Movies

IATSE announced Friday that two more local guilds have reached tentative deals on a new contract, bringing the union closer to an agreement on all “craft-specific” matters. The latest deals involve Local 728, which covers set lighting technicians, and Local 892, the Costume Designers Guild. With those agreements, 10 of the 13 “West Coast” locals

Saoirse Ronan is here to stay. Surprisingly born in the Bronx before making Ireland her home, Ronan has proven to be a powerhouse of talent and one of the most influential actors of her generation. Since her screen debut at the age of 9 in the 2003 medical drama “The Clinic,” Ronan has displayed remarkable

Emma Stone is in talks to star in an untitled film for Universal Pictures with her husband Dave McCary in talks to direct. Patrick Kang and Michael Levin, supervising producers of NBC and UTV’s “Young Rock,” wrote the original spec screenplay for the film. Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, and Dan Levine will produce through 21 Laps. Michael

Two parallel but inevitably intersecting stories make up Italian-born director Marco Perego‘s debut feature “The Absence of Eden,” a strikingly shot and superbly acted immigration drama. But for all its commendable on-screen elements, it’s the screenplay that Perego co-wrote with Rick Rapoza that falls short, traversing overly familiar and rather sordid tropes related to a

Ryan Gosling visited “The Tonight Show” ahead of his latest hosting stint on “Saturday Night Live” and spoke about his internet-breaking live performance of “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars last month. Asked by host Jimmy Fallon if it was an immediate yes when the Academy called him up to request he perform the “Barbie”

A Chris Farley biopic is in the works, with Josh Gad set to direct. In the hot package being shopped around town, Emmy, Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe Award winner Paul Walter Hauser is attached to star as the legendary comedian. There’s no word yet on where the project will land, but it’s sure to attract a slew of

Anyone who’s ever played tennis knows the game starts with love and escalates fast. In Luca Guadagnino’s hip, sexy and ridiculously overheated “Challengers,” the rivals are former doubles partners Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), best friends since the age of 12, who went their separate ways after both players fell for

The box office is going to war. A24 and director Alex Garland’s latest film, the controversial “Civil War,” is opening in theaters this weekend. So far, it’s made $2.9 million at the box office in Thursday previews. “Civil War” has its sights set on the highest opening weekend ever for an A24 movie. The film,

Special effects legend Richard Taylor has five Oscars under his belt, but he just wants to make big, gross puppets. Taylor is the founder of Wētā Workshop, which, among countless other titles, created the indelible effects for “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, MCU movies and “Mad Max: Fury Road.” He lights up when

Scottish auteur Lynne Ramsay and former Icelandic Film Center (IFC) chief Laufey Guðjónsdóttir received honors from the 10th anniversary edition of Reykjavik’s Stockfish Film & Industry Festival (April 4 – 14, 2024). The awards, presented during a reception on April 11th, celebrate outstanding contributions to the film industry both internationally and domestically.  Known for its intimate atmosphere and

JEONJU JAUNT Korea’s second largest generalist film event the Jeonju International Film Festival has set eight fiction films by first or second-time feature directors, for its main competition. They are “Cu Li Never Cries,” by Pham Ngoc Lan; “Junkyard Dog,” by Jean-Baptiste Durand, “La Palisiada,” by Philip Sotnychenko; “My Endless Numbered Days,” by Shaun Neo;

How does an actor authentically and respectfully embody a legendary real-life singer on screen without it being seen as tribute act? And how do they do it when so much of that person’s life as a performer — a life that tragically ended not long ago — was played out in front of the cameras, across the

Marco Mueller has been appointed artistic director of Italy’s Taormina Film Festival, which will have a top notch selection committee comprising British film curator and former London fest chief Sandra Hebron and former Cannes Directors’ Fortnight boss Edouard Waintrop. As anticipated by Variety, Mueller, who over the past decades has headed both the Venice and Rome

Rights to “I, The Executioner,” which will premiere as a Midnight Screening at the Cannes Film Festival this year, have been picked up by South Korea’s CJ ENM. The crime-action film directed by Ryu Seung-wan (also written Ryoo Seung-wan) is a sequel to Ryu’s 2015 hit “Veteran” and in Korea goes by the title “Veteran

Zagreb-based doc specialist Splitscreen has boarded Argentinian gaucho tale “Where the Trees Bear Meat” by Alexis Franco ahead of its world premiere at Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel. It is one of 15 films vying for the top prize in the main international competition. Set in the Argentine Pampas, the film follows Omar,

Winner of an audience award at the 2023 SXSW film fest, “The Long Game” is an utterly predictable yet thoroughly engaging period drama. Set in 1950s Texas, the film focuses on the true-life story of five Mexican-American youths who triumph against all odds while overcoming adversity, prejudice and periodic self-doubts in their pursuit of a

Indian actor-producer Yash‘s Monster Mind Creations and producer Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus Studios have partnered on an adaptation of Indian epic “Ramayana” for global audiences. The film will be directed by Nitesh Tiwari, whose “Dangal” is the highest Indian grosser of all time. Yash is best known for the “K.G.F.” action film franchise, the second

In “Sting,” a giant-spider-grows-in-Brooklyn thriller that’s cheeky, bloody, and (most important) very gooey, Sting is the name given by Charlotte (Alyla Browne), a precocious tween, to the elegant two-inch-long black spider that becomes her pet (she keeps it in a jar and feeds it bugs). Yet given how much slaughter is caused by this omnivorous

What can Disney say to cinema owners except “you’re welcome“? After all, the studio is revisiting the island of Montunui, where “Moana” takes place, a lot sooner than movie theaters were expecting. Earlier this year, the studio announced a surprise sequel to the 2016 animated feature for release on Nov. 27. The follow-up was initially

Reviews will have to wait till the Cannes Film Festival kicks off on May 14, but it’s not too early for a critic to weigh in on this year’s lineup — or how it looks on paper, at least, and what the selection might say about the state of things. At the top of the

The venerable “Alien” franchise has nearly 10 films under its belt and, somehow, every time a space crew member’s chest bursts open and a horrifying little creature crawls out we’re still terrified.  Such was the case on Thursday at CinemaCon, the annual convention of movie theater owners in Las Vegas, where Disney showed off an extended look at

Disney is welcoming the king of the Pride Lands back to Las Vegas. The studio unveiled a stirring, all-new trailer of “Mufasa: The Lion King” on Thursday at CinemaCon, the annual convention for movie theater owners. “Mufasa: The Lion King” is expected to focus on the early years of the eventual ruler of the animals,

Ryan Reynolds’ potty-mouthed superhero Deadpool made a Las Vegas convention hall blush on Thursday, unveiling nine minutes of vulgar and hilarious footage from the upcoming sequel “Deadpool and Wolverine” at CinemaCon. Stacked with meta jokes about Disney’s Marvel Studios finally making an R-rated film – and just how unprepared the company’s executives are for this

New-ish Cap, same old shield. Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson steps into his own as the star-spangled Avenger in the first look at “Captain America: Brave New World” that Disney shared during its CinemaCon presentation on Thursday. It sees the newly-minted Captain America saving Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, the president of the United States, from

Some of the biggest laughs of CinemaCon came from Disney and Pixar‘s well-received debut of the first 35 minutes of “Inside Out 2,” the sequel to its beloved Oscar-winning original film about a young girl named Riley and the emotions in her head. The sequel opens June 14. Amy Poehler, who returns as the emotion

Disney premiered 13 action-packed minutes of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” at CinemaCon, ginning up excitement for its reboot of the science-fiction franchise. Set generations after the events of 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes,” the movie follows a young chimp named Noa (biblical allusions clearly intended) as he embarks on

Tom Arnold (“True Lies,” “Roseanne”) has joined the cast of writer, producer, and director Rohit Karn Batra’s drama “The Gun on Second Street.” The film, for which Storyboard Media launched international sales during last year’s Cannes Film Market, is produced by Guy J. Louthan of Ransom Films (“The Call, The Road Within,” “There Be Dragons,” “From Scratch”) with

Chris Hemsworth, the voice of a young Optimus Prime, and Brian Tyree Henry, the voice of a young Megatron, got an enthusiastic welcome at CinemaCon as they introduced a first look and 3D scene from “Transformers One,” Paramount‘s animated origin story based on the Hasbro toys. “This origin story is how they transformed from brothers

There was something fitting about the setting. Paramount Pictures unveiled the first footage from “Gladiator II” on the stage of The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, a hotel that reimagines Ancient Rome in all its decadent splendor, albeit with a few more slot machines. Ridley Scott seems to be offering a bloodier version of that distant

Tribeca Films, the distribution label from Tribeca Enterprises and Giant Pictures, has acquired eight films from different film festivals as part of its first round of acquisitions. “Tribeca has championed independent film for over two decades, and our distribution label is a continuation of our commitment to support filmmakers,” said Jane Rosenthal, Tribeca co-founder and