September 6, 2019 12:54AM PT Angelina Jolie has given her support to female-led Afghan film “Hava, Maryam, Ayesha,” made by first-time director Sahraa Karimi. The pic, which has its world premiere Friday at the Venice Film Festival, chronicles the lives of, and the difficult choices facing, three Afghan women from different social backgrounds. In a
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September 6, 2019 12:53AM PT In this Canadian neo-noir, a Niagara Falls native returns to her hometown for a funeral and winds up investigating a mystery from her past. The notion of Niagara Falls as more than a tourist trap — as a place where people live and labor into the off-season, when the water
Armando Iannucci believes that modern (British) comedy owes a considerable debt to Charles Dickens, and he should know. Iannucci produces some of the wickedest, and most colorful, laughter to be found on (British) television: “I’m Alan Partridge,” “The Thick of It” and, for export, “Veep.” Dickens, on the other hand, has produced a mostly dreary
Helen Reddy was very far from a one-hit-wonder. Indeed, she had more chart hits than practically any other solo female act of the 1970s. Yet in a way, the song most associated with her feels like it came from an artist who was never heard from before or since. “I Am Woman” arrived exactly as
In today’s film news roundup, Lily James circles a British drama role, “Blackjack: The Jackie Ryan Story” has started production, Laika makes a veteran hire and “Beanpole” and “Just Noise” get distribution. CASTINGS Lily James is in negotiations to join Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes in the British historical drama “Dig,” set up at Netflix.
Actress Carol Lynley, best known for her role in the 1972 film “The Poseidon Adventure,” died at her Pacific Palisades home Tuesday after suffering a heart attack, according to her friend, actor Trent Dolan. She was 77. Lynley began her career as a child model, appearing on the cover of Life magazine at the age
Even with a steady supply of eye-opening documentaries coming out of Syria, we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of the human stories emerging from the country’s ongoing crisis. Two years after his multi-award-winning “Last Men In Aleppo” — co-directed by Steen Johannessen and following a trio from the selfless volunteer rescue collective “The White
Rwanda-born writer Scholastique Mukasonga’s 2012 novel “Notre-Dame du Nil” is not specifically about the 1994 Rwandan genocide but rather how class division, colonialism and economic disparity created a toxic stew of resentment and prejudice that made the genocide possible. By using a Rwandan all-girls Catholic boarding school as her microcosm, she lays out how the
The regular major-festival presence of the films of Robert Guédiguian is a curious, if not wholly unwelcome, anomaly. Amid punchier, more provocative, more aesthetically challenging arthouse titles, his work moves to the calmer rhythms of classical naturalism, in which each new title feels more like a new chapter in a career-spanning novel — or a
David Raboy makes his feature debut with ‘The Giant,” which makes its world premiere in the Toronto festival’s Discovery section. Raboy wrote, directed and edited the atmospheric, suspenseful thriller that also plays with supernatural elements in a hot, humid small southern town. The movie’s journey began in 2010, when Raboy began writing the short “The
September 5, 2019 4:06PM PT Magnolia Pictures has bought worldwide rights to “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band” ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival. The film also marks the first time a Canadian-made documentary will open the festival. Directed by Daniel Roher and executive produced by Martin Scorsese
September 5, 2019 3:40PM PT Veteran film production exec Jon Mone has been named by Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith as co-president of Westbrook Studios and head of motion pictures. “Jon has an exceptional track record that speaks volumes to his creativity, talent relationships and incredible eye for storytelling,” said Westbrook Inc. co-founders Jada
Saban Films has acquired U.S. rights to “Line of Duty,” an action thriller with Aaron Eckhart. The film centers on a disgraced cop (Eckhart) who finds himself in a race against time to find a kidnap victim whose abductor he accidentally killed. The thriller is directed by Steven C. Miller, who previously oversaw “Escape Plan
September 5, 2019 3:16PM PT IFC Films has purchased North American rights to “The True History of the Kelly Gang,” a historical drama that stars Russell Crowe, Nicholas Hoult, and Charlie Hunnam. The film is premiering at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and was considered to be one of the hotter projects looking for
Lech Majewski, the Polish film and theater director and writer, will be the recipient of the Directing Award at the Camerimage International Film Festival, which will take place in Torun, Poland, on Nov. 9-16. Known for helming such films “The Mill and the Cross” and “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” Majewski is a dual U.S.
Fans holding out hope that Spider-Man might be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be disappointed to hear that “for the moment the door is closed,” according to Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra. Speaking at Variety‘s Entertainment & Technology summit, Vinciquerra cryptically added that “it’s a long life,” implying that perhaps in the
September 5, 2019 2:30PM PT Robert Pattinson is set to be honored at the 2019 Mill Valley Film Festival in October for his work in the A24 drama “The Lighthouse.” The presentation will include a special Oct. 5 screening of the film, directed by Robert Eggers and also starring Willem Dafoe. Pattinson, who’s earned rave
Justin Timberlake has signed to star in “Palmer,” SK Global’s upcoming dramatic feature with shooting starting in the late fall. Fisher Stevens is directing. “Green Book” producer Charles B. Wessler will produce alongside SK Global co-CEOs John Penotti and Charlie Corwin. Sidney Kimmel and Daniel Nadler will also produce. SK Global and Nadler will co-finance
Rhombus Media’s Kevin Krikst and Fraser Ash have jointly won the Canadian Media Producers Assn.’s 2019 Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award, it was announced this afternoon at the Indiescreen Awards, the opening event of the Toronto film festival’s industry conference at Glenn Gould Studios. The Toronto-based pair’s latest feature is Albert Shin’s “Clifton Hill,” a
September 5, 2019 1:18PM PT “Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood” is still in theaters, but star Brad Pitt says a mini-series may be on the horizon. After an intimate profile with Pitt appeared in the New York Times this week — revealing the movie star’s thoughts on fame and his struggles with alcoholism –“Times” writer
September 5, 2019 11:47AM PT Matt Damon’s untitled thriller drama, directed by Tom McCarthy, has been scheduled for an awards season release date of Nov. 6, 2020. The project, which had been titled “Stillwater,” centers on an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma who travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter who is in prison for
September 5, 2019 9:43AM PT Amazon Studios has snapped up global rights to the big screen adaptation of “Alice + Freda Forever,” Variety has confirmed. The deal for the film comes as the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off and could signal that the streaming service will be an active buyer. That should be welcome
With the concluding chapter of Stephen King’s “It” remake floating into theaters this week – and with new versions of “Firestarter,” “Salem’s Lot,” and “The Stand” on the horizon – here are 10 terrifying King films that might benefit from a fresh adaptation. The Dead Zone (1983) It’s impossible to imagine another actor playing Johnny
Participant Media has promoted longtime executive Diane Weyermann to the newly created post of chief content officer. In her new role, Weyermann will focus on documentary film and TV, alongside department senior VPs Elise Pearlstein (film) and Miura Kite (TV), while working with CEO David Linde and the company’s newly announced heads of narrative film,
“Spy Kids” and “Predators” producer Elizabeth Avellan has acquired remake rights to supernatural thriller “The Whistler,” pacting with production-distribution Alief which is world premiering “Zana” at Toronto. Gisberg Bermúdez, who co-wrote, directed, co-produced and edited the original movie, will now helm the English-language adaptation. Aiming to launch an English-language franchise, Avellán will produce the remake
Beta Cinema has boarded “Nowhere Special” and will sell the Uberto Pasolini film internationally. “The Full Monty” producer Pasolini directs from his own screenplay. Based on true events, the movie stars James Norton (“McMafia”) as, John, a window cleaner who has dedicated his life to bringing up his son on his own. When John is
There’s a good reason why the upcoming movie “Hustlers” may remind audiences of a Martin Scorsese film. The stripper crime drama, based on a true story and written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, stars Jennifer Lopez as Ramona, a New York City stripper who takes a newbie (Constance Wu) under her wing. But when business
While curating a retrospective on Arab women filmmakers at the TIFF Cinematheque in Toronto earlier this summer, programmer Kiva Reardon considered how the foregrounding of marginalized and underrepresented cinematic voices could make an impact in 2019. “We’ll always have tent-pole, staple retrospectives for big familiar names in North America that tend to be European, white
September 5, 2019 8:15AM PT Variety is returning to the Toronto Film Festival with its annual interview studio in partnership with AT&T. Running from Friday, Sept. 6 to Monday, Sept. 9, the Variety Studio presented by AT&T will include interviews with cast members and directors from the top films premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.
The Afrikaans word “moffie” is South Africa’s answer to “faggot”: an anti-gay slur used liberally and illiberally across the country’s tangle of languages, in casual playground teasing or brutal bigoted assault alike. If it sounds ineffectively soft and silly on the tongue, trust that it can land with the targeted force of a bullet. We