Life Itself

Eli Roth’s PG-rated horror movie leads the third-worst weekend at the 2018 box office as a trio of high-profile movies flop.

Dan Fogelman, creator of decade-spanning relationship drama This Is Us, seems to be a big fan of ambitious storytelling projects. His latest reported project, entitled, naturally, Life, Itself, has a similar premise to his NBC show: One couple leads a story that spans many years and relationships and generations, taking them from America to Spain and back again. Annette Bening, fresh off her starring turn in last year’s 20th Century Women, is the latest to join the all-star cast that includes Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Antonio Banderas, and Samuel L. Jackson.

The most surprising breakout hit of the new fall TV programming crop would probably be NBC’s This Is Us, an unconventionally structured drama about family, time, and interconnectedness. Stretching across decades, the Dan Fogelman-created show follows the struggles of a couple (Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore) as they cope with the difficulties of parenthood, while at the same time tracking the lives of their children as adults years later. The pilot presented the revelation that part of the show takes place during the ‘80s as a big twist, but has gradually gotten out from under its own narrative hook. On a wide-scale canvas, Fogelman likes to trace grand arcs connecting characters far removed from one another, and he’ll get the chance to do just that with a new reported film project.

Yep, it’s that time of the year again. The 2015 Oscar nominations are here and it’s time for everyone to get outraged and cynical over which movies get the opportunity to take home statuettes of naked golden dudes. Sure, we always tell ourselves that the Academy Awards don’t really matter and that a film’s legacy will live or die for reasons beyond trophies, but we always end up getting angry about these things anyway. However, this year’s biggest snubs seems more egregious than usual and require slightly more yelling and stamping of feet.

Film critic Roger Ebert is a living legend, and his life story is simply fascinating -- fascinating enough to draw the attention of Martin Scorsese, Steve James, and Steve Zaillan, who have optioned his memoir, 'Life Itself.'