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Max Greenfield in Talks to Star With Brie Larson in ‘Glass Castle’ (Exclusive)
20 minutes ago
After making audiences laugh for five seasons on “New Girl,” Max Greenfield is taking a big step forward in the dramatic field as he’s in talks to co-star with Brie Larson in Lionsgate’s adaptation of “The Glass Castle.”
Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts are also on board to star in the film from “Short Term 12” director Destin Daniel Cretton.
Lionsgate had no comment.
The pic is based on the Jeannette Walls memoir about a young girl who comes of age in a dysfunctional family of nonconformist nomads. Walls’ eccentric mother and alcoholic father would stir the the children’s imagination with hope as a distraction to their poverty.
Greenfield will play Jeannette’s loyal, but distant husband. He had a privileged upbringing, now living in Westchester and working in finance. He tries to understand and help Jeannette cope with the arrival of her parents.
Cretton and Andrew Lanham »
- Justin Kroll
Adam Devine to Star in New Line Comedy ‘Paternity Leave’
26 minutes ago
Adam Devine is attached to star in the New Line comedy “Paternity Leave” with “Final Girls” helmer Todd Strauss-Schulson set to direct.
The story follows three immature friends who team with their pregnant friend to plan a hoax that would get them receive three months paternity leave.
Devine first broke through on his Comedy Central series “Workaholics.” As of late, the actor has moved toward the film side, starring in the “Pitch Perfect” franchise as well as the upcoming Fox comedy “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,” which co-stars Zac Efron.
Devine recently received Cinemacon’s Comedy Stars of the Year Award with his “Mike and Dave” co-stars Efron and Anna Kendrick. Insiders tell Variety the studio felt it was time to let Devine carry his own picture.
Strauss-Schulson directed the cult horror film “The Final Girls,” starring Malin Akerman and Thomas Middleditch, and “A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. »
- Justin Kroll
Wme-img Lands $55 Million Investment From Fidelity
1 hour ago
Mutual fund giant Fidelity Management and Research Co. is making a $55 million investment in Wme-img, the Hollywood super-agency, following earlier investments by Silver Lake and Softbank.
The agency announced it would use the money from both Fidelity and SoftBank “to advance its global growth strategy through new investments, acquisitions and joint ventures.” SoftBank’s $250 million infusion was announced last month. Wme also unveiled Wednesday that it has entered a strategic partnership with Frieze, an arts media and events company based in London.
The agency depicted the latest moves as part of its continuing growth strategy, which included a dozen acquisitions in 2015 (The Wall Group, Professional Bull Riders and Miss Universe among them). In other moves, Wme formed join ventures last year, including one with ELeague, an electronic sports league that was created in conjunction with Turner.
The latest action come two years after Wme merged with sports, entertainment and marketing giant Img. »
- James Rainey
Adam Sandler, David Spade Fake Their Deaths in ‘The Do-Over’ Trailer
1 hour ago
Adam Sandler and David Spade fake their own deaths and assume new identities in the first Nsfw trailer for the new Netflix original movie “The Do-Over.”
In the teaser, Charlie (Spade), a bank manager down on his luck, reunites with Max (Sandler), an old high school friend, at their 25th high school reunion. While Max appears to be living the good life as an FBI agent, taking Charlie to clubs, on “sexcapades” and boat trips, things take an unexpected turn when Charlie awakens to find that Max faked their deaths and is not who he claimed to be.
The two end up vacationing at a beautiful location before getting involved in gunfights, high-speed chases and running down pedestrians on the roadside.
“The Do-Over” also stars Paula Patton, Kathryn Hahn, Michael Chiklis.
Directed by Steven Brill and written by Kevin Barnett and Chris Pappas, the comedy will premiere May 27 on Netflix. »
- Lamarco McClendon
Nicolas Winding Refn to Segue From ‘Neon Demon’ to ‘Les Italiens’ Cop Show
1 hour ago
Rome — Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, whose new film “The Neon Demon” will compete at the Cannes Film Festival, is set to segue as a showrunner on the high-profile Italian TV series “Les Italiens,” a noir about a squad of French/Italian policemen working in Paris’ famous Quai des Orfevres headquarters.
The eight/10-episode “Italiens” is being co-produced by Italy’s Lucisano Media Group with the “Drive” director’s own Space Rocket Nation shingle. Lucisano has confirmed plans for the ambitious skein to start shooting in Paris before year’s end, after Refn is done promoting “Demon.” They did so while announcing a deal to co-distribute the hotly anticipated pic with Milan-based Koch Media. “Demon,” which stars Elle Fanning and Keanu Reeves, is a chiller set in the Los Angeles fashion world where an aspiring model’s youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women.
Refn is »
- Nick Vivarelli
Are Hollywood Blockbusters Losing Their Punch at China’s Box Office?
2 hours ago
The second-week decline in the global box office of “Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice” was an unpleasant surprise for Warner Bros. But its vertiginous drop in China, the world’s second-biggest movie market, was even more brutal, and may mark a rude awakening for not only the Burbank studio but for Hollywood in the Middle Kingdom.
The dueling-superheroes movie appeared to have a lot going for it, including a Friday day-and-date release on half the screens in the nation. But after suffering an 85% drop on its second Friday — placing fourth behind a trio of Chinese movies and “Zootopia” — the film was unsentimentally dumped by China’s exhibitors. At $94.9 million after 19 days of release, it is certain to finish below the $100 million mark, cuming less than last year’s clunky “Terminator: Genisys” ($113 million).
In sorting through the debris to find out what went wrong, it’s easy to blame the film itself; after all, »
- Patrick Frater
Phedon Papamichael Eschews Visual Flash for Authenticity, Humanity
2 hours ago
Phedon papamichael might not have the name identification of such fellow directors of photography as Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki or Roger Deakins, but his status among his peers is no less elite. He has brought out the best in directors like Alexander Payne, James Mangold and Gore Verbinski. And he has demonstrated a mastery of several genres, from psychological thrillers to dramedies, from biopics to Westerns, from arthouse curios to mega-budget blockbusters.
If cinematographers like to think of themselves as chameleons, Papamichael prides himself on an oeuvre in which no two movies look alike.
“It’s not really applying a style, it’s really adjusting to the story,” says Variety’s latest Billion Dollar Cinematographer. “Not just that, it’s really saving all those decisions — (involving) the performances and locations and actors — until you have all the elements unfold in front of you the moment you’re about to do it. »
- Steve Chagollan
5 Lessons From the Cannes Film Festival Lineup
2 hours ago
Last week, Cannes announced its official selection, and while critics have only seen a couple of the films so far — including Pedro Almodovar’s Spain-released “Julieta” and Matt Ross’ Sundance-launched “Captain Fantastic” — the lineup reveals some intriguing trends in world cinema. Expect more fresh talent when the Directors’ Fortnight selection is announced April 19.
The French love Kristen Stewart: The “Twilight” star will appear in two films, alongside Jesse Eisenberg in Woody Allen’s opening-night “Café Society” and exploring the spooky side of Paris’ fashion world in “Personal Shopper.” Her last appearance in Cannes, playing Juliette Binoche’s personal assistant in “Clouds of Sils Maria,” earned Stewart a César award, making her the first American actress to win one.
They might be warming to Marion Cotillard: She may have an Oscar, but the French tend to look down their noses at Cotillard. That said, she’s been a Cannes »
- Peter Debruge
‘Three’s Company’ Movie in the Works at New Line
3 hours ago
New Line is in talks to pick up the movie rights to the sitcom “Three's Company,” and has hired the writing team of Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein.
Robert Cort, whose credits include “Runaway Bride,” is attached to produce.
ABC’s “Three’s Company” aired from 1977 to 1984 and starred John Ritter, Joyce De Witt and Suzanne Somers as roommates who pretended that Ritter’s character was gay in order to placate their hard-nosed landlord, played by Norman Fell. Somers left the series in the fifth season and was replaced by Jenilee Harrison and later by Priscilla Barnes.
The show was based on the British sitcom “Man About the House.” New Line is planning to set the movie in the 1970s.
Kohn and Silverstein have collaborated with New Line on “Valentine’s Day” and “How to Be Single.” They also wrote the script for the love story “The Vow,” starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams. »
- Dave McNary
Magnolia Buys Global Rights to ‘Peter and the Farm’ (Exclusive)
3 hours ago
Magnolia Pictures has acquired global rights to “Peter and the Farm,” a documentary about an organic farmer in Vermont.
The studio is planning a 2016 theatrical release. Tony Stone directs the film, which follows Peter Dunning, who has spent 37 years working the 187-acre Mile Hill Farm, slowly peeling back his jovial outer shell to reveal a man in the throes of a personal crisis. Dunning has had to endure over the course of four decades and dozens of harvests the departures of three wives and four children, leaving him isolated.
Magnolia previously collaborated with Stone on his film “Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America,” a look at a Viking expedition gone awry. He shot “Peter and the Farm,” as well as produced the picture.
“Tony has crafted a fascinating, moving character study with ‘Peter and the Farm,’ and has reaffirmed himself as a singularly talented filmmaker,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. »
- Brent Lang
Cannes Classics to Honor Frederick Wiseman and Raymond Depardo, Unveils 2016 Lineup
3 hours ago
Frederick Wiseman and Raymond Depardo will be honored, while “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist” director William Friedkin will give the annual Cinema Masterclass at the Cannes Film Festival.
Cannes Classics, the selection dedicated to heritage films, unveiled on Wednesday its 2016 lineup, which includes the world premiere preview of Bertrand Tavernier’s documentary about French cinema, “Voyage à travers le cinéma français.”
The program will screen Depardo’s “Faits Divers” (1983) and Wiseman’s “Hospital” (1969).
Most of the films will be released in theaters and on DVD/Blu-ray. The Cannes Classics program will be screened at Paris’ Les Fauvettes theater, the festival Cinema Rittrovato in Bologna and the Institut Lumière in Lyon.
Here’s the full lineup:
Documentaries About Cinema
• The Cinema Travelers by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya (2016, 1h36, India)
• The Family Whistle by Michele Russo (2016, 1h05, Italy)
• Cinema Novo by Eryk Rocha (2016, 1h30, Brazil)
• Midnight Returns: The Story of »
- Variety Staff
Tribeca Film Review: ‘Wolves’
4 hours ago
Sports dramas’ lack of spontaneous unpredictability has long been their weakest link, especially when compared with real-world athletics, and “Wolves” is no different, nearly undone by rusty cliches. Detailing the travails of a prep-school phenom as he strives to fulfill his own hard-court dreams while coping with his gambling-addict father, it’s a showcase for some fine acting and even finer basketball action, but neither are enough to cover for this story’s enervating formulaic construction. Still, a standout performance by Michael Shannon should help it recruit modest theatrical attention before drafting a bigger fan base on home formats.
A highlight-reel celeb at his Gotham high school, senior Anthony (newcomer Taylor John Smith) has been given the moniker “Saint” for his heavenly sharpshooting prowess. Nonetheless, as a practice scrimmage makes clear, he’s likely to back down from intimidating trash-talking and to shrink in big moments — a reticence that can »
- Nick Schager
Box Office: ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ No Match for ‘The Jungle Book’
5 hours ago
Not even a magic mirror could have predicted that Disney’s “The Jungle Book” would be this big a hit.
So forgive Universal if the studio thought it had lucked into the perfect strategy, unveiling “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” in the spring when it faced less competition from summer blockbusters. The only problem is that “The Jungle Book” is behaving like one of those universe-shaking popcorn season smashes. The live-action version of the Rudyard Kipling stories now has a very realistic shot of hitting $1 billion globally, and, buoyed by critical raves and strong word-of-mouth, may steamroll everything in its path.
Tracking suggests that “The Huntsman: Winter's War” will debut in the mid-$20 million range. It will have to fight for every dollar because “The Jungle Book” isn’t just drawing in young families, it’s appealing to older audiences, as well.
“I’m worried about ‘Huntsman’ under-performing,” said Shawn Robbins, »
- Brent Lang
‘The Magnificent Seven’: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt Want Revenge in First Trailer
5 hours ago
The titular outlaws are out for revenge in the first trailer for Antoine Fuqua’s “The Magnificent Seven” remake, which arrived online on Wednesday.
Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Byung-Hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Martin Sensmeier star as the seven men enlisted by the desperate town of Rose Creek to take down Peter Sarsgaard’s merciless killer. They soon find themselves fighting for more than just the money.
“I seek righteousness, but I’ll take revenge,” Haley Bennett’s character tells Washington’s bounty hunter Sam Chisolm after her husband is murdered.
“We’re decent people being driven from our homes, slaughtered in cold blood,” she tells Chisolm, who then assembles his band of honorable mustachioed gunslingers.
Pratt’s gambler Josh Farraday asks Chisolm if the job is difficult. “It’s impossible,” Chisolm responds.
The remake of the iconic 1960 Western toplined by Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen »
- Maane Khatchatourian
China Film Co. Restarts Share Sale Process (Report)
9 hours ago
China Film Co. expects to raise some $715 million (RMB4.6 billion) from a share sale later this year, according to a report in state-owned China Daily newspaper.
Cfc, part of the giant China Film Group, has made multiple previous attempts at an Ipo over more than a decade. But each time it has been thwarted either by stock market turbulence or by changes of strategy and approach.
It would most likely list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. And could do so later this year according to its underwriter Citic China Securities. Figures are taken from the latest version of Cfc’s prospectus which was issued last July shortly before a period of extreme stock market turbulence.
China Film Group has been restructured since the earlier attempts to list the company and it is not currently clear what exactly assets would be floated. Nor is it clear how much of the company »
- Patrick Frater
China Film Co. to Cooperate With Paramount
12 hours ago
China Film Co, part of the Chinese state-owned movie conglomerate China Film Group, says it is to cooperate with Paramount Pictures in production and distribution.
The revelation marks not only a growing level of exchange between Hollywood and China, but also growing Chinese connections with Paramount – at a time when Viacom is understood to be evaluating bids for a strategic stake in the film studio. Chinese companies including Wanda are believed to be among the front-runners.
Earlier in the week Alibaba Pictures Group announced that it was to make investments into and help with the Chinese marketing of two upcoming Paramount movies, the next “Star Trek” picture and the next in the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” franchise. Alibaba previously invested in Paramount’s on ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.”
Speaking at an event during the Beijing International Film Festival, Cfc chairman La Peikang, said that the company hopes to learn from »
- Patrick Frater
Lytro Camera Introduction Draws a Crowd at Nab Show — and Promises a Revolution
16 hours ago
When the booths are struck, the drones are packed away and the broadcast trucks drive away, the 2016 Nab Show is likely to be remembered for just a handful of things: the first working demo of next-generation television in the U.S.; Ang Lee’s showing of footage from “Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk”; and the first public introduction of the Lytro Cinema Camera.
Of the three, the Lytro system is the most obscure, but in the long run, possibly the most disruptive.
“It’s going to revolutionize not only the way we make films but the way we define photography,” said director Robert Stromberg, who put the camera through its paces as director of a short film shot entirely with the prototype. “It’s an amazing technology.”
A standing-room-only crowd packed into the largest meeting room at the Las Vegas Convention Center to watch the introduction — a far bigger crowd »
- David S. Cohen
Bruce Dern, Anthony Michael Hall to Star in ‘King Lear’ Adaptation (Exclusive)
17 hours ago
Bruce Dern, Anthony Michael Hall and Sean Astin are starring in “The Lears,” a comic adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” Variety has learned.
It’s the first in-house production for distributor NeoClassics Films and has started production in Malibu and other parts of Los Angeles. Aly Michalka, Victoria Smurfit and Nic Bishop are also starring.
Carl Bessai is directing from his own script. NeoClassics Films’ CEO Irwin Olian is producing in association with Bessai’s Raven West Films Ltd. NeoClassics will also serve as the film’s international sales agent.
“Carl’s script is a smart, modern day derivative of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear,'” said Olian. “In the classic play, the old King wanted each of his three daughters to prove their love so that he could determine who was most worthy of his kingdom. In our modern spin, iconic architect Davenport Lear has created a family »
- Dave McNary
Studio 8 Acquires Daily Beast Article ‘Osama’s 11,’ George Mastras to Script
17 hours ago
Jeff Robinov’s Studio 8 has acquired the rights to the Daily Beast article “Osama’s 11” and set “Breaking Bad” scribe George Mastras to pen the script.
Written by Geoff Manaugh, the article revolves around the true story of a bank robber who, after being arrested for several bank robberies in Los Angeles, was recruited by the U.S. government to plan bank heists against Al Qaeda.
Several studios were in the mix before Studio 8 made the winning bid, which sources say was in the high six figures.
Lloyd Braun and Andrew Mittman will produce through Whalerock Industries along with Dan Halsted and Nate Miller at Manage-ment. Jon Silk brought the project in and will oversee production.
The property marks another big purchase for Robinov’s relatively new company which is currently in post-production on Albert Hughes adventure pic “The Solutrean.” The studio’s pipeline is beginning to fill »
- Justin Kroll
Watch the First Trailer for Emily Blunt’s ‘The Girl on the Train’
17 hours ago
Updated: The first trailer for “The Girl on the Train” starring Emily Blunt arrived online on Tuesday, but was taken down by Universal Pictures and released officially on Wednesday.
The trailer, which first debuted at CinemaCon earlier this month, shows Blunt’s Rachel as she becomes swept up in a mystery involving her ex-husband (Justin Theroux)’s missing nanny.
Rachel is lonely, alcoholic divorcée, whose train passed her old home — where her ex-husband and his new wife live — every day. She begins to spy on a couple a few houses down, played by Luke Evans and Haley Bennett. Once a mysterious disappearance occurs, Rachel gets more and more involved with their lives.
The trailer was backed by a soundtrack of Kanye West’s “Heartless.” Laura Prepon, Rebecca Ferguson, Edgar Ramirez, Allison Janney and Lisa Kudrow also star.
“The Girl on the Train,” adapted from Paula Hawkins’ best-seller and directed by Tate Taylor, »
- Variety Staff
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