Entertainment News Boom

Woody Allen is maintaining that he is a self-proclaimed “poster boy” for the #MeToo movement and says he doesn’t care that parts of Hollywood and the film industry have shunned him. “I’ve worked with hundreds of actresses; not one of them has ever complained about me, not a single complaint. I’ve worked with, employed women

September 6, 2019 10:48AM PT “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” has topped $700 million at the worldwide box office, thanks largely to an impressive international performance. Universal Pictures announced the milestone Friday, noting that the spinoff action-thriller has topped the global box office for four weeks and the international box office for three

Ten years after starring as Princess Tiana in Disney’s Oscar-nominated animated feature “The Princess and the Frog,” Anika Noni Rose reflected on her trailblazing role and the film’s lasting legacy. “Being the first black Disney princess, that was such a first and it really has changed the way young brown children are looked at in

The time feels right for a film adaptation of J.M. Coetzee’s “Waiting for the Barbarians,” inasmuch as the undertaking is possible at all. Nearly 40 years after its publication, the South African writer’s slim but scorching allegory for imperialist denial and defeat feels grimly pertinent to a current political milieu in which the hubris of

Feras Fayyad’s “The Cave” plunges viewers into the midst of Syria’s civil war, reminding audiences of a brutal conflict that doesn’t appear frequently enough on cable news programs or in the headlines of Western newspapers. It viscerally illustrates the human cost of a struggle that is now in its eighth year. But Fayyad’s documentary, which

Warner Bros.’ “It: Chapter Two” has launched solidly in international markets with $16.5 million, finishing in first place in 48 markets. The horror sequel opens in an additional 27 markets on Friday, including the U.K., Mexico and Spain. France opens the following week on Sept. 11 and Japan on Nov. 1. “It: Chapter Two” notched

Isaiah Mustafa was a journeyman pro football wide receiver with a dream of becoming an actor. Then he landed the spot as the suave Old Spice spokesman who burst out of the shower wearing nothing but a bath towel and deodorant. The moment led to appearances in sitcoms like “Anger Management” and “Baby Daddy,” after

Barcelona-based studio Filmax has acquired international sales rights to José Luis Garci’s “The Crack: Inception,” the third part of a film noir trilogy whose first two installments represent for many the Spanish director’s finest achievement. Introducing the new film to buyers at Toronto, Filmax will also distribute it in Spain, opening the crime thriller on

September 6, 2019 9:26AM PT Giant Pictures has acquired worldwide digital rights excluding SVOD and Australia/New Zealand to Serge Ou’s documentary “Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks,” Variety has learned exclusively. The deal was unveiled Friday. The film held its world premiere at the recent Melbourne International Film Festival and will have its US premiere at

September 6, 2019 9:21AM PT Guatamalan director Jayro Bustamante’s genocide revenge drama “The Weeping Woman” (“La Llorona”), set during the 1960s civil war in his country, has won the Venice Days Director Award, the top nod in Venice’s independently run section. This is the second feature by Bustamante, who put Guatemalan cinema the map with his debut,

September 6, 2019 9:00AM PT “All This Victory,” a tense war drama directed by Lebanon’s Ahmad Ghossein and set in 2006 in his country during the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, is the big winner at the Venice Critics’ Week section dedicated to first works. The film is about a young man named Marwan who during

Back in 1970, Tony Richardson’s “Ned Kelly” hit upon a neat idea: What if you got an honest-to-God rock star, Mick Jagger, to play Australia’s most notorious 19th-century folk hero? A neat idea is all it was, though, and the listless, unconfidently acted movie that resulted was duly forgotten. Nearly half a century later, however,

Neon’s distribution topper Elissa Federoff hits Toronto with some high-profile titles: Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or-winner “Parasite,” Alfre Woodard-starrer “Clemency” and Celine Sciamma’s Cannes prize-winner “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” Neon has seen success in a subdued specialty pic B.O. climate with docs such as “Three Identical Strangers” and recently with “Luce,” “Honeyland” and “Wild Rose.” The specialty

Melanie Martinez is taking her fans on a fantastical trip. In her directorial debut, the singer presented “K-12” in Los Angeles Tuesday (Sept. 3), ahead of the film’s worldwide one-night-only release on Sept. 5. The colorful feature-length production was financed by Martinez’s label, Atlantic Records, totaling an investment of $5 to $6 million, she estimates.