Director Ilya Khrzhanovsky is defending his upcoming film DAU against attacks by the government of Ukraine that it represents Russian propaganda and should not be screened at the Venice Film Festival next month.
Khrzhanovsky took to Facebook on Thursday to post a point-by-point rebuttal of the criticism of his film and claims linking him, the film’s financiers, and DAU actor Teodor Currentzis to Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
“DAU is not a Russian film and does not represent Russia at the Venice Film Festival,” Khrzhanovsky writes, noting that he is “not a citizen of the Russian Federation” having renounced his Russian citizenship “in protest against the state policy of the Russian Federation and its war against Ukraine.”
His film, Khrzhanovsky said, “is not an instrument of Russian state cultural policy. It is an artistic statement about the nature of totalitarian evil.”
The 3-hour DAU film is the latest in a series of movies, art installations and video projects created by Khrzhanovsky using material filmed over three years from 2008 to 2011 on a closed set in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Earlier this week, the Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, and the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy issued a joint statement criticizing the Venice festival for including DAU in its line-up.
“At the time when Russia is continuing its war of aggression against Ukraine, systematically destroying cities, cultural heritage and national identity,” the statement reads, “offering one of the world’s most prestigious cultural platforms to a project linked to the Russian state and its networks of influence sends a deeply worrying signal.”
The statement goes on to list the film’s alleged connections to Putin’s Russia, including Khrzhanovsky’s citizenship, and that of DAU lead actor Teodor Currentzis, and its connection to Sergei Adoniev, a Russian business man who has been sanctioned by Ukraine and the U.S.
Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera took to Instagram on Wednesday to clap back at those allegations and to defend his decision to include DAU at this year’s festival. In his post, Barbera describes Khrzhanovsky as “a Russian dissident who ended up on the regime’s blacklist as a terrorist and enemy of the state — a director who, from the very beginning, has taken a stand against the Russian invasion of Ukraine”. He called the attacks on DAU an “inexplicable smear campaign against a film that its accusers have evidently not even seen yet.”
The DAU project, initially conceived as a biopic of the Nobel Prize-winning Soviet scientist Lev Landau (nicknamed Dau), became a massive immersive installation. Hundreds of cast members, actors and non-actors, lived on the closed set, in costume and in character, isolated from the outside world during filming. From the hundreds of hours of footage shot, Khrzhanovsky has produced several feature films. DAU. Natasha, screened at the Berlin Film Festival in 2020, winning a Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution for cinematographer Jürgen Jürges.
In his Facebook post, Khrzhanovsky refutes or qualifies the various accusations made against him and his film. Adoniev, he says, was a financier of the broader artistic 𝘋𝘈𝘜 project but “his financing ended completely in 2019 and he has had no financial relationship with the project since then. He did not finance the completion of the film selected for the competition of the Venice Film Festival.” Adoniev’s involvement, the director adds, was prior to his being sanctioned by the U.S. or Ukraine government.
The filming of the DAU project in Ukraine, writes Khrzhanovsky, took place before the Russian invasion of the country. His own position on Russia’s war against Ukraine “has been and remains unequivocal,” he writes. “I publicly supported Ukraine long before the full-scale invasion. Following the annexation of Crimea in March 2014, I signed an open letter by Russian filmmakers in support of Ukraine.”
A stickier point is DAU lead actor Theodor Currentzis. A well-known Greek conductor, Currentzis took on Russian citizenship in 2014. Currentzis has never publicly supported Russia’s war against Ukraine, but he has not publicly condemned it either.
“However one may judge his decision not to make such statements [against the war], judging a person on the basis of the citizenship they hold — and, even more so, using citizenship acquired years after most of the filming as evidence of the film’s current connection to the Russian state — is not justified,” writes Khrzhanovsky.
Given what he characterized as his long and enduring support for Ukraine, Khrzhanovsky said the attempt to frame him and his film as supporting the Russian state or its war against Ukraine was “especially painful for me.” He said he understood the need, “during wartime, to scrutinize the sources of financing of cultural projects, political connections, and possible instruments of Russian influence. [But] that is precisely why standards of factual accuracy must be particularly high.”
His movie, he said, “should not be prematurely judged on the basis of false associations, distorted chronology, or assumptions that contradict the documented history of the project. I have been and remain opposed to Russia’s war against Ukraine and to the political system that made this war possible. Opposing totalitarianism also means defending factual truth.”
DAU will screen in competition at the 2026 Venice Film Festival, which runs Sept. 2-12.
[This story contains major spoilers for Lucky’s series finale, “All Good Things.”]
With the dust now settled on Lucky, Anya Taylor-Joy believes her eponymous character is finally living up to her nickname.
The British-Argentine actor’s point has less to do with her conflicted con artist cheating death numerous times and besting her mobster in-laws, as well as the FBI. Instead, it’s more about the bittersweet fact that, despite losing her husband Cary (Drew Starkey) in a fatal car chase — and ultimately severing ties with her father, John (Timothy Olyphant), a con man whose devotion to the hustle proved utterly incurable — she’s at long last able to chart her own course.
In the final moments of Apple TV’s latest well-received limited series, John comes to terms that his familial protege outmaneuvered his final play for the $10 million he originally skimmed from Cary’s parents, Annette Bening’s Priscilla and William Fichtner’s Wayne. Cary re-stole the money temporarily from Lucky and John, only to leave it for his wife to handle as she sees fit, something Priscilla co-signed after killing Wayne, the sadistic driving force behind the season-long attempt to recover it.
Lucky could’ve easily started a whole new life with the ill-gotten gains, but she opted to take her first steps toward a life free of crime by returning the repeatedly stolen taxpayer dollars to the Feds. The final images of the show find Lucky quietly fulfilling the promise her dad spent a lifetime breaking — that one day they would abandon their thieving ways, dig their toes into the sand and stare out at the Pacific.
“Either personally or through somebody close to us, we all know what it is to love somebody that’s not good for us. It’s a lesson that has to be learned individually, and the heartbreak of it all is so relatable to me,” Taylor-Joy tells The Hollywood Reporter. “You still feel that heartbreak because Timothy is so charming, and you so want him to do the right thing. But where we leave Lucky, she, for the first time, isn’t being told who she is; she’s telling other people who she is.”
Now that Lucky has been fully released, Taylor-Joy still has Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Threecoming out in December. Lead actor Timothée Chalamet recently showered her performance as Paul Atreides’s sister, Alia, with adjectives including “breathtaking, unbelievable, terrifying and amazing.” Taylor-Joy laid the groundwork for her trilogy-capping role by filming an Alia cameo in Dune: Part Two (2024) shortly after wrapping George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Her Furiosa experience proved to be a frustrating one, and while she shared some of her struggles during her recent THR cover story, she has made clear she will keep the full, gory details private for decades. By contrast, her expectations for Dune: Part Three were wildly exceeded.
“Dune was everything that I hoped it would be. I cannot say more wonderful things about Denis [Villeneuve]. It was so deeply inspiring to be in these really harsh elements and know that every person is doing their absolute best work because they believe, trust and adore the person that’s leading the ship,” Taylor-Joy says. “In the future, I hope that I never get jaded and that I still have that childlike exuberance. When I look at Denis, I’m like, Oh, it’s possible.”
Below, during a conversation with THR, Taylor-Joy also discusses key changes made to Jonathan Tropper’s adaptation of Marissa Stapley’s novel Lucky, before revealing what made her first day on set acutely emotional.
***
As a graduate of Shyamalan Film School, you’ve always had an interest in the behind the scenes of it all, but what made Lucky the right time to actually venture into producing?
First and foremost, it was my first real opportunity. I’m so grateful to Reese [Witherspoon] and the whole Hello Sunshine team for that. It was her who read the book, reached out to me and said, “Hey, I would love to co-produce this with you if you’d be interested.” Then, upon reading the book, I really felt like I had something to offer and to contribute. So it just felt like the perfect storm.
Anya Taylor-Joy as Lucky in Lucky.
Courtesy of Apple TV
Marissa Stapley wrote the book with you in mind. Did she get the ball rolling on your casting? Or were Reese and co. simultaneously thinking about you?
Apparently, it was simultaneous. Marissa told me about her manifestation during one of my last days on set, and I was just like, “Well done! Good witchery.”
You went from producers Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter on Lucky to Mary Parent and Tanya Lapointe on Dune: Part Three. Did you pocket as much as you could from them, especially now that you have a production company (LadyKiller)?
I always have curiosity and genuine interest. They are the most important things for me, and luckily, I don’t have to try to force it. If you’re genuinely interested in what’s going on, you learn so much by osmosis just because you’re present. People talk a lot about waiting around on set, but I love the waiting around because that’s just an opportunity for a side quest to learn something.
Lucky pockets anything and everything in a different way. When she walks in a room, she instantly clocks all the angles and identifies anything she can grab, be it keys, cash, clothes, whatever. She’s like Margot from The Menu in that respect.
Yeah.
Has your job made you pretty adept at reading a room since you always have to account for camera angles, blocking and your scene partners?
[M.] Night [Shyamalan] once described me as a raw nerve that has no skin. I’m very sensitive to energies, so I can read if somebody is having a bad day or if somebody needs reassurance in some way. I’m happy about that because I’d always rather see it than not see it.
Lucky’s con-man father, John (Timothy Olyphant), raised her to be his partner-in-crime, and she eventually surpassed his mastery. For curiosity’s sake, if you had to pull a confidence game in real life, do you think your acting chops would translate successfully?
The act of being a confidence artist requires a level of cynicism that I just do not have. I have interest in fun pranks where nobody really gets hurt, but I detest the idea of ever winning because of somebody else’s misfortune.
Lucky spends the first few episodes tracking down her husband Cary (Drew Starkey) after he made off with the $10 million that her dad originally stole from Cary’s gangster mother (Annette Bening) and estranged gangster father (William Fichtner). Eventually, she learns from Cary that he ditched her in order to protect her from his vengeful mother. Years earlier, Lucky worked with the Feds to put her in prison. Cary then dies from a gunshot wound during a car case, and that swerve was not a part of the source material. Do you remember the conversation around that choice?
Absolutely. We really wanted to center in on this relationship and why she goes to the ends of the earth to find him. The reality is both Cary and Lucky have inadvertently ended up with people that are slightly like their parents, and they feel like nobody else will understand. Cary commits such a treacherous act that we knew we needed an actor that was going to be intensely likable to be able to even hear him out. Then we thought, What’s the best possible lesson for Lucky to learn from this? Cary’s got to go. So it was quite ruthless, to be honest with you.
Drew Starkey’s Cary and Anya Taylor-Joy’s Lucky in Lucky.
Courtesy of Apple TV
You and Drew Starkey probably didn’t work together that long, but you had a full relationship arc in that accelerated amount of time: the honeymoon phase, the breakup, the reconciliation and death.
Absolutely. Anytime Drew was on set, I joked that I was having the best time because I was clean and usually doing a flashback. Those flashbacks were happy, light-filled and joyful. And then the second he would leave, I would be bloody, running for my life and getting shot at. (Laughs.) So it was very dramatic whether Drew was there or not there. But he’s very easy, and we get along really well. He’s somebody that I wanted for the role immediately. Overall, I’m really proud to say that we got our first choice for each one of the roles.
Regarding the sleazy real estate agent character in episode three, I didn’t realize that your husband, Malcolm McRae, has been acting off and on since he was a kid. But given the icky place where the sequence ends up, did you partially want to cast someone who could make that uncomfortable dynamic more comfortable?
We cast all of our guest stars on the fly. We had all of our main cast, and then, as the episodes were going on, we opened casting for the other wonderful characters that we have in our show. Malcolm was doing a lot of self-tapes at the time. And if you’re receiving a Malcolm McRae self-tape, the voice at the other end of it is me, obviously. So I was just watching him one day, and I said, “Damn, you could be really good for this. Would you mind taping for it?” And he did. Afterwards I was like, “Wait a second, this really works out for me. Instead of having a stranger slobber all over me, I’d much rather it be the man that I’m in love with.”
Timothy Olyphant’s John and Anya Taylor-Joy’s Lucky in Lucky.
Courtesy of Apple TV
In the end, Lucky, alongside her dad, manages to circumvent the FBI and the mob to walk away with the $10 million in crypto.
She’s a busy girl.
Granted, Priscilla did her a solid by honoring her deceased son’s wishes. And while Lucky fully anticipates her dad’s attempt to re-steal the money, it still hurts to see him choose the hustle over her yet again. But it’s a blessing in disguise, isn’t it? It needed to happen.
Either personally or through somebody close to us, we all know what it is to love somebody that’s not good for us. It’s a lesson that has to be learned individually. Somebody can’t tell you about it. You have to figure it out on your own, and the heartbreak of it all is so relatable to me. And you’re right, you still feel that heartbreak because Timothy is so charming and you so want him to do the right thing. But where we leave Lucky, she, for the first time, isn’t being told who she is; she’s telling other people who she is.
In episode four, she and a random guy at a bar toast over their bad luck. Ultimately, do you consider her lucky even though she’s completely alone and without the two people who loved her?
Anytime you have the opportunity to make your own fate, you’re pretty lucky. And she made it out alive. That’s pretty unbelievable [after all her brushes with death].
She says at one point in episode six that Lucky isn’t her real name. In the book, her real name is Julia Mann, because John is not her biological father in the book. But I think he is her biological father on the show, as he references the death of her mother and being left with this tiny human. So what does she mean when she says Lucky isn’t her real name? Is she just saying that Luciana is technically her real name? Or is there something more there like in the book?
No, I think it’s just that Luciana is her given birth name. Her father then gave her the nickname “Lucky,” both as a promise, but also selfishly. I really enjoyed playing that, because parent-children relationships are so deep and so treacherous and so beautiful all at the same time. There’s a huge element of Lucky that really wants to make her father proud, but the thing that makes him proud of her is the thing that she most dislikes about herself.
She returns the $10 million to the Feds. It was stolen from taxpayers in the first place. It’s admirable that she truly wants a clean break from her life of crime. But was there ever talk of having her repay some of her victims, such as the family out in the desert or the woman whose car accident she helped cause?
We had conversations very, very early on in the writers room. There’s this wonderful character in the book, Lucky’s childhood friend [Steph]. We loved her, and we really tried to bring her with us. But it ended up not really servicing the story in the way that we needed. [Writer’s Note: John and 10-year-old Lucky defraud Steph and her mother by claiming that Lucky is terminally ill, so I assume Taylor-Joyis alluding to a potential storyline in which Steph and/or her mother would’ve been made whole.]
So we thought about restitution, and then we just decided that the biggest score that she has to settle is with Aunjanue [Ellis-Taylor’s] FBI agent character, Rand.
Your THR cover story detailed some of the challenges you faced on Furiosa, so I’m not going to belabor that subject any further.
Thank you.
All I want to know is whether Dune: Part Three was everything you hoped it would be. Will you not have to wait 20 years to fully talk about it à la Furiosa?
(Laughs.) Dune: Part Three was everything that I hoped it would be. I cannot say more wonderful things about Denis [Villeneuve]. I learnt so much. I just wanted to be a sponge on that set and pick up everything in terms of the atmosphere and what it is to lead from a place of love. It was so deeply inspiring to be in these really harsh elements and know that every person is doing their absolute best work because they believe, trust and adore the person that’s leading the ship. He deeply loves it.
All of Denis’ actors strive to get him to say his catchphrase of, “I deeply love it,” after a take. Did you catch on to that game pretty quickly?
(Laughs.) Immediately, yeah. I have so much love and passion for this art form and this beautiful thing that I get to do. And when I think about myself in the future, I hope that I never get jaded and that I still have that childlike exuberance. So when I look at Denis, I’m like, Oh, it’s possible. You can get to this ultimate place and still just be a kid who wants to create these beautiful worlds and do it at such an amazing level of quality.
Are you about to head off to shoot The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum?
I am leaving relatively soon for that side of the world [New Zealand], and I’m very excited about it. [This chat took place July 15.]
Lastly, you quoted Night earlier, and I still think about his famous note to you: “Don’t cry your tears, cry the character’s tears.” Did you ever catch yourself on Lucky crying your tears instead of Lucky’s tears?
Ooh, interesting. [Such crying] didn’t happen in front of the camera, but my dog passed away on our first day of filming, so that was hard. We were shooting all night long from 11:00 PM to 11:00 AM. And I think a big part of grief is being able to sleep through it. So it was such an interesting lesson of, Okay, you’re going to be awake. Your body is going to be pumping adrenaline the whole time. You have to find a way of making this okay and being a leader here because you can’t fall apart. And I’m actually really grateful for that experience.
*** Lucky is now streaming in its entirety on Apple TV.Read more of THR’s finale coverage.
Chris Pratt is back battling unknown global terrorist conspiracies seeking to upend the world order in the first trailer for The Terminal List season 2, which Prime Video dropped on Thursday.
But Pratt, as a traumatized and now fugitive former Navy SEAL James Reece, finds newfound purpose after being offered immunity if he helps the U.S. government pursue a former Iraqi commando to unravel a geopolitical plot involving a traitorous CIA officer and an assassination scheme.
Newcomer Gabriel Luna as former SEAL team member Freddy Strain offers Reece a path to violent redemption. “The president’s willing to grant you a full pardon for your crimes. We’re ready to give you your life back,” he tells Reece at one point in the trailer.
The Terminal List season 2 adapts True Believer, the second in Jack Carr’s five novels built around the character of Reece. A high-octane roller-coaster race against time follows amid much gunfire and explosions as Reece looks to turn the shadowy Iraqi terrorist against his masters.
The starry second season of eight new episodes to debut Oct. 21 on Prime Video — and returning four years after the rookie season rolled out — includes returning cast members like Tom Hopper, Constance Wu, Dar Salim, Luke Hemsworth, Gabriel Luna, Costa Ronin, Olga Kurylenko, Yul Vazquez, Martin Sensmeier, Arnold Vosloo and Shiraz Tzarfati.
The Terminal List season 2 is executive produced by Pratt, Antoine Fuqua (who directed the original pilot for the series), showrunner David DiGilio, Carr, Kat Samick, Max Adams and Jared Shaw. The series is produced by Amazon MGM Studios, MRC and Civic Center Media.
There was one big name absent from FX‘s order of a new Sons of Anarchy project yesterday: The original series creator Kurt Sutter.
As first reported by The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline, FX has ordered Legends, which will reunite the core cast from the hit motorcycle gang drama in a “meta thriller.” In the limited series, the cast attends a fan convention where they get caught up in a dangerous life-imitating-art situation — a premise drawing comparisons to the beloved sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest. The project was developed by series star Charlie Hunnam along with Jonathan Groff.
Sutter took to Instagram to give his reaction to the project while shirtless and wearing a yellow beanie in a sauna, which he described as “hell-like ambiance.”
“I know the news about Charlie’s show hit today, and I’m beginning to get some queries about it,” he said. “I just want to say my piece. I’m not involved with Legends at all — nor should I be. It has nothing to do with the characters I created, or the mythology. It’s really about the show and the legacy of the show, and, quite frankly, there are thousands of people who are responsible for that legacy.”
Then Sutter gave his full-throated endorsement of the project: “I just want folks to know that Charlie came to me when he was in the process of pitching this to the network to ask for my blessing, knowing that the IP would probably not be able to be invoked for various reasons of legalese stuff,” he said. “I gave Charlie my full blessing. I wish nothing but the best for him in this project. My wife [star Katey Sagal] is in the project. I have nothing but love for [FX Networks chairman] John Landgraf and the folks at FX who have been so good to me, so generous. So it has my full-blown support.”
Added Sutter: “Watch this motherfucker, because I’ve taken a peek at the script that was perhaps just lying on my wife’s knitting table, and it’s really so well done. I think you’ll dig it. I love Charlie to death, and I think you will have mad love for this project as well.”
In addition, co-star Kim Coates released a statement reacting to Legends.
“I’m so proud of Charlie,” Coates wrote. “I’ve known this guy a long time, and to see him step into this as a creator and writer and bring all of us back together in such a completely unexpected way is pretty special. He could have tried to recreate Sons, but that’s not what this is. It’s smart, it’s wild, it’s funny, it’s dangerous — and it has Charlie’s fingerprints all over it … Legends gets to have some fun with that relationship between us and the fans while taking everybody somewhere they absolutely won’t expect. I think they’re going to lose their minds.”
In addition to having Hunnam and Coates, the limited series will bring back Ron Perlman, Katey Sagal, Maggie Siff, Mark Boone Junior, Tommy Flanagan and Theo Rossi. Additional cast will be announced in the coming weeks.
“When Charlie brought us this inspired idea, we instantly sparked to his bold and entertaining vision,” said Nick Grad, FX Entertainment president. “Charlie’s talents are on full display as a writer, performer and executive producer, leading the real-life brotherhood on an adventure that is both a love letter to the series and a fun meta twist on what fans think they know.”
FX Productions and 20th Television will produce the series and it will air on FX and stream on Hulu.
The $34.5 billion mega-merger with Cox was announced in May 2025, with Charter, the second-largest cable company in the U.S. behind Comcast acquiring Cox, another cable giant with 6 million subscribers. The FCC approved it earlier this year.
“These transformative transactions create the leading broadband and video company in the nation and the fastest-growing mobile provider in its footprint, with seamless connectivity and video entertainment, and high-quality customer service delivering powerful benefits for customers, local communities, employees and shareholders,” the cable giant said.
“The addition of Cox to the Spectrum footprint is one that can be celebrated by customers, employees and investors alike,” said Chris Winfrey, Charter president and CEO. “Together, we will bring the best products, at the best price, coupled with the highest level of customer service to more customers across our expanded 45-state Spectrum footprint. And Cox employees will soon have access to all the programs and benefits that have made Charter an employer of choice where its 100 percent U.S.-based employees can build long-term careers.”
He added: “The market has changed considerably over the past decade, and regional providers like Spectrum are competing with national and even global connectivity and entertainment companies. Today, with expanded scale, we are better positioned to compete and continue investment in our products and service, tools and platforms, and to further the capability and reach of our Spectrum Fiber Broadband Network.”
Eric Zinterhofer, who had served as chairman of Charter’s board, added: “Congratulations to Chris, the Charter team and the Cox family for completing an industry-transforming transaction. I look forward to serving as lead independent director as Alex Taylor becomes Charter’s next chairman.”
Cable pioneer and Liberty Broadband chair John Malone shared: “When Liberty first invested in Charter more than a decade ago, we saw an opportunity to build scale behind a great management team and operating model. The combination of Charter and Cox creates a stronger, more competitive company to further invest and innovate, while giving Liberty Broadband shareholders a direct interest in its future.”
Taylor touted the deal as well. “For generations, my family has believed in building businesses that matter and stand the test of time,” he highlighted. “The broadband industry has shaped how people live, work and connect with one another, and we believe deeply in its future. I look forward to partnering with Chris and the board to build on a proud legacy and create long-term value for our shareholders, customers, employees and the communities we serve.”
Within a year following the transaction’s close, the firm will change its parent company name to Cox Communications but will continue to operate as Spectrum across all markets. The company will remain headquartered in Stamford, Conn., keeping “a significant presence” in Atlanta.
“To welcome its new customers, Spectrum is offering a free year of mobile service to Cox internet customers who don’t already subscribe to Cox Mobile; the first of many benefits Spectrum will
offer,” the company also said on Thursday. “In mid-September, Spectrum plans to launch its entire suite of products to all consumers, including existing customers, in former Cox markets offering Spectrum’s simple and transparent pricing and packaging, greater value and more opportunities to save.”
Belgian filmmaker Michaël R. Roskam will return to the San Sebastián Film Festival to close the official selection of the 74th edition of the Spanish festival in an out-of-competition with Le Faux Soir, which will gets its European premiere following its world premiere at Toronto 2026.
The movie “recreates one of the most curious episodes of the Belgian resistance movement during the Second World War, a clandestine operation that turned the press into a weapon against the Nazi occupiers,” according to a synopsis.
With The Drop (2014), starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini, the filmmaker won the jury prize for best screenplay at San Sebastian.
Based on the book Le “Faux” Soir, 9 novembre 1943 by Marie Istas, the cast of the new film features Arieh Worthalter, Mélanie Thierry, Karim Leklou, Mara Taquin, Bouli Lanners, Julien Frison and François Damiens, among others. The story is set in 1943, when, having occupied Belgium, the Nazis turn the national newspaper Le Soir into their propaganda tool. “To raise the spirits of the Belgian people, a group of resistance fighters comes up with a wild idea, to print a fake edition of the newspaper mocking the occupier in what some historians consider to be the first-ever media hack,” reads the synopsis.
Le Faux Soir is a Belgian-French co-production.
Roskam, who worked as a journalist for the Dutch-language newspaper De Morgen, made his feature film debut with Bullhead (2011). In 2021, he directed the first three episodes of the miniseries Black Bird, starring Taron Egerton, which received Emmy and Golden Globe award nominations.
Earlier this week, the Spanish festival unveiled Fatih Akin’s Ghost Song as its 2026 opening film. The 73rd edition of the San Sebastian festival takes place Sept. 18-26.
HBO Max and WBD Access, Warner Bros. Discovery’s talent development division, have picked the 12 European writers who will participate in this year’s Script Engine Program.
Veteran producer and showrunner Frank Spotnitz, (The X-Files, The Man in the High Castle, Medici) will serve as lead facilitator and mentor on the four-month program which aims to help screenwriters develop original locally-rooted series concepts that they will pitch to HBO Max executives in November.
“European storytelling has never been in greater demand,” said Spotnitz. “Audiences around the world are looking for distinctive voices and stories that reflect different cultures and perspectives, and European writers are increasingly creating work that travels internationally. Script Engine is important because it doesn’t just help writers develop their craft, it introduces them to a collaborative way of working that empowers writers to do their best work. [The program] gives mid-level writers the confidence, skills and professional mindset to build sustainable international careers.”
The writers for the 2026 program include France’s Tolula Dada (Gangs of London, Grantchester), Justine Gautier (Petits Secrets en Famille, Leo Mattei), Storm Sigal-Battesti (Off Season, Carême); Germany’s Tunde Aladese (Transatlantic, Shuga), Stefanie Ren (A Thin Line, Nicht tot zu kriegen), and Ben Braeunlich (Tatort, Professor T.); Italy’s Tommaso Matano (Curon, Survivors), Emanuele Mochi (Zio Gianni), Simona Nobile (5 minuti prima); and Spain’s Jesica Aran (Campamento Newton, Bandidos), Lidia Fraga (Auga Seca, Montecristo) and Miguel Mayorga Moscoso.
The four-month program includes a series workshops, masterclasses and networking opportunities led by HBO Max executives and industry experts. During the program, writers will also benefit from the expertise of HBO Max market advisors for their local territories. The curriculum was developed together with the Series Mania Institute.
The initiative reflects HBO Max’s move to integrate its originals strategy, with both U.S. and international programming teams grouped together under HBO Max head of original programming Sarah Aubrey. HBO Max completed its European rollout this year, launching in several major territories, including Germany, France, Italy and the U.K..
In a message on Instagram, Jackson, who played Avery Barkley, the bad boy on-again and-off again love interest of Panettiere’s Juliette Barnes in the ABC country music drama, described his co-star as a “sensitive soul” who was “incredibly funny and witty.”
Panettiere, who died Sunday in Greenville, South Carolina at 36, and Jackson starred in Nashville for six seasons, from October 2010 to March 2016. Jackson described how they both “grew up in the industry” and shared that “silent knowing of how intense the struggles can be.” He went on to write that, “she was an absolute joy to work with. Focused, spontaneous and brilliant. The most important thing between friends and coworkers is trust, and we had this.”
He added that it was “not possible to express the shock and grief that so many of us feel right now.”
‘Nashville’
Everett Collection
Panettiere’s other Nashville co-star, Australian actress Clare Bowen also posted a tribute on Instagram. Bowen, who played Scarlett O’Connor in the show, wrote a poem set to images of Bowen and Panettiere together from their time working on Nashville together. In one passage, Bowen writes, “I’ll remember you, cheeky in pretty red soles. You said kind things about strangeness, old boots, an old soul. You warned me our monsters only half hid at best…and then fixed the tear in my favorite dress.”
In another couplet, Bowen wrote, “We’ll see you someday in your beautiful wings, where vultures and sinners aren’t worthy to sing. Wove from new gold and celestial breath, this isn’t goodbye, it’s just “have a rest.”
“I have no words to express the loss of our beloved Hayden. She had such a bright light within her. She was a sensitive soul. Incredibly funny and witty. Amazingly gifted, with a great sense of empathy and compassion. We both grew up in the industry, although she started even younger than me, but we shared that. A silent knowing of how intense the struggles can be. She was an absolute joy to work with. Focused, spontaneous and brilliant. The most important thing between friends and coworkers is trust, and we had this. Elisa and I both love and cherish her deeply, like our own sister. She holds that place in our hearts. My prayer for her every day we worked together was that she would know how loved she is, and that she would find the peace that she was looking for. It’s not possible to express the shock and grief that so many of us feel right now. Our humble prayers are with her family. May God’s angels carry you to your place of rest and true peace. We love you Hayden. You will always be in our hearts. Always.”
Clare Bowen’s poem, posted on Instagram:
“It’s been raining in the treehouse for days…for you…you whispered like you’d found the sun, just in June. But you always were full of surprises and dreams pulling at threads and the lines in between. I’ll remember nights side by side in a nest on the same street by fate, that ridiculous bed. The day you got cross that I didn’t scare then by looking glass light cried for everyone there. Thank you for chasing me that day in the dark. I was shattered and bruised, a hollowed out heart. You’d been there. You listened to the bad…and the worst. Our faces painted with the kisses of a good wolf, a good ghost. I’ll remember you, cheeky in pretty red soles. You said kind things about strangeness, old boots, an old soul. You warned me our monsters only half hid at best…and then fixed the tear in my favorite dress. One, in so many in pain, in plain sight, with the last of yourself you kicked on the lights. We’ll see you someday in your beautiful wings, where vultures and sinners aren’t worthy to sing. Wove from new gold and celestial breath, this isn’t goodbye, it’s just “have a rest.” We’ll switch all the coffees, ride our horses too fast…dance with fireflies…and brothers…sisters…friends…under that beautiful blanket of stars. Fly safe, little butterfly. I miss you. Love, Luna Moth.”
Sony Pictures releases Insidious: Out of the Further in roughly 3,000 North American theaters on Friday, with the studio projecting an opening weekend around $23 million. Hailing from Screen Gems, Stage 6 Films and Blumhouse Atomic Monster, Out of the Further is the sixth title in the franchise that kicked off with 2011’s Insidious and carries an $18 million production budget.
Amelia Eve, Brandon Perea and Lin Shaye star in writer-director Jacob Chase’s film that centers on a young mother who can bring spirits back with her to the real world. Out of the Further follows 2023’s Insidious: The Red Door, which saw the return of original series stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne and opened to $33 million domestically before hitting a global total of $189 million for its run.
Insidious: Out of the Further holds a 65 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Frank Scheck wrote that the film “proves routine in its elaborate plot machinations that remind you how tiresome a place the Further can be.”
Jason Statham as Cole Reed in Mutiny.
Dan Smith/Lionsgate
Opening in roughly 2,700 North American locations is Mutiny, starring Jason Statham as a former Marine who sets out to prove his innocence after he is framed for murder. Lionsgate releases the movie that is tracking to open in the high single-digit range and carries a $40 million production budget. MadRiver Pictures and Punch Palace Productions produced the project.
Jean-François Richet helmed the feature that holds a 49 percent approval score from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes. Statham’s recent films include Shelter, which opened to $5.5 million domestically earlier this year, while 2025’s A Working Man launched with an initial weekend of $15.5 million in North America. Next year sees the star leading The Beekeeper 2.
Other new theatrical offerings this weekend include the Andrew Garfield-led The Magic Faraway Tree and Spa Weekend, starring Isla Fisher, Leslie Mann and Anna Faris.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues its historic run into the waning days of summer, as the Sony Pictures juggernaut that stars Tom Holland and Zendaya is set to lead the box office for its fourth consecutive weekend. Having recently set the record as the fastest movie to hit $800 million domestically, director Destin Daniel Cretton‘s feature is expected to surpass 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home as the No. 3 highest-grossing title ever in North America.
The success of Brand New Day — along with other titles like The Odyssey and Toy Story 5 — has helped bring the 2026 summer box office to a total of $4.24 billion domestically as of Sunday, according to Rentrak, putting the season 23.7 percent above last year’s tally to that point. The all-time summer mark remains 2013’s $4.75 billion.
The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) will honor two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts this year with a Golden Eye Award for her performance in Ben Shirinian’s The Housewife.
In the ’60s-set drama, based on a true-story, a young New York Times journalist, played by Tye Sheridan, tracks down a man he suspects of being a Nazi officer living secretly in Queens (Luke Evans). But when the reporter befriends the suspect’s elegant and enigmatic wife (Watts), the implications of his investigation become much more unsettling.
The Housewife will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival before heading to Zurich. Watts will accept her Golden Eye honor in person in Zurich on Sept. 26 and take part in a ZFF masterclass.
“Since her breakthrough in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Naomi Watts has been one of the most fascinating actresses of our time,” said Zurich Festival CEO Christian Jungen, announcing the honor on Thursday. “Her greatest performances thrive on the tension between glamour and darkness, between what a character reveals and what she conceals — making her the kind of character actress Hitchcock would have loved.”
In The Housewife, said Jungen, Watts “masters this ambiguity as an elegant and mysterious woman [and] delivers one of the most compelling performances of her career.”
Watts is a two-time Academy Award nominee, nominated for best actress in 2004 for her turn as a grieving mother in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams; and in 2013 for her role as a survivor of the 2004 tsunami in J.A. Bayona’s The Impossible. On the small screen, her performance as Baby Paley in the second season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud earned her an Emmy nomination for best actress in a limited/anthology series or TV movie.
Previous winners of Zurich’s Golden Eye Award include Kristen Stewart, Jude Law, Benedict Cumberbatch and Dakota Johnson. The 2026 Zurich Film Festival runs Sept. 24 – Oct. 4.
