April 17, 2019 3:22PM PT Former head of DreamWorks Animation theatrical marketing Jim Gallagher has joined Warner Bros. Pictures in a newly created role as executive vice president of marketing, animation and family, announced today by Blair Rich, president of worldwide marketing at Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Gallagher will develop innovative
Movies
Luke Perry’s last role will be in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and his co-star Timothy Olyphant got a front-row seat to the late actor’s final performance. Perry, who died this March after suffering a massive stroke, had completed all of his scenes in the upcoming film prior to his sudden death.
With Disney and Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” gearing up to obliterate box office records, the rest of Hollywood is laying low on the film front. “Endgame,” a culmination of sorts for the comic-book empire’s film saga, is expected to suck all the oxygen out of other movie theater auditoriums when it launches on April 26. For
Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who penned the Oscar-nominated script for “Bridesmaids,” are reuniting on the new Lionsgate comedy “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.” Wiig and Mumolo co-wrote and will co-star in the film, which will be directed by Josh Greenbaum. “I’m so excited to be a part of this movie which
There’s a reason why John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress” has stood the test of time: The author’s rich tale of an everyman’s extraordinary journey to find faith is a resonant reminder for believers to never stray from “the straight and narrow” — a message that’s evident from the very first moments of writer-director Robert Fernandez’s
On-location filming in the Greater Los Angeles area declined 9.1% between the first quarters of 2018 and 2019, according to data from FilmLA. A slowdown in the production of feature films, television and commercials contributed to the decrease seen in the first few months of this year. Filmmakers logged 8,843 shoot days from January through
The film and TV industries in New York City have a new boss: Anne del Castillo, who has been tapped by Mayor Bill de Blasio to serve as commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. Del Castillo had served as general counsel and chief operating officer of MOME since 2015. She succeeds Julie
Denise Richards will star in sci-fi action film “Timecrafters.” “Timecrafters: The Treasure of Pirate’s Cove” is the first movie in a planned franchise about time-traveling seamen who try to retrieve a treasure map from kids in a local town called Pirate’s Cove. The travelers, who originally lost the map, have to adapt to new technology
April 17, 2019 11:30AM PT Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy recently confirmed the production company is thinking about developing something related to BioWare’s classic role-playing game “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.” “Knights of the Old Republic, a lot of fans want to see that, is there any development of that?” MTV reporter Josh Horowitz
Keshet Broadcasting has greenlit the second season of its lavish reality show “2025,” which pits 12 contestants against each other in a near-future city constructed from scratch in the Israeli desert. The pilot season, which is having its finale Wednesday, had a solid rookie season. It debuted with respectable ratings, which then dropped for awhile
April 17, 2019 10:58AM PT The time may be now for John Cena to join the “Suicide Squad” sequel. Sources tell Variety that Cena is in talks to join Idris Elba and Margot Robbie in Warner Bros.’ follow-up to 2016’s “Suicide Squad.” Robbie is returning as Harley Quinn and Jai Courtney is back as Captain
Beyoncé is offering up some more “Lemonade.” Variety can exclusively reveal that the audio of Beyoncé’s 65-minute “Lemonade” film will drop across all music streaming services on Tuesday, April 23. The drop marks the third anniversary of the film’s debut on HBO. It’s also the first time all of Bey’s catalog is available for streaming.
What if you could return to a time in your childhood and relive your life from that point knowing what you know now? That’s the fantasy at the core of Universal’s “Little,” released April 12, in which Regina Hall’s Jordan Sanders, a character overwhelmed by the pressures of adulthood, gets the chance to relive the
Jane Rosenthal has a very busy 2019. The CEO and chairwoman of Tribeca Enterprises isn’t just running a major media company — she’s also a prolific producer, whose upcoming projects include Ava DuVernay’s “When They See Us,” a four-part series about the Central Park Five, and “The Irishman,” a Martin Scorsese crime drama. If that weren’t enough,
April 17, 2019 9:30AM PT South Korean cinema exhibition giant CJ CGV is to open its third U.S. multiplex cinema. It will be located in the Downtown area of San Francisco and open in early 2020. The company is retrofitting and transforming an existing theater located at 1000 Van Ness Ave., near San Francisco’s Civic
Revered French actor Alain Delon, who notably starred in Luchino Visconti’s masterpiece “The Leopard,” will receive an honorary Palme d’Or at this year’s 72nd Cannes Film Festival. In receiving the honour from Cannes, Delon will follow the footsteps of Jeanne Moreau, Woody Allen, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jane Fonda, Clint Eastwood, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Manoel de Oliveira, Agnès
April 17, 2019 5:30AM PT Beyonce has dropped a surprise 40-track companion album of her “Homecoming” 2018 Coachella performance to accompany the Netflix documentary about the event that arrived early this morning. The album includes two bonus cuts near the end: “Before I Let Go” and “I Been On.” The former is a cover of
“Fleabag” and “Killing Eve” creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been brought in to polish the script for the next James Bond film, Variety has confirmed. News of Waller-Bridge’s involvement on the currently untitled Bond film, the 25th in the long-running franchise and the fifth to star Daniel Craig, first appeared in Britain’s Observer newspaper on Sunday. A source with knowledge of
Nobody throws a 3 a.m. weeknight party like Beyoncé, who thrilled a pretty substantial portion of the streaming Western world with the Netflix premiere of “Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé” very early Wednesday morning. Bosses and teachers might actually have been shot-term beneficiaries of this sleep-depriver of a premiere: If you didn’t show up at
April 17, 2019 12:01AM PT Project pitching event, Thai Pitch will return to Cannes for the eighth time next month. It will launch three film projects from Thailand seeking international finance, co-production and sales partners.Director, Kongdej Jaturanrasamee (“P-047”) and producer Soros Sukhum (“Wonderful Town”) will pitch “51 Faces of Anne,” about a woman with memory
Filmmaker Roxanne Benjamin spends a tad too much time on the character-establishing setup during the first act of her “Body at Brighton Rock.” Once she has lured her audience into joining her plucky but ill-prepared protagonist into a secluded area of a picturesque state park, however, the first-time director efficiently ratchets up the suspense —
April 16, 2019 3:52PM PT Travis Knight has come on board to direct Warner Bros.’ film adaptation of the classic TV show “Six Billion Dollar Man” with Mark Wahlberg attached to star. Sue Kroll, Bill Gerber and Steve Levinson are producing with Bill DuBuque penning the script. “The Six Billion Dollar Man” is based on
Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC Entertainment, is predicting big things for 2019. The head of the world’s largest exhibition chain is riding high from a record-breaking day of pre-sales on “Avengers: Endgame,” the upcoming Marvel movie that’s expected to debut to north of $250 million when it premieres in April. But Aron believes that
Warren Adler, the novelist, playwright and poet whose novel “The War of the Roses” was adapted into the dark comedy starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, has died. He was 91. His son, David Adler, said that his father died on Monday of complications from liver cancer. Adler was the author of 50 novels, and
Steven Spielberg’s upcoming “West Side Story” remake has announced a cast of Broadway alums — and a few TV dance stars — to fill out the ranks of the new Sharks and Jets. Mike Faist will play Riff, the leader of the Jets. Faist has already starred in the Broadway productions “Dear Evan Hansen” and
There is much to admire but a lot to admonish in “Run This Town,” writer-director Ricky Tollman’s aggressively cluttered drama about ambitious millennials, circulation-famished editors, and other not-so-innocent bystanders who cross paths in Toronto during the scandal-rocked 2010-14 mayorship of Rob Ford. It doesn’t help much that Tollman takes far too long during the rapid-fire
April 16, 2019 1:39PM PT Magnolia Pictures has acquired distribution rights to Merce Cunningham documentary “Cunningham,” which includes never-before-seen footage of the choreographer. “Cunningham,” written and directed by Alla Kovgan, will be an immersive look into the life of the choreographer who started as a dancer in post-WWII New York. The film will be released
Angela Bassett, Debra Messing, and Chloë Sevingy are among the 50 actors, filmmakers, and entertainment industry professionals who will judge the Tribeca Film Festival. Now in its 18th year, the annual film celebration will unfold in downtown Manhattan from April 24 through May 5. Other judges include director Rebecca Miller, comedian Tig Notaro, actor Justin
Marvel Studios Chief Kevin Feige is gearing up for the release of “Avengers: Endgame,” which is expected to dominate the box office when it opens at the end of April. But he’s also looking beyond its premiere to a new phase in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), one that will introduce new heroes and villains.
Jennifer Lawrence will star in an untitled film for IAC FILMS and A24 to be directed by acclaimed theater director Lila Neugebauer, who will make her feature film debut. The script was written by first-time screenwriter Elizabeth Sanders. Scott Rudin and Eli Bush are producing, with Lawrence and Justine Polsky. This marks the first film