October 3, 2019 6:42PM PT [embedded content] Ian McKellen is up to no good in the new trailer for Warner Bros. upcoming film “The Good Liar.” Based on the novel by Nicholas Searle, the New Line drama follows Roy Courtnay (McKellen), a career con artist who sets his sights on well-to-do widow Betty McLeish (Helen
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Navid Mahmoudi’s Afghanistan-Iran production “Seven and a Half” will have its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival’s ‘A Window on Asian Cinema’ strand. Mahmoud previously wrote and produced “A Few Meters of Love,” which was Aghanistan’s entry to the Oscars in 2014. “Parting,” which he wrote and directed, was the country’s entry in
When director Sam Mendes told frequent collaborator Roger Deakins he wanted to film his upcoming World War I drama “1917” to appear as one continuous take, the renowned cinematographer had just one question: “Why?” It was a valid query, Mendes admits. “I want to step every step with the characters, I want to breathe every
World sales rights to gay drama “Suk Suk” were picked up by Films Boutique, on the eve of the film’s world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival. Directed by Ray Yeung (“Front Cover,” “Cut Sleeve Boys”), “Suk Suk” is the story of two elderly men who have spent all their lives hiding their sexuality,
“Steel Rain” duo Jung Woo-sung and Kwak Do-won are reuniting in political action drama “Summit: Steel Rain.” While the director and key cast from “Steel Rain” remain the same, Lotte Cultureworks has come on board to replace the film’s previous investor-distributor Next Entertainment World. Lotte will be handling the film’s international sales at Busan International
Cinedigm, an independent content distributor and digital platform operator, has acquired North American rights to cross-cultural holiday drama “A New Christmas.” The film will have its world premiere at the Heartland International Film Festival on Oct. 13. Cinedigm plans to release it in North American cinemas, on digital and on demand in December. “A New
The 22nd SCAD Savannah Film Festival has set a program packed with potential awards contenders, including screenings of “Parasite,” “Just Mercy,” “The Report,” “Waves,” “The King,” “Harriet” and “Honey Boy.” The Georgia event kicks off Oct. 26 with opening night film “The Aeronauts,” directed by Tom Harper, and closed Nov. 2 with a gala screening
Japanese-American singer-actress Masumi will make her big screen debut opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers in “Yakuza Princess,” which has completed filming in Brazil. The Japanese-styled thriller also stars Tsuyoshi Ihara (“Letters From Iwo Jima”). “Princess” is an adaptation of a Brazilian graphic novel “Samurai Shiro” by Danilo Beyruth, in which a Japanese gang boss is killed,
Adil Hussain, prominent star of Indian independent cinema, will be present at the Busan International Film Festival as the male lead of two Indian world premieres. In Vijay Jayapal’s “Nirvana Inn,” Hussain headlines alongside Sandhya Mridul (“Bridge”) and Rajshri Deshpande (“Sexy Durga”). At an earlier stage, the film was at the Busan Asian Project Market
Two former students of James Franco’s now-closed acting school filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that the classes existed principally to create a way for Franco and his associates to take advantage of young women. Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal filed the class action complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court, saying that Franco and his
October 3, 2019 1:38PM PT How much direction did Robert Pattinson need to play the heir to the French throne in “The King”? As it turns out, not much — just let him be. “Pretty much in ways that I fully 100% endorse and love, that character is a Robert Pattinson creation,” the film’s director,
Joaquin Phoenix’s controversial “Joker” has pulled in $5.4 million in early international showings and previews for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow. The movie, which won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, has posted its best numbers so far in South Korea, with a $2.3 million opening day. That’s the fourth-best figure for
Derek Kolstad, the scribe behind the “John Wick” series, has found his next big project: adapting the bestselling fantasy series “A Darker Shade of Magic” for Sony and mega-producer Neal Moritz. Moritz’s Original Film and Gerard Butler and Alan Siegel’s G-Base productions acquired the rights to V.E. Schwab’s fantasy series back in 2016. G-Base’s Butler,
October 3, 2019 12:28PM PT The BAFTA Los Angeles board of directors has appointed chief operating officer Matthew Wiseman as CEO. He succeeds Chantal Rickards, as she will return to the U.K. after she completes her four-year term Oct. 31, Wiseman will take the reins beginning Nov. 1. “It is with great honor that I
Cumbersome title aside, “The Horse Thieves: Roads of Time” represents a simple story of fathers and sons, kittens and horses, everyday life and banal death on the steppes of rural Kazakhstan. This highly unusual co-production, co-directed by Kazakh filmmaker Yerlan Nurmukhambetov (“Walnut Tree”) and rising Japanese director Lisa Takeba (“The Pinkie,” “Haruko’s Paranormal Laboraory”), feels
Luxury multiplexes are popping up across New York, offering moviegoers high-end date nights with waiter service and comfortable recliners. Yearning to make an event out of going to the movies, New Yorkers can be sure that these new theaters will give them an evening to remember. The Landmark at 57 West 657 W. 57th St., New
This probably comes as little shock since, until this summer, Gwyneth Paltrow had no idea she appeared in Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” but the actress admitted she’s never seen the 2017 web-slinging adventure. Paltrow, who portrays Pepper Potts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, explained a gaffe that went viral, in which she forgot she had a
Participant and Magnolia Pictures have acquired North American rights to “Collective,” a documentary that followed a team of Romanian reporters who untangle an intricate web of corruption in the wake of a devastating nightclub fire. The film premiered to sterling reviews at the Venice Film Festival and was greeted with similar acclaim when it screened
A strong selection of Indian films is among the highlights of the 21st Mumbai Film Festival. The festival, which runs Oct. 17-24, announced its lineup on Thursday. The festival’s Spotlight strand boasts of five world premieres, including Arati Kadav’s much awaited sci-film “Cargo,” actor Seema Bhargava Pahwa’s directorial debut, the family drama “Ram Prasad Ki
October 3, 2019 5:10AM PT Kim Dong-ho, a co-founder of Busan International Film Festival and one of the best-known figures in Korean cinema, is set to lead the new Gangneung International Film Festival. Kim was recently appointed by the Gangneung city as head of the newly launched film festival. Veteran actor Ahn Sung-ki, who was
Hirokazu Koreeda received the Asian Film Maker of the Year award at the Busan International Film Festival on Thursday – one of the most prestigious prizes in the region. But he has previously said that he felt like “something of an outsider” in the Japanese film industry. Instead of serving an apprenticeship as an AD
After a typhoon wiped out Wednesday evening events in Busan and brought back memories of last year’s drenching, organizers of the Busan International Film Festival must be mighty pleased to have got proceedings under way Thursday largely as planned. Indeed, by the time the opening ceremony got under way around sunset on Thursday the problem
Audiences watching Busan’s opening night film “The Horse Thieves” will get to see a universal and somewhat linear tale of greed, cruelty and man’s uneasy place in nature. Behind the scenes, however, it was a learning and co-operative experience between film makers from different cultures. A rare Kazakhstan-Japan co-production, “Horse Thieves” was co-directed by Yerlan
October 2, 2019 10:03PM PT “Joker” director Todd Phillips insists that the realistic depiction of gruesome violence in the film is anything but irresponsible. “Isn’t it a good thing to put real-world implications on violence?” he said on Wednesday after the New York Film Festival screening of the controversial Warner Bros. movie starring Joaquin Phoenix
In “Born to Be,” Tania Cypriano’s moving and fascinatingly forward-looking documentary about the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery in New York City, we meet a handful of eager, at times desperate folks who are engaged in the existential medical conundrum of doing everything they can to become the people they are. One
In today’s film news roundup, Louisa Krause nabs a role as Billy Crystal’s wife, Jackie Long and Denise Boutte are starring in a romcom, “The Wrong Todd” gets a release and “The Mass Shooting Monologues” begins production. CASTINGS Louisa Krause is set to join the cast of Billy Crystal’s comedy “Here Today,” opposite Tiffany Haddish
If this weekend you’re only seeing one depressing character study about an unemployable, fatherless, antisocial manchild who lives with his sickly mother, is often unattractively shirtless, and eventually decides society must pay violently for his general misery … then you are almost certainly going to “Joker.” As it happens, however, there is an alternative also
Comedian Michelle Buteau is joining Jennifer Lopez in her new comedy “Marry Me.” Owen Wilson, Sarah Silverman and “Game of Thrones” actor John Bradley are also on board to star in the Universal film. Kat Coiro is directing the movie from a script by John Rogers and Tami Sagher, with a rewrite by Harper Dill.
October 2, 2019 4:50PM PT “How to Train Your Dragon” director Dean DeBlois has come on board to direct and produce “Treasure Island” for Universal Pictures and Mandeville. The project is based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 novel about a British boy named Jim Hawkins, who discovers a treasure map with the location of pirate
Twentieth Century Fox committed several safety errors that contributed to the fatal motorcycle crash on the set of “Deadpool 2,” according to a British Columbia workplace safety investigation. Joi Harris, a stunt rider, was killed on Aug. 14, 2017, when she lost control of her motorcycle and crashed into the side of a building in