The soon-to-combine Viacom and CBS will be opportunistic about selling content to third parties even as it looks for synergies throughout the enlarged companies. That’s the word from Paramount Pictures chief Jim Gianopulos, who spoke Wednesday at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media Communications and Entertainment conference in Los Angeles. In a wide-ranging Q&A with
Movies
The climate crisis is a frequent visitor to the plot of Hollywood movies, sometimes as a catalyst in disaster pics such as “The Day After Tomorrow,” sometimes as part of an allegory about Mother Earth, as Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky have said is the case in “Mother!” The bombastic depictions of global warming and
Edward Norton found activism an early age. He also directs and stars in detective story “Motherless Brooklyn,” opening Nov. 1. Variety caught up with him as he prepared to hit the festival circuit with the adaptation of the Jonathan Lethem novel. Where did your interest in environmental issues spring from? All of the roots of
Jordan Peele has been selected by BAFTA LA to receive the John Schlessinger Britannia Award for excellence in directing. The filmmaker behind “Us” and “Get Out” is being recognized for his socially relevant work in the horror genre. He will be honored at the Brittania Awards on Oct. 25 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. As
September 11, 2019 8:54AM PT Julia Fidel is the new head of the TV screenings that take place during the Berlin Film Festival. TV has had an increasingly high-profile role at Berlin, with a series of screenings that are open to the public. There are also industry days and a market, which are being re-branded
Months before “Jennifer’s Body” hit multiplexes on Sept. 18, 2009, writer Diablo Cody had a feeling the edgy horror-comedy would tank. And flop it did, despite the screenwriter taking home an Oscar for her debut film “Juno” a year earlier. Cody easily found a studio to finance “Jennifer’s Body” after the success of the Ellen
The campaigning around the Writers Guild of America West’s Sept. 16 election has focused in large part on the intense debate over the guild’s handling of its franchise contract renegotiations with Hollywood’s largest talent agencies. But more than anything, the contest for WGA West officer and board seats has put the spotlight on guild members’
David Goodman has been in the eye of the storm over the Writers Guild of America’s effort to ban talent agencies from collecting packaging fees and launching affiliated production arms. The incumbent WGA West president ran for the job in 2017 with the goal of ending what many see as a conflict of interest inherent
Screenwriter Phyllis Nagy was inspired to run for the presidency of the WGA West out of her frustration over the guild’s impasse with Hollywood’s top talent agencies. Nagy has come to represent the significant number of writers who are urging the guild to seek a negotiated solution to the agency fight, which forced more than
September 11, 2019 3:09AM PT “Independence Day” director Roland Emmerich will be honored with a special tribute at the Zurich Film Festival. The Swiss event will screen a retrospective of Emmerich’s work and give him its “A Tribute to…” award Sept. 29. The screenings will include the director’s debut movie, “The Noah Ark Principle,” which
September 11, 2019 1:23AM PT “Battle of Jangsari,” a Korean war action film with a cast that includes Megan Fox and Choi Min-ho of K-pop boy band SHINee, will be distributed in North America by WellGo USA. The film screened privately for buyers during the Toronto film festival. WellGo plans to release “Jangsari” on Oct.
September 11, 2019 12:57AM PT Personal details inform this sensitive second feature from Singapore writer-director Anthony Chen. With the bittersweet drama “Wet Season,” Singapore writer-director Anthony Chen again proves himself a perceptive observer of life and social class in his tropical nation-state and a sensitive chronicler of issues confronting women. Set during monsoon season, Chen’s
September 11, 2019 12:33AM PT An female religious cult is subservient to its lone male in Malgorzata Szumowska’s visually striking but flawed English-language debut. Movies about religious cults used to be a relatively rare occurrence. They’ve grown more frequent of late, however, surely sending up some kind of emergency flare to illuminate disturbing general cultural
“Synapses,” a Taiwanese family drama directed by Chang Tso-chi, has been set as the opening title of the 2019 edition of the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan. “The Garden of Evening Mists” a Malaysia-set reconciliation drama directed by Taiwan’s Tom Lin Shu-yu will be the closing film. The festival, which runs Nov. 7-24, has
September 10, 2019 10:16PM PT An ex-boxer is caught between family obligations and criminal associations in this gritty West Ireland-set tale. Films set in West Ireland often have a tourist board-certified feel, selling the scenery and quaintness in ways designed to make you ring up your travel agent (if those still existed). But no one
“H is for Happiness” was a popular winner on the first Saturday of September at the CinefestOZ festival in Western Australia. Not only is the picture uplifting — a 12-year-old girl who is inspired by an unusual new boy at her school and challenges herself to mend her broken family – “Happiness” was made locally,
September 10, 2019 8:42PM PT Eddie Murphy, director Craig Brewer and the cast of “Dolemite Is My Name” swung by the Variety Studio over the weekend to talk about their Rudy Ray Moore biopic. When asked about how much progress Hollywood has made since the days Moore, who struggled mightily in the 1970s to get
When you see photographs of Harriet Tubman (and many exist), she appears, in an eerie way, to be staring right at us. Her implacable scowl throws down a gauntlet that cuts across the ages. Cynthia Erivo, the British singer and actress who takes on the title role of “Harriet,” nails that thousand-yard glare with a
September 10, 2019 7:56PM PT Tom Hanks and the team behind “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” dropped by the Variety Studio over the weekend to discuss the new Mr. Rogers film, which premiered to rave reviews out of the Toronto Film Festival. Hanks was asked what he thought Mr. Rogers would say to children
Christian Bale seems extra-pleased with the casting of Robert Pattinson as the next Dark Knight. Speaking to Variety at the Toronto Film Festival on Sunday, Bale gave a thumbs up when asked about Pattinson joining the Bat family. “Good choice! He’s interesting,” Bale said. His “Ford v. Ferrari” co-star, Matt Damon, agreed. “Did you see
In today’s film news roundup, Brian Cox’s “The Etruscan Smile” and meditation documentary “The Portal” find homes and Lin-Manuel Miranda is backing a Spanish-language app. ACQUISITIONS Lightyear Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Brian Cox’s “The Etruscan Smile” and plans an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run in November in New York and Los Angeles. Lightyear is
September 10, 2019 4:40PM PT British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor has joined Mark Wahlberg in Paramount’s action thriller “Infinite,” with Antoine Fuqua directing. “Infinite” is produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian at Di Bonaventura Pictures, and John Zaozirny. John Lee Hancock and Ian Shorr are adapting D. Eric Maikranz’s novel “The Reincarnationist Papers,” which
Lionsgate Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer offered a bullish outlook and pledged to seek an improved Wall Street profile for the company — which has seen its stock lose about half its value over the past year. Feltheimer spoke Tuesday at Lionsgate’s annual shareholders meeting in Vancouver and touted improved performances in film, television, talent management,
September 10, 2019 2:51PM PT The death of a Hasidic man drives the demon who’d haunted him to find a new host in this modest but creepy ‘Jewish horror movie.’ Billed as a “Jewish horror movie,” Keith Thomas’ “The Vigil” doesn’t dive very deep into theology or even specific traditional superstitions in its tale of
Technology entrepreneur Sean Parker has made a “significant” investment in Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital special effects company. Parker and Jackson made the announcement jointly. They did not disclose the size of Parker’s investment or the specific role he would play. “I’ve long admired Peter Jackson’s and Fran Walsh’s work, and the ground-breaking VFX and animation
September 10, 2019 2:19PM PT Leonardo DiCaprio furthers his environmental activism by co-producing this thin sports doc about the Formula E electric motorsport circuit. When asked about the founding of Formula E, a motorsport circuit that uses only electric cars, its current leader, a former Spanish politician named Alejandro Agag, lights a stogie and tells
Nameless cooks hustle in the opening montage of Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s brutalist nightmare “The Platform.” Their kitchen is a blend of the delicate and the savage. A violinist plays as blades rip through fish, and the head chef caresses a dangling ham. When finished, they’ve assembled a still-life masterpiece of lobster, papaya and cake on a
September 10, 2019 12:59PM PT WME is seeking to dismiss the Writers Guild of America’s suit alleging packaging fees are illegal. Lawyers for the agency filed the motion late Monday in federal court in Los Angeles, asserting that the WGA has failed to state a claim under which relief can be granted and that the court
The old line you hear about certain authors — he’s as much of a character as anyone in his books! — doesn’t tend to be true even when we say it. Yet in Truman Capote’s case, it’s virtually an understatement. No character he created on the page ever gave off quite the magnetic damaged resonance
September 10, 2019 11:00AM PT Universal Pictures nabbed rights to “When Michael Met Carrie… and Other People,” a spec script from Meredith Dawson. Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids,” “A Simple Favor”) is attached to produce. Plot details are currently unknown, though the creative team promises it’s a new take on the romantic comedy. Dawson, a protege of