Movies

David Ellison’s media company Skydance has completed a $400 million investment round, led by global firm KKR and the Ellison family. Previous investors RedBird Capital and Tencent have also upped their contributions, bringing the total valuation of the producer behind “Top Gun: Maverick” to over $4 billion. The Ellison family remains the majority stakeholder in

Seth MacFarlane and Akiva Schaffer are officially courting Liam Neeson for Paramount’s “Naked Gun” remake. The “Taken” actor is in talks to lead the modern version of the ’80s slapstick film, Variety confirms. Schaffer, the “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” filmmaker and Lonely Island member, will direct and executive produce the movie. Schaffer penned the

Location shooting is underway for “Finding Love in Sisters,” which features a cast with about one million followers apiece on social media: Puerto Rican-born Laura Carmine, Miami-based Marielena Dávila and U.K. model-actor Nick Hounslow. “Finding Love in Sisters” follows drama “Finding Love in San Antonio,” co-produced by leading indie production shingle BTF Media and  L.A.-based American Cinema Inspires (ACI), which

Issa Rae said in a recent interview with Elle magazine that everything going on with Ezra Miller represents a “microcosm of Hollywood,” most notably how the industry continues to protect offenders. Miller was arrested twice in Hawaii this year, once for disorderly conduct and harassment, and they were also cited in Vermont with felony burglary.

The premiere of Ryan Murphy’s latest true crime Netflix series, “The Watcher,” comes on the heels of the huge success of his “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” “The Watcher” is a haunting limited series based on the real-life, unsolved mystery about a family being stalked in their home. “I think there’s a real

Director Gina Prince-Bythewood knows you can’t win an argument on Twitter. That’s why she stays off social media platforms and chose not to engage with users that were attacking her, and the filmmakers from her box office hit “The Woman King” for taking license in its depiction of the West African kingdom of Dahomey during

Hulu’s “Rosaline” (streaming Oct. 14) puts a rom-com spin on Shakespeare’s classic love story “Romeo and Juliet.” With that, composers Drum & Lace (Sofia Hultquist and Ian Hultquist) put a similar spin on their musical approach to scoring. The film stars Kaitlyn Deaver as Rosaline, the story’s jilted ex-lover. Drum & Lace integrated traditional instruments

Reputations go a long way in Hollywood, and when you’re seeking Oscar attention, a good one provides a significant edge against the competition. While more than a few contenders in this year’s mix have had previous run-ins with colleagues and journalists, those without that baggage have social media, and the industry, rooting for them. At

“Harry Potter” actor Tom Felton distanced the film franchise from J.K. Rowling in a new interview with The Independent, although he still gave the author credit for being “responsible” for the “Harry Potter” franchise and connecting people “of all ages, of all backgrounds.” Rowling has generated backlash for years due to anti-transgender beliefs. Many of

One of the lead attorneys representing Kevin Spacey in his sexual misconduct trial has tested positive for COVID-19. Jennifer Keller, who has handled much of the defense team’s cross-examinations, will not be allowed to return to court until she gets a negative result from two diagnostic tests that she takes two days apart. When she

Martin Scorsese railed against box office numbers during a recent appearance at the New York Film Festival (via IndieWire). The Oscar-winning filmmaker called the industry’s obsession with box office grosses both “repulsive” and “really insulting.” Scorsese praised the festival for championing filmmaking at a time when “cinema is devalued, demeaned, belittled from all sides, not

Minka Kelly, Maggie Grace and Dermot Mulroney are set to star in the psychological thriller “Blackwater Lane.” Based on the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling book “The Breakdown” by British author B.A. Paris, the film tells the story of a woman (Kelly) who drives by a stranded motorist later who is later revealed

European-Australian firm Flying Bark Productions has been appointed as the animator of the first of three untitled ‘Avatar’ films from Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation. The film series, derived from the “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “The Legend of Korra “animated series, originally created for Nickelodeon by Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, was announced earlier this

No one ever said filming in New York City was easy, especially during a pandemic. Just ask the showrunners behind Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” or the producer of Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming HBO Max limited series “Full Circle.” “We had an incident yesterday on our set in Queens: a crazy person grabbed a grip by

Horse-drawn carriages were back on the streets of Troy, N.Y., in August, alongside equipment trucks, honey wagons and camera cranes. HBO’s “The Gilded Age” had returned to shoot scenes for the second season of the series, which explores the lives of monied families and the people who serve them in 1880s New York. The previous

Italy’s David di Donatello Awards are launching an innovative ecological initiative under which they will monitor the environmental sustainability of productions in the running for the country’s top film prizes. The move is being touted as a first of this type by Davids organizers who are hoping it can become a game changer in prompting

LONG STORY SHORT Chinese filmmaker, Bi Gan, best-known for his single-take feature “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” has seen his “A Short Story” picked up by Kino Lorber for distribution in North America. A fairy tale that follows the relationship between man and cat, the film had its world premiere in competition at the 2022

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has stated that the studio is seeking out DC’s answer to Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, whose leadership shaped the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Could that person at the helm of DC Films be “Black Adam” star Dwayne Johnson? When Variety asked Johnson if he might be up to the

Achieving a balance between artistic creativity and commercial appeal has been a key component of the success of the Korean film and TV industries, said senior executives at the Asin Contents & Film Market, held this week as part of the Busan International Film Festival. Leading U.S. producer Ted Hope said that “Being audience focused

America has “Groundhog Day.” Now Malaysia has “Stone Turtle,” a beguiling, all-around gorgeous reimagining of Southeast Asian folklore that finds its characters caught in a loop of vengeance, lust and violence from which they cannot escape. Here, it’s a dead-serious political statement rather than rom-com karma that forces island-dwelling refugee Zahara (Asmara Abigail) and an

When Jamie Lee Curtis walked the black carpet outside the TCL Chinese Theatre on Tuesday night for the world premiere of “Halloween Ends,” she was less than 24 hours away from becoming permanently cemented into Hollywood history — or at least, more so than she’s already been — with a hand and footprint ceremony on

Pierce Brosnan is joining the DC Universe with his role as Doctor Fate in “Black Adam,” but in a different universe the James Bond actor might have been none other than Bruce Wayne. Brosnan revealed on “The Tonight Show” that he met with Tim Burton to audition for the director’s 1989 “Batman” movie, but a

Alan Rickman’s never-before-seen diaries make up the new book “Madly, Deeply: The Diary of Alan Rickman,” which has been making headlines for weeks due to the legendary actor’s frank thoughts on the “Harry Potter” franchise. A new excerpt from Insider reveals that Rickman was critical of Dumbledore’s death scene as depicted in 2009’s “Harry Potter

As the “Halloween” franchise comes to a conclusion with “Halloween Ends,” director David Gordon Green is ready to reintroduce another horror classic on screen: “The Exorcist.” “We start in a couple of weeks, and we’re ready to roll up our sleeves and dive into the next great franchise,” Green told Variety senior entertainment writer Angelique

A brief furor erupted during Kevin Spacey’s sexual misconduct trial on Wednesday after Anthony Rapp suggested on the witness stand that the Oscar-winning star had made unwanted overtures to several people. “I came forward because I knew I wasn’t the only person that Kevin Spacey made advances to,” Rapp said, a comment which immediately drew

“Blonde” producer Plan B Entertainment is looking for a new blueprint. The production banner run by Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner has tapped Moelis & Co. to shop for a buyer or potential investors. The company has a first-look deal for TV with Amazon Studios and a pact with MGM Studios for film. Reps for

Hong Chau has joined the cast of the anticipated new film from “The Favourite” and “The Lobster” director Yorgos Lanthimos. Chau, who has been prolific in recent years, joins a stacked ensemble featuring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley. Plot details are (frustratingly) under wraps from the Greek master of subversion, who

The official trailer release for HBO’s latest documentary, “A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting” arrives amid wide-spread conversation of continued anti-Semitism in the media and just a week after Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar year. But the film’s impact is intended to reach beyond the community it reflects by

Joe Manganiello, the actor who moonlights as a “Dungeons & Dragons” official ambassador, will direct a documentary about the popular tabletop fantasy game with Kyle Newman. The film, backed by Hasbro and eOne, is billed as “the definitive documentary feature about the world’s greatest roleplaying game” and is timed to the 50th anniversary of “Dungeons

“She Said” screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz has said the New York Times journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein story in 2017 fed her chapters of their book as they were writing it in order to bring the novel to screen sooner. Speaking as part of a Variety-sponsored London Film Festival panel on screenwriting, the British scribe