MOVIE
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Jennifer Lopez suffers from some serious love overload in the first trailer for her upcoming Amazon original film This is Me… Now: A Love Story. The two-minute clip that dropped on Wednesday morning (Jan. 17) gives a peek at what looks like an epic tale of Lopez’s eternal search for love, complete with an all-star supporting cast that includes Fat Joe, Trevor Noah, Kim Petras, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Sofia Vergara, Jenifer Lewis, Jay Shetty, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sadhguru, Derek Hough and more.
“I know what they say about me… about hopeless romantics,” Lopez says in voiceover amid a swell of dramatic strings and a shot of the singer/actress first sharing a passionate kiss on the ground and then on having her veil lifted on her wedding day. The she adds, “…that we’re weak. And I’m not weak.”
A quick-cut of Lopez walking solemnly in a steamy subway, staring blankly into a firepit and racing across a lake on a motorcycle before crashing out ends with the ominous warning: “Not all love stories have a happy ending.”
Longtime pal rapper Fat Joe then pops into frame as Lopez’s cozy sweater-wearing therapist before a roomful of her pals stage an intervention, telling Jen that they fear the “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” singer might be a sex addict. The preview features footage from the just-released movie musical-style video for the earworm single “Can’t Get Enough” — the first taste of JLo’s upcoming This Is Me… Now album — as part of a film a release describes as a, “narrative-driven cinematic odyssey, steeped in mythological storytelling and personal healing.”
The “genre-bending” original project promises to showcase “her journey to love through her own eyes. With fantastical costumes, breathtaking choreography, and star-studded cameos, this panorama is an introspective retrospective of Jennifer’s resilient heart.” The trailer also finds Lopez in a support group describing her childhood sharing a room with her sister, lying awake at night wondering how anyone can get shut-eye “when your heart never goes to sleep.”
The narrative-driven short film from Amazon MGM Studios was directed by Dave Meyers (Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift) and written by Lopez and Matt Walton based on a story by the singer, Meyers and Chris Shafer; it is due out on Prime Video globally on the same day as the album, Feb. 16.
In keeping with Meyers’ legendarily over-the-top, effects-laden clips for artists including Harry Styles (“Adore You”), Grande (“No Tears Left to Cry”) and Swift (“Me!”), the This Is Me film preview features futuristic landscapes, elaborate, Gene Kelly-esque dance sequences and a parade of famous faces throughout.
The cast also includes husband Ben Affleck, as well as Trevor Jackson, Paul Raci, Bella Gagliano, Brandon Delsid, Ashley Versher, Malcolm Kelner, Alix Angelis, Danielle Larracuente and Matthew Law.
In an Instagram post featuring the trailer, Lopez wrote, “I have not been this nervous, excited, scared and thrilled to share something with you in years!! The story of the journey from This Is Me…Then to This Is Me…Now is the most personal thing I’ve ever done.”
Check out the This Is Me… Now: A Love Story trailer below.
From Barbie: The Album to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, soundtracks tied to blockbuster films have dominated much of the year. As 2023 draws to a close, Quincy Jones, Scott Sanders and Larry Jackson hope their new expanded soundtrack, released last Friday (Dec. 15) for the forthcoming Color Purple movie musical (which hits theaters Dec. 25), marks a new era for R&B soundtracks and continues the healing Alice Walker sparked with her paramount novel 41 years ago.
Walker’s story has undergone countless iterations over the past four decades: an Oscar-nominated Steven Spielberg-helmed film in 1985, a Tony-winning Broadway musical in 2005, a Grammy-winning Broadway revival in 2015, and now a new movie musical directed by Grammy nominee Blitz Bazawule. Led by Fantasia, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo and Halle Bailey, the new film offers a fresh perspective on the timeless narrative, as evidenced by its accompanying star-studded, globe-traversing Inspired By soundtrack. The new set is comprised of 21 new songs inspired by the film, in addition to 16 tracks taken from the Broadway musical. The genre-spanning set is heavily rooted in R&B — a conscious decision given the way R&B has been counted out by major labels over the past decade.
According to Sanders, who produced the 2005 Broadway musical and serves as executive producer on both the 2023 film and its soundtrack (released through Warner Bros. Pictures/WaterTower Music/gamma), Warner Bros. was always planning to do a soundtrack. “We knew it would be an opportune moment for them to add another dimension to The Color Purple brand extension,” he remarks.
And that’s precisely what the new soundtrack is. As cinematic universes continue to dominate mainstream media, The Color Purple has been crafting its own interconnected web of stories for 40 years — and the new soundtrack became a holy site for reunions and healing among the producers, artists, and cast.
The idea of a proper Inspired By soundtrack started to take form during an April lunch between Sanders and Jackson after the gamma. CEO had seen the film and felt its impact on early audiences. “Whatever veneer of impenetrable stoicism I had at that time, [the film] pierced it,” Jackson reflects. “To me, the great Black films are the ones [where] people are talking back to the screen, they’re applauding, there’s conversations going on, and whooping and hollering. It’s an interactive spirit, and this film has that.”
For Jackson, it was Fantasia’s performance that most moved him. The Billboard Hot 100-topping R&B star leads the film as Celie Harris-Johnson, a role for which she has already earned a Golden Globe nomination. Almost 20 years ago, Fantasia captivated America’s hearts and won the fourth season of American Idol. Shortly after her victory, she headed to the studio to record her debut LP, a Grammy-nominated effort on which Jackson would serve as A&R. That album featured singles such as “Truth Is” and the Missy Elliott-assisted “Free Yourself,” a collaboration that now has a three-way connection to The Color Purple universe.
“That was a lot for me at that time of my life — [Fantasia and I] were basically the same age and really related to what needed to be achieved,” Jackson reflects. “I was saying to Missy Elliott last night, she really helped me craft the sound for Fantasia’s first album.”
On the soundtrack, Elliott appears on two remixes: the Shenseea-featuring “Hell No,” a song from the original musical, and “Keep It Movin’,” a new addition to the musical co-written by Bailey. Like most of the artists involved in the soundtrack, Jackson says that the “Work It” rapper decided to join the project after a private screening of the film. It’s the same way he landed Alicia Keys, who co-wrote and co-produced the soundtrack’s lead single (“Lifeline”), Johntá Austin, whose “When I Can’t Do Better” marks his first collaboration with Mary J. Blige since their iconic “Be Without You,” and The-Dream. Fresh off a Grammy win for his work on Beyoncé’s Renaissance, The-Dream could be headed down to the Oscars thanks to “Superpower,” a new song he penned for the Color Purple end credits.
Often, end-credit songs are performed by artists who don’t appear in the film — but in the case of The Color Purple, everyone was in early agreement that Fantasia was the only correct choice to belt the closing ballad. For one, both the song and the movie are Fantasia’s formal re-entry into the public eye as a performer, but her specific voice and story were the best vehicle for The-Dream’s lyrics. “This is older Celie singing to her younger self — it is a quintessential ‘it gets better’ song,” Sanders gushes. “It’s so f—king moving. I can’t stop listening to it. I cry when I listen to Fantasia’s rendition.” For “Superpower,” Jackson told The-Dream, “I just want a spiritual, a song that will move on far past our time. Something that will be sung in high school graduations.”
Although the SAG-AFTRA strike almost prevented Fantasia from recording the song, the timing worked out and she was able to cut her vocal in time. Given that Fantasia played Celie on Broadway for eight months during the Broadway show’s original run, her rendition of the end-credits song is the kind of full-circle moment that most artists dream of. “Superpower” is a rousing song – one in which she deftly displays the expanse of vocal range and control – and a potential comeback vehicle for not just Fantasia, but the R&B soundtrack in general. In crafting The Color Purple (Music From and Inspired By), Sanders, Jackson and film director Blitz Bazawule drew inspiration from iconic R&B film soundtracks of decades past, including Sparkle, The Bodyguard, Boomerang and Waiting to Exhale.
“It had always been on my bucket list to do a soundtrack that felt like the great soundtracks of the 1970s, or the ones in the ‘90s,” Jackson says. “I’ve been involved in a few of them, but Clive [Davis] was always the one who was leading it. It never was something that I was driving with my own personal taste and sensibility, and this was an opportunity for that.”
The Color Purple soundtrack bookmarks a year that began with troubling layoffs for one of the most storied labels in Black music history. In the middle of Black History Month (Feb. 16), Billboard reported that Motown was set to be reintegrated under Capitol Music Group – hence the layoffs – making for a less-than-preferable outcome after the company attempted a run as a standalone label back in 2021. Despite a precarious start to the year, R&B artists have once again forged a spot at the forefront of the mainstream, thanks to acts such as SZA, Victoria Monét, Usher, Coco Jones and more. It’s a level of momentum, Sanders and Jackson hope to continue with their generation-bridging Color Purple tracklist.
In addition to the cast, The Color Purple soundtrack features contributions from Jennifer Hudson, Keyshia Cole, Mary J. Blige, Mary Mary, H.E.R., Ludmilla, Megan Thee Stallion and more. Like Fantasia, Jennifer Hudson’s track marks another full-circle moment for The Color Purple universe. Hudson took home the 2017 Grammy Award for best musical theater album thanks to the Broadway revival, and, of course, she was a contestant on the same season of American Idol as Fantasia. In another connection, Hudson herself also starred in a blockbuster Black movie musical that hit theaters on Christmas Day: 2006’s Dreamgirls, for which she won the Academy Award for best supporting actress.
Although Walker’s novel specifically highlights the stories of Black American women in the American South during the early 20th century, the new Color Purple soundtrack both globalizes those narratives and translates them to contemporary times. Megan Thee Stallion’s remix of “Hell No” — a selection from the original musical – carries a special weight given the way she has refused to let misogynoir drown out her voice over the past few years. Jamaican cross-genre star Shenseea appears on a different “Hell No” remix, and her inclusion on the tracklist – alongside Brazilian singer-songwriter Ludmilla – highlights how The Color Purple’s narrative resonates with Black women around the world.
“Every day was meeting to reaffirm why I’m doing this, to remind myself the importance of this work,” explains director Blitz Bazawule. “It’s daunting. You’re talking about a legacy that you don’t approach if you don’t have anything real to contribute.” Bazawule aimed to contribute new perspectives of childhood and Celie’s inner dialogue in his version of The Color Purple. In translating a Broadway play to the silver screen, Bazawule was pushed to think about which characters and moments in the plot needed songs. “Keep It Movin’,” co-written by Bailey and Grammy-winning songwriting duo Nova Wav, was one of those songs. “Nettie’s character, as I saw it, needed to impart to Celie some level of confidence that will stay with her sister before they reconnect at the very end,” Bazawule says. “[The song] shows a young girl’s innocence which will very soon be snatched away quite violently. I need that moment to be memorable and really reflect the love the sisters have for each other.”
Bailey, who starred as the titular Little Mermaid earlier this year, is, of course, one-half of the Grammy-nominated sister duo Chloe x Halle. The “Angel” singer drew from her relationship with her sister for “Keep It Movin’,” a dynamic that exemplifies the symbiotic healing nature of The Color Purple soundtrack. As artists completed their contributions to the project, they experienced moments of healing themselves. According to Bazawule, those moments occurred throughout filming, spurred by the omnipresence of faith and gospel music on set. Gospel music is a clear throughline between the original music, the Inspired By soundtrack, and the way the musical’s songs were reworked for the film.
“Gospel is the foundation. When you think about how our version of The Color Purple functions, which is the oscillation between joy and pain and turning our pain into power, it’s the definition of gospel,” remarks Bazawule. “You don’t have anything without gospel, so, for us, it was central to how we advanced everything. I also was very clear that I’d have to split my musical journey into 3 three parts: gospel, blues and jazz.” To bring a more cinematic, gospel-infused feel to the original Broadway music, Bazawule tagged in Billboard chart-topping gospel star Ricky Dillard; He also recruited Keb’ Mo’ to bring in the blues, and Christian McBride for jazz. He even made sure his DP (Dan Lausten) and production designer (Paul D. Austerberry) got an authentic Black church experience. With both Fantasia and Domingo regularly leading the cast and crew in prayer, The Color Purple transformed into “spiritual work that shows up in the amount of healing that a lot of us went through making this film,” says Bazawule.
“You cannot work on The Color Purple without understanding what anointing looks like,” Bazawule asserts. “When those singers open their mouths, that’s church talking. That was very clear and it stayed critical up until the end.”
Just days before The Color Purple is set to open in theatres, a Hollywood Reporter piece exploring the hesitancy of studios to promote movie musicals as musicals started to make the rounds online. Black movie musicals are few and far between, especially when holiday films and biopics are removed, and The Color Purple is hoping to dispel the notion that audiences aren’t interested in seeing musicals on the big screen.
“I hope [The Color Purple] opens the door to many more and I hope directors and studios take more chances with Black movie musicals,” muses Bazawule. “Again, when it comes to music, we are unmatched, so you just have to find the narratives. I hope and pray our movie will move the needle.”
Academy Award nominee Antonio Banderas is a singing villain in Journey to Bethlehem, a Christmas musical adventure about the Nativity story in which he plays Herod, King of Judea. In theaters since Nov. 10, the movie is also available at home starting Friday (Dec. 8), just in time for Christmas. Directed by Glee executive music […]
Taylor Swift is celebrating her upcoming 34th birthday by giving Swifties the greatest gift of all. “Hi! Well, so, basically I have a birthday coming up and I was thinking a fun way to celebrate the year we’ve had together would be to make The Eras Tour Concert Film available for you to watch at […]
Beyoncé dropped a new trailer for her upcoming RENAISSANCE: A Film by Beyoncé movie on Thursday morning (Nov. 9), which promises to capture the eye-popping global tour of the same name in all its silver-streaked, bass-thumping glory. The film, directed by the singer, will hit theaters around the world on Dec. 1 after its Los […]
Before her death in January at age 54, Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley and wife Priscilla, reportedly lashed out at the way her dad was depicted in the script for Sofia Coppola’s new biopic about her mom, Priscilla. Variety reported on Thursday (Nov. 2) that it had obtained two emails Lisa Marie sent to Coppola in which she asked the director to reconsider her take on the couple’s love story to spare her family from public embarrassment.
“My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative. As his daughter, I don’t read this and see any of my father in this character. I don’t read this and see my mother’s perspective of my father,” Lisa Marie reportedly wrote in two messages she sent to Coppola about four hours apart last September. “I read this and see your shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don’t understand why?”
In the messages, Lisa Marie was said to have asked the Oscar-winning director to not further strain her already brittle relationship with mother Priscilla or shine a spotlight on Elvis’ living grandchildren while they were grieving the loss of Lisa Marie’s son, Benjamin Keough, who died in 2020.
Coppola’s biopic is based on Priscilla’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, which depicts the couple’s controversial relationship that began in Germany in 1959 when the singer was 24 and Priscilla was 14. At the point that Lisa Marie sent the emails Coppola had not begun shooting the movie, but Lisa Marie reportedly made it clear that she would condemn the project and the participation of her estranged mother, who is an executive producer on the project and who has been part of A24’s publicity campaign for it; Priscilla had a limited Oct. 27 opening and expands to more screen today (Nov. 3).
“I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother and this film publicly,” Presley reportedly wrote to Coppola. The director commented to Variety through a rep, who shared how Coppola reportedly responded to Lisa Marie after receiving the emails.
“I hope that when you see the final film you will feel differently, and understand I’m taking great care in honoring your mother, while also presenting your father with sensitivity and complexity,” Coppola wrote.
In her emails, Lisa Marie worried that Priscilla did not understand how the shocking age gap between Elvis (played by Euphoria‘s Jacob Elordi) and Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) would translate for modern audiences. “I am worried that my mother isn’t seeing the nuance here or realizing the way in which Elvis will be perceived when this movie comes out,” Lisa Marie wrote. “I feel protective over my mother who has spent her whole life elevating my father’s legacy. I am worried she doesn’t understand the intentions behind this film or the outcome it will have.”
Speaking to Rolling Stone this month, Coppola — also the scion of a world-renowned father, director Francis Ford Coppola — said she strives not to be “judgmental” about any of the characters in her films and tries to be as sympathetic as possible. “And I’m really focused on her perspective, but even with the parents, you’re like, ‘How can anybody let their kid go live with Elvis that young?’” she told the magazine. During interviews at the Venice Film Festival in August, Priscilla once again clarified that she and Elvis were not sexually intimate when she was 14.
In her emails, however, Lisa Marie said she couldn’t understand Coppola’s need to “take my father down on the heels of such an incredible film [Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 musical biopic Elvis] using the excuse that you are trying to tell my mother’s story, but from your very dark and jaded reality.”
After releasing his new album, The Love Album: Off The Grid, last month, Diddy is upping the ante with his forthcoming film, Off The Grid. The first trailer for the film — powered by the sonics off The Love Album — dropped on Monday morning (Oct. 30) and features Diddy and budding actress Eva Apio in a romantic […]
Beyoncé will host the dual premieres of her Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé concert movie in Los Angeles on Nov. 25 and London on Nov. 30, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The roll-out will happen just a few days before AMC Entertainment and Bey’s Parkwood Entertainment open the film in theaters around the world on Dec. 1.
The doc chronicling the singer’s highest-grossing tour to date was co-directed by the singer, who also wrote it and executive produced the project. Tickets for international territories — including Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, South America and the Caribbean — will go on sale on Nov. 9 here; tickets are on sale now in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
A description of the film notes that it, “accentuates the journey of Renaissance World Tour, from its inception, to the opening in Stockholm, Sweden, to the finale in Kansas City, Missouri. It is about Beyoncé’s intention, hard work, involvement in every aspect of the production, her creative mine and purpose to create her legacy, and master her craft. Received with extraordinary acclaim, Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour created a sanctuary for freedom, and shared joy for more than 2.7 million fans.”
While locations for the U.S. and European premieres have not yet been announced, an invitation for London suggested a “formal opulence” dress code, while the L.A. premiere calls for “Cozy opulence,” a seeming reference to the Renaissance album track “Cozy.”
“When I am performing, I am nothing but free,” Bey said in the voiceover of the film’s two-minute trailer that also includes the singer casually walking to stage while flashing a peace sign, stretching pre-show with her kids — including rehearsing with backup dancer/eldest daughter Blue Ivy Carter — and having a cocktail in the green room. Husband Jay-Z also makes a cameo, pumping his fist and smiling from the crowd in the clip that also featured the couple’s twins, Rumi and Sir.
The two-hour-and-thirty-minute unrated film is the latest concert film from Bey, following on the heels of her 2019 Netflix doc Homecoming — which chronicled her 2018 Coachella headlining set — as well as her 2013 HBO movie, Life Is But a Dream, a hybrid live performance and video diary project, and 2009’s I Am… Yours: An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas.
Watch the Renaissance trailer below.
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In advance of Britney Spears coming back to the big screen in next month’s re-release of the singer’s movie debut in 2002’s coming-of-age road-trip dramedy Crossroads, a new trailer is getting fans hyped for the special event.
The 30-second trailer for the global fan event on Oct. 23 and 25 opens with Spears’ Lucy enthusiastically singing Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” into a spoon in her teenage bedroom, which just happens to have a poster of Madge’s debut album cover in plain view on the wall.
As Spears bounces around the room lost in music, she suddenly stops and hops under the bed when her dad (Dan Akroyd) yells from the other room. Cut to Lucy hopping in the car with her two estranged high school besties, Mimi (Taryn Manning) and Kit (Zoë Saldaña) for a cross-country road trip, where they’re joined by Mimi’s handsome friend, Ben (Anson Mount).
“So I’m going all the way to California,” Mimi says, as Spears’ Lucy counsels, “you can’t go by yourself with some guy.” We also see Akroyd berating Lucy for sneaking away in the middle of the night and ordering her to return right away. The clip ends with Spears crooning “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” one of the hits from the singer’s 2001 Britney album.
The two-night event from Trafalgar Releasing, Sony Music Entertainment and RCA Records will support Spears’ upcoming tell-all memoir, The Woman in Me (Oct. 24). The movie written by Shonda Rhimes (Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy) and directed by Tamra Davis (CB4, 13) will include bonus features never before seen in theaters — including a sing-along to two of Spears’ songs from the film.
“I recently rewatched Crossroads and was so enthralled with the time capsule of nostalgia that this incredible ensemble cast brings to the screen,” director Davis said in a statement when the re-release was announced last week. “Britney is absolutely breathtaking to watch, and Shonda is showing us her early expertise in writing complicated female characters.”
There will also be a new merch line featuring shirts, sweats, jackets and pieces inspired by the film’s wardrobe, as well as RCA Records’ Crossroads: Special Edition of the soundtrack, with three new Spears remixes: “Overprotected” (Richi Lopez Remix), “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” (Snakehips Remix) and “I Love Rock ‘N Roll” (Frank Walker Remix).
Watch the new Crossroads trailer below.
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Lil Nas X has always been unabashedly himself, never shying away from being out and proud in a genre that hasn’t always been accepting to the LGBTQ community. The “Industry Baby” rapper also reveals in his new documentary, Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, that he helped his brother, Tramon Hill, come out as bisexual.
The film — which has its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday night — includes a scene in which Hill describes how Lil Nas, 24, made him comfortable discussing who he is as well, according to EW. “My brother really opened doors for a lot of people,” Hill says in the film, EW reported. “Yeah, he opened a door for me. What I mean by that, like, I’m not gay, though, you feel me? I’m bisexual. He helped me be real with myself. My brother made me more open to it.”
Later in the movie, Hill says that while he was worried about losing some of his cherished relationships after coming out, Lil Nas helped show him the way again. “If you f–k with me, you f–l with me. If you don’t, you don’t. Bye. Get out of my presence. I don’t need you,” Hill says. “At the end of the day, people are going to f–k with who they f–k with, so stop trying to chase a friend. A friend is going to always be there.”
The film also follows Lil Nas as he hits the road for his debut tour, 2022’s Long Live Montero, hangs with Madonna and faces off against homophobic protesters outside his shows. EW also noted that Lil Nas tells a funny story toward the beginning of the movie about running into How to Get Away With Murder star Viola Davis at the iconic L.A. grocery store Erewhon that did not go as expected.
“I met Viola Davis at an Erewhon, but I don’t think she knew who the f– I was,” Lil Nas says while showing directors Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel a photo of David taped to his bedroom wall, which also features images of Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Euphoria star Alexa Demie. “I was like, ‘I’m such a big fan,’ and she was like, ‘Oh, thanks,’ and she hurried out the store. It was kind of funny.”
At press time there was no release date yet for the film, whose debut this weekend was delayed by 20 minutes after a bomb threat was called in to the festival; authorities later verified that the threat was not credible.