Entertainment News Boom

Lou Ferrigno is set to play a murderous, cannibalistic pig farmer known as “The Hermit” in U.S.-based Italian director Salvatore Sclafani’s chiller of the same title that will mark Ferrigno’s first role playing a creature since CBS TV series “The Incredible Hulk.” Shooting is set to start in August in Syracuse, N.Y., on the horror

When “War Pony” debuts in Cannes on May 21, it will represent the culmination of a project almost a decade in the making. Directed by Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, and written by Keough, Gammell, Bill Reddy and Franklin Sioux Bob, the film about two boys growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South

Woody Allen, Gerard Depardieu and Johnny Depp all walk into a restaurant. That’s not the beginning of a bad joke — the three controversial men are looming over a favorite eatery in the South of France, and have been for years. La Pizza Cresci, a famous spot frequented for decades by Hollywood players who have

Neon has purchased North American distribution rights to Mark Jenkin’s “Enys Men,” ahead of the horror film’s premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival. The film, which sounds very shades of “The Wicker Man,” stars Mary Woodvine and Edward Rowe. Jenkin wore a lot of hats on this one. He wrote

It’s not that we haven’t seen Emily Watson on screen recently — it just feels a long time since any film really made us look at her. Somehow knowing and guileless and haunted at once, her piercing, pale-eyed gaze made an immediate mark in film history with her debut in “Breaking the Waves” a quarter-century ago,

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is already recognized as one of the most influential industry showcases in the Baltic and Nordic regions. But the organizing team of the festival, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, are keen to point out that the popular event isn’t just a one-off affair. “What our year-round efforts

“Moss & Freud,” a film about supermodel Kate Moss and famed British artist Lucian Freud will be the next feature film for James Lucas. Lucas won an Oscar for live action short film “The Phone Call,” starring Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent. “Moss & Freud” is a dramatized account of supermodel Moss who, at the

Barry Pepper (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Maze Runner”) is set to star in horror film “Scurry” from “Occupation Rainfall” director Luke Sparke. Film Mode Entertainment is launching world sales at Cannes. “Scurry” sees two injured strangers — a family man and a criminal — trapped underground while the city above is attacked by a monstrous threat.

Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba and producer Darya Bassel are teaming up on a documentary about Ukraine’s refugee crisis after their last collaboration, “Outside,” premiered at Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX festival this year. The project, with a working title “Displaced,” is being produced by Bassel’s Kyiv-based Moon Man production outfit in co-production with Germany’s Koberstein Film and Denmark’s

Alex de la Iglesia’s latest production, feature “Four’s a Crowd,” is being brought onto the Cannes Film Market by Filmax, which has acquired international sales rights. Described by Filmax as a “wild romantic comedy,” “Four’s a Crowd” turns on Julian, a 50-year-old divorced man who starts to use an app to share his car with

TV series adaptations of “Fearless” and “Cold War,” two of the highest-profile Hong Kong action movies of the 21st century, are now in development. The shift into TV represents a major expansion and diversification for Edko Films, the studio headed by legendary producer-financier-executive Bill Kong (“Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,” “Monster Hunt,” “Mulan”). The original 2006

Argentina’s most bankable star, Adrian Suar, has wrapped his directorial debut “30 Noches Con Mi Ex” (“30 Nights With My Ex”) to which FilmSharks has snagged worldwide rights. The Buenos Aires-based sales and production outfit has already sold remake rights to Conchita Taboada of Spectrum Films for Mexico and to Italian producer Alessandro Usai of

Robert Lantos, the veteran Canadian producer of David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future,” is set to produce a film adaptation of novelist Michael Ondaatje’s “In the Skin of a Lion,” with Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech”) on board to direct. Simon Beaufoy, the Oscar-winning writer of “Slumdog Millionaire,” penned the adaptation. The movie was co-developed

For acclaimed Indian actor R. Madhavan ( (“Alai Payuthey,” “Tanu Weds Manu”), making his directorial debut, “Rocketry: The Nambi Effect,” literally required an understanding of rocket science. In addition to directing, Madhavan plays the role of Indian scientist, Nambi Narayanan, a former Indian Space Research Organization scientist and aerospace engineer known for developing efficient liquid

Francois Ozon, whose latest film, “Peter von Kant,” opened the Berlinale, is already shooting his next movie, “Madeleine,” with a flurry of stars including Isabelle Huppert, Dany Boon and Fabrice Luchini. The project, which is believed to be his most ambitious since “8 Women,” is being introduced to buyers at Cannes by Playtime and has

Mountains are not formed in an instant. Tectonic plates may buckle like the crumpling hoods of crashing cars, but it’s a collision that takes thousands of millennia to play out, and on a human timescale, seems infinitesimally slow. An inch here, a millimeter there, even the most imposing ranges were built in increments; rocky peaks

There’s no doubt director Stuart McDonald’s “A Perfect Pairing” pairs perfectly with a nice bottle of wine on a lonely night at home. Providing a respite from our hectic reality, this romantic comedy centered on an assured woman who finds love and purpose in the land down under offers delightful entertainment while playing to our

Faith Hill will never forget one of her earliest auditions. She read for director Anthony Minghella for 2003’s “Cold Mountain” for the role that went to Natalie Portman. “I read, I believe, the rape scene and another one. It was intense,” Hill tells me on the new episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “I

I felt ill when the news broke May 11 that my go-to cinema, Landmark Theatres’ flagship Westside location on Pico Boulevard, was shutting down at the end of the month. I have been going to this complex religiously — call it my house of movie worship — ever since its founding 15 years ago. For