Thematic Entertainment, the Los Angeles and Melbourne-based outfit launched by Chris Hemsworth, has optioned U.S. remake rights to “Bajo la rosa” (“Under the Rose”), Spaniard Josué Ramos’ debut feature. The original psychological thriller was released in 2018 in Spain via arthouse SVOD platform Filmin, and is experiencing a buoyant international roll-out as a completed film,
Movies
Behind-the-scenes featurettes have long enumerated the many obstacles any movie or TV show has had to overcome to reach the theater or TV screen. But few films faced hardships as severe as those overcome by “Driven,” the real-life hero-to-zero story of automaker John DeLorean (played by Lee Pace) and his misadventures with ex-con pilot-turned-FBI informant
Andrea Berloff brought the horror and trauma of the 9/11 terrorist attack to the silver screen in 2006 as the writer behind “World Trade Center,” starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Peña. In 2015, she showcased N.W.A’s rise to success in “Straight Outta Compton,” earning an original-screenplay Oscar nomination and striking a cultural chord in the
Australian actor Mojean Aria will star in the independent immigrant drama “Thief of Sleep” with filming planned for Scotland in February. Producers include “Jojo Rabbit’s” Chelsea Winstanley and “Beasts of No Nations” executive producer Tommee May through her Come What May Productions. “Thief of Sleep” will be directed by Darwin Serink from a script he
Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to “Scandalous,” a deep dive into the history of the National Enquirer, an influential tabloid that’s covered everything from celebrity breakups to alien landings. Directed by Mark Landsman (“Thunder Soul”), the film looks at the publication’s impact on journalism, culture, and politics. “Scandalous” follows Generoso Pope, Jr., the
Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine is teaming with Scholastic Entertainment for a feature adaptation of Meika Hashimoto’s adventure novel “The Trail.” The movie project is being developed through the eight-month-old Imagine Kids+Family division. Quinn Emmett will write the script. Imagine Kids+Family president Stephanie Sperber, Scholastic Entertainment president Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman will serve
China’s Alibaba Group posted stronger earnings than expected in its first financial quarter thanks to growth in its core e-commerce and cloud computing sectors, reporting Thursday a 42% rise in quarterly revenue. Revenue rose to RMB114.92 billion ($16.3 billion) in the quarter ending June 30, up from last year’s RMB80.92 billion ($11.5 billion). Analysts had
August 15, 2019 4:23AM PT French actress Isabelle Huppert will receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award at the 25th Sarajevo Film Festival, in recognition of her “exceptional contribution to the art of film.” Huppert will receive the award on Aug. 18, at the Raiffeisen Open Air Cinema, ahead of the screening of “Les Misérables.”
Altitude has boarded “The Capote Tapes,” the feature documentary that has never-heard-before interviews with Truman Capote and that will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Altitude will handle international sales on the film, which is directed by Ebs Burnough, a former White House adviser to Michelle Obama. It will co-rep the U.S.
Hassen Ferhani was driving along the trans-Sahara highway in Algeria with his friend and writer Chawki Amari when he found the subject for his next film, “143 rue du desert” (“143 Sahara Street”), which screened this week at the Locarno film festival and has been selected for Toronto. “I wanted to make a road movie,”
August 14, 2019 11:00PM PT This coming-of-age teen drama about four female friendships on the verge of fraying delivers more highs than lows. Four teen girls teeter on the precipice of uncertain futures in Nick Richey’s debut feature, “Low Low,” as the budding auteur’s realistic style nicely complements the precise performances, giving each actor an
What, exactly, are we to make of Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett), the dysfunctional slacker architect with the racing tongue and the porcupine disposition who’s at the center of Richard Linklater’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”? Bernadette lives in a beautiful crumbling mansion, perched on a Seattle hilltop, that she spends her days indolently renovating. Everywhere in
In today’s film news roundup, SXSW winner “Saint Frances” gets a home, Kyle Chandler gets cast, Jeannine Tang gets promoted, and the LA Film School honors its graduates. ACQUISITION Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. rights to SXSW winner “Saint Frances,” written by and starring Kelly O’Sullivan. The film premiered at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival
Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, is responding to director Quentin Tarantino’s latest comments regarding her father’s portrayal in the film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” “He could shut up about it,” she told Variety when asked how Tarantino could rectify the controversy. “That would be really nice. Or he could apologize or he could
August 14, 2019 3:38PM PT Adam McKay, who earned Oscar nominations for producing, directing and writing “Vice,” has pledged that he will shun packaging fees and language in future deals. McKay has been at the center of controversy within the Writers Guild of America West elections following his Aug. 9 assertion that public dissent over
Corinne Foxx walked the carpet with her doting — and selfie-taking — father Jamie Foxx for her film debut, “47 Meters Down: Uncaged,” outside the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood on Tuesday night. “He’s so proud of me, he can’t even look at me without tearing up,” she told reporters about dad’s presence at the
A proposed California tax credit to attract productions that leave a state that’s implementing fetal heartbeat anti-abortion legislation has cleared a key hurdle in the State Senate. The bill, which would cover five years with a $50 million annual allocation, was approved by Senate Governance and Finance Committee and is now headed to the Fiscal Senate
There are few better ways to tell a complicated true-life story than a well-made documentary. From Hulu and Netflix’s competing Fyre Festival documentaries, which both capture the mega-disaster of the exclusive event that never happened, to groundbreaking docuseries that rocked the music industry, like Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” and HBO’s “Leaving Neverland,” 2019 has been
Jillian Bell is a comedic force who steals scenes with a delivery that slides effortlessly between perky and profane. She’s been an unlikely drug dealer in “22 Jump Street,” a shrewd pimp in “Office Christmas Party,” even an aunt who gets attacked by a vampire poodle in “Goosebumps.” What she’s never played, however, is the lead role. “A lot
August 14, 2019 9:48AM PT [embedded content] The first official trailer for Bong Joon-ho’s Cannes sensation and Palme d’Or winner “Parasite” has arrived. The trailer opens on the black comedy’s central family who live in poverty in a basement apartment, with the father (Kang-ho Song) flicking a bug from his family’s table. He says to
You can tell from a glance that these are no ordinary horses. Tall, immaculately brushed and each costing tens of thousands of dollars, the 33 thoroughbreds and warmbloods gleam like polished coins in their newly built stables, at odds with the construction cranes and empty housing developments of semirural China around them. Until the “Fengshen
August 14, 2019 9:44AM PT Sophie Cookson is in negotiations to star opposite Mark Wahlberg in Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller “Infinite,” sources tell Variety. Wahlberg took over the role from Chris Evans, who left the project due to scheduling conflicts. “Infinite” is based on D. Eric Maikranz’s novel “The Reincarnationist Papers,” which centers on the
Sistine Stallone is ready to take on the family business, making her acting debut in “47 Meters Down: Uncaged” — though she was more than a little reluctant at first. “Absolutely not. Oh my God, no,” she told Variety when asked if she’d secretly dreamed of becoming an actor. “I still think acting is something
“Crazy Rich Asians” star Henry Golding is in early talks to star in Paramount, Skydance and AllSpark’s “G.I. Joe” spinoff, “Snake Eyes,” sources tell Variety. “The Captain” director Robert Schwentke is helming and Brian Goldner is producing. Evan Spiliotopoulos, who wrote “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” penned the script. Snake Eyes
“The Angry Birds Movie 2,” Sony’s animated sequel based on the phone app and video game, collected $2.6 million when it opened on Tuesday. The follow-up to 2016’s “Angry Birds” got a jump on the weekend and is expected to earn $16 million to $18 million during its fist six days of release. Unless “Angry
In a bid to up its game in the increasingly competitive arena of Spanish-language content, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises has acquired leading Argentine production company, Underground Producciones., the shingle behind such hits as “100 Days to Fall in Love,” “El Marginal” and Argentina’s 2019 International Oscar submission, “The Angel.” The financial terms were not disclosed. Telemundo’s
As pro-democracy, anti-police-brutality protests in Hong Kong enter their 10th week, the political unrest has begun to make itself felt in the entertainment world, with actors and other performers caught up in an increasingly vituperative battle between those who support the demonstrators and those who back the local government and mainland China’s tough stance. One
Academy Award-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins, best known for films such as “Shawshank Redemption” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” will be honored with the Variety Artisan Award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival Tribute Gala. The annual fundraising gala, which will take place on Sept. 9 at the Fairmont Royal York during TIFF, will
Comedy and industry politics mixed Tuesday night at The Hollywood Improv, site of a fundraiser for SAG-AFTRA candidate Matthew Modine and his Membership First slate. “He looks like Hal Holbrook,” Tom Arnold joked. “He’s aged 100 years.” Modine is challenging incumbent SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris and three other candidates for the top elected post at
Facebook is extending Hollywood studios’ ad buys on the social platform with the official launch of two new features – movie reminders and showtimes. The new features are available in the U.S. and the U.K., as a standard part of ad campaigns that studios buy for News Feed. Facebook isn’t charging extra for the reminder