Movies

Denis Villeneuve is planning to go even bigger in “Dune: Part 2” than he did in the 2021 first installment. Speaking to Collider, the director confirmed that the screenplay for his anticipated “Dune” sequel is “mostly” finished. Villeneuve and cinematographer Greig Fraser shot several sequences in “Dune” using IMAX cameras, and they will do so

Writer-director Lawrence Kasdan, a four-time Oscar nominee, worked with Oscar winner William Hurt, who died March 13 at age 71, on “Body Heat” (1981), “The Big Chill” (1983), “The Accidental Tourist” (1988) and “I Love You to Death” (1990). William Hurt and I came into the movies together, and Bill had a huge impact on

Warner Bros.’ “The Batman” continued its sway over the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second weekend in a row with £7.4 million ($9.6 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. The dark brooder starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz now has a total of £26.5 million. In second place, Sony’s “Uncharted” collected £1.05

SXSW got off to an uncharacteristically chilly start last week. As the annual ode to movies, music and tech kicked off on March 11 in Austin, the Texas winds blew a cold front into the downtown streets. Between screenings and musical acts, many attendees lamented that they hadn’t packed a heavy winter jacket. But by

Though it’s often been lauded as a golden age for documentary filmmaking, a host of challenges still face independent docmakers in Europe, who struggle with everything from dwindling budgets at public broadcasters to opaque funding decisions at streaming networks to convoluted legal frameworks for collaborating with international partners. The question of how the continent’s documentary

Since its inaugural edition at the 60th Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2019, the Meet the Future program has offered a look ahead to the next generation of emerging film talents set to make waves in Greece, the wider Mediterranean region and beyond. After training the spotlight on up-and-coming documentary filmmakers from Serbia, who presented five

Canadian animation studio Mercury Filmworks has appointed Guillaume Dubois as their new vice president of production. Dubois, who will report to Mercury Filmworks’ founder and CEO Clint Eland, will manage current and future productions including work-for-hire and original IP. Among the projects he will be overseeing are “Octicorn” and “Bad Jelly the Witch.” Dubois will work

Paramount president and CEO Bob Bakish has revealed further steps to pause operations in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine and has announced a $1 million donation to support humanitarian relief. In an internal memo to staff on Tuesday, seen by Variety, Bakish wrote: “Like many of you, I am closely following the devastating, unprovoked

The Canadian Intl. Documentary Festival, better known as Hot Docs, has revealed its first slate of Special Presentation films for this year’s festival, running April 28 to May 8 in Toronto and streaming online. World premieres include “The Talented Mr. Rosenberg,” a lurid look into the story of infamous Toronto con man Albert Rosenberg, a.k.a.

During an interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” this week, Brian Cox expressed some regret over calling Johnny Depp “overrated” and “overblown” in his recently released memoir “Putting the Rabbit in the Hat.” Cox revealed in the book that he turned down the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise because he was being offered “the most thankless

Free Stone Productions has added a quartet of new Japanese film titles to its sales slate for this week’s virtual edition of Hong Kong FilMart. The female-led company is selling romance “Leave in Summer” and drama film “Yes, I Can’t Swim” both of which will release later this year. Directed by Igashi Aya, “Leave in

“Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” begins with the former Arizona representative placing flowers in memorial vases for victims of gun violence. With a voiceover rife with potent pauses, her cadence sounds for a moment like a spoken word poem. While her rhythm is indeed intentional and meaningful, it’s not out of a sense of artistry.

Bradley Jackson’s “Facing Ryan” tells the story of an agreeable fellow from small-town Texas who married his high school sweetheart, followed his dream of playing major league baseball, pitched for four MLB teams over a 27-year career while operating a cattle ranch during off-season, set records for no-hitters and strikeouts that remain unbroken to this

Can a band that seems to operate under rigid and even blatantly joyless conditions still produce music that sparks spontaneous ecstasy in listeners? That’s the sort of question that might not seem unusual if it were a classical ensemble we were talking about, or the ballet. But in a new documentary about the group King

In “Slash/Back,” something sinister from outer space lands a stone’s throw from the Arctic Circle, and humanity’s first line of defense proves to be a group of Inuit girls armed with nothing but their wits and a bunch of traditional hunting and fishing tools. In most low-budget alien-invasion movies, the heroes/victims are fairly generic, whereas

Treasure-hunting action adventure “Uncharted” picked up $1.95 million in China on Monday, its official opening day, according to local box office tracking sources. Provisional data from Ent Group showed it launching in first place on Monday, becoming the first film to displace the long-running Chinese patriotic war movie “The Battle at Lake Changjin II,” which

Celebrated Israeli filmmaker Matan Yair, whose “Scaffolding” has had festival play at Cannes, Zurich and Singapore, is nearly ready with his new film, coming-of-age drama “A Room of His Own.” The film, which is in the work-in-progress strand of Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), follows 17-year-old Uri, who has botched his first army interview.

In “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” a group of rich kids — five old friends, along with a couple of not-so-significant others — gather for a hurricane party at the pastoral suburban mansion of one of their parents. What’s a hurricane party? A storm has been predicted, and they’re using that as an excuse to barricade themselves

HAF work in progress project “In Retreat” is a deeply personal project for debutant Syed Maisam Ali Shah. A graduate of the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Shah made several globally seen shorts before embarking upon his fiction feature debut “In Retreat.” In the film, a man returns to his hometown after

Kat McNamara (“Maze Runner,” “Shadowhunters”) has joined the cast of “Jade” the feature directorial debut of producer, director and stuntman James Bamford. The film began production on Thursday. The cast already includes Mickey Rourke “Sin City,” “The Expendables,” “The Wrester”) and Mark Dacascos (“John Wick 3,” “Crying Freeman,” “Brotherhood of the Wolf”) and Shaina West

The Minions are back — and celebrating with a splashy world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The long-awaited “Minions” sequel, dubbed “The Rise of Gru” will open the festival with a screening on Monday, June 13 in the Grande Salle de Bonlieu. The next chapter in the “Despicable Me” film franchise tells

South Korean indie studio More In Group is using Hong Kong FilMart to launch its new feature film project “19 39.” Director Park Jae-ho is setting a quick turnaround for the comedy-drama movie which has not yet been filmed, but which he plans to release in summer this year. The story, written by Kim Min-Jung

Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” has been cleared for takeoff with a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival. As Variety predicted earlier this month, the “Top Gun” sequel will screen during the French fest, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Described by Variety’s Elsa Keslassy as the “planetary blockbuster Thierry Fremaux has been

It’s one thing to grapple with having been a one-hit wonder, and another when that singular smash may have given the world a wrong impression of what you were all about … or just represented a moment in which selling out was quickly succeeded by flaming out. These are some of the matters troubling former

Matthew Lawrence, who was barely a teenager when he starred opposite Robin Williams in the 1993 blockbuster comedy “Mrs. Doubtfire,” has revealed the late comedy icon gave him a “gift” on set by advising him never to do drugs. Williams battled with substance abuse throughout his career. Lawrence cited Williams’ advice as the reason he

Nearly ten years ago, Sandra Bullock pledged she would never again make a sequel to one of her many memorable movies. It was 2013, the year she and Melissa McCarthy released the buddy cop comedy “The Heat” — which grossed nearly $230 million at the worldwide box office. While simultaneously making the awards rounds for

Netflix has the right to flex after this weekend’s trio of big wins from the Directors Guild of America (DGA), BAFTA and Critics Choice Awards, where it won the top prizes with Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.” With its mighty 12 nomination haul, and the criticism from Oscar-nominee Sam Elliott over the movie’s

Marlee Matlin reflected on William Hurt’s death during a brief interview with Entertainment Tonight at the Critics Choice Awards. Hurt died March 13 at 71 years old following a battle with prostate cancer. Matlin and Hurt starred opposite one another in the 1986 drama “Children of a Lesser God,” which won Matlin the Oscar for

To play the steel-edged movie executive at the center of “Swimming With Sharks,” Roku’s upcoming female-centered reboot of the Hollywood classic, Diane Kruger took a long look at her own experiences in show business. From her early modeling career to breaking into feature films in a dramatically different business landscape than the current one, Kruger

Javier Bardem, Jessica Chastain, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kristen Wiig and Ryan Tedder have been named as some of the presenters for the 12th annual Guild Of Music Supervisors Awards. Additional presenters include Annie Mumolo, Marlon Wayans, Dave Burd (aka Lil Dicky), Rafael Casal, Rickey Minor, Rufus Wainwright, Wendy Melvoin & Lisa Coleman, Laura Karpman, Glen Hansard