Movies

After Warner Bros. executives signed off on the risky decision to bankroll their $90 million look at the life of Elvis Presley with a little-known actor portraying the hip-swinging rocker, producer Gail Berman reached for her phone. She wanted to immortalize the moment for Austin Butler, the man who reportedly beat out the likes of

Charlbi Dean, a young, up-and-coming South African actor who most recently starred in this year’s Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness,” died Monday in New York from an unexpected illness, Variety has confirmed. She was 32. Dean also appeared in the DC Comics series “Black Lightning” on The CW. She played the highly skilled assassin

Documentary specialist distributor Piece of Magic Entertainment’s “Andre Rieu’s 2022 Maastricht Summer Concert,” a concert film featuring Dutch violinist and conductor Andre Rieu, led a sluggish weekend at the U.K. and Ireland box office. The film collected £799,474 ($932,330) in a weekend when no film crossed the £1 million mark, according to numbers provided by

Some of the most acclaimed films in animation history are finally available to rent online. GKIDS, the animation specialist distributer, has released the catalog of acclaimed Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli starting Tuesday. 22 films from the studio — including Oscar winner “Spirited Away” and nominees such as “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “When Marnie Was

MK2 Films has unveiled a clip of Rachid Hami’s “For My Country,” a politically minded family drama which will world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section. A personal movie, “For My Country” is based on the life of Hami, whose brother tragically died in a French military school during a hazing

Jordan Peele won over fans, critics and the box office alike with his summer sci-fi thriller “Nope.” And while the movie’s ending doesn’t scream for a sequel, as with any of Peele’s films, there is a lot left to the imagination, including a mysterious character listed on IMDb as “Nobody,” played by Michael Busch. Peele

Utopia has acquired Participant’s feature documentary “Unseen Skies,” which the U.S. distributor will release on Sept. 13. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Yaara Bou Melhem, “Unseen Skies” explores the evolution of state and corporate surveillance. The film follows American artist and geographer Trevor Paglen as he launches an artwork called “Orbital Reflector” into space, visible with

Bill Kramer, the newly appointed CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, kicked off his charm offensive with the international film community at the Venice Film Festival, telling a small audience of journalists that the Academy’s “future is with international cinema as much as it is with American cinema.” Kramer — who

Goran Stolevski’s “Of An Age” won Australia’s richest film prize of A$100,000 ($65,000) at CinefestOz at a gala closing night over the weekend in Busselton, Western Australia. The Macedonian born, Melbourne based writer and director Stolevski also presented his much-lauded first feature “We Are Not Alone” at the festival. The CinefestOZ film prize is dedicated

Italian director Emanuele Crialese broke out with 2002 Cannes Critics Week winner “Respiro,” followed by “Nuovomondo” and “Terraferma,” which both scooped prizes in Venice. He’s back on the Lido with his ambitious, boldly personal drama “L’immensità.” Set in 1970s Rome, the film features Penélope Cruz as the mother of two children, one of whom is a

European cinema chain Vue International has received approval from its lenders to receive a further £75 million ($88 million) to fund recapitalization of the company. Its lender syndicate unanimously approved the move, which is expected to be completed later this year. According to the cinema chain: “This will enable Vue to implement the new money

“Hotel Portofino,” starring Natascha McElhone, has returned to Croatia after a summer break to finish filming its second season. It is so far the biggest project filmed in Croatia this year, Film New Europe reports. The producers of the period drama, created by Matt Baker and directed by Adam Wimpenny, are making use of Croatia’s

“Coo-Coo 043,” a family drama set in the world of racing pigeons, has been set as the opening film of the 2022 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. The closing film is comedy “Marry My Dead Body.”  “Coo-Coo 043” is the second film directed by Chan Ching-lin (“The Island That All Flow By”) and stars Golden Bell

The stars are certainly aligning in Italy. As the Venice Film Festival prepares to kick off its 79th edition on Wednesday (Aug. 31), once again catapulting a strong selection of buzzy movies into the awards season race, its pandemic-driven “wall” on the Lido’s red carpet has come down after two years — just in time

Spontaneous flames, dysfunctional warning alerts and a sense of impending catastrophe feature in Hungarian-Romanian director Cristina Grosan’s sophomore feature “Ordinary Failures,” premiering in Venice Days, a sidebar to the Venice Film Festival. Variety is launching the trailer for the film (below), which is being sold by Totem Films. The Czech-Hungarian-Italian-Slovak co-production, filmed entirely in the

Laura Poitras’ “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy” and Evgeny Afineevsky’s “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” are among 11 documentaries making their world premieres at the Venice Film Festival this year, with Poitras’ competition title vying for a Golden Lion — a rare feat for a doc at

Netflix’s restructuring continues with the impending departure of one of the streamer’s top film executives, Tendo Nagenda. The veteran executive, who joined Netflix from Disney in 2018, shepherded such movies as “The Harder They Fall,” “Da 5 Bloods” and the upcoming “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” for the streamer. Variety can confirm that Nagenda’s

Ralph Eggleston, an Academy Award-winning animator, art director and production designer at Pixar Animation Studios, died on Monday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 56 years old. Eggleston won the animated short film Oscar for writing and directing the 2001 Pixar film “For the Birds.” Pixar tweeted a tribute to him, saying,

On its face, finding “the next Kevin Feige” to oversee Warner Bros. Discovery’s film and TV adaptations of DC Comics is a bit like declaring you only want to make hits. If only wishing could make it so!  Feige’s reign as the chief creative officer of Marvel Studios — overseeing the singular Marvel Cinematic Universe for film

Paris-based company Indie Sales has boarded Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s feature debut “A Tale of Shemroon” which is set to premiere in the New Directors competition at San Sebastian. Set in the north of Tehran, “A Tale of Shemroon” follows Iman and his younger brother Payar who live with their father. After the death of their

Catherine O’Hara, Jay Duplass and Andy Garcia will join the cast of “The Pain Hustlers,” teaming up with Emily Blunt and Chris Evans in the Netflix movie. Brian d’Arcy James (“Spotlight,” “West Side Story”) and Chloe Coleman (“My Spy,” “Marry Me”) are rounding out the ensemble. David Yates, best known for directing several “Harry Potter”

Teri Hatcher and James Tupper will star as former high school sweethearts in Hallmark Movies & Mysteries original movie “Mid-Love Crisis,” premiering this fall. Brian Markinson, June Laporte and Matreya Scarrwener also star. Hatcher portrays Mindy, a single mom approaching her 50th birthday who “realizes she’s in the throes of a bonafide mid-life crisis.” During

A judge on Monday denied a defense request to postpone Harvey Weinstein’s trial in Los Angeles in order to avoid publicity for “She Said,” a feature film about the exposure of sex abuse allegations against him. Weinstein is set to go on trial on 11 counts of rape and sexual assault on Oct. 10, and

Barbie Ferreira, who broke out on HBO’s buzzy series “Euphoria,” is joining the cast of “House of Spoils,” a psychological thriller starring Ariana DeBose. The film is backed by Amazon Prime Video and Blumhouse Television. Production is expected to begin in the fall. Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy will direct “House of Spoils” from

Nazi ghouls have figured in plenty of horror movies, whether preserved (1966’s “The Frozen Dead”), newly bioengineered (1978’s “The Boys from Brazil”) or zombiefied (too many to list). Edging close to that terrain, “Burial” revolves around a corpse — the corpse, as far as WWII’s end was concerned — that does not reanimate or otherwise

Neon has landed U.S. distribution rights to South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s film “Oldboy” and plans to bring the dark revenge thriller back to theaters in honor of its 20th anniversary. It will mark the first time Park’s film plays on the big screen since its initial release on Nov. 21, 2003. Neon has not

Abramorama and Roco Films have co-acquired U.S. distribution rights to Cynthia Lowen’s abortion documentary “Battleground.” The film premiered in the documentary competition category at the Tribeca Festival in June. The doc follows three women in charge of anti-abortion organizations devoted to overturning Roe v. Wade. Abramorama and Roco Films will co-release “Battleground” in hundreds of

Tessa Thompson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will headline the sci-fi thriller “Ash,” directed by Flying Lotus. Thompson plays a space station worker who wakes up on a distant planet to find her colleagues viciously killed, and then forced to work together with the man (Gordon-Levitt) sent to rescue her. But as their investigation into what happened

Daniel Radcliffe is strapping on his accordion as parody artist “Weird Al” Yankovic in the new trailer for “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.” “Weird” is set to premiere on Roku’s free streaming channel Nov. 4, but it will screen a bit earlier as the opening film of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness programming

Michelle Yeoh will receive the Toronto International Film Festival’s inaugural Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award. The TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award recognizes a woman who is a leader in the film industry and has made a positive impact for women throughout their career. The award, sponsored by Bulgari, will be presented at an in-person