Movies

Italy’s Iervolino Entertainment is boasting a slew of international sales on Ciro Guerra-directed drama “Waiting for the Barbarians,” toplining Johnny Depp and starring Robert Pattinson, Mark Rylance, Gana Bayarsaikhan and Greta Scacchi. The adaptation of J.M. Coetzee’s prize-winning novel, which launched from Venice last year, has been sold by Iervolino’s AMBI Distribution unit to Germany

The Oscars unveiled new guidelines this week that are designed to promote diversity and inclusion both in front of and behind the camera. But the rules are inspiring confusion and controversy as studios and filmmakers try to figure out what the mandates mean for their movies. No worries: that’s where Variety comes in, with an

Mexican director Michel Franco’s latest, dystopian shock drama “New Order,” proves to be the most punishing entry in a difficult oeuvre, which may sound harsh, but isn’t meant as an insult. A cold and sometimes overly intellectual filmmaker, Franco knows how to make an audience squirm. That’s part of the bargain when we buy a

Applying a minute and painterly eye to ordinary lives encircled by much larger circumstance — be it a motorway as in 2013’s Golden Lion-winning “Sacro Gra,” or the seaborne migrant crisis as in 2016’s Golden Bear-winning “Fire at Sea” — has led to Italian-American director Gianfranco Rosi’s most celebrated documentaries. But in “Notturno,” his return

Neve Campbell will reprise her role as the perpetually traumatized Sidney Prescott in a new “Scream” movie, Spyglass and Paramount Pictures announced on Thursday. Campbell played the lead role of Sidney in the previous four “Scream” movies directed by the late Wes Craven, starting with the original in 1996. The new “Scream” film, which Spyglass

Jason Blum’s Blumhouse has signed a three-picture deal with “Host” director Rob Savage, and will finance and partner with Savage to produce the films. Savage will be collaborating with the same team behind “Host,” including producer Douglas Cox; the writing team of Jed Shepherd & Gemma Hurley; and editor Breanna Rangott. “We’ve been tracking Rob’s

Saban Films has acquired the North American distribution rights to Seth Savoy’s directorial debut “Echo Boomers” ahead of the launch of the Toronto film market. The crime drama stars Patrick Schwarzenegger (“Midnight Sun,” “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse”), Michael Shannon, Alex Pettyfer, Lesley Ann Warren (“Jobs”), and Oliver Cooper (“Californication”). The film follows a

As the 2020 Toronto Intl. Film Festival kicks off, check out this year’s offerings with Variety’s special festival extra edition, covering the state of the international film sales market, and featuring interviews with filmmakers including Mira Nair, whose series “A Suitable Boy” plays at TIFF, and a guide to what top restaurants and bars are

Jonathan Nossiter, one of the few American directors who was able to attend the Deauville Film Festival this year, didn’t make the trip for the Normandy seaside red carpet. He intended to shake people up with “Last Words,” a post-apocalyptic film set in 2086 which seems eerily prophetic. Competing in Deauville, “Last Words” was part

As film and television productions labor to get off the ground following months of coronavirus shutdowns, one horror indie has quietly wrapped a nearly four-week shoot in Los Angeles. Co-writers and directors Matt Leslie and Stephen Smith have completed “The Knocking,” a bloody tale of a serial monogamist that shot for 19 days amid intense

When “Cold War” cinematographer Łukasz Żal teamed with writer-director Charlie Kaufman on “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” one of the earliest conversations they had was how to communicate memory visually.  In Kaufman’s new film, based on the novel by Iain Reid, Jesse Plemons as Jake and Jessie Buckley (“Wild Rose”) as his meta-named Girlfriend go

Amazon Studios has tapped Lorenza Muñoz as senior global awards executive, Variety has learned. Muñoz joins the studio from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she led the internal member relations and awards department. In her new role, she will focus on implementing awards strategies on a global and international scale, with

Carrie Coon has spent most of quarantine catching up on classic movies with her husband, playwright and actor Tracy Letts. Every night after putting their 2-year-old son, Haskell, to bed, the couple retreats to their basement to watch episodes of “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” followed by a feature film like the Robert Duvall drama “Tender

Nishikawa Miwa, the woman filmmaker who is a protégé of Japan’s celebrated “Shoplifters” director Kore-eda Hirokazu, may be about to step out from his shadow. Her social drama “Under the Open Sky” is set for premiere and a prominent position at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival this month. The film takes as its starting point

Filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, attending the Venice Film Festival with “Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams,” a documentary about Ferragamo, and documentary short “Fiori, Fiori, Fiori!” (pictured), popped by the festival and Mastercard’s “Life Through a Different Lens: Contactless Connections” talk earlier this week. But he didn’t want to talk about lenses at all. “That’s a very specific

One of several high-profile guests scheduled to attend the Lumière Festival in October, Oliver Stone will be screening a newly restored copy of 1989’s “Born on the Fourth of July” at its world premiere in the French city of Lyon. Other guests of honor include actor Viggo Mortensen, Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (1998’s “Festen”), Italian

Hong Kong-based sales agency Asian Shadow has picked up international rights to migrant drama film, “Along The Sea.” Directed by Fujimoto Akio, it will get its world premiere in the New Directors competition at San Sebastian later this month. The film follows three young Vietnamese women who find menial work in Japan, but abscond, turning

While the pandemic has reduced film festivals’ capacity to showcase new work, an all-singing all-dancing Spanish-Italian number has been selected for two. Sold by Latido Films, “Explota Explota” (“My Heart Goes Boom!”), the assured debut feature of music promo and commercials director Nacho Álvarez, will receive an RTVE Gala Screening at the San Sebastian Festival next

Singapore’s 108 Media has picked up international sales duties on Indian drama film “Lorni – The Flaneur.” Directed by Wanphrang K, Diengdoh, the film had its premiere at the Black Nights festival in Tallinn in November last year. I twill be pitched by 108 Media on the side lines of the Toronto International Film Festival

Studiocanal will handle worldwide sales at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival on “The Jonsson Gang” from “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “Let The Right One In” director Tomas Alfredson. A reboot of a successful Swedish film series, “The Jonsson Gang” follows a gang gone legit who reunite for one last heist. It stars Henrik Dorsin

Dennis Hopper meets Orson Welles: That sounds like an oil-and-water match-up of legendary filmmakers. Welles, for all his renegade gusto, was a defrocked classicist — maybe (or maybe not) the greatest film director who ever lived, and one who became the ultimate high-toned Hollywood dropout. Whereas Hopper, the scraggly counterculture bad boy, launched his career

Lebanese director Ely Dagher’s “Harvest” (see interview here), a drama about a young woman contending with identity issues on returning to Beirut after a long stint abroad, is the standout title in this year’s Final Cut in Venice workshop – part of the Venice Film Festival – which provides post-production support and partnership opportunities to

Director, Baz Luhrmann has confirmed that production will restart imminently on his untitled Elvis Presley movie. Tom Hanks, the film’s co-star has already returned to Australia, where he previously contracted COVID-19. Production in Queensland will start from Sept. 23, Luhrmann said in a statement. The Warner Bros.-backed film was in advanced stages of pre-production in

“‘Forrest Gump’ with a mantra” — that’s the underlying premise, in a nutshell, of “Meeting the Beatles in India,” which has filmmaker Paul Saltzman recounting the week he spent hanging with the Beatles under the tutelage of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during their famous sojourn to the ashram in 1968. Saltzman has a tale to

The producers of the upcoming Ben Affleck film “Hypnotic” filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing their insurance company of refusing to extend their policy to account for the pandemic. The lawsuit is among the first, if not the first, to test whether film insurers will be forced to accommodate delays caused by COVID-19. The suit

Facing a barrage of criticism over eligibility cuts, the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan has announced it will be offering an 80% reduction in COBRA premiums for many participants who will no longer qualify for coverage starting Oct. 1 More than 17,000 people have asked trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan to overturn recently announced changes that

Uncertainty is the new reality for productions on location: what was once a no-brainer (shoot in film-friendly locations with incentives) is now a complex puzzle to be solved. Some go-to production states and countries require a 14-day quarantine period for out-of-towners; others including Louisiana and Georgia do not. If COVID-19 cases decline or surge, then

The Tokyo International Film Festival has set boxing picture “Underdog,” directed by Take Masaharu, as the opening title for its 33rd edition. The festival will run Oct. 31 to Nov. 9, when it will close with Hajime Hashimoto’s “Hokusai.” The festival plans to hold physical screenings in Tokyo theaters, but few overseas guests or filmmakers

Anne Hathaway is in final negotiations to star in Doug Liman’s “Lockdown,” a heist movie and romantic comedy taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Steven Knight wrote the script, and P.J. van Sandwijk is producing with Alison Winter. Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios is fully funding. CAA Media Finance arranged the financing and is co-representing the

Ahead of its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Emma Seligman’s debut feature “Shiva Baby” has sold worldwide rights to Utopia Media. “Shiva Baby” follows a young bisexual Jewish woman at a shiva — a mourning tradition in the Jewish community — in which her older male paramour and female high school sweetheart are present.