Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” continued its reign over the U.K. and Ireland box office with £2.2 million ($2.8 million), according to numbers from Comscore. After six weekends at the box office, the Timothée Chalamet starrer has a sweet total of £56.1 million. Disney’s Golden Globe-winning “Poor Things,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and featuring Emma Stone in
Movies
As Russia’s war in Ukraine approaches its second anniversary, leading Russian director Aleksey German Jr. (“House Arrest,” “Under Electric Clouds”), is currently giving “Air,” his state-funded WWII thriller, a commercial release in Russian cinemas. With ferocious action and cruel detail, “Air” has been called out for being a patriotic film. It depicts the struggles of
Paris-based The Party Film Sales has boarded renowned Icelandic auteur Rúnar Rúnarsson’s fourth pic, “When the Light Breaks,” which is selected for Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market’s works in progress session.Rúnarsson serves as producer together with Heather Millard of Iceland’s Compass Films, in co-production with local banner Halibut, Holland’s Revolver, France’s Eaux Vives/Jour2Fête and Croatia’s MP
What happens to film, art and ultimately to our lives when AI, algorithm takes control? This burning question and main theme of the upcoming Göteborg Film Festival, is also at the core of Danish pic “About a Hero,” by versatile artist and helmer Piotr Winiewic (“Reflector”). Variety has secured in exclusivity the first still from the movie,
The Göteborg Film Festival’s film industry confab, the Nordic Film Market, unspooling Jan 31-Feb. 2, has unveiled in exclusivity to Variety its 2024 lineup comprising 58 new and upcoming Nordic films. These are directed by newcomers and bona fide helmers such as Hans Petter Moland, Rúnar Rúnarsson, Charlotte Sieling, Daniel Espinosa and Pirjo Honkasalo. Just over two
Christina Applegate surprised the 2023 Emmys to present the award for supporting actress in a comedy series to “The Bear” star Ayo Edebiri. Her appearance, which Variety had exclusively reported on last week, led to a massive standing ovation from the audience and prompted Applegate to get teary-eyed. She announced in August 2021 that she
The writers behind 2017’s “The Big Sick,” Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, told Variety that they have finished writing the script for a new romantic comedy they hope to start producing and developing, with Nanjiani also confirming his plans to star in the new film. On the Emmys red carpet with Variety’s Marc Malkin, the duo confirmed they
Sam Claflin told Variety that he would be “100%” open to returning to “The Hunger Games” franchise. On the Emmys red carpet with Variety‘s Marc Malkin, Claflin opened up about his reaction to the prequel film “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and the potential for his widely beloved character Finnick to make an appearance
Jamie Lee Curtis is once again defending Ariana DeBose, this time due to a joke made at the 2024 Critics Choice Awards at the expense of the “West Side Story” Oscar winner. “The Last of Us” star Bella Ramsey and Anthony Ramos presented the Critics Choice Award in the best song category and noted how
The African American Film Critics Association has announced the winners of the 15th annual AAFCA Awards, which honors outstanding achievement in film. “American Fiction,” “The Color Purple” and “Origin” all scored multiple honors, with “American Fiction” and “The Color Purple” leading with four wins apiece. These three films also nabbed spots on the AAFCA’s list
In “Poor Things,” Willem Dafoe plays God, bringing his devilish grin to the role of an ethically unbound surgeon who grafts body parts from one creature onto another, blending ducks and geese with dogs and goats — and, in the case of Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter, implanting a spare brain in the corpse of a
The feelings some of us have about the Sundance Film Festival border on the religious. I don’t mean that we’re a cult; I mean that the force that Sundance represents is a religion worth believing in. By the end of the 1980s, the action/comedy/horror/fantasy grind of Hollywood cinema had become bloated and exhausting. The independent
Bille August, the two-time Palme d’Or-winning director, found his creative match with the former Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, who reinvented herself as a detail-oriented costume designer on his hit Netflix film “Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction.” The film, which took a decade to bring to life, is nominated for three Robert Awards, the Danish equivalent
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “The Book of Clarence,” now in theaters. “The Book of Clarence” begins with a misdirect. The sophomore feature of British musician-turned-filmmaker Jeymes Samuel, a biblical epic, opens with a crucifixion. The camera sweeps across a sun-streaked landscape where a dozen men are nailed to crosses. At the center
Eugene Hernandez has reached the top of the mountain. The journalist turned nonprofit executive has spent decades rising through the ranks of the American independent film scene. This January he assumes his seat at its apex: as the director of the Sundance Film Festival. Hernandez, the co-founder of IndieWire and longtime leader of Film at
Directorial duo Kit & Arran, whose darkly comedic satire “King Baby” premieres at International Film Festival Rotterdam, are lining up two further film projects, “How Dare You” and “Jericho,” the directors, whose full names are Kit Redstone and Arran Shearing, tell Variety. Selected for the Bright Future section and initially developed as a play, “King
Paramount’s “Mean Girls” musical earned a grool $33.2 million from 3,791 theaters over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, beating expectations. Based on the Broadway adaptation of the 2004 comedy classic, “Mean Girls” was originally commissioned with plans to skip theaters and make a streaming debut directly on Paramount+, but executives opted for a
The musical-comedy “Shucked” had its closing performance on Broadway Sunday night, but the show went out with an even louder set of whoops than expected, as the curtain call included the news that a feature film adaptation is in the works. Show reps confirm to Variety that a movie version of “Shucked” is being set
You’d be forgiven if you thought butter was a carb, just like it’s totally understandable if you didn’t know the new “Mean Girls” is a musical. Paramount, which released the movie over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, chose not to explicitly market it as a song-and-dance spectacle, according to the studio’s president of global
“Succession” said farewell last year after four seasons, but we may not have seen the last of the Roy family. Brian Cox, who played patriarch Logan Roy on the hit HBO series, says he’s open to a “Succession” movie. “We’ll see,” Cox told me on Saturday at the BAFTA Tea Party at the Maybourne hotel
Italy’s Sveva Alviti (“Dalida”) and U.S. actor Newton Mayenge (“Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”) are attached to star in Cannes-set romantic drama “The Other Side of Fame” to be directed by Erik Bernard (“Free Dead or Alive”). Alviti is a model and actor who played the iconic Egyptian-Italian singer in the 2017
Telugu-language Indian superhero film “Hanu Man” has emerged as a hit and is adding screens in North America. The film is set in the fictional village of Anjanadri and follows Hanumanthu, who miraculously awakens Hindu god Lord Hanuman’s power after being involved in an accident near the sea. It is directed by Prasanth Varma (“Zombie
“Love Lies Bleeding” starring Kristen Stewart and Netflix’s “Supersex” series have been added to Berlin Film Festival‘s Special lineup. A romantic thriller centered on a bodybuilder and gym manager, “Love Lies Bleeding” is directed by “Saint Maud” helmer Rose Glass and will have its world premiere at Sundance this month. “Love Lies Bleeding” also stars
Founded in 2012, Paris-based WTFilms, run by Gregory Chambet and Dimitri Stephanides, has built a strong reputation as a sales agent for break-out genre pics and has recently diversified into production, to access hit projects. As competition ramps up for more ambitious projects with strong theatrical potential, Chambet decided to move to Los Angeles in
Netflix has revealed a lineup of 12 titles as part of its licensed Telugu-language film slate for 2024. The films include: NTR Arts’ “Devara,” starring “RRR” star NTR Jr; Hombale Films’ “Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire,” starring Prabhas, which was released theatrically during Christmas 2023 and is one of the biggest hits of the season;
Ginger & Fed, the new international film sales arm of Federation Studios headed by former TF1 Studio boss Sabine Chemaly, will launch several high profile titles at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous, including “The Future Awaits,” Niels Tavernier’s WWII-set drama based on the true story of a Holocaust survivor. Ginger & Fed will also bow sales on
Orange Studio has boarded true-crime-tinged psychological thriller “An Ordinary Case” and will launch sales at this week’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris. Top-lined, co-written and directed by French cinema stalwart Daniel Auteuil, this pulled-from-the-headlines drama also boasts “Borgen” and “Westworld” star Sidse Babett Knudsen alongside acclaimed actor Grégory Gadebois (“An Officer and a Spy”). Auteuil adapted
Playtime has boarded Olivier Assayas’ “Suspended Time,” a COVID-era comedy about two couples spending lockdown together. Produced by Olivier Delbosc of Curiosa Films, and by Assayas’ own Vortex Sutra, the pandemic farce is hotly tipped to compete at the Berlin Film Festival next month. Recent Assayas stalwart Vincent Macaigne leads the cast as Etienne, a
This week’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris will kick off with the Tuesday night world premiere of Pascal Bonitzer’s “Auction” – a ripped-from-the-headlines ensemble drama set in the crosshairs of high art and high finance. Produced by SBS Productions (“Last Summer,” “Elle”) and sold by Pyramide International, the art-world saga follows – among others – a
Jessica Palud’s showbiz drama “Being Maria” reframes the short career and tragic life of “Last Tango in Paris” star Maria Schneider in a post-#MeToo light. “Happening” breakout Anamaria Vartolomei plays Schneider, while Matt Dillon takes on the role of her co-star Marlon Brando. Orange Studio is handling international sales. Currently in post-production and aiming for