Movies

Roku released its list of the top-searched movies, TV series, actors and actresses in 2023 on its devices — compiled from more than 1.2 billion total searches in the U.S. Boinging into the top spot: “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which beat out every other movie and TV series as the No. 1 most-searched title

Madrid-based Rock & Ruz – the production company of Netflix’s “Nowhere,” which has just been confirmed by Netflix as its most-viewed Spanish-language movie of all time  – has pacted new projects with Italy’s Leonardo Fasoli, a head-writer of “Gomorrah” and creator of “ZeroZeroZero,” and Spain-based Alejandro Hernández, a co-writer on Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War” and

Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” led the nominations at the 44th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards with nine nods, followed by Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” with seven. Celine Song’s “Past Lives,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” have six nominations each, while Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie received five. All of these

SF Studios, Scandinavia’s oldest film studio, is set to start introducing concert films to theaters, kicking off with “Hov1 Forever” which follows the popular Swedish band Hov1 across their sold-out summer tour. Hov1, whose tour spanned 27 cities in Sweden and Norway, was Sweden’s most streamed artist in 2023. Portraying Hov1 members Ludwig Kronstrand, Noel

Berlin Film Festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian is in an upbeat mood as he puts the finishing touches on assembling his fourth and final edition. It appears to be shaping up nicely with a rich mix comprising prestige star-driven titles, such as the world premiere of Netflix’s “Spaceman” in which Adam Sandler plays an imperiled

Contenders in the best film category at the BAFTAs will require an expanded theatrical release from the 2025 awards. From 2025, films must be theatrically exhibited publicly for the first time to a paying audience on at least 50 commercial screens in the U.K. for at least seven days across 50 sites at the widest

Mongrel Media has acquired Canadian rights for “The Birds Who Fear Death” by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Sanjay Patel. Patel is best known for “Union Leader,” which won top awards at the Sao Paolo and Zurich festivals. “The Birds Who Fear Death” follows the Spence brothers, Adam and Ryan, whose every action is motivated by their financial

Leading Indian studio Yash Raj Films (YRF) has had a phenomenal 2023 with successes across theatrical films and streaming and is looking to build on it going forward. After an indifferent 2022 where the Hindi-language Bollywood film industry was shaded by the mighty south Indian business, the box office roared back in January 2023 with

Many stories have been told about Westward expansion, but few have focused on the impact and consequences. John Williams’ 1960 novel “Butcher’s Crossing” follows William Andrews, a Harvard student who leaves his life behind to join a buffalo-hunting expedition, facing many harsh realities on his journey. Producer Molly Conners sat down with Variety for the

Director Danny Tedesco previously scored a hit among music fans with his 2008 film “The Wrecking Crew,” a documentary about the battalion of 1960s studio musicians whose names were little known even among the cognoscenti, until these unknown soldiers started to quietly get their due decades later. Although it took another 15 years after that

Josh Kramer, who worked as a film producer and financier and Amazon executive, died Nov. 27 in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 67. Kramer started his career in entertainment in foreign sales for the Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis. By pre-selling foreign movie rights, he became an integral member of the company, financing films such

Cameron Diaz appeared on a recent episode of the “Lipstick on the Rim” podcast and pushed back against rumors that Jamie Foxx was “crazy” on the set of their Netflix movie “Back in Action” (via People). Foxx was in the midst of production when he was hospitalized for a medical emergency. Diaz said reports surfaced

Quentin Tarantino fans were sent into a frenzy in late 2017 after it was announced that Paramount and “Star Trek” producer J.J. Abrams had accepted Tarantino’s pitch for a new “Star Trek” movie and were working with “The Revenant” screenwriter Mark L. Smith to iron out the script. The project ultimately never got made, but

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino spent two years developing a live-action adaptation of the animated classic for Netflix before they shocked fans by announcing their exit from the project due to creative differences. The decision left Albert Kim, best known as a writer on “Pantheon” and an executive producer

CAA and Disney are fighting back against Julia Ormond‘s claim that they acted as enablers for Harvey Weinstein and failed to protect her from being sexually assaulted. Ormond rose to fame in the mid-90s, appearing in “Legends of the Fall” and “Sabrina.” She has alleged that Weinstein lured her to a business meeting in December

Screenwriter Norma Barzman, who got her start during the Golden Age of Hollywood and was blacklisted with her husband during the McCarthy era, died Sunday in Beverly Hills, her son Paolo confirmed. She was 103. Barzman and her husband, fellow screenwriter Ben Barzman, moved to Europe as did many other Hollywood progressives who came under

Written by Greta Gerwig and Noah BaumbachEssay by Emily Saliers A day before the movie “Barbie,” written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, premiered in the U.S., I was on vacation in the Faroe Islands, where I desperately snagged the last ticket to see it in the local Torshavn theater. Navigating my way through unfamiliar

As 2023 draws to a close, Christopher Nolan is feeling pretty good about the state of the movie business. That shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise considering “Oppenheimer” pulled in a remarkable $954 million at the box office this year, beating every superhero movie and several major Hollywood tentpoles, like “Indiana Jones and

Wim Wenders describes himself as “a man of habits,” which helps to explain the respect he shows the routine-driven lead character of his latest narrative feature, “Perfect Days.” The gentle drama, which takes place in Japan (it was selected as the country’s official Oscar submission this year), focuses on a Tokyo craftsman who spends his

Ava DuVernay and Michael Mann go way back. In 2003, DuVernay was a publicist on the set of Mann’s “Collateral.” Watching the auteur shoot in her old stomping grounds of East Los Angeles gave her the idea to pick up the camera. “That made me think, ‘Wow, this is possible,’” recalls DuVernay, sitting opposite the

“The Count of Monte-Cristo,” the new period epic from the team behind “The Three Musketeers,” is getting ready to hit the market after its five-month shoot wrapped this month. Producers Dimitri Rassam at Mediawan-owned banner Chapter 2 and Pathé have unveiled a first still of the movie (above), which stars Pierre Niney as the iconic

Neon has acquired North American rights to “Immaculate,” a religious horror film starring Sydney Sweeney. Sweeney, the star of “Euphoria” and “The White Lotus,” also produced the movie with Black Bear and Middle Child Pictures. Neon is planning a theatrical release on a yet-to-be-determined date. Directed by Michael Mohan and written by Andrew Lobel, “Immaculate”

Where do you stand on the 1985 film version of “The Color Purple,” which was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, but won none? Some feel it wasn’t Steven Spielberg’s story to tell. Others marvel at how a director of the upbringing depicted in “The Fabelmans” managed to recognize and reflect so many aspects of Black

Damon Wayans Jr. and Andrew “King Bach” Bachelor have engaged David F. Walker to co-write and Ben Bishop to illustrate graphic novel “Shogun Run.” Wayans Jr and Bachelor had revealed earlier this year that they would create and write the graphic novel. Set in 1990s South Central Los Angeles, “Shogun Run” is described as “Big

Neha Dhupia (“A Thursday”) and Adil Hussain (“Life of Pi”) will star in Egyptian director Ali El Arabi‘s upcoming drama “Blue 52,” about a young Indian soccer fan’s journey as a migrant worker to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. El Arabi’s “Blue 52” chronicles the true tale of a young man named Ashish,

Kristen Stewart returns to the big screen, in her first role since David Cronenberg’s 2022 horror “Crimes of the Future,” in “Love Lies Bleeding,” a romantic thriller. from A24. In “Love Lies Bleeding,” Stewart plays a gym manager, Lou, who meets a bodybuilder named Jackie (Katy M. O’Brian), who has stopped into town and is

A remote and dilapidated lighthouse proves an increasingly sinister backdrop for newly widowed father, Pablo (Hugo Silva) and his adolescent daughter Lidia (Zoe Arnao) in the first international teaser trailer for the upcoming Ángeles Hernández thriller “Restless Waters, Shivering Lights” (“El Faro”). Distribution in Spain is handled by Alfa Pictures with an expected release date

Adam Sandler might receive marriage counseling from an unexpected source in his next film. Netflix has unveiled a first look for Johan Renck’s upcoming sci-fi drama “Spaceman,” starring Sandler, Carey Mulligan and Paul Dano. The film is set to debut on the streamer on March 1. The official synopsis for “Spaceman” reads: “Six months into

Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” enjoyed a barnstorming second weekend at the U.K. and Ireland box office with £6.3 million ($8.09 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. After two weekends at the top, the Timothée Chalamet starrer now has a mighty total of £18.4 million. In the process, the film staved off the challenge of Anime

Paris-based outfit Luxbox – one of Europe’s biggest sales agents and sometimes producers  – of higher-profile Spanish-language art house fare, has swooped on international rights to “Reas,” a prison musical in which female and trans ex-cons process their experiences, which was confirmed last week as one of the first eight films selected for Berlin’s Forum section.  The