Movies

Ellen Stutzman, the Writers Guild of America West’s chief negotiator, was out early Monday morning taking part in the family-themed picket that drew big crowds of striking writers and their children — including a few furry family members — to the sidewalks outside Netflix headquarters at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue

Jason Statham comes face to face with another deep sea-dwelling prehistoric creature — the Kronosaurus — in the official trailer for “Meg 2: The Trench.” Shortly after “The Meg” grossed $530 million worldwide in 2018, its sequel was confirmed. The original film followed a group of scientists whose submarine was attacked by a Megladon — 

Strand Releasing is restoring Gregg Araki’s 1997 cult film “Nowhere,” bringing stars James Duval, Christina Applegate, Debi Mazar and Mena Suvari into 4K. This is the final addition to the restoration of Araki’s 1990’s Teen Apocalypse trilogy. In addition to Strand, the Bureau Sales and French producers Why Not are assisting on the project. “I’m

A new buddy comedy from Please Don’t Destroy, the writing trio of “Saturday Night Live” fame, will no longer play in theaters. Instead, the untitled movie will premiere exclusively on Peacock, the streaming service owned by NBCUniversal, on Nov. 17. Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy, better known as Please Don’t Destroy, wrote the

CJ 4DPlex is off to the strongest start in its history with revenues for the first four months of the year tracking 70% higher than 2022. It’s a sign of how much movie fans seem to be enjoying immersive experiences as the pandemic starts to recede. The first four months of 2023’s box office for the

The American Film Institute has postponed its annual Life Achievement Award, which was set to honor Nicole Kidman, due to the ongoing writers strike. The indefinitely delayed tribute gala was scheduled for June 10 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. “For nearly half a century, the AFI Life Achievement Award has convened artists and audiences

Nicolas Cage will return to the shadowy world of illegal weapons sales, but this time, it’s become a family affair. The Oscar-winning star will reunite with writer and director Andrew Niccol on “Lords of War,” the sequel to their 2005 crime thriller, “Lord of War.” Cage will reprise his role as morally compromised arms dealer Yuri Orlov

Memento International has closed major deals on Martin Provost’s “Bonnard, Pierre And Marthe” ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Slated for Cannes Premiere, the period film revolves around the colorful relationship and epic love between renowned French painters Pierre and Marthe Bonnard who are played by Vincent Macaigne (“Irma Vep”) and

Hot Docs has wrapped its 30th anniversary edition, handing out its top cash prize and announcing the audience top picks after an 11-day festival, which presented 214 films from 72 countries at 308 live screenings at venues across Toronto. Philippe Falardeau’s “Lac-Mégantic—This Is Not an Accident” topped the overall audience poll to win the 2023

Matthew McConaughey is set to star in “The Rivals of Amziah King,” a crime thriller that takes place in rural Oklahoma. Black Bear Pictures, which backed “I Care a Lot” and “The Imitation Game,” is fully financing the film. Black Bear International will launch international sales in Cannes, with WME Independent representing the U.S rights. 

Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani will soon be in Cannes with “Goodbye Julia,” a drama that he says reflects the “systematic racism” that led to the secession of South Sudan in 2011 and is, albeit indirectly, closely connected with the conflict that erupted in the country in April.  The powerful film, which is premiering in Un

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” kicked off summer movie season with $118 million at the domestic box office, falling just short of expectations while still landing the second-biggest debut of the year. There are plenty of ways to parse that initial number, but for the third and final installment in the James Gunn-directed Marvel

 ‘MODERN LOVE’ THIRD ITERATION SETS RELEASE Prime Video has set May 18 for the global release of its upcoming Indian anthology series “Modern Love Chennai.” This is the third Indian adaptation of “Modern Love,” the internationally acclaimed original anthology directed by John Carney, following “Modern Love Mumbai” and “Modern Love Hyderabad.” Produced under the banner of Tyler Durden and Kino Fist, with Thiagarajan Kumararaja as the creator,

A brand new trailer for “Oppenheimer,” the upcoming film from director Christopher Nolan, was released Monday by Universal Pictures in anticipation of the feature’s July debut. Set to a dramatic score from Ludwig Göransson, the newly-dropped teaser offers closer looks at the key players of the Manhattan Project, as portrayed by a star-studded cast including

Debut feature “Tiger Stripes” has already amassed several firsts – it is the first Malaysian film in Cannes for several years and director Amanda Nell Eu is the country’s first female helmer selected for a festival appearance – and it is now releasing its first trailer. The film, which will play in the Cannes Critics’

Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks has nabbed worldwide rights to Spanish filmmaker Chiqui Carabante’s black-comedy whodunnit “The Fortress” (“La Fortaleza”) and is debuting its trailer ahead of the Cannes Film Market. The film centers on the death of Arturo Viaplana and its aftermath as his offspring, hoping to inherit a great fortune, discover that instead of leaving

Last year, during an online panel at Hot Docs film festival featuring Ukrainian documentary filmmakers who were staying in place, Oksana Karpovych told attendees how she’d gained knowledge working alongside foreign media crews covering the war, and was now applying that to her own creative documentary projects. This year, at the festival’s 30th anniversary edition,

Danish sales agent LevelK has fallen for stop-motion animation “Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light” (“Tonda, Slávka a kouzelné světlo”), set to premiere in Annecy’s feature film Contrechamp competition in June. Directed by Filip Pošivač and written by Jana Šrámková, the film is produced by Pavla Janoušková Kubečková and Jakub Viktorín for nutprodukce (Czech Republic)

Pema Tseden, the Tibetan art house film director known for “Jinpa” and “Balloon,” has died. He was 53. It is understood that he was in Tibet when he died suddenly of an unspecified illness. Some unconfirmed Chinese-language media said that he had a heart attack. The news was reported by the China Academy of Art,

London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation is launching sales on “Return to Reason,” the newly restored 4K version of an assembly of Man Ray’s four cult classic silent films, paired with an original soundtrack by Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan’s SQÜRL. The film, which is produced by Marieke Tricoire at Womanray

The Playmaker Munich has signed with producer Ulysses Films to handle international sales for its upcoming family animation project “Pirate Mo & the Legend of the Red Ruby,” which has a planned release of early 2026. Ulysses produced animation box-office hits such as “The Amazing Maurice,” “Niko & the Way to the Stars,” “Rabbit Academy

Indian studio Excel Entertainment has promoted business head Vishal Ramchandani to the newly created position of CEO. An MBA by qualification, Ramchandani joined Excel in 2008, in the marketing division. In 2013, he was entrusted with the duties of heading the division, where he spearheaded award-winning marketing campaigns for films such as “Fukrey,” “Baar Baar

Joe Piscatella’s 2017 “Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower” offered a fairly exhilarating view of youth activism, as it charted one Hong Kong student’s spearheading public opposition to mainland China’s increasingly heavy-handed takeover. The can-do optimism that documentary left viewers with is on life support in the director’s follow-up, which shifts nominal focus to one of Joshua

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” made $28 million of gross box office on its opening weekend in mainland China. That was a solid result in present circumstances, rather than an overwhelming one. The film easily displaced two of the weaker Chinese titles that had been released a week earlier to take advantage of the

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” gave the South Korean box office its biggest weekend of the year, with a $10.3 million start. The film played on more than 1,800 screens and enjoyed a 46% share of the overall market between Friday and Sunday, according to data supplied by Kobis, the tracking service operated by

It’s beyond obvious that women deserve a movie that portrays and celebrates them in their sixties and seventies reveling in the joys of romantic adventure and uninhibited sex. It’s not so obvious that they deserved “Book Club,” the 2018 comedy about four hale, hearty, and prosperous senior friends who read “Fifty Shades of Grey” in

Richard Dreyfuss doesn’t get it, but most grouchy, self-proclaimed keepers of the old Hollywood guard never do when it comes to creating an industry that gives a chance for everyone to thrive.  It was Sept. 8, 2020, and I was one week into my job as the awards editor for Variety when the Academy dropped its bombshell news that

The MTV Movie & TV Awards faced a series of roadblocks this year due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. While the awards show was set to broadcast live on Sunday, it was announced that due to the strike, the network would air a pre-taped special as several attendees announced they were pulling

Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan was honored with the Gold House Leading Man award at the second annual Gold House Gold Gala on Saturday in Los Angeles. “When I think of a leading man, I think of someone who is six feet tall with big muscles, good-looking, and a ladies’ man,” the “Everything Everywhere All

Judd Apatow thinks the studios and streamers already have an idea of when the writers strike may end. “I think they probably already know what they’re going to bend on,” Apatow told Variety Saturday at the Rock4EB benefit in Malibu. “I would assume they already know what date this is going to end. They’ve probably