Movies

Terry Pratchett’s “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents” is set to become the first of the much-loved author’s books to be adapted as an animated movie. The Discworld novel, the 28th in the series and the first for children, has been optioned by Germany-based Ulysses Filmproduktion, which will make the film alongside Ireland’s Cantilever

Bob Dylan doesn’t provide Martin Scorsese with any easy answers regarding his unorthodox 1975 tour of the Northeast and Canada billed as the Rolling Thunder Revue. “I don’t remember any of it,” Dylan says, decades later, in “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese,” the director’s new documentary on the tour. “What

ANNECY, France — As rain dumped down from sky over the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival, the European Animation Awards (EAA) Association held a press conference on Monday to announce details of this year’s third edition. The annual celebration of European animation, more popularly known as the Emiles, will return to Lille for its third,

The Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival, the leading movie event in Central and Eastern Europe, will honor Julianne Moore and Patricia Clarkson at its 54th edition. The actresses will receive the fest’s Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema. Moore, who won an Oscar for “Still Alice” and was Oscar-nominated for four other

In the summer of 1975, in the middle of recording his album “Desire,” Bob Dylan decided that he wanted to go on tour again, but that he also wanted a break. A break from the crowds, from the press scrutiny, maybe even from his own stardom. So in the fall of that year, he launched

In today’s film news roundup, stunt coordinator Shauna Duggins is moving into the director’s chair, an arm-wrestling comedy is heading for the big screen and “Socrates” gets sold. DIRECTOR HIRED Emmy-winning stunt coordinator Shauna Duggins will direct the action drama “Guardian” from  Cory Byam’s script in her directorial debut. Voltage Pictures and Wonderland Sound are

The lead negotiator for Hollywood agents has expressed hope for more negotiations with the Writers Guild of America following their June 7 meeting, though no new talks have been set yet. “Let me be clear that our second offer is a starting place for renewed negotiations – an opportunity to press reset,” said Karen Stuart,

Indian playwright, filmmaker and actor Girish Karnad, star of such films as “Manthan,” “Nishant” and “Swami,” died June 10 in his home in Bengaluru, India. He was 81 and had a “multi-organ failure,” according to reports. Working in alternate regional and Hindi-language films separate from Bollywood, Karnad made a name for himself in the 1970s.

The English title of Gu Xiaogang’s debut film is “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains” which is also the name of one the great treasures of Chinese art: a 14th-century landscape painting by Yuan Dynasty master Huang Gongwang. Especially from a first-timer, reaching for an association this lofty for what is ostensibly an intimate family drama

‘Star Trek’ leading man Chris Pine delighted the crowd at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sunday evening by introducing the trailer for “Love, Antosha,” a documentary about the actor’s late co-star and friend Anton Yelchin. The emotional footage played before a screening of “Star Trek” that commemorated the 10th anniversary of the film’s debut. “Obviously we’re

ANNECY, France – Animation leads live action in terms of gender inclusion, but the statistics are still far from suggesting any parity. That was one main conclusion of the study “Inclusion in Animation – Investigating Opportunities, Challenges, and the Classroom to the C‐Suite Pipeline,” whose presentation kicked off the third Women in Animation World Summit,

June 10, 2019 3:00PM PT The sequel to Guillaume Canet’s Gallic phenomenon is less self-absorbed than the original, but still suffers from excessive length and too many narrative dead ends. To say that ‘Nous finirons ensemble’ suffers from many of the same problems as its predecessor should come as no surprise. “Les petits mouchoirs” (released

June 10, 2019 2:00PM PT Empathetically following a group of black, (mostly) male strippers, director Gene Graham honors a community that finds optimistic release in an unusual outlet. If you were to join Gene Graham’s deeply human documentary “This One’s for the Ladies” as a chatty female character casually prepares heaps of food in her

June 10, 2019 1:50PM PT Netflix has bought distribution to Ubisoft’s “Tom Clancy’s The Division,” a video game adaptation starring Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal. David Leitch, whose credits include “Deadpool 2” and “Hobbs & Shaw,” is directing the project, which was announced Monday at E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Rafe Judkins is

Sam Rockwell is in final negotiations to star in Clint Eastwood’s next drama “The Ballad of Richard Jewell,” sources tell Variety. Eastwood is directing and producing through his Malpaso production banner. Tim Moore, Jessica Meier, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s partners Jennifer Davisson Killoran and Kevin Misher are also producing. The film is a drama based on

Bo Burnham is on his way to Sesame Street. The “Eighth Grade” director is set to contribute songs to a Warner Bros. live-action adaptation of the popular children’s show, which will hit theaters Jan. 15, 2021. “Portlandia” director and co-creator Jonathan Krisel is helming the musical, co-financed by Warner Bros. and MGM. Also attached to

Perhaps there are people unaware that dictatorships torture their citizens. In that case, is the best way to educate them by baldly showing the brutality, from face slams to chest kicks to gut punches? Is there really anything valuable in subjecting viewers — the very few who’ll bother to watch Andrei Cohn’s “Arrest” all the

WarnerMedia has tapped Feigco co-president Jessie Henderson to steer movie development for its nascent streaming service. As exec VP of original feature films, Henderson will oversee development of a range of projects, from kids, family and teen fare to adult-focused titles. She reports to Sarah Aubrey, head of original content for WarnerMedia’s streaming service, which

June 10, 2019 9:00AM PT XYZ Films has launched a management division and hired former Universal executive and ICM agent Peter Van Steemburg. XYZ, which was founded by Nate Bolotin, Nick Spicer, and Aram Tertzakian, said the newly minted division would focus on identifying emerging filmmakers from around the world and working with them to

Studio Ponoc, the hand-drawn animation specialty outlet led by former Studio Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura, will team with the International Olympic Committee to create an animated short to be released ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Games. News of this international collaboration has been timed to mark the opening day of the Annecy Intl. Animation Film

When Disney announced its $71.3 billion acquisition of 20th Century Fox, X-Men was among the film properties that had executives at the Magic Kingdom frothing at the mouth. The historic merger meant that the Fox-owned band of mutant superheroes could reunite with its comic-book brethren in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was the kind of

The fourth edition of Culture Creators’ annual “Innovators and Leaders” Awards Brunch will take place on Friday, June 22 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Recognizing minorities in film, television, music and fashion, the event will honor Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Entertainment Studios, with the Icon Award, and “Black-ish” star

Animation companies are moving haltingly to promote women to key roles producing and directing the films and shows they make, according to a new study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. In the past 12 years, 3% of the directors of animated movies were women, and just one, “Kung Fu Panda 2’s” Jennifer Yuh Nelson,

Renée Zellweger and Sam Rockwell sat down for a chat for Variety’s Actors on Actors. For more, click here. Sam Rockwell and Renée Zellweger both owe a career reinvention to the legendary choreographer and director Bob Fosse. Zellweger cemented her stardom with the 2002 film adaptation of Fosse’s musical “Chicago”; now she’s the latest big-screen superstar to

June 10, 2019 5:41AM PT Gkids has acquired North American rights to Chinese animated feature “White Snake.” The film was released in China earlier this year and this week has its international premier at the Annecy Int’l Animated Film Festival. The company, which has handled multiple Oscar-nominated animated films, plans to release “White Snake” theatrically

“X-Men: Dark Phoenix” may have notched the worst opening weekend in the franchise’s history in the U.S., but it led China’s box office with $32.1 million over the country’s three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday weekend, debuting last Thursday, a day before its U.S. release. The film’s China opening is nearly on par with its $33

ANNECY  —  Three European animation powerhouses – Didier and Damien Brunner’s Folivari, Canal Plus and Studiocanal – are linking to develop “The Baker Street Four,” a premium tween/family animation series marking a striking spin off from the Sherlock Holmes franchise. “My Life as a Zucchini” French producer Blue Spirit will serve as the animation studio,

MADRID  —  It’s no coincidence that Netflix has chosen Annecy, a fairy tale-looking town nestling in the French Alps, to unveil scenes from its first two animated movies; or that Warner Bros. Animation will world premiere at Annecy’s Intl. Animation Film Festival its first Looney Tunes Cartoon; or that Didier Brunner, the doyen of Europe’s

Following in the footsteps of previous honorees Brad Bird and Isao Takahata, French filmmaker Jean-François Laguionie will receive the 2019 Honorary Cristal at the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival, which runs June 10-15. The venerable filmmaker will also be on hand to present his latest offering, “Le Voyage du Prince (The Prince’s Journey),” in a

June 9, 2019 10:49PM PT ANNECY  —  Frédéric Puech, one of the movers and shakers on the French animation scene, has ankled Planet Nemo Animation, the Ankara production-distribution company he founded 15 years ago to create Play Big, a distribution company launched in partnership with Paris and Lille-based services and production entity Something Big. As