Movies

Nancy Utley, the veteran movie executive who ran Searchlight Pictures, has launched a new content label and secured a first-look arrangement with Chernin Entertainment. Utley’s Lake Ellyn Entertainment will produce film and television for Chernin, whose own first-look pact with Netflix will now include work from Utley. Jenno Topping, president of film and TV at

Josh Lucas will battle a giant shark in “The Black Demon,” a survival thriller from “Rambo: Last Blood” director Adrian Grunberg. The film was written by Boise Esquerra (“Blackwater”) and is set to start principal photography in December on location in the Dominican Republic. Here’s the logline for this sea creature chiller: “The film follows

Edgar Wright’s psychological thriller “Last Night in Soho” and the Guillermo del Toro-produced supernatural horror film “Antlers” will close out a surprisingly strong October at the domestic box office. The spookiest month of the year isn’t always booming when it comes to box office ticket sales. But in pandemic times, as big-budgeted movies are regularly

The first assistant director on “Rust,” David Halls, acknowledged to investigators that he should have checked a weapon for live rounds before giving it to Alec Baldwin, according to a search warrant affidavit filed on Wednesday. Baldwin fired the weapon while rehearsing a scene last Thursday at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, striking

Cinematographer Ari Wegner is about to become a more familiar name in the film world, as the “Zola” DP starts to rake in recognition for her contribution to Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” in selected theaters Nov. 17 and arriving on Netflix Dec. 1. Wegner has received the Toronto International Film Festival Variety

Gravitas Ventures, a Red Arrow Studios company, has acquired the U.S. rights from production company Augenschein Filmproduktion to distribute Franka Potente’s directorial debut, “Home.” Starring Jake McLaughlin, the drama tells the story of Marvin Hacks (McLaughlin), who comes home after more than 20 years in prison and soon finds out that his hometown has not

Universal Pictures has signed a two-year overall film deal with Academy Award-nominated writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns and Jack Ivins’ Great Company. News of the pact comes ahead of the debut of “Last Night in Soho,” which Wilson-Cairns co-wrote alongside director Edgar Wright, as it bolsters the working relationship between Wilson-Cairns and Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. The

Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” “And Just Like That …” will not only look like “Sex and the City” for a new generation, with Nicole Ari Parker, Sara Ramírez, Sarita Choudhury and Karen Pittman joining the cast, but the HBO Max reboot will also tackle issues around race. “I’m excited to be a

The Santa Fe County Sheriff and district attorney are giving an update on the investigation of the fatal shooting on the set of “Rust” last week. Sheriff Adan Mendoza told reporters that a live round was recovered from the shoulder of director Joel Souza. That round also caused the death of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer,

In March 2020, Kenneth Branagh retreated to his home just outside London. And, like much of the world, he stayed home as COVID cut a deadly path around the globe, upending life and closing the cinemas and West End theaters where Branagh has made a name for himself as an actor and a director over

We are all still in shock and reeling with grief and anger over the tragic death of 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was accidentally killed last week on the set of the Western movie “Rust” by a prop gun that was discharged by Alec Baldwin. It remains a mystery as to how in the hell

Marvel Studios’ Victoria Alonso will honored next month with the Visionary Award at the 2021 Outfest Legacy Awards. Alonso, Marvel Studios’ president of physical and post production, visual effects and animation production, will be recognized for her contributions to LGBTQ representation and media visibility. She serves as an executive producer on Marvel Studios’ films and

Indian studio Excel Entertainment is on a roll. There are several films in the works, including the long-awaited return to direction from company co-founder Farhan Akhtar; a continuing relationship with Amazon Prime Video; and a new deal with Netflix. Excel was founded by Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, schoolmates with very different backgrounds, in 2001. Sidhwani’s

As COVID’s shadow swept across the independent film market over the past 20 months, the banking and finance sector experienced a collective shudder: insurance was unavailable; completion bonders blocked COVID-19 cover; A-listers avoided shoots; and streamers shifted millions of eyeballs away from already shuttered cinemas. Now, as AFM prepares for an all-online offering, with many

Medellín-based Héroe Films, the production company behind Henry Rincón’s “The City of Wild Beasts,” an HBO Max-Outsider Pictures pickup for the U.S., is teaming with Panamanian director Arturo Montenegro’s Q Films (“Everybody Changes”) to produce Paloma Valencia feature debut, “El susurro del río” (“The Whisper of the River”). Héroe is also partnering with Colombia and

After a multi-year hiatus, Pablo Stoll, who broke out with directing partner Juan Pablo Rebella on such hits as “25 Watts” and “Whisky,” is back in the director’s seat, albeit on his own, with “Summer Hit” (“El Tema del Verano”), a zombie pic now shooting on the beaches of Uruguay. Presented at last year’s Cannes

Chris Evans is going to infinity and beyond. Captain America himself is voicing Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s upcoming origin story for everyone’s favorite “Toy Story” character, aptly titled “Lightyear.” Pixar released the first trailer for the animated, family-friendly, sci-fi movie on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday. However, “Lightyear” doesn’t follow the toy-sized, space-faring exploits of

Variety can reveal the first look poster and trailer of the long awaited sequel to all-time British kids’ classic film “The Railway Children” from Studiocanal. Studiocanal is launching global sales on the film at the virtual AFM (Nov. 1-5). Based on a celebrated novel by E. Nesbit, the original 1970 film follows three children, who,

“Frasier” star Kelsey Grammer and Phyllis Logan, best known for portraying the beloved Mrs. Hughes (and later Mrs. Carson) in “Downton Abbey,” are set to star in plane crash thriller “No Way Up,” with Altitude Film Entertainment both producing and handling worldwide sales. The project, which will begin shooting in Malta in spring 2022, will

The Czech Republic’s premier nonfiction fest, the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, launched its 25th edition Tuesday in the historic town’s renovated cultural center, previewing an impressive program that accompanies its first fully live version in two years. Fest director Marek Hovorka greeted the audience with fond memories of the improvements the event – and

When doc director Linda Kallistova Jablonska began exploring the state orphanage system in the Czech Republic, she confesses she didn’t expect to find ordinary girls living in institutions for years – children who would likely not have been separated from their families in any other EU nation. Filming her subjects for eight years, the filmmaker

Jan Oliver Lucks, the New Zealand-based director of “There Is No I in Threesome,” has signed with U.S. talent agency ICM Partners for representation in all areas. The controversial film about an open relationship premiered on WarnerMedia’s HBO Max streaming service earlier this year and was the first New Zealand movie to do so. “Threesome”

New reports suggest that Netflix manipulated its own search and recommendations algorithm to help mitigate public backlash in September 2020, suppressing the outreach of the film “Cuties” on the platform after promotional material for the title, deemed inappropriate, sparked a massive wave of criticism against the streamer. Internal documents obtained and reviewed by The Verge

Bill Murray is stepping into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While promoting his role in Wes Anderson’s latest film “The French Dispatch,” the 71-year-old Murray said in an Oct. 26 interview published by German outlet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (or FAZ) that he recently shot a role on Marvel Studios’ “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” — or,

Anya Taylor-Joy stars in Edgar Wright’s new “Last Night in Soho,” but it wasn’t the first time they could have worked together. “I had read the ‘Baby Driver’ script’ and auditioned for it,” Taylor-Joy told me Monday at the “Last Night in Soho” premiere at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. “I was a really

In 2016, Kelly Grimsley was vacationing in Los Angeles when she was invited to lunch with a family friend. The lunch turned out to be a pitch meeting for an investment in an independent film, and Grimsley ended up putting in $250,000 to get it made. Grimsley would later sue the producers — Ryan Smith

Westbrook Inc., the entertainment company founded by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, has ended talks to sell to a new media venture backed by Blackstone Group and executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, sources tell Variety. The two parties began discussions in mid-September, Variety previously reported, with the former Walt Disney Co. honchos looking

All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. One of the most memorable scenes from James Gunn’s “Suicide Squad” comes almost exactly an hour into the

Gold House launched an upcoming project titled the Future Gold Film Fellowship — in partnership with Netflix and Tribeca Studios in an effort to amplify API directors and their stories. Selected by Tribeca Studios and industry leaders including: Aneesh Chaganty, Jon M. Chu, Destin Daniel Cretton, Christopher Kahunahana, Daniel Dae Kim, Alice Wu, Janet Yang

Mort Sahl, a trailblazing political satirist whose biting wit and uncompromising intellect broadened the world of conventional standup comedy, died Tuesday in Mill Valley, Calif. He was 94. The New York Times confirmed his death with his friend, Lucy Mercer. In 1953, when Sahl first appeared at the Hungry i, a San Francisco folk singer’s