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Film Review: ‘My Enemies’
36 minutes ago
In contrast to the streetwise grit of his last feature, 2008’s very good “Straight From the Heart,” Montreal writer-director Stephane Gehami’s new “My Enemies” has the feel of a rarefied, artificial chamber piece, recalling those European art films of yore in which high-strung aristocratic and artistic types went through “I love you! I hate you! I love you!” histrionics without much relation to psychological realism. Starring Quebec stage/screen veteran Louise Marleau as an elderly grande dame still queening it over a household of otherwise rudderless men, this indie drama is elegantly crafted yet neither convincing nor stylized enough to pull off its rather theatrical conceit. Prospects beyond the fest circuit will be modest.
After a spat with his girlfriend, Cedric (Frederic Lemay) storms out of their apartment — scrawling “Stupid Cow” on the refrigerator door for good measure — taking only an unfinished first novel with him. Cooling heels on a chilly Montreal street bench, »
- Dennis Harvey
‘Land Of Mine,’ ‘Don Juan’ Top Goteborg Film Fest
1 hour ago
Goteborg — Films treating the aftermath of wars past and present and singular artistic visions captured top awards at this year’s Goteborg Film Festival, running Jan. 29 to Feb. 8.
One night after nabbing Rotterdam’s audience award and MovieZone prize, Danish helmer Martin Zandvliet came away Goteborg’s biggest winner, scoring the generously endowed – approx. $120,000 – Best Nordic Film kudo for “Land Of Mine,” a gripping portrayal of a group of young German P.O.W.s forced to de-mine Danish beaches after the Axis defeat. “Land” was a standout in a strong competition that also included the Academy Award-nominated “A War” from Danish helmer Tobias Lindholm.
Poland-born, Sweden-based helmer Jerzy Sladkowski took the Nordic docu nod with “Don Juan,” which centers on the relationship of a 22-year-old autistic man and his neurotic mother who is determined to make him more “normal.” The docu also nabbed the main award at Idfa last fall, »
- Alissa Simon
Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘Conquest’ Lands at Paramount
1 hour ago
Paramount has acquired “Conquest,” a project that will star Leonardo DiCaprio and be written by “The Revenant” co-writer Mark L. Smith, Variety has confirmed.
Plot details have yet to be revealed. John Davis will produce via Davis Entertainment.
DiCaprio and Smith proved to be a winning team when “The Revenant” tallied a leading 12 nominations for the 2016 Academy Awards; DiCaprio is the frontrunner to take home the best actor Oscar after being nominated in the category three previous times. In addition, Paramount has optioned the Ya climate change novel “The Sandcastle Empire” with DiCaprio on board to produce.
Smith also wrote 2007’s “Vacancy.”
The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.
Dave McNary contributed to this report.
»
- Marianne Zumberge
Goteborg: Nordisk Film Inks First-Look Deal With Partners in Stories
3 hours ago
Last year Nordisk Film opened a new Swedish production company, Avanti Sweden, with three Swedish producers: Charlotta Denward, Anna Anthony and Anna Croneman. It also closed a deal with Swedish regional film centre, Film Väst, and Swedish pubcaster Svt to invest up to €2.7 million ($3.0 million) per title in a couple of films – either arthouse films with a large audience potential, or more commercial productions with a high quality.
It has started to pay off – Nordisk co-produced (and distributed) Swedish director Hannes Holm’s comedy-drama “A Man Called Ove,” which won three Guldbagga Awards – Sweden’s national film prizes – including best actor (Rolf Lassgård) and the Audience Award, and is now closing in on 1.5 million admissions in the local cinemas.
“Sweden has really been a problem for a couple of years – Swedish filmmakers have left the country to work on international projects, others have concentrated on television projects. Actually, for the »
- Jorn Rossing Jensen
Goteborg: Zentropa Sweden Preps ‘Hashtag,’ ’12 Dares,’ ‘Milf,’ ‘My Saga,’ Adapts ‘Iceburn’
4 hours ago
Goteborg — When seven years ago Swedish producer Madeleine Ekman was offered the opportunity to lead the Swedish outpost of Denmark’s Zentropa Entertainment, her main task was to co-produce Peter Aalbæk Jensen-Lars von Trier-Zentropa projects, eventually adding some local talent.
“But you can’t develop a production company without its own original profile,” said Ekman, who brought in her first Swedish director in 2011 – Björn Runge and his award-winning “Happy End.”
With Swedish regional film centre Film Väst and Poland’s Lava Films, Zentropa Sweden produced Swedish director Magnus von Horn’s “The Here After,” which was selected for Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, and recently won a Guldbagga Award, Sweden’s national film prize, for best film. It has just wrapped principal photography on Swedish director Izer Aliu’s feature debut, while shooting a miniseries for Swedish pubcaster Svt-Play, “Hashtag.” TV drama is based on the 2012 instagram. »
- Jorn Rossing Jensen
Film Review: ‘Life, Animated’
4 hours ago
The busy subgenre of documentaries featuring autistic subjects gets a strong new entry in “Life, Animated,” a captivating portrait of a young man for whom Disney animated movies have provided a powerful lifeline to progress, language and understanding. Interweaving clips from “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” “Peter Pan” and any number of toon classics whose words and images the 23-year-old Owen Suskind has long committed to memory, this latest film from Roger Ross Williams (“God Loves Uganda”) teems with insights into how children’s fantasy can and can’t bridge a developmental gap, but works on an even more basic, emotional level as a warm testament to a family’s love and resilience. Acquired for North American distribution by the Orchard, this winner of a Sundance directing prize could benefit from its accessible hook and generous sampling of Disney clips to reach a wider-than-usual audience for nonfiction titles of its type. »
- Justin Chang
Box Office: ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ Pummels ‘The Choice,’ ‘Hail, Caesar!’
4 hours ago
Animated Jack Black romp “Kung Fu Panda 3” is ruling the box office for a second straight weekend, steamrolling new releases “Hail, Caesar!,” “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” and “The Choice” on its way to a three-day haul of $22 million.
Unspooling in 3,987 locations, DreamWorks Animation’s “Panda” should finish the weekend with a total domestic gross of up to $70 million. It generated $5.3 million in Friday receipts. The original “Kung Fu Panda” took in a U.S. total of $215 million when it hit theaters in 2008, and its sequel tallied $165 million in 2011. This chapter of Po the Panda’s story, rated PG and distributed by Fox, also stars Kate Hudson and Bryan Cranston.
Behind “Panda” is the latest from the Coen brothers, “Hail, Caesar!,” which took in $4.3 million Friday from 2,232 locations. The Universal release should finish the weekend with up to $12 million for its opening frame. George Clooney, Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson »
- Marianne Zumberge
NAACP Image Awards: Taraji P. Henson Says ‘We Don’t Need to Ask for Acceptance From Anyone’
4 hours ago
Hollywood’s elite celebrated the year’s efforts to diversify entertainment Friday night at the NAACP Image Awards, where awards season diversity reigned as a hot topic in the wake of the controversy surrounding 2016’s Oscar nominations.
“We don’t need to ask for acceptance from anyone. We are enough, we’ve been enough and we always will be enough,” said “Empire’s” Taraji P. Henson while accepting her award for outstanding actress in a drama series. “Empire” and “black-ish” topped the television category, both winning three awards.
“Creed’s” Michael B. Jordan also won big, grabbing the awards for outstanding actor in a motion picture and entertainer of the year. “Straight Outta Compton” was honored with the award for outstanding motion picture.
“We need to do away with the myth that black film doesn’t have a foreign market, because it does,” “Scandal’s” Joe Morton told Variety before the show, »
- Alyssa Sage
Watch: First Look at Paul Verhoeven’s ‘Elle’ Trailer, With Isabelle Huppert (Exclusive)
9 hours ago
Isabelle Huppert-starrer “Elle,” the French-language debut of Paul Verhoeven (“Total Recall,” “The Black Book”), now has a trailer, to which Variety has had exclusive access.
Lead-produced by Said Ben Said’s Sbs Productions, a company which has a strong line in films from some of Europe and America’s biggest name directors – one of its largest successes was Roman Polanski’s “Carnage” — “Elle” stars Huppert as the head of a top European video games company, a woman who seems indestructible, has it all, is always in control, is ruthless in business and is in love.
One night, as she lets the cat in, a masked man in a ski suit bursts into her home, and rapes her.
The attack changes Michele’s life forever. She reacts, resolutely, learns to fire a gun, sleeps with a hammer on her pillow, begins to suspect the assailant may be one of her employees, »
- John Hopewell
Film Review: ‘Plaza de la Soledad’
18 hours ago
Maya Goded was taking widely exhibited still photographs of the women in “Plaza de la Soledad” long before she decided to make a debut documentary feature about them. Unsurprisingly, then, she gets unusually intimate, relaxed access to the non-professional lives of those who practice the world’s oldest profession from a square just behind the president’s office in Mexico City. Frank but far from lurid, this verite slice of sex workers’ often rough yet resiliently good-humored lives will appeal to fests and more open-minded tube berths.
Though they don’t discuss their ages (or the impact of their ages on trade), the principal subjects here have long since ceased to fit a conventional, titillating image of prostitution: They’re past 50, and one is closer to 80. Yet they’re still ready to rumba, or to demonstrate miscellaneous other sexy moves with their ample forms. Any shame they feel about a »
- Dennis Harvey
Film Review: ‘Southbound’
18 hours ago
What with the inferior “V/H/S Viral” having possibly run that hitherto enjoyable franchise aground, some “V/H/S” alumni plus a few newcomers try a different direction with “Southbound.” This entertaining-enough quartet of loosely interwoven terror tales falls right into the middle ground of horror omnibuses, with no outright duds but no truly memorable (or scary) segments either. Pic opens Feb. 5 in New York and Los Angeles, with another 30 or so theatrical rollouts currently booked after its VOD launch on Feb. 9; it should do well with genre fans in various formats.
The primary link among these suspense stories is that they all happen on or near a desolate stretch of desert road. (There’s also a minor connective thread in the audio-only form of Larry Fessenden channeling Wolfman Jack as a regional broadcast DJ.) In the Radio Silence troupe’s wraparound, “The Way Out/The Way In,” two »
- Dennis Harvey
Berlin: Annapurna’s Kimberly Fox Launches MadRiver Sales Operation
19 hours ago
Kimberly Fox of Megan Ellison’s Annapurna International is joining Marc Butan’s MadRiver Pictures as a partner and launching its international sales arm at the Berlin Film Festival.
The operation will handle sales and distribution on all MadRiver films as well as films from Vendian Entertainment, which has made a strategic investment in MadRiver Pictures.
MadRiver titles include Burr Steers’ “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” starring Lily James and set for release Friday; John Hillcoat’s “Triple 9,” starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Kate Winslet, Aaron Paul and Anthony Mackie, which will be released by Open Road Films on Feb. 26; and James Gray’s “The Lost City of Z,” starring Charlie Hunnam.
The company is in pre-production on Peter Landesman’s “Felt,” starring Liam Neeson.
Fox will separately continue to run the Annapurna International label and represent all Annapurna Pictures titles for the international marketplace, including Annapurna »
- Dave McNary
Thai Prison Boxing Movie ‘Champion’ in the Works at Storyscape
20 hours ago
Storyscape Entertainment’s Bob Cooper and Richard Saperstein have partnered with Robert Kravis and Karl Herrmann of Pioneer Pictures on “Champion,” an action-thriller in the world of Thai prison fighting.
Tyler Mitchell, who developed the project while working with Cooper at Landscape Entertainment, will also produce.
Gary Scott Thompson, whose credits include the original “The Fast and the Furious,” “Hollow Man” and NBC’s “Las Vegas,” wrote the original screenplay. The story, based on real events, explores a centuries-old tradition within Thailand’s prison system where inmates compete in state-sanctioned Muay Thai tournaments to win early release.
“Champion” follows the journey of an American who is locked up overseas and must learn Muay Thai in order to fight for his freedom.
Storyscape Entertainment has a first-look feature deal with Broad Green Pictures. The company is also developing “FBI Wedding” at Universal with Jason Bateman starring and directing, and “The War Magician »
- Dave McNary
Variety’s Artisans Award Recipients at Santa Barbara Film Festival Announced
21 hours ago
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival, in conjunction with Variety, announced today the recipients of the second annual Variety Artisans Awards, which celebrates those essential to the filmmaking process and who have exhibited the most exciting and innovative work of the year in their respective fields. The Tribute evening will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 10, at the Lobero Theatre and will be moderated by Variety’s Sr. VP Awards Editor, Tim Gray.
The Variety Artisans Award will be presented to the following 2016 Oscar nominees:
Carter Burwell, for original score in the Weinstein Company’s “Carol” directed by Todd Haynes. This is Burwell’s first Academy Award nomination; he has worked with esteemed directors such as the Coen Brothers, Spike Jonze and Bill Condon.
Hank Corwin, for film editing in Paramount Pictures’ “The Big Short” for director Adam McKay. Hank recently won the Ace Eddie Award and the Los Angeles Film »
- Variety Staff
‘Pursuit of Happyness’ Helmer Gabriele Muccino Boards Erotic Thriller ‘Laughter in the Dark’
21 hours ago
Italian helmer Gabriele Muccino is in talks to direct the erotic thriller “Laughter in the Dark,” based on the Vladimir Nabokov novel.
Muccino, whose credits include “Playing for Keeps,” “Seven Pounds” and “The Pursuit of Happyness,” will direct from a script by newcomers Bradley McManus and Justin Parker.
Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell of Stone Village Productions will produce with Sander Soeth of Intuit Films. Stone Village has partnered with investment firm Source Rock Partners to finance the pic.
The story follows a wealthy art dealer and family man who falls in love with an aspiring actress who becomes his muse. When he leaves his wife and family for her, his life spins out of control.
Casting is starting immediately for a mid May start in New York.
“Laughter in the Dark” was first published in 1932. It was the basis of a 1969 French-British drama directed by Tony Richardson and starring Nicol Williamson and Anna Karina. »
- Dave McNary
Box Office: ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ Dominates ‘Caesar,’ ‘Zombies,’ ‘Choice’
21 hours ago
Po the Panda will rule the U.S. box office again with Fox’s “Kung Fu Panda 3″ nabbing at least $20 million at 3,955 theaters this weekend, early estimates showed Friday.
The animated comedy will leave a trio of new entries in the dust during a typically subdued Super Bowl weekend, led by Universal’s George Clooney comedy “Hail, Caesar!” with $9.5 million at 2,231 sites. The Coen Brothers’ look at 1950s Hollywood commanded a moderate $3.5 million on Friday, including $543,000 in Thursday night previews.
Sony’s horror-drama spoof “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” was headed for $9 million at 2,930 sites with a $3 million opening day on Friday. The movie is based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s parody of Jane Austen’s iconic 1813 novel.
Only a modest number of moviegoers were choosing “The Choice,” which opened Friday with about $2.5 million at 2,631 sites on its way to a $6.5 million weekend for Lionsgate’s romancer.
Fox’s seventh weekend »
- Dave McNary
In Brooklyn, aNew Theater Offers Retro Films and High-End Snacks
22 hours ago
Enticing people out of the house to watch movies is a lot easier when there’s also a chef-driven restaurant and full bar involved. Launched in mid-January by former location scout Tim Chung, Syndicated will program a wide variety of titles from recent indies to classics of every genre.
Located in a former warehouse in Brooklyn’s trendy Bushwick, the theater-restaurant was designed by Home Studios with a 1970s-inspired color palette and industrial vibe. The 50-seat cinema offers banquettes with tables for two, leather headrests and theater-quality sound and projection.
Eight kinds of popcorn seasoning are just the start of food options: also on the beer-friendly menu are bacon-butter meatballs and duck confit nachos. Taps for local craft brews from Empire, Ithaca and Lic Beer Project and custom movie-themed cocktails like the Airplane III should help liven up any screening, and desserts include caramel popcorn-topped chocolate budino and beer floats. »
- Pat Saperstein
Film Review: ‘Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown to Off the Wall’
23 hours ago
Nearly seven years after Michael Jackson’s premature passing, the world has probably gleaned as much as it ever will about the personal, physical and sexual curiosities of the posthumously reigning King of Pop; his enduringly influential artistry, however, remains ripe for renewed appreciation and appraisal. Leading the charge on this front is Spike Lee, who brings evidently profound personal affection and diligent research instincts to the inelegantly but self-explanatorily titled “Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown to Off to Wall.” Corraling a wealth of talking heads — ranging from family members to essential collaborators to Rosie Perez — to examine Jackson’s transition from preternatural boy-band member to supernatural solo star, this bouncily entertaining doc may boast only a notch more formal ambition than a very well-assembled “Behind the Music” special, but is no less essential than Lee’s first Mj opus, the excellent “Bad 25.”
Like “Bad 25,” Lee’s »
- Guy Lodge
Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt Starring in Musical Comedy for Universal
23 hours ago
Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will star in an untitled musical comedy for Universal.
The studio outbid rivals in acquiring an untitled pitch for the project, based on an original idea from Michael Bacall and Gordon-Levitt. Bacall will write the screenplay.
Marc Platt and Adam Siegel will produce for Marc Platt Productions alongside Tatum, Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan for their Free Association company and Gordon-Levitt for hitRECord Films.
Bacall wrote the screenplays for the “21 Jump Street” movies, which starred Tatum and Jonah Hill. Gordon-Levitt starred in Bacall’s first film, “Manic.”
Tatum most recently starred in Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” and in Universal-Working Title’s “Hail, Caesar!” He is in pre-production on Fox’s “Gambit.”
Gordon-Levitt most recently starred in “The Night Before” and will be seen in May in Open Road’s “Snowden,” directed by Oliver Stone. He’s developing “Fraggle Rock” at New Regency and “In Sight” at Universal, »
- Dave McNary
Berlin: Ethan Hawke Starring in ‘24 Hours to Live’
5 February 2016 12:07 PM, PST
Chinese production-distribution outfit Fundamental Films and Thunder Road Pictures have tapped Ethan Hawke to star in their upcoming thriller “24 Hours to Live.”
Brian Smrz will direct from a Zachary Dean screenplay, based on an original script from Ron Mita & Jim McClain. “24 Hours to Live” follows a career assassin who is given a chance at redemption after his employer brings him back to life temporarily, just after being killed on the job.
Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road, Fundamental Films Chairman Mark Gao and International President Gregory Ouanhon are producing the film, with Fundamental fully financing. Fundamental Films’ Gary Glushon and Thunder Road’s Kent Kubena and Jonathan Fuhrman will executive produce.
Sierra/Affinity will handle international sales starting next week at the Berlin Film Festival.
Smrz has been a second unit Director on “X-Men: Apocalypse,” “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” “Iron Man 3,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “Live Free or Die Hard. »
- Dave McNary
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