movies

Former Luma AI Exec Launches Production Company Matriarch

Published

3 hours ago

August 13, 2026

EXCLUSIVE: Verena Puhm, a former Luma AI exec and filmmaker, has launched LA-based production company Matriarch.

Puhm, who was most recently Head of Dream Lab LA at Luma AI, is now developing and producing AI-native and hybrid productions and will also carry out work for third parties and brands.

Matriarch’s development slate includes Colors in the Dark, a hybrid drama series; All the Leading Men, an adult animated comedy series; G-Pigs, a horror feature; and Chomper Romp, an animated short-form series currently in financing discussions.

The company says its creative collaborators will include director, AI creator and musician TEDRA aka TT The Artist, whose credits include collaborations and placements with Diplo and Alicia Keys, as well as Netflix, HBO’s Insecure, P-Valley, and Lena Waithe’s Twenties; music producer and sound designer Joachim M. Weber, former composer and audio designer at ProSiebenSat.1; and creative technologist, director, producer, and VFX artist, David Sulpizio.

At the self-funded company, Puhm is joined by producer Morenike Dosu, who has worked at MPC, Framestore and DreamWorks Animation. Consultants include James Stowe and Courtney Feemster.

“We’re building a studio for where entertainment is going,” said Puhm. “The core business is storytelling: developing our own IP and producing projects for partners. But we’re building the technology alongside that work instead of trying to bolt it onto a traditional studio structure later.”

At the center of that new tech effort is what the company describes as “Affective Content Intelligence”, Matriarch’s “proprietary approach to understanding how audiences respond to media”. The company says it is developing systems that “combine biometric signals, self-reported emotional intent and information about the content viewed to better understand the relationship between entertainment and emotional and physiological response…rather than relying only on clicks, completion rates or traditional audience research, Matriarch is exploring how audience response can become an additional input into creative development, content discovery and greenlighting.”

“Most entertainment technology is built to predict what you will watch next,” said Puhm. “We want to understand what you are looking to feel, how a piece of entertainment affects you and what we can learn from that response. When that intelligence is connected directly to a studio, it can inform not only discovery, but what gets made.”

Puhm served as lead AI artist on Free Leonard Peltier, the Sundance 2025 documentary and had stints as a writer at Leonine Studio’s Wiedemann & Berg TV and Red Bull Media’s Terra Mater Studios. She was a co-director and co-producer on 2023 documentary Disaster at Devil’s Jaw and she was an early AI filmmaking instructor for Sundance Collab.

movies

Neal McDonough, Skeet Ulrich To Star In Horror Film ‘Deify’

Published

4 minutes ago

August 13, 2026

qasimgillani

EXCLUSIVE: Neal McDonough (Tulsa King) and Skeet Ulrich (Five Nights at Freddy’s 2) have signed on to star in Deify, an indie psychological horror film from brother filmmakers Carmelo and Nicholas Chimera.

In Deify — written by Nicholas Chimera and set to shoot in Chicago — a cult leader is put on trial after causing his devoted followers to be burned alive. McDonough plays the assistant attorney general and prosecuting attorney, a man of integrity who profoundly believes in the criminal justice system. Ulrich plays the enigmatic and manipulative cult leader, who pleads insanity and claims to be taking his commands directly from God.

Elements of the script were inspired by events surrounding the 1993 Waco, Texas standoff between members of the Branch Davidians church and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, one of the largest civilian firefights ever recorded on American soil.

Deify is being produced by Jordan Gianeschi (The Crow) and Jacob Rice (As I Lie Awake), along with Mike Manning (Eyes in the Trees). The team previously worked with the Chimera brothers on the indie action thriller Unarmed.

McDonough and his wife Ruvé McDonough are exec producers. Steven Tylor O’Connor (13 Reasons Why) and Becca McCracken (Somebody Somewhere) are handling casting.

Recently seen playing Cal Thresher in the Paramount+ Original Tulsa King, McDonough is repped by Ruvé McDonough and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.

Ulrich, who reprised his role of Billy Loomis in Scream VI and also appears in the recent Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, is repped by Verve and Luber Roklin Entertainment.

movies

‘Lanterns’ Episode Release Guide: When Are New Ones Streaming?

Published

10 minutes ago

August 13, 2026

qasimgillani

HBO’s next DC Original series is Lanterns, which centers Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart and Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan.

The show will be one of the final new entries of the summer, launching mid-August. From co-creators Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King, it watches recruit Stewart and Lantern legend Jordan get drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.

Find the specifics of the Lanterns release rollout below:

When does Lanterns premiere?

The show premieres in the popular Sunday night slot at 9 p.m. ET and PT on HBO and arrives on streamer HBO Max at the same time.

Will new episodes of Lanterns arrive weekly or all at once? How many episodes are there?

One new episode will arrive per week on Sunday nights. There are eight episodes in the series total, meaning the finale will arrive Oct. 4.

See the full Lanterns release schedule below:

Sunday, August 16: Episode 1
Sunday, August 23: Episode 2
Sunday, August 30: Episode 3
Sunday, Sept. 6: Episode 4
Sunday, Sept 13: Episode 5
Sunday, Sept. 20: Episode 6
Sunday, Sept. 27: Episode 7
Sunday, Oct. 4: Episode 8 (FINALE)

Who is in the cast of HBO and DC’s Lanterns?

Alongside Pierre and Chandler, the cast also includes Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Ulrich Thomsen, Nathan Fillion, J. Alphonse Nicholson and Jasmine Cephas Jones.

Who else is behind HBO and DC’s Lanterns?

The Lanterns pilot is co-written by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King. Mundy serves as showrunner. The first two episodes are directed by James Hawes, with Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Alik Sakharov also tapped to direct. The series is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, King, James Gunn, Peter Safran, Ron Schmidt, and Hawes. Based on the DC comic characters from “Green Lantern.” The series hails from HBO in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios.

movies

Watch Trailer For ‘Traces Of Home,’ Doc From E.P. Melissa Barrera

Published

18 minutes ago

August 13, 2026

qasimgillani

EXCLUSIVE: Traces of Home, the award-winning documentary debut of filmmaker Colette Ghunim, has set its U.S. theatrical release.

The film from Watermelon Pictures, executive produced by Melissa Barrera and John Leguizamo, will open September 18 at Angelika Film Center in New York City (a special preview screening will take place there on Sept. 16, followed by a Q&A with Ghunim and Barrera). Traces of Home opens in Los Angeles on Sept. 25 at the Laemmle Royal and Laemmle Glendale, before expanding to additional cities nationwide throughout October.

The documentary won the Grand Jury Prize in U.S. Competition at DOC NYC last November and earned Best Documentary Feature at the San Diego Latino Film Festival. We have your exclusive first look at the film in the trailer below.

Hosni Ghunim, the filmmaker's father, in 'Traces of Home.' — Hosni Ghunim, the filmmaker’s father, in ‘Traces of Home.’

Traces of Home “follows Ghunim as she travels with her parents to the homes they were forced to flee as children in Mexico and Palestine, transforming a personal search for connection into a wider examination of generational trauma, memory, and belonging,” notes a synopsis. “Filmed over five years and woven with evocative animation and archival footage, it is both a meditation on memory and an unflinching look at what it means to find our way back home to ourselves.”

In a statement, Ghunim commented, “Traces of Home was a transformational portal toward deep reconciliation, both with my family and within myself. It is not just a film; Traces of Home is sacred medicine, made for those called to heal generations of pain in their own lineage.”

Filmmaker Colette Ghunim in 'Traces of Home.' — Filmmaker Colette Ghunim in ‘Traces of Home.’

“Colette has created something incredibly intimate and universal,” said Barrera, the Mexican-born actress known for Abigail, two of the Scream films, and In the Heights. “The film asks profound questions about identity, family, displacement and belonging, while never losing sight of the deeply human stories at its center. All of us can see a little of ourselves in Colette’s family and her journey and I can’t think of anything more important right now than finding points of connection between us all instead of continuing to sow divisiveness.”

An animated sequence in 'Traces of Home.' — An animated sequence in ‘Traces of Home.’

Traces of Home is directed by Colette Ghunim and produced by Sara Maamouri, Dan Rybicky, and Capella Fahoome. Along with Melissa Barrera and John Leguizamo, executive producers include Keith Wilson and Dena Takruri. Cinematography is by Hosni Ghunim, Monica Wise and Rafic Saadeh; editors are Sara Maamouri, Loulwa Khoury, and Laura Moya. Omar Fadel composed the score.

Watermelon Pictures, based in Chicago, is “a film production and distribution company committed to amplifying the voices of underrepresented filmmakers across the globe through the powerful medium of storytelling. Rooted in Palestinian culture and creativity, the company was founded by brothers Hamza Ali and Badie Ali in 2024.” Its productions include The Voice of Hind Rajab, the film directed by Kaouther Ben Hania that earned an Oscar nomination for Best International Film, and American Doctor, an expected Oscar contender this year that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Watch the trailer for Traces of Home here: