Month: December 2020

LevelK has boarded “Checkered Ninja 2,” the sequel to the hit animated feature co-directed by Anders Matthesen (“Terkel In Trouble”) and Thorbjørn Christoffersen (“Ronal the Barbarian”). The sales company has acquired world rights excluding the Nordics on “Checkered Ninja 2,” which is the film adaptation of Matthesen’s bestselling eponymous children’s book. The plot revolves around

New U.K. independent production company Buffalo Dragon has launched with an adaptation of Samantha Lee Howe’s bestselling novel “The Stranger In Our Bed.” The psychological thriller stars Samantha Bond (“Downton Abbey”), Emily Berrington (“Humans”) and Ben Lloyd Hughes (“Industry”). The film, directed by Giles Alderson (“The Dare”), from a screenplay by Samantha Lee Howe, sees

First-time feature pitches won three of the four prizes announced on Monday at the International Film Festival & Awards Macao (IFFAM). The $15,000 cash reward for best project went to director Wang Haolu and producer Camille Gatin for “Fellow Travellers.” The project is an adaptation of a short story by Alastair Reynolds. Wang’s debut tells

Egyptian director Mayye Zayed, who studied film and documaking at Wellesley and MIT, spent four years following the main character of her female empowerment doc, “Lift Like a Girl,” Zebiba (which means “raisin” in Arabic), who at age nine entered former Olympic athlete Captain Ramadan’s weightlifting training camp on a vacant Alexandria lot. After world-premiering

While some international film and TV production professionals are simply relieved that they were able to return to filming this year, in spite of the pandemic, many are looking ahead to see what can be improved in the sector. This positive mindset has been adopted by the folks behind Focus, the international production show that

Cinemas in Korea are trying to adapt to new straitened circumstances as the autumn box office recovery peters out. The Korean market, in normal years the world’s fourth largest theatrical territory, saw aggregate revenues of just $1.44 million over the weekend, according to data from the Korean Film Council’s KOBIS service. The top of the

Cult Filipino filmmaker Mikhail Red is deep in post-production on action thriller ‘Arisaka.’ The shoot was temporarily delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic and following COVID-safe production protocols, principal photography was completed in the third quarter of 2020. News of the film was first announced by Variety during the Singapore Media Festival’s Southeast Asian Film

During Brazil’s CCXP on Sunday, “Wonder Woman 1984” director Patty Jenkins shared a new teaser for the upcoming film, one that features a down-to-earth Diana Prince just as much as her superhero alias. The 60-second trailer dives into the relationship between Captain Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) and Diana (Gal Gadot), in addition to Diana’s life

Who, in the music world, is the true queen of Christmas? There are going to be some fan bases with some very strong opinions about that, it goes without saying. But for some of us, Christmas is Love… Darlene Love, the principal voice (on songs both credited and uncredited) of Phil Spector’s 1963 compilation “A

Nesrine El-Zayat, whose debut feature “On the Fence” is world premiering at the Cairo Film Festival this week, is typical of the new generation of young Egyptian filmmakers. Lacking access to funds, equipment and formal training but bursting with stories and ideas, El-Zayat borrowed a friend’s camera shortly after the death of her father in

Egyptian filmmaker Marwan Hamed, the director of “The Yacoubian Building,” “The Blue Elephant” and “The Blue Elephant 2,” which last year became the highest-grossing Egyptian film in history, is shooting “Kira and El Gen,” based on Ahmed Mourad’s book “1919,” about Egyptian resistance to British occupation. He spoke to Variety about the project at the

Opponents of the looming SAG-AFTRA Health Plan cuts have hit back at SAG-AFTRA over the leadership’s accusations that the opponents are spreading “misinformation and fear.” In a message Sunday morning, the SOS Health Plan said the Dec. 4 message from the union’s official SAG-AFTRA Communications’ account is “deliberately misrepresenting the Health Plan Crisis.” “They insist that

Production has finally completed on “Huda’s Salon,” the new film from double Academy-Award nominated director Hany Abu-Assad (“Paradise Now,” “Omar”). Production was halted twice this year because of regulations brought in to stop the spread of coronavirus. Variety spoke to the Palestinian director from his home in Nazareth after he gave a masterclass via Zoom

Egypt’s Film Clinic, the prominent indie shingle headed by Cairo Film Festival president Mohammed Hefzy, has scored the rare distinction of being the Middle East and North Africa region distributor of a trio of Arabic films that are in the running for the 2021 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Film Clinic, which since

When you talk to people who‘ve crossed over into favoring the home-viewing experience — I mean really favoring it, as in their attitude about going out to a movie theater is now basically Who needs it? — they’ll list the usual catechism of complaints about theaters (the cell phones, the parade of trailers that never

Universal and DreamWorks’ “The Croods: A New Age” repeated as winner of a mild post-Thanksgiving weekend with $4.4 million at 2,205 North American locations. The animated comedy sequel, featuring a voice cast of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds, has been dominating the seriously subdued moviegoing business since its Nov. 25 launch with $20.3 million in its

Key practitioners working across Southeast Asia and beyond unpacked the various processes and benefits that go into the creation of short films at the Singapore International Film Festival, part of the overarching Singapore Media Festival. Filmmaker Kan Lume, whose 2012 short “Libertas” won the NETPAC Award at the Tripoli Film Festival, described the process of