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Berlinale: B-Reel to Produce Renck’s Thriller ‘Nothing’ (Exclusive)
43 minutes ago
On track to ramp up its international profile with ambitious features, Stockholm-based outfit B-Reel Films is set to produce “There’s Nothing to be Afraid of,” a coming-of-age romance set amid the Swedish Christian fundamentalist cult Livets Ord, which will mark the feature film debut of Swedish filmmaker Johan Renck.
Renck has directed a raft of high-profile drama series, from Netflix’s “Bloodline,” to Sky’s “The Last Panthers” to episodes of “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead,” among other shows. Renck has also helmed music videos of David Bowie’s “Lazarus” and “Blackstar.”
“Nothing,” based on based on Johan Heltne’s controversial book which is set in the early 1990s, centers on Jonathan, a 16-year-old belonging to the cult Livets Ord who is about to become an adult and falls in love with Nina while on a trip. Suffering from epileptic seizures, the young man starts seeing a psychologist, »
- Elsa Keslassy
Berlinale: Politics and Global Issues Hit the Red Carpet
50 minutes ago
As expected, the opening night of the Berlinale was all about politics, from the red carpet, where Green Party politician and Bundestag vice president Claudia Roth sported a black dress adorned with the word “Unpresidented” in large letters – an apparent dig at U.S. President Donald Trump’s spelling aptitude and/or his perceived behavior as commander-in-chief – to officials and speakers taking the stage to talk about free speech, free art and resistance to oppression.
At Thursday’s ceremony in the Berlinale Palast, the new U.S. administration even took some hits from the evening’s host, German comedian and actress Anke Engelke. She had a question for international guests: “Are you here for the festival? Or is someone keeping you from going back to your home country?” That got a big laugh.
Engelke drew loud laughs as she greeted the jury, noting that last year Meryl Streep served as jury president. »
- Ed Meza
Harvey Weinstein Taps Trump’s Travel Ban for New ‘Lion’ Oscar Messaging
50 minutes ago
When it comes to awards season, Harvey Weinstein has a long history of tethering his contenders to the zeitgeist, or at least to a wider-ranging socio-political concern. And it usually happens in phase two, as campaigns begin to pivot toward a win.
For “Philomena” in early 2014, writer-star Steve Coogan and the film’s eponymous subject Philomena Lee were shuffled off to Rome for an audience with Pope Francis. They were there as representatives of the Philomena Project, which aims to raise public awareness in Ireland and around the world on the issue of forced and illegal adoptions and to help reunite families with the advancement of open records legislation in Ireland.
Weinstein himself hit the morning shows on behalf of “The Imitation Game” in early 2015, calling on the British government to pardon the thousands whose lives had been ruined with convictions under laws forbidding homosexuality, which was not decriminalized in the U. »
- Kristopher Tapley
Berlinale: Catherine Gund, Daresha Kyi’s ‘Chavela’ Taken by Latido Films (Exclusive)
58 minutes ago
Latido Films will handle international sales to “Chavela,” a documentary on this hugely influential Mexico-raised singer from directors Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi.
Featuring key figures in her life, such as Pedro Almodovar, “Chavela” world premieres at the Berlin Festival on Feb. 9 where Latido will introduce it to buyers.
Vargas’ friendship, maybe passionate affair, with Frida Kahlo and her epic drinking binges are the stuff of legend. She was also a muse for many.
Produced out of New York-based Aubin Pictures, founded by Gund, “Chavela” is inspired by footage shot by Gund when living in Mexico City in the winter of 1992 when she managed to meet Vargas and and videotaped their conversation.
“’Chavela’ is not merely an homage or a biography. It is a salute to freedom and integrity. ‘Chavela’ confronts the issues of this current, complicated political period, thus making it a timely and much-needed documentary,” said Latido’s Antonio Saura. »
- John Hopewell
Jeffrey Godsick to Head Sony Pictures New Branding Division
1 hour ago
Sony Pictures Entertainment has formed a new brand management division and promoted Jeffrey Godsick to lead the unit — a move to try to exploit the “long-term branding initiatives” for franchise films like “Hotel Transylvania,” “Jumanji,” “Spider-Man,” and “Smurfs.”
Sony’s global marketing and distribution boss, Josh Greenstein, announced the move in an email to employees Thursday morning. Godsick’s title will be executive vice president of worldwide partnerships and brand management.
The new division is charged with giving movies from Sony Pictures “new life beyond the screen,” Greenstein told workers. The memo continued: “These strategies will enhance our collaboration across other Sony Corporation businesses, expand our IP into cross-media opportunities beyond film, and develop new revenue streams. The new structure will offer more concentrated resources to support our growing global infrastructure, and further our ongoing commitment to leverage films for added value.”
Sony has been struggling to get traction with »
- James Rainey
Berlinale: Jia Zhangke, MK2 Reteam for ‘Money & Love’ (Exclusive)
1 hour ago
Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke, whose latest movie, “Montains May Depart,” competed at Cannes in 2015, is reteaming with French studio MK2 on his next directorial effort, “Money & Love,” a tumultuous love story set in China’s crime world.
“Money & Love’s” story opens in 2001, in Datong, a poor industrial city in China, where Qiao, a young dancer falls in love with Bin, a local mobster. During a fight between rival gangs Qiao fires a shot to protect him and subsequently gets sentenced to five years in prison. Upon her release, Qiao goes looking for Bin to try and start all over again.
Juliette Schrameck, managing director of MK2 Films, and Fionnuala Jamison, who heads international sales at MK2, said “Money & Love” would be Zhangke’s most ambitious drama to date in terms of scope and scale. “It’s an epic love story which unfolds over 15 years, as well as a thriller »
- Elsa Keslassy
‘Moonlight,’ Lee Daniels, Sidney Poitier Take Top Honors at Aafca Awards
1 hour ago
“Moonlight” shined bright at the African-American Film Critics Association’s 8th annual awards on Wednesday night in Hollywood.
Barry Jenkins took the stage three times, accepting awards for best director, best independent film, and best picture for the Oscar-nominated drama. Jenkins was undoubtedly the man of the hour: Lee Daniels bowed to him before accepting his Cinema Vanguard Award, while John Singleton‘s sang his praises — “none of us [directors] get it perfect, but Barry Jenkins has gotten it perfect.”
But the coming-of-age drama didn’t stop there. Prizes also went out to co-stars Mahershala Ali and Janelle Monae, who nabbed the org’s breakout performance trophy for her roles in “Moonlight” and “Hidden Figures.”
Sanaa Lathan, who presented the award to Ali, said she first met the Oscar-nominated actor about 20 years ago. “All the girls used to call him Hershey bar,” she admitted. “Lucky for us, he is finally getting »
- Mannie Holmes
Hamptons Film Festival to Celebrate 25 Years With 25-Film Screening Series
1 hour ago
The Hamptons International Film Festival (Hiff) will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a special screening series of 25 films. As part of “25 Years: 25 Films,” Hiff will screen one film from each year of the festival in 24 different screenings spread across the Hamptons, Palm Beach, New York City and Los Angeles, culminating in a final screening and Lifetime Achievement Award presentation before the 25th annual festival in October.
The series kicks off Feb. 17 at Guild Hall in East Hampton with “The Piano,” which originally screened at Hiff in 1993. The series will then head to Palm Beach on Feb. 23 for 2010’s “Black Swan.” Other films to be screened include “The Artist,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Still Alice,” “The Cove,” “Open Water,” “Heavenly Creatures” and “Searching for Sugarman,” as well as the Oscar-nominated “Diving Bell and Butterfly,” “Embrace of the Serpent,” “I Am Not Your Negro.”
“We thought this would be a great opportunity to bring »
- Dani Levy
Emma Watts Promoted to 20th Century Fox Film Vice Chairman
1 hour ago
Emma Watts has been promoted to vice chairman of 20th Century Fox Film, the studio announced on Thursday.
Watts will continue to serve as production president, a post she has had since 2007. The promotion clears up Watts’ status at the company, a position that was in question after Stacey Snider took over as its sole chairman last summer. Watts had been a key ally of ousted studio chief Jim Gianopulos. There were mutterings that she did not get along with Snider, and bristled at her management style, but any differences appear to have been resolved.
Fox said her promotion was effective immediately. Watts is seen as having strong ties to the creative community, and played a key role in bringing several Fox hits, such as “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” “Gone Girl,” and “Deadpool,” to the screen.
Related
Dan Berger Tapped as Chief Spokesman for 20th Century Fox
In her new capacity, »
- Brent Lang
Mike Myers to Play Improv Mentor Del Close
1 hour ago
Mike Myers will play improv mentor Del Close in the upcoming biopic “Del,” to be directed by Betty Thomas.
Covert Media’s CEO Paul Hanson will produce the film alongside Thomas, The Second City’s Diane Alexander, State Street Pictures’ Robert Teitel, and Thruline Entertainment’s Ron West. Covert Media is fully financing and launching international sales at the Berlin Film Festival.
Executive producers are Harold Ramis Film School/Second City’s Andrew Alexander, Covert’s Elissa Friedman, Media Content Capital’s Sasha Shapiro, and Anton Lessine, along with Thruline’s Chris Henze.
Thomas will direct “Del” from a script by Nick Torokvei. The film follows an aspiring comedian who is counseled by Close, who was notorious for pushing his students to their limits. He’s best known for teaching students at Chicago’s Second City, including Myers, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Tina Fey. Close »
- Dave McNary
Keanu Reeves’ Nascar Actioner ‘Rally Car’ Nabbed by Lionsgate
1 hour ago
Lionsgate has acquired U.S. distribution rights to the Keanu Reeves auto racing movie “Rally Car” at the start of the Berlin Film Festival.
The movie will be directed by Olivier Megaton from a script by Jeremy Lott based on a treatment by Stephen Hamel. Reeves is starring and producing through his Company Films along with Stephen Hamel (“Passengers) and Mark Gao and Gregory Ouanhon of Fundamental Films. Gary Glushon will executive produce.
“Rally Car” tells the story of a self-centered American Nascar driver who revitalizes his career by entering an international Rally Car race across the face of China, and learns to win as part of a team when he joins forces with a young Chinese woman who yearns to become a driver herself. The film will shoot in China and the United States.
Lionsgate opens “John Wick: Chapter 2,” which re-teams Reeves with “Matrix” co-star Laurence Fishburne, on Friday. »
- Dave McNary
Berlin Film Review: ‘Django’
1 hour ago
In Woody Allen’s “Sweet and Lowdown,” Sean Penn boasts, “I’m considered the best guitar player maybe that ever lived, certainly in this country. There’s this gypsy in France, and he’s the most beautiful thing I ever heard.” The only guitarist superior to Penn’s fictional Emmet Ray? Django Reinhardt, a Belgian-born hot-jazz strummer whose talent saved him during World War II.
As a historical-fiction account of this wartime chapter in the jazz legend’s life, “Django” delivers a showcase role for gifted actor Reda Kateb, who’s had small parts in “A Prophet” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” but is otherwise rarely seen outside of France. It also marks a rather poignant choice to open the 2017 Berlinale, since the film — while not an especially compelling or well-told biopic unto itself — shines much-needed attention on the plight of the Roma people at the hands of German (and French) officials. »
- Peter Debruge
Berlinale: Josh Hutcherson Joins Animated ‘Eliot’
1 hour ago
Josh Hutcherson has been tapped to voice Eliot in Awesometown Entertainment’s “Eliot the Littlest Reindeer.”
Feature is directed by Jennifer Westcott and produced by Lucas Lynette-Krech. Executive producers are Dan Krech along with Victoria Westcott of Elgin Road; Mike Sears and Michael Emerson of M3; Jason Moring of Ddi, who made the announcement at the Berlin Film Festival; and Active Intl.
Animated adventure was written by Westcott and follows miniature horse Eliot, who follows his dream to earn a spot on Santa’s sleigh team after Blitzen retires. Other voice actors include Samantha Bee, John Cleese, Martin Short, Jeff Dunham.
“It’s a great script, with a powerful message wrapped into an accessible story. I really feel it will resonate with kids and adults alike… It was a fun process making Elliot’s character come to life… and collaborating with the team!” said Hutcherson.
Ddi’s lineup includes “17 Weirdos, »
- Variety Staff
NBA Star Kyrie Irving’s ‘Uncle Drew’ Commercials to Get Film Treatment (Exclusive)
1 hour ago
Cleveland Cavaliers superstar Kyrie Irving is hoping for a big screen slam dunk.
Sources tell Variety that Temple Hill Entertainment has acquired the feature film rights to Irving’s “Uncle Drew” Pepsi commercials. “Skiptrace” scribe Jay Longino is set to write the script and Irving is attached to reprise the role of Drew.
Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, and John Fischer will produce the film, described as a love letter to basketball. The original Pepsi Max advertisements showed Irving, in full make-up, playing a 70-plus-year-old man, Drew, who would show up to pick-up basketball games and school kids half his age, while also reminiscing about how the game used to be played.
Fischer was a big fan of the online shorts and showed them to Bowen thinking they could possibly turn it into a movie. But it was Longino’s pitch that really got them excited about pursuing »
- Justin Kroll
Hollywood Shines at the BAFTA Awards
2 hours ago
Prior to 1999, the British Academy Film and Television Awards were seen as the poor, but perfectly respectable, country cousin of their high-wattage American brethren. There were a number of reasons for this, chief among them the four-month time lag between U.S. and U.K. release dates, which saw a bizarre hike in prestige releases during April, when the BAFTA ceremony was traditionally held.
Until 1997, the event also included an extensive roll of television awards, which made for a long night, with the top film awards inevitably going to the same films honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences two months earlier. The BAFTAs felt stale.
In 1999, however, the BAFTAs stepped up the glamour offensive. Elizabeth Taylor was honored with a BAFTA fellowship, presented by Michael Caine, while the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, and Christina Ricci walked the red carpet outside North London’s dowdy Business Design Centre. »
- Damon Wise
Producers Guild Announces ‘Produced By’ Conference Dates
2 hours ago
The Producers Guild of America has set its ninth annual “Produced By Conference” for June 10-11 at Fox Studios in Los Angeles.
The PGA, which has more than 7,000 members, has lined up Arri; Ben, Branded Entertainment Network; Final Draft; Prg, Production Resource Group; Panasonic; and The Molecule to sponsor the event, alongside Fox Studios.
The event is a forum for producers in film, television and new media, held through the Producers Guild of America’s charitable entity, the PGA Foundation. It’s hired supervising producer Barry Kaplan (Ekg, Inc.), program director and marketing consultant Kristin Petrovich (Createasphere), programming consultant Madelyn Hammond (Madelyn Hammond & Associates), and sponsorship director Diane Salerno (Six Degrees Global).
Elizabeth Banks, Russell Simmons and “Transformers” producer Ian Bryce were among the notable speakers last June at the 8th annual conference, held on the Sony lot.
Others at the 2016 event included “Sicario” producers Basil Iwanyk and Molly Smith »
- Dave McNary
Original Song Nominees Bring Well-Known Newcomers Into the Oscar Fold
2 hours ago
Academy music-branch members seem to agree that 2016 was an above-average year for songs and that this is an especially strong lineup.
As with the score category, four of the five nominated songs are by Oscar first-timers (although the nominees themselves are well-known). Broadway wunderkind Lin-Manuel Miranda was writing “Moana” songs while he was in the middle of his “Hamilton” run – and if he wins, he will be an Egot (he’s already got Emmy, Grammy and Tony Awards).
Justin Timberlake had the year’s biggest-selling record with the infectious “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” which was released six months before the opening of “Trolls,” the movie for which it was written.
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, lyricists for two nominated songs from “La La Land,” are the songwriters for the current Broadway hit “Dear Evan Hansen.”
The veterans in this crowd are documentary-score composer J. Ralph and Sting, the singer-songwriter »
- Jon Burlingame
Will Musicals See a ‘La La Land’ Boost?
2 hours ago
The rap on musicals used to be “audiences don’t want to see people breaking into song.” Now that “La La Land” has charmed audiences by doing just that, what does it mean for the future of live-action screen musicals?
“Whatever musicals come next will have to be good. That’s the test,” says Justin Paul, one of the Oscar-nominated lyricists for “La La Land.” “I have to believe that other studios, other producers, would only be encouraged by the impact of ‘La La Land,’ both critically and at the box office.”
Adds fellow “La La Land” lyricist Benj Pasek: “We feel like our generation has been so primed for musical content. We grew up with the resurgence of Disney animation and all that followed from that. In hindsight, it makes sense that people would be receptive; so many of us grew up with our first stories being told through song. »
- Jon Burlingame
Australian Serial-Killer Thriller ‘Hounds of Love’ Bought for North America
2 hours ago
Gunpowder & Sky Distribution has bought the North American rights to Australian serial-killer drama “Hounds of Love” and will launch a theatrical release on May 12.
The debut film from writer/director Ben Young will make its North American premiere in March at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival. Melissa Kelly is the producer.
Starring Emma Booth, Stephen Curry, and Ashleigh Cummings, “Hounds of Love” had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where Cummings took home the award for Best Actress in a Debut Film. It also won a Best Director award for Young and Best Actress award for Booth at the Brussels International Film Festival.
Eddie Cockrell called the film a “genre-bending powerhouse thriller” in his Venice review for Variety.
The story is set in suburban Perth during the mid 1980s, where people are unaware that women are disappearing at the hands of a serial killer couple. After an innocent lapse in judgment, »
- Dave McNary
Nick Offerman Discusses Dubbing Work in ‘My Life as a Zucchini’
2 hours ago
Nick Offerman made a name for himself as Ron Swanson for seven seasons on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.” And ever since that acclaimed comedy came to an end in 2015, he’s been working nonstop. He had four films bow at Sundance this year — supporting roles in the surreal period comedy “The Little Hours” opposite “Parks” co-star Aubrey Plaza and the Sam Elliott vehicle “The Hero”; the documentary “Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry,” which he produced; and a voice role in the English-language dub of the celebrated French animated film “My Life as a Zucchini.” “Zucchini,” which is up for this year’s animated feature Oscar, opens theatrically from GKids on Feb. 24.
How did you get involved with “My Life as a Zucchini”?
[GKids] did a similar thing a couple of years ago with a great film called “Ernest & Celestine” in which my wife [Megan Mullally] and I voice a couple of supporting characters. »
- Geoff Berkshire
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