Movies

In “Lakewood,” Naomi Watts plays Amy Carr, who starts out in the late afternoon jogging through an upscale wooded suburb, mourning her husband’s death in a car crash the year before. The film tells the story of a woman and her partner, her significant other, the second self she can’t live without. The husband, named

The Tokyo International Film Festival will showcase the works of director Yoshida Keisuke at next month’s 34th edition. The festival runs Oct. 30-Nov. 8, 2021. Two films by Yoshida are getting commercial releases this year, his recent “Blue,” and “Intolerance,” which reaches Japanese theaters later this month (Sept. 23.) The festival will give house room

The annual Met Gala may be the pinnacle of east coast entertaining, but make no mistake, Hollywood shows up in full force. That’s certainly the case this year for the guests of Thom Browne, the American classic gentleman designer who ushered in bare-ankle suiting and continues to up his game in streetwear. His table at

A group of elite entertainment lawyers are leaving their respective companies to form a new firm, eyeing a 2022 opening date. The unnamed venture will be led by attorneys Matthew Johnson, P.J. Shapiro and Gregory Slewett of Ziffren Brittenham LLP, and Tara Kole of Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman. They have represented top show

“Pinkfong and Baby Shark’s Space Adventure,” a movie that draws influence from the viral song, is coming to theaters this weekend. SmartStudy, the company behind the film, is partnering with Iconic Events Releasing to bring “Pinkfong and Baby Shark’s Space Adventure” to the big screen for a limited run on Oct. 9 and 10. “We couldn’t

When Taiwanese actor Janine Chang was writing her masters’ thesis in industrial economics in 2010, she likely never imagined that two Chinese characters in it would become a diplomatic flashpoint and threaten to derail her lucrative acting career more than a decade later. This week, however, it has done just that. Her thesis at Taiwan’s

Jannat Gargi has been named senior vice president and head of documentaries at Westbrook, where she will be tasked with making non-fiction features and premium series. She joins the media company from Vice Studios, where she most recently held the role of vice president of documentaries. At Vice, Gargi developed documentaries such as “Flee,” which

Keegan-Michael Key has been cast in “Wonka,” a musical based on the early life of Willy Wonka. He will star alongside Timothee Chalamet, who has been set to portray the famed chocolatier. Though plot details, as well as Key’s role, have been kept under wraps, “Wonka” serves as a prequel to “Charlie and the Chocolate

Brian Robbins has officially been named president and CEO of Paramount Pictures, replacing Jim Gianopulos as head of the studio behind the “Mission: Impossible” and “Transformers” franchises, and setting up a new era in the oversight of one of Hollywood’s big movie studios. Robbins will take the reins while continuing in his current post as

Bleecker Street has acquired the U.S. rights to Geeta Malik’s “India Sweets and Spices,” premiering in theaters on Nov. 19. The film, which debuted at Tribeca Film Festival, follows Alia Kapur (Sophia Ali) as she returns to her family’s posh suburban New Jersey home after a year away at college and turns their well-ordered life

Stanley Nelson has been set to direct a feature-length documentary on the life of Charlie Sifford, the first Black golfer to play on the PGA Tour. Sifford, who has been called the Jackie Robinson of golf, was instrumental in getting the biggest professional golf tournament in the U.S. to terminate the “Caucasian-only” membership clause, an

Filmmaker Michael McGowan brings “All My Puny Sorrows,” his adaptation of beloved writer Miriam Toews’ novel, to the Toronto International Film Festival. The book, which McGowan adapted for the screen, tackles family bonds, religion, grief and suicide. The film stars Alison Pill, a writer dealing with a creative block, a divorce and a teenage daughter,

“Don’t Worry Darling,” a psychological thriller directed by Olivia Wilde and starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, is scheduled to open in theaters next fall. The film is slated for Sept. 23, 2022. Set in the 1950s, New Line Cinema’s “Don’t Worry Darling” follows a housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community

The New York Times’ Op-Docs initiative has picked up “Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma,” winner of the short film jury award for non-fiction at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, and will release it Sept. 14 on NYTimes.com. Directed by Topaz Jones and filmmaking duo Rubberband (Jason Filmore Sondock and Simon Davis), the 38-minute film explores

Living in the age of the Marvel Cinematic Universe means your favorite superheroes can pop up anywhere in the multiverse — including prestige awards dramas set in the 1960s. That’s precisely what happens in Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” which saw a triumphant premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Sunday night. The emotional, loosely autobiographical project

Last year, September’s San Sebastian worked a minor miracle, staging a safe on-site festival as second-wave COVID-19 built up in Spain. This year, on-site attendance will be up, though travel problems, caution and costs in Latin America, the U.S and Asia will prevent a full attendance. That said, this year’s festival, running Sept. 17-25, will

COMPENSATION Visual effects and animation studio DNEG, whose credits include “Dune” and “No Time to Die,” will pay enhanced overtime to its U.K. employees. From October, DNEG will pay overtime at 1.5x rate to all U.K. staff in non-management positions for all incremental time that they are asked to work beyond the standard 40-hour week.

“Burning,” Amazon’s first original feature-length documentary from Australia, about the devastating ‘Black Summer’ of 2019-20 Australian bushfires makes its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. There is every chance it will spark a political response. Co-produced by Propagate Content and Dirty Films (in which Cate Blanchett is executive producer) “Burning” is produced and

Oscars voters have always loved seeing actors whose startling physical transformations come after countless hours in the makeup chair. After Renée Zellweger (“Judy”), Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”) and Charlize Theron (“Monster”) won Oscars for their impressively-altered looks, Jessica Chastain could be on a similar path for her role as the media-loving televangelist Tammy

In “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain play Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the self-styled Christian TV personalities who did more than anyone else to mold televangelism into a game-changing, culture-shaking, credit-card-maxing industry/cult/diversion. The movie, which is a ticklishly fascinating rise-and-fall saga, was directed by Michael Showalter, who almost always makes

MRC has tapped NBCUniversal alum Adam Stotsky as president of the newly created MRC Live & Alternative, which will absorb the operations of Dick Clark Productions. MRC has slowly been phasing out the Dick Clark Prods. moniker. Stotsky will oversee a division that produces major awards franchises including the American Music Awards, Academy of Country

German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon, who was murdered in Auschwitz at age 26, and her autobiographical masterwork “Life? or Theatre?,” which was created in a two-year burst in the early 1940s, are the subjects of “Charlotte,” a unique animated biopic drama that marks a career turning point for Toronto producer Julia Rosenberg. Rosenberg first encountered “Life? or

Ben Best, the co-creator of HBO’s “Eastbound & Down” who also played Clegg in the series, has died. He was 46. Rough House Pictures, which produced “Eastbound & Down,” confirmed the news of Best’s death on Instagram with the caption, “It’s with heavy hearts we say goodbye to our good buddy Ben Best. We lost

After dazzling the in-person audience at the Toronto Film Festival, writer-director Kenneth Branagh broke down crying over his loosely autobiographical film “Belfast.” Following what was easily the most rapturous response to a festival entry at Toronto’s Roy Thomson hall this year, Branagh was overcome in a Q&A describing the inspiration behind the film. “I started

Indian studios T-Series and Reliance Entertainment have partnered for a slate of more than 10 films with a total investment of INR10 billion ($136.2 million). The films will be across across genres and will be a mix of big budget tentpoles as well as mid and small budget films. They are in various stages of

The world premiere of Danis Goulet’s first feature, “Night Raiders,” in Berlin generated positive reviews and led to a U.S. sale to Samuel Goldwyn. But to the Toronto-based, Cree-Métis filmmaker it all felt a little abstract. “I haven’t seen an audience reaction, so Toronto feels like the premiere,” she told Variety during a break from directing the Netflix

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Inc. could become the latest celebrity-backed media company to secure a splashy deal. The company, which produces the popular “Red Table Talk” on Facebook Watch and is backing the upcoming “King Richard,” is in negotiations to sell itself to the unnamed media venture run by former Walt Disney

For the first time in its 46-year history, a Tanzanian film is part of the official selection of the Toronto Film Festival, as Amil Shivji’s “Vuta N’Kuvute” (Tug of War) prepares to bow at the Canadian fest on Sept. 13. Set in colonial-era Zanzibar, “Tug of War” is the story of a young freedom fighter

“Citizen Ashe,” a new documentary about tennis star Arthur Ashe, is as interested in its subject’s political evolution as it is in his heroics on the court. Ashe was one of the top tennis players in the world for much of the 1960s and ’70s, winning the U.S. Open and the Australian Open and becoming

Mirjana Karanović, an actor best known for her starring role in Emir Kusturica’s “When Father Was Away on Business” and Jasmila Žbanić’s Golden Bear winner “Grbavica,” is preparing to direct her second feature, “Mother Mara.” This follows her directorial debut, “A Good Wife,” which competed in Sundance’s World Cinema – Dramatic section in 2016, and