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Mel Gibson Wins Director Award for ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ From Capri Festival
17 minutes ago
Mel Gibson has been awarded the Director of the Year honor for World War II drama “Hacksaw Ridge” at the 21st edition of the Capri Hollywood International Film Festival.
Bill Mechanic, one of the film’s producers, accepted the award on Gibson’s behalf. Mechanic has already been honored with the festival’s Producer of the Year award for the movie.
“Hacksaw Ridge” tells the story of Desmond Doss, played by Andrew Garfield, who was a conscientious objector for religious reasons and saved 75 lives in the Battle of Okinawa without firing a single shot. Doss became the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
“Hacksaw Ridge” premiered at the Venice Film Festival and has grossed $64 million domestically and $40 million internationally since opening in November.
“It took me 15 years to make this movie,” Mechanic said on receiving the award at the Anacapri Cinema Paradiso stage. “Mel will »
- Dave McNary
Ryan Gosling, Damien Chazelle to Reteam on Neil Armstrong Biopic
35 minutes ago
Oscar-nominated director Damien Chazelle and his “La La Land” star Ryan Gosling are officially set to reteam on Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong biopic “First Man” for Universal Pictures.
Chazelle is directing a script by Oscar-winning “Spotlight” scribe Josh Singer. Previously reports said that Gosling was the choice for the role but at the time a script was still being written and no formal offer had been delivered.
Sources now tell Variety that a deal is closed for Gosling to star and it is likely that the film will shoot in early 2017.
Related
‘La La Land’: Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone on Dancing Through Their Third Onscreen Romance
The pic is based on James Hansen’s biography “First Man: A Life Of Neil A. Armstrong” and tells the story of Nasa’s mission to land a man on the moon, focusing on Neil Armstrong and the years 1961-1969. A visceral, »
- Justin Kroll
There Could Be No ‘Artist,’ No ‘La La Land’ Without Debbie Reynolds
44 minutes ago
In “Singin’ in the Rain,” Debbie Reynolds plays a reluctant ingénue, drawn into “the pictures” after Gene Kelly, playing a silent-era matinee idol trying to escape a mob of autograph-seeking kids, hops into her open-top convertible. It wasn’t Reynolds’ first movie, but it was by far her biggest break — much as “Star Wars” was for her daughter, Carrie Fisher, when she was 19 — and it provided America with a charmed backstory for her subsequent stardom.
Today, it’s plain to see that “Singin’ in the Rain” is one of the great screen musicals of all time (many believe the best), but it certainly wasn’t embraced as such in 1952. Heck, it wasn’t even made in that spirit, coming through the MGM pipeline like so much sausage, in much the way that “Casablanca” was a miracle of a steady backlot production model at Warner Bros. — though in that film’s case, »
- Peter Debruge
Playback: Kevin Costner on ‘Hidden Figures,’ ‘Dances’ Memories and More
46 minutes ago
Welcome to “Playback,” a Variety podcast.
In this week’s episode, the last of 2016, Jenelle Riley and I are tapped out. So we toss it out to the listeners for a few questions. How will the guilds change the conversation this Oscar season? What Golden Globe surprises are lurking around the corner? Is it time for an ensemble category at the Oscars, and in a year full of so many great cast accomplishments, what is truly the best of them?
A little bit later (16:40) I’m talking to the star of one of those ensembles, the great Kevin Costner. He plays a composite character in the film, the head of a group tasked with the problem-solving of putting astronauts into space. That meant there wasn’t a single person he could talk to and mold his performance around, but that simply allowed him and director Theodore Melfi to make »
- Kristopher Tapley
‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ Tops Fandango List of Most Anticipated 2017 Movies
2 hours ago
Disney-Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars Episode VIII” is the most anticipated 2017 movie, according to a fan survey conducted by Fandango.
The film will open on Dec. 15, almost a year after the studio’s spinoff, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” which has topped $615 million worldwide in its first two weeks of release.
Disney has the top three titles in the survey, conducted during the week of Dec. 19, with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” in second, followed by its live-action “Beauty and the Beast,” starring Emma Watson.
“The new year promises a lot of excitement at the multiplex with a much-heralded return of beloved characters and stories highlighting the year’s top three most anticipated movies, ‘Episode VIII,’ ‘Guardians 2,’ and the live-action ‘Beauty and the Beast,’” says Fandango Managing Editor Erik Davis. »
- Dave McNary
‘Tunnel,’ ‘Distinguished Citizen,’ ‘4th Company’ Compete for Palm Spring’s Cine Latino Award
4 hours ago
“At the End of the Tunnel,” “The Distinguished Citizen” and “The 4th Company” figure among 26 features from Latin America, Spain and Portugal competing for the Palm Spring Festival’s 2017 Cine Latino Award.
Also boasting “Everybody Loves Somebody,” from Mexico’s Catalina Aguilar Mastretta, a Palm Springs world premiere, the Festival’s lineup of movies from the region has consolidated as a telling testimony to the major highlights and trends in Latin American cinema over the last year while also anticipating titles which could have a major impact on awards, sales or other festival play in the year to come. Few Ibero-American festival lineups are as inclusive, or sensitive to new talent. some not even fully recognised as yet in Latin America itself.
Directed by Rodrigo Grande, and produced by Spain’s Tornasol Films and Argentina’s Haddock and Telefe, the Academy Award winning producers of “The Secret of Their Eyes, »
- John Hopewell
Pop Culture Successes Point to Warming Relations Between China and Japan
10 hours ago
Gender-swapping anime “Your Name” this month became the highest grossing Japanese film of all time in China. But its significance may go beyond mere box office records.
China, which regards itself as one of the world’s oldest civilizations, but one that has been repressed by outsiders, has often made culture a battlefield. It has tussled with its neighbors and rewritten history textbooks. In other instances, soft power skirmishes may be seen as substitutes for hot war. So China’s recent embrace of Japanese movies may be more complicated than audiences falling for the cuteness purveyed by Japan’s cartoon factories.
The recent warming towards Japan comes at a time when China has politically turned its shoulder against South Korea. China and Korea fell out over the 2016 Korean decision to deploy U.S.-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles, which China says can be used to spy on its territory. »
- Vivienne Chow
How Debbie Reynolds Perfectly Voiced a Spider in Heartbreaking ‘Charlotte’s Web’
11 hours ago
While Debbie Reynolds was best known as a Hollywood singing and dancing icon — from “Singin’ in the Rain” to “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” — she also made a strong impression in children’s programming. She voiced a grandmother in Nickelodeon’s “Rugrats,” and took on similar roles in Disney Channel’s “Kim Possible” and “Halloweentown.” But to me, nothing compares to her aching and wistful performance as the star of Hanna-Barbera’s 1973 animated “Charlotte's Web.”
The movie, the first adaptation of E.B. White’s beloved children’s novel, was met with lukewarm ticket sales, but received a renaissance in the ’90s thanks to its hugely popular VHS edition.
I must have been in the first grade when I got to know Reynolds — before I’d ever heard about her. As interpreted by Reynolds, Charlotte is everything the book character is and more: wise, maternal, sassy, didactic and endlessly protective of Wilbur the pig. »
- Ramin Setoodeh
Watch: Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher’s Amazing ‘Oprah’ Interview From 2011
14 hours ago
Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher, who both died this week, rose to some of the highest peaks in Hollywood during their fabled movie careers. But life wasn’t always glamorous for this mother-daughter duo. In fact, both Reynolds and Fisher became almost as famous for their off-screen challenges as for their onscreen triumphs: Debbie’s relationships with men, Carrie’s drug abuse and mental health issues, the Elizabeth Taylor scandal.
In this interview in which they appeared together on “Oprah” in 2011, Reynolds and Fisher show off their razor-sharp wit and humor in recalling the darker days and show why, as a family, they have been so resilient.
In the 40-plus minute footage, the duo also perform a medley of “You Made Me Love You” and “Happy Days Are Here Again” to the delight of the audience.
Reynolds, 84, died suddenly on Wednesday only one day after her daughter, 60, died of heart failure. »
- Variety Staff
Stars Pay Tribute to Debbie Reynolds, Hollywood Icon and Carrie Fisher’s Mom
16 hours ago
There’s been an outpouring of grief on the web as celebrities pay tribute to Debbie Reynolds, Hollywood icon and mother of Carrie Fisher. Reynolds died Wednesday afternoon, one day after her daughter passed away at the age of 60. She was 84.
A talented singer and actress, Reynolds appeared in many movies and stage productions spanning decades. She is survived by a son Todd and her granddaughter Billie.
Younger audiences will remember Reynolds as Grace Adler’s showbiz mom from “Will & Grace.”
Close friend Carol Channing wrote: “She was beautiful and generous. It seems like only yesterday she was having lunch here at the house and we were discussing
the possibility of working together in a new show. I have such fond memories of appearing with her here at the McCallum Theater in Palm Springs. So many laughs. My prayers go out to the family. She will be missed.”
Added Reynolds »
- Lawrence Yee
Debbie Reynolds, ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ Star and Carrie Fisher’s Mother, Dies at 84
16 hours ago
Debbie Reynolds, the Oscar-nominated singer-actress who was the mother of late actress Carrie Fisher, has died at Cedars-Sinai hospital. She was 84.
“She wanted to be with Carrie,” her son Todd Fisher told Variety.
She was taken to the hospital from Carrie Fisher’s Beverly Hills house Wednesday after suffering a stroke, the day after her daughter Carrie Fisher died.
The vivacious blonde, who had a close but sometimes tempestuous relationship with her daughter, was one of MGM’s principal stars of the 1950s and ’60s in such films as the 1952 classic “Singin' in the Rain” and 1964’s “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” for which she received an Oscar nomination as best actress.
Reynolds received the SAG lifetime achievement award in January 2015; in August of that year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences voted to present the actress with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Nov. 14 Governors Awards, but she »
- Carmel Dagan
‘La La Land,’ ‘BFG,’ ‘Hidden Figures’ and More Tune Up Original Score Oscar Race
18 hours ago
It wouldn’t be an Oscar season without a scandal of sorts from the Academy’s music branch. We got one this year: Johann Johannsson’s “Arrival” score was disqualified after it was decided the use of pre-existing music (namely Max Richter’s “On the Nature of Daylight”) diluted the impact of his original compositions, which are quite progressive in the realm of film music.
Bummer. But…typical.
At present, the presumed frontrunner in the field is Justin Hurwitz, whose lively “La La Land” music only really had one hurdle to clear: the mercurial nature of the branch. It might have easily been decided that the abundance of songs overwhelmed the interstitial scoring, but happily, that didn’t happen. Left to the Academy to decide, Hurwitz may well be primed for a pair of Oscars, both here and in the original song category.
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Oscar Predictions: Best Original Score
A »
- Kristopher Tapley
Carrie Fisher Roasts George Lucas at 2005 AFI Tribute (Watch)
18 hours ago
As fans pay tribute to the late Carrie Fisher, many videos from her past are resurfacing. One such video is from 2005’s AFI Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony, which honored “Star Wars” creator George Lucas.
In the four-minute clip, Fisher takes the stage to roast the filmmaker, highlighting her signature dry humor and wit as she pokes fun at Lucas.
“George Lucas ruined my life and I mean that in the nicest possible way,” Fisher began. “George is a sadist — but like any abused child wearing a metal bikini, chained to a giant slug about to die, I keep coming back for more.”
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Joke after joke Fisher delighted the audience, which included Steven Spielberg, John Williams, Warren Beatty, and more.
Towards the end of the speech, Fisher lightened up to call Lucas a “once in a generation” talent, before making »
- Arya Roshanian
Carrie Fisher Could Still Receive an Official Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
20 hours ago
Since Carrie Fisher died on Tuesday, the grieving process for those left behind has taken different forms — sharing photos, writing tributes and posting “Star Wars” quotes among the most popular — and, for some, the Hollywood tradition of visiting the Walk of Fame to commemorate the deceased with flowers and other mementos. Only, for Fisher, the star doesn’t exist.
The realization that Fisher doesn’t have a place on the Walk of Fame prompted fans to create a makeshift one on an untapped plot at the corner of Orange Drive and Hollywood Blvd. They inscribed her name and quoted, “May the force be with you. Always hope,” and laid flowers, candles and cinnamon rolls (in honor of Princess Leia’s signature hair style) on the sidewalk. George Michael got a similar treatment. He also died recently, on Christmas Day, and does not have a star. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce »
- Seth Kelley
Debbie Reynolds Reportedly Hospitalized the Day After Carrie Fisher’s Death
20 hours ago
Debbie Reynolds was reportedly rushed to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon, one day after the death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher, according to TMZ.
The L.A. Fire Department confirmed to Variety that it received a call for a medical emergency in the 1700 block of Coldwater Canyon Drive at 1:02 p.m. An adult female patient was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in fair-to-serious condition, said spokeswoman Margaret Stewart, who declined to confirm the identity of the patient due to federal privacy law. She may have suffered a stroke, reports TMZ.
This news comes after Fisher died Tuesday morning from what was described as a massive heart attack on Friday while on a flight from London to Los Angeles.
Reynolds posted a short message regarding her daughter online on Tuesday. “Thank you to everyone who has embraced the gifts and talents of my beloved and amazing daughter. I am grateful »
- Seth Kelley
‘Rogue One,’ ‘Sing’ Push Domestic Box Office to Yearly Record
20 hours ago
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Sing” pushed the 2016 North American box office to a yearly record — with four days still left on the calendar.
The domestic box office crossed the $11 billion milestone on Dec. 26 and will surpass the record $11.14 billion mark from 2015 to $11.17 billlion on Wednesday, according to industry tracker comScore.com.
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The final box office for 2016 revenue is expected to reached $11.3 billion at the close of 2016, comScore projected.
The one-two punch of Disney-Lucasfilm’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and Illumination-Universal’s animated comedy “Sing” provided the final push to beat the record.
The eighth Star Wars movie grossed $22.5 million domestically at 4,157 locations on Tuesday, giving it $340.6 million in its first 12 days. It should become the sixth highest domestic grosser of 2016 on Wednesday, surpassing the $341.8 million taken in by “Zootopia.”
“Sing” came in with $17.6 million on its seventh day in »
- Dave McNary
George S. Irving, Tony Winner and Voice of Heat Miser, Dies at 94
22 hours ago
George S. Irving, a veteran comic and voice actor who won a Tony for “Irene,” died Monday in New York of natural causes. He was 94.
The gruff-voiced Irving was born in 1922 as George Irving Shelasky in Springfield, Mass. He received the 17th Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre in 2008.
He was also known for a variety of voice acting roles such as the Heat Miser in Rankin/Bass’s stop-motion Christmas movies “The Year Without a Santa Claus” and “A Miser Brothers’ Christmas.” He also narrated the 1960s animated series “Underdog.”
Irving’s TV credits included sitcoms such as “Car 54, Where Are You?,” “The Patty Duke Show,” “All In The Family,” and the soap opera “Ryan’s Hope.”
He first appeared on Broadway in 1943 in the first run of “Oklahoma !” He received a Tony nomination for “Me and My Girl” and appeared on numerous plays and musicals including “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, »
- Dave McNary
The Top 10 Shots of 2016
23 hours ago
For a decade now I’ve written about the year in single images. It’s an annual tradition that started on a whim — certain shots from “No Country for Old Men” and “The Bourne Ultimatum” spurred a desire to seek out other potent imagery and chew on it — and it has developed into my own little way of adding to the usual year-in-review cavalcade.
The rise of press screeners has certainly helped me to be thorough. Re-watching the year’s movies and scrubbing them for stand-out shots I might have missed has become its own unique form of absorbing movies. Other outlets have come along and taken similar approaches, which is great, because this is as subjective as anything else. But many have bailed after giving it a go, too, which I understand: this can be sort of taxing.
But I’ve cherished it. I’ve delighted, and continue to delight, »
- Kristopher Tapley
‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ Hits $615 Million at Worldwide Box Office
28 December 2016 9:40 AM, PST
Disney-Lucasfilm’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” has remained a major force at the box office, hitting $615 million worldwide following Tuesday screenings.
The eighth Star Wars movie grossed $22.5 million domestically at 4,157 locations on Tuesday, giving it $340.6 million in its first 12 days. It should become the sixth highest domestic grosser of 2016 on Wednesday, surpassing the $341.8 million taken in by “Zootopia”
“Rogue One” outdistanced Illumination-Universal’s animated comedy “Sing,” which came in with $17.6 million on its seventh day in release at 4,022 domestic sites. “Sing” has earned $93 million in its first week.
“Rogue One” grossed another $19.7 million internationally on Tuesday to reach $275.3 million, led by the U.K. with $48.9 million, Germany with $26.2 million, France with $23.6 million, Australia with $21.6 million and Japan with $18 million.
“Rogue One” opens in South Korea on Wednesday and in China on Jan. »
- Dave McNary
Film Review: ‘Railroad Tigers’
28 December 2016 9:00 AM, PST
When was the last time you saw a good Jackie Chan movie? Sure, the “Kung Fu Panda” movies are great, but they don’t really count, since that’s just his voice. What has it been — 10 years? 15? — since the chance to see Chan in action really justified the price of admission?
After a long stretch in which he made one, maybe two, movies a year, Chan is scheduled to release five more movies in 2017, after the Chinese action-comedy “Railroad Tigers” (granted, two are voice roles in animated movies). More importantly, though “Railroad Tigers” itself is a tired, often incomprehensible mess about a group of Chinese resistance fighters who use a train loaded with Japanese ammunition as a weapon against their unwelcome invaders, for genuine Jackie Chan fans, it’s evidence that he wasn’t ready to retire from action movies after all, despite comments made to that effect back in »
- Peter Debruge
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