The International Documentary Assn. announced nominees for the 34th annual IDA Awards Wednesday, spotlighting the best in documentary filmmaking. Among the feature nominees were mainstays on the circuit so far this year like Hulk’s “Crime + Punishment” and “Minding the Gap,” as well as National Geographic’s “Free Solo” and Focus Features’ “Won’t You Be My
Movies
AT&T leaders touted WarnerMedia’s positive impact on its bottom line in the first full quarter of consolidated earnings since the telco giant completed its acquisition of HBO, Turner and Warner Bros. in June. AT&T chairman-CEO Randall Stephenson said the addition of the unit now known as WarnerMedia was “immediately accretive in the first full quarter
MORELIA — This year’s Impulso Morelia, the festival’s works in progress section for Mexican films, runs Wednesday to Friday, and ends with writer-director – and in this case supporting actor – Hari Sama’s semi-autobiographical coming of age film “This is Not Berlin.” Set in the art-filled, politically charged world of 1986 Mexico City, the film
MORELIA, Mexico — Mexican helmer-scribe Marcelo Tobar is teaming up for the third time with producer Elsa Reyes of Zensky Cine to make his most ambitious film to date. Contrary to his earlier features, which cost roughly $150,000 each to make, Tobar’s latest film, “Los Idealistas,” boasts a $1 million budget. Zensky Cine produced and
MORELIA, Mexico — In Morelia for multiple reasons, outgoing Imcine director general Jorge Sanchez sat with Variety in an exclusive interview to take stock of his tenure, which ends Nov. 30. Since he joined Mexico’s national film institute on Jan. 14, 2013, Sanchez has presided over a sea-change in Mexico’s entertainment industry. New public and
AT&T beat revenue expectations for the third quarter of 2018 while falling short on profit, with the telco touting the addition of WarnerMedia as contributed top-line and income growth. For Q3, WarnerMedia — as Time Warner was rechristened — posted revenue of $8.2 billion, up 6.5% year over year. WarnerMedia delivered operating profit of $2.57 billion
Ambitious building plans are intended to cement Ikebukuro and the surrounding Toshima district of Tokyo firmly at the center of the Japanese film industry. Plans unveiled Wednesday at TIFFCOM, part of the Tokyo International Film Festival, include the construction of two new complexes, housing 22 movie screens in total. The are expected to be completed
China’s Bona Film and Japan’s Toei Animation have teamed to develop and co-produce big-budget English-language animation feature, “The Monkey Prince.” The film, which has already been in early preparation since 2015 is pitched as “a Chinese legend, mixed with Hollywood story-telling, and Japanese animation.” John A Davis will direct from a script by David Stem
Even in the endlessly eccentric annals of independent animation — where the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” took flight and Ralph Bakshi tripped out amid jive-talking rabbits and X-rated cats — “Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles” is an oddity: a feature-length cartoon about the making of a 27-minute documentary. Frankly, it was a brilliant choice
October 23, 2018 8:56PM PT In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by the TV advertising attention analytics company iSpot.tv, Universal Pictures claims the top spot in spending for “The Grinch.” Ads placed for the remake of the Christmas classic had an estimated media value of $4.97 million through Sunday for
October 23, 2018 8:27PM PT IndieWire has announced the lineup for its 2018 IndieWire Honors, including “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler and “Crazy Rich Asians” star Constance Wu. Other honorees include Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, Bill Hader, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Amandla Stenberg. The awards ceremony takes place Nov. 1 in Los Angeles. “For our
October 23, 2018 7:20PM PT Nicholas Korda, an Emmy and Academy Award winner for sound editing, died on Oct. 8 after a nine-year battle with brain cancer, his daughter confirmed. He was 73. Korda received a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding sound editing for a series for “Airwolf” in 1984. He was part of the team
It turns out if anybody can find them somebody to love in the biographical musical film “Bohemian Rhapsody,” it’s star Rami Malek and his portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. Across the board, critics have praised Malek’s performance as one of the year’s best, while panning some of the film’s otherwise lackluster qualities, like its
In today’s film news roundup, Sony moves “Grudge” into the “Toy Story 4” slot, “Who Will Write Our History” gets distribution and 60 companies from 15 countries will be making their AFM debut as market exhibitors. RELEASE DATE Sony Pictures has moved “Grudge,” its reboot of the 2004 supernatural thriller “The Grudge,” forward to June
Dolly Parton has livened up the Oscar trail this year with her new song “Girl in the Movies,” from the Netflix movie “Dumplin.’” Following a live performance of the song for a select industry crowd (mostly journalists and Golden Globes voters) at the Four Seasons on Monday, the recording icon stopped by a screening of the
As usual, the weekend before Halloween is looking a lot like a graveyard when it comes to major movie releases. Though film releases aren’t crammed into just a few busy periods, as they were a few years ago, studios still strive to avoid the dead weekends on the calendar. In the case of the pre-Halloween
October 23, 2018 5:10PM PT Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi has come on to direct “Tiger” for Focus, sources tell Variety. Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa and Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner’s Plan B are producing. The pic, based on the 2010 non-fiction book by John Vaillant, takes place on the Siberian plain, where human development is encroaching on the
The TIFFCOM market, a sales event adjacent to the Tokyo International Film Festival, always includes the latest film launches from Japan. This year the selection is especially varied and rich. Arranged by sales company, highlights include: Kadokawa“Chiwawa”Scripted and directed by Ken Ninomiya, this mystery about a 20-year-old Instagram star who ends up dead in Tokyo
Ed Catmull, a longtime leader at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation, has announced plans to retire. Pixar president Jim Morris and Walt Disney Animation Studios president Andrew Millstein will continue in his place, as the 73-year-old transitions to an advisory role to end in summer 2019. Morris and Millstein will report up to Walt Disney
October 23, 2018 3:45PM PT “Tokyo Ghoul 2,” the sequel to the hit 2017 Kentaro Hagiwara dark action fantasy, started production this month, distributor Shochiku revealed. The film is set for release next year with Shochiku distributing. Masataka Kubota stars as a college student Kaneki who becomes a “half ghoul” after being bitten by one of
October 23, 2018 3:44PM PT Disney is exploring a sixth iteration of its “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise and has met with the “Deadpool” writing team of Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick about the pic, a source tells Variety. Disney has no comment and no deal is in place yet. The five previous “Pirates” movies hauled
October 23, 2018 3:01PM PT Newly-launched sales outfit, Autumn Sun Company has closed sales on “Wushu Orphan” ahead of the film’s world premier this week at the Tokyo International Film Festival. It will play in the festival’s Asian Future section. The film is a high school martial arts drama directed by Huang Huang, and produced
Fans of Japanese novelist Keigo Higashino are in for a double treat in the next few months, as two more of his books make it to the big screen. Rights to both are being offered for sale by Shochiku at the TIFFCOM market this week. First in cinemas will be “The House Where The Mermaid
Once again, the Oscar race is being dominated by the Big Three fall film festivals: Venice, Telluride and Toronto. Should we congratulate this as a successful partnership between these three and Oscar? Or do we lament the fact that the fest circuit has turned into the schoolyard bully, knocking down quality movies that opened between
After a summer during which a controversy swelled over the possibility of a “popular film” honor being included in the Academy Awards mix, a funny thing happened on Hollywood’s annual trek to the Dolby Theater: the traditional studios are making something of a best picture comeback. Acclaim for Warner Bros.’ “A Star Is Born,” Universal
“Crazy Rich Asians” actor Chris Pang and Nat Faxon have joined the ensemble of Sony’s “Charlie’s Angels” reboot. Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska will portray the film’s titular Angels. Jonathan Tucker, Sam Claflin, Noah Centineo, and Luis Gerardo Mendez are also on board. Elizabeth Banks is directing and starring as one of the
October 23, 2018 11:01AM PT Paramount has moved the sixth “Terminator” movie back two weeks to Nov. 1, 2019. It will open against Sony’s revamped “Charlie’s Angels.” The two films are filling the slot left vacant on Monday after Warner Bros.’ pushed “Wonder Woman 1984” back to June 6, 2020. Sony moved “Charlie’s Angels” into
Ben Stassen of nWave Studios is set to direct his next 3D animated feature, “Bigfoot Superstar,” the sequel to “Son of Bigfoot” (pictured), which was released internationally in 2017 and grossed more than $50 million worldwide. Paris-based company Charades, which successfuly pre-sold Stassen’s “The Queen’s Corgi” worldwide, is re-teaming with Stassen on “Bigfoot Superstar” and
October 23, 2018 10:39AM PT [embedded content] The Writers Guild of America West has launched a campaign to urge its members not to work for free. “All writers need jobs, and especially when it’s early in their careers, it can feel like they have to do whatever it takes to get hired,” said screenwriter and
Katie Holmes will star as the lead in horror sequel “The Boy 2” from STXfilms and Lakeshore Entertainment. William Brent Bell will return to direct the sequel. Principal photography will begin in Victoria, British Columbia, on Jan. 14. Foreign sales will launch at the American Film Market, which opens Oct. 31 in Santa Monica, Ca.