May 8, 2019 10:00AM PT Mel Gibson is attached to play Santa Claus in the independent action comedy feature “Fatman.” Fortitude is handling international sales rights and will introduce the project to international buyers at the Cannes Film Festival, which opens May 14. CAA is handling U.S. sales rights. Scheduled to film in early 2020
Movies
Only a couple years ago, amid the rise of new media players like Netflix and a dip in the U.S. theatrical market, doomsayers began predicting that the big-screen experience had entered its endgame. But after one of the most astonishing weeks in box office history, the upcoming gathering in Cannes of film lovers and executives from
Variety has been given the first-look image from Oscar-nominated director Ildikó Enyedi’s “The Story of My Wife,” starring Palme d’Or winner Léa Seydoux. We spoke to Enyedi about the film, which is being sold at Cannes by Films Boutique. Enyedi’s “On Body and Soul” won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2017 and was Oscar
May 8, 2019 6:34AM PT Bankside will launch international sales at Cannes “Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke will play poet Elizabeth Barrett in “Let Me Count the Ways,” with Bjorn Runge directing the love story from a Paula Milne script. Based on a true story, the film will follow the love affair between poet
Favorite films from Sundance, Berlin and Cannes feature prominently to give a rich competition section at next month’s Sydney Film Festival. The festival run June 5-16, and will open with Rachel Ward’s comedy “Palm Beach.” The competition lineup, announced Wednesday, includes “Synonyms,” winner of the Golden Bear at Berlin for Israel’s Nadav Lapid. From Cannes,
ARRI Media International has boarded WunderWerk’s animated family film “The Ogglies,” based on the hit German children’s book series about a group of creatures with unusual eating habits looking for a new home. Helmed by Jens Møller, whose credits include the “Lego Star Wars” TV series, and Toby Genkel, director of animated hit “Ooops! Noah
Chilean animation producers Lunes Animation Studio has released its highly-acclaimed animated short “Waldo’s Dream” on YouTube, where it can be accessed for free around the world. The short was written and directed by the company’s trio of José Ignacio Navarro Cox, Jorge Campusano and Santiago O’Ryan, who have worked together since meeting in a master
May 8, 2019 4:01AM PT Ryan Reynolds appeared to have found a pirated pre-release copy of “Pokémon Detective Pikachu” — and then made the ill-advised move to share it with his 13 million-plus fans on Twitter. Of course, not really. The “Deadpool” star, who voices the adorable yellow rodent-like creature in the upcoming Warner Bros./Legendary
China Modern Film and Television Development (HK) is to handle international sales of “The Rescue.” The film is a big-budget Chinese action thriller, by smash hit director Dante Lam (“Operation Red Sea,” “Stool Pigeon”) with the bankable Eddie Peng in the lead role. The Hong Kong-based company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Modern Film
Altitude has boarded as international sales agent an as-yet-untitled Led Zeppelin feature documentary, directed by Bernard MacMahon, best-known for “American Epic.” CAA will represent the U.S. rights. The film will be shopped at Cannes. The release of the doc, now in post-production, will coincide with the band’s 50th anniversary. It traces the journeys of the
Blockchain will make a Cannes comeback this year with Jack Dorsey-backed MTonomy pitching an “operating system for the world of film and TV rights.” At the Cannes Film Festival, the company will be providing the technological backbone for the film sales operations of Los Angeles-based sales agent Indie Rights. It will also hold presentations of
Rome-based Fandango Sales has taken world sales on supernatural drama “The Man Without Gravity” toplining Elio Giordano, who in 2010 for his performance in “Our Life” tied with Javier Bardem for the best actor prize in Cannes and is considered among Italy’s top talents. Fandango, which is owned by Italian producer Domenico Procacci and operated by
May 8, 2019 12:01AM PT Horror film “Meander” starring Berenice Marlohe (“Skyfall”) has set August as start date for production. WTFilms will act as sales agent. Written and directed by France’s Mathieu Turi, whose post-apocalyptic debut “Hostile” was a genre film hit, “Meander” had been expected to shoot last year. Turi says that the English-language
May 7, 2019 7:32PM PT “Men in Black: International” will hit Chinese theaters on June 14, the same day as the U.S., Sony Pictures said Wednesday. A spin-off sequel to the first three films in the “Men in Black” franchise, it is directed by F. Gary Gray and stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson as
A pre-teen sleepover, but make it a film festival. L.A’s forthcoming experiential film festival, Rom Com Fest, just announced its 2019 lineup, which includes iconic rom-com favorites such as “Never Been Kissed” and “10 Things I Hate About You.” The event, which will take place at the the Downtown Independent Theater from June 20-23, aims
May 7, 2019 5:53PM PT “Twin Peaks” actor Balthazar Getty is set to star in the suspense thriller “La Flamme Rouge,” sources tell Variety. The pic was written and is being directed by Brent and Derek Maze. The film will mark their feature debut after mainly working in the music video world. The pic is
Billed as the biggest project coming to the Cannes Film Market, where this year big projects currently look to be at a premium, AGC Studios and CAA Media Finance are handling worldwide rights on “Moonfall,” to be directed by Roland Emmerich. Set up at Emmerich’s Centropolis Entertainment, the action-sci-fi “Moonfall” turns on a rag-tag team
May 7, 2019 1:52PM PT Mackenzie Foy and Kate Winslet have come aboard Constantin Film’s contemporary take on “Black Beauty.” Ashley Avis is directing from her own script. “Black Beauty” is based on Anna Sewell’s best-selling novel about the deep and enduring bond between a 17-year-old girl and the wild horse who helps her overcome
Last weekend’s box office charts were a stark reminder of the domination of big-budget blockbusters. With “Avengers: Endgame” once again sucking up all the oxygen in theaters, new releases like “UglyDolls” and “Long Shot” failed to capture a big slice of the box office pie. Only one newcomer, Sony and Screen Gem’s “The Intruder,” was
May 7, 2019 11:49AM PT “Game of Thrones” and “Bodyguard” star Richard Madden is in talks to join Marvel’s “The Eternals.” Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjiani are also on board. Marvel declined to comment on the casting. Madden will be playing Ikaris, a member of the human offshoot race known as the Eternals. Created by
May 7, 2019 11:36AM PT “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman will produce and topline the samurai story “Yasuke,” set in 16th century Japan. “Narcos” co-creator Doug Miro is writing the script, which centers on an African man who arrived in Japan in 1579 in the service of an Italian Jesuit and served under the Japanese
May 7, 2019 11:30AM PT Following her major break in the upcoming Harley Quinn movie, “Birds of Prey,” director Cathy Yan has found her next film: A24’s “Sour Hearts,” based on Jenny Zhang’s debut short-story collection. A24 optioned the collection in 2017 and will produce the pic. Zhang and Yan will co-write the script. The
Nick Robinson (“Love, Simon,” “Everything, Everything,” “Jurassic World” ) will star opposite Kiersey Clemons (“Dope”) in the upcoming feature “The Language of Flowers,” based on the bestselling novel by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, which spent 69 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Award-winning director Michael Mayer (“The Seagull”) is set to direct the Peter Hutchings’ adaptation. Claude Dal Farra, Brice Dal Farra, and Brian Keady of BCDF Pictures serve
Just a few years ago, it would’ve been tough to imagine bankable movie stars such as Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep booking lead roles on TV series. Yet dealmakers arriving in Cannes looking to assemble indie features, while buoyed by a robust economy, are saddled with a painful Achilles’ heel: dozens upon dozens of streaming
Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired U.K. rights to Australian filmmaker Sophie Hyde’s “Animals,” which world premiered at Sundance. The feelgood female friendship drama stars Holliday Grainger (“Cinderella,” “My Cousin Rachel”) and Alia Shawkat (“Transparent,” “Arrested Development”). The film, which is based on the novel of the same name by Emma Jane Unsworth, centers on two young
Moviegoers will have to wait a little longer to return to Pandora. James Cameron’s long-awaited and oft-delayed follow-up to “Avatar” has been pushed back another year. “Avatar 2” will hit theaters on Dec. 17, 2021 instead of Dec. 18, 2020 as originally planned. Its move means that “Avatar 3” will open on Dec. 22, 2023
May 7, 2019 9:00AM PT The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has received a record number of submissions for this year’s Student Film Awards, and for the first time, the Global Student Accommodation will $12,000 grant to student projects on the topic of well-being. Film schools from 38 countries, including Pakistan, South Korea,
Paris-based sales outfit Charades has boarded Pierre Pinaud’s sophomore feature “The Rose Maker,” a comedy with French star Catherine Frot (“The Midwife”), along with “Africa Mia,” a documentary about the birth of Afro-Cuban music, as well as the U.K. drama “Lynn + Lucy.” Pinaud will be directing “The Rose Maker” with the popular French helmer
May 7, 2019 8:00AM PT Sylvester McCoy and Ian Kenny are among several new cast members to have signed on for Maisie Wiliams-starrer “The Owners,” the 1990s-set thriller helmed by Julius Berg from a screenplay by him and Matthieu Gompel. McCoy is best known for a stint as the Doctor in sci-fi series “Doctor Who.”
A century after Georges N. Haddad opened the Arab world’s first movie theater in the heart of downtown Beirut, the Haddad family’s pioneering spirit is at the forefront of the latest new frontier in the dissemination of cinema across the region. These days, Empire Entertainment is a multi-pronged operation with offices in Lebanon, the Gulf,