Movies

On the news that FilmStruck has been struck down, fans — including Hollywood directors Barry Jenkins, Guillermo del Toro and Rian Johnson — vented their shock, sadness and anger on social media. FilmStruck will cease operations on Nov. 29 after two years in operation, Turner and Warner Bros. Digital Networks announced Friday. The move comes amid

China’s Dalian Wanda group has denied reports that it is seeking to sell a minority stake in Legendary Entertainment, the production company behind “Pacific Rim” and the revived “Godzilla” and “Jurassic World” franchises. The Reuters news agency reported on Friday that the beleaguered Chinese group was exploring the possibility of selling a minority stake in

Emilia Clarke may play one of the fiercest and most intense characters on television as Daenerys Targaryen on “Game of Thrones,” but it took a bit of silliness to help her land the job. While presenting Clarke with the Britannia Awards for British Artist of the Year on Friday night at the British Academy Britannia

MORELIA — At Friday night’s closing ceremony for the Morelia Film festival, winners of this year’s Impulso Morelia, the Works in Progress section of the fest, handed out awards to a handful of projects screened from Wednesday through Friday. This year’s Impulso Morelia jury consisted of Bafta Nominee and César winning filmmaker Nicolas Philibert (“To

Lila Avilés snagged the top prize at Friday night’s Morelia Intl. Film Festival closing ceremony with her debut feature, “The Chambermaid” (“La Camarista”), which world premiered at Toronto. It also took the Warrior of the Press award. “Llegamos! Llegamos!” (“We made it! We made it!”), screamed Avilés all the way from her seat to the

Despite waves of critical adulation in the wake of its Venice Film Festival premiere two months ago, Alfonso Cuarón’s latest film “Roma” — the director’s most personal work to date — admittedly has a few on-paper hurdles to clear on its way to potential Oscar glory. First, it’s a foreign-language film; only 10 such films

“A Bread Factory,” written and directed by Patrick Wang, is a drama that tickles your spirit in a special, buoyant way. It’s set in the small town of Checkford, N.Y. (it was shot in the picturesque historical village of Hudson), and though Wang has conceived the film as an epic — it’s four hours long,

Seth Rogen and Michael Keaton will star in “King of the Jungle,” a comedy about the true story of tech magnate John McAfee. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (“I Love You Phillip Morris”) are directing from a script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, based on the Joshua Davis Wired magazine article “John McAfee’s Last

Boba Fett is no longer getting his own spinoff movie. News emerged in May that Disney and Lucasfilm had been developing a “Star Wars” standalone movie centered on the bounty hunter Boba Fett from “Logan” director James Mangold — although the project was never officially announced. Variety has learned that Lucasfilm is no longer developing

October 26, 2018 3:08PM PT Universal Pictures has dated its Paul Feig holiday comedy “Last Christmas” for Nov. 15, 2019, and also announced that the film will feature unreleased music from the late iconic musician George Michael. Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding are set to star. Feig will direct with Emma Thompson and Bryony Kimmings

Sony Pictures’ motion picture group has elevated Gloria Rico Hann to executive VP of national publicity. Hann will take the mantle from Marisa Liston, who is departing the studio at the end of the year. Hann has been on the lot for 17 years, and has worked on targeted campaigns for franchises like James Bond, Spider-Man

October 26, 2018 2:35PM PT Saho Sasazawa (1930-2002) could well be the Japanese writer whose work has been most adapted to TV and film. He’s had over 380 production credits in Japan related to his writing and help define the samurai cum western genre that saw its fulfillment in “The Magnificent Seven,” a remake of

October 26, 2018 2:19PM PT Actor and rapper Kaalan Walker was charged with nine felony sexual assault charges Tuesday after he was arrested last month for accusations of sexual assault dating back to 2016, according to a news release from the Los Angeles Police Department. The series of sexual assaults, which all took place in

One of the many tall, slender, handsome guys who populate (and in some cases over-populate) Japanese TV dramas and films, Hiroki Hasegawa is also not the usual model-turned-actor. After graduating from Tokyo’s Chuo University, he joined the famed Bungei-za theater company, an incubator of acting talent for generations, and appeared in productions by renowned stage

October 26, 2018 2:00PM PT Accomplished Japanese director, Yukihiko Tsutsumi is in the final stages of editing “12 Suicidal Teens,” a work that explores the topic with a focus on young people. It’s scheduled for a January 2019 release in Japan. Rights were pitched this week at the TIFFCOM market by Nippon TV. It is

Calls for greater female representation and advancement are being made loudly in the West, and latterly in Japan. The Tokyo International Film Festival claims to be listening. Major film festivals have long been male-dominated, with relatively few women among the top ranks of festival directors, programmers and, in the competition sections, filmmakers. Tokyo is no exception:

October 26, 2018 1:46PM PT Heather Tsui’s impressive debut tells an uplifting, family-friendly tale from the indigenous Tao community of Taiwan Ethnography and entertainment are neatly mixed in “Long Time No Sea,” an uplifting drama set among the indigenous Tao community from Orchid Island in Taiwan. Based on life experiences of first-time feature writer-director Heather

There’s still plenty of interest in Laurie Strode’s struggle against Michael Myers. The second weekend of Jamie Lee Curtis’ “Halloween” is projected to generate about $32 million, early estimates showed Friday. That marks a 59% decline from its $76.2 million opening — a decent result for the well-received horror sequel. The 11th “Halloween” movie will

MORELIA, Mexico – Miami-based FiGa Films has sold Berlinale Teddy Award-winning docu “Bixa Travesty” to French arthouse distributor Arizona Films at Morelia. The Brazilian docu-feature world premiered at this year’s Berlinale before participating in more than 100 festivals. It opened the 16th Morelia Int’l Film Fest’s Sexual Diversity+ Program, curated by Antonio Harfuch. “With this first

Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment’s long-awaited political drama “The Trial of the Chicago 7” looks to be closer than ever to getting off the ground, with a new director and an A-list cast coming together. Sources tell Variety that Aaron Sorkin is on board to direct with Sacha Baron Cohen in early talks to join the

Animation Guild members have ratified a three-year successor deal to their film and TV contract by a vote of 868-213, for an approval rate of more than 80%. Of the guild’s 3,695 eligible members, 1,081 cast ballots. Terms of the contract, which are retroactive to July 29, 2018, are equivalent to those in the new

October 26, 2018 8:20AM PT Netflix has given the greenlight to a CG animated musical movie that will revolve around the life story of Fugees founding member Wyclef Jean. The project hails from Stampede, the production banner recently launched by former Warner Bros. Pictures executive Greg Silverman. Justin Marks (“The Jungle Book”) is on board

The jury of the Tokyo International Film Festival expressed warm greetings and happy feelings about a week of movie-watching in the Japanese capital. But the tone changed noticeably when confronted with the question of the position of women at film festivals, and what are festivals’ responsibilities towards women. Comprised of Philippines director Brillante Mendoza, Iranian

MORELIA, Mexico – “Chivas – the Movie,” the first full-length feature documentary about Mexico’s 112-year old Chivas soccer team held its world premiere Thursday, Oct. 25, at the 16th Morelia Int’l Film Festival. Chivas fans, some wearing the iconic red and white striped Chivas jerseys, crowded the Cinepolis theatre complex in downtown Morelia to cheer

MORELIA — Carlos Armella’s “Go Youth!” stands out as one of the most lighthearted and fun projects featured at this year’s Impulso Morelia, the works in progress section of Mexico’s Morelia Film Festival. Impulso marked the first time that Armella has screened an unfinished film at a festival, necessary as shooting only finished a couple

Francois Ozon, whose latest film, “Double Lover,” competed at the Cannes Film Festival last year, is now making “By the Grace of God,” a drama looking at a real-life case of sexual abuses allegedly committed by a French priest in the late 1980s. “By the Grace of God” is produced by Mandarin Production, in co-production

Despite its selection as Germany’s entry for the Oscars and a glitzy premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s “Never Look Away” is struggling to get viewers to look at it on home ground. Henckel von Donnersmarck won an Oscar in 2007 for his freshman feature outing, the critically acclaimed East German

Roberto Benigni, who won an Oscar for best actor in 1999 for “Life Is Beautiful,” is set to return to the big screen after a seven-year hiatus to play Mastro Geppetto in a live-action version of “Pinocchio” to be directed by Matteo Garrone. Shooting on the previously announced film is set to start in the

Some movies obsess about saving the world — from natural disasters, supervillains, and other things that might destroy us all. In its own modest but no-less-ambitious way, Antonio Méndez Esparza’s “Life and Nothing More” narrows that concern to a single individual, detailing what it would take to rescue a 14-year-old boy from being swallowed up

Launching its 22nd edition with an ambitious, expanded program, the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival opened Thursday in the Czech Republic, embracing the theme of memory as it marks the centennial of the founding of Czechoslovakia. The nation, formed at the close of WWI, lasted through 1993, when it was broken up into Slovakia and