Movies

Sidney Poitier — film noir icon? That may not be one of the phrases that popped up most frequently in the recent obituaries and appreciations for the late actor, but Poitier did take his turn at noir. The movie with which he made his screen debut, “No Way Out,” will be featured at the upcoming

AT&T and Discovery are expecting to close Discovery’s $43 billion acquisition of WarnerMedia to create new company Warner Bros. Discovery as early as mid-April, Variety has learned. According to two people familiar with the matter, with Discovery’s shareholder vote on the deal — which has already received regulatory approval from the DOJ — set for

A limousine driver testified on Wednesday about working for Harvey Weinstein, making him the first witness to take the stand for the producer’s upcoming Los Angeles trial. Alfred “Freddy” Baroth was called to testify early because L.A. prosecutors worry that his health could prevent him from appearing at the trial, which has not been scheduled

Did a chill go down your spine when you noticed Robert Pattinson’s “The Batman” was just shy of three hours long? Maybe you feel, along with other comic book enthusiasts, there’s no such thing as too much Bruce Wayne. Three hours? Five hours? Inject it directly into your eyeballs. Or, after two years of pandemic

Fritz Peters, a post-WWII literary heavyweight and unsung LGBTQ icon, will see his work adapted into feature films and repopulated on bookshelves. Production label Hirsch Giovanni Entertainment has acquired movie and publishing rights to novels and memoirs by Peters, who lived as a commercial author beloved by glitterati like Gore Vidal. His work included themes

NFL legend Tom Brady just announced his retirement from football, but TB12 is already getting back in the game, all thanks to Hollywood. The seven-time Super Bowl champion will produce and appear in the new movie “80 for Brady,” which is led by an equally impressive cast: Academy Award-nominee Lily Tomlin, Academy Award-winner Jane Fonda,

Fittingly enough, “Three Months” is a movie about waiting, and while 12 weeks may seem like an eternity to its openly gay lead character, Caleb (Australian pop star Troye Sivan), it’s nothing compared to the decades others have spent waiting for a project like this to come along. Here, readily available to anyone with a

American High has announced its inaugural American High Film Festival, a new film festival set to showcase films told through the lens of high school-aged characters. Filmmakers of all ages have been invited to submit their projects starting Wednesday. The American High Film Festival will take place at the production company’s flagship studio in Syracuse,

When Rob Marshall’s live-action “The Little Mermaid” debuts next year, it’ll do so with Melissa McCarthy vamping it up as the villainous sea witch Ursula. McCarthy nabbed the part over Lizzo, the Grammy Award winner who used social media to pitch herself for the “The Little Mermaid” role. One viral video of Lizzo, dressed as

A new short documentary and exposé published by Vanity Fair accuses Jerry Lewis of sexual harassment and assault. The interviews with actresses such as Karen Sharpe and Hope Holiday were conducted by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, the duo who tackled Mia Farrow’s allegations against Woody Allen in the HBO documentary series “Allen v Farrow” and

While the U.K. is set to shed the last of its pandemic restrictions — including the requirement to self-isolate if testing positive for COVID-19 — the film and TV industry will continue to abide by COVID protocols for now, Variety has confirmed. Part of the reason for this is because the end to pandemic restrictions

Sony Pictures has announced that “Spider-Man: No Way Home” will arrive on digital March 22 and on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on April 12. The studio marked the occasion by releasing a photo of Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield recreating the iconic Spider-Man pointing meme, a photo that is bound to break the

Iran’s Leila Hatami, Berlin best actress winner for Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning “A Separation,” has called for a wider range of Iranian cinema to be represented internationally. “More various films should be shown internationally from Iran because usually as everything is commercial, people choose the films which are more touristic [because] it gives you an aspect

Netflix has partnered with Creative U.K. to launch a program for U.K. filmmakers working on their debut feature, Titled Breakout, the program will fund the films’ development, with the primary criteria being that they are high quality, genre-based and British. “Breakout will give new U.K. based filmmakers the opportunity to take popular genres audiences love,

The Hong Kong International Film Festival, scheduled to have taken place from the end of March, has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Organizers also canceled remaining screenings in the Cine Fan community outreach program. This decision follows the Hong Kong government’s moves earlier this week to extend social distancing measures until April

On Tuesday afternoon, it was reported that eight categories would not be presented on the live broadcast of this year’s 94th Oscars ceremony. The social media and industry reaction was swift and brutal from industry members and awards watchers, but some of the instant backlash was due to a lack of understanding of the process

In “The Burning Sea,” which is your basic, everyday Norwegian oil-rig disaster thriller, Stian (Henrik Bjelland), a rig worker stationed on a drilling platform that’s about to collapse, must descend into the bowels of the rig to shut down a well that can’t be reached remotely. As the soundtrack fills with one of those flatulent

Hong Kong protest films “Revolution of Our Times” and “May You Stay Forever Young” will have their British premiere in March at a new film festival organized by artists and culture sector workers who have relocated to the U.K.  Ng Ka-leung, a producer and director of Hong Kong dystopian anthology “Ten Years,” and documentary filmmaker

The “Mad Max: Fury Road” oral history book “Blood, Sweat & Chrome” is now available for purchase, and with it comes a lot of new information about the set feud between leading actors Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. As Theron explains in the book (via Vanity Fair), “It was like two parents in the front

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “Blade” reboot is beginning to come together. Variety has confirmed that Aaron Pierre has joined the cast of the upcoming Mahershala Ali vehicle. No details regarding Pierre’s character are available at this time, though reports indicate that Marvel Studios engaged in a very deliberate and sweeping casting process to fill the role. Pierre

Several major Academy Awards will not be presented on the air during this year’s Oscars in an effort to present a more streamlined and television-friendly broadcast. Eight honors will instead be awarded during off-air parts of the show and then edited into the telecast, Variety has confirmed. The Oscars recognize 23 categories in total, but

The first official photo of Daniel Radcliffe as “Weird Al” Yankovic in “Weird: The ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Story” was released on Tuesday. “Weird: The ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Story” began production in Los Angeles earlier this month. The Roku Original film is set to dive into all aspects of Yankovic’s life and career — from his

Tom Holland revealed on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” this week that his attempt to explain “Uncharted” scenes to his “Spider-Man” co-star and girlfriend Zendaya ended in total confusion. Holland spent some of his “Spider-Man: No Way Home” shoot prepping for “Uncharted” and reading the script for the Sony-backed adventure movie. That’s when the actor

You can find strange similarities between almost any two years for Oscar prognosticating. Just days away from the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards and three weeks out from BAFTA and Critics Choice ceremonies, there are odd correlations between this year’s crop of nominees and the ceremony that rewarded the 1952 cinematic year. Denis Villeneuve’s omission

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. “House of Gucci” may have been snubbed by the Academy this year (save one Oscar nod for makeup and hairstyling) but you can still give the very camp, very Italian drama your love now

There are not many people busier than Jennifer Lopez, but Michelle Buteau is certainly making a run at that title. In addition to co-starring with Lopez in the new romantic comedy “Marry Me,” Buteau just wrapped filming the third season of BET’s “First Wives Club,” hosted her third season of Netflix’s “The Circle” and is

Unlike some of its A-list competitors at the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards, Shatara Michelle Ford’s debut film “Test Pattern” was funded on nine credit cards the director took out themself. Awards shows like the Spirits and the Gothams are known for highlighting the possibilities of indie cinema, but there isn’t always a clear through line

Sony keeps expanding its universe of Marvel characters. The upcoming film “Kraven the Hunter,” starring Aaron Taylor Johnson as the classic Spider-Man villain, has added Fred Hechinger (“The White Lotus,” “Pam & Tommy”) to its cast, Variety has confirmed. It’s currently unknown who Hechinger will play, but Deadline reports that he will portray Chameleon, an

Nominees for this year’s ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards have been announced, with scores for films like “Dune” and “The Power of the Dog,” TV series like “Loki” and “The White Lotus” and video games like “Call of Duty” among the contenders. These competitive awards, voted on by members of ASCAP, will be given out during

“I’m here today to talk about Brian Werner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson,” Evan Rachel Wood says in the official trailer for Amy Berg’s two-part HBO documentary “Rising Phoenix.” The movie, which world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month, finds Wood reflecting on her abuse allegations against Marilyn Manson and