. Jordan is reprising his role as the CIA operations officer and former Navy Seal, John Clark, born John Terrance Kelley. Jordan’s Clark was featured in 2021’s Without Remorse, directed by Stefano Sollima.

Jordan and Elizabeth Raposo produce through Outlier Society, with Akiva Goldsman and Greg Lessans for Weed Road Pictures and Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec for The Saw Mill. Finally, Stahelski, Jason Spitz, and Alex Young executive produce via 87Eleven Entertainment.

Stahelski is one of Hollywood’s busiest filmmakers. In addition to launching John Wick: Chapter 4 in March,...

The next big Tom Clancy adaptation has found its director. Chad Stahleski, director and stunt coordinator best known for helming all three "John Wick" movies plus the upcoming sequel, has signed on to direct "Rainbow Six" according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Rainbow Six" is set to be the second Clancy adaptation starring Michael B. Jordan, after 2021's "Without Remorse."

Action-savvy filmmaker Stahleski's participation should hopefully breathe some life into a franchise that so far hasn't made the impact one might expect from the "Ryanverse," Clancy's extensive literary world that features Jack Ryan along with Jordan's character, John Clark. "Without Remorse" was originally scheduled for a theatrical release, but ended up moving to Prime Video, where it failed to stand out in a sea of political thrillers and action-heavy shows. In /Film's review, Josh Spiegel called the first film "a bland throwback to the late 1980s and early 1990s," with a "uniformly pedestrian script.

The 2023 release of Dune: Part Two will mark a first in the career of visionary director Denis Villeneuve, which makes the upcoming follow-up to Dune even more exciting. Adapted from Frank Herbert's 1965 novel, Dune, Villeneuve's two-part epic follows Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his family, who are thrust into a war for the deadly desert planet of Arrakis, the only source of the coveted resource known as "spice." The 1984 film and 2000 miniseries adaptations faltered at bringing to life the full story of Dune, so Villeneuve wanted to truly tell the epic story over two lengthy features, marking a departure from his prior filmmaking patterns.

Denis Villeneuve is one of the most critically acclaimed directors of his generation, delivering massive hits such as Prisoners, Arrival, and Blade Runner 2049, but his recent devotion has been to the remarkable retelling of Dune. Part One hit theaters and HBO Max simultaneously...

Adagio

A quartet of heavyweight Italian actors in Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea, Adriano Giannini were put together for Stefano Sollima‘s next directing gig. Production on Adagio took place last summer and the film actually completes a crime trilogy which began not with a pair of films, but back to back TV series. Written by Stefano Bises, this is a dark story of revenge and redemption shot in Rome. The Apartment’s Lorenzo Mieli (Priscilla) and AlterEgo’s Sollima produce the feature.

Gist: Completing the trilogy that began with “Romanzo Criminale” and “Suburra”, the story idea and screenplay are co-written by Stefano Bises.…...

Exclusive: The 2x Primetime Emmy nominated and Golden Globe winning Gabriel Byrne has closed a deal, we hear, to star opposite Ana de Armas in the John Wick spinoff Ballerina.

He joins the ever-expanding cast which includes Ian McShane, Keanu Reeves, Anjelica Huston, Lance Reddick, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Norman Reedus.

Producer Basil Iwanyk said: “For decades, Gabriel’s mysterious and enigmatic presence has enriched dozens of films. You can never quite be sure what he’s thinking, and that’s perfect for this world.”

The movie is now shooting with Len Wiseman directing off Shay Hatten’s script. In addition to Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Chad Stahelski produce. Brady Fujikawa and Chelsea Kujawa are overseeing the project for Lionsgate.

Bryne’s Emmy noms and Globe win are for his turn on HBO’s In Treatment. The Miller’s Crossing star will next be seen as literary giant Samuel Beckett...

Prominent Italian producer Lorenzo Mieli has shepherded standout TV series such as “The Young Pope” and “My Brilliant Friend” as well as bringing Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All” to the big screen. Now he is taking his production company The Apartment to the next level by broadening its international scope.

While continuing to work with Italy’s top directors, including Guadagnino, Paolo Sorrentino, and Stefano Sollima, Mieli’s Fremantle-owned outfit is ramping up a high-caliber slate of film and TV projects, which have been announced, involving the likes of Sofia Coppola, Angelina Jolie, Pablo Larrain, Joe Wright, Florian Zeller, and “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight.

Mieli, who is based in Rome, has secured Knight to work on two projects, both in pre-production: the Apple TV original series “Ferrari,” which is the biggest skein ever to be produced and shot in Italy, and Pablo Larrain’s biopic of iconic...

Exclusive: Sony has rounded out its cast for The Equalizer 3, with Eugenio Mastrandrea (From Scratch), Remo Girone (Ford v Ferrari), Sonia Ammar (Scream), Daniele Perrone (Baaria), Andrea Scarduzio (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One) and Andrea Dodero (Blocco 181) signing on for roles.

The actors join an ensemble led by Denzel Washington which also includes Dakota Fanning, and Gaia Scodellaro, as previously announced.

While the film’s plot is being kept under wraps, it’s the third in an action series centered on Washington’s vigilante Robert McCall, from director Antoine Fuqua. The first released in 2014 earned over 194M worldwide, spurring a 2018 sequel that grossed over 190M worldwide.

Slated for release in theaters on September 1, 2023, The Equalizer 3 was written by Richard Wenk. Producers include Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Washington, Fuqua, Clayton Townsend, Alex Siskin, Steve Tisch, Tony Eldridge and Michael Sloan.

Mastrandrea can currently be seen opposite Zoe Saldana...

Italian writer, journalist and political commentator Roberto Saviano is due to head to court in Rome on Tuesday (November 15) for the first hearing in a defamation trial brought against him by Italy’s newly installed, right-wing prime minister Giorgia Meloni.

The case is related to an incident that took place prior to Meloni taking the reins of power in Italy in October.

Meloni is suing Saviano over comments he made on the current affairs show Piazza Pulita in December 2020, during a discussion about the phenomenon of asylum seekers arriving on Italian shores via small boats or charity ships that rescue them from the sea, in which he referred to her as a “bastard” for her hard-line, anti-immigrant stance.

The judge charged with a preliminary investigation into the case ruled that the “epithet bastard” had gone “beyond the rights of political criticism” and gave the green light for the trial.

The...

Exports of Italian TV series and non-theatrical movies have more than doubled over the past five years thanks in part to the rise of local originals commissioned by streamers, just as investments in production of local scripted content are also increasing.

That is the key finding of a report unveiled at Rome’s Mia market by Italy’s producers association APA, which estimates the total value of Italy’s TV exports in 2021 at roughly €100 million (97 million).

The total cost of all types of Italian TV and platform content produced in 2021 reached €1.4 billion (1.36 billion) in 2021, which is a 37 increase compared with 2017, according to the APA report.

The number of Italian series and non-theatrical films that broke out of national confines on small screens between 2017 and 2021 grew from 17 to a still relatively small 48, according to the report. APA attributes this increase in international visibility both to global streamer play and to “an...

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The Oscar-nominated screenwriter Alessandro Camon (The Messenger) has signed on to adapt the Italian psychological thriller You Will Find the Words (Le parole lo sanno) for the screen.

British director Peter Webber (Girl With a Pearl Earring, Hannibal Rising) is attached to direct the film, which Rome-based Fenix Entertainment are producing.

Franzoso’s novel centers around a man with a terminal illness who has a chance encounter with a woman on a park bench, an encounter that leads to an extreme act of violence.

Camon told The Hollywood Reporter Fenix approached him about the adaptation and introduced him to Webber.

“We immediately hit it off,” he notes, calling Webber a “Renaissance man. He’s a cosmopolitan, he loves many genres and languages, and he’s truly into what he does.”

The film version of Franzoso’s novel will, like the book, be set...

Italian director Stefano Sollima, who is known in Hollywood for “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” “Without Remorse” and TV show “Gomorrah,” is back behind camera on a contemporary Rome-set crimer titled “Adagio.”

Shooting started Sept. 5 on “Adagio” which features an ensemble cast of Italian A-listers comprising Pierfrancesco Favino (“Nostalgia”), Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”), Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”) and Adriano Giannini (“The Ties”).

“I am eager and full of enthusiasm about finally returning to depict my city after all these years. Rome has changed, and so have I,” Sollima said in a statement for Variety. He went on to describe “Adagio” as a dark story of revenge and redemption, which will be the last chapter of my Roman criminal trilogy.”

The previous two installments in this trilogy are “A.C.A.B: All Cops Are Bastards,” from 2012, and “Suburra,” from 2015, which was subsequently spun out into a Netflix TV series.

The “Adagio” story...

The Italian film industry is in a paradoxical state: production is booming but box office is bust.

Italy’s five features vying for a Venice Golden Lion – plus a myriad more scattered in other Lido sections – reflect cinema Italiano’s current creative vibrancy, if you look at the cream of the crop; however, the average quality is not that great.

On the plus side, the country is making a quantum leap forward in terms of the global visibility of its movies just as the number of Italian directors considered bankable in Hollywood, such as Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino and Stefano Sollima (“Without Remorse”), to name but a few, is growing.

During the fest’s lineup announcement Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera described the Italian cinema scene as being made of “light and shadows.” He noted that Italy’s movie output over the past year has reached a massive roughly 250 titles,...

Content giant Fremantle is making a big push into feature films as it expands its horizons, says group COO Andrea Scrosati who is also the multi-pronged company’s continental Europe chief.

At last year’s Venice fest Fremantle, known for talent shows “X-Factor” and “American Idol” and TV series such as “The Mosquito Coast,” was flying the flag with several pics including Paolo Sorrentino’s prizewinning and Oscar-nommed “The Hand of God.” More recently at Cannes, Fremantle-produced film “The Eight Mountains” scored the jury prize. All of which, Scrosati boasts, is pretty good for just the past nine months. And, though he’s keeping mum, expect several more Fremantle films at Venice in September.

More significantly, there are currently a total of 33 movies that Fremantle’s myriad companies are expected to deliver in 2022, though some are being co-produced with other outfits. That’s quite a substantial leap, considering that in 2018, when Scrosati joined the company,...

Streamer hopes lower-cost option will help arrest subscriber decline.

Netflix has named Microsoft as its technology and sales partner for its planned advertising-supported subscription offering, as it prepares to launch a cheaper tier to tackle falling subscriber numbers.

The streamer announced in April that it planned to launch a new lower-priced ad-supported subscription plan, in addition to its existing ads-free basic, standard and premium plans.

News of the ad-supported service emerged as Netflix announced its first subscriber loss in more than a decade, and warned that it could lose as many as two million subscribers in the second quarter. Netflix...

The series is currently in pre-production in Rome, Italy.

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is creating and writing drama series Ferrari, about race car driver and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari, for Apple TV+. Surburra director Stefano Sollima is set to direct.

The series is currently in pre-production in Rome, Italy.

Ferrari is inspired by Luca Dal Monte’s book Ferrari Rex and will tell the story of how Ferrari rebuilt his racing team from scratch following the death of his son and the betrayal by his former lead driver.

The series is produced by Lorenzo Mieli of The Apartment Pictures in...

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Apple TV+ is getting behind the wheel of a series based on the life of automaker Enzo Ferrari.

The streamer has given a straight to series order to Ferrari, from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and director Stefano Sollima (Without Remorse, Sicario: Day of the Soldado). The drama also counts Lorenzo Mieli (My Brilliant Friend) and Paolo Sorrentino (The Young Pope) among its executive producers.

The series is inspired by the best-selling biography Ferrari Rex by Luca Dal Monte, published by Giorgio Nada Editore and by Giunti.

“I am thrilled to be telling such an evocative story about this legendary man and his iconic brand,” said Knight in a statement. “Enzo Ferrari’s utterly extraordinary life was defined by his dramatic personal and professional journey, and Ferrari is a celebration of an incredibly complex and fascinating human being.”

The series will focus on...

Apple has given a straight-to-series order to a drama series about Enzo Ferrari from writer Steven Knight, Variety has learned.

The series, titled “Ferrari,” is inspired by the biography “Ferrari Rex” by Luca Dal Monte. Pre-production on the show is currently underway in Italy.

The show focuses on Ferrari, who dedicated his genius to the mission of building the fastest racing car in history. But there was a trail of tragedy and torment along the way. Between 1956 and 1961, deeply wounded by the death of his firstborn son, Dino, and by what he considered a betrayal by his lead driver, Juan Manuel Fangio, Ferrari rebuilds his racing team from scratch, selecting five promising rising stars of motor racing to fight for victory.

“I am thrilled to be telling such an evocative story about this legendary man and his iconic brand,” said Knight. “Enzo Ferrari’s utterly extraordinary life was defined by...

Apple TV+ is revving its wheels with an Enzo Ferrari TV series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and Academy Award-winning The Hand of God director Paolo Sorrentino attached as an exec producer with Stefano Sollima directing.

Created and written by Knight, Ferrari is based on Luca Dal Monte’s Ferrari Rex and will examine how, in the pursuit of pure speed, the driver and entrepreneur dedicated his genius to building the fastest racing car in history but left a trail of tragedy and torment along the way. Between 1956 and 1961, deeply wounded by the death of his firstborn son Dino and by what he considered a betrayal by his lead driver Juan Manuel Fangio, Ferrari rebuilt his racing team from scratch, selecting five promising rising stars of motor racing to fight for victory.

2022 Apple TV+ Pilots & Series Orders

The show from Fremantle-owned The Young Pope producer The Apartment Pictures and...

Apple TV+ announced a straight-to-series order for the new racing drama “Ferrari.”

The biographical series on the late Italian race car driver and eponymous entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari is from Academy Award nominee Steven Knight, with Oscar-winning “The Hand of God” filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino set to executive produce.

“Ferrari” is inspired by the bestselling biographical novel “Ferrari Rex” by Luca Dal Monte, named by The New York Times as the “definitive biography” on the famed figure. The series traces Ferrari’s highs and lows, following the tragic death of his first son Dino in 1956 and what he considered to be a large betrayal by his lead driver Juan Manuel Fangio, which led him to assemble a new all-star team of five promising drivers.

“Five years. Five drivers. Five deaths. One trial. In the name of passion, in the pursuit of pure speed. At the center of it all a titanic man,...

Oscar-winning actors Geoffrey Rush and Benicio Del Toro will be feted at the 56th edition of the Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival, which will run July 1-9. The actors will receive their awards at the festival’s closing ceremony. The Czech event has also revealed its juries.

“We are honored and delighted that two extraordinary actors we have been deeply admiring for many years accepted our invitation to come to Karlovy Vary,” said Kviff’s president Jiří Bartoška.

Rush will receive the festival’s Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema, and his films “The King’s Speech,” “Quills” and “Shine” will be screened as an homage to the actor.

Rush began his career in theater with the Queensland Theater Company. An important turning point in his cinematic career came in 1996, when he excelled in the role of composer and pianist David Helfgott in Scott Hick’s “Shine,” which won him an Oscar,...

Ukrainian filmmaker Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi wrote and will direct the feature adaptation of John Valliant’s book The Tiger, in which Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award-winner Alexander Skarsgard will star alongside Oppenheimer actor Dane DeHaan.

Set in snowy far east Russia in the late 90s, the feature follows a group of men — referred to as the Tiger Team — who work to protect endangered tigers from poachers and logging operations. The story follows Vanzin (Skarsgard), the Team’s leader whose sense of duty is tested when he’s charged with hunting down and exterminating a tiger that killed a poacher in self-defense. DeHaan would portray Kanchuga, a young environmental scientist and newest member of the Team.

Darren Aronofsky and Protozoa are producing, along with Plan B and Wild Bunch International. The Veterans will launch sales on the project at the Cannes Film Festival. CAA Media Finance is co-representing domestic rights.

Slaboshpytskyi...

Ahead of the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark hitting cinemas, here are 30 organised crime flicks you must see before you sleep with the fishes

Our criteria here is films featuring actual mobsters and the organised crime milieu – as opposed to hitmen, heists or bank robbers. Stefano Sollima’s punchy neo-noir, set in 2011, fits the bill with its imbroglio of crime families, political corruption and Rome real estate. Financed by Netflix, this is essentially a feature-length pilot for the addictive Suburra: Blood on Rome prequel series.

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Spending more time inside this summer? Amazon Prime has your streaming needs covered. Aside from exclusive content, you can typically track down those hard-to-find TV shows and movies on Amazon Prime. If you’re not already signed up, you can join Prime for just $12.99 a month after a free 30-day trial, and instantly access load of programs through Prime Video.

An Amazon Prime membership includes free two-day shipping on select items, which is great if you’re a frequent shopper or need something in a hurry. For those solely interested in Prime Video and no extra perks, you can sign up for $8.99 a month. Amazon also offers student discounts, price deductions for Ebt cardholders,...

Exclusive: Thunder Road president of production Erica Lee has been promoted to partner at the company.

During her 16-year tenure at Thunder Road, Lee has produced some of the company’s most successful films including all three installments of the $584.7 million worldwide-grossing John Wick franchise; Taylor Sheridan’s acclaimed Wind River; the three-time Oscar-nominated Sicario, directed by Denis Villeneuve; and the Stefano Sollima-directed sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado.

On June 28, principal photography started on the fourth installment of John Wick in Berlin. Lee also serves as EP on The Continental, the John Wick prequel series for Lionsgate Television.

Said Thunder Road chairman Iwanyk, “It’s been a true joy to watch Erica evolve from being an assistant that was telling me what I was doing wrong, to now my partner who tells me what I’m doing wrong. Thunder Road wouldn’t be half the company it is today without her taste,...

ViacomCBS International Studios and Italy’s Leone Film Group have forged a strategic partnership by signing a long-term agreement to co-produce a wide range of Italian content for the global market.

This potentially milestone pact between Vis and Leone — the prominent indie production and distribution shingle owned and operated by late master director Sergio Leone’s children Raffaella and Andrea — will create “vast opportunities for the development and creation of Italian language content, original, scripted, and unscripted formats,” the companies said in a joint statement.

“As part of its commitment to investing in quality content as a strategic lever to generate value for all platforms globally, Vis is bolstering its production capacities in Europe by tapping into the creativity and talent in Italy,” the statement added.

Italy now has an attractive 40% tax rebate for international productions and is in the process of radically revamping Rome’s iconic Cinecittà Studios in...

From “Pokémon Detective Pikachu,” which pulled in $433 million globally in 2019, to “Sonic the Hedgehog,” which grossed $319.7 million worldwide last year before the pandemic shut down theaters, the message is clear: Gamers and nongamers alike are looking to explore their favorite video game characters and narratives in different mediums.

Gaming developers are getting in on the action as well, forming production arms to work with networks and Hollywood studios to build on their established franchises. Launched by Sony Interactive in 2019, PlayStation Prods. is developing a star-studded series based on its hit game “The Last of Us” with HBO. Activision Blizzard Studios was working on a film series based on its biggest IP, “Call of Duty,” although director Stefano Sollima said in an interview last year that after several delays, the project was “in limbo.”

Ubisoft Film & Television, a subsidiary of game publisher Ubisoft, is taking a different approach. It’s producing...

London-based financier Anton has boarded “No Place Like Kill,” an action-packed crime thriller from Mat Newman with Sam Riley and Charles Dance attached to star. The film will be presented to international buyers by Anton at the Virtual Cannes Film Market later this month.

Set to start shooting at the end of the year in the U.K., “No Place Like Kill” will mark the directorial debut of Newman, a well-established editor who has worked with Nicolas Winding Refn on “Drive” and “Only God Forgives,” as well as Stefano Sollima’s “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” and “Without Remorse.”

Sunrise Films’ Rupert Preston and Moonage Pictures’ Matthew Read are producing. Charles Collier is an executive producer alongside Riley, Nigel Williams and Dance.

Newman co-wrote the script with his brother, Ben Newman. Set in Northern England, “No Place like Kill” follows a revenge-seeking mercenary and a police informant who are forced...

Some gangster movies/shows never tend to leave your mind. After all, they leave behind a lasting impressing by weaving an intricate and violent tale of power and vengeance through iconic dialogues or a particular shot from that film/show. At times, these movies/shows portray real-life mafia stories in a romantic, yet realistic, manner. If you’re in the mood for the same, here are 5 gangster dramas that are so good to be true and will surely keep your adrenaline pumping.

Dom (Amazon Prime Video)

Dom is a Brazilian crime-mafia series which is inspired by a true story. Directed by Vincente Kubrusly and Breno Silveira and starring Gabriel Leone, Flavio Tolezani, Filipe Braganca, this series is about a police officer who is has been fighting the war against drugs his entire life only to finds his own son become the most drug lord in Rio de Janeiro. Dom, that...

The best way to learn and pick up a language is by watching a film or web series with subtitles. And with you having ample time at home to binge-watch content at its very best, why not tap the play button and experience some of the best shows made in foreign languages. If you’re wondering which are the best ones to stream, here are five of the very best.

Open your mind to world cinema with these must-watch foreign shows.

Dom (Amazon Prime Video)

Dom is a Brazilian crime-mafia series which is inspired by a true story. Directed by Vincente Kubrusly and Breno Silveira and starring Gabriel Leone, Flavio Tolezani, Filipe Braganca, this series is about a police officer who is has been fighting the war against drugs his entire life only to finds his own son become the most drug lord in Rio de Janeiro. So, if you...

“Without Remorse,” the Tom Clancy spy film starring Michael B. Jordan, was viewed for 760 million minutes in the week of April 26, leading Nielsen’s list of the top streaming movies during its online debut.

The Amazon title was not just the most viewed movie of the week that ran between April 26 through May 2, but it also had the fourth most minutes viewed for any title for the week, including television, lagging behind only Netflix’s “Shadow and Bone,” Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “NCIS” on Netflix.

Nielsen noted that “Without Remorse” viewing was boosted in large part thanks to African American audiences, which totaled 37% of the viewing audience, and the strong numbers follow on other recent Amazon successes aimed at Black audiences, including “Coming 2 America” and “Them.”

“Without Remorse” also beat out another new film to debut that week, Netflix’s animated “Mitchells vs. the Machines,” which was...

For the launch of Michael B. Jordan’s “Without Remorse,” the team at Amazon decided to go big.

The e-commerce giant and streaming player coordinated more than 100 drone deliveries to veterans and military families, celebs and influencers in 11 countries and 14 markets across the globe. It’s the kind of effort, one that spanned time zones and language barriers, that reflected the globe-trotting revenge mission undertaken by Jordan’s on-screen alter ego, John Kelly, in the adaptation of Tom Clancy’s bestseller.

“Each of the drone drops [including those for celebs like Lori Harvey, T-Pain, Cedric the Entertainer, Wesley Snipes and Pete Wentz] was treated as an individual production, where our teams pre-arranged the drops in order to follow the legal and safety guidelines for every territory,” Amazon Chief Marketing Officer Ukonwa Ojo tells Variety. “And for some territories where air drones were not permitted, ground drones were used instead. We made sure all legal and...

Photo: ‘Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse’/Amazon ‘Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse’ Directed by Stefano Sollima and based on Tom Clancy’s thriller novel ‘Without Remorse,’ ‘Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse’ follows an elite Navy Seal, Sr. Chief John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan), who finds himself seeking revenge against those who murdered his wife and unborn child. This origin story comes from the action hero John Clark who is one of the most influential characters in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series. With pure brutal revenge on his mind, John Kelly becomes an explosion of rage and violence against anyone and anything. After the Russian soldiers retaliated against John Kelly by murdering his pregnant wife, he joins forces with a female Seal Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith), and the suspicious CIA agent Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell). Related article: Oscars 2021 Winners: The 93rd Show With Record-Breaking Historic Successes, Shocks and Surprises Related article: A Tribute...

Balancing the duties of loyalty to their country and career with their love for and commitment to their families can be a difficult process for elite Navy SEALs who wish to thrive in their careers and support their relatives. Michael B. Jordan‘s protagonist of Sr. Chief John Kelly is struggling with that challenge in the […]

The post Interview: Stefano Sollima, Michael B. Jordan and the Cast Talk Without Remorse appeared first on Shockya.com.

With his two most recent films, “Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado” and the brand-new “Without Remorse,” filmmaker Stefano Sollima has definitely presented his idea of what makes a good action film. His focus on realistic violence and nary a quip to be found have quickly become staples of his output. And in this episode of The Playlist Podcast, we talk to Sollima about his style of filmmaking and what lies ahead for the world introduced in his latest film.

Continue reading Stefano Sollima Talks ‘Without Remorse,’ Realistic Action Vs. Gun-Fu & The Possibility Of A ‘Jack Ryan’ Crossover [The Playlist Podcast] at The Playlist.

The film adaptation of Tom Clancy's Without Remorse bears little resemblance to the source material. Michael B. Jordan is a ferocious protagonist who shreds baddies as a vengeance-seeking Navy Seal. But the classic character's twenty-first century upgrade is nearly torpedoed by a preposterous plot. The tense and agonizing storyline from the novel is replaced by absurd geopolitical machinations. Slick action scenes, and the groundwork for a better sequel, save the film from being a huge disappointment.

Without Remorse opens in the civil war decimated city of Aleppo, Syria. Lieutenant Commander Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith) leads an elite special forces team on a classified exfiltration operation. CIA Agent Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell) has provided minimal intelligence about their target. Senior Chief John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan), the team's bad-ass, has doubts about the objective.

Kelly's instincts prove to be correct. The team rescues their man, but encounters a completely different enemy than expected.

After her breakthrough role in “Queen and Slim,” Jodie Turner-Smith is taking on her next major challenge: playing a military officer opposite Michael B. Jordan in “Without Remorse” and a condemned queen in the upcoming series “Anne Boleyn.”

Turner-Smith had just wrapped filming on “Queen & Slim” when she booked “Without Remorse,” which centers on Navy Seal John Kelly (Jordan), one of the most famous characters in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan universe. In the action film, from director Stefano Sollima, Turner-Smith plays a brand new character: Lt. Commander Karen Greer, the niece of James Greer — Jack Ryan and John Kelly’s (better known as John Clark) frequent ally — and a decorated Navy Seal and Clark’s former team member.

In many ways, Turner-Smith knew what she was signing up for with the action thriller. The actor was generally aware of Clancy’s book, TV and film universe, having watched the Jack Ryan properties.

If you loved the cynical, grim nihilism and fascistic wet dream foulness of “Sicario: Day Of The Soldado,” you’re probably going to love Amazon’s “Without Remorse.” Made by the same writing/directing pair, filmmaker Stefano Sollima (the Italian “Gomorrah” TV series) and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan, “Without Remorse” feels like a CIA Black Ops recruitment tool—making ruthless assassinations of faceless foreign nationals seem efficiently slick and badass—for aspiring jarheads and military contractors.

Continue reading ‘Without Remorse’: Tom Clancy, Taylor Sheridan & The ‘Sicario 2’ Director Make For A Trifecta Of Unpleasant, Pro-Military Grimdark [Review] at The Playlist.

“Jordan brings a much needed dose of humanity to a story that’s otherwise thuddingly familiar,” Alonso Duralde writes

The hope with “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse” for Paramount Pictures is that it can launch a new franchise on the back of Sexiest Man Alive Michael B. Jordan. And the good news is that Jordan delivers as John Clark, even if the movie doesn’t.

Initial reviews from critics on “Without Remorse” were relatively lukewarm, though the gripes rest primarily with director Stefano Sollima’s boiler-plate, Cold War action fare, which reviewers labeled as “conventional,” “dull” and “grim.”

Many of the critics agree that Jordan brings an added layer of depth to the role, one that recalls his best work in films like “Creed” and “Black Panther,” though less of an everyman type in the vein of Willem Dafoe and Liev Schrieber as previous iterations of Tom Clancy’s spy character.

“Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse” is a lively formulaic action-hero origin story, dunked in combat grunge, that demonstrates how a resourceful lead actor can bend and heighten the meaning of a commercial thriller. In the opening sequence, which looks like an outtake from “Zero Dark Thirty” shot in the rubble of “Full Metal Jacket,” John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan), the leader of a team of U.S. Navy SEALs, heads up a mission in Aleppo to rescue a CIA operative who’s been taken hostage. The enemy combatants turn out to be Russian ex-military forces — which is not only a surprise, but something the team’s CIA overseer, the weaselly Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell), is trying to keep from them. Back in the States, several of the SEALs who were part of the mission are killed, execution-style, by Russian nationals. The assassins go after Kelly, too, gunning down his pregnant wife,...

Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, 2021. Directed by Stefano Sollima. Starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Cam Gigandet, Jack Kesy, Brett Gelman, Jacob Scipio, Luke Mitchell, Colman Domingo, Lauren London, Adrian Rawlins, Todd Lasance, Lucy Russell, Merab Ninidze, George Asprey, Artjom Gilz, Alexander Mercury, James Ballanger, and Guy Pearce. Synopsis: John Clark, a Navy […]

The post Movie Review – Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse (2021) appeared first on Flickering Myth.

A flash but forgettable new Amazon title card introduces us to Without Remorse, and it’s a sign of things to come. The latest Michael B Jordan star vehicle has plenty going for it: directed by Stefano Sollima (Sicario: Day of the Soldado) and co-written by Taylor Sheridan, Jordan’s able cast of co-stars includes Jamie Bell, Jodie Turner-Smith and Guy Pearce. It’s also a pretty straight adaptation of the 1993 Tom Clancy bestseller, which follows Navy Seal John Kelly (Jordan) as he enacts vengeance on some Russians who hit a bit too close to home. What could go wrong?

A number of things, it seems. But first, the functional. Sollima can direct genuinely thrilling action set pieces, and feels at home with Clancy’s source material. The producers have clearly gone to town budget-wise, constructing warzone sets and armies of armoured vehicles as bulletproof as Jamie Bell’s American accent.

Michael B Jordan stars as a Navy Seal out for revenge in this formulaic update of Clancy’s 1993 bestseller

In the last few years, screenwriter Taylor Sheridan brought something steely and smart to the action genre with the drug-cartel thriller Sicario and its politically provocative sequel Sicario 2, a Trumpian nightmare of border-incursion, directed by Stefano Sollima. Sheridan and Sollima are reunited for this movie, but it is a by-the-numbers macho adventure not unlike something from the era of VHS rental, Rambo and tough-guy military mavericks being sold down the river by the pointy-headed creeps in suits back in Washington DC or Langley, home of the CIA.

This film is based on Tom Clancy’s 1993 bestseller, originally set during the Vietnam war, but now updated to the situation in Syria. Michael B Jordan is Navy Seal John Clark, whose pregnant wife is murdered on US soil, apparently by Fsb agents...

A Dad Novel for long flights becomes a Dad Movie for long flights, with no predictable story beat left unturned

The full title of “Without Remorse” is “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse,” but they really could have just called it “Tom Clancy Movie,” since it’s a work so determined to deliver exactly what fans want from the legendary Dad Novelist. It’s a stolidly 80s action movie, from its Russian villains to its third-act plot twist that can be seen from space, but it’s lucky to have Michael B. Jordan giving an actual performance in what could have been an even more generic shoot-em-up.

“Action hero seeks revenge after his wife is murdered” is the most reliable cliché on display here, but Jordan takes the idea further than Schwarzenegger and his Reagan-era peers ever did. In the middle of a dopey, globe-trotting movie about double-crosses and CIA operatives,...

People like to say Tom Clancy’s politics never left the 1980s. That’s probably true, but movies based on his work are firmly planted in the ‘90s. Beginning with John McTiernan’s crackling (if even then historically dated) The Hunt for Red October (1990), the decade was a boom era for technocratic spy thrillers. And at heart, Clancy’s popular Jack Ryan character really works best as a technocrat. If the author ever wanted to indulge in action thrills, there was always John Clark, Clancy’s other recurring protagonist. Yet, strangely, Clark never got to star in his own movie. That changes in Without Remorse, the long-gestating adaptation of Clancy’s 1993 novel which sees Michael B. Jordan don the camo fatigues.

Updated for the 21st century with Syria replacing a literary origin story rooted in Vietnam, and Clark’s complexion being tweaked for a more inclusive era of action heroes...

Michael B. Jordan has already played a superhero and a supervillain in his career, with Fantastic Four and Black Panther. But the actor remains a popular choice for fan castings in other major comic book movie roles. One rumor that has long persisted is that Jordan will become the first black actor to play the Man of Steel in J.J. Abrams' Superman Reboot. In an interview for Jake's Takes, Jordan admitted he is aware of the rumors, but kept mum about any possible details of such an arrangement.

"You hear the whispers and the rumors and stuff like that and it's just a compliment. You know, I appreciate people that think about me in that type of way for these roles. I don't really have anything more to give on that other than it's just flattering and I appreciate it. But, you know, whoever they get or if it goes that way,...

If you’re going to build a new character-driven action franchise — and hang tight for a coda sequence midway through the end credits to see how that would take shape — then you need a charismatic lead to lay the foundations. Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse certainly has that in Michael B. Jordan. He brings charged physicality and emotional intensity to John Clark in this origin story of a shadow figure from the Jack Ryan novels who graduated to protagonist with the author’s 1993 best-seller. Stefano Sollima’s taut tactical military thriller departs plot-wise from the source material but ...

If you’re going to build a new character-driven action franchise — and hang tight for a coda sequence midway through the end credits to see how that would take shape — then you need a charismatic lead to lay the foundations. Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse certainly has that in Michael B. Jordan. He brings charged physicality and emotional intensity to John Clark in this origin story of a shadow figure from the Jack Ryan novels who graduated to protagonist with the author’s 1993 best-seller. Stefano Sollima’s taut tactical military thriller departs plot-wise from the source material but ...