In the midst of debuting a new movie at the first pandemic-era Cannes Film Festival, director Sean Penn had strong words about the Trump administration’s handling of the global health crisis. The longtime artist and activist — who donned a mask when not speaking at a Sunday press conference — discussed the past year he’s
International sales, distribution and production company Axxon Media have closed a pair of deals with WarnerMedia for Latin America and the Caribbean, one for a finished feature and the other a project, both announced at this year’s Cannes Marché du Film. WarnerMedia has picked up Mireia Gabilando’s Spanish comedy “The Hive” and will bring the
Michael Gentile’s Paris-based The Film, the banner behind Julie Delpy’s upcoming show “On the Verge,” is developing a string of projects with emerging filmmakers, notably Yaël Cojot-Goldberg’s “Farewell Caracas” and Mehdi Fikri’s drama “Et maintenant, le feu.” The company is also producing Danielle Arbid’s “Des châteaux qui brûlent,” based on Arno Bertina’ book, and Delpy’s
Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival has revealed to Variety the projects that the participants of its 2021 Emerging Producers program are working on. The producers were asked to deliver an Elevator Pitch for their projects. Every year since 2010, the festival has selected 18 up-and-coming producers of documentary films (17 European and one representing a
“My Brilliant Friend” star Margherita Mazzucco is set to play Saint Clare of Assisi in Susanna Nicchiarelli’s new feature film “Chiara” which will conclude the director’s trilogy of female biopics also comprising “Nico, 1988” and “Miss Marx.” Nicchiarelli’s portrait of the 13th century saint born into a wealthy family who at age 18 became a nun
Moroccan producer Khadija Alami and Nigerian producer and Africa Intl. Film Festival founder Chioma Ude have announced a 50-50 partnership in Morocco’s Oasis Studios, a thriving production hub that they aim to use as a launching pad for the next generation of African filmmakers. Sitting on the fringes of the Sahara Desert, the sprawling Oasis
Off the Fence (OTF), the co-producer of Oscar-winning documentary “My Octopus Teacher,” has revealed a strategy overhaul and expansion of its senior management team. The move sees the U.K. and Netherlands-based factual specialist spin out its divisions into three separate business models with the aim of bringing distribution and production closer together, providing more streamer-friendly
Indian filmmaker Rahul Jain, whose new film “Invisible Demons” has its world premiere at Cannes in the cinema for the climate special section, is prepping “Falling Star,” a limited fiction series. Jain is developing the series, which is likely to consist of six or seven one-hour episodes, via his Jann Pictures. It will see him
Sometimes having good intentions and eye-witness testimony is not enough to make a topical, issues-driven movie connect with its anticipated audience. The movie “Dea,” recently boarded by Hong Kong sales company Good Move Media, is a case in point. It probes the put-upon lives of foreign domestic helpers, who number several hundred thousand in Hong
Filmmaker/producer Steven Soderbergh is on board to executive produce a feature-length adaptation of buzzy Directors’ Fortnight short film “The Vandal,” Variety can reveal. Directed by American helmer Eddie Alcazar, the Quinzaine-premiering film — which is presented by filmmaker/producer Darren Aronofsky — is being tipped as an early contender for the best animated short Oscar. It
Sales and production company Film Constellation has secured further pre-sales on upcoming English-language horror “The Twin,” starring Teresa Palmer and directed by Taneli Mustonen (“Lake Bodom”), with BF Distribution boarding the film in Latin America and Studio DHL in South Korea. Film Constellation has also revealed the art for the film’s poster (see below). Palmer
A Pyer Moss runway show always comes with a few guarantees: an extravagant display and celebration of Blackness, a soundtrack that’ll keep your Shazam app running over time, and a Black history lesson taught through every texture, fabric, and cut that waltz down the runway. But on Thursday, July 8, the day Pyer Moss designer
As a filmmaker, Sean Penn has always had a flinty integrity, but the movies he directs work so hard to channel the values of ’70s films — they’re moody and fatalistic, with furrowed brows, and move at a pace of drop-dead deliberation — that early on, in the days of “The Indian Runner” (1991) and
Not to be outdone by Matt Damon, Sean Penn looked like he was about to cry at the Saturday night premiere of “Flag Day.” The drama earned a four-minute standing ovation broken up by remarks from Penn, praising his daughter, Dylan Frances Penn, for her debut lead role in a movie. Penn takes on double
Last year saw the arrival of the mother of all Tom Petty boxed sets, “Wildflowers and All the Rest,” available in editions that extended to as much as five CDs and nine LPs of mostly unreleased music. If that collection was a six- or nine- or 10-course meal, depending on how far you want to
Zoe McLellan — an actress most famous from ‘NCIS’ — has up and vanished with her and her ex’s kid … so claims the father … who got a court involved, which has branded her as wanted. Court records obtained by TMZ show an arrest warrant out of L.A. County was issued for Zoe a
SPOILER WARNING: Do not read if you have not seen “Black Widow,” currently in theaters and available on Premium Access on Disney Plus. For most of her interview with Variety, Cate Shortland was an open book: Candid and funny and thrilled to get to talk about her experience directing Marvel Studios’ “Black Widow.” That is, until she was asked about the film’s post-credits
Having been forced to cancel last year’s Cannes due to the pandemic, 2021 is proving to be a happy nude year for the festival with this edition’s most talked-about film, “Benedetta,” featuring a pair of romping nuns. Even the outwardly gentle period drama “Mothering Sunday” is unabashed about displaying the human body in all its
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson transported audiences back to the late 1960s with a special screening of his new documentary, “Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised),” at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Friday night. In its first two weeks in theaters, the musical movie about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival
Chilean director Domingo Sotomayor (“Too Late to Die Young,” “Thursday Till Sunday”) is re-teaming with Sao Paulo-based RT Features (“Call Me by Your Name,” “The Lighthouse”) to make her third feature, “Niebla.” CAA Media Finance arranged the financing and will represent sales rights. The cruise ship-set drama is currently in development and set to shoot
Bo Burnham is giving you a reason to go outside. On July 22, the comedian’s latest Netflix special, “Inside,” will hit theaters nationwide for one night only. It first premiered on the streamer on May 30. “Come on out,” Burnham invited fans via Twitter. come on out. july 22nd. https://t.co/YankW6ZJN9 pic.twitter.com/gnDi6JTgTA — Bo Burnham (@boburnham)
Richard Branson aims to notch a milestone for private space travel with Sunday’s launch of Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity Spaceship Two from New Mexico. Branson, the Virgin Group business mogul who founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, will be part of a crew of six who are hoping to demonstrate the viability of the company’s plans
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Cohen Media Group and Curzon have jointly acquired all U.S. and U.K. distribution rights to “Everything Went Fine,” Francois Ozon’s film with Sophie Marceau, which just world-premiered in competition at Cannes and earned a warm critical welcome. The deal was negotiated by CMG senior VP Robert Aaronson, Curzon Artificial Eye’s managing director Louisa Dent and
For anyone who’s ever got drunk on bad schnapps with a stranger, for anyone who’s ever been properly alone in a nowhere-town and spoken to a dial tone just to look like they had something to do, for anyone who’s ever been asked how to say “I love you” in their language and has patiently
Costume designer Jany Temime says working on Marvel’s “Black Widow” was a dream job. She doesn’t know the exact number of costumes she created, but it was “a lot.” The costume designer who counts “Judy,” “Skyfall” and three of the Harry Potter films including “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and II” among
Indian filmmaker Rahul Jain followed up his debut doc, “Machines,” with “Invisible Demons,” about the pollution in New Delhi. The film, which will play in Cannes’ inaugural Cinema for the Climate, will be represented for international sales by Participant and MK2 Films. Jain was in the German countryside trying to find “inspiration in nature” when
Telefilm Canada and Screen Ireland have boarded “Cry From the Sea,” a co-production between Canada’s Sepia Films and Ireland’s ShinAwil, which has been greenlit to shoot in the Fall. To be directed by Vic Sarin (“Partition,” “A Shine of Rainbows”), the romantic drama centers on Edith, an enigmatic American widow who visits an Irish island
The Netherlands and South Africa launched a new co-development fund July 10 in Cannes. The two counties signed a co-production treaty in 2015, and are looking to build on that through stronger collaboration. The SA-NL Thuthuka Fund will provide selective script and co-development support for feature film and documentary projects with South African- and Dutch-related
Marvel’s “Black Widow” is already crushing pandemic-era box office records. The superhero adventure raked in a mighty $39.5 million from 4,160 theaters on Friday, the biggest single-day gross since the onset of COVID-19. Through the weekend, “Black Widow” is poised to generated a huge $87.8 million, which would best the benchmark previously set by “F9”