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Rotterdam Film Review: ‘Super Dark Times’
3 hours ago
The fecund coming-of-age story receives a genre-twisting injection of violence in debuting director Kevin Phillips’ alternately sensitive and gory “Super Dark Times.” Jarring in the way it jumps whole hog from a sincere, penetrating look at the nightmare of guilt into far more standard psycho territory, this teen drama about the repercussions of a tragic accident is so spot-on in its depiction of high school behavior that its shift to slasher mode creates disappointment. Still, it’s hard not to appreciate the astute ways the script captures the moment when carefree childhood turns into the loss of innocence. Visually striking, with a fine ear for teen dialogue among boys, and excellent performances (especially from Owen Campbell, fresh from Sundance kudos on “As You Are”), the film could make a moderate box office splash, with steadier returns from VOD.
The long shadow of “Stand by Me” will always haunt films about »
- Jay Weissberg
Film Review: ‘A Good American’
3 hours ago
The issue of national security – and the various means by which the government achieves it – has been at the forefront of President Donald Trump’s early days in the Oval Office, replete with an impending executive order on cyber-security safeguards. Thus, “A Good American” arrives at a fortuitously timed moment, given that it profiles a former Nsa official who created a system that supposedly would have prevented the 9/11 attacks, were it not for his superiors’ actions. While compelling in its explanation of intelligence-gathering procedures, Austrian director Friedrich Moser’s documentary ultimately resorts to making charges it can’t convincingly corroborate. Still, as a history lesson about the birth of our modern surveillance apparatus, it’s an intriguing work that should find a welcome home on VOD.
The title, “A Good American,” exposes Moser’s bias, in that he’s completely convinced of the claims made (and noble intentions of) his subject, »
- Nick Schager
‘Inferno’ Blazes to Top Spot on DVD, Blu-ray Disc Sales Charts
7 hours ago
Sony Pictures’ “Inferno” debuted at No. 1 on both national home video sales charts the week ended Jan. 29, while the previous week’s top seller, the Universal Pictures suspense thriller “The Girl on the Train,” dropped to No. 10, the biggest week-to-week drop in years.
“Inferno” is a mystery thriller directed by Ron Howard that earned $34.3 million in U.S. theaters, less than half its estimated budget. The film is a sequel to “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons” and stars Tom Hanks, reprising his role as Harvard professor Robert Langdon.
Warner’s “Suicide Squad” rose back up to No. 2 on the Npd VideoScan overall disc sales chart, switching places with another Warner title, “The Accountant,” which slipped to No. 4 its third week in stores.
Universal Pictures’ “The Secret Life of Pets” rose back up to No. 3 on the overall disc sales chart, with Warner’s “Storks” returning to the top five, »
- Thomas K. Arnold
Whitney Cummings’ Directorial Debut ‘The Female Brain’ Nabbed by Hyde Park International (Exclusive)
7 hours ago
Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park International is in tune with “The Female Brain,” a quirky relationship comedy that marks the directorial debut of comedian Whitney Cummings. The company has boarded the movie, which is in early post-production, and will represent it in all international territories.
Hyde Park will screen first footage to distributors in Berlin at the European Film Market, while CAA is handling North American domestic rights.
Written by Cummings and Neal Brennan, the film is based on the book by neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine. It charts the inner workings and complex power of brain chemistry among couples at different stages of their relationship. Cummings also stars in the ensemble comedy alongside Sofia Vergara, James Marsden, Lucy Punch, Toby Kebbell, Cecily Strong, Beanie Feldstein, Blake Griffin, and Deon Cole.
“‘The Female Brain’ is delightfully fresh and seriously funny,” said Hyde Park International President Carl Clifton. “Whitney Cummings shows that she »
- Patrick Frater
Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Day-Lewis’ Fashion Drama Rounds Out Cast
7 hours ago
Lesley Manville and Vicky Krieps have joined Daniel Day-Lewis in the Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled film about the world of high fashion in 1950s London.
Production began this week in the U.K. for Focus Features, which announced in September that it had obtained worldwide rights to the project.
Manville has been in several of Mike Leigh’s films including “Secrets and Lies” and “Another Year,” for which she received a BAFTA Best Actress nomination. Krieps’ credits include “A Most Wanted Man” and Focus Features’ Hanna.
Focus will distribute the film in the U.S. later this year with Universal Pictures handling international distribution. The film’s producers are JoAnne Sellar; Megan Ellison, through her Annapurna Pictures; and Paul Thomas Anderson. The executive producers are Peter Heslop, Adam Somner, and Daniel Lupi. Chelsea Barnard and Jillian Longnecker are overseeing production for Annapurna.
The collaboration between Anderson and Day-Lewis »
- Dave McNary
Bel Powley to Play Matthew McConaughey’s Drug-Addicted Daughter in ‘White Boy Rick’
9 hours ago
British actress Bel Powley has joined Matthew McConaughey in drug dealer drama “White Boy Rick” to portray his addict daughter.
Set in 1980s Detroit at the height of the crack epidemic, “White Boy Rick” recaps the true-life story of Richard Wershe Jr. who became an undercover informant at the age of 14 before becoming a major dealer until he was arrested at age 17. The title role has not yet been cast.
Bruce Dern will play a grandfather while Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rory Cochrane are set to star as FBI agents who began working with Wershe Jr. as a confidential informant.
Yann Demange is directing the project for Sony-based Studio 8 as its second project following “Solutrean.” John Lesher is producing, as is Julie Yorn (who received a best picture Academy Award nomination for “Hell or High Water”) of Lbi Entertainment. Protozoa Pictures’ Darren Aronofsky and Scott Franklin are also producing.
Powley, »
- Dave McNary
Bad Robot’s D-Day Movie ‘Overlord’ Finds Director (Exclusive)
9 hours ago
Julius Avery, who directed A24’s “Son of a Gun,” is set to direct Paramount and Bad Robot’s World War II pic “Overlord.”
Billy Ray and J.J. Abrams came up with the idea for the story with Ray penning the script. “The Revenant” screenwriter Mark L. Smith has done a slight polish on the draft with Abrams producing for Bad Robot.
The story follows two paratroopers who are caught behind enemy lines after their plane crashes on a mission to destroy a German Radio Tower in a small town outside of Normandy during the D-Day invasion. After reaching their target, the two paratroopers come to realize that besides fighting off Nazi soldiers, they also must combat against supernatural forces that are a result of a secret Nazi experiment.
The project was first acquired by Paramount in 2007 and has since gained steam following Avery’s attachment. »
- Justin Kroll
Bold Films Promotes Four Executives as Part of Company Expansion (Exclusive)
9 hours ago
Bold Films, the maker of “Nightcrawler” and “Whiplash,” has promoted a quartet of executives as part of a company-wide expansion, Variety has learned.
Karen Barna has been upped to executive vice president of business and legal affairs, while Santho Goonewardene has been named vice president of development and production. Barna has been with Bold Films for two years, where she oversaw day to day corporate matters related to production and distribution for the company, and negotiated deals with filmmakers and talent. Prior to joining Bold, she worked for 10 years at Summit Entertainment, helping to guide the Twilight franchise to screens. Goonewardene joined the company in 2015 as a production executive and has been working on post production for “Shot Caller,” an American crime thriller from Ric Roman Waugh, as well as on the production of “Stronger,” a drama with Jake Gyllenhaal. Prior to joining Bold, she worked in production on “2 Guns, »
- Brent Lang
Sun Valley Screenwriter’s Lab to Be Hosted by ‘The Big Short’s’ Charles Randolph
10 hours ago
“The Big Short” screenwriter Charles Randolph will host the Sun Valley Film Festival’s Screenwriter’s Lab on March 18.
Presented by Variety, the Lab features a live table read and the High Scribe screenwriting contest. “Manchester By the Sea” producer Chris Moore judges this year’s screenwriting contest, with prizes including $1,000, a Filmmakers Pass and mentoring from industry experts. Submissions for the contest close Feb. 20. The winner is announced during the lab, and professional actors will read a scene from the winning script.
Three Screenwriter’s Lab finalists will receive invitations to the festival and access to mentors and networking events. Each year, the mentors — Jim Burke, David Seidler, Nat Faxon, Will McCormack, Craig Borten and now Moore — return to remain involved in the Lab.
Past hosts and mentors have also included Stephen Gaghan and Mark Duplass. Winners and participants often continue the contacts they have made with industry figures, »
- Variety Staff
Disney Has Worst Track Record Backing Black Directors (Study)
11 hours ago
The seven major Hollywood studios have failed to elevate minorities and women to the director’s chair over the past decade, according to a new report by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg’s Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative. The findings come as the topic of diversity and inclusion continues to be widely debated across the media industry. The report also hits days after the recent Oscar nominations were hailed for recognizing a record number of black actors and for singling out a series of films such as “Hidden Figures,” “Moonlight,” and “Fences” that grappled with the topic of race in America.
It’s harder to find signs of that kind of progress behind the camera. Thanks largely to its long association with Madea creator Tyler Perry, Lionsgate has the best track record when it comes to hiring African-American filmmakers. Sixteen of the 86 films that the studio distributed between »
- Brent Lang
John Lennon-Yoko Ono Movie in the Works From ‘Fifty Shades’ Producer
11 hours ago
Producer Michael De Luca is collaborating with Yoko Ono for an untitled drama about Ono and her relationship with the late John Lennon.
“The Theory Of Everything” writer Anthony McCarten will write the script and produce with Ono, De Luca, and Josh Bratman of Immersive Pictures.
Ono and Lennon met in 1966 at a London art gallery, where Ono was showing abstract art while the Beatles were four years into being a worldwide phenomenon. Lennon asked Ono about her “Painting to Hammer a Nail In” piece and if he could hammer a nail into the painting. She asked him to pay five shillings per nail, but the two then agreed that Lennon would pay imaginary money to hammer an imaginary nail.
Lennon and Ono were married 1969 in Gibraltar with the experience immortalized in the song “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” which was the Beatles’ final number one U.K. hit. »
- Dave McNary
Sundance Film Review: ‘The Force’
11 hours ago
If the Fred Wiseman of the ’60s made a film about cops in the age of body-cams and Black Lives Matter — a verité documentary called “Police,” to place alongside his classic lean and clear-eyed institutional studies “High School” and “Titicut Follies” — it might look something like “The Force.” An even-handed, no-easy-answers exposé that won this year’s Sundance documentary prize for Best Director (the filmmaker is Peter Nicks), the movie chronicles two tumultuous years in the life of the Oakland Police Department. It starts in 2014, the year after a new chief has come in — the fifth one in a decade. Why the rolling heads? Because the Oakland police, after clash upon clash with the local community, were being held up as a paragon of law enforcement in need of reform.
In 2002, the department was placed under federal oversight, yet none of the changes implemented seemed to work. Then Chief Sean Whent came in. »
- Owen Gleiberman
Keanu Reeves to Star in Romantic Thriller ‘Siberia’
12 hours ago
Keanu Reeves will star in the romantic thriller “Siberia” from director Matthew Ross.
IM Global is launching international sales at the European Film Market at the Berlin Film Festival. Producers are Gabriela Bacher and “Passengers” producer Stephen Hamel.
Filming is set to start later this year. Ross, who made his directorial debut with “Frank & Lola,” is helming from a script by Scott Smith.
Reeves will portray an American diamond trader trying to sell blue diamonds of dubious origin to buyers in Russia, where the jewels and his partner disappear. He then journeys to Siberia and begins an affair with a cafe owner.
Reeves stars in the upcoming actioner “John Wick: Chapter 2,” which Lionsgate opens on Feb. 10. Laurence Fishburne also stars in the film, marking their first on-screen reunion since the “The Matrix” trilogy. »
- Dave McNary
Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn to Star in Movie About Police Brutality
12 hours ago
Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn will re-team to star in “Dragged Across Concrete,” a crime thriller about police brutality directed by “Bone Tomahawk” filmmaker S. Craig Zahler.
Bloom will introduce the project to buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin, with Wme repping U.S. rights.
Keith Kjarval of Unified Pictures is producing along with Dallas Sonnier of Cinestate and Assemble Media’s Jack Heller. Kjarval’s Unified Film Fund I is financing.
Related
Mel Gibson Returns to Oscars With First Nomination Since ‘Braveheart’
Gibson and Vaughn will play cops who are suspended when a video of their strong-arm tactics gets wide attention. They then descend into the criminal underworld to exact vengeance.
Vaughn starred as a sergeant in “Hacksaw Ridge,” which Gibson directed. The movie received six Oscar nominations, including best picture and best director.
Vaughn also starred in Zahler’s prison drama “Brawl in Cell Block 99, »
- Dave McNary
Ricky Gervais on Atheism, Donald Trump, and the Return of David Brent
12 hours ago
It’s been over 13 years since Ricky Gervais bade farewell to David Brent, the middling middle manager on the original U.K. version of “The Office” that launched his career. Since then, he’s had other successful series (“Extras,” “Derek”), dabbled in movies (“The Invention of Lying”), and sold out venues with his standup tour. Yet the character who considered himself “friend first, boss second…probably entertainer third” has never really gone away. “There wasn’t a day that went by where I wasn’t managing the estate of David Brent,” Gervais notes. “There were remakes around the world, I would get requests every day to show clips, or something would could up with licensing.”
After short appearances on the American version of “The Office” or at “Comic Relief,” Gervais has brought Brent back in full force with the release of “David Brent: Life on the Road.” Written and directed by Gervais, »
- Jenelle Riley
Shirley MacLaine and Producer Sarah Green to Be Honored at 2017 Texas Film Awards
13 hours ago
Shirley MacLaine and producer Sarah Green will be among the honorees for the 2017 Texas Film Hall of Fame, with the duo set to be celebrated at the Austin Film Society’s Texas Film Awards in March.
MacLaine, winner of a 1983 acting Oscar for “Terms of Endearment,” will accept the Star of Texas Award for the Texas-set film. She will also receive the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Texas Film Hall of Fame. MacLaine’s long career encompasses classics like “The Apartment” and “Steel Magnolias,” and she was awarded the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 2012.
Related
Austin Film Society Bangs Drum for Lone Star Filmmakers
Academy Award-nominated producer Green has produced Texas-made films including Terrence Malick’s “Song to Song” and “The Tree of Life.” She also produced the films “Mud” and the Academy Award-winning “Frida.”
Founded in 1985 by Richard Linklater, Afs launched the Texas Film Awards »
- Dani Levy
Santa Barbara Fest Honors Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling and Raft of Artisans
14 hours ago
This year’s Santa Barbara Intl. Film Festival will screen a wide array of films, scores of them world or U.S. premieres, and pay tribute to film luminaries, including Denzel Washington, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Isabelle Huppert, and Casey Affleck.
Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams
Cinema Vanguard Award
The “Manchester by the Sea” co-stars, both Oscar- nominated for their roles in Kenneth Lonergan’s drama about a taciturn Boston handyman with a tortured past, will receive the Cinema Vanguard honor on Feb. 5. Affleck has one earlier nomination under his belt, for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” while Williams previously scored three Academy Award nominations — for “Brokeback Mountain,” “Blue Valentine,” and “My Week With Marilyn.”
American Riviera Award
The Oscar-nominated “Hell or High Water” star is being honored for his contribution to film by the festival. A child of Hollywood — his father, Lloyd, »
- Diane Garrett
Santa Barbara Raises Curtain on Restoration Project at Star-Studded Fest
14 hours ago
Santa Barbara became a movie town in 1912, when the American Film Co., aka the Flying A, set up shop there. The studio began cranking out shorts at a rapid pace, producing an estimated 1,200 silent movies before its demise in 1921.
But Santa Barbara’s showbiz embrace didn’t end there: It has long served as a favored tryout city, film and TV location, and industry playground.
Since 1986, the coastal community 89 miles north of Hollywood has also been home to the Santa Barbara Intl. Film Festival. The festival, which kicks off Feb. 1, will feature a jam-packed lineup of premieres, starry events, and panel discussions. In a nod to Santa Barbara’s storied past, the fest will also serve as the formal curtain-raiser of its major capital project, the renovation of the city’s historic Riviera Theater.
The Riviera Theater, recently acquired by the Sbiff through a 30-year lease, has long been symbolic »
- Jerry Roberts
Open Road Buys Animated Comedy ‘Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad’
14 hours ago
Open Road Films has acquired all U.S. rights to the animated comedy “Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad” from Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Ambi Media Group.
The movie will be released in 2018. It features the voices of Jeremy Renner, Alec Baldwin, Heidi Klum, John Cleese, James Franco, Anjelica Huston and Omar Sy, and is directed by Aaron Woodley.
Animation work for the film is currently being done out of Ambi’s Toronto-based Aic Studios. The movie is fully financed.
The story revolves around the sinister Doc Walrus (voiced by Cleese) hatching a secret plot to accelerate global warming and melt the arctic circle. A rag-tag group of inexperienced heroes (voiced by Renner, Franco, Baldwin, Huston, Klum and Sy) must come together to foil his evil plans and save the arctic.
Open Road’s Tom Ortenberg said, “The family film audience is hungry for quality product and we are very »
- Dave McNary
Universal Shakes Up Communications Team: Cindy Gardner Promoted, Teri Everett Out
14 hours ago
There’s been a major shakeup in the communications team at Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. As part of the overhaul, Cindy Gardner has been elevated to the new role of executive vice president of global communications and corporate affairs at NBCUniversal.
Teri Everett, who currently heads up communications for the studio is leaving the company later this month. She has been at the company for a year and a half, and sources say that both Everett and Universal Filmed Entertainment Group Chairman Jeff Shell mutually decided it wasn’t a good fit. Everett, an affable, no-nonsense spokeswoman, was previously a top communications executive at Fox and Time Inc. At Universal, she helped craft the message for the company’s acquisition of DreamWorks Animation.
Gardner has been tightly aligned Ron Meyer, NBCUniversal vice chairman, working closely with him on a number of communications initiatives.
“Cindy has been my right-hand through many »
- Brent Lang
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