Movies

David Oyelowo stars as Joe "Lightning" Little in Red Tails.

Arts

In 'Selma,' British Actor Brings Outsider's Perspective To MLK

3:00pm February 05, 2015

by Bilal Qureshi

David Oyelowo talks about playing Martin Luther King Jr. in the Oscar-nominated film Selma — as well as the LBJ controversy, slavery and how he learned about what it's like to be black in America.

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Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is a linguistics professor who gets diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. "Who can take us seriously when we are so far from who we once were?" she asks. "We become ridiculous, incapable, comic. But this is not who we are.

Arts

Julianne Moore: Alzheimer's Makes Us Question 'Our Essential Selves'

2:09pm February 05, 2015

by NPR Staff

In Still Alice, Moore plays Alice Howland, a 50-year-old linguistics professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. Moore says she spent months meeting with people affected by the disease.

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Amy Pascal Out As Sony Pictures Chairman

1:25pm February 05, 2015

by Krishnadev Calamur

The studio said she will launch a new production venture within Sony. Her departure comes shortly after the studio was hit by a cyberattack — one that exposed employee data and Pascal's emails.

Books
Arts

How 'Star Wars' Helped Patton Oswalt Beat His Movie Addiction

1:48pm February 04, 2015

by NPR Staff

The actor and comedian reveals in his new memoir, Silver Screen Fiend, that he used to have a film addiction. Watching the first Star Wars prequel led to a realization that helped him kick the habit.

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Bradley Cooper gained 40 pounds of muscle to play Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in the film American Sniper. "It wasn't at all like a costume," he said. "It was like ... this sort of transformative experience to me because there was no going home from it."

Arts

Bradley Cooper: 'Sniper' Controversy Distracts From Film's Message About Vets

3:17pm February 02, 2015

As the film's depiction of the Iraq War has come under scrutiny, Cooper, who portrays Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, says the discussion is moving away from "the fact that 22 vets commit suicide each day."

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Oprah Winfrey and director Ava DuVernay, seen here in November of last year, are collaborating on a new drama series for Winfrey's network, OWN.

Arts

Oprah Winfrey And 'Selma' Director Ava DuVernay Team Up For A Series

2:39pm February 02, 2015

by Linda Holmes

One of the most powerful people in television is teaming up with a top-notch film (and TV) director to create a new series based on the novel Queen Sugar.

World News

Cumberbatch Wants Britain To Pardon Men Convicted Under Anti-Gay Law

3:21pm February 01, 2015

by Scott Neuman

The Oscar-nominated star of the Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game has joined actor and comedian Stephen Fry in calling for a blanket pardon of 49,000 men punished under long-defunct law.

Danny Glover plays Mr. Walker, the head of the black family held hostage by a white supremacist, in Supremacy.

Sports
Arts

Former Basketball Player Scores As A Filmmaker

6:30pm January 31, 2015

by Priska Neely

While Deon Taylor was playing professional basketball in Germany, he had an epiphany: he wanted to make movies. The self-taught director's latest film, Supremacy, was released this Friday.

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Mehdi A.G. Mohamed (left) plays Issan, the orphaned boy who lives with a family outside Timbuktu. The family decides not to leave when radical Islamists come to impose Sharia, or Islamic law.

Arts

When Islamists Impose Their Will In 'Timbuktu,' One Family Resists

3:09pm January 30, 2015

by David Edelstein

The movie, one of five Academy Award nominees for best foreign language film this year, is about radical Islamists occupying the city in Mali. Remarkably, it's often on the verge of being a comedy.

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Singer-songwriter Rod McKuen poses for the media before presenting actress-songwriter Dolly Parton the "Johnny Mercer Songwriter Award" at the 2007 Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremonies held in New York in 2007.

Songwriter, Poet Rod McKuen Dies At 81

8:54am January 30, 2015

by Doreen McCallister

Rod McKuen is credited with more than 200 albums and more than 30 collections of poetry. He died on Thursday after a lengthy illness.