November 29, 2018 1:20PM PT With “A Quiet Place,” composer Marco Beltrami may have faced the year’s toughest scoring assignment: Writing music for a thriller whose central plot involves all of its protagonists remaining silent. “It was a bit of an experiment,” the two-time Oscar nominee concedes. “I would write ideas and John [director Krasinski]
Movies
November 29, 2018 1:00PM PT Period films always pose a musical challenge: How authentic should a composer be? For “Mary Queen of Scots” with Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth I, composer Max Richter created a fairly modern score to sit alongside 16th-century music. Early-music expert William Lyons was called in
Christian Bale had one very simple reason for deciding to play Dick Cheney in Adam McKay’s upcoming “Vice.” “I love crazy ideas!” Bale tells Variety. “Who would have thought Adam McKay would call me up one day and say, ‘Hey, what do you think about playing Dick Cheney?’ That’s just as crazy as playing a
November 29, 2018 12:26PM PT “Ask Dr. Ruth,” a documentary about the revolutionary sex therapist, has sold theatrical and streaming rights to Hulu ahead of its Sundance Film Festival premiere. Directed by Ryan White (Netflix’s “The Keepers”), the doc follows 90-year-old Dr. Ruth Westheimer — a groundbreaking and candid authority on American sexuality who became a
“Mary Poppins Returns” includes nine original songs by the writing team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. That’s an overwhelming amount by contemporary movie musical standards, but it’s actually underwhelming compared to the original 1964 film, which, Shaiman points out, contained almost twice that many. Still, a 21st century audience may only be able to handle
November 29, 2018 11:35AM PT Not that many years ago, when she was establishing her early party-hearty image, Kesha might have been near the end of a list of female singer-songwriters you’d dial up to write a song in honor of as revered an American figure as Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That she was first on
The Coen brothers’ omnibus Western, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” has some fairly grim stretches, but before it goes there, the first segment has a few moments of pure musical-comedy exhilaration. Singer-songwriter Gillian Welch describes the assignment, as it came in to her and partner David Rawlings from the Coens. “It was a pretty straightforward
“What’s so, so cool about RBG is she’s 85 years old and to kids she’s a rock star,” says songwriter Diane Warren, who knows her rock stars. “I walked into a store on Robertson (Blvd. in West Hollywood) and they have all this Ruth Bader Ginsburg swag. It’s like so weird and so amazing. It
Rotten Tomatoes, the web aggregator of movie reviews, has pledged $25,000 to the Sundance Institute Press Inclusion Initiative. The initiative grants stipends to “assist with travel and lodging costs for more than 50 freelance critics and journalists” attending this year’s festival in Park City, Utah, Rotten Tomatoes said. Established this year, the initiative was created
November 29, 2018 7:40AM PT The New York Film Critics Circle will be handing out year-end superlatives on Thursday morning. Critically acclaimed films expected to be in the discussion include “First Reformed,” “Hereditary,” “You Were Never Really Here,” “Eighth Grade,” and “Roma,” among others. Last year the group named Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” the year’s
Japanese social drama “Shoplifters” was named best film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards on Thursday. Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu, the film previously won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May. “’Shoplifters’ turns an intimate story about an unusual family into a metaphorical social analysis that is relevant not only for Japan,
The Asia Pacific Screen Awards are to increase their role in film funding through the establishment of a new film development prize worth $20,000. The APSA Academy Sun Yat-Sen Bo Ai Film Fund is launched as a venture between the awards body and the Sun Yat-Sen Cultural Foundation, a charitable organization founded by descendants of
Three and a half months after its U.S. release, “Crazy Rich Asians” finally hits the ground in China on Friday. But it’s up in the air whether the movie can enjoy the same kind of success in the world’s second-biggest movie market. On the face of it, the Cinderella story of a Chinese-American academic who
You would be spoiled for ways to describe Finland’s natural bounty — a breathtaking tapestry of Arctic tundra, glacial fields, boreal forests, gin-clear lakes, and dramatic coastline offering easy access to the world’s largest archipelago. The landscape is as wild and untouched as anywhere on the planet; the air is relatively pollution-free, making the sunlight
November 29, 2018 12:59AM PT Feature debutant, Sam Hargrave has wrapped the India schedule of Netflix Original action adventure film “Dhaka.” The film shot at Ahmedabad and Mumbai locations and will now move on to Bangkok and Phuket, Thailand. Stars include Chris Hemsworth (“Avengers: Infinity War”,) David Harbour (“Stranger Things”,) Golshifteh Farahani (“Girls Of The
Finland’s Arctic landscapes have an almost otherworldly beauty, and the country is spoiled for natural riches. Along its spectacular Baltic coastline, visitors can access the world’s largest archipelago, while the interior boasts fairy-tale backdrops of crystal lakes, brooding forests and unspoiled wilderness areas brimming with reindeer, elk and other wildlife. Turning that natural bounty into
Production designer Sarah Greenwood didn’t expect to find herself on the fringes of the Arctic Circle while shooting 2011’s “Hanna,” the story of a teenage girl raised in the wilderness to be an assassin. “We weren’t originally planning to go to Finland,” she says, recalling the pre-production for a film meant to shoot in Germany.
November 28, 2018 11:00PM PT Celebrated indie director Midi Z, has begun post-production of “Nina Wu,” a fiction film inspired by the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo movement. Adopting the tone of a psychological thriller, the film examines the difficulties faced by women working in the film industry. Z, whose real name is Chao
In the late 1960s, Jean-Luc Godard spun several films — “La Chinoise,” “One Plus One” — out of the perception that politics had begun to fuse with pop culture. His insight was startling, even if how it translated to the real world remained a touch ethereal. It was all about images (the mass-produced iconography of
In today’s film news roundup, Focus gives a release date to Matthias Schoenaerts’ “The Mustang,” Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios will finance and produce the comedy “Action,” and Strand buys Israeli hit “The Other Story.” RELEASE DATE Focus Features has given a March 15, 2019, release date to the Matthias Schoenaerts drama “The Mustang.” Schoenaerts portrays
November 28, 2018 4:50PM PT Stars from international hit “Crazy Rich Asians” were on hand Wednesday night to add a little sparkle to the otherwise brisk and efficient opening night events for the 29th edition of the Singapore International Film Festival proved. Hundreds of film buffs gathered at the 85-year-old neoclassical structure that is the
November 28, 2018 2:44PM PT “Workaholics” and “Pitch Perfect” actor Adam Devine is set to co-star in the CBS Films’ comedy “Lexi,” sources tell Variety. Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who wrote the original “The Hangover” and helmed “Bad Moms,” are on board to direct from a script they wrote. Suzanne Todd (“Bad Moms”) is
November 28, 2018 2:40PM PT IFC Films co-president Jonathan Sehring is leaving the company at the end of the year. The veteran executive announced his plans on Wednesday. He helped launch the Independent Film Channel in 1994 and create IFC Films in 1999. IFC Films will be led by a trio of remaining IFC Films
After a record-breaking Thanksgiving feast, the domestic box office is getting a little room to breathe. With little competition, Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet” should easily maintain its reign in North America. If the animated sequel sees a similar hold to the original “Wreck-It Ralph,” it could earn as much as $38 million in its
“Roma’s” highly acclaimed whirlwind tour took another stop in New York City on Tuesday night for a special screening for a star-studded crowd. Anne Hathaway, Bette Midler, Zosia Mamet, Jim Jarmusch, Nick Kroll, Chris Meloni, Lee Pace, Kathleen Turner, David Chase, and Tom Colicchio were just a few of the stars who attended the showing at
U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION The 16 films in this section are all world premieres. Before You Know It (Director: Hannah Pearl Utt, Screenwriters: Hannah Pearl Utt, Jen Tullock, Producers: Mallory Schwartz, Josh Hetzler, James Brown) — A long-kept family secret thrusts codependent, thirty-something sisters Rachel and Jackie Gurner into a literal soap opera. A journey that
November 28, 2018 12:38PM PT Kevin Hart has come on board to produce the comedy-drama “Bye Bye Bye,” a remake of the 2011 South Korean movie “Sunny.” Universal Pictures has acquired a pitch from Hart’s HartBeat Productions and CJ Entertainment. Amy Aniobi, a writer-producer on HBO’s “Insecure,” will pen the script. Hart and John Cheng
November 28, 2018 12:09PM PT Michelle Yeoh is set to join the holiday comedy “Last Christmas,” reteaming with her “Crazy Rich Asians” co-star Henry Golding. Emilia Clarke will topline the film. Paul Feig is directing, with Emma Thompson and Bryony Kimmings penning the screenplay. Feig will produce for his Feigco Entertainment alongside Jessie Henderson. David
November 28, 2018 12:00PM PT Bradley Cooper has been selected as director of the year by the Palm Springs International Film Festival for “A Star Is Born.” The honor will be presented at the festival’s awards gala on Jan. 3 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The festival, now in its 30th year, runs from
Saban Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to David Raymond’s directorial debut “Nomis,” starring Henry Cavill, Ben Kingsley, and Alexandra Daddario. The L.A. Film Festival selected “Nomis” as its closing night film on Sept. 28 at the ArcLight Hollywood Cinerama Dome. The showing was the world premiere for “Nomis,” which follows American police trapping an