Movies

Indian restaurants in London’s Southall neighborhood kept Bollywood star Alia Bhatt happy while working on location for her Hollywood debut, “Heart of Stone.” The 2023 Netflix thriller, directed by Tom Harper and co-starring Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan, in which Bhatt plays globe-trotting hacker Keya Dhawan, spent two months shooting in London — a long

From internet memes to a slew of movies, this is the Age of Cage, but Nicolas Cage himself revealed that as he approaches his 60th birthday he is taking stock. He told a sold-out audience at the Red Sea Film Festival that he was winding down his film career after 45 years and over 100

After “Their Algeria,” a well-received documentary from 2020 about the parents of her actor father Zinedine Soualem, France-born filmmaker-performer Lina Soualem turns her camera on her maternal relatives in “Bye Bye Tiberias,” in particular her mother, the Palestine-born actress Hiam Abbass. By telling their story, she hopes to reclaim and question the personal, historical and

A writer who claims the 2021 comedy “Don’t Look Up” was substantially similar to his self-published novel is suing writer-director Adam McKay and Netflix for copyright infringement. Author William Collier says that in 2007, he sent his daughter, who was working at Mosaic Media division Jimmy Miller Entertainment, an email with the text of his

Dust off those joysticks: Sega is rebooting a handful of retro franchises including Crazy Taxi, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio and Shinobi. The Japanese gaming giant announced the new initiative, which will “revive a number of IPs as all-new video games, developed for today’s audiences,” Dec. 7 at the Game Awards. Sega

Mark Ruffalo appeared on “Hot Ones” ahead of the release of “Poor Things” and got asked about the time he accidentally popped Channing Tatum‘s eardrum on the set of “Foxcatcher.” The 2014 sports drama, directed by Bennett Miller, starred the two actors as Olympic wrestlers Mark and David Schultz. Ruffalo played David, who was murdered

Andrew Garfield spoke to an audience rich in Spider-Man fans about his career at the Red Sea Film Festival Thursday, sitting alongside Saudi producer and Red Sea Film Foundation CEO Mohammed Al Turki. The two have known each other since Garfield starred in Ramin Bahrani’s 2014 drama “99 Homes,” which Al Turki produced. “I’m currently

At the closing ceremony of the 3rd edition of the Red Sea Film Festival Thursday, which took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in front of an audience that included Hollywood stars Nicolas Cage, Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Jason Statham and Adrien Brody, the Golden Yusr for best film and a $100,000 cash prize went to

Five years ago, while chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios Jennifer Lee was finishing work on “Frozen II,” she mentioned to her co-director, Chris Buck, that the studio’s 100th anniversary was coming up — and asked whether he’d want to be involved in any projects pegged to the anniversary?They didn’t have any idea

Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend took the witness stand on Thursday for the third consecutive day, where she faced questions from the “Creed III” actor’s defense attorney about the injuries she sustained on the night in March she was allegedly assaulted. Majors’ attorney Priya Chaudhry asked Grace Jabbari, 30, about why she had gone out to a nightclub

After Broadway shut down due to the pandemic, “Waitress” received an arts grant from Chuck Schumer’s office that allowed the production to reopen in 2021. Sara Bareilles, who wrote the music and lyrics, said this opportunity inspired her and the team to make the most of their time back on stage by shooting a live

The top 20 finalists for the visual effects Oscar have been notified they have made it to the next round of voting. With Oscars shortlist voting opening in eight categories on Thursday, Dec. 14, Variety has learned exclusively that the visual effects finalists include Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon:

The Producers Guild of America has announced Martin Scorsese as the recipient of the David O. Selznick Achievement Award for his six decades of producing. Scorsese will accept the honor at the PGA Awards on Feb. 25. The David O. Selznick Achievement Awards recognizes producers for their outstanding body of work in motion pictures, with

Looking back, 2023 was a year of wild swings. And two big strikes (if you’ll forgive the pun) — first the Writers Guild and then the Screen Actors Guild took the studios and streamers to task, forcing production to a halt. Yet whatever was going on behind the scenes, Hollywood had a grand-slam year, asserting

Hamzah Jamjoom’s eco-thriller “Running Dry,” which will start principal photography on Dec. 26, has revealed its leading cast members. The film will star Baraa Alem (“The Book of Sun,” “HWJN,” “Route 10”), Waleed Zuaiter (“Gangs of London,” “Baghdad Central,” “Omar”), Houshang Touzie (“Homeland,” “Argo,” “Madame Secretary”), Naif Aldaferi (“Rashash,” ” HWJN”) and Ali Fardi (“7-OD,”

The creatives behind this year’s awards contenders convened for a series of conversations about their craft during Variety FYC Fest on Dec. 6 in Los Angeles. Variety‘s senior awards editor Clayton Davis, Senior Artisans Editor Jazz Tangcay and Senior Entertainment & Media Writer Matt Donnelly moderated several panels throughout the event. From the environmental documentaries “Common

The Academy has revealed the list of eligible films for consideration in best animated, documentary and international feature of the year, encompassing a broad range of blockbusters and critically acclaimed titles. GKids’ “The Boy and the Heron,” Pixar’s “Elemental,” Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” are among the 33

The “Barbenheimer” craze continues with Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” being named among AFI Awards 2023 top 10 best films of the year. Netflix led studios with two movies making the list — Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro” and Todd Haynes’ black comedy “May December.” With an eclectic mix of critically acclaimed

Action star Jason Statham considers David Ayer’s “The Beekeeper,” which opens next year, as one of his buzziest movies yet. “I can’t wait for people to see that. It’s really sophisticated and cool, full of heart and excitement,” he said Thursday at the Red Sea Film Festival. “It’s a great film. The result is obviously

James Cameron revealed last month that he’s currently knee deep in the “very hectic” post-production of “Avatar 3.” Neither the director nor Disney is ready to unveil the title for “Avatar 3,” but it sounds like it won’t be “The Seed Bearer” as Cameron once considered. The titles for Cameron’s “Avatar” sequels have become social

Justine Triet‘s “Anatomy of a Fall” missed out on being chosen as France’s Oscar entry, but the movie has been a critical and commercial hit — including in the U.S., where it’s become the highest-grossing specialized foreign-language release post-pandemic, according to distributor Neon. Released in the States on Oct. 13, “Anatomy of a Fall” has

“The Summer With Carmen,” Zacharias Mavroeidis’ queer comedy, has been acquired in major territories since world premiering at the Venice Film Festival. The movie, which is represented by Be For Films and had its North American premiere at AFI, recently won three prizes at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. It will be released next year by Cinobo

London-based international documentary sales and production outfit Dogwoof has boarded world sales for Shiori Ito’s feature documentary, “Black Box Diaries,” which will receive its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The film follows director and journalist Ito’s courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable

Former French President François Hollande is part of the voice cast for “Silex & the City – The Movie,” a big-screen spinoff of the popular short-format animated series set in the Stone Age. “Silex & the City” is adapted from the comic book series by the same name created by French cartoonist Jul, which has

Gerard Depardieu, who has already been indicted on rape charges in connection to a 2018 case, is facing more sexual assault allegations in a new complaint, Variety has confirmed. Hélène Darras, a French actor, has filed a police complaint alleging that Depardieu sexually assaulted her during the filming of “Disco” in 2007. The news, which

The second Asia TV Forum and Market IP Accelerator (AIPA) closed with four winners bagging prizes valued at more than S$80,000 ($59,700) from the three sponsors of the event. The 108 Media Development Award of S$15,000 towards project development went to Thailand’s “My Chef in Crime,” a crime-comedy series by producer Bo Rattanavich and director

Iraqi director Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradji — who in 2022 won the Red Sea Film Festival‘s top prize with “Hanging Gardens” — will next direct black comedy ”Madness and Honey Days,” in which an audacious theatre director offends Saddam Hussein on stage and winds up in a psychiatric hospital to avoid a punishment of tongue-cutting followed by the

Action comedy film “Baby Hero” was launched at Singapore’s Asia TV Forum and Market on Thursday. The film is a co-production between Singapore’s Hong Pictures and Bangkok-based Hollywood (Thailand). Principal photography will commence in the first quarter of 2024 with a view to releasing the film in 2025. “Baby Hero” was launched in the presence

Ena Sendijarević’s “Sweet Dreams,” Netherlands’ submission in the Academy Awards international feature category, has secured North American distribution via Dekanalog. The film had its world premiere at Locarno, where it won the Pardo for best performance for Renée Soutendijk (“Suspiria”) and the second prize of the junior jury. The film debuted in North America in

The urge to dazzle can be its own straitjacket, and it’s one that weighs heavily on Meshal Aljaser’s feature debut “Naga.” He aims for a hurtling virtuosity, à la “Run Lola Run,” in depicting a disobedient young Saudi woman’s extreme travails in trying to get home before her strict curfew. But that quarter-century-old German thriller’s