Movies

While it’s easy to imagine lawyers screaming “objection, your honor!” to the exaggerated courtroom theatrics of “The Burial,” good luck convincing audiences that this David v. Goliath legal showdown between a small-time Southern funeral home operator and an unethical Canadian billionaire should have played out any other way. Demonstrating talents far beyond her 2017 indie

Early in his career, comedian Kumail Nanjiani did a bit about a new drug called “cheese,” which, if you break down the ingredients, turns out to be Tylenol PM mixed with heroin. “So really, it’s heroin,” he joked. “Heroin’s doing the heavy lifting.” That line was going through my mind as I watched “Pain Hustlers,”

Japan has unveiled details of a location production incentive scheme that it hopes will attract more film and TV shoots to the island nation. The scheme offers reimbursement of up to 50% of qualifying expenditure in Japan, with an upper limit of JPY1 billion ($6.4 million) on the disbursement. The scheme is the product of

Entertainment workers have moved to take more than $44 million out of their individual retirement accounts as they endure months without work due to the strikes. Nearly 3,000 workers have filed for hardship withdrawals, according to an update circulated on Friday by the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans. The average withdrawal is about

A “Murder, She Wrote” movie is in the works at Universal Pictures, with “Dumb Money” writers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo and producer Amy Pascal attached, Variety has confirmed. Blum and Angelo joined the project prior to the writers strike, and will not resume their work on the screenplay until the Writers Guild of

Actor Noah Centineo touched down at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend to rally support for Saeed Roustaee, an Iranian filmmaker sentenced to prison by his government over the latter’s film “Leila’s Brothers.” Over Friday cocktails at festival headquarters, the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the “Black Adam” star appealed to top representatives from film festivals

Anna Kendrick’s directing debut “Woman of the Hour” has been acquired by Netflix after its Toronto premiere on Friday. The streamer is paying in the $11 million range for the ripped-from-the-headlines thriller, making it the first major sale of the festival. The deal covers the U.S. and several international territories including France, Italy, Japan and

Every awards season, pundits leave themselves open to late-year breakers. This is where a film not necessarily on anyone’s radar comes in and walks away with the industry’s most coveted prize for best picture. Past examples include Clint Eastwood’s 2004 winner “Million Dollar Baby.” Now, and coming only days after I declared “American Fiction” from

“Batgirl” directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah told Insider while promoting their new Syrian war drama “Rebel” that watching Warner Bros.’ most recent DC tentpole, “The Flash,” was a sad experience for them. They claim they were told by studio executives that “Batgirl” would release after “The Flash,” thus continuing Michael Keaton’s revived run as

A classically crafted feature debut from veteran TV director James Hawes (“Black Mirror”), “One Life” intercuts two eras 50 years apart in the long life of humble British humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton (1909-2015), referred to by some as “the British Schindler.” The biopic serves as a testament to the power of good, with a prestige

Lily Gladstone spoke to her “Certain Women” director Kelly Reichardt for Interview magazine (before the SAG-AFTRA strike) and confirmed reports that Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” underwent significant rewrites during its development. The script changed so much that the scene Gladstone was given for her audition got reduced from three pages of straight

Since the Hollywood strikes began back in May, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw have donated a collective $1.5 million to writers, actors and other industry workers who have been negatively impacted by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Capshaw and Spielbergs generous donations have gone to the Entertainment Community Fund as well as the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s

Kate Winslet debuted her latest movie, “Lee,” to instant Oscar buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Oscar winner produced the film and stars as the famed World War II photographer and journalist Lee Miller. In a new Vogue cover story, Winslet details the years-long journey it took to get a movie made about

Drew Barrymore’s decision to resume taping her talk show on Monday has kicked off a fight over whether she is violating the rules, or at least the spirit, of the Writers Guild of America strike. On Sunday, WGA East said that the show is “struck” and that any writing on the show would be against

Kore-eda Hirokazu returns to Japan for his latest film “Monster,” which poses this question to audiences: “Who really is the monster?” While location scouting, the filmmaker was looking down at a lake, dark and almost black, and “I thought of Sakamoto Ryuichi music. He was the only person who could do the music for this

Anna Wintour was running over an hour late. It was an anomaly for the regimented and exalted editor of Vogue, who typically works through lunch but dined that day with her old friend Bruce Bozzi. Tucked away at the Italian spot Via Carota in New York’s West Village, she was unusually candid about showing up

Timothée Chalamet’s “Wonka” director Paul King recently told Total Film magazine that his singing voice in the upcoming Warner Bros. family adventure is “beautiful” and reminiscent of Bing Crosby, whose rendition of “White Christmas” remains the world’s best-selling single of all time with over 100 million sales. Chalamet is playing a younger version of the

Rachel McAdams will star in the Broadway premiere of “Mary Jane,” a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Amy Herzog. Anne Kauffman, who recently oversaw an acclaimed revival of “The Sign in Sydney Brustein’s Window,” will direct. The production will begin previews on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. An opening date and additional

Mexico’s Monterrey Film Festival (ficmonterrey) is chasing new ambitions in a bid to raise its international profile. Buttressed by generous state, local and private backing as well as some federal funding, the festival, running Sept. 28 – Oct. 4, aims to become Mexico’s most prominent international film festival and a key creative hub in Mexico.

In “The Pigeon Tunnel,” Academy-Award winning documentarian Errol Morris explores the life and career of former British spy David Cornwell — better known as John le Carré, author of such classic espionage novels as “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “The Constant Gardener.” Set against the backdrop of

Tim Burton and Micheal Keaton’s “Beetlejuice 2” only had a day and a half left of filming when the SAG-AFTRA strike shut production down indefinitely. The Warner Bros.’-backed production started filming in May in London amid the WGA strike. “I feel grateful we got what we got,” Burton told The Independent in a recent interview.

With “Pain Hustlers,” David Yates was ready to exchange Hogwarts for strip-mall medical offices. It was time for the British director behind many of the Harry Potter films and the “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” series to leave magic behind for a grittier look at muggledom. “Having spent such a long time making

Over the summer, Buzzfeed posted an article of photos that were generated by asking an AI platform to recreate beloved Disney characters in the style of Tim Burton. The results depicted Elsa from “Frozen” and Princess Aurora from “Sleeping Beauty” as if they were the stars of Burton’s stop-motion “Corpse Bride.” The article went viral,

Director Katja Gauriloff has made history with “Je’vida,” the first feature shot in the Skolt Sámi language. “It’s my native tongue, but because of forced assimilation in Finland [of the Sámi people] I didn’t actually learn it. I am studying it only now,” she tells Variety ahead of the Toronto premiere. “It’s endangered: we have

MARKET MIA, the international market held annually in Rome, has announced the first confirmed speakers for its ninth edition. This year, speakers at the industry event — which focuses on co-production, financing strategies and sales and distribution — include Nicole Clemens, president of Paramount of Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ original scripted series; Sara Bernstein,

Madrid-based agency Feel Sales has picked up worldwide sales rights to indie social drama film “Third Week,” by long term New York-based Catalan writer-director Jordi Torrent (“The Redemption of the Fish”).  A U.S.-Spain co-production, the film is produced by Torrent, alongside Randy Simon, Maria Àngels Amorós and Toni Espinosa, for New York’s companies Duende Pictures

Canary Islands-based filmmaker Paula Bilbao, whose debut documentary “Inshallah,” about the Las Raíces migrant camp in Tenerife, won the Audience Award at the MiradasDoc festival this year, is turning to fiction in her upcoming dramedy “A Supermarket in Tigaday.” Among the projects in the development showcase at MIA’s Spanish Screenings on Tour, “A Supermarket in Tigaday”

Alicia Moncholí, winner of the New Directors of Asturias Award for her latest short, “Campolivar,” is developing her first feature film, the coming-of-age drama “Weekends,” just announced as one of the five titles in development set to be presented at the Second Spanish Screenings on Tour. They unspool at Rome’s MIA forum, which takes place

Underscoring a renaissance on Spain’s genre scene, a trifecta of titles – F. Javier Gutiérrez’s “The Wait,” Daniel Calparsoro’s “All the Names of God” and Carlota Pereda’s “The Chapel” – lead the lineup of the second Spanish Screenings on Tour, which unspools at Rome’s MIA forum, taking place Oct. 9-13. A platform of market premieres,

Yakusho Koji, the Japanese star who was named best actor at Cannes this year in Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” is set as the subject of a seven-title showcase at the upcoming Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan. Among the septet are classic erotic film “Lost Paradise” from 1997, this year’s “Perfect Days” and 1996 film