Movies

More than 3,500 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District participated in the second year of Warner Bros.’ storytelling educational initiatives WB Story Lab and WB First Cut during the 2018-19 school year. The studio plans to continue both programs for a third year in partnership with nonprofit orgs Young Storytellers and Ghetto Film

ANNECY  —  In an expansive mode after the huge critical, commercial and Academy Award validation for “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Sony Pictures Animation announced at Annecy on Wednesday that China’s Tencent has boarded Jackie Chan’s “Wish Dragon,” plus a reimagining of “The Boondocks,”  horror series “Hungry Ghosts,” comedy series “Superbago” and two new Genndy Tartakovsky

It’s been almost 22 years since the original “Men in Black” movie hit, which is roughly the amount of time a young woman named Molly has spent wanting to be part of the super-secret alien-wrangling agency which Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have so ably represented until now. Molly was just a child when

Marc Du Pontavice, whose Paris-based company, Xilam, won Cannes Critics’ Week top prize with the animated feature “I Lost My Body,” is set to expand the scope of his listed outfit with new projects directed at adults and teens. Among these projects is a series adaptation of “Monkey Bizness,” the popular French comics created by

Popular Swedish actor Peter Stormare (“The Blacklist,” “Swedish Dicks”) is set to direct, produce and star in “American Runestone,” a documentary series shedding light on the little-known role played by Viking explorers in the discovery of North America. The series’s first two seasons have been commissioned by NENT Group’s Viaplay streaming service. The starting point

Italian animation auteur Alessandro Rak, best known for Neapolitan mob fable “Cinderella The Cat” which launched from Venice in 2017 and competed at Annecy in 2018, is in production on “The Walking Liberty,” a tale partly inspired by the optimistic spirit reflected in the eponymous silver half dollar issued by the Unites States Mint from

June 12, 2019 2:49AM PT BAFTA continues to take its scheduling cue from the Oscars, announcing 2021 and 2022 award dates Wednesday that keep the British ceremony a step ahead of its American counterpart. The British Academy said its 2021 awards would be handed out Feb. 14 and the 2022 awards on Feb. 13. In

Milan-based Dami Just For Kids Factory (“Dummysaurs”) is starting pre-production on “Momon Magic,” a TV series pairing a teenage girl who loves to draw and a small blue dog with supernatural powers that will be based on a book series to be published by Italy’s Giunti Editore in 2020. The 26-episode series – with each

ANNECY– Paris-based sales agent Doc & Film International has picked up international rights to Aurélien Froment’s feature debut “Josep,” which was presented during a packed WIP session at the Annecy Festival on Tuesday. The feature is an emotional and beautifully crafted portrait of Josep Bartolí, the Catalan illustrator, soldier, Hollywood stage designer, and painter who

Bolstered by their country’s recently introduced 30% cash rebate and critical acclaim for animated features “Loving Vincent” and “Another Day of Life,” Polish animators have high hopes for their growing industry as they arrive at the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival this week. With more than 30 animation studios active across the country, and a

June 11, 2019 11:32PM PT Collegiate types mess with a mind-bending malevolent spirit in Elle Callahan’s clever supernatural thriller. While most horror movies settle for the usual slasher thrills, recent indie breakouts like “It Follows” and “Hereditary” have reminded that there are few things more pleasurably creepy than outré psychological horror in a credibly ordinary

ANNECY, France — Announced at this year’s Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival, the Paris-based Gobelins School of Images and Netflix have partnered on a pair of initiatives intended to foster greater equality in animation opportunities available to students. 2019 Gobelins graduate Claire Matz has been selected as the recipient of the first Netflix Animation Fellowship,

ANNECY  —  At Annecy to talk audiences through “Zog,” the latest in a line of hugely popular of painstakingly crafted half-hour films for the BBC and ZDF whose lineage stretches back through “Revolting Rhymes” to the “The Gruffalo,” London-based Magic Light Pictures has confirmed a swathe of sales on its upcoming half-hour, “The Snail and

June 11, 2019 11:00PM PT Previous Annecy Cristal-winner Masaaki Yuasa is set to direct an animated musical fantasy film based on the life of a 14th century Japanese playwright and theater performer. His “Inu-Oh” is being introduced at Annecy’s MIFA market this week and is intended to be completed in 2021. The film is adapted

In today’s film news roundup, Eugenio Derbez is producing “Bad Dog”; “Oblivion Song” and “Just a Normal Tuesday” are in the works, and “The Warrior Queen of Jhansi” finds a home. PROJECTS LAUNCHING Jeff Bushell has sold his script to Lionsgate for “Bad Dog” with Eugenio Derbez and Ben Odell’s 3Pas Studios producing with Point

June 11, 2019 12:00PM PT CAA has promoted 10 employees to agent. Crystal Caicedo, Matt Felker, Ozi Menakaya, and Olivia Owen have been elevated to agents in the agency’s television division. Based in CAA’s Los Angeles office, Felker will serve in scripted television, with Caicedo and Menakaya in international scripted television and Owen in television

Keanu Reeves clearly didn’t know what he was getting himself into. Plans for the star of “John Wick 3” to make a guest appearance in the middle of Microsoft’s Xbox press conference during the annual E3 show in LA this week was a closely held secret. Xbox head Phil Spencer told Variety that a stand-in delivered

June 11, 2019 11:11AM PT Leila Conners’ follow-up to “The 11th Hour” continues to spread the alarm about climate change but this time offers concrete solutions. Twelve years ago, Leonardo DiCaprio teamed up with Leila Conners to blast an environmental wake-up call to the world with “The 11th Hour,” warning of the dire consequences of

ANNECY  —  “·Hello, I’m Margie Cohn, and I am president of DreamWorks….” By that time, as she walked onto the stage at Annecy on Tuesday for a DreamWorks Animation presentation of upcoming titles, DWA president Cohn’s self introduction had been drowned by a barrage of applause and yelps of approbation. It’s hard to underestimate the

Election results are in for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with producer Donna Gigliotti and screenwriter Eric Roth among the newly chosen for the lofty positions that advise and manage the Oscar voting body. Prominent members to win reelection include Laura Dern, Steven Spielberg and Fox Searchlight executive Nancy Utley. The election

ANNECY, France — On Tuesday night at the Annecy Intl. Animation Festival, Netflix held one of its most highly-anticipated panels for one of its most dedicated fan-bases: Netflix Original Anime: A Celebration of Anime and a Look Ahead. Appropriately enough, this year’s festival is honoring Japan and its animation tradition, past and present, as the

Variety is returning to the Riviera for a third year to host its annual Studio at Cannes. This year’s studio is presented by Inscape and iSpot.tv and features thought-leaders in branding, storytelling, and audience engagement. The interviews, which will span three days during the June festival, will uncover trends and strategies in entertainment marketing and

June 11, 2019 9:55AM PT Having upgraded to a slightly bigger, newly built house in L.A.’s Toluca Lake community, reality TV super-producer Dan Cutforth has sold his former home in the secluded Fryman Canyon section of L.A.’s Studio City for $4.1 million. The longtime executive producer of megahits “Top Chef” and “Project Runway” just about

June 11, 2019 9:51AM PT STX Entertainment’s “UglyDolls” is set to hit Chinese theaters on Aug. 8, despite rising tensions between China and the U.S. over their trade war. China’s Alibaba Pictures is a co-producer and co-financier of the film. The movie was originally announced as having a mainland release date of May 31. No

June 11, 2019 9:47AM PT Get ready for the Oscars in 2022. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that the 94th annual Academy Awards will take place on Feb. 27, 2022. The date follows previously announced plans for the 2021 Oscars on Feb. 28 and 2020’s ceremony on Feb. 9. “Timing

ANNECY, France — In a set of back-to-back sessions at this year’s Annecy Intl. Animation Festival, Disney announced a reboot of one of its classic animated series, shared updates on handful of others and reaffirmed its commitment to quality content creation in Europe, Middle East and Africa. The afternoon kicked off with a stand-alone Studio

The Writers Guild of America has flexed its considerable muscle in mounting the campaign to ban talent agencies from collecting packaging fees and expanding corporately into the production-distribution arena. But in doing so, the WGA has exacerbated long-simmering tensions among its members that could handicap future efforts to rally the scribe tribe around guild priorities,

Talk about an odd couple. Former rivals Kevin Reilly and Bob Greenblatt — having now joined forces at AT&T’s WarnerMedia — have begun pitching Hollywood as a united front on the company’s still unnamed, yet-to-be-launched subscription streaming service. It’s a strange alliance, given that the executives were often locked in heated standoffs, back when Greenblatt

June 11, 2019 6:27AM PT [embedded content] Are Elsa’s powers enough to save her kingdom? That’s a question “Frozen 2” will attempt to answer as the Snow Queen (Idina Menzel) ventures beyond Arendelle to embark on a dangerous journey with her sister Anna (Kristen Bell), a friendly snowman Olaf (Josh Gad) and an iceman named

Francis Ford Coppola will receive the honorary Lumiere Award at the upcoming Lumiere festival, which celebrates heritage movies and film masters every year in Lyon, France. Previous recipients of the Lumiere Award include Jane Fonda, Wong Kar-Wai, Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodovar, Clint Eastwood and Quentin Tarantino. The Lumiere Festival, launched by Cannes Film Festival’s artistic