Like the sisters Celie and Nettie in Alice Walker’s original novel, The Color Purple has had quite a journey. Its first film adaptation in 1985 launched the careers of both Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. In 2005 the story was adapted for Broadway. This Christmas, a new film adaptation of The Color Purple is headed for theatres, with a production team featuring Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, and Quincy Jones, all of whom were part of the original 1985 film.

The musician biopic trend that really reignited around the mid-2010s with Straight Outta Compton appears to have no end in sight, with Bob Marley set to get his due in the new year. After a six-second micro-teaser (complete with countdown) that helps set a context with a snippet of the 1977 hit “Jamming,” we’re greeted with a massive crowd clapping to the beat. We hear what’s identifiably a split-second sample of the piano from “Jamming, ”repeating in synch with the light until it fades in a wave of reverb at 0:16, when we get our first look at the eponymous king of reggae, played by Kingsley Ben-Adir. “From the beginning,” Marley quips when asked where he wants to start—and the soundtrack responds in kind, with the iconic drum intro to “Jamming.”

The lines between Korean and American popular culture continue to blur. Netflix is a California-based media streaming company whose most popular tv series to-date is the South Korean series Squid Game, launched in 2021—it represents the country’s massively successful Netflix franchise. While we wait for next year’s release of Squid Game Season 2 Netflix offers us a new 10-episode reality tv series called Squid Game: The Challenge. In contrast to the graphic, dramatic intensity of the original series, The Challenge seems to take the battle royale concept and replace bloody murder with the interpersonal dramas and candid participant narration that have defined elimination game reality tv ever since Survivor hit the screens a quarter-century ago.

Having claimed he was finished his animated movie-making career from time to time since 1998’s Princess Mononoke, Hayao Miyazaki has come out of retirement once more. Originally titled in Japan as How Do You Live?, after Miyazaki’s favourite childhood novel by Genzaburo Yoshino, the animated film received its North American debut recently at the Toronto International Film Festival. American distributor GKIDS describes The Boy and the Heron as a “semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death, and creation, in tribute to friendship,” and explores a space where living and dead beings coexist.

The Bikeriders is a fast-paced drama about a fictional 1960s US Midwest biker gang, starring Austin Butler (who co-starred with Tom Hanks last year in Elvis) as Benny. As we hear the slow purr of bike engines, the trailer opens with Johnny (Tom Hardy, star of Mad Max) encouraging Benny to become leader of their gang. In the first 20 seconds, this roadside conversation is gradually intercut with other shots – close-ups of gloves on handlebars, a speedometer, bikers cruising open country, Benny screaming in ecstasy as he rides – as a single note begins to swell in the sound mix. Benny’s scream lasts from 0.16-0.18, spanning across five shots including Benny loading a gun and Johnny stabbing a man in the gut, while the scream’s tone is intensified by the added sounds of an accelerating engine and low thuds evoking a racing heartbeat.

Not to be outdone by Taylor Swift’s concert film theatrical release next week, Beyoncé is set to deliver her own in time for the holiday season. Queen Bey is no stranger to film, though it’s been four years since her last concert doc—and now, there’s the promise of a fuller concert experience by going for a theatrical release.

Step aside Tom Cruise: make way for the claymation hens! This fall we’ll behold a long-awaited sequel to the 2000 film Chicken Run, which was the first film created by Aardman Animations, known for their Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep franchises. The plot in Chicken Run focused on a group of hens escaping from a chicken farm. But now, in a bizarre reversal – for which we’ll have to watch the sequel to understand why – the upcoming Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget features this same group of hens seeking to break into a maximum security, laser-fortified and robot-guarded chicken farm.

As we approach October, the all-important holiday release window has appeared on the horizon. The Holdovers might be one of the first to take over that all-important time on the theatrical calendar, aiming for an initial release in mid-November.

Disney+ has for the past 4 years served up a steady and stunning diet of epic adventure tv miniseries. We’ve blogged about a few of their Marvel series trailers in the past (including Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight). Their most recent offering is the second season of Loki, starring Tom Hiddleston.

Everyone knows Willy Wonka, but just how did he come to be the world’s foremost fictional, eccentric genius of cocoa confections? Some eighteen years after Tim Burton’s take on the best-selling Roald Dahl tale, Timothée Chalamet stars in this bid at a prequel, promising that we may yet find out.

Award-winning director Sam Wrench – known for his music documentary and live performance films about pop artists such as Billie Eilish, BTS, The Weeknd and Mary J. Blige – is bringing Taylor Swift’s wildly popular Eras Tour to the silver screen this fall.

We’re on the cusp of the fall film and television season, and among the most anticipated entries on Netflix’s slate is Benicio Del Toro and Alicia Silverstone’s reunion—with Justin Timberlake thrown in—in Grant Singer’s directorial debut, Reptile.

Leonard Bernstein was an outstanding 20th century American composer and conductor, who led the New York Philharmonic for decades and co-wrote “West Side Story.” We’ll glimpse his personal life in the new biopic film Maestro, but the new teaser trailer keeps its cards close to its chest. Starring, written and directed by Bradley Cooper (building on the success of his 2018 musical film A Star is Born, which co-starred Lady Gaga), Maestro is co-produced by cinema heavyweights Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.

From time to time we like to cover trailer for video games, and the gameplay trailer Mortal Kombat 1 serves as an inspiration this week, showcasing how a judicious mix of sound effects, on-point original music, and aural throwbacks can come together for a heady mix of nostalgia and novelty.

If you’ve seen Gladiator, you know Ridley Scott excels at cinematically capturing an epic historical setting. For his next film he is portraying the French Revolution through the eyes of Napoleon (played by Joaquin Phoenix). Emperor Napoleon was a feverish nation-builder and psychologically insecure man who loved fighting the Brits, so fittingly part of this trailer is cut to a cover of a classic Radiohead banger, “The National Anthem,” from their 2000 album Kid A.

Featuring original music from the composers of La La Land, Waitress, and Hairspray (Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman), the third season of Only Murders in the Building’s sports a trailer that appears purpose-built to tease a so-called “musical episode”. (It’s part of a broader focus on Broadway as a theme for the season, or so it appears).

Take the 5 1⁄2 minute 2022 smash hit “This is What I Mean” from Stormzy, one of the UK’s biggest hip-hop / grime artists, and remix it with some cinematic percussion and you have the soundtrack for the pulsating 2 1⁄2 minute trailer for the new secret agent action thriller Heart of Stone. In the opening moments the title character Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) prepares for a mission with her agency known as “The Charter,” which would involve her protecting “The Heart”—her preparations are accompanied by gospel harmonies and a steady bass drum. We build to 0:23 when Stormzy’s vocals enter with the opening lines of his first verse “It’s a bigger operation. What’s with all the speculation?”

Today we explore the teaser trailer for a new Disney/Pixar animated feature Elio. In a classic trailer rug-pull, it opens with a serious man’s voiceover reminiscent of science and nature documentaries. We see planets, satellites, and then zoom in to Major Olga Solis (voiced by America Ferrera) working the overnight shift at a space research centre. The high register sparse piano here is run through delay effects, as though the piano notes are bouncing off distant stars. This music gives a feeling of momentum, suspense, and imminent action. The music builds, as strings, percussion, and choir are added and the anticipation is warranted because the space station’s computer monitors are being overrun by glitchy yet seemingly playful messages from alien lifeforms instructing Solis to ‘Bring us your Leader.’ The music fades out but suddenly at 0.26, as Soli is reading the message aloud, she is interrupted by an incoming video call from her son Elio.

With so much speculation nearly two years after the release of Squid Game’s first season in September 2021, Netflix has finally offered some details on the series’ 2024 follow-up. The trailer—technically, labelled a cast announcement, rather than a teaser trailer proper—nevertheless does offer an audiovisual preview with at least some footage of the season to come.

The trailer for the new Hunger Games film uses tried and tested action music devices. Begin with minimalist piano in the high register, add tension using synth textures and industrial-sounding risers, sprinkle in choir and brass, synchronize the cinematic percussion to the violence on screen, et voilà! But, beneath the surface, this trailer features several subtle devices that link the listener’s ears to the preceding films in this series. Let’s take a listen.