March 17, 2019 4:09PM PT Hong Kong- and Taiwan-based group Just Creative will use this week’s FilMart to launch “Be Water, My Friend,” one of the year’s biggest movies from Greater China. The drama is currently in production with Chow Yun-fat in the lead role as a pathological gambler who finds a way to communicate
Movies
Disneynature’s “Penguins” places character, or rather an Adélie penguin who’s quite the character, at the forefront. Directors Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson focus on one charismatic male coming of age in the harsh conditions of Antarctica’s spring/summer season as he sets up a nest, finds a mate, and fulfills his destiny as a father. With
March 17, 2019 3:35PM PT Three Uighur children are the subjects of a beautifully composed debut feature by Chinese filmmaker Wang Lina. An outstanding debut feature by Chinese writer-director Wang Lina, “A First Farewell” centers on three Uighur children and their farming families whose lives are upended by regulations demanding increased levels of Mandarin language-based
March 17, 2019 2:59PM PT There are numerous cities and provinces with their own regional pavilions at FilMart, but the city that first started the trend was Hangzhou, capital of China’s eastern province of Zhejiang. One of China’s seven ancient capitals, Hangzhou has in modern times morphed into a tech hub known as China’s Silicon
Cinema Given Special Spotlight in West Kowloon Cultural District – Variety You will be redirected back to your article in seconds March 17, 2019 2:45PM PT West Kowloon Cultural District, one of the world’s most expensive and ambitious cultural endeavors, is finally taking shape after two decades of political debates and construction setbacks. Stretching across
China’s HGC Entertainment Group is bringing five completed Chinese animated titles and one still in development to FilMart this year for international sales. Its slate is one shy of what it was at Berlin, after the backers of adventure film “Loli Pop in Fantasy,” previously represented by the firm, decided to part ways with the
After a successful career in Hollywood making action films including “Die Hard 2” and “Cliffhanger,” director Renny Harlin has called Beijing his home for the past few years. His third Chinese-language movie, “Bodies at Rest,” is set as the opener of the Hong Kong Intl. Film Festival on Monday. Harlin says he has learned plenty.
This year’s FilMart marks the international sales debut of Beijing-based distributor Times Vision, which brings to Hong Kong a slate led by crime thriller “Savage” and animated feature “Nezha.” The company will be presenting nine live action films, including one documentary, and seven animated titles. Times Vision is led by CEO Nathan Hao, who co-founded
Hangzhou-based Chinese production company Midnight Blur Films is poised to make a splash as it attends Filmart for the first time this year, with three titles selected for HAF and three others screening in the market, two of which will compete in the HKIFF. Under the name Parallax Films, it also is involved in international
Character actor Richard Erdman, known to contemporary audiences as perpetual student Leonard on “,” who also had significant roles for more than seven decades in movies and TV shows such as “The Twilight Zone” and “Stalag 17,” has died. He was 93. His friend, film historian Alan K. Rode, reported his death on Twitter. On
Newcomers were no match for Disney’s “Captain Marvel” at the domestic box office The superhero blockbuster soared past the competition, bringing in $69 million in its second weekend of release. Starring Brie Larson, Marvel’s first comic-book tentpole to spotlight a female superhero has now surpassed $265 million in ticket sales domestically. Its second weekend decline
Zhang Yimou’s highly stylized period epic “Shadow” was the numerical winner at Sunday’s Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. It bagged four technical awards. But the major prizes went to Japanese and Korean filmmakers. Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “Shoplifters,” a Japanese drama about a family surviving on shoplifting, was named best picture. The film had been the
In Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary,” the big-city Creed family moves to rural Maine, inadvertently buying a plot of land that includes an ancient Indian burial ground. If you inter a beloved feline correctly in the creepy pet cemetery behind their house, it’s liable to come back … different. Same goes for cadavers of the non-cat
March 16, 2019 4:12PM PT News on the “Breaking Bad” movie seems to be coming in fits and starts. At the Sun Valley Film Festival Friday, series star Aaron Paul didn’t confirm whether he was involved in the upcoming movie sequel, which will first air on Netflix and then AMC, as Variety reported in February,
Audiences at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas, are famously enthusiastic, cheering for movies with the same kind of bring-down-the-house applause they show bands at the event’s overlapping music fest — so it can be helpful to know which movies they really loved when the 10-day showcase winds to an end
The second frame of Disney-Marvel’s latest MCU installment, “Captain Marvel,” is set to top the box office with an estimated $70 million. The superhero film already pushed past the $200 million mark domestically after taking in $19 million on Friday for a total of about $215 million. It’s also generated $378 million overseas after jolting
Things go bump in the night — and, as an occasional change of pace, in the middle of the afternoon — with a frequency that will neither surprise nor disappoint genre fans throughout “The Curse of La Llorona,” an efficiently formulaic shocker inspired by the centuries-old Mexican legend of the titular bogeywoman. It’s set in
March 15, 2019 11:58PM PT A tea-cosy “Ghostbusters,” Irish writer-directors Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman’s first feature is a winningly off-kilter comedy. A first feature for the writing-directing duo of Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman, whose prior work has encompassed shorts, music videos, and commercials, “Extra Ordinary” is a kind of tea-cosy “Ghostbusters” that’s consistently
March 15, 2019 11:50PM PT Bratty Millennial and ornery boomer square off in a cartoonishly satirical horror-comedy that’s not nearly as clever as it thinks it is. Intergenerational conflict is only likely to get worse as Millennials grasp a problem-filled future for which they already blame baby boomers, while boomers hone their dislike of what
The rock ‘n’ roll excesses of the ’60s and ’70s are etched into legend. We’re now living through a moment when it seems as if we might one day, you know, be pulling Led Zeppelin tracks from streaming sites because of the scandalous nature of the group’s offstage bacchanals. Yet I somehow doubt it. The
March 15, 2019 8:44PM PT Warner Brothers’ “Shazam!” will hit Chinese theaters on April 5, the same day it premieres in North America. The studio’s last superhero flick to wow mainland audiences was the James Wan-directed “Aquaman,” which made a super-sized $298 million in the country, making it the studio’s top-grossing title in the Middle
’Petra,’ ‘Midnight Family ‘ Win Big at Guadalajara The 34th Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (FICG), boasting a new general director, Estrella Araiza, wrapped March 15 with a bevy of cash prizes spread out among several categories. Documentaries ruled, led by Premio Mezcal best film and best director winner “Midnight Family” by Luke Lorentzen, who also lensed
March 15, 2019 11:14AM PT After a series of meetings with Walt Disney Pictures honcho Alan Horn, fired director James Gunn will return to the Marvel fold. Gunn has been re-hired to direct the third installment in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, the Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana series about misfits who protect outer-space,
March 15, 2019 10:53AM PT Chris Evans narrates this Imax original documentary about heroic dogs trained for rescue missions, emotional support, and sniffing out crime. In a world constantly thirsting for wholesome dog-centric content, the hook of director Daniel Ferguson’s “Superpower Dogs” is an insanely catchy one. Running a museum- and science-center-friendly 47 minutes, this
Tim Burton’s live-action “Dumbo” launches March 29, a remake of the Disney classic that opened Oct. 23, 1941. That film is remembered as one of Disney’s shortest (64 minutes) and sweetest. It should also be remembered as the animated movie that launched Disney’s studio in Burbank — and one that was completed in the midst
March 15, 2019 10:00AM PT “You” star Elizabeth Lail will lead STX Films’ upcoming horror pic “Countdown.” The movie follows a young nurse who downloads an app that claims to predict exactly when a person is going to die. When it tells her she only has three days to live, she must find a way
Don’t tell cinematographer Nancy Schreiber that she’s having a renaissance. That would imply there’ve been slumps in her long career, and she won’t have any of that, even if for a time she was taking smaller jobs as the gaps widened between larger gigs. “It’s never been about the money, for me,” says Schreiber over
Netflix, in an about-face after an outcry over footage in its original film “Bird Box” of a 2013 deadly train disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, said it will now remove the offending segment. “Netflix and the filmmakers of ‘Bird Box’ have decided to replace the clip,” a company spokesman said in an email to Variety. “We’re
The romantic drama “Five Feet Apart” has opened with $715,000 on Thursday night, barely beating previews for the animated film “Wonder Park,” which earned $700,000. Focus Features’ sci-fi movie “Captive State” generated $300,000 on Thursday. The trio of wide openings is expected to be dwarfed by the sophomore frame of Brie Larson’s “Captain Marvel,” which
When it comes to name recognition, few American detectives rank as high as Nancy Drew with audiences, owing to the fact that millions devoured the yellow-spined novels, and no small number of celebs (including executive producer Ellen DeGeneres) went on to credit the character with inspiring them at a young age. As a result, it’s