Movies

Romanian animator Anca Damian’s psychedelic, musical take on the Robinson Crusoe’s story, “The Island,” will be accompanied by an AR exhibition inviting the audience to further explore its colorful universe, Variety has learned. A board-game based on her seventh feature has also been developed, mirroring its protagonists’ search for paradise in the film. Set to

Japanese auteur Koji Fukada is developing his latest feature film, a look into the frenzied world of Japan’s idol culture, which he’ll be presenting during the Rotterdam Film Festival’s CineMart co-production market this week. The project will then head to the European Film Market next month as part of the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express, a collaboration between

Stockholm-based Momento Film, the company behind “Tiny King for a Day” and Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market-bound work in progress “Dogborn,” has confirmed start of production and E.U. partners on Daniel Espinosa’s “Madame Luna,” its biggest project ever. Principal photography in Sicily and Calabria is set to begin May 5 on the €5 million ($5.6 million)

The Writers Guild of America Awards announced their nominations where huge boosts were given to films such as “Being the Ricardos,” “Don’t Look Up,” “The French Dispatch,” “King Richard” and “Licorice Pizza” in original screenplay. In adapted screneplay it’s “CODA,” “Dune,” “Nightmare Alley,” “Tick, Tick … Boom!” and “West Side Story.” Missing from the lineup,

A24 and Participant have set an adaptation of “BLKNWS,” based on the groundbreaking video exhibition by video artist and filmmaker Kahlil Joseph. Joseph will make his feature directorial debut with the project, with cinematographer Bradford Young (“Mother of George,” “Arrival,” “Selma”) on board to lens the feature. Participant will lead production and co-finance alongside A24,

J.K. Simmons was reluctant to appear in “Being the Ricardos.” But reading Aaron Sorkin’s script, “I was able to see the gift that Aaron was giving to each of the actors.” It’s a gift exchange: Simmons is so versatile and talented that he brings gifts to any filmmaker he works with. Oscar voting runs Jan.

Kathleen Turner, Rosemarie DeWitt and Keyla Monterroso have boarded Signature Films comedy “The Estate,” starring Toni Collette and Anna Faris. Directed by Dean Craig, who also wrote the script, the film revolves around sisters Macey (Collette) and Savanna (Faris), who learn their wealthy but estranged Aunt Hilda is dying from cancer. Seeing this as an

Susan Brandt has been promoted to CEO of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the privately held company that manages the rich vault of books and IP associated with the beloved author. Brandt has been with the San Diego-based Dr. Seuss Enterprises for 24 years, most recently serving as president. 2021 marked the company’s highest revenue-generating year since

A shortened eligibility year, multiple monochrome films and an underappreciated year for animation is what sums up the 2021 cinematic year. Oscar voters will be voting for their favorites in 23 categories for six days. As we head into this critical period, we examine the offerings that came with a mixture of return to in-person

Pantaya, the fast-growing premiere U.S. Hispanic/Latino SVOD service, has signed a multiyear production partnership with Mexico’s Corazón Films, producer and co-creator of smash hit “El Juego de las Llaves” and the anticipated “Mi Tío,” starring José Eduardo Dérbez and Ariadne Díaz. Both these series were produced with Amazon and Pantaya. The new production partnership now

The American Cinema Editors (ACE) has nominated “Belfast,” “Dune,” “King Richard,” “No Time to Die” and “The Power of the Dog” in the category of feature film drama at the 72nd annual ACE Eddie Awards. In the best edited comedic feature category, “Cruella,” “Don’t Look Up,” “The French Dispatch,” “Licorice Pizza” and “Tick, Tick…Boom!” all

Netflix’s upcoming “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” the direct sequel to 1974’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” is paying service to fans of the original by bringing back John Larroquette to narrate the opening of the film. Larroquette’s legendary news brief at the start of the the 1974 film was meant to scare audiences by grounding the

Spanish company Soul Pictures has boarded international sales on Indian filmmaker Prasun Chatterjee’s debut feature “Two Friends” (“Dostojee”). Set in 1992-93, when Hindu-Muslim tensions escalated in India in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Bombay bomb blasts and percolated down to a remote village on the India-Bangladesh border, the film

World premiering in this year’s Rotterdam Tiger Competition, Paraguayan filmmaker Paz Encina’s fourth feature “Eami” is a mythological tale born of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode, an indigenous community from the country’s northern regions. Unique in its form, the film blends Encina’s documentarian strengths that have garnered her international recognition and her interest in a highly poetic

Lee Yong-kwan has been reappointed as chairman of the Busan International Film Festival for a further four years. He was one of the festival’s original co-founders back in 1996 and has held the chairman’s job since 2018. His renewal was agreed at a general assembly on Thursday. The next edition of the festival will run

Cooper Raiff’s “Cha Cha Real Smooth” is officially dancing to Apple TV Plus. The tech giant has nabbed the second feature from the heat-seeking director out of this year’s virtual edition of the Sundance Film Festival. Apple emerged victorious from a competitive bidding situation that attracted Netflix, Amazon and Sony Pictures as potential buyers. The

On Oct. 29, 2018, Indonesian carrier Lion Air’s Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff. Nineteen weeks later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, headed to Kenya, also crashed, leaving a deep gouge in a field near the Addis Abba Bole Airport. All told, 346 passengers and crew were killed. Both planes were new

Christina Ricci’s upcoming aquatic horror film “Monstrous” is set to premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) in March. Ricci plays a domestic abuse victim fleeing with her 7-year-old soon who soon encounters a terrifying monster living nearby. It is directed by Chris Sivertson (“All Cheerleaders Die”) and written by Carol Chrest (“The Prophet’s Game”).

Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Addison Rae has a very personal reason for inviting fans to help her raise money for the American Cancer Society. Her maternal grandfather, Donald Easterling, is a survivor of kidney cancer. “A lot of my memories of him from when I was young was in the hospital,” the

The opening moments of Amanda Kramer’s “Please Baby Please” play like an archly stylized “West Side Story” by way of Kenneth Anger. Only, instead of the Jets, we have the “Young Gents,” a group of leather-clad rascals who dance their way through the streets of a neon-tinged, foggy 1950s Manhattan before descending on an unsuspecting

There has been media debate whether “Spider-Man: No Way Home” could get a best picture Oscar nomination, since voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences have been reluctant to celebrate movies in that genre. But describing this as a superhero movie is like saying “The Godfather” is a gangster film. It IS,

Ron Perlman is hitting back against critics of Adam McKay’s Netflix satire “Don’t Look Up,” in which the “Hellboy” favorite stars opposite an ensemble cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Timothee Chalamet, Joe Morgan and Mark Rylance. Perlman stars in the movie as Colonel Benedict Drask, a war veteran tasked

Call me skeptical but are we really to take seriously last week’s pronouncement that a full-blown movie production studio and sports arena are going to be built in space? Seems so ludicrous and way too sci-fi to me, but then maybe I’m just not space-woke enough to buy it. We ran a story on Jan.

Last year, filmmaker Erick Oh was nominated for an Oscar for his expansive and thought-provoking animated short “Opera,” which contemplated the contemporary world by exploring a huge pyramid where hundreds of little figures were born, lived, loved, went to war and died in a continuous loop. He’s back in Oscar’s sights this year with a

“Golda” director Guy Nattiv has joined the Oscar-shortlisted short film “The Criminals” as executive producer. Written and directed by Serhat Karaaslan, a Kurdish director from Turkey, the film centers on a young couple in a small Turkish town looking for privacy. Shortlisted in the live-action short category for the 2022 awards, the film uses genre

A “Mortal Kombat” sequel is in the works at Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema. Jeremy Slater, best known for the Disney Plus Marvel series “Moon Knight,” has been tapped to write the screenplay. Warner Bros. and New Line had quietly been looking to develop other installments in its “Mortal Kombat” universe, but plans for a

Film Independent President Josh Welsh announced today that entertainment attorney and producer Brenda Robinson has been elected the new chair of the nonprofit’s board of directors. Robinson succeeds longtime Film Independent chair Mary Sweeney, who has served in the position for the past nine years and on the board for more than two decades. Previously

“Luck,” an upcoming animated adventure film from Skydance Animation and Apple Original Films, will premiere on Apple TV Plus on Aug. 5. The studios announced the release date on Wednesday morning, alongside additions to the film’s voice cast. Directed by Peggy Holmes, “Luck” follows the story of Sam Greenfield, ostensibly the unluckiest person alive. After

Betsy West and Julie Cohen, the filmmaking team behind “RBG” and “Julia,” have found their next project. The duo will partner on “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down,” a look at the former congresswoman’s courage and perseverance in the aftermath of a 2021 assassination attempt the left her partially paralyzed and with the language impairment, aphasia.

Keenly anticipated film sequel “Downton Abbey: A New Era” has shifted its release dates forward. Focus Features, Universal Pictures International and Carnival Films revealed on Wednesday that the film, previously dated for March 18, 2022, will now release in cinemas in U.K. cinemas on Apr. 29 and in the U.S. on May 20. Created by