Hulu is kicking off the new year with a mix of new and old movies and TV shows that will be added to the streaming service in January. Reality series including “The Bachelor,” “Project Runway” will release this month, along with “Cooks vs. Cons” and “Cutthroat: Kitchen.” On the film front, “13 Going on 30,”
Movies
Enough time has passed since Roberto Benigni’s ill-starred “Pinocchio” for the actor to move more happily into the role of Geppetto in Matteo Garrone’s visually rich though oddly subdued version of the perennial tale. Given the director’s penchant for multi-strand narratives (“Tale of Tales,” “Gomorrah”), the classic story would seem a good fit, offering potential
It wasn’t just “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” — with its dismal $12 million opening weekend — that was a Middle Kingdom misfire for Hollywood in 2019. When year-end figures for the China box office are confirmed next week, it’s likely that only two Hollywood titles will be among the 10 top-grossing titles of
December 23, 2019 10:15PM PT Awkwafina’s “The Farewell,” directed by Beijing-born Lulu Wang, is now scheduled to hit Chinese theaters Jan. 10, nearly two months after its originally announced release date and six months after its U.S. release. The movie was initially set to appear in Chinese cinemas Nov. 22 but was pulled just two
Based on Bryan Stevenson’s 2014 autobiography, much of the film “Just Mercy” takes place in prisons and courtrooms. Michael B. Jordan plays Stevenson, the attorney who dedicated his life to defending minorities in the criminal justice system. Stevenson challenged over 125 cases, with the movie focusing on the Walter McMillian (played by Jamie Foxx) trial,
It’s the final countdown. As 2019 winds to a close, ticket sales remain down 4.6% from last year. But movie theaters are relying on a range of offerings — new movies like “Little Women,” and holdovers including “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” and “Jumanji: The Next Level” — to provide one final box office
Independent Lens, the Emmy-winning PBS series, will feature a lineup of buzzy documentaries during the first three months of 2020 that will include everything from deep-dives into racial injustice and climate change to the penetrating looks at the clash between science and creationism. “The topics are serious, but all of the films offer hope,” said
It’s not easy to sustain a beloved series over nine films and 43 years and many directors. But all the principally credited directors of the core “Star Wars” films, plus “Rogue One” and “Solo,” have been men. Enthusiasm for the franchise seems to be waning slightly, and “Rise of Skywalker” became the first of the
British arthouse theater chain Curzon has been bought by Cohen Media Group in a deal that also includes Curzon’s distribution arm and its streaming service. The purchase adds 20 cinemas and 46 screens to the stable of Cohen Media Group, which almost exactly a year ago acquired Landmark Theatres in the U.S. Financial details of
December 23, 2019 6:55AM PT Emmy award-winning producer Lena Waithe will be honored with the Creative Impact in Producing Award at the Palm Springs Film Festival as part of Variety‘s 10 Directors to Watch brunch, presented by AT&T. Waithe is the screenwriter and producer of Universal Pictures and Makeready’s “Queen & Slim,” which received the
Matteo Garrone broke out internationally with “Gomorrah” (2008), considered one of the most realistic mob movies ever made. His English-language debut was dark fantasy/horror film “Tale of Tales” (2015), followed more recently by violent revenge drama “Dogman,” which won the best actor prize at Cannes last year. Garrone’s new live-action adaptation of “Pinocchio” – which
Streaming and tech firms are key to the development of the film industry in China, which is home to far more internet users than cinema-goers, Chinese tech giant Tencent and online ticketing platform Maoyan said in a joint year-end report. One statistic puts this in stark perspective: While 66 million movie tickets were sold for
Flat-footed storytelling meets fleet-footed choreography and sumptuous production values in the untaxingly fun “Ip Man 4: The Finale,” the last installment of director Wilson Yip and producer-star Donnie Yen’s glossy mythmaking tetralogy about the famous Wing Chun master. The insistent subtitle is there for a reason: everyone, Yen included, thought that “Ip Man 3” would
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” wrapped up a nine-film saga this weekend, concluding a venerable story of heroes and villains that relied on special effects wonders and big-screen wizardry to help it usher in a new era of moviemaking. When “Star Wars: A New Hope” hit theaters in 1977, there had never been something
December 22, 2019 11:28AM PT It’s not likely to help the cat-astrophic box office for the $100 million musical adaptation of “Cats,” but Universal is taking the unusual step of sending theaters a new version of the movie. The studio issued a memo to theaters saying the new digital prints would include “some improved visual
Martial arts spectacular “Ip Man 4: The Finale” was the no-contest winner at the Chinese box office over the weekend. “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” while doing great business in the rest of the world, limped into third spot in China. The Wilson Yip-directed historical action film “Ip Man 4” sees Donnie Yen as
Despite mixed reviews and concerns of franchise fatigue, the force is still strong with “Star Wars.” “The Rise of Skywalker” turbocharged the box office this weekend as the ninth installment set in a galaxy far, far away generated a massive $176 million in U.S. theaters and $374 million globally. Those domestic ticket sales didn’t come
These days, when someone sets out to make a documentary, they typically have a pretty clear idea of what they’re expecting to find. Not Brett Story, who approaches “The Hottest August” like some kind of anthropologist from the future, interviewing New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds, as if any one of them might hold
To international audiences more accustomed to the relative restraint of China’s arthouse exports, “Only Cloud Knows,” a slab of toothcrackingly sentimental mooncake from regular national box-office conqueror Feng Xiaogang, might come as a bit of a surprise. This episodic, determinedly winsome love story, told in honeyed flashback, follows a grieving husband as he journeys to
At a time when leaders spout lies and cries of “fake news” put reputable media outlets in doubt, audiences showed an astonishing appetite for nonfiction filmmaking. This year, more than 15 documentaries crossed the $1 million mark in theaters, ranging from high-profile concert films (such as Bruce Springsteen’s “Western Stars” and “Bring the Soul: The
Meet Victoria Mahoney. Mahoney is a self-professed “big-bad dreamer.” But as second unit director on “The Rise of Skyalker,” Mahoney is also the first woman to direct a “Star Wars” film. And she’s also the first black woman to do so. It’s an important distinction in a time where Hollywood is more scrutinized than ever
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” will crush the box office this weekend with an enormous $195 million after taking in $90 million on Friday. “The Rise of Skywalker’s” Friday total represents the sixth-highest opening day of all time, behind “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” which generated $91 million when it opened
Whether you find the titular characters in Tom Hooper’s live action adaptation of “Cats” adorable or horrifying, the truth is that a lot of work went into the singing and dancing creatures. The director and his team pioneered a new “digital fur technology” that merged footage of the actors on the film’s set with VFX,
Valentyn Vasyanovych’s “Atlantis,” a dystopian film set in war-torn Ukraine, won the Crystal Arrow Award of the 11th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival. The film, which won the top prize at Venice’s Horizons section this year, takes place in 2025 in Eastern Ukraine after a ten-year war against Russia which has left the country
As “Bombshell” premiered in New York on Monday night, director Jay Roach reflected on the film’s place in the #MeToo era, especially in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s recent headline-making interview with the New York Post (made in the midst of his much-publicized trial for sexual assault), where the disgraced producer said, “I made more movies
December 20, 2019 1:25PM PT “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” will launch to a muscular $195 million domestically this weekend, according to midday Friday estimates. Disney, the studio behind the sci-fi franchise, hasn’t released numbers, but if rival studios’ figures hold true that will be a spectacular bow for the adventure film, albeit one
Move over “The Last Jedi,” there’s a new “Star Wars” installment to debate ad infinitum. At 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, “The Rise of Skywalker” has the second-worst score of all the live-action “Star Wars” films, right behind “The Phantom Menace” at 53%. That’s right: critics hate the J.J. Abrams-directed flick almost as much as they
December 20, 2019 11:22AM PT Netflix’s international film VP David Kosse has unveiled a slate of non-English-language movies that will head into production in 2020. The former STXinternational topper’s projects span French, German and Italian-language projects, and include feature adaptations of Robert Harris’ novel “Munich” and Hanna Jameson’s “The Last.” Out of France, “Bigbug” follows
Taylor Swift attended “cat school” to learn what Jellicles can and Jellicles do. To prepare for “Cats,” the big-screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1981 musical, Swift and her co-stars enrolled in classes to master the movements of their four-legged characters. In the film, Swift plays Bombalurina, a rabble-rousing outsider who sprinkles catnip over the
Marisa Tomei has joined Jason Momoa in “Sweet Girl,” a revenge thriller from Netflix. The movie is currently in production with Isabela Merced, Adria Arjona, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Justin Bartha also on board. Cinematographer Brian Andrew Mendoza is making his directorial debut on the picture that is being produced by Brad Peyton and Jeff Fierson