Month: February 2020

I’ve got this friend who makes his own clothes. Not the generic kind cut from dowdy prairie-dress patterns, but chic, design-it-yourself garments that look better than most anything you’d find on a ready-to-wear rack. I figure he’s the only person I know who’s not guilty of contributing to the kind of sweatshop misery writer-director Michael

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired international sales rights to Caroline Monnet’s feature debut “Bootlegger” which won best screenplay at Cannes’ Cinefondation in 2017. A well-known contemporary artist, Monnet has shed light on Indigenous identity and has debunked stereotypes through her works, which have been shown at the Whitney Biennial in New York, Palais

Memento Films Intl. (“Call Me By Your Name”) has acquired the Aussie revenge tale “The Drover’s Wife,” the film adaptation of Leah Purcell’s successful Australian stage play. Purcell is on board to adapt, act and direct the film which Oombarra Prods. and Bunya Prods. (“Sweet Country”) will produce. Memento Films Intl. is handling world sales

Under the new leadership of industry veteran Kristina Zimmermann, Orange Studio, the film/TV division of the French telco group Orange, is launching three new projects at Berlin’s European Film Market: “Last Film Show,” “Old Fashioned” and “Love Song for Tough Guys.” Directed by Pan Nalin (“Samsara”), “Last Film Show” follows Samay, a 9-year-old boy living

Vivo Film, the Italian shingle at Berlin with Abel Ferrara’s “Siberia,” has a robust slate in various stages including the next drama by Laura Bispuri, whose “Sworn Virgin” and “Daughter of Mine” both launched from the Berlinale. Bispuri later this year will shoot her third feature, which is currently titled “Di Lotta e D’Amore” (“Of

February 20, 2020 10:01PM PT “Parasite” star Song Kang-ho will head the cast of airborne disaster action move “Emergency Declaration.” Jeon Do-yeon and Lee Byung-hun co-star, making “Declaration” one of the powerful casts ever assembled in a Korean movie. The film is in pre-production and aiming for an end-of-year release. Leading studio Showbox will begin

Sony Pictures Intl. Prods. and El Estudio, a major new independent production player in the Spanish-speaking world, are teaming to produce a Mexican version of breakout Cuban feature “Juan of the Dead,” with Emilio Portés directing. Chronicling a U.S. zombie invasion of Mexico, the remake marks one in a strong first slate of titles from

Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof, whose sixth feature “There is no Evil” screens in competition at the Berlinale, is one of his country’s most prominent directors even though none of his films have screened in Iran where they are banned. In 2011, the year he won two prizes at Cannes with his censorship-themed “Goodbye,” Rasoulof was sentenced

World sales agency WestEnd Films has boarded “The Score,” a heist musical starring Johnny Flynn (“Emma,” “Stardust”), Will Poulter (“The Revenant”), Naomi Ackie (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”) and Antonia Thomas (Netflix’s “Lovesick”), from one of the producers of Beatles music themed hit “Yesterday,” which grossed $154 million worldwide. “The Score” combines a heist

February 20, 2020 10:42PM PT Gaumont is reteaming with actor-turned-director Franck Dubosc on another comedy: “Rumba Therapy” follows his hit 2018 pic “Rolling to You,” which was one of the highest-grossing films in France and abroad. “Rumba Therapy” stars Dubosc as a man in his 50s who lives alone after having abandoned his wife and

In today’s film news roundup, Oona Chaplin is starring in a horror movie, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation will honor Sharon Stone, FuseFX expands, and “Let’s Scare Julie” and “Stray” get distribution. CASTING Oona Chaplin will star in Alcon Entertainment’s horror feature “Lullaby,” based on the mythological figure Lilith. John R. Leonetti (“Annabelle”) is attached

Winston Duke, Benedict Wong, Zazie Beetz and Bill Skarsgård might be known for their roles in blockbuster franchises like “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Endgame,” “Deadpool” and “It,” but in their latest film “Nine Days,” the actors collaborated on something a little less flashy, but emotionally impactful. Assembling in Variety’s Sundance Studio, presented by AT&T, ahead of

Jack Gordon, a former president of MGM International Distribution, died on Sunday at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by family. He was 90. Gordon was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 13, 1929. He was the son of the Oscar-winning composer-lyricist Mack Gordon. Following his service in the U.S. Army during the Korean

“The Greatest Showman” director Michael Gracey is joining the production team of Justin Bieber’s animated film “Cupid.” The pop superstar will voice the titular Roman god and executive produce the Mythos Studios movie, directed by Pete Candeland. Black List writer Mike Vukadinovich (Hulu’s “The Runaways”) has also been hired to write the script. “Cupid” marks

February 20, 2020 3:43PM PT MGM has attached “The Aeronauts” director Tom Harper to its romance “Forever” — a project that’s been in development at the studio for eight decades. Jonathan Glickman is producing “Forever,” based on a romantic novella by Mildred Cram (“Love Affair”), which focuses on two lovers from the past who are

There’s poetry in “Premature” — literally, if not always cinematically. Zora Howard, a spoken word artist and sometime actor who reunites with director Rashaad Ernesto Green for his second feature (they collaborated more than a decade earlier on a short of the same name), plays Ayanna, a tentatively romantic Harlem teenager navigating a relationship for

German producer Jamila Wenske of Berlin-based Achtung Panda! Media has boarded two upcoming projects that explore facets of the immigrant experience in Germany. Asli Özarslan’s “Elbow” follows the turbulent life of a young Turkish woman in Berlin and her decision to move to Istanbul, while Ali Kareem Obaid’s “The Arabic Interpreter” centers on a frustrated,