Month: June 2022

There is only one way to escape from Spiderhead in sly postmodern scamp George Saunders’ all-but-unfilmable short story “Escape from Spiderhead,” and it rhymes with skip-to-my-lou-icide. Unlike print fiction, where pretty much anything goes, movies that feature acts of self-harm must be very careful, since audiences have been known to emulate those same acts. Right
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Street by street, block by block, city by city, bombs fall. From way above, from the anonymous bombers’ point of view — which frames a hypnotically long nighttime sequence in Sergei Loznitsa’s new archive documentary — kilotons of explosives fall like rain, sprouting insignificant little splashes of fire below. It’s the most obviously abstract segment
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Mediawan, the fast-rising pan-European production and distribution group behind “The Little Prince,” has launched a new division, Mediawan kids & family, to ramp up its activities dedicated to youth entertainment content and become a global one-stop shop. Unveiled during the Annecy Animation Film Festival, this new division will bring together Mediawan’s topnotch labels, including Aton
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The creators and executive producers of the beloved FXX series “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” are taking their podcast to the live stage for the first time. Glenn Howerton (Dennis), Charlie Day (Charlie) and Rob McElhenney (Mac) will bring “The Always Sunny Podcast” to the Bourbon and Beyond festival in Louisville, Ky., on Sept. 17,
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Amber Heard has given her first sit-down interview following the verdict in her latest legal battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp. Last month a jury in Virginia ruled she had defamed Depp in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed published under her byline. In the op-ed, she spoke about being a victim of domestic violence. The “Aquaman”
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Italian playwright Stefano Massini’s “The Lehman Trilogy,” which just won five Tony Awards including the prize for best play, is set to become a high-end TV series to be produced by Italy’s Fandango and The Apartment, the outfits behind HBO’s Elena Ferrante adaptation “My Brilliant Friend.” The TV project, originated by Italian producer Domenico Procacci’s
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Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival’s industry section, Eastern Promises, has unveiled its lineup of 35 film projects, which will be showcased during the Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch, First Cut+ Works in Progress and Odesa International Film Festival Works in Progress presentations. The most promising projects will receive awards totaling Euros
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The U.K.’s most prominent television and film unions have issued a joint letter opposing the privatization of public service broadcaster Channel 4. The Federation of Entertainment Unions (FEU), which is comprised of crew union Bectu, performing arts union Equity, the National Union of Journalists, the Musicians’ Union and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, together
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SkyShowtime — the joint venture between Comcast and Paramount Global — has unveiled key hires for the European streaming service, including its head of programming. BBC Select executive Jon Farrar has been named head of programming, Variety can reveal. The executive joins from BBC Studios, where he led the direct-to-consumer programming strategy in his dual role as global
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Tel Aviv-based sales company Cinephil has acquired worldwide sales rights for documentary feature “A Story of Bones,” which is in competition at the ongoing Tribeca Festival. Directed by Joseph Curran and Dominic Aubrey de Vere and produced by Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo, the documentary follows Annina Van Neel, who, as the chief environmental officer for Saint
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The Annecy Intl. Animation Festival is returning to a full-fledged in-person event in 2022, expecting more than 10,000 attendees, from more than 90 countries June 13-18. “The world’s animation community will be back in Annecy — the key meeting place for the industry and artists,” says fest director Mickaël Marin, beaming. The Annecy team has
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French studio Miyu Productions and L.A.-based Modern Magic – the event animation outfit recently launched by “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” writer-director and producer Rodney Rothman and former MGM co-president of production Adam Rosenberg – will offer an international show of force as they partner on the fantasy feature “The Long Night.” Set for production in
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After a virtual edition in 2020 and a hybrid outing last year, this week’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival looks set be back with a bang, fully and only onsite. It also says a lot about the animation industry’s robust fundamentals. This and nine other takes on this week’s huge French animation reunion, which runs
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France’s “The Tern,” “Phil & Sophia” and “Nino Dino,” along with Spain’s “Zoey Oceans,” Poland’s “Happy not Lucky,” Ireland’s “Natu Natu,” and Romania’s “Karma” lead a packed 84-title line-up of animated TV projects to pitch at the 2022 Cartoon Forum. It will take place in Toulouse, Southern France, over Sept. 19-22. “The Tern” is a 10-episode half-hour from Paris-based family entertainment company
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Nickelodeon is launching its Intergalactic Shorts Program 2.0 which opens its search for new and diverse creators from across the globe, Ramsey Naito, president of Nickelodeon Animation and Paramount Animation, announced Monday. The Intergalactic Shorts Program 2.0 will focus on new voices and nurturing their vision for original comedy-drive content with an eye to representation,
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Charades (“I Lost My Body”) has boarded “Clara Wants Some Chicken,” an animated feature directed by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach (“The Girl Without Hands”) in the run up to this week’s Annecy Animation Festival. Produced by Dolcevita Films (“A Son”) and Miyu Productions (“Plethore de Nords”), “Clara Wants Some Chicken” will be presented in
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