Daniel Patrick Moynihan was one of those supreme American figures who made looking like a creature of contradiction seem the quintessential way to be. His contradictions were luminous, larger-than-life, and he wore them with a tall, puckishly smiling Irish pride. He carried himself like a patrician — the bow tie, the mop of gray hair
Movies
October 3, 2018 1:40PM PT Armie Hammer has joined Gal Gadot in Fox’s “Death on the Nile,” a follow-up to last year’s “Murder on the Orient Express.” The studio has hired “Orient Express” director Kenneth Branagh and screenwriter Michael Green to return for “Death on the Nile.” Branagh will reprise his role of the mustachioed
October 3, 2018 12:37PM PT Disney has launched development on a remake of its animated comedy “Lilo & Stitch” as a live-action/CG hybrid movie. Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich of Rideback are producing the remake with Mike Van Waes hired to write the script. Rideback’s Ryan Halprin is co-producing. Lin and Eirich are producing Disney’s
October 3, 2018 12:34PM PT This coming-of-age story, set in Soviet Estonia during the time of the Stalinist terror in the 1950s, is both affecting and richly visualized. Gentle period drama “The Little Comrade” is an affecting and richly visualized coming-of-age story set in Soviet Estonia during the Stalinist terror of the 1950s. Adapting two
There are moments of life-and-death crisis in which time simultaneously stops and stretches, becomes both immaterial and absolutely of the essence, and few spaces do more to blur it than a hospital — where lives end, begin and are drastically altered in seconds that pass like centuries. In her wrenching debut feature “Blind Spot,” Norwegian
Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media are holding free screenings for the Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary “RBG” on Oct. 29 in seven cities in California, Florida, and Texas. The companies said the screenings — set eight days before the midterm elections — are part of a partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union and Rock the
Early reviews are in for the latest big superhero movie, and it looks like the titular character isn’t the only venomous thing about it. Currently sitting at a 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, “Venom” has released to mixed reactions, many of which have been highly critical of the film despite a strong performance from Tom Hardy.
On Warner Bros.’ remake of “A Star Is Born,” actor-director Bradley Cooper and co-star Lady Gaga refused to settle for the traditional practice of pre-recording their songs and later lip-synching on set. Instead, they embraced the more risky approach of performing the movie’s songs live. The studio was aware of the danger, but with the
“The Chronicles of Narnia” are coming to Netflix. The streaming giant announced Wednesday that it will develop new series and film projects based on C.S. Lewis’ iconic book series. The projects are part of a new, multi-year deal between Netflix and The C.S. Lewis Company. All of the series and films produced through the deal will
October 3, 2018 7:25AM PT Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has released “Has Ended,” a second song from his soundtrack to Luca Guadagnino’s forthcoming film “Suspiria,” which arrives Oct. 26 on XL Recordings. The album consists of 25 original compositions written by Yorke specifically for the Guadagnino’s reimagining of the 1977 Dario Argento horror classic, which
October 3, 2018 7:01AM PT Three Indian, two Chinese and one Korean film are among the movies that will compete for the Best Asian Film Award, presented by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards. The nine nominees include China’s two hit drama’s “Youth” and “Dying to Survive.” From India, the contenders include
October 3, 2018 7:00AM PT Natalie Portman’s “Vox Lux” has been selected as the opening night film of the Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference on Oct. 25. The drama, directed by Brady Corbett from his own script, had its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 4 and will be
October 3, 2018 6:15AM PT [embedded content] Christian Bale’s drastic transformation into Dick Cheney takes center stage in the first trailer for “Vice,” released Wednesday. The biopic, directed by Adam McKay, chronicles Cheney’s life as the former vice president under President George W. Bush. Starting with his beginnings as a Washington bureaucrat, the film explores Cheney’s service under the
Hit with monumental fines for tax evasion, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing made a fulsome apology Wednesday, saying she felt “ashamed and guilty for what I did.” It was her first public statement after months of silence on her Weibo social media account and after fevered speculation over her disappearance from view. Fans and industry observers
October 3, 2018 12:00AM PT Corin Hardy is joining the gang. Fresh from helming box-office smash “The Nun,” Hardy has boarded Sky and Cinemax’s hotly anticipated drama series “Gangs of London.” Hardy will direct three episodes of the show about warring gangs, which marks Vice-backed Pulse Films’ move into high-end TV drama. Vice is producing
October 2, 2018 8:54PM PT Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Japanese composer who will this week be honored as the Asian Filmmaker of the Year in Busan, will head the jury for the best original score prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. It is the first time that the APSAs, now in their 12th edition, present
UPDATED: Missing Chinese celebrity Fan Bingbing is to be heavily fined for tax evasion, it emerged on Wednesday. China’s State Administration of Taxation said that, following an investigation into her finances, Fan is to pay “hundreds of millions” of yuan in back taxes and fines. According to state news agency Xinhua, the extent of Fan’s payments could
In “Venom,” the spectacular but mostly derivative and generically plotted new comic-book origin story (it’s the first installment of the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters), Tom Hardy is afflicted with an otherworldly force that invades his mind, his body, his very being. It’s called the desire to act like a stumblebum Method goof. The symptoms,
In today’s film news roundup, “Buffalo Boys” gets US distribution, Full Moon Empire buys a library, “Invincible” gets cast and a Liechtenstein-based film fund is announced. ACQUISTIONS Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired the North American rights to Mike Wiluan’s western “Buffalo Boys,” Singapore’s entry in the foreign-language Academy Awards category, Variety has learned exclusively. The
October 2, 2018 6:38PM 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 with “First Man.” Ads placed for the drama had an estimated media value of $8.4 million through Sunday for 621 national ad airings
Rafael Casal has rounded out the cast of “Bad Education,” joining Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney. Ray Romano, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Alex Wolff are also on board. Stephen Spinella, Annaleigh Ashford, Hari Dhillon, Jimmy Tatro (“American Vandal”), Jeremy Shamos, Kathrine Narducci, Welker White, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Peter Appel, Ray Abruzzo, and Catherine Curtin are also appearing
October 2, 2018 4:20PM PT Amazon Studios has moved the North American release of Mike Leigh’s historical drama “Peterloo” out of this fall’s awards season, from Nov. 9 to April 5, 2019. The movie, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, re-creates the 1819 massacre by armed government militias who charged into a crowd of
Despite a 35-year heads-up that “Terms of Endearment” is a masterful tearjerker, a starry charity reading of the Oscar-winning screenplay ended in sobs on Monday in Los Angeles. Actors Calista Flockhart, Constance Wu, Kumail Nanjiani, Alfred Molina, Melissa Benoist, and “Grey’s Anatomy” star Kate Burton all shed tears while performing the script — some in the
Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, and Tom Hardy are injecting a little star-power into multiplexes. Following a lackluster September at the box office, “Venom” and “A Star Is Born” are debuting this weekend and carrying with them out-sized expectations. Hardy’s “Venom” should easily top domestic charts, but Cooper and Gaga’s musical “A Star Is Born,” which
October 2, 2018 2:34PM PT Michelle Williams will star as the late astronaut Christa McAuliffe in the drama “The Challenger,” centered on the 1986 Space Shuttle disaster. Producers are John and Art Linson, and Argent Pictures’ Ben Renzo. Martin Zandvliet will direct “The Challenger” from Jayson Rothwell’s script. Argent partners Jill Ahrens, Ryan Ahrens, Drew
October 2, 2018 2:08PM PT Trevor White’s diverting drama strikes a happy medium between arrestingly suspenseful thriller and knowing media satire. So many VOD-centric dramas call to mind the direct-to-video Blockbuster fodder of yesteryear that it’s actually refreshing to come across one that’s more reminiscent of a cleverly plotted TV-movie from primetime of the 1970s.
October 2, 2018 1:25PM PT Greg Silverman’s recently launched Stampede is developing a movie version of the video game “Dance Dance Revolution.” The project will explore a world on the brink of destruction where the only hope is to unite through the universal language of dance. Stampede will partner on the movie with producers J. Todd Harris and
October 2, 2018 1:09PM PT Christian Bale has pulled off another startling transformation: playing Dick Cheney in Adam McKay’s latest film, “Vice.” The biopic chronicles Cheney’s life as the former vice president under President George W. Bush, from his beginnings as a Washington bureaucrat to one of the most influential men in politics. Before serving
October 2, 2018 12:41PM PT Rose Byrne will voice the titular robot Mother in the sci-fi thriller “I Am Mother.” Hilary Swank and Clara Rugaard will also star in the film. Rugaard portrays the first of a new generation of humans raised by “Mother” — a kindly robot designed to repopulate the earth following the
Winston Duke, who had a breakout role in the smash hit “Black Panther,” is set to star opposite Mark Wahlberg in the Netflix crime drama “Wonderland.” Pete Berg is set to direct with Neal H. Moritz producing via his Original Film banner, alongside Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Berg via his Film 44 company. The film