Month: March 2022

When Frank Herbert wrote his science-fiction epic “Dune” in the 1960s, he instinctively made the crucial character of Liet Kynes a white man. But Denis Villeneuve sought a modern, diverse cast and he saw Kynes — who must convey integrity and authority while delicately juggling competing diplomatic interests — differently than Herbert. So in his
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“CODA” is on the rise as Oscar voting gets underway — and writer and director Siân Heder admits she’s surprised by the love and adoration the film has received in recent months. That includes, most recently, her BAFTA win for adapted screenplay. On the latest episode of the award-winning “Variety Awards Circuit Podcast,” we talk
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Australian independent production house Photoplay has appointed Karen Radzyner as its head of development. The company is the only Australian firm to have a show selected for MipTV’s CanneSeries. Radzyner joins Photoplay from Dragonet Films. She previously produced two award-winning TV mini-series – Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo” (with Southern Star
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It’s an eternal middle-aged anxiety: “I feel like I’m turning into my mother.” And it’s given a most literal rendering in Iris K. Shim’s supernatural horror exercise “Umma,” in which Sandra Oh stars as a rural beekeeper inhabited by the vengeful spirit of her estranged mom. But while that premise might sound like the makings
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As the pandemic raged and in-person screenings practically disappeared, the Academy’s Screening Room has found an appreciative audience. Many film distributors are able to send links to their films to various guilds, media members and voters; the Academy has stepped in with its screening room, offering voters those films plus other contenders who can’t afford
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Film composers are always looking for novel ways to express ideas and convey character in music. Two of this year’s original-score nominees were especially innovative in finding musical solutions for storytelling challenges. “Dune” demanded a sonic landscape unlike anything composer Hans Zimmer had ever tackled (including such sci-fi projects as “Inception” and “Interstellar,” which brought
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As a gatekeeper of song submissions for Justin Bieber, producer and engineer Josh Gudwin is managing a dizzying number of text and email chains simultaneously and on-the-go. One particularly long thread is with Stefan Johnson of the songwriting-production team Monsters and Strangerz. The topic? “Ghost,” Bieber’s latest hit from his album “Justice (Triple Chucks Deluxe),”
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The Danish film “Flee,” with Oscar nominations in animated, documentary and international film categories, tells the tale of Amin, a gay refugee from Afghanistan who is separated from his family. Director Jonas Poher Rasmussen says that when his school friend opened up about his childhood, the helmer had intended to make a short, which grew
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Andrew Garfield opened up on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” this week about what it was like recreating the iconic “Spider-Man” pointing meme with his “Spider-Man: No Way Home” co-stars Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield. Sony Pictures nearly broke the internet in February when it announced the “No Way Home” digital release date accompanied by a photo
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“Squid Game” star Hoyeon has been cast in Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming Apple series “Disclaimer.” Hoyeon will star in the series alongside previously announced cast members Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Based on the novel of the same name by Renee Knight, “Disclaimer” will star Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful
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Alice Eve is set to headline the “Early Edition” reboot pilot at CBS, Variety has confirmed. In the rebooted version, ambitious but uncompromising journalist Beth (Eve) starts receiving tomorrow’s newspaper today. She then finds herself in the complicated business of changing the news instead of reporting it. Beth is further described as the executive producer of
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Denis Villenuve’s “Dune” is a visceral epic, propelled by practical and visual effects that shape the destiny of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) following a vengeful plot that kills his father, Leto (Oscar Isaac), on the spice-producing planet Arrakis. The approach for visual-effects supervisor Paul Lambert was to avoid “fixing something in post” but to find
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The Critics Choice Association has announced the winners of the 2nd annual Critics Choice Super Awards, which honors the greatest achievements in genre storytelling across television and film. “It’s an honor to showcase these incredible accomplishments in Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Comic Book films and television. The Super Awards will proudly continue to shine a
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Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw have donated $1 million to support humanitarian relief in Ukraine following Russia’s unprovoked invasion. Through their philanthropy Hearthland Foundation, Spielberg and Capshaw have allocated the money to several organizations in and near Ukraine, including the Polish Red Cross, Polish Humanitarian Action, World Central Kitchen, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Urgent
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ACQUISITION U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 has picked up South African detective drama “The Cane Field Killings” starring Kim Engelbrecht (“Bullet Proof”) and Iain Glen (“Game of Thrones”). The eight-episode series, which launched last year in South Africa, will launch on Channel 4 on Apr. 10. The drama tells the story of a brilliant criminal profiler,
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CAA has signed Peter Alexander, the co-chief White House correspondent for NBC News, and will represent him in his dealings with media and other potential employers. Alexander is also co-anchor of the weekend broadcast of “Today,” which he joined in October of 2018. He and Kristen Welker, who is also NBC News’ co-chief White House
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