Movies

One of the hottest titles from Spain at this year’s European Film Market, is Catalan director Carla Simón’s sophomore feature “Alcarrás,” the hotly anticipated follow up to her 2017 debut “Summer 1993.” There, Paris-based MK2 Films will be talking to interested buyers of the recently-finished arthouse entry. To mark the occasion, the sales company has

Hong Kong and Paris-based All Rights Entertainment has picked up a mandate to handle sales duties on “Lendarys,” an animated family entertainment movie that is now in production. The film is being produced on budget of $30 million and is set for delivery in 2023. All Rights Entertainment is launching the picture for international sales

For his sophomore feature, “Beautiful Beings,” playing in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama, Icelandic helmer-writer Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson returns to the subject of his prize-winning first feature “Heartstone” (2016): fraught adolescent friendships and difficult family lives. In “Beautiful Beings,” a horrendously bullied youth forms a tentative rapport with a trio of tough outsiders. Together, the

Nordic streamer Viaplay is partnering with filmmaker Mikael Håfström to produce the ambitious period film “Stockholm Bloodbath.” The female-led epic adventure movie will mark the service’s second English-language film original, following Oscar-nominated helmer Lasse Hallström’s biopic “Hilma,” which will premiere later this year. Set in 1520, “Stockholm Bloodbath” explores a dark chapter in Sweden’s history,

Two-time Berlinale prize winner Małgorzata Szumowska (“Body,” “Mug”) will write and direct “The Gambler Wife,” a revelatory portrait of novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s wife Anna Snitkina, to be produced by Russia’s Hype Film, Variety can reveal. Adapted from Andrew D. Kaufman’s book “The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved

Key Chilean projects being moved at this year’s European Film Market: Alis Directors: Clare Weiskopf and Nicolás van Hemelryck Casatarántula produced this Chile-Colombia-Romania doc along with Pantalla Cines and Defilm. Produced by Alexandra Galvis and Radu Stancu, it world premieres at Berlinale’s Generation 14plus sidebar. The Bogota, Colombia-set doc follows 10 teens at a public boarding

It’s a new dawn for Chile’s audiovisual industry. When Gabriel Boric, Chile’s youngest (at 35) and most left-leaning president since Salvador Allende, was elected in December, his pledge to more than double the state’s contribution to the arts was greeted with great fanfare. After all, Chile’s prodigious film output this past decade has been remarkable

Barcelona-based Filmax has picked up international sales rights to psychological thriller “Girl Unknown” (“La desconocida”), the sophomore film by Spanish director Pablo Maqueda (“Dear Werner”). The film is based on the hit play “Grooming,” penned by Paco Bezerra, which has been adapted in more than 10 countries. Filmax is launching the film with a first

François Ozon, the prolific and provocative French director who won the Berlinale’s 2018 Golden Bear Award with “By the Grace of God,” is returning to the festival with “Peter von Kant” which will world premiere on opening night. A twist on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s cult film “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant,” Ozon’s movie

Tom Hanks, Gerard Butler, Evan Rachel Wood and Rosamund Pike headline projects being brought onto Berlin’s virtual European Film Market. Just how large its top-tier offers may be is, and the volume of deals, are still open for debate. “Very compact,” Constantin’s Martin Moszkowicz said mid-last week of the EFM, which swelled somewhat thanks to

Global Screen has secured a presale of the female-led drama “Lost Transport” to Menemsha Films for the U.S. and Canada ahead of the European Film Market in Berlin. Inspired by true events, the film tells the story of the final days of World War II when German soldiers abandon a deportation train, leaving the fate

This year’s Oscars ceremony will not require in-person attendees to provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19, Variety has confirmed. After a 2021 ceremony that saw the Academy Awards downsize to a smaller gathering at Los Angeles’ Union Station, the Oscars will return to its traditional setting in the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard for its

Angelina Jolie returned to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday afternoon to voice her support for victims of domestic abuse, urging the Senate to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which she argues provides basic protections to survivors of abuse. “Standing here, at the center of our nation’s power, I can think only of everyone who’s

Judd Bernard, the producer and screenwriter behind films such as “Point Blank” and “Double Trouble,” died Jan. 25 in Burbank, Calif., his family confirmed to Variety. He was 94. Bernard was born in 1927, and grew up in Chicago. He attended University of Wisconsin, and after graduation moved to New York City to become a

Dave Chappelle helped kill plans for an affordable housing development in his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio, the Dayton Daily News reports. The comedian appeared at a council meeting this week and threatened to pull several businesses he’s developing for Yellow Springs if the town moved forward with the affordable housing development. Along with his

Actors who web-sling together, stay together. Andrew Garfield revealed on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that his “Spider-Man: No Way Home” co-stars Tom Holland and Tobey Maguire sent him “very sweet” text messages on Feb. 8, not long after he received an Academy Award nomination. Garfield is Oscar-nominated for best actor thanks to his performance

Q’orianka Kilcher will star in and produce “Yesteryear” alongside a cast that includes Scott Haze, Wes Studi and Nick Cassavetes. “Yesteryear” is written and directed by Adam VillaSeñor (“In Full Bloom”) and definitely seems to connect thematically with some of the challenges facing America and the world. The film follows Alma Deswood (Kilcher), a struggling,

Zack Snyder’s science-fiction epic “Rebel Moon” has announced its full cast. Joining Sofia Boutella in Snyder’s next Netflix-backed tentpole are Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Ray Fisher, Doona Bae, Jena Malone, Staz Nair, E. Duffy, Charlotte Maggi and Sky Yang. Fisher previously worked with Snyder on “Justice League,” where he starred as Cyborg. “Rebel Moon” will

For a couple of decades now, Steven Soderbergh’s “little” movies — the lo-fi dramas, often quirky thrillers, that he makes as palette cleansers in between his higher profile projects — have been a pleasurably idiosyncratic, off-on-his-own-cloud thing. Some of them are good (like “Bubble” and “Side Effects”), some are meh (like “Haywire”), and one is

Two new movies, Kenneth Branagh’s star-studded murder mystery “Death on the Nile” and Jennifer Lopez’s romantic comedy “Marry Me,” hope to appeal to people who aren’t all that interested in Super Bowl festivities. Football’s biggest weekend has traditionally led to lighter movie theater attendance, though Disney and Universal (the studios behind the box office’s newest

The rollercoaster journey of casting the title role in George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” is documented in Kyle Buchanan’s upcoming oral history book “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road.” An excerpt published by Vulture reveals that casting Max Rockatansky boiled down to Tom Hardy, Armie Hammer

Hollywood is about to stampede into Middle Earth. An array of movie, merchandising, gaming and live event rights to “Lord of the Rings,” “The Hobbit” and other titles from author J.R.R. Tolkien are coming up for auction now that the Saul Zaentz Co. has decided to sell its Tolkien holdings. Zaentz Co. has hired ACF

Oscar winner Russell Crowe has entered the Spiderverse. The “Gladiator” star has joined the cast of “Kraven the Hunter” in an unspecified role. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is starring in the title role as one of Spider-Man’s most deadly antagonists. J.C. Chandor, who previously oversaw “All Is Lost” and “Triple Frontier,” is directing. Crowe is best known

America Ferrera has signed on to play opposite Margot Robbie in “Barbie,” the upcoming movie from Warner Bros., Mattel and Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment. Greta Gerwig is directing the movie, from a script she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach, with Robbie playing the titular toy doll and Ryan Gosling playing Ken. It is unknown who Ferrera will

You can’t say we weren’t warned. When the omicron wave hit in December, the Berlin Film Festival frantically pivoted to ensure a physical event went ahead, and organizers cautioned that heavy COVID restrictions would be in place at the 72nd edition of the fest. True to form, those measures are keenly felt on the ground

Bleecker Street has secured North American rights to Catherine Hardwicke’s new action-comedy, “Mafia Mamma,” starring Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci and Rob Huebel. Collette stars in the film as a suburban American woman, who inherits her grandfather’s mafia empire and must learn navigate her new role as the head of the family business, defying everyone’s expectations.

Organizers of the upcoming Berlinale continue to plan for a physical festival under strict safety measures, but with the EFM already moved online due to rising COVID-19 cases, this year looks set to be another gloomy gathering, not only for Germany’s dispirited film sector, but also for Berlin businesses bracing for more lost revenue. Local

Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley have joined Michael Mann’s racing film “Ferrari.” The big-budget biopic follows ex-racecar driver and auto manufacturing giant Enzo Ferrari in the summer of 1957. With his marriage in crisis over the mourning of a son, and the threat of bankruptcy looming over the company he and his wife

Screen Media has acquired North American rights to “9 Bullets,” a new crime thriller with “Game of Thrones” star Lena Headey and “Avatar’s” Sam Worthington. The studio is planning a day-and-date release in April. “9 Bullets” centers on a showgirl (Headey), who risks everything when she rescues a young boy after his family is murdered

Sales company Beta Cinema has picked up the eco-thriller “The Climb,” starring Cara Delevingne. Based on true events, the film tells the story of a Greenpeace-led protest action against Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic, when female activists scale the tallest building in Europe, London’s Shard. Delevingne will play one of the leads as