Harvey Weinstein’s 23-year prison sentence has been met with hope in the U.K., where industry figures hope to see justice meted out for transatlantic victims of the disgraced movie mogul. Wednesday’s outcome has been hailed a major victory that will set a groundbreaking precedent for future cases. Most importantly, the sentence proves that the “law
Movies
A movie hero gets unplugged from the web of grand illusion he’s been living in, then dunked into the reality behind the façade. That’s what happened in “The Matrix,” when Keanu Reeves’ Neo woke up to learn that he’d been trapped in a narcotizing dream world. It happens, once again, in “Bloodshot,” a derivative but
If you had to pluck one image from cinema to evoke the heady grandeur of the mid-20th-century art-film revolution, you couldn’t do better than Max von Sydow as the shimmering-coiffed, dourly ambivalent knight Antonius Block, playing chess with Death in “The Seventh Seal.” Released in 1957, Ingmar Bergman’s film was a dark medieval mystery tour,
The cancellation of SXSW on March 6 due to the coronavirus epidemic sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry. But in truth it was the culmination of weeks of mounting anxiety — in executive suites and corporate boardrooms, on studio lots, across television and film sets, at red-carpet premieres and in multiplexes and concert venues —
Mouse House streamer Disney Plus went live in India on Wednesday, 18 days before the previously announced launch date of March 29. Disney’s existing Indian streamer Hotstar app is now rebranded as Disney Plus Hotstar on Android and iOS. The Disney Plus Hotstar branding is in addition to the platform’s existing bouquet of TV, movies,
March 10, 2020 5:33PM PT The Writers Guild of America West has called off a membership meeting scheduled for Tuesday night at the Hollywood Palladium as a precaution against the coronavirus. The WGA also said its negotiating committee will not hold face-to-face meetings with members and will instead share the information about the upcoming negotiations
In today’s film news roundup, “The Invisible Man” hits a milestone; “Kajillionaire,” “Come Play” and “Green Rush” get release dates; and Jack Eve’s romantic drama “Open” wraps shooting. BOX OFFICE Universal Pictures-Blumhouse Productions’ “The Invisible Man” has crossed $100 million at the worldwide box office in less than two weeks. The film, directed by Leigh
Filmhouse, the home of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) in Scotland, has unveiled plans for a major new six-screen cinema and venue in the heart of the city. The planned building is expected to cost £50 million ($65 million) and has been designed by Edinburgh-based Richard Murphy Architects. If planning permission is granted by
Ben Affleck was on Harvey Weinstein’s “red flag list,” according to recently unsealed court documents. Prior to the publication of bombshell reports, which ignited the #MeToo movement and led to the former movie mogul’s downfall, Weinstein kept a list of names of people he was concerned could be talking to journalists in 2017 about his
Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions, which generated a horror hit with “The Invisible Man,” has launched development of an untitled Dracula movie. Karyn Kusama, whose credits include “Destroyer,” “The Invitation” and “Jennifer’s Body,” is attached to direct the Dracula project. Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay, who teamed with Kusama on “Destroyer” and “The Invitation,” are writing
March 10, 2020 4:34PM PT Newcomer Ever Anderson will play Wendy while Alexander Molony will play Peter Pan in Disney’s live-action Peter Pan pic “Peter Pan & Wendy,” sources tell Variety. “Pete’s Dragon” director David Lowery is on board to direct. Lowery co-wrote the script with Toby Halbrooks. Jim Whitaker is producing. Disney’s 1953 animated
Roy Dana (R.D.) Call, an actor who appeared in such films as “Last Man Standing,” “Born on the Fourth of July” and several other films alongside Sean Penn, died on Feb. 27 of back surgery complications, his family announced. He was 70. The Utah native was born Feb. 16, 1950 and came to Los Angeles
Filmmakers Jason Sussberg and David Alvarado were holed up in a studio Friday at Skywalker Ranch, putting the finishing touches on the sound mix for their film “We Are As Gods,” a documentary about the environmentalist Stewart Brand. The two men were scrambling to get everything ready for the film’s March 15 premiere at South
Woody Harrelson is set to replace Jason Statham in Sony’s “The Man From Toronto,” joining Kevin Hart in the action-comedy, sources confirmed to Variety. Statham was in talks to star opposite Hart, but abruptly backed out a week ago over creative differences, and Sony scrambled to find a new actor. Sony’s pairing with Harrelson makes
March 10, 2020 10:32AM PT [embedded content] Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are on a quest for the secret to eternal life in the early 20th Century in Disney’s new trailer for “Jungle Cruise.” In footage released Tuesday, Blunt’s researcher Dr. Lily Houghton explains why she’s hired Johnson’s character to pilot her through the jungle
Italy late on Monday became the first European country to go into lockdown mode to counter the spread of a coronavirus outbreak that has caused cinemas to be shuttered and production to stop. But the country’s film and TV industry has not hit the pause button. Right after Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte in a
“Suzi Q,” a documentary about Suzi Quatro, who preceded Joan Jett onto the scene in the early ’70s as a leather-clad rock pioneer, has been picked up for North America by Utopia. The company will give the rock doc a one-night theatrical release July 1, followed by digital and DVD distribution two days later. A
Actor Stephen Graham’s first project under his newly launched production banner, “Boiling Point,” has rounded out its cast with “Military Wives” actor Jason Flemyng and a host of others. The actor, whose credits include film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and Sky Atlantic series “Save Me,” will be joined by Taz Skylar (“Warheads,” “The
MADRID — Spain’s Malaga Festival, the country’s biggest festival dedicated to Spanish and Latin American films and TV, has been postponed, the Malaga Town Hall announced Tuesday. No new date has been suggested for the event. Via Twitter, Municipal authorities adduced “uncertainty generated by the evolution of coronavirus” as the reason for the postponement. “Although
The Cannes Film Festival is among a number of events in France hanging in the balance in the face of the coronavirus outbreak and the government’s recent ban on gatherings of more than 1,000 people. In the event of a cancellation, however, the festival won’t be able to rely on an insurance claim. The festival
BARCELONA — “Klaus,” “Tainá and the Amazon’s Guardians” and “Uncle Thomas Accounting for the Days” are among the finalists at the 3rd Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards, to be held in the Spanish Canary Islands city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on April 18. Produced by Spain’s SPA Studios and Atresmedia Cine for Netflix, “Klaus” delivers
March 10, 2020 7:09AM PT Sony is to push back the release of “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway” until Aug. 7, Variety has confirmed. The James Corden-voiced live-action and CGI family sequel had been due to launch in the U.K. and European markets on March 27. The U.S. was set to follow on April 3.
The Prague International Film Festival is the latest industry event to be canceled in the wake of the global coronavirus outbreak. Organizers confirmed Tuesday that the event, also known as Febiofest, is canceled until further notice and will aim to be rescheduled later in the year. The cancellation follows a ban by the Czech Ministry
“Star Wars” actor John Boyega is partnering with Netflix through his UpperRoom Productions shingle to develop non-English language films centered on West and East Africa. The company said on Tuesday that the indie production house founded by the British-Nigerian thesp “will develop film projects based on stories, cast, characters, crew, literary properties, mythology, screenplays and/or
Does anyone still watch televised beauty pageants? Some must do: The likes of Miss America and Miss World presumably aren’t being broadcast to a global audience of ghosts, whatever their declining presence in the popular imagination. Yet for years now, the pageant industry has felt like a dead woman walking and waving, steadily losing TV
South by Southwest laid off at least 50 employees, or a third of its year-round staff, Monday as the festival faces losses in the tens of millions after the cancellation of this year’s festival. Said the festival in a statement: “Due to the City of Austin’s unprecedented and unexpected cancellation of the SXSW 2020 events
A rather pedestrian presentation of a potentially fascinating story, Vanessa Lapa’s “Speer Goes to Hollywood” expands on a little-known footnote to the Hydra-headed history of the post-war fates of top Nazi lieutenants. It is based on the 1972 recordings of conversations between Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect, friend and wartime munitions minister, and screenwriter Andrew Birkin
March 9, 2020 9:34PM PT A disturbing trip into the dystopian psyche of animator Mariusz Wilczynski, making his feature debut with this black-and-white niche oddity. An utterly bizarre, frequently grotesque, occasionally obscene singularity, Polish artist Mariusz Wilczynski’s abrasive animation “Kill It and Leave This Town” exists so far outside the realm of the expected, the
Harvey Weinstein’s defense team asked a judge on Monday to sentence him to five years in prison, the statutory minimum for two counts of rape and sexual assault. In a seven-page sentencing memo, the defense recounted Weinstein’s charitable contributions and his support for social causes. They also argued that Weinstein has already received a harsh
The German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB), one of Germany’s most prestigious film schools, has sacked its British director, Ben Gibson, following an incident during the Berlin Film Festival in which he exposed his backside to a female student during a heated argument. The academy’s board of trustees on Friday voted to dismiss Gibson,