Movies

After headlining last summer’s time-bending thriller “Tenet,” John David Washington is getting back in the sci-fi game, signing on to star in director Gareth Edwards’ upcoming film for New Regency. Titled “True Love,” the new movie is a sci-fi story, set in the near future. Additional plot details, however, are currently undisclosed. News of the

Frank McRae, the actor who appeared in films such as “Licence to Kill” and “Last Action Hero,” has died. He was 80. McRae died in Santa Monica, Calif. on April 29 as a result of a heart attack, his daughter-in-law confirmed to Variety.  The NFL player-turned-actor was born in Memphis, Tenn. A star athlete in high

Harvey Weinstein wants his money back. The imprisoned producer — who is awaiting extradition to Los Angeles — filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Jose Baez, one of several lawyers who briefly represented him in his New York rape case. He is seeking the return of $1 million in legal fees, arguing that Baez failed

ICM Partners has been quite public about trying to reform its own workplace culture. But according to a story published in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, working at the high-powered agency can still be a traumatic experience for many lower-level employees. The article documented a workplace where agents and other supervisors felt free to take

Over the course of her legendary career, Alice Lee “Boaty” Boatwright has cast iconic movies, served as a studio exec and repped starry talent including Joan Didion, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Reflecting on it today, she says her career really took off after a pivotal encounter at Sardi’s restaurant more than 60 years ago.

“Red Sonja” has found its star. Hannah John-Kamen, best known as the villain Ghost in “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” will wield the sword of the comic book fantasy hero in Millennium Films’ long-gestating feature adaptation. Joey Soloway (“Transparent”) is directing the film, from a script by Soloway and Tasha Huo (a writer on Netflix’s upcoming

Henry Golding has been cast alongside Dakota Johnson in Netflix’s adaptation of the Jane Austen novel “Persuasion.” The movie will serve as a modern-day retelling of the romantic drama, centering on the conforming Anne Elliot (Johnson), who lives with her snobby family on the brink of bankruptcy. When Anne, unmarried at 27-years-old, reconnects with Frederick

Why, former “Jane the Virgin” star Justin Baldoni writes in his new book “Man Enough: Undefining Masculinity,” can’t men embrace — and be supported for — being emotional, empathetic and sensitive? Using his experiences to explore the question, Baldoni wants men to know that vulnerability doesn’t equal weakness or make them less than. Variety caught

“Here Today,” starring Billy Crystal as a venerable TV comedy writer and Tiffany Haddish as the saintly, rough-around-the-edges street singer who becomes his unlikely pal, is a movie that feels like it could have been made 30 years ago: a friendly, adult-skewing, tart-witted but never nasty, jokes-and-hugs-built-around-a-serious-crisis character study that’s just ’90s enough to be

While actor David Oyelowo had been toying with the idea of directing, it wasn’t until “The Water Man” — out May 7 — that the opportunity arose for him to step behind the camera. Oyelowo, who starred in last year’s “The Midnight Sky,” felt the family entertainment films of the ’80s were missing from the

A Los Angeles Times expose published on Wednesday alleges that women and people of color have been subjected to harassment and bullying at ICM Partners. The story spoke to 30 former and current employees at the Hollywood agency. A rep from ICM told the Los Angeles Times, “HR does not have any records of such

Adelaide Clemens, Patrick J. Adams, Douglas Smith and Kathleen Turner will star in “The Swearing Jar.” The musical romance will be directed by Lindsay MacKay (“Wet Bum”) from a script by Kate Hewlett (“Malory Towers”), who adapts her play of the same name. David Hewlett (“The Shape of Water”) and Jade Ma (“Zero Chill”) round out

Alternativet Produksjon, the Norwegian film banner behind Guro Bruusgaard’s “HIM,” has more thought-provoking projects in the pipeline, including Mariken Halle’s pandemic-themed film “The Outdoor School” and Katja Eyde Jacobsen’s feminist movie “The Second Sex.” The company was launched in 2017 by four filmmakers, including Halle, Jacobsen, Bruusgaard and Magnus Mork to produce their movies collectively,

Kate McKinnon is one of six creative leaders in comedy honored for Variety‘s 2021 Power of Women. For more, click here. Kate McKinnon is exceedingly uninhibited, unselfconscious and brazen in her spot-on, wacky impressions of everyone from Robert Durst, Betsy DeVos and Justin Bieber to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Jeff Sessions and Rudy Giuliani. It makes

Building its presence in Europe, ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS) has closed a deal with on-the-rise Spanish production company Fasten Films to co-produce “Pastor,” a social-issue drama. Created and written by Natxo López, the creator of “Stolen Away” and writer for Mediaset España banner series “Caronte,” “Pastor” will be directed by Spanish film-TV helmer Jorge Dorado,

Specialist sales agency Good Move Media has picked up international rights to “Ancient Soul,” which had its world premiere in March at the Berlin Film Festival. The film, aka “Mbah Jhiwo,” is a Spanish-produced docu-drama about life in the Sulphur mines of Java, Indonesia. It was directed by Alvarro Guerra and will next play at

Pathe International has unveiled the poster and trailer for Paul Verhoeven’s subversive period thriller “Benedetta.” Cannes also confirmed that the film will world premiere at this year’s festival on July 9 and will be released in French theaters on the same day. Inspired by true events, “Benedetta” is set in the late 15th century and

Netflix’s coming-of-age documentary “Audible,” which world premiered this week at Hot Docs Film Festival, follows Maryland School for the Deaf high school athlete Amaree McKenstry and his close friends during their senior year. Director Matt Ogens speaks to Variety about the film, whose exec producers include actor Peter Berg, the Emmy nominated creator of “Friday

Writer-director Carlos V. Gutierrez’s “Locked In” is not to be confused with 2017’s “Locked In,” nor 2010’s “Locked In,” nor the numerous short films that have also used that title in the past two decades. Nonetheless, this low-budget potboiler’s common moniker is emblematic of its generally generic nature. A thriller about a woman’s efforts to

Fanny should have entered the history books immediately. They were, as longtime supporter Bonnie Raitt puts it, “the first all-woman rock band that could really play, and really get some credibility in the musician community.” They also released several major-label albums, toured extensively and were a principally Filipina American act in the primarily white-male landscape

Unfolding in a compact and extraordinarily compelling 82 minutes, “Blue Box” is a brave, authoritatively documented account of how the Jewish National Fund (JNF) acquired land in Palestine before and after the creation of the State of Israel. Helmer Michal Weits uses the primary source par excellence: the diaries and papers of her great-grandfather, Yosef

Netflix and movie theaters are finally playing nice — and all it took was a global pandemic to make these antagonists friends. Zack Snyder’s upcoming zombie thriller, “Army of the Dead,” will play exclusively on the big screen starting on May 14 for one week prior to its Netflix release on May 21. Notably, Cinemark,

NBCUniversal has instituted a production assistant training program in New Mexico aimed at residents who are interested in pursuing a career in film and television production. The two-day training program, scheduled for May 22 and 23, will be free to accepted applicants and will cover everything from set protocol and production terminology to preparing resumes

Since reopening at the end of 2020, movie theaters have been trying to keep patrons safe from COVID-19 by disinfecting after every screening. They bought up misters and foggers, along with untold volumes of cleaning chemicals, and carefully wiped down any surfaces where virus particles might collect. But this aspect of theater hygiene has turned

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. Whether you’re strictly an OG trilogy watcher or you’re all in for every episode of the Skywalker Saga

Whether it be actual toys or movies about them coming to life and killing people, they don’t make ’em like they used to. While the “Child’s Play” and “Puppet Master” franchises aren’t exactly rife with masterpieces, their pleasures are less guilty than those afforded by the genre’s latest installment: “Benny Loves You,” an English horror

Production companies fronted by Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal have landed adaptive rights to scientist Suzanne Simard’s memoir “Finding the Mother Tree.” In a competitive situation, Adams’ Bond Group Entertainment and Gyllenhaal’s Nine Stories scored the the book, published today via Knopf. The project is being developed by both companies with Adams set to star.

As Julie Andrews’ character says in “The Princess Diaries” sequel: “A queen is never late. Everyone else is simply early.” So it’s only fitting that the American Film Institute’s annual Life Achievement Award gala, set later this year to honor Andrews, will take place nearly a year-and-a-half after it was originally scheduled. The event was

New York City-based global documentary film sales agent Cargo Film & Releasing has nabbed world rights, excluding Denmark and Sweden, to Mads Hedegaard’s feature length documentary debut “Cannon Arm and the Arcade Quest,” which premiered at last week’s CPH:DOX and plays this week at Hot Docs. The feel-good film centers on Kim Cannon Arm, who

Eva Longoria’s prestige project “Flamin’ Hot,” about the inventor of the spicy Cheetos snack, has found its stars in actors Jesse Garcia and Annie Gonzalez. An award-winning actor and prolific TV director, Longoria is ramping up to a feature directorial era with the Searchlight project, which tells the inspirational story of Richard Montañez. A janitor