Movies

In “The Night Clerk,” Tye Sheridan and a very busy Ana de Armas star as a hotel clerk with Asperger’s and the solicitous beauty who shows up after a murder. The chemistry between Sheridan and de Armas is involving. The casting of Helen Hunt as a enabling mother and John Leguizamo as a police detective

Ron Howard, over the last decade, has directed a handful of documentaries (all of them about popular musicians), and maybe it’s no surprise that he has turned out to be an ace craftsman of the nonfiction form. But “Rebuilding Paradise,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is a different kind of Ron Howard documentary,

MK2 has boarded Alex Helfrecht’s “A Winter’s Journey,” a feature blending live-action, CGI and hand-painted animation made by the creative teams behind “Despicable Me” and “Loving Vincent.” Adapted from Franz Schubert’s “Winterreise,” the film stars Gaspard Ulliel, John Malkovich, Martina Gedeck, Charles Berling  and newcomer Gabriella Moran. Set in 1812 Bavaria, the film tells the

Charades has scooped up international sales rights to “Shorta,” the buzzed-about Danish project that was presented at Les Arcs’s work-in-progress and Goteborg’s Nordic Film Market. “Shorta,” directed by Frederik Louis Hviid and Anders Ølholm, unfolds in the aftermath of the killing of 19-year-old Talib Ben Hassi while in custody. The film follows two police officers,

Stefan Ruzowitzky, director of the Oscar-winning “The Counterfeiters,” and “The Grudge” screenwriter Stephen Susco have boarded “Alone,” a remake of the 2007 supernatural Thai thriller by Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom. The new film follows conjoined twin sisters from an Asian family in Boston whose loving relationship is tested when one of them befriends a

Halting all film releases and closing cinemas over Chinese New Year was the most dramatic possible expression of the emergency response to the novel coronavirus threat that spread from the city of Wuhan in January. The movie distribution and exhibition sectors had been counting on a billion dollars of box office revenue over the 10-day

AMC Networks’ streaming service Shudder has acquired the genre thriller “Dead & Beautiful,” directed prominent Dutch filmmaker David Verbeek (“Full Contact”), for the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The film is represented in international territories by Indie Sales. Verbeek’s seventh feature “Dead & Beautiful” follows a group of young and spoiled teenagers

The Berlin Festival has taken a hit from the coronavirus epidemic that began in China, but the absence of Chinese buyers may signal wider industry problems. Festival organizers, who do not anticipate further virus-related damage, told Variety that 118 individuals set to attend from China have cancelled, out of approximately 21,000 accreditations. From other territories

February 19, 2020 10:00PM PT Leading arthouse film sales company The Match Factory has boarded Wang Xiaoshuai’s drama “Above the Dust,” the follow-up to the director’s “So Long, My Son,” which won Silver Bears for best actor and actress at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, and was distributed in more than 30 territories. Wang’s screenplay

February 19, 2020 4:25PM PT A mass shooting in the West German city of Hanau has raised security concerns for the Berlin Film Festival, which kicks off on Thursday. Local media reports late Wednesday indicate that several people are dead following a shooting. Eight people are believed to have been killed while five others are

Munich-based world sales company Global Screen has pre-sold the new adaptation of Eric Knight novel’s “Lassie Come Home,” whose canine character was first brought to the big screen more than 75 years ago, to more than 44 countries. Territories include Italy (Lucky Red), France (Mediawan Rights), Scandinavia (Angel Scandinavia), Israel (Film House), CIS (Volga Film),

February 19, 2020 3:50PM PT Paramount Players has lost two of its executives, with Matt Dines and Ali Bell leaving their posts as executive vice presidents of development and production. A spokesman for Paramount told Variety that there are no plans to shutter the three-year-old division in the wake of the departures. Wyck Godfrey, Paramount’s

It was an evening of elegance at the Los Angeles premiere of Focus Features’ “Emma” on Tuesday night. The red carpet was lined with pastel floral arrangements at the DGA Theater, priming visitors to be transported to the ornate pageantry of Georgian-era England, as depicted in this new adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic tale. Anya

In “Sylvie’s Love,” Tessa Thompson stars as an aspiring TV producer named Sylvie opposite Nnamdi Asomugha’s young musician Robert, who meet and fall in love in the New York summer of 1957. The 1950s and 1960s-set film — written and directed by Eugene Ashe — is a romantic tale of love found, lost and possibly

Pixar’s new movie “Onward” marks a reunion of sorts for Tom Holland and Chris Pratt. The two actors, who both have ties to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe and most recently teamed in “Avengers: Endgame” as Spider-Man and Star-Lord, play brothers in the animated fantasy adventure. Their friendship has become a highlight of “Onward’s” promotional tour

Women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred has never been accused of being press shy. But on Wednesday, while the jury was deliberating in the Harvey Weinstein rape trial, she was accused for serving as a mouthpiece for the prosecution, prompting one of Weinstein’s attorneys to request a gag order for the media-savvy Allred. Damon Cheronis was

Two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali is producing and starring in the genre-bending drama feature “Swan Song” for Apple TV Plus, with production starting in the spring. The film will be produced by Apple and Anonymous Content. “Swan Song” will be directed by Academy Award winner Benjamin Cleary, who also wrote the project. Cleary won the

“Mulan” may not be for very young children, as it’s become the first Disney live-action remake to receive a PG-13 rating. The new take on the Disney classic got the rating from the Motion Picture Association of America due to the “sequences of violence” apparently depicted in the film. All previous live-action remakes from the

February 19, 2020 10:43AM PT Variety can exclusively reveal the trailer for “Playing Hard” director Jean-Simon Chartier’s feature documentary “They Call Me Dr. Miami,” which is being shopped to buyers at the EFM this week. Commissioned by Documentary Channel and set to bow at the Miami International Film Festival next month, the film follows Dr.

“Sonic the Hedgehog” will have to worry about more than just a waxy mustached villain this weekend. Paramount’s family film will face box office competition from another kid-friendly adventure, Disney and 20th Century’s “The Call of the Wild.” Harrison Ford and a dog named Buck star in “The Call of the Wild,” the latest big-screen adaptation

YouTube is driving into the feature documentary space with a bold new film on drill music from one of the U.K.’s most celebrated documentarians. The controversial genre represented in the Brian Hill-directed “Terms and Conditions: A U.K. Drill Story” has become inadvertently associated with violence and knife-crime in the U.K., and marks a daring step

Jennifer Lawrence will star in Adam McKay’s upcoming film “Don’t Look Up,” a comedy set to debut on Netflix later this year. The movie, also written by McKay, follows two low-level astronomers who embark on media tour to warn mankind of an approaching asteroid that will destroy planet Earth. “I’m so thrilled to make this

A startling one-two punch of new statistics from the British Film Institute and industry body U.K. Producers’ Roundtable have revealed the stark challenges facing the country’s independent filmmakers.  After a BFI study published in late January revealed that spending on U.K. independent film production fell by 45% to £175 million ($228 million) in 2019, a

Universal Pictures announced a one-year partnership with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media at Mount Saint Mary’s University and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering to improve on-screen representation and casting opportunities for the Latinx community. The program, titled Spellcheck for Bias, is being developed to analyze scripts, manuscripts and advertising briefs to

Alamo Drafthouse, the Texas-based cinema chain that popularized in-theater dining, is offering a subscription service to rival the AMCs and Regals of the exhibition industry. The company unveiled Season Pass, a monthly program that will be available to patrons in its 41 locations across the country. Season Pass will provide one regularly priced ticket per

The jury in the Harvey Weinstein trial asked on Wednesday to have a substantial portion of Miriam Haley’s testimony read back to them, indicating that the panel is slowly working its way through the charges against the producer. Haley testified on Jan. 27 that Weinstein invited her to his Soho apartment on July 10, 2006.

February 19, 2020 8:00AM PT STX Entertainment, Black Bear Pictures and Canadian distributor Elevation Pictures have unveiled a strategic distribution partnership. The agreement was announced Wednesday at the Berlin Film Festival and includes an exclusive output deal for STXinternational to sell and distribute all Black Bear productions internationally. Elevation Pictures, in which Black Bear is

Jakob Mejlhede Andersen, the CEO of NENT Studios U.K., is stepping down from the business, which operates the Nordic region’s leading streamer Viaplay. Mejlhede was appointed CEO of NENT Studios U.K. in October 2019 and was previously executive VP and CCO for NENT Group’s Viaplay. He also held the role of executive VP and group

“Everybody smile and say ‘cinema,’” young Myroslava Trofymchuk instructs several Ukrainian soldiers, as they obligingly pose and perform for her camera, their brawny tank reduced to a prop in the rubbly, wintry background. It’s the only time we see the masculine agents of conflict in “The Earth is Blue as an Orange,” a documentary with

The Cannes Film Festival is to screen a restored version of Wong Kar-wai’s “In The Mood For Love,”  20 years after it first premiered on the Croisette. The festival will play a restored, 4K version of the timeless Hong Kong-set romance that starred Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung as a journalist and a secretary