Movies

Pictured: Louise Detlefsen and Louise Kjeldsen’s “Fat Front,” about a rebellious movement started by plus-sized women in Scandinavia, world premieres at IDFA. Danish documentarian Jørgen Leth, whose 1967 short “The Perfect Human” inspired fellow countryman Lars Von Trier as a film student, will be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at IDFA this year. The prolific

Apple has emerged victorious after shelling out for “A Christmas Carol,” a new live-action musical based on the Charles Dickens classic to star Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, numerous people close to the heated bidding told Variety. The tech giant is in final negotiations to acquire the film, beating out rivals that include Netflix, Warner

“Ballerina,” a woman-centric John Wick spinoff, is in the works at Lionsgate, with Len Wiseman on board to to develop and direct. Shay Hatten, one of the writers on “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum,” penned the script. The logline is being kept under wraps. It has not been revealed whether John Wick star Keanu

Half a lifetime ago, a teenage Nora Lum saw Margaret Cho and felt a spark of hope. Even going to a performing arts high school in Queens, N.Y., didn’t give her much confidence that the music industry would understand her, a restless Asian-American tomboy with equally brash and nervous energy to spare. She even gave

Hallelujah! And, not so fast! Why the big hurrah? Because on the eve of Variety’s annual Power of Women issue and Oct. 11 celebratory luncheon in Los Angeles, we are thrilled to report that it appears that “a new day has come” for female directors and “hiring practices have changed,” USC Annenberg professor and researcher

In the upcoming legal drama “Just Mercy,” Brie Larson — who won the best actress Oscar for 2015’s “Room” — plays  Alabama civil rights activist Eva Ansley. Based on Bryan Stevenson’s 2014 memoir of the same name, “Just Mercy” tells the story of Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and Ansley’s founding of the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit

It’s official: “Joker” is a hit. The provocative Todd Phillips-directed Warner Bros. film, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the iconic DC Comics villain, had the biggest October weekend opening box office ever, with $93.5 million in ticket sales. There was never a doubt that “Joker” would earn big bucks, but awards season recognition remains an open

Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr., is the latest Avenger to offer his perspective after Martin Scorsese said Marvel movies are “not cinema.” Scorsese’s comments gained traction after he compared the Marvel Cinematic Universe to “theme parks,” adding, “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will present Renee Zellweger with its American Riviera Award at the Arlington Theatre. Zellweger won an Academy Award for Supporting Actress in “Cold Mountain” and was nominated in the Best Actress category for “Chicago” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” She has been the focus of awards conversation this year for

A group of A-list producers and executives are combating Hollywood gender inequality in a pledge to mentor women directors in the middle of their careers. That’s a time when, at least one prominent study suggests, they disappear from show business entirely. ReFrame Rise, an initiative of ReFrame, the parity organization run by Women in Film

ARRI Media International has acquired international distribution rights to Andrei Konchalovsky’s Michelangelo biopic “Il Peccato” (“Sin”), which will have its world premiere as a Special Closing Event at the 14th Rome Film Festival (Oct. 17-27). Written by Konchalovsky and Elena Kiseleva, the film is set in Florence in the 16th century and follows Michelangelo through

October 8, 2019 12:43AM PT Joel Edgerton, star of “The Great Gatsby” and “Star Wars,” heaped praise on South Korea’s top film directors Tuesday during a visit to the Busan International Film Festival. Edgerton, Timothee Chalamet and director David Michod are in Busan for a public screening of Michod’s “The King.” They were accompanied by

Here are a few of the fun facts you learn from “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn.” Cohn, while wealthy, rarely paid his bills. A $1,500 laundry debt, a $10,500 tab he owed the 21 Club, a repossessed car — we see Cohn’s handwritten messages instructing his secretary not to pay anything, because

In today’s film news roundup, Freida Lee Mock gets a lifetime honor, Isabelle Fuhrman and Penn Badgley get cast, AFI is unveiling rare footage of Alfred Hitchcock, and a faith-based baseball drama and a spy comedy get release dates. CAREER HONOR The International Documentary Association has selected Freida Lee Mock as the recipient of its

Crossover film and music superstars, Wang Leehom and Jung Ji-hoon (aka “Rain,” aka “The Rain”) are to be honored by the Asia Society next month in Los Angeles. Bob Weis, president of Walt Disney Imagineering and Zhang Wei, president of Alibaba Pictures, will also receive prizes. The inaugural Game Changer Awards will be presented on

Pakistani actor/director Sarmad Sultan Khoosat’s next film will be “Kamli.” Principal photography commences this week at locations across Pakistan. Pakistani superstar Saba Qamar (“Hindi Medium”), Sania Saeed (“Manto”) and Hamza Khwaja, star. “A tragic love story at heart, the film is going to be a fresh mix of a rustic setting captured in a contemporary,

The very idea of a modern reworking of a classical text itself gets a modern reworking in Sophie Deraspe’s supple and impassioned “Antigone,” a contemporary spin on the Greek tragedy that feels refreshingly liberated by the spirit of Sophocles’ original material, rather than slavishly devoted to its letter. Further electrified by a performance of immense

Sri Lankan independent filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage has the world premiere of his “Children of the Sun” (“Gaadi”) at the Busan International Film Festival. The film is set in 1814 Kandy, Ceylon, as the country was then known, against the backdrop of Sinhala nobles’ rebellion against their South Indian ruler, and the advent of British colonialism.

Acclaimed Indian actor Adil Hussain will headline director Bauddhayan Mukherji’s “Marichjhapi,” one of the new projects introduced this week at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Project Market. Written by Abhinandan Banerjee and Mukherji, the film will follow the real events of January 1979, where refugees on Marichjhapi island, located in the Sundarbans delta located

Leading independent producers from Asia and Europe showed the complicated routes taken in making indie films that are co-produced between the two regions. They were gathered on Monday at Platform Busan, the Busan International Film Festival’s venue for sharing experiences. Raymond Phathanavirangoon, a Bangkok-based producer and co-founder of the SEAFIC script lab, took the audience

October 7, 2019 3:24PM PT The government of Vietnam has launched the Vietnam Film Development Association, which will have the role of a national film commission. The move was announced Monday at the Asian Film Market, part of the Busan International Film Festival. “One of the most important missions for us is to help international

October 7, 2019 2:56PM PT ‘Your Love Song’ the follow up to Taiwanese hit “Go Lala Go,” has found itself distribution in 10 Asian territories through Singapore-based Clover Films. The pre-sales deal with Clover – spanning the 10 ASEAN countries – was hatched by Hong Kong-based sales agent We Distribution and completed at the Asian

Universal and DreamWorks Animation announced two new animated films for theatrical release in 2021. “Spirit Riding Free” will arrive on the big screen on May 14, 2021, while “The Bad Guys” is set to debut on Sept. 17, 2021. The latter will replace “Spooky Jack,” a cartoon from the Universal-owned Blumhouse that the studio took

As it seeks to focus more on production, Wild Bunch is launching BIM Production, a subsidiary of the Italian outfit BIM Distribution which is owned by Wild Bunch. BIM Production will be delivering Italian TV programs and films, tapping into the growing demand for premium content from traditional players and streaming services. The new banner

If Will Smith had access in real life to the de-aging technology used in his upcoming sci-fi thriller “Gemini Man,” the actor would have a few questions for his younger self. “I would go back to [1999’s] ‘Wild Wild West,’ and I would say, ‘a–hole why didn’t you do ‘The Matrix’?’” Smith joked with reporters

SEGOVIA — Things got weird in Segovia over the weekend at Spanish animation, video game and new media networking event and festival 3D Wire. And it looks like it’s going to stay that way. As of Saturday evening’s closing ceremony, the annual event went by the name Weird Market. It also plans to expand to

Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” may not be coming to an AMC Theatres near you, but it will be playing Broadway. Fresh off of its electric debut at this year’s New York Film Festival, Netflix announced that the gangster epic will have an unorthodox theatrical run at the Belasco Theatre, a famed New York venue that

China’s Pingyao International Film Festival will play “Old Neighborhood” as its opening night movie, in place of the previously announced “Liberation.” The announcement was made on Monday evening, just three days before the third edition of the Jia Zhangke-led festival is due to get under way on Thursday. While the festival quoted the number of

Two Chinese films – both patriotic, but of very different genres – dominated the weekend box office in China. Both scored more than $100 million and extended their already stunning midweek tallies. According to data from Artisan Gateway, Bona Film Group’s “The Captain” (aka “The Chinese Pilot”) earned $103 million, narrowly ahead of the state-backed

Global Screen has sold the distribution rights for North America for “Crescendo#makemusicnotwar” to Menemsha Films. The film, loosely inspired by the story of the formation of Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, toplines “Toni Erdmann” star Peter Simonischek. Global Screen also closed deals on the film for Spain (Adso Films International Management), Italy (Satine), Korea (Tcast)