Movies

The Writers Guild of America resumed bargaining with the major studios on Wednesday, as the 142-day writers strike closed in on a record duration. In a break from previous sessions, several top CEOs joined in the talks on Wednesday in Sherman Oaks. They were Bob Iger of Disney, Ted Sarandos of Netflix, Donna Langley of

When Gareth Edwards directed his first movie, the 2010 indie “Monsters,” it could scarcely have been a more DIY endeavor. He had less than $500,000 to tell an intimate story about two Americans contending with giant aliens rampaging through Mexico, so his crew consisted of just his actors (Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able), a sound

The open road is a terrifying place for a young woman in the first look at “Strange Darling,” a horror-thriller from director J.T. Mollner set to premiere at this week’s Fantastic Fest. Described as “one day in the twisted love life of a serial killer,” the project stars Willa Fitzgerald (Amazon’s “Reacher”) and Kyle Gallner

Woodstock Film Festival has added Tony Goldwyn’s comedy drama “Ezra,” starring Bobby Cannavale and Robert De Niro to its 2023 lineup. In the film, which made its world premiere earlier this month at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, Cannavale stars as Max, a stand up comic who after recently blowing up his career and marriage

Documentary producer Lauren Haber has joined Amplify Pictures as its head of documentary, a newly created role at the studio. Amplify is an independent television studio founded back in 2018 by “Fleabag” producer Joe Lewis, Rachel Eggebeen and Colin King Miller. The studio recently released Season 2 of HBO’s docuseries “100 Foot Wave” which follows

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore are splitting up their Oscar campaigns for awards season. Although Todd Haynes’ delicious drama “May December” is interpreted by many as a two-hander, Netflix confirms to Variety exclusively that Portman will be submitted for lead actress consideration, while Moore will vie for supporting actress. Co-leads from awards contenders are seldom

It takes a quiver of skill sets to mount a marketing campaign for a film or a TV series. But what’s the secret sauce that will turn a compelling story into an overpowering success? As is evident from the examples below, it doesn’t matter whether the project is based on existing IP (“Avatar,” “Barbie,” “Night

What are the most powerful franchises in TV, film and games? Fandom, which touts itself as the world’s biggest wiki platform for entertainment and gaming fans, has cooked up a proprietary metric that it claims answers the question. The company, as part of its fifth annual “Inside Fandom” study, announced the new metric — the

Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of indie distributor Magnolia Pictures, has acquired North American rights to “The Seeding,” a new horror-thriller. It marks the feature directorial debut of Barnaby Clay and world premiered in Tribeca Midnight “The Seeding” is about a hiker who gets lost in the desert and seeks refuge with a woman who

MetFilm Sales has picked up worldwide rights (excluding U.K.) and will handle international sales on acclaimed documentary “Name Me Lawand” from “Gangs of London” producer Pulse Films. Directed by Edward Lovelace (“The Possibilities Are Endless”), the documentary, filmed over four years, follows Lawand Hamad Amin, who spent his early years in Iraq unable to hear or

Chris Evans knows that critics hated “Ghosted,” his Apple original movie co-starring Ana de Armas. The film, directed by Dexter Fletcher, opened in April to abysmal reviews. It currently boasts a 26% Rotten Tomatoes score, and Variety called it “over-the-top and convoluted.” (Other critics, like IndieWire’s David Ehrlich, were even more brutal, calling the film

An Emmy-nominated documentary cinematographer with credits including “Procession” and “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Robert Kolodny puts his expert eye for shooting nonfiction to playful narrative use in his feature directing debut “The Featherweight.” A meticulously designed, gutsily played biopic of world champion featherweight boxer Guglielmo Papaleo, better known as Willie Pep — covering

Welcome to Kino Laika: Aki Kaurismäki and Mika Lätti’s cinema in Karkkila, an hour away from Helsinki. A place where love for movies – and dogs – meets ghosts of cinema’s past. “One time, I had a 35mm copy of the Lumière brothers’ film ‘Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat.’ I lent it to

AWARD British actor Vanessa Redgrave will receive the European Lifetime Achievement award for her outstanding body of work at the European Film Awards. Hailing from an illustrious family of actors, Redgrave’s first lead in “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment” (1966), by Karel Reisz, won her best actress at Cannes and scored BAFTA and Oscar

International Sámi Film Institute’s managing director Anne-Lajla Utsi will now add “trailblazer” to her résumé as the recipient of the first-ever Women in Film and Television International Peace Prize. The award ceremony will take place on Sept. 23 during the WIFTI Helsinki Summit. The same week, WIFT Finland will present its digital “Equality Tool” for

Be scared, be very scared: Skoop Media has dropped the trailer for new series “Raspberry Hill.” “It challenges children in a way that’s refreshing,” says Skoop Media’s head of acquisitions and marketing Fulko Kuindersma. “Nowadays, kids are more resilient than we give them credit for. ‘Raspberry Hill’ [‘Hallonbacken’] embraces this by delving into suspenseful themes,

Oscar season is always full of twists and turns, and the biggest one yet just dropped with “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Variety has learned exclusively that Lily Gladstone’s work as Mollie Burkhart, an Indigenous woman at the center of a sinister plot in Martin Scorsese’s crime epic, will be campaigned for the Oscars in

The 67th BFI London Film Festival’s annual industry forum has assembled a lineup of heavyweights. The forum events, which take place through the festival, kick off with a conversation between Bill Kramer, CEO, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and Jane Millichip, CEO of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts)

Rolling Stone published an excerpt from Leslie Jones’ new memoir in which the actor opened up about the brutal racism and death threats she received over her involvement in the 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot. The Sony release, directed by “Bridesmaids” helmer Paul Feig, became the target of racist and misogynistic trolls for featuring a main cast

Meredith Stiehm has been reelected as president of WGA West, in a strong show of support as the union’s strike continues into its fifth month. Stiehm took 3,354 votes, easily defeating Rich Talarico, who took just 300 votes. Two other officers were also reelected: Michele Mulroney, as vice president, and Betsy Thomas, as secretary-treasurer. Five

Leonardo DiCaprio finally weighed in on the massive “Killers of the Flower Moon” rewrite that changed the direction of Martin Scorsese’s latest historical epic. The script originally centered on FBI agent Tom White, who DiCaprio was supposed to play, as he investigates a string of murders among the Osage Nation in the 1920s. That perspective

Stephen Fry recently revealed at the CogX Festival (via Forbes) that his voice from the “Harry Potter” audiobooks was taken by AI software and replicated without his consent, much to the horror of both himself and his agents. “I’m a proud member of [actors’ union SAG-AFTRA]. As you know, we’ve been on strike for three

Finnish director Marika Harjusaari makes her feature debut with the female-centered, 19th-century-set horror “The Mire,” which follows a woman who must use her mysterious powers to save a Finnish village from a malevolent spirit. The film will be presented this week as part of a showcase of upcoming Finnish titles at the Finnish Film Affair.

Walter Isaacson’s new Elon Musk biography reveals an alleged altercation between the Twitter/X owner and comedian Larry David that took place at Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel’s wedding last year in Saint-Tropez, France. The event took place just a few days after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were

Range Media Partners has signed Chinese actor, singer-songwriter, dancer and fashion icon Lay Zhang and will represent him globally across all areas.  The 31-year-old star, who rose to fame as a former member of K-Pop boyband EXO before launching a solo career, already is a household name in Asia, boasting more than 80 million followers

Denis Villeneuve and Paul Thomas Anderson marveledat Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” crossing the $900 million mark at the worldwide box office, which makes the Universal Pictures release the highest-grossing biopic in history. In an interview with the Associated Press, Villeneuve said he knew “Oppenheimer” was a “masterpiece” on first viewing, but he never thought it would

Netflix has ordered a sequel to “Troll,” the Norwegian action-adventure film directed by Roar Uthaug, who helmed Norway’s first disaster movie, “The Wave.” “Troll 2” reteams Uthaug (“Tomb Raider”) with writer Espen Aukan and producers Espen Horn and Kristian Strand Sinkerud at Motion Blur, the Oslo-based banner whose credits include “Cadaver,” “Amundsen” and “The 12th

Mark Wahlberg said in an interview with Cigar Aficionado magazine that one of the reasons he pivoted to producing was because it became clear in his acting work that he’d always be taking a backseat to fellow mega-stars like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. Starting around “The Fighter” in 2010, Wahlberg became a

Disney’s Hercule Poirot film “A Haunting in Venice” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £2.1 million ($2.7 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. In its second weekend, in second place, Warner Bros.’ “The Nun II” collected £1.1 million for a total of £3.8 million. In its third weekend, in third place,

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, “The Marvels” director Nia DaCosta revealed she was in frequent contact with previous Marvel directors before and during the making of her MCU tentpole. She asked Chloé Zhao (“Eternals”), James Gunn (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) and Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok”) before accepting “The Marvels” directing gig if entering