Labor Day is around the corner and following the start of the new month, Netflix will unveil a fresh slate of titles to binge. Revisit the terror in Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” or keep up with the adventures of Princess Bean in “Disenchantment Part Two.” Additionally, “Good Boys” fans can re-watch “Superbad,” which
Movies
Oscar-nominated screenwriter Nicholas Kazan has asserted he’s trying to prevent the potential destruction of the Writers Guild of America over its bitter dispute with Hollywood agents. Kazan, who is running for the WGA West board, issued the statement in an email Friday to members. He’s part of the dissident Writers Forward Together slate, which is
August 30, 2019 4:21PM PT By weaving Camille Lepage’s photos into a fictional biopic structure, Boris Lojkine ensures a disturbing immediacy that transcends standardized narrative. Following his strong foray into fiction with “Hope,” director Boris Lojkine goes even further in weaving his documentary origins onto a fictional structure with “Camille,” a powerful biopic of French
Jill Culton, writer and director of “Abominable,” the upcoming animated feature from DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studios has been added to the roster of keynote speakers set for the 20th View Conference in Turin, Italy. The film, about a yeti making his way home to Mount Everest, is set to open Sept. 27 after premiering
“Who is Jean Seberg?” a reporter asks the eponymous movie star midway through “Seberg,” attempting to close a puffy promotional interview for “Paint Your Wagon” with some semblance of personal insight. She doesn’t get to answer, as Seberg’s publicist swiftly calls time on the question: “Let’s just keep it about the movie,” he instructs. It’s
If the Summer Scaries are beginning to creep in, it may be time to start binging a new show to distract yourself from the impending end of vacation season. Luckily, Hulu is among the streaming services with a fresh slate of new content coming next month. Beginning Sept. 1, you’ll be able to stream older
Andrew Horn, a filmmaker and writer for publications including Variety, died of cancer Aug. 24 in Berlin. He was 66. Horn directed the 2004 documentary “The Nomi Song,” about the avant-garde German musician Klaus Nomi, who died from AIDS in 1983. In 2014, he released the documentary “We Are Twisted F–king Sister!” about the popular
Maryam Touzani’s debut feature and Cannes-player “Adam” has been selected as Morocco’s submission to the 2020 Academy Award for best international feature film – the first time that a picture from a woman director has been chosen to represent the country. The pic is co-written and produced by Nabil Ayouch. Touzani previously starred in, and
Nearly six weeks after reports about her relationship with deceased millionaire and accused serial predator Jeffrey Epstein surfaced, Hollywood player Peggy Siegal is back in the mix. A publicist and connector for power players in show business, Wall Street, tech and society, Siegal went dark after losing several high profile gigs thanks to her association
A high-rise in Buenos Aires mysteriously begins to move, afflicting its inhabitants with a strange nausea. The building’s insides are corroded, the cracks in its walls threatening to grow. While the residents on the highest floors live in constant fear of falling, those who live below are afraid to drown — a magical realism-infused allegory
August 30, 2019 11:00AM PT Dennis Quaid and Madalen Mills are joining Queen Latifah in Ray Giarratana’s independent drama “Tiger Rising.” Highland Film Group is handling worldwide sales, which will launch at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. Giarratana adapted the script from Kate DiCamillo’s 2001 New York Times bestselling children’s book of the same name.
Orange Studio has pre-sold Olivier Assayas’ “Wasp Network” – the Cuban spy thriller headlined by Penelope Cruz, Gael Garcia Bernal and Edgar Ramirez – to a number of European territories. Set to world premiere Saturday in competition at the Venice Film Festival, “Wasp Network” centers on the true story of Cuban spies in American territory
John Travolta is a fanatic. The veteran actor stars as nerdy celeb-stalking superfan named Moose in his new thriller, “The Fanatic,” sporting a sleek mullet to play the character. But 25 years ago, the actor famously rocked another iconic hairstyle, the slick ponytail of hitman Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.” The role not
“I don’t separate the man from the art. I think that important aspects of the work emerge in the man.” So said Lucrecia Martel, the Argentine filmmaker and president of this year’s Venice Film Festival jury, when asked at a press conference about “J’Accuse (An Officer and a Spy),” the new Roman Polanski film. Martel
Stanley Nelson’s documentary “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” is playing in U.S. theaters after screening at Sundance. But for the past 30 years Nelson’s films, such as the features “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” and “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities,” have detailed lesser-known stories of
“Buena Vista Social Club” meets “The Year of Living Dangerously” is how director Jared P. Scott pitches “The Great Green Wall,” an eco-documentary that shines a light on one of the world’s most ambitious but unsung initiatives to tackle climate change. The film premieres on Saturday in Venice Days, an independent section running alongside the
MADRID — Latido Films has acquired world sales rights outside Spain to “Historias Lamentables,” the new feature from Javier Fesser, writer-director of “Champions,” an extraordinary sleeper blockbuster in Spain, which earned $23.1 million box office last year at Spanish theaters for Universal Pictures International (UPI). “Champions” also went on to be selected by Spanish Academy
August 29, 2019 11:30PM PT Writer-director Rodney Evans confronts his own escalating blindness by seeking out artists in similar situations in this illuminating doc. There’s a difference between sight and vision, and that line is investigated with illuminating intimacy by “Vision Portraits,” Rodney Evans’ documentary about his struggles — and those of three other artists
Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic’s upcoming drama about a family trapped in war-torn Srebrenica, Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s postwar film chronicling the rise and fall of a mysterious Czech healer, and Luxembourg helmer Jacques Molitor’s tale of a wealthy and bloodthirsty clan of wine-growing lycanthropes are among the projects taking part in this year’s Venice Gap-Financing
The old adage about babies having babies gets markedly grown-up treatment in “Sole,” a crisp, reserved debut feature from Italian writer-director Carlo Sironi that examines the concept of parental instinct from an unusual point of view: that of a directionless young man play-acting the role of fatherhood, and finding himself unexpectedly broody in the process.
As the daughter of refugees who fled Afghanistan for a new life in Iran, Sahraa Karimi never lost touch with her parents’ homeland, whose culture and traditions were kept alive in her Tehran household. But as the years passed, and her pursuit of a career in filmmaking took her to Europe, the distance between Karimi
The Venice Production Bridge, as the Venice Film Festival’s market is known, is kicking off with more producers, distributors and sales agents attending this year — especially from Asia, even though its core remains firmly European. There are roughly 2,400 industry attendees accredited, which is around 200 more than last year. Market chief Pascal Diot
Trailblazing Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour doesn’t want to talk politics. The oil-rich kingdom’s first female director, who in 2012 broke taboos with ”Wadjda,” about a 10-year-old girl who wants to flout the rules and ride a bicycle, is back in Venice with competition pic “The Perfect Candidate.” The new film focuses on a female
Considering how many graphic novels have been adapted into films, it’s curious that only a precious few graphic novelists have ever directed a movie and, when they do, it’s almost always adapted from their own source material. The list practically begins and ends with Frank Miller (“Sin City” and its sequel) and Marjane Satrapi (“Persepolis”
August 29, 2019 9:10PM PT More pulp, please, in this too-tasteful take on a grieving mother turned obsessive stalker. Single mom Lizzie (Noomi Rapace) carpools through an idyllic Melbourne neighborhood with the hedgerows in a blur, which is “Angel of Mine” director Kim Farrant’s way of establishing that this woman on the verge of a
“Leaving Las Vegas” director, Mike Figgis will head the jury of the New Currents competition at the Busan International Film Festival in October. He will be joined by: Karel Och, artistic director of the Karlovy Vary IFF; Samal Yeslyamova, the winner of the best actress award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival 2018 for “Ayka”;
In today’s film news roundup, Carey Mulligan books a Netflix role and “Shottas” and “Lost in America” find homes. CASTING Carey Mulligan is in talks to join Ralph Fiennes in the Netflix period drama “The Dig,” set at the end of World War II. Mulligan will portray a widow who believes her land contains buried
After spending 12 years on his Oscar-nominated drama “Boyhood,” Richard Linklater is ready to try the approach again. Linklater will direct an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” which will be shot over a 20-year period. Beanie Feldstein, Ben Platt and Blake Jenner are set to star in the film for
Jessica Chastain is a prankster. When I sat down with her and her “It: Chapter Two” co-star Sophia Lillis (Chastain plays adult Beverly Marsh, while Lillis reprises her role as the Loser’s Club’s lone female member) for this week’s “The Big Ticket” podcast, Chastain warned me that there was someone under the table who was
Although its inclusion in Venice’s competition has stirred some controversy, Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy” has lured buyers in several key markets ahead of its world premiere on Friday. Since unveiling the film’s first footage at Cannes, Paris-based sales company Playtime has pre-sold it to Japan (Longride); Spain (Caramel Films); Greece (Odeon); Portugal