October 5, 2019 3:48AM PT Kevin McMullin channels the feel of Stephen King’s ‘Stand by Me,’ along with various noir-toned ’80s films, in this coming-of-age thriller. Few living novelists have been adapted as frequently as Stephen King, and yet, you can count on one hand the number of truly great movies to have come from
Movies
If you are of voting age in the United States today, you know that stranger things have happened than someone like Tim Heidecker getting elected to public office. But in a world where Americans are getting punked on an almost daily basis by their TV-famous cretin in chief, do we really need a smug fake-news
Seven months after the Paris prosecutor dismissed rape allegations against Luc Besson citing a lack of evidence, a French judge has reopened an investigation into claims filed by the French-Belgian actress Sand Van Roy, according to the AFP. The reopening of the investigation by a judge stems from Van Roy’s civil party petition filed in
October 4, 2019 9:31PM PT “The Truth,” directed by Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu, will be released in Korean cinemas in December this year. Rights were acquired by local distributor Tcast. The highly-acclaimed director was absent from the Busan International Film Festival’s opening ceremony, where he was Thursday named as Busan’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year
The Philadelphia Film Festival has announced the program for its 28th edition, kicking off on Oct. 17 with Destin Daniel Cretton’s “Just Mercy,” starring Michael B. Jordan. Also screening on opening night are “Parasite,” “Cunningham,” “Come As You Are,” “Bikram: Yogi, Guru” and “The Lodge.” Sponsored by the Philadelphia Film Society, the festival wraps on
October 4, 2019 5:18PM PT In an interview with Empire magazine, Martin Scorsese gave the Marvel Cinematic Universe the cold shoulder, comparing the billion-dollar franchise to theme parks. “I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema,” Scorsese told Empire magazine. “Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they
In today’s film news roundup, Stellan Skarsgard’s drama gets U.S. distribution, James DuMont gets cast, “Beautiful in the Morning” opens the LA Femme International Film Festival and Sony sets up multi-lingual comedy “Este Dia.” ACQUISITION Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to the drama “Out Stealing Horses,” starring Stellan Skarsgard and directed by Hans Petter
Ekta Kapoor is the undisputed queen of Indian content. In the 25 years since Balaji Telefilms was set up by her and her parents Jeetendra Kapoor and Shoba Kapoor, it has become the single largest television content producer in South Asia. The company’s two-year old OTT platform ALT Balaji has already notched up 27 million
October 4, 2019 3:37PM PT Disney is in early development on a live-action “Inspector Gadget” movie and has set up the project with “Aladdin” producers Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich at their Rideback banner. Disney has hired Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell, best known as “Saturday Night Live” writers, to work on the script. “Inspector
After bowing at Venice where it was nominated for the Horizons Award, “Hava, Maryam, Ayesha” has its Asian premiere at the Busan International Film Festival. Directed by debutante Sahraa Karimi, it plays in the ‘A Window On Asian Cinema’ strand. The film is a rarity in that it is an Afghan film made by an
After 2011’s “Nobel Thief,” 2012’s “Uncle Shyamal Turns off the Lights,” 2015’s “Peace Haven” and 2016’s “Mi Amor,” Indian filmmaker Suman Ghosh returns to the Busan International Film Festival with a brace of projects. His “Aadhaar,” a satire on India’s contentious identity card of the same name, has its world premiere at the ‘A Window
“The Cave,” Tom Waller’s reconstruction of the dramatic rescue of a schoolboy soccer team from waterlogged caverns in northern Thailand begins its festival career this week at the Busan International Film Festival. Interest in the story has been running strongly since the dramatic events of June and July 2018, with at least half a dozen
Showbox, one of South Korea’s leading studios, is launching sales of disaster comedy “Sinkhole” at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Market. Helmed by “The Tower” director Kim Ji-hoon, the film is the story of the events that follow the appearance of an urban sinkhole that swallows an entire apartment building. It stars fashion
“We plan to consolidate our position as the world’s leading cinema technology company by operating 750 screens by end of 2019, capable of hosting 150 million moviegoers a year,” said JongRyul Kim, CEO of CJ 4DPLEX at a press event held in Seoul in September. The company has been in business for a decade now. 4DX is
October 4, 2019 1:44PM PT “Somewhere Winter,” a Chinese-language romantic drama, has joined the sales slate of Distribution Workshop in time for the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Market. The film is directed by David Wang Weiming (“Sex Appeal”) and stars Ma Sichun (“Soul Mate,” “The Left Ear”) and Wallace Huo (“Our Time Will
Get ready to be gored by cinema’s horns, trampled under a stampede of deliciously grotesque, fleshy imagery and tossed aloft on a buffalo-snort of bravado because Lijo Jose Pellissery’s utterly bonkers “Jallikattu” is here to pummel a Midnight Madness slot near you into submission. A fever-pitch, adrenaline-soaked vortex of social issues drama, deconstruction of the
Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joker” is dominating North American moviegoing and heading for a record $90 million opening weekend, early estimates showed Friday. Warner Bros.’ R-rated thriller about a psychopathic criminal appears to be on track to top the October record for a launch weekend, set a year ago when Sony’s “Venom” debuted with $80.3 million. Warner
October 4, 2019 12:33PM PT A movie theater in Huntington Beach, Calif., showing the film “Joker” was closed down on Thursday night after a “credible” threat was reported to police, the Huntington Beach Police Department said on Friday. The final two showings of the movie at the Century Huntington Beach and XD theater in the
October 4, 2019 8:48AM PT Warner Bros.’ “Joker” is dominating international moviegoing with $24.6 million in 47 markets, ranking as the top foreign film in every country. The Joaquin Phoenix vehicle took in $19 million on Thursday including previews. Russia was the top performer with $1.8 million on 1,907 screens for the second biggest opening day for
October 4, 2019 7:49AM PT Vanishing Angle has boarded Sundance selection “Mope” by Lucas Heyne, which had its European premiere at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain this week. L.A.-based producer, distributor, and sales outfit Vanishing Angle will sell “Mope” internationally. XYZ is handling North America. The movie played in the Midnight section at Sundance.
October 4, 2019 7:32AM PT Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joker” scored a record $13.3 million on Thursday night in North America. The figure is above the $10 million in previews that was earned a year ago by “Venom,” which posted an $80 million opening weekend — both records for October. It’s the biggest preview number since “The
In this week’s International TV Newswire, series look to outscale the opposition, eOne make a key acquisition before Mipcom, Red Arrow’s Snowman a play for international co-production and Viacom International Studio’s flagship series clicks in Argentina. Size Matters: Amazon’s Cortés-Moctezuma Series On Thursday, Amazon Prime Video announced that Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal will
John Turturro’s “The Big Lebowski” spinoff, “The Jesus Rolls,” which follows his “Lebowski” character Jesus Quintana, will world premiere at the Rome Film Festival, which announced on Friday a lineup packed with potential awards contenders and plenty of big names booked for onstage conversations. “The Jesus Rolls,” which Turturro directed from his own script and
Adam DeVine‘s co-star in the new comedy “Jexi” is a cell phone, more specifically, a virtual assistant voiced by Rose Byrne. At the film’s premiere on Thursday in Los Angeles, DeVine told Variety that during filming, for timing, he listened through a crackling earpiece to another actress reading Byrne’s lines. “It was hard [acting opposite
In the century since its founding in 1919, United Artists has made and distributed hundreds of films and pioneered business models — such as UA Classics — that continue to resonate in the entertainment industry. From the founders to the period between the early ’50s through the late ’60s when Arthur Krim and Bob Benjamin
They called themselves United Artists, but the trades called it a “rebellion against established producing and distributing arrangements.” Paramount Pictures founder Adolph Zukor reportedly said, “The inmates have taken over the asylum.” But when Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith went before the cameras on Feb. 5, 1919, to announce the creation
With multiple recent events celebrating United Artists’ centennial, and anticipation growing for the release of the next James Bond film in 2020, industry folk and fans alike are being reminded of UA’s scope and impact. “UA’s primary legacy is that it never left its core mission, allowing visionary artists to control the filmmaking process,” says
October 4, 2019 4:45AM PT Haifaa Al Mansour’s “The Perfect Candidate,” about a Saudi doctor who challenges the patriarchal system in her country by running in municipal elections, has been selected as Saudi Arabia’s contender for the international feature film Oscar. The tale of female empowerment and individualism, which screened at Venice and Toronto, is
October 3, 2019 7:58PM PT “Leaving Las Vegas” director Mike Figgis slammed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Brexit process. “We have a Prime Minister who wants to be Donald Trump, but is a complete fool,” Figgis said Friday in Busan. Figgis is set as competition jury president at the Busan International Film Festival
October 3, 2019 7:00PM PT Marine vets stretch their code of loyalty to the breaking point for a buddy’s civilian brother in this polished but problematic tale. Though such niceties tend to get lost in the blunt language of “hawks” and “doves,” there’s actually a more useful distinction to be drawn when it comes to