Movies

In “The Times of Bill Cunningham,” the late New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham appears before us as a blissed-out aging choirboy. He sits in his small apartment, surrounded by file cabinets jammed with his work, a geek in his element, with a shock of gray hair and two jutting front teeth that give

Catherine Hardwicke became a trailblazer for female directors after leading “Twilight” to global success; however, ten years after the first film came out, she says there’s still not enough women working behind the camera. “There’s still a lot of work to do because we’ve got to get to both sides of the camera; we’ve got

In today’s film news roundup, Nik Dodani makes a script deal, Sony shifts dates for “Miss Bala” and “Escape Room” and Jake Manley books two roles. SCRIPT DEAL Nik Dodani, who stars on “Murphy Brown” and “Atypical,” will write the script for a movie version of “Blue Boy,” based on Rakesh Satyal’s coming of age

“Sorry I’m so honest, but I’m not sorry,” Tiffany Haddish said at Variety’s Power of Women presented by Lifetime on Friday. The “Girls Trip” star had just finished a rapid-fire shoutout to everything and everyone in the room, from Regina King’s hairstyle to FreshPaper’s ability to keep weed fresh. “I feel like it’s very important to always be

Natalie Portman did not hold back in her acceptance speech at Variety’s Power of Women event presented by Lifetime, making the case for improving efforts to ensure gender parity across industries. After shouting out Time’s Up’s new CEO and president, Lisa Borders, the “Vox Lux” actress kicked off a speech centered around seven guidelines that

“The Walking Dead” star Steven Yeun, “Crazy Rich Asians” breakout Awkwafina and legendary director Wong Kar-wai will be among the VIP guests at the 38th edition of the Hawaii International Film Festival next month. The festival runs Nov. 8-18, 2018. Zhang Yimou’s “Shadow,” is named as the opening film. And Peter Farrelly’s “The Green Book,”

Holdover hits “Venom” and “A Star Is Born” are in a battle for first place at the North American box office this weekend with “Venom” prevailing with about $30 million, early estimates showed Friday. Ryan Gosling’s “First Man” is lifting off with around $17 million for Universal, just ahead of “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween” with

Everybody sees dead people in “I Still See You,” a slickly produced but none-too-scary thriller designed for that teen audience which prefers that its spooky Halloween fare involve cute guys of variable mortality fawning around a mildly misfit quirky-girl protagonist. If that sounds kinda “Twilight,” you’ve got that right — the source material is a

AMC’s dedicated genre streaming service Shudder has acquired Jenn Wexler’s punk rock slasher “The Ranger” which had its world premiere at South by Southwest festival in the Midnighters section. Shudder picked up North American, U.K., Australia/New Zealand and Germany/Austria rights. The deal was negotiated by Shudder’s Emily Gotto and 79th& Broadway Entertainment’s Andrew van den

October 12, 2018 10:03AM PT ICM Partners has promoted a clutch of business affairs executives. Expanded responsibilities for the group reflect the agency’s growth and the changing nature of employment for artists and others across the entertainment landscape. Alexandra Kopp has been named VP of business affairs. Amanda Kowal and Olivia Trikilis were upped to

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France, has cemented its position as a favorite event for generations of leading international filmmakers with its showcase of classic films and tributes to legendary cinematic heroes. Launched in 2009 by Bertrand Tavernier and Cannes topper Thierry Frémaux, the president and director of

As the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements move the needle on conversations about gender parity in Hollywood and beyond, African women are determined not to be left behind. Enter The A-List — a homegrown effort to address the systemic imbalances facing African women working in film and TV — which will have its official launch

October 12, 2018 9:42AM PT Liam Neeson and Kate Walsh will star in the independent action-thriller “The Honest Thief.” Mark Williams, co-creator of the Netflix series “Ozark,” will direct from a script by Steve Allrich. Neeson will portray a bank robber who tries to turn himself in because he’s falling in love with a woman

October 12, 2018 9:00AM PT Jeffrey Dean Morgan, David Strathairn, Julian Feder and Julie Ann Emery are starring in the family drama “Walkaway Joe,” which has begun shooting in St. John’s Parish, La. Tom Wright is helming in his directorial debut from a script by Michael Milillo. “Walkaway Joe” is the story of an unlikely

Ryan Gosling’s “First Man” lifted off with $1.1 million at 2,850 North American locations on Thursday night. Preview showings began at 7 p.m. About a third of the “First Man” total came from $370,000 at 404 Imax screens — the biggest percentage of Thursday previews for a wide studio release that Imax has ever generated.

October 12, 2018 7:00AM PT “Bohemian Rhapsody” may not be hitting theaters until Nov. 2, but the Queen biopic is ramping up the buzz with a new fashion collaboration with Lucky Brand. The L.A.-based denim company has launched a collection of vintage-inspired Queen concert tees to coincide with the Rami Malek film’s release this fall. The

“Crazy Rich Asians” got a theatrical release in India last week, after a “no” then “yes” decision by Warner Bros. But the surprise hit film is still without a release slot in the world’s most populous nation, India’s northern neighbor, China. In China, the decision is not in the hands of its studio backer, Warner.

After a failed first feature that practically no one saw, Welsh director Gareth Evans traveled all the way to Jakarta to jump-start his career, helming a stunning trio of whiplash-fast action movies featuring the Indonesian martial art of silat — “Merantau,” “The Raid” and “The Raid 2” — that established him as a cutting-edge choreographer of

Slamdance has awarded its grand prize for screenwriting to Jessica Sinyard for her television pilot “The Peak.” The prize was presented Thursday night during a ceremony hosted by Writers Guild of America West at the WGA Theatre. About 3,000 submissions were received for this year’s contest, and more than $16,000 was awarded to 2018 winners

October 11, 2018 8:11PM PT [embedded content] The first teaser for Disney’s live-action remake of 1992 animated hit “Aladdin” dropped Thursday, featuring newcomer Mena Massoud in the titular role. The trailer begins with a bird’s eye view of Agrabah, the fictional city where the story takes place, as a parrot — presumably Jafar’s companion Iago

October 11, 2018 7:21PM PT A 65-year-old sound mixer is in critical condition at the UPMC Mercy hospital near Mt. Lebanon, Pa. after a fall from a two story building during the filming of Mr. Rogers biopic “You Are My Friend.” Police told local news station WPXI that the man, who is from the Pittsburgh

In today’s film news roundup, a quartet of UFC fighters have joined Stephen Dorff’s “Embattled,” firefighting documentary “Wildland” is bought, and Timothée Chalamet and Rachel Weisz are honored. CASTINGS UFC fighters Tyron Woodley, Cowboy Cerrone, Eryk Anders, and former UFC fighter Kenny Florian have joined Stephen Dorff and Darren Mann in director Nick Sarkisov’s MMA

October 11, 2018 2:00PM PT Ryan Coogler is returning to Wakanda. Sources tell Variety that Coogler is on board to write and direct the sequel to his hit superhero tentpole “Black Panther.” Chadwick Boseman is expected to return in the titular role, alongside others in the A-list ensemble. A release date has not been set

October 11, 2018 12:43PM PT Johnny Depp has broken his silence on controversy surrounding his casting in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and its upcoming sequel, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.” First appearing as a surprise addition in the end of the first “Fantastic Beasts” movie, fans have expressed concern over his

Fox’s Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” is heading for a North American opening weekend as high as $30 million on Nov. 2-4, early tracking showed Thursday. “Mr. Robot” star Rami Malek is in the lead role as Mercury, the frontman for Queen. New Regency and GK Films are the production companies. Mercury wrote numerous hits for

October 11, 2018 11:05AM PT Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Megan Hilty and Harry Connick Jr. are among the performers set to take part in the Nov. 11 memorial service for producer Craig Zadan. The lineup of participants for the event at the Television Academy reflects the range of TV, film, stage and musical productions that

The full lineup of Galas have been released to be screened at the American Film Institute (AFI) Fest 2018, including the world premieres of Susanne Bier’s Netflix thriller “The Bird Box,” starring Sandra Bullock and Sarah Paulson, and the first three episodes of Chuck Lorre’s Netflix series “The Kominsky Method,” starring Michael Douglas and Alan

October 11, 2018 10:40AM PT Sarah Paulson will star as the lead in Lionsgate’s upcoming thriller “Run,” which begins production on Oct. 31. “Run” is directed by Aneesh Chaganty, while Natalie Qasabian and Sev Ohanian are producing from a script by Chaganty and Ohanian. The film is the next project from the creative team behind

The first project on which director Pawel Pawlikowski and cinematographer Lukasz Zal ever collaborated won an Oscar. In 2015, “Ida,” shot in black and white, took home the foreign language Oscar, with Zal nominated for cinematography (shared with Ryszard Lanczewski). Now, their second project, “Cold War,” also in black and white, is on the film

PLAYBACK is a Variety / iHeartRadio podcast bringing you conversations with the talents behind many of today’s hottest films. New episodes air every Thursday. At just 22 years old, actor Timothée Chalamet has skyrocketed quickly as one of the most popular and in-demand performers of his generation. On the heels of a whirlwind year that