Although “The Favourite” was in the works for long before the #MeToo and #TimesUp, it feels especially timely to have a film with three female leads right now. In the film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, set in 18th-century England, Olivia Colman plays Queen Anne, while cousins Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone fight for her attention
Movies
“Night School” is kicking off its box office run with top marks. The Universal film starring Tiffany Haddish and Kevin Hart is on its way to an estimated $26 million from 3,010 North American sites to land at No. 1, though the debut of Warner Bros.’ animated “” is close behind with $23 million from
Markus Schleinzer is a filmmaker who knows how to wait for a payoff: Take the dry in-joke, for example, of waiting seven years to follow his 2011 debut “Michael” with a film called “Angelo.” His tartly brilliant second feature is awash with slow-building irony, though as with his first, there’s precious little mirth in its
The timing could hardly be worse for “Brian Banks,” a well-meaning and emotionally engaging movie about the California Innocence Project’s incredible battle to exonerate a Long Beach football player who lost 11 years of his life to prison and parole after a high school classmate falsely accused him of rape. Independently made and still seeking
A lawsuit was filed against Kevin Spacey in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday, detailing alleged sexual crimes the actor is accused of committing against an anonymous masseur in October, 2016. The actor, who was dropped from Netflix’s “House of Cards” in November 2017 following previous accusations of sexual harassment, now faces legal action concerning allegations
September 28, 2018 6:23PM PT [embedded content] Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are back to their usual absurd antics in a new trailer for Colombia Picture’s latest comedy “Holmes and Watson,” released Friday. The film marks the the third time that the “Stepbrothers” stars have acted alongside each other; however, this time they’ll be
September 28, 2018 3:46PM PT The Savannah College of Art and Design has announced honorees to be recognized at the 21st annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival from Oct. 27 to Nov. 3. The event will honor Hugh Jackman with the Legend of Cinema Award, and the recognition caps off his recent achievements in film, from
September 28, 2018 2:59PM PT Twentieth Century Fox Film’s family division has nabbed the rights to the young-adult science-fiction novel “The Prom Goer’s Interstellar Excursion.” The Knopf title, published in 2015, was written by author Chris McCoy, who will adapt his own work for the screen. The novel follows Bennett, a teen who lands his
September 28, 2018 2:16PM PT Fox has set new release dates for several of its upcoming films — “Alita: Battle Angel,” “Dark Phoenix,” and “Gambit” — and announced an untitled Deadpool release. Coming Dec. 21, the new “Deadpool” film is believed to be a PG-13 version of “Deadpool 2” with potentially new footage shot for
Amid the Arab world’s volatile festival landscape, Egypt’s ambitious El Gouna Film Festival, heading into its second edition, is aiming to raise its profile a few notches. The fest has secured the cream of this year’s global cinematic crop and more than doubled the cash prizes for Arabic projects at its co-production market. Following the
September 28, 2018 1:36PM PT Shares of Lionsgate have jumped 7.6% on speculation about a possible takeover by Amazon. The stock closed up $1.72 on Friday at $24.40 on the New York Stock Exchange, following a 78-cent increase on Thursday. The gain has been fueled by an interview John Kornitzer, the fourth-largest holder of Class A
September 28, 2018 12:40PM PT Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou is set to join the growing ensemble of Sony’s “Charlie’s Angels” reboot, joining Elizabeth Banks and Patrick Stewart as one of the film’s multiple Bosleys. Banks is also directing with Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska set to portray the film’s Angels. Jonathan Tucker and
The force is strong with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy — for another three years, to be precise. The veteran producer and chief of the Disney content giant behind “Star Wars” has renewed her deal through 2021, an individual familiar with the negotiations told Variety, following a tumultuous year for the label under her control. The studio
Stand-up comedian Nina Geld throws up after every set. That’s just one of the painful details we learn about the wonderfully complex character Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays in “All About Nina,” a striking and at times uncomfortably personal feature debut from writer-director Eva Vives that makes good on its title by not shying away from
Warner Bros. has finally found the filmmaker to help them get to Sesame Street. Sources tell Variety that “Portlandia” director and co-creator, Jonathan Krisel, is set to helm the live-action “Sesame Street” movie for Warner Bros. The film will be a musical, according to sources. Shawn Levy is producing with Michael Aguilar. Mike Rosolio penned
September 28, 2018 10:34AM PT Super-producer Greg Berlanti has set his next feature directing effort as part of an overall film deal at 20th Century Fox. Berlanti and the Elizabeth Gabler-run imprint Fox 2000 will team on an adaption of “The Editor,” about a young author named James who’s shepherded by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis when the
Annapurna Pictures has set Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic “Vice” to open on Dec. 25, 2018. The pic stars Christian Bale as Dick Cheney, Amy Adams as Lynne Cheney, Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld, and Sam Rockwell as President George W. Bush. The film follows the story of how Cheney, a bureaucratic Washington insider, quietly
Stockard Channing returns to the New York stage in “Apologia,” opening Oct. 16 at the Laura Pels Theatre, following its successful West End run. Alexi Kaye Campbell’s play concerns an art historian clashing with her past as a 1960s political activist. Channing has decades of stage experience, but most people know her from movie and
Likarion Wainaina’s “Supa Modo,” about a mother determined to bring joy to her dying daughter’s last days, is Kenya’s submission for the foreign-language Oscar race. The film, which world premiered in the Berlinale’s Generation Kplus program last February, was selected by the Kenya Film Commission on Friday. Produced by Tom Tykwer’s Kenyan shingle, One Fine
France’s La Victorine, a Hollywood-style centenary studio located on the French Riviera is joining forces with the Provence Studios, a five-year old studio, to become France’s largest studio hub. Created in 1919, La Victorine is located in Nice and has hosted shoots for iconic movies directed by Roger Vadim (“…And God Created Woman”), Jacques Deray
Los Angeles chef Evan Funke could have followed in his father Alex Funke’s Oscar-winning footsteps doing special effects photography for movies like “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” But instead, Funke became the king of handmade pasta, starting out at Spago and Rustic Canyon and then opening his own restaurants, the now-closed
The Murdoch family is making out like bandits. Rupert, Lachlan, and James Murdoch were rewarded handsomely for their decision to sell large parts of their sprawling media empire to the Walt Disney Company in a deal valued at $71.3 billion. All three family members earned massive raises on the eve of the merger’s completion —
SAN SEBASTIAN — “Lobster Soup” scooped a €3,000 ($4,800 USD) cash prize for best project at San Sebastian’s Lau Haizetara‘s Documentary Co-production Forum. It also won a second award for distribution. Produced by Valencia’s Suica Films, Basque Country’s REC Grabaketa Estudioa and Iceland’s Axfilms, “Lobster Soup” portrays a small community around Iceland’s Bryggjan café, where
SAN SEBASTIAN — Over the course of a burgeoning career as a documentary director, and while not producing movies such as Cannes Festival opener “Everybody Knows,” Morena Films producer-partner Alvaro Longoria has addressed lamentably little-known subjects of large resonance with good-humor, clarity, candor and a healthy dose of all-round prejudice-bashing. “Ni distintos ni diferentes: Campeones”
Eye candy without much to offer the brain or emotions, “Hell Fest” is a competently crafted slasher film rendered instantly forgettable by its disinterest in character, plot, and motivation, let alone original ideas. An early Halloween salvo, it will be gone from theaters before that holiday (or even the latest screen “Halloween”) arrives, but should
The past is a hurriedly abandoned house, ripe for the looting, in Benjamin Naishtat’s superbly sinister and stylish “Rojo.” And so it begins with one: A mid-sized, detached 1970s home, its windows shuttered like the closed eyes of a coma patient. A portly, well-dressed man emerges carrying an ornamental clock — this scoreless scene, set
SPOILER ALERT: Those responsible for “Bad Times at the El Royale” have gone to great lengths to hide its secrets. While this review attempts to respect the film’s key twists, it may be better read after you’ve seen the movie. A line runs right through the middle of Lake Tahoe’s Cal Neva Resort & Casino,
The Estate of Ana Mendieta sued Amazon Studios on Thursday, alleging that the film “Suspiria” borrows from the late artist’s work. The suit alleges that the film and the trailer used images that were derived from two of Mendieta’s pieces from the 1970s, “Rape Scene” and “Untitled (Silueta Series, Mexico).” Director Luca Guadagnino has given
Various factors have set housing costs skyrocketing in many major cities worldwide, creating numerous problems — not least the increasing forcing-out of native residents in favor of better-heeled newcomers. Penned by Irish novelist Roddy Doyle, “Rosie” offers a microcosm of that crisis in Dublin, as a working-class family finds itself literally (if hopefully just temporarily)
“Cruise,” written and directed by Robert Siegel, is its own intoxicating brand of youth nostalgia film. It’s set in the outer boroughs of New York in 1987, and it’s every bit as fresh and authentic about the period as a movie like “Adventureland” was — it gets the big hair and the bangles, the mall-boutique