Month: May 2021

There’s no putting Clint Eastwood out to pasture. Clint turns 91 today, and it’s worth celebrating the fact that this Hollywood legend is still turning out work at a faster clip and higher quality than practically anyone in the business. Granted, prolific doesn’t always mean better, and it can be frustrating to see his fans

Romy Walthall, an actor known for her roles in “Face/Off” and “The House of Usher,” died on May 19 in Los Angeles after experiencing sudden cardiac arrest. She was 57. Walthall’s son, actor and director Morgan Krantz, confirmed her death to Variety. Born on Sept. 16, 1963 in Pasadena, Texas, Walthall got her start in the

Wayne “Buddy” Van Horn, veteran stuntman who worked with Clint Eastwood on over 30 films and directed “Any Which Way You Can” and “The Dead Pool,” died May 11, according to an obituary notice in the Los Angeles Times. He was 92. Sometimes credited as Wayne Van Horn, he started working with Eastwood as a

“Pari,” the story of an Iranian mother’s search for her missing son in Athens, directed by Siamak Etemadi, an Iranian who lives in Greece, won the top feature film prize at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, an annual showcase for Greek cinema that wrapped its fifteenth edition on May 30. “Parontes,” under its English

Tatino Films, a French production and consultancy company involved in industry events in Asia and Europe, is launching the Full Circle Lab, a new workshop program which will take place in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in France. Spearheaded by industry veteran Matthieu Darras, the Full Circle Lab will support six film projects during each session. Selected

Last weekend, the season finale of “Saturday Night Live” featured a satirical promotional spot for AMC Theatres that became a delectable skewering of what’s left of the megaplex experience. It featured Vin Diesel, played by Beck Bennett with a SoCal-by-way-of-Brooklyn stupido Toretto growl (“It’s been a while. For the past year, the roads have been

Emma Stone wasn’t shocked by how dark Cruella de Vil’s backstory is in Disney’s new live-action “Cruella.” “Surprise is hard when you’ve been attached to the movie for four years and you’ve seen many different incarnations of the script,” Stone told Variety‘s senior culture and events editor Marc Malkin while she promoted the film with

And exhale. The movie business is breathing a little easier after Paramount’s “A Quiet Place Part II” roared to $57 million over the Memorial Day Weekend. It’s a sign that cinemas are back after more than a year of pandemic era closures, capacity restrictions, and skittish customers. But the public health situation is changing dramatically,

Berlin-based Palestinian filmmaker Kamal Aljafari revisits familiar themes in “An Unusual Summer,” a personal work that captures the invisible lives of people in a Palestinian neighborhood in the Israeli city of Ramla. Composed of recordings from a surveillance camera installed by Aljafari’s late father at their family home in 2006 in the hope of catching

Vivendi, the parent company of Canal Plus and Universal Music Group, has finalized its acquisition of Prisma Media, a leading publishing group in France. Under the deal, Vivendi has acquired 100% of Prisma Media from Gruner+Jahr/Bertelsmann. The two companies signed a put option agreement on Dec. 23 which was approved by anti-trust authorities. “The Prisma

Global Screen has picked up global distribution rights to “The Path,” which is based on Rüdiger Bertram’s novel and inspired by true events. The Munich-based sales agency will be taking part in the virtual Pre-Cannes Screenings, where it will present a teaser trailer for the film as it kicks off presales. “The Path” will be

The Tokyo city government has announced the relaxation of shutdown measures at cinemas and museums.  This is despite the Japanese national government’s recent extension of the current state of emergency to June 20 for nine prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka. The new policy goes into effect on Tuesday (June 1, 2021) with restrictions on numbers

Pluto TV has signed a long-term strategic content partnership with Mediawan to bring more than 1,000 hours of French content from Mediawan’s library to Pluto TV in France and across 18 countries in Latin America. The pact with Mediawan will allow Pluto TV, ViacomCBS Networks International’s ad-supported streaming service, to grow its portfolio in France,

You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from studio executives across Hollywood. After a brutal year and change for the movie theater business, the North American box office is finally showing signs of life again. That’s mostly thanks to John Krasinski’s post-apocalyptic thriller “A Quiet Place Part II.” The sequel collected a roaring

Romantic frontier drama “The World to Come” opens the June instalment of International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021 and its director, New York and Oslo based writer-director Mona Fastvold is also set to give one of three Big Talks at the festival this week. Since the director’s second feature made its debut last September at the