News

In the series Celebrity Bear Hunt, hosted by Holly Willoughby, 12 celebrities from the UK are thrown into the Costa Rican jungle to face the ultimate challenge: being hunted by survival expert Bear Grylls. In order to make it all the way through, stars like Spice Girls’ Mel B and Wimbledon champ Boris Becker will have to learn how to live in the wilderness, win challenges, and evade capture. Who’ll be last celeb standing?

Stream it now.

Check it out at the top of this page.

Bear Grylls, survivalist star of Man vs. Wild and Running Wild with Bear Grylls, has foraged through the Malaysian wilderness, climbed Mount Everest, swum with bull sharks, and faced off against crocodiles. Now, he’s taking on a challenge like never before — training celebrities to live in the Costa Rican jungle. The series follows Grylls as he prepares a group of celebs to become...

Celebrity Bear Hunt explores the intersection of media culture and survival challenges through a distinctive lens. The series assembles British celebrities in Costa Rica’s challenging jungle landscape, creating a dramatic stage that exposes the complex relationship between performers and manufactured risk.

The program transforms natural environments into a performance space, where participants navigate intricate challenges that prioritize public perception over genuine survival skills.

Bear Grylls’ presence adds a layer of complexity, blending his survival expertise with theatrical elements that blur lines between authentic experience and entertainment.

This approach reveals how contemporary media platforms manipulate audience expectations, challenging viewers to consider the constructed nature of reality programming.

Decoding the Game: A Critical Analysis of Competition Format & Challenges

Celebrity Bear Hunt explores a gameplay structure that exposes the performative nature of modern streaming content. The initial challenge launches celebrities into a scavenger hunt involving four transportation modes—a damaged boat, a locked jeep,...

Netflix UK has assembled twelve top-tier British celebrities, who have subjected themselves as prey for a Bear hunt.

While it may not be a grizzly bear sniffing around for them, it may be worse. Edward Michael “Bear” Grylls, a British adventurer, TV personality and former British Special Forces soldier, will be on the hunt for the celebrity talent attached to the reality competition series.

Holly Willoughby hosts the Netflix show set in the Costa Rican jungle, where 12 celebrities, including Spice Girls alum Mel B and tennis legend Boris Becker, become prey for the legendary survival expert.

Each of the stars must prove how strong their sense of survival truly is as they navigate a brutal game of cat and mouse and are hunted down by Bear himself. Failure to work together and complete a challenge means an hour in the Bear Pit being hunted by Grylls. If caught, the celebrity will be eliminated.

This evening Netflix took over the town for their new reality show – Celebrity Bear Hunt. Holly Willoughby hosts this action-packed competition show that sees a group of unlikely celebrities dropped into the Central American jungle as prey for one of the world’s most fearsome predators – Bear Grylls. The Celebrities are Spice Girls singer Mel B, Boris Becker, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Steph McGovern, Danny Cipriani, and Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas. Rapper Big Zuu (real name Zuhair), former Saturdays singer Una Healy, and The Inbetweeners star Joe Thomas are all heading to Costa Rica too. Completing the line-up are fashion model Lottie Moss, Ted Lasso actor Kola Bokinni, and former Victoria’s Secret model Leomie Anderson.

Celebrity Bear Hunt will be available on Netflix from February 5 in the United Kingdom. Colin Hart and Ethan Hart were on the red carpet, here are their interviews.

Celebrity Bear Hunt Red Carpet Interviews...

For your viewing pleasure, Netflix has added 23 new shows and movies to your rotation. Well, not yours personally, as that would be presumptuous and a bit rude. But I'm pretty sure you'll find something to like in this week's offerings.

Your favorite streaming service kicked off February with a pretty busy slate. But that was just a taste of what's coming up. This week brings 22 more great shows and movies to your living room, weekly commute, or that window you've got open during another endless Zoom meeting. You know who you are.

The week begins with an acclaimed biographical drama starring Michael Keaton, and wraps up with an acclaimed biographical drama starring Kristen Stewart. Between those two films, you're invited to have a chat on the big red couch, chase through the jungles of Costa Rica, investigate a murder, jump back into your college days, and so much more. Speaking of jumping,...

Former Ted Lasso star Kola Bokinni has lined up an unexpected role in Netflix’s competition show Celebrity Bear Hunt. Bokinni joins 11 other celebrities in Bear Grylls’ “ultimate survivor challenge” show.

Celebrity Bear Hunt transplants a group of celebrities into a Costa Rican jungle, where the only way to win is to avoid being caught by Bear Grylls. Holly Willoughby – who hosts Dancing on Ice and You Bet! in the UK – will provide commentary on the action as these famous faces are hunted one-by-one by the world’s most famous survivalist.

Bokinni memorably played fictional AFC Richmond captain Isaac McAdoo in Ted Lasso, but the competition will be very real in his latest TV project. The actor ventures into the jungle alongside former Spice Girl Mel B, tennis icon Boris Becker, retired rugby standout Danny Cipriani and models Lottie Moss and Leomie Anderson.

Kola Bokinni Faces Off Against Bear Grylls...

Patrick McEnroe — who has spent a lifetime in tennis and experienced the sport as a player, team captain, coach, executive, and broadcaster – hosts “Holding Court,” a weekly show on Mad Dog Sports Radio dedicated to tennis and the larger world of racquet sports.

Holding Courtwith Patrick McEnroeListen on the App

Listen on the App

Holding Court How to Listen

Starting January 4, the one-hour show airs every Saturday at 7am Et throughout the year on Mad Dog Sports Radio (Ch. 82) and the SiriusXM app.

What You’ll Hear

McEnroe covers the latest news and topics from the world of professional tennis, shares instructional advice and equipment tips with players of all skill levels, and expands the conversation to other racquet sports including the growing game of pickleball. McEnroe,

A big fan of all sports, McEnroe also “holds court” from time to time on other topics beyond racquet sports, from pro and college football to baseball,...

Matthew Perry, best known and loved for his role as Chandler Bing in Friends, had aspirations that many may not know of. In his early years, he wasn’t interested in Hollywood fame but in a tennis career. The actor revealed many details about the same in an old interview which might come as a surprise to many fans.

Matthew Perry in Friends | NBC

His fateful match against a surprising opponent changed his trajectory and led him to a path that would ultimately define his life. And today, on the anniversary of his passing, we can honor his memory by remembering these small anecdotes to keep his essence and spirit alive.

The Day Matthew Perry’s Dreams Were Killed Matthew Perry and Courtney Cox in Friends | NBC

Long before Friends graced television, Matthew Perry had dedicated himself to dominating the tennis court. As a young and ambitious player, he was...

As we near the official opening of the Paris 2024 Olympics, the rooftop of the swanky Hotel Raphael, a stone’s throw from the Arc de Triomphe and the Avenue Champs-Elysée, is a hive of activity.

The space will be home to Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe’s top presenter and commentator talent for the entirety of the games, with the space bannered the Wbd House.

With a 360-degree vista on Paris, the terrace enjoys unbroken views on the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and Montmartre and a host of other Parisian landmarks.

Four versatile studios with breath-taking Paris backdrops and three stand-up positions have been cleverly slotted into the space.

The 2024 Paris games mark the first Olympics outing for Wbd Sports Europe, and its main content production and broadcasting subsidiary Eurosport, since the merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia into Wbd in 2022.

Standing in the main corner studio overlooking the Eiffel Tower,...

Warner Bros Discovery’s 2024 Paris Olympic Games plans are building momentum.

Wbd has revealed plans for “wall-to-wall” coverage of the Olympics, which begin later this month in the French capital. Eurosport will show the games across 47 markets in 19 languages through Max and Discovery+ and on most of its television channels.

This will total 3,800 hours, with every moment of the events streamed — including all 329 medal ceremonies, and the opening and closing ceremonies offered in Hdr. Wbd has owned the international rights to the Olympics since the 2018 Games, and sub-licenses feeds to public and commercial broadcasters in local territories, due to the International Olympic Committee’s insistence they are aired on free-to-air TV around the world.

A presenting line up of TV talent and sports stars includes Germany’s Boris Becker, Fabien Hambüchen and Fanny Rinne; the UK’s Laura Woods, Ugo Moyne, James Cracknell and Tom Daley; and Sweden’s Carolina Klüft.

Colorful tennis personality Boris Becker, 14-time world champion cyclist Arnaud Tournant and rowing powerhouse James Cracknell will bring star-power and insider analysis to Warner Bros. Discovery’s Paris Olympic Games coverage through the group’s pay-tv banner Eurosport.

Marking its inaugural Olympiad as part of the wider Wbd group, Eurosport has brought together more than 100 sports greats and local heroes – together accounting for 132 medals won, with 47 of them gold – to lead and shape on-screen coverage of the 2024 games, which kicks off July 26 in Paris.

Other notable pundits include German gymnast Fabian Hambüchen, Swedish Heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft, French swimmer Alain Bernard, Romanian gymnast Catalina Ponor, Polish racewalker Robert Korzeniowski, and British rugbyman-turned-broadcaster Ugo Monye — among many more.

Promising “wall-to-wall” coverage of the upcoming games, Eurosport will broadcast 3,800 live hours including all 329 medal events. All 32 Olympic sports will have a dedicated page through Max or Discovery+, depending on the territory. All together,...

Game, set and match for Tudor Giurgiu, Cristian Pascariu and Tudor D. Popescu, who co-direct Nasty, a pleasingly hagiographic portrait of Romanian tennis icon Ilie Năstase. What fun tennis must have been in the 1970s, as it was on the turn from a knockabout sport into the sharp-footed profession it is today. Năstase and his contemporaries brought finesse and genius to the game, but tennis hadn’t yet been fully corrupted by corporate greed and mechanical elite athleticism. These players were hardworking and hard-partying in equal measure, and Năstase was a key ringleader for the frivolity, dating models, and canoodling on the mattresses at Studio 54.

He was also the sport’s chief antagonist a generation before John McEnroe took the mantle. Arguing with his fellow players and with the umpires. But he never questioned them when their calls were right, he insists, in one of the rare modern interview clips with Năstase himself.

Exclusive: Goodfellas is adding a new sports-focused sales label to its growing roster of genre-based companies and themed sales strands.

Bannered Oui Michel, the label is launching with documentary Nasty, about controversial Romanian tennis legend Ilie Nastase, which makes its international premiere as a Special Screening in Cannes Official Selection this May.

Directed by Romanian filmmakers Tudor Giurgiu, Cristian Pascariu and Tudor D. Popescu, the doc focuses on the immediate aftermath of Nastase’s sudden worldwide fame when he won his first U.S. Open in 1972 and made it into the Wimbledon and Davis Cup finals that same year.

As per the official synopsis: “Nasty explores his highs and lows, the controversies that surrounded the 1973 world number one ranked player, and the enduring impact he has had on the world of tennis. Lovable, charming and generous, yet temperamental, arrogant and obscene – Nastase disrupted the sport’s antiquated etiquette with a...

"I want to go and follow the music, but you never know what you're going to find along the way." Another new official trailer has debuted for the documentary film titled In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, the latest from Alex Gibney following his docs on The Forever Prisoner, and Boris Becker. This first premiered at the 2023 Toronto & London Film Festivals last fall, and is already streaming on MGM+ in the US (though we missed this when it first dropped). The film follows Paul Simon inside the studio making his new album Seven Psalms while looking back on his six-decade career with countless musical peaks from Sounds of Silence to Graceland. Gibney's In Restless Dreams is supposedly the definitive musical biography of Paul Simon, one of the greatest songwriters (and performers as well) in the history of rock 'n roll. It's yet another one of these music docs...

If you thought Lewis Hamilton’s ambitions were only about dominating the Formula One world, think again. Not only is Stevenage-born a master behind the wheel of a racing car, but he also aspires to conquer the silver screen.

During a recent GQ interview, the seven-time Formula One World Drivers’ Championship winner (joint-record) expressed a desire to focus on “film and fashion” after retiring from racing. And it now appears that his dream of co-starring in Top Gun 3 with Tom Cruise, who made his name as the hotshot pilot Maverick in the first Top Gun flick, may come true.

Lewis Hamilton | Credits: Wikimedia Commons

Note that Formula One legend was earlier approached by Cruise to play a fighter pilot in the 2022 action drama flick, helmed by Joseph Kosinski. However, due to his demanding F1 schedule, Hamilton decided not to accept the coveted role.

Lewis Hamilton’s Post-Retirement Plans in...

Kiefer Sutherland will narrate an Apple TV+ doc series about John Lennon’s murder.

Murder Without a Trial from Jimmy Savile: A British Horrror Story producer 72 Films will feature exclusive eyewitness interviews for the first time along with previously unseen crime scene photos, shedding new light on the life and murder of the Beatles icon and the investigation and conviction of Mark David Chapman, his confessed killer.

Producers obtained Freedom of Information Act requests from the New York City Police Department, the Board of Parole and the District Attorney’s office, and the series reveals “shocking details of Lennon’s tragic murder,” according to Apple.

The streamer has gone big with high-end docs of late, greenlighting shows on Boris Becker, Stephen Curry and supermodels.

Murder Without a Trial is directed by Nick Holt (The Murder Trial) and Rob Coldstream (Jade: The Reality Star Who Changed Britain) with executive producers David Glover...

London, July 17 (Ians) Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz retained the world No.1 position in the latest Atp rankings released on Monday after beating Novak Djokovic to win his first Wimbledon and second Grand Slam singles title.

At only 20 years old, Alcaraz has already held World No.1 for longer than 12 other former World No.1s including Mats Wilander (20 weeks), Daniil Medvedev (16), Andy Roddick (13), Boris Becker (12) and his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero (8).

Alcaraz leads second-placed Djokovic by 880 points in the Atp Rankings, setting the stage for a big showdown for the Atp Year-End No. 1 ranking.

Last year, Alcaraz became the youngest player to earn the year-end No.1 honour. Djokovic owns the record for most year-end No.1 finishes with seven, most recently accomplishing the feat in 2021.

There was no change in this week’s top 10. Alcaraz and Djokovic are followed by Russian Daniil Medvedev at No.3, Norway’s Casper Ruud at No.4, Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas at No.

New Delhi, July 17 (Ians) As Carlos Alcaraz registered an epic five-set victory over Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final, ending the Serbian’s dominance at grass court, master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, 22-time major champion Rafael Nadal and others lauded young tennis sensation for his maiden triumph at SW19.

Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 on Sunday to win his first Wimbledon title on the back of a stunning serving performance.

The 20-year-old joined Nadal as the second Spanish men’s champion at the grass Major in the Open era. He also became the third-youngest man after Bjorn Borg and Boris Becker to win the title at All England club.

Taking to Twitter, Sachin hailed the 20-year-old Spaniard and said he will follow Alcaraz’s career like he did with Roger Federer.

“What a fantastic final to watch! Excellent tennis by both these athletes! We’re witnessing the...

London, July 15 (Ians) Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic will lock horns in the Wimbledon final on Sunday to decide the 2023 champion at the grass-court major. Both will be competing with double motivation at the All England Club, with the pair’s third Atp Head to Head meeting doubling up as a winner-takes-all battle for World No. 1.

It will be another exciting chapter in a yo-yo year at the top of the Atp Rankings. The No. 1 position has changed hands between Alcaraz and Djokovic six times already in 2023, the most in a season since 2018 (seven), with the Spaniard most recently reclaiming top spot after lifting his first grass-court Atp Tour title at The Queen’s Club just under three weeks ago.

The 20-year old Alcaraz currently leads Djokovic by 80 points in the Atp Live Rankings. It will be the second time he has contested a major final knowing victory would also guarantee him World No.

Berlin, June 28 (Ians) Former German tennis ace Boris Becker’s daughter Anna Ermakova turned heads on Tuesday night when she attended the Media Night at Aachen in Germany.

According to the Daily Mail: “The model looked stunning in a long black strapless figure-hugging dress which clung to her slim frame and accentuated her sculpted shoulders.”

They added: “The 23-year-old model, who looks just like her famous father, finished the look with a Louis Vuitton black bag and 15,800 pounds Vintage Alhambra long necklace from Van Cleef and Arpels.”

“Her signature red locks were bumped up with volume as she posed with her arms raised above her head, finishing the look with a bold red lip.”

Excited to attend, Anna shared clips from the evening with her 131 thousand followers on her Instagram.

In March, Anna won the final of Germany’s equivalent of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ with a record number of votes.

‘Nasty’ is about the legendary Romanian tennis player and is direted by festival president Tudor Giurgiu.

New films by Tudor Giurgiu and Marian Crisan are to be shown in Ro Days’ Closed Screenings at this week’s Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Cluj-Napoca.

The screenings are open to distributors, festival programmers, and sales agents.

Transilvania festival president Giurgiu’s documentary Nasty about the legendary Romanian tennis player Ilie Nastase includes interviews with Rafa Nadal, Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, and Billie Jean King.

At last year’s TIFF, the director had given a sneak preview of around 15 minutes...

Jigsaw Productions evp of development and production Stacey Offman is leaving the company after 11 years, Jigsaw said Wednesday.

During her time at The Inventor and Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker producer led by documentarian Alex Gibney, the creative executive headed up the launch of company’s television branch and played a significant role in developing Dirty Money, the Netflix series focused on corporate corruption. She also was a prime mover in the development of the Netflix series Salt Fat Acid Heat, based on the Samin Nosrat book, and Showtime’s U.S.-Saudi Arabia doc Kingdom of Silence and Apple TV’s The Line, about a 2018 war crimes case.

Offman is said to be leaving to pursue new opportunities, although she will remain as an executive producer on select Jigsaw projects and is planning on working with Jigsaw as an independent producer going forward.

“I depart Jigsaw with...

Apple TV Plus features a number of great new movies for its subscribers this month and in the near future. Apple offers mostly exclusive original content on its streaming service. This means that Apple TV Plus has a more limited choice of movies than other platforms. However, Apple puts all its money into producing its own content and ensuring that what it places on the streaming service is of the highest quality possible. This strategy has paid off with awards recognition over the past few years, even if it means Apple TV Plus doesn't come close to the scope of options available on Netflix or HBO Max.

In May 2023, there's only one brand new Apple TV Plus movie releasing on the service. While the streamer offers four new Apple TV Plus streaming shows in May, including the adaptation of the critically-acclaimed self-published success story Silo, only one new movie comes out this month,...

In a blockbuster sports deal, Endeavor says that it has agreed to sell its Img Academy sports education business to the private equity firm Bpea Eqt in a deal valued at $1.25 billion.

Img Academy assets include a campus in Bradenton, Florida, sports camps across the country and worldwide, and online coaching and college recruiting businesses. Endeavor acquired Img, which also includes events, media and licensing businesses, in 2014 for $2.3 billion.

Bpea Eqt is associated with Eqt, the Sweden-based private equity firm that is also the largest outside shareholder in UTA. Img Academy is expected to partner with Eqt’s portfolio company Nord Anglia Education, which operates a network of international schools, following the transaction. Img Academy’s executive team, including president Brent Richard, will stay on in their roles following the sale.

The company got its start in 1978 as the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy before being acquired by Img in 1987, and adding golf,...

New Delhi, April 24 (Ians) Spain’s young tennis sensation Carlos Alcaraz has said he is not planning to take over from Rafael Nadal and intends to build his “own history”.

Alcaraz capped a perfect week at the Barcelona Open on Sunday by outplaying Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4 with a high-quality championship match display at the Atp 500 and claimed his ninth tour-level crown and third of the season.

The Spaniard’s remarkable achievements at a young age have led to comparisons with Nadal, who like Alcaraz, clinched his maiden Grand Slam title at the age of 19.

“As I’ve always said on more than one occasion, I don’t want to take over from anyone. I feel lucky to have so many people supporting me behind me, transmitting that positive energy from the first game,” Alcaraz was quoted by Eurosport.

“Speaking of this week, it’s been two years that Rafa hasn’t been there,...

“Show me the money” was the memorable battle cry in Jerry Maguire, the 1996 movie about a sports agent who must “deliver” for his manic client.

Matt Damon, the negotiator at the center of his and Ben Affleck’s new movie, delivers big time for his client, and so does the film. Air is an angry, trash-talking movie that somehow, in its final minutes, switches into a “feel good” epic.

In Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise survives both a love affair and a crisis of conscience. Air is about neither love nor conscience, but the $90 million movie — Amazon reportedly paid $120 million for the rights and package — carries a daunting bundle of expectations about the future of distribution (its producers include Peter Guber and David Ellison).

Its box office numbers for the opening week were auspicious but inevitably did not fully match those expectations. “There’s too much riding on every new theatrical release,...

Alex Gibney, perhaps the world’s most prolific documentary filmmaker at the moment, has an obsession with power — and hubris. He’s taken on everyone from corrupt corporate execs (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) and the Church of Scientology (Going Clear) to Theranos grifter Elizabeth Holmes (The Inventor) and the Trump administration (Totally Under Control).

The 69-year-old Oscar winner’s latest is Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker, a two-part docuseries on Apple TV+ that chronicles the rise and fall of German tennis great Boris Becker, who...

Three-time Wimbledon Champion Boris Becker has opened up about his time in prison in the U.K.

“Whoever says that prison life isn’t hard and isn’t difficult, I think is lying,” Becker told the BBC, reflecting on the eight months he has served of the two-and-a-half-year-long sentence he received for hiding £2.5 million worth of assets and loans in a bankruptcy fraud case.

“It was a very brutal … a very, very different experience to what you see in the movies, what you’ve heard from stories,” the six-time Grand Slam singles champion recalled, after previously having referred to his imprisonment as the “worst time of his life.”

Spending the majority of his sentence at Huntercombe Prison in Oxfordshire, Becker claims to have been “surrounded by murderers, by drug dealers, by rapists, by people smugglers, by dangerous criminals.” “You fight every day for survival. Quickly you have to surround yourself with the tough boys,...

An early scene in Boom Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker, a new two-part documentary about the German tennis great who famously won Wimbledon at the age of 17 before going down like the Hindenburg, encapsulates what’s made the athlete such a controversial figure. Ion Tiriac, a Romanian businessman who managed Becker at the height of his powers, from 1984 to 1993, compares the athlete to “a child” tempting fate by repeatedly sticking his finger into a flame.

“He just tries to see if he’s getting burned or not getting burned,...

April has arrived! For some in the country that means more active weather is now here, and for others it’s time to enjoy an idyllic spring. Still others are nervously avoiding their income tax returns for a few more days, hoping against hope that somehow ignoring it will simply make it go away.

If this last category sounds like you’ we’re here to help! There’s something new and exciting to stream every day this week, so you can get in that better headspace you’ll need to nip those taxes in the bud and get out and enjoy the gorgeous spring weather while it lasts.

Monday, April 3 ‘Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields’ | Hulu

The two-part documentary from Emmy Award-winning director Lana Wilson (“Miss Americana”) is a galvanizing look at actor, model and icon Brooke Shields as she transforms from a sexualized young girl to a woman discovering her power.

The tennis titan with a howitzer serve thought invincibility on the court meant impunity off it. Oscar-winner Alex Gibney reveals how he charted the star’s path from fortunes and trophies to squatters and prison

Boris Becker was the poster-boy of 1980s tennis, the 17-year-old upstart who turned Wimbledon on its head. He possessed a howitzer serve, a gambler’s swagger and a habit – at once exhilarating and alarming – of diving full-length in pursuit of seemingly irretrievable balls. No match was complete without the sight of Becker crashing to the ground like a cold-cocked prizefighter. Most times, he bounced straight back to his feet.

In 2018, the Oscar-winning film-maker Alex Gibney – a keen player himself – began preparing a documentary on Becker’s colourful life and times. He envisaged the film as a celebration, a rollicking portrait of a sporting giant. But events intruded, the law intervened and his picture took a more dramatic route.

More than 25 years later, Cinderella and her Prince Charming are still living happily ever after. Paolo Montalban has been added to the cast of the upcoming Disney+ Original film “Descendants: The Rise of Red.” Montalban will play the role of King Charming, reuniting with Brandy as Cinderella after they stared as the dynamic royal duo in ABC’s 1997 “Wonderful World of Disney” TV movie “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.”

“The Rise of the Red” comes as the latest installment in Disney’s “Descendants” franchise.

The cast includes Kylie Cantrall as Red, Malia Baker as Chloe, Rita Ora as the Queen of Hearts, China Anne McClain as Uma, Dara Reneé as Uliana, Ruby Rose Turner as Bridget/Young Queen of Hearts, Morgan Dudley as Ella/Young Cinderella, Joshua Colley as Hook, Melanie Paxson as Fairy Godmother, Jeremy Swift as Principal Merlin and Leonardo Nam as Maddox Hatter.

“Descendants: The Rise of Red...

"That's not the end yet..." Apple has revealed the trailer for Alex Gibney's latest, a two-part series titled Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker. This doc is all about the German tennis superstar Boris Becker, covering his entire life story across two feature-length films. An inside look at the controversial life and career of the tennis great, featuring interviews with John McEnroe, Novak Djokovic, Björn Borg, and other icons. The film will explore the life of Becker, who became a tennis sensation when he won the first of his six majors at the age of just 17 and went on to have a glittering career, including 49 major career titles and an Olympic Gold. There is a massive story to telling... Part 1 - "Triumph": Winning Wimbledon at 17, Boris Becker becomes best in the world and a global superstar. But great expectations signal troubles ahead. And Part 2 - "Disaster":...

Before Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, there was Boris Becker. Affectionately known as “Boom Boom” for his fast and accurate serve and volleying technique, the West Germany-born Becker was one of the best tennis players of his generation. Now Apple TV+ has a new doc about his life and career, “Boom! Boom! The World Vs. Boris Becker,” covering Becker’s legendary Wimbledon victories and more recent controversies.

Continue reading ‘Boom! Boom! The World Vs. Boris Becker’ Trailer: New Apple TV+ Doc Covers The Career Of Legendary Tennis Pro In April at The Playlist.

“Boom! Boom: The World vs. Boris Becker,” the upcoming Apple TV+ documentary that premiered in Berlin last month, has confirmed a release date.

The full two-part doc, about disgraced tennis champ Boris Becker, will drop on the streamer on April. 7.

The documentary, which was directed by Alex Gibney (“Enron”) and produced by John Battsek (“Searching for Sugar Man”), promises to explore “every aspect of the man who became a tennis sensation after winning The Wimbledon Championships at the age of just 17, going on to win 49 career titles, including six Grand Slams and an Olympic gold medal, as well as his high-profile, sometimes tumultuous personal life,” according to the logline.

Becker has long been a staple of both U.K. and German tabloids due to his love life (which included fathering a child during a brief tryst with a waitress in a restaurant) followed by his recent fall from grace after...

Prolific documentarian Alex Gibney hates liars. He hates when companies lie (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room); he hates when religions lie (Going Clear, Mea Maxima Culpa); he hates when authority figures lie (The Inventor, Client 9).

The Rosetta Stone for Gibney’s dogmatic resistance to mendacity is The Armstrong Lie. Gibney’s irritation arises not just from the general lies that Lance Armstrong told the world, but from the lies that Lance Armstrong told him during the making of the movie, yielding a documentary about the nature of deception and self-deception.

Gibney’s new two-part Apple TV+ docuseries Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker is a complementary text to The Armstrong Lie. It’s about a revered sports icon whose falsehoods eventually led to personal disgrace. It’s structured around two extensive interviews conducted at different points in the subject’s prevarication — once in delusion and once when facing a reckoning.

When tennis champion Boris Becker entered the room for a press conference in Berlin before the world premiere of the documentary about his storied career and troubled personal life, camera shutters clicked furiously and flashes flashed. He is, after all, one of Germany’s most famous native sons and a widely loved sports legend, despite a conviction for a bankruptcy-related fraud that landed him behind bars in Britain for eight months.

“I’m 55 years old and I’m very proud of the things that I’ve done. But I’ve made mistakes,” Becker told the assembled media at the Berlin Film Festival on Sunday. “I’ve paid a heavy price for some of the things I did in my past. Today I’m a bit better for it. Hopefully a bit smarter. Maybe a bit more humble.”

Boris Becker celebrates winning the Wimbledon Men’s Singles Championship in 1985

The documentary...

Alex Gibney’s documentary about the disgraced German tennis star has wonderful archive footage and interviews but is ultimately unrevealing about its subject

Despite some great archive material and nice interview turns, this documentary portrait of disgraced German tennis legend Boris Becker from film-maker Alex Gibney is a frustrating and disappointing experience – because of the baffling way it is structured, both unrevealing and anticlimactic. It starts at the end, swoops back to the beginning and finally grinds to a halt somewhere around the middle. It could be that this is intended to be merely a first “episode”, though it isn’t billed as such.

We commence with Becker’s gripping downfall for tax evasion at London’s Southwark crown court in 2022, facing two-and-a-half years in prison and powerful interview testimony from the man himself: rueful, haunted, but rejecting self-pity. Then we cut back to his stunning 1985 Wimbledon triumph at the...

In the Alex Gibney documentary “Boom! Boom: The World vs. Boris Becker,” the then-active tennis player recalls a 1980s conversation with a tabloid newspaper editor who told him that only three subjects were guaranteed to get the German public’s attention: Adolf Hitler, German reunification and Boris Becker.

Released from prison in the U.K. in December, Becker turned up in person in Berlin on Sunday to attend a press conference. Once again he dominated the court. Quotable, self-deprecating and larger than life, Becker maintained the candor that was characteristic of the multiple interviews he gave to filmmaker Alex Gibney — himself a tennis player and Becker admirer.

“I’m a huge fan. I watched him during his tennis playing days and listened to his commentary on the BBC,” said Gibney. “The talent that Boris has, unlike many great athletes, is his ability as a storyteller. My opportunity to tell the...

Boris Becker has revealed he started crying in jail as he watched Novak Djokovic win Wimbledon in 2022.

Becker, who used to coach the current Australian Open champion until 2016, told press at the Berlin Film Festival that he continues to regard Djokovic as a member of his family.

He explained: “While I was inside (jail), Novak supported me, he supported my family. I started crying when he started winning. I’m very proud that probably the best player of all time is part of this story.”

‘This story’ is Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker, a two-part documentary on Becker’s life directed by Oscar winner Alex Gibney, set to premiere on Apple TV+.

Becker took the chance in Berlin to reflect on his life since being released from jail in the UK at the end of last year, after serving six months for tax evasion.

He said: “It feels great to be free,...

The movie year has already unleashed a lot of memorable work, from Sundance breakouts to “M3GAN.” But things are about to get a lot more global. Even as a new Marvel movie opens in theaters worldwide, the Berlin International Film Festival begins on Wednesday to offer a whole lot more. Nestled in between Sundance and SXSW, Berlin is like a firehose of international cinema.

More than 200 films from around the world will premiere at the festival this week, many of which are potential discoveries. Berlin premieres sometimes creep into awards consider (this year’s Oscar nominee “The Quiet Girl” premiered there last year) but can also deliver major new works from rising filmmaker talent. Some of the more promising titles from this year’s lineup speak to its versatility. It’s also a valuable European launchpad for Sundance highlights: The festival’s hit “Past Lives” plays in competition.

From its...

Former tennis champion Boris Becker spoke in an interview for the first time after he went to prison for bankruptcy offenses, calling it the “worst time of my life.”

“It was the loneliest moment I’ve ever had in life,” he told the German television station Sat 1 on Tuesday.

In Memoriam 2022: 100 Great Celebrities Who Died This Year!

The 55-year-old was sentenced to 30 months in prison for hiding assets and illicitly transferring large sums of money after he declared bankruptcy in 2017. The German athlete was released early after serving only eight months of his sentence.

He recalled his time in prison, saying he feared he’d be attacked by other inmates and experienced true hunger for the first time. He said he was threatened by multiple inmates, including one who was serving time for multiple murders.

Becker got emotional during the interview, recalling the loneliness he endured.

“In prison, you are a nobody.

Good afternoon Insiders and a happy holiday to you all, Max Goldbart here seeing out the year. We’re inching slowly towards the holiday and have just got a quick summary of the week’s headlines and some Essentials for you this week. We’ll be taking a well-earned (we hope!) break next week but back all systems go on Friday January 6. Until then, our heartfelt thanks go out to all you Insider readers. We are nothing without you. Merry Xmas, Happy Chanukah and a Happy New Year.

BBC China woes: Don’t you dare tuck into your turkey without checking out this must-read exclusive investigation from Jake on how a little-known commercial BBC outfit has been producing ads for China’s propaganda machine. Jake’s in-depth exposé found BBC StoryWorks has partnered with at least 18 Chinese clients including Huawei since 2015. Within a day, lawmaker Lord David Alton, who is...

Tentpole stands at 346.8m international, 150.3m North America.

Avatar: The Way Of Water will cross the 500m worldwide mark on Tuesday as Disney sources confirmed the studio’s 2022 releases have suprassed 4bn globally.

By Tuesday morning James Cameron’s return to Pandora stood at 497.1m after Monday’s 55m global box office haul.

The action fantasy sequel to 2009’s Avatar – the highest-grossing film of all time on 2.92bn worldwide – added 38.8m from international markets to reach 346.8m.

A further 16.2m in North America delivered the biggest non-holiday Monday and second biggest Monday of 2022, elevating the running total to 150.3m.

Latest...

German director Robert Schwentke’s drama “Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes,” starring John Malkovich as the Roman-era Stoic philosopher, Alex Gibney’s untitled Boris Becker doc, and high-end European TV series “The Swarm” are set for Berlin Film Festival world premiers.

The Berlinale on Tuesday announced several titles that will screen out-of-competition across various sections, most of them as Berlinale Special galas.

Besides “Seneca” and the Becker doc the galas also comprise the European premiere of Canadian chiller “Infinity Pool,” directed by Brandon Cronenberg and starring Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård; Todd Field’s “Tár” which premiered in Venice – and for which Field, Cate Blanchett and co-star Nina Hoss will hold an onstage concersation – Japanese thriller “#Mannhole” by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, and Peter Geyer’s animation feature “Loriot’s Great Cartoon Revue” about German multihyphenate Vicco von Bülow, aka Loriot.

“The Swarm,” which is the first title announced for the Berlinale Series section,...

John Malkovich starrer Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes and Alex Gibney’s untitled Boris Becker documentary are set to have their world premieres at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival next year. The projects are among the six titles which will play in the fest’s Berlinale Special Gala section, which also includes Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool, starring Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth and Cleopatra Coleman and Todd Field’s Tár.

Infinity Pool will get its European premiere at the festival while Field and Tár stars Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir will attend the festival to give a public talk as part of the Berlinale Talents section.

The festival also announced its first project from its Berlinale Series section: Zdf’s eco-thriller The Swarm (Der Schwarm), based on the eponymous bestseller by Frank Schätzing. The project follows an international group of scientists who do research...

Click here to read the full article.

Ahead of the Christmas holidays, the Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled a number of films, and one series, that will screen out of competition at next year’s Berlinale.

Among the highlights are the world premieres of Infinity Pool, the latest horror feature from Canadian director Brandon Cronenberg, starring Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård; the Roman-era drama Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes from German director Robert Schwentke (Red, The Captain), starring John Malkovich as the famed Stoic philosopher; and Alex Gibney’s as-yet-untitled documentary on disgraced former tennis champion Boris Becker. Seneca and the Becker documentary will have their world premieres in Berlin in the festival’s Berlinale Special sidebar. Infinity Pool‘s Berlinale bow will be a European premiere.

Berlin will also roll out the red carpet for Todd Field’s awards-season favorite Tár, which premiered in Venice, where it...

The full programme will be revealed in January 2023.

The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 16-26) has announced six titles for its Berlinale Special Galas, including the world premieres of John Malkovich starrer Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes and Alex Gibney’s untitled Boris Becker documentary.

The festival has also unveiled eight Forum titles, including world premieres of Fiona Tan’s Dearest Fiona and Vincent Dieutre’s This Is The End.

In addition, the festival has named the first title to play in Berlinale Series, the eco-thriller The Swarm (Der Schwarm) – based on the eponymous bestseller by Frank Schätzing.

Robert Schwentke...

London, Dec 15 (Ians) Tennis great Boris Becker was on Thursday released from prison after serving eight months of his sentence for hiding 2.5m pounds worth of assets and loans to avoid paying debts.

The 55-year-old German was jailed for two and a half years in April after being found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act. He was released from prison on Thursday morning and has flown to Germany.

According to a BBC report, the former Wimbledon champion has been deported from the United Kingdom. His Berlin-based lawyer, Christian-Oliver Moser, said in a statement Becker “was released from custody in England and has left for Germany today”.

The report further said that Becker flew from Biggin Hill in a private jet chartered by a friend, adding that the former tennis star arrived in Munich on Thursday afternoon.

“Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a...

Disgraced former tennis champion Boris Becker is to be profiled and interviewed in an Apple TV+ two-part doc from Oscar winners Alex Gibney and John Battsek.

The as-yet-untitled series aims to explore all aspects of the six-Grand-Slam-winning sportsman’s life, who won Wimbledon when he was just 17 but is now in prison.

Producers followed the German for three years prior to April 2022, when Becker was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for hiding assets and loans to avoid paying his debts, following a tumultuous period, much of which spilled out into the media.

The doc features a series of personal interviews with Becker, including an exclusive conversation with the champion the week of his sentencing, alongside members of his immediate family and tennis stars including John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Novak Djokovic, Mats Wilander and Michael Stich.

Celebrated doc maker Battsek’s Ventureland is co-producing with Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Diego Maradona producer Lorton Entertainment.