“We are going to be filing on the same basis on discovery violations which have occurred throughout her case and continue to occur,” Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney Jason Bowles told NBC News after Baldwin’s case was dismissed. “Things that I learned today that happened, absolutely shocking.”

Gutierrez-Reed was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison. She was the armorer on the set of western film “Rust” who was in charge of gun safety ahead of Alec Baldwin firing a gun that somehow had live bullets in it, killing Hutchins.

The cinematographer was killed during a rehearsal on Oct. 21, 2021. Baldwin’s trial was dismissed with prejudice, meaning prosecutors can’t try Baldwin again after it came out that they hadn’t turned over evidence of live bullets to the defense team. However, they may still appeal the judge’s dismissal.

The bullets “looked very similar to live rounds found on the set of ‘Rust,'” prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson said in a Friday night interview. She quit the prosecution’s team after making the discovery on Thursday and having her call for the prosecution to drop the case rejected.

The post ‘Rust’ Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to Seek Dismissal After Alec Baldwin Case Collapses appeared first on TheWrap.

Baldwin was on trial for his role firing a gun and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021 while filming western film”Rust,” which he starred in and was a producer on. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer granted the defense’s request for a dismissal after it emerged that authorities and prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence in the case, with the mystery of how real bullets got into Baldwin’s gun still remaining.

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“The state’s discovery violation has injected a needless incurable delay into the jury trial. Dismissal with prejudice is warranted to ensure the integrity of the judicial system and the efficient administration of justice,” the judge said.

Though Baldwin has been cleared criminally, he still faces civil lawsuits pertaining to Hutchins’ death. Hutchins was killed when the prop gun Baldwin was using discharged and fired a live round during rehearsals.

Attorney Gloria Allred and Hutchins’ family have pledged to continue to fight Baldwin in New Mexico’s civil courts. Allred, who represents Hutchins’ parents Olga Solovey and Anatolii Androsovych and her sister Svetlana Zemko, described Judge Sommer’s decision as a “devastating blow” to all three.

“It does not change the fact that Alec Baldwin killed Halyna Hutchins on the set of ‘Rust.’ It does not change the fact that he fired a loaded gun while pointing it at a human being,” Allred explained.

Baldwin should also “just have the human decency to say ‘I’m sorry’ in a phone call or Facetime to the parents … It’s not all about Alec Baldwin. There are victims in this case. They are not celebrities — they matter,” Allred said.

Following the dismissal, Brian J. Panish, attorney for Hutchins’ husband Matthew Hutchins, said, “We respect the court’s decision. We look forward to presenting all the evidence to a jury and holding Mr. Baldwin accountable for his actions in the senseless death of Halyna Hutchins.” 

Producers on “Rust,” including Baldwin, were criticized for replacing workers with non-union members while filming. Had the film’s team been made up of unionized members, they would have been required to follow the Actors’ Equity Association’s rules and safety tips for using firearms in productions.

The rules include advice that actors should “Treat all guns as if they are loaded and deadly” and that “The property master or armorer should carefully train you in the safe use of any firearm you must handle. Be honest if you have no knowledge about guns. Do not overstate your qualifications.” It is unclear if Baldwin had any prior training or if he was offered training on set.

“Never point a firearm at anyone including yourself,” the tips also state. “Always cheat the shot by aiming to the right or left of the target character. If asked to point and shoot directly at a living target, consult with the property master or armorer for the prescribed safety procedures.”

Baldwin faced up to 18 months in prison if he had been convicted.

The post Alec Baldwin Comments on ‘Rust’ Shooting Trial’s Dismissal: ‘There Are Too Many People to Thank’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Cinematic tales about serial killers date back well over 100 years, only to rise in number and popularity as true crime stories became more prevalent throughout the 20th century. As we’ve learned more about real-life murderers, the films that explore their psyches evolved. There are more early classics in this genre than many people realize, but over time the number of films exponentially grew, along with their narrative and thematic ambitions.

Let’s take a look back at 25 essential serial killer movies, which delve into the subject from various angles. For the purpose of this article we’ll be skewing away from slasher movies and films with overtly supernatural elements to highlight movies that are either inspired by true stories or are — to one degree or another — relatively plausible. These are films about the killers themselves, or about our collective obsession with people who do these unspeakably evil things, whether they’re tragic, exciting, or even darkly funny.

“The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog” (1927)

“The Lodger” wasn’t Alfred Hitchcock’s first film but it was his first thriller, and it helped set the template for what we now call a “Hitchcockian” style. In this silent classic a serial killer, not unlike Jack the Ripper, stalks the streets of London and a mysterious new tenant, played by Ivor Novello, has excited the paranoid imagination of his neighbors, who think he might be the murderer. The film keeps the mystery in the air as long as possible, driving each scene with anticipation and danger. “The Lodger” plays as well today as it ever did, powerfully suspenseful and visually striking, with twists and reversals that still rank among Hitchcock’s best.

Where to Stream: Prime Video, Max, The Criterion Channel, Freevee

“M” (1931)

The first sound film from Fritz Lang is a weird and disturbing serial killer story, which uses silence to just as powerful an effect as its eerie whistling. Peter Lorre, in his breakout role, stars as Hans Beckert, a murderer of children whose crime spree has terrified the citizens and mobilized the police, leading to a citywide crackdown on all manner of crime. So the criminals themselves decide to hunt Hans down too, leaving this pathetic monster with no place to hide. “M” is a masterpiece on many levels, delving into the mind of a madman while also incorporating real-life crime-solving techniques, presaging the eventual rise of the police procedural.

Where to Stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, Kanopy

“Arsenic and Old Lace” (1941)

Who says serial killers can’t be funny? In Frank Capra’s odd, demented “Arsenic and Old Lace,” Cary Grant plays Mortimer Brewster, a lifelong bachelor who just got married and runs home to share the good news with his closest family, his Aunts Abby (Josephine Hull) and Martha (Jean Adair). But when he stumbles across a hidden corpse he learns to his horror that Abby and Martha are serial killers, and somehow his day gets even worse from there. Fast-paced, quick-witted, and a little bit ghoulish, “Arsenic and Old Lace” is a delectable Halloween treat, with the whole cast — especially Grant — at the top of their comedic form.

“The Night of the Hunter” (1955)

The only film ever directed by acclaimed actor Charles Laughton is also one of the greatest motion pictures ever made. Robert Mitchum stars as Harry Powell, a serial killer who hates and murders women and talks to God like they’re close personal friends. When he finds out there’s a stash of money inside the house of a young widow (Shelley Winters), he romances and marries her, and turns the life of her two children into a living hell. “The Night of the Hunter” is intense and expressionistic, like the panicked nightmare of a child. A bedtime story gone terribly wrong, with Harry Powell as one of the most fearsome cinematic boogeymen.

Where to Stream: Prime Video, Tubi, Pluto and Hoopla

“Peeping Tom” (1960)

The same year Alfred Hitchcock cracked motion picture history in half with “Psycho” (we’ll get to that), another of the world’s top directors delved into violence and prurience. Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom” stars Carl Boehm as Mark Lewis, a twisted cinephile who kills women so he can capture the moment of their death on film. His weapon of choice is a modified camera with blades in the tripod, so he can play director and the murderer at the same time. Every bit as voyeuristic as Hitchcock’s creepy classics, but with a self-awareness that indicts the audience almost as much as the maniac. It’s no wonder that the film was controversial and unpopular in its day, and it’s no wonder that it’s considered a classic now.

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel, Roku and Tubi

“Psycho” (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” broke almost all the cinematic rules. The protagonist dies early, there’s blood and nudity in a production code film, even the shot of scraps of paper being flushed down a toilet was shocking at the time. And although we live in a world that “Psycho” helped make, where vivid violence and sex and twist endings are common (even to the point of cliché), Alfred Hitchcock’s film still hits hard. Anthony Perkins gives a towering performance as Norman Bates, a poor motel manager living in the shadow of his murderous mother, and the film’s countless iconic images have been often imitated, and rarely matched. Only the “Psycho’s” tragic mishandling of queerness brings it down, drawing a dangerous connection between non-heterosexuality and violence that horror filmmakers would keep coming back to for decades, even in otherwise great films like “The Silence of the Lambs” (we’ll get to that too).

Where to Stream: TCM

“The Honeymoon Killers” (1970)

In a subgenre often associated with terror and madness, “The Honeymoon Killers” is disarmingly matter-of-fact. Based on real-life murderers, the film stars Shirley Stover as Martha Beck, a lonely nurse who falls in love with Raymond Fernandez, a con man played by Tony Lo Bianco. He answers personal ads, seduces women and steals their money. Martha doesn’t care because she loves him, so she joins in on his crime spree, which gradually turns into a series of terrible, deeply unsettling murders. There’s nothing grandiose about these killers, nothing alluring or even phantasmagorical. They’re just terrible people who decide to do terrible things, and forcing the audience to just deal with that is as scary as anything. Martin Scorsese was fired after just a few days of shooting; Donald Volkman and Leonard Kastle (the only credited director, who directed just this one film) made the majority of this masterpiece.

Where to Stream: Max, The Criterion Channel

“Deranged” (1974)

A lot of horror movies have been inspired by real-life serial killer Ed Gein, but “Deranged” may be the most… well, deranged. Roberts Blossom, best known as the creepy old man who turns out to be a nice guy in “Home Alone,” stars as Ezra Cobb, a creepy old man who turns out to be a monster. When his mother dies, Ezra goes insane with loneliness and digs her up, fixing her rotted corpse with spare parts from a graveyard, until he finally decides to collect them from fresh, living people. “Deranged” is a film that seems to understand, to a disquieting degree, the isolation of a murderer. And while it may be impossible to sympathize with the evil acts of Ezra Cobb, Blossom — in his best and weirdest role — somehow makes him pitiable. The whole film plays out like a little church play from hell, right down to the naive organ music.

“Vengeance Is Mine” (1979)

Ken Ogata plays one of cinema’s most devilish serial killers in Shōhei Imamura’s terrifying classic, based on the true story of Akira Nishiguchi, a real life murderer and con artist who was on the run for years. This fictionalized version finds Ogata sliming his way into people’s lives, bringing horror with him and sometimes finding it himself, as damning a portrayal of humanity and criminality as any filmed. There’s a despair for the human condition in “Vengeance Is Mine,” an uncomfortable revelation about how easy it is to be truly evil. Imagine “Catch Me If You Can” if it was terrifying instead of entertaining, and you’ve got some sense of how “Vengeance Is Mine” operates. But nothing can prepare you for Ogata’s alternately cold and charismatic villainy, or the film’s unforgettable final shot.

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

“Maniac” (1980)

William Lustig’s “Maniac” doesn’t just depict a violent murder spree — although it’s one of the most violent ever filmed — it’s practically an act of cinematic brutality itself. Joe Spinell, who co-wrote the screenplay, stars as a serial killer stalking the streets of New York City, scalping women and using their hair to adorn his mannequins. Spinell plays Frank Zito as a damp, seedy man who, to his own surprise, can be genuinely likable, even attractive. But no matter how close he comes to a real human connection, his inner demons always get the better of him, in more ways than one. “Maniac” is impressively intelligent for how prurient it is. It was remade into an also excellent first-person thriller in 2012, directed by Franck Khalfoun and starring Elijah Wood, who brings a very different, but no less chilling energy to the part.

Where to Stream: Shudder, Tubi and Pluto

“Manhunter” (1986)

Michael Mann’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’s influential novel “Red Dragon” stars William Peterson as Will Graham, an FBI agent who gets inside the minds of serial killer, solving crimes at the risk of his own sanity. Tom Noonan plays a killer stalking families across America, and Brian Cox is the first actor to play Hannibal Lecter — here spelled “Lecktor,” for some reason — and brings a working class charm to “Hannibal the Cannibal” that’s just as terrifying as Anthony Hopkins’ iconic, supercilious interpretation. Mann’s film places its horrifying psychology against the backdrop of mature professionalism, making the vulnerability all the more uncomfortable for feeling out of place. One of the best of all serial killer films, later remade as “Red Dragon,” a Brett Ratner film that can’t hold a candle to Mann’s haunting vision.

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

“Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” (1986)

Originally screened in 1986, but not released theatrically until 1990, it’s easy to see why John McNaughton’s debut feature had trouble getting distribution. It is resolutely, unapologetically vile. Michael Rooker plays the title role, a serial killer who drifts from town to town, and is now staying with a young woman, Becky (Tracy Arnold), and her brutish brother Otis (Tom Towles). Becky falls in love with Henry, but he forms a more profound connection to Otis, who joins in on his killing sprees. “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” seems completely unconcerned with whether the audience is enjoying themselves, because there’s nothing entertaining about these horrors. Even when Otis and Henry watch their own crimes on a stolen camcorder, they stare as blankly as two dudes wasting away their weekend watching golf.

Where to Stream: Peacock, Tubi, Pluto, Roku and Freevee

“The Stepfather” (1987)

Terry O’Quinn stars as a man with many names, because he finds nice single mothers, marries them, and tries to embody the Reagan Era suburban fantasy America promised him. When his new family doesn’t live up to that fantasy, he murders them and moves on. As pointed and topical a cinematic statement as any made in the 1980s, directed with Hitchcockian suspense by Joseph Ruben, “The Stepfather” builds anticipation for the villain’s discovery but spends an alarming amount of time following the killer and getting inside his head, as he devolves into a monstrosity with every new disappointment. Terry O’Quinn gives a career-best performance as a murderer who is always putting on an act. Few lines of dialogue are as chilling as when he mixes up his fake identities and genuinely asks his wife: “Who am I here?”

Where to Stream: Peacock, Fubo, Tubi and Roku

“The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)

Jonathan Demme’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’s second Hannibal Lecter novel is the only Best Picture Academy Award-winner about skinning people or eating people, let alone both. Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, an FBI cadet assigned to interview Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, played by a scene-chewing Anthony Hopkins. They form a frighteningly close connection while he guides her to another serial killer, “Buffalo Bill” (Ted Levine), who kidnaps women and flays them. Cinematically ambitious on every level, with innovative editing and poignant cinematography, and an uncommon amount of narrative and thematic depth, highlighting the deeply embedded sexism and misogyny in all walks of modern life. But like “Psycho,” the film’s incredible fumbling in its depiction of trans identity, and the real-life consequences in the wake of those decisions, casts a shadow over its legacy.

Where to Stream: Prime Video

“Man Bites Dog” (1992)

A documentary film crew has found an unusual subject for their latest project: Ben (co-director Benoît Poelvoorde), a serial killer who’s only too happy to shine a light on his daily life, and takes them along on his murderous escapades. Many movies about violence wrestle with the balance between portrayal and complicity, and “Man Bites Dog” makes this conversation quite literal, as the film’s documentarians struggle to remain objective while innocent people are brutally killed for the sake of their movie. But over time, watching horrifying acts and doing nothing to stop them becomes morally indistinguishable from committing them yourselves. Disturbingly, darkly humorous and confrontationally self-aware.

Where to Stream: Max, The Criterion Channel

“Serial Mom” (1994)

On the lighter side, John Waters’ 1994 cult comedy classic “Serial Mom” stars Kathleen Turner as the perfect suburban housewife, always making breakfast, doing the recycling, and telling people to spit out their gum. And when anything cracks that superficially perfect facade she kills somebody, even if they just wore white shoes after Labor Day. Turner gives one of the all-time great comedic performances, and Waters’ smartly skewers not just the image of the American ideal but the not-so-secret obsession everyone seems to have with murder and mayhem, as the trial to convict “Serial Mom” rapidly turns into a media event where almost everyone — except her victims — seems to reap some rewards.

Where to Stream: Netflix

“Se7en” (1995)

Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt stars as mismatched detectives on the hunt for a serial killer whose victims are all guilty of one of the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth. The mysterious madman’s means of execution are all inventive to a horrifying degree, and are destined to leave a fetid taste in your mouth. Filmed with oppressive panache by David Fincher, “Se7en” takes place in a morally bankrupt universe where the innocent only exist to be slaughtered, and evil will probably always win. At first glance the film looks like an exercise in style over substance, but its overwhelmingly oppressive aesthetic perfectly matches its dank, depressing themes. It’s not just a great thriller, it’s a great film.

“Copycat” (1995)

It’s ironic that Jon Amiel’s “Copycat,” a film about a serial killer who copycats other famous serial killers, came out just one month after the massively successful “Se7en,” since that made it look a little like a copycat itself. But the two films were made at the same time, and although they have superficial similarities — a killer with a high-concept modus operandi, mismatched investigators, a cynical worldview — they’re very different, equally excellent films. Holly Hunter stars as a detective on the hunt for the mysterious copycat, and Sigourney Weaver plays an agoraphobic psychologist who tries to help without leaving the safety of her apartment. Smartly written, frighteningly filmed, with an unexpectedly alarming performance by crooner Harry Connick Jr. as one of the madmen whose crimes are about to be repeated.

Where to Stream: Paramount+

“Cure” (1997)

A body is found with an “x” carved into their flesh, but the killer is also found next to them, with no memory of committing murder. And then that happens again, and again, the work of a serial killer who somehow gets other, seemingly normal people to do the work for him. Kōji Yakusho stars as the detective trying to solve this impossible case, and Masato Hagiwara stars as a young man drifting along in a fugue-like state, somehow at the center of it all. The solution is almost supernatural, but Kiyoshi Kurosawa makes it all seem plausible, in part because he uses the killer’s own methods on the audience as well. “Cure” is almost Kubrickian in its stark imagery and emotional distance, and one of the most terrifying motion pictures of the 1990s.

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

“American Psycho” (2000)

Mary Harron’s blistering indictment of the male ego and 1980s yuppie values stars Christian Bale as a handsome investment banker who commits brutal murders and gets away with them because, you guessed it, he’s a handsome investment banker. It’s a situation Harron finds darkly humorous, a story about a man without a soul who suspects maybe he’s supposed to have one and just doesn’t know how to go about it, latching generic mainstream pop music as deeply meaningful art, and eventually coming to an unexpected personal crisis. Eventually, even Patrick Bateman finds out that although he’s a devil, he’s also living in hell, and is tormented almost as much as he torments others.

Where to Stream: Netflix, Tubi

“Memories of Murder” (2003)

“Parasite” director Bong Joon-ho’s second feature film tells the story of South Korean detectives on the hunt for the country’s first known serial killer, and quickly finding out that they are completely unprepared for an investigation of this complexity and magnitude. Song Kang-ho and Kim Sang-kyung co-star as detectives with very different methods, one of them beating false confessions out of suspects, the other piecing together the very odd methodology of the murderer, who only strikes when a specific song plays on the radio. “Memories of Murder” is not, ultimately, about solving the crime and saving the day, it’s about what happens when the police — so often glorified in these types of stories — are absolute failures, adding a new layer to an already deep subgenre.

Where to Stream: Tubi

“Monster” (2003)

Charlize Theron won an Oscar for her portrayal of real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos, and looking back at her performance today, maybe she should have won two of them. She gives such an amazing performance, not just because she’s under a lot of makeup but because she makes brilliant, interesting choices. Her work almost overpowers Patty Jenkins’ excellent drama, but Jenkins keeps the film balanced, anchoring Theron’s role with another great performance by Christina Ricci, playing Wuornos’s lover, who unintentionally motivates Wuornos to kill johns to support her. Lots of actors have given memorable performances as serial murderers but few, if any, have imbued their role with as much nuance as Theron.

Where to Stream: Prime Video, Pluto

“Zodiac” (2007)

David Fincher returned to the serial killer genre with a true-crime story about one of the most notorious unsolved cases in American history: the Zodiac murders. San Francisco was plagued by a homicidal maniac in the late 1960s and early 1970s, who didn’t just kill people, but taunted the police and the public like a Batman villain, leaving secret codes in newspapers. “Zodiac” follows multiple characters — a detective (Mark Ruffalo), a reporter (Robert Downey Jr.) and a cartoonist (Jake Gyllenhaal) — who dedicate and nearly ruin their lives trying to catch the killer. Fincher’s film is sometimes genuinely terrifying, portraying the murders themselves as horror movies in miniature, but its real power comes in its uncertainty. No matter how hard we look we’ll never find the answer, and that doesn’t stop us from looking. It only makes us peer harder.

Where to Stream: Paramount+, Pluto

“The Voices” (2014)

Marjane Satrapi, the Oscar-nominated co-director of “Persepolis,” which was based on her own autobiographical graphic novel, also made one of the most tragic and fascinating serial killer movies. “The Voices” stars Ryan Reynolds as Jerry Hickfang, a mild-mannered employee at a toilet manufacturing plant who lives in a bright and colorful world where, incidentally, his cat and his dog talk to him. While driving a co-worker home at night, Jerry accidentally stabs her, and keeps stabbing her, apologizing all the while. “The Voices” plays off of Reynolds’ likable persona, but more than that it gets deep inside the perspective of a killer who genuinely doesn’t understand what he’s really doing, in a way that’s profoundly uncomfortable and uncomfortably profound. Largely overlooked upon its release, Satrapi’s film is still an underappreciated classic in the genre.

Where to Stream: Pluto, Freevee

“My Friend Dahmer” (2017)

“My Friend Dahmer” gets under the skin in a way few other serial killer movies can. Alex Wolff stars as John Backderf, who published an autobiographical graphic novel about his teen years, when he just happened to have been friends with Jeffrey Dahmer. Ross Lynch plays the burgeoning serial killer, a social outcast who seeks attention by engaging in elaborate pranks, like inserting himself into every school club’s yearbook photo, and even tricking their way into meeting Vice President Walter Mondale (which yes, actually happened). But all that sounds like “My Friend Dahmer” is a novelty, a collection of historical trivia. More than anything, Marc Meyers’ film highlights the warning signs everyone ignored because they were too wrapped up in their own lives to pay Dahmer much mind, and captures the pain and regret that stems from knowing you were that close to a monster, and that somehow you

Where to Stream: Hulu, Prime Video, Peacock, AMC+, Fubo

The post The 25 Essential Serial Killer Movies appeared first on TheWrap.

Neon, along with A24, have carved out a niche for themselves feeding an appetite for intense independent horror, but the $910 million opening day total “Longlegs” earned from 2,510 theaters is catapulting the film to an opening weekend that is more than double the $7-9 million that trackers had projected. It is also more than triple the previous top opening weekend for Neon, which came this past March with the $5.3 million opening of Sydney Sweeney’s “Immaculate.”

Acquired by Neon at the 2023 European Film Market, “Longlegs” has enjoyed rave reviews from critics since its premiere at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles this past May. Those reviews have been boosted by a highly effective digital marketing campaign that shrouded Nicolas Cage’s appearance as the titular satanic serial killer in mystery while displaying the film’s chilling and relentlessly tense mood and playing lead star Maika Monroe’s actual heartrate when seeing Cage for the first time while the cameras rolled.

It is possible that “Longlegs” will have a frontloaded run, as opening night audiences are split on whether it lived up to the hype with a C+ on CinemaScore and a 68% audience Rotten Tomatoes score. But with a reported budget of less than $10 million, it is already a theatrical success.

“Despicable Me 4,” meanwhile, continues to lead the way with $44 million this weekend, dropping just 41% from the $75 million Fri.-Sun. total it earned last weekend. The Illumination film now has an estimated domestic total of $210 million as it pushes the lifetime grosses for the “Despicable Me” franchise past $5 billion worldwide, becoming the first ever animated franchise to reach that mark.

Less impressive this weekend is Sony/Apple’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” which is estimated for an opening weekend of just $10 million from 3,356 locations against an Apple-financed budget of $100 million. As with previous films like “Napoleon” and “Argylle,” this Greg Berlanti-directed period romantic comedy is the latest high budget film brought by Apple to theaters through a distribution partnership with a legacy studio.

By normal metrics, this opening would be the sign of a major bomb, but Apple has used its Silicon Valley largesse to throw down immense amounts of money on these theatrical releases in the hopes of drawing interest in seeing these films on Apple TV+, and the studio has kept its metric of success on that front extremely opaque.

As for “Fly Me to the Moon,” the silver lining is that audience reception for the film is considerably strong, earning an A- on CinemaScore to go with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 68% critics and 89% audience. There is still a possibility that the film might be able to save some face if older audiences, who are much more likely to see this film set during the space race of the 60s, turn out in later weeks.

The post ‘Despicable Me 4’ Is No. 1 Again, But ‘Longlegs’ Shines at the Box Office appeared first on TheWrap.

One way to analyze concentration is by examining the demand share for the most in-demand movies in a market. According to Parrot Analytics’ Demand 360, in the first half of 2024, the top 1% of movies in the U.S. accounted for 11.4% of total demand, the lowest figure since 2021. Meanwhile, the top 10% and 20% of movies generated 49% and 67% of demand, respectively.

The data indicates a decline in demand share for top movies during 2020 and 2021, the years most impacted by the pandemic. The top 1% of movies experienced the most significant drop in demand share, which continued even post-pandemic. While the top 20% maintained a similar demand share in 2024 as in 2018, around two-thirds of the total demand, the top 1% share fell by 3.5 percentage points in 2024, and the top 10% share decreased by one percentage point.

The halt in movie releases during the pandemic, particularly big-budget blockbusters that typically dominate audience attention, led to more widespread distribution of attention across a broader set of titles during those years, including older movies.

This trend is also evident in the increasing supply and demand share for streaming-released movies over the past seven years. Streaming movies reached a peak demand share of around 7% in 2023. In the first half of 2024, the share decreased to 6% of the total demand for movies, still double the 3% demand share in 2019. Despite this growth, streaming movies continue to underperform, with their demand share remaining lower than their supply share.

The post Moviegoer Tastes Grew More Diverse, Pivoted Away From Blockbusters After the Pandemic | Charts appeared first on TheWrap.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the manslaughter charges after evidence emerged that police and prosecutors deliberately withheld live bullets from the defense, which were ostensibly relevant to the case (because the case was dismissed with prejudice, it cannot be re-tried).

“We respect the court’s decision. We look forward to presenting all the evidence to a jury and holding Mr. Baldwin accountable for his actions in the senseless death of Halyna Hutchins,” Brian J. Panish, an attorney for Matthew Hutchins, said in a statement to TheWrap on Friday.

“The late discovery of this evidence during trial has impeded the effective use of evidence in such a way that it has impacted the fundamental fairness of the proceedings. The defense is not in a position to test the state’s theory as to the source of the live rounds that killed Ms. Hutchins,” Judge Sommer ruled. “The state is highly culpable for its failure to provide this discovery to the defendant. The state unilaterally withheld the supplemental report. [The] Santa Fe County Sheriff’s officer made the decision — and apparently also with the prosecutor, as pursuant to [Cpl. Alexandria] Hancock’s testimony — that the evidence was of no evidentiary value and failed to connect the evidence to the case.”

“Ms. [Kari] Morrissey was aware of the new evidence and yet did not make an effort to disclose it to defense. The state’s willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate. If this conduct does rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching,” she continued. “The state’s discovery violation has injected a needless incurable delay into the jury trial. Dismissal with prejudice is warranted to ensure the integrity of the judicial system and the efficient administration of justice. Your motion to dismiss with prejudice is granted.”

Following the cinematographer’s tragic death on Oct. 21, 2021, the shooting has resulted in numerous legal proceedings with the film’s production companies, armorer and Baldwin; both civil and criminal.

Hutchins’ family previously settled a wrongful death suit in October 2022 before filing another suit in February 2023. The cinematographer’s widower Matthew Hutchins received an executive producer credit on the project in the initial settlements. In June, the family filed another civil suit against Baldwin for playing “Russian Roulette with a loaded gun.”

Meanwhile, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is currently serving 18 months in prison for her role in Hutchins’ death.

“You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon,” the judge ruled in April. “But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive. A husband would have his partner, and a little boy would have his mother.”

Baldwin’s team did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

The post Halyna Hutchins’ Husband Still Plans to Hold Alec Baldwin Accountable After ‘Rust’ Case Dismissal appeared first on TheWrap.

The former president and presumed Republican nominee in November went on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” Friday to discuss what he calls Biden’s “big boy press conference.” One of the cohosts Clay Travis asked the embattled politician if he follows the current “palace intrigue” and what his response was to Biden’s inner circle publicly asking him to step down. 

“It’s really kind of wild. In the two weeks since you knocked him out in the debate, I mean, they have just spun completely out of control,” Travis said. “Can you believe how much of a dumpster fire they are right now?”

Trump told the cohosts that Clooney’s piece was an act of betrayal.

“I thought George Clooney was very disloyal, because whether you like Biden or not, you know, he’s been nice to Clooney. I thought it was very disloyal. Backstabber. A third-rate movie actor,” Trump said.

Clooney, a prominent donor and lifelong Democrat, called for a “new nominee” in his piece in the Times Wednesday. His strong stance sent a shock through the Democratic Party, causing more Hollywood elite and prominent democrats to express their concern. 

Clooney hosted a successful, record-breaking fundraiser for the president, where many in attendance have since expressed Biden did not appear fit for another four-year term. The June 15 fundraiser raised $28 million overnight for the reelection campaign. 

“He was a television actor and never made a really good movie,” Trump added of Clooney, an Oscar-winning actor who got his start on “ER.”

You can watch the full episode of “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” here.

The post Trump Says George Clooney Is a ‘Backstabber’ and ‘Very Disloyal’ for Telling Biden to Step Down appeared first on TheWrap.

Chairman of GAMCO Investors Inc. Mario Gabelli filed a books and records request in Delaware on Friday regarding just how much Redstone will receive for her A shares, TheWrap has learned. (While not technically a lawsuit in itself, the move could be an early indicator of one to come.)

National Amusements owns 77% of Class A voting stock and 5.2% of Class B voting stock. Gabelli is the largest A shareholder behind Redstone, with GAMCO Investors Inc. representing clients that own 5 million Class A shares and 1 million Class B shares.

“I want my clients to have the option of continuing to own the voting shares. Why should they get squeezed out? That is not clear,” Gabelli told TheWrap earlier this week. “Secondly, are they worried I would discover a whole bunch of numbers that would indicate that they should get more money because the other guy got more money? I don’t know.”

The records request echoes a similar move made by fellow shareholders the Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island in May. The pension fund previously expressed concern over the Paramount board not preventing “Shari Redstone from diverting corporate opportunities or interfering with Paramount’s ability to seek the best deal for Paramount and its other stockholders.”

On Sunday, David Ellison’s Skydance Media announced it had an $8 billion deal in place to acquire Paramount Global. Ellison’s father, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, who is the fifth richest person in the world, is investing $6 billion of that total, while RedBird Capital funds the rest.

The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025 subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, includes $2.4 billion for National Amusements, comprised of $1.75 billion for the equity and the assumption of $650 million in debt. Additionally, non-NAI shareholders will receive $4.5 billion and $1.5 billion in new capital will be used to pay down Paramount’s $14.6 billion in long-term debt, recapitalizing its balance sheet.
Class A shareholders can elect to receive $23 cash per share or 1.5333 shares of Class B stock of new Paramount. Meanwhile, Class B shareholders can elect to receive $15 per share or one share of Class B stock of new Paramount, which is subject to proration if those elections exceed $4.3 billion in aggregate. If shares are elected over cash, reducing the cash required to under $4.3 billion, the $1.5 billion of cash going to Paramount’s balance sheet could grow up to a cap of $3 billion.

Skydance’s consortium of investors, which includes RedBird Capital Partners and the Ellison family, will control 70% of shares outstanding and have 100% voting ownership in new Paramount, which will remain public. The deal also includes a 45-day go-shop provision, in which Paramount would pay a $400 million breakup fee in the event that the company receives a better offer from another bidder.

“I wanted to take this opportunity to reach out to you directly not only to share the news, but to express my tremendous gratitude to each and every one of you for what we have been able to accomplish together for the past several decades,” Redstone wrote in a memo to Paramount employees following the acquisition. “I want to express my deepest thanks to you for your commitment, hard work and, most importantly, your support of my family and me. Against a challenging industry backdrop and many changes at the company, you have protected Paramount’s assets and delivered for our audiences.”

Paramount did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment. Puck News was first to report this development.

The post Top Paramount Shareholder Sets Lawsuit in Motion With Docs Request for Shari Redstone’s Skydance Payday appeared first on TheWrap.

“Why are they stopping it from premiering at Toronto?” Wilson said in the Wednesday video. “Well, this dates back to October of last year, where I discovered bad behavior by these business partners. And let me just, you know, I just tell it how it is, so I’m just going to tell you who they are. They are so-called ‘producers’ of the film — I use that phrase very lightly. Their names are Amanda Ghost, and Gregory Cameron, and an executive producer who works with them called Vince Holden. So these are the people involved.”

She continued, “And so I said — reported, I guess you would say — their bad behavior when I found out not minor things, big things — you know, inappropriate behavior towards the lead actress of the film, embezzling funds from the film’s budget — which we really needed because we’re a small movie, you know? So kind of really important things.”

The post’s origin came from her thoughts that the named producers were stopping “The Deb” from having a closing night slot at the Toronto International Film Festival. There are also claims that the trio embezzled 900,000 Australian dollars.

Watch Wilson’s full Instagram video below:

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A post shared by Rebel Wilson (@rebelwilson)

The crux of the defamation lawsuit centers on Wilson having an unprofessional attitude and issuing threats of “exposing” financiers to her following. She also wanted a cowriting credit and rights to the film’s original music. She ended up getting an “additional writing by” credit with original screenwriter Hannah Riley earning the writing credit — much to Wilson’s reported dissatisfaction.

“Rebel is a bully who will disregard the interests of others to promote her own,” the producers’ lawyer said in the filing.

The lawyer continued, “Plaintiffs continuously attempted to resolve the disputes in good faith, but Rebel had other ideas. Even though the plan was always to show the film at TIFF, Rebel attempted to force the issue and bully them into capitulating to her other unreasonable demands by leveraging her popularity on social media to spread these malicious and baseless lies.”

“I made this great movie “The Deb,” Wilson said in her video. “And then now, you know, almost at the finish line. They’re saying, you know, it can’t come out. They might not release it, they might bury it. … Yeah, so that’s my dilemma. If the movie doesn’t play at Toronto, it’s because of these absolute f–kwits.”

Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.

The post Rebel Wilson Hit With ‘The Deb’ Defamation Lawsuit From Film’s Producers appeared first on TheWrap.

“The state’s discovery violation has injected a needless incurable delay into the jury trial. Dismissal with prejudice is warranted to ensure the integrity of the judicial system and the efficient administration of justice,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said Friday in granting the defense’s motion to dismiss. Being dismissed with prejudice, it cannot be re-tried.

As it became clear what was happening, Baldwin began to shake with emotion and wiped tears from his eyes. Baldwin and his wife Hilaria left the courthouse without making any public remarks.

Following the dismissal Brian J. Panish, attorney for Hutchins’ husband Matthew Hutchins said, “We respect the court’s decision. We look forward to presenting all the evidence to a jury and holding Mr. Baldwin accountable for his actions in the senseless death of Halyna Hutchins.” 

The outcome caps a real life courtroom drama which began Thursday, when the defense revealed that in March — near the end of the manslaughter trial of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed — investigators had been provided with several live bullets by Troy Teske, a retired Arizona police officer, and that Teske told them they matched the bullet that killed Hutchins.

Baldwin’s attorney’s referred to him at that time as a “good Samaritan,” though prosecutors subsequently revealed that Teske was a longtime friend of Gutierrez-Reed’s father. Prosecutors also argued the bullets were irrelevant anyway because in their determination, they didn’t match the blank rounds used on the “Rust” set.

On Friday Baldwin’s defense raised the matter again in a motion to have the case dismissed, based in part on the fact that the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s department failed to disclose possession and knowledge of the bullets to the defense despite multiple opportunities.

In a strange turn of events, Prosecutor Kari Morrissey called herself to the stand, where she testified under oath that she and the prosecutors had made a determination that the bullets didn’t match the live round that killed Hutchins and therefore had “no evidentiary value.”

Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nikas responded that prosecutors do not get to decide whether evidence should be excluded or not. In her statement dismissing the case Judge Sommer clearly agreed, saying that “the late discovery of this evidence during trial has impeded the effective use of evidence in such a way that it has impacted the fundamental fairness of the proceedings. The defense is not in a position to test the state’s theory as to the source of the live rounds that killed Ms. Hutchins.”

In her remarks, Sommer blasted law enforcement and the entire prosecutorial team for how the case was conducted, declaring “the state is highly culpable for its failure to provide this discovery to the defendant. The state unilaterally withheld the supplemental report. Santa Fe County Sheriff’s officer made the decision — and apparently also with the prosecutor… that the evidence was of no evidentiary value and failed to connect the evidence to the case.”

Sommer also called out Morrissey directly, saying that she “was aware of the new evidence and yet did not make an effort to disclose it to defense. The state’s willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate. If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching.”

In a possible sign of things to come, just minutes before the case was dismissed, Erlindo Ocampo Johnson, one of two special prosecutors in the case, resigned.

The post Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Manslaughter Trial Dismissed Over Withheld Bullet Evidence appeared first on TheWrap.