Movies

January 14, 2020 6:13PM PT In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv, Universal Pictures claims the top spot in spending with “Dolittle.” Ads placed for the fantasy-adventure film had an estimated media value of $8.22 million through Sunday for 1,092 national

January 14, 2020 6:07PM PT ‘The Joy Luck Club’ actor Tsai Chin plays a chain-smoking Chinatown granny who stands up to the triads in Sasie Sealy’s unlikely crime caper. While Lulu Wang’s emotional family drama “The Farewell” may have broken through last year, and upcoming comic book adaptations “Birds of Prey” (by Cathy Yan) and

Monday morning’s Oscar nominations rebooted the #OscarsSoWhite conversation, reigniting discussion about representation after women were shut out of the directing category and only one person of color — Cynthia Erivo — was nominated in the acting categories. At the premiere of Amazon Original’s “Troop Zero” at The Grove in Los Angeles on Monday evening, the

Maïmouna Doucouré’s “Cuties,” which plays in Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition and will then screen in the Berlinale’s Generation Kplus section, has been picked up by Netflix worldwide, excluding France. The film’s producer Zangro gave an exclusive interview to Variety about the film, and his next project. “Cuties” is about the hyper-sexualization of

Netflix has bought world rights, excluding France, to Maimouna Doucouré’s debut feature “Cuties,” which has its world premiere in Sundance’s 2020 World Cinema Dramatic Competition, and will then screen in the Berlinale’s Generation Kplus section. The pic, playing under the Netflix brand, will be translated into more than 40 languages, and screened in the streamer’s

U.S.-Iran tensions have put Iranian director Massoud Bakhshi whose daring drama “Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness,” is set to premiere at Sundance, in a tough spot. The film’s production and sales companies issued a joint statement on Tuesday announcing that Bakhshi will not personally be attending Sundance due to the current U.S.-Iran crisis. But they also denied

Director Denny Tedesco scored with his 2008 film “The Wrecking Crew,” his critically praised documentary on the legendary session musicians of the ‘60s who performed with everyone from the Beach Boys and Phil Spector to Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley — so it makes perfect sense that he’s begun work on a film about legendary 1970s

Harvey Weinstein once waltzed into every room in Hollywood as the king of the movie business. Now, he’s shuffling into New York City criminal court with a walker, facing life in prison for five sex crimes charges, including rape. Looking back at Hollywood history, has there ever been a case quite like this? Weinstein’s trial stands on

When it came to recognizing this year’s achievements in filmmaking, the Academy Awards nominated movies the public has actually seen. Five out of the nine best picture contenders have already surpassed $100 million at the global box office: “Joker,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Ford v Ferrari,” “Little Women” and “Parasite.” A sixth, Sam

French director Christophe Ruggia, who was accused in November by the actress Adele Haenel of having sexually harassed her from the age of 12, has been placed in custody by French police on Tuesday, Variety has confirmed. The Paris prosecutor’s office told Variety that Ruggia had been placed under custody as part of the investigation

January 14, 2020 5:45AM PT “Minamata,” starring Johnny Depp, Nanette Burstein’s documentary series about Hillary Clinton, “Hillary,” and Agnieszka Holland’s “Charlatan” have been selected to play in Berlinale Special section at the Berlin Film Festival, the event said Tuesday. Also selected in the section are two documentary features, Jóhann Jóhannsson’s “Last and First Men,” narrated

Red Bull Media House has hired National Geographic and former Science Channel exec Bernadette McDaid as global head of content development, Variety has confirmed. The exec, who is to begin the role on Jan. 20, is to focus on expanding Red Bull’s programming ambitions. McDaid, who has been based out of London for the last

Mads Mikkelsen is set to headline the dark comedy “Riders of Justice” written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen, the well-known Danish helmer and screenwriter of Susanne Bier’s Oscar-winning “In a Better World.” Mikkelsen will star in the film alongside Nikolaj Lie Kaas (“The Department Q Series”), Lars Brygmann (“That Time of the Year), Nicolas

February is set to be a busy month for Hollywood in China. “Jojo Rabbit,” “Little Women,” “Marriage Story” and “Dolittle” will all get their crack at the world’s second largest film market next month, Chinese reports confirmed on Tuesday. The news comes just after the big reveal that three Oscar best picture contenders rank among

Director and activist Spike Lee will serve as jury president of the 73rd edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Lee succeeds Alejandro G. Iñárritu, whose 2019 jury awarded the Palme d’Or to Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite,” which won a Golden Globe and was just nominated for six Oscars. The Brooklyn-based director has had a

Mainstream Korean media gave pride of place to Monday’s unprecedented haul of six Oscar nominations for Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite.” The dark satire was nominated in categories including best international feature film, best screenplay and best picture. Digital editions of The Korea Herald newspaper made “Parasite” its front page lead. The story was accompanied by a

What makes a priest a priest? Technically, the answer is devotion to God, completion of seminary training, and ordination by a bishop to deacon status — all this must happen before one can wear the collar. But Jan Komasa’s stunning, quietly subversive “Corpus Christi” sees the question in more existential terms, permitting a well-meaning juvenile

Ageism may be a significant problem in Hollywood, but not at AARP’s “Movies for Grownups” Awards, where actors over 50 are revered like fine wine — and honored for getting better with age. Inevitably, there were some jokes about the ceremony’s name: “When I was asked to attend an award show called Movies for Grownups,

After a year at the movies that broke so many barriers for women and diverse filmmakers, the Oscar nominations on Monday morning felt in some ways like they were still stuck in the past. And the Academy, which has been slow to embrace change, missed multiple opportunities to celebrate truly deserving artists while also making

Hollywood’s outcry is growing over Oscar nominations in the best director category, which again ignored women filmmakers on Monday. Instead of recognizing Greta Gerwig for “Little Women,” Lulu Wang for “The Farewell,” or Marielle Heller for “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences opted to honor five male

Bong Joon Ho has more to say when it comes to “Parasite” and he believes a limited television series is the way to do it. Moments after the Academy Awards announced four nominations for “Parasite” (original screenplay, foreign language film, best director and best picture) the director hopped on the phone with Variety to discuss

January 13, 2020 11:15AM PT [embedded content] In the first trailer for Marvel’s “Morbius,” Jared Leto sheds his “Joker” persona as he transforms into the vampiresque super villain. Based on the comic books created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane in 1971, the antagonist’s origin story follows Michael Morbius (Leto), a biochemist in search of

With “Joker’s” stunning 11 Oscar nominations — the most of any film this year — director Todd Phillips’ gritty reimagining of the Batman villain has followed in “Black Panther’s” historic footsteps and taken a massive thwack at the ironclad conventional wisdom that comic-book movies cannot be major awards season contenders. In 1978, “Superman” was the

Distrib Films has acquired U.S. rights to Mounia Meddour’s debut feature “Papicha” which world premiered at Cannes in Un Certain Regard last year. Following Cannes, the politically-minded film went on to win a flurry of international awards and became the most successful African film directed by a woman at the French box office. Set in

Twas the night before Oscar nominations and all through the ballroom, the Barker Hanger was buzzing as critics mixed and mingled with A-listers inside the 25th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards on Sunday night. Big winners Life Achievement winner Eddie Murphy, #SeeHer honoree Kristen Bell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Bong Joon Ho played to the audience in

January 13, 2020 9:19AM PT The 92nd Academy Award nominations were announced Monday with “Joker” and Netflix leading all films and distributors. But it was this morning’s reactions from celebrities and Oscar nominees that best summed up the news. Florence Pugh, nominated for best supporting actress in “Little Women,” Instagrammed a before and after photo

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has unveiled an initiative to connect Latinx talent, executives, and creators to opportunities in the entertainment industry with the goal of doubling Latino representation in Hollywood by 2030. Supporters include Eva Longoria, J.J. Abrams, Eli Roth, Devon Franklin, Jason Blum, and Zoe Saldana. Initial funders include the Annenberg Foundation, WarnerMedia, and Endeavor Content. Garcetti announced the

Among the many twists and turns in his thoroughly modern whoddunnit, “Knives Out” writer-director-producer Rian Johnson can count one more — an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. “Im blown away, man. We just set out to make a fun movie that audiences could enjoy,” Johnson told Variety in the very early hours of Monday

Never underestimate the power of an Oscar nomination for documentary short subject. MTV Documentary Films chief Sheila Nevins celebrated Monday morning as her fledgling unit nabbed an Oscar mention for “St. Louis Superman,” the first property that the longtime HBO documentary maven acquired after relocating to MTV last May. Nevins said she was gratified by

The Oscars have never been edgy, but this year, the Academy Awards reminded you of how stodgy they could be. After the dust settled on Monday morning from this year’s nominations, it was surprising just how many favorites had been snubbed. No Jennifer Lopez for “Hustlers.” No Awkwafina for “The Farewell.” No Lupita Nyong’o for