Movies

“The Lion King” is on track to become one of the most successful Disney live-action titles in China, according to local projections. In its Chinese debut Friday, a week ahead of its U.S. premiere, the film brought in $13.4 million (RMB92.6 million) by early evening, including midnight screenings. That already exceeds “Toy Story 4’s” three-day

BARCELONA – LAAB – the Audiovisual Adaptations Laboratory of Barcelona – celebrated its first edition on July 9 in the Spanish city, with the aim of establishing a catalog of film rights to literary works from Barcelona, a publishing center in the Spanish-speaking world and platform, for example, for the ‘60s-70s Latin American Boom, led by

There is no family rift so great that it can’t be bridged with a road trip. So the movies tell us, over and over again, and if it’s not necessarily true, the best examples of this subgenre — call it the road-to-reconciliation movie — take enough of a scenic route that we come to believe

Dropped into the never-ending deluge of films that feature supernatural evil, grandiose comic-book villainy, or mad slashers who might as well be supernatural, “Crawl” devotes itself to a force of terror so stubbornly of this earth that it may strike Saturday-night audiences as faintly exotic. The movie, a scaled-down and waterlogged thriller, is built around

In today’s film news roundup, Kristen Schaal and Holland Taylor have joined the cast of “Bill & Ted Face The Music”; Gravitas sets a pair of release dates; Alamo Drafthouse unveils its “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” plans; and Peter Weir is set for an honor. CASTINGS Kristen Schaal and Holland Taylor have joined

July 11, 2019 3:24PM PT Steven Yeun will executive produce and star in the immigrant drama “Minari” for A24 with shooting starting next week. The Korean native, whose family moved to Michigan when he was five, will star as a Korean father who uproots his family to move to an Arkansas farm in the 1980s.

Critics have been less than welcoming to the return of “The Lion King” 25 years after the original’s release. As of writing, the film holds a rotten score of 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, far below the 93% of the original. Common complaints are the photorealism of the Jon Favreau’s “live-action” adaptation: Where critics adored the

July 11, 2019 2:00PM PT “Welcome Back, Tora-san,” by veteran director Yoji Yamada, has been set as the opening title of this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. The title is a 50th anniversary instalment in the long-running “It’s Tough Being a Man” film franchise. The “It’s Tough Being a Man” (aka “Otoko wa Tsurai yo”)

Leonardo DiCaprio‘s latest eco-documentary “Sea of Shadows” doesn’t shy away from taking on Mexican cartels. “For some of the guys there, he is state enemy number one at the moment,” said producer Wolfgang Knöpfler at the documentary’s premiere on Wednesday night at Neuehouse in Los Angeles. “The cartels don’t like him.” Appian Way and DiCaprio

July 11, 2019 12:30PM PT Woody Harrelson is joining Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the Netflix assassin thriller “Kate,” directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (“The Huntsman: Winter’s War”). The story revolves around a female assassin, who, after being poisoned and given less than 24 hours to live, must go on a manhunt through the streets of Tokyo

July 11, 2019 11:39AM PT The huge blaze that British firefighters extinguished after 15 hours was on a set being used for HBO’s space comedy “Avenue 5.” HBO said production continues, but the team behind the show are left figuring out how to finish shooting the final two installments of the comedy. “The fire at

After years of stubborn stagnation, the percentages of women working in key behind-the-scenes roles on independent films have finally budged. In the period from July 2018 to June 2019, women comprised 33% of directors, up from 29% in 2017-18, and 32% of writers, up from 26% the previous year, according to the latest “Indie Women”

July 11, 2019 9:33AM PT “Rocketman” filmmaker Dexter Fletcher has come on board to direct the latest “Sherlock Holmes” film, with Robert Downey Jr. returning to star. Fletcher is taking over the franchise from Guy Ritchie, who helmed the previous two films: 2009’s “Sherlock Holmes” and its follow-up 2011’s “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.”

In the new horror movie “Crawl,” a pack of enormous alligators invades a sleepy Florida town during a violent hurricane and proceeds to rip the cast apart, limb by limb. These nasty gators aren’t the first critters of their kind to terrify audiences, however. Here’s our list of ravenous reptiles, ranked in order from scariest

Kumail Nanjiani is bulking up. The funnyman has been getting into the shape with the help of a trainer — so much so that a story appears in the latest issue of Men’s Health magazine about Nanjiani and his gym routine. “When I was a kid, I assumed at some point in my life I

Newen, the Paris-based media company owned by TF1 Group, has acquired a majority stake in Reel One, a leading production and licensing company specializing in TV films for the North American and global markets. Based in Montreal with offices in London, Los Angeles and Vancouver, Reel One develops, finances, produces and sells TV films and

Saban Films has acquired U.S. rights to Lorcan Finnegan’s Cannes Critics’ Week feature “Vivarium,” starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots. XYZ Films is handling sales and has also closed deals in a raft of international territories, including the U.K. and France. The U.S. deal was brokered by Saban Films’ Ness Saban, along with CAA Media

From the ecstatic Zulu chant that opens the film — “Nants ingonyama bagithi baba!” — to the thundering drumbeat that ends it, director Jon Favreau’s exhilarating live-action take on “The Lion King” hews closer to the Walt Disney animated masterpiece than any of the studio’s recent remakes. Technically, “live action” is the wrong way to

Jack Reynor, who recently starred in A24’s “Midsommar,” made his directorial debut with the short film “Bainne.” The film’s trailer, which debuted Thursday, shares a brief glimpse into Reynor’s vision, featuring black and white footage of actor Will Poulter in ominous conditions, set in the Irish countryside during the great famine. “I’m really proud of

New South Wales, the Australian state that includes Sydney, is to introduce a post-production, digital and visual effects (PFV) incentive. The new subsidy, worth 10% of spending on post-production, digital and visual effects, can be used by film and TV productions in addition to the existing 30% federal rebate scheme. To qualify, a production must

Homework for Dominic Brigstocke, the director of “Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans,” included watching Monty Python and speaking to “Blackadder” co-creator Richard Curtis as he and the team went about taking a hit kids’ show from the small to big screen. “There’s a great tradition of the British making fun of their history,”

July 11, 2019 4:38AM PT Pinewood Group has pulled out of Iskandar Malaysia Studios, ending a 10-year partnership with the facility’s local backers. Pinewood, which provided its brand, consultancy, and marketing, and the Malaysian studio confirmed the move Thursday. The name of the 124,000-square-foot has now been changed from Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios to Iskandar

Several of the real-life heroes whose actions in rescuing a soccer team from a flooded cave in Thailand made world headlines a year ago this month will play themselves in upcoming movie “The Cave.” They include rescue diver Jim Warny from Belgium, dive instructors Erik Brown from Canada and Mikko Paasi from Finland, and Chinese

The internet in China has exploded with excitement over Disney’s viral new “Mulan” trailer, but some have bemoaned the glaring historical and geographical inaccuracies in the short clip, calling the mashup of unrelated Chinese-looking elements disrespectful. Most on social media were thrilled to catch their first glimpse of mainland-born Crystal Liu Yifei in the titular

July 10, 2019 11:21PM PT Denise Nickerson, best known for her role as Violet Beauregarde in the 1971 version of “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” died Wednesday night after being taken off life support. She was 62. Her family made the announcement on Facebook. “She’s gone,” the message read. Nickerson suffered a severe stroke

In today’s film news roundup, Sarah May Sommers is starring in “American Cherry,” Jason Alexander has signed on to a film, Outfest has a new leader and BAFTA has awarded student prizes. CASTINGS Jason Alexander has joined the cast of “Faith Based,” a comedy from director Vincent Masciale and writer Luke Barnett. The satire of

Dave Bautista’s action comedy “My Spy” has been moved off of its August 23 release date, numerous individuals familiar with the film’s studio, STX Films, told Variety. The family-centric tale about a hardened CIA operative and his unlikely 9-year-old sidekick is seeking a new date in the first quarter of 2020. It could open as

July 10, 2019 3:15PM PT Storm Reid, who starred in “A Wrinkle in Time,” is being eyed for the cast of Warner Bros.’ “The Suicide Squad” as the daughter of Idris Elba’s character. Warner Bros. had no comment. James Gunn is directing the sequel to “Suicide Squad,” the 2016 feature based on the DC Comics

Freddie Jones, the British actor who over a nearly 70-year career played such memorable roles as the sadistic freakshow owner in David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man,” died July 9 in the U.K., according to numerous British media reports. He was 91. The father of actor Toby Jones, he had more recently been appearing on British

July 10, 2019 3:00PM PT David Fincher has signed on to direct his first feature film since 2014, a biopic revolving around “Citizen Kane” screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, with Gary Oldman tapped to play the titular role. The film, titled “Mank,” is based on a script by Fincher’s late father, Jack, who had penned the script