Movies

Hollywood would not exist without copyright law. So when the Supreme Court took up what was billed as the “copyright case of the century” — the multibillion-dollar fight between Google and Oracle — the Hollywood trade groups rushed to the barricades. The Motion Picture Association joined with other pro-copyright organizations in support of Oracle, which

Coronavirus cases have reached a five-month peak in France and the country is in the midst of yet another lockdown, but the worsening public health situation hasn’t deterred the Cannes Film Festival from moving forward with its plans to host an in-person event in early July. Cannes’ artistic director Thierry Fremaux is in active discussions

Focus Features has landed rights to “Silent Twins,” a thriller starring Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance. Based on the book by Marjorie Wallace, the film marks the English language debut of director Agnieszka Smoczynska (“The Lure”). Andrea Seigel wrote the screenplay. Set in the 1970s and ’80s, the story follows June and Jennifer Gibbons (portrayed

I’m still trying to get my head around why Netflix would pay a jaw-dropping $468 million for two “Knives Out” sequels — plus the right to make a third if writer-director Rian Johnson signs on. Yes, the original campy murder-mystery hit, produced by MRC and released by Lionsgate in 2019, earned $311 million in global

It makes perfect sense that Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci,” based on the book “The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed,” should create a frenzy for costume designs, courtesy of Scott’s go-to designer, Oscar winner Janty Yates. When Lady Gaga posted the first official look at the film from

Netflix has emerged the winner of a nearly two-year auction for the exclusive U.S. rights to stream Sony Pictures’ theatrical releases in the first pay TV window starting with the studio’s 2022 slate. Netflix has also set a first-look agreement with Sony for all of the studio’s original movies produced for the direct-to-streaming market. That

The Palm Springs International Film Festival will return on Jan. 6, 2022, and run through Jan. 17, 2022. Festivities will kick off with the Film Awards Gala on Jan. 6 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Film screenings will begin the following day, on Jan. 7, including the opening night presentation that evening. It will

James Hampton, best known for his roles in “F Troop,” “Teen Wolf” and “The Longest Yard,” for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination, died Wednesday due to complications from Parkinson’s disease, his agent confirmed to Variety. He was 84. An award-winning actor, director, writer and producer, Hampton enjoyed a career in entertainment that spanned half

Paul Dano will join Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film about his family, playing a version of Spielberg’s father, Arnold. The project is loosely based on Spielberg’s childhood in Arizona in the late 1950s and early ’60s, with Williams playing a version of his mother and Rogen portraying a version of

Jaione Camborda’s “The Rye Horn,” Enrique Buleo’s “Still Life with Ghosts” and Eva Saiz’s “Casa de fieras” feature among a bevy of new Spanish film projects to be offered at the 4th Madrid-based Incubator. A mentorship program hosted by Madrid’s ECAM Film School, the Incubator has fast consolidated as one of the foremost development labs

Prince William, Renée Zellweger, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Leslie Odom Jr are part of the star-studded line-up set to appear at the BAFTA Film Awards on April 10 and 11. Clara Amfo will host the EE BAFTA Film Awards opening night, on April 10, and will be joined by a panel of guests including Rhianna

The U.K. public is keen to return to cinemas, a survey has found, with 59% of respondents citing the cinema as their most missed out-of-home entertainment activity. A U.K.-wide survey commissioned by the Film Distributors’ Association and carried out by research agency Metrixlab also revealed that 40% of audiences are planning to return within the

Every era gets the youth sci-fi action movie it deserves. Twenty-five years ago, Paul Verhoeven made “Starship Troopers” (1997), and whatever you thought of that self-consciously over-the-top high-cheese parable of pinup actors battling giant bugs, there’s no denying it packed a wallop that was very late ’90s — a revel in teen-idol decadence fused with

Indra and Erlina Suharjono, two veterans of the Southeast Asian film industry scene, have launched new corporate venture I.E. Entertainment. The new company will be involved with developing, producing, marketing and distributing the next generation of Asian film and television. It will work with Asian filmmakers and production studios to create fresh slates that speak

Universal’s “Fast & Furious 9” has passed Chinese censorship to receive official approval for release, the company announced on Wednesday. A specific China release date has not been set yet. “See you on the big screen!” Universal Pictures said on its official Weibo social media account, alongside a Chinese version of the poster. “F9” debuts

“Godzilla vs. Kong” naturally focuses on the mighty battle between the monsters, but costume designer Ann Foley also had a story to tell with her work. Foley brought unique touches to dressing the human actors: Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Kyle Chandler and Demián Bichir. Foley mapped out how what

The fabulously well-to-do are ready to party with their fellow one-percenters at the Cannes Film Festival, COVID be damned. AmfAR will host the annual fundraiser to benefit AIDS research on July 16, the organization announced this week. The event, which boasts $10,000 tickets and has played host to the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Mariah Carey,

Mindshow, a CG animation production company, has raised an additional $10 million in funding to expand its content pipeline. With the new funding, led by SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, MindShow has raised more than $25 million in total. Sugar23, the management production and creative platform founded in Michael Sugar, also participated in the fundraise.

Independent Lens, the PBS documentary anthology series, has announced its upcoming spring slate. The weekly program, produced in partnership with ITVS, will spotlight a range of topics, from criminal justice reform to the plight of the American dream. Among the first to air will be “Philly D.A.,” an eight-episode deep dive into local-policy making and

As Hollywood continues its ongoing fight for increased diversity and representation across the industry, disability is rarely included. Entrepreneur and disability activist Keely Cat-Wells is teaming up with major Hollywood figures to urge movie studios to hire a permanent disability officer. Amy Poehler and Naomie Harris are among over 80 names who have signed an

Streaming services that invest heavily in French movies may be able to access fresh local film releases starting in July. France’s major film guilds, including BLIC (Bureau of Cinema Industries), BLOC (Bureau of Cinema Organizations) and ARP (Society for Authors, Directors and Producers), have drafted proposals to amend France’s notoriously strict windowing schedule. The guilds

An Oscar nomination goes a long way when it comes to attracting new streaming viewers, new data from Netflix suggests. Notoriously guarded when it comes to sharing numbers, the content giant exclusively reveals to Variety that its 16 Oscars hopefuls enjoyed considerable viewership increases in the days following the March 15 announcement of the Academy Award nominations.

“A House on the Bayou,” the first straight-to-service movie in a new deal between Blumhouse and Epix, has found its three lead stars. Paul Schneider (“Tales from the Loop,” “Parks and Recreation”), Angela Sarafyan (“Westworld”), and Jacob Lofland (“Maze Runner”) will lead the cast on the project, which has already begun production in New Orleans.

Chris Pratt’s sci-fi thriller “The Tomorrow War” is debuting on Amazon Prime this summer. The time-travel movie, directed by Chris McKay, will land on the streaming platform on July 2. Amazon reportedly shelled out $200 million for rights to “The Tomorrow War,” which was developed and produced by Skydance Media. Paramount Pictures was originally set

Stefano Sollima, the Italian director of “Without Remorse,” starring Michael B. Jordan as Navy SEAL John Kelly, says he likes to “tell stories that are about real humans; not superheroes.” Sollima’s latest film, an adaptation of the Tom Clancy novel, finds the “Black Panther” star pursuing justice and unleashing hell in a high-octane spectacle that

When Paul Raci sat down to watch “Sound of Metal” at TIFF for the first time, he was sitting next to his wife who has no hearing in her left ear and about 30 percent in her right ear. Raci said she burst into tears because she was able to relate to the way the

NAACP Image Award winner Michaela Coel and Academy Award nominee Andra Day will be honored at the five-day 2021 Outfest Fusion QTBIPOC Film Festival next week. Coel, known best for creating and starring in “Chewing Gum” and “I May Destroy You,” will be acknowledged with the Fusion Achievement Award; Day, the star of Lee Daniels’

Prominent Iranian producer Gholamreza Moosavi, whose latest film is Berlin standout “Ballad of a White Cow,” has been hospitalized in Tehran due to COVID-19, London-based Iran International TV has reported. Moosavi, 69, who is president of Iran’s film producers’ union and also heads Film Iran, which is the country’s largest domestic distributor, is in an

In today’s Global Bulletin, Amazon Prime Video commissions “Celebrity Bake Off España”; BBC Three sets launch date for “Dreaming Whilst Black”; HBO Max boards “Lucy the Human Chimp”; Banijay Iberia shakes up its executive team; and Beyond Rights acquires “Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death” ahead of MipTV. FORMAT Amazon Prime Video is bringing Love

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, one of the world’s leading non-fiction cinema events, has revamped its program structure, with two main competition sections at its center. The festival said the move was intended to respond to a historic “transformation” in documentary filmmaking. As well as introducing the International Competition and the Envision Competition sections,