Berlin-based M-Appeal has closed a flurry of deals across its slate, including Ash Mayfair’s “The Third Wife” and Michal Aviad’s “Working Woman” which were launched at Toronto. “The Third Wife” (pictured) sold to Potential Films for Autralia/New Zealand, and Crest International Inc. for Japan. Potential Films is planning a theatrical release next summer, while Crest
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Jane Fonda has been selected as the 2019 recipient of the Producers Guild of America’s Stanley Kramer Award for her activism and philanthropic work. The award was established in 2002 and honors a production, producer or other individuals whose achievement or contribution illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues. Fonda will be presented
December 20, 2018 8:19AM PT “Mary Poppins Returns” is off to a magical start, earning $4.8 million from 3,900 theaters on its first day of release. Emily Blunt stars as the magical nanny in the sequel, which is expected to make around $55 million during the Wednesday to Sunday frame and a $75 million domestic
Karen Barragan, who spent the last six years at Netflix as the VP for original series publicity, is joining Blumhouse in January as the head of marketing and communications. She will oversee both the film and TV divisions at Blumhouse, the wildly successful production company behind such hits as “Get Out,” “Insidious” and HBO’s “Sharp
A sexual assault case against Harvey Weinstein will proceed to trial after a New York judge denied a motion to dismiss the charges brought by the indie film mogul’s lawyers. Justice James Burke found that prosecutors did not mislead the grand jury. Weinstein’s lead attorney, Ben Brafman, claimed that the D.A.’s office and the police
Focus, the event for production professionals held earlier this month in London, has reported record attendance and exhibitor numbers for its fourth edition. Visitor numbers at Focus, held on Dec. 4 and 5 at London’s Business Design Center, were up 40% to 2,700, drawn from 70 countries, and there was a 41% rise in exhibiting
December 20, 2018 6:18AM PT [embedded content] After proving their onscreen chemistry in “Thor: Ragnarok,” Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth are back on the front lines in the trailer for F. Gary Gray’s latest “Men in Black” entry. This time, the stars are trading in their Asgardian armor for agency issued black suits. “The universe
Imagine a Jenny-from-the-block-goes-to-the-big-city comedy of corporate ambition, naïveté, and success — a movie in the tradition of “Working Girl” and “Baby Boom,” with Jennifer Lopez as Maya, the manager of a Queens superstore, who gets plucked from the outer boroughs like Cinderella to be an executive consultant for a high-end women’s cosmetics company. The trick
In today’s film news roundup, Reese Witherspoon is collaborating with MGM, Jonathan Nolan gets an honor for visual effects, canine comedy “Patrick” finds a home and Forrest Films launches as a distributor. STUDIO ATTACHMENT Reese Witherspoon is teaming with MGM to produce a movie version of Gail Honeyman’s bestselling novel “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.”
It’s been 15 years since the last “Lord of the Rings” film was released, and four years since “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” premiered (stream, $3.99 on Amazon), yet the franchise remains a cultural touchstone. J.R.R. Tolkien’s universe of high fantasy adventure and epic battles continues to resonate with pop culture fans both
December 19, 2018 3:34PM PT Netflix has confirmed that it’s moving ahead with a sequel to the romantic comedy “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” re-teaming stars Lana Condor and Noah Centineo. The movie is based on Jenny Han’s “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” trilogy. The production companies are Awesomeness Films, Ace
December 19, 2018 3:20PM PT UTA has signed Mexican actress Marina De Tavira in all areas. Most recently, she starred in Alfonso Cuaron’s critically acclaimed movie “Roma,” playing the mother Sofia. “Roma,” which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was named best film by the New York Film Critics Circle, was
BMG has named Jonathan Palmer senior vice president of creative synch, the company announced Wednesday. Based in Los Angeles, Palmer will lead the creative synch teams in both New York and Los Angeles, while working alongside the U.S. and international synch licensing teams. He will report directly to Patrick Joest, global EVP, marketing & licensing.
December 19, 2018 12:42PM PT [embedded content] The forces of darkness meet some light comedy and Billy Idol’s”Mony Mony” in the latest trailer for Neil Marshall’s “Hellboy” reboot. Based on the graphic novels by Mike Mignola, “Hellboy” follows the powerful demon Anung Un Rama (aka Hellboy) as he fights monsters and other demonic creatures while working
December 19, 2018 12:23PM PT Ben Affleck and Universal are partnering on a film adaptation of “I Am Still Alive.” Affleck will star in the wilderness drama and is in talks to produce through his Pearl Street Films. Universal won the bidding for the movie rights to the Kate Allie Marshall novel “I Am Still
December 19, 2018 12:00PM PT Timothee Chalamet will receive the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s spotlight award for an actor for his role in “Beautiful Boy.” He will be honored at the festival’s film awards gala on Jan. 3 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The festival, now in its 30th year, runs from Jan.
A collective sigh by critics greeted Monday’s announcement of the nine films shortlisted for this year’s foreign-language film Oscar. For once, though, it was a sigh of relief rather than exasperation, with few complaints arising over the chosen titles, which were broadly acclaimed. Controversy over prominent omissions is practically an annual tradition. Last year, critics
The first images of Will Smith as the Genie in the upcoming “Aladdin” remake have been revealed, along with a glimpse of Mena Massoud as the titular street urchin and Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine. The three stars appear on the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s First Look issue in their Aladdin attire, with Smith donning
Some were launched with mega-hype, only to wind up branded as financial disappointments. Others were indie-produced Cinderellas that got lost on their way to the ball. And one was a legendary film maudit that appears well on its way to becoming a footnote. What do they all have in common? Their inclusion on this list
Aleksandra Terpinska’s “Other People” and Peter Dourountzis’s “Rascal” won the inaugural Arte Kino International Prize at the 10th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival’s Co-Production Village. The award was given by Remi Burah, who runs Arte France Cinéma and launched in 2016 ArteKino Festival, a European online festival in partnership with the digital service Festival
Decapitation, broken bones and supernatural monsters were popular additions to many of this year’s scariest film and television moments. And with multiple scenes reportedly causing audience walk-outs, this year’s horror entries didn’t shy away from the gratuitous gore and disturbing deaths that have made the genre what it is today. See if scenes from your
It’s not hard to see why Robert Zemeckis, a director who has often been drawn to finding the “human” side of technological flimflam (“Forrest Gump,” “The Polar Express”), would want to turn the eccentric and touching 2010 documentary “Marwencol” into a dramatic feature. Like the documentary, Zemeckis’ “Welcome to Marwen” tells the story of Mark Hogancamp,
The best cinematography of 2018 has come in black and white. It’s come in vibrant color. It’s come as photochemical reaction and as streams of ones and zeroes. It’s crossed genres and approaches, from horror and satire to costume porn and blockbuster action. It’s taken us from the hearth to the moon and into the
Most filmmakers dream of scoring a big studio deal, but not Gary Hustwit. The “Helvetica” director applies a “do it yourself” model to the release of his movies. “Rams,” his recent documentary about German industrial designer Dieter Rams, is Hustwit’s latest venture into self-distribution. “I don’t want to be paying someone else’s overhead,” said Hustwit.
BUENOS AIRES — Mario Vargas Llosa, the great Peruvian novelist, once wrote that reality in Latin America is too compelling to ever be ignored in its fiction. Yet, as WWII raged, Jorge Luis Borges, perhaps the greatest of Argentine writers, pointedly published “Ficciones,” fantasy tales, often philosophical speculation given narrative form. If this year’s PCI
Clément Cogitore’s “Braguino,” Meryem Benm’Barek’s (pictured) “Sofia” and Marie Losier’s “Cassandro the Exotico!” are among the 12 recent French movies which will play as part of the Young French Cinema Program organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S. and UniFrance. “Braguino” is a documentary feature about two feuding families living
The California Film Commission has maintained its ban on filming in several Malibu areas hit by the massive Woolsey fire in Southern California last month. The commission announced Tuesday that due to continued clean-up and repair work along Pacific Coast Highway, permits for filming on the highway are not being issued at this time. PCH
In today’s film news roundup, Andy Garcia’s spy thriller is sold, “Battlestar Galactica” gets a screenwriter, and Brooklyn Decker gets an award. ACQUISITION Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to spy thriller “Against the Clock,” starring Andy Garcia, Dianna Agron (“Glee”), and Justin Bartha, Variety has learned exclusively. The film, formerly titled “Headlock,” is
December 18, 2018 3:46PM PT “Star Wars” actor John Boyega is in talks to star in the legal drama “A Naked Singularity” with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions on board to produce. The movie is based on Sergio De La Pava’s debut novel, which centers on a successful New York public defender whose life begins
She was a natural comedian — fearless and funny, willing to trade on her natural Bronx brogue to craft a sassy and street-wise character that was tailor-made for sitcoms. But Penny Marshall, who died Monday night at the age of 75, proved throughout her long career that she had so much more in the way