Movies

November 2, 2018 6:01AM PT [embedded content] With the release of “Hitman 2” looming, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and developer IO Interactive Friday released the game’s live-action trailer, starring Sean Bean (“Lord of the Rings,” “Game of Thrones”). In the trailer, Bean plays the role of Mark “The Undying” Faba, an in-game character who will

California’s expanded production tax incentive program has resulted in nearly $6 billion in in-state spending over the past three years, a report released Friday showed. The California Film Commission asserted in the report that the Film & TV Tax Credit Program 2.0 has led to sustained growth in retaining and attracting in-state production. The $6

Zee Entertainment, one of India’s largest media groups, is making a committed foray into the English-language movie production business. The initiative is spearheaded by Dubai-based Shibani Kapur, Zee’s CEO of international production. “We are targeting high-concept, low-budget films, in the genre space and with the kind of international cast that a company like Lionsgate or

XYZ Films, the U.S.-based sales agency specializing in genre films, has picked up international rights to Bradley Liew’s elevated horror movie “Motel Acacia.” XYZ will open it up to foreign distributors at this week’s American Film Marketin Santa Monica. The film is set to start principal photography at the end of November in Philippines and

November 2, 2018 4:00AM PT Isabelle Huppert is set to star as a drug dealer in Jean-Paul Salome’s “La Daronne,” a crime comedy based on Hannelore Cayre’s popular novel. The film is being produced by Kristina Larsen at Les Films du Lendemain and Jean-Baptiste Dupont at La Boetie Films. Orange Studio has just come on

November 2, 2018 1:59AM PT A female indoor soccer player takes her case to court when her husband won’t let her leave the country to play in the biggest match of her life. An angry woman rails against the system in the punchy and timely “Cold Sweat,” a fact-based drama about an Iranian national futsal

November 2, 2018 1:00AM PT The Mikhael Hers-directed drama “Amanda,” about a man who ends up caring for his seven-year-old niece when her mother is killed, was awarded the Tokyo Grand Prix at the Tokyo International Film Festival’s closing ceremony today. The film also took the best screenplay award in the festival 31st edition, which unspools

Though it originally ran for just six episodes in 2004, the U.K. TV series “Garth Merenghi’s Darkplace” — an inspired spoof of supernatural anthology shows, among other things — has acquired a still-growing cult following. Its principal collaborators have all forged interesting careers since, with two recently making their feature writing-directing debuts. Released last year,

November 1, 2018 10:54PM PT Russia’s Wizart has sold rights for German-speaking Europe for its 3D animated feature “The Snow Queen: Mirrorlands” to Peppermint Enterprises. Peppermint managing director, Patrick Keller, said the company is planning a late January/early February theatrical release, the first time that a film from the franchise has been given a theatrical

Mathias Malzieu is set to direct “A Mermaid in Paris,” a romantic comedy/fantasy with Reda Kateb and Clémence Poesy. Kinology is handling international sales on the film, as well as co-producing with Wonder Films and Entre Chien et Loup. Sony will distribute the film in France. Virginie Ledoyen, Rossy de Palma and Eric Cantona round

November 1, 2018 10:38PM PT Dogwoof has notched the first international deals for “Without Compromise,” the feature documentary about enigmatic fashion designer Martin Margiela, and “Women Make Film,” Mark Cousins’ 16-hour tribute to female filmmakers. Film-meets-fashion feature documentary “Without Compromise” tells the story of Margiela, who was part of the avant-garde Antwerp movement and founded

November 1, 2018 10:36PM PT FilmSharks Intl. has licensed Rafael Ribas’ toon pic “Lino 3D,” a comedy-adventure from Brazil’s Start Anima and Fox Intl. Prods., to Dark Side Distribution in Mexico, where the film will open on a large 450-screen spread. The deal is a key one: Mexico is traditionally the third-biggest market in the

November 1, 2018 10:35PM PT French film company Orange Studio has acquired international sales rights to Erwan Marinopoulos’ “Kill Ben Lyk,” an English-language thriller set in London and starring Eugene Simon (“Game of Thrones”), Dimitri Leonidas (“The Monuments Men”) and Bronson Webb (“The Dark Knight”). TF1 Studio will release “Kill Ben Lyk” in France and

November 1, 2018 10:22PM PT John Malkovich, Michael Kenneth Williams and Vivica A. Fox have joined Liam Hemsworth and Vince Vaughn in Clark Duke’s feature directorial debut “Arkansas.” The film follows a pair of low-level drug runners in the Dixie Mafia, portrayed by Hemsworth and Duke, who live by the orders of an Arkansas-based drug

It’s probably no coincidence that Tyler Perry chose this week, just days before the release of his latest film, “Nobody’s Fool,” to make the announcement that he is planning to retire Madea, the rowdy, blaring, acid-tongued, tiny-pistol-toting church lady from hell who will dress down anyone under the Atlanta sun who crosses her. The madly

November 1, 2018 7:36PM PT Kate Mara and Simon Pegg are in negotiations to star in the independent thriller “Inheritance” with British director Vaughn Stein attached. The film explores what happens when the patriarch of a wealthy and powerful family suddenly passes away, leaving his wife and daughter with a shocking secret inheritance that threatens

German films have continued to perform strongly at the box office this year despite record high temperatures over the summer, usually a death knell for local cinemas, and not to mention World Cup soccer, which kept many potential moviegoers at home or in sports bars across the country. Local pics have benefitted from a strong

November 1, 2018 5:10PM PT “It” director Andy Muschietti is attached to develop a movie version of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way producing along with Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures. Andy Muschietti and his producer sister, Barbara Muschietti, have written a treatment for the film and Andy Muschietti will direct

In opting to rebrand his festival with a simple, four letter moniker, GIFF director Emmanuel Cuenod knowingly invokes comparisons to Toronto’s TIFF and Austin SXSW and welcomes the association. “Our central aim is to present a program full of strong and disruptive content, and to do so with a way of working that hews closer

Operating a mid-tiered European festival within the fall corridor means confronting a certain truth: There are a number of other festivals with similar programming mandates, and all are competing for eyes and attention. Confronted with this intractable fact, Geneva Intl. Film Festival director Emmanuel Cuenod has spent the past several years working to develop for

Hong Kong filmmaker Chan Tze-woon recently returned from a fruitful trip to the Busan Intl. Film Festival. The 31-year-old’s new project, “Blue Island,” was selected to take part in the Asian Cinema Fund during the festival, where he met producers from South Korea and the U.S. and film fest directors who might be interested in

PLAYBACK is a Variety / iHeartRadio podcast bringing you conversations with the talents behind many of today’s hottest films. New episodes air every Thursday. Rami Malek received the opportunity of a lifetime with “Bohemian Rhapsody” and the role of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury. Moving from the quiet and reserved character he portrays on television’s

Things are changing fast in China’s entertainment industry. The country’s film business is expected to enter a period of slowdown as the government continues to crack down on tax evasion after the eruption of the scandals surrounding Chinese actress Fan Bingbing (pictured above) and the war epic “Unbreakable Spirit.” Many productions in the making have

So far in its short history, Tangren Cultural Film is little known outside the specialty film corner of its Australian home base. But splashy branding, useful give-aways, and an events program at the American Film Market in Santa Monica are aimed at quickly raising its profile. That is in keeping with the leap to another

When Emmanuel Cuenod came on board the Geneva Intl. Film Festival in 2013, he took the reins of a markedly different event than the one about to unfurl Nov. 2-10. For one thing, the festival went by a different name. At its inception in 1995, the festival was known as Tous Ecrans — French for

November 1, 2018 1:13PM PT After years of discussing a sequel to the Oscar-winning hit, Ridley Scott looks ready to return to the coliseum as the director has begun development on a new “Gladiator” pic with Paramount on board to distribute. “The Town” scribe Peter Craig will pen the script. The original pic starred Russell

120dB Film Finance has executed a memorandum of understanding with a New York-based investment management firm for $100 million of financings with 100 loans during its 14-year history. The company made the announcement Thursday at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, Calif. Founded in 2004, the company offers gap, presale, tax credit, P&A, bridge, and finish

November 1, 2018 11:57AM PT Madrid-based Latido Films has closed high-profile deals on two flagship titles, licensing Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Toronto-San Sebastian player “The Realm” to China’s Heyday, Rialto for Australia and the U.K.’s Signature Entertainment, as well as selling Spain’s Oscar submission “Champions” to Japan’s Synca Creations. The sales mark part of a score or

‘Frozen 2’ Release Moves Up a Week – Variety You will be redirected back to your article in seconds November 1, 2018 11:52AM PT The wait never bothered us anyway, but “Frozen” fans will get to see Anna and Elsa back on the big screen a little sooner than expected. Disney announced “Frozen 2” has

November 1, 2018 11:11AM PT Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s “Manta Ray” won the Mumbai Film Festival’s Golden Gateway award in the international competition on Thursday. It previously won best film at Venice’s Horizon section and has toured the Toronto, Thessaloniki, San Sebastian festivals. Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses” won the Silver Gateway award in the competition, after winning