Ridley Scott described “The Last Duel,” which stars Matt Damon, Jodie Comer, Adam Driver and Ben Affleck, as “a very challenging film, which illuminates an important issue,” when introducing the historical epic to the audience before its world premiere Friday at the Venice Film Festival. The festival had just feted the director, by bestowing on
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France’s Ministry of Culture gave a French toast to Variety’s Steven Gaydos on Thursday, naming him a chevalier/knight for his decades of work in entertainment. Julie Duhaut-Bedos, consul general of France in Los Angeles, reminded the crowd that only a few such awards are handed out yearly, to “people who have distinguished themselves by their
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Ecuador-based Tropico Cine has pounced on the international sales rights to Javier Andrade’s drama “Lo Invisible.” This is Andrade’s second feature after his breakout film “The Porcelain Horse,” which represented Ecuador in the 2013 Academy Awards. “Lo Invisible,” which bows its trailer exclusively in Variety, will have its world premiere Sept. 12 in the Toronto International
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Disney announced on Friday that upcoming 2021 films “Eternals,” “The Last Duel,” “West Side Story,” “Ron’s Gone Wrong” and “The King’s Man” will get exclusive, 45-day theatrical windows before moving to digital platforms. Meanwhile, the animated musical “Encanto” will play in theaters for 30 days starting on Nov. 24, before hitting Disney Plus. The decision
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Benedict Cumberbatch has embarked on a year most stars can only dream about. The Oscar-nominated actor will appear in four films in 2021. Cumberbatch, who earned raves for his performance in Dominic Cooke’s “The Courier” earlier this year, was the man of the hour at the Telluride Film Festival, where two of his movies made
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A few years ago, John Sloss worried that the major talent agencies had figured out the formula for his secret sauce. The Cinetic Media founder established himself as the business consigliere for a certain kind of auteur, helping to find buyers and backers for Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” and Lee Daniels’ “Precious.” Now companies like CAA
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National Geographic first approached Liz Garbus at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival about directing a documentary focused on French sea explorer Jacques Cousteau. Garbus, who grew up watching David Wolper’s ABC series “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau,” was intrigued. So, for the next four years she and her production team researched the iconic oceanographer,
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When the late Michael Been of the Call was working on the soundtrack to the 1992 film “Light Sleeper,” his then-teenage son, Robert Levon Been, later of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, would hide when the film’s director, Paul Schrader, came to Been’s home to check on the music’s progress. “Everything was recorded in our house,
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It couldn’t be a coincidence that my very first New York Fashion Week experience was absolutely dripping in Rich Mom Energy. Sitting front row at Ulla Johnson was a complete dream. I’ve been a shameless superfan of the brand for years because of the genius juxtaposition of utility and femininity—each piece is more wearable and
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Once again, Jake Gyllenhaal churns out a committed, visceral performance in Antoine Fuqua’s contained thriller “The Guilty.” The film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival brings up the fascinating question — when will Gyllenhaal get another Oscar nomination? It’s been over 15 years since the Los Angeles-born actor was nominated for supporting actor
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Billy Bob Thornton has joined the upcoming “Yellowstone” prequel series “1883” at Paramount Plus, Variety has learned. Thornton joins previously announced cast members Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Sam Elliott. The series takes place in the titular year and follows the Dutton family as they embark on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the
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SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the first season of “Pretty Hard Cases,” streaming now on IMDb TV. For seven seasons, Adrienne C. Moore played an inmate nicknamed Black Cindy on Netflix’s dark comedy “Orange Is the New Black,” set in a women’s prison Litchfield Penitentiary. With her new Canadian television
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SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the sixth and final season of “Lucifer,” streaming now on Netflix. After a Fox cancelation, Netflix revival, a planned ending and then an unexpected second revival, “Lucifer” has come to an end — albeit with plenty of twists. Though the series ended where showrunners Joe
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Channel 4’s groundbreaking “Black to Front” initiative, which sees the network’s entire schedule led by Black talent on and off screen for one day, has garnered mostly positive reactions despite concerns about tokenism. Among the programs was a brief return for popular 1990s morning show “The Big Breakfast,” this time with comedian Mo Gilligan and
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NBC News is an enterprise built on 30-minute and 60-minute increments of TV journalism. Executives are starting to think about longer blocks of time. As the Toronto International Film Festival continues into this weekend, Noah Oppenheim, president of NBC News, and Liz Cole, president of the still-young NBC News Studios, will be there. “Memory Box:
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Italian helmer Giuseppe Tornatore’s (“Cinema Paradiso”) documentary “Ennio,” on the late music composer Ennio Morricone, features a pantheon of commentators influenced by the maestro’s scores, from Bruce Springsteen to Hans Zimmer — not to mention the music. Morricone is a two-time Oscar winner who scored over 500 film tracks, including a slew of Sergio Leone
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