February 13, 2019 5:26PM PT Chris Pratt is in negotiations to star in Skydance’s science-fiction project “Ghost Draft” with “Lego Batman’s” Chris McKay attached to direct. Pratt’s deal is not closed. Plot details for “Ghost Draft,” a live-action project written by Zach Dean, are under wraps. Adam Kolbrenner and David S. Goyer will produce, with Dana
Movies
Director Tara Wood has reclaimed rights to the authorized Quentin Tarantino documentary movie, “21 Years: Quentin Tarantino,” following a long legal battle. She’s hopeful that she can find a buyer to distribute the movie in conjunction with Sony’s release of Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” the Brad Pitt-Leonardo DiCaprio drama that’s opening on
Nadav Lapid’s two previous films have all had elements of autobiography and political critique, but neither framed those traits in a vehicle as deliriously unpredictable and enthrallingly impenetrable as “Synonyms.” Breathtaking in the way it careens from one scene to the next in a whirlwind of personal and political meaning all but impossible to grasp
Songwriters from three of the five Oscar-nominated songs gathered at the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood on Tuesday night to discuss their craft and to touch on, however reluctantly, some ongoing controversies related to the telecast. The “Conversation with the 2019 Oscar-Nominated Songwriters” panel included Diane Warren, who received her tenth Oscar nomination with
February 13, 2019 12:45PM PT The official soundtrack to “Green Book” has surpassed one million streams on global music streaming platforms. The motion picture starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali is up for five Academy Awards this season, including best picture, lead actor, supporting actor, original screenplay and film editing. This milestone marks Milan Records’
Focus Features has come on board with FilmNation Entertainment to begin production on Carey Mulligan’s thriller “Promising Young Woman.” The thriller marks the feature directorial debut of Emerald Fennell, who will both direct and write the film’s screenplay. Fennell will produce along with Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, and Josey McNamara for LuckyChap Entertainment and Ben
February 13, 2019 12:24PM PT The story of a woman who reluctantly adopts a pug, this shameless romantic comedy knows it’s cute, but earns its place in your heart anyway. There’s no denying that “Patrick” is absolutely adorable. When a story revolves around a four-legged furry friend — a squishy, huggable pug, at that —
The Tribeca Film Festival will open its 18th edition with the world premiere of the HBO Documentary Film “The Apollo,” directed by Roger Ross Williams. The film will debut at the iconic theater in Manhattan on April 24. It includes archival footage, music, comedy and dance performances, and interviews with Patti LaBelle, Pharrell Williams, Smokey
Here’s a prediction, or maybe just a hope, but I’ll put it in crystal-ball terms: By the time that Oscar night arrives on Feb. 24, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will have reversed its decision not to live-broadcast the presentation of this year’s award for best cinematography. The outcry against it has
BERLIN — Israeli director Nadav Lapid drew deeply on his own experiences as a young expatriate 20 years ago for his latest feature “Synonyms,” which world premiered Wednesday in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. With the story of a man who arrives in Paris determined to leave his nation and his identity behind, Lapid
February 13, 2019 11:45AM PT ‘Born into Brothels’ director Ross Kauffman’s new documentary charts preservation efforts to save endangered tigers in India and Russia. A century ago, 100,000 tigers existed in the wild; now just about 4% remain. The threat of extinction of the species — one that historically has fascinated mankind — is always present in
February 13, 2019 11:40AM PT The fascinating true story of a Spanish lesbian couple who tricked a priest into marrying them in 1901 gets a dull and clunky treatment. On the surface, “Elisa & Marcela” may look like a lesbian love story for the ages, a salute to our brave foremothers who risked ridicule and
February 13, 2019 11:30AM PT Josh Brolin is joining the A-list ensemble of Legendary’s “Dune” reboot. He boards a cast that includes Timothee Chalamet, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, and Charlotte Rampling, with Oscar Isaac and Zendaya in talks to join. Brolin will portray Gurney Halleck, the warmaster for Chalamet’s family and
Disney-Marvel’s blockbuster “Black Panther” has dominated nominations for the 50th annual NAACP Image Awards, scoring a leading 13 nods. “Black Panther” was recognized in the outstanding motion picture category alongside “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” and “The Hate U Give.” Chadwick Boseman, who plays the eponymous superhero, and director Ryan Coogler
If things had gone differently, the red-carpet mileage of awards season would still be splashed with the showy, flowy designs of Roy Halston Frowick: better known simply by his middle name, the Midwest-raised fashion designer belatedly put American couture on the map in the 1970s. After his luxury brand expanded to ubiquitous levels in just
February 13, 2019 11:01AM PT David Sameth has been pushed out as part of a marketing shake-up at Paramount Pictures, sources tell Variety. Marc Weinstock, the former president of Annapurna, is in negotiations to join the studio in an unspecified role that will likely include overseeing parts of the marketing team, but could include other
The Directors Guild of America has taken the first step toward bargaining for a successor deal to its current master contract covering feature films and television. DGA president Thomas Schlamme announced Wednesday that Jon Avnet and Todd Holland have been appointed co-chairs of the next DGA Feature Film and Television Negotiations Committee. The DGA National
Italian director Gabriele Salvatores, who won the foreign-language film Oscar for “Mediterraneo” in 1991 and more recently helmed teen superhero franchise “The Invisible Boy” is in Berlin where sales company RAI Com is showing buyers footage of his upcoming road movie “Volare.” Pic stars Claudio Santamaria and Valeria Golino and is penned by Umberto Contarello (“The
The emotionally powerful documentary “Merata: How Mum Decolonized the Screen,” which is screening at Berlinale, tells the intimate story of legendary Maori filmmaker Merata Mita, who helped to kick-start indigenous cinema from that corner of the world. Directed by her son, Hepi Mita, it’s also a personal journey through their family life, as Hepi explores
The documentary “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” which screens as a Berlinale Special, exists as one part of a multimedia project, conceived by a trio of passionate and dedicated filmmakers: Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky. The Canadian production enlisted Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander for voice-over duties and serves as one component of a vast
Eminent Indian filmmaker Zoya Akhtar’s new film, “Gully Boy,” had its world premiere at Berlin as part of the Berlinale Special screenings strand. Set in Mumbai’s Dharavi area, one of Asia’s largest slums, the film is loosely based on the lives of street rappers Divine and Naezy, whose music Akhtar first heard in 2014. Akhtar
The proposed $640 million expansion of Britain’s iconic Shepperton Studios has taken another step forward. The proposal received local planning approval Tuesday from the Spelthorne Borough Council, despite some objections from area residents. The Pinewood Group’s £500 million (about $640 million) application to increase Shepperton’s capacity for film and high-end television production now goes to
Receiving Variety‘s Achievement in International Film Award, Berlin Film Festival chief Dieter Kosslick bid a fond farewell to the event Monday as the end credits loom after his good humored and productive 18-year epic reign. Speaking at the prize-giving event Monday at the Audi Berlinale Lounge – which overlooks the entrance to the fest’s main
Political turbulence is making it tough for filmmakers in Turkey with ambitions to make movies that can travel globally. But despite many impediments, Turkish auteurs are still managing to maintain a significant presence on the festival circuit. The past year has seen auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan back at Cannes with “The Wild Pear Tree”; newcomer
Stuttgart-based sales company Sola Media is moving into production with a new animated feature as the company seeks to take a more active role in development. The firm has boarded the CGI animated feature “Dreambuilders,” directed by Kim Hagen Jensen and produced by Nynne Selin Eidnes of Copenhagen-based First Lady Film. Sola Media managing director
Every so often, a piece of art emerges that changes the game. Sometimes it is so subtle that it is missed in the moment. Years later, people look back and speak of that art as “a classic.” That is what we’re experiencing with “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Barry Jenkins’ first film after his Oscar-winning
BERLIN — Barbara Lennie and Eduard Fernandez, two of the most admired actors of their generation in Spain, are attached to star in “Nada,” the first drama series from Aquí y Alli Films, one of Spain’s most successful young production houses. Founded by Pedro Hernández in 2010, Aqui y Allí’s movie credits include 2012 Cannes
New Locarno artistic director Lilli Hinstin is starting to put her stamp on the Swiss event dedicated to indie cinema with the appointment of a new team and the introduction of a reconfigured midnight movie strand to the fest’s Piazza Grande section. The new still unnamed strand of midnight screenings unspooling in Locarno’s 8,000-seat Piazza
BERLIN — Wide has closed deals in major territories for two Berlinale players, Alexander Gorchilin’s dark Russian drama “Acid,” which screened in Panorama, and Tamer Jandali’s “Easy Love,” which opened the Perspektive Deutsches Kino program. “Acid” (pictured) is the gritty directorial debut of Gorchilin, a 26-year-old Russian theater actor and protégé of celebrated filmmaker Kirill
BERLIN — Verida is a modern girl who works in a beauty salon, stays glued to social media, and gossips with her friends. But she’s engaged to be married to a man she’s never met, and like many girls her age in modern-day Mauritania, she’s forced to gain weight to meet the demands of a