Netflix has given a green light to “Believer 2,” a sequel to the 2018 hit crime action film “Believer.” While the first film clocked up 5.06 million spectators and amassed a gross box office of $33.6 million in its theatrical career, the sequel will play only online. The company said that the film will be
It’s hard to escape the deflating sense that Disney’s “Lightyear” has remained stubbornly Earth-bound in its box office debut. At least, that’s the prevailing sentiment that’s greeted the latest Pixar film’s so-so $51 million opening weekend in North America. For industry analysts, those lackluster ticket sales were confounding because Pixar had been box office royalty
“I think my first trip to Hawaii was a vacation in Kauai,” contemplates Carolyn Murphy. “I was immediately captivated by the greenery and the lush tropical land—like I could see and feel the earth breathing.” This is a sentiment shared by her design partners. Today, just in time for International Surfing Day, the eco-minded and
Chile’s entertainment industry, despite its reduced size, has grown from strength to strength as the growing number of deep-pocketed streaming platforms and content studios have sought international productions that reflect the diversity of their global audiences. “We are developing projects for different countries, in alliances with large partners and with multicultural teams, where we empower
For the first edition of the Evia Film Project, a new initiative launched by the organizers of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the festival’s industry arm, Agora, hosted a series of events looking to bring both environmentally focused films and sustainable film production to the fore. The program was designed to help revitalize Greece’s second-largest island,
Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival is being put on hiatus this year after five successful editions in what could be a precursor to the event being permanently scrapped or radically reshaped. In a statement, fest organizers said “a decision was made to postpone the festival” which was scheduled to run Oct. 13-22 in the Egyptian
Claudia Sainte-Luce’s “El reino de Dios” (“The Realm of God”) and “Carajita” by Silvina Schnicer and Ulises Porra took home the bulk of the prizes in their respective categories, the Mayahuel for best Mexican film and best Ibero-American film at the 37th Guadalajara Int’l Film Fest (FICG), which wrapped June 18. Festival highlights included a conversation,
COMMISSION Wildlife and nature programmer Love Nature has greenlit five-part natural history series “Evolution Earth” in co-production with PBS and Arte. The series, produced by Passion Planet and shot in extreme locations around the world, is an examination of adaptation stories that illustrate the rapid pace of change happening across Earth, while providing a look at
As Paramount+ prepares for its splashy, star-studded U.K. and Ireland launch in London on Monday, Paramount’s president and CEO of streaming Tom Ryan spoke to Variety about the rebranded company’s global streaming biz expansion that, besides being powered by original content, stands out in the field for its diversified model. This model involves a mix
U.K. media regulator Ofcom has found broadcaster Channel 4 in breach of regulations over a subtitle outage that occurred in 2021. In Sept. 2021, as a result of an incident at a broadcast centre run by Red Bee Media, Freesat audiences who rely on subtitles were unable to fully access Channel 4 programs for nearly
Studiocanal has acquired a majority stake in Dutch FilmWorks, a leading film production and distribution company operating in Benelux. Launched in 1998, Dutch FilmWorks produces and distributes 25 films each year, and has built up a library of over 900 Dutch and international films, including the popular family franchise “The Claus Family.” The acquisition of
The inaugural London Action Festival (July 28-31) will open with a screening of “Die Hard,” with director John McTiernan and other guests in attendance at a Q&A. McTiernan’s “Predator” will also screen at the festival. Visual effects in “Jurassic World: Dominion” will be explored via a masterclass from senior visualization supervisor Pawl Fulker, partner and
It had been nearly three decades since a film was last screened in Ciné Apollon, an open-air theater in the resort town of Edipsos on the north shore of the Greek island of Evia. But the arrival of several hundred moviegoers on June 15 for a screening of French filmmaker Coline Serreau’s “La Belle Verte”
“Jurassic World Dominion” held on to top spot at the mainland China box office despite a 57% drop and the expected challenge from local newcomer “One Week Friends.” The dinosaur franchise movie picked up $23.3 million (RMB156 million) in China between Friday and Sunday, giving it a healthy cumulative score of $92.4 million after ten
The theatrical debut of much-anticipated local horror-action film “The Witch: Part 2. The Other One” dominated the Korean box office chart over the latest weekend and overshadowed the simultaneous release of Pixar title “Lightyear.” Distributed by Next Entertainment World, “The Witch: Part 2” conjured up an $8.21 million opening weekend from just shy of 1,800
On the occasion of Paul McCartney’s 80th birthday weekend, anyone reading this is probably thinking the same thing: Only 80 Paul McCartney songs? The hope, of course, is that he lives to 120, in order to provide a hook for a much easier-to-narrow-down list of his 120 finest. But 80 is just enough to cover
The action in upcoming mystery thriller “The Reunion,” starring “Harrow’s” Ioan Gruffudd, centers on three characters in two time-zones, 25 years apart, but the emotions and personalities of the characters are consistent, the show’s British director Bill Eagles explained at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival Sunday. The English-language show, produced by Sydney Gallonde at Make It
Clipse, the duo of brothers Pusha T and No Malice, reunited on stage Saturday night for Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water festival in Washington D.C. The last time the two gave a live performance as Clipse was in 2010, shortly after the release of their final album “Til The Casket Drops.” Just as Justin Timberlake
Oscar-winning Canadian screenwriter and director Paul Haggis has been arrested in Ostuni, Southern Italy on charges of sexual assault and aggravated personal injury allegedly inflicted upon a still unidentified woman who has pressed charges. According to multiple Italian press reports and a note from the public prosecutor of the nearby city of Brindisi, Haggis is
Although it wasn’t a winning night on the field for the Boston Red Sox on Saturday, baseball fans received a treat from Neil Diamond, who gave a rare live performance of “Sweet Caroline.” Diamond retired from concert touring in 2018 following his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. This post-retirement appearance is the first time that Diamond has
To infinity and beyond? Not exactly… “Lightyear,” a spinoff story set in Pixar’s “Toy Story” universe, fell short of that boundless milestone in its box office debut, collecting a lackluster $51 million from 4,255 North American theaters. Family audiences, the movie’s prime demographic, haven’t returned to theaters in full force since the start of the
Quinta Brunson, the creator and star of ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” and Adam Scott, of Apple TV+’s mind-bending drama “Severance,” have a connection we can’t quite put our finger on. After they speak about their shows — and the fact that both of their mothers were public school teachers — it turns out that their familiar
My father died on Super Bowl Sunday. The night before, he had told me — in his signature style of sincere but “got places to be” — that he was proud of me. He then went to sleep and never woke up. Today, four months later, we celebrate Father’s Day. I’ve always thought the purpose
Lukas Dhont’s “Close,” which won the Grand Prix in Cannes last month, picked up the Sydney Film Prize, the top prize at the Sydney Film Festival, on Sunday evening. Accepting the award via video message Dhont said: “It’s a film that comes from our hearts, that we worked on for a lot of years with
Every time someone takes a comicbook character the world adores and decides to make an animated movie, there’s a risk they won’t do justice to the original designs. “The Adventures of Tintin” comes immediately to mind, since Spielberg and company made the bold choice of swapping artist Hergé’s appealing clean-line designs with appalling performance-capture zombies.
Annecy’s official short film competition is one of the festival’s centerpieces. Many years, at least one ends up snagging an Oscar nomination. Every year, Variety watches the shorts in Annecy’s main competition selection and picks 10 of our favorites. We’re not saying these are the best 10 shorts this year, though four won prizes, but we believe
Play video content TMZSports.com Roy Jones Jr. is clapping back at Wladimir Klitschko — after the former 2x heavyweight champ from Ukraine questioned RJJ’s “moral compass” for his close relationship with Russia — with the Hall of Fame boxer saying he doesn’t want to see anyone hurt … Russian or Ukrainian. And, Jones Jr. makes
With a slate of summer blockbusters just around the corner, European exhibitors are hoping Hollywood tentpoles can fuel a post-pandemic rebound for their beleaguered industry. But a bumpy and uneven recovery across the continent suggests the theater business isn’t quite out of the woods yet. How to get the industry back to pre-pandemic levels is
Preschool fare and short-form docs ruled the roost at this year’s MIFA TV pitch session, with more than half the projects boasting episodes running under eight minutes in length, and nearly just as many titles aimed at the under-five crowd. Of the nine projects pitched, the preschool series “Yukon: The Space Botanist” (pictured) received the
Ethan Hawke, in 30 years, has never portrayed a villain before, so it would be nice to say that in “The Black Phone” he not only plays a serial killer — one of those anonymous madmen who live in a one-story house of dingy brick with a dungeon in the basement — but that he