Movies/TV category, Page 73
After 2 virtual years, Sundance returns to the mountains
Randall Park made a pact with himself some years ago that he wouldn’t attend the Sundance Film Festival if he didn’t have a project there. But the “Fresh Off the Boat” star never imagined that his first time would be as a director and not as an actor. His adaptation...
‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ leads race for BAFTA awardsVideo
LONDON — Visceral German-language war drama “All Quiet on the Western Front” got a field-leading 14 nominations on Thursday for the British Academy Film Awards, with genre-bending comedies “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once” each nominated in 10 categories. “All Quiet,” an unflinching adaptation of a...
TV Talk at TCA: ‘Kindred Spirits’ visits Western Pa.
You can tell the popularity of ghost-hunting TV series remains high because Travel Channel visited the same Western Pennsylvania property twice in two years. “Destination Fear” visited the Greene County Almshouse (AKA the Greene County Historical Society) for an August 2021 episode and now “Kindred Spirits” kicks off a new...
How ‘The Last of Us’ changed gaming, strained relationships and spawned an empire
Sony’s landmark 2013 game “The Last of Us” didn’t make it easy on players. But the difficulty curve was more emotional than technical, for the game delivered the zombie genre at its most heady, grief-stricken and intimate. How it started: Grim. Joel, a down-on-his-luck single dad, can’t catch a break....
TV Talk at TCA: ‘American Rust’ actor talks season 2; PBS CEO on WQED’s search for new leaderVideo
PASADENA, Calif. – Before co-starring in filmed-in-Pittsburgh “American Rust,” actor Rob Yang was a series regular on the first two seasons of HBO’s “Succession” and since “Rust,” he’s filmed a pivotal role in Paramount+’s upcoming Kiefer Sutherland thriller “Rabbit Hole” (March 26). Yang was at the Television Critics Association winter...
Review: Hacking, not shoe-leather, solves thriller ‘Missing’Video
June Allen’s mother has vanished during a romantic vacation with her boyfriend to Colombia when “Missing” starts gaining steam. The FBI are supposedly on it, with one special agent telling June: “The best thing you can do is wait by the phone.” Wait by the phone? You don’t know June...
TV Q&A: Will ‘Hometown High Q’ ever return to the studio?
Question: Will KDKA-TV’s “Hometown High Q” ever return to the studio? — Dave, via email Rob: My understanding is if “Hometown High Q,” currently hosted by Ray Petelin, returns to the studio, it won’t be until the 2023-24 TV season at the earliest — and maybe not even then. Some...
TV Talk at TCA: How ‘Justified: City Primeval’ ended up back in Western Pa.Video
PASADENA, Calif. – FX’s “Justified” (2010-15) filmed its pilot episode in Western Pennsylvania back in 2009 before production on the subsequent episodes shifted to Southern California. For the sequel series, “Justified: City Primeval,” premiering on FX this summer, the show is set in Detroit and primarily filmed in Chicago with...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘Mayor of Kingstown,’ Steelers local ratings, ‘The Last of Us’
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including filmed-in-Pittsburgh “Mayor of Kingstown” and star Jeremy Renner’s recovery and NFL local market ratings, including the Steelers in Pittsburgh. Owen discusses what it was...
Embattled actor Kevin Spacey in Italy to receive award
TURIN, Italy — Actor Kevin Spacey was in the northern Italian city of Turin on Monday to receive a lifetime achievement award, teach a master class and introduce a screening of the 1999 film “American Beauty.” The sold-out events were billed as Spacey’s first speaking engagements since #MeToo-era allegations derailed...
Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida dies at age 95
Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one of her movies, died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. She was 95. The agent, Paola Comin, didn’t provide details. Lollobrigida had...
TV Talk: Behind the scenes at Critics Choice Awards
CENTURY CITY, Calif. — Sure, on TV the stars look glamorous in their bespoke wardrobes, but what’s it like to attend a televised awards show? As a journalist who covers TV/streaming, I’ve not yet made it into the room where it happens, but I have made it into the next...
‘Avatar 2,’ ‘M3GAN’ hold onto top spots at the box office
New movies like “Plane” and “House Party” were no match for “Avatar: The Way of Water” and the killer doll horror “M3GAN” at the box office this weekend. The two holdovers topped the charts again according to studio estimates Sunday. In first place for the fifth weekend in a row...
TV Talk at TCA: More TV series than ever, more challenges than ever destabilize entertainment industryVideo
PASADENA, Calif. – The entertainment business is in turmoil, particularly in TV and streaming. On the TV side, ratings for linear – broadcast and cable – continue an inexorable decline. For streaming, viewing is on the rise but profits remain scarce due to exorbitant programming costs. Those challenges impact companies...
TV Talk: Filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ debuts 2nd seasonVideo
PASADENA, Calif. – Paramount+ series “Mayor of Kingstown” filmed its second season in Pittsburgh, and viewers can see the results when season two begins streaming episodes weekly Sunday. My first impression: Kingstown, Mich., has a lot more bridges in season two than it had in season one, which filmed in...
TV Talk at TCA: Conceived-in-Pittsburgh video game ‘The Last of Us’ becomes excellent HBO seriesVideo
PASADENA, Calif. – After finally moving on from the original “Walking Dead,” which ended its run late in 2022 (though there will apparently be spin-offs ad infinitum), the last thing I was looking forward to was HBO’s “The Last of Us” (9 p.m. Sunday, HBO, HBO Max), a dramatic series...
TV Talk: Bryan Cranston aims to rebuild his ‘Your Honor’ character in season 2Video
Showtime’s “Your Honor” was not my favorite series — excruciating in its details about a fatal accident, eyeroll-inducing with every self-defeating decision that made a bad situation immeasurably worse. But viewers disagreed, making “Your Honor” Showtime’s most-watched series premiere ever at the time (it later got upstaged by “Dexter: New...
Movie review: Grounded action keeps ‘Plane’ on courseVideo
The villains of the 2022 holiday season were the airlines, so it’s an apt moment for the Gerard Butler action vehicle “Plane” to take flight. The inciting incident involves a cost-cutting safety checker at Trailblazer Airlines insisting that Captain Brodie Torrance (Butler) pilot through a storm instead of around it...
TV Q&A: Who’s the new KDKA-TV reporter?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Please provide information about the new KDKA-TV reporter Lauren Linder. I am impressed by the quality of her reporting. — Elaine, via email Rob: Per...
TV Talk: Return of the Golden Globes proves a Hollywood insider’s affairVideo
After a one-year absence because of bad behavior — a diversity and ethics scandal — the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globes were back on NBC in a one-year deal that relegated the Globes to a downgraded Tuesday night instead of its usual Sunday prestige spot. On the TV side,...
TV Talk at TCA: Amanda Peet talks Pittsburgh-filmed ‘The Chair,’ new ‘Fatal Attraction’ series
PASADENA, Calif. – Although Netflix’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh “The Chair” was billed as a “limited series,” that term is flexible enough to be somewhat meaningless. HBO’s “The White Lotus” was a limited series until it wasn’t. When “The Chair” premiered on Netflix in August 2021, it received generally positive reviews and appeared...
Golden Globes return in a 1-year audition
After going dark for a year, the Golden Globes return to the air Tuesday on a one-year audition to try to win back their awards-season perch and relevancy to a Hollywood that shunned the awards after an ethics and diversity scandal. Stars and studios boycotted last year’s ceremony, which NBC...
TV Talk at TCA: ‘Star Trek: Picard’ reunites ‘Next Generation’ castVideo
PASADENA, Calif. – For the first day of the Television Critics Association winter 2023 press tour – the first in-person, masks-required event since January 2020 because of the covid-19 pandemic – Paramount+ touted its upcoming programs, many with familiar titles (“Fatal Attraction,” “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” “Star Trek:...
Pittsburgh weather challenged ‘A Man Called Otto’ director Marc ForsterVideo
A movie director can face many challenges — temperamental actors, filming delays, budget overruns, temperamental actors. For director Marc Forster, the biggest challenge of making “A Man Called Otto” certainly wasn’t working with Tom Hanks, whom he labeled a consummate professional. It was something much more elemental. “To be honest,...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘A Man Called Otto,’ ESPN’s Damar Hamlin coverage
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including ESPN’s coverage of the Damar Hamlin medical emergency during “Monday Night Football” last week. The pair also discuss filmed-in-Pittsburgh Netflix movie “The Pale Blue...
