Docuseries on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward to Premiere on CNN+

I would immediately sign up for any project that featured Ethan Hawke and Martin Scorsese. They won't be collaborating as actor and director, though I hope this will begin a fruitful partnership. This first pairing features Hawke as director and Scorsese as producer. The Last Movie Stars, Hawke's second documentary as a director, focuses on the life and love of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.

They had one of the longest-lasting marriages in Hollywood. Working together onscreen and off, they used their fame for philanthropic efforts, including Newman's Own foods. The film will feature archival interviews from the couple, who had worked on a memoir before Newman's death. One of their daughters reached out to Hawke to shepherd the project, and he recorded new interviews with folks like George Clooney, Sally Field and Scorsese himself.

The six-part series will premiere later this year on the new streaming service CNN+, moving to HBO Max after that.

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.