Kim Jee-woon’s black comedy “Cobweb,” which debuted this year at Cannes, is set for a U.S. theatrical release in early 2024. Rights to the picture were licensed by distributor Samuel Goldwyn Films from Korea-based sales agent Barunson E&A. The 1970s-set film within a film stars Song Kong-ho, star of Oscar-winning “Parasite” and 2022 winner of
Movies
In cinematic terms, regime change lends itself to a full stop or climax. It’s often used by filmmakers as a conclusion. Revolution is typically portrayed as the final act that the struggle has been building toward, as the old ways are swept aside in favor of a new and presumably glorious future. Stickier and typically
Domestic distributor Bleecker Street is in negotiations to acquire rights to “Fackham Hall,” a British spoof of “Downton Abbey” and other costume dramas. Sales outfit The Veterans is pre-selling international territories. And as international buyers face a potential drought of Hollywood product due to strikes, the market is offering other promising presale titles. WME Independent
Jake Gyllenhaal just released his first work as an author, the children’s book “The Secret Society of Aunts and Uncles,” and it includes an unexpected reference to one of his biggest movie failures: Disney’s 2010 video game adaptation “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.” Gyllenhaal’s lead role in the film is often cited in
The $2 billion-grossing “Conjuring” universe will grow by one more film this Friday with the release of “The Nun II,” which will see Taissa Farmiga reprise her creepy role as Sister Irene. The original “Nun” movie, which followed Sister Irene as she fended off the possessed demon nun Valek in 1952 Romania, debuted in 2018
Mongolia, in the international cinematic imagination, tends to be largely defined by the rugged lyricism of its rural landscapes, peopled by grizzled nomads and eagle hunters, and of course, celebrated as the birthplace of conquering warlord Genghis Khan. So this quiet, confident debut from Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir comes as a refreshing change of pace, acknowledging the
Malia Obama, Oscar-winning directors The Daniels and “The Mandalorian” star Pedro Pascal were just a few of the notables who turned up in force for the first Los Angeles screening of A24’s holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” on Tuesday night. The intimate gathering at West Hollywood’s London Hotel was something akin to a bucket
Virginia’s Middleburg Film Festival, now in its 11th year, is set to open this October with Netflix’s Bayard Rustin biopic “Rustin” starring Colman Domingo. Director George C. Wolfe will receive the festival’s Impact Award for his work in bringing the vital civil and LGBTQ rights story to the screen. Also coming to the festival is
Ava DuVernay’s latest film, “Origin,” received a warm welcome at Venice Film Festival on Wednesday night, where it premiered to a five-minute and 46-second standing ovation. The drama, which is an adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origin of Our Discontent,” left many audience members in tears as it weaved together
Variety has announced its 10 Actors to Watch for 2023. Honorees include two actors making their movie debuts in films from Oscar winners as well as thesps working with filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Todd Haynes and Lulu Wang. Since 1998, Variety has honored rising stars on its 10 Actors to Watch list, heralding artists who
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors awards are moving from Nov. 18 to Jan. 9 amid the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks, editor Carol Littleton and the Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter are set to be honored at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. The Tuesday ceremony
Somewhere, at any given moment, there’s a film director adapting a stage play to the big screen. Yet it’s rare, and fascinating, to see a filmmaker steeped to the gills in cinema as cinema who also has a grand obsession with the theater. Robert Altman was like that. His great films of the ’70s were
20th Century Studios has released the trailer for Jeff Nichols’ upcoming motorcycle gang drama “The Bikeriders,” starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Tom Hardy. The film opened the Telluride Film Festival on Aug. 31 to critical acclaim. Its theatrical release is scheduled for Dec. 1. Based on Danny Lyon’s 1968 book of black-and white photographs,
Michael Imperioli says he took supernatural steps to help him materialize his 1999 movie “Summer of Sam.” The “Sopranos” and “White Lotus” actor was living at the Chelsea Hotel at the time and, in a new documentary about the notoriously haunted locale, recalls meeting with a witch in order to push the crime thriller “through
In “Origin,” Ava DuVernay weaves a centuries- and continents-spanning narrative feature around the ideas of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson, who rejects the word “racism.” It’s not that she doesn’t believe that racism exists; rather, she doesn’t think that racism alone can explain the inequity in human society — the way America’s founders could have
Carolina Markowicz returns to the circuit to release her second feature “Toll” (“Pedágio”), cementing another world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, this time in its Centrepiece strand, billed as championing “compelling stories, global perspectives,” before heading to San Sebastian for closing night honors in its Horizontes Latinos competition later this month. Paris-based Luxbox handles
Kino Lorber has bought all North American distribution rights to Jean-Luc Godard’s final short film “Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars.” The 20-minute short played at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and will next screen at Toronto and New York film festivals. Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical roll out for
Following its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, Bleecker Street has acquired the U.S. rights to Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson’s “Waitress: The Musical,” which is set for a nationwide release on Dec. 7, the studio announced Wednesday. “Waitress: The Musical” will transform the Tony-nominated production to the big screen for audiences. Bareilles
Harley-Davidson Motor Company has signed with CAA for representation, Variety has learned. As part of the deal, CAA will work closely with Harley-Davidson to create entertainment opportunities for its existing IP across film, television, music, and podcasts, adding to the company’s historic brand and deepening its connection with both its devoted fan base, and new
Disney+ customers can start streaming Pixar’s “Elemental” animated adventure next week. “Elemental” will hit Disney+ worldwide on Sept. 13, coming 89 days after the movie’s theatrical open. Alongside the streaming premiere of “Elemental,” Disney+ also will debut that day the making-of documentary “Good Chemistry: The Story of Elemental,” as well as Pixar Animation Studios short
Emily Blunt is at the center of a criminal conspiracy in the first official trailer for Netflix’s “Pain Hustlers,” which is set to debut on the streaming service Oct. 27 after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival. As a mother struggling to support her daughter, Liza Drake (portrayed by Blunt) seeks out a new
Ahead of its ambitious release scheme, Shudder has granted Variety exclusive access to the lurid teaser trailer for Argentine genre-phenom Demián Rugna’s fifth feature “When Evil Lurks” (“Cuando Acecha La Maldad”). With Paris-based prestige sales agent Charades (“Little Girl Blue”) handling global sales, the film debuts at the Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness screenings on Sept. 13.
Penélope Cruz is set to star as Olga, a writer forced to give up her artistic ambitions when her husband suddenly leaves her and their two young daughters, in Isabel Coixet’s English-language adaptation of Italian author Elena Ferrante’s “The Days of Abandonment.” The deal to make the film, which is now in development, was signed
At the Venice Film Festival press conference for Ava DuVernay’s new film “Origin” on Wednesday, the director revealed that she has previously been told not to apply to the festival because “you won’t get in.” DuVernay is making history this year as the first African American woman in the festival’s 80-year existence to have a
Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, who is a two-time Cannes jury prizewinner, with “Gomorrah” in 2008 and “Reality” in 2012, is in competition at the Venice Film Festival for the first time with his immigration-themed drama “Io Capitano.” Shot in Senegal, Italy and Morocco with a cast of largely non-professional actors, “Io Capitano” narrates the Homeric
Amid an ongoing strike, the Writers Guild of America East begins voting today on its new council members, including the successor for longtime president Michael Winship. With the strike environment generating solidarity across the WGAE and its WGA West counterpart, it would seem that the election would be a straightforward affair with WGAE members on
Mexico’s Los Cabos Intl. Film Festival, one of the country’s very top pre-pandemic movie events, has cancelled its 2023 12th edition, citing “the lack of the economic support which was vital in prior editions to carry out this important film event.” In a written statement, the festival organisers thanked “those people, companies and institutions who
An investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by a former director of the Busan International Film Festival has not reached a conclusion, several months after it began, the festival said on Tuesday. The festival has said that it is urging former director Huh Moonyoung to cooperate with an external investigator. The festival held its annual
Chinese director Bi Gan, whose 2018 film “Long Day’s Journey into Night” played at Cannes, will next direct “Resurrection.” The ambitious sci-fi detective movie is to be headlined by Chinese superstar Jackson Yee (“Better Days”) and actor Shu Qi (“The Assassin”) who sits on this year’s Venice jury. Boasting Bi’s edgy aesthetic and narrative style,
If we’ve learned anything from the last few years of polarized political discourse surrounding everything from gun control to gender identity, it’s that when somebody pulls out the “won’t somebody please think of the children” card, the children are rarely the first thing on their mind. Even as it plays out on a specifically Hungarian