Movies

Alain Berliner, who directed the BAFTA-nominated and Golden Globe-winning “Ma vie en rose,” is in pre-production on feature documentary “Bardot,” about French actor, singer and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot. Bardot is giving the project her full support, and will narrate the film herself. “Bardot” is produced by Julien Loeffler, James Kermack and James Barton-Steel

IFC Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights from HanWay Films on Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s “Hot Milk,” starring Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley, Fiona Shaw and Vicky Krieps. Streaming service MUBI has also agreed a multi-territory deal for the film in the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Latin America and Turkey. Meanwhile, HanWay has also sold the pic into

In “Vendetta,” a former U.S. Marine strikes back at the thugs who murdered his daughter, inciting a routine cycle of violence with occasional flashes of wit that feel like they were spliced in from a different, better movie. Most of those moments have little to do with the main narrative, which follows William Duncan (Clive

A visit from the dead? How chic. The Cannes Film Festival sprung back into action on Tuesday night, as this year’s opening night movie, “Final Cut (Coupez!)” received a 5-minute standing ovation. The gory zombie line, which straddled a tone somewhere between “The Blair Witch Project” and “Call My Agent,” kicked off a festival where

MK2 Films, the company behind six films playing at Cannes including Leonor Serraille’s competition title “Mother and Son,” has acquired French and international rights on the Raoul Peck catalogue from Velvet Film. MK2 Films will start selling the library of films during the Cannes Film Festival. The Raoul Peck collection comprises documentary and fiction, including

Director Robert Connolly and star Eric Bana are reuniting for a detective film based on the novel “Force of Nature,” set in the Australian wilderness. Connolly and Bana were previously teamed on Australian smash hit movie “The Dry,” which like “Force of Nature” was adapted from a novel by Jane Harper. They also worked together

A trio of veteran film financiers and producers are launching a new venture. Joe Simpson, Simon Williams and Jonathan Bross are teaming up on Ashland Hill Media Finance, a film and TV financing venture, backed by an alternative investment fund with assets under management of $1.85 billion. From its offices in Santa Monica and London,

The last time the Cannes Film Festival dropped a zombie comedy into its coveted opening-night slot, it was 2019, and the movie ­— Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die” ­— was no big whoop, but it served its purpose. It got this most highfalutin’ of festivals rolling on an agreeable note of macabre cheekiness. Since

Johnny Depp’s lawyer continued to cross-examine Amber Heard on Tuesday, accusing Heard of assaulting Depp and suggesting she was lying about her allegations of domestic violence. Attorney Camille Vasquez played audio recordings of arguments between the couple and read aloud love notes that Heard had written to Depp after the alleged incidents. “You weren’t scared

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outshone all of the stars at the Cannes Film Festival after he addressed the opening night crowd of actors and filmmakers, delivering an emotional plea on behalf of his war-torn country. Appearing via video link, Zelenskyy had festival-goers dabbing their eyes. “We continue fighting,” Zelenskyy said. “We have no choice but

Kit Harington is set to star in Fulwell 73’s biopic of Mary Shelley, titled “Mary’s Monster. Variety first broke the news that the film was in pre-production earlier this year. Fulwell 73 have teamed with Rose Pictures on the feature, which will go into production in the U.K. this summer. Clara Rugaard (“I Am Mother”)

Cannes is bringing the metaverse to the film industry. The first-ever NFTCannes Summit will take place at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. This annual event is designed to connect leading minds from the media and entertainment industry to innovators, creators and investors in web3. Officially kicking off on May 23 at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc,

The fourth edition of Animation Day, which is part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Market, will take place on May 22. A one-day event aimed at the global animation filmmaking community, it is a joint initiative launched in 2019 by the Cannes Film Market and the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival, in partnership with Animation!

Nicholas Sparks, the author of romantic weepies like “The Notebook,” “A Walk to Remember,” “Dear John” and “The Last Song,” is partnering with Universal Pictures to produce three feature films. The movies will be based on some of his recent novels, including “The Wish,” an emotional story about first love. During the pandemic alone, Sparks

A blazing hot beach day in the South of France was interrupted by a flock of men dressed in penguin-black tuxedos and women in shimmering ballgowns. They marched past bikini-clad locals to mark the return of the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday afternoon. The 75th edition of the world’s most glamorous gathering of movies brought

Less than a month after the highly anticipated “Top Gun: Maverick” flies into theaters, director Joseph Kosinski is reuniting with star Miles Teller for the Netflix sci-fi thriller “Spiderhead.” Based on the George Saunders short story “Escape From Spiderhead,” which was originally published in The New Yorker, “Spiderhead” stars Teller as a prisoner at the

Andy Armstrong’s directorial feature debut, “Squealer,” is set to launch sales in Cannes. VMI Worldwide are handling international rights on the feature, which was produced by Walk Like A Duck Entertainment’s Jason Armstrong and Rob Goodrich, Shaun Sanghani of SSS Entertainment and Walk Like a Duck’s Cameron Goodrich. Paradigm are repping North American sales. As

Led by a special screening slot for celebrated documentarian Patricio Guzman’s “My Imaginary Country,” plus Directors’ Fortnights “1976”  and a new short by 2018 Cinéfondation prizewinner Diego Céspedes in Critics’ Week, Chile boats the biggest presence of any Latin American country at Cannes. “Our cinema is a living and pulsating entity, a cinema full of risky auteurist

Ryan Gosling is tipped to star in “The Fall Guy,” a feature film adaptation of the iconic 1980s TV series, that will shoot in Sydney, Australia. The original series, which ran 1981-1986, was created by Glen A. Larson and starred Lee Majors as a Hollywood stunt man. To make ends meet, he has a side

Bleecker Street has bought the U.S. rights for writer-director Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut, “Emily,” which tells the story of author Emily Brontë’s real-life romance in the lead up to her seminal novel, “Wuthering Heights.” Bleecker Street is planning a 2023 theatrical release Stateside, while Warner Bros. will open the film wide in U.K. cinemas. Promotional

Amber Heard claims that Warner Bros. “didn’t want to include me” in the upcoming “Aquaman” sequel due to the fallout of her divorce from Johnny Depp. The actor said during her defamation trial against Depp that she was “actively scheduling timing for filming” the second “Aquaman” movie until Depp’s team called her a liar regarding

With “Final Cut,” Oscar-winning filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius has to convince audiences that he’s a very bad director. At least for the first 20 minutes or so of the movie within a movie. You see, “Final Cut,” a remake of the 2017 Japanese cult favorite, “One Cut of the Dead,” initially unspools as a low-budget zombie

Barcelona-based Film Factory Entertainment has acquired international sales rights to horror-thriller “El Cuco” (“The Cuckoo’s Curse”), the latest film by “The Photographer of Mauthausen” and “Two” producer-director Mar Targarona, set up at top Spanish genre auteur house Rodar y Rodar. Vicente Canales’ Film Factory, one of the biggest sales forces in the Spanish-speaking world, is

John Woo’s “Silent Night” recently wrapped principal photography in Mexico City. The film is the first U.S. action movie directed by the iconic helmer Woo in more than a decade. In “Silent Night,” Godlock (played by Joel Kinnaman) is a father on a mission to avenge his young son who was tragically caught in the crossfire

Marie Kreutzer’s “Corsage,” which premieres in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, has debuted its first clip exclusively with Variety (below). MK2 Films is handling international sales. Ad Vitam will distribute the film in France. “Corsage” stars Vicky Krieps, who broke out in the Oscar nominated “Phantom Thread.” Last year, she

U.K.-based sales firm 101 Films Intl., part of Amcomri Entertainment, has secured worldwide distribution rights to apocalyptic thriller “Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist,” the recently completed sequel to 2014’s “Left Behind,” which featured Nicolas Cage. The movie is available for the first time at the Cannes Film Market this week. In “Left Behind: Rise

As the global film industry emerges from the worst of the pandemic — and wide-ranging consolidation in the U.S. puts studio and streaming strategies in disarray — representatives for CAA, UTA and WME Independent say international distributors are more important than ever to their businesses. That claim will be put to the test at this

Malaysia is set to increase the value of its location-based incentives from the current 30% to 35%, the government is expected to announce this week in Cannes. The Film in Malaysia Incentive (FIMI) was launched in 2013, around the time that the Iskandar Malaysia studios were opened in the south of the country, and is

As the war in Ukraine approaches a grim, three-month mile marker, and the Russian military continues its relentless onslaught, the harsh crackdown on domestic opposition by the Putin regime has left a beleaguered film industry pondering its next steps. Many Russian filmmakers fear they’ll have no choice but to toe the party line, or to

Filmax has swooped in on one of Spain’s most awaited fiction feature debuts of 2022, Alex Lora’s “Unicorns” (“Unicornios”). Pic is produced by Inicia Films’ Valerie Delpierre, producer of director Carla Simon’s debut, “Summer 1993.” Due to be completed by the fall, “Unicorns” is made with Valencia’s Jaibo, the shingle behind Chema García’s Locarno hit