Movies

Incoming Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president David Rubin took his stately new desk today in Los Angeles, and it’s pretty easy to guess his very first order of business — sorting out the Oscars. Variety caught up with the casting director, whose 100-plus film credits include “The English Patient,” “Get Shorty,” and

August 8, 2019 5:05AM PT Paul Williams, ASCAP President and Oscar and Grammy-winning songwriter, and veteran composer Pinar Toprak (“Fortnite,” “Captain Marvel”) will be the keynote speakers at the Production Music Association’s sixth annual Production Music Conference, to be held from Sept. 23-26 at the Loews in Hollywood, Calif. The event features industry leaders and offers panels and networking

With her latest feature, Gallic filmmaker Valérie Donzelli proves that fiction might be stranger than truth – but only just. The “Declaration of War” director was putting the finishing touches on her latest whimsical exploration of Parisian life – about an architect tasked with redesigning the Notre Dame cathedral while dealing with an unexpected pregnancy

John Dick, an architect of Europe’s modern film and TV support systems, died on July 31 from cancer at the age of 63. He is survived by his partner Anne Boillot and two children, Eoin Dick and Emily Sherlock. Most executives at the European Union’s Creative Europe Media Program, its film-TV support program, come and

August 8, 2019 1:12AM PT Revenues for Cineworld were down 11% in the first six months of 2019 compared to the same period last year, despite the strong performance of tentpoles such as “Avengers: Endgame” and “Captain Marvel.” The exhibition giant blamed the drop on the timing of major releases and said it was nonetheless

If you were a kid growing up in the ’80s or ’90s and you read Alvin Schwartz’ 1981 spook-tale collection “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” (or its two sequels, published in 1984 and 1991), you may have felt like the stories added up to your own private “Twilight Zone,” to be consumed with

SAG-AFTRA’s newly executed three-year TV and film contract with Netflix could provide a template for the union’s contract talks with Hollywood’s major studios next year, according to SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris. The performers, writers and directors unions are heading into what are expected to be tough master film and TV contract talks in the coming

Nicolas Cage is opening up about some wild new life stories. In a New York Times Magazine profile, the “National Treasure” actor detailed some of his crazier experiences with dangerous king cobras, his friendship with Johnny Depp and a very literal search for the Holy Grail in Rhode Island. See the biggest talking points from

August 7, 2019 6:39PM PT Universal Pictures is pausing marketing for its upcoming thriller “The Hunt,” following three mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; and Gilroy, California. “Out of sensitivity to the attention on the country’s recent shooting tragedies, Universal Pictures and the filmmakers of ‘The Hunt’ have temporarily paused its marketing campaign

Camila Cabello, Stephan James and Cole Sprouse took center stage as the brightest young talents in the industry converged on h club for the Variety Power of Young Hollywood party presented by Freeform, on Tuesday night. “I’m so excited to be here and the pictures just came out today and he’s so great,” Cabello told

In today’s film news roundup, “I Love Lucy” draws nostalgic fans to theaters, “Desolation Center” is set for release and “What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael” and “American Dharma” are sold. BOX OFFICE  Fathom Events reported a Tuesday night showing of “I Love Lucy: A Colorized Celebration” drew more than 60,000 attendees with an

Waving off reports of potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday, Megan Ellison addressed the staff of her indie film company Annapurna Pictures, saying she has no intention of losing her grip on the pedigreed and financially turbulent studio. While two different reports speculated she and father Larry Ellison are playing hardball with bank lenders over

“Magari” is an Italian word without a precise English-language equivalent: somewhere between “maybe” and “I wish,” backed by a particularly Italian tone of cheerful, shrugging flexibility. It’s the original title of Ginevra Elkann’s sweetly ruminative debut feature, though the more blandly whimsical “If Only” has been chosen as its English moniker, which is neither wrong

When two movie studios launch projects built on a suspiciously similar concept — it could be asteroid-hitting-the-earth thrillers or animated bug comedies, biopics about Truman Capote writing “In Cold Blood” or reboots of classic old monster franchises — it’s sometimes a coincidence and sometimes a case of flat-out imitation (which is the nice word for

For the eighth year in a row, the Locarno Film Festival is playing host to 12 aspiring film critics from around the world as part of the festival’s annual Critics Academy initiative. Featuring participants from Switzerland, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Mexico, the U.S, the U.K., Nigeria and Czech Republic, the latest edition of the Locarno Critics

Call it an end of summer box office dump, but busy movie theater marquees are about to get even more crowded. That’s because five films — Disney-Fox’s tear-jerker “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” Warner Bros. and New Line’s heist thriller “The Kitchen,” Paramount’s kiddy pic “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” Lionsgate,

AMC Theatres’ Stubs A-List program, which allows customers to see three movies a week for $19.95 a month, has hit 900,000 subscribers. That figure is far ahead of the original projection, announced 14 months ago, for 500,000 Stubs subscribers by the end of its first year. AMC launched the program as a means to combat

August 7, 2019 12:07PM PT Wesley Snipes has signed on to appear in Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America” sequel as an African general. “Hustle & Flow” helmer Craig Brewer is directing the project with Murphy, Kevin Misher, and Kenya Barris producing. The 1988 original movie, directed by John Landis, starred Murphy as the charming African prince Akeem,

Joel Fry is set to play Jasper in Disney’s “Cruella,” a live-action origin story based on the classic “101 Dalmatians” villain Cruella de Vil. In the original cartoon, Jasper was one of the bumbling crooks who along with his cohort Horace, kidnapped the 101 dalmatians for Cruela Dev Vil. Paul Walter Hauser will be playing

August 7, 2019 10:24AM PT [embedded content] The creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky Addams family are embracing the terrors of New Jersey in the first trailer for MGM’s cartooned remake of the classic horror series. The new footage begins with Morticia Addams (voiced by Charlize Theron) enjoying a stormy morning before waking her children,

Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss play women who take over their husbands’ criminal business in Warner Bros.’ “The Kitchen,” adapted from the DC/Vertigo comic book series by Andrea Berloff, who also directed. Costume designer Sarah Edwards and prop master David Schanker used their skills to create a supporting parallel story for the characters that evoked the look and

The annual Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival is celebrating its 15th anniversary. Running Aug. 8-17, the shorts film fest brings together premium story creators, top-flight industry leaders and dynamic companies, launching filmmakers into the next stages of their careers. “We had submissions from 80 countries this year. The event has truly become an explosion of phenomenal

MADRID —  Buenos Aires-based Meikincine Entertainment has acquired world sales rights outside Argentina to “Los Sonambulos” (“The Sleepwalkers”), just confirmed by the Toronto Film Festival as one of the films in its 2019 Platform competition. After world premiering at Toronto, “The Sleepwalkers” segues for its European first night at the San Sebastián Horizontes Latinos, a

China’s spat with Taiwan over the prestigious Golden Horse film awards has escalated, with mainland productions and stars being ordered to boycott the ceremony and some Hong Kong companies and celebrities reportedly pulling out as well. China’s state-run CCTV announced on its official Weibo site Wednesday that the China Film Administration had banned local films

MADRID —   Film Factory Entertainment, a premiere sales agent of Spanish-language films, has acquired sales rights to the U.S., Europe and Asia on Federico Veiroj’s “Asi habló el cambista” (“The Moneychanger”) which has just been announced as one of the 12 titles playing Toronto’s prestigious Platform program. Buena Vista Intl. will release “The Moneychanger”

After a competitive bid negotiation, recently launched Imagine Kids & Family has won the film adaptation rights to Lindsay Leavitt’s romantic comedy novel “Going Vintage.” Kara Holden, whose credits include “Carrie Pilby” and “Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life,” will pen the adaptation.  The film will be produced by Imagine Kids+Family President Stephanie Sperber,

South Korean boy band BTS has set another record with a concert film, with “Bring the Soul: The Movie” heading into 110 countries, the widest-ever event cinema release. Big Hit Entertainment and Trafalgar Releasing are releasing the film from Wednesday, with the majority of screenings running through Sunday. The concert film follows the hugely successful

California’s newly named film commissioner is thinking big. Colleen Bell wants to expand the state’s production tax credit program beyond its current annual allocation of $330 million — which was tripled in size in 2014 to compete effectively with New York and Georgia, then extended a year ago to 2025 with a credit of up

August 7, 2019 5:20AM PT William McGregor’s abundantly atmospheric debut isn’t quite the gothic shocker it appears to be, but it finds other ways to unsettle us. Handsomely cloaked in misty menace and heavy weather, an irate wind whistling through every pause in its soundtrack, “Gwen” turns out to be something of a wolf in

MADRID  —  The San Sebastian Film Festival has announced the Zinemaldia Startup Challenge, a new section dedicated to entrepreneurs and new or emerging startups proposing novel technologies meant to impact the audiovisual industry. Nine European countries were responsible for 32 submissions received in this, the event’s inaugural campaign. Of the lot, five virtual reality, augmented