MADRID — Top-rating Spanish broadcast network Mediaset Espana has tapped Ghislain Barrois, CEO of its highly successful film production arm Telecinco Cinema, to head up Mediterraneo, ME’s newly integrated sales-production operation. Ana Bustamante will serve as its managing director. Silvia Cotino will direct its sales and business development. Barrios will remain director of sales and
Movies
March 7, 2019 10:00AM PT Taraji P. Henson and Ed Helms will star in the police drama “Coffee & Kareem” for Netflix. Helms will portray a Detroit cop and Henson will play his girlfriend. He reluctantly teams with her 11-year-old son to clear his name and take down the city’s most ruthless criminal. Michael Dowse
March 7, 2019 8:48AM PT [embedded content] Mindy Kaling tries to rescue Emma Thompson’s career as a prominent late-night talk-show host in the first trailer for Amazon Studios’ comedy “Late Night.” Thompson’s abrasive Katherine Newbury hires Kaling’s Molly Patel as the show’s first female and first person of color writer, then discovers that the network
Disney chairman-CEO Bob Iger told shareholders Thursday the company’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox will close “soon” and that the enlarged company is ready to “hit the ground running.” He also announced an accelerated opening schedule for the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge lands coming to Disneyland and Disney World. Iger addressed shareholders Thursday morning at
March 7, 2019 7:06AM PT “Wedding Crashers” helmer David Dobkin has signed on to direct the Netflix comedy “Eurovision,” with Will Ferrell attached to star. Ferrell is also on board to co-write the script with Andrew Steele. The “Anchorman” star will produce through his Gary Sanchez Productions along with Jessica Elbaum and Chris Henchy. Adam
PLAYBACK is a Variety / iHeartRadio podcast bringing you conversations with the talents behind many of today’s hottest films. New episodes air every Thursday. Saraya-Jade Bevis, better known as WWE Superstar Paige, has seen her life transformed into the new film “Fighting With My Family,” produced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Written and directed by
BORDEAUX, France – Director Salvador Simó (“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles”), production company Submarine and distributor Sola Media have won the Tributes Awards at this year’s Cartoon Movie, Europe’s biggest animated feature co-production and sales forum which closes today in the French port city of Bordeaux. “Buñuel,” Spaniard Simó’s solo feature debut, chronicles
March 7, 2019 4:02AM PT Coming off awards-season success for her role in “The Favourite,” including a BAFTA win and Oscar nomination, Rachel Weisz is set to produce and star in “Lanny,” the movie adaptation of the eponymous Max Porter novel. “Lanny” is Porter’s follow up to his acclaimed first novel, “Grief Is a Thing
The story of groundbreaking British film studio HandMade Films, which was founded by former Beatle George Harrison and made such films as “Monty Python’s Life of Brian,” will be told in “An Accidental Studio,” a feature documentary from AMC U.K. for its international networks. The film will be the first original from AMC U.K. and
BORDEAUX, France — Frédéric Corvez’ Urban Distribution International (UDI) has taken international rights to French animation legend Jean-François Laguionie’s “Slocum” a feature project in development presented at last year’s Cartoon Movie. The sales deal was closed at this year’s Cartoon Movie, Europe’s premier co-production and sales forum for animated features, which is also taking place
In the sensitive, suburbia-set indie “Driveways,” a single mother drags her 8-year-old son cross-country to empty out the house of her packrat older sister, newly deceased. It’s a chore for her, but an opportunity for the kid to do a bit of growing up, courtesy of the Korean War veteran living next door. At first,
UPDATED: The WGA has backpedaled on its previous statement that negotiations between it and Hollywood agents are at an “impasse” after the ATA issued a letter rebuffing the claim that it was withdrawing from the talks. Late Wednesday afternoon, Karen Stuart, executive director of the Association of Talent Agents, said in a letter to WGA
March 6, 2019 3:17PM PT Chinese authorities have cleared Alfonso Cuaron’s Oscar-winning drama “Roma” for theatrical release. China’s National Arthouse Film Alliance confirmed the release on Wednesday, but did not provide a launch date. A poster was released, touting the film’s Academy Awards for directing, cinematography, and foreign-language film on the Chinese site Sina. “Roma”
WarnerMedia is launching an investigation into allegations that Warner Bros. Entertainment chief Kevin Tsujihara had an affair with an actress and subsequently tried to help her land roles in Warner Bros.’ productions. The studio’s parent company was forced to act after the Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday published a lengthy report detailing the history between Tsujihara
As 2019 marches along, Hulu has a couple original series that binge watchers will not want to miss in March. “Shrill,” starring “Saturday Night Live’s” Aidy Bryant, is a body-positive comedy that critiques society’s beauty standards and millennial culture. The entire season drops on March 15. On March 20, fans of true crime will be
March 6, 2019 2:53PM PT Idris Elba is joining the squad. Sources tell Variety that Elba is Warner Bros. choice to replace Will Smith as Deadshot in the “Suicide Squad” sequel. Smith had to bow out of the upcoming DC Comics movie due to scheduling conflicts, and the studio moved fast to find another proven
March 6, 2019 1:34PM PT Joey Gaydos Jr., who played lead guitarist Zack “Zack Attack” Mooneyham in Jack Black’s “School of Rock” band, was arrested by Florida police for stealing guitars and an amp over the past five weeks. The 28-year-old former child actor faces open theft and shoplifting cases in Sarasota, Venice, and North
March 6, 2019 12:12PM PT [embedded content] Netflix’s newest romantic comedy focuses more on the love of three girlfriends than it does the tragic fallout of its stars Gina Rodriguez and LaKeith Stanfield. In a Wednesday trailer for the feature “Someone Great,” we meet music journalist Jenny (Rodriguez), who is forced to move away from
Ali Wong, Jeffrey Wright, Noah Schnapp, and Yo-Yo Ma are featured in the Tribeca Film Festival’s 2019 lineup of immersive, interactive, and virtual reality titles. Projects include a South Carolina school tragedy in “12 Seconds of Gunfire: The True Story of a School Shooting,” Arthur Ashe’s landmark tennis victory in “Ashe ’68,” an exploration of
The ReFrame coalition of industry leaders and IMDBPro have unveiled 20 movies certified as gender-balanced productions among the top 100 box office films released in 2018. The list includes Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” Paramount Pictures’ “Bumblebee,” Fox Searchlight Pictures’ “The Favourite,” STX’s “I Feel Pretty,” Lionsgate’s “The Spy Who Dumped Me,” Fox’s “The Hate
With the March 8 opening of “Captain Marvel,” composer Pinar Toprak becomes the first woman to score a Marvel superhero movie — possibly the most high-profile accomplishment yet for a female in a notoriously male-dominated profession. But the Turkish-born musician isn’t interested in gender comparisons. “No man was ever asked, ‘Do you think you got
March 6, 2019 9:00AM PT The Independent Filmmaker Project, the nonprofit based in Brooklyn that hosts the annual Gotham Awards, has named producer Jeffrey Sharp as its new executive director. He replaces Joana Vicente, who exited her longstanding post last summer to co-head the Toronto Film Festival. “I am tremendously honored to be joining the
March 6, 2019 6:27AM PT “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” will hit theaters on Oct. 18, 2019, Walt Disney Studios announced on Wednesday. The fantasy adventure is moving its release date up by seven months. It had previously been slated to debut on May 29, 2020. The new date pits “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” against an
J.C. Chandor is a gifted anomaly, a writer-director of reality-oriented drama who, until now, has made just three features: the high-finance meltdown thriller “Margin Call” (2011), the Robert-Redford-stranded-at-sea solo adventure “All Is Lost” (2013), and the good-man-gone-bad business/crime tragedy “A Most Violent Year” (2014). Each Chandor film, to me, has been better than the one
The Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (FICG), Mexico’s largest film festival, is further expanding its lineup with the addition of a new competitive animation section in its 34th edition, running March 8 -15. Oscar-winning Guadalajara native Guillermo del Toro has put his heft behind the new section and will also announce the first winner of his
Philadelphia-based indie distributor Breaking Glass Pictures has snagged North American rights to U.K.-educated Cuban filmmaker Rudy Riveron’s debut feature, “Is That You?” (“Eres tu, Papa”). “We are excited to bring a major talent like Riveron to North American audiences,” said Breaking Glass CEO Rich Wolff, adding: “He is a fantastic director and ‘Is That You?’
Zhang Wei, who has been the approachable face of Alibaba Pictures Group in Los Angeles for the past four years, has resigned as president of the company. The move follows a capital reorganization putting separately listed Alibaba Pictures back under majority control of the Alibaba parent company. Zhang’s departure was announced Tuesday evening without fanfare
UPDATED: Zhang Wei, who has been the approachable face of Alibaba Pictures Group in Los Angeles for the past four years, has resigned as a director of the company. She remains its president. The move follows a capital reorganization putting separately listed Alibaba Pictures back under majority control of the Alibaba parent company. Zhang’s departure
In today’s film news roundup, the Library of Congress honors Ken Burns, Anthony Anderson is hosting the NAACP Image Awards, Berlin winner “Piranhas” gets distribution and “The Biggest Little Farm” gets school screenings. BURNS AWARD The Library of Congress, the Better Angels Society and the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation will present an annual documentary award
March 5, 2019 5:32PM PT Lionsgate has set an awards-season release of Dec. 20, 2019, for the untitled Fox News-Roger Ailes sexual harassment film starring Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman. Lionsgate bought the movie after Annapurna decided last October to back out of the project due to budgetary concerns. The cast also includes John Lithgow,