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
Movies
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.
Pantelion Films has picked up U.S. distribution rights to Manolo Caro’s Latin American version of Italian hit “Perfect Strangers” (“Perfectos Desconocidos”). The dark comedy is Mexican exhibition giant Cinepolis’ first foray into feature film production and will have its world premiere at the 16th Morelia Int’l Film Festival on Tuesday, Oct. 23. Cinepolis Distribution is
October 23, 2018 10:06AM PT Jean-Marc Vallee is set to direct a film about John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Universal Pictures is in negotiations to option Anthony McCarten’s script with Michael De Luca Productions and Immersive Pictures producing. News first emerged in February that De Luca was collaborating with Yoko Ono for an untitled drama about
At the start of a new Oscar season, two films lead the pack that could not be more different in every way. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón’s Venice prizewinner “Roma” was ripped from the director’s childhood memories, shot in beautiful black-and-white with a cast of unknowns and will be presented by Netflix, the biggest streaming
When Alfonso Cuarón began casting the role of Cleo, a domestic worker closely based on Liboria “Libo” Rodríguez, who raised him from the time he was 9 months old, the director embarked on an exhaustive search throughout Mexico. He eventually found the woman to play Cleo — 24-year-old schoolteacher Yalitza Aparicio — in the southern
More than a decade ago, shortly after wrapping his 2006 dystopian drama “Children of Men,” director Alfonso Cuarón seized upon the idea of making an autobiographical film based on his childhood. Previously, he had worked on various screenplays that obliquely dealt with his upbringing through stories of families falling apart or the absence of a
October 23, 2018 5:49AM PT FilmNation Entertainment will sell international rights to “In the Glorias: A Life on the Road,” Variety has learned. The film is based on the memoir of feminist icon Gloria Steinem. Beyond its source material, the movie has some impressive pedigree. It is directed by Julie Taymor, the visionary director of
Award-winning dramas, “A Land Imagined,” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” are among the Asian films selected for competition at next month’s Singapore International Film Festival. Also competing for the Silver Screen Award are Indian director Rima Das’ “Bulbul Can Sing” and Sri Lankan Suba Sivakumaran’s “House of My Fathers.” The eight-title competition is open
Turkey’s president declared Tuesday that the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul was a “premeditated” act carried out after a large of team of Saudi intelligence, security and forensic personnel suddenly descended on Istanbul. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Saudi officials arrived in Turkey the day before Khashoggi
October 22, 2018 9:39PM PT Sony is moving its “Charlie’s Angels” reboot back five weeks to Nov. 1, 2019, to fill the slot vacated by “Wonder Woman 1984.” Sony made the announcement Monday night, a few hours after Warner Bros. decided it would move Gal Gadot’s “Wonder Woman 1984” to June 6, 2020, with the
In today’s film news roundup, Jason Reitman wins the John Cassavetes award, the documentary “Race Against Time” gets a release and the Ray Harryhausen Foundation is planning “Force of the Trojans.” FILM FESTIVALS The Denver Film Festival has selected Jason Reitman as the recipient of its 2018 John Cassavetes Award for his work as a
October 22, 2018 6:48PM PT Denis Do’s award-winning animated feature suggests the horrors of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime without depicting the worst atrocities. How does one depict a genocide such as that inflicted by the Khmer Rouge on the Cambodian people? Some — such as Rithy Pahn, who used clay figures rather than actors for the