Month: September 2020

Disney’s “Mulan” opened in China this weekend with disappointing figures of just $23 million, far from the slam dunk it had hoped for in a critical territory. While it still was the highest grosser of the weekend, it came in just a hair above the local historical epic “The Eight Hundred,” which grossed $21.7 million,

Netflix has acquired the worldwide rights to Sam Levinson’s “Malcolm & Marie,” starring Zendaya and John David Washington, in a massive $30 million pact. The sale comes out of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival — a largely virtual affair that Netflix has dominated with splashy deals. The streamer shelled out $20 million for global

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it a dream come true because Daniel Dae Kim is Superman! After DC FanDome’s wild ride of announcements and special panel presentations, Variety is debuting the exclusive video from the celebrity-filled charity re-recording of the 1940s Superman radio specials. Television and film stars Jason Alexander, Henry Winkler, Giancarlo Esposito,

It’s time to go to prom later this year. Ryan Murphy’s upcoming Netflix adaptation of “The Prom” will release on Dec. 11, the acclaimed creator announced on Instagram on Sunday. “On December 11, let Netflix take you to the Prom you didn’t get this year,” Murphy wrote on Instagram with a flashy sign highlighting its

Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” crossed the $200 million mark globally, propped up by overseas grosses while U.S. cinemas struggle to draw audiences during the coronavirus pandemic. The time-bending sci-fi thriller generated $6.7 million in the U.S. and Canada during its second weekend of release, representing a 29% drop compared to opening weekend. Initially, Warner Bros., the

Every year, TIFF Filmmaker Lab, a Toronto Festival development program, selects 20 directors who will be tutored over four days by industry specialists and veterans. Rubbing shoulders this year with Brazilian, Pakistani and Rwandan cineasts is Colombian-born and Swiss-trained Jorge Cadena, whose “The Jarariju Sisters” caught attention at the Karlovy Vary European Film Promotion Future

It’s hard to believe that Muhammad Ali (formerly Cassius Clay) was just 22 years old when he won the heavyweight championship on Feb. 25, 1964. It’s an even further stretch to imagine that on that same night, he celebrated his win alongside Sam Cooke, Jim Brown and Malcolm X on a night that would undoubtedly

“Selma” star David Oyelowo did not originally plan to make his feature film directing debut in 2020. But when the first director for “The Water Man” left for another project during the financing stage, Oyelowo stepped up. His film is now set to debut at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival on Sept. 19. “The Water

A decade ago, Tomm Moore startled the world by landing an Oscar nomination for “The Secret of Kells,” an independent animated feature that wowed those who saw it with its distinctive look (extrapolated from illuminated manuscripts) and near-phosphorescent palette (leaves so green they practically glow in the dark). At the time, outsider animation hardly stood

Chris Hemsworth isn’t hanging up Thor’s hammer any time soon. In a new interview with the Polish magazine Elle Man, the Marvel superstar says he doesn’t plan to leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe after “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the fourth entry in the “Thor” series. When asked if Thor would retire after the upcoming movie,

Frances McDormand says she’s always dreamt of hitting the road. She told her husband when she was 45 that she had plans to change her name to Fern when she turns 65 and “start smoking Lucky Strikes, drinking Wild Turkey and I’d hit the road in my RV.” Her dreams sort of came true with

More teases for the Snyder Cut of “Justice League” were doled out at the DC FanDome virtual event. This time, a sneak peek at the upcoming score was teased by composer Tom Holkenborg, known as Junkie XL. During the second weekend of DC Fandome on Saturday, Holkenborg appeared during a panel to tease a portion

The directors and producers behind the film “Synchronic,” which is set to release on Oct. 23, have spoken out to encourage people not to see the thriller in indoor movie theaters due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Aaron Moorhead, the movie’s co-director, posted a statement to his Instagram on Friday that was also signed by

Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s “Wolfwalkers” is set in a very specific time period – 1650 in Kilkenny, Ireland. It was a very important town for Oliver Cromwell’s English troops to take over, and the film opens with an English soldier and his daughter, Robyn, settling into their house in town. It’s clear that the

The existential road movie gets an offbeat, elliptical yet peculiarly compelling Transcaucasian makeover in director Hilal Baydarov’s second fiction feature, “In Between Dying.” Set against the striking, often purgatorially stark backdrop of Azerbaijan’s rural landscapes, with their striated mountains, autumn forests, fog-shrouded fields and silvery pebbled lakesides, it’s a film indebted to its influences. Baydarov

Netflix has swept up a worldwide distribution deal for the resonant festival drama “Pieces of a Woman,” lauded for its leading performances from Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf. The harrowing drama about a couple struggling after a failed home birth is the English-language debut of Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó. Directed from a script by Kata

When it comes to the mysterious and disturbing subject of what goes on in the minds of serial killers, popular culture has consistently been ahead of the curve. The idea of the split personality goes way back — to “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and to a character like Norman Bates, who carried the identity

One day after premiering and receiving the most rapturous reviews of any film in competition, U.S.-based Chinese director Chloé Zhao has won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival for her film “Nomadland,” a documentary-influenced road movie starring Frances McDormand as an itinerant widow traveling across America. The lineup had seemed unpredictably competitive

“The King of the Whole World” (“El Rey de Todo el Mundo”), a musical drama directed by “Carmen’s” Carlos Saura and lit by “Apocalypse Now” cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, has been snapped up for world sales by Latido Films. The deal was sealed as the Toronto Festival hit its full stride on Friday. Spanish distribution rights

The 77th Venice Film Festival drew to close on Saturday animated by the same spirit of low-key camaraderie that marked this entirely uncommon edition. In order to host the first major physical event since the pandemic struck Europe, the festival reduced its selection, limited accreditations, and kept the screenings half-full, as well as a host