Movies

“Delhi Crime Story,” a seven-part series by Indo-Canadian writer-director Richie Mehta (“Siddharth”) will have its world premiere at Sundance in early 2019. Mehta was at the 2nd International Film Festival and Awards, Macao (IFFAM), in 2017 with “The Price of Tea,” one of the three auteur projects at the IFFAM project market that year. Set

December 7, 2018 1:45PM PT Luc Besson’s financially ailing EuropaCorp has signed a distribution deal with Pathé, which will handle the French release of three EuropaCorp movies per year over the next three years. The first two films to be released by Pathé in France under the deal are Besson’s (“Valerian”) thriller “Anna,” with Helen

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has selected Michael B. Jordan as the recipient of its Cinema Vanguard Award for his work in “Black Panther” and “Creed II.” Jordan will be honored at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Feb. 7. The 34th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place from

Rupert Sanders, the director of “Snow White and the Huntsman,” has made a short film about gun violence prevention for the sixth anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 children and six educators dead. The two-minute movie, called “Point of View,” will debut on Monday. It follows a high school student

December 7, 2018 10:56AM PT With its spring shoot fast approaching, Eon and MGM have begun bringing back familiar faces for the next James Bond film as Lea Seydoux is set to reprise her “Spectre” role as psychologist Madeleine Swann, a source confirmed to Variety. Daniel Craig is already on board to return, with Cary

In looking for what “Black Panther” and Childish Gambino have in common, you might not look first to Swedish heritage. But a transplant from that country, composer Ludwig Göransson, managed a surprising and possibly unprecedented coup in this year’s Grammy nominations, earning one nod for his work as a film scorer on “Black Panther,” and

“Scarface,” which opened Dec. 9, 1983, made money at the box office but wasn’t immediately profitable. In the 35 years since then, the film has been embraced as a classic. On April 6, 1982, Variety announced star Al Pacino and director Sidney Lumet were working on a remake of the 1932 film, but before long

December 7, 2018 10:21AM PT “Sister Act 3” is ramping up development, tapping “Insecure” co-executive producer Regina Hicks and “Star” showrunner Karin Gist to pen the sequel for Disney’s newly named streaming service, Disney+. Plot details of “Sister Act 3” are being kept under wraps, but the original starred Whoopi Goldberg and centered on her

It’s not easy to upstage Jennifer Aniston. But everyone at Thursday night’s premiere of her new Netflix flick, “Dumplin’,” seemed to be singing the praises of Dolly Parton, who earlier in the day received a Golden Globe nomination for “Girl in the Movies,” one of half a dozen new songs she wrote for the film.

Interviewing Charlie Saldana in the quiet of his North Hollywood home, the 79-year-old working key grip still exudes the cool confidence of someone who’s spent a lifetime in partnership with one of Hollywood’s great directors: Clint Eastwood. Saldana still possesses an actor’s looks, with a salt-white mustache and a full silver mane. He began his

Lena Waithe thinks Kevin Hart could have handled his Oscar debacle in a much better way. “I kind of wish that he would have taken a moment to let it be a teachable moment and to say, ‘Hey, what I said wasn’t right and I want to make that right,’ not just to keep the

Kevin Hart’s failure to quickly and effectively respond to controversy over his homophobic tweets shows that celebrities have little margin for error when faced with a burgeoning scandal. Over the span of 24 hours, Hart’s dreams of hosting the Oscars went up in smoke after the comic offered up two non-apologies that were alternately churlish,

December 7, 2018 4:05AM PT Mark Hirzberger-Taylor will take charge of Park Circus from March 2019, replacing Nick Varley and John Letham, the outgoing founders and co-CEOs of the Scotland-based distributor. Hirzberger-Taylor was a territory manager in Indonesia, Turkey and Austria for UIP. Recently, he has been consulting for Paramount Pictures in the Austrian market.

December 7, 2018 4:03AM PT Descendants of Marcel Marceau have disavowed World War II drama “Resistance,” saying that they are “in no way associated with the production,” which stars Jesse Eisenberg as the legendary performer and mime artist. In a statement to Variety, children and heirs of Marceau said the project was erroneously “reported in the

“Aquaman,” Warner Bros.’ latest superhero blockbuster, torpedoed to a strong start in China on Friday, two weeks before its release in the U.S. The film had raked in RMB 89 million ($12.9 million) on Friday by 5 p.m. Beijing time. Midnight screenings the night before brought in RMB 9 million ($1.3 million), making for a

An industrial site near Edinburgh that was used to shoot parts of Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” is being primed as a permanent major film and TV studio in Scotland. Local film agency Screen Scotland is asking for private partners to join the project to develop the 8.6-acre site at Bath Road in the Port of

Underscoring the growing appeal of Dominican Republic productions for the international industry, Media Luna New Films has acquired world sales rights to two new film productions: “Mosh,” starring “The Chronicles of Narnia’s” Damian Alcazar, and “Dominicanas,” about how Dominican models have taken the fashion world by storm. Both films, as well as a third pick-up,

Netflix has played a prominent role in this year’s edition of the Marrakech Intl. Film Festival through sponsorship of the main industry event – the Atlas Workshops – and its recent investments in projects involving two of the fest’s highest profile guests – Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”) and Guillermo del Toro (“Pinocchio”). The streamer recently

December 6, 2018 10:07PM PT Disney’s new live action adaptation of “Aladdin” isn’t entirely a whole new world. Actor Mena Massoud, who plays the titular character, teased that while the 2019 movie would offer plenty of classic “Aladdin” tune revivals, two new songs would also be added to the mix. Talking to Marc Malkin at

I’m not a person who tends to have a censorious attitude toward stand-up comedians. One of their jobs is to give voice to the audacious, the outrageous, the rudely incorrect. If we looked back, in hindsight, and vetted comic artists from Lenny Bruce to Richard Pryor to George Carlin to Sandra Bernhard to Eddie Murphy

Wednesday afternoon, comedian Kevin Hart was announced as the host for the upcoming 91st annual Academy Awards. By Thursday night, he had stepped down. The turn of events followed outcry over previous anti-gay tweets, and comments Hart made during stand-up routines nearly 10 years ago. Some of the tweets were feverishly deleted throughout the day

“Mary queen of scots,” the period drama about the life of Mary Stuart, played by Saoirse Ronan, and that of her English cousin Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Margot Robbie, may mark Josie Rourke’s feature film directorial debut, but as the artistic director of London’s prestigious Donmar Warehouse, where she’s staged acclaimed and groundbreaking productions,

In today’s film news roundup, the DGA honors a pair of members for contributions to the guild, romantic comedy “Wild Honey” gets a release and VFX house Proof expands. DGA HONORS Unit production manager Kathleen McGill and associate director Mimi (Marian) Deaton have been selected as the recipients of the Directors Guild of America special

December 6, 2018 6:20PM PT Alex Pettyfer’s first movie as a director is a serious tale of small-town family hell that’s more audacious than it is convincing. When an actor who’s been packaged as a sexy mainstream star hops off the commercial train to direct a small independent feature, one that takes on a topic

Kevin Hart has addressed escalating concerns over a long history of hate speech and derogatory jokes about the LGBTQ community on social media, resurfaced in national news after he was named host of the Oscars on Thursday. Hart acknowledged that his team phoned urgently saying people were upset about a tweet from “eight years ago. I’m

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has won the top writing award and Rungano Nyoni the newcomer accolade from influential British industry organization Women in Film & TV. Actress Juliet Stevenson, whose numerous film credits include “Truly, Madly, Deeply” and “Bend it Like Beckham,” will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at a ceremony Friday. Waller-Bridge broke out with

Rumors of Ted Sarandos’ feud with movie theater owners are greatly exaggerated, according to Netflix’s chief content officer. As he told the crowd Thursday at Variety‘s annual Dealmakers breakfast at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, he can often be found at his local multiplex, redeeming tickets he bought himself. “Who I never run into

Marking the first-ever nod for the Lebanese filmmaker and only the second for her home country, “Capernaum” director Nadine Labaki didn’t have much time to celebrate when she learned of her film’s Golden Globe nomination for foreign-language picture on Thursday. “I haven’t been able to talk with a lot people because we had interviews all

High-profile Paris-based Moroccan filmmaker Laila Marrakchi (“Rock the Casbah,” “Marock”) is partnering up with Backup Films (“Donnybrook”) and Alexandre Aja (“The Hills Have Eyes”) on “My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece,” her long-gestating English-language project based on Annabel Pitcher’s bestselling novel. The book has been translated into more than 20 languages and has earned many

Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, the Thai film director who enjoys a cult international following, says the film industry in his native Thailand is not in healthy condition. His critique emerged this week as part of a freewheeling in-conversation event at the Singapore International Film Festival. “In Thailand, in terms of the movie business, it is not healthy