Month: November 2019

Only PriceWaterhouseCoopers knows the final tally, but from the sidelines, it sure looked like last year was the closest the Academy has ever come to awarding best picture to a foreign-language film. Instead, an old-school studio movie, Peter Farrelly’s feel-good “Green Book,” took the top award, while Alfonso Cuarón’s black-and-white Mexican art film “Roma” won
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While theatrical exhibitors continue to reap profits showcasing the stories of military men and women on the big screen, streaming services have not only become a destination for smaller and sometimes lesser-known projects, but have also provided a new and expanding opportunity to serve the veteran community with more consistent and eclectic depictions of heroism
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Among the record 92 submissions this year, 27 titles are directed or co-directed by women. There are six documentaries in the mix, as well as two animated features. Moreover, for the first time, Ghana and Uzbekistan are each fielding an entry. However, Nigeria’s submission was disqualified by the Academy as being mostly in the English
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November 6, 2019 8:00AM PT [embedded content] Apple has released the creepy trailer for its M. Night Shyamalan series “Servant.” The half-hour thriller series, exec produced and directed by the “Sixth Sense” and “Split” helmer, premieres on Nov. 28 on Apple TV Plus and centers around a Philadelphia couple in mourning after an unspeakable tragedy
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Niantic, the company behind games like “Pokemon Go,” “Ingress” and “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite,” began opening up its technology to third-party developers Wednesday, allowing them to build their own location-based augmented reality (AR) games and applications on top of its platform. Niantic is kickstarting these efforts with a $10 million fund for indie developers. The
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“Leaving Neverland” director and producer Dan Reed, the BBC and HBO are teaming up on antibiotics documentary “Superbug,” which will be sold internationally by Kew Media Distribution. Produced by Reed’s Amos Pictures, the feature-length film will tell the story of how humanity gained a wonder cure in antibiotics, but now faces losing it as so-called
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French screen icon Catherine Deneuve has been hospitalized in Paris following an illness overnight, French newspaper Le Parisien reported Wednesday. The paper said Deneuve, 76, was in a “serious state” and in need of “extensive examinations,” the paper reported. But a source told Variety that Deneuve’s associates were reporting that her condition was not alarming.
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In recent years, the romantic comedy has taken a sabbatical, at least from the big screen (it seems to have adopted temporary legal-resident status on Netflix). Yet it’s clear that one can point to the occasional exception: the puckishly delightful and moving 2017 indie hit “The Big Sick,” or last year’s “Crazy Rich Asians,” which
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November 5, 2019 9:27PM PT It’s Nic Cage versus a shipful of killer critters plus a psycho terrorist in this slick, cluttered, unmemorable action thriller. “Primal” isn’t just a title that’s been used many times, it’s now a movie that seems to have put several prior movies in a food processor — to results that
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“The Little Mermaid Live!,” ABC’s often-jittery, ultimately charming concert special, strode into a heavy wake. It follows NBC’s now-shelved holiday-season tradition of live musicals whose very appeal was their dancing on the edge of catastrophe, as with ambitious stagings of “The Sound of Music” in 2013 and “Peter Pan” in 2014, shows whose occasional shortfalls
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MADRID — Viacom International Studios (VIS) has reached an agreement with Spain’s biggest domestic box office draw, Santiago Segura, and his production company Bowfinger International Pictures. The deal gives VIS first right of revision and preferential acquisition over any upcoming projects for film or TV to come from the company. Segura first gained widespread recognition
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Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” is a blistering look at a relationship’s end, and the film’s production design becomes a way to understand the characters’ angst and individuality. We first meet our characters through voiceover as they recite the things that love about each other; the traits, the quirks, the strengths and all the things that
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November 5, 2019 4:07PM PT Bac Films has taken international sales and French distribution rights to Rachel Lang’s (“Baden Baden”) “Our Men” starring Louis Garrel (“An officer and a spy”) as a unit leader of the French Foreign Legion. Lang’s sophomore outing, “Our Men” (“Mon Légionnaire”) also stars rising French actress Camille Cottin (“Call My Agent!”).
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In today’s TV news roundup, Universal Content Productions announces a new podcast platform, and Netflix announces Ronny Chieng’s debut comedy special.  DATES HGTV announced that the holiday special “Outrageous Holiday Houses” will air Nov. 28 with NSYNC founder Lance Bass as the host. Bass will take viewers on a coast-to-coast tour of North America’s holiday
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