Movies

Rossy de Palma (“Parallel Mothers”), the Spanish star who is known as Pedro Almodovar’s muse, is set to headline “Liberty’s,” a music-filled period drama set at an eccentric cabaret in occupied Paris. The eight-part series was created and written by Cédric Le Gallo, the co-director of “The Shiny Shrimps,” which world premiered at Cannes’ Directors

Two-time Academy-award nominated Norwegian actor Liv Ullmann (‘The Emigrants,’ ‘Face to Face’), Ane Dahl Torp (“Charter”, “Home Ground”) and model-turned actor Elsa Brisinger, have been cast in the forthcoming Swedish dark fable “The Nix.” The eerie pic anchored in Scandinavian mythology was pitched on Wednesday at Haugesund’s Nordic Co-Production Market by rising Swedish talent Niclas

Sheffield-based Warp Films, whose musical “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” hits Amazon next month, has announced a partnership with production and financing studio Anton. The two companies plan to develop a slate of television series and feature films, with Anton financing a development fund from which they plan to identify and develop “high-value IP projects,” with

There was a time — way before the reality-TV chaos of “Top Chef,” “Hell’s Kitchen” and their ilk, and the ubiquitous trend for open restaurant kitchens — when most of us didn’t think all that much about the labor and drama behind the scenes of eating out. Now, we probably overcook the theater of fine

Just as it’s easy to imagine “The Hangover” being transformed, with relatively minor script tinkering, into a deadly serious film noir, one can envision an early draft of “Vacation Friends” serving as the blueprint for a paranoid thriller about vacationers who discover much too late that their new acquaintances are aggressively chummy for all the

Before anyone labels “He’s All That” as a rote remake, consider this: It’s a reimagining that — unlike “She’s All That” or the source material that inspired it, George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” — is rooted primarily in the female perspective. It’s a shame though that director Mark Waters and returning screenwriter R. Lee Fleming Jr.

Venice this year has the goods and the glitz with a star-studded lineup packed with hotly anticipated titles such as Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune,” Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” and Ridley Scott’s “The Last Duel,” alongside more esoteric titles. It’s likely to make the Lido a place to reignite theatrical and bolster its standing

Though the Venice Film Festival will serve as a launching pad for several blockbusters, festival artistic director Alberto Barbera this year is introducing a section called Horizons Extra, dedicated to more offbeat works of all genres with no length constraints although they must be more than an hour long. These pics will be judged by

To use a football analogy, Lionsgate called a late-stage audible for sports drama “American Underdog,” moving its domestic theatrical premiere to Christmas Day from a congested Dec. 10, the company  revealed in its slate presentation Thursday at CinemaCon. Lionsgate was the last distributor to show a product reel at the Las Vegas gathering of cinema

Addison Rae didn’t confirm nor deny whether she’s attending this year’s Met Gala, but she revealed that she’s recently became email buddies with Anna Wintour. “I got an email from her and I was freaking out,” the 20-year-old TikTok star told me at NeueHouse in Hollywood on Wednesday night at the premiere of her film

Chernin Entertainment has expanded its executive leadership with three key hires: NBCUniversal veteran Bill McGoldrick, Starz exec Juan Alfonso , and Fox 21 legal pro Vibiana Molina. McGoldrick has been named executive vice president of film and television, with Alfonso serving as senior vice president over those two portfolios. Molina was named executive vice president

Tina Tchen, the former chief of staff for Michelle Obama who became president and CEO of Time’s Up Now and the Time’s Up Foundation, has stepped down from the women’s advocacy group. Tchen’s resignation comes amid a time of crisis for the organization, which was founded in January 2018 by Hollywood A-listers and Washington power

“Stranger Things” breakout Priah Ferguson is sticking to the spooky (and spunky) theme, signing on to star opposite Marlon Wayans in his upcoming Halloween adventure-comedy movie for Netflix. Ferguson stars in the yet-to-be-titled movie as a teenage girl who accidentally unleashes an ancient and mischievous spirit on Halloween, causing decorations to come alive and wreak

When David Oyelowo decided to step behind the camera to direct the family adventure film “The Water Man,” the Emmy, BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated actor and producer had already overcome several hurdles just to get the movie made. Then the pandemic struck, forcing the movie into the turbulent rapids of the ever-changing film distribution landscape.

In honor of Women’s Equality Day (August 26), HBO Max announces the launch of its “So She Did” campaign, which champions the network’s female pioneers in front of and behind the camera. The campaign kicks off with a film that celebrates the women who have been told they are “too much” and break all the

The 2021 American Film Market will once again go virtual, following the online format of last year’s event that took place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Independent Film and Television Alliance made the official announcement Thursday, roughly two months after organizers signaled that AFM could return as an in-person event this year.

CinemaCon attendees had an action-packed morning viewing footage from Paramount’s Tom Cruise starrers “Mission: Impossible 7” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” Tom Cruise didn’t appear in person, but was onscreen for Paramount’s presentation in Las Vegas on Thursday. For “Mission: Impossible 7,” Cruise appeared on video describing the harrowing motorcycle stunt jumping off a mountain in

Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr.  will venture with director Barry Jenkins to the Pride Lands, with the actors set to voice Mufasa and Scar in Disney’s upcoming prequel to “The Lion King.” After the studio’s 2019 photo-realistic adaptation of the animated classic grossed $1.6 billion at the global box office, Disney was eager to

HighballTV, the Canada-based subscription streaming platform that focuses on curated film collections from leading filmmakers and top titles from major film festivals, has unveiled its 2021-2022 slate of original productions. All of the films are directed by women directors and/or people of color, and every writing team is led by a woman or person of

UTA has signed Ian Barling, a New York-based filmmaker whose latest short competed at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, for worldwide representation in all areas. Barling’s “Safe” world premiered at Critics’ Week, the Cannes sidebar dedicated to emerging directors. A twisted father-son thriller set in Barling’s native Atlantic City, “Safe” is the first U.S. short

The 25th American Black Film Festival is shifting from a hybrid to a fully online event, Jeff Friday Media (JFM) announced today. The festival, which runs from Nov. 3-14, 2021 will be available digitally on ABFF’s custom-built online platform, abffplay.com, providing artists, filmmakers, movie fans and audiences the opportunity to come together virtually to celebrate

In the 1980s, it took Stanley Nelson seven years to make “Two Dollars and a Dream: The Story of Madame C.J. Walker,” his first documentary film. It took him another seven years to make his second feature doc: “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords.” Once he had two films under his belt, Nelson, now 66,

Netflix has tapped Victoria Mahoney to direct its sequel to “The Old Guard,” the superhero action-adventure led by Charlize Theron. “The Old Guard” premiered on Netflix in July 2020 and, by the streaming service’s vague metrics, appears to have been a hit, garnering 78 million views in its first four weeks. Along with Theron, the

The Toronto International Film Festival announced that Dionne Warwick and Danis Goulet will be honored at the TIFF Tribute Awards on Sept. 18. Warwick, the famed singer of “I Say a Little Prayer” and “Walk on By,” will receive the Special Tribute Award. She is the subject of “Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over,” a

FESTIVALS The 17th Zurich Film Festival (Sept. 23-Oct. 3) will honor Sharon Stone with its highest accolade, the Golden Icon Award. Stone will be in Zurich to accept the award in person on Sept. 25. The award ceremony will be followed by a screening of Martin Scorsese’s “Casino,” which earned Stone an Oscar nomination. The

The Boy Who Lived is changing his U.S. streaming address again. All eight original “Harry Potter” films from Warner Bros. are returning to HBO Max next month, after spending a little less than a year on NBCUniversal’s Peacock. Starting Sept. 1, the eight wizarding films based on J.K. Rowling’s best-selling novels will be available on

It speaks volumes that we get to know the woman’s back, hunched over dishes or laundry, against cracked tiles rimmed in dirty grout, before we get a proper look at her careworn face. And even then, the eyes of this Egyptian housewife (a superbly self-contained Demyana Nassar), the mother of two grimy, wriggling little boys,

A cavalcade of creatures from Japanese folklore come alive in “The Great Yokai War: Guardian,” a hugely enjoyable fantasy-adventure directed by the famously prolific and supremely versatile Takashi Miike (“Audition”, “13 Assassins”). Starring amazingly talented child actors Kokoro Terada and Rei Inomata as brothers summonsed by peace-loving spirits to stop an angry demon from engaging

Though famously ambivalent about film adaptations of his work — to the degree of never watching some — Alan Moore has written a screen original in “The Show,” perhaps attracted to a more hands-on approach to the medium now that he’s officially retired from comics. This playfully wayward mystery set in his native Northampton turns

Global streaming giant Netflix has teamed with South Korea’s largest cinema chain CJ CGV to give theatrical releases to seven Netflix Original movies. The Korean-language titles will be given a limited 13-day run (Sept. 1-12, 2021) in 80 CGV multiplexes. The initiative, branded as ‘NetFic,’ is the latest effort by the film industry to stimulate