Sales agent M-Appeal has closed distribution deals for LGBT coming-of-age movie “Cocoon,” the opening film of Generation 14Plus at the Berlin Film Festival, with the U.K. and several other territories. The film, directed by Leonie Krippendorff, stars Jella Haase and Lena Klenke. Haase won the talent showcase Shooting Stars at the Berlin Film Festival in
Movies
Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, the Tallinn Black Nights film festival’s industry strand, is going completely online due to likely travel restrictions caused by the resurgence of COVID-19. Travel around the world is in a state of flux in several countries, with varying quarantine requirements. While there have been no new cases in Estonia in the
Ishaan Khatter will star in war film “Pippa,” produced by Indian industry veterans Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur. The film is to be directed by Raja Krishna Menon and will release towards the end of 2021. Based on Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta’s book “The Burning Chaffees,” the film is set during the Indo-Pakistan war
Weezer has unveiled the first song from the next installment of “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” The song “Beginning Of The End (Wyld Stallyns Edit)” soundtracks “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” which opens on Aug. 28 in select theaters. Wyld Stallyns, the fictional band of Theodore “Ted” Logan (Keanu Reeves) and Bill Preston Esq.
In the hurtling, slapdash fanciful action thriller “Project Power,” people get high by swallowing a tablet that looks like a cross between a tiny light bulb and an old Contact cold-relief capsule. The bottom half of the pill is dark and ridged, the top half is a bright orange Tesla energy field. The drug affects
Jennifer Msumba took the best-film prize for her “The Fish Don’t Care When It Rains” at the seventh annual Easterseals Disability Film Challenge, which streamed live Aug. 13. Scott Michael Klumb (“Autism Ability”) nabbed the award for editing, while Rachel Handler was saluted for creating the best awareness campaign for the healthcare-themed “How Much Am I Worth?”
Known for their cliché storylines, cheesy dialogue and the unrealistic expectations they place on real-life love, rom-coms are not for everyone. However, the genre has evolved over the years to encompass more nuanced, complex relationships and touch on serious topics such as the spectrum of sexuality and mental illness, making them more appealing to all.
A film adaptation of Femi Fadugba’s YA fantasy novel “The Upper World” is in the works at Netflix, with Oscar nominee Daniel Kaluuya on board to star and produce. Kaluuya will play Esso, who is at the center of the film’s time-bending tale, producing the movie alongside Screen Arcade’s Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless. Newman
Quebec has been the Canadian province hardest-hit by COVID-19, but unlike in California and New York, cinemas were allowed to open in Montreal starting on July 3. Vince Guzzo, president and CEO of Cinémas Guzzo, has been eagerly awaiting the release of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet.” Guzzo has 10 multiplexes in the greater Montreal area, but
Justin Simien’s Sundance Midnight section opener “Bad Hair” released its first trailer on Thursday, with Hulu also announcing that it will debut on the streaming platform on Oct. 23. The one-minute teaser introduces an L.A.-based executive assistant, Anna, who gets an intense weave sewn in. She passes out in front of the hairstylist, while the
“Jackass” star Steve-O had a team duct-tape him to a Los Angeles billboard — prompting a respond by the Los Angeles Fire Department — on Thursday. The stunt was an advertisement for his new comedy special, “Gnarly,” currently available to stream on his website. He posted about it on Instagram, publishing a selfie from his vantage
An intellectually stimulating art-house treasure all too easily overlooked amid the near-constant flood of Netflix content, “An Easy Girl” depicts a transformative summer in the life of a 16-year-old girl, but not the one described in the film’s title. That label — which writer-director Rebecca Zlotowski employs ironically, calling into question the patriarchal idea that
Hey, bud — let’s party! Sean Penn will take part in an all-star table read of his classic 1982 coming-of-age film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” The lineup will include Penn, Jennifer Aniston, Shia LaBeouf, Matthew McConaughey, Julia Roberts, Dane Cook, Morgan Freeman and Henry Golding, with more names to be announced over the next
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions has signed a first-look deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment, reuniting the actor with the studio behind his recent hit “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Appian Way, co-run by Jennifer Davisson, previously produced “The Revenant, “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and “Shutter Island.” The deal is described as “multi-year” and
While the coronavirus pandemic prompted the Sarajevo Film Festival to shift to an online edition just days before opening night, the organizers of CineLink Industry Days—Sarajevo’s buzzy industry confab—were prepared to go virtual from the moment that the virus began sweeping across Europe in March. That means plans have long been in place for an
Though the Russian film “Sputnik” is a sci-fi movie that begins in the vastness of space, the goal for Arman Yahin and his VFX team at Main Road Post was a narrow one: to build out the alien hitchhiker that one of the cosmonauts unwittingly brings home. The film centers on Konstantin Sergeyevich (Pyotr Fyodorov,
Clayton Davis, an experienced journalist who has covered film awards season for 15 years on his website AwardsCircuit.com, is joining Variety as film awards editor as of Sept. 1. As the editor-in-chief and owner of AwardsCircuit, Davis has become an influential voice in Hollywood when it comes to covering the annual Oscar race. At Variety,
Otto is a 17-year-old punk rocker who gets wrapped up in an investigation into his girlfriend Laura’s death. Angry and rebellious, he lashes out against his family and neighbors while relentlessly pouring through videos of her, trying to piece together clues about her final days. But as he struggles to make sense of her death,
As artists and creatives find themselves out of work due to the pandemic, the Sundance Institute has initiated a plan to help those in marginalized communities that are disproportionally affected by coronavirus-related shutdown. The Sundance Institute announced on Thursday the organizations that have been selected as part of their $1 million Sundance Institute Respond and
Steiner Studios has unveiled plans to build a 500,000-square-foot film and television production hub in the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn. The new project will expand on Steiner’s massive, 780,000-square-foot production facility at Brooklyn Navy Yard, which has hosted such TV and film productions as “Gotham,” “Joker” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” since opening in
Mireille Enos would love to make people laugh, but she hasn’t really had the chance to do so during her two decades in Hollywood. Her list of credits includes playing JoDean Marquart in “Big Love,” Sarah Linden in “The Killing” and most recently CIA assassin Marissa Wiegler in the Amazon Prime adaptation of the 2019
Born: Aug. 13, 1899 in England Died: April 29, 1980 (age 80) Best known for: Directing “Rebecca,” “Rear Window,” “Vertigo,” “North by Northwest,” “Psycho,” “The Birds” and nearly 50 others. Nickname: “The Master of Suspense” Awards: Five Oscar nominations, one Thalberg Award (1967); Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award (1972); AFI Life Achievement (1979); eight-time
Three of Argentina’s foremost auteurs – “Rojo’s” Benjamin Naishtat, “The Third Side of the River’s” Celina Murga, and “Two Shots Fired’s” Martin Rejtman – will present new movie projects at a 9th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, the industry centerpiece at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival. They will be joined by up-and-coming directors such as
Garrett Bradley’s documentary “Time,” an intimate portrait of mass incarceration in America, will debut in select theaters on Oct. 9 before launching on Amazon Prime Video on Oct. 23. “Time” had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. At the annual Park City gathering, Garrett was awarded best director for U.S. documentary in
Netflix has released the first trailer for “The Devil All the Time,” a film starring Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson set to premiere Sept. 16. The gothic thriller also stars Bill Skarsgard, Sebastian Stan, Riley Keough, Mia Wasikowska, Jason Clarke, Haley Bennett, Eliza Scanlen, Harry Melling and Pokey LaFarge. It centers on an orphaned young
AMC Theatres has just endured one of the most traumatic periods in its hundred-year history. As the theater chain looks to reopen 100 of its locations on Aug. 20 after shutting them down last spring during the coronavirus pandemic, it has hit on a novel way to bring back audiences while paying tribute to its
Naomie Harris, Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe supporting actress nominee for “Moonlight,” narrates the latest video from environmental activists Extinction Rebellion. Released Friday, the animated explainer video titled “Extinction Emergency, and Why We Must Act Now” summarizes the planet’s biodiversity loss, runaway consumerism and the current ecological crisis and how the consequences will affect millions
As the magical creatures of Middle Earth prepare to resume venturing through Auckland, New Zealand, for Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings” prequel series, the mythical world of Pandora has been bursting into life for James Cameron’s “Avatar” sequels in Wellington, just one hour’s flight south. Meanwhile, on the South Island, stars like Viggo Mortensen are
California Film Institute’s fundraising forum DocPitch will be held virtually at 7 p.m Aug. 13. The event was originally scheduled in tandem with documentary film festival DocLands, which was postponed from May. DocLands will now take place with Mill Valley Film Festival on Oct. 8. DocPitch is CFI’s annual event designed to financially support filmmakers
Young death is tricky business. To do it justice, a movie would have to be awash in grief — and where’s the pleasure in that? The supernatural romance “Endless,” releasing on demand, tempers its mourning with lessons about mortality delivered by a couple of guys stuck on the other side. It’s a cheat, to be