Last year, at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, Telefilm Canada had launched a campaign to invite audiences to return to cinemas. They called it “Feel Again” and had partnered with distributors, cinemas, festivals, broadcasters, Air Canada — and even filmmaker Director X — to help drive audiences to re-discover Canadian films. “We really spent last
Start your engines! Virgil Films has acquired North American rights to the Ewan McGregor-narrated documentary “Speed Is Expensive: Philip Vincent and the Million Dollar Motorcycle,” featuring Jay Leno, Clash bassist Paul Simonon and seven-time world championship racer John Surtees. Lighbulb Film Distribution will release the doc in the U.K. and Ireland. Virgil is repping sales
Global Screen has racked up presales to multiple territories for the animated family adventure movie “Niko — Beyond the Northern Lights,” the third in the box office hit franchise about a flying reindeer. The sales agency will be showing a first scene to buyers at Cannes Film Market. The animated movie has been picked up
Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield-led romantic drama “We Live in Time” has sold into Canada’s Sphere Films. The Montreal- and Toronto-based company has picked up Canadian rights to the drama directed by “Brooklyn” helmer John Crowley, who also directed Garfield in his breakout role in “Boy A.” The film is currently in production in London
Cinetic Media is launching sales in Cannes on “Anita,” a documentary about actor-model Anita Pallenberg, which premieres in the Cannes Classics section. In “Anita,” which includes never-seen-before Super 8mm home movies and family photographs, Pallenberg’s words from her unpublished memoir are voiced by Scarlett Johansson. The first-look photo (above) shows Pallenberg and Keith Richards in
Bleecker Street has acquired North American rights to Andrew Cumming’s Stone Age thriller “The Origin” from Sony Pictures’ Stage 6. World premiering at the BFI London Film Festival in October, “The Origin” won acclaim for its unique approach to genre set in the Palaeolithic period. The script was written by Ruth Greenberg (“Run”) with Escape
Boy George, lead singer of Culture Club, was synonymous with 1980s pop culture. Following a string of ubiquitous international radio hits such as “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” and “Karma Chameleon,” the Grammy-winning singer embarked on a solo career, with his recording of “The Crying Game” punctuating Neil Jordan’s Academy Awarding-winning film of
Bob Chapek, the former Disney CEO who was abruptly ousted from the company last November, is among a group of executives facing a lawsuit claiming violations of securities law for allegedly providing misleading statements and omissions about Disney+ and its subscriber growth. The case, filed by Local 272 Labor Management Pension Fund on May 12
Funding from Singaporean state sources is involved in two features that make their debut at the Cannes Film Festival this month. A third film, “The Breaking Ice,” is directed by Singapore-born filmmaker Anthony Chen. “We are absolutely thrilled that we have the most number of Made with Singapore films debuting in Cannes this year,” said
SPOILER ALERT: This interview reveals major plot points from the “9-1-1” Season 6 finale, which aired Monday on Fox. Buck (Oliver Stark) helped bring a very special baby boy into the world on the sixth season finale of “9-1-1.” The little guy, whom Buck donated sperm to help his friends conceive, was born on Buck’s new
There has never been a compilation album in the history of rock as influential as “Nuggets,” a 1972 double-LP that revived a period and style that was seen as having ended about five years before. It was nostalgia of a sort for the very recent past — as opposed to the very distant past that’s
Another week, another win for Morgan Wallen who adds a definitive tenth consecutive week at No. 1 on the albums chart with “One Thing at a Time.” The set debuted earlier this March and has not left the coveted slot since, matching the record set with his previous “Dangerous: The Double Album” and making him
The Directors Guild of America is continuing its negotiations with the AMPTP, as companies hope to get a deal that could play a role in ending the two-week-old writers strike. Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America told members Monday that the guild is winning the “PR war” against the studios, as members share their stories
Today, the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) unveiled the second edition of its Music Industry Action Report Card (MIARC) which observes dozens of organizations in multiple categories — labels, publishers, streaming services, live entertainment and touring, the Recording Academy and more — and how market leaders (and/or those most closely affiliated with Black/urban music, creators and audiences) have taken
On May 12, Variety partnered with Reddit’s Television subreddit to host an Ask Me Anything discussion about the ongoing writers strike. Variety co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton — who has covered the television industry for 25 years and wrote the book “TV on Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War Over the Internet” about the 2007 strike — fielded
Fox made its annual upfront pitch to advertisers at the Manhattan Center on Monday afternoon, pushing the messages of Fox Entertainment, Tubi, Fox News, and Fox Sports, all while promising the audience that don’t worry, we’ll get you hammered soon. Coming off of presentations hampered by the pandemic in recent years, Fox was back in
The Peabody Awards won’t be throwing a return celebration this year after all. The org has scrapped this years event, which would have been the first in-person Peabody ceremony since 2019 (before the pandemic), in the wake of the writers strike. Originally set to be held on Sunday, June 11, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel,
Jenna Barbee, a fifth-grade Florida teacher, is under investigation by the Florida Department of Education after showing her class the animated Disney movie “Strange World,” which features an openly gay character. In a video posted to TikTok, Barbee said that she is being investigated for indoctrination after showing the film. “Our students had standardized testing
From the moment an animated “Ted” opened the NBCUniversal upfront, voiced by Seth MacFarlane prior to the writers strike, it was clear this was going to be an abbreviated event. For starters, until a week ago, this was still going to be Linda Yaccarino’s Radio City Music Hall show. But with Yaccarino off running Twitter
As Upfronts begin, it’s time to take a look at the current shows scheduled to return in the upcoming broadcast season as cable networks continue to take stock of their successes. For those keeping up, CBS previously announced several cancellations including the popular show “SWAT,” which will close after its seventh season. “True Lies” and
UPDATED: The network upfronts are once again front-and-center for the television industry as major players gather in New York May 15-17 for the springtime ritual of presenting programming plans for the upcoming TV season. Upfronts are always a hectic time, but this year it’s even more so because of the writers strike that began May 2. Writers
Kiss frontman Gene Simmons and Gary Hamilton, chairman of Arclight Films, have launched Simmons/Hamilton Prods. to develop, finance and produce feature films. The standalone banner will produce 25 movies over an initial five-year period, with a focus on action, thriller and genre titles with global franchise potential. The company is backed by a multi-billion dollar
Emerging star from Hong Kong, Isabella Wei, headlines Silent D Pictures’ comedy-drama “High Wire.” The film follows the story of Go-wing, a British-Chinese takeaway girl who discovers her inner strength and artistic bravery when a circus comes to her small English town. As Go-wing navigates the challenges of her dual cultural identity, she finds herself
Distributor Verve Pictures has revealed the first trailer for “Inland,” headlined by Oscar-winning thespian Mark Rylance. The film marks the debut of Fridtjof Ryder and alongside Ryland the cast includes Rory Alexander (“Pistol”), Kathryn Hunter (“Andor”), Eleanor Holliday, Alexander Lincoln (“The Fence”), Nell Williams (“The Good Liar”) and Shaun Dingwall (“Top Boy”). Described as a
Prolific German director Jo Baier has officially signed on to write and direct the thriller “Life Through a Dead Man’s Eyes,” about an aging Nazi war criminal on the run from prosecution. The film, produced by Berlin-based Films In Motion in co-production with Banijay’s NL Film in Amsterdam, tells the haunting story of a former
NBCU has officially shifted its “The Real Housewives of New York: Legacy” series to an “Ultimate Girls Trip” format that will stream on Peacock, featuring former Housewives Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Luann de Lesseps, Dorinda Medley, Sonja Morgan, Ramona Singer and Kristen Taekman as its cast. After a low-rated 13th season and an influx of conflict,
It’s been nearly four years since we learned that a “Weeds” sequel series was in the works. When Variety exclusively broke the news of the revival in 2019, which was then at Starz, Mary-Louise Parker was set to executive produce and reprise her role as Nancy Botwin in the potential new series. But Justin Kirk,
Warner Bros. Discovery has asked talent not to appear in-person at their Wednesday upfronts presentation, so as not to put those individuals in a position where they need to cross the Writers Guild of America’s picket line amid the ongoing writers strike, Variety has learned. A source close to the situation says this choice was
Argentine production company StoryLab and Latin American group Cimarrón have teamed up to jointly co-produce TV series and feature films for the international market over the next three years. The agreement includes development, production of both existing formats and original projects, including both scripted and non-scripted series as well as films. StoryLab and Cimarrón, which
Check out the official trailer for Fast X starring Jason Momoa and Vin Diesel! ► Buy Tickets to Fast X: https://www.fandango.com/fast-x-2023-230799/movie-overview?cmp=Trailers_YouTube_Desc Subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon to be notified of all the hottest trailers: http://bit.ly/2CNniBy ► Shop Rotten Tomatoes: http://bit.ly/3KvCU1M US Release Date: May 19, 2023 Starring: Brie Larson, Charlize Theron,