Movies

1091 Pictures has acquired worldwide and digital broadcast rights to “Tazmanian Devil,” the story of a Nigerian man who experiences culture shock when he comes to the U.S. to attend college. The film marks the feature-length directorial debut by Solomon Onita Jr. and stars Abraham Attah, the actor who first made a name for himself

It started with a hunch. Edith Pretty and her husband bought a house at Sutton Hoo, the estate of which contained several large mounds of earth. For years, there had been theories about what might lie beneath — buried treasure, Roman graves or even a Viking ship — but it was not until after Pretty’s

Pilar Schneider, the mother of comedian and actor Rob Schneider, died of natural causes Monday at her home in Pacifica, Calif. She was 91. Rob Schneider wrote a tribute to his mother on Instagram and shared a family photo with details of her life. “Pilar spoke often of joining her beloved husband of 39 years,

Animating the story of a Chinese family and reimagining the legend of moon goddess Chang’e was both an artistically fulfilling and a meaningful project for the creative team and cast of “Over the Moon.” When reading the script for the first time, animator Glen Keane immediately fell in love with Fei Fei but felt like

Melissa Grego’s three-year stint as the CEO of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society will continue on. Today, the HRTS announced that Grego’s role has been re-upped. The organization’s also released the names of its newly-elected Executive Officers and Board Members, and the industry leaders newly appointed to serve as Advisory Council members. “It has

Jessica Campbell, best known for her roles in the 1999 film “Election” and cult classic series “Freaks and Geeks,” has died at 38. Campbell’s family announced the actor died on Dec. 29 in Portland, Ore. Campbell retired from acting to become a naturopathic physician, and she collapsed after seeing patients at her practice. She was

In August 2020, Bradley Rainey was named head of WME’s music for visual media department, succeeding veteran agent Amos Newman and taking on a roster of Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winners including Hans Zimmer, Randy Newman, Ludwig Göransson, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, among others. The 35-year-old Rainey, a graduate of USC’s film school, was

Wavelength, the New York-based indie studio behind Sundance players like “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” and “Farwell Amor,” has named producer Joe Plummer as president. Founded by CEO Jenifer Westphal in 2015, the company recently saw Plummer serving as supervising producer across the slate. As president, he will oversee operations and spearhead development, production and investment

Rami Malek and Zoe Saldana have joined the ensemble cast of David O. Russell’s upcoming movie at New Regency. The untitled film, in which plot details are as vague as the moniker itself, also stars Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington. Russell will direct from his own script. Production is currently underway in

It was likely, if not downright inevitable, that in the year of our lockdown, somebody would make a drama called “Locked Down,” about a handful of people in lockdown. The director Doug Liman and the screenwriter Steven Knight conceived their movie in July, sold it in September and had completed shooting it, in London, by

Netflix, like other tech companies, has regularly published data about the diversity of its workforce since 2013. Now the streamer has released its first “inclusion report,” in which the company details its strategy to improve diversity — and where it has fallen short. “We’ve made good progress over the last three years. But let’s be

Expanding Middle East indie film distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has forged a joint venture with Saudi Arabian exhibition chain Muvi Cinemas to launch Front Row Arabia, with ambitious plans to cash in on Saudi’s current theatrical boom. The new distribution and exhibition company will be releasing English, Arabic, Japanese anime and alternative content across

French cinema saw its international box office receipts fall to €86.6 million ($105.4 million), a near 70% drop, in 2020, according to a study unveiled by French promotion org UniFrance during the virtual Rendez-Vous market. The drastic decline is explained by the fact that theaters worldwide were closed for several months due to the pandemic.

John McCain will be the subject of an upcoming biopic about his life and decades-long career in politics. Stampede Ventures has optioned rights to “The Luckiest Man: Life With John McCain,” a biography written by the late Arizona senator’s political adviser and friend Mark Salter, and plans to adapt it into a feature film. Salter

A naturalistic, social tale, “Miss Chazelles” competes in the nine-title short film lineup at the MyFrenchFilmFestival, an entirely-online – even before COVID-19 – festival devoted to French productions launched by promotion board UniFrance, running Jan. 15 to Feb. 15. “Miss Chazelles” turns on the rivalry between two young beauty queens in a rural village, and

MyFrenchFilmFestival, organized by UniFrance, kicks off Friday, and among the shorts that have made their way through the festival circuit and to the online event is Mathilde Profit’s father-daughter road trip tale “First Goodbyes.” Her first solo directing venture, Profit also handled screenwriting duties on the short, joined by co-writer Maxime Berthemy. The two combined

Playtime has acquired international sales rights to Philippe Le Guay’s “The Man From the Basement,” a Paris-set thriller produced by Anne-Dominique Toussaint’s Les Films des Tournelles. Now in post, the film shot during the lockdown on location in Paris, with a stellar cast including François Cluzet (“Intouchables,” “Sink or Swim”), Jérémie Renier (“Slalom”), Bérénice Bejo

Alexander Nanau, the director of acclaimed Romanian documentary “Collective,” has rejected a medal from the country’s president and slammed the government for failing the cultural sector during the coronavirus crisis. Nanau’s hard-hitting investigative documentary centers on the 2015 fire at the Colectiv nightclub that killed 64 people and injured hundreds, detailing the health care crisis

Franco-American critic and broadcaster Iris Brey has teamed with Paris-based sales/production outfit Totem Films to adapt her 2020 book “The Female Gaze: A Screen Revolution” as a nonfiction feature. A member of France’s 50/50 Collective and a lecturer at the University of California’s Paris campus, Brey will write and direct the upcoming film, weaving the

Strand Releasing has picked up U.S. distribution rights to Franco-Lebanese auteur Danielle Arbid’s “Simple Passion,” a Cannes 2020 title that played strong on the fall festival circuit. Announced as part of the Cannes 2020 selection, the French-language film premiered in San Sebastian, and would go on to play Busan, Moscow and Zurich ahead of a

“Outside the Wire” opens with a full-on action scene. Robot soldiers fight alongside human ones — or maybe against them. It’s hard to tell. Bullets fly. Tough guys in helmets crouch behind concrete barriers. Two men are hit, and their commanding officer makes plans to pull them to safety, while half a world away, in

The Hong Kong International Film Festival, delayed last year by the coronavirus outbreak, has announced plans to return to its normal Springtime slot. But with a lingering virus impact, the 2021 edition will be a hybrid, combining both in-theatre and online screenings and audience-engagement events. Executive director Albert Lee said that a hybrid 45th edition

Amazon Studios has swept in and is poised to land “The Tomorrow War,” a science-fiction action film with Chris Pratt that Skydance developed and produced.  The price for the film is rumored to be roughly $200 million, but insiders stress the sale has not been finalized and financial terms have yet to be determined. The

“One Night in Miami” director Regina King has defended the casting of British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X in her film. Delivering a BAFTA masterclass on Tuesday, King was in conversation with U.K. actor and presenter Reggie Yates, who questioned the director about her stance on the transatlantic casting debate. In “One Night in

Sam Pollard’s “MLK/FBI” is an arresting look at how J. Edgar Hoover used the country’s top law enforcement agency to wage a surveillance campaign against Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that made a mockery of the justice system. By illegally wiretapping King’s hotel rooms, Hoover’s agents discovered that the minister was having adulterous relationships and

Anne-Dominique Toussaint, a Belgian-born revered yet discreet film producer based in Paris, has uncovered and championed many promising filmmakers through her company Les Films des Tournelles. And the best is yet to come. Since launching her company 32 years ago, Toussaint, who is known for her spot-on artistic taste and elegant demeanor, has nurtured long-term

Film permit applications in the city and county of Los Angeles declined steeply in December, dropping 24.9 percent from November levels to 613 permits. FilmLA reported Tuesday. This is the second straight month that FilmLA has seen permit requests drop, as production levels that picked up after the pandemic shutdown began to drop again. In

Benoît Jutras, the composer behind many Cirque du Soleil productions, is developing a slate of original musicals for the stage and screen. The first project will be a rock opera that traces Japan’s Imperial Family through the final days of World War II. The show, which has the working title “十” (the Japanese symbol for

North American box office revenues in 2020 hit a 40-year low, struggling to reach $2.2 billion in total amid the coronavirus crisis. Movie theaters were forced to stay closed for a significant portion of the year beginning in late March and struggled to recover when some cinemas were able to reopen months later in August.

The Hollywood Legion Drive-In Theater will present a weeklong retrospective of Christopher Nolan films beginning Jan. 17. The theater’s Nolan Fest will include the Batman trilogy, “Dunkirk,” “Interstellar” and “Inception.” “We’re excited to offer audiences in the L.A. area a unique opportunity to be swept up in Nolan’s immersive films,” said creative director and chief