This month, a documentary about Mumbai rapper Divine (a.k.a. Vivian Fernandes), one of the most-streamed Indian independent artists on Spotify, aired not just on Red Bull TV but also Discovery, which reached homes across the subcontinent. “Gully Life: The Story of Divine,” directed by Mumbai-based Akshat Gupt of Supari Studios, is the first of a
Movies
Egyptian film critic Youssef Cherif Rizkallah, who as a TV personality helped promote quality Hollywood and international movies across the Middle East and led the Cairo Film Festival for decades amid frequent political turbulence, has died. He was 76. His death was announced by the Cairo Film Festival. The cause of death was related to
Disney’s “The Lion King” has pounced on the China market — a week ahead of its U.S. release — with a $53.8 million three-day debut that gave it pride of place at the Chinese weekend box office. But the win came against a field of competitors so dismal that the fourth top-performing title hasn’t even
Sydney Australia is to be home to Industrial Light & Magic’s fifth production hub. The Disney-owned special effects company currently has facilities in San Francisco, Vancouver, London and Singapore. The decision to open the Sydney outpost was announced on Monday local time by executive creative director and head of ILM Rob Bredow, ILM executive Luke
July 14, 2019 8:31PM PT Spackman Entertainment is to buy Simplex Films, the Korean early-stage production company behind the upcoming period comedy movie “Jesters: The Game Changers.” Spackman, an investment group with a clutch of Korean film and production businesses, has agreed a $2.43 million (S$3.3 million) all-share purchase price for Simplex. It says the
Drama film, “Dad’s Suit” was named the best narrative feature at the Taipei Film Awards. “Last Year When the Train Passed,” directed by Huang Pang-Chuan, was the winner of the overall grand prize and the best short film award. The awards were presented at Taipei’s Zhongshan Hall, on Saturday. A story of deteriorating health, hope
July 14, 2019 1:23PM PT Entertainment industry royalty rubbed shoulders with the real thing at “The Lion King” premiere in London on Sunday evening. Meghan Markle, the duchess of Sussex, and her husband, Prince Harry, walked the yellow carpet at the Leicester Square premiere, as did a starry lineup from the U.S. and U.K. Among
Like more or less everyone I know, I have no desire to see a single entertainment company take over the future, dominating what had been a movie industry of multiple entities, each one fighting for their slice of your attention span. Disney, the movie studio so powerful that it ate another movie studio, looks, to
“Avengers: Endgame” has broken just about every box office record this year, but there’s at least one film that has managed to surpass a benchmark set by the superhero blockbuster: A24’s “The Farewell” now holds the best per-screen-average of 2019. The comedic drama, directed by Lulu Wang and starring Awkwafina,” generated $351,330 when it opened
Luc Besson’s financially struggling EuropaCorp is to be taken over by the New York investment fund Vine Alternative Investments, its junior lender, Variety has confirmed. EuropaCorp confirmed the talks with Vine on Sunday but declined to comment on the deal because negotiations are ongoing with both Vine and EuropaCorp’s senior lender, JP Morgan, which would
Expectations are generally best kept low for an enterprise like “The Deeper You Dig,” which was crafted almost entirely by the members of an upstate New York family who’ve made several under-the-radar indie features before. But this latest from marital duo Toby Poser and John Adams is neither amateurish nor self-indulgent, even if it does
Scarlett Johansson is speaking out against the backlash regarding recent comments about politically correct casting. “An interview that was recently published has been edited for click bait and is widely taken out of context,” the actress said in a statement, referring to a recent article from the arts and culture publication As If. “The question
Sony’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” is making history overseas, becoming the highest-grossing Spidey film ever at the foreign box office. After 17 days in theaters, the superhero adventure has generated $572.5 million internationally, surpassing the record previously set by “Spider-Man 3” with $555 million. Combined with $274 million in domestic ticket sales, “Spider-Man: Far From
July 14, 2019 9:01AM PT “Avengers: Endgame” is inching closer to ultimate box office glory. Disney and Marvel’s box office leviathan collected another $2.8 million at the global box office this weekend, boosting ticket sales to a massive $2.78 billion worldwide. That puts “Avengers: Endgame” just $7.16 million behind “Avatar’s” all-time record of $2.788 billion.
Sony’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” claimed victory again during its second weekend in theaters, dominating over new releases, Paramount’s gator thriller “Crawl” and Disney’s R-rated comedy “Stuber.” The superhero tentpole collected another $45 million, boosting domestic grosses to $274 million. This weekend’s haul represents a 50% decline in ticket sales from its inaugural outing, a
If you go to film festivals long enough, you end up getting cynical about a few things. For example, it becomes clear that for political reasons, programmers are often pressured to support filmmakers from the country where the fests take place. Instead of getting first dibs on the best of what’s created in their own
July 13, 2019 8:19PM PT Saturday night’s premiere of “Hobbs & Shaw” was brought to a halt following a brief electrical issue in the Dolby Theater. Reports from inside the venue say an electrical grid toward the front of the theater started sparking about 30 minutes into the screening, causing flashes and loud popping sounds
July 13, 2019 10:48AM PT 20th Century Fox released a first look image Saturday of actress Ariana DeBose in the role of Anita for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming “West Side Story.” DeBose first rose to fame as a contestant on “So You Think You Can Dance,” before landing roles in Broadway shows such as Motown the
Syllas Tzoumerkas, one of the filmmakers who formed part of the Greek New Wave, believes young filmmakers should remain defiant against norms and conformity when developing a film language unique to themselves. Speaking during a masterclass at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival entitled “A Very Certain Defiance,” Tzoumerkas told his young audience, participants of European
No matter how many times you hear the story of Bethany Hamilton, the U.S. professional surfing champion whose left arm got bitten off by a tiger shark when she was 13, it exerts an emotional power that can’t be denied. At this point, however, the story is so familiar that it has taken on the
July 12, 2019 3:47PM PT High-octane action is the oder of the day in Herman Yau’s Hong Kong crime drama. Shootouts and car chases are interrupted only by brief bouts of middling melodrama in “The White Storm 2: Drug Lords,” an in-name-only sequel to the 2013 hit about cops involved in the war on drugs.
A sign of the times: France’s National Film Board (CNC) has no president for the first time in its 70-year history. Fredrique Bredin, who was finishing her second three-year term at the end of the week and was running for a third one, exited the institution on Wednesday. Some reports in France claimed that Bredin
Sony’s second weekend of “Spider-Man: Far From Home” is heading for a leading $37 million, easily topping “Toy Story 4,” “Crawl” and “Stuber,” early estimates showed Friday. Disney’s fourth weekend of “Toy Story 4” will finish a distant second with $20 million, followed by the openings of Paramount’s alligator disaster movie “Crawl” with about $12
Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani make an unlikely duo in “Stuber,” an R-rated comedy about a police officer and his Uber driver. But the two connected over the rare chance to star in the film as actors of Asian descent (Baustia is half-Filipino and Nanjiani is Pakistani). “I’ve been stereotyped for a couple different reasons
Anyone who still associates British actor Jamie Bell with his breakout role as a young boy who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer will quickly forget all about “Billy Elliot” after seeing “Skin,” which screened at ArcLight Hollywood on Thursday night. “I was shocked,” the film’s writer-director, Guy Nattiv, told Variety of his leading man’s
(SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you haven’t seen “Spider-Man: Far From Home.”) What happened to the bees during the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s galaxy-shattering snapture? “Spider-Man: Far From Home” writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers brought those kind of important questions straight to Marvel Studios for the most recent Spidey installment. Oh, and they
July 12, 2019 12:35PM PT Another familiar face is returning to the James Bond franchise, as sources confirmed to Variety that Christoph Waltz will reprise his role of the super-villain Blofeld in “Bond 25.” Waltz first appeared in the most recent Bond pic, “Spectre,” as the iconic villain who had previously played by Donald Pleasance,
July 12, 2019 11:39AM PT “The Haunting of Hill House” star Oliver Jackson-Cohen is joining the cast of “The Invisible Man” as the title character for the Blumhouse–Universal Pictures project. “The Invisible Man” is inspired by Universal Pictures’ classic monster character, first portrayed by Claude Rains in the studio’s 1933 movie. The story was based
Crossing the street took months for the crew that turned back the clock 50 years on Hollywood Boulevard for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” Production designer Barbara Ling created false fronts for buildings that were constructed off-site and installed by crane just ahead of the shoot. Set decorator Nancy Haigh described
“Lying and Stealing” is a heist movie of a sort mostly seen in the 1960s, when movies like “Charade” found ingenious thieves played by glamorous stars preying upon the priceless knickknacks of the super-rich on the Riviera, and so forth. Such enterprises usually involved not just A-list personalities but lavish production values — all the