Netflix faces film-maker backlash over playback speed test feature

Judd Apatow and Brad Bird have both voiced opposition to a new test feature that will allow consumers to speed-watch certain titles

God’s gift: how to look like Chris Hemsworth

More than 1 million people have already downloaded Chris Hemsworth’s fitness app. Why? Is it because they too want to look like a Norse demi-god, asks Alex Moshakis

Jennifer Aniston’s Instagram debut sends platform crashing

Former social media recluse’s Friends selfie attracts 116,000 followers in an hour

Geena Davis announces ‘Spellcheck for Bias’ tool to redress gender imbalance in movies

The actor’s Institute on Gender in Media has announced a new machine-learning tool, to be piloted by Disney, that can analyse scripts and reveal unconscious biases

Pulp diction: Samuel L Jackson to voice Amazon’s Alexa

Hollywood star is the first celebrity voice to be rolled out on the virtual personal assistant

Can shifting to a female-focused future overcome Terminator: Dark Fate’s bad buzz?

After a string of sequels that have failed to hit the mark, James Cameron may be turning to strong women to rescue the franchise. Will it work?

Cold war experiments and storybook monsters – back to Venice’s VR island

Now in its third year, the virtual reality section of the Venice Film Festival has become more mature and serious in its focus.

Oh Jeremy Renner, you only have thousands of versions of yourself to blame for your app’s failure

The Hollywood star’s attempt to become an online player has had to be brought to a halt after trolls broke his app

A ‘deep fake’ app will make us film stars – but will we regret our narcissism?

Users of Zao can now add themselves into the scenes of their favourite movies. But is our desire to insert ourselves into everything putting our privacy at risk?

Jada Pinkett Smith: ‘The word “wife”: it’s a golden cage, swallow the key’

She put her film career on hold and let husband Will Smith become a megastar. Now Jada Pinkett Smith’s candid chat show is opening up truthful conversations around kitchen tables everywhere

UK consumers switch to online streaming en masse

Retailers suffer as DVD, CD and video games sales plunge by up to a fifth

The Great Hack review – searing exposé of the Cambridge Analytica scandal

This chilling documentary lays bare the cynicism and chaos surrounding the data research company that harvested information from millions of Facebook users

Leonardo DiCaprio flooded with requests to save Siberian lake

Russian environmentalists inundate actor’s Instagram with messages urging him to support campaign to ‘Save our Baikal!’

Lights, camera, caption! Why subtitles are no longer just for the hard of hearing

An enormous number of people with unimpaired hearing are choosing to watch with words. Why? And is it time captions became the norm?

In the age of deepfakes, could virtual actors put humans out of business?

In film and video games, we’ve already seen what’s possible with ‘digital humans’. Are we on the brink of the world’s first totally virtual acting star?