Movies

Somebody (I think it was my hero Francis Coppola) said the movies that most affect us, the moments that changed us, live on the other side of the moon while we live our lives. Al Pacino kissing Fredo on the lips. Bob De Niro asking a mirror if it’s talking to him. James Dean discovering

November 20, 2018 6:30AM PT Nicole Kidman has been labeled many things over the years. Statuesque beauty. Screen siren. Old-fashioned movie star. But these terms reveal a fragment of her rich reality, and obscure what makes her such an extraordinary, peculiar and genuine artist. Having had the opportunity to work with Nicole, I can say

If you’re a purist about Robin Hood, then you probably won’t go for “Robin Hood.” It’s a let’s-retrofit-the-legend-for-the-kids movie, and it’s not shy about its fast and furious action-and-attitude makeover tendencies. The battle scenes, fought with bows and arrows, really are battles, in which the arrows land with the force of bullets, destroying on contact.

If you don’t like sharing a meal, stay away from Nicole Kidman. “She’s the kind of person, when you’re at dinner with her, she goes, ‘What’s that?! And she’ll have a few mouthfuls,’” says her friend Hugh Jackman, recalling how she was once very eager to try his tiramisu. Then there was the time he and Kidman

Everyone loves a good Hollywood feud, even if it’s not exactly real. Hugh Jackman took the opportunity at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where he was being honored, to take a shot at John Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds, who ganged up on him on social media over the weekend after a photo of Jackman

In today’s film news roundup, Jon M. Chu is honored by union publicists, Melissa McCarthy is honored by the Palm Springs Film Festival and the film “Ali’s Realm” gets a cast. PUBLICISTS HONOR Hollywood publicists have selected “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. Chu as recipient of the Motion Picture Showman of the Year Award.

Amazon is offering its Amazon Prime members an exclusive early showing of Warner Bros.’ “Aquaman” on Dec. 15 — six days before the fantasy-adventure film opens in North America. Amazon launched the promotion Monday under which Prime members can purchase up to 10 tickets through Atom Tickets for the showing at more than 1,000 Regal,

William Goldman wrote the way Joe DiMaggio played ball: with such deft and consummate skill that the impossible seemed easy. (It wasn’t. And isn’t.) Reading a Goldman screenplay, you never see the armature, the scaffolding. You see people, real people, just a bit more vivid than they might be were they not in a Goldman

Stan Lee’s company POW! Entertainment posted an open letter on Monday in response to a blog post written by Bill Maher that chided the Marvel icon after he died on Nov. 12. Maher’s initial blog post criticized American adults for taking comic books seriously and questioned the validity of Lee’s legacy. In response, Lee’s company

The Brit List, the annual survey of British film executives’ favorite unproduced screenplays (similar to the Black List in the U.S.), was unveiled Monday in London with “Benny in the Dark,” a supernatural thriller by Phillip Morgan, heading the list. The film, which garnered nine recommendations, is a “character-driven 1950s-set allegory for the unspoken societal

AFI Conservatory Dean Richard Gladstein Steps Down – Variety You will be redirected back to your article in seconds November 19, 2018 11:53AM PT Richard Gladstein is stepping down as dean of the American Film Institute Conservatory after a little over year at the top of the film school. He will be replaced on an

November 19, 2018 11:39AM PT “Sons of Anarchy” star Theo Rossi has joined the cast of “Rattlesnake,” an upcoming Netflix movie from filmmaker Zak Hilditch. Character details are under wraps, but Rossi will star alongside Carmen Ejogo (“It Comes at Night,” “True Detective”) in the psychological thriller, which is currently in production. It follows a

November 19, 2018 10:51AM PT [embedded content] Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool kidnaps Fred Savage to appear in “Once Upon a Deadpool,” the PG-13 take on “Deadpool 2.” Savage’s inclusion in the film is described by 20th Century Fox as “an homage to Savage’s starring role in the 1987 bedtime-story classic ‘The Princess Bride.’” The first trailer,

November 19, 2018 10:42AM PT Universal Pictures has entered into a first-look production agreement with Janelle Monae’s Wondaland Pictures, the film division of Wondaland. Under the deal, Wondaland and Universal Pictures will aim at developing “multi-genre content with an emphasis on championing underrepresented voices and groundbreaking perspectives.” The studio announced the deal Monday and noted

Kent Jones’ “Diane,” Eva Trobisch’s “All Good” and Lila Aviles’ “The Chambermaid” are among the 14 features set to compete at the revamped Marrakech Film Festival, which will host its 17th edition Nov. 30 to Dec. 8. “Diane,” which world premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won three awards, stars Mary Kay Place (“The

Warner Bros.’ “Space Jam 2,” starring LeBron James and produced by Ryan Coogler, is set to film in California. The upcoming sequel is one of 15 film projects that have been selected for the state’s Film & TV Tax Credit Program 2.0. “Space Jam 2” received the largest conditional allocation with a $21.8 million tax

Things were a bit different at this year’s Governors Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences annual gala in which honorary Oscars are presented to icons of the film industry. Instead of being held two Saturdays before Thanksgiving, the ceremony took place the Sunday just before Turkey Day due to scheduling conflicts at

The Macondos, Colombia’s Academy Awards, were held over the weekend, and Laura Mora’s “Killing Jesus” was the big winner, scooping five awards, including best picture for a Colombian feature. The win caps off a whirlwind 14 months since the film’s 2017 Toronto world premiere and San Sebastian European premiere,  where it won the Eroski Youth

“Free Solo” won the Grand Prize at the Kendal Mountain Festival on Saturday night. A contender in Kendal’s main International Film Competition, the documentary from E. Chai Vasarhelyi, who helmed Sundance hit “Meru,” and Jimmy Chin, a climber in that film, was the overall winner in a lineup of 90 mountain and adventure films. The

Judi Dench will receive the Richard Harris Award for outstanding contribution to British film at the upcoming British International Film Awards. Dench joins an illustrious list of former winners of the award, which is in its 17th year, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Helena Bonham Carter, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julie Walters, John Hurt and Emma Thompson. Last year’s recipient

Directors Lasse and Frida Barkfors (“Pervert Park,””Death of a Child”) are pitching their new documentary project, “School Shooters,” at IDFA’s Forum. “Shooters” plumbs the phenomenon of school massacres, whose authors are often kids attending the same centers. But it takes a novel approach, focusing on the parents of the shooters. What happen to those parents

First-time feature director Carmen Torres follows up the domestic premiere of her autobiographical documentary “Dawn” at this year’s Cartagena Intl. Film Festival in Colombia (FICCI) with a European premiere at the 2018 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Addressing head on the question of nature versus nature, Torres tracks down her biological mother to ask

“Venom” enjoyed a spectacular $87 million second weekend at the Chinese box office. That was almost double the opening score by “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” in the Middle Kingdom. According to data that excludes online ticket fees, supplied by Asian theatrical industry consultant Artisan Gateway, “Venom” scored $87.2 million, a drop of just

November 18, 2018 9:53PM PT Opening on Wednesday (Nov. 14), Harry Potter spinoff-prequel “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” debuted on top of the South Korean box office. The Warner Bros. release earned $11.8 million from 1.52 million admissions over its opening five days. “Bohemian Rhapsody” remained in second spot for the third consecutive weekend.

Lady Gaga was among the many entertainment figures who had to evacuate during the catastrophic Woolsey fire a week ago, and she still hasn’t been able to return to her house. Though evacuation orders have been lifted in much of Malibu, Gaga told Variety at Sunday night’s Academy Governor’s Awards that she probably won’t be back

“There’s nowhere to go but up.” Those are the words Angela Lansbury and the cast of “Mary Poppins Returns” send you home with at the end of Rob Marshall’s sequel to the beloved 54-year-old Disney classic, and they do a good job of illustrating why the film is, perhaps unexpectedly, a bona fide best picture

AMSTERDAM — Helena Třeštíková’s speciality is what she likes to call “time-lapse” documentary, and it’s a phrase she doesn’t bandy about lightly. Having made her non-fiction debut in 1974 with short film “The Miracle”, she has worked consistently ever since, balancing so many years-in-the-making projects that sometimes she has up to 15 on the go

Pablo Ferro, who designed the title sequences for classic films like Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove,” “Bullitt,” “Men In Black,” and “A Clockwork Orange,” has died from complications from pneumonia in Sedona, Ariz. He was 83. Ferro’s family confirmed the news to industry publication the Art of the Title. Cuban-born Ferro’s first title sequence was for

“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” led the foreign box office with a massive $191 million. The “Harry Potter” prequel series launched in North America with $62 million for a global weekend haul of $253 million. The Wizarding World installment needs to do well overseas to justify its costly $200 million budget and make up

AMSTERDAM — It’s hard to predict where Austria’s Nikolaus Geyrhalter will go next. “Pripyat” (1999) saw him investigate the radioactive legacy of Chernobyl; 2005’s food-processing doc “Our Daily Bread” took him all over Europe, while “7915km” (2008) involved a mini-tour of Africa on the trail of The Dakar Rally. His latest film, though, is a