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....Obama’s approval rating hit 38 percent this fall and currently hovers in the very low 40s. Presumably, then, upwards of 124 million (out of 308 million total) Americans are totally clamoring to see a movie about the first date experienced by Obama and his wife, first lady Michelle Obama. That movie, a serious drama titled “Southside With You,” is slated to begin shooting on location in Chicago in July.

Thursday’s big announcement for the 24th James Bond movie — Spectre, to be directed by Skyfall’s Sam Mendes, and once again featuring Daniel Craig as the British super spy — sadly lacked details of the most important element of any Bond movie. No, not the Bond girl. The Bond theme. From Dr. No on, each Bond movie has had a distinctive theme that attempts to set the stage for what’s to come. At their best, the songs are as dramatic and exciting as the movies themselves, but… well, let’s just say that not every song is at its best and leave...

Now that the trailer for the seventh "Star Wars" movie is out, you can imagine the anticipation among the millions of fans of the film franchise. And why not? The six "Star Wars" films have been enormous successes: they have grossed over $2 billion domestically at the box office, spawned scores of books, comic books and merchandise (how many kids have their own light saber?) and made household names of characters like Darth Vader, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. They've also been the worst thing ever for the science fiction genre.

Frank Yablans, the president of Paramount Pictures during the fertile early ’70s era that produced films including “The Godfather” and “Chinatown,” died of natural causes Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, according to his son, ICM Partners agent Eddy Yablans. He was 79. Renowned for a hearty sense of humor and temperamental outbursts, Yablans was later COO of MGM/United Artists and co-wrote the screenplay for “Mommie Dearest,” which he also produced.

Who doesn't love a dinosaur flick? Well, paleontologists have a few fossil bones to pick with Jurassic World, the latest in a line of dinosaur movies that once bragged about its scientific credibility. The trailer for the new movie, a reboot of the popular 1990s Jurassic Park franchise, was released Tuesday and has already been viewed more than 14 million times on YouTube. Like the original movie, Jurassic World takes place in an island safari park, where tourists visit living dinosaurs cloned from ancient DNA—until one hybrid monster goes rogue. Despite global fervor among fans, dinosaur scientists are not thrilled...

Jurassic World, the fourth film in the Jurassic Park series, is scheduled for release on June 12, 2015. Colin Trevorrow is the director and Steven Spielberg is one of the executive producers. The official trailer has been released and you can watch it here. More links: WikipediaIMDbWhy did Steven Spielberg invent a new dinosaur for Jurassic World?Official SiteUK SiteNewsFacebookTwitter Of course, many of the dinosaurs depicted in the Jurassic Park series lived in the Cretaceous period rather than the Jurassic period.

Ever since he was a kid, Mark Schultz idolized his older brother. So when Dave Schultz was murdered in cold blood by his athletic sponsor, the eccentric millionaire John du Pont, Mark's entire world was turned upside down. "Losing Dave was like losing my anchor," Mark tells PEOPLE. "Dave was like a one-man cult and I was his follower. When he was killed, I was left floating free, wondering what to do." Mark recounts the story of his brother's senseless death in his new memoir Foxcatcher, out Nov. 18. The events are also the basis for a movie of the...

....Jon Stewart is sitting outside his offices reflecting on his directorial debut, “Rosewater,” a drama about the unjust imprisonment of journalist Maziar Bahari in Iran.... It’s the morning after “The Daily Show” broadcast live for the midterm elections, including a sketch that reported from the campaign headquarters of the night’s big winner — Money, as played by a hard-partying Rob Riggle — and the desolate base of the night’s loser, Ideas. ....Stewart shot the film last summer in Jordan while on hiatus from “The Daily Show.” In extreme heat, working with a largely international cast and with a small budget,...

If you feel a disturbance in the Force, it’s millions of voices suddenly crying out the new title of Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens. The reveal comes as the movie finishes its final day of shooting (with many more months of post-production to come.)

The world's crops are being devastated. People face mass starvation. The earth is dying. A team of scientists sets out on an interstellar journey to find a new planet for the people of earth. From Wikipedia:Interstellar is a 2014 science fiction film directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine, the film features a team of space travelers who travel through a wormhole in search of a new habitable planet... Interstellar premiered on October 26, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. Commercially, it is scheduled for a limited release in North America (United States and...

Directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Inception, the most recent Batman trilogy) and written with his brother and frequent collaborator Jonathan, Interstellar takes place in a near future that harkens back to the recent past — like the 1950s Midwest or maybe the Dust Bowl, but with laptops and drones. There’s very little exposition; through telling details and offhand comments, you get the sense that there’s been an environmental disaster followed by a famine, and that humanity has scaled back its ambitions to bare subsistence. People farm corn — the one crop left unravaged by blight — watch baseball games in...

Five years and $500 million later, Michigan has fewer film jobs than it did when the state started its subsidy program. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan had 1,561 film jobs in 2013 (the latest year information is available). In 2008, the state had 1,663 film jobs. See chart nearby. Michigan currently spends $50 million per year subsidizing film productions. Previously, the program was uncapped – in 2010-11, the state spent $115 million. Overall, as of this year, taxpayers have devoted $494.7 million to the program. Because film productions are so mobile, among other reasons, the economic...

"“Dear White People” is set at a fictional Ivy League school, Winchester University. The story centers on a group of mostly black students and their experiences. But Simien is quick to point out that Winchester is not Chapman. Instead, he says, Winchester is a microcosm of the larger society. Still, Simien’s first few drafts were based on what he terms a “thinly veiled” Chapman – “the black experience when you are in a non-black world.” He says it’s a subject rarely depicted in films. “I just thought it was an interesting and nuanced experience, and I wanted to talk about...

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is just about to enjoy a digitally restored limited U.K. theatrical release. And to celebrate, here's a lovely new trailer.

It’s been 30 years since James Cameron made his name with a futuristic sci-fi actioner starring ex-bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, inspired by his own nightmare vision of a murderous mecha-skeleton. Shot for $5.6 million in 1984, The Terminator changed everything for Cameron and his fellow Roger Corman disciple and producer Gale Anne Hurd. The two have since carved their own influential paths – Cameron with Aliens, Titanic, and his $2.7 billion Avatar franchise, Hurd with AMC's ratings juggernaut The Walking Dead. And they're still proving that original ideas can be profitable in spite of Hollywood’s "fear-based" decision-making, while keeping a polite...

Whether writing a movie, TV series, novel, or any other form of storytelling, one fact rises above all: endings are hard. The sentiment is proven on a yearly basis, as countless films deliver an intriguing premise, compelling action, or powerful messages, only to fumble with the closing act. Sometimes, the film’s final impact can be so poorly executed, it leaves audiences wondering whether the film that preceded it was even worth the trouble.

Director William Friedkin couldn't have been on more of a hot streak: "The French Connection," released in 1971, won five Oscars, and "The Exorcist," released in 1973, won two Oscars. In 1977, he released a movie he would later call the best of his career: "Sorcerer." But "Sorcerer" was a bomb, grossing only $6 million worldwide — short of its $21 million budget — and receiving tepid initial reviews. The existential thriller follows four criminals from around the globe as they accept a lucrative but deadly contract to transport gallons of explosive nitroglycerin across a South American jungle. The film...

An anti-American filmmaker who's out to abolish the July Fourth holiday is visited by three ghosts who try to change his perception of the country.

Julie Hinds, a reporter for Gannett Michigan, suggests why she thinks the latest Batman movie was filmed in Detroit, saying the despair and hope of the city offer a juxtaposition for the filmmakers: “Those two sides of Detroit may be one of the factors that make it an appropriate location for ‘Batman v. Superman,’ a cinematic collision between two very different superheros (sic),” Hinds wrote. “Affleck's brooding, mortal Batman and Henry Cavill's outer-space immigrant Superman.” For the Record says: It was either that, or something else Hinds failed to even mention in her story — the Superman-Batman movie was handed...

(Note: This posting is for educational purposes only.) I’m assuming the phrase “staging” came out of the theatre world, but it’s equally at home (and useful) in the movie world, since the term (roughly defined) refers to how all the various elements of a given scene or piece are aligned, arranged, and coordinated. In movies the role of editing adds something unique: the opportunity to extend and/or expand a visual (or narrative) idea to the limits of one’s imagination—a crazy idea that works today is tomorrow’s normal... So I want you to watch this movie and think only about staging,...