Movies

The Jeffrey Archer Company and Dream Bay Entertainment have entered into a strategic partnership to adapt the bestselling author’s works for television and film internationally, with an initial focus on Indian, Asian and the Middle Eastern markets. DBE was founded in 2023 by former Amazon Studios executive Thomas Drachkovitch. Former CAA agent Jason Hafford recently

Brazilian auteur Kleber Mendonça Filho (“Bacurau”) is set to direct “The Secret Agent,” a gripping political thriller headlined by “Civil War” star Wagner Moura. The film is set in the late 1970s during the final years of Brazil’s military dictatorship. MK2 Films, the sales banner behind the Oscar-winning “Anatomy of a Fall,” will introduce the

Process documentaries following Indigenous land protectors are typically endurance tests for filmmakers, not to mention protagonists. But the payoff is that these films often resonate strongly with audiences in their ability to take viewers beyond the headlines and frontlines in profound and intimate ways. One of several strong land-activism docs looking for buyers at Hot

Producer Ina Fichman, Oscar nominated for “Fire of Love,” was at the 25th edition of Hot Docs Forum on Tuesday to pitch her latest project “Ba’s Book.” Directed by Canadian filmmaker Ashley Da-Le Duong, the hybrid docu focuses on Duong’s father and his experiences living through both the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution. “Let

Barry Jenkins defended his involvement in “Mufasa: The Lion King” after he was criticized on social media this week for helming the Disney live-action prequel. Jenkins shared the first “Mufasa” trailer on X (formerly Twitter) following its release on Monday, which prompted some fans to criticize the filmmaker, known for the Oscar-winning films “Moonlight” and

Beavis and Butt-Head made an unexpected red carpet debut at the Los Angeles premiere of “The Fall Guy” on Tuesday night. Ryan Gosling and Mikey Day appeared on the carpet together dressed as live-action versions of Beavis and Butt-Head, respectively, from the infamous “Saturday Night Live” sketch. After initially posing for photos in a mint-green

New Line Cinema has landed the Chris Farley biopic starring Paul Walter Hauser, in what Variety is told was a highly competitive situation. The film, which has the blessing of the Farley family, will mark actor Josh Gad‘s directorial debut, with Lorne Michaels and Erin David producing via Broadway Video. Oscar and Emmy nominees Scott

Carla Gugino has been tapped to play Hollywood screen legend Vivien Leigh in the forthcoming biopic “The Florist.” The film is directed by Nick Sandow (star of “Orange is the New Black”) and will explore Leigh’s struggle with bipolar disorder in the 1960s, as she prepares to lead the Broadway production of John Gielgud’s Chekhov

European Film Promotion has revealed the participants for its Producers on the Move program, which runs before and during the Cannes Film Festival. The promotion and networking program, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, brings together 20 of Europe’s most promising producers. This year, EFP will also put a spotlight on the numerous collaborations that

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains plot details for “Challengers,” now playing in theaters. All Tashi Duncan wanted was great tennis. At the end of Luca Guadagnino’s buzzy tennis drama “Challengers,” the camera freezes on Tashi (Zendaya) as she screams “come on!” following a match point volley for the ages between competitors Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor)

Buenos Aires-based boutique sales outfit Compañía de Cine has acquired international rights to Mauro Colombo’s contemplative second feature, “Wild Gleaming Space,” (“Luminoso Espacio Salvaje”) ahead of its global bow on Wednesday at Toronto’s Hot Docs, which runs April 25 to May 5. Shot in Panama, Chile, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium, the film weaves together intimate

Inevitable Foundation has announced the winners of its partnership with the Loreen Arbus Foundation to support disabled women and nonbinary writers. The recipients are Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini, Melanie Abrams Fierstein, Natalia Temesgen and Anne Hamilton, who will each receive an $8,000 grant as well as mentorship, coaching and professional connections. “We are incredibly excited to

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, two essential ingredients in the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, will leave Barbieland and Los Alamos behind them as they team up for “The Fall Guy.” But will audiences turn up in force to see the “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” stars when their new action comedy debuts this weekend? Well, “The Fall Guy” isn’t

Shiori Ito’s feature documentary “Black Box Diaries” about the investigation of the director’s own sexual assault, earned a standing ovation following its Hot Docs Canadian premiere on Monday. The 103-minute film tracks Ito’s arduous, five-year struggle to bring to justice renowned TV reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi, who sexually assaulted her. In 2015, Ito – then a

Francis Ford Coppola revealed in a preview of “Megalopolis” in Vanity Fair that he rewrote the script around 300 times before self-financing the passion project for $120 million by selling part of his winery estate in Northern California. The epic is set to world premiere in competition at the Cannes FIlm Festival in May. A

Jeff Bridges isn’t like other leading men. So goes the tale for over 50 years and 70 films. Where other actors of his generation—Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson—brought volume and bravado, Bridges excelled in the shadows. A charming pretty boy turned weary and soulful iconoclast, his characters have never been showy. As The Dude in

The Bentonville Film Foundation has announced the narrative, documentary, short film and episodic selections premiering in-person for the 10th annual Bentonville Film Festival. Set this year for June 10-16 in Bentonville, Ark., the festival aims to amplify female, non-binary, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC and people with disabilities’ voices in entertainment. Festival passes are on sale now. Opening

Hot Docs is to honor Canadian writer-producer-director Alison Duke with the Don Haig Award, which recognizes “creative vision and entrepreneurship,” as reflected in her work, as well as a track record of mentoring emerging Canadian filmmakers. The award is presented to a Canadian independent producer with a feature-length film at the festival, with the recipient

The feature adaptation of “Avengelyne” from Olivia Wilde, Margot Robbie and “X-Men” producer Simon Kinberg is being set up at Warner Bros. The studio is close to finalizing a seven-figure film rights deal. Robbie is eyeing the role of the titular angel who fights the forces of evil and often finds herself face-to-face with demons

Missy Elliott is joining Universal Pictures’ untitled Pharrell Williams and Michel Gondry musical project.  She joins Halle Bailey, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Oscar nominee Brian Tyree Henry and Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph in a coming-of-age musical set in Virginia Beach in the summer of 1977 and inspired by the Atlantis Apartments, located in Williams’ childhood neighborhood.

Ostensibly a big-screen reboot of the 1980s television series of the same name, “The Fall Guy” is actually director and former stunt performer David Leitch’s love letter to both his wife, producer Kelly McCormick, and the undersung art of stunt work — only not always in that order. Working closely with screenwriter and executive producer

Watts: Actor and exec producer  Sevigny and Ringwald: Actors  Just as Truman Capote had his coterie of elegant Gotham society ladies, “Feud” creator Ryan Murphy leaned on his stable of accomplished female actors to portray them in Season 2 of the FX anthology series: “The Watcher” alum Watts plays Babe Paley, wife of longtime CBS president

U.K. outfit Curzon — part of the Cohen Media Group — is set to relaunch Artificial Eye, the arthouse distribution label that was established in 1976 and has been on hiatus for the last decade. The label, first founded by film enthusiasts Andi and Pam Engel and part of the Curzon group since 2006, became renowned for

In the coming months, British actors’ union Equity and producer trade body Pact are expected to kick off negotiations to thrash out new contracts that will cover the vast majority of U.K. TV and indie film. There’s going to be several major sticking points on the table, many that are near-identical to those that dominated

The second annual Cannes Investors Circle has revealed its lineup, including films from Ruben Östlund and Lorcan Finnegan. Taking place at the Marché du Film during the Cannes Film Festival, the Investors Circle showcases 10 never-before-seen films in various stages of development to an exclusive group of film financing experts and investors. According to a

Global Screen, the Munich-based international sales outfit, has boarded worldwide sales on “The Trek,” the upcoming first feature from leading South African cinematographer and director Meekaaeel Adam. The film is a horror-Western, in which starvation, suspicion and madness plague a family as they cross the Kalahari Desert under the eyes of primeval spirits. “The Trek”

Italian period drama “My Place Is Here” is being released in Italy by Adler Ent. on May 9, and is being sold at Cannes by Beta Cinema. Variety speaks to the film’s directors, Daniela Porto and Cristiano Bortone, and debuts its trailer (below). “My Place Is Here” is set in the years following the end

“Joyguru,” a fictionalized account of the life of Indian mystic artist and music icon Parvathy Baul, will launch sales at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. Parvathy Baul is a leading exponent of the syncretic Baul minstrel music tradition that is hugely popular and culturally influential across eastern India and Bangladesh. Written and directed by actor-turned-filmmaker

Berlin-based sales agency Picture Tree Intl. has acquired the supernatural crime thriller “The Osha Rule,” and will start seeking distribution partner at the Cannes Film Market. The film will start principal photography in August 2024. “The Osha Rule” blends crime with supernatural horror and revolves around a young Latino gang member forced into a Santería

A distinctive, dynamic R&B vocalist who seemed on the verge of major stardom through the 1960s, Jackie Shane disappeared soon after — so completely that many fans and former associates assumed her dead. It was a riddle rendered all the more mysterious by her singular status within that field as a more-or-less “out” transperson, her