Movies

Riz Ahmed is producing and starring in the music drama “Mughal Mowgli,” which he has co-written with director Bassam Tariq. The spiritual drama follows a British Pakistani rapper who, on the cusp of his first world tour, is struck down by an illness that threatens to derail his big break. Ahmed is producing through his

March 5, 2019 4:47PM PT “Fast and Furious” star Tyrese Gibson is in talks join Jared Leto in “Morbius,” a film based on the Spider-Man villain of the same name. “Safe House” filmmaker Daniel Espinosa will direct the movie. Matt Smith is also on board to appear in the film. Exact details of who Gibson

Universal Pictures, moving ahead with its Rock Hudson biopic “All That Heaven Allows,” is in talks with Richard LaGravenese to write the screenplay. The studio bought the movie rights last year to Mark Griffin’s “All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson.” Greg Berlanti is attached to direct and will produce alongside Sarah Schechter

Steven Spielberg wants the Oscars to stem the tide against the streaming revolution upending Hollywood. The director behind “Schindler’s List” and “Jaws” is putting his considerable weight behind the effort to prevent Netflix from cleaning up at future awards shows. His stance puts him in opposition with many members of the Academy of Motion Picture

March 5, 2019 3:03PM PT Comedic star Tiffany Haddish has inked with UTA. Haddish will next star opposite Rose Byrne and Salma Hayek in the comedy feature “Limited Partners,” as well as alongside Melissa McCarthy and Elisabeth Moss in the crime drama “The Kitchen,” both set to release later this year. Additionally, Haddish will lend

Bracing for a bitter battle with talent agents, the Writers Guild of America is seeking leaders to mobilize its members. WGA West director of member organizing Ann Farriday sent a notice about the efforts on Tuesday afternoon. “If you’re not on a team, and want to stay better informed as the Agency Campaign develops, we

March 5, 2019 2:31PM PT While the words “legendary” and “record store” may fall together a bit oddly for some, one that truly lived up to the billing was New York’s Other Music, which closed in June of 2016 after more than 20 years in business. Renowned for the kind of fringe and hard-to-find and

Reviews of “Captain Marvel” tend to say the same thing: it’s good entertainment, but falls short of recent Marvel titles. The film delivers a political message, but not to the degree of the firebrand subversiveness of “Black Panther.” And it’s an origin story that nicely elaborates on the Marvel mythology, but not to the scale

March 5, 2019 1:00PM PT Last year, a leaked poster for the upcoming “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie horrified many fans by displaying the eponymous mammal’s strangely buff calves. Now, another leak is giving us an even better look at movie Sonic and nobody’s happy — not even the character’s original creator. The leak comes courtesy

New Line Cinema, Sanrio and FlynnPictureCo. are teaming up to develop an English-language film centering on Hello Kitty for the first time in her 45-year history. New Line said the partnership marks the only time Sanrio, the Japanese company behind the toy, has granted film rights to the silent Hello Kitty and friends, including the

“Captain Marvel” is gearing up to recharge the box office. Marvel’s upcoming comic-book adventure starring Brie Larson is heading toward a massive debut, and is expected to earn over $125 million when it launches this weekend across 4,100 North American locations. Some box office sages predict that number could soar north of $145 million over

March 5, 2019 12:42PM PT [embedded content] What if flower crowns were terrifying? The director of “Hereditary,” Ari Aster, is back with another creepy thriller, “Midsommar,” watch the first trailer now. The summer film centers around a vacationing couple in a small Swedish village. The trip starts out slightly idyllic as main character Dani, played

The Tribeca Film Festival has set its full feature slate for 2019, selecting 103 titles including world premieres of films by Jared Leto, Christoph Waltz, and Margot Robbie. The 18th edition of the festival, which runs from April 24 to May 5, will include documentaries from Antoine Fuqua, Werner Herzog, and Abel Ferrara, and music-focused

Now in its 36th year, the Miami Intl. Film Festival continues to reflect the cultural vitality and international mindset of its home city. For festival director Jaie Laplante, the programming’s decidedly global focus is a way of accurately representing the city. “Miami is a very dynamic and cosmopolitan place, really a crossroads between Europe and

March 5, 2019 9:08AM PT Julianne Moore was the belle of the ball on Monday night at the New York premiere of “Gloria Bell.” The Oscar winner expressed her excitement to Variety about collaborating with filmmaker Sebastian Lelio on the U.S. adaptation of his 2013 Chilean film. “I saw the movie and I wanted to

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has tapped former Paramount Pictures executive Katie Martin Kelley as its chief communications officer. Kelley most recently served as publicity consultant for Plan B Entertainment, helping them with the rollout of such recent releases as “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Vice,” and “Beautiful Boy.” She also consulted for Higher Ground Productions. Prior to that,

March 5, 2019 9:00AM PT Hot off their Indie Spirit Award win for best feature for “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Annapurna and Plan B have set their next film project with an adaptation of Alex Michaelides’ best-selling novel “The Silent Patient.” As part of their three-year production pact, the companies have optioned the rights

There’s a lot of fear in the offices that comprise Rupert Murdoch’s and Bob Iger’s media empires. By the middle of March, the majority of the staff at 21st Century Fox will be working under new owners. Many are already staring at an uncertain future, one that will likely include brutal rounds of layoffs. The

What’s your four-legged friend really thinking? Universal Pictures teamed with Snapchat on a unique promo for Illumination Entertainment’s upcoming “The Secret Life of Pets 2” to let Snapchatters get an earful from their furry companions. The studio’s campaign, which launches Tuesday (March 5) on Snapchat, marks the first time Snap has sold a sponsorship for the

By any measure, Kathy Griffin’s comedy tour last year was a big hit. She traveled to 15 countries and played regal venues (such as the Sydney Opera House) as she dished about the devastating fallout from a 2017 photograph in which she posed with a gory mask that looked like Donald Trump’s decapitated head. The

In “Captain Marvel,” Brie Larson radiates an ability that too many comic-book heroes never get the chance to show: the superpower of expression. She plays a Kree warrior, known as Vers (pronounced verse), who has been trained in the familiar comic-book-movie art of kicking cosmic butt (she specializes in leaping and flying martial-arts moves and

March 5, 2019 5:06AM PT Saban Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Danny A. Abeckaser’s “Mob Town,” a drama with “Scream” star David Arquette. The film follows local trooper Ed Croswell (Arquette) as he foils a mafia summit in the rural town of Apalachin, New York and exposes the mob’s brutal tactics to the

The gradual death of celluloid is wistfully mourned in the cine-manic thriller “The Projectionist,” and that’s before it takes on an altogether darker metaphoric resonance — as both physical and psychological projections are spliced in the mind of a lonely traveling cinema manager. The latest feature from prolific young Dominican writer-director José María Cabral —

March 5, 2019 2:12AM PT Greenacre Films, the producer behind Netflix original film “Been So Long,” has inked a first-look deal with Banijay. The U.K. indie has several projects in development with British broadcasters and wants to break into the U.S. scripted market. Under the terms of its first-look deal with Banijay, the company’s distribution

Once considered as a Japanese industry outsider, Hirokazu Kore-eda has thoroughly conquered that insider bastion, the Japan Academy Prizes, scooping eight trophies for his dark family drama “Shoplifters” at the 42nd annual award ceremony on March 1. Among them were best picture and best director honors – with the latter Kore-eda’s second in a row.

Sean Gunn, brother to “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn, confirmed at Monday’s “Captain Marvel” premiere that the third movie is a go. “I don’t know exactly how that’s all gonna work,” he told Variety‘s Marc Malkin when asked whether the film could work without his brother at the helm, “but I feel like

March 4, 2019 5:40PM PT Warner Bros. has moved “Sherlock Holmes 3” back a year, with the studio announcing a Dec. 21, 2021 release date. The studio had originally announced last May that “Sherlock Holmes 3” would open on Christmas Day of 2020 with Robert Downey Jr. reprising his role as the titular British detective

In today’s film news roundup, National Geographic is making a Thai cave rescue movie, AMC has a big weekend at the box office, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s “Fast Color” gets a release date. MOVIE DEVELOPMENT Yet another movie is in the works about last year’s cave rescue in Thailand. National Geographic Documentary Films has greenlit a

March 4, 2019 3:39PM PT Joe Wright is in final negotiations to direct an adaptation of “In the Garden of Beasts” for StudioCanal and Playtone Productions. Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman will produce the pic through Playtone. The company optioned the rights to Erik Larson’s book in 2011, when it was originally set up at

March 4, 2019 2:30PM PT Will Smith will play Richard Williams, the father of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, in the movie “King Richard.” The film, based on a script by Zach Baylin, will center on Richard Williams overcoming hardship, skepticism, controversy, and his own troubled past to instruct his daughters, starting when they