Bill Pence, co-founder of the Telluride Film Festival, died Dec. 6 after a longtime illness, the Telluride Daily Planet reported on Wednesday. He was 82. Pence co-founded the festival in 1974 with his wife Stella, film preservationist James Card, producer Tom Luddy and the Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities. He also served as
Movies
“Caravaggio’s Shadow,” “Charlotte” and “Goya, Carrière and the Ghost of Buñuel” feature in the 15-film lineup of 2023’s second edition of ARCA Intl. Festival of Films on Arts, 2023, which opens Jan. 2 with the world premiere of “The Children of the Mountain,” a doc-feature portrait of Uruguayan sculptor Pablo Atchugarry from Mercedes Sader, director
Neal Jimenez, a screenwriter and filmmaker whose credits include “River’s Edge” and “The Waterdance,” died of heart failure on Dec. 11 in Arroyo Grande, Calif. He was 62. His works were favorites on the awards circuit, attracting wins in screenwriting categories at ceremonies such as the Independent Spirit Awards and the Sundance Film Festival. Jimenez wrote
“Avatar: The Way of Water” continues to dominate the holiday box office. James Cameron’s epic adventure has now hit the $1.17 billion mark globally, becoming the third highest-grossing film of the pandemic era, behind “Spider-Man: No Way Home” with $1.9 billion and “Top Gun: Maverick” with $1.5 billion. On Wednesday, “Avatar: The Way of Water”
UPDATE: “RRR” director S.S. Rajamouli and stars N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan will attend the 2023 Golden Globes. For the two actors, it will be their first visit to the U.S. in support of the film. The Golden Globes are on their way to a celebrity-filled comeback, as the list of nominees set
Ron Howard’s “Star Wars” prequel movie “Solo” was supposed to launch a new sector of storytelling for the long-running franchise. Young iterations of Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) were introduced and intended for sequels and spinoffs, while the 2018 film also revealed that Darth Maul was still alive. None of these
Ever since Rian Johnson’s acclaimed “Knives Out” sequel “Glass Onion” debuted on Netflix shortly before Christmas, social media users have spent a lot of time debating the Elon Musk of it all. Google “Glass Onion” and “Elon Musk” and you’ll get dozens of articles about how the “Knives Out” sequel is a “veiled dig” at
In line with most other major markets in continental Europe, boosted by a standout bow for “Avatar: The Way of Water” Spain’s 2022 box office surged 49% over 2021 to €379 million ($405.5 million by current exchange rates), Comcast Spain announced Friday. Total admission came in at 61.2 million. Results, however, despite an upbeat year
India’s Zee Studios has revealed an extensive 2023 slate of 28 titles across languages, featuring some of the best-known names in their respective industries. The titles, which include 26 films for theatrical release, a direct-to-digital film and a streaming series, are Zee Studios productions, coproductions or acquisitions. Big ticket films include H. Vinoth’s Tamil-language heist
A few minutes into “Alice, Darling,” audiences may be reminded of how 2020’s “The Invisible Man” opened: Anna Kendrick creeps out of bed at dawn, taking pains not to wake the partner we briefly assume she’s about to flee. But whereas that Elisabeth Moss vehicle was a monster movie given heft by its abusive-boyfriend backstory,
In Violet Du Feng’s “Hidden Letters,” an elder says women “were only slaves to men” before the concept of gender equality was introduced by Mao’s Great Push Forward — and that was only 60 years ago. This graceful feature, which just made the Oscar documentary shortlist, provides an angle on which to consider how far
Peter Sealey, the former global chief marketing officer of The Coca-Cola Company who spent six years working with Columbia Pictures, died Dec. 15 in Palm Springs, Calif. due to complications after a fall, according to his family. He was 82. Sealey worked at The Coca-Cola Company for over two decades, during which the beverage company
Sean Astin’s performance as Samwise Gamgee represents the beating heart of Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. It’s an iconic performance for many fans, capped off by Astin’s powerful Mount Doom speech in which Samwise tells Frodo, “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!” Suffice to say, Jackson’s “Rings”
“Avatar: The Way of Water” has sailed past the $1.1 billion mark at the global box office. The film is also set to overtake “Top Gun: Maverick” to become the highest-grossing international release of 2022. James Cameron’s sci-fi epic added $70.4 million to its global bounty on Wednesday. That leaves it with a domestic haul
The Mushroom Kingdom has finally hit Los Angeles, as Universal Studios Hollywood prepares to welcome visitors to Super Nintendo World, opening Feb. 17. Universal took Variety through the warp pipe for a sneak peek at the Mario land, featuring a restaurant, souvenir shop, meet-and-greet characters, interactive games and a signature ride: “Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge.”
When it comes to his directorial output, James Cameron has been focused solely on the “Avatar” franchise for well over a decade now. In the 13 years since the original “Avatar” opened in theaters and became the highest-grossing film of all time, Cameron has developed four sequels and shot two of them in full (“Avatar:
Courtney Love joined Marc Maron for an interview on the “WTF” podcast and said that David Fincher hired her to star opposite Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in 1999’s “Fight Club.” Love said she won the part of Marla Singer, eventually played by Helena Bonham Carter in the film. The “Hole” frontwoman was fresh off
Ruggero Deodato, director of the shocking horror movie “Cannibal Holocaust,” which was so controversial it was banned in some countries, died Thursday, the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reported. He was 83. The 1980 film “Cannibal Holocaust” is considered one of the goriest movies of all time and cited as the first movie to use found
After a heartening rally in 2022 which saw Spanish movies punch some €75 million ($79.5 million) in its domestic market, after just €35 million ($37.1 million) in 2021, how will 2023 shape up for Spanish cinema? One hope is for more standout feature debuts, following on this year’s “Lullaby” and “Piggy.” Here one of the
India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has “advised changes” to Yash Raj Films’ “Pathaan,” the comeback film of superstar Shah Rukh Khan that also stars Deepika Padukone and John Abraham. Controversy erupted in India on Dec. 12 when the song “Besharam Rang” – literally shameless color – was released. A segment of the song
Marvel Entertainment tweeted a 25-second video on Wednesday confirming the 2023 release of a Disney+ documentary on Stan Lee. The announcement aligns with what would have been the 100th birthday of the late comic creator. “100 years of dreaming. 100 years of creating. 100 years of Stan Lee,” Marvel Entertainment wrote in a caption that
Broadcast television is enough of a no-man’s-land right around the holidays that some old-school celebrate-the-arts programming manages to sneak in, offering the sight of very classy people in their tuxes for the benefit of those of us who haven’t gotten out of our pajamas in a couple of days. On the heels of last week’s
Ed Helms was a familiar face from “The Daily Show” and “The Office” when he landed a role in “The Hangover” alongside Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis. The 2009 comedy blockbuster launched a trilogy and, as Helms said on a recent episode of the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast, created a “tornado of fame”
“Avatar: The Way of Water” not only expands the scope of Pandora’s ecological systems, it also depicts a renewed, vengeful human military with a bounty of deadly, new tools at its disposal. Between devising the culture of two warring civilizations, production designers Ben Procter and Dylan Cole had their work cut out for them on
Paramount+ announced that “Top Gun: Maverick” became its most-watched movie globally in its opening weekend. From Dec. 22 to 25, “Top Gun: Maverick” broke records domestically as well, becoming the most-watched movie premiere for the streaming service and surpassing previous record holder “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” by 60%. The Tom Cruise-led sequel also increased viewership
“Avatar: The Way of Water” has sailed past $1 billion in global ticket in just 14 days, becoming the fastest movie this year to cross the coveted box office milestone. In total, only three films released in 2022 managed to surpass the billion-dollar mark, a short list that includes “Top Gun: Maverick” (which took 31
Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” is one of the biggest box office bombs of the year, opening to just $5.3 million over the four-day Christmas weekend despite a production budget north of $80 million. Many box office pundits have cited the film’s gargantuan 189-minute runtime as one reason the Hollywood epic failed to connect with audiences. “Babylon”
Disney’s magnum opus “Avatar: The Way Of Water” remained atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £4.9 million ($6 million) in its second weekend. James Cameron’s return to Pandora now has a total of £25.03 million in the territory, according to numbers from Comscore. In second place, in its fifth weekend, Sony/TriStar Pictures’ Roald
In “A Man Called Otto,” Tom Hanks plays one of those misanthropic over-the-hill loners who never misses a chance to vent his spleen. Giving a hard time to everyone is what gets him through the day; you might call it his hobby. From Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” to Alan Arkin in “Little Miss Sunshine,”
Edyth “Edie” Landau, a producer who oversaw original programming like “The David Susskind Show” and the anthology series “The Play of the Week” during her tenure as executive vice president of the National Telefilm Associates, died in her home Saturday. She was 95. Other series under Edie’s purview as EVP included “The Mike Wallace Show,”