Movies

Randall Miller will have to serve another two years of probation, after a Georgia appeals court this week denied his motion to terminate his sentence early. The director pleaded guilty in March 2015 to involuntary manslaughter in the death of camera assistant Sarah Jones, who was killed by a freight train during the filming of

Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston will swap bodies in a new comedy from “Palm Springs” filmmaker Max Barbakow. Amazon landed the film after a bidding war between several studios and streamers, according to Deadline, which first reported the news of the project. Barbakow will write and direct the movie, which is backed by Margot Robbie’s production company

Hungarian director Judit Elek addressed the biggest controversy of her career at Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam. Answering Variety’s question during the launch of “The Lady from Budapest,” a new book dedicated to her legacy, Elek opened up about a scene from her film “Memories of River,” which she still views as “essential” despite accusation of

After Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday, contenders like “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Women Talking” welcomed a slight boost in box office grosses. This year, a broader mix of commercial and arthouse offerings are among the 10 films vying for best picture. On the populist side, there’s “Avatar: The Way

The distribution deals that make headlines at the Sundance Film Festival can feel like engagement announcements (“‘The Big Sick’ will marry Amazon Studios for $12 million!”). Those deals mean the world to the parties involved (the filmmakers, the actors, the producers, the distribution companies, the agents and everybody’s mother). But even if you’re a critic

Brendan Fraser’s sons had a special gift waiting for their dad when the Oscar nominations were announced earlier this month. “They brought me a cake and balloons,” said Fraser, who earned his first Academy Award nomination for best actor for his work in “The Whale.” Fraser spoke with Variety on Saturday at AARP’s Movies for

Steve McQueen’s Oscar-winning “12 Years a Slave” was released almost a century after D. W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” the first film ever to be screened at the White House. McQueen’s film, however, was not shown at the U.S. President’s official residence. The British director spoke Saturday about this issue while at an

GOTEBORG, Sweden  — Fast consolidating as one of Europe’s highest-profile filmmakers, Sweden’s Ruben Östlund scored three of the biggest Oscar category nominations last Tuesday – picture, direction and original screenplay – for “Triangle of Sadness,” a send-up of the super rich.  His latest work, however, “This is Cinema!,” billed as “an on-site experience directed by Ruben

The world can probably be divided into two camps of people: those who will watch “The Deepest Breath,” a heart-pumping documentary on the extreme sport of free-diving, and understand the dangerous pull of the big blue, and those for whom it might be the most nightmarish vicarious trip into the ocean since “Jaws.” Both factions,

Bollywood star Vicky Kaushal (“Uri: The Surgical Strike”) has been revealed as the titular DJ in influential Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap’s “Almost Love” (“Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat”). The film had its world premiere at the 2022 Marrakech Film Festival and Asian premiere at the Hainan Island International Film Festival. It is an India-U.K. co-production set

“Top Gun: Maverick” took home the top prize of best picture at AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards on Saturday. “I’ve produced over 50 movies and more than 2,000 hours of television but there was one question that everybody kept asking, ‘Will there ever be another “Top Gun?”‘ “Maverick” producer Jerry Bruckheimer said. “After almost four

Sierra Urich’s grandmother, Behjat, has the tart, callused demeanor that comes from a life of tumult and loss. Married at 14 to an Iranian soldier, she grieved for older relatives who were murdered or executed, and raised a family that was scattered in the wake of the Iranian Revolution: As her children emigrated to the

A ruling on Jafar Panahi’s release from Tehran’s Evin prison is deemed imminent now that Iran’s supreme court has overturned the conviction that led to the incarceration last year of the auteur who is considered one of Iranian cinema’s greatest living masters. Panahi’s wife, Tahereh Saeedi, has launched an appeal on Instagram stating that his

There may be hope for Andrea Riseborough to keep her Oscar nomination for “To Leslie,” considering a similar case that didn’t disqualify another surprise nominee from the past, Shohreh Aghdashloo. In 2004, the Academy was riding a new voting schedule. It had come off implementing new rules for studio marketers that would take some of

For most of Jennifer Lopez’s action rom-com, “Shotgun Wedding,” she’s wearing a wedding dress, and the challenge was finding the perfect color for her to wear in the new Amazon Prime film. The origin story of the dress is that it once belonged to Jennifer Coolidge’s character, Carol, her future mother-in-law. Costume designer Mitchell Travers,

Pandora is more powerful than a galaxy far, far away. “Avatar: The Way of Water” has passed “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” as the fourth highest-grossing movie of all time. Director James Cameron’s sci-fi epic has now earned $2.075 billion at the global box office. “The Force Awakens,” another sci-fi sequel released long after previous

James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” is now looking to string together seven weekends atop the domestic box office. That’s a run of No. 1 finishes that now ranks as the 12th-most ever for a domestic release, tying the numbers of the sci-fi film’s 2009 predecessor and, funnily, another family drama with an aquatic

The burning and very current topic of radicalization of Indian youth is the core subject of Harshad Nalawade’s “Follower.” The film has its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Focus: The Shape of Things to Come? strand that asks if the institutional success of what used to be right-wing Hindu nationalist groups but are

Thirty years on from its dissolution, the legacy of apartheid still weighs heavily on South African cinema, as a new, outspoken generation of Black filmmakers grapples with truths and wounds that they previously had limited scope to voice. But rage over the past fuses remarkably with assertive, forward-looking investment in the future in “Milisuthando,” a

Angel Torres, the Fry’s Electronics tech guy who joins forces with OJ and Em as they take on unimaginable forces in Jordan Peele’s “Nope,” which just notched a WGA Award nomination, was written as more of a cheery, can-do guy. But that didn’t seem right to Brandon Perea, who brought a more downbeat, angsty approach

Cinema chain Vue International has won the Event Cinema Association’s Event Cinema Exhibitor of the Decade Award. The chain is known for screening live events, including the “BTS: Permission to Dance” concert and has a long-standing arrangement to screen Royal Opera House ballets. Tim Richards, CEO and founder of Vue International, told Variety: “I am incredibly

It’s five years since Theresa May, then the United Kingdom’s first prime minister of the Brexit era, coined the term “citizen of nowhere” to denigrate residents of the country who identified themselves more globally. Those three words swiftly became a media catchphrase to encapsulate the Conservative government’s apparent hostility toward immigrants; liberal-minded multinationals adopted the

Gregory Allen Howard, the award-winning screenwriter of “Remember the Titans,” died Friday in Miami, Fla. following a brief illness, his publicist confirmed to Variety. He was 70. Howard was best known for penning the screenplay for the 2000 classic sports film “Remember the Titans,” starring Denzel Washington and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Born in Norfolk,

On Jan. 22, the sales agents of WME Independent braced themselves for an all-night negotiation at the Sundance Film Festival. Once a staple of major film festivals, where million-dollar price tags soar as high as the altitude in the Utah mountains, these kind of marathon bidding wars had gone digital during the pandemic, or disappeared

Most workers on TV and film productions will no longer have to take a regular COVID test, under a new agreement between the studios and entertainment unions. Productions have been operating under a lengthy “Return to Work” agreement since September 2020, which spells out detailed protocols for various “zones” of production. The latest revision, announced

Diane Warren received an honorary Oscar this year — but holds the record in the original song category for more nominations without a single win. Yet the songwriter doesn’t appear to be bitter about it — and actually maintains a sense of humor about the dubious honor. (“I’ve been f—ed twice by James Bond,” she

Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have made key new hires and promotions at their umbrella company Archewell. Entering its third year, the audio, philanthropic and content production operation continues to grow. In audio, Serena Regan has been named head of podcasts. Hired at the end of 2022, Regan will now

Harrison Ford is over the moon about Ke Huy Quan earning an Oscar nomination, the first of the latter’s career. Quan is nominated in the supporting actor category for his performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which has already garnered him prizes from the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. Quan got his start

Kokomo City is not a real place. It’s more like a state of mind, invented by director D. Smith, who is Black and trans, to describe the space that her sisters occupy in the world. Theirs is an identity that is barely understood by the public and frequently misrepresented by the media, but is here

Verve has promoted Liz Parker to partner, the agency announced. Parker runs Verve’s intellectual property team and co-runs its motion picture literary team. She joined the agency in 2018, moving from New York to Los Angeles to build the its publishing division. Parker previously worked as a literary agent at InkWell, and as the publishing