February 5, 2019 2:10PM PT Lionsgate has scrubbed Tuesday night’s red carpet for the New York City premiere of Liam Neeson’s “Cold Pursuit” in the wake of the actor’s racially charged comments. The studio had no comment but sources said that Lionsgate decided to pull the plug on the carpet due to his revelation in
Movies
#GoldOpen, the Asian community movement that bought out theaters for showings of “Crazy Rich Asians,” has announced a new partnership with AMC Theaters. The collaboration aims to streamline group movie-going, theater buyouts, bulk regular-price ticket purchasing, and more through a ticket buying system that includes a dedicated ticketing web page, purchasing support, and special events
Walt Disney Studios had a much more magical earnings report than analysts had expected. The entertainment powerhouse behind Pixar, Marvel, and the world’s most trafficked theme parks logged earnings per share of $1.84, a 3% drop from $1.89 in the prior-year quarter. Disney also reported revenue of $15.3 billion, essentially flat with the year-ago period.
February 5, 2019 12:24PM PT It may be hard to believe, but it wasn’t until last month at the SAG Awards that Ryan Coogler and met for the first time. “I got to meet Ryan Coogler for the first time,” Chu told Variety at the ADG Awards on Saturday while discussing the viral photo of the “Black
Annapurna Pictures and MGM have doubled down on their joint distribution venture, rebranding the operation as United Artists Releasing. MGM has long owned the storied UA label, which turns 100 on Tuesday. The newly named entity will proceed with its planned slate, led by the 25th installment in the James Bond franchise — in theaters
February 5, 2019 11:37AM PT In the race for best actress, Glenn Close has already emerged as the clear frontrunner. Even though her “The Wife” may be little known to the average Oscars viewer, Close won the Golden Globe and SAG Award for the role, cementing her status as the actress to beat. But she
February 5, 2019 10:15AM PT Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has bought rights in most markets for the upcoming romantic drama “Ammonite,” starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan. Lionsgate picked up the distribution rights for the U.K. Cross City will be launching sales on the remaining territories at the European Film Market in Berlin this week,
The “top end” in “Top End Wedding” refers to the remote Northern Territory of Down Under, where things are done a little differently from what its young townies from bottom-end Adelaide are used to. For all its vibrant indigenous details, however, almost everything else about Wayne Blair’s amiable second feature adheres to universal wedding-comedy formula.
February 5, 2019 9:45AM PT Rebecca Hall will star in the independent horror-thriller “The Night House” from producer David S. Goyer. The film will be directed by David Bruckner from a script written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski. “The Night House” follows a widow who begins to uncover her recently deceased husband’s disturbing secrets.
February 5, 2019 9:35AM PT Dutch Features, one of Holland’s leading sales agencies, has acquired the cross-cultural romantic comedy “Cuban Love” directed by Johan Nijenhuis (“Tuscan Wedding”) ahead of the European Film Market. “Cuban Live” is headlined by Susan Visser, who won the EFP Shooting Star at the Berlin Film Festival in 2015. Set to
Variety’s fifth annual Artisan Awards Feb. 4 featured nine behind-the-camera artists trying to explain how complicated their work is, but all admitted that it isn’t easy. “Even my children don’t understand what I do,” deadpanned “The Favourite” production designer Fiona Crombie. “BlacKkKlansman” editor Barry Alexander Brown agreed that it’s often hard to describe, but he
Liam Neeson is apologizing after recent comments he made about an incident that happened decades ago drew backlash. Neeson was the subject of controversy when he revealed in an interview earlier this week with the Independent that he wanted to “unleash physical violence” on a black man upon upon learning his close friend was brutally raped
Granted, youth has certainly not lost its cachet in Hollywood, but at AARP’s 18th annual Movies for Grownups Awards, more seasoned actors were the toast of the evening. (Or as host Martin Short referred to the event: “The Olden Globes.”) The intimate ceremony, which was taped last night at the Beverly Wilshire and will air
Fiorella Moretti and Hedi Zardi’s Paris-based Luxbox has acquired international sales rights to the complete film catalogue of high-art Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr. The deal takes in Tarr’s “Satan’s Tango,” acclaimed as a masterpiece, whose 25th anniversary will be marked at this year’s Berlinale Forum by a special screening of a remastered version on Feb.
Twenty years after activist-artists Guerrilla Girls papered film festivals and billboards in protest over a lack of female film directors, the group is back to remind show business that shockingly little has changed. In 1999, the group spread a simple bumper sticker message saying, “the U.S. Senate is more progressive than Hollywood,” noting that women
“Crazy Alien,” a comedy caper by hit-making director Ning Hao, led the box office in China on the first day of the Chinese New Year holiday period. By 7 p.m. on Tuesday, the film had earned $55 million in mainland Chinese cinemas. The top eight movies earned a combined $200 million (RMB1.35 billion) by 7:30
Sky has taken the U.K. and Ireland rights to “SAS: Red Notice,” the Magnus Martens’ action thriller based on the novel by former British special forces operative turned bestselling writer Andy McNab. Sky Cinema will release the film in 2020 and it will have a theatrical run and play on the pay-TV platform. Altitude has
Italian sales company Slingshot Films has taken world sales on timely Berlin Panorama doc “Normal,” a reflection on how female and male identities play out in everyday interactions, through a collage of immersive scenes filmed all over Italy. Directed by London and Rome-based director Adele Tulli – who has made a splash on the specialized
In today’s film news roundup, Bucky Covington is cast as a coach, casting director Kerry Barden is honored and “The Karate Kid” will get a two-day rerelease. CASTING Country music star Bucky Covington is joining Milo Gibson and Laurence Fishburne in the sports drama “Brother’s Keeper” as a high school football coach. Covington is also
In the nearly half-century since author Stephen King began entertaining and simultaneously scaring the bejesus out of his countless fans around the world, filmed adaptations of his work have become so much a staple that we’re now deep into the remakes phase of his prolific output. The 2017 feature film version of King’s “It” grossed
The 91st Academy Award nominations delivered the expected and unexpected, with a strong showing for African-American artists, who were nominated in 10 out of 24 categories, matching totals achieved in 2016 and 2017. “Every year, further steps are taken towards inclusion, but obviously more needs to be done to support women filmmakers,” says Gil Robertson,
This year’s Academy Award nominees gathered Monday for the annual Oscar nominees luncheon and class photo, hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors. A number of stars attended the event held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, including this year’s best actress nominees Glenn Close, Lady Gaga, Yalitza Aparicio, and Melissa McCarthy,
February 4, 2019 3:32PM PT Fox 2000 has bought movie rights to the upcoming novel “On the Come Up” from “The Hate U Give” author Angie Thomas. The studio has reunited its “The Hate U Give” production team for “On the Come Up.” George Tillman, Jr., is directing and Thomas is producing with Marty Bowen,
February 4, 2019 2:57PM PT Paramount has set spy thriller “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse,” starring Michael B. Jordan, for a Sept. 18, 2020, release. Jordan is starring as operations officer John Clark, who is one of the recurring characters in Clancy’s Jack Ryan universe. In the novel, published in 1993 and set during the 1970s,
Nominees for the 91st annual Academy Awards gathered Monday afternoon for the annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills. Those in attendance included directors Spike Lee, Alfonso Cuarón and Bradley Cooper, actors Glenn Close, Amy Adams and Richard E. Grant, as well as the countless artisans recognized this year for their work on many of
February 4, 2019 1:33PM PT “Glass” star Anya Taylor-Joy will play one of the leads in Edgar Wright’s next film, “Last Night in Soho,” sources tell Variety. Wright and “Penny Dreadful” writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns penned the script for the movie — a Focus and Working Title co-production. Described as a psychological horror-thriller, exact plot details are unknown
Netflix is nearing deal for U.S. rights and some international territories for Zac Efron’s Ted Bundy drama “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.” The deal cost about $8 million, sources confirmed to Variety. “Extremely Wicked” premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and follows the crimes of Bundy from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth
February 4, 2019 12:00PM PT Liam Neeson recalled a disturbing incident in a recent interview. The actor said, after someone he knew was allegedly raped by a black attacker, he walked the streets hoping to kill some “black bastard” in revenge. “I went up and down areas with a cosh (a club), hoping I’d be
When Berlin Film Festival chief Dieter Kosslick launched the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2003, he probably couldn’t have imagined the impact it would go on to have. Now called Berlinale Talents, the festival’s development program for emerging filmmakers has seen 5,673 “Talents” pass through its doors — many of whom have gone on to forge
A group of well-known Hollywood communications experts have formed a new company that Kevin Hart and James Gunn would have run to a year ago. Paul Pflug, Melissa Zukerman, and Hans-Dieter Kopal of Principal Communications have teamed with leading cyber research and security firm Edgeworth to form Foresight Solutions Group — a “reputation-management” entity that