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New York Comic Con Panel Celebrates Wonder Woman’s 75th Anniversary
42 minutes ago
DC Comics celebrated the 75th anniversary of Wonder Woman at New York Comic Con Oct. 7, beginning the day with the unveiling of the new Wonder Woman postage stamp and finishing it with a panel of comics creators who are currently working on the character.
The panel saw the announcement of a new crossover between “Wonder Woman ’77,” a book that continues the adventures of the Wonder Woman depicted in the TV series starring Lynda Carter, and another book with ties to classic TV, “Batman ’66.” “Wonder Woman ’77” writer Marc Andreyko and cover artist Cat Staggs were on hand for the announcement.
Also there was Greg Rucka, the current writer of the character’s flagship series, who said he believes he’s taken the reins of the book at a crucial time in the character’s existence, just as the publicity machine for the upcoming Warner Bros. film kicks into high gear.
“Everybody »
- Variety Staff
Busan: Chinese Video Platform iQIYI Selling ‘10,000 Miles,’ ‘Love’
46 minutes ago
Chinese online video firm iQIYI is launching international rights sales for “10,000 Miles” and “Unexpected Love” at Busan’s Asian Film Market.
One of China’s biggest online streaming platforms, iQIYI launched its international rights sales business at this year’s Cannes film market. Busan is the company’s Asian sales debut.
“Since the first quarter of 2016, iQIYI has surpassed other competitors and topped the Chinese market, with more than 20 million pay subscribers nationwide,” said Bryce Tsao, who is handling the company’s international sales of film contents. “Our content varies from our self-produced content—such as web series, web films and variety shows—to the Mandarin-language films that we acquire for international rights or as a sales agent.”
Directed by Simon Hung (“Battle for SkyArk”), “10,000 Miles” is a romantic drama with Taiwan’s pop idol Jay Chou involved as executive producer. Starring Darren Wang (“Our Times”) and Megan Lai (“You »
- Sonia Kil
Mike Mills Digs Within Once More With ‘20th Century Women’
56 minutes ago
If “Beginners” was a love letter from Mike Mills to his father, “20th Century Women” is a love letter to his mother. So the writer/director said at a recent Los Angeles screening of the film, which premieres at the New York Film Festival Saturday night.
“Doing ‘Beginners’ and working from my memories and real people, I just loved it and it was so meaningful to me and it seemed to catch on with an audience,” Mills said of his 2011 film, which won a supporting actor Oscar for Christopher Plummer. Plummer starred as a man who, like Mills’ father, came out as gay very late in life.
“You might get the impression from these two films that I know my parents so well and we’re so close, but that’s not really the case,” Mills continued. “[My dad] wasn’t really present in our house. Like, he didn’t know where »
- Kristopher Tapley
Busan: ‘Teacher’ Provides Lesson, Sells Widely for LevelK (Exclusive)
1 hour ago
Providing the lesson that quality drama can still be a winning format, East European picture “The Teacher” has become a sales success for LevelK.
Since the film’s debut at the Karlovy Vary festival in July, Denmark-based LevelK has signed up distributors in some 50 territories.
Directed by Jan Hrebek, the film had its Asian premiere in the Busan Film Festival this week almost simultaneously with its U.S. debut at the Hamptons. Later this month it will travel to the Tokyo Iff.
Buyers have included: Sinema TV (for Turkey,) Palace Films (Australia and New Zealand,) Bodega Films (France and Switzerland,) Kino Pasaka (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,) Four Corners/September Film (The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg,) Rosebud 21 (Greece) Lev Films (Israel,) Satine Films (Italy) Aurora Films (Poland,) Karma Films (Spain,) Fidalgo (Norway,) Catchplay (Taiwan,) Encore Inflight (Hong Kong,) and Slovenia Rtv (Slovenia.)
“The Teacher” is based on the autobiographical experiences of »
- Patrick Frater
AnnaSophia Robb to Star in Supernatural Drama ‘Down a Dark Hall’ From Stephenie Meyer
1 hour ago
AnnaSophia Robb will star in the supernatural drama “Down a Dark Hall” for Lionsgate, which has been in development for two years.
Rodrigo Cortes is directing “Down a Dark Hall,” which also stars Isabelle Fuhrman. The film started shooting in Barcelona.
Lionsgate acquired rights to the project in 2014 with “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer and “Twilight” movie franchise producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen on broad to produce. Adrian Guerra of Nostromo Pictures is also producing.
The project is based on the 1974 novel by Lois Duncan. Meyer and Meghan Hibbett will produce via their Fickle Fish Films along with Godfrey and Bowen through their Temple Hill Entertainment banner. Meyer optioned the book in 2013.
The story follows the newest student at a boarding school who confronts the darkly seductive powers of the headmistress and comes face to face with the supernatural abilities that could make her all-powerful or destroy her.
Fickle Fish produced “The Host, »
- Dave McNary
Tom Hanks-Emma Watson Thriller ‘The Circle’ Gets Release Date
1 hour ago
EuropaCorp has set an April 28 release date for the thriller “The Circle,” starring Tom Hanks, Emma Watson and John Boyega.
Variety reported in February that EuropaCorp had bought domestic rights to the project, based on the international best-seller by Dave Eggers.
Hanks plays the founder of the world’s largest tech and social media company. He encourages Watson’s character, who’s rising through the company ranks, to live her life with complete transparency — but no one is really safe when everyone is watching. The novel turns into a contemporary thriller about the perils of life in a digital age where personal data is collected, sifted and monetized and used for surveillance, rendering privacy obsolete.
Watson replaced Alicia Vikander in the role last year.
The film was written and directed by James Ponsoldt, whose credits include “The End of The Tour” and “The Spectacular Now. Producers are Gary Goetzman and Hanks for Playtone, »
- Dave McNary
Ron Livingston Joins Jason Reitman’s ‘Tully’ (Exclusive)
1 hour ago
Ron Livingston has joined Charlize Theron and Mackenzie Davis in Jason Reitman’s next pic “Tully.”
Diablo Cody, who has previously worked with Reitman on three other features, will pen the script.
Pic is being produced by Aaron L. Gilbert; Reitman and Helen Estabrook through their Right of Way Productions, Cody, Mason Novick, Theron, A.J. Dix and Beth Kono through Denver & Delilah Productions; in association with Creative Wealth Media Finance. Creative Media Finance’s Jason Cloth will exec produce.
Livingston plays Drew Moreau, Theron’s character’s husband and father to their three kids. When Drew gets busy with work, his brother-in-law convinces Marlo (Theron) to hire a night nanny, which immediately changes the family dynamic.
Filming is currently under way in Vancouver.
Livingston can be seen next in Oren Uziel’s “Shimmer Lake”, which was recently acquired by Netflix and also stars Rainn Wilson and Benjamin Walker. He is »
- Justin Kroll
Busan: Festival Honors 1970’s Genre Master Lee Doo-yong
1 hour ago
Korean Cinema Retrospective, the Busan Film Festival’s signature program that spotlights classic Korean filmmakers, gave belated recognition to genre film master Lee Doo-yong.
Best known for his Taekwondo action films and erotic satire comedy series “Mulberry,” Lee rose to fame in South Korea in mid-1970’s. Along with Im Kwon-taek, Lee was one of the very few Korean filmmakers in the 1980’s who were known internationally—he went to Venice with “The Hut” and to Cannes with “Spinning Tales of Cruelty Towards Woman.”
Though his name has largely been forgotten by the new generation filmmaking field in recent years, some of Korea’s prominent filmmakers including Park Chan-wook (“The Handmaiden”), Ryoo Seung-wan (“Veteran”) and Oh Seung-uk (“The Shameless”) have paid attention to Lee’s films and praised his acute editing skills and masculine action sequences.
Invited to speak on the stage at the Korean Cinema Retrospective Night party, the »
- Sonia Kil
Forest Whitaker Joins Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’ (Exclusive)
2 hours ago
Forest Whitaker has joined the cast of Marvel’s “Black Panther,” starring Chadwick Boseman.
Daniel Kaluuya and Florence Kasumba have also joined the cast.
The film, directed by “Creed” helmer Ryan Coogler, also stars Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, and Danai Gurira. Boseman will play T’Challa, the prince of the African nation of Wakanda, who must take over the throne after his father’s murder. Marvel unveiled the character in “Captain America: Civil War” in May before the standalone film bows on Feb. 16, 2018.
Whitaker will play the role of Zuri, an elder stateman in Wakanda. Kasumba will reprise her “Captain America: Civil War” role as Ayo, a member of the Dora Milaje. Kaluuya will play T’Challa confidant W’Kabi
Joe Robert Cole is co-penning the script with Coogler. Kevin Feige is producing the movie.
Whitaker has a busy fall schedule ahead of him with Paramount’s “Arrival, »
- Justin Kroll
Film Review: ‘The Great Gilly Hopkins’
3 hours ago
Gilly Hopkins is 12 years old. Canadian actress Sophie Nélisse is not (she’s four years older), but in many ways, that’s ultimately to the advantage of director Stephen Herek’s respectful adaptation of the 1979 National Book Award-winning kid-lit classic “The Great Gilly Hopkins,” in which a kid who’s been passed from foster home to foster home reluctantly warms to the evangelical old “hippo” (Kathy Bates) who smothers her with unconditional love.
By casting an actress a bit older than Gilly was on the page, Herek factors in the way naturally aspirational younger moviegoers tend to prefer identifying with characters a bit older than themselves (the way no 17-year-old would be caught dead reading Seventeen magazine, which targets kids in the 12-16 range). So, on one hand, Nélisse is the right choice to help to capture audiences who might benefit most from the movie’s message — in a phrase, »
- Peter Debruge
‘Justice League’ New Footage Teased in Behind-the-Scenes Video From Zack Snyder
4 hours ago
The “Justice League” cast jokes around, punches baddies, and occasionally acts in a new, behind-the-scenes video tweeted by director Zack Snyder on Friday morning.
Last day filming in the UK. It has been an amazing shoot. Big thanks to everyone involved! #JusticeLeague pic.twitter.com/TEjEdlo81u
— Zack Snyder (@ZackSnyder) October 7, 2016
Snyder also tweeted “Last day filming in the U.K. It has been an amazing shoot. Big thanks to everyone involved,” along with the footage.
We get a glimpse in the video’s opening seconds of the first scene from the film’s Comic Con trailer, as Snyder and his crew film Ben Affleck’s Batman confronting Jason Momoa’s Aquaman. Momoa later violently slams Affleck against a wall, before showing his lighter side as he drops his trident while trying a fancy move and then steals Wonder Woman’s sword while she’s not looking.
We also see the whole superhero team, »
- Will Thorne
Box Office: ‘Girl on the Train’ on Track for $27M Opening; ‘Birth’ In Single Digits
5 hours ago
Emily Blunt’s “The Girl on the Train” is heading for a $27 million weekend while Nate Parker’s controversial “The Birth of a Nation” should finish around $8 million, early estimates showed Friday.
“The Girl on the Train” is heading for a Friday total in the $9 million to $10 million range at 3,144 sites while “Birth of a Nation” should rack up about $3 million on its opening day for Fox Searchlight — both in line with recent forecasts. Lionsgate/CBS’s comedy “Middle Schoool: The Worst Years of My Life” will also open in the $8 million range at 2,822 locations.
“The Birth of a Nation” is opening at 2,107 screens. Fox Searchlight is required under the terms of its deal with the filmmakers — signed at Sundance after it won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition — to open the film at a minimum of 1,500 screens.
Moviegoing will be held down this weekend in Florida, »
- Dave McNary
Matt Damon’s ‘Jason Bourne’ Shoots to $400 Million at Box Office
5 hours ago
The Matt Damon actioner “Jason Bourne” crossed the $400 million milestone at the worldwide box office on Friday.
The film has grossed an estimated $161.8 million in North America and $238.6 million internationally to date. It’s the highest-grossing “Bourne” film of the series abroad and the second-highest-grossing worldwide.
The movie launched in its final international market, Japan, on Friday. “Jason Bourne” scored No. 1 openings in 49 markets and became the highest-f “Bourne” franchise film in 51 territories
The highest-earning markets are: China ($66.3 million), U.K. ($30.3 million), South Korea ($19.1 million), Australia ($16.7 million), and France ($11.6 million).
Paul Greengrass, the director of “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum,” helmed “Jason Bourne.” Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, and Riz Ahmed also star while Julia Stiles reprised her role in the series.
Frank Marshall produced again, alongside Damon, Greengrass, Gregory Goodman, Ben Smith, and Jeffrey Weiner for Captivate Entertainment. The pic was written by Greengrass and »
- Dave McNary
New ‘Underworld: Blood Wars’ Trailer Explains Selene’s Transformation
5 hours ago
When Screen Gems released it’s first trailer for “Underworld: Blood Wars,” it featured a different look for Selene, the franchise heroine played by Kate Beckinsale.
A just released second trailer drops some more hints about her physical transformation, which includes her jet black hair changing to white blonde highlights.
The fifth film in the horror-action series finds the vampires and Lycans (werewolves) still at war (hence the title), but the blood of Selene and her daughter may hold the key to victory.
There are two protagonists: a new Lycan leader named Marius (Tobias Menzies) and an ambitious, power-thirsty vampire named Semira (Lara Pulver).
“If you want to win this war, you will need to go further than even a warrior of your renown has ever ventured before,” an adviser tells Selene. To combat the growing threat, Selene and her ally David (Theo James) travel north, where Selene apparently enters »
- Lawrence Yee
Catalan Genre, Telefonica’s Movistar Plus Boost 2016 Sitges Festival
6 hours ago
Barcelona — Featuring a scaled-up presence of giant Spanish telco Telefonica, a second edition of its mini-mart Sitges Pitchbox and its traditional welter of genre, thriller and fantasy fair, the 49th Sitges Festival, one of the world’s most prominent genre meets, kicks off today with the European premiere of Miguel Ángel Vivas’ “Inside.
Sold by Embankment Films, and the latest movie from the producer of “Buried,” Adrián Guerra at Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, Vivas, the director of “Kidnapped,” and Jaume Balaguero, the writer-director of “[Rec],” who co-wrote the screenplay, “Inside” weighs in as much more of a mainstream proposition than Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s grand-guignol French original, recasting it as less of a blood-fest more of a Hitchcockian thriller, Guerra has said. Rachel Nichols and Laura Harring star.
Starring Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy and María Valverde, Juan Carlos Medina’ssecond feature “The Limehouse Golem” will screen as the festival’s closing ceremony. »
- Emilio Mayorga
Jennifer Hudson, Kelvin Harrison to Star in Drama ‘Monster’
6 hours ago
Kelvin Harrison, Jr. (“The Birth of a Nation”) and Jennifer Hudson are starring in the independent drama “Monster,” which is starting production this week in New York City.
Bron Studios has joined forces with Tonik Productions and Get Lifted Film Co. to co-produce and finance. The cast includes Jennifer Ehle, A$AP Rocky, Nas, Tim Blake Nelson, John David Washington and Jeffrey Wright.
The film is produced in association with Charlevoix, Red Crown and Creative Wealth Media. “Monster” marks the feature debut of commercial-music video director Anthony Mandler, directing from a script by Colen C. Wiley and Janece Shaffer, based on the novel by Walter Dean Myers.
Harrison will portray 17-year-old honors student and aspiring filmmaker Steve Harmon, charged with felony murder for a crime he says he did not commit. The film follows his journey from a smart, likeable young man from Harlem attending an elite high school through »
- Dave McNary
‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’ Star Bruce Campbell Looks Back at First Film, Talks Season 2
7 hours ago
Bruce Campbell reprises his most famous role in Starz series “Ash vs. Evil Dead,” which begins its second season this month. He shares exec producer credit on the series with Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, who first collaborated on the 1983 film “The Evil Dead.” The trio started with a Super 8 short film, “Within the Woods,” which was designed to lure investors for a big-screen version. As Campbell recently told Variety, “We said, ‘Hey, if you like this, we can do it bigger, better, longer! And it’ll be in 16 millimeter!’ ” They made the film for $350,000, and the Feb. 9, 1983, review marked Campbell’s first mention in these pages. Though the review was mostly positive, the actor recently said, “Here is my favorite quote ever: ‘Dynamic sound is overbearing.’ We worked a lot on the sound, actually. We wanted it to be dynamic.”
What was the best part of making the film? »
- Laura Prudom
Turkish Box Office Strong Despite Summer’s Political Turmoil
7 hours ago
Did terrorist bombings and an aborted coup affect box office in Turkey? Actually, those events have not had as strong an impact as one might think, especially not on Hollywood titles.
After taking a more than 50% dip on the weekend of the July 15 coup attempt, moviegoing resumed rather rapidly.
“Box office is back to normal,” says Imre Tezel, who heads arthouse distribution network Another Cinema.
“People are still going to the movies,” agrees Turkish fest programmer and film promoter Ahmet Boyacioglu, who notes that “Suicide Squad” and “Ice Age: Collision Course” are both well over the country’s benchmark of 1 million admissions. Most of the big Turkish blockbusters will instead be opening in the coming months. Expectations are high for the local pics in a market where Turkish films made up 58% of the total box office in 2015, the top local market share in Europe.
Arthouse movies have been suffering shrinking »
- Nick Vivarelli
Festival Lumiere Digs Deep Into Film History
7 hours ago
One festival might be enough for most, but after wrapping up Cannes in late May, artistic director Thierry Frémaux goes straight to work on his other passion project, the Festival Lumière, organized under the aegis of the Institut Lumiere, which this year takes place Oct. 8-16.
Situated in Lyon, where the Lumière brothers shot their pioneering 1896 short “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat,” the festival acts as a kind of extended version of the Cannes Classics sidebar, shining a spotlight on films from the recent and distant past, with a steady stream of current stars and filmmakers to front the behind-the-scenes work of archivists and historians.
Frémaux’s famous hospitality puts him in good standing here. Though only in its eighth edition, the Festival Lumière has already presented its main award, Le Prix Lumière, to a litany of star names, starting with Clint Eastwood in 2009 and followed by Milos Forman, »
- Damon Wise
Wonder Woman Creator Biopic Starring Luke Evans, Bella Heathcote in Production
8 hours ago
Luke Evans, Bella Heathcote and Rebecca Hall are starring in a biopic about the creator of Wonder Woman “Professor Marston and The Wonder Woman,” which has started production.
Topple Productions and Boxspring Entertainment are the production companies and Angela Robinson is directing from her own script. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has acquired worldwide rights on the project.
The story focuses on Harvard psychologist Dr. William Moulton Marston, the inventor of the lie detector and creator of Wonder Woman, who defends his feminist superhero against charges of “sexual perversity.” Marston’s inspiration for Wonder Woman was his wife Elizabeth Marston and their lover Olive Byrne, two empowered women in the field of psychology.
Robinson has acted as consulting producer on “How To Get Away With Murder” as well as executive producing the final season of “True Blood.”
Amy Redford, Andrea Sperling and Terry Leonard are producing. “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway is »
- Dave McNary
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