Movies

Jason Blum scored at the Golden Globe nominations on Thursday. The super producer’s projects picked up seven nominations, including a best motion picture, drama nod for “BlacKkKlansman” and a best limited series nod for HBO’s “Sharp Objects.” “It’s been a great morning for us,” Blum told Variety. “At Blumhouse, we focus on making relevant stories that

Ten leading European sales agents attended the first edition of Marrakech Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops. In interviews with Variety the executives emphasized the importance of this new industry event, which will help leverage the importance of Marrakech as a key industry hub for Arab and African filmmakers. Films Boutique’s Gabor Greiner said that the workshops

Before portraying the stepmom to a drug-addicted young man in “Beautiful Boy,” Maura Tierney asked the real Karen Barbour how she and her husband survived it. “She said, ‘Nobody freaked out at the same time,’” Tierney recalls. Relying on a partnership is how the Globe winner, a “basic dresser,” approaches fashion. “You get into a

December 6, 2018 11:11AM PT 20th Century Fox Film producer Kira Goldberg is departing the West Los Angeles lot leading up to Disney’s upcoming takeover of the studio. Goldberg, who has a long-standing relationship with departing Fox Film CEO Stacey Snider, is moving to a production role in Netflix’s original film group, two individuals familiar

Nominations for the 76th annual Golden Globes were announced on Thursday morning, and going hand in hand with nods for the year’s best in film are the five contenders for original song in a motion picture. The star-studded category is comprised of Kendrick Lamar (“Black Panther”), Dolly Parton (“Dumplin’”), Annie Lennox (“A Private War”) Troye Sivan (“Boy Erased”),

PLAYBACK is a Variety / iHeartRadio podcast bringing you conversations with the talents behind many of today’s hottest films. New episodes air every Thursday. A film like “Mary Poppins Returns” is sure to connect this holiday season. Why? Because there are so few films this year that make you feel the way it does. And

Since Bill Duke the Sundance Special Jury-prize winning film “The Killing Floor” (1984), the multi-hyphenate talent has rarely been out of sight on screens big and small. In the ’90s, Duke directed acclaimed crime films focused on black themes and characters, including the Cannes Fest competitor “A Rage in Harlem”; “Hoodlum,” with an enviable cast

Below-the-line department heads who have the opportunity to work together on more than one film often develop a kind of communications shorthand. For production designer Franco-Giacomo Carbone and costume designer Lizz Wolf, “Creed II” marks their fourth collaboration — a relationship that began with 2008’s “Rambo.” This worked to the great advantage of the eighth

Once upon a time, the quintessential foreign-language film submission was a sweeping epic or something to do with WWII. No longer. More challenging and topical pictures have been entered and ultimately rewarded. Think of last year’s Chilean winner, “A Fantastic Woman,” centered on a transgender character.Among this year’s submissions from 87 countries are at least

Reality series aficionados may recognize drag performer D.J. “Shangela: Pierce from his tenure as a two-time contestant on the Emmy Award-winning hit “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” as well as “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” but thanks to a small but plum role as a drag bar emcee-cum-bar owner in “A Star Is Born,” he’s drawn in

December 6, 2018 10:01AM PT Timothee Chalament is on board to play one of the leads in Wes Anderson’s next live action feature, “The French Dispatch.” Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Benicio del Toro and Jeffrey Wright are also on board. Murray, McDormand and Swinton have appeared in several Anderson films. Anderson is writing and

Each year, the same debate rages: Can a movie about superheroes be a legitimate contender for a best  picture Academy Award nomination? The answer, so far, has been a taunting laugh followed by a hard no. After all, as UCLA associate professor of sociology Gabriel Rossman — who worked with University of Arizona assistant professor

A breakout star in “Roma,” first-time actress Yalitza Aparicio went from small-town schoolteacher-in-training to snagging a lead role in director Alfonso Cuarón’s autobiographical movie about his formative years in Mexico. Aparicio plays Cleo, based on the director’s childhood nanny. “It’s kind of incredible that I’ve had this experience,” she says, “because not everybody starts this

There’s no denying the race for documentary Oscar has changed dramatically in the past decade and even more so in the past five years. The reason for the shift? Money. What is debatable is if the shift is for the better. There are many reasons for the recent exponential rise in docu campaign budgets. One

Lone Scherfig’s “The Kindness of Strangers” will open the 69th edition of the Berlin Film Festival. The Danish director’s ensemble drama, starring Zoe Kazan, Andrea Riseborough and Bill Nighy among others, follows a group of people trying to survive a New York winter. It will open the Berlinale on Feb. 7, 2019. Scherfig is a regular

December 6, 2018 2:12AM PT ‘Sweet Country,” the tale of an Aboriginal man who shoots a white man in self defense, swept the major awards at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards. The film collected the best film award, and the best director award for Warwick Thornton. In other major categories,

Chinese production and distribution company, HY Media has picked up mainland China distribution rights to blockbuster Indian film “2.0.” Starring South Indian superstar, Rajinikanth, the film was by some measures the highest grossing movie in the world last weekend. “2.0” is understood to be the first Rajinikanth-starring film released in China in recent times. Indian

MoviePass has read your enraged tweets. It has fielded your angry calls. And, yes, it’s seen those memes that showed images of its offices engulfed in flames. Despite becoming a trending topic for all the wrong reasons, the company that once planned to be the Netflix of moviegoing believes it can win back the trust of

Singapore firms, Aurora Media and Darpan Global have teamed to set up best-selling Indian novel “Pilgrims in the Dark” (“Timirpanthi”) as a feature film. The companies previously optioned film rights to the Gujurati-language novel by Dhruv Bhatt. Award-winning playwright and director Dakxin Bajrange is now attached to direct the thriller from a screenplay written by

In today’s film news roundup, “The Wizard of Oz” leads off the 2019 TCM Big Screen Classics, “Jobe’z World” gets distribution, and NRG and SAG-AFTRA make executive hires. CLASSIC FILMS Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies have unveiled 14 classic films that will be shown in theaters in 2019 in the TCM Big Screen Classics series, starting

December 5, 2018 5:04PM PT Twentieth Century Fox has partnered with New Regency to buy supernatural horror project “The Patient Who Nearly Drove Me Out of Medicine” and set it up with Ryan Reynolds and Vertigo Entertainment. Reynolds will produce through his Maximum Effort production company along with Roy Lee and Jon Berg through Vertigo.

Boutique distribution company Juno Films has acquired exclusive U.S rights to “Ever After” (“Endzeit”), a feminist zombie apocalypse road movie hailed as delivering a fresh take on the walking dead cannon. The deal was negotiated between Elizabeth Sheldon, Juno’s CEO and co-founder, and Andreas Rothbauer, founder of Berlin-based Picture Tree International, “Ever After’s” sales agent.

“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” director Stefano Sollima is in talks to direct Paramount’s adaptation of the Tom Clancy novel “Without Remorse” with Michael B. Jordan starring as operations officer John Clark. Paramount hopes to launch a franchise with Jordan based on the Clark character. Jordan is currently attached to “Without Remorse” and “Rainbow Six,” which

It’s the calm before the storm. Next weekend kicks off a competitive box office race that will carry through the end of the year. Until then, it’s more Thanksgiving leftovers for all. With no fresh wide releases hitting domestic theaters, Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet” should retain its No. 1 spot in North America for

As 2018 draws to a close and various critics groups and deliberating bodies measure the year in movie superlatives, a look below the line at the Academy’s crafts races reveals an art form invigorated by many of today’s most brilliant cinematic minds. Perhaps the most fully realized visual effort is director Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to

FILMS AND PERFORMANCES (antiquated) Augmented Reality (Director and screenwriter: Christine Marie, Producer: Nion McEvoy) — Visual intimacy, ontological form, in real-time. Pioneering the use of a non-digital, reinvented, pre-cinematic stereo imaging technique, the exquisite ensemble of dancers seems to do the impossible — reach out. The vivid choreography and score leave a lasting impression within

December 5, 2018 12:58PM PT The “Resident Evil” reboot has found its writer and director. “47 Meters Down” director Johannes Roberts has been hired by Constantin Film to take the reins on the horror reboot, sources tell Variety. The revival of the franchise has been a high priority for Constantin ever since May 2017, when the

Hassen Ferhani’s “Kilometers 60” won the €20,000 ($22,700) post-production prize Wednesday at Marrakech Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops, a four-day fast-track program for 14 projects from Africa. The Atlas Workshops, one of the key innovations of this year’s festival, were sponsored by Netflix and coordinated by Remi Bonhomme (pictured), program manager of the Cannes’ Critics’ Week.

For the first 10 minutes of dystopian sci-fi saga “Mortal Engines,” a blessedly enjoyable interval before you start to realize just what a long slog you have in store, director Christian Rivers stages a most unusual chase sequence. In this chase, the pursued is a small mobile mining town called Salthook, constructed to fold itself

December 5, 2018 12:00PM PT The Palm Springs International Film Festival has selected Spike Lee as the recipient of its career achievement award. Lee will be presented with the honor at the festival’s awards gala on Jan. 3 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The festival runs from Jan. 3 to Jan 14. “Spike Lee