The first stop on Anne Hathaway’s insane run of 2026 movies is Mother Mary. The A24 horror film and pop star extravaganza had the Oscar winner looking to the likes of Taylor Swift’s Reputation tour and Beyoncé’s Renaissance to embody a fictional pop queen. CinemaBlend spoke to writer/director David Lowery about watching the actress transform into Mother Mary.

Mother Mary follows a seasoned music sensation years after leaving the spotlight due to a very public incident. She decides to reach out to her estranged fashion designer Sam (Michaela Coel) to make her the perfect outfit to step back on the stage again. Here’s what David Lowery told us about the time on set where he realized she had become Mother Mary:

The movie is primarily (and perhaps surprisingly) an intimate two-hander for the first half that follows Mother Mary and Sam back in the same room after many years apart. Since the movie was shot in order for the most part – with the sequences where Mother Mary is on stage in front of fans later on – Lowery didn’t get to see Anne Hathaway in full-on pop star garb right away on set. But she she brought it out rather quickly by unexpectedly doing a dramatic snap to a dialogue scene with Coel. As Lowery also said this about Hathaway’s pop star transformation:

When CinemaBlend attended a screening of Mother Mary at Vidiots in Los Angeles, David Lowery also talked about how meticulous Anne Hathaway was in the recording booth recording the soundtrack to her pop star character along with going to “bootcamp” and even talking to Charli XCX about her experiences as a pop star. Charli XCX wrote the songs for Mother Mary alongside Jack Antonoff. Check out the Mother Mary trailer below:

Mother Mary has been earning smash reviews, with people calling it a “visually fascinating chamber piece”, having an “intoxicating air that draws you in” and a “dive-off for the ages”. Hathaway clearly embodied this role with a lot of commitment, and it shows in the final, enrapturing product.

You can see Mother Mary in select theaters now, with it going wide this weekend. It’s one of five films on the 2026 movie schedule Anne Hathaway is in this year. You’ll also be able to see her in The Devil Wears Prada on May 1, The Odyssey on July 17, The End of Oak Street on August 14 and Verity on October 2.

Anne Hathaway has an insane year ahead of her, with five movies being released on the 2026 movie calendar, including the highly anticipated The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey. Before those, though, we’ve got Mother Mary, a psychological pop thriller whose trailer looks like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour but with witches. The movie is in limited theaters now before its wide release on April 24, and the reviews are in to help us decide if we’ll be partaking in this psychosexual affair.

Mother Mary is an upcoming A24 release, so surely we should expect the unexpected when Anne Hathaway’s titular pop star reconnects with her estranged friend and costume designer, Sam (Michaela Coel), for help with a dress for her comeback tour. Clint Gage of IGN rates it a “Great” 8 out of 10, saying it looks amazing and has cool vibes to spare. More from this review of Mother Mary:

Dan Bayer of Next Best Picture calls the relationship between Mary and Sam a “diva-off for the ages” with its “bitchy fabulosity.” The stars make a meal out of writer/director David Lowery’s dialogue, which layers in themes of identity, artistic collaboration and celebrity worship for a movie that demands rewatches, the critic says. It’s also just fun. Bayer gives it an 8 out of 10, writing:

Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert rates the movie 3 stars out of 4, saying A24 and David Lowery are taking a big swing with this one, telling a story of obsession and celebrity in a way that hasn’t been done before. Tallerico writes in his Mother Mary review:

David Fear of Rolling Stone calls the film “the mother of all modern-pop superstar nightmares,” writing that David Lowery takes the accessible topic of pop superstardom and turns it into something that could never feel mainstream. This tale of Mary and Sam is “a fucking head trip,” the critic says, writing:

Jake Coyle of the AP rates Mother Mary 2.5 stars out of 4, calling it a “fitfully spellbinding chamber drama.” As the plot progresses, the story gets increasingly surreal, sliding into body horror and simultaneously becoming more visually captivating and more tiresome. Coyle continues:

It definitely sounds like audiences are in for a wild ride with this one, and critics seem overall pleased with A24’s newest offering, scoring it at 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. Mother Mary is in select theaters now and will see its wide release Friday, April 24.

Anne Hathaway’s massive year of 2026 movies starts next week with the release of A24’s Mother Mary, and it’s an exciting turn for the Oscar winner into the world of pop stars. In the upcoming movie, Hathaway plays a famed singer who orchestrates a comeback (and releases some inner demons) with her former designer, played by Michaela Coel. It turns out, the concerts in the movie were actually inspired by one of Taylor Swift's tours. As a Swiftie, I’m loving how Mother Mary was influenced by the singer.

In a new interview with Empire, Mother Mary writer/director David Lowery shared how Taylor Swift fit into the filmmaking process, and it’s a lot. In his words:

Mother Mary was in the making for seven years, making Taylor Swift’s Reputation concert film the perfect resource for the filmmaker. The film sadly left Netflix back in 2023, but these days there’s even more concert footage from Swift with the Eras Tour movie and Disney+ docuseries.

As a Swiftie myself, I love that the filmmaker is giving the Reputation era its flowers because it really was a huge moment for the pop star that feels perfect to inspire a supernatural A24 movie. As he continued:

It’s pretty amazing how the Reputation Tour was so helpful to Mother Mary, and as someone who has seen it already, I could definitely see how that tour specificly was a reference point to the movie. David Lowery also said this:

Now I have to wonder if Taylor Swift will see Mother Mary and have anything to say about it. And I also need to know what songs Anne Hathaway was listening to while playing the role of Mother Mary. You can check out the Mother Mary trailer here:

Looks spooky, right? While Anne Hathaway’s new movie definitely is its own thing and doesn’t feel explicitly like Taylor Swift, one could also compare her pop star character to Lady Gaga or Lorde; it definitely only makes me more intrigued by the concept with this context in mind. Oh, and it has another Taylor Swift connection, given that the singer’s frequent collaborator, Jack Antonoff, wrote some of the music Anne Hathaway’s Mother Mary sings alongside Charli XCX and fka twigs.

Mother Mary hits theaters on April 17. It’s one of five films from the actress this year, who’s also in The Devil Wears Prada (May 1), The Odyssey (July 17), The End of Oak Street (August 13) and Verity (October 2). However, right now, she's in her Reputation era, and you can see it on the big screen very soon.

Some mild SPOILERS are ahead for Peter Pan & Wendy, now streaming with a Disney+ subscription. 

Though at his core he’s never meant to grow up, Peter Pan has also been around now across the over a century. And, when you're around pop culture for that long, the classic character has certainly seen some edits to his lore along the way, most recently with David Lowery’s Peter Pan & Wendy. The latest live-action Disney remake of an animated film is a more grounded version of the story, with some notable changes from past iterations. 

When CinemaBlend spoke to the writer/director behind the new adaptation of the Peter Pan story, we discussed one popular character choice that he chose not to include. Between the original 1953 Disney film, to the 2003 cult favorite, there’s been an air of romance in the past between the boy who wouldn’t grow up and Wendy and Tinker Bell. Lowery shared his thoughts on the subject: 

Remember the animated version? Tinker Bell was characterized as a jealous fairy who refused to share Wendy. Then, I feel like in multiple iterations I’ve seen of Peter Pan, the actors have seemed to be interested in Wendy, even though he’s basically recruiting her to be his and the Lost Boys’ mother. Weird vibes, am I right? Makes sense why Lowery decided to skip the popular character choice for his version. 

The Peter Pan & Wendy cast is primarily quite young as well, as he pointed out. What makes this version special is the exploration of Jude Law’s Captain Hook, which Law spoke to CinemaBlend in depth about during the interview as well. Additionally, the movie dives into the messages of what it means to grow up. The scene where Wendy’s “happy thoughts” on the plank is imagining herself getting older was particularly an important part of the film, as Lowery shared: 

Peter Pan is just one of those stories that is always going to be retold by new filmmakers with new perspectives on the material. As far as this one goes, audiences are overall mixed on David Lowery’s Peter Pan & Wendy. CinemaBlend’s own Peter Pan & Wendy review awarded the film an overall positive 3.5 out of 5, saying it “misses some opportunities to possibly elevate the material” but found it “pretty entertaining” as well. You can check out the movie, and decide for yourself, now streaming only on Disney+. 

Disney has been keeping busy, providing live-action remakes for many of its popular animated classics. The Little Mermaid has certainly been getting a lot of attention ahead of its release in May, but fans don’t actually have to wait that long to get their live-action fix. Peter Pan & Wendy is set to premiere on Disney+ on April 28, giving audiences an updated look at the boy who wouldn’t grow up and the magical world of Neverland. The movie has screened, so those lucky enough to catch an early showing are taking to social media with their first reactions to Peter Pan & Wendy. 

Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson have been cast as the titular characters, and they’ll join other actors including a barely recognizable Jude Law as Captain Hook, Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell (whose preparation for the role sounds delightful) and others including Alan Tudyk, Jim Gaffigan and Molly Parker. Let’s take a look at some of the first impressions of the new film from early screenings. CinemaBlend’s Sarah El-Mahmoud is mixed overall on the movie, but she praises the cast, especially Jude Law’s “more grounded” villain. She tweets: 

Joseph Deckelmeier of ScreenRant also comments on what to expect from Captain Hook, saying his and Peter’s backstories add to the movie. He also commends Ever Anderson as Wendy, saying: 

House Of Mouse fan Matthias says the optics are beautiful, and that would certainly be the hope for a movie that is set in the ultimate fantasy land. It’s a shame in that regard that the remake isn’t getting a theatrical release. Matthias tweets: 

Trudie Graham doesn’t seem to have enjoyed Peter Pan & Wendy, calling it “magicless.” However, this moviegoer joins others in complimenting Ever Anderson’s performance, tweeting: 

Another moviegoer says the audience enjoyed the screening, and they join others in saying that Ever Anderson and Jude Law were the perfect casting choices. The fan tweets:

The reactions so far seem a bit unsure about the movie overall, but it sounds like the performances live up to expectations. Hopefully we'll get more clarity when the reviews come out. 

The live-action Peter Pan & Wendy movie is the next of several planned remakes coming from Disney. In addition to next month’s The Little Mermaid, a retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is coming in 2024, as well as Mufasa: The Lion King, which is both a sequel and prequel to Jon Favreau’s 2019 movie. 

Peter Pan & Wendy will be available to stream on Friday, April 28, for those with a Disney+ subscription. But if it’s a trip to the theater that you’re craving, hit up our 2023 Movie Release Calendar to see what movies are coming soon. 

In the summer of 2021, David Lowery took audiences into the wild, fantastical, and downright weird world of The Green Knight, the director’s unique spin on the Arthurian legend, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and what an experience it was. 

The movie, which stars Dev Patel as the young and unproven Gawain, who becomes trapped in a deadly game with the mysterious knight, is one of the most fascinating releases of the year, and stories behind the making of the transfixing A24 cinematic spectacle are just as, if not more, interesting. Below, we will break down some of the more impressive behind the scenes facts about The Green Knight and how its biggest moments came to be.

David Lowery Decided To Adapt The Green Knight, Wrote The Script, And Started Shooting All Within A Span Of 11 Months

With the scope of the story and level of detail seen throughout The Green Knight, you would assume that it was a project long in the works, and one that went through an extensive pre-production period, but that couldn’t be any farther from the truth. 

In a July 2021 interview with IndieWire, director David Lowery revealed that while he had read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight earlier in life, he didn’t become obsessed with the idea of making an adaptation of his own until 11 months before cameras started rolling. At one point in this process, Lowery considered shooting in Texas instead of across the pond, but as he re-read the poem once more, he knew he had to get as close to original location as possible.

When Planning Out The Green Knight Character, David Lowery Wanted Him To Sound Like A Weed Being Uprooted With Each Movement

One thing David Lowery knew he and his crew had to get right with The Green Knight was the sound design of the titular knight, especially since the character is supposed to be of the earth and not mankind. When sitting down with CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast, Lowery explained that he wanted Ralph Ineson’s character to sound like he was uprooting himself from the ground with each step, and so he went to sound designer Johnny Marshall and asked him to make the Green Knight sound like roots being pulled from the ground.

Ralph Ineson Wore Wooden Contacts To Give The Green Knight An Earthy Look

When he was first planning out The Green Knight, David Lowery considered using puppets or CGI to bring the mysterious knight to life, but eventually decided to cast Ralph Ineson to take on the role. 

In the Boldest of Blood and Wildest of Heart: Making of The Green Knight featurette that accompanied the movie’s home release, it was revealed that Ineson would undergo hours of makeup and prosthetic applications each day during shooting, but that’s not even the craziest part. To make the character look as if he was made from the Earth, Ineson wore wooden contact lenses. And, somehow, Ineson was able to have a spark in his eye when he toys with Gawain during their second and final confrontation.

David Lowery Changed A Core Character From The Original Poem So He Could Contribute To The Talking Fox Lexicon

Even though The Green Knight is a fairly faithful adaptation of the source material, there were several changes made to the story during the planning process. One of those is the inclusion of the talking fox that accompanies Gawain on his journey to the Green Chapel. 

In the Boldest of Blood and Wildest of Heart: Making of The Green Knight featurette, David Lowery revealed that the fox was partially added in as a replacement for the servant character that accompanied the hero in the final leg of his quest, because he thought Gawain should complete the journey alone. Another reason was the fact that Lowery wanted to contribute to the talking fox lexicon, taking inspiration from Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox and Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist.

Dev Patel Convinced David Lowery To Have Gawain Behead The Green Knight With King Arthur’s Excalibur

In the original story, Sir Gawain decapitates the Green Knight with the knight’s own axe, but David Lowery changed it in the script so that the hero would use King Arthur’s legendary sword Excalibur to do the deed. During a conversation with Variety, Lowery admitted that he went back and forth with the decision, and at one point was close to going back to using the axe. However, Dev Patel stepped in:

David Lowery went on to say he was instantly sold and made note of Dev Patel’s investment and conviction in the role.

David Lowery And His Production Team Used Matte Paintings To Fill In Certain Shots

Not only was David Lowery inspired by the original text when working on The Green Knight, he also drew inspiration from classic movie making techniques, specifically matte painting. In a Vanity Fair scene breakdown, Lowery revealed that during the Green Knight’s arrival at the Christmas feast, he and his production team used matte paintings to extend the shot beyond what they are able to construct on set. This also included painting in extras, as they didn’t have a lot of actors on set at any given time, and this technique allowed the team to stretch them out.

The Camera Obscura Scene With Gawain Was Pulled Off By Projecting An Image Of Dev Patel Onto A Wall

One of the more fascinating scenes in The Green Knight is the one where the Lady (Alicia Vikander) uses a camera obscura to make a ghostly portrait of Gawain. This scene is even more remarkable when you learn that the production team didn’t use CGI to make the upside down image of Dev Patel’s character appear on the screen, but instead a rather practical technique. 

In the Boldest of Blood and Wildest of Heart: Making of The Green Knight featurette, it is revealed that someone took a portrait of Patel and then projected the image through a hole in the door so that it would shine on the wall and produce the desired effect.

The Christmas Feast Scene Was Filmed Last Because It Took The Entirety Of The Production To Construct The Set

The scenes in King Arthur’s grand hall in the beginning of The Green Knight were actually the last to be filmed, as it took nearly the entire length of production for the set to be built. In the making of featurette, David Lowery and set designer Jade Healy revealed that the full set, which featured the Round Table, high ceilings, stone floors, and faux stone walls, wasn’t actually completed until the day they began shooting the Christmas feast.

Joel Edgerton Watched Clips Of Famous British Actors Drunk On Talk Shows To Prepare For His Role In The Green Knight

Joel Edgerton’s mysterious and strangely affectionate The Lord is one of the most peculiar characters in all of The Green Knight, and the actor’s inspiration for his portrayal makes his performance all the more captivating. When speaking with CinemaBlend ahead of the film’s release, Edgerton admitted he had quite a way of coming up with his preparations:

So, maybe that explains The Lord and why you can never really tell where he stands on things through his brief time in The Green Knight.

The Green Knight Was A Vegan Production And Included Leather Made From Fungus And Tree Bark

There are some impressive costumes featured throughout The Green Knight from the titular knight himself to Gawain’s various robes. These become even more impressive when you learn that every article of clothing seen in the movie was vegan. In the featurette, it is revealed that not only was faux leather used throughout the production, but the costume designers also used leathers made from fungus, and barkcloth, which, as the name suggests, is made from tree bark. 

The Green Chapel At The End Of The Green Knight Was Shot As-Is And Didn’t Need To Be Dressed Up For Shooting

The final confrontation between Gawain and the Green Knight at the end of the movie takes place in the Green Chapel, a building that is slowly being destroyed and consumed by the natural world around it. In the Practitioners of Magic: Visual Effects featurette accompanying the home release of The Green Knight, it is revealed that the scene was filmed in an old church on the side of the road in rural Ireland and that the production team didn’t have to have to make any changes before shooting it as-is. It is also revealed that the location scout initially didn’t want to film the scene there.

David Lowery Made The Green Knight Slower And ‘Weirder’ During The Year-Long COVID-19 Delay

Before the COVID-19 pandemic came and changed practically everything about the world, David Lowery was preparing to release The Green Knight at SXSW in Austin, Texas, in March 2020. When the festival (and countless others like it) was cancelled, so was the premiere, and Lowery was left with more than a year to tinker with what was at one time a finished product. 

When sitting down with CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast, Lowery admitted that the one-year delay actually helped make the movie better, as it gave him an opportunity to make a slower and weirder cut. And, while he admitted that the movie was never going to be a fast-paced action adventure, Lowery was able to extend shots and allow the movie to breathe more.

Well, hopefully this all makes you want to go back and watch The Green Knight for the second, third, or even tenth time. But, before you do that, check out what's left of CinemaBlend's schedule of the 2021 new movie releases.

David Lowery, director of The Green Knight (starring Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander), joins the show! We discuss the extremely long process of editing the movie and how the pacing of the film changed over time in post-production, the sound and character design of The Green Knight and more. 

Marvel has dropped two massive trailers for their upcoming 2021 slate with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on the horizon. We break down our thoughts on the Eternals' first full-length trailer, and Spider-Man: No Way Home’s first look which included the appearance of Alfred Molina's Doc Ock and a tease of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin.

Timestamps (Approx. Only)

00:11:39 - Weekly Poll

00::13:23 - David Lowery Interview

00:44:20 - Marvel’s Eternals Trailer

00:51:11 - Spider-Man: No Way Home Trailer Talk

01:09:31 - Flag Day Review

01:15:33 - No Man of God Review

01:17:35 - Candyman Review

01:30:15 - BREAKING: Venom 2 Delayed?

01:41:25 - Outro

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SPOILERS are ahead for The Green Knight. Meet us back here to crack open the details once you’ve seen A24’s latest.

You too may have thought The Green Knight might defy A24’s wild-ending reputation for a more straightforward adaptation of an Arthurian legend this time, yet here we are. Now that we’ve witnessed the long and treacherous journey with Dev Patel’s Sir Gawain, it’s time to pick ourselves up, screw our heads back on top of our shoulders and ponder The Green Knight ending.

David Lowery’s unique take on the 14th century poem has Dev Patel’s Sir Gawain going on a dark journey to meet The Green Knight one year after accepting a challenge in front of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, that becomes deadly by Gawain’s swift head-slicing. Let’s talk through what goes down and what that ambiguous ending could mean.

What Happens At The End Of The Green Knight

The Green Knight follows Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) on a quest to return the challenge set by The Green Knight one year prior. As the challenge states, the blow that a knight lands on the tree-like knight will need to be returned in his Green Chapel and will earn its challenger his magical green axe. However, since Sir Gawain decides to decapitate the Green Knight, the returned blow means his own beheading.

After an exhausting journey, Gawain comes across a Lord (Joel Edgerton), who offers to house him until his day comes on Christmas morning. It’s there where he rests, also in the company of his Lady (Alicia Vikander) and a blindfolded old woman. In his quarters, the Lady presents Gawain with a green girdle between some seduction. She claims she made it, yet it’s the same girdle made by his mother he lost earlier in the film. Apparently, as long as he wears the girdle no harm can come of him. And he wears it around his waist as he enters the Green Knight’s chapel, not before receiving a random kiss goodbye by the Lord.

When he enters the chapel, the Green Knight wants to complete the challenge by beheading Sir Gawain, but he flinches before the axe and does not want to die. Gawain decides to flee the challenge and return home to Camelot. Gawain becomes king, and his lover back home Essel (also Alicia Vikander) has his child but he abandons her to marry a noblewoman. The ending goes forward in time, seeing Gawain’s adult son dying in his arms during battle before his own family and kingdom against him, Gawain is beheaded as an old man alone in his castle.

But wait… then we learn this future was only a dream. We return to Gawain’s place below The Green Knight at the Green Chapel. Instead of running, Gawain takes off the green girdle and accepts his fate and The Green Knight then chops his head off.

What Was The Green Knight’s Game?

So, Sir Gawain travels to the ends of the Earth and it leads to his death? That’s it? The pointlessness of his hero's errand kind of is the point though isn’t it? Dev Patel’s character wanted to prove he had a story to tell on the Knight’s round table, but he let his sword lead his actions instead of his brain when he decapitates The Green Knight at the beginning of the film. The challenge was not to offer the toughest blow, it was to land a single blow (anywhere!!) on the Green Knight to which he’d need to return a year later. Sir Gawain made the challenge tougher on himself and it ends in his own death.

The other layer to The Green Knight’s game is it seems to have been all orchestrated by his mother Morgan le Faye (played by Sarita Choudhury). As the Knight approaches the Round Table she can be seen crafting the spell with her associates in another location. Truthfully, the entire “game” seems to be one Morgan le Fay testing her son to become a man of honor or one of disgrace.

What Did The Original Arthurian Legend Mean?

To take Morgan le Fay's fool's errand for her son a step further, we can turn to the original Arthurian legend from the 14th century the movie is based on. In the text, Morgan le Faye straight up explains that it was her the whole time behind Sir Gawain’s journey at the very end of the story. In The Green Knight, it is presented in a more ambiguous manner.

In Arthurian tales, King Arthur and Morgan le Fay are always in opposition and creating The Green Knight gives the enchantress a way to commentate on the issues with the King’s men seen as “honorable”. The original story is one of tension between the Christian organization of the knighthood and the majestic world Morgan le Faye belongs to. And I believe each of the mystical figures Sir Gawain comes in contact with is Morgan le Faye further testing her son. The headless woman, the fox, the Lady and the Lord, they are all pawns that belong to the mysticism side of the world that are warning Sir Gawain against accepting the fate of an “honorable” knight.

The Green Knight Deromanticizes The Hero’s Journey

Outside of what The Green Knight means in the context of Arthurian Legend is its broader meaning to us as an audience as we see the narrative unfold. The Green Knight reads as quite an existentialist story about the inevitability of death and it being up to each of us to decide how we’d like to be when the axe metaphorically comes for us. We see when Sir Gawain goes after honor he ends up with a longer life full of material happiness in terms of having a wife, a crown on his head and an empire to call his own. But, it’s not a good life for him. Gawain decides the better way to go is to truly complete the challenge and fulfill the honor within himself.

At the same time, writer/director David Lowery is taking the idea of the hero’s journey and subverting it in a way that echoes the themes of The Green Knight. When we see often Arthurian legends and Knights going on epic quests depicted on film, it’s typically seen as exciting and fun. Sir Gawain’s is not. The whole movie is exhausting! The Green Knight is deromanticizing the idea of the hero’s journey because chasing after honor for others leads to the unhappy life we see in his dream.

How The Writer/Director Explains The Green Knight Ending

To wrap things up, let’s turn to David Lowery’s own reading of The Green Knight ending. When speaking to USA Today, the writer/director shared his intentions with the conclusion:

So the truly aspiring hero’s journey is a man after his own self worth all along. What did you think about The Green Knight ending? Vote in our poll below.

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In a summer of blockbuster films based on comic book properties like Black Widow and The Suicide Squad, or horror stories like The Forever Purge and A Quiet Place: Part II, A24 is doing what it does best and subverting what we’ve come to expect at the movie theaters. Following hits like Uncut Gems and Midsommar, the studio’s latest offering is David Lowery’s The Green Knight, adapted from 14th-century Arthurian legend. So how did moviegoers like the epic starring Dev Patel?

The Green Knight really impressed most critics, including CinemaBlend’s own Eric Eisenberg, who gave the movie 4.5 out of 5 in his review and named it one of the “best of 2021.” It also opened No. 2 at last weekend’s box office behind Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Now let’s get to what fans are saying about the A24 release.

The Green Knight Is A 2021 Fan Favorite

Overall, it seems the public is mixed on The Green Knight. It’s the kind of movie you either really vibe with or don’t like at all. On social media, a ton of fans represented the positive end of what the Arthurian legend has to offer, with this Twitter use sharing this:

For context, Little Women came out in late 2019, so this is high praise for the David Lowery film! The fan also shared he is “levitating with joy” about his viewing of The Green Knight. To echo the high praise, another viewer of the film shared his love for the summer release with more rounds of applause:

The Green Knight was also delayed a year by A24 after its initial 2020 release was moved due to the pandemic. But because it debuted in theaters only, those who went out to see it were really keen on the theatrical experience as well. As another fan pointed out, it was their first trip out to a movie since lockdown, and it was worth the price of admission for them.

The A24 movie clearly has a lot of happy fans, but there’s a variety of experiences that were told via social media reactions as well.

So Many People We Confused And Conflicted About It

Then there were the fans who were just trying to figure out what they were watching. The Green Knight is quite the cerebral experience, and everything you see on screen doesn’t matter as much as the themes they represent. It’s not for someone who just wants to sit back and relax without thinking deeply. One Twitter user especially encapsulated the experience watching the A24 film:

One viewer shared an unhinged meme featuring one of the characters from Madagascar to bring across her thoughts on The Green Knight, and the movie apparently had her “losing her mind,” later also adding that the movie made her “feral.”

It’s definitely an interesting movie to check out with a crowd of people because of the many reactions it spawns from viewers. Another fan shared her eavesdropping on other moviegoers, who had a completely different opinion from her seat-mates:

Not unlike the recent horror release Old, The Green Knight isn’t necessarily a movie you can trust another person to assure you that you’ll have the same experience. It’s a wild card. Some people love that kind of moviegoing affair, but it certainly will turn off others too.

The Dev Patel Of It All Was A Hot Sell

The Green Knight is a deep movie, but going out to see it was all about the eye candy for a lot of moviegoers in its first week in terms of its lead actor. As one viewer shared, they are incredibly content to stare at Dev Patel for the entirety of the film:

A lot of people are into Dev Patel. Before the movie even hit theaters, early viewers raved over Dev Patel in particular, with one early viewer sharing that “Dev Patel can cut off my head any time he likes.” A sect of fans have named the season “Dev Patel Summer” in honor of the actor looking absolutely beautiful in his flowing black hair and knight armor:

Even people who didn’t like the movie could enjoy the Dev Patel of it all. The 31-year-old British actor made famous by his 2008 performance in Slumdog Millionaire has become a bit of an icon thanks to The Green Knight.

And there’s a lot of scenes with Dev Patel in The Green Knight. Just about all of them actually. So if you’re a fellow Patel fan, this is the medieval movie for you.

There Are A Lot Of Thoughts About The Green Knight Ending

To wrap up (without spoilers I promise), let’s talk about some of the reactions to the ending, because it’s a huge talking point when it comes to The Green Knight. The A24 movie's conclusion was a make-it-or-break-it scene for viewers of the film, as one Twitter user shared:

For some people, the ending just messed up the experience for them. It’s not your typical ending and it’s definitely controversial. Another person went on to criticize the ending, and A24 as a studio, for going out of its way to “confuse” people:

How you react to The Green Knight’s ending will have a lot to do with if the movie overall worked for you. It’s the point that had a lot of moviegoers giving up on it. At the same time, it’s the kind of ending that’s really fun to dissect with friends after watching it together or go down a Arthurian legend rabbit hole too. To each their own:

As a whole, there are a lot of opinions on The Green Knight. It’s definitely not universally loved or understood, but from a filmmaking standpoint, many can appreciate David Lowery’s vision, even if it seemed too ambitious for some. The Green Knight is playing in theaters now. It’s your turn: have you seen it and what did you think of the movie? Vote in our poll and keep track of what movies are coming next with CinemaBlend’s 2021 movie release guide.

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David Lowery’s The Green Knight is one of the great triumphs that you’ll see on the big screen in 2021, with the film’s writer/director continuing to prove himself as one of the excellent visual storytellers in the medium. Based on the Arthurian epic Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, the movie is an adventure that transports the audience back to the 6th century with gorgeous cinematography, effects and production design as it follows its protagonist’s spectacular, honor-seeking quest. It’s a remarkable piece of cinema – which is why it’s totally unsurprising that Lowery found inspiration for making it from a collection of classics.

As a recent invitee to participate in Alamo Drafthouse’s Guest Selects program, David Lowery has recorded a video revealing the key films that he kept in the back of his mind as he was making The Green Knight. Coming from a mix of eras and genres, the movies in the list make for a diverse collection, with titles that you’d otherwise never expect to hear mentioned in the same discussion – but the filmmaker has his reasons for each one, as you’ll discover outlined below…

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Bram Stoker's Dracula is unquestionably one of the most ambitious attempts ever made at bringing the classic vampire story to the big screen, and it made quite an impression on David Lowery when it first opened. He couldn’t actually see it at the time, as he was only 11 years old, but he says he became completely obsessed with it regardless. While there isn’t much that directly links the movie to The Green Knight (beyond being a period piece), Lowery kept it in mind during the making of his Arthurian epic because of the boldness that is represented in its style – from the camera work to the costume design. Said Lowery,

The Dark Crystal (1982)

Thanks to its use of practical effects and on-location shooting, The Green Knight possesses a kind of handmade quality that you don’t typically see from modern mainstream Hollywood films – but it wasn’t just the concept of craft that had David Lowery keeping Jim Henson and Frank Oz’s The Dark Crystal in mind during the making of the film. In the video he talks about the puppet-centric film as a Shakespearian epic” and adulates the pacing of the story and the “cohesiveness” of the world. Lowery explains,

The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (1928)

As you’ll find continuing to read this feature, David Lowery leaned hard on the movies he loved growing up for inspiration on The Green Knight, but he does give credit to one film that was made before he was born – specifically for a key technical aspect. Lowery is enchanted by the spectacular close-up shots featured in Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion Of Joan Of Arc, and that’s especially true because of Dreyer’s willingness to ignore his gorgeous sets in favor of using his camera to milk every ounce of emotion:

Marie Antoinette (2006)

Sofia Coppola'sMarie Antoinette is the most modern film highlighted by David Lowery, and his reasoning is fascinating. Coppola’s movie about the notorious French queen is famously anachronistic, filtering 21st century elements into the 18th century story, and while that’s not something that The Green Knight does at all, the 2006 release was still something that Lowery kept in the back of his mind. Why? Because it reminded him that respecting history isn’t necessarily about factual accuracy, but instead emotional truth. Said Lowery,

Willow (1988)

Finally, we have Ron Howard’s Willow, which David Lowery directly associates with his desire to become a filmmaker at a young age, despite the fact that his first big viewing saw him “flee the theater in terror.” (He apparently had a vomit phobia, and couldn’t deal with the scene where “baby Elora Danan barfs in Burglekutt's face.”) Not only was the 1988 movie inspirational for The Green Knight for the way in which it blends both new and old filmmaking techniques, but it even wound up being a practical part of his preparation for the new release. Lowery explains,

You can watch David Lowery discuss all of these films in depth and talk about how they inspired The Green Knight by clicking play on the video below.

The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Sean Harris, Sarita Choudhury, Joel Edgerton, and Ralph Ineson, arrives in theaters this Friday, July 30.

As audiences will discover this weekend, it will be a sincere challenge for any new release coming out in the rest of 2021 to match the visual richness of The Green Knight – but it won’t just be the awesome aesthetics that impress. Writer/director David Lowery is a filmmaker who understands the power and potential impact of subtle detail across all aspects of the art form, and it’s what allows his work to shine in many vibrant ways. This very much includes the way in which he works with his actors, and this is perfectly illustrated by the surprising reference material that he gave to Joel Edgerton in the making of the movie.

I had the chance to interview Edgerton and Dev Patel earlier this month during the virtual press day for The Green Knight (as featured in the video atop this article), and my question for the actors at the outset was about the character-centric conversations that they had with David Lowery prior to production. Edgerton, who plays the nameless The Lord in the film, surprised me with his response, and his revelation of where he got inspiration for his performance. Said the actor,

You might not necessarily consider that 20th century talk shows with slurring, venerable guest stars would be specific reference material for a beloved Arthurian legend brought to life on the big screen, but it’s David Lowery’s impressive creative thinking that makes him such an excellent filmmaker, and the choices Joel Edgerton makes in his performance are fantastic.

In the movie, Dev Patel stars as Sir Gawain, the nephew of King Arthur (Sean Harris) and a Knight of the Roundtable desperate to prove his mettle. When a fantastical Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) interrupts a Christmas banquet and offers the room a challenge, Gawain eagerly volunteers and accepts the specific terms: if he is able to land a single blow, he will win the Green Knight’s glorious axe – but in one year’s time he must seek out the man/tree hybrid and receive the same blow in return.

Sir Gawain has multiple encounters on his way to the Green Chapel, the location where he is meant to meet the Green Knight, and this includes a multi-night stay on a palatial estate owned by the aforementioned unnamed The Lord (Joel Edgerton) and The Lady (Alicia Vikander). The Lord is ultimately one of the kinder individuals who Gawain meets on his quest, albeit a bit… silly, and knowing what Edgerton was aiming for as reference only makes his wonderful turn easier to love.

After a long wait caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, audiences will finally be able to experience The Green Knight for themselves this weekend, as the movie is opening in theaters nationwide (and you really should see it, because it’s excellent). Stay tuned for more from my interview with Dev Patel and Joel Edgerton here on CinemaBlend, and check out our 2021 Movie Schedule to learn about all of the films coming out between now and the end of the year.

Phenomenally talented filmmakers who prove themselves to be genre polymaths are an exceptionally rare breed, which is why it has been exhilarating to watch the growth and development of writer/director David Lowery. Since breaking out in 2013 when the romantic crime drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, he has seemingly made a point of exploring new kinds of stories with each new project, and the results have been remarkable each time out – be it the family-friendly adventure in Pete’s Dragon, the haunting beauty of A Ghost Story, or the enchanting charm of The Old Man And The Gun.

Given Lowery’s track record, it’s not surprising in the slightest that his cinematic take on an Arthurian fable is something truly special to behold, but that in no way undercuts the magnitude of the accomplishment. The Green Knight is all at once thrilling, gorgeous, and haunting, featuring its own special take on a classic tale that will have your jaw agape while watching and your mind spinning as you walk away.

Adapted from the 14th-century poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” David Lowery’s movie introduces its Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) as a character more uncouth than one typically expects from a Knight Of The Roundtable – but as the nephew of the beloved King Arthur (Sean Harris) he believes that he has something to prove, and is anxious for his opportunity to have his defining adventure and demonstrate his mettle. This desire is brought into focus during a Christmas banquet when he is unable to recount a tale to entertain the monarch… but then the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) arrives.

A flora/human hybrid unlike anything anyone has ever seen, The Green Knight suggests what he calls a “Christmas game” to the stunned hall. The fantastical being offers to give his spectacular, mighty axe to anyone who can strike a blow against him, but said individual must then seek him out in one year’s time at a place called The Green Chapel to have the blow returned in kind. When none of the other knights accept the challenge, Gawain jumps at what he sees as his chance to become a hero –Arthur even going as far as to let him use Excalibur. Unexpectedly, the Green Knight lays down his axe and offers his neck to his opponent, and Gawain impetuously strikes and decapitates the stranger.

Gawain is then left shocked as he watches The Green Knight pick up his own head, laugh, and announce, “One year hence” before riding away on horseback.

The next 12 months are a series of revels as Gawain is celebrated as a legend for his defeat of The Green Knight, but come the next Christmas he begins to grapple with the reality of what he must do. Taking the axe he won, an enchanted sash from his mother, Morgan Le Fay (Sairta Choudhury) that promises no harm will come to him, and saying goodbye to the woman he loves (Alicia Vikander), he sets out to the Green Chapel – encountering character-testing conflicts as he makes the journey.

Every frame of The Green Knight makes you want to leap into the screen.

The Green Knight opens with a stunning shot of a crown slowly floating down on to Gawain’s head, with fire engulfing both cranium and coronet when it lands, and it’s ultimately a perfect visual introduction\, as that moment sets the bar for an experience that is a cascade of gorgeous shot after gorgeous shot. The movie is transportive in its period authenticity, expressed through brilliant set design and atmosphere, and any cinephile will be challenged to not fall in love with David Lowery’s awesome and ambitious experimental uses of his camera – like when a slow clockwise spin moves the setting through time to show a possible future, before a slow spin back returns to the action. Blended with the pristine editing and chapter-driven structure, it feels less like a film and more like the experience of falling into the original text.

Furthermore, it feels like a rare modern gem that makes exceptional use of both practical and visual effects – successfully adding a fantastic production value to the epic, as well as a stunning scope. The gorgeous design of the haunting titular antagonist and the make-up team’s work bringing it to life is singularly an artistic achievement, the likes of which we don’t typically see in indie productions. Likewise, the CGI work is spectacular, as not an ounce of the verisimilitude is lost as Gawain witnesses the trek of a group of giants; the effects work is too great, and you’re too lost in the fantasy for that to happen.

Dev Patel delivers an amazing performance as a flawed and hungry Sir Gawain.

What the striking cinematography and detailed effects work help bring to life in The Green Knight is a compelling and meaningful character study that plays in the classic tradition of the hero’s journey. Dev Patel’s iteration of Sir Gawain is a wonderful and complex one, as Patel has rakish charm and effortless charisma, but he also very much challenges the audience not to like him as he casually flaunts all of his flaws. In challenging the eponymous foe, he believes that he has shortcut to greatness, but instead he finds a road that tests his honor and courage – and the experience unfolds as a gripping transformation that keeps you locked in and questioning what will happen when Gawain and The Green Knight have their second showdown.

The Green Knight is very much a showcase for Dev Patel’s immense talent, but he is ensconced in a fantastic ensemble cast – its members popping up through the series of vignettes that play out as segments of Gawain’s expedition. Barry Keoghan is the standout among the supporting players, playing a young battlefield-roaming stranger with sinister intentions, but also delivering wonderful turns are Erin Kellyman, playing a ghost whom Gawain helps find peace, and Joel Edgerton and Alicia Vikander (in a dual role) as an charming and mysterious lord and lady who give the protagonist shelter as he makes his final approach to the Green Chapel.

David Lowery executes his own vision of the Arthurian legend, and it's special to behold.

The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a story with a fantastic legacy, having famously been translated by none other than J. R. R. Tolkien, but David Lowery is able to leave his own special stamp on the material with The Green Knight, and it’s a stunning piece of work. Featuring deep themes and an excellent structure that, at moments, bends and morphs time, it’s a movie that is not only incredible to watch play out once, but demands to be rewatched for further examination. It’s a special film from a special talent, and one of the best of 2021 so far.

Stand-up comedian and actor Jim Gaffigan has brought his talents to Pixar’s Luca as the titular sea monster’s father. Gaffigan plays Lorenzo Paguro alongside Maya Rudolph, who voices Luca’s mother, Daniela. The odd couple add plenty of laughs to the animated movie, as they go seasick over their son’s decision to escape to the Italian town on the surface. And whilst speaking to Gaffigan, he gave us a tease about his next seafaring Disney character, Peter Pan and Wendy’s Smee.

A new take on the classic tale of Neverland is coming to Disney+ next year. In the film, Jim Gaffigan's Smee will stand alongside Jude Law’s Captain Hook. We’re certainly curious how this pair’s dynamic will play out in Peter Pan and Wendy. When CinemaBlend spoke to the actor, here’s what he said about the movie:

Peter Pan is a popular story that has been remade many times since Disney memorably made its own version in 1953. There’s Steven Spielberg’s Hook, the 2003 version from Universal and 2015’s Joe Wright iteration starring Garrett Hedlund as a young James Hook. As Gaffigan explained, there’s a certain new depth Peter Pan and Wendy will explore. As he continued:

It will be interesting to see how the live-action movie decides to explore these beloved characters in a fresh way. The movie also stars young actors Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson as Peter and Wendy and Black-ish’s Yara Shahidi in the role of Tinker Bell. Previously, director David Lowery shared this about his upcoming movie:

Captain Hook and Smee have always been an entertaining pair to see in Peter Pan movies, but David Lowery's love for the story should allow him to update them in a new and interesting way for Peter Pan and Wendy. Meanwhile, the studio is also doing live-action versions of The Little Mermaid and Lilo & Stitch in the near future.

As far as Luca goes, the role was a different experience for Jim Gaffigan, considering the talents’ lines were recorded mainly during the COVID-19 lockdown. Gaffigan even told CinemaBlend that he and Maya Rudolph did not get a chance to work together in any capacity, despite their characters playing parents to Luca and being part of some hilarious moments in the movie.

Luca is streaming exclusively on Disney+ and has received positive reviews. Once you've watched the sweet, summer Pixar film, check out the director’s break down of the emotional ending here on CinemaBlend.

It was well over a year ago that we got the tantalizing first trailer for David Lowery's The Green Knight. At the time the movie was set to be released in May of 2020... but of course then the whole pandemic thing happened. As such, it's been one of the many films that fans have been forced to wait patiently for the world gets closer and closer to some semblance of normalcy, but thankfully the wait is now almost over. The film is now poised to be one of the most exciting features in the middle of the upcoming summer season, and to get you even more pumped for this Arthurian adventure we have this brand new trailer – which will drop your jaw and break your brain.

Based on the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the classic story begins when a Green Knight arrives in King Arthur's court with a challenge for anybody to try and strike him, the catch being that the person would have the blow returned to them in a year and a day. The young and brash Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) accepts the terms and believes for the briefest of moments that he won't face any future issues when he successfully slices the emerald being's head off, but the mood changes when the Green Knight picks up his own head, reminds Gawain of the deal, laughs, and leaves. A year later, the hero sets off to face his destiny at a place called the Green Chapel, but through his journey faces many perils and hardships.

There is legitimately nothing to not love about this trailer for The Green Knight, including its simple set up of the famous plot, the brilliant job showcasing the epic scale, and the stunning imagery. At this point David Lowery has spent nearly a full decade demonstrating that he is one of the best visual storytellers in the game – from Ain't Them Bodies Saints, to A Ghost Story, to Pete's Dragon – and here it practically looks like he is just showing off. All at the same time it looks both beautiful and weird (the talking fox is a bizarre but wonderful moment), and watching it unfold you gain an understanding of why A24 decided not to let this title simply go to VOD. This preview suggests that the film is going to be a true blue cinematic experience, and that demands the big screen.

After watching this, if you're now starving to ingest the whole movie, the bad news is that you still have to wait, but the good news is that you don't have to wait that long. Featuring a cast including Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, Kate Dickie, Barry Keoghan and Ralph Ineson in addition to the aforementioned Dev Patel, The Green Knight will be heading to theaters on July 30. To see everything else that is set to come out between now and the end of December, be sure to check out our 2021 Release Calendar.

Audiences are about to travel to Neverland once more with Disney's Peter Pan & Wendy, the latest live-action retelling of 1953's beloved animated feature. 

Based on the books by J.M. Barrie, this streaming exclusive will serve as only the latest remake from the Mouse House, though it comes with some established talent. Director David Lowery (Pete's Dragon) is on board to helm, and he's very excited to see this passion project being realized.

There’s plenty to know about this upcoming live-action film, so if you’re like us and you want to know more about Peter Pan & Wendy, here is what we know so far. 

What Is The Peter Pan And Wendy Release Date?

Peter Pan & Wendy is set to release on Disney+ on April 28th. 

Peter Pan & Wendy has been a dream movie for David Lowery for quite a few years now (as we'll discuss in more detail later). Now, it's finally coming to life. Originally the film was set to come out at some point during 2022, but was pushed back to the 2023 movie release schedule, so here we are now, only about a month out from when it is set to release. 

Peter Pan And Wendy Stars Alexander Molony And Ever Anderson As The Title Characters

It's a very big deal to star in your own Disney movie. You're guaranteed an audience of millions — maybe even more — which is a hell of a way to get noticed at the start of your career. When it comes to Alexander Molony, the British child actor will make his film debut with Peter Pan & Wendy, Disney's forthcoming live-action remake of their beloved 1953 animated film.

Additionally, Ever Anderson, the daughter of Milla Jovovich and director Paul W.S. Anderson, will also star in this upcoming streaming title as Wendy, our other titular protagonist. Previously, Anderson made her acting debut in Anderson's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, and appeared in Marvel's Black Widow.

Jude Law, Jim Gaffigan, Yara Shahidi, And More Round Out The Supporting Cast

In addition to starring Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson as Peter Pan and Wendy, the movie will also star Jude Law as none other than the malicious Captain Hook. The Oscar-nominated British actor is no stranger to playing famous literary characters, from Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts movies to John H. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes blockbusters. Law really knows how to throw himself into a role, and his villainous performance should be a lot of fun to watch. Likewise, in an inspired bit of casting, Jim Gaffigan is attached to play Smee, Hook's right-hand man...so to speak.

Additionally, to round out the supporting cast for this streaming exclusive, grown-ish star Yara Shahidi is on-board to play Tinker Bell, Lost In Space's Molly Parker will play Mary Darling, Wendy's mother, and Firefly's Alan Tudyk adopts the role of George Darling, Wendy's father. Also, Alyssa Wapanatâhk is Tiger Lily, while Joshua Pickering and Jacobi Jupe play John and Michael Darling, Wendy's younger brothers.

Peter Pan And Wendy Is A Live-Action Adaptation Of The Movie Of The Same Name

Obviously, if this is going to be a live-action remake, we all know that the film is going to be an adaptation of the Disney movie, Peter Pan, which was released back in 1953, which was an adaptation of the play, Peter Pan, Or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up by J.M. Barrie. According to the official Disney+ page for the film, the movie will follow Wendy Darling as she and her brothers are  whisked away to Neverland by Peter Pan, a boy who “refuses to grow up.” 

While she and her brothers are taken to this magical world where it feels as if no one ever has to grow up, she is faced with a thrilling adventure that is going to change who she is, including run-ins with the most vicious pirate captain of them all, Captain Hook. 

Check Out The Trailer For Peter Pan & Wendy

If you want to get a peek into what the world of Neverland is going to look like, check out the trailer that was released for Peter Pan & Wendy down below, showing off our main cast members as they travel across the world of Neverland, our first look at Captain Hook, seeing Tiger Lily, and so much more. 

The Disney Live-Action Remake Is Directed By Pete’s Dragon’s David Lowery

For movie lovers, it was an odd day when Disney announced that David Lowery would direct a remake of 1977's Pete's Dragon. The arthouse filmmaker behind Ain't Them Bodies Saints, A Ghost Story, and The Green Knight didn't seem like the type of artist who would work well with the world's biggest movie studio. But, to many people's surprise, Lowery's sensibilities gelled with Disney's brand of sentimentality.

Bringing an unsuspecting bit of soul and a unique perspective to the material, 2016's Pete's Dragon is the rare recent Disney remake that's not only good but arguably even better than the original. It wasn't a commercial success, admittedly, but it was a critical darling, and Disney liked working with the dynamic filmmaker, so he reunited with Disney for 2023's Peter Pan & Wendy. Hopefully, it's another successful team-up between the idiosyncratic storyteller and the family-friendly, money-making studio.

David Lowery Claims He’ll ‘Redefine’ These ‘Iconic Characters For A New Generation’ With Disney+’s Peter Pan & Wendy

There's no denying that Peter Pan is a timeless story. But, as it's been retold time and time again, one has to wonder what Disney's newest take on the material will do to make this version stand out — especially when 2015's Pan and 2020's Wendy and Come Away aren't too far in the rear window. While it won’t be long until we see David Lowery's vision for this project, he already knew how to hype it up so fans can get excited for this new live-action movie.

In a press release, the Ain't Them Bodies Saints director claimed his adaptation will "redefine" these "iconic characters for a new generation." That's quite a bold statement, but an encouraging one, too. Hopefully, the final product lives up to those lofty words.

Here's what David Lowery said:

While we’re still a little bit away from the release of Peter Pan & Wendy, here’s hoping that time will go by soon so we can all fly back to Neverland again. In the meantime, you can check out Peter Pan on Disney+.  

Medieval fantasy films are a tried and true genre in filmmaking, entertaining moviegoers for decades. Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings franchise was a massive sweeping adventure that dominated pop culture, while Game of Thrones was the most popular show on TV during its tenure on HBO. Now Pete's Dragon director Pete Lowery will put his own spin on the genre with the upcoming blockbuster The Green Knight.

The Green Knight is set in the days of King Arthur, but will follow a different set of characters. Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel stars as protagonist Sir Gawain, Arthur's nephew. He sets off on a mission to find the Green Knight, who is supposed to be a giant green-skinned monster. The movie's first trailer just arrived, check it out.

The tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an ancient story from the 14th century, that's been adapted into film a couple of times before. This new version, The Green Knight certainly shows us a handful of moments that those of us that studied medieval literature in college will certainly remember. At the same time, we also see a lot her that shows this new adaptation will include some fresh elements not present in the original story.

The trailer is really well put together. It's spooky and dark and certainly will have people wondering what's in store for Dev Patel's character.

For those of us that didn't study the story in school Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells the story of the titular Green Knight, who arrives at King Arthur's court at Camelot with a challenge. He dares any member of King Arthur's court to strike him with an axe. The catch is that a year and a day later, the Green Knight will have the chance to return the blow. King Arthur's nephew, Sir Gawain takes up the challenge, and actually beads the Green Knight, but the Green Knight then stands up laughs, picks up his head, and reminds Gawain they have a date for a year and a day from now.

The majority of the story follows Gawain as he travels to the appointed location for what he assumes will be his death. Without spoiling the ending, one gets the impression from this trailer that things won't quite end up in the movie the way the original story ended. Sir Gawain works best as one piece in the larger canon of Arthurian Legend. As a stand alone story, it will likely need a few changes.

We see the beheading of the Green Knight in the trailer told as part of a puppet show. It's a safe bet that we'll still see the actual event in the film. The movie looks to focus much more on the year and a day period between the two events, which will give us an opportunity to get to know Sir Gawain a bit better in order to establish a strong character arc.

The Green Knight will be in theaters in May.

Enormous blockbuster films tend to define the summer moviegoing experience, but summer 2017 is shaping up to be a solid time for smaller scale indies as well. Few films epitomize that idea more than David Lowery's A Ghost Story -- which tells the tale of a recently deceased man's (Casey Affleck) journey to console his widow (Rooney Mara) as his spirit becomes detached from time itself. It is a crazy premise, but the film is made even more insane by the fact that it apparently also includes a cameo from pop star Kesha. Lowery recently opened up about the process of getting her into the film, and admitted that it all started with a simple desire to get a Kesha song into the movie. The director explained:

As far as the development process goes, that sounds like one of the weirder aspects of A Ghost Story's creative process -- which is saying something. The initial intention was to add a Kesha song to the film's soundtrack, but from that single seed David Lowery (per his recent comments to THR) managed to spin that idea into a full-blown cameo (she's apparently credited as "Spirit Girl") for the Jerry Seinfeld-hugging pop star. Not bad for a decidedly small-scale indie flick. A Ghost Story centers heavily on the concept of time, so I have to wonder if Lowery ever considered making Kesha's "Tik Tok" a prominent musical cue throughout the film. Probably not, but I like to think he did.

That Kesha cameo is just one of many unique elements that make A Ghost Story such a bizarre film. Although the movie's title and basic plot outline would make one initially assume that it's a horror film, it is actually far closer to an intimate, personal drama than a cinematic creep fest. That off-kilter sensibility might not necessarily be for everyone in the long run (this is an A24 production, after all) but A Ghost Story continues to strike us as one of the most unique looking films of the summer. If you're one of the many who have clamored for a wholly original summer movie in a sea of sequels and reboots, then A Ghost Story could be right up your alley.

A Ghost Story is now in theaters, so make sure to check it out and keep your eyes peeled for Kesha's cameo. For more information related to the rest of this year's major film releases, be sure to take a look at our comprehensive 2017 summer movie premiere guide!

Casey Affleck looks like he wants to become the personification of grief, at least that's what his recent career choices seem to entail. With an Oscar under his arm for Manchester By The Sea, you'd think maybe he'd have taken some time to put out a kinder, gentler picture that wouldn't work out your tear ducts. Well, if you're one of the fools who thinks just that, and granted we have some on our staff here, then you're totally wrong. See for yourself as you watch the first trailer to director David Lowery's A Ghost Story, starring Affleck and Rooney Mara.

Lowery's follow-up to his entry into the live-action Disney canon, Pete's Dragon, A Ghost Story tells the tale of a husband and wife separated by the greatest divide that could ever exist between two people: mortality. With Casey Affleck's character being the dead party in the equation, he dons a sheet and embarks on an emotional journey to keep an eye on his wife after his passing. Though from the looks of what seems like a bit of a spoiler-ish trailer, it looks like Casey Affleck's character, simply named "C," goes on a bit of a journey through time as well, as the trailer indicates his wife not only moves on, but starts a family of her own with a new man.

A Ghost Story certainly looks like a far cry from Pete's Dragon and more like David Lowery's previous film, Ain't Them Bodies Saints. Strangely enough, there are similar elements in that film, despite the fact that it reunites the trio of Lowery, Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck. Though rather than taking a trip through a past era of southern history, A Ghost Story looks it expands its story of sorrow through time and familial relations. Don't think of it as a remake, but instead as a director expanding their personal canvas to encompass something greater.

Though as far as remakes are concerned, A Ghost Story seems like the film is a loose remake of Steven Spielberg's Always, which in turn was a remake of the 1943 film A Guy Named Joe. Both films tread very similar story beats, particularly with the ghost of a lover keeping an eye on his lady love. However, David Lowery has distanced his project away from the more conventional duo of films, again hewing closer to Ain't Them Bodies Saints' sensibilities. Also, it looks like the aspect ratio of the film will show the film as if it's framed like a photo from the 1970s, amping up the angle of personal reflection and thinking about the way things were.

With buzz from its Sundance Film Festival showing, and a beautiful trailer to boot, A24's A Ghost Story could be a very refreshing alternative to the summer blockbusters that will occupy the theaters around the same time as its debut. The film will haunt theaters on July 7th, most likely in a limited release platform, just as Spider-Man: Homecoming takes the dance floor.

The original Pete's Dragon is a Disney film very much of its era. Beyond just its live-action/2D animation hybrid style and musicality, it's also one of those movies that you look back on and realize just how crazy twisted it is (from slave-driving foster parents to an organ-harvesting medicine showman, it really has it all). As such, it wouldn't have really worked for writer/director David Lowery to make a direct copy when crafting his own take on the story, but this just works for the new film's benefit. As while Lowery's version of Pete's Dragon isn't entirely without its share of darkness, it retains the deeply rooted themes of family, love and connection, and has a vivacious sense of adventure and incredible heart.

Set in the late 1970s/early 1989s, though feeling entirely timeless, the film opens with a tremendous tragedy, as a boy named Pete (Levi Alexander) finds himself orphaned and stranded in the forest after a car accident kills both of his parents. With predators lurking in the trees all around him, the young protagonist needs a miracle to survive -- and gets one in the form of Elliott: a giant, furry dragon that can both turn invisible and take to the skies at will.

Six years later, Pete (now played by Oakes Fegley) grows up and makes a home for himself and Elliott in the woods -- spending his days aimlessly sprinting through the gorgeously-shot flora, splashing through rivers, and freely leaping off of cliffs, always knowing that his majestic buddy will be there to catch him. Together they live in isolation, but that comes to an end when Pete spots Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), a ranger doing her rounds, and he discovers the activities of a lumber mill cutting down a section of the forest under the guise of brothers Gavin (Karl Urban) and Jack (Wes Bentley) -- who is also Grace's fiancé.

Pete is ultimately discovered by Jack's daughter, Natalie (Oona Laurence), and Grace brings the young boy into the local town of Mill Haven -- against his wishes. An escape attempt and his repeated requests to be reunited with Elliott lead to questions about who this forest companion might be, and Pete tells them about his fuzzy friend. Along with Grace's father, Meacham (Robert Redford), who tells enchanting stories to the local kids about his own encounter with a dragon, Pete, Grace and Natalie venture back into the woods for a fantastical introduction. Unfortunately, they're not the only ones to discover Elliott's existence, and Pete must protect his dragon buddy from real danger.

Clearly built as a family film meant to be watched by movie-goers all ages, Pete's Dragon isn't packed with all kinds of big dramatic twists and reveals. Instead, David Lowery lets the simple narrative play out logically and directly at its own natural pace, and really lets the characters and relationships compel the audience's investment. In the spirt of films like The Black Stallion and even the original Pete's Dragon, the film finds real magic in the relationship between its young lead and his fantastical CGI best friend -- but that same kind of emotion persists amongst all of the human relationships as well. As Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard (who delivers an all-around wonderful turn) has a truly heartwarming and never cloying bond with Oakes Fegley's Pete, which only grows stronger as the characters get closer. Excellent chemistry is persistent between every member of the ensemble, and it's their emotional connection together that makes you care how everything plays out by the end of the adventure.

Pete's Dragon marks David Lowery's first step into the studio movie world, having wowed Sundance Film Festival audiences in 2013 with his last feature, Ain't Them Bodies Saints - but the move does nothing to stifle his breathtaking visual style. Every time the movie journeys into the forest, it simply becomes spellbinding, as the director makes you feel enveloped in the majesty of nature and compels you to want to join Pete and Elliott on a sprint-and-fly ride through the trees. The work also serves as a reminder of just how incredibly far visual effects have come, as Weta Digital's work bringing Elliott to life is immaculate, and Lowery elegantly folds him into the grounded and hazy atmosphere of his aesthetic (to say nothing of the fact that you want to hug the giant cat-like dragon until one or both of you passes out). Lowery's last film made him a director to look out for, and Pete's Dragon secures his place as one of the industry's most talented new filmmakers.

The only good remakes are those that have a legitimate reason to exist and something to add to the story that's already been told, and Pete's Dragon fits that in every way. Essentially ignoring every element of the 1977 original beyond the relationship between the two titular characters, David Lowery has crafted a beautiful, earnest family film with wonderful emotion and pathos that should see it continually watched for years.

This week, fans were transported into the world of Pete's Dragon, as the latest trailer for director David Lowery's upcoming Disney remake arrived online. The movie looks like a very different kind of film -- as the director purposefully didn't watch the original musical from 1977 while making it -- but it did give off the atmosphere of some of the best family entertainment we've seen in the last few decades. This can partially be explained by the various classic features that helped inspire Pete's Dragon's development.

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of sitting down with director David Lowery and actress Bryce Dallas Howard during a Pete's Dragon early press day in Los Angeles, and one thing discussed in both interviews were the movies that helped inspire both the look and feel of the new film. Some of the titles mentioned were obvious, and others the complete opposite. Read on to find out what they said!

My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away

Director Hayao Miyazaki never really dipped into the world of live-action during his career, instead using his gifts to sculpt some of the greatest animated works of all time, but David Lowery was still able to learn from these features and apply feelings and ideas in the making of Pete's Dragon. Two particular titles from the Japanese genius that stood out included the brilliant My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away - both of which Lowery said were big in working with Bryce Dallas Howard. Said Lowery.

"Gentle" is definitely a word I think about when I look at how fuzzy and cute Elliott is in Pete's Dragon, and if the movie can even be half as sweet as My Neighbor Totoro, it will be a smashing success.

The Black Stallion

While all of the movies on this list had a hand in changing exactly what the new Pete's Dragon would turn out to be, director Carroll Ballard's 1979 adaptation of The Black Stallion may be the most important. Going into the project, it was the movie that David Lowery was thinking about the most -- though after rewatching it, began to understand that part of his job would be creating a much different cinematic experience than most young audiences are used to these days. Lowery explained,

According to David Lowery, it's really the more methodical elements of Pete's Dragon that get the most effect from The Black Stallion - particularly an extended sequence towards the beginning of the film when the titular orphan is just running around the woods silently with his magical pal.

The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness

If it isn't already clear at this point, the work of Hayao Miyazaki was definitely influential on the making of Pete's Dragon, but that's actually also the case for movies about Hayao Miyazaki. After talking with David Lowery about the Japanese filmmaker, Bryce Dallas Howard turned him on to The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness - the 2013 documentary about Miyazaki. Said Howard,

Given the subject matter of Pete's Dragon, the tone, vision and atmosphere of Hayao Miyazaki's movies certainly make sense as a reference point, and hopefully we'll see a good amount of it reflected in the finished work.

The Witch

The horror film The Witch from director Robert Eggers may have only been released in theaters a few months ago, but thanks to the fact that David Lowery was able to get an early look at the movie, it wound up having an influence on Pete's Dragon. You might struggle to think what kind of inspiration could be taken from a dark horror movie, but what Lowery really appreciated as the particular geographical photography. Said Lowery,

As seen in the trailer for Pete's Dragon, the movie doesn't create the same kind of serious dread as The Witch, but the cinematography certainly does make the forested areas look stunning and beautiful.

You'll be able to see how all of these movies factor into Pete's Dragon when the movie arrives in theaters on August 12th!

Hollywood is constantly on a cycle of producing new remakes and sequels, and when a filmmaker is brought aboard to helm these projects, the assumption at large is that they go back and revisit the original to help inform their vision for the update. In the case of David Lowery, however, this wasn't the case. When the filmmaker got the job to direct the new, upcoming take on Pete's Dragon, he actually made a point of not rewatching the classic from 1977 -- basically because he knew that the movie he wanted to make wasn't going to be a straight remake.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with David Lowery earlier this month after a special presentation for the new Pete's Dragon in Los Angeles, and one of the most interesting things we touched on in our conversation was the fact that the filmmaker decided against rewatching the Don Chaffey-directed musical from 1977. Noting that the new movie really only has loose ties to the original, I asked Lowery what his relationship to it was in the making of his film, and he explained that it was his decision to really not pay it any attention. Said the director,

Watching the newly released trailer for David Lowery's Pete's Dragon compared to the original movie, it's pretty easy to see where the two features deviate. The 1977 version had Pete as a runaway orphan, who joins his dragon Elliott in trying to escape a horrible life of slave labor. He comes across a small town called Passamaquoddy and is taken in by a lighthouse keeper and her father, but must still contest with his terrible adoptive family and a doctor who wishes to harvest Elliott's organs. This is almost all different in Lowery's movie, where Pete isn't running away from an adoptive family -- he's been alone with Elliott in the woods for months -- and he winds up being taken in by a forest ranger and her dad. You can watch the preview for the new take below:

Discussing the making of Pete's Dragon further, David Lowery also noted that he actually enjoyed the freedom that came with not having to watch the 1977 film -- partially because it represented in a strange way the certain lack of pressure that existed putting together the remake. While the filmmaker certainly recognizes that there is a good amount of love for the original movie, it's also not quite held in the same regard as some other Disney classics of that era:

If you care to revisit the original Pete's Dragon yourself, as the 1977 movie is available on Blu-ray and DVD, as well as in digital formats. If you're going to wait for David Lowery's version of the family adventure, however, the good news is that the delay won't be long, as the new film will be in theaters on August 12th. In the meantime, be sure to stay tuned for more from our interview with David Lowery, as well as Pete's Dragon star Bryce Dallas Howard!

David Lowery has spent more than a decade helming little-known shorts and features, but he broke through this year with his star-studded drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints that boasts Rooney Mara, Ben Foster, and Casey Affleck in its leads. It seems it was an experience both Lowery and Affleck are ready to replicate as THR reports the pair are re-teaming for a science-fiction tale about the perils of cloning.

Lowery has closed a deal to write and direct an adaptation called To Be Two, inspired but a short story “To Be Two or Not to Be” from Paul Broks’ anthology Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology. Affleck is set to star, and will also produce alongside Jim Wilson, and Sailor Bear’s Toby Halbrooks and James M. Johnston, who both co-produced Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. The film is being described as “a thinking man’s sci-fi tale” that’s tone will be similar to Rian Johnson’s Looper. Notably, the two films share a similar theme of doubles causing chaos. THR describes “To Be Two or Not to Be” like so:

While Lowery and Affleck are clearly gung-ho to work together again, it’s unknown how soon To Be Two will be able to go into production. For one thing, Lowery has the script to write. But with Ain’t Them Bodies Saints having drawn him major attention at its Sundance debut last January, the writer-director has been courting much bigger deals. Last March, Lowery was hired to help Disney reinvent their 1977 mashup of live-action and animation Pete’s Dragon. He will pen its script with his writing partner Toby Halbrooks. Then in April Lowery signed on to adapt and direct a 2003 New Yorker article about Forrest Tucker, a career bank robber. Called The Old Man and the Gun, the Robert Redford vehicle is expected to show what happened when Tucker broke out of his retirement community at age 78 and gave bank robbing one last go. For Affleck’s part, he has just wrapped on Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart follow-up Out of the Furnace, and is currently in production on Christopher Nolan’s mysterious Dark Knight Rises’ follow-up Interstellar.

So basically as promising as To Be Two might be, it could well be two or more years before we’ll hear more news on it. But in the meantime, you can check out Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, which is now in theaters.

By now you probably know Rooney Mara's face… but if she had her way, you wouldn't know her at all. The actress who broke out big time as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo clearly had no problem transforming herself into a punked-out Swedish hacker, in a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination and offers of roles anyone would dream of. But Mara, who has gone on to work with huge names like Steven Soderbergh, Terrence Malick and Spike Jonze, says that all that work became too much, and when I spoke to her in Manhattan last week she was gearing up for her first screen role-- in Stephen Daldry's Trash-- in nearly a year.

Many of the roles that Mara filmed in that time, including in Spike Jonze's Her and Terrence Malick's still-untitled film, have yet to see theaters, but you can catch her now in theaters and on VOD in Ain't Them Bodies Saints from a director who isn't yet a big name but seems destined to become one, David Lowery. Mara saw Lowery's previous short film and says she immediately fell for the script, in which she plays Ruth, one half of a criminal couple (opposite Casey Affleck) who are separated when he goes to jail, and she retreats home to raise their child. Five years later he's escaped and makes his way back to her, and though Ruth is a tough outlaw at heart and a devoted mom, she's not nearly the simple "tough female character" that Mara admits can be too limiting (when it's not Lisbeth, that is).

Check out my conversation with Mara-- and her confession about which movie classics she's catching up on this summer-- and see Ain't Them Bodies Saints in theaters or on VOD now.

This is a really general question, but you were talking about how when you got the script it some to you. But the movie is so visual and the music is such an important part of it, and its so hard for me to imagine seeing a script and seeing that in there. What was it that you saw?

Well, the music was, I couldn’t have imagined the music, but certainly, the look of it. I mean, I knew what David wanted it to look like because he sent such good reference photos. You know, he sent me a picture of a little girl sitting on, you know, the floor, in her house, with like a cat, playing with toys and he was like. “This is what I want Ruth’s house to feel like,” and it’s exactly what the house felt like.

Not looks like, but feels like?

Yeah. And he sent tons of photos like that of, you know, of what he wanted the movie to feel like, and so I know what it would look like and feel like.

And you had seen his short?

I’d seen his short, yes, but also, you know, the script, it is written in a way that it, you could-- it does have a very special, unique voice to it, and you could kind of tell the look the movie was going to be.

Yeah, the letters are really poetic.

And a lot of that was written later. It wasn’t in the first script that I read, but there was enough of that that I knew that it was special.

He says that you were the only person he wanted for this and you’ve said that you don’t know why. I don’t know if now you do know why, if he’s told you…

Well, I don’t know why, but then I found out later that he used to be, David used to be goth. So, I feel like he only wanted me because I was Lisbeth and I was like... From his goth days, he was like I need Lisbeth Salander. [Laughs]

That’s funny.

I know, right, but no, that’s not why.

In naturalistic parts like this, there’s not a lot of bigness to it, like with Lisbeth Salander, where you’re changing your entire appearance…

It’s very quiet.

And you’re not Southern and you’re not from a rural area. Your background isn’t really anything like that. It doesn’t seem like you put a lot of stock in that, but is that something that you have to convince other people to get over or have to talk to yourself about?

No, I don’t have to convince other people to get over it. I mean, I would choose to play a part, you know, that has an accent and that’s from a place that I’m not from any day of the week over something that doesn’t.

So, you’d rather do that.

Oh my God, yeah. I would rather never do a movie in my own voice, ever, but I mean, I have and I will, but I would much rather do anything in an accent or, you know, someone who is from a place that’s not my own.

So, is something like Side Effects more like naked, almost, because it’s more similar to you.

Yeah. So, you like the part of acting that’s like the hiding of yourself a little bit.

100%

How hard is that as you go forward though. When you become more famous, people know your face more, it is harder to disappear in stuff.

Yeah, it’s horrible. I haven’t worked since Thanksgiving.

Yeah, at Cannes, I was reading the interview you did on Grantland and you’re like, “I’m sick of myself. I’m still trying to figure out what to do.” Do you still feel that way?

Well, I did four movies in a row. I did Side Effects. Then I did Spike’s movie [Her]. Then I did this. Then I did Terrence Malick’s movie [still untitled]. Then I was like, “Oh my God. I’m never working again,” and that’s a long, that was a long time to take off for me. Now, I’m working in September, but I only just now feel ready to work.

What was it about yourself that you felt like you were trying to get away from? Do you feel like you did get away from that thing?

Well, like you said, I just don’t want to work too much. I don’t want to get too comfortable. I don’t want to like, I don’t know. I don’t want to have too many habits or like, things that I fall back on. I want to be, you know, I want to continue to be challenged and four in a row is too many.

Do you take time to look back at what you’ve done and kind of pick it apart?

I do a little bit, but I mean, I cant do that too much or I would drive myself crazy, because it’s not just me, it’s everyone. And it’s not just acting, it’s anything you do. You look back and you, of course could do it better. It’s like life, you get out of, you come out of something and you’re like, now I know how to get through that situation with that friend, or I would do it differently, you know. It’s like anything in life.

I mean, I know the Dragon Tattoo sequels are so up in the air, and not really up to you, but is the idea of playing the same character again… does the idea of like going back and fixing it appeal to you?

Well, someone asked me that, I would love to go back and play that character, but I wouldn’t think of it as I could go back and fix it, because the second one is so different than the first one and I’m sure by the time we finish it, I’d be like, “Oh, now I know how to do it.” You know, it would be the same thing. I would feel the same way after.

You've kind of rejected the idea of comparisons between David Lowery and Terrence Malick in other movies, but do you see the similarities in the way their work turns out and does it make sense to you that they work so different?

Maybe in Malick’s earlier work, a little bit. think they’re both very poetic and they’re both romantics and they have a similar aesthetic, but, you know, Malick’s work has changed and evolved so much from his earlier stuff. I don’t think the Malick of today has very many similarities to David’s work.

When you’re working with someone like David Lowery, who’s completely taking influences of Terrence Malick or whatever else, do you see the way he’s filtering those influences, compared to someone like David Fincher who doesn’t seen like he’s been making movies that are inspired by anybody else, necessarily.

Oh, yes he is. David is like, he knows everything about every movie and he’s seen everything and he I mean, I don’t think there’s a filmmaker out there that isn’t taking something from someone else.

That’s totally true.

I think the difference is that David is so--David Fincher is so knowledgeable that, you know, he's not copying, but he sees something and he knows how he wants to make it his own or make it better. He just is so smart about everything, about storytelling, but also about like the camera and like electronics and like, I can’t even talk about it, because I have no idea.

Yeah, he’s got that crazy brain, like he and James Cameron seem to be ones who are like, I know every single thing that happens on this set and I will do all of it.

Yeah, he does, but certainly, I think he totally takes things from other movies.

Between him and Steven Soderbergh who both seem to know absolutely everything in the world, are they handing you down things and being like, “Learn this.” Are you getting a film education from directors like that?

I mean, I am. Unfortunately, I’m so bad. I won’t even tell you the movies that I haven’t seen.

Oh God. I don’t shame anybody for that. There’s too many. You can’t see everything.

I saw The Godfather for the first time, a week ago.

That’s really exciting. Did you like it?

I loved it and it was so exciting. It also just made me really depressed though. I also watched Annie Hall for the first time last weekend and it was like, why don’t people make movies anymore, like actual movies. And so it was really depressing, but it is so exciting, I have so many amazing movies like that to watch.

So, is that what you’re using your time off from acting, to kind of do the research?

Yeah, I’ve been watching a lot of movie and also, you know, catching up with life and spending time with family and I’ve had a lot of work stuff to do, just not acting.

Are you playing Joaquin Phoenix’s ex-wife in Her?

Yes.

I feel like you’ve done a couple of roles, this too, playing older than you are, or someone who feels older than you are.

Well, I guess maybe, I look younger than I am, but I feel older than my age, which is kind of a weird place to be. But, the Spike Jonze film takes place kind of in the future, so I don’t know. It didn’t seem, playing his ex, they were worried about my age. They thought I was too young for it, but because I kind of play this genius scientist and it takes place in the future, so being younger than him, I don’t know, just didn’t feel weird. Kind of how in a period piece, it wouldn’t feel weird for me to be married to someone that age, you know.

The idea of strong women in movies is something that gets talked about , but a lot of films will claim they have a strong female character who is also really limited in what she can actually do. Then I was thinking about your sister on “House of Cards”, which is such an interesting female role in the way that it plays with sexuality and strength and the way that those two things can exist at the same time, and they’re very rarely shown that way. Do you feel like there is like a strong female trap, like here are the two different ways that we can be strong in movies and that’s all that you get out there?

Yeah, it’s really frustrating the way that females are depicted in film and what’s available. You just think about the roles that are out there for men. They’re so interesting and I’m sorry, but females are the more complicated, interesting sex. We are. And we’re just not depicted that way and that’s one of the things I loved about this is that she’s a mom. But I’ve read so many scripts where it’s like, the protective mom and she just will do anything to protect her child and it’s so, it’s just not real life. No one is that, most people are not that, you know, good. And here was a mother and it was just, to me, so much more interesting the way she was a mother and how complicated it was and it wasn’t, I don’t know. It’s definitely frustrating that females are, they’re not portrayed as complicated or as interesting as they really are.

If you think the visuals in this summer's big movies have impressed you, just wait until you get a look at David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints. Without a single giant robot or skyscraper getting knocked over, Ain't Them Bodies Saints is easily one of the year's most visually impressive movies, crammed with the kind of lush cinematography and Texas locations that made Terrence Malick famous, and which have been brought new life in Lowery's gritty, emotional and heartfelt crime drama. Oscar nominees Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara star as a pair of criminals separated when he is sent to jail, leaving her at home raising their child. The real story happens, though, when he breaks out of jail to try and return to her. After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January Ain't Them Bodies Saints is coming to theaters on August 10, but you now have a chance to see it early-- and on the big screen, where it belongs.

We're co-hosting a special advance screening of Ain't Them Bodies Saints in Los Angeles, happening Tuesday, August 13 in Beverly Hills. 5 lucky readers will be able to attend the screening with a guest, and you'll be greeted by our own Eric Eisenberg, who will be on hand at the event. How do you enter? Just click on over to our Facebook page, "Like" it if you haven't already, and then leave a comment on this contest post. Tell us why you're looking forward to Ain't Them Bodies Saints and we'll pick five winners at random. The contest ends at 12 am EST on Saturday, August 10th. If you enter, please make sure we can contact you via Facebook. If you have it set to where we can't message you, your prize will go to somebody else. You must already be in Los Angeles to attend the screening-- we are not providing transportation or lodging.

For more on Ain't Them Bodies Saints, check out the film's trailer and official synopsis below. Even if you don't get into this screening, you can catch it in LA or New York on August 16, and it will be expanding to other cities after.

We've been hearing a lot about David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints this year. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this past January to rave reviews, and the buzz has gotten him a gig doing a remake of Pete's Dragon, working with Robert Redford on a true-life crime drama about a lifelong criminal called The Old Man and The Gun, and adapting Brian Michael Bendis' Torso. But for all the positive word surrounding the film and it's director, we've yet to actually see the thing. Fortunately we are now only a few weeks from the movie's release, and with it now screening at the Cannes Film Festival SlashFilm has given us a cool new memento reminding us, premiering a new poster that is painted by the writer/director's brother, Benjamin Lowery.

Both written and directed by Lowery, the indie film tells the story of an outlaw who manages to escape from prison and goes on the run from the law. He heads across the Texas hills hoping to get back together with his wife and the daughter he has never met. The impressive cast includes Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Ben Foster and Keith Carradine. The film earned both the Cinematographer Award and the Indian Paintbrush Producer's Award at the Sundance Film Festival and a nominee for the Grand Jury Prize. Lowery is also known for his work as an editor, his work most recently seen in Shane Caruth's Upstream Color.

Aint't Them Bodies Saints will be in theaters on August 16th.

Let’s all put our thoughts together in hoping director David Lowery’s career doesn’t immediately fall beneath the weight of itself – or Lowery’s banging-ass mustache – before the guy actually has a chance to thrive in cinemas. Lowery has for years been an editor, writing and directing his own shorts and has the 2009 drama St. Nick behind him. His latest film, the artsy crime drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints was a Sundance smash, drawing comparisons to Terrence Malick, of all people, and will no doubt wow audiences when it hits theaters on August 16.

As such, it’s no surprise the guy is getting high profile projects thrown at him left and right. The Hollywood Reporter puts Lowery as the director and writer of a revised adaptation of Torso, the 1998-1999 limited comic series written by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko, with art by Bendis. I say revised, because this project has been around for quite a while, and was supposed to be David Fincher’s follow-up to Zodiac, before Paramount balked at the budget. Well the rights to Torso reverted back to Bendis, who along with Andreyko will serve as producers, along with the company Circle of Confusion.

Lowery has been tapped to rein in the true crime subject matter as a low-budget, high-minded serial killer tale. Its tone is in the same violent ballpark as Zodiac and Se7en, so it would have been interesting if Fincher had come back to it instead of re-adapting a half-decent novel for American audiences. But it’s Lowery’s show now, and that’s just fine, dammit.

But Lowery piled a lot onto his plate recently, with the Pete’s Dragon remake for Disney and a different true crime drama, which includes co-writing and co-directing with Robert Redford.

Torso tells another tale from the life of Eliot Ness, years after his Untouchables days. During his time as a Cleveland Safety Director, the “Torso Murderer,” or the Butcher of Kingsbury Run, struck Cleveland, leaving anonymous torsos dumped in rivers, taunting police with letters. It’s a gripping read, and Bendis’ art definitely lends itself to cinema, so put this one on your bulletin boards for the time being.

Below is a video of Lowery talking about Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, so you can get a feel for that epic ‘stache.

Robert Redford helped create the Sundance Film Festival in in 1978, and this past January director David Lowery wowed the audiences of Park City, Utah with his feature Ain't Them Bodies Saints. So it totally makes sense that the two filmmakers would want to team up on a project together - and today they have apparently forged a deal.

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Lowery is now set to both adapt and direct The Old Man and the Gun, a film based on a 2003 New Yorker article, with Redford attached to both star and produce. The article, written by David Grann, tells the story of a man named Forrest Tucker, a bank robber who spent almost his entire life either in prison or breaking out of it (including escapes from both Alcatraz and San Quentin). At the age of 78, while living in a retirement community with his wife, he once again tried to stick up a bank, only to once again get caught.

The trade notes that the movie will focus on one particular part of his life, but it's unspecified which part (if Redford's age is any indication, however, it will be fairly late in the game). The project has actually been making its way around Hollywood for some time now and at one point had Wolfgang Petersen attached to helm.

Redford's next film, The Company You Keep - which he also directed - was put into limited release last weekend, and it was recently announced that he will star alongside Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Lowery, meanwhile, was recently hired to direct a remake of the kid's movie Pete's Dragon.

Though MGM was underwhelmed by David Fincher's The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo—reducing it to a "modest loss" —the thriller was heralded by critics blown away by Rooney Mara Oscar-nominated turn as the incomparable Lisbeth Salander. Since then, major filmmakers have been lining up to work with the fast-rising starlet, including Terrence Malick, Steven Soderbergh, and Spike Jonze. Basically, Mara has her pick of projects for the foreseeable future, so it speaks well of the upcoming Ain’t Them Bodies Saints that she is now attached to star.

Deadline reports that Mara, Ben Foster and Casey Affleck are all presently circling the project which is said to be a contemporary crime drama in the vein of Bonnie and Clyde. Whether that means a pair of crooks who have a twisted love life that binds them together through their exploits, or that it's meant to shake up our expectations of the genre (or both) remains to be seen as no further plot details or even vague character descriptions are being released at this time.

Nonetheless, this film is already looking pretty good on paper—well—aside from its awkward title. Of course, the aforementioned, attached talented trio bodes well for Ain't's execution, but so does it's writer-director David Lowery, who garnered buzz last year with his short film Pioneer, which went on to win the Grand Jury Award at SXSW. The celebrated storyteller developed the screenplay for Ain’t Them Bodies Saintswithin the illustrious Sundance Writers Lab. And now it seems the script is ready to roll with casting kicking off and financing being lined up. Yet what's most enticing about this proposed production is not just the combined screen presence and performance savvy of Mara, Foster and Affleck, but the fearlessness of these three who have each been known to take on incredibly risky material for better or worse. It may not guarantee Ain’t Them Bodies Saints will be as groundbreaking as Bonnie and Clyde, but it does promise to be intriguing.