This week in August 20 years ago, a small independent horror film called “The Sixth Sense” became one of the biggest hits of the year, a classic masterpiece for cinema, and also the trajectory to create and maintain this website for the last 15 years. I feel incredibly old thinking that I was one of the many moviegoers 20 years ago, sitting in the audience and being stunned by the film’s twist ending. But even more so, I was stunned by Toni Collette. I had seen her for the very first time just mere weeks earlier when “Muriel’s Wedding” was shown on tv, and was delighted by her performance. So when the opening credits for “The Sixth Sense” rolled in the cinema, I thought, “I know that Toni Collette”. When the end credits rolled and the packed theatre was stunned by the film’s ending, I was (probably the only one) stunned where the heck Toni Collette was. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that the young woman playing Muriel was supposed to be the same actress playing the mother on the verge of a breakdown in “The Sixth Sense”. It was a total immersion into character, and I was hooked. Toni received an Academy Award nomination for her performance, which was a surprise back then because she hadn’t been nominated for any precedent awards – something I had hoped would repeat with “Hereditary” – but with or without awards glory (“The Sixth Sense” was nominated for 5 Academy Awards but went home empty-handed), the film stood the test of time and is a highlight in the CV of everyone involved.

For the film’s 20th anniversary, many outlets are writing about the film, reflecting on its impact and talking to its makers. Among the most insightful is Variety’s look back, in which director M. Night Shyamalan remembers Toni’s audition for the film and being hesitant to show it to Disney:

I had seen “Muriel’s Wedding” and Toni came in and her head was shaved, and I forget if it was for fun or if it was for a movie. She did such a beautiful job. I didn’t want to show the video to the studio for fear that they would be concerned with her appearance, and I said “I want to cast the woman from ‘Muriel’s Wedding’” and then Bruce backed me and said “Oh, I love ‘Muriel’s Wedding,’” so we kind of got it without the studio seeing the audition, and I was so lucky. Toni is actually wearing a wig throughout all of “The Sixth Sense,” and I think it’s a wig from “Velvet Goldmine.” We didn’t even have the wig! (M. Night Shyamalan, Variety, August 02, 2019)

Below is a list o annivery articles, to which I will add any articles that will be published over the course of the next week.

Netflix’s “Unbelievable” trailer introduces Emmy winners Toni Collette and Merrit Wever as detectives Grace Rasmussen and Karen Duvall, who come across two familiar-sounding cases. As Entertainment Weekly reports, hundreds of miles away in a different state, Marie Adler (Kaitlyn Dever), a teenage girl, filed a police report that claimed she was sexually assaulted by an intruder in her home. The police kept trying to poke holes in her story and ultimately determined she wasn’t credible and that there was no victim in this case. Meanwhile, Grace and Karen discover two new rapes on their own turf with the same M.O. as Marie’s alleged attacker. Thus begins the search for a potential serial rapist.

Does this story already sound familiar? That’s because the series is based on the true events in T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong’s Pulitzer Prize-winning article from ProPublica and The Marshall Project titled “An Unbelievable Story of Rape,” as well as the radio episode of This American Life tackling this same subject, “Anatomy of Doubt.” The trailer description comes with contact information for RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline for anyone who has experienced sexual violence in their lives. The number for the hotline is 800.656.HOPE (4673) and the website is online.rainn.org. Unbelievable debuts on Netflix Sep. 13.

Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is coming into focus with the new trailer. The ensemble cast includes Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Lakeith Stanfield, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Katherine Langford, Ana de Armas and Jamie Lee Curtis. “Knives Out” centers on a detective (Craig) investigating a murder when he comes across an eccentric, combative family. “I’ve been a die-hard Agatha Christie fan since I was a teenager,” Johnson said at CinemaCon in April. “Knives Out was my attempt to take everything I love about an Agatha Christie who-done-it, jam it into an all-star cast, give it a Hitchcock thriller, genre twist and set it in modern-day America.” Johnson last directed Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Before that he built a following for his genre films, such as his noir-tinged debut feature Brick (2006), and the time traveling drama Looper (2012). He is also developing a new trilogy of Star Wars films for Lucasfilm.

On Friday, July 19, 2019, the IFC Center in New York will host a world-premiere screening of Netflix’s upcoming series “Unbelievable”: When teenager Marie Adler (Kaitlyn Dever) files a police report claiming she’s been sexually assaulted by an intruder in her home, the investigating detectives, as well as the people closest to her, come to doubt the truth of her story. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, detectives Grace Rasmussen and Karen Duvall (Emmy winners Toni Collette and Merritt Wever) meet while investigating an eerily similar pair of intruder rapes and partner to catch a potential serial rapist. Inspired by the real events in The Marshall Project and ProPublica Pulitzer Prize-winning article, “An Unbelievable Story of Rape,” written by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, and the This American Life radio episode, “Anatomy of Doubt”, with episodes directed by Oscar nominees Susannah Grant and Lisa Cholodenko,Unbelievable is new limited series drama about unspeakable trauma, unwavering tenacity, and astounding resilience. Showrunner Susannah Grant executive produces the series, from CBS Television Studios, along with Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, Lisa Cholodenko, Ayelet Waldman, Michael Chabon, Katie Couric, Richard Tofel, Neil Barsky, Robyn Semien, and Marie. There will be a post-screening conversation with showrunner and executive producer Susannah Grant, executive producer Sarah Timberman, executive producer and episode director Lisa Cholodenko, and actors Kaitlyn Dever and Danielle Macdonald. A Netflix release date has not yet been set.

A little more than two weeks after setting foot on her spaceship in the German Bavaria Studios, Toni Collette has wrapped her part for the film, according to her Instagram post, featuring a picture of Toni and her fellow cast members. Directed by Joe Penna, “Stowaway” tells of a Mars mission in which an undiscovered stowaway (Shamier Anderson) accidentally causes irreparable damage to the spaceship’s life-support systems. Faced with dwindling resources and a potentially fatal fate, a scientist (Anna Kendrick) is the only one to repress the utterly cold logic of the commander (Toni Collette) and the biologist on board (Daniel Dae Kim). The film is slated for a 2020 release.

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That’s a wrap on me for the movie in space which may or may not be called #stowaway 🚀 Love these guys. @annakendrick47 @danieldaekim @shamieranderson 📷: @mysteryguitarman Bye Bye Munich 👋🏼 🙏🏻💋

Ein Beitrag geteilt von toni collette (@toni_colletteofficial) am Jun 27, 2019 um 5:04 PDT

Toni Collette has arrived in Munich, Germany, for the shooting of Joe Penna’s scifi triller “Stowaway”, and her co-star Anna Kendrick has posted the first picture from the set on Instagram. This is the second feature from Penna and Ryan Morrison, the duo behind last year’s “Arctic”, which released domestically in February. Penna is directing and co-wrote the script with Morrison, who will also serve as executive producer and editor. XYZ Films is producing “Stowaway” alongside Augenschein Filmproduktion, Rise Pictures and RainMaker Films in association with Yale Productions. XYZ and CAA Media Finance are arranging financing for the film and handling worldwide sales which continue during Cannes. On a mission headed to Mars, an unintended stowaway (Shamier Anderson) accidentally causes severe damage to the spaceship’s life support systems. Facing dwindling resources and a potentially grim outcome, a medical researcher (Anna Kendrick) emerges as the only dissenting voice against the clinical logic of both her commander (Toni Collette) and the ship’s biologist (Daniel Dae Kim).