Ken Loach’s “Sorry We Missed You” and Jessica Hausner’s “Little Joe” have been selected to play in competition at Cannes. But buyers looking for more British-originated fare can head to the firmly established “Great 8” presentation of titles from the country’s up-and-coming filmmakers. The Great 8 event is backed by the BFI, the British Council,
Month: May 2019
May 1, 2019 11:59PM PT South East Asian film fund, Purin Pictures has again handed out $170,000 of finance for a fistful of movie projects. The Spring grants include production support for three feature films, production support for a documentary, and post production aid for another documentary. Launched in 2017 and operating an open submissions
Ariana Grande, who famously skipped the Grammys this year over disagreements about what form her production number would take, found an agreeable partner Wednesday night in the Billboard Music Awards — they let her mail in her characteristically dimly lit performance from a Vancouver concert. (It might’ve been via snail mail; that gig took place
May 1, 2019 10:39PM PT An American soldier in Afghanistan copes with his squad’s murderous conduct in Dan Krauss’ drama, based on his documentary of the same name. Atrocities don’t exist in a vacuum, and “The Kill Team” is most valuable — and chillingly effective — as an exposé of the means by which honorable
Throughout his career, Werner Herzog has shared a deep connection with his daring explorer subjects, be it with “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” “Fitzcarraldo,” “Little Dieter Needs to Fly,” or “Grizzly Man.” That’s again true with “Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin,” the prolific filmmaker’s heartfelt documentary tribute to his celebrated writer friend, who
May 1, 2019 10:24PM PT NFL dance-squad members fight for a fair wage, and the respect that comes with it, in director Yu Gu’s defiant documentary. If you do a job, you should be fairly compensated for it. That’s a straightforward and uncontroversial statement, and yet as proven by “A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader
A contrived and cliché-stuffed thriller such as “The Intruder” often forces me to suppress an urgent desire to shout rude things at the screen. So I must confess that I had a great time watching this very bad movie as a member of a very vocal preview audience that had been given carte blanche to
The band Traffic has probably been getting its heaviest web traffic ever this past week, thanks to the use of a 50-year-old song, “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” that plays briefly but inescapably in the first 10 minutes of the superhero epic. It’s the most prominent of the handful of pop songs that show up during the
While discussing her long career in Hollywood and the #MeToo era, Anjelica Huston showed support for Woody Allen, Roman Polanski and Jeffrey Tambor, all men with sexual misconduct allegations brought against them. Huston collaborated with Allen on two of his his films, “Crimes and Misdemeanors” in 1989 and “Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993. Dylan Farrow
There are precious few TV shows that take thirtysomething women and their thirtysomething problems seriously. Onscreen, women are more often slotted into the roles of sexy teen, sexy and/or hapless twentysomething, and that ambiguous post-40 “of a certain age” designation that somehow encompasses half a lifetime. The thirties timespan, an especially crucial time for women
High in the mountains above Beverly Hills lies a neighborhood informally known as Beverly Hills Post Office (BHPO) — so-called because its homes sport the snazzy 90210 zip code and are serviced by the actual Beverly Hills post office, despite being technically located within the city of Los Angeles. Confusing moniker aside, this is one
Jim’s part-time girlfriend on “The Office” almost wasn’t played by Rashida Jones. In fact, she almost quit acting altogether. During a panel talk on Wednesday for Tribeca Film Festival, the actress, director, writer, and producer said that after working on the set of television show “Boston Public,” there was a writer’s strike going on in
All 100 episodes of “Anger Management,” the sitcom starring Charlie Sheen that previously aired on FX, are now streaming exclusively on free, ad-supported streaming service Tubi. Tubi inked the licensing pact for the show with Lionsgate. “Anger Management” had a record-setting debut on FX in 2012, scoring at the time as the most-watched scripted cable
The Billboard Music Awards took place Wednesday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, with Kelly Clarkson as host. Taylor Swift made her BBMAs return with a performance of her new single “ME!”, her first performance since singing “22” back in 2013. Other performers included BTS, Paula Abdul, Jonas Brothers, Halsey, Madonna,
May 1, 2019 4:51PM PT In today’s film news roundup, Sony Pictures Classics announces the release date for “Pain & Glory” and Jonathan Levine enters a first-look deal with Lionsgate. RELEASE DATE Sony Pictures Classics announced it will release Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film “Pain & Glory” in the U.S. on Oct. 4, 2019.
The Syrian civil war may be the largest human crisis of our age, and with no end to it in sight, it’s only right that documentarians are unwilling to let it rest. The last few years have seen Syria-themed docs all but flooding the festival circuit, forming what the more cynical may deem a subgenre
Hollywood talent agencies are waiting for a “signal” that the Writers Guild of America is prepared to resume negotiations and reach a settlement to the conflict that led to more than 7,000 TV and film writers firing their agents during the past two weeks. That’s the word from UTA chief executive Jeremy Zimmer, who spoke
Lucy Liu became the second Asian-American woman with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and gave thanks to the first recipient, Anna May Wong, for paving the way for representation during the ceremony today. “When I moved to Los Angeles, I actually lived on Vine Street, so it’s thrilling to have Anna May
May 1, 2019 3:46PM PT Last summer, the rapper-singer accused mega-manager Irving Azoff of sabotaging her tour. Is Nicki Minaj joining the roster of Irving Azoff’s Full Stop Management? Sources tell Variety the singer and rapper is “in talks” with the firm, after parting ways with Gee Roberson and Cortez Bryant and Blueprint/ Maverick Management,
In today’s roundup, Hulu released trailers for the third season of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and the revival of “Veronica Mars.” FIRST LOOKS Along with a slew of announcements made today, Hulu released the official trailer for Season 3 of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The new footage shows Offred (Elisabeth Moss) managing covert alliances with fellow handmaids and
Ron Howard and “Solo” writer Jonathan Kasdan are in negotiations for a sequel series to Howard’s 1988 feature “Willow” at Disney+, Variety has confirmed. The original fantasy film came from a George Lucas story and was produced by Lucasfilm, so a Disney+ series adaptation would seem like a natural fit, given how many other Lucasfilm projects
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) will return to showbiz fundraising circles on June 3, as she headlines an event hosted by a group that includes a number of powerful Hollywood lawyers and Peter Chernin and his wife, Megan. The event will be held at Sam and Leah Fischer’s Hancock Park home, with tickets starting at $1,000
May 1, 2019 3:15PM PT Niantic’s location-based augmented reality mobile game “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite” kicked off a beta in Austra and New Zealand on Wednesday. Those interested, and who live in the area or have an account from the area, can download the game from the App Store or Google Play to start testing
May 1, 2019 3:00PM PT Regina King has signed a first-look deal with Netflix, Variety has learned. The multi-year deal will see King’s banner Royal Ties produce both films and series for the streaming platform. Her sister, Reina King, will serve as head of production for the company. King and Royal Ties previously had a production deal
May 1, 2019 3:00PM PT Bill Guttentag directs a paint-by-numbers documentary on the unlikely 1990s superstars. Unless you were of the right age and geographic orientation, Sublime might be an easy band to overlook. A number of their songs haven’t aged particularly well; from a distance they might blend in with the glut of bleached-blond
Marie Osmond Replacing Sara Gilbert on ‘The Talk’ 5/1/2019 1:34 PM PDT EXCLUSIVE Marie Osmond is joining “The Talk” … replacing Sara Gilbert, but not without a little controversy, TMZ has learned. Sources connected to the show tell us, Marie has signed on for the gig and the big announcement will go down live on
May 1, 2019 2:41PM PT Frank Grillo, Keith David, Taryn Manning and Mark Boone Junior have joined the ensemble cast of “The Gateway.” They join Shea Whigham, Olivia Munn, Bruce Dern and Zach Avery with Michele Civetta directing. Andrew Levitas is producing under his Metalwork Pictures banner alongside Stephen Israel. The pic follows Parker, a
May 1, 2019 2:19PM PT Vudu, Walmart’s streaming service, on Wednesday announced “Variety’s First Look,” a new entertainment magazine show to air exclusively on the platform. This weekly branded, half-hour program will be produced by Variety Content Studio, the branded content arm of Variety. “Variety’s First Look” will give Vudu viewers inside access to films
The comedian Tim Robinson’s new Netflix series, “I Think You Should Leave,” was an instant standout when it debuted last week. In bizarre and outlandish sketches — set on a thrown-together game show, in a focus group overtaken by petty social competition, or in a house entirely decorated with “Garfield”-themed furniture — Robinson follows his
TORONTO–Who is telling whose stories in the world of documentary filmmaking today? Why are they telling those stories, and to what audience? And why do those questions matter? Those are some of the issues on the mind of Emmy Award-winning producer Lisa Valencia-Svensson, who delivered a keynote speech on diversity, inclusion and representation at Hot