Movies

John Boyega has never shied away from speaking out about the racist bullying he received for his work as Finn in the “Star Wars” franchise. Things got so bad, he convened a meeting with Disney and Lucasfilm execs to express his disappointment in their lack of support during the targeted attacks. While Boyega has now

When Angelina Jolie read Alessandro Baricco’s short novel “Without Blood” — the basis for her next directorial effort — the Italian fable about the brutality of war and healing in its aftermath had an immediate  therapeutic effect.  “I read it right as I was going through the beginning of a very dark time in my

Gerald Potterton, an animator and filmmaker whose most notable works include “Heavy Metal” and the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” film, died on Aug. 23, the National Film Board of Canada announced on Wednesday. He was 91. He died at the Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Hospital in Cowansville, Quebec, where he lived for most of his life. His most prominent

Sister has enlisted “Pitch Perfect” writer and “Blockers” director Kay Cannon to work with best-selling author Taylor Jenkins Reid on a new original comedy film. Cannon will direct the film with Jenkins Reid co-writing the script. The film centers around four childhood pals who get a drunken voicemail from their former best friend on the

Catherine Deneuve has no regrets. Though the French icon has worked with everyone from Buñuel to Bjork, she doesn’t dwell on the decades she’s spent on screen. And, at 78, she’s certainly not thinking of retirement.  “I’m not at all ready to draw up a career assessment,” says Deneuve during an interview at the  

The Venice Film Festival once again looks like the place to launch the heavy hitters of awards season. As the world’s oldest film festival —unspooling on the island of Lido —  celebrates its 90th year, it serves up a dazzling display of goods and stars, starting from its opener, Noah Baumbach’s black comedy “White Noise”

After a crackling summer season, movie theater owners have been sounding the alarm on the disturbingly light release schedule this fall. And yet, three new films will open in theaters nationwide over the weekend. Perhaps the bigger issue, in the case of this weekend’s crop of newcomers, is that hardly anyone is making plans to

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Just a little over a month after its initial theater release, Jordan Peele’s highly anticipated third feature film “Nope” will me made available to purchase digitally this Friday. The official social media accounts for

Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Heidi Klum may have been one of the most famous models associated with Victoria’s Secret, but she says she turned down an invite to be interviewed for Hulu’s “Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons.” “They asked me if I wanted to be part of it,” Klum tells me on

It’s late summer, so it’s time to start talking about awards season. Cannes issued the first slate of contenders in the international feature Oscar race, and now Venice and Toronto are ready to screen another batch, which begs the question: What looks like the breakout pics from the festival circuit that should contend for kudos?

Pinocchio might not be a real boy just yet, but he definitely is a real puppet. Disney Plus has released the first trailer for “Pinocchio,” a live-action remake of the classic 1940 animated movie of the same name, which hits the service in September. Based on the classic 1883 children’s book “The Adventures of Pinocchio”

If you haven’t heard of “Don’t Worry Darling,” you’ve probably read something about it. Olivia Wilde’s upcoming movie has become one of the most talked-about films of the year, especially considering it doesn’t even hit theaters for another month. Ever since “Don’t Worry Darling” was announced, the psychological thriller has attracted considerable attention in the

This past April, Olivia Wilde was excited to introduce her upcoming film, “Don’t Worry Darling,” to theater exhibitors at CinemaCon, a ticketed industry convention. Wilde was onstage and ready to show the first footage from her second directorial project, a psychological thriller starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. Suddenly, she was handed a mysterious manila

“Me, My Mom & Sharmila,” the feature directorial debut of queer Muslim writer-director Fawzia Mirza, has set its cast. The film will feature Amrit Kaur, the breakout star of Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble’s HBO Max series “The Sex Lives of College Girls”; Hamza Haq, who won best actor in 2021 and 2022 at the

Naomi Watts stars as an unsettling mother whose face is wrapped in bandages in the official trailer for Matt Sobel’s “Goodnight Mommy.” A remake of the 2014 Austrian film of the same name, the horror movie follows two twin brothers, played by real-life twins Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti, who visit their mother after her recent

Utopia has purchased global rights to “American Rapstar,” a look at the rise of SoundCloud rappers. The film, which screened at such major festivals as SXSW, DOC NYC, and the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, pulls back the curtain on a group lo-fi young artists, who boast a rebellious punk energy along with their colorful

“The Last Days of the Space Age” creator David Chidlow has signed with CAA for representation. The writer-director works across shows in the U.K., Australia and the U.S. Most recently, he is the writer, creator and showrunner behind Disney+’s eight-part series, “The Last Days of the Space Age.” Set in 1979 Western Australia, the series

Abel Ferrara says casting Shia LaBeouf as Padre Pio, the Italian monk who gained rock-star status among the Catholic faithful, coincided with a point in the actor’s life “where he connected very deeply with Pio’s journey in the film.” “Padre Pio,” which is among titles set to launch next week from the Venice Film Festival’s independently

FESTIVALS On Aug. 24, Ukraine independence day, the Venice Film Festival has revealed that it will host a Ukrainian Day on Sept. 8, as part of the festival’s Venice Production Bridge initiative. The day will kick off with a panel discussion introduced by the president of the Biennale, Roberto Cicutto, and the artistic director of

MPM Premium has picked up Cláudia Varejão’s queer coming-of-age drama “Wolf and Dog” (Lobo e cão), which has its world premiere in Venice Days, a sidebar to the Venice Film Festival. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer. The film centers on Ana, who was born in São Miguel, an island in the

Swedish helmer Mika Gustafson, one of a roster of promising Swedish voices with “Clara Sola”’s Natalie Álvarez-Mesén at Stockholm-based Hobab, has finalised the cast for her directorial debut “Sisters.”  The feature is in final stages of filming, and co-produced by Italy’s Intramovies, Denmark’s Toobox and Finland’s Tuffi Films. Ida Engvoll, who broke out in Netflix

Seasoned Finnish producer Ilkka Matila (“The Eternal Road”, “All the Sins”) of MRP Matila Röhr has signed with Estonia’s Taska Film and locked early support from the Finnish Film Institute and local commercial channel MTV3 for the $2.7m film “Between the Hammer and the Sickle.” Nordisk Film holds Scandinavian rights. To be pitched on Aug.

Faroese-born emerging director Andrias Høgenni, winner of a Canal+ award at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2021 with his short film “Illi illa meint,” just got married this summer. His project “Anything for Her,” introduced at this year’s Nordic Co-Production Market in Haugesund, is precisely about a wedding, and much more. Family conflicts, especially with step-parents

Danish international sales and aggregation outfit LevelK has boarded the thought-provoking drama “Great Yarmouth: Provisional Figures” by award-winning Portuguese director Marco Martins, which world premieres in main competition at next month’s San Sebastian Film Festival.  Hailed by Variety as “a powerful study of intense grief,” Martin’s debut feature, “Alice,” won the Prix Regards Jeune at Cannes in

Italy’s I Wonder Pictures has boarded Finnish comedy “The Player” as a co-producer ahead of its bow at Haugesund’s industry sidebar New Nordic Films.  The company will also handle local distribution. The project is directed by Teemu Nikki and produced by It’s Alive Films’ Jani Pösö.  “I consider Teemu Nikki as one of the best European directors. He is

Industry veterans Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line have been elected presidents of the Producers Guild of America, the guild announced on Tuesday. The pair ran unopposed, and will succeed Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher, who have led the organization since 2018. Allain and De Line have both recently served on the PGA national board.

Regina Hall chooses her words carefully when asked about Will Smith’s recent video in which he apologized for slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. “I think it’s a tough thing and I know it’s a difficult road,” Hall told me Monday at the premiere of her new comedy mockumentary, “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.”

With its library of Marvel films, Disney animation classics and “Star Wars” installments, Disney+ has one of the largest catalogues of blockbuster films on streaming platforms. But recently, subscribers have noticed the biggest film is missing: James Cameron’s “Avatar,” the highest-grossing movie of all time, has been quietly removed from the service with no prior

Amazon’s Prime Video is going big with fall TV, launching the most expensive TV series in history, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” and taking full control of NFL’s “Thursday Night Football.” But on the film side, things are a little less groundbreaking and more in flux as the industry waits to

For a filmmaker behind the most enduring box office hit in a decade, Joseph Kosinski is exceptionally humble about “Top Gun: Maverick.” Paramount’s action-packed blockbuster, featuring Tom Cruise’s return to the skies 36 years after the original film, has become an unexpected sensation, bringing audiences young and old back to the big screen at a