Tom Cruise has stepped up the fight against motion smoothing. The star of “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” was joined by the movie’s director, Chris McQuarrie, in a video posted Tuesday explaining what motion smoothing on high-definition TVs is, and why movie fans should turn it off. Motion smoothing, aka “the soap opera effect” or video interpolation,
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Haim and Cheryl Saban’s $50 million donation has landed them their name on the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures building on Miracle Mile in Los Angeles, but the billionaire philanthropists’ contribution to the project almost didn’t happen. During Tuesday’s unveiling of the restored exterior of the new Saban Building (formerly the historic May Company department
A new documentary film about Neil Armstrong will use home videos shot by the man himself and unseen footage from NASA to tell the celebrated U.S. astronaut’s life story. “Armstrong” is in production and will launch in 2019 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first moon landings. The producers of “Armstrong,” Tin Goose
One performance can often make or break a movie, but the collective talents of the right ensemble can transform what looks good on paper into something truly special on the big screen. The SAG Awards have been honoring acting ensembles for 25 years, first TV shows and then quickly broadening to include films. This year,
“The Echo Chamber,” the unfinished project that Italian great Bernardo Bertolucci was working on before his unexpected death last month, is to be brought to the big screen by Italy’s Indigo Film. Nicola Giuliano, a founding partner of Indigo (“The Great Beauty”), confirmed that the chamber piece would be produced as a tribute to Bertolucci’s
During his chat with Emily Blunt for Variety‘s Actors on Actors, Hugh Jackman said he’ll “never forget” the first time he met politician Gary Hart for the making of “The Front Runner.” “I do believe our stories in life are probably the most precious thing we own,” Jackman said. Jackman portrayed Hart earlier this year in
Edgard Tenembaum’s Paris-based Tu Vas Voir, producer of “The Motorcycle Diaries,” and “Ixcanul,” has boarded Argentine writer-director Rodrigo Guerrero’s “Venezia,” a tale of a grieving woman’s discovery of a larger freedom. Tu Vas Voir will co-produce “Venezia” with Cordoba’s Twins Latin Films but leaving all international territory rights open outside Argentina, including those to France,
MADRID — 1844 Entertainment has acquired U.S. rights to Benjamín Naishtat’s “Rojo,” whose theatrical and home entertainment release will be handled by Distrib Films US, headed by François Scippa-Kohn. Theatrical releases in New York and Los Angeles are planned for spring 2019, followed by main other markets nationwide, said Distrib Films US president Scippa-Kohn. Closed
Singapore-headquartered production company Cre8 Productions has announced a six-film co-production and co-financing deal with ABS-CBN Films, the filmmaking arm of the Philippines leading media conglomerate ABS-CBN. The first film of the slate, Mikhail Red’s “Eerie”, had its world premiere at the Singapore International Film Festival on Monday. The rest of the slate includes a zombie
Versatile Egyptian auteur Ahmad Abdalla is well known on the fest circuit for “Microphone,” about Egypt’s hip-hop scene, “Rags & Tatters,” which exposed the country’s deep post-revolution poverty, and female identity melodrama “Decor.” In “EXT. Night,” which is his 6th feature, he returns to Egypt’s darkness with a wry comedy in which a young film
The Singaporean government is to launch a new scheme to fund film co-production in Southeast Asia. It will offer grants worth S$250,000 (US$183,000) per film. The initiative was announced Wednesday by Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran during the Singapore Hour at the Asia TV Forum. The ATF is part of the annual Singapore
December 4, 2018 10:00PM PT “Bumblebee,” the sixth installment of Paramount’s “Transformers” franchise, will rumble into Chinese theaters on Jan. 4, 2019. That is two weeks after its U.S. outing. The prequel is set 20 years before 2007’s first “Transformers” film, and follows the story of a government agency chasing down autobot Bumblebee and the teenage
Clover Pictures is getting ready to unwrap spooky Singaporean comedy “When Ghost Meets Zombie” in time for Valentines Day next year. The film stars local singer-actor Nathan Hartono, who made it to the grand finals of the “Sing! China” singing contest variety program in 2017. He was Jay Chou’s protege during that season of the
December 4, 2018 4:14PM PT Robert Schwentke, who received critical acclaim for his thriller “The Captain,” is in early talks to direct Paramount’s “G.I. Joe” spinoff, “Snake Eyes,” sources tell Variety. Evan Spiliotopoulos, who wrote “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” penned the script. Brian Goldner is among those producing the feature
Anne Hathaway has been offered a starring role in Warner Bros.’ “Sesame Street” movie, sources tell Variety. Sources close to the situation say Hathaway has not decided whether she will film the movie yet as the actress is also fielding an offer for Robert Zemeckis’ ‘The Witches.” “Portlandia” director and co-creator Jonathan Krisel is set to helm
December 4, 2018 3:15PM PT The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will open in “late 2019” with a retrospective of Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki, Academy officials announced Tuesday. The Academy also gave a preview of the long-term exhibits that will be in place when the museum opens to paying customers next year. The exhibits
More than one year after winning a Special Jury Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, director RaMell Ross’ “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” will air on PBS’ ‘Independent Lens’ this coming February, marking a cap to its global tour. Along the way, this elliptical, abstracted portrait of two Alabama families has won plaudits
Amandla Stenberg is unleashing “rain and thunder” with her activism. So said Tracee Ellis Ross on Monday while presenting the Change Maker Award to “The Hate U Give” star at Equality Now‘s Make Equality Reality Gala on Monday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. “I’m starting to understand that the world is always going
December 4, 2018 2:25PM PT Jim Osborne has been named head of talent at APA. APA executive Barry McPherson will continue to lead the agency’s New York talent department. Ryan Martin, who has served as APA’s co-head of talent since June 2018 and previously lead the department since 2006, will exit the agency when his
Arthouse specialist Landmark Theatres has been sold by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban to Cohen Media Group for an undisclosed price. The sale ends months of speculation about Landmark’s fate — the company has been shopped around for months, reportedly drawing interest from Amazon, Netflix, and Byron Allen. Cohen Media Group chairman Charles S. Cohen, a real
While at Marrakech Film Festival to preside the jury, James Gray talked about his next film, “Ad Astra,” and shared thoughts on festivals, Netflix and Harvey Weinstein, among other topics. Gray said he was in the middle of the editing process on “Ad Astra,” a science-fiction film with Brad Pitt, with more than 600 shots
Edward Norton, Mariska Hargitay, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti are among the environmentally conscious celebrities and politicians attending early screenings of upcoming climate change documentary “Paris to Pittsburgh.” Though the film’s official air date is Dec. 12 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on National Geographic, the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Des Moines,
December 4, 2018 12:00PM PT The Palm Springs International Film Festival will present Regina King with the Chairman’s Award for her role in the drama “If Beale Street Could Talk.” The festival will make the presentation at its film awards gala on Jan. 3 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The festival, now in its
Bolivian writer-director Rodrigo ‘Gory’ Patiño honed his filmmaking skills as a TV commercials director for the past seven years, with the occasional music video and short film among his credits. His feature debut, “The Goalkeeper” (“Muralla”) is Bolivia’s official entry to the Oscars and the Golden Globes. After securing an MFA in film and TV
December 4, 2018 9:18AM PT The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced the presenters for this year’s Golden Globe nominations. Leslie Mann, Danai Gurira, Terry Crews, and Christian Slater will reveal the 2019 honorees on Thursday, Dec. 6, live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. HFPA also teased they plan to make a
Glenn Close received the Museum of the Moving Image’s annual Salute at a gala on Monday evening in New York City, where leading actors and directors shared their experiences working alongside her — and the Tony-winner herself revealed the advice that’s kept her going throughout her impressive career. Close now has 84 screen credits and
Peter Hedges didn’t write the role of Ben Burns, a 19-year-old recovering drug addict in “Ben Is Back,” for his Oscar-nominated son Lucas Hedges. It was actually Julia Roberts who nudged Lucas Hedges to consider portraying her on-screen offspring in the emotional drama about a mother who attempts to help her son after he returns
Charlie Corwin, the former head of Imagine Entertainment, will help Uproxx as it dives more deeply into the television and film space. The veteran executive is the first appointment to Uproxx’s advisory board. Ultimately, there will be four or five people on the board. “The idea is that this will be a very active board
Melissa McCarthy and Lupita Nyong’o sat down for a chat for Variety’s Actors on Actors. For more, click here. Melissa McCarthy is best known for creating outsize comedic characters, but this year she took on a dramatic role in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” Marielle Heller’s story of a forger desperately holding onto her place in a
As someone who loves acting so much he “would do this for free,” Mahershala Ali yearned to explore deeper aspects of his work with press and audiences. “There’s only so much bandwidth in an interview, only so much space. Forty percent of my interview is usually around things of diversity or color,” he says. “You