Movies

Utopia Distribution has acquired “Turning Point,” a documentary that follows researchers in their quest to develop treatments for Alzheimer’s. It will premiere on Altavod, Utopia’s new distribution platform on Sept. 21 before being made available on other streaming platforms such as Amazon and iTunes a day later. The release is being tied to World Alzheimer’s

The Venice Film Festival stuck to its guns in promising a physical 2020 festival amid a global pandemic, and somehow, it’s pulled it off. While recent COVID-19 shockwaves in Europe made the undertaking even more precarious, the early days of this year’s edition are so far meeting the expectations of its largely European delegates. Elisabetta

Altavod, a new platform pledging to help indie filmmakers more easily distribute and profit from their movies, launched Wednesday. The company’s founders say that it will allow moviemakers to cut out third parties who they usually turn to in order to find distribution platforms. With Altavod, they can upload films themselves and keep more than

While the Venice Film Festival is taking on strong symbolic significance as a catalyst to help restart Italy’s film industry, cameras are already rolling on sets across the country just as a fresh crop of completed movies is raring to make a splash by launching from the lagoon. Below is a compendium of standout Italian

Few countries in Latin America, and indeed the world, can boast such positive results from health and safety decisions made in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In total, Uruguay has seen only 1,611 confirmed cases, plateauing at 200 active cases for several weeks now. As a result, travel restrictions are close to none.

In February, “Mission: Impossible 7” was forced to halt production in Italy days before its planned shoot in Venice, as the country contended with one of the highest coronavirus death rates in Europe. Cut to September. The Venice Film Festival is the first top-tier fest physically taking place, and Tom Cruise is expected back in

TrustNordisk has closed a raft of deals on Christoffer Boe’s “A Taste Of Hunger,” the Danish romantic drama starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (“Game Of Thrones”) and Katrine Greis-Rosenthal (“A Fortunate Man”). The movie, now in post-production and set for a Feb. 25 release in Denmark, has inspired a virtual reality experience “A Taste of Hunger –

The boffo global box office for “Tenet” is proof of the public appetite for Christopher Nolan’s abilities as a filmmaker, but as the film opens in more countries and, gradually, the United States, familiar questions are being raised about the director’s idiosyncratic approach to sound, and its impact on how much — or how little

Beta Nordic Studios, a subsidiary of Jan Mojto’s Munich-based production-sales powerhouse Beta Film, has acquired a 25% stake in Sagafilm, the thriving Icelandic production banner behind the Cineflix-repped series “The Minister” (with Olafur Darri Olafsson, pictured). Sagafilm will now form part of Beta Nordic Studios, an unbrella group launched in 2019, comprising Patrick Nebout’s Swedish

Norway is the latest stop for Tom Cruise’s peripatetic “Mission: Impossible” franchise, with the production hiring two ships from Norwegian cruise line Hurtigruten, according to local media reports. Hurtigruten has confirmed to Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang that they have rented out two of their ships, MS Vesterålen and MS Fridtjof Nansen, for a month, beginning

The U.K.’s preeminent film bodies, the BFI and BAFTA, have produced a report that identifies innovations across five key areas to reduce carbon emissions in film production, with a view to zero emissions by 2050. The report, titled “A New Screen Deal: A Route Map to Sustainable Film Production,” identifies the areas of improvement as

Disney’s Chinese-themed “Mulan” will hit mainland Chinese theaters in just a few days time, and only one week after “Tenet.” According to Chinese exhibitors “Mulan” will open in theaters on Sept. 11. They said that they received notification Wednesday from China Film Corp., though official websites have not yet been updated to reflect the date

The South Korean release of a new film about K-pop superstars BTS has been indefinitely delayed, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The documentary film “Break The Silence: The Movie” had been scheduled for a Sept. 10 release in South Korean theaters. However, the Yonhap news agency said Wednesday that it will not go ahead on

“Center Stage” stars Zoe Saldana, Amanda Schull, Sascha Radetsky and Ethan Stiefel reunited 20 years after the film’s debut to discuss the cultural touchstone and life-changing ballet film. Between port de bras and pas de trois references and stories about driving Harleys across fancy stages, the cast took this moment to reflect on larger issues

In “Robin’s Wish,” a documentary about the last days of Robin Williams, the comedian’s widow, Susan Schneider Williams, recalls one of the first times that she could tell something was seriously off. Robin called her from Vancouver, where he was shooting the third “Night at the Museum” film, and he couldn’t calm himself down. He

San Diego is the first major California market in California to see indoor movie theaters reopening with the AMC Cinemas and Regal Cinemas chains back in business this weekend. AMC is reopening seven of its nine sites in San Diego County on Friday, a spokesman said. A rep for Regal said the chain has set

Producer and writer Logan Coles first met Chadwick Boseman, who died Aug. 28 of colon cancer at age 43, when they were students at Howard University. After bonding over their love of the arts, the pair would go on to produce films like “21 Bridges” and “Message from the King,” fighting hard to promote Black

Leaders of the Writers Guild of America have told their 15,000 members that the town’s two largest talent agenices,  CAA and WME, will not see the WGA offer improved terms if the agencies want to represent WGA writers. The missive from the WGA negotiating committee was sent out Tuesday afternoon. It came a month after

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced on Tuesday that movie theaters will be allowed to reopen in the state on Friday, in time for the release of “Tenet.” Maryland follows New Jersey, which announced on Monday that its theaters could also reopen on Friday. Theaters and other indoor entertainment venues in Maryland will be limited to

Tribeca Film Institute and Gucci have announced the grantees of this year’s Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund. The grant, funded by Gucci, provides production finances for feature-length documentary films examining domestic and international social justice issues. Eleven projects — Jon Sesrie-Goff’s “After Sherman,” Shaunak Sen’s “Airborne,” Sabaah Folayan’s “Ain’t I A Woman,” Débora Souza Silva’s “Black

Julianne Moore has joined the cast of Universal Pictures’ “Dear Evan Hansen” and will portray Heidi Hansen, the mother of Evan Hansen. “Dear Evan Hansen,” a Tony-winning musical, opened on Broadway in 2016. The story follows a high schooler with social anxiety who gets caught up in a lie after a classmate’s family mistakes one

Paramount Pictures has hired veteran executive Sejin Croninger as executive vice president of worldwide acquisitions, reporting to motion picture group president Emma Watts. She replaces Syrinthia Studer, who departed earlier this year for a Nickelodeon post. Croninger will begin her new job on Sept. 8 and oversee the global content acquisitions group, including both theatrical

Adam Driver has signed to star in Sony Pictures’ science-fiction thriller “65,” to be written and directed by “A Quiet Place” writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. Beck and Woods are also producing with Sam Raimi and Zainab Azizi for Raimi Productions along with Debbie Liebling. The studio is keeping the plot under wraps along

“Women Make Film.” The title of Irish film savant Mark Cousins’ sprawling 14-hour follow-up to “The Story of Film” serves both as a statement of fact and, if punctuated slightly differently, a call to action: “Women, Make Film!” Where the earlier documentary was a monumental survey of the medium, attempting to cram its entire history

“Tenet” opens in the U.S. this Friday, though theaters will still be closed in New York. But across the Hudson River, theaters are scrambling to reopen, after New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy lifted the state’s closure order on Monday. The Bow Tie Cinemas location in Hoboken — just a few blocks from the Lincoln Tunnel

“Charm City Kings” producer Caleeb Pinkett has teamed up with production company Rebel Maverick for a film based on Alyssa Keli Rose’s Medium article “The Dunbar Heist,” Variety has learned exclusively. Pinkett, the brother of Jada Pinkett Smith, will produce the project with Clarence Hammond and Dougie Cash. Rebel Maverick’s Matt Nicholas and Nastassja Kayln

“The Way I See It,” a documentary about former White House photographer Pete Souza, will release in theaters on Sept. 18 before premiering on MSNBC three weeks later on Oct. 9. The Focus Features documentary follows the life of Souza, who captured the presidencies of Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan. It will air on MSNBC,

As expected, Christopher Nolan’s keenly awaited “Tenet” topped the U.K. and Ireland box office over the past week, collecting £5,335,654 ($7.16 million), according to final numbers from Comscore. Warner Bros. opened the late summer tentpole wide across 611 locations midweek. For many it was the first time they had returned to cinemas since they reopened

David Byrne has issued an apology for impersonating people of color, including wearing brownface and blackface, in a 1984 promotional video for the Talking Heads’ iconic concert film “Stop Making Sense.” In the clip, which was intended to be humorous, Byrne interviews himself in a split-screen scene, portraying multiple different (and ridiculous) reporters whom he

Narrative has hired publicists Maria Herrera and Rachael Reiss, who were recently vice presidents at Rogers & Cowan PMK. Together, Herrera and Reiss’ client list include Olivia Wilde, James Gunn, Chris Miller and Phil Lord. They also represent Hiro Murai (“Atlanta”), producer Brad Fuller (“A Quiet Place”), producer Andrew Form (“A Quiet Place”), Nahnatchka Khan