Whodunnit comedy horror film “Werewolves Within,” which was recently acquired by IFC for North American distribution, has been picked up by leading distributors in multiple territories. Mister Smith Entertainment is handling sales on the title, which is based on the virtual reality video game by Ubisoft. The ensemble cast includes Sam Richardson (“Veep,” “Detroiters”) and
Movies
Epix and Blumhouse have teamed for a new partnership, in which Blumhouse Television will develop and produce eight horror/genre-thriller movies exclusively for the network. Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum will serve as executive producer on the original films slate. “A House on the Bayou” from writer-director Alex McAulay marks the first film in the
David Beckham, legendary soccer player and club owner, entrepreneur and founder of production company Studio 99, will be a keynote speaker at Digital MipTV. In his first in-depth television industry keynote, Beckham will talk about launching his own production company, his global ambitions for Studio 99, and current projects in production and development for several
After last year’s scandal over Roman Polanski’s director win, the 46th Cesar Awards, France’s highest film honors, which took place on Friday in the presence of nominees, has been the subject of vitriolic criticism from industry figures. Some have claimed that the spectacle was so vulgar that it has tarnished the image of French cinema
European Film Promotion, a network of 37 film promotion bodies from across the continent, is gathering 29 European sales companies from nine nations under the Europe! Umbrella at the virtual edition of the Hong Kong Intl. Film & TV Market (FilMart). For the second year running the annual event has been moved online because of
Following hot on the heels of the recently wrapped Berlin Film Festival, this year’s online edition of the Hong Kong Intl. Film & TV Market (FilMart) will include a host of buzzy titles and award winners gathered under the Europe! Umbrella, which brings together 29 European sales agents in a virtual pavilion organized by European
U.S. actors Maika Monroe (“It Follows”), Karl Glusman (“Nocturnal Animals”) and Burn Gorman (“Enola Holmes”) are attached to star in psychological thriller “Watcher,” directed by Chloe Okuno, which starts shooting this month. The previously announced film marks the feature film debut of Okuno, director of the award-winning AFI short film “Slut,” centered on a naive
The lucrative western India box office market will take a hit as a fresh wave of coronavirus has driven cinemas back to 50% occupancy. On Monday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which is in charge of Mumbai, the commercial capital of India and the home of the Bollywood film industry, ordered that cinemas return to 50%
Veering between profundity, faux profundity and a faintly discernible mockery of those who might mistake one for the other, Canadian filmmaker Denis Côté administers a thimbleful of COVID-era potion with “Social Hygiene,” which brought him the best director prize in the Berlinale Encounters sidebar (shared with Ramon and Silvan Zürcher for “The Girl and the
The School of Film Advancement’s (SOFA) workshop — usually held physically in Tbilisi, Georgia — will go online for a second consecutive year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. SOFA is a program of workshops that focuses on cultural managers and film entrepreneurs rather than producers and directors. The 2021 workshop will focus on the
Yaphet Kotto, an actor known for his performances in “Alien,” the James Bond film “Live and Let Die” and the television series “Homicide: Life on the Street,” has died, his agent Ryan Goldhar confirmed to Variety. He was 81. Kotto’s wife, Tessie Sinahon, first posted about Kotto’s death on Facebook Monday night. “I’m saddened and still
As she developed her sophomore feature, director Yngvild Sve Flikke sought to evoke the messiness of life. “I’m a restless person,” the Scandinavian filmmaker tells Variety. “If I’m working on something knowing exactly where it’s going, I’ll get an itch in my back, telling me to change it up. I wanted to make [a film]
At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster licensed its name to nearly 9,000 video rental stores around the world. According to my calculations, that means there must have been at least 90,000 copies of “Gigli” in circulation by the chain, which specialized in stocking up on new releases and strangling competitors out of business. Today, you
Mon. March. 15 Nine Female Filmmakers Chosen For Future Directors of Studio Features Initiative Nine female filmmakers have been selected to participate in the inaugural Future Directors of Studio Features Initiative. Blackmagic Design announced the initiative, which is designed to elevate and polish undiscovered and underrepresented female-identifying storytellers who are poised to make the transition
Afghan filmmaker Roya Sadat is readying “The Forgotten History,” her next feature after the acclaimed “A Letter to the President” (2017). Sadat is one of the few women filmmakers from Afghanistan and taught herself cinema during the Taliban regime. “The Forgotten History,” set in pre-civil war Afghanistan, sees the friendship of two girls disrupted by their
Chinese helmer Xu Lei will return to the subject of rural life in northern China for his second feature “The Peacemaker,” one of the 20 narrative film projects selected to participate in the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum this year. Xu’s suspenseful and darkly humorous first film “Summer Detective,” which he wrote and directed, was
Chinese director Cai Chengjie will follow up his Rotterdam prize-winning first feature with “Splash,” a new project that daringly takes on the topic of sexual assault. It has been selected as one of 20 narrative films to participate in this year’s Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum. The film will tell the story of 24 hours
Multiple agencies from The Philippines took to the virtual floor on the first day of FilMart to promote the Southeast Asian country’s companies and to tout the island nation as a desirable production location. Its biggest new selling point is a recently-unveiled funding system for Asian co-productions. The ASEAN Co-Production Fund (ACOF) provides grants of
Sales agency Pony Canyon is bringing some of the biggest upcoming Japanese live-action films to FilMart, including genre titles with global ambitions. One is “Office Royale,” whose title references the 2000 Fukasaku Kinji classic “Battle Royale,” but is an action comedy scripted by popular funnyman Bakarhythm and directed by TV drama veteran Seki Kazuaki. Nakano
Swiss art fair giant Art Basel is venturing into online streaming with a new digital film program featuring artist-made films. The section will launch ahead of its annual Hong Kong fair which has been postponed to May. The program began with a showcase of three works by Asian artists on the art fair’s website that
Ever since “Justice League” released back in 2017, fans have been craving to see Zack Snyder’s unaltered version of the superhero film. A fan campaign called #ReleaseTheSnyderCut began to pick up momentum, and more than three years later, “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” has arrived. Clocking in at four hours and two minutes, “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”
The film academy announced its nominations on Monday, and with it, the first concrete details about the 93rd ceremony, including utilizing Los Angeles’ Union Station as a venue, after being forced to relocate due to pandemic restrictions. Variety has obtained an exclusive letter that was sent to all Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Filming Italy — Los Angeles fest, which runs March 18-21, is a bridgehead between Italy and Hollywood. Here are some of the event’s highlights: ‘The Life Ahead’ panel“The Life Ahead” director Edoardo Ponti, which is an Italian Netflix Original, will hold an online conversation with Diane Warren, who wrote the film’s theme song “Io
Of all the locations one could possibly choose to stage modern relationship movies, cramped apartments surely rank as just about the least cinematic option. But that hasn’t stopped Swiss helmer Ramon Zürcher (“The Strange Little Cat”) from willingly embracing such boxy, where-to-place-the-camera confines yet again for his second feature, “The Girl and the Spider,” or
As Italy’s film and TV industry forges ahead after bearing the brunt of the pandemic in 2020, the Filming Italy — Los Angeles fest, which is a bridgehead between Italy and Hollywood, is pulling out all the stops to drive and promote the country’s restart effort. After Filming Italy miraculously managed to hold its sister
Few film institutions, and certainly no film festivals, experienced a COVID trial by fire quite as SXSW did last year. The mammoth Austin event — which includes a film festival, a tech conference and its original smorgasbord of musical performances — was the first major film festival to cancel in response to the pandemic when
“Words for an End of the World,” the third feature by Spain’s Manuel Menchón, continues his exploration of the towering figure of Miguel de Unamuno, also the subject of his prior fiction film, “The Island of Wind.” The documentary, however, covers new ground, embarks on a far more ambitious revisiting of Spain’s still not so
Henry Darrow, the first Hispanic actor to portray Zorro on television who also starred in TV series “The High Chaparral,” has died. He was 87. According to his former publicist, Michael B. Druxman, Darrow died Sunday at his home in Wilmington, N.C. Throughout the 60s, Darrow appeared in television series such as “Wagon Train,” “Bonanza,”
The Oscars have unveiled the 2021 nominations, and it was a historic group that closes the chapter of one of the hardest years for cinema. After a year in which the Academy announced its divisive inclusion and representation standards, members stepped up to the plate, recognizing the most people of color in the acting categories
It takes an extraordinarily diverse skill set to direct a great comic-book movie. You’ve got to be a visual-effects wizard; a maestro of story and pace; a popcorn humanist who can find the relatable dimension of a bunch of freaks in capes and breastplates and spandex; and enough of an artist to tie the whole