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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said today that its board of governors has voted to expel Bill Cosby and director Roman Polanski from its membership. The vote came during a meeting Tuesday night and was “in accordance with the organization’s Standards of Conduct,” the Academy said in announcing the news Thursday. “The Board continues to encourage ethical standards that require members to uphold the Academy’s values of respect for human dignity,” it said in a statement. The act of kicking a member out of the Academy is rare, but the AMPAS board in October did vote to expel Harvey Weinstein after a special emergency meeting in October, following bombshell reports the New York Times and New Yorker about decades of alleged sexual harassment and abuse. Cosby was found guilty April 26 in Pennsylvania on three counts of aggravated indecent assault against former Temple University Andrea Constand in 2004. He awaits sentencing and faces up to 30 years … [Read more...] about Movie Academy Expels Bill Cosby And Roman Polanski

Camille Cosby has spoken publicly for the first time since her husband Bill Cosby was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in a Philadelphia suburb in 2004  – calling it “mob justice”. Camille Cosby, who has been married to The Cosby Show star since 1964, has gone after the Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, the media and Cosby’s accusers in a statement that alludes to racial injustice. “The overall media, with their frenzied, relentless demonization of him and unquestioning acceptance of accusers’ allegations without any attendant proof, have superseded the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which guarantee due process and equal protection, and thereby eliminated the possibility of a fair trial and unbiased jury. Bill Cosby was labelled as guilty because the media and accusers said so,” she said. This comes after a jury of seven men and five women returned guilty verdicts last week on three counts of aggravated … [Read more...] about Camille Cosby Calls Bill Cosby’s Guilty Charge “Mob Justice” In Startling Statement

On the surface, it may not seem the most appropriate Valentine’s Day gift, but if you are as in love with rock’n’roll and storytelling from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger , and Terence Winter , then HBO ’s Vinyl is a TV kiss you don’t want to miss. Debuting on February 14 with a two-hour pilot directed by the Oscar winner, Vinyl , as I say in my video review above, literally and figuratively rocks. And yes, from its NYC circa 1973 mean streets to blasting the New York Dolls, drugs and a body in the trunk of a car, you could call this 10-episode season GoodRecordFellas – in the best way. With its once-in-a-lifetime behind-the-camera trio and power chord-strong cast led by Boardwalk Empire alum Bobby Cannavale as struggling and stormy label boss Richie Finestra, Vinyl is a near note-perfect swaggering re-creation of a time when the misfit-attracting music biz was at the center of American culture and at its most influential. Still, it is also a … [Read more...] about ‘Vinyl’ Review: Martin Scorsese & Mick Jagger’s HBO Series Rocks

EXCLUSIVE : German distributor-producer DCM , whose releases have included Spencer , Moonlight and The Artist , is teaming up with Berlin-based producer Flute Film on a film version of Édouard Louis’ acclaimed 2016 novel History Of Violence . The autobiographical novel, translated into 30 languages, is the second by prodigious French novelist Louis. Based on a real incident, it concerns a violent rape and robbery in Paris on Christmas Eve and the subsequent recounting of events to police and family members. The German-language film version has a script by Dan Kitrosser, best known for Sundance drama We The Animals . Igor Plischke ( Metamorphosis ) will direct. Liza Stutzky ( System Crashers ) is casting director and Saralisa Volm ( Silent Forest ) is associate producer. Producers Christopher Zwickler ( The Magic Flute ) and Dario Suter ( Kon-Tiki ), who optioned the book rights, will be discussing the project with potential finance and … [Read more...] about Germany’s DCM & Flute Film To Adapt Acclaimed Novel ‘History Of Violence’ By French Prodigy Édouard Louis — EFM

EXCLUSIVE : Gersh has signed filmmaker Jake Van Wagoner out of Sundance, in a competitive situation. Van Wagoner is the director and producer of the Amblin-esque family film Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out , which world premiered at the Park City festival on January 20 and would ultimately land an extra screening as part of its “Best of Fest” category. The Kids Section title penned by Austin Everett follows Itsy (Emma Tremblay), who is new in town and feels like her life is over until she meets her space-obsessed neighbor Calvin (Jacob Buster), who believes his parents (Will Forte and Elizabeth Mitchell) were abducted by aliens. When the aspiring journalist decides to write an exposé on Calvin, she winds up discovering things she never could have imagined. Van Wagoner currently serves as showrunner for Studio C , a sketch comedy series for BYUtv. He previously wrote, directed, produced and starred in the indie comedy My Brother the … [Read more...] about Gersh Signs Jake Van Wagoner Following Sundance Bow Of His Family Film, ‘Aliens Abducted My Parents And Now I Feel Kinda Left Out’

Laika ’s planned expansion into the realm of live-action was furthered on Tuesday, with the announcement that longtime Netflix executive Matt Levin will be joining the studio in the newly created role of President, Live-Action Film & Series. The venerated Oregon animation studio’s hire comes amidst development on its first live-action project — a feature adaptation of the action-thriller novel Seventeen by screenwriter John Brownlow ( The Miniaturist , Sylvia ). Levin joins the stop-motion specialist following eight years at Netflix, where he most recently served as Director, Original Independent Film. He co-founded that department and is credited with helping it grow into a full-scale mini-major. His direct report at Laika is President & CEO Travis Knight, who also helmed the company’s acclaimed 2016 feature, Kubo and the Two Strings . Knight remarked in a statement that “Matt Levin is an awesome dude. Both a steely-eyed pragmatist and a starry-eyed … [Read more...] about Laika Appoints Netflix Veteran Matt Levin To New Role Of President, Live-Action Film & Series

Pondering last weekend’s vibrant, three-day “Regeneration Summit” at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures —it was a celebration keyed to the museum’s Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971 exhibit—I was struck by a wild fantasy. In the far future—I mean way down the line , even after my brand new driver’s license expires—maybe museum members, some of them at least, will be given an Oscar vote. To be clear, nobody that I know of is talking about this. The current management of both the museum and the Academy could rightly dismiss the idea as hare-brained. But time is a relentless beast. Let it gnaw for a while on the legs of those entwined institutions, and the enfranchisement of paying museum members might begin to look like an option. It would certainly be slick way to support the museum while weaning the Oscars from their dependence on a diminishing broadcast audience—that is, the hoi polloi. What we learned, I think, from the Regeneration Summit is that the … [Read more...] about Weird Thought: Will Some Museum Members Someday Get An Oscar Vote?

Now that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has deferred its proposed “Best Popular Picture” Oscar for further study, here’s a modest proposal: Why not make this an Article XI, Section 1(b) issue? Believe it or not, there is a mechanism by which Academy members — all 9,000-plus of them — can be directly included in particularly important decisions. Ordinarily, the group’s 54-member Board of Governors holds plenary power. It can admit some members, exclude others , hire executives, defend against lawsuits and decide what awards should be given and under what rules. If need be, the governors also can change their own bylaws. That typically requires 10 days’ notice of a pending revision and approval by two-thirds of the entire board. Reading through what archivists at the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library say are the current bylaws (as revised on April 5, 2016), it appears that the new “pop” Oscar — which stirred controversy in the ranks after being announced … [Read more...] about Should The Academy Go Ahead With That “Pop” Oscar? Let The Members Decide

Continuing its powerhouse run at worldwide turnstiles, Shah Rukh Khan espionage actioner Pathaan has topped the global box office century mark, getting there in 12 days on Sunday and now with $103.6M through Monday. It is the first Bollywood movie to the $100M milestone without a China release. The split sits at 526 gross crore ($64.2M) in India and $39.4M from overseas markets through Monday. Already, the Siddharth Anand-directed pic is the biggest Bollywood movie ever globally in the original Hindi language. This is where it gets slightly confusing in terms of the records posted. Aamir Khan-starrers Dangal and Secret Superstar , both Bollywood titles, remain ahead of Pathaan on a worldwide basis, but that includes over $100M each from China where the movies were dubbed for local audiences. Similarly, Bajrangi Bhaijaan , which stars Salman Khan who also appears in Pathaan , is still ahead globally having had a dubbed China release. There is no word yet on a … [Read more...] about Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Pathaan’ Tops $100M At Global Box Office

EXCLUSIVE: Scientists, explorers, lovers. Katia and Maurice Krafft, the stars of the Oscar-nominated documentary Fire of Love , were all those things. On Valentine’s Day, National Geographic and Neon are bringing the film about the ill-fated couple back to theaters for one night only. The engagement will see the film play at several theaters in New York (AMC Empire 25, AMC Lincoln Square, Regal Union Square), Los Angeles (AMC Century City, AMC Santa Monica Promenade, Laemmle Monica Film Center), San Francisco (AMC Kabuki, AMC Metreon), as well as Chicago, Boston, Washington, DC, King of Prussia, Penn. and other cities. The film is set to make its broadcast debut on KABC on Saturday, Feb. 18, at 9 p.m. PST and on WABC Sunday, Feb. 19, at 1 p.m. EST. It is currently streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. Director Sara Dosa earned the first Academy Award nomination of her career for the documentary, the highest-grossing film of any of the Oscar-nominated nonfiction … [Read more...] about ‘Fire Of Love,’ Oscar-Nominated Story Of Lovers-Scientists, Coming Back To Theaters For Valentine’s Day