Month: January 2019

January 26, 2019 10:00AM PT An Iranian-American filmmaker from Los Angeles and a screenwriter from Oakland are the winners of the first grants from the Macro Episodic Lab Powered by the Black List designed to nurture the careers of storytellers of color. Sahar Jahani and K.C. Scott will each receive development support and a budget

January 26, 2019 9:52AM PT After a mass extinction, a robot raises a little girl in a handsome, if derivative sci-fi thriller that salutes its own parentage “I Am Mother” director Grant Sputore’s parentage is obvious: James Cameron crossbred with Ridley Scott. There are worse families to come from if you’re a young talent entering

Gugu Mbatha-Raw will star in the humanitarian drama “Seacole,” based on the life of pioneering Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole, Variety has learned exclusively. Charlie Stratton will direct from a screenplay he’s written with Oscar-nominated Dianne Houston (“Tuesday Morning Ride”) and Marnie Dickens. The project is to be co-produced and financed by Epic Match Media and

In a weekend dominated by holdovers, M. Night Shyamalan’s “Glass” will likely top the box office again in its second frame with an estimated $16 million. The third part in a trilogy that includes “Unbreakable” and “Split” has earned $59 million domestically and nearly $54 million internationally since its debut despite generally unfavorable reviews. If

Try as we might to dissuade vulnerable young parents in the movies from relocating their families to rambling, deserted homes in the countryside, preferably on the edge of a dark, looming forest, sometimes they simply have to learn for themselves. Happily, Lee Cronin’s “The Hole in the Ground” is largely in on the joke, putting

Amazon has closed a $13 million deal for “Late Night,” a buzzy comedy about diversity in a late night talk show writers room that is written by, produced, and stars Mindy Kaling. It is the first major sale out of the Sundance Film Festival. “Late Night” co-stars Emma Thompson as a prickly comic who grudgingly

Released by Netflix on Friday, action-thriller “Polar,” a Netflix Original Movie starring Mads Mikkelsen (“Hannibal”), stands about half-way between OTT comic noir and big multiplex action-thriller. It opens with an aerial shot creeping over woods towards a mansion somewhere in Chile as a motley squad of assassins moves in for the kill. The target, Michael

January 26, 2019 2:33AM PT After a terminal cancer diagnosis, a man and his best friend embark on an unusual road trip in Alex Lehmann’s amusingly low-key dramedy. A movie about cancer has no right to be as consistently amusing as “Paddleton” — a triumph for which credit should be spread around, even if it

January 26, 2019 2:10AM PT Beneath the witty, sexy allure of Gabriel Mascaro’s fluorescent sci-fi lies a hot protest against President Bolsonaro’s vision for Brazil. “It was 2027. Brazil had changed.” These are the first words spoken in “Divine Love,” delivered in remote voiceover by a strangely impassive-sounding child — and even as the film’s

After things go really wrong in Alex Gibney’s documentary “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,” one of his interview subjects jokes about developing a truth serum. Now there’s a million-dollar idea — maybe even a nine-billion-dollar idea. That was the astronomical valuation staked on a company called Theranos, founded by Silicon Valley darling

January 26, 2019 1:27AM PT After the seeming sexual assault of a drunk teenage girl is murkily caught on film, the victim searches for answers in a movie that doesn’t believe in them. The cellphone video at the center of Pippa Bianco’s “Share” is hard to discern, which is just how the unsettling writer-director wants

Michel Legrand, three-time Oscar winner and composer of such classic film songs as “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “I Will Wait for You,” “You Must Believe in Spring” and “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”, along with the groundbreaking musical score for “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” has died. He was 86. Legrand

January 26, 2019 12:48AM PT Russell Mulcahy’s seriocomic imagining of Errol Flynn’s pre-stardom adventures is hugely satisfying old-fashioned fun. A jauntily old-fashioned adventure that plays like the nautical equivalent of a picaresque road movie, “In Like Flynn” offers a fanciful glimpse at the pre-fame formative experiences of Old Hollywood luminary Errol Flynn, indicating that the

“Focus: Nordic Comedy is a tribute to the contemporary Nordic comedy and an attempt to try to understand humor’s social and political role in today’s culture,” says Göteborg fest artistic director Jonas Holmberg. He admits that it was partially conceived as an antidote to the fest’s other focus on the Apocalypse. He says, “The Apocalypse

Of all the terrifying things Harvey Weinstein has ever said — insults hurled, jobs threatened, tantrums unleashed — perhaps the most blood-chilling are these six words: “Don’t you know who I am!?” That’s the line actress Nannette Klatt recalls the producer bellowing when she declined his advances in a private hotel-room meeting. For decades, Weinstein

The Michael Jackson estate has issued a statement on the film “Leaving Neverland,” which premiered at Sundance on Friday morning (Jan. 25). The documentary was screened at Park City, Utah’s Egyptian Theater. The Estate issued its statement about 12 hours after the film debuted, taking issue with what it calls “the kind of tabloid character

It’s been a while since Emma Thompson landed a lead role she could sink her comic incisors into, so you’re grateful for every well-played frozen stare and whiplash line reading she serves up in “Late Night.” The movie, written by Mindy Kaling and directed by Nisha Ganatra (“Chutney Popcorn”), is a light and spiky office

“I Am Mother” depicts a future in which humanity has been nearly wiped out and robots are left to pick up the pieces. The thriller, which debuted on Friday at Sundance, sounds a cautionary note about the perils of automation. It’s a message that resonates with Hilary Swank. the Oscar-winning actress who stars in the

Sony Pictures has set Jason Reitman’s “Ghostbusters” sequel for a July 10, 2020, release date. The studio made the announcement late Friday afternoon, 10 days after disclosing that it revealed that Reitman was on board to direct the untitled sequel. Reitman’s father, Ivan, directed the original “Ghostbusters,” starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie

Ever since Harvey Weinstein’s story launched the Me Too movement in late 2018, much discussion in Hollywood has revolved around the positive progress for women in the industry. But actress Rosanna Arquette — one of the first women to publicly speak out against Weinstein — says things have not necessarily gotten better. “I think the people that

In today’s film news roundup, “Deadpool 2: I Love My Family” opened in first place in China, Chiwetel Ejiofor takes a directing gig, and Theo James’ “Lying and Stealing” gets distribution. BOX OFFICE Fox’s re-cut, PG-13 “Deadpool 2: I Love My Family” has opened in first place in China, with $8.5 million in its first

Shia LaBeouf premiered his autobiographical memoir “Honey Boy” to a standing ovation at the Eccles Theater on Friday night at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie, which LaBeouf wrote and co-stars in, is set in the 2000s during the height of his Disney star fame, and it traces his strained relationship with his alcoholic father,