Mariah Carey makes her return as the widely-acknowledged Queen of Christmas and was Toronto ever in for a treat! The international megastar brought her two-city tour for MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL here first, before bringing the celebrations to New York City. The show, which has her bringing out material from her iconic 1994 Merry Christmas album and 2010 follow-up Merry Christmas II You. The Show which she tells the packed house at Scotiabank Arena was meant as a way to help her fans keep their minds off all the things that held them back during the Pandemic, and this marked her first live show since the world went on lockdown.

The Concert running just under two hours wasn’t just Holiday hits! Carey as a surprise did a set featuring abbreviated versions of her smash hits including “Fantasy“, with a re-working of Latto‘s recent smash “Big Energy”; “We Belong Together”; “Emotions”; “Make it Happen“; and of course, “Hero“. The Show capped-off with timeless “All I Want for Christmas is You” in the Encore.

Carey brought out her eleven-year-old twins Morocco and Monroe, with the latter duetting with her mother on “Away in a Manger“. The world for the first time got to hear her talent and her smokey vocals are not unlike that of her mother!

A highlight reel of moments from MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL:

Some Snaps:

An unforgettable time and if you missed it, there is one more chance to see Carey tomorrow night as she completes the second of her two-night engagement in Toronto!

(Photo/video credit: Mr. Will Wong)

Not much change in the Top Two at the Box Office this weekend as BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER takes top spot a remarkable fifth consecutive week with $12.7 million, tallying at a total $411 million domestically for Disney/Marvel.

Second again is VIOLENT NIGHT with $8.2 million for Universal Pictures, a gross of $25.5 million over two weekends.

Third is Disney‘s STRANGE WORLD with $3.7 million, a total $30.5 million over three weekends.

In fourth is THE MENU with $2.5 million for Searchlight Pictures, a total $28.7 million grossed thus far.

Rounding-out the Top Five is DEVOTION with $1.9 million for Sony Pictures, a total $16.8 million to date.

Who isn’t excited for this Movie? A new Featurette has arrived for BABYLON speaking to the wonderful Music you get to hear in the Film. We did chat with Justin Hurwitz, Composer earlier in the year who gave us a sneak peek what to expect, but how cool is it to hear the final product?

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

From Damien Chazelle, BABYLON is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY

Damien Chazelle 

PRODUCED BY

Marc Platt, p.g.a., Matthew Plouffe, p.g.a., Olivia Hamilton, p.g.a.   

EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY

Michael Beugg, Tobey Maguire, Wyck Godfrey, Helen Estabrook, Adam Siegel 

STARRING

Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, P.J. Byrne, Lukas Haas, Olivia Hamilton, Tobey Maguire, Max Minghella, Rory Scovel, Katherine Waterston, Flea, Jeff Garlin, Eric Roberts, Ethan Suplee, Samara Weaving, Olivia Wilde

Paramount Pictures Canada release BABYLON December 23, 2022.

(Photo/video credit: Paramount Pictures Canada)

By Mr. Will Wong

Following on the Canadian Screen Award-winning success of its first season, Webseries TOKENS‘ now in its second season, delivers even more belly laughs!

The Series centering on Sammie Pang (Connie Wang), a Chinese-Canadian woman looking to find her breakout meaningful role as an Actor, leaving her agency On Call Casting and booking a role in a remake of a Martial a\Arts flick, “The Phoenix”. Things definitely looked better on-paper and the nonsensical tone-deafness of the industry continues to rear its head on Sammie and her colleagues. But what does it look like for her to take a stand on the shallowness of “Diversity Casting”? And how ever will she be able to make her true authentic voice be heard when those in power don’t care to nurture her voice, even though they present on a superficial level the illusion that they care?

Joining the Cast this season are talents including Sarena Parmar, Cindy Sampson, Indy Saluja and Tara Strong. In less capable hands, some of the searing satirre and humour Comedy of TOKENS by Director/Writer Winnifred Jong might be a bit iffy. Jong manages to strike that fine balance perfectly poking fun at stereotypes, “white ignorance” and how the cycle is gate-kept. It’s all silly, but silly with a purpose.

The Ensemble work wonderfully together, led by Wang who slowly but surely is finding her voice and purpose after navigating some real absurdity in the business. I find it actually quite comical Sammie with a background talent agency similar to one I worked with years ago, so I can definitely relate! Parmar is fun as Nandita, bringing energy to the mix and Fuad Ahmed as Vasant is comical in his self-absorbedness as a recognizable Bollywood name trying reclaim a little fame. Shelley Thompson as Sammie‘s meddling former agent Betty is a delight.

Defintely worth a watch, especially as these quick little hits start and finish before you even know it! You can now stream the second season of TOKENS on iTunes.

Brandon Cronenberg is back with INIFINITY POOL. Here’s a first glimpse of the official Trailer.

Synopsis:

While staying at an isolated island resort, James (Alexander Skarsgård) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) are enjoying a perfect vacation of pristine beaches, exceptional staff, and soaking up the sun. But guided by the seductive and mysterious Gabi (Mia Goth), they venture outside the resort grounds and find themselves in a culture filled with violence, hedonism, and untold horror. A tragic accident leaves them facing a zero-tolerance policy for crime: either you’ll be executed, or, if you’re rich enough to afford it, you can watch yourself die instead.

Elevation Pictures release INIFITY POOL January 27, 2023.

(Photo/video credit: Elevation Pictures)

TIFF is delighted to announce its Canada’s Top Ten list of both features and short films for 2022. Selected by TIFF’s programmers in consultation with industry panelists, including filmmakers and festival programmers from across Canada, this year’s list represents a diverse range of new voices in fiction and documentary. It celebrates some of our most storied and award-winning filmmakers offering audiences a variety of perspectives, insights, and experiences from coast to coast.

TIFF would also like to recognize the privilege we have to celebrate these filmmakers on the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit and the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Wendat, and the Haudenosaunee. Today, the meeting place of Toronto (also known as Tkaronto) is home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island, and we are grateful to work on this land and to be able to screen works of Indigenous filmmakers at TIFF Bell Lightbox for audiences. 

“Bold and unapologetic, this year’s Canada’s Top Ten reflects one of the most diverse editions to date and heralds an exciting new wave of Canadian storytelling,” stated Anita Lee, TIFF, Chief Programming Officer. “I am so thrilled to present this stellar selection of films in my first year as TIFF’s Chief Programming Officer.”

Canada’s Top Ten Official Selections of 2022
Features
Black Ice | dir. Hubert Davis 
Brother | dir. Clement Virgo
Cette Maison | dir. Miryam Charles
Crimes of the Future | dir. David Cronenberg
I Like Movies | dir. Chandler Levack
Something You Said Last Night | dir. Luis De Filippis
To Kill a Tiger | dir. Nisha Pahuja
Riceboy Sleeps | dir. Anthony Shim
ROSIE | dir. Gail Maurice
Viking | dir. Stéphane Lafleur

Shorts 
Belle River | dir. Guillaume Fournier, Samuel Matteau, Yannick Nolin
Bill Reid Remembers | dir. Alanis Obomsawin
The Flying Sailor | dir. Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis
Lay Me by the Shore | dir. David Findlay
Municipal Relaxation Module | dir. Matthew Rankin
Nanitic | dir. Carol Nguyen
No Ghost in the Morgue | dir. Marilyn Cooke
Same Old | dir. Lloyd Lee Choi
Simo | dir. Aziz Zoromba
Violet Gave Willingly | dir. Claire Sanford

Canada’s Top Ten selections will screen January 26–29 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. More details to come in 2023. 

On January 26, the Canada’s Top Ten programme will feature a multi-session Industry Conversations featuring special guests and TIFF Talent alumni, as well as an opening reception to celebrate this year’s selections. 

Canada’s Top Ten Industry Forum – January 26, 2023

Addressing Systemic Racism in Canada’s Media Sector Part 2: Where Are We Now?
Time: 12pm–1:30pm
Guests confirmed to date: 
Chanda Chevannes, Executive Producer, National Film Board of Canada
Marcia Douglas, Director, English Content, International and Export, Canada Media Fund
Joan Jenkinson, Executive Director, Black Screen Office
Gosia Kamela, Head of CBC Films
Mehernaz Lentin, National Director of Feature Film, Telefilm Canada
Kerry Swanson, Executive Director, Indigenous Screen Office
Moderator: Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF

SPOTLIGHT: New Canadian Talent
Time: 2:30pm–3:30pm
Guest details to come
Moderator: Jason Anderson, Programmer, Short Cuts, TIFF

PERSPECTIVES: The Future of Canadian Content
Time: 4:30pm–5:30pm
Guests confirmed to date: 
Valerie Creighton, President and CEO, Canada Media Fund
Noah Segal, Co-President, Elevation Pictures
Moderator: Barry Hertz, Deputy Arts Editor and Film Editor, The Globe and Mail 

Ticket holders for the Canada’s Top Ten Industry Forum receive access to all three sessions in addition to a catered lunch and an invitation to the Canada’s Top Ten Opening Cocktail Reception on the evening of January 26. Tickets on sale December 14. For more information, and additional guest details to come, visit tiff.net/ctt.

A special selection of titles will be available on digital TIFF Bell Lightbox, celebrating previous Canada’s Top Ten breakouts. More information coming soon to http://digital.tiff.net/. 

(Photo credit: Elevation Pictures)

Just having wrapped production in Toronto, Sofia Coppola‘s upcoming PRISCILLA centers on Priscilla Presley and her marriage to Elvis and time living at Graceland. Coppola writes, directs and products. To be distributed by A24, the Film is based on the Memoir Elvis and Me, and stars Cailee Spainey (Mare of Eastown) and also Jacob Elordi (Euphoria). PRISCILLA began filming in Toronto late October, wrapping this past week before continuing prodution in Los Angeles. Just based on A24 being such a force at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, we’re wondering if they might have their sights on the Festival Circuit too with this one!

You already know how much we love HBO‘s Mare of Eastown and Euphoria so it should come as no surprise how excited we were to meet both Spainey and Elordi. We’re so lucky to have hosted this production in our City with filming spanning all parts of the City including Mississauga to downtown! We loved Baz Luhrmann‘s ELVIS and cannot wait to see Coppola explore Priscilla Presley‘s (who happens to be producing this also) perspective and experience next.

Elordi was just so amazing, and we spotted him with his Golden Retriever named Layla, who was on her best behaviour. How cool is it that he was sporting a PRISCILLA sweatshirt with a print of the Script cover? And Spainey was just absolutely sweet and surprised even to be recognized, donning a Supreme Beanie. The emerging star actually has been here before, having filmed 2020’s The Craft: Legacy here in Toronto. Her plate is rather full and coming-up for her, is Alex Garland‘s upcoming Civil War, alo starring Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura filmed partly in the U.S. and U.K.

Just earlier this week another Euphoria star was in Toronto. More here.

See some Snaps:

(Photo credit: Mr. Will Wong)

Apple TV+ today unveiled the premiere date and a first look at “Hello Tomorrow!,” the new 10-episode dramedy starring and executive produced by Emmy and Critics Choice Award winner Billy Crudup (“The Morning Show”). The highly anticipated half-hour series is set to make its global debut on Friday, February 17, 2023 with the first three episodes, followed by one new episode weekly, every Friday through April 7, 2023 on Apple TV+.

Set in a retro-future world, “Hello Tomorrow!” centres around a group of traveling salesmen hawking lunar timeshares. Crudup stars as Jack, a salesman of great talent and ambition, whose unshakeable faith in a brighter tomorrow inspires his coworkers, revitalizes his desperate customers, but threatens to leave him dangerously lost in the very dream that sustains him.

The ensemble cast starring alongside Crudup includes Haneefah Wood (“Truth Be Told,” “One Day at a Time”), Alison Pill (“Them,” “The Newsroom”), Nicholas Podany (“Harry Potter And The Cursed Child”), Dewshane Williams (“The Umbrella Academy,” “In the Dark”), Emmy Award winner Hank Azaria (“Brockmire,” “Ray Donovan”), Matthew Maher (“Our Flag Means Death”), and Academy Award nominee Jacki Weaver (“Silver Linings Playbook,” “Animal Kingdom”).

“Hello Tomorrow!,” produced by MRC Television, is co-created by Amit Bhalla and Lucas Jansen. Stephen Falk (“You’re the Worst”), Jonathan Entwistle (“The End of the F***ing World”), Bhalla and Jansen serve as executive producers alongside Crudup. Blake Griffin, Ryan Kalil and Noah Weinstein serve as executive producers for Mortal Media.

(Photo credit: Apple TV+)

Christian Bale is back in THE PALE BLUE EYE, arriving January only on Netflix. We have an official Trailer for your viewing pleasure!

Synopsis:
West Point, 1830. In the early hours of a gray winter morning, a cadet is found dead. But after the body arrives at the morgue, tragedy becomes savagery when it’s discovered that the young man’s heart has been skillfully removed. Fearing irreparable damage to the fledgling military academy, its leaders turn to a local detective, Augustus Landor (Christian Bale), to solve the murder. Stymied by the cadets’ code of silence, Landor enlists the help of one of their own to pursue the case, an eccentric cadet with a disdain for the rigors of the military and a penchant for poetry—a young man named Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling).

Cast:
Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Hadley Robinson, Timothy Spall, Joey Brooks, Brennan Cook, Gideon Glick, Fred Hechinger, Matt Helm, Jack Irving, Steven Maier, Charlie Tahan and Robert Duvall.

THE PALE BLUE EYE arrives January 6, 2023 on Netflix.

(Photo/video credit: Netflix)

Universal Pictures Canada x Mr. Will want to give Readers a chance to win Advance Screening Passes to see PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH.

Advance screenings will be held Monday, December 19^th in:

• Toronto: Scotiabank Theatre at 7:00 pm
• Montreal (EN): Scotiabank Theatre at 7:00 pm  
• Montreal (FR): StarCité Montreal at 7:00 pm
• Vancouver: International Village at 7:00 pm

Synopsis:

For the first time in more than a decade, DreamWorks Animation presents a new adventure in the Shrek universe as daring outlaw Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for peril and disregard for safety have taken their toll. Puss has burned through eight of his nine lives, though he lost count along the way. Getting those lives back will send Puss in Boots on his grandest quest yet.

Academy Award® nominee Antonio Banderas returns as the voice of the notorious PiB as he embarks on an epic journey into the Black Forest to find the mythical Wishing Star and restore his lost lives. But with only one life left, Puss will have to humble himself and ask for help from his former partner and nemesis: the captivating Kitty Soft Paws (Oscar® nominee Salma Hayek). 

To enter for a chance to win, click “like” on this Post at MR. WILL ON FACEBOOK. In the comments there, please indicate your City.

Rules and regulations here.

Universal Pictures Canada release PUSS IN BOOTS December 21, 2022.

(Photo/video credit: Universal Pictures Canada)