The Toronto Film Festival today unveiled The Best Of The Decade: An Alternative View, a top ten movie list from the last decade. TIFF asked film curators, historians, and archivists from Canada and around the world to choose the best films of the 2010s — any length, genre, or format. Judging by the list, it’s fair to…

Michael Ovitz was ever the master of both confession and concealment — the shared confidence that really wasn't, or the backdoor whisper that had to be denied. When I was pursuing him, in a reportorial sense, for a 1986 Wall Street Journal profile, for instance, he struck a pose of complete resistance. But he also had…

The rebooted American Idol tipped the demo win ABC's way on Sunday, while a Masters-goosed CBS took total viewers. ABC’s singing competition scored its lowest Sunday showings yet in the demo and total viewers but still tied CBS’ 60 Minutes for the night’s top spot in the demo. In its first season airing on Sundays, Ido…

It’s tough to deny “The Tiger Effect.” ESPN’s telecast of the first round of the Masters Tournament on Thursday, with the return of Tiger Woods, earned a 2.2 overnight rating, the highest for the first round since 2015, the last year Woods competed in the event. The rating is up 40% over 2017 and 16% over…

The Mastermind, a crime drama from Captain America: Civil War filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo based on an Atavist Magazine investigative series, has been set up at FX for development. Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley has come on board to executive produce via his FX Prods.-based 26 Keys banner. The Russos will…

I’m sure I’m not alone in remembering my junior high school history class about Admiral Perry and the “opening” of Japan. We know that Perry and his ships arrived with a double mandate: Get the Imperial navy to stop killing the crews on China-bound vessels shipwrecked in neighboring seas, and, more important, invoke…

EXCLUSIVE: It’s a book that has inspired other iconic works. Many lines in the Rolling Stones’ song Sympathy for the Devil are from its pages. Comparisons have been made between it and Salmon Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, even by Rushdie himself. It’s been tapped for material by artist H.R. Giger, the band Pearl Jam…

Disney has unleashed a new trailer for its live-action adaptation of the studio's animated classic Beauty And The Beast. Starring Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as Beast, the film is directed by Bill Condon and retains the animated pic's Alan Menken/Howard Ashman/Tim Rice score, while adding several new songs…

Filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russos' Getaway Productions along with Skybound Entertainment have pre-emptively acquired rights for The Mastermind, a new investigative series of articles from digital publication the Atavist Magazine. The hotter-than-hot filmmakers behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the…

Here’s a factoid to keep in mind in case someone asks you to identify the first live 4K Ultra High Definition broadcast in the U.S. It will be DirecTV’s April 7-10 transmissions from the Masters Tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club. “Golf’s premier event deserves the best viewing experience that 4K UHD on…

Here’s a clip from The Master Cleanse, which is described as “a trippy and fantastic journey that examines how we deal with the things that weigh us down in life.” Here we see Johnny Galecki finding more than he expected when trying to fix a clogged drain. First-timer Bobby Miller wrote and directed the film, which…

CBS hit the sweet spot with its Sunday coverage of The Masters from Augusta, GA. The final round of golf’s storied major tournament averaged 14 million viewers and an 8.7 rating in fast nationals, both up 26% from last year's 11.1 million and 6.9. Sunday’s numbers were goosed by a big-name leaderboard that offset a…