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      Sacha Baron Cohen Has No Plan to Make Third 'Borat' Movie

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      The ‘Ali G Indahouse’ actor has ruled out any possibility of bringing back his controversial character for a third movie after the sequel ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.’

      Jan 7, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Sacha Baron Cohen has retired his controversial “Borat” character because he can’t imagine bringing the oddball Kazakh journalist back after two films.
      Cohen released “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” – his follow-up to the 2006 mockumentary “Borat”, in October (20) via Amazon Prime Video, and in a new interview with Variety, the Brit has confirmed he can’t foresee a further movie for the character.
      “I brought Borat out because of (President Donald) Trump,” he said. “There was a purpose to this movie, and I don’t really see the purpose to doing it again. So yeah, he’s locked away in the cupboard.”
      And Cohen admits there were times while he was making the Borat sequel, during which he staged a series of questionable stunts – including dressing up as Trump for a political event – that made him wonder if he was “mad.”

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      “There were moments in making this movie where I thought, ‘Why the hell am I doing this?’ ” he explained. “This is illogical. You think, ‘Am I mad? Have I got something deeply wrong with me?’ ”
      Earlier this week (beg04Jan21), Maria Bakalova, who played Borat’s daughter Tutar in the sequel, said she felt it was her “duty” to see through a controversial interview scene with Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani even though it was terribly uncomfortable.
      Bakalova posed as a journalist for the interview with the former New York Mayor and, after the chat, the pair retreated to a hotel room before Cohen – as Borat – burst in.
      “I was afraid because Rudy is a lawyer, and he is the president’s lawyer,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “I am not an American and don’t know about American politics, but I knew that as an actor, it was my duty to do this scene to save the movie. I also knew that I wasn’t alone in the room because Sacha was hiding there. I knew that if something happened, I could make my exit.”

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      Stream These 8 Titles Before They Leave Netflix This Month

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyStream These 8 Titles Before They Leave Netflix This MonthAfter the end-of-year bloodletting, the losses are a little lighter in January. But there are still some great gems worth catching.Jan. 6, 2021Updated 10:57 a.m. ETThis month’s rundown of Netflix exits is lighter than usual — maybe because they seemed to drop half their library last month — but it’s full of little gems, including a double Oscar winner, a gripping limited series, and essential works from Paul Thomas Anderson and the Coen Brothers. Oh, and a comedy about a man who befriends a farting corpse.Catch these 8 titles before they leave by the end of January. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)From left, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pixie Davies, Joel Dawson, Nathanael Saleh and Emily Blunt in “Mary Poppins Returns.”Credit…Jay Maidment/Disney Pictures‘Mary Poppins Returns’ (Jan. 8)Cooking up a sequel to one of the greatest Disney features, 54 years after the fact, may have been an impossible goal to begin with; it’s certainly fair to say that Rob Marshall’s 2018 follow-up to “Mary Poppins” does not measure up to its 1964 predecessor. But it does offer genuine pleasures: poignant work by Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw as the grown-up Jane and Michael Banks; juicily animated supporting turns from Colin Firth and Meryl Streep; a handful of toe-tapping tunes; and most of all, a sharp-tongued, twinkly-eyed performance by Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, gamely capturing much of the matter-of-fact magic of Julie Andrews’s original characterization.Stream it here.‘The Master’ (Jan. 14)One of Paul Thomas Anderson’s most prickly and challenging pictures (and that’s saying something), this 2012 drama prompted plenty of prerelease hand-wringing, as Anderson reportedly drew the inspiration for his script from the Church of Scientology and the biography of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. But this is no mere exposé. Anderson’s story of an alcoholic drifter and World War II veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) who stumbles into the circle of a religious leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a complicated examination of blowhard masculinity, male bonding and cults of personality, bolstered by Anderson’s detailed period direction and the performances of two titans at the peak of their powers.Stream it here.Michael Stuhlbarg in the Coen brothers film “A Serious Man,” based on the biblical Book of Job.Credit…Focus Features/EPA‘A Serious Man’ (Jan. 15)The Coen Brothers followed up one of their broadest comedies (“Burn After Reading,” from 2008) with one of their strangest, a retelling of the Book of Job set in their home turf of Minnesota, circa 1967. The peerless character actor Michael Stuhlbarg gets a rare leading role as Professor Larry Gopnik, whose personal and professional life falls into such a shambles that he begins to question his Jewish faith. Darkly funny yet endlessly thought-provoking, “A Serious Man” has the Coens using Gopnik as a vessel to examine their own views on faith and humanity. And while they land on nothing so simple as “answers,” their journey and insights are strangely exhilarating.Stream it here.‘Dallas Buyers Club’ (Jan. 15)Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto won Academy Awards for best actor and best supporting actor for this 2013 drama from the director Jean-Marc Vallée, loosely inspired by a true story. McConaughey stars as Ron Woodruff, an H.I.V. positive Texan in the mid-1980s who funneled his frustration over limited AIDS treatments into action, smuggling experimental drugs into the country while the F.D.A. battled him for his efforts. “Dallas Buyers Club” occasionally falls into the traps of simplification and boilerplate storytelling that plague so many biopics, but Vallée’s direction is vivid and vibrant, and the performances are touchingly humane.Stream it here.‘Waco’: Limited Series (Jan. 15)We’re reaching a point, in the combined (and often intertwined) arcs of nostalgia and re-evaluation, in which it seems that every major news event of the 1990s has received the movie, mini-series or documentary treatment. This 2018 effort revisits the 1993 standoff at the Waco, Tex., compound of the Branch Davidian sect, in six episodes drawn from the memoirs of the Davidian survivor David Thibodeau and the F.B.I. hostage negotiator Gary Noesner. Even at that expanded length, the series sometimes pulls its punches, missing opportunities to connect these events to the fierce anti-government movements of ensuing decades. But the performers are not to be missed — particularly the reliably intense Michael Shannon as Noesner, and a shockingly effective Taylor Kitsch as the sect leader David Koresh, a role miles removed from his matinee idol work on “Friday Night Lights.”Stream it here.‘Swiss Army Man’ (Jan. 29)If there’s one thing you can say about modern movies, it’s that they tend to play it safe — every movie seems like a reflection of every other movie, and before you know it, your only entertainment options are a superhero flick, a “Star Wars” series, and a gritty “reboot” of a terrible show from the 1980s. So hats off to Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, who wrote and directed this 2016 story of a desperate man (Paul Dano), trapped on a desert island, who befriends a washed-up corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) and makes ingenious use of the dead man’s post-mortem flatulence. Maybe it’s off-the-charts bizarre, maybe it’s tasteless, but you’ve got to admit: You’ve never seen anything quite like it.Stream it here.Tracy Morgan and Chris Rock in the American 2010 version of “Death at a Funeral.”Credit…Phil Bray/Screen Gems‘Death at a Funeral’ (Jan. 31)This 2010 comedy, directed by Neil LaBute, was a bit of a head-scratcher — a remake of the British film of the same title from only three years previous, merely shifting the setting of the events to America and the race of its central characters from white to Black. (Peter Dinklage plays the same role in both versions.) Chris Rock, as both star and producer, assembles an enviable collection of his comic contemporaries (including Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Regina Hall, Loretta Devine, Zoe Saldana and Kevin Hart), with the beloved elders Danny Glover, Keith David and Ron Glass joining ringers Luke Wilson and James Marsden to round out the ensemble.Stream it here.‘Pineapple Express’ (Jan. 31)The “Freaks and Geeks” co-stars Seth Rogen and James Franco took their considerable odd-couple chemistry to the big screen for the first time in this 2008 hit from the director David Gordon Green. The sharp script, penned by Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg, mixes its laid-back Cheech & Chong-style “stoner comedy” with the fast-paced shoot-em-up action of ’80s adventures like “Beverly Hills Cop,” a tonal mismatch that could have easily failed. But it landed, thanks to the easygoing charisma of its leads — and the masterly scene-stealing of Danny McBride, in his breakthrough role.Stream it here.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Reports of Michael Keaton's Return as Batman for DCEU Falsely Exaggerated

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      Warner Bros.

      An original article about the ‘Batman Returns’ star reprising his role as the Caped Crusader for an upcoming The Flash film has apparently been widely misinterpreted.

      Jan 6, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Michael Keaton isn’t replacing Ben Affleck in the DCEU, at least not yet. While recent reports about the “Beetlejuice” star returning as the Caped Crusader for future DCEU films have been met with excitement by fans, the news was apparently falsely exaggerated.
      Brooks Barnes, the writer of the original article on New York Times, returned on Twitter on Monday, January 4 to clarify the wild rumors. “Been offline (moving apartments) and return to see this Michael Keaton craziness,” he responded to the reports citing his article and previous tweet.
      While he did confirm Keaton would be donning his Batman cowl again for an upcoming The Flash movie, he denied ever mentioning the 69-year-old actor as the main Batman in future films of a non-Batman-centric saga. “I was referring to the *one film* that Keaton has been announced as being in, not a set of his own Batman films. If I had info on him beyond ‘The Flash,’ I would have obviously put it in my article,” Barnes stressed.

      Brooks Barnes clarified reports about Michael Keaton’s Batman return.

        See also…

      In the original article, Barnes wrote that “Warner Bros. will have two different film sagas involving Batman – played by two different actors – running at the same time.” One of them is starring Robert Pattinson.
      When asked on Twitter to confirm if he meant a new actor will play Batman in the second franchise, Barnes simply replied, “Keaton.”
      In the same article, Barnes also reported that both Affleck and Keaton will be appearing in The Flash stand-alone film, which is set for release in theaters in 2022. The upcoming movie “will link the two universes and feature two Batmans, with Mr. Affleck returning as one and Michael Keaton returning as the other,” so he wrote.
      Affleck starred as the Caped Crusader in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016) and “Justice League” (2017). He additionally made a cameo appearance as the character in “Suicide Squad” (2016). He was going to star in a standalone Batman film with him at the helm. After stepping down from the directing duty in 2017, he bid farewell to the character in January 2019, with Pattinson being tapped to take on the lead role in “The Batman”, which is directed by Matt Reeves.
      As for Keaton, he received critical acclaims for his dramatic portrayal of the Gotham hero in Tim Burton’s “Batman” (1989) and “Batman Returns” (1992).

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      Tanya Roberts, a Charlie’s Angel and a Bond Girl, Is Dead at 65

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeHoliday TVBest Netflix DocumentariesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTanya Roberts, a Charlie’s Angel and a Bond Girl, Is Dead at 65After finding stardom in the 1980s, she fell out of the spotlight until re-emerging in 1998 in the sitcom “That ’70s Show.”Tanya Roberts with Roger Moore in the 1985 James Bond film “A View to a Kill.” She had earlier starred in the last season of “Charlie’s Angels.”Credit…Alexis Duclos./Associated PressJan. 5, 2021Updated 1:30 p.m. ETTanya Roberts, the breathy-voiced actress who found fame in the 1980s as a detective on “Charlie’s Angels” and as a brave earth scientist in the James Bond film “A View to a Kill,” died on Monday night in Los Angeles. She was 65.Her death, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, was confirmed on Tuesday by her companion, Lance O’Brien. Her publicist, who was given erroneous information, had announced her death to the news media early Monday, and some news organizations published obituaries about her prematurely.The publicist, Mike Pingel, said Ms. Roberts collapsed on Dec. 24 after walking her dogs near her Hollywood Hills home and was put on a ventilator at the hospital. He did not give the cause of death, but said it was not related to Covid-19. He said she had not been noticeably ill before she collapsed.Ms. Roberts’s big acting break came in her mid-20s, when she was cast in the fifth and last season of “Charlie’s Angels,” the ABC drama series that, trading on its stars’ sex appeal, followed the exploits of three attractive former police officers who often fought crime wearing short shorts, low-cut blouses and even bikinis.The show was an immediate hit in 1976, but Farrah Fawcett, its breakout star, left after one season, replaced by Cheryl Ladd. Kate Jackson quit in 1979, and her replacement, Shelley Hack, was gone after just one season. Ms. Roberts replaced Ms. Hack. Jaclyn Smith appeared throughout the series run.There were high hopes for Ms. Roberts when she joined the cast. Her character, Julie, had some of Ms. Jackson’s character’s streetwise attitude; Julie was known to knock a handgun right out of a tough criminal’s hand. Her part couldn’t save the show’s plummeting ratings, but it did lead to an active decade for her in Hollywood.Ms. Roberts, second from left, starred in “Charlie’s Angels” in its fifth and final season. The other “angels” in this 1980 photo were Cheryl Ladd, left, and Jaclyn Smith, right. Second from right is Patti D’Arbanville, who appeared in an episode.Credit…Getty ImagesMost notably, she was a “Bond girl,” playing a geologist threatened by a microchip-monopolist madman (Christopher Walken) in “A View to a Kill” (1985), Roger Moore’s last appearance as Agent 007.Ms. Roberts also appeared in “The Beastmaster” (1982), a fantasy film. And she played the title role in “Sheena” (1984), a highly publicized adventure film inspired by a queen-of-the-jungle comic book character. Sheena, a female Tarzan type, wore skimpy fur outfits with décolletage, rode a zebra, talked to animals and shape-shifted. The film flopped at the box office, and Ms. Roberts began fading from public view.She returned to the spotlight in 1998 on the sitcom “That ’70s Show” as the glamorous, youngish Midwestern mom of a teenage girl (Laura Prepon). In that role she was beautiful, slim and sexy — and delightfully dimwitted. The comic mystery, year after year, was how her short, dumpy husband, played by Don Stark with frighteningly overgrown sideburns, had ever won her heart. Ms. Roberts appeared on the show for three seasons and later made guest visits.She was born Victoria Leigh Blum in the Bronx on Oct. 15, 1955, the second of two daughters of Oscar Maximilian Blum, a fountain pen salesman, and Dorothy Leigh (Smith) Blum. According to some sources, Tanya was her nickname. She spent her childhood in the Bronx and lived briefly in Canada after her parents’ divorce. She began her career by running away from home to become a model when she was 15.Back in New York, she studied acting, appeared in some Off Broadway productions and worked as a model and a dance instructor to make ends meet. Her modeling career included work for Clairol and Ultra-Brite toothpaste. She made her screen debut in the horror thriller “The Last Victim” (1976), about a serial rapist-murderer.Ms. Roberts, right, in 1999 in a scene from the sitcom “That ’70s Show” with Laura Prepon, another star of the show. Ms. Roberts had kept a low profile for many years until re-emerging in the show.Credit…Frank Carroll/FoxAfter “Charlie’s Angels,” Ms. Roberts acted in both television and films. Her roles included the private eye Mike Hammer’s secretary in the television movie “Murder Me, Murder You” (1983), a detective working undercover at a sex clinic in “Sins of Desire” (1993) and a talk-radio host on the erotic anthology series “Hot Line” (1994-96). Her final screen appearance was on the Showtime series “Barbershop” in 2005.Even in her heyday, Ms. Roberts appeared not to enjoy being interviewed. Chatting with Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show” in 1981, she laughed nervously, gave short answers and flirted with Michael Landon, her fellow guest. At one point, Mr. Carson mentioned a cover article about her in People magazine, prompting Ed McMahon, the host’s sidekick, to suggest, “Maybe there’s something in the magazine that’d be interesting.”Ms. Roberts was a teenager when she married in 1971, but the union was quickly annulled at the insistence of her new mother-in-law. In 1974, she met Barry Roberts, a psychology student, while both were standing in line at a movie theater. They married that year. Mr. Roberts became a screenwriter and died in 2006 at 60.In addition to Mr. O’Brien, she is survived by a sister, Barbara Chase, who was Timothy Leary’s fourth wife.Ms. Roberts had always insisted that she was a New Yorker at heart, and not just because she hated driving.“L.A. drives you crazy,” she said in the 1981 People magazine article. “I’m used to weather and walking and people who say what they mean.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘White Lie’ Review: In Sickness and in Stealth

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘White Lie’ Review: In Sickness and in StealthA young woman grows increasingly desperate to maintain the illusion of her illness in this restrained drama.Kacey Rohl in “White Lie.”Credit…Lisa Pictures & Rock Salt ReleasingJan. 5, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETWhite LieDirected by Yonah Lewis, Calvin ThomasDrama1h 36mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.“White Lie” is something of a misnomer, given that the fraud that Katie (Kacey Rohl), a young college student, is perpetrating is far from victimless. Neither is it easy: The effort involved in pretending to have cancer consumes most of her energy (and all of the film’s 96 minutes). She looks exhausted, although — according to a crooked physician — not nearly enough to convince potential marks. Luckily, that’s a problem weight-loss medication can solve.Small in scale and gray in aspect, “White Lie,” written and directed by Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas, is a coolly indeterminate tease. Instead of a third act, this unusual Canadian drama simply continues Katie’s desperate sprint to stay one step ahead of exposure, and her frantic recalibration whenever her scam is threatened: A grant application requires falsified medical records; a social-media post demands panicked damage control.[embedded content]The plot’s repetitive rhythms are eased, though, by Rohl’s startling commitment to her character’s pathology — a long, money-grubbing con of begging, borrowing and online fund-raising. We first see her in her bathroom, meticulously shaving her head, the cold calculation of her actions contrasting with the practiced sweetness of her public persona. Katie’s estranged father (Martin Donovan) may challenge her ruse with hints of a troubled past; but her affluent, devoted girlfriend (a wonderful Amber Anderson) is pitiably eager to finance nonexistent treatment options.Yet as Katie veers from pathetic to vicious, “White Lie” observes her shameless behavior without attempting to elucidate. The result is a movie that’s too vague to capitalize on its jittery tone and too timid to fully wrestle with the monster at its core.White LieNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. Rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Vanessa Kirby Recalls Crying Her Eyes Out Watching Live Birth for 'Pieces of a Woman' Preparation

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      Sunday Times Culture

      Having to portray a woman left grief stricken by her stillborn baby, the young Princess Margaret of ‘The Crown’ reveals she was given a chance to sit in on a birthing experience at Whittington Hospital.

      Jan 5, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Actress Vanessa Kirby was so in awe of the process of childbirth she held her breath as she observed a woman in labour as research for her new movie.
      In “Pieces of a Woman”, Vanessa portrays Martha, who is left grief stricken after her baby is stillborn, and she felt daunted by her first scenes, which depicted her character giving birth.
      As “The Crown” star has never had children of her own, the actress contacted officials at London’s Whittington Hospital and asked if she could sit in on a birthing experience – and was stunned when an expectant mother agreed.
      “I walked in in my scrubs. We had asked permission and unbelievably she said yes. Not sure I would. Some random actress in there…,” Vanessa remarked to The Sunday Times Culture magazine.
      “Anyway, I sat next to her on the bed and vaguely waved. I was in awe. Her mother was there too. I hardly breathed for six hours.”

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      Asked if she offered encouragement, Vanessa exclaimed, “No! Can you imagine? ‘Go on, girl!’ No, I was silent. It was a greater achievement than I’ve seen anybody do. There were forceps.”
      “At one point she looked at me. Halfway through a difficult contraction. I blew her a kiss. Why? So embarrassing.”
      Although she didn’t know the family, Vanessa found the experience of watching the mum welcome her son very moving.
      “When he was actually born, the nurses brought me round to see him come out. I was crying my eyes out,” she recalled. “All colour came back to the mother. It was holy. And then I was introduced, and they went, ‘Oh God, Princess Margaret!'”
      Vanessa portrayed a young Princess Margaret in the first two seasons of Netflix’s royal drama “The Crown”.

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      ‘The Bachelor’ Premiere Recap: Matt James Meets the Ladies for the First Time in Overwhelming Night

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