American essayist, director, human rights advocate and feminist icon Susan Sontag might have been surprised to know the size of her following in the Czech Republic. But, says David Cenek, who has curated work for the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival for over a decade, “Most of Sontag’s books, including her novel, have been translated
Movies
A crew member told Variety that he warned the producers of “Rust” that Dave Halls, the first assistant director, was cavalier about set safety during a previous production. Halls has admitted to investigators that he failed to properly check a gun before handing it to Alec Baldwin on the set of “Rust” on Oct. 21.
Despite forging her own way as a successful actor and singer, acclaimed for her collaborations with Lars von Trier, Charlotte Gainsbourg has been compared to her father Serge and mom Jane Birkin all her life, she says. Now, in directorial debut “Jane by Charlotte,” she comes back to the subject on her own terms. Shown
On Friday, China’s Korean War epic “The Battle at Lake Changjin” became the highest-grossing film in the world for 2021, surpassing the Chinese New Year breakout comedy hit “Hi, Mom.” The gritty war film co-directed by Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark and Dante Lam has grossed $845 million (RMB5.41 billion) in 29 days, marching past “Hi,
Global film sales and U.S. distribution company Blue Fox Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to coming-of-age crime drama-thriller “Signs of Love,” starring Hopper Jack Penn (“Flag Day”), Dylan Penn (“Flag Day,” “Elvis & Nixon”), Zoë Bleu, and her mother, Rosanna Arquette (“The L Word,” “Ratched,” “Crash”). Blue Fox will introduce the film to international buyers
As cinematographer Eduard Grau was seeking his next project after “The Way Back,” he wanted to work with a director whose vision was to elevate the material into something intellectually profound. Actor Rebecca Hall, making her directing debut with “Passing,” proved to be the ideal partner. “She was already going in that direction, and focused
Clifton Collins Jr. has run the gamut in Hollywood. He’s worked with actors such as Philip Seymour Hoffman (“Capote”), Robert Redford (“The Last Castle”) and Benicio del Toro (“Traffic”). He’s performed for directors like Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu (“Babel”), Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood”) and JJ Abrams (“Star Trek”). Next up, he brings life
An actor filed a grievance on Tuesday accusing Allan Graf, the stunt coordinator on “Rust,” of engaging in unsafe practices involving firearms on the set of a different Western film two months ago. Shawn-Caulin Young worked on “Dead for a Dollar,” which was filmed in New Mexico in August and was directed by Walter Hill.
“Eternals,” the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has received the lowest rating of all Marvel films from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, though it still scored a “fresh” rating with 62%. “Eternals” is currently rated a touch lower than the previously lowest-rated Marvel film 2013’s “Thor: Dark World,” which sits at a 66% rating.
When Rob Zombie’s reboot of “The Munsters” hits screens in 2022, it will mark his eighth feature film, and will reaffirm his status as the most prolific musician-turned-director in history. It’s no surprise, of course, that an artist as hyper-attuned to visual imagery as Zombie has been throughout his musical career would take to filmmaking
The BloodList, an annual ranking of the best unproduced horror and genre screenplays, has published the 13th edition of its “Fresh Blood” series just in time for Halloween. The reveal was made on Friday by Village Roadshow Pictures and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, who earlier this year announced a first-look partnership to mine the list for
Netflix has unveiled its plan to host a retrospective of nine original movies, including Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” at the French Cinematheque in Paris and the Lumiere Institute in Lyon in December. Called the Netflix Film Club, the event will take place Dec. 7-14 and will comprise screenings of six movies that
When Chinese indie documentarian Rikun Zhu set about chronicling the struggles of a young Maoist true believer artist, who dreams of a new life in New York, he knew he was taking on a puzzling contradiction, he says. “It interested me a lot,” the filmmaker says, “because he always says he is a communist and
“The Crown” star and recent Emmy winner Josh O’Connor and “Normal People” BAFTA winner Paul Mescal will star in gay romance “The History of Sound,” an Oliver Hermanus-directed adaptation of an award-winning short story. Produced by End Cue, the story follows two young men, Lionel (Mescal) and David (O’Connor), who, during the WW1 period, set
Actor, writer and comedian Anders Holm has signed with CAA for representation. Holm is best known as the co-creator, writer and star of “Workaholics,” the hit Comedy Central show which ran for seven seasons. In February, Paramount Plus announced plans for a “Workaholics” film, in which Holm will reprise his role as Ders Holmvik alongside
In first phase sales, Alief has closed multiple major territories across Europe and Asia on “Cop Secret,” one of the key titles marking as move towards the mainstream in the lineup at August’s Locarno Festival, where it had its world premiere. Made on the near eve of this year’s American Film Market, the sales announcement
Kelly Duane de la Vega is putting the finishing touches to her documentary “In the Bones” (previously known as “Mississippi Red”), set to premiere in January. The film is set in Mississippi during a legislative session when equal pay for equal work and abortion rights are being decided, and zooms in on the lives of
At the movies, I don’t scare easily, but the “Paranormal Activity” films have usually found a way to get under my skin, at least for a few moments. They’ve been coming out since 2007, and in all that time they’ve turned into their own genre, with its own tropes and shivers (the stories told through
Walter Presents has inked a two-year deal with Scandinavian streaming service C More to launch a curated selection of international scripted series across Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Walter Presents, which specializes in premium foreign-language programming, will initially launch on C More with an 80-hour collection comprising eight first-run and exclusive series, including the Dutch
As the pandemic continues to catalyze major life changes, motivating — or necessitating — many to make a new start, a film such as “Golden Voices” resonates even more deeply. This neatly observed, rueful Israeli dramedy from Soviet expats Evgeny Ruman (helmer, co-writer and editor) and experienced DP Ziv Berkovich (marking his first time as
Some creatures waste away when they’re domesticated, pining for the freedom of the outdoors. That seems to be the case not only for the immensely improbable, leadenly symbolic peacock at the center of Laura Bispuri’s “The Peacock’s Paradise,” but also for Bispuri’s flair for characterization and absorbingly grounded melodrama, which comes tamely indoors after the
As inspirational college sports movies go, “Heart of the Champions” doesn’t go, or row, nearly far enough off the beaten path. It’s every bit as boilerplate as its generic title might indicate, distinguished only by its focus on an underdog rowing team rather than the amateur baseball, basketball, football or hockey players usually involved in
The ne plus ultra of Japanese maverick Nobuhiko Obayashi’s work as a surrealist and staunch anti-war advocate, the cult “House” director’s dizzying and frequently dazzling final feature is told through the adventures of four young people who are magically transported into the movies themselves. Opening with a riotous bombardment of sound and image that risks confusing
SPOILER WARNING: This story vaguely discusses a single scene in Marvel Studios’ “Eternals” that has been released by Disney, as well as a hypothetical future for Dane Whitman, Kit Harington’s character in the MCU. After spending eight seasons as one of the leads on HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” Kit Harington decided to trade one massively
Acclaimed screenwriter and producer Terence Winter has signed with LBI Entertainment for management. Winter joins rep and partner Scott Greenberg at the Rick Yorn-run firm. Greenberg departed his longtime post at CAA last summer. A mainstay in prestige dramas, Winter’s television career includes seven years as an executive producer on the HBO flagship “The Sopranos”
Ana de Armas is in talks for the lead role in the upcoming “John Wick” spinoff film “Ballerina,” Variety has confirmed. “Ballerina,” which has been in the works for several years, follows a young female assassin as she seeks revenge against those who killed her family. The action-thriller will be helmed by “Underworld” director Len Wiseman from
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees urged film and TV workers on Thursday to “stay united” and to support a new three-year agreement with the major studios when it comes up for a ratification vote. IATSE leaders reached the deal on Oct. 16, averting a nationwide strike that would have been the first in
A collective of leading movie armorers and weapons masters is calling demands to ban real firearms on film sets after the fatal “Rust” shooting “misguided,” stating that the incident was a result of the disregard for safety measures and failure to hire “well-trained professionals.” In a statement made on Tuesday, the group offered their condolences
Since 2012, more than 100 children have been conceived using the smuggled-out sperm of incarcerated Palestinians — or so it is claimed by the end titles of Mohamed Diab’s “Amira.” But here, this phenomenon, the mechanics of which make for a genuinely riveting first act, is somehow judged not dramatically fertile enough to carry an
Cinema Napa Valley announced the lineup of filmmaker tributes taking place virtually at this year’s Napa Valley Film Festival from Nov. 10-14. Video tributes will play following screenings of the honorees’ work and include conversations with them. This year, in addition to the annual Napa Valley Filmmaker Awards, the festival will debut a new series