Now in its seventh and final season, Netflix’s landmark prison drama “Orange Is The New Black” is almost as big a hit in France as it is in the U.S., according to data-analysis firm Parrot Analytics. France is the show’s No. 1 non-English-speaking market for the second consecutive year on a per-capita basis, the firm
Movies
July 31, 2019 2:50AM PT A lawyer for Kyoto Animation has confirmed that someone with the same first and last name as arson suspect Shinji Aoba submitted a work to the company’s novel contest. Aoba’s reported motivation for the July 18 arson attack on the company’s three-story No. 1 studio was that Kyoto Animation, familiarly
One of my favorite moments in movies comes midway through “My Dinner with Andre,” when Wallace Shawn explains to his dinner-and-conversation companion, Andre Gregory, why it would be foolish to try and scale Mount Everest as a way of experiencing life anew. If you could truly see everything that’s going on around you, says Shawn,
The Locarno Film Festival has recruited prominent French indie producer Rita Dagher along with Amazon Studios’ former head of distribution Bob Berney, and CAA agent Maren Olson as keynote speakers for its annual StepIn think tank, which will thrash out some of the most pressing issues preoccupying the independent film community. “What Are We Afraid
Berlinale Silver Bear winner Angela Schanelec is prepping her latest feature film, the follow-up to “I Was At Home, But…,” which earned her best director honors at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. The new project, “Music,” will be pitched next month at the Locarno Film Festival. “Music” is a modern-day retelling of the Oedipus myth,
In today’s film news roundup, “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” finds a home, the Saturn Awards land a producer and LA Skins Fest selects five fellows. ACQUISITION Abramorama has bought North American theatrical rights to Stanley Nelson’s documentary “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” and plans releases in August and September. “The story of
July 30, 2019 4:27PM PT Paramount Pictures has ended a creative relationship with one of the iconic executives who put the studio on the map. Robert Evans served as the president of production at the Hollywood-based company, now owned by Viacom, in the late ’60s and early ’70s and transitioned to a production deal in
Universal’s “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” races into theaters this weekend. The big-budget, rock ’em, sock ’em ode to speedy cars and bulging musculature will test audiences’ continuing appetite for a series that first kicked off nearly two decades ago. On one hand, that association has its benefits. The “Fast & Furious” series
Giant screen producer-exhibitor Imax has reported second quarter earnings and revenues that topped Wall Street expectations, citing strong performances from “Avengers: Endgame” and its Chinese sites. The company, in an announcement Tuesday after the market closed, said it topped consensus estimates on revenues by 6.6% with $104.8 million and on adjusted earnings per share by
July 30, 2019 1:27PM PT Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are in negotiations to direct the “Dungeons & Dragons” movie for Paramount Pictures. They’re replacing Chris McKay, who parted ways with the project to focus on the Skydance pic “Ghost Draft” starring Chris Pratt. The timing works out for the directing duo, as Daley
Turning back the clock 50 years in Los Angeles was no easy task for the crew members behind “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” False fronts were created, vintage dishes were resurrected and historic movie posters were reprinted, but it was the use of actual locations that help make the film a truly immersive experience
Even though the new biopic “Driven” chronicles the worst chapter of John DeLorean’s life, director Nick Hamm believes the engineering prodigy turned disgraced automobile magnate would be delighted with the film. “I think he would probably be quite amused and quite sort of happy,” Hamm told Variety at the movie’s premiere at the ArcLght Cinemas
Universal had been pondering a “Fast & Furious” spin-off for several years, kicking around various ideas. But it was fan reaction to the antagonistic comedic interplay between unlikely allies Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) in the eighth installment of the franchise, 2017’s “The Fate of the Furious,” that finally moved execs
Producing movie after movie with your sister’s ex-husband could easily become awkward. Not so for Hiram Garcia, head of production at Seven Bucks Prods., the company behind a string of box office hits starring WWE Hall of Famer Dwayne Johnson. But then again he and Johnson, once known as “The Rock,” go back decades. “They’ve
In an interview with
July 30, 2019 9:31AM PT A feature film adaptation of Gabriel Bergmoser’s novel ”Sunburnt Country” is in development from “It” producer Roy Lee alongside Jon Berg and Greg Silverman. The story centers on a pair of millennial backpackers who go off-roading in the Australian wilderness and stumble upon a reclusive backwater town where they quickly realize
July 30, 2019 9:26AM PT [embedded content] Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson grapple with their sanity on a deserted isle in the first trailer for A24’s “The Lighthouse.” “The Witch” filmmaker Robert Eggers co-wrote and directed “The Lighthouse.” New footage released Tuesday features a black-and-white whirlwind of entrancing madness led by Dafoe and Pattinson, keepers
July 30, 2019 9:20AM PT Disney’s “The Lion King” roared past another box office milestone, crossing the billion-dollar mark after less than three weeks in theaters. The movie joins “Avengers: Endgame,” “Captain Marvel” and “Aladdin” as the fourth Disney title to surpass $1 billion in global ticket sales this year. It’s yet more evidence of
Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” will be the Centerpiece selection at the 57th New York Film Festival. The news comes just a day after the festival announced that Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” will be its opening night film. Both pictures are being released by Netflix, giving the streaming service two of the most prominent slots for
Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit” has been selected to open the 15th edition of Fantastic Fest on Sept. 19 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Tex. The screening will be the U.S. premiere of “Jojo Rabbit,” described as an “anti-hate satire” in which a lonely young boy growing up in World War II Germany
Sony Pictures movie chief Tom Rothman and I certainly have had our fair share of disagreements over the years, to put it mildly. What do you expect when two alpha personalities clash over a story that one argues is unjust and the other defends as totally sound? But the other night when I called Rothman
July 30, 2019 9:00AM PT Melissa Leo, Michael K. Williams, Jack Kilmer, Frank Grillo and Alice Englert are starring in the independent crime thriller “Body Brokers.” John Swab is directing from his own script about a multibillion dollar drug and alcohol treatment scheme involving former drug addicts and dealers who become millionaires as fly-by-night “body
Months after AT&T agreed to buy Time Warner, senior leaders from HBO, Warner Bros. and Turner flew out to the telecom giant’s headquarters in Dallas to meet their new bosses. They sat in a cavernous conference room configured like a classroom for a series of “AT&T University” presentations. John Stankey, then CEO of AT&T Entertainment
Entertainment agencies PMK-BNC and Rogers & Cowan are joining forces, bringing together a huge client roster of more than 500 actors, musicians, producers, directors, content creators and athletes. “This is a game changing and transformative moment for our agency, and a move that will create significant value and tremendous opportunities for our company and clients
MADRID — The San Sebastian Intl. Film Festival announced at a press conference on Tuesday morning the fourteen projects selected to participate in this year’s Kutxabank New Directors section at the northern Spanish festival. Of the participating films, eight are debuts and six are second works, three of the latter from semi-new filmmakers who previously
Bolivia’s Rodrigo Bellott, after some years dedicated to casting and producing for other directors, has marked his return to filmmaking with the adaptation of his groundbreaking stage play, “Tu Me Manques.” On Sunday Aug. 28, his eponymous bi-lingual film snagged the Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at L.A.’s Outfest where it had its world premiere.
Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Ginevra Elkann’s “Magari” (“If Only”), which world premieres as the opening film at the Locarno Film Festival. The film, described as a “sentimental comedy,” tells the story of three siblings, Alma, Jean and Sebastiano, who live in Paris, in the safe, albeit bizarre, bourgeois world
Sony’s “Pictures Division” made an operating profit of $3 million in the April to June first quarter, on revenue of $1.70 billion. The unit traditionally makes a loss in the first quarter of its Japanese parent’s financial year. The numbers compared with a loss of $69 million on revenue of $1.59 billion in the 2018-19
July 29, 2019 8:16PM PT Data in the server on the first floor of the fire-ravaged Kyoto Animation (“KyoAni”) studio has been recovered intact, according to Japanese media reports. The recovered data includes digitalized key animation drawings. The server was surrounded by four concrete walls that shielded it from fire and water damage. A lawyer
In today’s film news roundup, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” comes back, Aubrey Plaza gets cast in a thriller and the Ruderman Family Foundation honors two series and two movies. RE-RELEASE Fathom Events and Paramount Pictures have scheduled 40th anniversary showings of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” on Sept. 15 and 18. It’s the first