Another classic toy line is getting a movie.

Toy giant Mattel already has movies in the works for Masters of the Universe and Barbie, and now they've signed a director for a Hot Wheels movie.

Justin Lin, who directed "Star Trek Beyond," which was released in theaters over the summer, and before that made the four previous "Fast and Furious" movies, will be taking the reigns, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

This is not the first time a director has been attached to a Hot Wheels movie. It's been in development for nearly a decade with directors like McG and Simon Crane, second-unit director of such action movies as "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and "World War Z," signed on.

With Lin's success in the car genre (he was really a big reason why the "Fast and Furious" franchise is now a huge earner for Universal), he will hopefully be the right match for the project.

Mattel claims Hot Wheels is one of the best-selling toys in the world with more than 5 billion toy cars produced since 1968.

The next Mattel property to hit the big screen will be "Max Steel," based on the action figure, which Open Road Films opens October 14.

SEE ALSO: "Saturday Night Live" has found its new Trump

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch a Ryan Lochte protester rush the stage during his appearance on 'Dancing with the Stars'

On November 1, 2007, in Perugia, Italy, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher was found murdered in the bedroom of an apartment she was sharing with two Italian women and a 20-year-old American exchange student named Amanda Knox. Knox and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, said they realized something was wrong when they discovered Kercher's door was locked, drops of blood in the bathroom, and a broken bedroom window. They proceeded to call the police.

What followed is a sensational story that tabloid journalists went crazy over, and which ended with Knox spending four years in an Italian prison following the murder, for which she was convicted, until she was ultimately acquitted.

Five years after being freed from prison because of DNA contamination and a year after Italy's highest court exonerated her, a new documentary, "Amanda Knox," delivers the definitive tell-all of the events.

To be released by Netflix on September 30, the movie had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and received rave reviews for its in-depth investigation of every aspect of the Knox saga told by many of the main players, including Knox.

Directors Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn, like most people in the world, couldn't get over how much media made the case a sensation. By 2011, when they started work on the movie, the Knox story dominated headlines once again when she was freed from prison.

"I think that for us we were a little bit confused by why it was so big and also how something that starts as an undeniable tragedy and a terrible act of violence becomes a piece of front-page news and that then becomes entertainment," McGinn told Business Insider at TIFF. "So we thought it would be interesting in looking at how that happens and to try to get really deep inside to the roots of what really causes that kind of story."

"There were so many headlines, and so many stories, and yet people didn't seem to have any further clarity," Blackhurst added.

What "Amanda Knox" reveals is how crucial mistakes in the handling of the crime scene and a false confession by Knox led to complete dysfunction in the case. But it also shows how journalists became obsessed with Knox.

Footage of her kissing Sollecito and showing little remorse for what happened to her roommate by the time news cameras arrived at the crime scene started the narrative. In the weeks and months to follow, Knox was branded as sex-crazed, and as the investigation continued, the theory was that Kercher was a victim in some deviant crime of passion involving Knox and Sollecito.

Though before this film, Knox had done the big TV interviews and a book once back in the US, Blackhurst and McGinn still felt Knox hadn't opened up and given her side of the story, and neither had Sollecito, nor the lead investigator of the murder, Italian detective Giuliano Mignini.

"All of them felt this narrative the media put out there was not representative of who they were and we wanted to understand from a human point of view what it would feel like to have that applied to you and what it felt like to be caught up in these events and circumstances," Blackhurst said.

So the filmmakers began trying to get access to everyone who was involved. But they made it clear that they would not move on the film until their subjects were comfortable.

"We met Amanda and Raffaele when they were acquitted in 2011, but it wasn't until 2013 that she decided, on her own, that she was ready to talk," Blackhurst said. "That was always very important to us to say we're not going to come and dine and dash, we're not trying to steal something out of your mouth and leak it on Twitter as quickly as possible. We want to put in the time to understand you as people."

They shot Knox for the first time in 2014. Once she signed on, Raffaele, Mignini, and others including Nick Pisa, who broke many of the stories about the case for the Daily Mail, also agreed to talk.

But then there was explaining to an audience what likely happened to Kercher, and that meant diving into DNA evidence and deciding how to deliver the information as simply as possible.

The filmmakers used graphics to point out that Knox was never in the room where Kercher died, according to the DNA present in the room. They also showed that DNA evidence linking Knox to the knife thought to be used as the murder weapon was inconclusive.

"Initially we thought the graphics would be more complex," McGinn said, "but what we realized quickly was the only way to keep it a human story and feel empathy for the people involved was to put it in more layman's terms."

Along with the graphics, McGinn and Blackhurst got the DNA experts from the trial to be in the movie. They had never previously done an interview about this case.

The filmmakers are most proud of bringing much-needed context to the moments that were only captured in small news bites around the world when the case was happening.

In "Amanda Knox," we get never-before-heard audio recordings of Amanda and her mother speaking in prison, and some added clarity to the footage everyone remembers of Knox kissing Sollecito outside the murder scene. The documentary explains through interviews with Knox and Sollecito that it was not what it seemed.

"You can feel what it felt like for those people to be caught up at that time," Blackhurst said of the movie. "You're able to give context to this one little bit because you now can see and hear from them."

"Amanda Knox" will be available on Netflix September 30.

SEE ALSO: The 20 most-watched TV episodes ever, ranked

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson makes and spends his millions

Have you been assuming "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" or "Avatar" must be the biggest movie ever?

You'd be surprised. When adjusted for inflation to even the playing field, the top-earning films at the US box office include many old classics, from overall winner "Gone with the Wind" to a couple Steven Spielberg favorites and a Disney animation. Oh, and the original "Star Wars."

Check out the biggest blockbusters at the box office in the chart above, which uses data from Box Office Mojo.

SEE ALSO: The 50 best TV show seasons of all time, according to critics

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The final trailer for the Harry Potter spinoff ‘Fantastic Beasts’ is here

Daniel Radcliffe revealed in a recent interview with Metro UK that he had interest in playing the title role in Marvel's upcoming franchise reboot, "Spider-Man: Homecoming."  

"I would've been a good Spider-Man, but the boat has sailed on that," Radcliffe said. "And I'm very happy to watch Tom Holland do it. He's fantastic."

The 27-year-old actor expressed his love for superhero movies and even stated that he'd be down to act in a new franchise — though not one similar in length to his decade-long role in the "Harry Potter" films.

"I'm not sure if I'd sign up for something that was another seven or eight films or ten years," Radcliffe said. "But a shorter franchise, yeah."

Radcliffe was promoting the UK release of his acclaimed new film "Swiss Army Man," in which he plays a magical, talking corpse. 

Meanwhile, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" is set for release on July 7, 2017. 

SEE ALSO: The surprising thing Daniel Radcliffe learned while playing a white supremacist in his new movie

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: An aspiring cop went undercover in a jail and says inmates have more power than guards

Like many in the country, filmmaker Craig Atkinson was glued to the news coverage when the bombing of the Boston Marathon occurred in 2013. But Atkinson found what he saw during the manhunt unsettling.

“I was shocked by the way that the police were approaching the community,” Atkinson told Business Insider, as he watched SWAT teams searching homes without search warrants. “It was like fear had got the best of us.”

Atkinson’s father was a police officer in Oak Park, Michigan (a northern suburb of Detroit) for 29 years and became a member of its SWAT team when it was formed in 1989. His memories as a child are filled with playing the hostage for training drills that his dad’s SWAT team conducted, and when he got to his teens, playing an armed assailant.

With a unique eye to the evolution of SWAT over his life, the Boston Marathon bombing was a disturbing reality for Atkinson in the militarization of the police in the US.

“It was such a departure from the way that I felt my dad’s SWAT team approached the community,” he said.

So Atkinson decided to investigate it in his directorial feature debut “Do Not Resist.”

Atkinson teamed with producer Laura Hartrick to make a gripping documentary (which won the best documentary grand jury award at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival) that examines how law enforcement across the country are using government grants to beef up their departments with military equipment to fight terrorism. However, for small towns not as much a threat as Boston and New York, they are mostly used by SWAT to serve search warrants and assist in crowd control.

Beginning production in 2013, Atkinson traveled the country to find different instances of the militarization phenomenon. He visited a SWAT competition in Florida, got a ride along on a new MRAP (Mine-Resistance Ambush Protected vehicles that withstand IEDs) that the police department of Juneau County, Wisconsin — murders in 2014, zero — just received, and sat in on a city council meeting in Concord, New Hampshire for the approval of a BearCat (Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck) for its police department — murders since 2004, two.

But then the movie completely changed when 18-year-old Mike Brown was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014.

“Before Ferguson, we had 80 hours of footage to educate people,” said Atkinson. “That was no longer needed because the Ferguson story showed it.”

Atkinson and Hartrick raced to Ferguson and captured incredible footage of the protests that occurred there following the death of Brown (Atkinson is known best for his cinematography work on films by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady like “Detropia” and “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You,” which he had an additional cinematographer/camera operator credit). With officers in riot gear, some shooting tear gas from atop BearCats, the actions by Ferguson police towards the protestors seen in the movie is more infuriating than what the cable news coverage showed.

“Most news outlets there had to go file stories at 10 or 11 o'clock at night,” said Atkinson. “But we had the luxury to just wait it out until the end and there were a lot of exchanges between the police and the community in those hours when no one was looking that changes the entire dynamic of what was being reported.”

Atkinson shows SWAT teams following crowds back into their neighborhoods and deploying tear gas after the city-imposed curfew. Also, officers in standoffs with citizens while they are just standing on their front lawns.

But with his general knowledge of SWAT procedure, Atkinson also observed the lack of training by the Ferguson police.

“They would shoot the tear gas towards the crowds but also on the sides of them, so they had nowhere to go but towards the police,” said Atkinson.

In the haze of tear gas, Atkinson captured on film one female protestor saying to anyone who will listen: “They need to stop giving these boys these toys because they don’t know how to handle them.”

“Do Not Resist” also explores the future of policing, talking to people behind aerial surveillance and face recognition, both of which are currently being used in some police departments in the country. Then there’s the work of Richard Berk, a professor who is developing an algorithm that seems out of “Minority Report” as it predicts at a person’s birth if they will become a criminal.

But the section of the movie that will stay with most long after watching are the words of the top trainer of military law enforcement in the country, Dave Grossman.

Atkinson was allowed to film Grossman’s class, which was full of SWAT commanders from across the country, and what is revealed is a chilling presentation where Grossman tells the men such things as “we are at war and you’re the frontline troops in this war,” and “the best sex you’ve had in your life” is when you come back home alive from the job.

“I just wanted to show the American people who their officers are being trained by,” said Atkinson, “and I want Dave Grossman to have to explain himself to why this is the most effective way to police our streets in this era. I think we have outgrown that philosophy and we need to evolve it to accommodate what our society is actually asking us. Let's go back to a protect and serve model.”

Business Insider reached out to Grossman, and though he said he has not seen the movie, he has seen the trailer which he’s in, and he believes it is “horrendously irresponsible.”

“It's got a quote of me saying, ‘We are at war and you’re the frontline troops in this war,’ but in the context of Ferguson. That was the context they created,” said Grossman. “I was talking about this land and 9/11 attacks and what's coming down the road as far as terrorist attacks. In time of war, law enforcement is essentially troops on American soil. I think that there's 9/11-scale attacks coming. What they may do is attack schools, day cares, and school buses, and what I was telling my cops is when that happens there is no elite delta force that's going to show up to save your kids, you're it.”

When asked if he’s worried that his teachings might get misconstrued and SWAT members may bring his thinking to events like Ferguson or the protests in Charlotte instead of a terrorist act, Grossman said “I don’t teach tactical, I teach the mental side of the game.”

Grossman also dislikes the term “militarization of police.” He says that things like MRAPs and BearCats are “tools that [police] are using to stay alive.”

“My presentation is always evolving, always talking about the latest science, the latest physiology, the latest case studies” said Grossman. “It is truly the most successful military law enforcement training. Are all of these police chiefs that come to my training, are they all insane? These [filmmakers] set out to do something horrendously irresponsible, it's part of the whole war on cops left-wing mantra, and it is enormously harmful to business.”

In a response to the above remarks by Grossman, Atkinson sent an email stating: “The righteous violence that Dave Grossman instructs officers to deploy may be effective when fighting ISIS, but while the police are preparing for the next 9/11 attack, they are engaged in 63 million police-citizen interactions a year,” he wrote. “It is irresponsible to think that you can teach the ‘mental side of the game’ while not considering the broad application in which this mentality is deployed. I think it's important to note that Jeronimo Yanez, the officer who reflexively shot and killed Philando Castile as he reached for his wallet during a routine traffic stop, had previously undergone Grossman's Bulletproof Warrior training." 

Atkinson also notes that Sheriff Laurie Smith of Santa Clara cancelled a Grossman training session due to concerns that the class makes officers more likely to use deadly force when it's not necessary. 

“Do Not Resist” opens at New York theater The Film Forum on Friday and will be available for streaming later in the year. Here is the complete list of screening locations. 

SEE ALSO: Justin Theroux on his intense role in "The Girl on the Train" and his thoughts on Brangelina

Join the conversation about this story »

If you've been waiting for a bunch of new "Star Wars" toys, the wait is over.

Dubbed Force Friday, Disney has finally unveiled its line of toys for the upcoming spinoff, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" along with a bunch of other "Star Wars" figurines and collectibles.

A similar event was held last year to unveil all of the new toys for "The Force Awakens" ahead of the film's December release.

You can check out all of the new "Rogue One" Lego sets here which we previewed earlier this month. Keep reading to see the toys kids and collectors alike will be be excited for.

This is the droid you're looking for. This "smart" R2-D2 responds to your voice and his actions can be controlled through an app available through iOS and Android.

The "Star Wars" Smart R2-D2 is recommended for ages 6 and up and is available for $99.99 exclusively at Walmart.

Amazon is the only place where you can pick up a Black Series Shadow Trooper Helmet. The helmet actually alters your voice just so you sound like one of the "Rogue One" characters.

The Black Series Shadow Trooper Helmet is recommended for ages 5 and up and retails for $79.99.

It's not the only voice-altering helmet you can get. Hasbro's also releasing an Imperial Stormtrooper helmet from "Rogue One."

The Black Series Imperial Stormtrooper electronic voice changer helmet is recommended for ages 8 and up and retails for $79.99.

It sounds like no one really knows if Daniel Craig is coming back to play James Bond.

In a chat with the BBC on Friday, Callum McDougall, who has been an executive producer on the last four Bond movies, says that he "wish he knew" if Craig was coming back but that he is definitely the franchises "first choice."

“We love Daniel," said McDougall, according to Variety. "We would love Daniel to return as Bond. Without any question he is absolutely [franchise producers] Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli’s first choice. I know they’re hoping for him to come back."

Business Insider reached out to MGM for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Speculation on whether Craig will return for a fifth time as 007 has been floating around the internet since the last Bond movie, "Spectre," opened in 2015. It took in over $880 million worldwide at the box office. 

Craig has not commented about his plans going forward as Bond, however, when doing press for "Spectre" he said he'd rather "slit my wrists" than play the character again. 

SEE ALSO: The biggest Hollywood salaries in 2016 — from movie stars to personal assistant

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: An aspiring cop went undercover in a jail and says inmates have more power than guards

While Marvel media includes multiple universes across TV and film, one thing unites them all: the Stan Lee cameo.

Lee is an unrivaled legend in the comics world and the former President and Chairman of Marvel Comics. His creative work began in 1939 and includes hugely recognizable characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and the X-Men.

The 93-year-old icon has subtly appeared in all manner of Marvel media, from narrating "The Incredible Hulk" TV series in 1982 to briefly appearing in movies including "Deadpool."

In honor of his most recent cameo in "Luke Cage," we've compiled a list of all of his live-action (and one very special animated) cameos in Marvel projects. Keep reading to see if you can remember them all.

Sidney Fussell originally contributed to an earlier version of this post.

Stan Lee's first live-action cameo was as a jury member in the TV movie "The Trial of the Incredible Hulk" (1989).

His first cinematic Marvel cameo was as a hot dog vendor in "X-Men" (2000).

He showed up as a surprised bystander who saved a little girl from debris in "Spider-Man" (2002).

If you’ve felt like Netflix’s US catalog has shrunk dramatically since the company started making its own shows and movies, you’re absolutely right.

Since 2012, Netflix’s selection of titles has dropped over 50%, from roughly 11,000 titles to ~5,300, according to streaming blog Exstreamist, which cites multiple former Netflix employees.

Extreamist's sources estimate the height of Netflix’s catalog size was in 2012, before the company began making original content in 2013. They peg the size at around 11,000 movies, TV shows and specials. Using that number, Exstreamist then compared the 2012 catalog size to Netflix’s current roster, using data from Unogs, a site that tracks Netflix data. The September numbers put Netflix’s count at about 5,300 titles in the US.

They found a huge drop of over 50%, and there’s a reason: “exclusivity,” particularly tied to Netflix’s original movies and shows.

The smaller, better future

Originals are a pivotal part of Netflix’s strategy moving forward.

"You should expect us to push toward more 50/50 in terms of original exclusive content and licensed content,"Netflix CFO David Wells said recently. And original content isn’t cheap, especially since Netflix pushes for global licenses so it can play the shows and movies for people around the world. Netflix spent a reported $120 million for “The Get Down,” its Baz Luhrmann show about the origins of hip-hop, and a whopping $90 million for a new Will Smith movie.

All told, Netflix has said it will release 600 hours of original content by the time 2016 is done. That would take you 25 days to binge-watch all the way through. 25 days!

Beyond originals, Netflix executives have repeatedly stressed that the company is more focused on "exclusive" titles, in contrast to those also available on other platforms like Amazon Prime or Hulu. That's a recipe for a higher cost per-title.

The focus on originals, and exclusives generally, puts Netflix’s catalog drop into perspective. Netflix has fewer titles, but the company is betting that keeping its catalog full of shows and movies you can’t get anywhere else will get you addicted enough to pay that $9.99 every month, forever.

Netflix declined to comment.

SEE ALSO: Why this top tech investor is funding a startup that could chop away at his own business

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Kelp will take over the food industry soon — here’s why it's so popular

It's been a while since Tim Burton flexed his box office muscles, but the release of his latest "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," showed that his unique stories can still draw audiences.

The movie, release by Fox, won the weekend with an estimated $28.5 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

This marks the first opening weekend win for a Burton movie since the 2010 hit "Alice in Wonderland," which went on to make over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. 

Despite the strong start, it's unlikely "Peculiar Children," which is based on the best-selling young adult novel of the same name written by Ranson Riggs, will do that kind of business but for Burton and Fox, who haven't had many big winners this year outside of "Deadpool."

Another strong performer over the weekend was "Deepwater Horizon," which proved to be a bigger earner than Lionsgate anticipated as it came in second place with $20.6 million.

Based on the 2010 offshore drilling explosion that led to the worst oil spill in US history, the Peter Berg-directed/Mark Wahlberg-starring socially-conscious drama was fueled by an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

SEE ALSO: The biggest Hollywood salaries in 2016 — from movie stars to personal assistants

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: People miss the real reason O.J. Simpson got acquitted, says his lawyer Alan Dershowitz

Johnny Depp will return to take on the high seas once again next year.

The first teaser trailer for the next "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," debuted Sunday evening during the "Fear the Walking Dead" season two finale.

While we don't see Depp in the first teaser, we do see Captain Jack hinted at in the film's first teaser. He's being hunted down by Javier Bardem's character. Brenton Thwaites and Geoffrey Rush also star in the fifth film in the franchise. Orlando Bloom is also expected to make a return to the series.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" will be in theaters May 2017.

Check out the trailer below.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: These secret codes let you access hidden iPhone features

Ben Affleck has given us a critical detail about his upcoming standalone Batman movie: the title.

"The movie I think is going to be called ‘The Batman,’" Affleck told the Associated Press during the press junket for "The Accountant" (opening October 13). "At least that’s what we’re going with right now. I might change it… That’s about all I got right now. We’re working on the script, the script is going well, I’m really excited about it.”

Not much is known about "The Batman" project, for which Affleck will return as The Dark Knight after playing the character in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (and providing a cameo for "Suicide Squad"). He is also directing the Batman movie and writing the screenplay.

The only other piece of info that's been revealed about the movie from Warner Bros., which currently has no release date, is that Joe Manganiello ("Magic Mike,""True Blood") will be playing the villain Deathstroke in the movie.

A source told Business Insider that "The Batman" is the working title for the project.

Watch the AP video in which Affleck reveals the title here:

SEE ALSO: 2 hidden details you probably missed in the first episode of "Westworld"

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch a Ryan Lochte protester rush the stage during his appearance on 'Dancing with the Stars'

The #OscarsSoWhite movement hit Hollywood after a lack of diversity among the major categories at the Academy Awards the last two years. And director Tate Taylor is an interesting footnote to that history.

A white director who in 2011 made “The Help” — the Oscar-winning adaptation of a novel about the hardships of a group of African-American maids during the civil rights movement — he said he dealt with the ridicule of being “a white guy” telling “black stories” (he followed “The Help” with the James Brown biopic “Get on Up” in 2014).

Though he admits he hasn’t spoken publicly about the movement, Taylor said what’s going on is warranted.

“I mean, you can’t help but see it’s so obvious,” Taylor recently told Business Insider while promoting his new movie “The Girl on The Train” (opening Friday) about the lack of diversity in the industry.

Taylor recalls that when he was pitching "The Help," the biggest concern for studios was that the subject matter would not be profitable. But with a cast that included Octavia Spencer (who won an Oscar for the role), Emma Stone, Viola Davis, and Jessica Chastain (the latter two got Oscar nominations), the $25 million-budgeted period drama went on to earn over $216 million at the worldwide box office. 

Taylor believes the success of “The Help” aided movies like “12 Years a Slave” (which won best picture in 2014) and “Selma” in making it to theaters.

“What excited me is when I was going around with ‘The Help,’ the fear was it’s black-themed material, does it do well? Look what came out after ‘The Help,’” Taylor said.

But when asked if the industry has changed to a point where it would be more difficult for a white director to make “The Help” today, Taylor says he thinks it still comes down to who you know.

“Here's my answer, and it's not the answer you want to hear,” Taylor said. “The reason ‘The Help’ got made was because Steven Spielberg read my script and he said, ‘If this guy wrote that, he's already directed the movie — let's do it.’ Hopefully I would like to think that's still in play today. I think it is. I think despite the circumstances, instincts tell you to just do this. It has happened to me on projects I've acquired. I think that will always be around.”

SEE ALSO: Ben Affleck just revealed the title for his highly anticipated Batman movie

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what 'Game of Thrones' stars look like in real life

Nate Parker's highly anticipated directorial debut "The Birth of a Nation" opens in theaters on Friday, and while doing press for the film, Parker has been addressing the 17-year-old rape accusations against him. 

On Sunday, "60 Minutes" featured Parker and his film (in which he also stars) in a segment. Anderson Cooper was the correspondent for the story and delved into the accusations that Parker and his friend Jean MGianni Celestin (who has a writing credit on the film) raped a woman while attending Penn State University.

Parker was acquitted of the rape charge in a 2001 trial. It was revealed in August that the woman killed herself in 2012. 

Parker said that he had been unaware that the woman was dead. When Cooper asked if Parker felt he owed her family an apology, the actor said:

"I do think it's tragic, so much that has happened, and the fact that this family has had to endure with respect of this woman not being here. But I also think that, and I don't want to harp on this and I don't want to be disrespectful of them at all, but at some point I have to say it, I was falsely accused. I went to court and I sat in trial. I was vindicated, I was proven innocent, I was vindicated. And I feel terrible that this woman isn't here and I feel terrible that her family had to deal with that but as I sit here, an apology — no."

Parker also went on "Good Morning America" on Monday and though Robin Roberts pressed Parker on the rape allegations and if he was sorry, Parker referred to what he said on "60 Minutes" and repeated that he was falsely accused.

With "The Birth of a Nation" opening on over 2,000 screens on Friday, there's now a question of whether the film's distributor Fox Searchlight has gotten in front of the story enough to help box-office and Oscar chances. The Wrap reported in August that the film would need to earn around $50 million in its theatrical run to break even.

Meanwhile, talk about a potential best picture nomination has been floating since the film won the grand prize and audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

SEE ALSO: The director of the Oscar-winning 'The Help' comments on #OscarsSoWhite: 'It's so obvious'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch Alec Baldwin mock Trump's mic issues on 'Saturday Night Live'

Halloween is getting close, so it's time to search though Netflix for some scary movies.

There are so many to choose from, so to make the rest of your October movie-watching easier, here are the 23 best horror movies you can stream on Netflix right now.

Grab a friend and come on in.

Brett Arnold contributed to an earlier version of this story.

SEE ALSO: 100 movies on Netflix that everyone needs to watch in their lifetime

23. "The Taking of Deborah Logan"

An impressive "found footage" horror film that looks at a documentary crew filming a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease and finding a lot more.

22. "Honeymoon"

Newly married and spending their honeymoon in a rustic cabin, Bea and Paul don't have a care in the world. Until they go mad.

21. "The Wicker Man" (2006)

Neil LaBute's remake of the 1973 horror classic is pretty forgettable, except for the performance by Nicolas Cage. Numerous vintage Cage crazy scenes show his character's evolution into madness.

Bored by relaxing weekend beach trips? This "Mad Max"-themed post-apocalyptic festival in a scorched desert might be the getaway for you. 

Wasteland Weekend takes place in the Mojave Desert just outside Bakersfield, California every September. This year's event (held from September 22 to 25) drew a crowd of around 2,500 attendees who temporarily swapped civilization for a simulated post-apocalyptic desertscape, complete with bungee fights, souped-up survival vehicles, crazy-elaborate costumes, DJs, fire dancing, circus acts, bonfires, and more.

The festival is inspired by films like "Mad Max: Fury Road," and it's fully immersive — everyone must come in costume and stay in character for the entire weekend. Modified vehicles are "encouraged" according to the Wasteland Weekend website. 

 "There's a spiritual aspect to Wasteland Weekend and the people who attend it," longtime participant Mike Orr recently told the Daily Mail. "You have all this armor on and spikes and everything like that...it's emulating the end of the world. It's an escapism. You come here and you can be whatever you want to be."

The festival may even serve the practical purpose of preparing people for a real apocalypse. 

Wasteland Weekend's cofounder Jared Butler told Wired that, given the actual end of the world, "some [participants] will be well prepared. The others, well, they'll be poorly prepared, but they'll look fabulous."

 See more photos from this year's event over at Wired and on Wasteland Weekend's official Instagram account.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We went to Burning Man — here's what it's like

After decades working as a struggling actor, Tate Taylor found his big break in his mid-40s as the director of Oscar winner “The Help.” Now he’s at the helm of the adaptation of the best-selling novel “The Girl on the Train.”

A steamy thriller in the vein of “Gone Girl,” the story centers on Rachel (Emily Blunt), an alcoholic whose divorce to Tom (Justin Theroux) has led her into a deep depression. And things aren’t any better on her Metro-North train commute from Westchester to Manhattan as she passes her old house, where Tom has started a new life with Anna (Rebecca Ferguson, who was in “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation”).

Rachel has also become infatuated with Megan (Haley Bennett, “The Magnificent Seven”), who lives a few doors down from Tom's place and is often standing on her balcony wearing very little clothing. But when Megan goes missing, Rachel must figure out if, in her blackout drunk moments, she may have been involved.

The book, written by British author Paula Hawkins, was an instant hit when it came out in 2015, and Universal quickly snatched up the rights to it. But as with most adaptations, this one sometimes veers away from the source material (it's set in New York City instead of London).

Business Insider talked to Taylor about the challenges of adapting a book that is beloved by many, and looking back at "The Help" in a post-#OscarsSoWhite Hollywood.

Warning: Spoilers ahead if you’ve never read “The Girl on the Train.”

Jason Guerrasio: What's the biggest challenge of adapting a best-selling book?

Tate Taylor: My answer doesn't really come from me solving a problem — it comes from what I knew I wanted to do. When you have a book that everybody has read, and even those who read the book the first time kind of figured out it was Tom, I was like, "Okay, this is a thriller and this is what people want to see and that could be a big, big problem." Because your engine is exposed. But the great solution for that was a natural one. I was drawn to this material because of the character work and how deeply it dove into regret and betrayal and manipulation. I realized if I leaned into that — the sexuality, the violence, the mental abuse — it's not so much that it would district you from who did it, it just fills your brain with so much stuff it's truly a companion to that part versus making one stronger than the other.

Guerrasio: To show what is going on in Rachel's head, was that a jigsaw puzzle to pull off in postproduction?

Taylor: This movie was made in the editing room if ever a movie has been made. I mean, it was both scary and cool.

Guerrasio: Because I would imagine there's only so much screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson can put on the page to give you some runway.

Taylor: Yeah. I came on board and Erin had done this amazing heavy lifting starting this. But then as a filmmaker I realized that there were big holes, meaning there were things you just don't get to do in a movie. You don't get to say that Rachel suddenly remembers everything. That's when I created the character of Monica [Lisa Kudrow]. I wrote that all out. In the novel [author] Paula [Hawkins] says Rachel remembers so I'm like we don't get to do that or this is going to all unravel. So I went back to the book and Paula had written a brief little blurb in Rachel's narration that "Tom used to tell me I would embarrass him at his work parties," and I went, okay, I'm going to blow that up. And then with Megan's character, she's so sexual and I knew that she would be judged by the audience and not with much favor, so that's when I went back to the book and realized to serve this genre and serve this piece I needed to play out what happened with her baby. So it was really going through with the book as a director and writer saying this read well but this is not going to play well. Where are the holes? Where will people get up and go to the bathroom or roll their eyes?

Guerrasio: But then there's the change of location from London to New York, which could turn off die-hard fans. Was that already decided when you came on to the movie?

Taylor: That predated me by a year.

Guerrasio: Did you walk in nervous about how fans would react to that?

Taylor: To be honest, I made the mistake of checking the online chatter when I signed on to the movie and I saw that there wasn't a huge revolt at all, it was more of a why. But I think wonderful things happened because of that choice. Because of that, the day I met Emily I decided to keep her accent. I told myself, that's only going to add to her loneliness and despair. If she's in America and she has no job and lives on a mattress on a floor, she probably can't afford to go home and she's probably told them back at home the biggest lie ever. She can't go home like this. So that made it exciting for me. But the thing is I shot all these New York beauty shots and really shot the heck out of Grand Central Station, but when I put the movie together they were just kind of shoe leather. I didn't need it. And then I went back to the book and realized that Rachel just talks about London, it's not a character. So it really is universal and doesn't matter because the movie takes place between these women's ears and on a train.

Guerrasio: You guys decided on Metro-North. Did you have other ideas for the commute?

Taylor: We looked at all the lines, frankly I rode them all.

Guerrasio: I will say, I've spent most of my life riding into New York City, and I've never seen a beautiful woman standing outside on a balcony as the train goes by.

Taylor: Yeah, that doesn't happen.

Guerrasio: Movie magic.

Taylor: Yeah. [Laughs]

Guerrasio: What was your biggest fear going into postproduction?

Taylor: I had to trust that people would go with the beginning of the film. I had to trust that if people stayed with me and really got in with these characters and this mood that it would really make the movie satisfying.

Guerrasio: It is unusual how you thrust us right into Rachel's clouded mind from the start.

Taylor: You don't see it enough in movies. You may get one character that you do that, but to have three characters back-to-back? And with “The Help” I had the voices of three women, but this is the other thing that hit me like a ton of bricks: They were in scenes together in “The Help,” these women are not.

Guerrasio: You mention “The Help.” I was thinking about this, you made that and right after the James Brown biopic “Get on Up.” Right after that the #OscarsSoWhite debate really made waves in the industry. What was that time like? Finding success with “The Help,” but being a white man telling these stories.

Taylor: First it was "How dare a white guy tell black stories?" And you're going to love this, I got asked the other day, "How can you leave black people out of this movie?" I literally said, "I can't win." [Laughs] I don't know what to say about it, it's a business, man. It makes no sense. There's no rhyme or reason. The best thing from “The Help” was my best friend and roommate of five years [Octavia Spencer] got an Oscar and her life has changed forever. That's fun, that's really cool. And I think that came from pure recognition of an amazing job she did. I don't think that was a political win whatsoever. I think there's moments with the awards season where all the b------t cannot stop something inevitable. I think what “The Help” did, which excites me, is when I was going around with “The Help,” the fear was it's black-themed material, does it do well? Look what came out after “The Help.”

Guerrasio: With all the current circumstances could you, a white director, make “The Help” today?

Taylor: And I was just a nobody?

Guerrasio: Yes.

Taylor: Here's my answer, and it's not the answer you want to hear, the reason “The Help” got made was because Steven Spielberg read my script and he said, “If this guy wrote that, he's already directed the movie — let's do it.” Hopefully, I would like to think that's still in play today. I think it is. I think despite the circumstances, instincts tell you to just do this, it has happened to me on projects I've acquired. I think that will always be around.

Guerrasio: Are you uncomfortable talking about the #OscarsSoWhite phenomenon?

Taylor: I don't talk about it. I mean, you can't help but see, it's so obvious.

“The Girl on the Train” opens in theaters on Friday.

SEE ALSO: Justin Theroux on his intense role in "The Girl on the Train" and his thoughts on Brangelina

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch Alec Baldwin mock Trump's mic issues on 'Saturday Night Live'

Johnny Depp will be back next summer in another "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. 

Disney unveiled the first teaser for the fifth film in the franchise Sunday evening during the "Fear the Walking Dead" finale. 

If you didn't know another "Pirates" movie was on its way, here's everything you need to know about the next installment in the franchise.

It's called "Dead Men Tell No Tales"

Depp first teased the fifth "Pirates" movie last year at Disney's annual fan convention D23. He took the stage dressed as his character Captain Jack Sparrow.

The film will feature a group of "deadly ghost pirates" who are hunting down Jack Sparrow and Poseidon

Sparrow's arch-nemesis Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), the creepy-looking guy who popped up in the new teaser, is on a quest to hunt down and kill every pirate with his own ghost pirate army. Captain Jack believes that finding Poseidon and his trident will help give him an edge against the pirate crew.

This is the official film synopsis Disney released last summer at convention D23:

Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar (Bardem), escape from the Devil's Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea ... including him.  Captain Jack's only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.

Orlando Bloom will be back as Will Turner

Bloom will reprise his role as Will Turner after starring in the first three "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. Disney confirmed Bloom will be back in a January release for the film. 

We're not sure what he'll be up to, but the last time we saw Turner, he and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) were married before he became the captain of the Flying Dutchman at the end of "On Stranger Tides." That meant he was sentenced to roam the Netherworld for a decade where he brings souls to the afterlife. In the time he’s gone, he and Elizabeth have a young son.

In 2014, Bloom hinted to IGN that the film could revolve around his relationship with his son. Since he’s technically "Davy Jones" now and is at the bottom of the ocean, Bloom also said we may see him look totally different on screen.

"It might be kind of fun to do something where I’m rumbling round the bottom of the ocean, because I won’t look anything like me. [Gestures to face] Get all gnarly," said Bloom.

The movie may center around Will Turner's son

Brenton Thwaites will also star in the film. "The Giver" actor was seen in the teaser being questioned by Captain Salazar about Captain Sparrow. Disney describes him as Henry, a "young sailor in the Royal Navy." But we bet he's a bit more than that.

Thwaites previously told the Mirror that the film will follow"a young man who wants to reconnect with his father, Davy Jones."

"There’s a curse that prevents him from doing that," he added. "I think it’s about how he goes around that and tries to fix it and he has to save his dad."

If that's the case, it sounds like Thwaites' character, who is only known as Henry at the moment, may be Will Turner's son trying to find his dear old dad. 

We'll see a few other familiar faces

Geoffrey Rush will return as Captain Barbossa along with Kevin R. McNally and Stephen Graham as Joshamee Gibbs and Scrum, respectively.

A few new additions will include Kaya Scodelario ("The Maze Runner"), who plays an astronomer who will help Jack on his hunt for Poseidon's trident, and Iranian actress and musician Golshifteh Farahani who will be a sea-witch named Shansa. 

The film has different names overseas

While US viewers will see the movie marketed as "Dead Men Tell No Tales," some overseas viewers will see different names for the film. In the UK and Netherlands, the film will be called, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge."

In Spain, France, Italy, Brazil, and the Vietnam the film will be called a variation of that title, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Revenge of Salazar."

One reason Disney may have changed up the name for US viewers is so that the film may perform better in the states. Though the last film, 2011's "On Stranger Tides,"made over $1 billion in theaters worldwide, it made most of its money overseas ($804 million). 

"Pirates" is an interesting franchise to look at worldwide. While it's box office intake has slowed domestically after the first sequel, its popularity has continued to grow internationally.

That may suggest that fans are hungry for a sequel overseas no matter what the title of the film whereas US viewers may need a more vague, mysterious name to draw interest. The fifth film will be coming six years after the fourth in the franchise and that one was not a fan favorite. 

The soundtrack may sound a little different to you

Composer Hans Zimmer, who has worked on the score for each previous "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, will not be working on the music for "Dead Men Tell No Tales." Instead, Geoff Zanelli, who has worked alongside Zimmer on numerous films, will be scoring.

Here's a peek at a recent scoring session two weeks ago from co-director Joachim Rønning:

The sequel will be out next May

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" is set for release May 2017. Previously, it was set for a July 7, 2017 release.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The last harvest moon eclipse of the decade has come and gone — here’s what a harvest moon actually is

The return of Star Wars has been a wonderful thing for fans all around the world. That includes the fans that have also acted in the franchise. One classic Star Wars actor has revealed that he'll be back when Star Wars: Episode VIII hits the screen.

Warwick Davis began his acting career in 1983 with Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi. Now, the actor says he will continue with a mystery role in Star Wars: Episode VIII.

While his face was never seen on camera, a young Warwick Davis played the role of Wicket, a young Ewok, in the final film of the original Star Wars trilogy. The actor returned for a cameo in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. More recently Davis was involved in the Harry Potter franchise, playing the dual roles of Professor Flitwick and a Gringott's Goblin.

However, he's now clearly back in the Star Wars fold as he has told Australia's news.com that he will be in Star Wars: Episode VIII, though he won't say anything beyond that.

Warwick Davis is following up on his cameo role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens where he played the role of Wollivan, one of the folks inside Maz Kanata's bar when Han Solo and Rey arrive there.

There's a pretty good chance that Warwick Davis' role in Star Wars: Episode VIII will be something along the lines of his role here, a simple cameo with a character that you won't even know the name of until you find it in the credits or buy the action figure.

Davis is also listed for a role in the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story so it would appear that Lucasfilm is planning to just use him over and over again as the Star Wars franchise continues. Davis may be viewed as a "good luck charm" in much the same way that John Ratzenberger continually lends his voice to Pixar films.

SEE ALSO: Here's everything we know so far about 'Star Wars: Episode VIII'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Astronomers discovered a second ‘alien megastructure’ star that’s even stranger than the first one

With a record-breaking $17.5 million purchase of Nate Parker’s directorial debut “The Birth of a Nation” at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Fox Searchlight is going full-throttle on the release of the movie, though the controversy surrounding Parker’s involvement in a rape case has taken a bit of the wind from its sails.

The biopic of Nat Turner (played by Parker), who in 1831 led a slave rebellion in Southampton Country, Virginia, will be released in 2,100 theaters beginning Friday, an ambitious move by Searchlight to attract both arthouse and multiplex audiences.

"Birth of a Nation" mirrors in some ways the current social climate in America, with the Black Lives Matter movement still grabbing headlines as African-Americans are shot and killed by police. TV ads for the movie even use current protest footage intercut with Turner’s rebellion in the movie. And with its relevance and early awards attention, Searchlight is staying optimistic that the movie can still generate the box office it hoped for before Parker’s rape case resurfaced in August.

In 1999, a woman accused Parker and another man, Jean McGianni Celestin (who has a story writing credit on "Birth of a Nation"), of raping her while they were students at Penn State University. Parker was acquitted of the rape charge in a 2001 trial. Then in August, it was revealed that the woman killed herself in 2012.

Searchlight and Parker have since been on the defensive. Though Parker has shown remorse that the woman has died, Parker has declined to apologize to the woman’s family, stating on “60 Minutes” that he was “falsely accused.”

Box-office projections have the movie opening this weekend between $7 and $8 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter, though some tracking services have it opening around $10 million.

The film, which won both the grand jury and audience award prizes at this year's Sundance, would need to have around a $50 million lifetime box-office gross to break even, according to TheWrap.

"Unlike say, Woody Allen and Roman Polanski, Nate Parker is really in his infancy as an auteur, and dealing with the rape controversy while promoting his first film is surely an exhausting and no-win prospect," Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, told Business Insider, comparing Parker's situation to Allen and Polanski's past charges of sexual abuse. "The box office is now in the hands of the people’s court, they will decide the outcome."

Typically movies released by a independent distributor start with a limited opening (say, New York City and Los Angeles), and then open wide across the country in the weeks that follow.

“12 Years a Slave” in 2013 did that and in its fourth week when it went wide (1,144 screens), it took in $6.6 million. The movie went on to win best picture. “Selma” in 2014 (though released by Paramount, taking a page from the indie playbook) did the same and in its second week went wide (2,179 screens) and had an $11.3 million weekend.

Bock believes Searchlight's aggressive release will pay off and predicts a $10 million opening weekend for the film.

"Fox Searchlight is going for the box-office gusto," Bock said. "While the move risks it being forgotten come awards season, its $17.5 million investment should be secure."

SEE ALSO: The 23 best horror movies you can watch on Netflix right now

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch a Ryan Lochte protester rush the stage during his appearance on 'Dancing with the Stars'