Movies

Veteran Hollywood executive Josh Goldstine has emerged as the frontrunner for the president of worldwide marketing post at Warner Bros. Pictures, multiple insiders told Variety. Goldstine is already a consultant for the studio, where he is working on such titles as “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Judas and the Black Messiah.” Goldstine’s hire would fill the

This weekend pit the best of Hollywood’s action tentpole rolodex against China’s — and found that fresh local content has greater sway over local audiences in what is now the world’s largest film market. “Wonder Woman 1984” grossed just $18.8 million in China, almost half the approximately $34 million haul of Chinese actioner “The Rescue.”

You can take the girl out of the woods, but you can’t take the woods out of the girl — unless, of course, you take the woods away altogether. Such are the tough lessons learned in “Toorbos,” a satisfying marriage of folky period romance and environmental parable from the misty, mossy depths of South Africa’s

Diana Prince may be able to best Cheetah, but she’s no match for a global pandemic. “Wonder Woman 1984” opened to a less than heroic $18.8 million in China over the weekend and a disappointing $38.5 million overseas. That’s far less than the $38 million that the first “Wonder Woman” grossed in its opening weekend

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), one of the most important critics groups in the awards season, is announcing their favorites films and performances, following Boston and New York last week. Notorious for embracing foreign films and performances, the west coast group chose Neon’s “Parasite” and its director Bong Joon-ho last year, which went

The U.K.’s insurance scheme for film and television has been extended until April. Known as the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, the groundbreaking £500 million ($676 million) fund assures productions that they’ll receive financial support in case of COVID-related losses. The program has so far accepted 100 qualifying productions. The initiative was first revealed

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” hair department head Mia Neal had never worked with horsehair before until she needed to create wigs for the new Netflix film starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. Few photographs existed of the real Ma Rainey, known as the “Mother of the Blues,” but costume designer Ann Roth pointed to reading

Jessica Chastain’s “Ava” has skipped a theatrical release in China, but is instead to get the widest possible online outing in the Middle Kingdom. From Saturday it is available on China’s four largest generalist streaming platforms: Tencent Video, Alibaba-owned Youku, iQIYI and Mango TV. The maneuver was piloted by Los Angeles and Beijing based Leeding

“Wonder Woman 1984” will get a premium VOD release in the U.K. a month after the film’s premiere, Warner Bros. has confirmed. As revealed exclusively by Variety earlier this month, the studio has taken advantage of a strict emergency COVID window agreed with exhibitors, which has drastically shortened the U.K. theatrical window. However, it appears the

Director Ric Roman Waugh’s “Greenland” was originally scheduled to be released in June, but the pandemic changed that — it’s now available on premium VOD. Waugh, who reunites with “Angel has Fallen” actor Gerard Butler, had not yet finished his post-production when the lockdown happened. Although he had locked picture, there was still a lot

Netflix is delaying the start of production of the Chris Evans–Ryan Gosling thriller “The Gray Man” — which had been scheduled for mid-January — amid concerns about the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in California. Netflix had no comment. Sources close to the production said Friday that the indefinite pause stems from an abundance of

Members of the U.S. Space Force will now be called “guardians” — and of course, the internet had a field day. Vice President Mike Pence made the announcement on Friday, and the United States Space Force tweeted that the name was settled on “by space professionals, for space professionals” after a yearlong research process. Today,

Filmmaker Safyah Usmani documented Pakistan’s changing laws surrounding honor killings through the story of Pakistani celebrity Qandeel Baloch’s death in “A Life Too Short.” “The reason I chose to make this film, and when I started was right after her murder,” she said. “The reason behind that was … I was thinking about how the

How do you choose the biggest movie misfires of the year? In a way, it’s easy. A movie that’s bad enough to earn a place on this scroll is, like a great movie, not one you really choose. It’s one that chooses you. It looks like a judgment, and a harsh one at that, but

Deepa Mehta’s “Funny Boy” will no longer compete in the Academy Awards’ international feature film category and will instead be submitted for consideration in the best picture and general entry categories. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has informed “Funny Boy” producer Telefilm Canada that the film does not meet the Academy’s eligibility

Netflix continues to bet big on kids and family programming. The streaming service announced on Friday it optioned the rights to Annie Barrows’ illustrated children’s book series “Ivy & Bean” and plans to make them into movies. The live-action films will be one-hour in length and geared toward family audiences. Kathy Waugh (“Judy Moody and

Milla Jovovich wasn’t actually that thrilled when her writer-director husband Paul W.S. Anderson asked her to star “Monster Hunter,” their new feature adaptation of the video game of the same name. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, you have to be kidding me! Like, I just wrapped up ‘Resident Evil.’ We were killing zombies and

Millie Bobby Brown is attached to star in the science-fiction movie “The Electric State” for Universal Pictures with Anthony and Joe Russo directing and producing. The project, based on Simon Stalenhag’s illustrated novel of the same name, is set in an alternative future and centers on a teenage girl (Brown) who realizes that a strange

Academy Award winner Charlie Kaufman’s latest film, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” hit Netflix in September and has already picked up a screenplay win with the Boston Society of Film Critics, along with nominations from several other regional groups. You can now get inside Kaufman’s unique mind and read the script here. Kaufman, who was

Four-time Oscar nominee Peter Lamont, who worked on 18 James Bond films and received an Academy Award for production design for “Titanic,” has died. He was 91. Lamont’s death was disclosed Friday by the official 007 account on Twitter, which posted a statement by producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli that reads, “Peter Lamont

Production on set was halted earlier this year, but animated films have continued to entertain audiences from the comfort of their homes. The creators behind hit animated films — Glen Keane, Kori Rae, Dan Scanlon, Pete Docter, Joel Crawford, Mark Swift, Gennie Rim, Dana Murray, Tomm Moore and Norah Twomey — discussed their recent works

Sony Classics’ “The Father” is an act of daring; it could have gone wrong in so many ways, but it works like gangbusters. The film marks the movie debut of writer-director Florian Zeller, whose background is as a novelist and playwright; in many cases, that would send warning signals. What’s more, it all takes place

Kiersey Clemons will star in 141 Entertainment’s “Susie Searches,” a darkly comic thriller from Sophie Kargman. “Susie Searches” centers on Susie (Clemons), an awkward college student who seizes the opportunity to bolster her popularity and her under-the-radar true-crime podcast by solving the disappearance of a classmate. Her investigation reveals that the truth and Susie aren’t

The Academy Museum opening planned for April 30 has been postponed. Bill Kramer, Director and President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, officially announced that the long-awaited opening would open to the public on Sept. 30, 2021. It will be preceded by a suite of opening events, including a gala on Sept. 25. “We

Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Man Who Sold His Skin” has been sold by Paris-based Bac Films International to further territories. The movie will represent Tunisia in the Oscar race for best international feature film. “The Man Who Sold His Skin” world premiered at Venice, where it won the best actor award for Yahya Mahayni. The

Promoted as a modern spin on Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” sans any such onscreen accreditation, “The Bloodhound” does eke an atmosphere of suffocation and doom from one domestic interior — in this case, an impressive mid-century modernist manse whose stark clean lines seem to repel human warmth. Patrick Picard’s

The very core of George C. Wolfe’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is the film’s music. Based on the August Wilson play, the film, debuting Dec. 18 on Netflix, follows famed blues singer Ma Rainey as she steps into a recording studio one hot summer day in 1927 Chicago. Levee, an ambitious young trumpet player, is

Midway through Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar’s stirring documentary “9to5: The Story of a Movement,” Jane Fonda briefly appears as the film’s most famous talking head. Remembering the time they were making the hit 1980 comedy “9 to 5” inspired by various stories of workplace sexism collected from the period’s fed-up administrative women, Fonda jokingly

Michelle Pfeiffer has been weathering through the pandemic and lockdown primarily focusing on her fine fragrance line, Henry Rose. “We’ve all just sort of pivoted,” the Oscar-nominated actress says. “We somehow are making that all work. It’s just one big improvisation, isn’t it?” In this bonus episode of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, Pfeiffer joins

With Australia in the depths of lockdown, due to the coronavirus, the Melbourne International Film Festival announced in April “with sadness” that its 69th edition in August was to be canceled. Less than a month later, organizers realized that they could go ahead with a virtual edition instead, and announced MIFF 68½. The festival’s artistic