Movie News

Universal’s domestic release of Simon King’s directorial The 355 is jumping from its MLK 2021 weekend release to MLK weekend Jan. 14, 2022.

While Universal has committed a number of fresh wide releases during the pandemic to exhibition during Q4, i.e. Focus Features’ Come Play, Let Him Go, Blumhouse’s Freaky, Dreamworks Animation’s The Croods: A New Age and Tom Hanks’ News of the World, the studio only has domestic on this title, which they bought at Cannes back in 2018 for a reported $20M. The foreign partners, arranged through FilmNation, have a lot of say on this title and the yearning is for a more full-bodied global launch of what is hoped to be another Bourne like franchise, this one all female starring Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Édgar Ramirez and Sebastian Stan.

On MLK 2022, 355 will face off against Warner Bros./MGM’s Sesame Street movie,

Matthew López, the acclaimed playwright behind “The Inheritance,” will bring the story of legendary dramatist Tennessee Williams to the big screen for Searchlight Pictures.

López will pen a feature film adaptation of the novel “Leading Men,” which centers on the “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” scribe and his longtime partner Frank Merlo. The film is produced by “Call Me By Your Name” team Luca Guadagnino and Peter Spears. There is currently no director attached to the project.

The novel by Christopher Castellani tells the tale of the romantic partnership between Williams and Merlo, touted in a synopsis of the film as “one of the most creatively inspiring love stories of the twentieth century.”

Already famous for penning “The Glass Menagerie,” Williams met Merlo (an occasional actor and a World War II naval veteran) in the late 1940s, embarking on a passionate — and often tumultuous — love affair,

Hong Kong-produced “Caught in Time” gave fresh life to the mainland China box office over its opening weekend.

The fantasy crime thriller about a cop chasing a gang through different eras earned $30.3 million. Produced by Emperor Motion Picture, the film stars the popular Daniel Wu and Wang Qianyuan, and was directed by Lau Ho-leung.

It edged aside patriotic war film “Sacrifice” which had held the top spot for the previous three weekends. “Sacrifice” managed $6.0 million in its fourth weekend, for a cumulative score of $161 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Third place, and a $3.3 million haul, belonged to “Paw Patrol” in its second weekend. That compared with $5.5 million in its opening frame, and extended the film’s 11-day cumulative to $9.6 million.

Disaster action movie “Greenland” opened modestly with $3.2 million for fourth place, despite the presence of Gerard Butler above the title. His previous releases of “Geostorm” and “London Has Fallen

Peggy Jo, the upcoming true-crime love story starring Lily James, has sold out internationally for HanWay Films.

The feature, from award-winning director Phillip Noyce, was acquired by the Universal Pictures Content Group in a deal that included Benelux, German speaking Europe, Italy, Portugal, Scandinavia, Turkey, the U.K., Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Czech & Slovak Republics, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Cis, Baltics, Israel, West Indies, South Africa, Hong Kong, the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, South East Asia Pay TV, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Latin America. HanWay has also closed deals with DeAPlaneta (Spain), Tohokushinsha (Japan), Noori Pictures (South Korea), Shaw (Singapore),...

Body-swap horror comedy “Freaky” repeated as the winner of a seriously subdued U.S. box office with $1.2 million at 2,057 locations in North America during the Friday-Sunday weekend.

The Universal and Blumhouse Productions’ movie stars Vince Vaughn as a serial killer and Kathryn Newton as a low-profile high schooler who inadvertently switch bodies on Friday the 13th. “Freaky” has taken in $5.6 million in its first 10 days amid the reluctance of many moviegoers to return to multiplexes until a Covid-19 vaccine is available.

Universal noted Sunday that the theatrical box office continues to be impaired due to a notable reduction in the number of theaters in North America, as the domestic theatrical footprint has shrunk to roughly 2,800 open locations from 3,400 last weekend.

The performance of “Freaky” contrasts sharply with the same weekend a year ago when Disney launched “Frozen II” with $130 million and overall North American business totaled $206 million, according to Comscore.

The Taiwanese film My Missing Valentine won big Saturday night at the annual Golden Horse Awards, taking five honors, including best feature film.

The romantic comedy, which tells the love story of a bus driver and a post office worker, also won for best director, best visual effects, best film editing and best original screenplay.

Overall, Taiwanese talent enjoyed a big night at the Golden Horse Awards, considered Asia’s equivalent of the Academy Awards for Chinese-language films.

Taiwanese performers took home honors for best actor and best actress. Mo Tzu-yi won best actor for his role in Dear Tenant, while Chen ...

Indie ethos, costume drama and rich fantasy won the day at the world’s top cinematography event, EnergaCamerimage Film Festival, on Saturday, with Joshua James Richards’ naturalistic filming in Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” taking the Golden Frog plus Fipresci jury honors. The chronicle of life on the rough edges of America’s society among retirees living on the road in trailers, based on Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book “Nomadland: Surviving in the Twenty-First Century,” is considered a strong Oscars contender.

The 28th edition of Camerimage also wrapped with its award to an actor of unique visual sensitivity for Johnny Depp, whose Japan-set war correspondent story “Minamata,” filmed by Benoit Delhomme, screened at the fest. Depp said in a letter to the fest that shooting with the celebrated Dp was “a sort of dance” encouraged by director Andrew Levitas, who “encouraged us to explore.”

Fest president Marek Zydowicz described the fest

It’s been a few years since Angelina Jolie got behind the camera as a director. The last film she helmed was First They Killed My Father in 2017, but soon she’ll be working on another true story in Unreasonable Behaviour, the story of British war photographer Don McCullin. And this time she’ll be getting some […]

The post Angelina Jolie to Direct ‘Unreasonable Behaviour’, the Story of War Photographer Don McCullin appeared first on /Film.

Like many of its counterparts worldwide, the Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (Ficg), Mexico’s largest film festival, faced the quandary of whether to go online, reschedule or cancel altogether because of the pandemic.

It opted for a rescheduled hybrid 35th edition which would serve those either unable or afraid to travel and those without an internet connection in Mexico.

“We struck a deal with Canal 44 to have them air some of our films,” said festival director Estrella Araiza, who is adamant that despite the challenges and complications, the film community will prevail in the end. “We have to believe in cinema,” she declared. Outdoor screenings and restricted indoor cinema screenings are on the schedule while most of the master classes and conferences are online.

Ficg was pushed from its traditional March dates to the fall, where it’s now been running over Nov. 20-27.

Its inauguration on Friday Nov.

Colombian documentary feature “Alis,” from directors Nicolas van Hemelryck and Clare Weiskopf, has won the Forum Award for best project at IDFA, one of the world’s leading documentary film festivals, which is running as a virtual event until Dec. 6. IDFA’s Forum section is a co-financing and co-production market for “creative” documentaries.

“Alis” follows eight teenage girls living in Bogota, who dream up Alis, a fictional character. “Their soulful narrative reveals an amazing perseverance to break the cycle of violence and embrace a better future,” according to the festival.

The jury, comprising Gitte Hansen, Lisa Kleiner Chanoff and Luis González Zaffaroni, said the filmmakers’ aim was to “facilitate, capture, and show the process of empowerment of young female protagonists coming from the harshest life-conditions on the streets of Bogota.”

They added: “The filmmakers’ artistic vision is organically connected with an original and playful method in documentary filmmaking by using imagination.

Finding Forrester – the movie that gave birth to “You’re the man now, dog!” – is headed to TV. NBC is developing a Finding Forrester TV series based on the 2000 Gus Van Sant movie about a reclusive J.D. Salinger-like writer who mentors a Black teenager from a prestigious private high school. The late Sean Connery starred in the […]

The post ‘Finding Forrester’ TV Series Being Developed by NBC Now, Dog appeared first on /Film.

Creators and screenwriters from Europe discussed the importance of collaboration in filmmaking during a panel in the Variety Streaming Room.

Hosted by international features editor Leo Barraclough, the conversation, titled “Lost in Translation? Visual Story Development from Script to Screen,” included creators from the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival’s Black Room and writers from the Face to Face program. Prop maker and modeler Simon Weisse, production designer Jacqueline Abrahams, and writers Jana Burbach and Hanno Hackfort took part in the panel.

Collaborative endeavors have seen an increase in European filmmaking, said Hackfort, since teams have begun to see that different departments — writers, designers, directors — often have ideas that aren’t limited to just the part of the film or television project they’re working on.

“This concept of showrunner becomes more and more important in Germany,” he said. “Then you’re not just a writer, but you can also work together with the others.

The odd Oscar race is slimming as the pandemic forces studios to pull big-budget movies like “Dune” and “West Side Story” out of 2020, waiting for a time when audiences might return to theaters. Movies that were intended for theaters, but pushed to VOD or streaming will still be eligible for Oscars; these include “Soul,” “Mulan,” and “Wonder Woman 1984.”

There are still plenty of films to fill out the major categories, but the tech category’s landscape changes significantly without studio tentpoles. There’s still $200-million twisty globe-trotter “Tenet” (Warner Bros.), which will turn up in multiple craft categories including Cinematography, Production Design, Editing, Score, and Sound (now one category). Warners’ DC adventure “Wonder Woman 1984” will also offer strong visuals, effects, and sound design when it finally opens day and date in theaters and HBO Max on December 25. Winding up on Disney+, gorgeous China period adventure “Mulan” should also register with the crafts,

The 355 will have to wait another 365 days to hit theaters. Universal’s spy thriller The 355, which stars Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, and Diane Kruger, has been pushed back a year, setting its new release date in January 2022. The 355 is the latest film to vacate the winter release calendar amid surging […]

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In Clea DuVall’s “Happiest Season,” Kristen Stewart plays Abby, an art history Ph.D. student whose girlfriend, Harper (Mackenzie Davis), has invited her home for Christmas. Though she’s at first reluctant to go, Abby then decides she’ll actually propose to Harper, assuming that meeting the family goes well — but Harper tells Abby she hasn’t yet come out to her parents, and they both have to pretend to be straight. It’s a romcom with a queer twist, and a conventional Christmas comedy made radical merely by centering the story on a lesbian couple.

Since her “Twilight” years, Stewart has made eclectic career decisions that have veered from indies such as “Clouds of Sils Maria” and “Seberg” to more mainstream fare like the 2019 “Charlie’s Angels” reboot — but she’s never been especially associated with romantic comedies. Yet writer-director DuVall wanted an actor who could do both comedy and drama,

If you grew up with Frank Zappa, and he loomed large in your youth-cultural pop rebel sandbox (as he did in mine), he seemed to be many things at once. The outrageous hippie with the thick black T-shaped goatee who looked weird and threatening enough to represent something very far removed from peace and love. The avant rock ‘n’ roll absurdist who led the band of wilted flower children known as the Mothers of Invention. The scandalous joker seated half-naked on a toilet seat in the iconic ’60s poster that read “Phi Zappa Krappa.” The airy and sophisticated pop-rock-jazz prodigy who, starting around the time of “Hot Rats” (1969), began to put together songs that had the intricate quality of hypnotic musical Tinkertoy. The band leader who whipped his musicians into learning those how-many-notes-can-i-jam-into-three-seconds tracks with the bop-till-you-drop discipline of a counterculture Duke Ellington. The tall skinny long-haired guitar god who

STXfilms has decided to enter this unconventional awards season with a mighty and timely drama, “The Mauritanian,” formerly called “Prisoner 760,” from Scottish director Kevin Macdonald. The film will be released in theaters on Feb. 19, 2021, and could echo the same late-breaking awards success that past movies like “Million Dollar Baby” were able to execute. With an impressive cast that includes Tahar Rahim, Jodie Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch and Shailene Woodley, the inspiring true story could resonate with AMPAS voters, especially its large international membership.

“The Mauritanian” tells the true story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Rahim), who was held captive and tortured by the U.S. government in Guantanamo Bay detention camp for 10 years without a charge or trial. Losing faith, he finds hope in defense attorney Nancy Hollander (Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan (Woodley), who face countless legal obstacles in their pursuit of justice.

I was able to view an unfinished version of the film,

“Cops and Robbers,” the animated short directed by Arnon Manor and Timothy Ware-Hill, is written and performed by Ware-Hill in response to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. After the Arbery video surfaced on May 5, Manor was inspired to create an animated version of Ware-Hill’s poem, which resulted in their collaboration.

Timothy Ware-Hill and Arnon Manor say they made this film “for all the Black men, women and children who have been victims of racial profiling, police violence, loss of life and other injustices just for being themselves.”

Over 30 individual artists, students and VFX companies from around the world collaborated to each create a short segment of the poem with their own visual interpretation of the subject matter and individual animation technique. Half the animators on the “Cops and Robbers” are Black animation artists. The short premieres Dec. 28 on Netflix.

Pinkett-Smith spoke with Variety about getting the short to Netflix

Recently, it was announced that Jennifer Garner and Zoe Saldana were joining Ryan Reynolds in the upcoming sci-fi, time-travel film, “The Adam Project,” over at Netflix. Well, it appears that Reynolds and filmmaker Shawn Levy were far from done adding big names to the cast, as we are now finding out more about the upcoming film and Mark Ruffalo’s involvement.

According to THR, Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener, Walker Scobell, and Alex Mallari, Jr.

Continue reading ‘The Adam Project’: Mark Ruffalo To Play Ryan Reynolds’ Dad In The New Time-Travel Film at The Playlist.

“Bruce,” the mechanical shark which gave a young Steven Spielberg and his crew so many problems on the set of 1975’s Jaws, has found a new home. The only surviving model of the Jaws shark was acquired by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences four years ago and fully restored to its former glory […]

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