Movies

After hitting the Cannes Film Festival with “Three Thousand Years of Longing” in 2022, George Miller is eyeing a splashy Croisette comeback with “Furiosa,” his post-apocalyptic “Mad Max: Fury Road” prequel movie. The Warner Bros. tentpole casts Anya Taylor-Joy as a younger version of Imperator Furiosa, the action heroine made famous by Charlize Theron in

In Vita Maria Drygas’ doc “Danger Zone,” war is for sale. And there are people who can afford it. “The very idea of ‘war tourism’ was shocking to me. Armed conflict is not a stage: you don’t buy tickets to watch a show,” she says ahead of the premiere at Warsaw Film Festival. Produced by

Chris Rock and Steven Spielberg are collaborating on a movie about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Rock is in final talks to direct and produce the project, with Spielberg on board as executive producer. Universal Pictures is backing the biographical drama after optioning Jonathan Eig’s biography “King: A Life.” Eig’s book has been

Neon has picked up rights to Pamela Adlon‘s directorial debut “Babes,” a comedy starring Ilana Glazer and Hasan Minhaj. Glazer, the co-creator and star of Comedy Central’s hit sitcom “Broad City,” co-wrote the screenplay with Josh Rabinowitz (“Ramy,” “The Carmichael Show”). The story follows the aggressively single Eden, who becomes pregnant from a one-night stand

Cameras are set to roll in mid-October in Budapest on Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas biopic “Maria” toplining Angelina Jolie in the title role with several new cast members now on board. Italian star Valeria Golino, whose recent appearances include a lead in Netflix’s Elena Ferrante series “The Lying Life of Adults” and season 2 of Apple

Industry veteran Axel Caballero has been tapped as CEO of the Latino Film Institute, the organization founded by actor and advocate Edward James Olmos. The Latino Film Institute runs a number of prominent events and artistic development programs, including the annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, the Youth Cinema Project and LatinX in Animation.

It’s the quiet that strikes you in “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros,” a documentary rejoinder to every image of cacophonous haute cuisine environments — complete with clattering pans, hissing steam and chefs screaming invective — that has been fed to us by “Hell’s Kitchen”-style reality shows and the propulsive drama of “The Bear.” Serenity reigns in

Movies are back on PlayStation — although they’re all titles from corporate cousin Sony Pictures Entertainment. More than two years ago, PlayStation shut down its service offering movie and TV show purchases and rentals. At the time, Sony Interactive Entertainment explained that was making the move because it was seeing a growing number of PlayStation

A first trailer has been unveiled for Bangladeshi filmmakers Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and Nusrat Imrose Tisha‘s “Something Like an Autobiography.” The film has its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival, where it is in the prestigious Jiseok competition. The film follows Dhaka-based married couple, the filmmaker Farhan (Farooki) and actor Tithi (Tisha), who are

Malaysia: “Tiger Stripes” “Tiger Stripes,” a film that is partly a girl’s coming-of-age drama and partly a body horror picture, has been selected to represent Malaysia in the best international feature film section of the Academy Awards. The film had its debut in the Critics’ Week section of the Cannes film festival in May and

Speciality distributor Cosmic Cat has set U.K. release dates for documentary “Cassius X: Becoming Ali.” The film follows the early years of Cassius Clay, from a bright-eyed rookie boxer from Louisville, Kentucky, to world heavyweight champion and from working class intellectual to one of America’s most influential civil rights campaigners. The film reveals how the

A total of 39 European companies, surpassing 2022, will promote and sell films from the continent at Busan International Film Festival‘s accompanying Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM). Of these, 32 will be onsite while seven more will participate online. The companies will operate under the Europe! Umbrella, a long-standing collaboration between EFP and Unifrance

Feted in Busan this week as the Asian Filmmaker of the Year, Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-fat bemoaned censorship in China for its impact on the film industry. “We have a lot of censorship requirements in mainland China. Scripts must go to many departments. So, we need [to portray] clear situations in scripts. Honestly, we

Emma Stone stopped by New York Film Festival to make a surprise appearance at the premiere of “Bleat,” an unconventional short film by Yorgos Lanthimos. Stone and Lanthimos just reunited on “Poor Things,” a Frankenstein-esque black comedy that’s received some of the best reviews of the year. But the ongoing SAG strike has prevented Stone

RELEASE “RRR” Star NTR Jr‘s next film “Devara” will release in two parts, director Koratala Siva has revealed. The first part will release on Apr. 5, 2024. The film also stars Janhvi Kapoor (“Mili”) and Saif Ali Khan (“Vikram Vedha”) in pivotal roles. “Devara” reunites NTR Jr with his “Janatha Garage” director Siva, whose last

SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will meet for further negotiations in the former’s ongoing strike, the parties announced on Wednesday. “SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP met for a full day bargaining session and have concluded. Negotiations will continue on Friday, Oct. 6, with the parties working internally over the weekend, resuming

The 2023 Variety Gotham Week Expo kicked off in New York City on Thursday with a series of panels focused on diversity and inclusion. The first panel of the day was “Deep Dive: The Inclusion List” with the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative in collaboration with the Adobe Foundation. Panelists included Dr. Stacy L. Smith, founder

After 2011’s “Nobel Thief,” 2012’s “Uncle Shyamal Turns off the Lights,” 2015’s “Peace Haven,” 2016’s “Mi Amor” and 2019’s “Aadhaar,” Indian filmmaker Suman Ghosh returns again to the Busan International Film Festival. “The Scavenger of Dreams” has its world premiere in the ‘A Window On Asian Cinema’ strand. A treatise on social inequality, the film

Barry Keoghan‘s latest profile in Esquire magazine reveals that he spent $10 to make his viral self-tape audition for Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” which introduced Robert Pattinson as the latest iteration of the Caped Crusader. Keoghan sent in a tape to play the Riddler, though Paul Dano ended up getting the role. However, Keoghan impressed

The International Cinematographers Guild hosted its 25th annual Emerging Cinematographer Awards in Los Angeles this past weekend with a luncheon at the ASC Clubhouse on Sept. 29 and an awards ceremony at the Television Academy on Oct. 1. The awards celebrated the work of eight up-and-coming cinematographers, whose short films were all screened at the

In “Caligula: The Ultimate Cut,” absolute power corrupts absolutely, but even using absolutely all of the footage shot for the notorious production back in 1976 does not necessarily result in a better film. The most expensive independent film ever produced until that time, “Caligula” was conceived by late Penthouse founder Bob Guccione as a sexually

Gareth Edwards’ “The Creator” was a resourceful sci-fi endeavor with an $80 million production budget, but its visuals are on par with epic blockbusters that cost three times that amount. Rather than shoot on a studio backlot, the filmmaker behind “Godzilla” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” opted to shoot in eight different countries,

Anne Hathaway, similar to her character Patricia in Rebecca Miller’s “She Came to Me,” has dealt with being a perfectionist. “I think perhaps in the earlier part of my life, I believed a little bit more in perfectionism,” Hathaway told Variety at the New York screening of “She Came to Me” on Tuesday night. “[Patricia]

Hélène Mouchet (Vicky Krieps) is probably dying. She has been diagnosed with an idiopathic fibrosis of the lungs, meaning none of her doctors really has much idea of how to treat her condition. They do know that it will eventually result in suffocation, unless she is able to undergo a lung transplant — which is

Most people don’t get a text from Bono in the middle of the night. But Jon Kamen, the CEO, chairman and co-founder of RadicalMedia, found himself fighting off jet lag on a recent business trip to Japan as he fielded messages from the U2 frontman. That pair had worked together on the One campaign, the

Julia Ormond, the English actress best known for her roles in ’90s films such as “Legends of the Fall,” “First Knight” and “Smilla’s Sense of Snow,” is suing Harvey Weinstein for sexual battery. Ormond is additionally suing CAA, The Walt Disney Company and Miramax. While Weinstein has been named as the defendant in numerous sexual

“The Exorcist: Believer” looks to easily claim the No. 1 spot in its box office debut, but that almost wasn’t the case. Universal and Blumhouse’s supernatural sequel, which is estimated to open to $30 million to $36 million from 3,600 North American theaters, was originally slated for next weekend to coincide with Friday the 13th

Gael Garcia Bernal is set to preside over the jury of the upcoming Rome Film Festival. The Mexican actor, director and producer will be judging entries and bestowing prizes in the rebooted fest’s main section, which is now known as Progressive Cinema. Films competing for Rome prizes include Spanish director Isabel Coixet’s “Un Amor,” about

The sequels — or, in two cases, prequels — to “The Exorcist” have all been unqualified turkeys. There is now a movement at hand to declare that John Boorman’s crackpot insect-swarm fantasia “Exorcist II: The Heretic” (1977) was some sort of misunderstood masterpiece, but that’s an act of revisionism every bit as loony tunes as

Berlin-based sales agency M-Appeal has closed multiple deals for Cannes Film Festival titles “Power Alley” by Lillah Halla, and “Let Me Go” by Maxime Rappaz, which are both female-led films. Cannes Critics’ Week title “Power Alley,” set in Brazil, follows talented volleyball player Sofia who discovers she is pregnant on the eve of a career-defining