IFC Films has acquired North American rights to Lynn Shelton’s (“Humpday”) Alabama-set comedy “Sword of Trust” which world premiered at SXSW Film Festival where it earned a warm reviews. Co-written by Shelton and Mike O’Brien (“Saturday Night Live”), “Sword of Trust” follows Cynthia (Jillian Bell, “Rough Night”) and Mary (Michaela Watkins, “Wanderlust”) who show up
Movies
Agnès Varda, a leading light of the French New Wave who directed such films as “Cleo From 5 to 7,” “Vagabond” and “Faces Places,” has died. She was 90. Varda’s death from breast cancer at her Paris home was confirmed Friday by her family. “The filmmaker and artist Agnès Varda died from a cancer at
Celebrity scandals are hardly unusual in Japan – the weekly tabloids found in every convenience store dig up new ones for every issue. But the March 12 arrest of musician-actor Pierre Taki for cocaine possession sent larger than usual shock waves through the local entertainment industry. Two weeks later, they are still reverberating. A front
March 29, 2019 1:28AM PT Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s unstable mix of dark comedy, brutal thriller and Douglas Sirkian melodrama is shamelessly excessive but undeniably entertaining. Movies as diverse as “Short Cuts,” “Weekend at Bernie’s,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Magnolia” and “The Man Who Fell to Earth” are among the source material that inspire wink-wink allusions and tonal disruptions
“Unplanned” isn’t a good movie, but it’s effective propaganda — or, at least, it is if you belong to the group it’s targeting: those who believe that abortion in America, though a legal right, is really a crime. It’s hard to imagine the movie drawing many viewers outside that self-selected demographic. “Unplanned” preaches to the
Producer and director Greg Berlanti expressed sadness and anxiety over the fate of diverse storytelling in commercial movies, on the heels of Disney’s decision to close the Fox 2000 film label it acquired last week. Accepting the GLAAD Media award for best feature for his Fox 2000 film “Love, Simon” on Thursday night in Los
Taking a significant stand for acceptance and support of LGBTQIA people of color, pop icons Beyonce and Jay-Z accepted GLAAD Media’s Vanguard award on Thursday night in Los Angeles. Each a cultural monolith in their own right, the husband and wife team dubbed “the most powerful black people in the country” by presenter Lena Waithe
March 28, 2019 9:15PM PT This month’s FilMart rights market in Hong Kong was a busy one for South Korean indie sales house Finecut. It completed multiple license deals. Berlinale Panorama title “Idol” was acquired by New Select for Japan and Apex Success Global for Taiwan. Directed by indie sensation Lee Su-jin (“Han Gong-ju”,) the
In August 2018, Jakiw Palij — a former concentration camp guard identified as “the last known World War II Nazi living in the U.S.” — was deported to his homeland, fully 15 years after a federal court had stripped him of his citizenship. No country, not even Germany, wanted to accept him, and so he
Guillermo del Toro delved deep into his past Thursday to explain the profound hold that “Scary Stories in the Dark” has on him. “I basically was roaming through a bookstore, in San Antonio, Texas,” he said at a Hollywood event to launch the movie’s teaser trailer. “I was in my early teens, and I came
March 28, 2019 4:54PM PT The American Film Institute has received a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a study on gender parity in the history of American film. The study has been named for director Lloyd Bacon’s lost 1928 film, “Women They Talk About,” a comedy starring Irene Rich and
March 28, 2019 4:23PM PT Justin Theroux and Pierce Brosnan have joined Ilana Glazer in A24’s latest horror film, “False Positive.” Zainab Jah, Gretchen Mol, Sophia Bush, and Josh Hamilton have also joined the ensemble cast. The pic is Glazer’s first film role following the end of her Comedy Central series “Broad City,” which wraps
SAG-AFTRA is supporting California Senate Bill 564, which bans the creation and dissemination of digitally created sex scenes and nude performances without consent. The legislation was introduced by Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino) with input from SAG-AFTRA — in order to enhance performers’ protections when they are involved in sex scenes and their rights to control
March 28, 2019 1:38PM PT [embedded content] The first trailer for “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” was released on Thursday, giving fans an extended look at the upcoming film after unveiling a few macabre teasers during the Super Bowl earlier this year. The film follows a group of teenagers as they solve a
Kevin Tsujihara’s long tenure at Warner Bros. was saluted Wednesday evening with a reception on the studio lot that drew about 75 people, including his predecessors in the CEO suite, Bob Daly and Barry Meyer. There was a melancholy air about the gathering in the lobby of the Steven J. Ross Theater because of the
March 28, 2019 11:45AM PT Tom Hanks is in negotiations to play Elvis Presley’s iconic manager Colonel Tom Parker in Baz Luhrmann’s untitled Warner Bros. biopic about the legendary musician. Luhrmann will direct the movie. He also penned the script with Craig Pearce. Parker discovered Presley when he was just an unknown and quickly moved in
March 28, 2019 11:14AM PT Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand are taking on Shakespeare. The Oscar winners are in talks to star in Joel Coen’s adaptation of “Macbeth.” Coen will direct from his own original script, and expects to shoot the movie before the end of the year. This marks his first film without frequent
AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan has a keen eye for shrewd business deals. So was he seeing straight in 2004 when he bought the Village Cinema in Greenport, N.Y.? “I would not call it a lucrative business,” he says of his 632-seat, four-theater venue — now called the Greenport Theater — which offers movies all
Kelly Clarkson already made a visit to a veritable island of misfit toys when she voiced the lead voice in the upcoming animated film “UglyDolls.” Now she’s going beyond the valley of the dolls and standing up for human girl power with “Broken & Beautiful,” the lead song from the soundtrack, which has no less
Kelsey Grammer and Julia Stiles are starring in medical thriller “The God Committee.” Austin Stark is directing from his own script. Colman Domingo, Janeane Garofalo and Dan Hedaya are co-starring. “The God Committee” explores the U.S. organ transplant system. The movie follows a donor heart being flown to a New York hospital, where a transplant
MoviePass and Sinemia may be floundering, but Atom Tickets still sees opportunity in the movie theater subscription space. However, the ticketing service is going about things very differently from those companies. Atom is launching a new offering that will enable exhibitors to launch their own customized subscription services while relying on Atom’s infrastructure and technology.
April releases settle in the lull between award-season prestige films and summer blockbusters, so Netflix is picking up the entertainment slack with a bunch of classics and brand new releases for next month. “Deliverance” and “All the President’s Men” will be available for streaming alongside new Netflix shows like “No Good Nick” and “You vs.
Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, and Richard Madden have joined Sam Mendes’ World War I drama “1917.” DreamWorks Pictures and Universal Pictures announced Thursday that “1917” will start shooting on April 1 on location in England and Scotland. Daniel Mays, Adrian Scarborough, Jamie Parker, Nabhaan Rizwan and Claire Duburcq have also been
March 28, 2019 7:09AM PT The ASCAP Screen Music Awards has announced several honorees to be feted at a May 15 ceremony in Beverly Hills, with “Captain Marvel” composer Pinar Toprak, “Incredibles 2” scorer Michael Giacchino and the “Greatest Showman” songwriting team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul all slated for special trophies. Pasek and
Saudi Arabia’s recently established culture ministry has announced a slew of arts initiatives, including plans for the kingdom’s first film festival, a film school and a national film archive. The plans are designed to foster a local film industry. During a ceremony Wednesday evening in the capital of Riyadh, Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan,
Even before officially taking office June 1, incoming Berlinale co-chiefs Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek have unveiled a new team that includes the core of Chatrian’s programming staff when he headed the Locarno Film Festival. Berlin’s new seven-member selection committee includes Locarno’s former head of programming, Marc Peranson – who takes on the same post
IMAX Corporation and Cinemark have signed a new deal, Variety has learned. The partnership includes the renewal of all of Cinemark’s existing IMAX locations, as well as the installation of two IMAX theaters. The new venues will include IMAX’s laser projection system, which the company says produces a crisper image. Cinemark will add a 12-channel
When it comes to Dana, the main character in “La Mala Noche,” there are things you can tell just by looking at her: Dana’s wardrobe reveals that she is a prostitute, while her behavior — interpreted by actress Nöelle Schönwald — shows her experience, from the way she talks to her more hesitant clients to
“There are so few things in the world that you can stand up and scream from the rooftops and not care what anyone says, because you know there’s absolute right and absolute wrong,” says Sean Astin, who played Rudy Ruettiger in the quintessential underdog movie, “Rudy.” “And it is an absolute right and an absolute
March 27, 2019 6:15PM PT “Gambit’s” future continues to be in limbo. The superhero movie starring Channing Tatum as the title character is among the films that are in development at Fox that Disney is now reevaluating in the wake of the magic kingdom merger. “All of the movies at Fox are being evaluated,” “Gambit”