Venice film festival: Alex Gibney interviews former colleagues, wives, the trillionaire’s father and a CG avatar in this absorbing documentary
‘Elon is a nuke.” The speaker is Ashley St Clair, a former conservative Maga influencer and one of Elon Musk’s former girlfriends-slash-baby mommas.
She is a fascinating expert witness in Alex Gibney’s four-hour epic study of the world’s richest and dullest man: the overgrown brattish South-African-born trillionaire plutocrat, ersatz visionary and Trump courtier who owns Tesla cars, SpaceX rocket ships, Starlink satellites on which nation states’ military capabilities are increasingly reliant, X (formerly Twitter) which shapes the collective incel id of billions and GrokAI whose vast server farms daily guzzle oceans of precious water.
Inde Navarrette is lining up her next high-profile film after “Obsession” and Marvel’s “X-Men.” She will star in “The Waffle House Index,” a sci-fi thriller acquired by Apple Original Films. The project also marks her first turn as an executive producer.
Plan B Entertainment is producing. Andrew Nunnelly wrote the screenplay, a 2025 Black List title that sources say sold in a seven-figure deal, according to THR. Louis Paxton, whose Sundance NEXT Innovator Award-winning “The Incomer” arrives in theaters later this month, is attached to direct.
The title borrows a real-world shorthand for hurricane damage. Because Waffle House restaurants typically stay open around the clock, emergency officials use the chain as an informal gauge: green means full service and limited disruption; yellow means a reduced menu and strained supplies; red means the restaurant is closed and conditions are unsafe.
Nunnelly’s story begins closer to the diner floor. A Waffle House waitress is already having a rough night when a stranger with a gun walks in. From there the plot escalates into a mass flood, killer crocodiles, a nuclear explosion, a magical bunker beneath the restaurant, and aliens.
The film adds to Plan B’s relationship with Apple. The company, led by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner, was among the producers of the racing drama “F1.” Plan B recently made the horror film “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” and is preparing Sarah Polley’s “The Bell Jar.”
Navarrette’s breakout in Curry Barker’s “Obsession” has turned her into one of Hollywood’s most in-demand young stars. The film has grossed more than $505 million worldwide, drawn strong reviews, and spilled into pop culture, including a “Halloween Horror Nights” presence at Universal Studios. Oscar talk has followed her performance. She is also set to play Rogue in Marvel’s upcoming X-Men movie. Earlier credits include Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” and The CW’s “Superman & Lois.” A source described the Apple deal as a measure of how large her profile has become at a studio built around stars.
Navarrette is represented by CAA, Untitled Entertainment, and Hansen Jacobson. Nunnelly is represented by Buchwald, Untitled, and Hansen Jacobson. Paxton is represented by CAA and Independent Talent.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $14.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.
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“Being Heumann” is set to open the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10.
Apple Original Films this week unveiled the teaser trailer and key art for “Being Heumann,” a powerful new feature film that chronicles the “mother of the disability rights movement,” Judy Heumann, as she leads a group of young adults who come together to find their collective voice in a fight against discrimination. The film marks the second collaboration for Apple Original Films and writer/director Siân Heder, who directed the multi-Academy Award-winning film “CODA,” which made history as the first film with a predominantly deaf cast to receive the Best Picture honor. “Being Heumann” will debut in select theaters November 6, 2026 and premiere globally on Apple TV Friday, November 13, 2026.
The teaser trailer has been unveiled just ahead of the premiere of “Being Heumann” as the opening film of the Toronto International Film Festival, set to take place on September 10.
They wouldn’t take Judy Heumann’s phone calls, so she took their building. In 1977, a young disabled woman (Ruth Madeley) and a scrappy coalition of outsiders decide they’ve had enough. What begins as one impulsive act becomes the longest occupation of a federal building in American history, as hundreds spontaneously seize government offices and refuse to leave until the bureaucrat in their way (Mark Ruffalo) takes action. Bringing rebellion in all its forms to the hallowed halls, a movement’s accidental leaders struggle to find their path forward where none has ever been paved for them. Directed by Academy Award winner Heder and based on true events, “Being Heumann” is the revolutionary, irreverent and deeply human story of the least likely people trying to pull off the impossible and change the lives of millions.
Apple TV offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all of a user’s favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 80 wins and 3,826 award nominations and counting including multi-Emmy Award-winning and history-making comedies “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” global cultural phenomenon “Severance,” Apple’s most-viewed drama “Pluribus,” Academy Award Best Picture winner “CODA” and Academy Award winner “F1,” the highest-grossing sports feature of all time.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $12.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.
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Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh attend the world premiere of the upcoming Apple Original Film “Mayday” at AMC Lincoln Square on September 1, 2026 in New York City. “Mayday” premieres globally on Apple TV on September 4, 2026.
This evening at AMC Lincoln Square in New York City, Apple Original Films hosted the world premiere for its highly anticipated buddy action comedy “Mayday.” Led by Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh, and hailing from directors, writers and producers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, “Mayday” will make its global debut on Apple TV on Friday, September 4, 2026.
Attendees at the world premiere event included star and executive producer Ryan Reynolds and stars Kenneth Branagh, Maria Bakalova, Marcin Dorocinski, Louis Cancelmi and Wendy Crewson, as well as directors, producers and writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, producers Ashley Fox and Johnny Pariseau, executive producer John G. Scotti and more. Additional attendees included cinematographer Barry Peterson, editor Jamie Gross, costume designer Debra McGuire, costume designer and composter Colin Stetson and more.
Kenneth Branagh and Maria Bakalova attend the world premiere of the upcoming Apple Original Film “Mayday” at AMC Lincoln Square on September 1, 2026 in New York City. “Mayday” premieres globally on Apple TV on September 4, 2026.
Reynolds and Branagh team up in “Mayday,” a genre-bending, action-packed buddy comedy that flips the spy thriller on its head. When hotshot U.S. Navy pilot Lieutenant Troy “Assassin” Kelly (Reynolds) is sent on a top-secret mission into Russian territory at the height of the Cold War, the operation implodes, leaving him stranded behind enemy lines. Discovered by Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh), a gruff ex-KGB agent with a penchant for American culture, Troy thinks he’s toast — but could an unlikely alliance between the two lead to Troy’s rescue and a bond neither saw coming?
An Apple Original Film hailing from Skydance Media, “Mayday” is co-directed, written and produced by Daley and Goldstein. The film is produced by Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger, and Maximum Effort’s Ashley Fox and Johnny Pariseau. Executive producers are Maximum Effort’s Reynolds and George Dewey, alongside John G. Scotti.
Apple TV offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all of a user’s favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 880 wins and 3,826 award nominations and counting including multi-Emmy Award-winning and history-making comedies “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” global cultural phenomenon “Severance,” Apple’s most-viewed drama “Pluribus,” Academy Award Best Picture winner “CODA” and Academy Award winner “F1,” the highest-grossing sports feature of all time.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $12.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.
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Apple’s incoming CEO, hardware chief John Ternus, said he was committed to building on the company’s momentum in the entertainment business when he takes the helm of the company on September 1st.
The technology giant began offering original TV series and films through the Apple TV+ streaming app in 2019. The company found success with Oscar best picture winner “CODA,” box-office blockbuster “F1” and Emmy-winning shows such as “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso.”
Last year, Apple dropped the plus sign and renamed the service Apple TV.
“I think we have such tremendous momentum right now in Apple TV,” Ternus told Reuters on the red carpet at the premiere of the fourth season of “Ted Lasso.”
“There’s so many amazing shows, so many amazing characters and stories, and so we’re just going to keep building on the momentum,” Ternus said
Ternus stood next to outgoing CEO Tim Cook, who said he is sharing his insights about the entertainment business as part of the leadership transition.
“Our role is to be the best. That’s our lane,” Cook said of Apple’s entertainment strategy. “We’re not about the most. There are… other companies that do that. But we’re about the best, and I feel like we really hit our stride in providing that.”
Cook said Apple was open to future partnerships in the entertainment realm if the company feels it can bring a particular expertise. He pointed to the arrangement with the Formula 1 racing league.
For the Brad Pitt movie “F1,” Apple built custom cameras to help make audiences feel like they were inside a race car. F1 races are now shown exclusively on Apple TV in the United States, and the company provides leaderboards, updates and other coverage on Apple News and other apps.
“We’ll do things that we can bring something unique to, where we can innovate in a way that others might not be able to,” Cook said. “I feel like we’re really doing that with F1. We’re so excited about how we’re doing there and the viewership numbers that we’re getting. So more things like that would be possible.”
MacDailyNews Take: Everyone’s on the same page: Last month, senior Apple executive Eddy Cue told Reuters the company’s goal was to offer “better and more” TV shows and movies on Apple TV streaming and in theaters.
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John Cena stars in “Matchbox The Movie,” premiering October 9 on Apple TV.
This weekend in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con, Apple Original Films unveiled the trailer for the upcoming action feature “Matchbox The Movie” starring John Cena, premiering globally on Apple TV on Friday, October 9th.
Inspired by the iconic Mattel toys, “Matchbox The Movie” is an action-packed, globe-trotting adventure about a group of friends since childhood who have their lives upended when undercover CIA agent Sean (Cena), their long-absent former leader, returns to their small town and unwittingly gets them embroiled in a frantic international pursuit to save the world.
An Apple Original Film hailing from Skydance Media and Mattel Studios, “Matchbox The Movie” is directed and executive produced by Sam Hargrave and written by David Coggeshall. David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger produce for Skydance, and Robbie Brenner and Ynon Kreiz produce for Mattel Studios. Jules Daly also serves as producer. Patrick Newall and Elizabeth Bassin serve as executive producers.
Apple TV offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all of a user’s favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 850 wins and 3,800 award nominations and counting including multi-Emmy Award-winning and history-making comedies “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” global cultural phenomenon “Severance,” Apple’s most-viewed drama “Pluribus,” Academy Award Best Picture winner “CODA” and Academy Award winner “F1,” the highest-grossing sports feature of all time.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $12.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.
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The Dink is now streaming on Apple TV, bringing pickleball rivalries, family tension and a star-filled ensemble to the platform in a new feature from Apple Original Films.
Jake Johnson leads the sports comedy as Dusty Boyd, a former tennis prodigy whose career has been reduced to coaching unruly children at the suburban country club operated by his father, Chuck, played by Ed Harris.
Dusty remains desperate to earn Chuck approval and supports his campaign against the pickleball players moving into the club. That loyalty becomes harder to maintain when an old injury prevents Dusty from continuing to play tennis and forces him to try the sport he has spent years dismissing.
Mary Steenburgen stars as Candace, the pickleball player who helps Dusty discover that the smaller court and plastic ball may offer more competition, community and personal meaning than he expected.
The official trailer previews the increasingly absurd conflict as Dusty moves from mocking pickleball to treating it with the same intensity that once defined his tennis ambitions.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
The Dink Turns Pickleball Into a Personal Crisis
The Dink uses the cultural rivalry between tennis and pickleball as the foundation for a familiar but effective underdog story.
Dusty has built his identity around a sport that no longer provides the future he imagined. Coaching children keeps him close to tennis, but it also becomes a daily reminder of the professional career that never reached its expected destination.
Chuck makes that disappointment more difficult to escape. He treats tennis as a tradition worthy of protection and pickleball as an invasion threatening the character of his club. Dusty supports that view partly because opposing the new sport offers another chance to remain aligned with his father.
The injury breaks that arrangement. Dusty can either accept that his competitive life has changed or continue defending a version of himself that no longer exists.
Pickleball gives the movie an accessible way to explore that conflict. The sport has grown rapidly across the United States, attracting recreational players, professional tournaments, celebrity investors and frequent arguments over shared tennis courts.
That expansion has created a real cultural divide. Longtime tennis players sometimes view pickleball as an easier imitation occupying spaces built for their sport. Pickleball players respond that its accessibility, social atmosphere and shorter learning curve are precisely why it has become so popular.
The movie exaggerates those attitudes without requiring viewers to understand tournament rules or follow professional pickleball. Dusty resistance is easy to recognize because the dispute is ultimately about status, pride and adapting when another generation changes the environment.
Johnson brings the frustrated comic rhythm that made his work in New Girl and Self Reliance distinctive. Dusty can recognize the ridiculousness surrounding him while remaining too emotionally invested to step away from it.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
A Cast Ready for Sports-Comedy Disorder
Ed Harris gives Chuck the kind of dramatic intensity that can make an argument about pickleball sound like a defense of national values.
The performance works because Harris does not need to treat the character as an obvious joke. Chuck absolute seriousness turns court access, club traditions and Dusty choices into matters of personal betrayal.
Steenburgen provides a warmer presence as Candace, whose interest in pickleball is connected to friendship and personal renewal rather than institutional rivalry. Her character gives Dusty an alternative to the approval he has spent years seeking from his father.
The supporting cast adds several different styles of comedy. Chloe Fineman appears as Marisa, while Patton Oswalt, Chris Parnell and Aaron Chen populate the club with characters capable of pushing the central rivalry into increasingly strange territory.
Ben Stiller appears in the movie while also serving as a producer through Red Hour Films. His involvement creates an immediate connection to the broad sports comedies of the 2000s, particularly stories in which an underestimated activity becomes an arena for oversized ambition.
Former tennis champion Andy Roddick also appears, bringing part of Dusty competitive past directly into the story. John McEnroe joins the collection of tennis personalities willing to participate in a movie built around the sport losing territory to pickleball.
The appearances allow The Dink to make fun of tennis culture without presenting it as an invented stereotype. The athletes understand the rivalry and can participate in the joke while giving the movie a recognizable connection to professional competition.
Josh Greenbaum directs from a screenplay by Sean Clements. Greenbaum previously directed Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar and the documentary Will & Harper, demonstrating an interest in unusual personalities whose comic journeys contain more sincerity than their premises initially suggest.
Clements brings experience from television comedy, including Workaholics, helping the film maintain an ensemble rhythm rather than depending entirely on pickleball references.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
Apple Original Films Finds a Lighter Release
Apple acquired worldwide distribution rights to The Dink in August 2025, adding the project to a film catalog that moves between major dramas, action productions, documentaries and mainstream entertainment.
The movie offers a deliberately lighter summer release than many of the prestige projects associated with Apple Original Films. Its appeal depends on character chemistry, physical comedy and a sport already producing arguments in clubs and neighborhoods across the country.
That approach gives Apple TV a feature capable of reaching viewers who may not be looking for another complex series or franchise commitment. The story is contained, the conflict is immediately understandable and the cast combines familiar performers from several generations of comedy and drama.
The Dink also arrives as Apple TV continues developing a broader identity for its movie catalog. Award recognition remains part of the strategy, but accessible comedies can give subscribers a different reason to open the service on a weekend.
The film held its global premiere in Los Angeles on July 20, with Johnson, Harris, Steenburgen, Fineman, Aaron Chen, Greenbaum and Clements attending the event at Westfield Century City.
Johnson also serves as a producer alongside Stiller, John Lesher, Rob Paris and Mike Witherill. That position gives the lead actor a larger role in shaping a comedy built closely around his familiar ability to play disappointed men attempting improbable reinvention.
The timing could also help the film benefit from growing curiosity around pickleball. Viewers who already play will recognize the sport competitive personalities and social appeal, while skeptics may find Dusty hostility uncomfortably familiar.
The Dink runs for one hour and 42 minutes and carries a PG-13 rating for strong language and sexual material. It is available exclusively to Apple TV subscribers through the Apple TV app.
San Diego Comic-Con has kicked off strong, and we've got a couple of new trailers to show for it: the final trailer for Coyote vs. Acme, and the full trailer for director Zach Cregger's fresh take on Resident Evil. Some lucky folks were also treated to a screening of Resident Evil's first 18 minutes.
Coyote vs. Acme
We were thrilled when the first trailer for Coyote vs. Acme dropped in April. The film had been shelved for years and is finally getting the broad theatrical release it deserves thanks to Ketchup Entertainment, which acquired it from Warner Bros. The concept alone is sheer brilliance: Wile E. Coyote, after decades of ACME equipment failing him in his efforts to catch that darned Road Runner, decides to sue the corporation. It’s based on a well-known satirical piece by Ian Frazier (also titled “Coyote vs. Acme”) published in The New Yorker in 1990.
Pre-Covid, the movie landscape was dramatically different: YouTubers weren’t dominating the box office, video game spin-offs rarely made an impact and Winnie-the-Pooh wasn’t yet the star of a slasher movie. Why such a flurry of innovation – and what will be next?
Cinema has always been a medium of research and development. At any given point, the industry is searching for yet another breakthrough that can drive it into the future. Synchronised sound in the 1920s. Technicolor in the 1930s. The invention of the modern blockbuster in the 1970s.
Conversely, the consensus is that, if the 2020s has a defining trend, then it is one of decline. The theatrical experience is under attack from all angles: streaming, YouTube, a once-in-a-century health crisis that shut cinemas down entirely. And yet, if you look closer, this has actually been one of the most innovative decades that cinema has ever seen. Whether down to technology or desperation, the film industry has spent these last few years figuring out new ways to make films that simply could not have existed even at the turn of the decade.
TIFF 2026 will open with Siân Heder’s “Being Heumann,” the Apple Original Films drama starring Ruth Madeley as pioneering disability rights activist Judy Heumann.
The film, Heder’s follow-up to her Oscar-winning “CODA,” chronicles the 1977 Section 504 sit-in protest that helped secure accessibility rights.
The 51st Toronto International Film Festival runs September 10–20, 2026.
Being Heumann follows Heumann as she leads more than 100 disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building, kicking off a 28 day sit-in in 1977. The protestors form a tightly bound community, refusing to leave until the government enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which required all federal spaces to become accessible.
Heder and Rebekah Tussing adapted the memoir. Mark Ruffalo, Dylan O’Brien, Jon Beavers, Rob Delaney, Ray Fisher and more star in the pic. David Permut, Heder, John W. Beach, Kevin Cleary and Kevin J. Walsh produce.
“We’re thrilled to open this year’s festival with Siân Heder’s inspiring follow-up to her Oscar-winning CODA,” TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said. “Being Heumann features an electric performance from Ruth Madeley in the story of Judy Heumann, a world-changing advocate for accessibility.”
MacDailyNews Note: Apple Original Films has not yet released an official trailer for Being Heumann. An official teaser or trailer from Apple is expected closer to the film’s opening night at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10th.
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Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh star in the action-packed comedy “Mayday,” premiering globally on Apple TV on September 4, 2026.
Apple Original Films on Tuesday unveiled the trailer for the upcoming action comedy “Mayday,” starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh.
“Mayday” is a genre-bending, action-packed buddy comedy that flips the spy thriller on its head. When hotshot U.S. Navy pilot Lieutenant Troy “Assassin” Kelly (Reynolds) is sent on a top-secret mission into Russian territory at the height of the Cold War, the operation implodes, leaving him stranded behind enemy lines. Discovered by Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh), a gruff ex-KGB agent with a penchant for American culture, Troy thinks he’s toast — but could an unlikely alliance between the two lead to Troy’s rescue and a bond neither saw coming?
An Apple Original Film hailing from Skydance Media, “Mayday” is co-directed, written and produced by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. The film is produced by Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger, and Maximum Effort’s Ashley Fox and Johnny Pariseau. Executive producers are Maximum Effort’s Ryan Reynolds and George Dewey, alongside John G. Scotti.
Apple TV offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all of a user’s favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 850 wins and 3,734 award nominations and counting including multi-Emmy Award-winning and history-making comedies “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” global cultural phenomenon “Severance,” Apple’s most-viewed drama “Pluribus,” Academy Award Best Picture winner “CODA” and Academy Award winner “F1,” the highest-grossing sports feature of all time.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $12.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
New Zealand actor Sam Neill, who starred as Dr. Alan Grant in the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park and its 2022 sequel, Jurassic World Dominion, died on Monday in Sydney, Australia. He was 78.
While American audiences likely know Neill best for Jurassic Park, he had a long and varied career in film and television. His sheer versatility won him fans around the world. He played the grown Damien in Omen III: The Final Conflict; a Russian officer in The Hunt for Red October; and even made brief cameos (as an actor playing Odin in a theatrical troupe) in Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder. (The less said about 1997's space horror travesty, Event Horizon, the better, although it has its fans, and Neill made the most of his role.) Yet some of his best performances were in smaller, critically acclaimed independent films such as 1993's Oscar-winning The Piano.
On television, Neill earned his first Golden Globe nomination for the lead role in Reilly, Ace of Spies in the 1980s. He was nominated for both an Emmy and a second Golden Globe for playing the titular Arthurian wizard in the 1998 miniseries Merlin. He played Cardinal Wolsley in The Tudors, and was part of the ensemble cast in the (excellent) 2015 adaptation of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Neill was magnetic as the ruthless CI Major Chester Campbell in Peaky Blinders—an antagonist and romantic rival of Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby.
Horror is so hot right now. There’s Obsession, Evil Dead Burn and Hokum in the cinema, Widow’s Bay, From and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen on TV, and, of course, a rotting smorgasbord of horror games including Resident Evil Requiem (pictured top) and Reanimal, soon to be joined by Silent Hill: Townfall, Silver Pines and Dreadmoor. We’re also seeing weird cross-pollinations, with horror movie studio Blumhouse making games, while games themselves become horror films and the whole backrooms genre infects every medium it touches.
So it was fascinating to attend last week’s horror and gaming conference at Falmouth University, in Cornwall: a gathering of students, researchers and lecturers, all engaged in the academic study of horror games. There were brilliant talks on zombies and posthumanism, the gothic in games, and the role of monstrous little girls in survival horror (there are a lot of them!). Subjects as diverse as masculine fragility, disability and ageing came up; Will Doyle, creative director at Supermassive Games, gave a great keynote on the art of creating horror in games using tools such as revulsion, spatial alienation and the human instinct of apophenia. I learned a lot about theorists such as Julia Kristeva and Mark Fisher, and about the technical similarities between indie horror games and film noir (for example, the use of darkness and creative camera techniques to “hide” budget restrictions). It was incredible fun.
A combination of fact and fiction leaves the celebrated documentarian’s puzzling project about software training wanting for depth
Marc Isaacs’ new film is a curious, intriguing, semi-sincere affair that I couldn’t make friends with. It is an odd, shallow piece of work about artificial intelligence that is itself exasperatingly artificial, a self-aware docudrama hybrid. Isaacs is, or rather pretends to be, licensing the vivid characters from his previous, acclaimed documentaries to a fictional AI research lab called Synthetic Sincerity at the fictional University of Southern England, so that the lab’s software can be “trained” in the creation of AI human figures on screen.
The lab’s research staff are played by actors, or at any rate people acting; these include Lebanese independent film-maker Lynn El Safah. Isaacs has amusing scripted conversations about this project with a disapproving AI avatar on screen, like Max Headroom of old, whose face is digitally modelled on Romanian actor Ilinca Manolache, from Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. The film, however, does not show the process by which Manolache was approached and her face transformed into an AI figure.
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