April 11, 2019 8:40PM PT Mel Gibson’s problem-plagued project finally gets released with an invented director’s name and a minuscule chance of earning much money. Back in 1998 when Simon Winchester’s book “The Professor and the Madman” was published, a film version was already imagined by quite a few reviewers, spurred on not only by
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Hollywood’s major talent agencies have offered to share a portion of the revenue generated from TV and film packaging fees with the WGA to avoid the prospect of thousands of writers firing their agents as early as Saturday. The financial offer was part of a lengthy proposal sent by the Association of Talent Agents to
In today’s film news roundup, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera and Aaron Eckhart get major roles, Donna Langley is a commencement speaker, and the Brittania Awards are set for Oct. 25. CASTINGS Leslie Grace and Melissa Barrera have been cast for the feature adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In The Heights” from “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon
Director Gilles de Maistre had good intentions at heart bringing an animal activist message to the mainstream with “Mia and the White Lion.” The craft and care it took to capture a portrait of a headstrong young girl and her unconventional friendship with a white lion is astounding, considering the filming spanned a few years
DMG Entertainment has fired back against Chris Fenton, the former head of its motion picture group who filed a $30 million breach of contract suit in February. In a counterclaim, DMG blasts Fenton as a disloyal employee who advanced his own interests at the company’s expense. The suit alleges that Fenton “cultivated his persona of
Disney has thrown down the content gauntlet. The company capped a three and a half hour investor presentation on its plans to move aggressively into the direct-to-consumer arena Thursday with news that produced gasps from the roughly 250 Wall Street analysts and reporters in the room. The $6.99 monthly price of its cornerstone Disney Plus
Sterling Van Wagenen, who co-founded the Sundance Film Festival, has been charged with felony aggravated sexual abuse by the Salt Lake City District Attorney’s office. The Sundance Institute issued a statement denouncing Van Wagenen and said he has not been connected to the festival since 1993. “Recent reports in the press have made us aware
Disney+ will launch in the U.S. on Nov. 12, 2019, and will cost $6.99 per month, the company announced — nearly half Netflix’s standard $12.99 plan. The subscription VOD service represents Disney’s next major foray into the video-streaming wars. By pricing it well below Netflix, the Mouse House is betting it can rapidly drive up
Amber Heard has recounted years of abuse she endured by her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, in new court documents filed in response to his $50 million defamation lawsuit against her. The actress referred to Depp as “the Monster” multiple times in the court filings and claimed he wouldn’t remember the abuse due to his excessive drinking
April 11, 2019 4:19PM PT Hip-hop artist and producer DJ Quik is the latest star to become involved in the forthcoming indie movie “John Henry” with Terry Crews and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges. The rapper will produce an original soundtrack for the feature film and also serve as executive producer. The film, from first-time movie director
Describing a movie as “sweet” may be interpreted by some as damnation with the faintest praise. But, really, there is no more appropriate adjective for “Olympic Dreams,” an engagingly wistful dramedy about opposites attracted while adrift far from home. Set against the backdrop of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where indie
MGM announced this week that it expects a 40% decline in earnings in 2019 as it invests in its Epix Now streaming service. The company said in February that it would launch Epix Now at $5.99 per month, joining other premium channels that have already rolled out over-the-top services. In order to attract subscribers, Epix
April 11, 2019 3:16PM PT Michael Keaton is attached to star in “Goodrich,” with Amy Pascal producing and Hallie Meyers-Shyer directing from her own script. The story centers on a man named Andy Goodrich in the aftermath of his second wife leaving him. He is faced with taking care of their 9-year-old twins and has
The Hollywood Women’s Film Institute will launch its inaugural film festival with “Why Not Choose Love? A Mary Pickford Manifesto” as its opening title, Variety has learned exclusively. The Mary Pickford biopic, starring Sophie Kennedy Clark as the iconic actress, will screen on June 13 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in
April 11, 2019 10:05AM PT [embedded content] Universal Pictures is celebrating National Pet Day by dropping a new trailer for “The Secret Life of Pets 2,” highlighting the “emotional” side of our furry friends. The footage shows the terrier Max, voiced by Patton Oswalt, being taken to the vet by his owner (Ellie Kemper) due
PANAMA CITY — “The main problem is how to reach audiences beyond festivals,” says the Locarno Festival’s Nadia Dresti. The Locarno Industry Academy, which now boasts a network of events outside the Swiss city, aims to help a budding new generation of distribution, sales, exhibition and programming execs to develop answers. IFF Panama and
In the upcoming comedy “Little,” Regina Hall stars as the alpha adult version of the character and Marsai Martin (“Black-ish”) is her 13-year-old bespectacled inner nerd. The movie is already garnering attention because it turned Martin into Hollywood’s youngest executive producer. Will Packer, another exec producer on the film, helped Martin make history and is
Mark Wahlberg, Connie Britton and Reid Miller are set to star in “Monsters and Men” helmer Reinaldo Marcus Green’s drama “Good Joe Bell,” from “Brokeback Mountain” screenwriters Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry. Wahlberg will play real-life Oregonian father Joe Bell, who sets out on a walk across the United States with his son, Jadin (Miller).
PANAMA CITY — A journey is a common metaphor for storytelling and Mexican director Lila Avilés thinks that the experiences she had gained from traveling to 43 festivals in six months with “The Chambermaid” constitute a key formative period, that will shape her future projects. She sees herself as an “outsider” and self-taught when it
Ana Isabel Bustamante’s “La Asfixia” has won IFF Panama’s 1st Fipresci prize for fest film in the “Stories from Central America and the Caribbean” section. The jury, constituted by Joel del Río, from Cuba, José Teodoro, from Canada, and Daniel Domínguez, from Panama, said that they were impressed by the film’s “exploration of the language of
War is coming to Tribeca Film Festival, specifically World War I delivered through an immersive experience that combines the technology of virtual reality, haptic feedback, and special effects with the physical sets of a theater and voice talents of a famed podcaster. “War Remains,” which debuts at Tribeca later this month, was created by MWM
PANAMA CITY — Posting a record in admissions, said festival director Pituka Ortega Heilbron, the 8th IFF Panama wrapped Wednesday with the closing film “The Sentence,” screened in the presence of actor Edward James Olmos. Gustavo Pizzi’s “Benzinho” won best Ibero-American fiction film, Mauro Colombo’s “Tierra Adentro” Best Documentary, about the endangered jungle on the
April 11, 2019 8:00AM PT On the heels of her Oscar-nominated performance in “The Wife,” Glenn Close has found her follow-up. The actress is set to co-star with Amy Adams in Netflix’s adaptation of “Hillbilly Elegy,” with Ron Howard on board to direct, Variety has learned. Based on J.D. Vance’s bestselling memoir, the pic is
Could “Avengers: Endgame” be too much of a good thing? There’s no disputing that “Endgame,” Disney and Marvel’s upcoming epic superhero finale, will be a bona fide box office smash when it hits theaters on April 26. However its runtime, testing the bladders of audiences across the globe at three hours and one minute, poses
April 11, 2019 2:13AM PT Actor, film producer and director Hans Isaac has been appointed as chairman of the National Film Development Corp Malaysia (FINAS). He replaces Samsuni Mohd Nor who served as FINAS’s acting chairman for the past four months. Isaac’s appointment was announced on Wednesday by Gobind Singh Deo. the Communications and Multimedia
Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush has won his defamation case against the News Corp.-owned newspaper Daily Telegraph in his home country of Australia. The paper had published a story in which actress Erin Norvill accused Rush of inappropriate sexual behavior during a stage production of “King Lear” in Sydney. Judge Michael Wigney on Thursday called the
This year’s line-up for the Far East Film Festival in Udine includes numerous surprise hits, as well as a diverse selection that mixes the best of Asian commercial cinema with accessible Asian art house. Among the surprise hits are “A Cool Fish” and “Dying to Survive” from mainland China, and “Project Gutenberg,” the Hong Kong
April 10, 2019 8:01PM PT Leaders of the Writers Guild and Hollywood agents are set to resume talks Thursday with a deadline looming to reach a deal over the next two days — or face potential chaos when the weekend starts. The two sides held off on meeting Wednesday after the Association of Talent Agents
For fans that didn’t get enough Donald Glover during his Friday headlining performance at Coachella, Amazon Prime Video is dropping his latest film, “Guava Island,” just after his set. Amazon Studios announced Wednesday that New Regency’s “tropical thriller” “Guava Island,” starring Glover, Rihanna, Nonso Anozie, and “Black Panther” star Letitia Wright will drop Saturday, April
April 10, 2019 6:20PM PT The story’s old-hat but the visuals rock in an Ip Man series spin-off featuring Michelle Yeoh and Dave Bautista. Top-class fighting and fabulous production design overcome the stale plot of “Master Z: Ip Man Legacy,” a 1960s-set spin-off from the hit trilogy about the legendary Wing Chun master who trained