Movies

It looks like no coincidence that two of the biggest announcements concerning celebrated Argentine movie directors and producers this year were their moves into drama series creation. In February, Netflix announced that K & S, producers of “Wild Tales,” “The Clan” and “El Angel,” will produce a series adaptation of legendary Argentine sci-fi graphic novel

Reel Suspects has acquired international sales rights to Anthony Scott Burns’s sci-fi thriller “Come True,” an elevated genre film which has been expected to world premiere at a fall festival this year. XYZ is handling U.S. rights on the film, while Raven Banner holds distribution rights in Canada. Written and Directed by Burns, “Come True”

Shares of AMC Entertainment surged Monday amid speculation that the country’s largest exhibition chain could be an acquisition target for Amazon. Both companies did not immediately return requests for comment, and the report in the Daily Mail that goosed share prices indicated that Amazon’s interest may have waned. It noted, for instance, that it was

The value of film production in the U.K. climbed 7% to £1.96 billion ($2.42 billion) last year, the second-highest level on record. The vast majority of that was generated by Hollywood movies, but although the British independent sector is overshadowed commercially, it is holding its own creatively. Despite the pain and disruption caused by the

Despite dramatic times, there is room for some encouragement in recent moves by the Spanish film industry. Basque global hit “The Platform” proved the most-watched movie on Netflix in the U.S. The Mediapro Studio is upping film production with high-profile projects such as the Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas drama “Official Competition.” Meanwhile, Mr. Fields

Mexico’s film industry appears healthy, but the question is for how long. In 2019, Mexican president Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador decimated festival funding. There’s a fear that, as the economy contracts, so will its tax credits, the main source of film sector finance, says Pimienta’s Nicolas Celis, a producer on “Roma.” Such fears have seen

U.K. cinemas won’t be reopening sooner than July 4, according to new coronavirus recovery guidance put out by the government on Monday afternoon. The 60-page document, entitled “Our Plan to Rebuild,” sets out that cinemas are part of a “high-risk” group of businesses that will be the last to reopen from July 4 onwards. In

Based in Trivandrum, India, Toonz Media Group will partner with Robert Chandler’s Space Age Films and Gina Carter & Stephen Fry’s Sprout Pictures in the U.K. to co-produce an adaptation of the classic tale “The Canterville Ghost” by celebrated Irish author Oscar Wilde. L.A.-based Cinema Management Group (CMG) handles international sales. First published in 1887,

Contact-free technology is being deployed at many of South Korea’s multiplexes as theater chains attempt to define a new normal in the post-coronavirus era. The country’s number one exhibition player CJ-CGV turned its Yeouido branch into a completely contactless, “untact” in local jargon, theater in April. To accommodate local audiences’ growing fear of physical contact

Writer-producer Donick Cary has spent his whole career near the top of the showbiz comedy heap, from stints on “Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Simpsons” to sitcoms like “Just Shoot Me!,” “New Girl,” “Parks and Recreation” and “Silicon Valley.” So it shouldn’t surprise that his first directorial feature, the documentary “Have a Good

Leslie A. Pope, an Oscar-nominated set decorator who worked on several Marvel movies, has died at 65 in Venice, Calif., according to her friend, Trish Gallaher Glenn. Pope had heart surgery in February and was still recovering when she died, Glenn said. She moved to New York in 1979 to begin her career in the

Josh Trank knows what it’s like to lose everything. In 2015, the filmmaker’s red hot career flamed out with the release of “Fantastic Four,” an ill-conceived superhero reboot that was eviscerated by critics and went on to lose tens of millions of dollars at the box office. Blame for the failure fell squarely on Trank,

The Cannes Film Festival will unveil a selection of movies in early June and collaborate with several festivals, including Venice, to present some films, Variety has confirmed. Organizers also seem to have ruled out the possibility of a physical festival this fall. “As of today, a physical edition seems complicated to organize, so we are

With no fanfare, Hollywood studios and leaders of the Writers Guild of America have moved back the start of masters contract negotiations a week to May 18. Representatives of the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were not immediately available for comment about the change, which was revealed Saturday. The two sides

Beanie Feldstein stopped by the Variety After Show, presented by National Geographic, for a virtual chat about her new movie “How to Build a Girl.” She talks about having a lead role for the first time and putting on a English accent, but got serious talking about refusing to be typecast for her body size.

In the last 10 years, there’s been an ever-widening niche of documentaries about Stanley Kubrick. Every one of them has been fascinating, one or two (like “Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes”) are as idiosyncratic as the director himself, and the most artful and memorable — “Filmworker” (2017), a portrait of Kubrick’s monkishly devoted gofer and right-hand assistant,

In today’s film news roundup, romantic comedy “Tell Me I Love You” finds a home; the Canadian government gives COVID-19 relief funding to the Canada Media Fund and Telefilm Canada; and the cancelled Sun Valley Film Festival gives out awards. ACQUISITION Vision Films has acquired Los Angeles romantic comedy film “Tell Me I Love You,”

Here’s to the fools who dream — and to the mess they make. Three years ago, Starline Tours dreamed up a branded tour of the locations in “La La Land,” the musical starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. But now, the Hollywood tour company has ended up in litigation. Lionsgate, which produced the film, filed

Rep. Adam Schiff is joining SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris and IATSE International president Matt Loeb for a virtual town hall discussion on May 12 on the impact of the coronavirus. Schiff, a 10-term congressman whose district includes Hollywood, will take questions from the unions’ members about their concerns regarding the pandemic and its impact on

China’s cinemas may now reopen for business if they follow coronavirus prevention protocols like capping visitor numbers, new guidelines issued by the country’s top administrative body said Friday. The guidelines are the first official signal that Chinese authorities have softened their strict stance on exhibition sector closures. However, no dates were mentioned. As of Friday

A coalition of more than three dozen entertainment industry organizations is asking Congress to reform the implementation of the CARES Act by enacting a new COVID relief package. The groups include Actors Equity, the American Federation of Musicians, SAG-AFTRA, the Recording Industry Association of America, Digital Media Association, Paradigm Talent Agency, the Recording Academy, the

Marco Bellocchio’s elegant mob drama “The Traitor,” about the first high-ranking member of Cosa Nostra to break the Sicilian Mafia’s oath of silence, was the big winner at Italy’s 65th David di Donatello Awards, the country’s equivalent of the Oscars. “The Traitor” scored six statuettes including best picture, director, and actor honors.  The prizes were announced

Theaters have been closed long enough now due to COVID-19 that distributors are starting to figure out how to launch their limited-release movies via streaming services instead. May 8 brings more than two dozen new releases, including a handful that can be seen on drive-in screens, and a high-profile Netflix original in the form of

In the ’80s, a group of scientists and artists wanted to know if they could recreate Earth’s ecosystem, so they built Biosphere 2 (Earth was known as Biosphere 1) in Oracle, Ariz. The experiment was not only scientific, but a social one where eight scientists locked themselves in the Biosphere from 1991 to 1993. There

Stephen King’s 2014 novel “Revival” is his latest book coming to the big screen. Warner Bros., the studio behind King’s “It” franchise, is developing the movie. Mike Flanagan is on board to adapt the script with an option to direct. Trevor Macy, who teamed with Flanagan on the 2019 adaptation of King’s “Doctor Sleep,” will produce

Movie theater chain Cinemark Holdings will delay reporting its first-quarter earnings due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has closed down its 345 venues in the U.S. Texas-based Cinemark, the third-largest U.S. chain after AMC and Regal, made the disclosure on Friday in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It plans to report

Every shot in a movie is designed to tell a story, but there’s one in “” that stuntman-turned-director Sam Hargrave particularly fought for.  The action film, now streaming on Netflix, stars Chris Hemsworth as mercenary Tyler Rake, who has to rescue Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal), the 14-year-old son of an imprisoned Indian drug kingpin, who has

The 58th New York Film Festival announced on Friday a new programming structure and the addition of curatorial members to their teams. For now, the festival will include in-person and digital experiences and will take place Sept. 25 through Oct. 11. But one question still hanging over New York Film Festival is if it will

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has made additional temporary changes for the 93rd Golden Globes. The organization behind the annual award show announced Friday adjustments to the foreign language motion picture category. In the past, movies had to be released in their country of origin during the 15-month period — from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31

Among the many cruelties of the coronavirus outbreak has been the way social distancing measures prevent us from visiting our relatives, which should be especially difficult on Mother’s Day for those who are accustomed to spending that time with mom. That’s where movies can assist: Why not select a film — from the list below