Sipping his morning coffee, Sam Rockwell joined Venice Film Festival and Mastercard’s “Life Through a Different Lens: Contactless Connections” virtual talk on Wednesday. The Oscar winner for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” talked about his early cinematic influences – including the first film he ever saw. “It was the 1933 version of ‘King Kong’ with
Controversial French film “Cuties” — about a young Senegalese girl in Paris who joins a “free-spirited dance clique” to escape family dysfunction — has spawned a new backlash against Netflix by critics who allege it goes over the line in portraying children in a sexualized manner. The hashtag “#CancelNetflix” was the No. 1 trending topic
Although “The Comey Rule” is debuting just slightly more than a month ahead of the 2020 presidential election, creator-director Billy Ray did not make the series to change anyone’s vote. “The reason I did this was because I felt that the Russians had had a profound and unhappy effect on our political process in 2016
Jason Blum’s Blumhouse has signed a three-picture deal with “Host” director Rob Savage, and will finance and partner with Savage to produce the films. Savage will be collaborating with the same team behind “Host,” including producer Douglas Cox; the writing team of Jed Shepherd & Gemma Hurley; and editor Breanna Rangott. “We’ve been tracking Rob’s
Neve Campbell will reprise her role as the perpetually traumatized Sidney Prescott in a new “Scream” movie, Spyglass and Paramount Pictures announced on Thursday. Campbell played the lead role of Sidney in the previous four “Scream” movies directed by the late Wes Craven, starting with the original in 1996. The new “Scream” film, which Spyglass
Applying a minute and painterly eye to ordinary lives encircled by much larger circumstance — be it a motorway as in 2013’s Golden Lion-winning “Sacro Gra,” or the seaborne migrant crisis as in 2016’s Golden Bear-winning “Fire at Sea” — has led to Italian-American director Gianfranco Rosi’s most celebrated documentaries. But in “Notturno,” his return
Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories and producer John Cameron have optioned the rights to adapt Marie Lu’s novel “Warcross” as a television series. For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game–it’s a way of life. When a young hacker, Emika Chen, accidentally glitches herself in the game and becomes an
The scripted series about “Tiger King’s” Joe Exotic starring Nicolas Cage has been set up at Amazon for development, Variety has learned. Variety exclusively reported the project was in the works from CBS Television Studios and Imagine Television in May. Amazon Studios has now boarded the project and will produce along with CBS TV Studios and
Disney Plus has picked up the female-led reboot of “Doogie Howser” to series, Variety has confirmed. The new series is titled “Doogie Kameāloha, M.D.” As previously reported, it will focus on Lahela “Doogie” Kameāloha, a mixed race 16-year-old girl who works as a doctor in Hawaii. The 10-episode half-hour comedy follows Kameāloha as she juggles a
A Black Lives Matter-inspired routine on “Britain’s Got Talent” by street dance troupe Diversity has resulted in 10,000 complaints from the public to U.K. media regulator Ofcom. In the episode aired on Sept. 5, Diversity, led by popular U.K. presenter Ashley Banjo, performed a routine, part of which involved him lying on the floor while
Among music superstars, Joni Mitchell is among the few whose vaults have remained largely unmined for previously unheard vintage material. That changes in a big way with the Oct. 30 release of “Archives Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967),” a boxed set that will include six hours of material from the years preceding her debut
Mexican director Michel Franco’s latest, dystopian shock drama “New Order,” proves to be the most punishing entry in a difficult oeuvre, which may sound harsh, but isn’t meant as an insult. A cold and sometimes overly intellectual filmmaker, Franco knows how to make an audience squirm. That’s part of the bargain when we buy a
The Oscars unveiled new guidelines this week that are designed to promote diversity and inclusion both in front of and behind the camera. But the rules are inspiring confusion and controversy as studios and filmmakers try to figure out what the mandates mean for their movies. No worries: that’s where Variety comes in, with an
Italy’s Iervolino Entertainment is boasting a slew of international sales on Ciro Guerra-directed drama “Waiting for the Barbarians,” toplining Johnny Depp and starring Robert Pattinson, Mark Rylance, Gana Bayarsaikhan and Greta Scacchi. The adaptation of J.M. Coetzee’s prize-winning novel, which launched from Venice last year, has been sold by Iervolino’s AMBI Distribution unit to Germany
She came in like a tiki torch. The newest cast member of “The Real Housewives of New York City,” Leah McSweeney, has given reality TV fans something to talk about since COVID-related lockdowns scuppered the world’s 2020 plans. From launching decorative lawn ornaments through the air like javelins (“They really triggered me,” she said.) to
The series spinoff of “Blindspotting” has been officially ordered at Starz. As Variety exclusively reported last October, the half-hour dramedy will see Jasmine Cephas Jones reprise her role as Ashley from the film. Ashley was nipping at the heels of a middle class life in Oakland until Miles (Rafael Casal), her partner of 12 years
Yes, there will be a 46th season of “Saturday Night Live” this fall. And it will be broadcast live. Only executive producer Lorne Michaels and his team know more than that. NBC isn’t offering many other details about the venerable late-night program, as its producers and cast grapple with the task of getting the program
The entertainment world is paying tribute to multifaceted actor Diana Rigg, who died Thursday at her home in England at the age of 82. Rigg’s appeal transcended generations, ranging from playing the stylish Emma Peel in iconic 1960’s series “The Avengers”; Contessa Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo, the only woman to lead James Bond to the
Digital music distribution and publishing admin company TuneCore has named Maria Ho-Burge global communications director. She will report jointly to Andreea Gleeson, chief marketing officer of TuneCore and Segolene Moreau, chief communications officer of TuneCore parent Believe, the Paris-based independent music company that purchased TuneCore in 2015. “Maria has established herself as a superb communicator
Carrie Coon has spent most of quarantine catching up on classic movies with her husband, playwright and actor Tracy Letts. Every night after putting their 2-year-old son, Haskell, to bed, the couple retreats to their basement to watch episodes of “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” followed by a feature film like the Robert Duvall drama “Tender
Amazon Studios has tapped Lorenza Muñoz as senior global awards executive, Variety has learned. Muñoz joins the studio from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she led the internal member relations and awards department. In her new role, she will focus on implementing awards strategies on a global and international scale, with
When “Cold War” cinematographer Łukasz Żal teamed with writer-director Charlie Kaufman on “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” one of the earliest conversations they had was how to communicate memory visually. In Kaufman’s new film, based on the novel by Iain Reid, Jesse Plemons as Jake and Jessie Buckley (“Wild Rose”) as his meta-named Girlfriend go
As film and television productions labor to get off the ground following months of coronavirus shutdowns, one horror indie has quietly wrapped a nearly four-week shoot in Los Angeles. Co-writers and directors Matt Leslie and Stephen Smith have completed “The Knocking,” a bloody tale of a serial monogamist that shot for 19 days amid intense
Jonathan Nossiter, one of the few American directors who was able to attend the Deauville Film Festival this year, didn’t make the trip for the Normandy seaside red carpet. He intended to shake people up with “Last Words,” a post-apocalyptic film set in 2086 which seems eerily prophetic. Competing in Deauville, “Last Words” was part
As the 2020 Toronto Intl. Film Festival kicks off, check out this year’s offerings with Variety’s special festival extra edition, covering the state of the international film sales market, and featuring interviews with filmmakers including Mira Nair, whose series “A Suitable Boy” plays at TIFF, and a guide to what top restaurants and bars are
Saban Films has acquired the North American distribution rights to Seth Savoy’s directorial debut “Echo Boomers” ahead of the launch of the Toronto film market. The crime drama stars Patrick Schwarzenegger (“Midnight Sun,” “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse”), Michael Shannon, Alex Pettyfer, Lesley Ann Warren (“Jobs”), and Oliver Cooper (“Californication”). The film follows a
Check out the official Hubie Halloween Trailer starring Adam Sandler! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Visit FandangoNOW: http://www.fandangonow.com/?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc Want to be notified of all the latest movie trailers? Subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon to stay up to date. US Release Date: October 7, 2020 Starring:
Pro gaming superstar and streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is coming back to Twitch, under a multiyear deal to livestream exclusively on the Amazon-owned platform. Ninja will launch his first livestream in more than a year on his Twitch channel — which has 15 million followers — on Thursday, Sept. 10, at 12 p.m. PT/3:00 p.m.
Before the pandemic, Kenny Ortega was hard at work on a new series about a teenage girl who rediscovers her passion for music when she starts a band with three ghosts from the past. As Ortega was reviewing a scene, something struck him as oddly familiar. “For years and years and years, people have been asking why I’m not doing
Absofacto never intended for his song, “Dissolve,” to go viral on TikTok. And he’s not just being humble — the indie singer-songwriter never even uploaded it to the video sharing app in the first place. “I didn’t know what TikTok was when [‘Dissolve’] first went viral,” says Absofacto, whose real name is Jonathan Visger. “Someone