Maximalist horror-comedy has become such a mainstay of 21st-century indie cinema that a late-’80s-set lesbian romance that uses schlocky gore tinged with meta humor to figuratively explore the tumult of new love is hardly as outré as it would have seemed a decade ago. Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding, with its hyper-saturated, giallo-evoking cinematography and lapses into fantastical imagery, freely plays with the boundaries of realism. This hyper-stylization, accompanied by a steady score of growling synths, packs some punches, but that isn’t to say that we can’t see a fair portion of them coming.
The small but tough Lou (Kristen Stewart) appears to be one of only two workers at a grimy gym, Crater’s, in middle-of-nowhere America. We meet her as she’s digging through vomit that’s clogged the gym’s toilet, a seemingly common occurrence at this sweaty den of muscled men, which...
The small but tough Lou (Kristen Stewart) appears to be one of only two workers at a grimy gym, Crater’s, in middle-of-nowhere America. We meet her as she’s digging through vomit that’s clogged the gym’s toilet, a seemingly common occurrence at this sweaty den of muscled men, which...
- 2/18/2024
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
Almost two years ago, Netflix paid a reported $65 million for the rights to Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels’ (Precious, The Butler) possession horror movie The Deliverance. This morning we’ve finally learned through Netflix’s “What’s Next” announcement that the buzzy horror title is finally set to make a 2024 debut.
About The Deliverance: “When Ebony Jackson, a struggling single mom, moves her mother and children into a new home, strange occurrences begin to happen, and child protective services, suspects Ebony of child abuse. But when these occurrences reveal to be demonic, Ebony not only has to battle the system for her children, but she soon finds herself in a spiritual battle against a demon for her faith, her life, and for the souls of her children. Inspired by a true story.”
The horror movie has quite the impressive cast, too.
Andra Day, Glenn Close, Mo’nique, Anthony B. Jenkins, Miss Lawrence,...
About The Deliverance: “When Ebony Jackson, a struggling single mom, moves her mother and children into a new home, strange occurrences begin to happen, and child protective services, suspects Ebony of child abuse. But when these occurrences reveal to be demonic, Ebony not only has to battle the system for her children, but she soon finds herself in a spiritual battle against a demon for her faith, her life, and for the souls of her children. Inspired by a true story.”
The horror movie has quite the impressive cast, too.
Andra Day, Glenn Close, Mo’nique, Anthony B. Jenkins, Miss Lawrence,...
- 2/1/2024
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
We’ve already seen quite a bit of career fallout facing Jonathan Majors after his domestic violence conviction recently. He’s been fired from his Marvel Studios gig. He’s been pulled from the upcoming Dennis Rodman biopic. And now, it appears his award-winning Sundance drama from 2023 is without a distributor.
Read More: ‘Magazine Dreams’ Review: Jonathan Majors Shoulders The Weight of This Incel, Bodybuilder Drama [Sundance]
According to THR, Searchlight has officially parted ways with the film “Magazine Dreams,” which stars Jonathan Majors and is directed by Elijah Bynum, after the actor’s recent domestic violence conviction.
Continue reading ‘Magazine Dreams’: Jonathan Majors’ Sundance Drama Dropped By Searchlight & Looking For A New Distributor at The Playlist.
Read More: ‘Magazine Dreams’ Review: Jonathan Majors Shoulders The Weight of This Incel, Bodybuilder Drama [Sundance]
According to THR, Searchlight has officially parted ways with the film “Magazine Dreams,” which stars Jonathan Majors and is directed by Elijah Bynum, after the actor’s recent domestic violence conviction.
Continue reading ‘Magazine Dreams’: Jonathan Majors’ Sundance Drama Dropped By Searchlight & Looking For A New Distributor at The Playlist.
- 1/17/2024
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Jonathan Majors’ Magazine Dreams is officially back on the market. Nearly a year after Searchlight Pictures acquired the body-building drama, the specialty arm of Walt Disney Studios has quietly returned rights of the movie to the filmmakers, who will now shop it to other buyers.
The move comes mere weeks after Majors was convicted of assault and harassment, stemming from an incident involving his ex-partner, Grace Jabbari. Searchlight delivered the news to the Magazine Dreams team late last week that it would not be releasing the film, according to sources.
Searchlight had no comment.
Magazine Dreams debuted to fanfare last January at Sundance, where Majors’ performance as amateur body builder Killian Maddox earned him rave reviews and early awards buzz. The film’s director, Elijah Bynum, was hailed as the next big director.
Searchlight bought the film for what sources say was around $2 million in February 2023. It was mapping out a late-year awards season campaign.
The move comes mere weeks after Majors was convicted of assault and harassment, stemming from an incident involving his ex-partner, Grace Jabbari. Searchlight delivered the news to the Magazine Dreams team late last week that it would not be releasing the film, according to sources.
Searchlight had no comment.
Magazine Dreams debuted to fanfare last January at Sundance, where Majors’ performance as amateur body builder Killian Maddox earned him rave reviews and early awards buzz. The film’s director, Elijah Bynum, was hailed as the next big director.
Searchlight bought the film for what sources say was around $2 million in February 2023. It was mapping out a late-year awards season campaign.
- 1/17/2024
- by Borys Kit and Aaron Couch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A year after the Jonathan Majors disturbed-bodybuilder drama Magazine Dreams took Sundance by storm, the pic is now back in the hands of its filmmakers and being shopped, Deadline has confirmed.
Searchlight acquired the hot title last year out of Park City for an estimated seven figures; the movie, an 84% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, originally intended as a 2023 awards contender for Majors and its director Elijah Bynum.
However, after the actor and booming marquee star was accused by his girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, of assault in March, the Disney owned indie label pulled the movie from its early December release in October 2023. The rights are now back in the hands of the filmmakers.
Majors was convicted of assault and harassment and is awaiting sentencing on Feb. 6.
The Creed III headliner was also recently dropped from the Dennis Rodman Chicago Bulls movie, 48 Hours in Vegas, which Liosngate also stepped away from.
Searchlight acquired the hot title last year out of Park City for an estimated seven figures; the movie, an 84% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, originally intended as a 2023 awards contender for Majors and its director Elijah Bynum.
However, after the actor and booming marquee star was accused by his girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, of assault in March, the Disney owned indie label pulled the movie from its early December release in October 2023. The rights are now back in the hands of the filmmakers.
Majors was convicted of assault and harassment and is awaiting sentencing on Feb. 6.
The Creed III headliner was also recently dropped from the Dennis Rodman Chicago Bulls movie, 48 Hours in Vegas, which Liosngate also stepped away from.
- 1/17/2024
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
One week after Jonathan Majors was convicted of assault and harassment, his film “Magazine Dreams” has been released back to the filmmakers by Searchlight, which will no longer be distributing, Variety has confirmed.
The Walt Disney Studios specialty arm acquired the body building drama a few weeks after it premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. The filmmakers will now be free to shop the film to other distributors.
“Magazine Dreams,” directed by Elijah Bynum, debuted to positive reviews at the festival and sold for a reported mid-seven figures. Majors was hailed for his performance as amateur body builder Killian Maddox.
But Majors’ March 25 arrest put the film’s release in question, and it was officially removed from Searchlight’s calendar in October.
The Majors conviction came after an incident involving his ex-partner Grace Jabbari. His sentence hearing is scheduled for Feb. 6.
Marvel dropped Majors from his role as villain Kang the Conqueror,...
The Walt Disney Studios specialty arm acquired the body building drama a few weeks after it premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. The filmmakers will now be free to shop the film to other distributors.
“Magazine Dreams,” directed by Elijah Bynum, debuted to positive reviews at the festival and sold for a reported mid-seven figures. Majors was hailed for his performance as amateur body builder Killian Maddox.
But Majors’ March 25 arrest put the film’s release in question, and it was officially removed from Searchlight’s calendar in October.
The Majors conviction came after an incident involving his ex-partner Grace Jabbari. His sentence hearing is scheduled for Feb. 6.
Marvel dropped Majors from his role as villain Kang the Conqueror,...
- 1/17/2024
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Searchlight Pictures has dropped “Magazine Dreams” starring Jonathan Majors and returned the film’s rights to the filmmakers, who intend to again shop it on the open market, IndieWire has confirmed.
Searchlight acquired the movie out of last year’s Sundance Film Festival and slated it for release during awards season, but pulled it from its release calendar after Majors was arrested on March 25 for assault and harassment roughly a month after “Magazine Dreams” was acquired.
Majors last month was found guilty of assault, leading Disney to fire him from his duties as Kang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At the time, THR reported it was unlikely “Magazine Dreams” would ever be released by Searchlight, even directly to streaming on Hulu. But rather than sit on a shelf, the film has a chance to see the light of day elsewhere should the filmmakers find an interested buyer.
Searchlight had no comment.
Searchlight acquired the movie out of last year’s Sundance Film Festival and slated it for release during awards season, but pulled it from its release calendar after Majors was arrested on March 25 for assault and harassment roughly a month after “Magazine Dreams” was acquired.
Majors last month was found guilty of assault, leading Disney to fire him from his duties as Kang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At the time, THR reported it was unlikely “Magazine Dreams” would ever be released by Searchlight, even directly to streaming on Hulu. But rather than sit on a shelf, the film has a chance to see the light of day elsewhere should the filmmakers find an interested buyer.
Searchlight had no comment.
- 1/17/2024
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Jonathan Majors’ conviction for domestic violence has reportedly prompted Searchlight Pictures to permanently shelve the drama, Magazine Dreams.
According to reports, it looks like Searchlight Pictures may have permanently shelved Magazine Dreams, the Jonathan Majors-led bodybuilding drama that was due to be one of its key prestige films for 2023. Majors’ trial and eventual conviction for domestic violence has, according to sources, left the studio feeling that there is no way in which a release is viable.
While some have speculated that the film could skip a high-profile theatrical release and be placed ‘quietly’ on Hulu, the US streaming platform geared towards adult viewership, The Hollywood Reporter casts doubt on this possibility, citing sources that state that Disney’s ownership of both Searchlight and Hulu make this impossible. After all, Disney is first and foremost positioned as a family-friendly company and the idea of releasing a film led by somebody...
According to reports, it looks like Searchlight Pictures may have permanently shelved Magazine Dreams, the Jonathan Majors-led bodybuilding drama that was due to be one of its key prestige films for 2023. Majors’ trial and eventual conviction for domestic violence has, according to sources, left the studio feeling that there is no way in which a release is viable.
While some have speculated that the film could skip a high-profile theatrical release and be placed ‘quietly’ on Hulu, the US streaming platform geared towards adult viewership, The Hollywood Reporter casts doubt on this possibility, citing sources that state that Disney’s ownership of both Searchlight and Hulu make this impossible. After all, Disney is first and foremost positioned as a family-friendly company and the idea of releasing a film led by somebody...
- 1/11/2024
- by Dan Cooper
- Film Stories
A year ago, Jonathan Majors embarked on a 29-hour drive from his home in New York City to Park City, Utah, where he unveiled the body building drama Magazine Dreams to rapturous reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. It was the start of what was supposed to be a banner year, which was to include blockbuster roles and an awards season campaign for Magazine Dreams.
That dream has been put on hold as the actor awaits a Feb. 6 sentencing for assault and harassment convictions following a March 2023 incident involving ex-partner Grace Jabbari.
The career fallout for Majors has been severe, with Disney-owned Marvel Studios dropping him as chief villain Kang the Conqueror hours after his conviction. And the fate of Magazine Dreams is still in the balance at esteemed specialty studio Searchlight, also owned by Disney.
Searchlight, home of numerous Oscar best picture winners, acquired Magazine Dreams after of Sundance...
That dream has been put on hold as the actor awaits a Feb. 6 sentencing for assault and harassment convictions following a March 2023 incident involving ex-partner Grace Jabbari.
The career fallout for Majors has been severe, with Disney-owned Marvel Studios dropping him as chief villain Kang the Conqueror hours after his conviction. And the fate of Magazine Dreams is still in the balance at esteemed specialty studio Searchlight, also owned by Disney.
Searchlight, home of numerous Oscar best picture winners, acquired Magazine Dreams after of Sundance...
- 1/10/2024
- by Aaron Couch and Pamela McClintock
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jonathan Majors has been dropped by Marvel from his role as Kang, following his conviction yesterday.
On the 18th of December, Jonathan Majors was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of assault against his ex-girlfriend. It’s a horrible situation for the victim and you can read the details elsewhere.
It feels wrong to even consider something as comparatively trivial as where this leaves a film franchise under the circumstances, but nevertheless Marvel’s response was immediate (via Variety).
Majors has been dropped from all future MCU projects, effective immediately.
Jonathan Majors was cast as Kang the Conqueror, the MCU’s next big bad after Thanos. He had already made his first appearance as the multiverse hopping villain in the first season finale of Loki, followed by a major role in this year’s Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania.
He was then going to headline The Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which...
On the 18th of December, Jonathan Majors was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of assault against his ex-girlfriend. It’s a horrible situation for the victim and you can read the details elsewhere.
It feels wrong to even consider something as comparatively trivial as where this leaves a film franchise under the circumstances, but nevertheless Marvel’s response was immediate (via Variety).
Majors has been dropped from all future MCU projects, effective immediately.
Jonathan Majors was cast as Kang the Conqueror, the MCU’s next big bad after Thanos. He had already made his first appearance as the multiverse hopping villain in the first season finale of Loki, followed by a major role in this year’s Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania.
He was then going to headline The Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which...
- 12/19/2023
- by Jake Godfrey
- Film Stories
Has there ever been a rise and fall quite as swift and dramatic as that of Jonathan Majors? 2023 started off as a killer year for Majors. After years as an up-and-comer, he had three films set to debut within the first three months of the year. His two big studio films, Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania and Creed III, seemed poised to make him a real-deal movie star, while his indie film, Magazine Dreams, was going to serve as an acting showcase.
Indeed, when the film debuted last January at Sundance, many believed his tortured, Travis Bickle-like role would win him an Oscar nomination (I was one of them in my review). His character, Killian Maddox, a wanna-be bodybuilder with serious anger issues, was a distinct creation for him and director Elijah Bynum. The movie quickly sold to Fox Searchlight, and a December 2023 release date was set. Everyone assumed...
Indeed, when the film debuted last January at Sundance, many believed his tortured, Travis Bickle-like role would win him an Oscar nomination (I was one of them in my review). His character, Killian Maddox, a wanna-be bodybuilder with serious anger issues, was a distinct creation for him and director Elijah Bynum. The movie quickly sold to Fox Searchlight, and a December 2023 release date was set. Everyone assumed...
- 12/19/2023
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
Testifying for the third day in a row in Jonathan Majors’ domestic violence trial, the actor’s ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari reached a breaking point Thursday.
Under cross-examination from defense lawyer Priya Chaudhry and with Majors seated close by, Jabbari left Judge Michael Gaffey’s courtroom this afternoon in tears upon being shown police body-camera footage of the NYPD responding to the Magazine Dreams star’s 911 call in late March.
Dropped by his management and PR company soon after he was arrested for the incident, Majors could get up to a year behind bars if found guilty on the misdemeanor charges against his ex of two years.
The actor has insisted on his innocence, and his attorneys have repeatedly said Jabbari was the aggressor in the relationship and on the night of March 24 – even going so far as to file a cross-complaint against her in June. With the Manhattan Da’s...
Under cross-examination from defense lawyer Priya Chaudhry and with Majors seated close by, Jabbari left Judge Michael Gaffey’s courtroom this afternoon in tears upon being shown police body-camera footage of the NYPD responding to the Magazine Dreams star’s 911 call in late March.
Dropped by his management and PR company soon after he was arrested for the incident, Majors could get up to a year behind bars if found guilty on the misdemeanor charges against his ex of two years.
The actor has insisted on his innocence, and his attorneys have repeatedly said Jabbari was the aggressor in the relationship and on the night of March 24 – even going so far as to file a cross-complaint against her in June. With the Manhattan Da’s...
- 12/8/2023
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Grace Jabbari on Tuesday told a Manhattan courtroom at Jonathan Majors’ domestic violence trial how she was frightened of the Loki actor even before the incident that saw him arrested in March.
With a Bible-clutching Majors sitting just a few feet away, the self-described professional dancer took the stand just after 10 a.m. Et on the second day of testimony in the case to detail how the two met in the UK in 2021 during the filming of Marvel/Disney’s Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
“We spent every day together, maybe minus a few, within the next few months,” British national Jabbari said under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Kelli Galaway. “He told me he loved me very early on.”
Reiterating a lot of what Ada Michael Perez declared when he cited Majors’ “cruel and manipulative pattern of abuse” in his opening statement Monday, Jabbari informed Judge Michael Gaffey...
With a Bible-clutching Majors sitting just a few feet away, the self-described professional dancer took the stand just after 10 a.m. Et on the second day of testimony in the case to detail how the two met in the UK in 2021 during the filming of Marvel/Disney’s Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
“We spent every day together, maybe minus a few, within the next few months,” British national Jabbari said under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Kelli Galaway. “He told me he loved me very early on.”
Reiterating a lot of what Ada Michael Perez declared when he cited Majors’ “cruel and manipulative pattern of abuse” in his opening statement Monday, Jabbari informed Judge Michael Gaffey...
- 12/5/2023
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Hot on the heels of Warner Bros. moving Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to Friday, December 22, 2023, and Robert De Niro’s Alto Knights to later in 2024, Disney is doing its version of the release date shuffle for two of its upcoming releases. Additionally, Searchlight is no longer opening Magazine Dreams, starring Jonathan Majors, on December 8. Majors faces a trial date on November 29, 2023, for a domestic violence case involving his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari.
Meanwhile, Disney will push its live-action adaptation of Snow White from March 22, 2024, to March 21, 2025, with Disney/Pixar’s Elio going from March 1, 2024, to June 13, 2025. The shuffle stems from uncertainty about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
Other projects jumping ship include an untitled Disney feature moving from February 14, 2024, to April 5, 2024. Disney is also pulling The Bikeriders from its December 1 theatrical release because Queen B, Beyonce, is dropping a concert film in theaters, and, of course, the actors’ strike.
In Magazine Dreams,...
Meanwhile, Disney will push its live-action adaptation of Snow White from March 22, 2024, to March 21, 2025, with Disney/Pixar’s Elio going from March 1, 2024, to June 13, 2025. The shuffle stems from uncertainty about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
Other projects jumping ship include an untitled Disney feature moving from February 14, 2024, to April 5, 2024. Disney is also pulling The Bikeriders from its December 1 theatrical release because Queen B, Beyonce, is dropping a concert film in theaters, and, of course, the actors’ strike.
In Magazine Dreams,...
- 10/27/2023
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
Jonathan Majors is stripping down for his latest movie role, but there's no telling when viewers will see it. Following his turns as boxing character Damian in "Creed III" and "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" villain Kang the Conqueror, the actor's next big film was slated to be "Magazine Dreams." However, Variety reported on Oct. 27 that the film's December release date has been pulled off of Walt Disney Studios's calendar amid Majors's assault and harassment allegations.
The actor was arrested on March 25 in New York City following an alleged domestic dispute, which he's pled not guilty to, and he's slated to appear in court for the matter on Nov. 29. Now, it's unclear if/when Majors's drama film - which made its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival - will get a rescheduled theatrical release.
In "Magazine Dreams," directed by Elijah Bynum, Major plays jacked-up amateur bodybuilder Killian Maddox,...
The actor was arrested on March 25 in New York City following an alleged domestic dispute, which he's pled not guilty to, and he's slated to appear in court for the matter on Nov. 29. Now, it's unclear if/when Majors's drama film - which made its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival - will get a rescheduled theatrical release.
In "Magazine Dreams," directed by Elijah Bynum, Major plays jacked-up amateur bodybuilder Killian Maddox,...
- 10/27/2023
- by Njera Perkins
- Popsugar.com
In other Disney schedule changes Pixar’s Elio, Disney’s Snow White move to 2025.
Searchlight’s buzzy Sundance acquisition Magazine Dreams has been unset from its December 8 release slot in the run-up to Jonathan Major’s domestic abuse trial.
Majors earned rave reviews in Park City for his portrayal of a troubled aspiring bodybuilder. Buyers pursued the drama written and directed by Elijah Bynum and Searchlight confirmed in February that it had picked up worldwide rights.
Magazine Dreams would have ranked as a strong awards play for Majors in any season, however in light of the actor’s pending November...
Searchlight’s buzzy Sundance acquisition Magazine Dreams has been unset from its December 8 release slot in the run-up to Jonathan Major’s domestic abuse trial.
Majors earned rave reviews in Park City for his portrayal of a troubled aspiring bodybuilder. Buyers pursued the drama written and directed by Elijah Bynum and Searchlight confirmed in February that it had picked up worldwide rights.
Magazine Dreams would have ranked as a strong awards play for Majors in any season, however in light of the actor’s pending November...
- 10/27/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Walt Disney and Searchlight Pictures has finally taken “Magazine Dreams,” the indie movie starring Jonathan Majors, off its theatrical release calendar for the year.
The movie was meant to open on December 8 following Searchlight acquiring it in a competitive situation out of Sundance, just days after the actor is set to return to court on November 29, but the movie has finally been pulled. No new release date has been set as of this writing.
Searchlight’s “Poor Things” with Emma Stone is also set for release on Dec. 8.
Disney also delayed by a year the releases of its “Snow White” live action remake and the animated “Elio,” both most likely because of strike-related production delays. “Snow White” was set for March 22, 2024 and moves to March 21, 2025. “Elio” was set for March 1, 2024 and moves to June 13, 2025.
“Magazine Dreams” is directed by Elijah Bynum and stars Majors as a socially awkward and reclusive...
The movie was meant to open on December 8 following Searchlight acquiring it in a competitive situation out of Sundance, just days after the actor is set to return to court on November 29, but the movie has finally been pulled. No new release date has been set as of this writing.
Searchlight’s “Poor Things” with Emma Stone is also set for release on Dec. 8.
Disney also delayed by a year the releases of its “Snow White” live action remake and the animated “Elio,” both most likely because of strike-related production delays. “Snow White” was set for March 22, 2024 and moves to March 21, 2025. “Elio” was set for March 1, 2024 and moves to June 13, 2025.
“Magazine Dreams” is directed by Elijah Bynum and stars Majors as a socially awkward and reclusive...
- 10/27/2023
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Updated with more details: Almost six months after Jonathan Majors was arrested in New York City on domestic violence charges, the start of the Creed III actor’s trial has been pushed yet again.
A short hearing Wednesday determined that another hearing will be held September 15 in theory to set a new trial date.
After numerous delays, today was supposed to be the actual start of the actor’s trial on misdemeanor charges stemming from the incident in and around Majors’ Chelsea apartment March 25. Although he was the one who called 911 in the spring, the actor is looking at up to a year behind bars if found guilty on claims being prosecuted by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg’s office.
To that end, Assistant District Attorney Kelli Galaway told Judge Rachel S. Pauley this morning that the prosecution were ready for trial. However, defense lawyers stated in court that there...
A short hearing Wednesday determined that another hearing will be held September 15 in theory to set a new trial date.
After numerous delays, today was supposed to be the actual start of the actor’s trial on misdemeanor charges stemming from the incident in and around Majors’ Chelsea apartment March 25. Although he was the one who called 911 in the spring, the actor is looking at up to a year behind bars if found guilty on claims being prosecuted by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg’s office.
To that end, Assistant District Attorney Kelli Galaway told Judge Rachel S. Pauley this morning that the prosecution were ready for trial. However, defense lawyers stated in court that there...
- 9/6/2023
- by Dominic Patten and Sean Piccoli
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s been a tough couple of weeks for fame, whether you’re Donald Trump, Jonathan Majors, or Gwyneth Paltrow.
Anyone living in the spotlight faces the potential for a public reckoning and with that, collateral damage. After Majors was arrested and charged with assault and harassment, the news cycle cast immediate uncertainty on his future. Now, as various Majors projects let him go, the fallout exposes a film-business fallacy. When you build projects around movie stars, you create a liability.
Majors’ attorney claims evidence of his innocence, but his agency and publicity team dropped the actor this month. So did a number of upcoming projects, including Protagonist Pictures’ adaptation of the Walter Mosley novel “The Man in My Basement,” a series of ads for the Texas Rangers baseball team, and an unannounced Otis Redding biopic from Fifth Season.
Marvel hasn’t budged yet on Majors’ future as supervillain Kang the Conquerer,...
Anyone living in the spotlight faces the potential for a public reckoning and with that, collateral damage. After Majors was arrested and charged with assault and harassment, the news cycle cast immediate uncertainty on his future. Now, as various Majors projects let him go, the fallout exposes a film-business fallacy. When you build projects around movie stars, you create a liability.
Majors’ attorney claims evidence of his innocence, but his agency and publicity team dropped the actor this month. So did a number of upcoming projects, including Protagonist Pictures’ adaptation of the Walter Mosley novel “The Man in My Basement,” a series of ads for the Texas Rangers baseball team, and an unannounced Otis Redding biopic from Fifth Season.
Marvel hasn’t budged yet on Majors’ future as supervillain Kang the Conquerer,...
- 4/22/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Update: Majors' defense lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, said in a statement that Majors is "provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows," who was having "an emotional crisis." According to Chaudhry, there is a body of evidence proving Majors' innocence, including (per Variety) "video footage from the vehicle where the alleged incident took place, witness testimony from the driver and onlookers and two written statements from the woman recanting the allegations." Original article follows.
The phrase "aged like milk" doesn't quite do justice to a feature that /Film ran yesterday, declaring that "2023 is the Year of Jonathan Majors" and highlighting the actor's gripping performance in Elijah Bynum's upcoming drama "Magazine Dreams." Mere hours after the article was published, the news broke that Majors had been arrested in New York City on charges of assault, strangulation, and harassment. A police statement (via the Associated Press) offered further details about the arrest:
On Saturday,...
The phrase "aged like milk" doesn't quite do justice to a feature that /Film ran yesterday, declaring that "2023 is the Year of Jonathan Majors" and highlighting the actor's gripping performance in Elijah Bynum's upcoming drama "Magazine Dreams." Mere hours after the article was published, the news broke that Majors had been arrested in New York City on charges of assault, strangulation, and harassment. A police statement (via the Associated Press) offered further details about the arrest:
On Saturday,...
- 3/26/2023
- by Hannah Shaw-Williams
- Slash Film
Jonathan Majors is having a great year on screen. The actor began his film and TV career just five years ago, but this month alone, he's starred in two number-one movies at the box office. After making a name for himself as a poetic supporting character in "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," taking on the main role in HBO's "Lovecraft Country," and appearing in films like "Da 5 Bloods" and "Devotion," Majors added some major franchises to his repertoire. He can currently be spotted going head to head with Michael B. Jordan in "Creed III," as well as making his big-screen Marvel debut as Kang the Conquerer in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
Both of Majors' 2023 performances to date have earned him praise from critics and fans, but by the time the next award cycle runs around, the actor's name could be on the tip of everyone's tongue...
Both of Majors' 2023 performances to date have earned him praise from critics and fans, but by the time the next award cycle runs around, the actor's name could be on the tip of everyone's tongue...
- 3/25/2023
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
FIlm earned rave reviews for its star at Sundance premiere.
Searchlight Pictures has scheduled a limited awards corridor theatrical release on December 8 for the drama Magazine Dreams, which earned rave reviews for Jonathan Majors when it premiered at Sundance.
‘Magazine Dreams’: Sundance Review
Elijah Bynum directed Magazine Dreams, which follows a troubled aspiring bodybuilder living with his war veteran grandfather as he tries to get out of the way of his own demons and realise professional and personal ambitions.
The cast includes Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige, Harrison Page, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Mike O’Hearn. Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy, Jeffrey Soros,...
Searchlight Pictures has scheduled a limited awards corridor theatrical release on December 8 for the drama Magazine Dreams, which earned rave reviews for Jonathan Majors when it premiered at Sundance.
‘Magazine Dreams’: Sundance Review
Elijah Bynum directed Magazine Dreams, which follows a troubled aspiring bodybuilder living with his war veteran grandfather as he tries to get out of the way of his own demons and realise professional and personal ambitions.
The cast includes Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige, Harrison Page, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Mike O’Hearn. Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy, Jeffrey Soros,...
- 3/24/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
“Magazine Dreams,” Elijah Bynum’s sophomore feature starring Jonathan Majors, will be released in theaters on Dec. 8, Disney’s Searchlight Pictures announced on Friday.
The film premiered at Sundance and won the Jury Award for Creative Vision.
Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige, Mike O’Hearn, Harrison Page and Harriet Sansom Harris also star in the intense drama. “Magazine Dreams” is described, in the official synopsis, as following “aspiring bodybuilder Killian Maddox (Majors), who struggles to find human connection in this exploration of celebrity and violence. Nothing deters him from his fiercely protected dream of superstardom, not even the doctors who warn him of the permanent damage he causes to himself with his quest.”
Also Read:
Neon Acquires Anne Hathaway Sundance Thriller ‘Eileen’
Our review of the film out of Sundance was mixed positive, with praise being heaped on Majors’ performance. “Anchored in his greatness, ‘Magazine Dreams’ can get away with most of its flaws,...
The film premiered at Sundance and won the Jury Award for Creative Vision.
Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige, Mike O’Hearn, Harrison Page and Harriet Sansom Harris also star in the intense drama. “Magazine Dreams” is described, in the official synopsis, as following “aspiring bodybuilder Killian Maddox (Majors), who struggles to find human connection in this exploration of celebrity and violence. Nothing deters him from his fiercely protected dream of superstardom, not even the doctors who warn him of the permanent damage he causes to himself with his quest.”
Also Read:
Neon Acquires Anne Hathaway Sundance Thriller ‘Eileen’
Our review of the film out of Sundance was mixed positive, with praise being heaped on Majors’ performance. “Anchored in his greatness, ‘Magazine Dreams’ can get away with most of its flaws,...
- 3/24/2023
- by Umberto Gonzalez
- The Wrap
Searchlight Pictures has set a year-end release date for the Jonathan Majors-starring bodybuilder drama Magazine Dreams.
Writer-director Elijah Bynum’s feature will hit theaters on Dec. 8, 2023, at the height of the awards season when Majors would be in the running for a best actor nomination. Magazine Dreams earned strong reviews when it bowed at Sundance, after which Searchlight picked up the feature.
Majors plays Killian Maddox, a man determined to make it in the world of bodybuilding even as he faces a number of struggles, from dealing with feelings of alienation to anger issues, and looking after his ailing grandfather.
Bynum wrote and directed the feature. He previously made Hot Summer Nights, starring Timothée Chalamet and Maika Monroe, which was released by A24 after a South by Southwest debut.
Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige and Mike O’Hearn also star in Magazine Dreams, which is produced by Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy and Jeffrey Soros.
Writer-director Elijah Bynum’s feature will hit theaters on Dec. 8, 2023, at the height of the awards season when Majors would be in the running for a best actor nomination. Magazine Dreams earned strong reviews when it bowed at Sundance, after which Searchlight picked up the feature.
Majors plays Killian Maddox, a man determined to make it in the world of bodybuilding even as he faces a number of struggles, from dealing with feelings of alienation to anger issues, and looking after his ailing grandfather.
Bynum wrote and directed the feature. He previously made Hot Summer Nights, starring Timothée Chalamet and Maika Monroe, which was released by A24 after a South by Southwest debut.
Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige and Mike O’Hearn also star in Magazine Dreams, which is produced by Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy and Jeffrey Soros.
- 3/24/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
After snapping up the critically acclaimed Jonathan Majors movie Magazine Dreams out of Sundance, Searchlight has set a Dec. 8 theatrical release for the Elijah Bynum directed title; a date that’s right in line with the classics’ label previous awards season launches.
Searchlight beat out Neon, Sony Pictures Classics and HBO for this fierce drama in which Majors portrays a disturbed amateur bodybuilder. The pic, which Bynum also scripted, follows Killian Maddox (Majors), who struggles to find human connection in this exploration of celebrity and violence. Nothing deters him from his fiercely protected dream of superstardom in the bodybuilding world, not even the doctors who warn him of the permanent damage he causes to himself with his quest. Taylour Paige and Haley Bennett also star in the movie along with Mike O’Hearn, Harrison Page and Harriet Sansom Harris. Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy, Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman produced. EPs are Majors,...
Searchlight beat out Neon, Sony Pictures Classics and HBO for this fierce drama in which Majors portrays a disturbed amateur bodybuilder. The pic, which Bynum also scripted, follows Killian Maddox (Majors), who struggles to find human connection in this exploration of celebrity and violence. Nothing deters him from his fiercely protected dream of superstardom in the bodybuilding world, not even the doctors who warn him of the permanent damage he causes to himself with his quest. Taylour Paige and Haley Bennett also star in the movie along with Mike O’Hearn, Harrison Page and Harriet Sansom Harris. Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy, Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman produced. EPs are Majors,...
- 3/24/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Jonathan Majors is set to star in and produce Da Understudy from Westbrook Studios and Amazon Studios. Majors will produce the feature under his Tall Street Productions umbrella. Amazon Studios landed the script on spec in a competitive situation. Sources said that Spike Lee is circling to direct, which would reunite the filmmaker with Majors after Da 5 Bloods.
Tom Hanada (Motherland), Zach Strauss (Smilf) and Tyler Cole wrote the screenplay, which is based on an original story by Cole and developed in-house by Westbrook.
Related Story Michael B. Jordan On Knockout Directing Debut ‘Creed III,’ Trading Blows With Jonathan Majors Related Story Spike Lee Shows Gratitude For WGA Career Achievement Award But Also Checks New York Knicks Score On His Phone Onstage, Crowing, "Boston Sucks!" – Watch Related Story Michael B. Jordan And Jonathan Majors Liken Themselves To De Niro And Pacino In NY Times Interview
Deal comes after...
Tom Hanada (Motherland), Zach Strauss (Smilf) and Tyler Cole wrote the screenplay, which is based on an original story by Cole and developed in-house by Westbrook.
Related Story Michael B. Jordan On Knockout Directing Debut ‘Creed III,’ Trading Blows With Jonathan Majors Related Story Spike Lee Shows Gratitude For WGA Career Achievement Award But Also Checks New York Knicks Score On His Phone Onstage, Crowing, "Boston Sucks!" – Watch Related Story Michael B. Jordan And Jonathan Majors Liken Themselves To De Niro And Pacino In NY Times Interview
Deal comes after...
- 3/7/2023
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Jonathan Majors is on fire right now. The actor is quickly rising to the ranks of superstardom, successfully pulling off back–to-back number one hits at the box office in a feat that few have accomplished in their careers. First, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," in which Majors plays the villain Kang the Conquerer, opened up to a domestic total of $104 million, and despite its steep drop in the follow-up weeks, the film remains in second place in the box office charts. The film knocking it out of the number one spot? "Creed III," also starring Jonathan Majors in the antagonistic role of Damian "Dame" Anderson.
Majors has been putting in the work, too. His performances have been turning heads since 2019, when he starred in "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," as the eccentric but kind-hearted Mont Allen. The film was a small indie affair that gained widespread acclaim...
Majors has been putting in the work, too. His performances have been turning heads since 2019, when he starred in "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," as the eccentric but kind-hearted Mont Allen. The film was a small indie affair that gained widespread acclaim...
- 3/6/2023
- by Andrew Housman
- Slash Film
Magazine Dreams Review — Magazine Dreams (2023) Film Review from the 45th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Elijah Bynum, starring Jonathan Majors, Harrison Page, Harriet Sansom Harris, Haley Bennett, Michael O’Hearn, Bradley Stryker, Sonny Valicenti, and Justin Cuomo. Elijah Bynum focuses on an amateur’s obsession with bodybuilding culture and hero worship [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: Magazine Dreams: Intense Performance Enhances Labor of Love with Striking Visuals [Sundance 2023]...
Continue reading: Film Review: Magazine Dreams: Intense Performance Enhances Labor of Love with Striking Visuals [Sundance 2023]...
- 2/19/2023
- by David McDonald
- Film-Book
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is about to hit theaters, kicking off the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Paul Rudd‘s Scott Lang and his family face off against Jonathan Majors‘ Kang the Conqueror.
Related Story ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania’ Review: Paul Rudd Is Back In Action But Has He Met His Match In Jonathan Majors‘ Kang & What Does It Mean For MCU’s Phase 5 Start? Related Story Searchlight Pictures Muscling Deal For Elijah Bynum's 'Magazine Dreams,' Sundance Pic With Tour De Force Jonathan Majors Performance Related Story Jonathan Majors Wants Robert Downey Jr. To Reprise Iron Man Role In 'Avengers: The Kang Dynasty'
Majors’ character, who was briefly introduced at the end of Loki Season 1, is expected to be a major force in Phase 5 of the MCU. During the Ant Man 3 premiere in Los Angeles, Rudd told Deadline that...
Related Story ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania’ Review: Paul Rudd Is Back In Action But Has He Met His Match In Jonathan Majors‘ Kang & What Does It Mean For MCU’s Phase 5 Start? Related Story Searchlight Pictures Muscling Deal For Elijah Bynum's 'Magazine Dreams,' Sundance Pic With Tour De Force Jonathan Majors Performance Related Story Jonathan Majors Wants Robert Downey Jr. To Reprise Iron Man Role In 'Avengers: The Kang Dynasty'
Majors’ character, who was briefly introduced at the end of Loki Season 1, is expected to be a major force in Phase 5 of the MCU. During the Ant Man 3 premiere in Los Angeles, Rudd told Deadline that...
- 2/14/2023
- by Katie Campione
- Deadline Film + TV
Searchlight Pictures is dreaming of Jonathan Majors. The studio has acquired the actor’s body-building feature Magazine Dreams, which earned strong reviews last month at Sundance.
Majors plays Killian Maddox, a man determined to make it in the world of body building even as he faces a number of struggles, from dealing with feelings of alienation, anger issues and looking after his ailing grandfather.
Elijah Bynum wrote and directed the feature. He previously made Hot Summer Nights, starring Timothée Chalamet and Maika Monroe, which was released by A24 after a South by Southwest debut.
“We are very proud to bring Elijah’s powerful film to the world,” said Searchlight presidents Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum. “Jonathan’s tour-de-force performance, both physically and emotionally, affected us in profound ways.”
Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige and Mike O’Hear also star in Magazine Dreams, which is produced by Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy and Jeffrey Soros.
Majors plays Killian Maddox, a man determined to make it in the world of body building even as he faces a number of struggles, from dealing with feelings of alienation, anger issues and looking after his ailing grandfather.
Elijah Bynum wrote and directed the feature. He previously made Hot Summer Nights, starring Timothée Chalamet and Maika Monroe, which was released by A24 after a South by Southwest debut.
“We are very proud to bring Elijah’s powerful film to the world,” said Searchlight presidents Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum. “Jonathan’s tour-de-force performance, both physically and emotionally, affected us in profound ways.”
Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige and Mike O’Hear also star in Magazine Dreams, which is produced by Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy and Jeffrey Soros.
- 2/14/2023
- by Aaron Couch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
One of the most talked-about Sundance movies from this year’s festival finally has a home, as Searchlight Pictures has acquired “Magazine Dreams,” Elijah Bynum’s sophomore feature starring Jonathan Majors. The movie won the Sundance Jury Award for Creative Vision.
Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige, Mike O’Hearn, Harrison Page and Harriet Sansom Harris also star in the intense drama. “Magazine Dreams” is described, in the official synopsis, as following “aspiring bodybuilder Killian Maddox (Majors), who struggles to find human connection in this exploration of celebrity and violence. Nothing deters him from his fiercely protected dream of superstardom, not even the doctors who warn him of the permanent damage he causes to himself with his quest.”
Our review of the film out of Sundance was mixed positive, with praise being heaped on Majors’ performance. “Anchored in his greatness, ‘Magazine Dreams’ can get away with most of its flaws,” the review read.
Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige, Mike O’Hearn, Harrison Page and Harriet Sansom Harris also star in the intense drama. “Magazine Dreams” is described, in the official synopsis, as following “aspiring bodybuilder Killian Maddox (Majors), who struggles to find human connection in this exploration of celebrity and violence. Nothing deters him from his fiercely protected dream of superstardom, not even the doctors who warn him of the permanent damage he causes to himself with his quest.”
Our review of the film out of Sundance was mixed positive, with praise being heaped on Majors’ performance. “Anchored in his greatness, ‘Magazine Dreams’ can get away with most of its flaws,” the review read.
- 2/14/2023
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
The Jonathan Majors bodybuilding story won the festival’s Jury Award for Creative Vision.
Searchlight Pictures has confirmed its acquisition of worldwide rights to Magazine Dreams, winner of the Jury Award for Creative Vision at last month’s Sundance festival.
Written and directed by Elijah Bynum, the film stars Jonathan Majors, Haley Bennett and Taylour Paige in the story of an aspiring bodybuilder who struggles to find human connection as he tries to achieve his dream of superstardom against the advice of doctors.
The film was produced by Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy, Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman. Executive producers are Majors,...
Searchlight Pictures has confirmed its acquisition of worldwide rights to Magazine Dreams, winner of the Jury Award for Creative Vision at last month’s Sundance festival.
Written and directed by Elijah Bynum, the film stars Jonathan Majors, Haley Bennett and Taylour Paige in the story of an aspiring bodybuilder who struggles to find human connection as he tries to achieve his dream of superstardom against the advice of doctors.
The film was produced by Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy, Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman. Executive producers are Majors,...
- 2/14/2023
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
With Avengers: Endgame now history and its place in the box office realm currently challenged more by Avatars than any one Marvel character, the MCU, under orders from Marvel chief Kevin Feige, is now entering Phase 5 and using the third cinematic incarnation of Ant-Man and the full-blooded emergence of multi-villain Kang the Conqueror to carry it forward in what is essentially a stand-alone transition movie.
As such Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a mixed bag, still containing the lighter comedy of the 2015 original and 2018 follow-up, both set in San Francisco, but now taking us deep into a subatomic universe where the familial characters will experience both good and evil forces, some wacky new creatures that look like they are straight out of a Star Wars bar, and a mission to save this dizzying community of colorful beings who are being terrorized by another comic book legend now embodied by...
As such Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a mixed bag, still containing the lighter comedy of the 2015 original and 2018 follow-up, both set in San Francisco, but now taking us deep into a subatomic universe where the familial characters will experience both good and evil forces, some wacky new creatures that look like they are straight out of a Star Wars bar, and a mission to save this dizzying community of colorful beings who are being terrorized by another comic book legend now embodied by...
- 2/14/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
“Magazine Dreams,” a buzzy drama starring Jonathan Majors, landed at Searchlight Pictures following its premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Elijah Bynum wrote and directed the movie, about an aspiring bodybuilder named Killian Maddox, who abuses steroids in his quest to become a sports icon. “Magazine Dreams” premiered on Jan. 20 at the Eccles Theater in Park City. The festival wrapped last month, but the film later sparked a bidding war between Neon, Sony Pictures Classics and HBO, according to Deadline, which broke the news of the sale.
“We are very proud to bring Elijah’s powerful film to the world,” said Searchlight presidents Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum. “Jonathan’s tour-de-force performance, both physically and emotionally, affected us in profound ways.”
The specialty studio intends to announce additional release plans at a later date.
Out of Sundance, Searchlight also spent 8 million on “Theater Camp,” a loving satire about musical nerds,...
Elijah Bynum wrote and directed the movie, about an aspiring bodybuilder named Killian Maddox, who abuses steroids in his quest to become a sports icon. “Magazine Dreams” premiered on Jan. 20 at the Eccles Theater in Park City. The festival wrapped last month, but the film later sparked a bidding war between Neon, Sony Pictures Classics and HBO, according to Deadline, which broke the news of the sale.
“We are very proud to bring Elijah’s powerful film to the world,” said Searchlight presidents Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum. “Jonathan’s tour-de-force performance, both physically and emotionally, affected us in profound ways.”
The specialty studio intends to announce additional release plans at a later date.
Out of Sundance, Searchlight also spent 8 million on “Theater Camp,” a loving satire about musical nerds,...
- 2/14/2023
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Searchlight Pictures is closing a deal for Magazine Dreams, the Elijah Bynum scripted and directed drama that stars Jonathan Majors as a troubled amateur bodybuilder willing to go to any lengths to be noticed. Sources said that Neon, Sony Pictures Classics and HBO were also in the mix. Will apprise of release plans when deal becomes official.
Majors is about to get a major star escalation playing Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania that leads into the next Avengers, and squares off against Michael B. Jordan in Creed III.
His performance as Killian Maddox in Magazine Dreams really shows his full range and the acting chops honed at Yale and in turns that have included Lovecraft Country, The Last Black Man in San Franciso, The Harder They Fall, and most recently Devotion. His commitment in Magazine Dreams goes well beyond the 6000+ daily calories and endless workouts...
Majors is about to get a major star escalation playing Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania that leads into the next Avengers, and squares off against Michael B. Jordan in Creed III.
His performance as Killian Maddox in Magazine Dreams really shows his full range and the acting chops honed at Yale and in turns that have included Lovecraft Country, The Last Black Man in San Franciso, The Harder They Fall, and most recently Devotion. His commitment in Magazine Dreams goes well beyond the 6000+ daily calories and endless workouts...
- 2/14/2023
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Acting is an inherently physical profession. A large part of the job deals with memorizing lines, tapping into extreme emotions, and bringing complex stories to life, but there's no denying that much of a thespian's life is spent physically embodying a wide range of characters. To convincingly portray another person, many actors spend a great deal of time perfecting the mannerisms, speech patterns, and physical charm of their roles, hoping to persuade the audience to suspend their disbelief and embrace the on-screen fantasy.
Occasionally, this transformation is as simple as a costume or a well-made wig. Other roles require a total body transformation, causing actors to spend months in intense training to build a physical framework that will allow them to fully tell the story. Christian Bale is known for these chameleon-like transformations and seems to remake his body for every new role he takes on. Though he has become...
Occasionally, this transformation is as simple as a costume or a well-made wig. Other roles require a total body transformation, causing actors to spend months in intense training to build a physical framework that will allow them to fully tell the story. Christian Bale is known for these chameleon-like transformations and seems to remake his body for every new role he takes on. Though he has become...
- 2/12/2023
- by Jenn Adams
- Slash Film
Elijah Bynum didn’t want to look the man in the eye. No one at the gym did. He was massive, a bodybuilder who inspired fear because of his size.
“No one wanted to be caught in his path, I think because he made us uncomfortable,” says Bynum of the feeling of his fellow gym patrons.
It was relatively early in the pandemic. Bynum had been thinking a lot about isolation, and wanted to craft a character forgotten by society. When he saw how people avoided this bodybuilder, something clicked: “You have an individual who is both feared and invisible — because of everyone around him. And I thought it was a really peculiar way for someone to move through the world.”
That was the genesis of Magazine Dreams, the new feature that debuted at Sundance last month and took home the creative vision jury prize. It is earning rave reviews for Jonathan Majors,...
“No one wanted to be caught in his path, I think because he made us uncomfortable,” says Bynum of the feeling of his fellow gym patrons.
It was relatively early in the pandemic. Bynum had been thinking a lot about isolation, and wanted to craft a character forgotten by society. When he saw how people avoided this bodybuilder, something clicked: “You have an individual who is both feared and invisible — because of everyone around him. And I thought it was a really peculiar way for someone to move through the world.”
That was the genesis of Magazine Dreams, the new feature that debuted at Sundance last month and took home the creative vision jury prize. It is earning rave reviews for Jonathan Majors,...
- 2/7/2023
- by Aaron Couch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This year, the Sundance Film Festival returned in-person events with a vengeance. After two straight mostly virtual editions, the festival got back to almost-normal with packed crowds squeezing into the shuttles and trudging up and down Main Street. The festival also allowed its films, at distributors’ discretion, to screen virtually on its platform for accredited press who were still covering Sundance remotely.
That meant, in conducting our annual critics survey this year, some films may simply have been seen by more journalists than others. But it is striking that in the final tally, some buzzy films that were available virtually the entire time did not make the cut, while some titles that played exclusively in-person in Park City ranked high.
This time, a record 367 critics voted in the IndieWire Critics Survey for Sundance 2023. The films with the most support were Chloe Domont’s “Fair Play,” which was on the online...
That meant, in conducting our annual critics survey this year, some films may simply have been seen by more journalists than others. But it is striking that in the final tally, some buzzy films that were available virtually the entire time did not make the cut, while some titles that played exclusively in-person in Park City ranked high.
This time, a record 367 critics voted in the IndieWire Critics Survey for Sundance 2023. The films with the most support were Chloe Domont’s “Fair Play,” which was on the online...
- 1/31/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Obsession can drive a man insane. No doubt about that. This riveting character study explores the intensity that comes with obsession, and how striving for perfection can ruin someone. Magazine Dreams is the second feature film written and directed by up-and-coming filmmaker Elijah Bynum, following his 2017 film Hot Summer Nights (which came out of SXSW). After screening during the first weekend at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, this has become one of the most talked about films at the entire fest. Everyone has something to say. It's being discussed so much not because it's the best film at the fest, but because it's one of those films that everyone must talk about - whether it's the lead performance from Jonathan Majors, the uncomfortable story it tells, or the brutality and intensity of what happens, or whether or not it's actually a good film, and how could it be better. All of...
- 1/30/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
2023 Sundance Film Festival: Early highlights include ‘Fairyland,’ ‘Magazine Dreams,’ ‘Past Lives’ …
The first week of the Sundance Film Festival is drawing mixed-to-positive reactions, but several performers have garnered unanimous praise. Jonathan Majors made a big splash in Elijah Bynum’s “Magazine Dreams.” He stars as Killian Maddox, an obsessive bodybuilder who takes care of his Vietnam vet grandfather (Harrison Page) and pursues a relationship with a store clerk (Hayley Bennett) while trying to become a celebrity. The film, which is being compared to Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” looked noteworthy heading into the festival and is reportedly just as intense as early buzz had promised. Even critics who have expressed skepticism regarding the film’s third act are in awe of Majors’ committed work.
Kate Erbland of IndieWire writes, “As mistakes and missteps and pain continues to pile on to Killian, Majors turns an already wonderfully empathetic and deeply touching performance into something much more brutal, something explosive, something truly shocking.
Kate Erbland of IndieWire writes, “As mistakes and missteps and pain continues to pile on to Killian, Majors turns an already wonderfully empathetic and deeply touching performance into something much more brutal, something explosive, something truly shocking.
- 1/29/2023
- by Ronald Meyer
- Gold Derby
A Thousand and OneU.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeA Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell)Directing PrizeSing J. Lee (The Accidental Getaway Driver)Audience Award The Persian Version (Maryam Keshavarz)Special Jury Award: ActingLio Mehiel (Mutt)Special Jury Award: Creative VisionMagazine Dreams (Elijah Bynum)Special Jury Award: Ensemble CastTheater Camp (Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardMaryam Keshavarz (The Persian Version)
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson)Directing Prize Luke Lorentzen (A Still Small Voice) Audience Award Beyond Utopia (Madeleine Gavin)Jonathan Oppenheim Editing AwardDaniela I. Quiroz (Going Varsity in Mariachi)Special Jury Award for Freedom of ExpressionBad Press (Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler)Special Jury Award: Clarity of VisionThe Stroll (Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker)
ScrapperWORLD Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Scrapper (Charlotte Regan)Directing Prize Marija Kavtaradze (Slow)Audience AwardShayda (Noora Niasari)Special Jury...
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson)Directing Prize Luke Lorentzen (A Still Small Voice) Audience Award Beyond Utopia (Madeleine Gavin)Jonathan Oppenheim Editing AwardDaniela I. Quiroz (Going Varsity in Mariachi)Special Jury Award for Freedom of ExpressionBad Press (Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler)Special Jury Award: Clarity of VisionThe Stroll (Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker)
ScrapperWORLD Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Scrapper (Charlotte Regan)Directing Prize Marija Kavtaradze (Slow)Audience AwardShayda (Noora Niasari)Special Jury...
- 1/27/2023
- MUBI
The Sundance Film Festival has unveiled its Jury and Audience Award winners for 2023.
The day’s big winners included Maryam Keshavarz’s The Persian Version, which claimed both the Audience Award and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in U.S. Dramatic Competition, as well as A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand and One for Focus Features, which took the Grand Jury Prize in the same section.
Other titles taking top awards included Festival Favorite Radical from filmmaker Christopher Zalla and 3Pas Studios; Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project from Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, which took the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary; Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia, which nabbed the U.S. Documentary Audience Award; and D. Smith’s Kokomo City, which dominated the Next section as it claimed both the Innovator and Audience Award.
Written, directed and produced by Keshavarz for Archer Grey, The Persian Version watches...
The day’s big winners included Maryam Keshavarz’s The Persian Version, which claimed both the Audience Award and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in U.S. Dramatic Competition, as well as A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand and One for Focus Features, which took the Grand Jury Prize in the same section.
Other titles taking top awards included Festival Favorite Radical from filmmaker Christopher Zalla and 3Pas Studios; Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project from Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, which took the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary; Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia, which nabbed the U.S. Documentary Audience Award; and D. Smith’s Kokomo City, which dominated the Next section as it claimed both the Innovator and Audience Award.
Written, directed and produced by Keshavarz for Archer Grey, The Persian Version watches...
- 1/27/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Back in Park City, Utah, for the first time since 2020, the Sundance Film Festival concluded with an in-person awards show. The U.S. dramatic grand jury prize went to the Focus Features release “A Thousand and One,” from debut writer-director A.V. Rockwell, one of eight women in this year’s female-led competition.
Jeremy O. Harris, a member of the three-person U.S. dramatic jury at Sundance, choked back tears as he presented the award to Rockwell, admitting that he left the director’s premiere screening and cried on the street, as the film unearthed “all the feelings I’ve learned to mask in public spaces.”
Rockwell’s film is set in an unforgiving New York City in the late ’90s, where a single mother moving from shelter to shelter kidnaps her 6-year-old son from foster care. As they improbably forge a life and bond, their darkest secret threatens to disrupt what they’ve built.
Jeremy O. Harris, a member of the three-person U.S. dramatic jury at Sundance, choked back tears as he presented the award to Rockwell, admitting that he left the director’s premiere screening and cried on the street, as the film unearthed “all the feelings I’ve learned to mask in public spaces.”
Rockwell’s film is set in an unforgiving New York City in the late ’90s, where a single mother moving from shelter to shelter kidnaps her 6-year-old son from foster care. As they improbably forge a life and bond, their darkest secret threatens to disrupt what they’ve built.
- 1/27/2023
- by Matt Donnelly and Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Disney/Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania arrived on tracking today with a projected 4-day 120M opening per industry sources. The threequel arrives in theaters on Feb. 17 and is the first in an avalanche of largely weekly tentpole fare which has been absent from the marketplace since the summer.
That result for Quantumania will land among the top three openings for the Presidents Day weekend after Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther in 2018 (242.1M) and Deadpool (152.1M).
Why so big? It all boils down to Marvel’s new baddie Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors, taking a more pronounced leading role in the movies here after first being introduced in the Disney+/Marvel Loki series. Kang’s terrifying talent: Being able to replicate himself into different variants and wage wars across the multiverse. Following Loki fans have been waiting for Kang to create more waves.
The anticipated U.S.
That result for Quantumania will land among the top three openings for the Presidents Day weekend after Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther in 2018 (242.1M) and Deadpool (152.1M).
Why so big? It all boils down to Marvel’s new baddie Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors, taking a more pronounced leading role in the movies here after first being introduced in the Disney+/Marvel Loki series. Kang’s terrifying talent: Being able to replicate himself into different variants and wage wars across the multiverse. Following Loki fans have been waiting for Kang to create more waves.
The anticipated U.S.
- 1/26/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
(L-r) Elijah Bynum, Haley Bennett, Jonathan Majors, and Taylour Paige visit the IMDb Portrait Studio at Acura Festival Village at Sundance 2023. Image Source: Getty Images for IMDb /Corey Nickols
Imagine a dimly lit room in a small house that is covered with photos of muscly, oiled-up male bodybuilders. This room exists in "Magazine Dreams" - a feature from writer-director Elijah Bynum that premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival - and it belongs to Killian Maddox (played by Jonathan Majors), an amateur bodybuilder who is caring for his ailing grandfather. Killian spends his days training excessively in his garage and at the gym, all in an attempt to win the world championships and appear on the cover of esteemed magazines like his idol, Brad Vanderhorn (Michael O'Hearn).
Killian's obsessive tendency to "fix" his body initially borders on vanity, but a deeper examination of "Magazine Dreams" reveals a larger truth at the...
Imagine a dimly lit room in a small house that is covered with photos of muscly, oiled-up male bodybuilders. This room exists in "Magazine Dreams" - a feature from writer-director Elijah Bynum that premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival - and it belongs to Killian Maddox (played by Jonathan Majors), an amateur bodybuilder who is caring for his ailing grandfather. Killian spends his days training excessively in his garage and at the gym, all in an attempt to win the world championships and appear on the cover of esteemed magazines like his idol, Brad Vanderhorn (Michael O'Hearn).
Killian's obsessive tendency to "fix" his body initially borders on vanity, but a deeper examination of "Magazine Dreams" reveals a larger truth at the...
- 1/26/2023
- by Pooja Shah
- Popsugar.com
Actor Jonathan Majors is a powerhouse of a performer, disappearing into any role he inhabits. He once again does exactly in his transformation into the world of bodybuilding obsession in the intense drama Magazine Dreams. The first half introduces a fascinating premise, although it loses its way and never quite manages to find a way to recover.
‘Magazine Dreams’ dives into the world of bodybuilding Jonathan Majors as Killian Maddox | Glen Wilson / Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Killian Maddox (Majors) lives with his veteran grandfather, who he helps take care of. Meanwhile, he attends court-mandated therapy appointments and works at a local grocery store, where he admires a cashier (Haley Bennett) he has a crush on. However, Killian can’t seem to garner the strength to ask her out due to his social anxieties.
He spends all of his time dreaming of becoming the world’s biggest bodybuilding superstar. Killian looks...
‘Magazine Dreams’ dives into the world of bodybuilding Jonathan Majors as Killian Maddox | Glen Wilson / Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Killian Maddox (Majors) lives with his veteran grandfather, who he helps take care of. Meanwhile, he attends court-mandated therapy appointments and works at a local grocery store, where he admires a cashier (Haley Bennett) he has a crush on. However, Killian can’t seem to garner the strength to ask her out due to his social anxieties.
He spends all of his time dreaming of becoming the world’s biggest bodybuilding superstar. Killian looks...
- 1/25/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
U.S. Dramatic Competition
This unexpected film, which if anything might be a contemporary version of ‘Pumping Iron’ in which bodybuilding and celebrity-to-be meets Travis Bickle of ‘Taxi Driver’, shows a restraint and rechanneling of psychopathological leanings which redeem the film and its hero, a sweet but uncontrollable and, in the end, an invincible dreamer.
Director Elijah Bynum. Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Surely the producer Jennifer Fox felt an affinity to this project. Much of Fox’s work deals with understanding trauma. The emotional depth of the filmic concerns her in both her docs and fiction features. Jennifer Fox and In 2018, Jennifer Fox directed the film The Tale (2018), inspired by her own experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse. Unlike her previous works, the film is not a documentary but a narrative film. That film featured Academy Award-winning actress Laura Dern and premiered at the Sundance film Festival in 2018 and was picked up there by HBO. The plot of the film directly references Fox’s own experience of recognizing and grappling with her own abuse history. While writing the script, Fox developed the idea of “issue-based fiction,” in which she is able to use storytelling to “dive into issues that people could learn from and experience.” Borrowing from her documentary filmmaking, Fox collaborated extensively on the production of the film, outreaching to mental health advocates, lawyers, sexual abuse survivors, and women’s lived experiences to transform narrative into a tool for change. Along with HBO, Fox was able to develop a resource website and viewing guides to accompany the film to be used in educating and opening up the conversation about childhood sexual abuse, the effects of trauma, and memory.[*] In films like The Tale and Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, trauma is examined in relation to memory and womanhood. In both films Fox is interested in how past trauma is able to shape one’s life and memory. In this film, this same element of a trauma-based life and memory is crucial to understandng the character of Killian Maddox, an obsessive bodybuilder who strives to win the Mr. Olympia contest and to be featured on the cover of body-building magazines.
Jonathan Majors in ‘Magazine Dreams’. Courtesy of Sundance Institute, photo by Glen WilsonJennifer Fox. Photo by George Pimentel — © 2019 George Pimentel — Image courtesy gettyimages.com
Surely the producer Jennifer Fox felt an affinity to this project. Much of Fox’s work deals with understanding trauma. The emotional depth of the filmic concerns her in both her docs and fiction features. Jennifer Fox and In 2018, Jennifer Fox directed the film The Tale (2018), inspired by her own experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse. Unlike her previous works, the film is not a documentary but a narrative film. That film featured Academy Award-winning actress Laura Dern and premiered at the Sundance film Festival in 2018 and was picked up there by HBO. The plot of the film directly references Fox’s own experience of recognizing and grappling with her own abuse history. While writing the script, Fox developed the idea of “issue-based fiction,” in which she is able to use storytelling to “dive into issues that people could learn from and experience.” Borrowing from her documentary filmmaking, Fox collaborated extensively on the production of the film, outreaching to mental health advocates, lawyers, sexual abuse survivors, and women’s lived experiences to transform narrative into a tool for change. Along with HBO, Fox was able to develop a resource website and viewing guides to accompany the film to be used in educating and opening up the conversation about childhood sexual abuse, the effects of trauma, and memory.[*] In films like The Tale and Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, trauma is examined in relation to memory and womanhood. In both films Fox is interested in how past trauma is able to shape one’s life and memory. In this film, this same element of a trauma-based life and memory is crucial to understandng the character of Killian Maddox, an obsessive bodybuilder who strives to win the Mr. Olympia contest and to be featured on the cover of body-building magazines.
“On every street in every city in this country, there’s a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.” So says the tagline for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Killian Maddox is such a nobody. Occupying a small space in the film, it is revealed that his uncontrollable temper stems from past abuse and trauma which includes the murder of his mother by his father and his father’s suicide in front of his own childish eyes. That shapes his chaotic and antisocial vision of the world and at the film’s climax is re-experienced.
Killian Maddox lives with his ailing veteran grandfather, obsessively working out between court-mandated therapy sessions and part-time shifts at a grocery store where he has developed a crush on a friendly cashier. Killian struggles to read social cues and to maintain control of his volatile temper. He senses his disconnection in a hostile world, but pours his passion into a dream of bodybuilding superstardom.
The film has you squirming in your seat as he veers toward destruction but, just as you wonder, what good can come out of his journey. As Killian’s behavior becomes more obsessive and erratic, he still looks after his unconditionally loving grandfather. And as his delusions of destruction escalate, he faces his own trauma and breaks down into tears as he embraces his grandfather. This is the turning point for him. Killian sees success in bodybuilding as the link to acceptance and emotional connection. As our pathetic though physically stunning hero googles answers to “How do you make people like you?” and “How do you make a mark upon the world?” (or something like that) he finds the answer he needs in order to keep living.
Jonathan Majors
Jonathan Majors’ has created an alarmingly single-minded body building character with a soft-spoken shyness alternating with indomitable fury, a multisided black man living in perpetual mental chaos. Majors’ eclectic collection of roles show his huge dramatic range. For his role as Montgomery Allen in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Majors was nominated for a Gotham Award in the category of “Breakthrough Actor” and an Independent Spirit Award for “Best Supporting Male.” From The Last Black Man to a fighter pilot in the recent Devotion, to the western The Harder They Fall and soon a villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, his choices reveal a huge dramatic range which will reap fans for a long time to come. Born September 7, 1989 in Lompoc, California, Majors is a graduate from the Yale School of Drama and is a recipient of the National Society of Arts and Letters (Nsal), National Drama Competition. He made his screen debut starring in the ABC miniseries When We Rise and has since landed strong roles, cementing him as a Hollywood actor to watch.
For more insight into Jonathan Majors and his work, read the interview with The Hollywood Reporter November 30, 2022 on the subject of Devotion.
Majors is executive producing under his Tall Street production banner along with Nightcrawler producers Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy and Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman. CAA Media Finance arranged financing through the Los Angeles Media Fund and is repping the film for both domestic and international distribution. Los Angeles Media Fund (Jeffrey Soros, Luke Rogers III, Simon Horsman and Andrew Blau) fully financed the film. They are currently working on The Color of Cola, a documentary based on a book by Stephanie Capparell, The Real Pepsi Challenge: How One Pioneering Company Broke Color Barriers in 1940s American Business, which shares the experience of the all-Black sales team at Pepsi, directed by Stanley Nelson and Jacqueline Olive.
This unexpected film, which if anything might be a contemporary version of ‘Pumping Iron’ in which bodybuilding and celebrity-to-be meets Travis Bickle of ‘Taxi Driver’, shows a restraint and rechanneling of psychopathological leanings which redeem the film and its hero, a sweet but uncontrollable and, in the end, an invincible dreamer.
Director Elijah Bynum. Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Surely the producer Jennifer Fox felt an affinity to this project. Much of Fox’s work deals with understanding trauma. The emotional depth of the filmic concerns her in both her docs and fiction features. Jennifer Fox and In 2018, Jennifer Fox directed the film The Tale (2018), inspired by her own experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse. Unlike her previous works, the film is not a documentary but a narrative film. That film featured Academy Award-winning actress Laura Dern and premiered at the Sundance film Festival in 2018 and was picked up there by HBO. The plot of the film directly references Fox’s own experience of recognizing and grappling with her own abuse history. While writing the script, Fox developed the idea of “issue-based fiction,” in which she is able to use storytelling to “dive into issues that people could learn from and experience.” Borrowing from her documentary filmmaking, Fox collaborated extensively on the production of the film, outreaching to mental health advocates, lawyers, sexual abuse survivors, and women’s lived experiences to transform narrative into a tool for change. Along with HBO, Fox was able to develop a resource website and viewing guides to accompany the film to be used in educating and opening up the conversation about childhood sexual abuse, the effects of trauma, and memory.[*] In films like The Tale and Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, trauma is examined in relation to memory and womanhood. In both films Fox is interested in how past trauma is able to shape one’s life and memory. In this film, this same element of a trauma-based life and memory is crucial to understandng the character of Killian Maddox, an obsessive bodybuilder who strives to win the Mr. Olympia contest and to be featured on the cover of body-building magazines.
Jonathan Majors in ‘Magazine Dreams’. Courtesy of Sundance Institute, photo by Glen WilsonJennifer Fox. Photo by George Pimentel — © 2019 George Pimentel — Image courtesy gettyimages.com
Surely the producer Jennifer Fox felt an affinity to this project. Much of Fox’s work deals with understanding trauma. The emotional depth of the filmic concerns her in both her docs and fiction features. Jennifer Fox and In 2018, Jennifer Fox directed the film The Tale (2018), inspired by her own experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse. Unlike her previous works, the film is not a documentary but a narrative film. That film featured Academy Award-winning actress Laura Dern and premiered at the Sundance film Festival in 2018 and was picked up there by HBO. The plot of the film directly references Fox’s own experience of recognizing and grappling with her own abuse history. While writing the script, Fox developed the idea of “issue-based fiction,” in which she is able to use storytelling to “dive into issues that people could learn from and experience.” Borrowing from her documentary filmmaking, Fox collaborated extensively on the production of the film, outreaching to mental health advocates, lawyers, sexual abuse survivors, and women’s lived experiences to transform narrative into a tool for change. Along with HBO, Fox was able to develop a resource website and viewing guides to accompany the film to be used in educating and opening up the conversation about childhood sexual abuse, the effects of trauma, and memory.[*] In films like The Tale and Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, trauma is examined in relation to memory and womanhood. In both films Fox is interested in how past trauma is able to shape one’s life and memory. In this film, this same element of a trauma-based life and memory is crucial to understandng the character of Killian Maddox, an obsessive bodybuilder who strives to win the Mr. Olympia contest and to be featured on the cover of body-building magazines.
“On every street in every city in this country, there’s a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.” So says the tagline for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Killian Maddox is such a nobody. Occupying a small space in the film, it is revealed that his uncontrollable temper stems from past abuse and trauma which includes the murder of his mother by his father and his father’s suicide in front of his own childish eyes. That shapes his chaotic and antisocial vision of the world and at the film’s climax is re-experienced.
Killian Maddox lives with his ailing veteran grandfather, obsessively working out between court-mandated therapy sessions and part-time shifts at a grocery store where he has developed a crush on a friendly cashier. Killian struggles to read social cues and to maintain control of his volatile temper. He senses his disconnection in a hostile world, but pours his passion into a dream of bodybuilding superstardom.
The film has you squirming in your seat as he veers toward destruction but, just as you wonder, what good can come out of his journey. As Killian’s behavior becomes more obsessive and erratic, he still looks after his unconditionally loving grandfather. And as his delusions of destruction escalate, he faces his own trauma and breaks down into tears as he embraces his grandfather. This is the turning point for him. Killian sees success in bodybuilding as the link to acceptance and emotional connection. As our pathetic though physically stunning hero googles answers to “How do you make people like you?” and “How do you make a mark upon the world?” (or something like that) he finds the answer he needs in order to keep living.
Jonathan Majors
Jonathan Majors’ has created an alarmingly single-minded body building character with a soft-spoken shyness alternating with indomitable fury, a multisided black man living in perpetual mental chaos. Majors’ eclectic collection of roles show his huge dramatic range. For his role as Montgomery Allen in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Majors was nominated for a Gotham Award in the category of “Breakthrough Actor” and an Independent Spirit Award for “Best Supporting Male.” From The Last Black Man to a fighter pilot in the recent Devotion, to the western The Harder They Fall and soon a villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, his choices reveal a huge dramatic range which will reap fans for a long time to come. Born September 7, 1989 in Lompoc, California, Majors is a graduate from the Yale School of Drama and is a recipient of the National Society of Arts and Letters (Nsal), National Drama Competition. He made his screen debut starring in the ABC miniseries When We Rise and has since landed strong roles, cementing him as a Hollywood actor to watch.
For more insight into Jonathan Majors and his work, read the interview with The Hollywood Reporter November 30, 2022 on the subject of Devotion.
Majors is executive producing under his Tall Street production banner along with Nightcrawler producers Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy and Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman. CAA Media Finance arranged financing through the Los Angeles Media Fund and is repping the film for both domestic and international distribution. Los Angeles Media Fund (Jeffrey Soros, Luke Rogers III, Simon Horsman and Andrew Blau) fully financed the film. They are currently working on The Color of Cola, a documentary based on a book by Stephanie Capparell, The Real Pepsi Challenge: How One Pioneering Company Broke Color Barriers in 1940s American Business, which shares the experience of the all-Black sales team at Pepsi, directed by Stanley Nelson and Jacqueline Olive.
- 1/25/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Sundance 2023: ‘Magazine Dreams’ Directed by Elijah Bynum
U.S. Dramatic Competition
The producer-savvy and emotional depth of Jennifer Fox and her previous filmic concerns contribute to this unexpected film which if anything might be a contemporary version of ‘Pumping Iron’ in which bodybuilding and celebrity-to-be meets Travis Bickle of ‘Taxi Driver’. The restraint and rechanneling of psychopathological leanings redeem the film and its hero, a sweet but uncontrollable and, in the end, an invincible dreamer.
Director Elijah Bynum. Courtesy of Sundance Institute
In 2018, Jennifer Fox directed the film The Tale (2018), inspired by her own experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse. Unlike her previous works, the film is not a documentary but a narrative film. That, with the script film featured Academy Award-winning actress Laura Dern, and premiered at the Sundance film Festival in 2018 and on HBO in May 2018. The plot of the film directly references Fox’s own experience of recognizing and grappling with her own abuse history. While writing the script, Fox developed the idea of “issue-based fiction,” in which she is able to use storytelling to “dive into issues that people could learn from and experience.” Borrowing from her documentary filmmaking, Fox collaborated extensively on the production of the film, outreaching to mental health advocates, lawyers, sexual abuse survivors, and women’s lived experiences to transform narrative into a tool for change. Along with HBO, Fox was able to develop a resource website and viewing guides to accompany the film to be used in educating and opening up the conversation about childhood sexual abuse, the effects of trauma, and memory.[*] Surely she felt an affinity to this project. Much of Fox’s work deals with understanding trauma. In films like The Tale and Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, trauma is examined in relation to memory and womanhood. In both films Fox is interested in how past trauma is able to shape one’s life and memory. In this film, this same element of a trauma-based life and memory is crucial to understandng the character of Killian Maddox, an obsessive bodybuilder who strives to win the Mr. Olympia contest and to be featured on the cover of body-building magazines.
Jennifer Fox. Photo by George Pimentel — © 2019 George Pimentel — Image courtesy gettyimages.com
“On every street in every city in this country, there’s a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.” So says the tagline for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Killian Maddox is such a nobody. Occupying a small space in the film, it is revealed that his uncontrollable temper stems from past abuse and trauma which includes the murder of his mother by his father and his father’s suicide in front of his own childish eyes. That shapes his chaotic and antisocial vision of the world and at the film’s climax is re-experienced.
Killian Maddox lives with his ailing veteran grandfather, obsessively working out between court-mandated therapy sessions and part-time shifts at a grocery store where he has developed a crush on a friendly cashier. Killian struggles to read social cues and to maintain control of his volatile temper. He senses his disconnection in a hostile world, but pours his passion into a dream of bodybuilding superstardom.
The film has you squirming in your seat as he veers toward destruction but, just as you wonder, what good can come out of his journey. As Killian’s behavior becomes more obsessive and erratic, he still looks after his unconditionally loving grandfather. And as his delusions of destruction escalate, he faces his own trauma and breaks down into tears as he embraces his grandfather. This is the turning point for him. Killian sees success in bodybuilding as the link to acceptance and emotional connection. As our pathetic though physically stunning hero googles answers to “How do you make people like you?” and “How do you make a mark upon the world?” (or something like that) he finds the answer he needs in order to keep living.
Jonathan Majors’ has created an alarmingly single-minded body building character with a soft-spoken shyness alternating with indomitable fury, a multisided black man living in perpetual mental chaos. Majors’ eclectic collection of roles show his huge dramatic range. For his role as Montgomery Allen in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Majors was nominated for a Gotham Award in the category of “Breakthrough Actor” and an Independent Spirit Award for “Best Supporting Male.” From The Last Black Man to a fighter pilot in the recent Devotion, and soon a villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, his choices reveal a huge dramatic range which will reap fans for a long time to come. Born September 7, 1989 in Lompoc, California, Majors is a graduate from the Yale School of Drama and is a recipient of the National Society of Arts and Letters (Nsal), National Drama Competition. He made his screen debut starring in the ABC miniseries When We Rise and has since landed strong roles, cementing him as a Hollywood actor to watch.
For more insight into Jonathan Majors and his work, read the interview with The Hollywood Reporter November 30, 2022 on the subject of Devotion.
Majors is executive producing under his Tall Street production banner along with Nightcrawler producers Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy and Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman. CAA Media Finance arranged financing through the Los Angeles Media Fund and is repping the film for both domestic and international distribution. Los Angeles Media Fund (Jeffrey Soros, Luke Rogers III, Simon Horsman and Andrew Blau) fully financed the film. They are currently working on The Color of Cola, a documentary based on a book by Stephanie Capparell, The Real Pepsi Challenge: How One Pioneering Company Broke Color Barriers in 1940s American Business, which shares the experience of the all-Black sales team at Pepsi, directed by Stanley Nelson and Jacqueline Olive.
Jonathan Majors in ‘Magazine Dreams’. Courtesy of Sundance Institute, photo by Glen WilsonBlackMoviesFilm FestivalsBodybuilding...
U.S. Dramatic Competition
The producer-savvy and emotional depth of Jennifer Fox and her previous filmic concerns contribute to this unexpected film which if anything might be a contemporary version of ‘Pumping Iron’ in which bodybuilding and celebrity-to-be meets Travis Bickle of ‘Taxi Driver’. The restraint and rechanneling of psychopathological leanings redeem the film and its hero, a sweet but uncontrollable and, in the end, an invincible dreamer.
Director Elijah Bynum. Courtesy of Sundance Institute
In 2018, Jennifer Fox directed the film The Tale (2018), inspired by her own experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse. Unlike her previous works, the film is not a documentary but a narrative film. That, with the script film featured Academy Award-winning actress Laura Dern, and premiered at the Sundance film Festival in 2018 and on HBO in May 2018. The plot of the film directly references Fox’s own experience of recognizing and grappling with her own abuse history. While writing the script, Fox developed the idea of “issue-based fiction,” in which she is able to use storytelling to “dive into issues that people could learn from and experience.” Borrowing from her documentary filmmaking, Fox collaborated extensively on the production of the film, outreaching to mental health advocates, lawyers, sexual abuse survivors, and women’s lived experiences to transform narrative into a tool for change. Along with HBO, Fox was able to develop a resource website and viewing guides to accompany the film to be used in educating and opening up the conversation about childhood sexual abuse, the effects of trauma, and memory.[*] Surely she felt an affinity to this project. Much of Fox’s work deals with understanding trauma. In films like The Tale and Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, trauma is examined in relation to memory and womanhood. In both films Fox is interested in how past trauma is able to shape one’s life and memory. In this film, this same element of a trauma-based life and memory is crucial to understandng the character of Killian Maddox, an obsessive bodybuilder who strives to win the Mr. Olympia contest and to be featured on the cover of body-building magazines.
Jennifer Fox. Photo by George Pimentel — © 2019 George Pimentel — Image courtesy gettyimages.com
“On every street in every city in this country, there’s a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.” So says the tagline for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Killian Maddox is such a nobody. Occupying a small space in the film, it is revealed that his uncontrollable temper stems from past abuse and trauma which includes the murder of his mother by his father and his father’s suicide in front of his own childish eyes. That shapes his chaotic and antisocial vision of the world and at the film’s climax is re-experienced.
Killian Maddox lives with his ailing veteran grandfather, obsessively working out between court-mandated therapy sessions and part-time shifts at a grocery store where he has developed a crush on a friendly cashier. Killian struggles to read social cues and to maintain control of his volatile temper. He senses his disconnection in a hostile world, but pours his passion into a dream of bodybuilding superstardom.
The film has you squirming in your seat as he veers toward destruction but, just as you wonder, what good can come out of his journey. As Killian’s behavior becomes more obsessive and erratic, he still looks after his unconditionally loving grandfather. And as his delusions of destruction escalate, he faces his own trauma and breaks down into tears as he embraces his grandfather. This is the turning point for him. Killian sees success in bodybuilding as the link to acceptance and emotional connection. As our pathetic though physically stunning hero googles answers to “How do you make people like you?” and “How do you make a mark upon the world?” (or something like that) he finds the answer he needs in order to keep living.
Jonathan Majors’ has created an alarmingly single-minded body building character with a soft-spoken shyness alternating with indomitable fury, a multisided black man living in perpetual mental chaos. Majors’ eclectic collection of roles show his huge dramatic range. For his role as Montgomery Allen in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Majors was nominated for a Gotham Award in the category of “Breakthrough Actor” and an Independent Spirit Award for “Best Supporting Male.” From The Last Black Man to a fighter pilot in the recent Devotion, and soon a villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, his choices reveal a huge dramatic range which will reap fans for a long time to come. Born September 7, 1989 in Lompoc, California, Majors is a graduate from the Yale School of Drama and is a recipient of the National Society of Arts and Letters (Nsal), National Drama Competition. He made his screen debut starring in the ABC miniseries When We Rise and has since landed strong roles, cementing him as a Hollywood actor to watch.
For more insight into Jonathan Majors and his work, read the interview with The Hollywood Reporter November 30, 2022 on the subject of Devotion.
Majors is executive producing under his Tall Street production banner along with Nightcrawler producers Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy and Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman. CAA Media Finance arranged financing through the Los Angeles Media Fund and is repping the film for both domestic and international distribution. Los Angeles Media Fund (Jeffrey Soros, Luke Rogers III, Simon Horsman and Andrew Blau) fully financed the film. They are currently working on The Color of Cola, a documentary based on a book by Stephanie Capparell, The Real Pepsi Challenge: How One Pioneering Company Broke Color Barriers in 1940s American Business, which shares the experience of the all-Black sales team at Pepsi, directed by Stanley Nelson and Jacqueline Olive.
Jonathan Majors in ‘Magazine Dreams’. Courtesy of Sundance Institute, photo by Glen WilsonBlackMoviesFilm FestivalsBodybuilding...
- 1/24/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Jonathan Majors’ incredible transformation to play bodybuilder Killian Maddox in Magazine Dreams is breathtaking, first seen in godlike glory in a daydream, striking the requisite professional competition poses, caressed by shafts of golden light. But as the soaring strains of Jason Mills’ score wind down into a deflating drone, signaling trouble ahead, the image shifts to Killian under the naked lightbulbs of his humble garage. That’s the first hint that this physically imposing Adonis is in fact a lonely, painfully shy and desperately insecure man, whose feelings of inadequacy, buried self-loathing and resentment often manifest in eruptions of violent rage.
It’s an all-in performance for the ages, layered with as much vulnerability as anger, and it’s to Majors’ credit that our hearts ache for Killian even — or perhaps especially — when he’s out of control. Majors and writer-director Elijah Bynum manage the considerable feat of making us...
It’s an all-in performance for the ages, layered with as much vulnerability as anger, and it’s to Majors’ credit that our hearts ache for Killian even — or perhaps especially — when he’s out of control. Majors and writer-director Elijah Bynum manage the considerable feat of making us...
- 1/24/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Magazine Dreams revolves around Killian Maddox (Jonathan Majors), a man who refuses to be shaken from his dream of becoming a bodybuilding star despite warnings that he’s causing permanent damage to his body. Due to his struggles to engage socially and keep his temper under control, he is disconnected from the rest of the world.
Competing at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Elijah Bynum‘s film explores the unrealistic expectations society puts on men to fulfill masculine roles as well as their struggles to make fulfilling human connections.
Actress Taylour Paige talked with uInterview founder Erik Meers about the film’s message on masculinity at the film’s Sundance premiere.
“I think it starts with us loving men in our homes and how we raise men,” Paige told uInterview exclusively. “There’s a lot of lovelessness and expectation on our society and our culture.”
She noted that society...
Competing at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Elijah Bynum‘s film explores the unrealistic expectations society puts on men to fulfill masculine roles as well as their struggles to make fulfilling human connections.
Actress Taylour Paige talked with uInterview founder Erik Meers about the film’s message on masculinity at the film’s Sundance premiere.
“I think it starts with us loving men in our homes and how we raise men,” Paige told uInterview exclusively. “There’s a lot of lovelessness and expectation on our society and our culture.”
She noted that society...
- 1/23/2023
- by Alex Nguyen
- Uinterview
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