Movies

Australia is to formally close the state border between New South Wales and Victoria in response to a growing resurgence of the coronavirus. The move shuts down all travel between Sydney and Melbourne, the two largest hubs of the Australian film and TV industry. The move was announced Monday afternoon and will take effect from

Banijay has unveiled its rebranded identity following the completion of its takeover of Endemol Shine Group last week. The combined group, which is headed by Marco Bassetti, CEO, will be entitled Banijay. The Endemol Shine brand is effectively being retired from the new brand. Banijay’s $2.2 billion deal for Endemol Shine was cleared by the

Oscar winner Ennio Morricone, composer of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “The Mission” and among the most prolific and admired composers in film history, has died. He was 91. Morricone died early Monday in a Rome clinic, where he was taken shortly after suffering a fall that caused a hip fracture, his

Derek Tsang’s youth drama “Better Days” was awarded the top prize, a Golden Mulberry, at the Festival of Far East Film in Udine, northern Italy. The festival was largely online, and the prizes selected by an audience which both viewed the films and voted electronically. Some 25,000 votes were cast for the audience award, by

Cinemas in Singapore are set to reopen later this month as the city-state takes further steps towards a new post-coronavirus normality. Multiple social distancing and public hygiene measures will inform the cinemas operations. Major cinema chains announced that they will reopen their doors from July 13, following an announcement from the Infocomm Media Development Authority.

There’s a flaky moment of lo-fi enchantment in the Quibi version of “The Princess Bride” when Inigo Montoya, played with forthright flair by Diego Luna (that’s just after he’s played by Oscar Nunez and just before he’s played by Finn Wolfhard), takes the sword crafted by his father — the one that got his father

Judi Dench has won an Academy Award, a Tony, two Golden Globes, 10 BAFTA Awards and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, but her latest achievement is going viral on TikTok. Dench has joined her grandson Sam Williams on the mobile app, taking part in dance videos and skits that

The U.K. government is to exempt some leading U.S. actors, such as Tom Cruise, and crew from its 14-day quarantine to allow Hollywood blockbusters to resume production. The move follows a conversation between culture secretary Oliver Dowden and Cruise earlier this week about restarting filming on the latest “Mission: Impossible” movies. The seventh and eighth

President Thomas J. Whitmore is urging Americans to wear their face masks in public. Bill Pullman, who played the character in the 1996 blockbuster “Independence Day,” gave a public service announcement about wearing masks in a video for Alamo Drafthouse. “And now, a message from the most presidential actor of all time, Bill Pullman,” the

In “17 Blocks,” Cheryl Sanford, matriarch of a low-income African American household in southeast Washington, D.C., talks wistfully of a “parallel universe” where she and her family enjoy cookouts, vacations and gift-filled Christmas mornings. This melancholy confession comes moments after a closeup of her casually snorting cocaine. It’s a heartbreaking scene in a devastating film

There’s a bit of everything and most of it works in “Chasing Dream,” the first feature directed by Hong Kong ace Johnnie To since “Three” in 2016. Far from what fans of To’s hard-boiled crime dramas such as “Drug War” and “Election” might have expected, “Chasing Dream” invokes everything from gritty 1930s Warner Brothers musicals

Earl Cameron, one of the first major Black actors in British cinema, died on Friday at his home in England, his representative confirmed to Variety. He was 102. Cameron was born in Pembroke, Bermuda, on Aug. 8, 1917, and joined the British Merchant Navy before pursuing a career in theater and film. “Pool of London,”

Nearly 300,000 people have signed a petition aiming to block the release of the independent film “Habit,” starring Bella Thorne and Paris Jackson, in which Jackson plays a version of Jesus. Thorne plays a street-smart, party girl who has a Jesus fetish and finds herself in a drug deal gone wrong. She’s able to escape

SAG-AFTRA has rescinded its “do not work” order for the pandemic thriller “Songbird,” produced by Michael Bay. The performers union made the announcement Friday on its web site, a day after telling its members not work on the project: “SAG-AFTRA has rescinded its Do Not Work order for the feature film ‘Songbird, produced by On a

In February, Netflix began to feature daily Top 10 lists on its user interface to showcase what films and television shows had the highest streaming numbers. Although the feature doesn’t include exact numbers, it offers a glimpse into what is being watched on Netflix, which has historically held its data close to the chest. While

This Independence Day weekend sees the fittingly timed release of “Hamilton,” with the hit Broadway show about the United States’ founding fathers making the jump to living rooms on Disney Plus. Beyond that, a bounty of other releases are also coming out to tide audiences over for the holiday weekend. With theaters shuttered due to

Leaders of the Writers Guild of America have unanimously endorsed the successor deal reached with studios on its master contract, triggering a ratification vote among the 15,000 members. In an email message to members Friday morning, the WGA said, “After the negotiating committee’s unanimous recommendation of the agreement, last night both the WGAW Board and

With the passing of comedy legend Carl Reiner, tributes have poured in from all over the world. Bernadette Peters spoke with Variety about her memories of growing up watching Reiner on television in Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows” and in “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” then getting to work with him on the seminal 1979

HBO Max has revealed the first trailer for “An American Pickle,” an upcoming comedy starring Seth Rogen set to premiere on the platform on Aug. 6. Directed by his frequent collaborator Brandon Trost, Rogen plays Herschel Greenbaum, a Polish ditch digger who immigrates to the U.S. in 1920 to fulfill his American dream. Herschel finds

Although the public part of this year’s Karlovy Vary Film Festival — the key event for the film business in Central and Eastern Europe — was canceled, the festival is pressing ahead with its industry section, Eastern Promises, which runs July 6-8 in an online format. Eastern Promises selects 41 projects in development, production and

Ron Howard’s “Apollo 13” celebrated its 25th anniversary on June 30. With the help of post house Digital Domain, the 1995 film depicted a 1970 space mission that turned into a fight for survival after an oxygen tank exploded in the service module.  Variety looked up Kelly Port (“Avengers: Endgame”) and Matthew Butler (“Ready Player

There’s a thing you can always count on in blockbuster movie culture: If a popcorn genre hangs around long enough, after a while it’s going to merge with another popcorn genre it seemingly has nothing to do with. That’s what happened when “Kingsman: Secret Service” (2014) fused the setting and attitude of a James Bond

Disney has rolled back on plans to release a 4K version of “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” in theaters, Variety has confirmed. The decision comes just weeks after it was revealed a 4K edition of the film would form part of U.K. cinemas’ reopening slate. While “The Empire Strikes Back” will still be screened in

Spain’s San Sebastian Festival, the highest-profile movie event in the Spanish-speaking world, has delivered on director José Luis Rebordinos’ promise of considering  Cannes Official Selection titles for selection, slating five Cannes label titles in its own main competition, the Festival announced Friday. These include two of the biggest sales attractions at last week’s Cannes Marché

The Czech Republic’s Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival, the leading movie event in Central and Eastern Europe, is to hold a special four-day event in the fall, despite its decision to postpone its 55th edition until next year. The special event, running under the banner “Karlovy Vary IFF 54½,” will unspool Nov. 18-21 in Karlovy

Saroj Khan, an iconic Bollywood choreographer whose dance proteges include actresses Madhuri Dixit and Sridevi, died of a cardiac arrest on Friday, after being admitted to a Mumbai hospital in June with breathing difficulties. She was 71. Born Nirmala Nagpal, Khan debuted as an assistant choreographer in 1960 with “Kalpana,” and honed her craft on

As a freelance film critic working in Los Angeles for the past seven years, and a resident of the city since I came from Mexico in my early teens, I’ve been lucky to find supporters at publications and film-related institutions who’ve found value in my work and insights. That’s why three years ago when the

With HBO Max having launched in May and NBCUniversal’s Peacock looking to enter living rooms in July, the number of streaming platforms for consumers to choose from continues to multiply. It can be easy to get lost in that shuffle and forget that there are a vast number of films that are already available to

The Shanghai International Film Festival is planning to take place in-person later this month, likely from July 18-27, according to Chinese and Iranian reports. Other large, in-person entertainment industry events such as the Shanghai TV Festival and the ChinaJoy gaming industry conference are also set to occur in-person soon, reports said, as the country opens

SAG-AFTRA has told told its members to refuse work on the pandemic thriller “Songbird,” produced by Michael Bay. “Songbird” had been announced in mid-May as a low-budget production that would shoot in Los Angeles. The performers union announced the “do not work” order on Thursday for production company On A Lark Productions LLC. It said the