Movies

The Costume Designers Guild has announced its nominees in film and television categories for 2018. In the contemporary film races, “Crazy Rich Asians” was nominated alongside “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” “Ocean’s 8,” “A Star Is Born” (extending its streak of nominations from every single industry group so far) and “Widows.” For period film,

January 10, 2019 2:24AM PT Miia Tervo’s Finnish romantic comedy “Aurora” has been acquired by international sales company LevelK ahead of its world premiere in competition at the Goteborg Film Festival. Set to open the fest, “Aurora” marks Tervo’s feature debut. The film, a comedy-drama set in the snowy Finnish region of Lapland, tells the

MADRID — Ran Tellem (“Homeland,” “The Paradise”), Daniel Burman (“Lost Embrace,” “Edha”) and Javier Olivares (“The Department of Time,” “Isabel”) will tutor or lecture at this year’s first Master’s Degree in Creative Writing and Screenplays, launched by Spain’s Mediapro Group and Madrid’s Complutense University. Steered by one of Europe’s biggest international fiction creation forces with

“Green Book” screenwriter Nick Vallelonga has deleted his Twitter account after a tweet espousing a debunked conservative narrative that American Muslims could be seen cheering after 9/11 was recirculated Wednesday. “@realDonaldTrump 100% correct,” the Nov. 2015 tweet read. “Muslims in Jersey City cheering when towers went down. I saw it, as you did, possibly on

Gregg Rudloff, who won Academy Awards for sound mixing “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “The Matrix,” and “Glory” and was nominated four other times, died in Los Angeles on Jan. 6. He was 63. A representative for the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office told Variety that the office is treating his death as a possible suicide

Is the whole genre of “Music Inspired by the Film” albums getting its redemption? They became a joke by the 1990s, when it seemed like any blockbuster was an excuse to put together an album of supposedly movie-inspired tracks that were really just as likely to be leftovers from artists’ previous releases. But this year,

Hollywood was jolted Wednesday by former Pixar honcho John Lasseter’s hire for the top job at Skydance Animation, blindsiding the studio’s filmmaking partners, employees and the industry at large. One current Skydance staffer expressed “disappointment” to Variety over CEO David Ellison’s decision to bring on Lasseter, who was put on leave from his post atop Pixar

Alessandro Nivola, star of the upcoming “Sopranos” prequel “The Many Saints of Newark,” revealed that Tony Soprano, the protagonist in the iconic HBO series, will be a central character in the film. Nivola spoke to Variety at the 20th anniversary of “The Sopranos” in New York on Wednesday, where the cast and creator David Chase held a

In today’s film news roundup, Stellan Skarsgard has joined “Dune,” Jamie Lee Curtis and Melissa McCarthy are selected for awards, and Fathom Events has hired Andrew Goldman. CASTING Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard will portray the villain Baron Harkonnen in Legendary’s sci-fier “Dune,” based on the Frank Herbert novel. Denis Villeneuve is directing from a script

January 9, 2019 4:38PM PT Prepare to rock while watching “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The Golden Globe winner is getting sing-along screenings at more than 750 North American locations beginning on Friday. The sing-along version will display song lyrics on screen, allowing viewers to perform the movie’s score. The tracks include Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the

John Lasseter’s contract with Skydance Media contains provisions that make the former Pixar Animation chief financially responsible for any legal claims involving sexual harassment, according to multiple insiders. The pact to bring Lasseter in as head of the company’s animation division is said to include “ironclad” provisions that require the executive to not only pay

After M. Night Shyamalan’s 2016 film “Split” was revealed to be set in the same universe as his 2000 superhero thriller “Unbreakable,” the director brings all the characters together in “Glass.” The heroes and villains of the previous two movies return in “Glass.” Bruce Willis plays David Dunn, the security guard with super strength; Samuel

Cinema lives or dies by illusion. To make stories work, movies must take audiences to another place, suspend their disbelief and thrill them. And effects, whether created in-camera or in post-production or a combination of the two, have always been among the tools used by filmmakers to make that happen. But despite their vital role,

Caleb Landry Jones is set to join Tom Hanks in Amblin Entertainment’s sci-fi pic “Bios,” sources tell Variety. The film follows Finch, the last man on Earth. An ailing inventor facing his own mortality, Finch builds a robot to keep his beloved dog safe. As the trio embarks upon an epic cross-country journey, the scientist

January 9, 2019 1:00PM PT “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan has come on board to rewrite Paramount’s adaptation of the Tom Clancy novel “Without Remorse,” with Michael B. Jordan starring as operations officer John Clark. The pic marks a reunion for Sheridan and his “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” helmer Stefano Sollima, who will be directing.

January 9, 2019 12:30PM PT Time’s Up, the high-profile organization committed to women’s causes in Hollywood and beyond, has slammed Skydance Animation for hiring John Lasseter. Read the full statement below: “Skydance Media’s decision to hire John Lasseter as head of animation endorses and perpetuates a broken system that allows powerful men to act without

On Wednesday, Skydance announced that it hired Pixar veteran John Lasseter to head its animation division. The decision is bound to come under scrutiny, given the fact that Lasseter was ousted from Pixar in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal. In a memo to staff, CEO David Ellison attempted to explain the decision, and

Former Pixar chief John Lasseter has been named head of Skydance Animation. The hire comes after Lasseter has been trying, and largely failing, to drum up interest from studios in recent months, having met with Warner Bros. and other players. Many major studios and technology companies were wary of partnering with Lasseter because he was

Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, who wrote “Splash,” “Parenthood,” and “City Slickers,” have been named the recipients of the Writers Guild of America West’s 2019 Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement. The duo will be honored at the WGA West’s Writers Guild Awards L.A. show on Feb. 17 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The holidays may be over, but “The Grinch” is still riding high on Yuletide spirit. Illumination and Universal’s animated adventure, based on the classic Dr. Seuss tale, surpassed $500 million at the worldwide box office. With Tuesday’s ticket sales, “The Grinch” joins the company of “Despicable Me 2,” Despicable Me 3,” “Minions,” “The Secret Life

Anne Hathaway and Tim Robbins are set to co-star opposite Mark Ruffalo in Participant’s untitled legal drama focused on the scandal revolving around the DuPont chemical company. Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, and Bill Pullman round out the cast. “Carol” helmer Todd Haynes is directing the movie from a script by

A tribute to the late Stan Lee has been set for Jan. 30 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood with Kevin Smith hosting. Proceeds from the event, dubbed Excelsior! A Stan Lee Celebration, will benefit one of Lee’s favorite charities: the Hero Initiative, which supports comic book creators, artists, and writers in need. Lee

January 9, 2019 9:25AM PT Sheroum Kim, a vice president of production at STX Films, has been named director of independent films at Netflix. The latest in a string of pedigreed hires in the content group at the streamer, Kim will report to content acquisitions head Matt Brodlie as soon as next week. Brodlie is also the co-head

Kevin Hart seems to have fully closed the door on any possibility that he will host the Oscars. During a Wednesday appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” star gave an emphatic “no” when asked if he would take on the emcee role. “I’m not hosting the Oscars this year,”

On the set of “Wonder Woman 1984,” during its final days of production in London, director Patty Jenkins is completing a series of elaborate shots in quick succession. “These days, there are difficult things to shoot,” she says. “This is not that difficult; it’s just the directions and the multitasking. And it is so interesting

Joni Mitchell’s birthday party is making its way to the big screen. Fans who lamented they weren’t able to attend a sold-out pair of all-star Mitchell tribute concerts in L.A. two months ago will get their chance when Trafalgar Releasing puts a filmed version of the shows into theaters nationwide for a one-night screening February

“The Favourite” lived up to its name with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which graced the homegrown period drama with a commanding 12 film award nominations Wednesday. But Bradley Cooper and Alfonso Cuaron made history, Glenn Close gained some momentum and Spike Lee got some love. Here are 10 takeaways from this year’s

In “Finnish Blood, Swedish Heart,” Finland’s Mika Ronkainen, best known for his documentaries – 2003’s “Screaming Men,” 2009’s “Freetime Machos”  –  portrays the dislocation of 1970s Finnish emigrants in Sweden via a father-and-son musical road movie. For “All the Sins,” a Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize entry written with Merja Aakko, Ronkainen takes very

January 9, 2019 12:07AM PT Hollywood actor George Eads, a veteran of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “MacGuyver”  has confirmed to star in Korean-produced war movie “Jangsari 9.15”. The movie is directed by renowned Korean filmmaker Kwak Kyung-taek (“Friend”). Production is by Taewon Entertainment, a leading production firm headed by Chung Taewon. The company previously

The campaign to create new studio space in the U.K. continues apace, with a new plan to build a major studio in Scotland in the works. PSL Land, the team behind the thwarted Pentland Studios project, has now shifted its attention to a different site near Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, as the home of an