Movies

The Blood List, an annual survey of Hollywood’s best unproduced horror scripts, has anointed a class of 2019 which includes an Olivia Wilde project, an extreme bodybuilding misadventure and a sinister trip to a luxury spa. Now in its eleventh year, the list was created by Brillstein Partners manager and producer Kailey Marsh (Hulu’s “Light

In a sign of the anxiety that Netflix is causing in the film industry, the president of the National Association of Theatre Owners has blasted the streamer’s handling of “The Irishman.” The drama, directed by Martin Scorsese, is screening at a total of eight outlets starting Friday. Those include the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre in

The sequel to Oscar winner “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” will fly into theaters on April 8, 2022. Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios announced the second installment before the original movie even opened. Joaquim Dos Santos has been set to direct the untitled sequel from Dave Callaham’s script, which will continue Miles Morales’ story. “Into the

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has found his next role to add to his extremely busy slate. The pro-wrestler-turned-Hollywood-multi-hyphenate will star as MMA fighter and UFC champ Mark Kerr. The project marks Johnson’s first true dramatic role in his career, which has been full of successful comedies, family fare and action flicks. Johnson will produce through

November 1, 2019 3:05PM PT [embedded content] Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield will be heating up Valentine’s Day by the looks of the first trailer for Stella Meghie’s upcoming romantic comedy “The Photograph.” The film follows Mae (Rae), a young woman whose curiosity is piqued after she uncovers a photo of her deceased mother and

November 1, 2019 2:54PM PT Charlize Theron‘s American Cinematheque tribute is shaping up to be quite a star-studded evening. Theron and “Snow White and the Hunstman” co-star Kristen Stewart will reunite at the American Cinematheque benefit gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Nov. 8. The Cinematheque announced that Seth MacFarlane, Patton Oswalt, David Oyelowo,

November 1, 2019 1:53PM PT “The Handmaid’s Tale” actress Madeline Brewer and Keean Johnston are set to star in the American High-produced “The Ultimate Playlist of Noise,” to which Hulu recently acquired the exclusive rights. This is the seventh feature film from American High, a newly formed partnership between Jeremy Garelick and Mickey Liddell’s LD

November 1, 2019 1:44PM PT Marvel is moving forward with its third installment of “Ant-Man,” as director Peyton Reed has closed a deal to return as director. Paul Rudd will be back as the titular superhero, and Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas are also expected to reprise their roles. Marvel had no comment on Reed’s

Paramount’s “Terminator: Dark Fate” is stumbling toward a $28 million opening weekend at 4,086 North American locations — significantly below forecasts, early estimates showed on Friday. Pre-release forecasts for the sixth installment in the sci-fi series had been in the $40 million range. The third weekend of Disney’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” and the fifth

Cynthia Erivo is stepping into the spotlight — and so is Harriet Tubman. As the end credits rolled at the Los Angeles premiere of “Harriet” at the Orpheum Theatre on Wednesday night, the actor suddenly appeared onstage, lit by a single spotlight. Instead of the recorded version of her original song “Stand Up,” attendees were

With the American Film Market less than a week away, the closure of do-it-yourself digital distributor Distribber remains a cautionary tale for the independent film world. Bankruptcy specialist GlassRatner, which was hired in September to handle claims, recently notified creditors that it would take nine to 12 months before any refunds would be distributed. Reports began

Jodie Foster, Shailene Woodley and Tahar Rahim are set to join Benedict Cumberbatch in “Prisoner 760,” directed by Kevin Macdonald. STXinternational will be introducing the film to buyers at the American Film Market. The movie tells the true story of a fight for survival against all odds. Captured by the U.S. government, Mohamedou Ould Slahi

Paramount’s “Terminator: Dark Fate” has launched with $2.4 million in North American locations on Halloween night previews. The most recent Thursday night Halloween previews took place in 2013 when “Ender’s Game” pulled in $1.4 million and went on to collect $27 million for the weekend domestically. “Terminator: Dark Fate,” the sixth installment in the sci-fi

Rudy Ray Moore was “breezy and funny” in his standup comedy, Variety declared in a 1970 review at the California Sahara nightclub in South Central L.A. Five years later, a Variety film critic saw Moore’s “Dolemite” and sighed “Dull-emite is a more apt title.” Netflix’s “Dolemite Is My Name” covers Moore’s career in those years,

The Berlin Film Festival, one of the world’s top gathering places for the movie industry, will return to its traditional early February slot on the calendar in 2021, in response to a change of dates for the Academy Awards. This year’s Berlinale, which attracted 18,600 industry guests and 3,500 journalists, ran Feb. 7-17, with the

Vince Vaughn and Sharon Horgan are set to star in Christopher Storer’s romantic dramedy “The Last Drop.” The pic is being produced by 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy and Dan Levine, both Oscar-nominated for “Arrival,” and their 21 Laps partner Dan Cohen, Emmy-nominated alongside Levy for “Stranger Things,” and Jen Dana of 3311, which is co-financing

MADRID — Bambú Producciones, a key driving force behind the international boom in Spanish TV fiction, is entering into a phase of business expansion, tapping showrunners Josep Cister and Diego Sotelo and boosting film production brand Mr. Fields & Friends Cinema. Founded in 2007 by Ramón Campos and Teresa Fernández-Valdés, and minority owned by Studiocanal,

Studiocanal, Europe’s biggest film production-distribution force, is introducing to buyers six new titles at next week’s American Film Market that play to its privileged talent relationships and content fortes, led by prestige European drama “Louis Wain,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Further market premieres for Studiocanal, owned by Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group, are “Long Short Story,” starring

Writer-director Justin Lee carves another notch on his six-shooter — or at least another credit on his IMDb page — with “Badland,” his third indie Western (after the direct-to-video titles “Any Bullet Will Do” and “A Reckoning”) to be released within the past two years. This time out, Lee is working with a budget that

October 31, 2019 7:38PM PT The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has changed voting protocols for one of its most complicated categories, best international feature — known until last year as best foreign language film. Announcements were sent to various branches on Thursday alerting members to a change in category rules — which

In today’s film news roundup, AFM tells attendees that Santa Monica isn’t burning, the LA Film Critics honor Elaine May and MarketCast hires a Nielsen executive. AFM REASSURANCE With less than a week before the American Film Market opens in Santa Monica, AFM has assured attendees that the beachside city has not been hit by

October 31, 2019 3:41PM PT Casey Affleck will star in the independent thriller “Every Breath You Take” alongside Sam Claflin, Michelle Monaghan and Veronica Ferres. 13 Films has worldwide rights to the project and will be presenting it to buyers for the first time at the American Film Market, which opens on Nov. 6. “Sunshine

October 31, 2019 2:05PM PT Cuba Gooding Jr. has been indicted on two more charges of touching a woman inappropriately, bringing the total number of accusers to 15. Gooding appeared in court in New York on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to the new allegations. According to the latest indictment, he is accused of touching

Brannon Braga has set up a film adaptation of Clive Barker’s horror anthology “Books of Blood” at Hulu, Variety has learned. Braga will co-write, executive produce, and direct in his feature directorial debut. The film is described as a journey through three uncanny tales tangled in space and time. Anna Friel, Britt Robertson, Rafi Gavron,

Robert Pattinson may be one of the world’s biggest stars, but even he’s felt the sting of rejection. On this week’s episode of “The Big Ticket,” Variety and iHeartRadio’s movie podcast, Pattinson tells me he was 19 years old when he was fired from a theater job just days before the show was set to

October 31, 2019 12:41PM PT Warner Bros.’ “The Little Things,” a crime thriller starring Denzel Washington, has cast actor John Harlan Kim. John Lee Hancock (“The Blind Side,” “Saving Mr. Banks,” “The Founder”) is writing and directing the film, which also stars Rami Malek and Jared Leto. “The Little Things” follows a burned-out Kern County,

“I am a man who paints, nothing more, nothing less,” says the British artist L.S. Lowry, as glumly played by Timothy Spall, early on in Adrian Noble’s miniature portrait “Mrs. Lowry & Son.” He says it again later on, and again still, and at least a couple more times for good measure before the credits

Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell” is based on a true story about her own family. Observing a Chinese tradition of not telling elders when they’ve been diagnosed with a fatal disease, Wang’s relatives reunited in China in 2013 to visit with her grandmother after the family learned she had incurable cancer. Her grandmother was kept in

Roland Emmerich’s movies have a distinct DNA: They unfold on an enormous canvas, there’s some sort of desperate conflict and the planet is almost always in peril. Many film and culture critics credit Emmerich with popularizing a genre built around catastrophe that reflects fears about climate change.  The director acknowledges that he has a penchant

Warner Bros. Pictures has signed a multi-film pact with Locksmith Animation, the British studio co-founded by Elisabeth Murdoch, to co-develop and distribute its slate of pictures. The deal covers the development and production of family-oriented features for worldwide theatrical distribution by Warner. Locksmith said it will collaborate closely with Allison Abbate, EVP, Warner Animation Group