From the opening night film through the Orpheus Awards, which will close the event on June 9, women are front and center at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, taking place this week at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Fest opener “Meltem,” a feature directed by Greek-French helmer Basile Doganis, examines the refugee crisis through
Movies
June 4, 2019 10:00PM PT Morena Baccarin (“Homeland,” “Deadpool”) is set to star in “Home Invasion,” a science-fiction comedy series produced by NENT Group’s Brain Academy (“Conspiracy of Silence”). The six-part English language series will also star Johan Glans (“Swedish Dicks”) and John Noble (“Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”). “Home Invasion”
How powerful is Phoenix, a.k.a. Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), the dark and stormy heroine of “Dark Phoenix”? It’s 1992, and on one of her first missions as an X-Woman, she is sent up on the X-Jet, along with the scarlet-haired hellion Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) in his Bono wraparounds, the chivalrous Beast (Nicholas
June 4, 2019 7:32PM PT President Donald Trump sounded off on Twitter Tuesday, calling Bette Midler a “washed up psycho” and “sick scammer” after she apologized for sharing a fake quote attributed to him online. “Washed up psycho @BetteMidler was forced to apologize for a statement she attributed to me that turned out to be
In today’s film news roundup, Jessica Lowndes stars in a romantic comedy, Leslie Linka Glatter and Paul Schrader are honored, Spike Lee is presenting Denzel Washington with AFI’s award, and “Ghost Light” and “Satanic Panic” get acquired. CASTINGS Jessica Lowndes is starring in and executive producing the musically inspired romantic comedy “Over the Moon,” which
June 4, 2019 6:01PM PT Actresses Kimberly Elise and Peppermint have signed with Buchwald for representation. Elise, who made her film debut in F. Gary Grey’s “Set It Off” and starred as Denver in Jonathan Demme’s “Beloved,” can next be seen in Fox’s upcoming sci-fi drama “Ad Astra” alongside Brad Pitt, Ruth Negga, Tommy Lee
June 4, 2019 4:51PM PT Two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali is executive producing and plans to star in prison drama “Solitary” for Fox Searchlight. The specialty label has bought the movie rights to Albert Woodfox’s 2019 memoir about the 43 years he spent in solitary confinement in Louisiana’s Angola Prison. The book’s full title
Kevin, Nick and Joe Jonas are back with a vengeance, and Monday night’s premiere of their documentary “Chasing Happiness” proved it. It was full Jonas Brothers pandemonium outside the Regency Bruin Theatre in Westwood, with fans lining both sides of the street and waiting for hours to catch a glimpse of the reunited band. But
June 4, 2019 1:15PM PT Glen Powell is set to star in the STX comedy “I Want to F*** Your Brother,” sources tell Variety. The pic is a co-production between STX and MWM Studios and a reimagining of the 2007 Black List script that was formerly set up at Paramount. STX Entertainment bought the property
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced today that Lorenzo Soria has been elected president of the organization for the 2019-2020 term. Outgoing president Meher Tatna revealed the news at the HFPA’s annual election meeting. “It’s a privilege to once again be elected to serve as president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” Soria said in
Woody Allen is returning to Spain this summer as production gears up for the director’s 51st film. According to production studio Mediapro, the untitled film, which was first announced in February, will be a “comedy-romance,” following a married American couple who attend the San Sebastian film festival only to fall in love with different people.
A “controlled explosion” on the set of the new James Bond movie injured one person and damaged the stage at Pinewood Studios outside London, the film franchise’s official Twitter account said Tuesday. It was another setback for the production, which already had to deal recently with an injury to Daniel Craig, who hurt his foot
For all of the Hollywood heavyweights — including Quincy Jones, Jamie Foxx, Sean Combs, Chadwick Boseman and Queen Latifah — who flocked to Monday’s premiere of Netflix’s “The Black Godfather” at Paramount Studios, the vibe was more akin to a family affair. That’s literally what this doc about the life and times of pioneering music
June 4, 2019 9:04AM PT Paris prosecutors have announced that they are dropping their rape investigation into actor Gerard Depardieu. They said Tuesday that there was not evidence to back up the allegations made by a young actress who accused Depardieu of assaulting her last August. “The several investigations conducted…didn’t yield proof of the offense,”
On first glance, Clarence Avant’s career highlights seem impressive, if somewhat modest for a man widely known as “the godfather of black music.” Starting as a manager to pianist-composer Lalo Schifrin, he went on to found two important if short-lived independent record labels, serve as a sporadic concert organizer and special events producer, fund-raise for
As co-head of UTA’s Music Crossover division, Maxim Karlik sits at a unique intersection of music, TV and film. Serving as a conduit between UTA’s music clients, TV and film teams and showrunners and directors, Karlik has helped secure original song placements for artists including DJ Khaled (an update on “Friend Like Me” for 2019’s
Gaumont has appointed Courtney Arumugam, a former executive at The Bright Agency, to the post of creative development of animation & family, as it aims to ramp up its presence in the U.K. and beyond. Gaumont opened a London office last year. Under the helm of Nicolas Atlan, the president of Gaumont’s animation & family,
The ninth installment of the “Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies” will be seen in theaters around the world after Trafalgar Releasing signed on as the distribution partner for the annual event. Rhino Entertainment, part of Warner Music Group, oversees Grateful Dead properties. Trafalgar replaces Fathom as its partner on the Grateful Dead event, which
For years, Ari Emanuel has been engineering WME to expand beyond its talent-agency roots into the big leagues of global entertainment, sports, distribution and marketing. WME parent Endeavor’s IPO marks the first time in 40 years that a Hollywood talent agency has opened its books to Wall Street, a move that’s fraught with complications. Case
The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled a competition lineup Tuesday that features entries from countries ranging from Indonesia to Estonia – but not the U.S., which is engaged in an increasingly bitter trade war with China. The omission stands in contrast to past year. Last year, six films in competition had ties to the U.S.
June 4, 2019 1:00AM PT Sony Pictures Television has inked a three-year development and production deal with U.K. producer Nisha Parti. Parti produced the BAFTA-nominated BBC series “The Boy With the Topknot” and Shan Khan’s 2014 feature “Honour.” She will co-develop and co-produce new projects for TV and streaming platforms with SPT, which will take
June 3, 2019 7:51PM PT Trying to escape the dog days of summer by staying inside and streaming a movie or two? This June, Amazon Prime has you covered. Catch a five punch knockout with a quintuplet of “Rocky” movies, get groovy in the summer of ’69 with the time traveling “Austin Powers: International Man
June 3, 2019 6:34PM PT Laura Linney has joined her “Ozark” co-star Jason Bateman in calling for a Hollywood boycott of Georgia over the state’s controversial abortion legislation. At the Netflix premiere of “Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City” on Monday in New York City, Linney said she would not work in the state if
June 3, 2019 6:33PM PT Peter Chernin has followed through on his promise to battle against anti-abortion legislation in Georgia and several other states with a pitch to raise $15 million. Chernin made the plea in an email to top Hollywood executives that he sent recently as a followup to his May 15 announcement that
In today’s film news roundup, documentaries on Mac Miller and the U.S.’s great outdoors are under way, Paramount has promoted Kevin Tsu, Wavelength hires four and “The Muppet Movie” will come back for two days. DOCUMENTARIES LAUNCHED Filmmaker CJ Wallis has announced that his company Margrette Bird Pictures is beginning pre-production on a documentary chronicling
Giles Martin is the man who made you re-meet the Beatles, through his “Love” mashups and “Sgt. Pepper” and White Album remixes. So it made sense that he would be handed another classic catalog — Elton John’s — but this time with the assignment to recreate or completely rethink the songs from scratch. “Rocketman” doesn’t
It is certain that a “Magic 8 Ball” movie is in the works. In fact, you may rely on it. A movie centered on the fortune-telling toy, which dates back to the 1950s, is being developed by Mattel Films and Blumhouse Productions. “Fantasy Island” director Jeff Wadlow is attached to helm and will script with
Korea has dominated the midnight-movie/genre slots at international festivals so thoroughly of late that it’s hard not to view Lee Won-tae’s “The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil” in terms of its shortcomings in comparison to the likes of “Train to Busan,” “The Age of Shadows,” “The Wailing” and so on. But what this fun, slick
June 3, 2019 4:20PM PT Five years after it launched, the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival finished another edition having screened 80 films, with 63 in competitive categories over May 22-26. “A Great Lamp” took the narrative feature prize and with it a $1,000 cash award, $10,000 Panavision Camera rental grant and $10,000 Light Iron post-production
June 3, 2019 4:01PM PT [embedded content] Just can’t wait to hear the animals speak in the “Lion King” live-action reboot? Then you’re in luck. Disney’s new “Lion King” trailer spotlights Beyonce’s Nala talking for the first time. “Simba, you have to take your place as king,” she says. “We need you. Come home.” The