Hollywood is starting to brace for a strike that would essentially shut down the entire industry on Monday morning. Talks have stalled on a new contract for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which has lately accused the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers of refusing to made enough concessions. Matthew D. Loeb,
Movies
Jamie Lee Curtis dressed as her mother Janet Leigh from the horror classic “Psycho” at the costume party premiere of “Halloween Kills” on Tuesday night at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Curtis commanded attention when she hit the black arrivals carpet in a blonde wig and blue dress while carrying a bloody shower curtain.
Gravitas Ventures announced they have acquired North American rights to Dorie Barton’s feature film, “Welcome to the Show,” and will release it through their hybrid distribution system composed of Comcast, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Apple TV, Dish, Google Play, Direct TV, and more at the end of the film’s film festival tour on Nov. 23.
“Halloween Kills,” the horror sequel starring Jamie Lee Curtis, should slash its way to the top of box office charts when it opens in 3,700 North American theaters on Friday. From Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions, the latest “Halloween” installment is projected to generate $35 million to $40 million in its first three days of
Longtime Disney veterans Amy Astley and Mandesa Tindal have been promoted to new positions within Walt Disney Animation Studios. Astley has been promoted to senior VP of publicity and communications, creative legacy and brand strategy, while Tindal has been upped to VP of marketing and franchise. Both report to Clark Spencer, president of Walt Disney
Juno Films has acquired global rights to “A Song for Cesar,” following the film’s debut at the Mill Valley Film Festival this October. Directed and produced by Abel Sanchez and Andrés Alegria, the film is a celebration of the organizers, musicians and artists comprising Cesar Chavez’s Farmworkers movement. Juno Films plans to release the film
To judge by the first footage to be aired from the Beatles’ forthcoming “Get Back” documentary — created by “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson from the 50-year-old footage from the group’s swan-song “Let It Be” movie — it would be a counter-narrative to the depressing “Let It Be” film. Where that film depicted the group’s
David Fincher is partnering with Netflix on “Voir,” a new documentary series of visual essays celebrating cinema. Netflix, or at least, the Twitter account dedicated to its movies, had film fans buzzing on Tuesday after tweeting: “Something special is coming tomorrow from David Fincher…” Alas, that “something special” is not a third season of “Mindhunter”
The Intl. Emerging Film Talent Assn. (IEFTA) returns to El Gouna, Egypt, with two ongoing partnerships at the fifth film festival, running Oct. 14-22. For the fifth year, IEFTA and its Global Film Expression Mentorship program will participate in the CineGouna Platform, which enables Arab film directors and producers with projects in development or films in
Proximity Media has hired Rebecca Cho as senior VP of film development and production to help shepherd the burgeoning production company’s slate of film projects. Cho joins Proximity from Warner Bros., where she served as director of development and worked with the Proximity Media team on the films “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Space
Leading British independent filmmakers expressed some frank views on gatekeepers acting as a barrier to independent cinema at a BFI London Film Festival panel discussion on Tuesday. The panel consisted of Palme d’Or winner Mike Leigh (“Secrets & Lies”), Oscar winner Asif Kapadia (“Amy”) and Golden Bear winner Michael Winterbottom (“In This World”). The discussion
We in the media have known for some time that Alan Horn would be retiring from Disney at year’s end, as Variety has reported. But somehow when Disney officially announced the news this week that indeed the 78-year-old leader would be leaving as of Dec. 31, it really hit me, and made me sad. I
Italy’s True Colours has taken sales on two new titles that it will introduce to international buyers at Rome’s MIA Market: “Prophets,” an ISIS-themed drama by Alessio Cremonini (“On My Skin”) and “A Breath of Life,” a doc about a 97-year-old Italian transsexual woman named Lucy, who is among the few survivors of the Dachau
Denis Villeneuve’s long-awaited “Dune” arrives in theaters and on HBO Max on Oct. 22, and has already become part of the awards conversation for its sumptuous visuals. The action follows Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, whose family inherits the planet Arrakis, an unforgiving desert world that also contains the only source of “spice,” the most valuable
The Fear Collection, a new horror-based joint venture between Sony Pictures International, Amazon Prime Video and Alex de la Iglesia’s Pokeepsie Films, has announced its next feature production, “Venus” from Spanish genre legend Jaume Balagueró (“[Rec]” “Mientras duermes”) and starring one of the country’s most exciting young actors, Ester Expósito (“Élite,” “Someone Has to Die”).
Eon executive James Higgins, who spent over thirty years at the James Bond production company, has died, his family have confirmed. He was 98. Higgins began his career as a student salesman at MGM in 1951. His fist job posting was to Wales, where he sold films to workmen’s halls (leisure facilities for miners and
As India’s Viacom18 Studios completes “Laal Singh Chaddha,” its Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan-starring Bollywood adaptation of “Forrest Gump,” plans are afoot to further mine Paramount’s IP. “There are a couple of other titles that we are evaluating closely, but of course a lot of our focus and bandwidth is currently consumed by ‘Laal
China’s Pingyao International Film Festival got under way on Tuesday with the gala screening of Zhang Lu’s new drama film “Yanagawa.” The festival will unspool Oct. 12-19 with a familiar package of competition screenings a work in progress section, a film lab, a project market and a tribute section dedicated to Tsui Hark. Organizers announced
London-based doc specialist Taskovski Films has acquired the world sales rights to Irish director Pat Collins’ feature doc “The Dance,” which is running in the Documentary Competition at this week’s London Film Festival. Produced through Irish prod cos Harvest Films and South Wind Blows with support from Screen Ireland and RTE, the observation documentary claims
Italy’s Lotus Production, producer of 2016 megahit “Perfetti Sconosciuti” (“Perfect Strangers”), has finished its Rome shoot of “Vicini di casa,” the Italian adaptation of Cesc Gay’s Spanish hit comedy “Sentimental” (“The People Upstairs”). “Vicini di casa” teams Lotus, part of Italy’s Leone Film Group company, with Manuel Tedescos’ Baires Produzioni in association with Mediaset Group’s
Universal release, James Bond title “No Time to Die,” ruled the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second weekend in a row, but competition is waiting in the wings. The film, Daniel Craig’s swan song as the iconic British super spy, collected £15.2 million ($20.7 million) and now has a mighty total of £52.6
Strange how it can feel like not a lot happens in a film that features unwanted teen pregnancy, spousal abandonment, mounting debt, a heart attack, a fistfight and a police chase that ends in a car crash. Even stranger that in the case of Aizhana Kassymbek’s “Fire,” the impression of uneventfulness in a story packed
Sales agency The Playmaker Munich has signed a deal with Elsani & Neary Media to handle the international sales for “The Albanian Virgin.” The film had its world premiere in the competition section of the Warsaw Intl. Film Festival on Friday, and The Playmaker Munich will present it to buyers at MIA Market in Rome,
The Busan International Film Festival will be a homecoming of sorts for Zhang Lu. The celebrated art-house director was born in China, but is of Korean ethnicity, and has enjoyed many of his successes in Busan, at the festival or through the project market. Zhang’s new film “Yanagawa” has its world premiere in Busan’s Icons
Netflix has reinstated three employees, including a trans senior software engineer who criticized the streamer’s new Dave Chappelle comedy special, after suspending and investigating the group for crashing a meeting of its top executives. Terra Field, one of the suspended employees, shared her reinstatement by the company on her Twitter. Field also included a screenshot
After the success of 2019’s “Suk Suk,” in which he examined the late blooming love of two elderly men, Hong Kong based filmmaker Ray Yeung is proposing to take an adjacent track in his upcoming film “Today… Tomorrow…” After the death of her partner, a 60-something lesbian finds herself at the mercy of the partner’s
Sony Pictures has acquired “No Hard Feelings,” an R-rated comedy package with Jennifer Lawrence attached to star. Along with Lawrence, the film will be directed by Gene Stupnitsky, a writer and co-executive producer on NBC’s “The Office.” “No Hard Feelings” will be Stupnitsky’s follow-up to the 2019 coming-of-age ensemble comedy “Good Boys,” his feature-length directorial
Fully booked production facilities are one bright spot in New York City’s commercial real estate landscape. “Speaking as a New Yorker, the pandemic proved the importance of this industry to the economic diversity of New York,” says Hal Rosenbluth, CEO of Kaufman Astoria Studios. The Kaufman Astoria facilities and all available borough full-service soundstages are
Ricarlo Flanagan, an actor, rapper and stand-up comedian who was a semifinalist on “Last Comic Standing,” died over the weekend of COVID complications, his talent representative confirmed to Variety. He was 40. “Sadly this pandemic has taken the life of an extremely talented performer and even nicer human being. Ricarlo will be greatly missed,” Golfman told Variety.
An official with IATSE told members on Tuesday that the studios are refusing to make the necessary concessions to avoid a strike, although negotiations are still underway. Cathy Repola, the national executive director of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, told members in an email on Tuesday that the pace of the talks is quickening, and