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'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' is okey-dokey

April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain. But it is also, if I check the clock, Mario Time.

"The Super Mario Bros. Movie," with its vistas of primary colors, is here to brighten our dreary springs, T.S. Eliot be damned. That there is a swell of enthusiasm for a Mario Bros. movie is a once-unthinkable development. The last time Mario hit the big screen was in the little-remembered 1993 live-action film with Bob Hoskins as Mario, John Leguizamo as Luigi and Dennis Hopper(!) as Bowser. Hoskins called the experience "a f——— nightmare."

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Disney developing live-action 'Moana' with Dwayne Johnson

"Moana" will be the latest Walt Disney Co. animation to get the live-action treatment, and at least one star is coming back.

Disney chief executive Bob Iger announced a live-action "Moana" remake is in development Monday in a call with investors. The production is in the early stages — no director has been announced — but Dwayne Johnson is set to return as the demigod Maui.

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A duo once more, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon come up for 'Air'

While Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were writing "The Last Duel," their first screenplay together since their 1997 breakthrough, "Good Will Hunting," they noticed that something in their winding and usually separate careers had been missing.

"I remember my wife said to me one day: 'I haven't heard you laugh like that in 15 years,'" says Damon. "We came out of that experience going: Why aren't we doing this more often? And getting into your 50s you just go: If we don't make it a priority, it's just not going to happen."

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Webby Award nominations for Harry Styles, Lizzo, Post Malone

Harry Styles, Post Malone, Lizzo, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, the cast of "Ted Lasso" and the web series that gave us a kid loving corn are among the nominees for this year's Webby Awards, recognizing the best internet content and creators.

The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences announced the nominees on Tuesday, the result of nearly 14,000 entries from 70 countries.

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Ryuichi Sakamoto, Japanese musician and film composer, dies

Ryuichi Sakamoto, a world-renowned Japanese musician and actor who composed for Hollywood hits such as "The Last Emperor" and "The Revenant," has died. He was 71.

Japan's recording company Avex said in a statement Sunday that Sakamoto died on March 28 while undergoing treatment for cancer.

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'Dungeons & Dragons' opens with $38.5M, takes down John Wick

Riding terrific reviews and a strong word-of-mouth, the role playing game adaptation "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" opened with $38.5 million in U.S. and Canadian movie theaters over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, stealing the top box-office perch from "John Wick: Chapter 4."

The Paramount Pictures and eOne release appealed to more moviegoers than many expected a film based on a notoriously niche table top game to interest. "Game Night" directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley turned in a rollicking comic action-adventure, with a cast including Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page and Hugh Grant, that's bringing in ticket buyers less familiar with "D&D." Audiences gave "Honor Among Thieves," which launched with a raucous opening-night premiere at SXSW, an A- CinemaScore. It scored 91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Prince Harry back in court for phone hacking hearing finale

A London judge has said he would rule as soon as possible on whether to throw out or limit a phone hacking lawsuit brought by Prince Harry, Elton John and other well-known figures against a British tabloid publisher.

The Duke of Sussex made a late arrival and early departure for the finale of a four-day High Court hearing on his invasion of privacy case against the company that publishes The Daily Mail. His surprise appearance during three days of the legal wrangling indicates the lawsuit's importance in the prince's broader battle against the British press.

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Review: Sandler, Aniston reteam in 'Murder Mystery 2'

You would have a hard time defending the limp plotting, the bland action-adventure set pieces or the Agatha Christie-light whodunit twists of the first "Murder Mystery." And, yet, it was kind of good.

"Murder Mystery," one of Netflix's most-streamed films, was chock full of exotic settings and mysterious murders. But the only thing that mattered, really, was the banter between Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler. Though "Murder Mystery" could be said to epitomize that very modern kind of passive and painless viewing experience on streaming platforms, their married couple was a throwback to a long-ago movie era. Audrey and Nick Spitz, a pair of working-class New Yorkers turned semi-amateur detectives, might as well be Nick and Nora Charles, the 1930s cocktail-swilling crime solvers.

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Dior transforms Mumbai's Gateway of India into fashion ramp

In a glittering splash of luxury fashion, Dior transformed Mumbai's grand, historic Gateway of India monument into a runway laden with celebrity, beauty and craftsmanship.

Flanked by the brightly lit, iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel, the spectacular decor turned the heritage site in India's entertainment and business capital into a blend of color and style as the models lined up Thursday to showcase the Paris fashion house's 2023 pre-fall collection.

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Biggest Hollywood films still go mostly to white men

As Hollywood emerged from the pandemic, its biggest film productions dipped in diversity after years of incremental progress, according to a new study by UCLA researchers. Opportunities were notably greater for women and people of color on streaming platforms than in theatrically released films.

The annual UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, published Thursday, presented one of the most detailed looks yet at how the film industry was shaped and, in many ways, set back during the pandemic. In analyzing 2022 movie releases, academics found that ethnic and gender inclusivity in theatrical films reverted back to 2019 or 2018 levels in many metrics, turning charts downward that had been slowly trending toward greater equity on screen and behind the camera.

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