Christopher Nolan on Quentin Tarantino's 10-Film Rule: “I think it’s dangerous to look at it that specifically. I mean, Quentin has his reasons, and I respect those enormously. But I’m hoping that he won’t stay true to them. Every film that I do is the last I’ll ever make—and one day I will be right. So every time I want to put everything into the project at hand. I’m never thinking, ‘Well, I’ll save this for the next one.’ I don’t ever want to think like that. I want each movie to be everything.”

It's sad that The Social Reckoning is not working, and it was never meant to. Nothing against Sorkin as a writer. He's brilliant. A master. The issue is Sorkin can't keep the rhythm of his scripts matching the rhythm of his directing. Because he lacks that visual balance, his great subjects end up feeling too on the nose.

One thing that should be abundantly clear when it comes to Sicario 3: If there is no Jeffrey Donovan, there's not going to be a movie. With the main cast returning, Donovan must be next in line to be announced. Steven Forsing is an important character just as much as the rest. His quiet, tactical presence gives the team its grounding. You can't finish the trilogy without the guy who survived the border shootout and the desert.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey might just win Best Picture at the Oscars next year. While its nomination is guaranteed in many categories, its box office reign is unstoppable. The demand is so high that on October 9, the film is heading back to IMAX and IMAX 70mm screens. This re-release gives people a rare chance to experience the film as Nolan intended in 70mm if they missed it at first or catch it for a second or third time.

A $200M+ budget for Joseph Kosinski's Miami Vice '85 is an absolute certainty thanks to a massive cast: Austin Butler, Michael B. Jordan, and now André Holland. Michael Mann's 2006 Miami Vice adaptation famously blew past its limits, costing an eye-watering $135M to $150M. But Mann's film is a priceless masterpiece. Kosinski, on the other hand, operates on a different level, which is blockbuster mixed with intimate character-driven narrative. Time will tell more.

Paul Thomas Anderson will come back for another Oscar. He's not done yet. If the rumors about a 1940s jazz epic or a Chester Himes book adaptation are true, we are going to get something definitely special. PTA is notorious for building entire film aesthetics around a specific sound, which explains why Jonny Greenwood is busy learning a new instrument just for Anderson's next film.

Michael Bay talking about directing Transformers again probably means he's getting the chance to make that R-rated Transformers he once pitched. Bay's vision of an R-rated Transformers was very Quentin Tarantino in style. But if it's not R-rated, his return still makes sense. His five films pulled in a massive $4.38 billion worldwide. And having Steven Spielberg return to lead the creative direction as producer makes the comeback even more interesting.

Mainstream cinema has turned tech biopics into a formulaic hit-job process. Every major film about a tech founder has to follow the exact same script. Today's films strip away the genius of the invention and focus entirely on a one-sided, villainized version of their personality. The drama feels fabricated at this point. Yes, the inventors have flaws. But these platforms, devices, and systems shape our global infrastructure and daily progress, and we're completely ignoring the positive impact of these inventions.

Tom Cruise might lose back-end bonuses due to Digger not performing well at the box office. But it's not just about box office numbers or even those lucrative checks his contract usually relies on. Digger served a unique purpose for Cruise. It reminded everyone he's a phenomenal character actor, and it might push him to take more of these creative risks.

Director Luca Guadagnino's Artificial is generating a ton of buzz for taking a satirical approach to the OpenAI boardroom coup. There's nothing wrong with satire, but why do films about massive tech shifts always feel the need to mock the situation instead of treating it with the seriousness the truth deserves? If the actual goal is to expose tech executives and stop treating them like infallible gods, then a brutal, serious drama would actually make way more sense.

Clayface is DC's secret weapon. The R-rated horror thriller doesn't need to hit $1 billion at the box office to be an absolute massive win. But it just might or get close. If it's good, even 80% of what DC's Joker had in terms of compelling plot and good filmmaking, we have an absolute winner.

To those who are worried that The Batman Part II will be delayed and that they will never be able to see the sequel: A movie delay is not that important. What's important is that Matt Reeves and his family are fine. Family always comes first. Reeves is a dedicated artist who takes his job and responsibilities seriously. It's guaranteed that he'll return to finish the work and get the film ready by the release date. If not, it can wait.

Digger was never an overnight idea. It's been Alejandro Iñárritu's passion project for a decade. Some projects, no matter what the subject is or what the reception will be like, you still go with it at all costs. That is the definition of true artistic conviction. Iñárritu spent years developing the script under the original title Blah, Blah, Blah. It fell apart three times, including once at Netflix when Leonardo DiCaprio was set to star.

Sicario 3 is officially happening. Getting Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, and Josh Brolin on screen together again is a massive win. But let’s talk about the elephant in the room: no Taylor Sheridan script. Look, Steven Knight is an Oscar-nominated genius, but Sheridan is the DNA of Sicario. Then there’s the wildcard director, Padraic McKinley. The Weight proved he can handle a gritty crime drama, but can he replicate Villeneuve's monumental, suffocating atmosphere?

Netflix, with all its ambitions, never fully tried to jump into the game of the film business. The streaming-first model is outdated now, just like some films used to be TV movies and the straight-to-DVD types. Releasing The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, which cost $200 million in more than just IMAX screens, could give us all a sign that Netflix is a studio, not a tech company.

Where's our 3.5-hour Director's Cut of Ridley Scott's Napoleon? Before rolling the cameras for Treasure Island, it'd make sense for Scott to convince Sony to give us the 4K director's cut. Napoleon is a beautiful film with some of the best action set pieces and production design. We deserve to cherish the song in its entirety.

The James Gunn and David Ellison dilemma: You'd think that after James Gunn's Superman proved unprofitable, Ellison would let Gunn go. Ellison is stuck with what Gunn has cooked so far, even though he chose not to extend Gunn's contract after the Skydance merger. Firing Gunn now would destroy the momentum of Clayface and Man of Tomorrow. Ellison is playing it safe to avoid a mess, but the door is wide open for Gunn to exit in April 2027.

This whole good guy vs. a bad guy narrative needs to stop. Let's try to be bold. Labeling a film bad or the worst just because we disagree with its message or characters isn't a critique of filmmaking. It’s a refusal to engage with the art. Yes, director Alejandro Iñárritu's Digger is repeating the exact same script as Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another. But if we look closely by putting away our picket signs, both films drag their protagonists through the mud by the end. No one actually wins. Look at Ridley Scott's The Counselor. Universally hated at release, but now defended as a misunderstood but brilliant film that also dared to be different. The only reason The Counselor was despised, and why Digger is getting trashed now, is because it broke the golden rule of Hollywood: it refused to give us a hero.

This is for Michael Mann Critics: The great Michael Mann went back into the editing room to finish what he felt was left incomplete with Miami Vice because it's his film. Those privileged enough put on their pacifiers to see the final cut and now are throwing a tantrum because the new ending isn't to their taste. You don't get it. Every cut is beautiful. You guys never grasped the beauty, let alone the true meaning, of the digital color palettes and the heavy atmospheric textures of all versions.

We're now looking at a historic head-to-head clash between Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve for the upcoming Best Picture race. Early insider word from the secret WB screenings is that Dune: Part Three is flat-out extraordinary, as everyone was blown away by Villeneuve's rough cut. This means Nolan's The Odyssey no longer has a clear path to sweeping the awards. We're going to witness a war between two of the greatest directors of our generation.

Get ready, because next month we'll be dissecting The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth. It's going to divide a lot of people. This isn't a blockbuster crowd-pleaser. It’s a gritty, art-house picture. A cold salute to a bygone era that forces us to confront the dark side of a legendary character. It completely trades Tarantino’s sunny, foot-fetish fairytales for Fincher’s obsessive, cold-blooded clinical perfectionism, a jarring tonal shift that almost no one is ready for.