Movies

Cate Blanchett has officially closed a deal to star in director Eli Roth’s movie adaptation of the video game “Borderlands” at Lionsgate. Blanchett will portray Lilith, a legendary thief equipped with magical skills. Lionsgate announced the deal on Thursday, a month after Variety first reported the attachment. The project reunites Blanchett with Roth, who collaborated

The U.K. is inching closer to an insurance arrangement that would allow film and TV production to resume with confidence after the industry emerges from lockdown. Variety has confirmed that a U.K. taskforce on insurance protection has submitted a proposal to the government for a guarantee around coverage for suspension or abandonment costs relating to

Colin Farrell (“The Lobster,” “Dumbo”), whose eclectic acting career underscores a desire to venture off beaten paths, took time during lockdown to share with Variety his thoughts on stepping into virtual reality with “Gloomy Eyes,” a critically acclaimed series that world premiered at Sundance in 2019. The three-part animated VR series, which won prizes at

Under normal circumstances, film festivals are fiercely competitive. Their reputations rise and fall by the caliber of world premieres they’re able to secure each year, and savvy sales reps and producers play them against one another in the game to book the most advantageous platform for the life of each movie. But there’s nothing normal

Paul Feig will adapt Soman Chainani’s fairytale fantasy novel “The School For Good and Evil” for Netflix. Feig, whose credits include “Bridesmaids,” “Ghostbusters” and “A Simple Favor,” will direct from a script by David Magee (“Life of Pi”)  and Laura Solon. “The School For Good and Evil” was published in 2013 as Chainani’s first novel

Jim Parsons really knows how to play lecherous and repugnant. Just take a look at his work as Henry Willson in “Hollywood,” a new Netflix drama from Ryan Murphy. Wilson, a ruthless powerbroker whose clients included Rock Hudson, Lana Turner, Robert Wagner and Tab Hunter, was a sexual predator who preyed on young men trying

Signaling its second project bound for Cannes’ late June virtual market, AGC Studios will fully finance and co-produce criminal justice thriller “Panopticon,” AGC chairman-CEO Stuart Ford announced Thursday. Sales arm AGC International is handling international sales; CAA Media Finance, which arranged for the film’s financing, will represent a domestic sale. The two companies will co-represent

After being shuttered for almost three months, France’s movie theaters will be allowed to reopen on June 22, confirmed France’s prime minister Édouard Philippe in a televised address on Thursday. Philippe said cinemas will be permitted to reopen everywhere across France on June 22 (or June 24 since releases are scheduled every Wednesday in the

There’s a word that keeps popping up in “Screened Out,” Jon Hyatt’s must-see documentary about screen addiction in the age of mobile technology. The word is dopamine. That’s the neurotransmitter that sends signals to other cells, along pathways linked to pleasure and reward-motivated behavior. The idea that smartphones trigger our pleasure centers isn’t news, but

Matt Bomer’s career took a major upswing in 2015 when he won a Golden Globe for his performance as Felix in Ryan Murphy’s HBO adaptation of Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart.” “Larry Kramer, thank you for your anger and your passion and writing this story that changed so many lives,” the actor said in his

Henry Cavill isn’t hanging up his Superman cape just yet. Sources confirm to Variety the “Man of Steel” actor is in talks to return as Clark Kent in an upcoming DC Comics movie. Warner Bros. and Cavill’s reps couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday. In addition to Zack Snyder’s Superman origin story “Man of Steel”

In today’s film news roundup, Paul Allen’s Vulcan Productions will close, “Kajillionaire” gets delayed, IFP Week goes digital, BAFTA Breakthrough is unveiled and the documentary “InstaBand” finds a home. CLOSURE ANNOUNCED Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions has announced that it will be closing at the start of 2021, 23 years after Allen launched the company

After months of ironing out budget concerns over Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” adaptation, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Paramount has enlisted Apple to get the film over the hump. Sources tell Variety that Paramount will still distribute the murder mystery drama, with Apple coming on to finance the pic and also serve as the

AMC Entertainment, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus, gave its CEO Adam Aron a compensation package worth $9.67 million in 2019. That period, of course, ended well before the pandemic upended daily life and forced AMC to close all of its more than 630 U.S. locations and furlough roughly all of its 600-person

Veteran ICM Partners executive Rick Levy has stepped down from his duties as chief operating officer and will transition out of the agency at the end of 2020, insiders familiar with the company told Variety.  Levy added the title of COO to his long-standing role of general counsel in October, following the short-lived tenure of former

“The Highwaymen,” about a group of African American artists in segregated 1960s Florida, is being readied to go into production, with casting underway. Curated By Media is packaging the project, with Concourse Media on board as sales agent. Todd Thompson directs from a script by Lucien Christian Adderley and Richard ‘Byrd’ Wilson. Thompson previously directed

Martin Scorsese made a short film reflecting on his lockdown experience in his New York City home during the coronavirus crisis, to be aired on Thursday on BBC Two. The “exclusive and very personal” movie will air as part of the final program in the series “Lockdown Culture With Mary Beard,” which is presented from

The entertainment industry’s blueprint for resuming production amid the pandemic remains a work in progress, leaders of SAG-AFTRA, the DGA and IATSE said in a rare joint statement on Wednesday. The unions asserted that they achieving “unprecedented” coordination in crafting the standards for re-opening Hollywood in the statement signed by SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris, Directors

Joel Grey approached Larry Kramer after seeing a preview performance of “The Normal Heart” at New York’s Public Theater in 1985. “I was devastated and said to him, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen, but if anything changes in the future or if there’s another production, please call me,’” Grey recalled in an interview

U.S.-China tensions have escalated into the realm of movie politics, despite the ongoing global pandemic that has already sent Hollywood reeling.  Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has doubled down on threats to make American studios decide between federal funding and the Chinese box office through what he calls the Stopping Censorship, Restoring Integrity and Protecting Talkies

Maude Apatow is the first to admit she didn’t excel at improv in high school. “We were all standing onstage, and when it would be my turn I would do two exchanges and then I’d say, ‘Oh, I’m getting a call in the other room,’” she reveals with a laugh. “I would always find an

Zack Snyder has teased a new villain for his recut version of “Justice League.” On Wednesday, the director posted a picture of DC Comics villain Darkseid on his Twitter with the caption “He’s coming… to HBO Max.” Ray Porter was originally attached to play the supervillain in segments of “Justice League” that went unused in

Solstice Studios is developing the futuristic thriller “Mind Fall” with Cedric Jimenez directing and Oscar winner Graham Moore scripting. It’s the second project for two-year-old Solstice under its partnership with Studio 8, which includes Robert Rodriguez’s upcoming action thriller “Hypnotic,” starring Ben Affleck. “Mind Fall” will be produced by Studio 8’s Jeff Robinov, Guy Danella and

Steve Carell is bringing back his character Gru from “Despicable Me” to shed light on proper health and safety etiquette during the coronavirus crisis in a new PSA for the World Health Organization. In the clip, Carell highlights the “lifesaving behaviors” necessary to curb the pandemic, including social distancing, staying active at home and being

Larry Kramer, the writer and influential gay activist who pressed the U.S. government and the medical establishment to respond to the AIDS epidemic, has died. He was 84. Kramer died Wednesday from pneumonia, his husband David Webster told the New York Times. Earlier in his life, Kramer was a screenwriter with credits including “Women in

When COVID-19 forced television studios to close their doors, long-running late-night shows such as “Conan” were faced with a dilemma. Was it possible to keep being funny and lifting audiences’s spirits from home? So, Conan O’Brien and his team set out to recreate their particular brand of comedy via Zoom. “We had no choice,” Jeff

The coronavirus pandemic has caused the world to flip upside down, with businesses continuing to shift operations as companies adapt to the new normal. As stay-at-home restrictions ease up and industries begin to open their doors, Time’s Up has released guidelines for equitable and inclusive practices in the workplace to help leaders respond to the

It’s no surprise that National Geographic’s new drama “Barksins” looks like it was really shot in the 17th century wilderness — even if there were no cameras in the 1600s. Production designer Isabelle Guay built the set from “scratch,” the show’s star Marcia Gay Harden shared during the “Variety After-Show.” On “Barksins,” Harden portrays Mathilde,

As the Venice Film Festival forges ahead with plans to hold its next edition in September, there are still many uncertainties about the shape of what seems poised to become the first major physical film event since the coronavirus outbreak. But one thing is for sure: organizers aren’t letting factors such as the social distancing

The Sydney Film Festival has revealed a heavily Australian leaning selection as the backbone of its first virtual edition. Organizers had planned a real-world festival for late June. But that was canceled in March due to the coronavirus outbreak, which caused cinemas to be closed and audiences confined to their home addresses. More recently, the