The #MeToo movement arrived late in India. But it is a juggernaut that is here to stay, and is having a measurable effect on production. Aamir Khan Productions is to withdraw from a film where one of the filmmakers is accused of harassment in a 2014 case that is currently sub-judice. “This is an opportunity
Movies
With smell of coal all pervasive in the night air, Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke played host Thursday at the opening of the second edition of his Pingyao International Film Festival. Standing at the top of the steps of a red carpet leading to an improvised open air theater, Jia gave a warm welcome, despite the
Deluxe has opened Stage One, its new 4,000-square-foot color grading theater, in Hollywood’s historic Glen Glenn Sound building. The room is equipped with high-quality projection, including the world’s largest RealD Ultimate Screen in a private facility, as well as advanced color grading, audio and editorial systems. Currently being graded in the space by colorist Mitch
In today’s film news roundup, Dave Bautista is in talks for “Fantasy Island,” “Glam Masters” exec producer Diana Madison gets her first movie role and Kino Lorber buys 10 Hungarian classics. CASTINGS “Guardians of the Galaxy” actor Dave Bautista is in negotiations to star in Blumhouse and Sony’s upcoming “Fantasy Island” movie. Ricardo Montalban starred
West Coast members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees have ratified a three-year successor deal to their master contract. IATSE announced the ratification of the contract, which includes a 3% hike in annual wage minimums and covers 43,000 members, on Wednesday. The new deal is retroactive to July 31. Leaders of 12 of
October 10, 2018 4:14PM PT “Insecure” creator and star Issa Rae will topline Fox’s romantic comedy “American Princess” from director Stella Meghie. Paul Feig is producing with Jessie Henderson through their Fox-based Feigco Entertainment banner. Brendan O’Brien will also produce the pic. Rae will play an American woman who moves to London, finds herself drawn into
Brian Tyree Henry, who is coming off his Emmy-nominated performance in “Atlanta” Season 2, will star opposite Millie Bobby Brown in Legendary’s “Godzilla vs. Kong.” Adam Wingard is directing with Henry also joining “Deadpool 2” star Julian Dennison. Plot details are vague, but the film will feature the two titular classic monsters squaring off in
Guy Ritchie has tapped top-tier talent to lead his big-screen return to British crime dramas, “Toff Guys.” Matthew McConaughey, Kate Beckinsale, and “Crazy Rich Asians” actor Henry Golding are set to star in the film. Ritchie will direct and produce from a script he wrote with Marn Davies and Ivan Atkinson. The story explores the collision between European
Oracle founder Larry Ellison is engineering a major reorganization of his daughter Megan Ellison’s struggling Annapurna Pictures, according to several people familiar with the situation. The studio has been hemorrhaging money for years and continues to suffer an exodus of top executives who have either been forced out or who left on their own accord.
October 10, 2018 3:28PM PT Major movie theater chains, including AMC Cinemas and Regal Cinemas, have closed multiplexes in the Florida panhandle and southern Georgia due to Hurricane Michael battering the states, leaving thousands without power. Hurricane Michael, the third-most-powerful storm to ever hit the U.S. mainland, made landfall early Wednesday afternoon as a Category
October 10, 2018 3:25PM PT While final numbers are days away, the hit album looks to be coming in well ahead of hot releases from Twenty One Pilots and Eric Church. The “A Star Is Born” soundtrack is a star in its own right. Sources watching retail reports come in from the album’s first five
Some parents pull strings to enroll their kids in their alma mater. In Hollywood, celebrity parents have been hammering together family showcases for their progeny — backyard plays elevated to the screen — and taking their own bows as writer, director, producer, or co-star. Earlier this summer was “The Year of Spectacular Men,” Lea Thompson
Isaac Lee, the former chief creative officer of Univision and Televisa, has formed an ambitious new company called Exile Content and he has acquired Mexican production services company Redrum. Redrum founder Stacy Perskie will run Exile’s studio along with his team of partners, including Adrian Grunberg, who is currently directing “Rambo 5” and helmed Redrum’s first
UTA is diving into the content financing and production arena, setting a joint venture with Valence Media and MRC to develop TV series. UTA will have a minority stake in the venture to be known as Civic Center Media. The focus will be on offering UTA clients the ability to tap into Civic Center’s resources
October 10, 2018 12:29PM PT Anthony Ramos, the “Hamilton” alum who recently appeared alongside Lady Gaga in “A Star Is Born,” has found his next project. Sources tell Variety that Ramos is in talks to re-team with “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda to star in the film adaptation of the 2005 Broadway musical “In the Heights.”
Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s international distribution company Telepool is investing in a genre slate from indie producer Eric B. Fleischman, along with Kodiak Pictures, Variety has learned exclusively. Fleischman was a Sundance Film Festival breakout star in 2016, when at age 26, he made a strong showing with “Sleight” and “Carnage Park.” His company,
October 10, 2018 12:13PM PT French director Pierre Morel has come on board an untitled movie project about notorious French gangster and jailbreaker Rédoine Faïd. Condé Nast Entertainment and Sentient Entertainment are producing the project, based on Julie Miller’s Vanity Fair story “How Hollywood Inspired France’s Most Daring Prison Escape.” Faïd had been on the
Halloween is on the horizon, so we’ve compiled a list of some of the best horror films available on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime right now. All 31 films are sure to provide their own bone-chilling viewing experiences and span a wide variety of topics including slashers, possessions and everything in between. See if you’re
October 10, 2018 12:03PM PT Verne Troyer’s death has been ruled as a suicide, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner announced Wednesday. Troyer, 49, died April 21 at a Van Nuys, Calif., hospital after being admitted three weeks earlier for reported alcohol intoxication. It was later determined Troyer died from “sequelae of alcohol
Netflix has tapped Patty Whitcher, Momita SenGupta, and Steven Squillante to new positions in its physical production department to work across film and TV series. Whitcher has been named VP of physical production for original films, SenGupta has been named VP of physical production for original series, and Squillante has been named VP of physical
Donald Trump won’t be getting a producing credit in Ike Barinholtz’ dark comedy “The Oath,” which opens Friday, but he’s the major reason why the film got made. “The movie grew out of the Thanksgiving dinner two years ago at my house in Los Angeles,” Barinholtz recalls. “We got into a nasty fight about politics —
October 10, 2018 10:08AM PT [embedded content] Apparently “dead is better” even the second time around! Paramount Studios released the first trailer for their “Pet Sematary” remake Wednesday, just in time for Halloween. Directed by the “Starry Eyes” duo Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, Stephen King adaptation stars Jason Clarke, John Lithgow and Amy Seimetz.
MADRID — In days of yore, just a decade ago, new TV shows at Mipcom were marketed and sold to free and pay TV networks around the world. Much of the running was made by the Hollywood studios, talking up their new fall bows. Enter the disruptors. Global platforms now acquire and increasingly commission hundreds
October 10, 2018 4:28AM PT Christoffer Boe’s thriller “The Purity of Vengeance,” the fourth and final opus of the hit “Department Q” franchise, has scored the best opening for a local film at the Danish box office. Produced by Zentropa, “The Purity of Vengeance” has sold more than 215,052 admissions since opening on Oct.4, underscoring
Some of the biggest names in U.K. film and TV have launched the London Screen Academy. The free school for 16-to-19 year-olds in the English capital will train a new generation of industry professionals. The launch comes as U.K. film and TV boom, but the British Film Institute has warned of a skills shortage. Barbara
Yórgos Lánthimos’s “The Favourite,” Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria,” Claire Denis’s “High Life” and Ethan Hawke’s “Blaze” are among the many well-received films from Venice and Toronto set to be having their French premiere at La Roche-sur-Yon Festival which is headed by Paolo Moretti, the new topper of Cannes’s Directors Fortnight. The international competition lineup of this
“Kill the chicken to scare the monkeys,” goes an old Chinese proverb about making an example of an individual to rattle the many. Embattled Chinese actress and global celebrity Fan Bingbing, who last week admitted to running afoul of her government and evading millions of dollars in taxes, is “absolutely” being made an example of,
October 10, 2018 12:54AM PT Oral storytelling and innovative animation fuse to illustrate the plight of Swazi AIDS orphans in this audience-pleasing hybrid doc. It is through oral storytelling that most key folk tales, myths and histories across African culture have been passed and preserved through the generations. It is by tapping into this rich
Future scholars of the Cultural Appropriation Wars of the late 2010s are going to find a lot to talk about with Don McKellar’s “Through Black Spruce,” a film produced by a Cree woman (Tina Keeper) and directed by a white Canadian man that deals explicitly with sexism and Indigenous issues, and is based on a
October 9, 2018 11:25PM PT Milcho Manchevski’s helter-skelter meta-drama focuses on the exploitation of a homeless woman’s dire circumstances by a documentary filmmaker. In her confident, crafty eyes and free-flowing cadences, Condola Rashad — daughter of Phylicia and Ahmad Rashad — more than slightly recalls the style of Denzel Washington in her commanding performance in “Bikini