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Denis Villeneuve took the world by storm with his epic Dune franchise, which will eventually see the release of a third iteration. However, the director in himself is not staying put and is already working on another potential fantasy franchise which is bound to excite fans. The director revealed in a recent interview that he has an adaptation based on Arthur C. Clarke’s 1973 science-fiction novel, Rendezvous with Rama, in the works.

Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in Dune. | Warner Bros.

The novel, which focuses on an interstellar object that enters the solar system in 2131, revolves around Jimmy Pak, an explorer aboard the spaceship The Endeavor. Pak and his team is sent to investigate the 50-km-long spaceship that has entered the solar system.

The novel in itself includes everything a space fantasy series might need. Humungous-spider-like alien creatures, large spaceships akin to Star Wars, the existence of cultural and religious notions...

Twdc-Disney have secured the theatrical and streaming rights in the LatAm for Sebastian Schindel's new crime/psychological-thriller feature film A Silent Death (Una Muerte Silenciosa). In the depths of Patagonia during the 80’s, a hunting guide stumbles upon a shocking crime involving his niece, forcing him to investigate and to confront the haunting secrets of that era dark years in his pursue of justice. The new thriller from Argentina stars Joaquin Furriel, Soledad Villamil, Alejandro Awada, and Maria Marull (Wild Tales). Our friends at FilmSharks are handling international sales at March du Film in Cannes. Crime Thriller Master Sebastian Schindel's...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Related Images is a column in which filmmakers invite readers behind the scenes, into their sketchbooks, or otherwise through the looking glass to learn more about their creative processes.Rachel Walden's Lemon Tree is now showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries.Gordon Rocks (The Son). Photograph by Eli Freireich.Several years before I made Lemon Tree, my mother encouraged me to ask my grandfather about “the road trip he took with the orange tree." She said that it would make a great short film. This is the transcription of J. L. Burgess (a.k.a. Papa)—one of the best storytellers I have ever met—telling me that story, which I worked into an outline/beat sheet that would later become Lemon Tree. I decided not to work from a formal script, so we made the entire film off that outline. People always ask me where the lemon tree is in the movie.

I don’t think it’s an unpopular opinion anymore to say trigger warnings have gone too far. When you have people like Dame Judi Dench complaining about them, maybe the plot has gotten lost somewhat, so to speak. While many have taken issue with the wrong-headed warnings before movies like Blazing Saddles (a famously anti-racist movie) and the pretty tame early James Bond movies, perhaps the moment trigger warnings truly overstepped happened last week, when AMC aired Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and attached the following disclaimer:

“This film includes language and/or cultural stereotypes that are inconsistent with today’s standards of inclusion and tolerance and may offend some viewers.”

Here’s the tweet that started it all:

Now I’ve seen it all. AMC message before the classic film Goodfellas. pic.twitter.com/QxTXXz4tex

— ken lovett (@klnynews) May 12, 2024

So, let’s take a minute to take all that in.

Exclusive: In a competitive situation, Netflix has landed for development Forever, Interrupted, a limited series based on the 2013 bestselling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, sources tell Deadline. Laura Dern and Margaret Qualley are set to star in and executive produce the project, from A24 and company-based producer Jessica Rhoades. Julia Bicknell is writing the adaptation and will serve as showrunner. Netflix declined comment.

In Forever, Interrupted, Elsie (Qualley) and Ben’s whirlwind romance is electric – within months they’re married and living happily ever after – when Ben’s unexpected death forces Elsie to come face to face with Susan (Dern), the mother-in-law who doesn’t know that she exists. Told through a dual timeline, the series recounts Elsie and Ben’s once-in-a-lifetime love, intercut with Elsie and Susan’s unexpected journey as their at first turbulent connection ultimately brings both women cathartic new beginnings.

Executive producing are Rhoades and Alison Mo Massey for Pacesetter Productions,...

Lionsgate is expanding the billion-dollar John Wick franchise as the studio is developing a film for Donnie Yen to reprise his role in a new film centered around Caine, his character from John Wick: Chapter 4, to begin production in Hong Kong next year.

While the logline is being kept under wraps, the new film will continue Yen’s story arc following the events of John Wick: Chapter 4, as Caine has been freed from his obligations to the High Table.

The new film was developed as part of Chad Stahelski’s recently announced deal with Lionsgate overseeing the expansion of the John Wick universe and will be shepherded by the franchise producers, Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, and Stahelski, who produces through his 87Eleven Entertainment production banner.

Robert Askins, a Tony nominee for his play Hand to God and a veteran of The Umbrella Academy and AMC’s The Son,...

Hold onto your butts because the billion-dollar John Wick franchise is expanding with another feature film focusing on Donnie Yen’s Caine from John Wick: Chapter 4. Yen is reprising his role from the action-packed sequel, with production kicking off in Hong Kong next year. Plot details remain a mystery. However, Lionsgate says Caine will continue the character’s story following the events of John Wick: Chapter 4, as Caine has been freed from his obligations to the High Table.

Robert Askins, a Tony nominee for his play Hand to God and a veteran of The Umbrella Academy and AMC’s The Son, will pen the screenplay.

The Caine spin-off comes to Lionsgate as part of Chad Stahelski’s deal with the studio to oversee and expand the John Wick universe beyond the core films, the upcoming spin-off, Ballerina, starring Ana De Armas, and The Continental TV miniseries.

“From the moment Donnie...

Donnie Yen has inked a deal to reprise his role as Caine, the highly skilled, blind assassin introduced in John Wick: Chapter 4, in a new film from Lionsgate set to shoot in Hong Kong next year, the studio announced on Wednesday.

While the logline is being kept under wraps, the new film will continue Yen’s story arc following the events of Chapter 4, as Caine has been freed from his obligations to the High Table.

The new film was developed as part of Chad Stahelski’s recently announced deal with Lionsgate to oversee the expansion of the John Wick universe and will be shepherded by franchise producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee (John Wick: Chapters 1 through 4) for Thunder Road and Stahelski through his 87Eleven Entertainment banner.

Script is written by Robert Askins, the Tony-nominated writer of the play Hand to God, who has also worked...

The world of “John Wick” is expanding even more.

Donnie Yen’s blind assassin Caine, who was introduced in last year’s “John Wick: Chapter 4,” will be the center of a new spinoff.

There are no other details yet, but the spinoff will “continue Yen’s story arc following the events of ‘John Wick: Chapter 4,’ as Caine has been freed from his obligations to the High Table,” according to Lionsgate.

Robert Askins, who’s written for Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy,” AMC’s “The Son” and received a 2015 Tony nomination for his play “Hand to God,” is writing the screenplay. Lionsgate will begin production on the untitled movie next year in Hong Kong.

The Caine spinoff is developed through “John Wick” director Chad Stahelski’s development deal with Lionsgate to oversee the action franchise. Stahelski will produce through his 87Eleven Entertainment along with Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee.

Anthony Hopkins, who has embodied a cast of real-life characters in his long career, ranging from Richard Nixon (in Nixon) and Sigmund Freund (Freud’s Last Session) to Alfred Hitchcock (Hitchcock), and Adolf Hitler (1981 TV movie The Bunker), is set to play composer George Frideric Handel in the upcoming feature The King of Covent Garden.

Minamata filmmaker Andrew Levitas is attached to direct the biopic focused on how the German-British Baroque composer created his 1741 masterpiece Messiah. Tim Slover wrote the screenplay. Dan Lupovitz and Kevan Van Thompson will produce.

Opera star Katherine Jenkins is attached as an executive producer on the project and will be involved as a musical advisor on the project as well as helping with future marketing efforts. Peter Touche (Military Wives, The Son) is also executive producing.

Embankment Films is handling global pre-sales on The King of Covent Garden and will be pitching it to buyers at...

AMC Networks today announced that it has renewed acclaimed drama Dark Winds for a third season, with a target premiere date in early 2025. Season two recently concluded on AMC and AMC+ and season one is currently being featured on Max as part of a two-month programming pop-up of select AMC Networks’ shows on the Warner Bros. Discovery streaming service. The series, which has received a perfect 100 Rotten Tomatoes rating for both its first and second seasons, stars Zahn McClarnon (The Son, Westworld, Fargo), Kiowa Gordon (The Red Road, Roswell, New Mexico) and Jessica Matten (Tribal, Burden of Truth). “We started this journey with very high hopes ... Read more...

Exclusive: Jessica Harper (The Old Man), John Getz (Doom Patrol), Toks Olagundoye (Veep), David Sullivan (The Wilds) and newcomer Isabella Briggs have been tapped for key recurring roles on Fatal Attraction, Paramount+’s series reimagining of the classic 1980s psychosexual thriller film.

Written by Alexandra Cunningham from a story she co-wrote with Kevin J. Hynes, the Paramount Television Studios and Amblin Television series explores the timeless themes of marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes towards strong women, personality disorders and coercive control.

Lizzy Caplan, Joshua Jackson and Amanda Peet star, along with Alyssa Jirrels, Toby Huss, Reno Wilson and Brian Goodman.

Fatal Attraction, the series, is a reimagining of the 1980s thriller film that followed Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) as he tried to protect himself and his family from Alex (Glenn Close), a fling who turned to obsessively stalking him.

Harper and Getz will play Beth’s parents,...

Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning, Davy Chou’s Return To Seoul get one-week qualifying runs.

Sony Pictures Classics has unveiled the 2022 release dates for its upcoming slate including potential awards contenders The Son, and pre-2023 qualifying runs for Cannes duo One Fine Morning and Return To Seoul.

Hugh Jackman stars in upcoming Venice world premiere The Son as a man with a hectic lfe whose ex turns up with their distant, troubled teenager. Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby and Anthony Hopkins round out the key cast on Florian Zeller’s follow-up to The Father, which earned Hopkins a best lead actor Oscar.

Sony Pictures Classics has announced October-December release plans for The Return of Tanya Tucker; Salavatore: Shoemaker Of Dreams; The Son; Living; and Turn Every Page.

Additionally, it said, One Fine Morning, written and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve and starring Léa Seydoux, and Davy Chou’s Return To Seoul, which were both acquired out of Cannes, will have one-week qualifying runs by the end of the year before their 2023 releases.

Kathlyn Horan’s The Return Of Tanya Tucker, featuring Brandi Carlile will be released on October 21, 2022 in New York and Los Angeles before expanding to additional markets. The documentary follows Tanya’s richly creative, utterly captivating, bumpy ride back to the top as Brandi encourages her to push past her fears to create a new sound and reach a new audience.

Luca Guadagnino’s documentary film, Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams, which tracks Ferragamo’s life from humble beginnings to California and...

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced that “Dalíland,” Mary Harron’s latest film that stars Sir Ben Kingsley as Salvador Dalí, will close out the festival on Saturday, September 17.

“We’re excited to premiere Mary Harron’s ‘Dalíland’ as this year’s Closing Night film,” said TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey. “We couldn’t be prouder that Harron is a Canadian who has taken her singular explorations of iconic eccentrics to the world stage. In portraying the wild relationship between Salvador Dalí and his partner, Gala, Harron continues to keep moviegoing interesting and engaging.”

The film follows the legendary surrealist painter and “Un Chien Andalou” director in the later years of his career, examining the unique power dynamics in his marriage to his wife, Gala Dalí. The story is told through the eyes of an ambitious young assistant, James, who is tasked with helping the aging painter prepare for a...

After teasing a number of titles in one-off announcements, including Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, TIFF has now unveiled their full Gala and Special Presentations lineup. Selections include Hong Sangsoo’s second new feature of 2022, Walk Up, plus Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin, Sarah Polley’s Women Talking, Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light, the Vicky Krieps-led Corsage, Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, the Jennifer Lawrence-led Causeway, Joanna Hogg’s The Eternal Daugther, Mark Mylod’s The Menu, Henry Selick’s Wendell & Wild, Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, and more.

See the lineup below.

Gala Presentations 2022

*Previously announced

Alice, Darling Mary Nighy | Canada, USA

World Premiere

Black Ice Hubert Davis | Canada

World Premiere

Butcher’s Crossing Gabe Polsky | USA

World Premiere

The Greatest Beer Run Ever Peter Farrelly | USA

World Premiere

The Hummingbird Francesca Archibugi | Italy, France

World Premiere

Hunt Lee Jung-jae | South Korea

North American...

Click here to read the full article.

The 2022 Toronto Film Festival has added world premieres for Tyler Perry’s new Netflix film, A Jazzman’s Blues; Peter Farrelly’s Vietnam War movie The Greatest Beer Run Ever, which stars Russell Crowe and Zac Efron; and the Catherine Hardwicke dramatic thriller Prisoner’s Daughter, starring Kate Beckinsale and Brian Cox.

As TIFF unveiled 18 Gala program titles to screen in Roy Thomson Hall, the festival booked red carpet launches for Hubert Davis’s Black Ice, a documentary about Black hockey players executive produced by Drake; Alice, Darling, director Mary Nighy’s psychological thriller led by Anna Kendrick; Gabe Polsky’s frontier epic Butcher’s Crossing, which stars Nicolas Cage; and Francesca Archibugi’s The Hummingbird, toplined by Nanni Moretti, Berenice Bejo and Pierfrancesco Favino.

Toronto is returning for a 47th edition to run Sept. 8 to 18 that will be in-person, with Hollywood stars on red carpets...

Eighteen galas, 45 special presentations unveiled for 47th edition of Toronto festival.

Stephen Frears’ drama The Lost King starring Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan, Shekhar Kapur’s comedy What’s Love Got to Do With It? with Lily James and Emma Thompson and Apple’s Jennifer Lawrence drama Causeway from Lila Neugebauer are among this year’s gala and special presentations for the Toronto International Film Festival.

Further previously unannounced world premiere selections include Richard Eyre’s hospital drama Allelujah (pictured) from Pathé with Jennifer Saunders and Judi Dench, Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain in Tobias Lindholm’s Netflix true-life crime drama The Good Nurse,...

The 2022 TIFF lineup features new films from Tyler Perry, Peter Farrelly, Sam Mendes, Catherine Hardwicke, Martin McDonagh, Sarah Polley, Henry Selick, Stephen Frears and many more.

In all, 18 Galas and 45 Special Presentations were unveiled as part of the 47th Annual Toronto International Film Festival lineup, with 38 of the total films announced on Thursday slated to world premiere at the festival.

Among the Gala presentations are Farrelly’s “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” his follow-up film after winning the audience prize at TIFF for “Green Book.” There’s also Tyler Perry’s “A Jazzman’s Blues,” Paul Weitz’s “Moving On” with Jane Fonda, and “Sidney” from Reginald Hudlin.

Those join previously announced titles such as “The Woman King” starring Viola Davis and the opening night film “The Swimmers” from Sally El Hosaini. Lee Jung-jae’s “Hunt,” which first premiered at Cannes, will also receive a Gala presentation, as will “The Son” from Florian Zeller,...

White NoiseCOMPETITIONWhite Noise (Noah Baumbach)Il Signore Delle Formiche (Gianni Amelio)The Whale (Darren Aronofsky)L’Immensita (Emanuele Crialese)Saint Omer (Alice Diop)Blonde (Andrew Dominik)Tár (Todd Field)Love Life (Koji Fukada)Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths (Alejandro G. Inarritu)Athena (Romain Gavras)Bones & All (Luca Guadagnino)The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg)Beyond The Wall (Vahid Jalilvand)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Argentina, 1985 (Santiago Mitre)Chiara (Susanna Nicchiarelli)Monica (Andrea Pallaoro)No Bears (Jafar Panahi)All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)A Couple (Frederick Wiseman)The Son (Florian Zeller)Our Ties (Roschdy Zem)Other People’s Children (Rebecca Zlotowski)Out Of COMPETITIONFictionThe Hanging Sun (Francesco Carrozzini)When The Waves Are Gone (Lav Diaz)Living (Oliver Hermanus)Dead For A Dollar (Walter Hill)Call Of God (Kim Ki-duk)Dreamin’ Wild (Bill Pohlad)Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)Siccità (Paolo Virzi)Pearl (Ti West)Don’t Worry Darling...

Hugh Jackman needs one more trophy to complete his Egot grand slam of show business awards: an Oscar. Can he wrap that up in the coming year with his performance in Florian Zeller‘s upcoming “The Son”? Around 2,000 Gold Derby users are already predicting the 2023 awards, and even sight unseen the early consensus is that Jackman will take Best Actor. Do you think our readers’ initial instincts are spot-on or way off?

The first award Jackman crossed off his list was the Tony. After breaking through in the US as tough guy Wolverine in the “X-Men” movies, he showed that he was also a consummate song-and-dance man by playing Australian songwriter Peter Allen in “The Boy from Oz,” which won him Best Actor in a Musical in 2004. He actually hosted the Tony Awards ceremony on the night he won that award, and he won Best Variety Performance at the Emmys...

It’s been nearly three years since “The Irishman” debuted at the New York Film Festival, when it was hailed as a late-period masterpiece by Martin Scorsese. Since then, audiences have been waiting for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which has Scorsese directing his and Eric Roth’s adaptation of a David Grann non-fiction bestseller about the mysterious murders of Osage Nation members over their oil wealth. Production wrapped last October, suggesting that a fall 2022 awards push might follow.

Nah. Yesterday came word that “Killers of the Flower Moon” definitely won’t be released until 2023. Since distributors Apple and Paramount never gave the film a date, you can’t say that it was pushed — especially since Scorsese is renowned for his exacting editing processes. Cannes 2023 now looks like a logical goal — that would make for a hell of an opening night — but Apple declined comment on its plans for the film.

Updated, July 27 at 9:53 a.m. Et: The official Xr competition category of the 2022 Venice International Film Festival marks the return of the exhibition for the first time since 2019 to the island Lazzaretto Vecchio. Close to the Lido, Festival goers, industry members, and press will have the opportunity to screen 43 projects from 19 countries within the Xr exhibit.

The Venice Immersive, the new title of the Venice VR Expanded section, intends to acknowledge the growth of immersive media beyond the technologies of Virtual Reality and to include all means of creative expression in Xr – Extended Reality: 360° videos and Xr works of any length, including installations, live performances and virtual worlds. The Venice Immersive section of the 79th Venice International Film Festival will be held in person again this year, with the technical support of Meta and Htc Vive.

Returning Grand Prize winners like Celine Tricart (“Fight Back”) and special projects from...

Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera revealed a typically intriguing lineup today, full of potential fireworks and serious cinema. From Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s “personal and ambitious” Bardo to Netflix’s much-discussed Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde, there are buzz titles on offer and plenty of talking points. The lineup also offered up some interesting deviations from previous editions. Below, we discuss the selection with Barbera, who cultivated the lineup with his team over a nine-month span.

Deadline: This is a great-looking lineup. Rich and serious. How are you feeling about it?

Alberto Barbera: I’m very happy. It was a challenging and long process. We started to watch films last November. Of course, there were films that aren’t completed and we couldn’t get, but most of the films I wanted to see I could and many of those are here in the selection. There is great diversity in the lineup,...

Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde Photo: Netflix The line-up of the 79th Venice Film Festival, which runs from August 31 to September 10, has been announced.

The competition titles include directorial heavyhitters Joanna Hogg, Martin McDonagh, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, Darren Aronofsky and Andrew Dominik. Other notable names in competition are Luca Guadagnino, Jafar Panahi and Florian Zeller.

Hogg brings Wales-set The Eternal Daughter, which stars Tilda Swinton, while McDonagh brings The Banshees Of Inisherin, starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Iñárritu's Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truth tells the tale of a journalist in an existential crisis, while Aronofsky, whose Black Swan opened the festival in 2010, brings The Whale, about an obese recluse, played by Brendan Fraser. Zeller will premiere The Son, his follow-up to Oscar-winning The Father, Dominik brings his Netflix original Marilyn Monroe drama Blonde and Guadagnino brings Bones And All, about cannibals on a road trip,...

The lineup announced today for the 79th Venice Film Festival is a varied and rich offering from the world’s oldest event of its kind. There are auteur filmmakers galore who have also shown commercial mettle, previous Lido winners and some tantalizing out-of-competition entries including a short film featuring Chris Rock. While there may not be a Dune– or Joker-sized Hollywood tentpole in the bunch, this is an intriguing mix which is sure to bring plenty of star power — notably with Olivia Wilde’s out of competition title Don’t Worry Darling ferrying Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Gemma Chan and Chris Pine to the island.

Venice Film Festival 2022: Deadline’s Full Coverage

Politics and serious issues will also be at the fore; Artistic Director Alberto Barbera today took time to call out the war in Ukraine with “European democracies threatened by Putin’s imperialism.” There are titles from Ukraine as...

The 79th annual Venice Film Festival is once again setting the stage for a major awards season launch for some of the year’s most anticipated features.

It was announced Monday that Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise” with Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig will open the fest Aug. 31. Now, the full lineup announced this morning includes new outings from Olivia Wilde (“Don’t Worry Darling”), Alejandro González Iñárritu, Darren Aronofsky (“The Whale”), Luca Guadagnino (“Bones and All”), Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees Of Inisherin”), Todd Field (“TÁR”) and many more.

Also Read:

Noah Baumbach’s Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig Starrer, ‘White Noise,’ to Open Venice Film Festival

The 79th annual La Biennale di Venezia runs from Aug. 31 through Sept. 10. Twenty-one features will play in competition at the festival, including “The Whale,” “White Noise,” and “Bones and All.” Other notable features on the competition slate include the next film from “The Souvenir” director Joanna Hogg,...

Australian writer/director Andrew Dominik's 'Blonde' will premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival in September, alongside Florian Zeller's The Son, produced by See-Saw Films and starring Hugh Jackman. Australian short 'Love Forever', directed by Clare Young and EP'd by Jane Campion, has been selected for Orizzonti.

The post Andrew Dominik’s ‘Blonde’, Clare Young short ‘Love Forever’ selected for Venice appeared first on If Magazine.

With opening night locked in––Noah Baumbach’s highly-anticipated Don DeLillo adaptation White Noise––Venice Film Festival has unveiled the rest of their lineup. Amongst the slate is Todd Field’s TÁR, Andrew Dominik’s Blonde, Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener, Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All, Joanna Hogg’s The Eternal Daughter, Frederick Wiseman’s A Couple, Laura Poitras’ All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, Walter Hill’s Dead for a Dollar, and more.

Check out the lineup below, with a hat tip to Deadline.

Venezia 79 Competiton

Il Signore Delle Formiche, dir: Gianni Amelio

The Whale, dir: Darren Aronofsky

L’Imensita, dir: Emanuel Crialese

Saint Omer, dir: Alice Diop

Blonde, dir: Andrew Dominik

TÁR, dir: Todd Field

Love Life, dir: Koji Fukada

Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths, dir: Alejandro G. Inarritu

Athena,...

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The Venice Film Festival has done it again.

The lineup for the 79th Venice International Film Festival could have been a damp squib after Cannes’ stellar 2022 festival, which featured the likes of Hollywood blockbusters Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis alongside arthouse crowd pleasers, including Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness and Park Chan-wook’s South Korean mystery thriller Decision to Leave.

But Venice’s 2022 program, unveiled on Tuesday, stands up to the Croisette razzle-dazzle with an impressive mix of red-carpet-friendly, star-studded features and compelling, politically-charged dramas and documentaries. While there will be nothing to match Top Gun at the Lido this year, it looks like Venice’s position as the launch pad for award-season contenders is still firmly in place.

New features from Alejandro González Iñárritu, Florian Zeller, Noah Baumbach, Luca Guadagnino, Darren Aronofsky, Joanna Hogg and Olivia Wilde will all premiere in Venice.

New works by Darren Aronofsky, Andrew Dominik, Alejandro J. Iñárritu, Luca Guadagnino, Joanna Hogg and Laura Poitras are among the rich roster of titles that will launch from the Lido and compete for a Golden Lion at the upcoming Venice Film Festival, which is set for a standout stellar 79th edition.

Artistic director Alberto Barbera has unveiled a luscious, politically infused lineup comprising a slew of hotly anticipated pics from the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, featuring scores of stars.

Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, Ana de Armas, Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Christoph Waltz, Sigourney Weaver and Mia Goth are just some top talents now expected to be on the Palazzo Del Cinema’s red carpet during the Aug. 31-Sept. 10 event. Chris Rock may be coming to Venice to promote a short titled “Look at Me” directed by Sally Potter.

But fest director Alberto Barbera...

Update: The Venice Film Festival has revealed a robust lineup for the 79th edition which runs from August 31-September 10 on the Lido. Scroll down for the full list of Competition titles which include new works from such directors as Darren Aronofsky, Alejandro G Iñárritu, Todd Field, Andrew Dominik, Luca Guadagnino, Alice Diop, Joanna Hogg, Martin McDonagh, Jafar Panahi and Florian Zeller.

In big-ticket Out of Competition berths are Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling from Warner Bros and starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles as well as a new documentary from Oliver Stone and TV series The Kingdom Exodus and Copenhagen Cowboy, respectively from Danish auteurs Lars von Trier and Nicolas Winding Refn.

Previous: The Venice Film Festival will unveil its lineup for the 79th edition this morning at 11 a.m. local time (2 a.m. Pt/5 a.m. Et). The press conference is being held at the Library of the...

Includes films by Alejandro G. Inarritu, Joanna Hogg, Olivia Wilde, Darren Aronofsky, Andrew Dominik, Luca Guadagnino and Florian Zeller.

The line-up of the 79th Venice Film Festival (August 31-September 10) has been announced by festival president Roberto Cicutto and artistic director Alberto Barbera.

Scroll down for full line-up

The heavyweight competition line-up includes films by Alejandro G. Inarritu, Joanna Hogg, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Darren Aronofsky, Andrew Dominik, Luca Guadagnino, Martin McDonagh and Florian Zeller. As with last year, five female directors were selected in the main competition. Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling is playing out of competition.

As previously announced, Noah Baumbach...

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The 79th Venice Film Festival has its work cut out.

This year’s Cannes Film Festival set the bar high with a combination of flashy Hollywood blockbusters — Top Gun: Maverick, Elvis — and buzzy art house and independent films, including Ruben Östlund’s socially satiric Palme d’Or Winner Triangle of Sadness, David Cronenberg’s freaky sci-fi dystopia Crimes of the Future, and Park Chan-wook’s mystery masterpiece Decision to Leave.

If Venice is to retain its crown as the go-to festival for awards-season contenders — last year’s Lido lineup included Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, which went on to win this year’s Oscar for best director, as well as Denis Villeneuve’s six-fold Oscar winner Dune — it will have to match Cannes with just the right mix of prestige auteur titles and red carpet glamour.

Venice will formally unveil...

Canal Plus Group is in advanced discussions to acquire the film, television, and pay-tv divisions of Orange, the leading French telco group.

Canal Plus Group, whose parent company is Vivendi, already owns 33.3 of Ocs, the pay-tv arm of Orange, and has been distributing the service on its platform as part of its cable bundle since 2011. Canal Plus and Orange could enter into exclusive negotiations as early as September and would then be subjected to anti-trust approval, according to a pair of senior industry sources. Closing that pact could take another year.

The deal currently being discussed would also include the acquisition of Orange Studio, the content division in charge of co-producing, selling abroad and distributing select films in France. Recent movies released locally by Orange Studio include Florian Zeller’s “The Father.” The banner also has French rights to Zeller’s follow up “The Son.”

Ocs, meanwhile, has been investing...

Only hours before TIFF unveil what should be a sizeable amount of their line-up (and in the same sweeping motion confirm a lot of Venice titles), while Venice will likely steal a lot of thunder we believe that distributors might opt out or favor a Toronto world premiere. Florian Zeller’s The Son, Sarah Polley’s Women Talking, Benjamin Caron’s Sharper, Maria Schrader’s She Said and Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling might go solo rather than double or triple dip. Scott Cooper’s The Pale Blue Eye could opt for a Telluride-Toronto drop, while Noah Baumbach, Yorgos Lanthimos and Darren Aronofsky might be leaning towards a 2023 drop.…...

The Telluride Film Festival has revealed its annual poster for the 2022 event, happening over the Labor Day weekend September 2 – 5. This year’s one-sheet is designed by artist Leanne Shapton, who is also the art editor at the New York Review of Books. Swaths of eye-popping green usher in a breath of fresh air — and excitement for the movies to come over one of the most anticipated weekends of the season.

Telluride is always a treat because the event gathers tastemaking audiences at the start, rather than the middle or end, of the awards season, where the spirit of discovery is still in the air and folks aren’t beaten down by the oversaturation of awards campaigns that last the course of six months. Instead, the event, while it does push many of the awards contenders to come out of the gate, is about the pure love of the movies.

So...

Mark Lane appointed new head of worldwide sales and distribution.

UK sales agent Embankment Films has appointed HanWay Films’ Mark Lane as its new head of worldwide sales and distribution, taking over from Calum Gray.

Lane has joined after 13 years at UK sales agent HanWay Films, where he was director of sales.

Gray is leaving Embankment to start his own film industry business venture.

In May of this year, Embankment joined forces with Kevin Loader’s London-based production outfit Free Range Films to create a new umbrella company, Free Range Entertainment.

Lane said: “It’s so refreshing that 2.5 years of...

Tomorrow Studios is adapting Jonathan Franzen’s New York Times bestselling “Freedom: A Novel” into a television series with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions (“The Good Fight”). Golden Globe-winning “The Affair” producer Melanie Marnich is set to write.

“Jonathan Franzen’s ‘Freedom’ is a laugh-out-loud, emotional knock-out of a novel and we couldn’t have conjured a better writer to adapt this material than the brilliant Melanie Marnich,” Scott said in a statement. “We are very excited to bring this project to market with our partners at Tomorrow Studios.”

Released in 2010, “Freedom” was named by the Times as one of the 10 best books of the year; upon its release, it also won the John Gardner Fiction Award and became a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist.

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‘Blade Runner’ Live-Action TV Series in the Works at Amazon With Ridley Scott...

Even though it is only mid-July, Gold Derby is officially launching the 2023 Oscars predictions center! You can now make your ridiculously early picks for the eight categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay. We will continue to add more categories over the next few months before nominations are announced on January 24. Also, be assured that we will make appropriate changes, additions, deletions almost weekly as the studios make updates to their campaign plans.

SEEGovernors Awards 2022: Michael J. Fox to receive Hersholt; Euzhan Paley, Diane Warren, Peter Weir for honorary Oscars

Academy Awards voters should have an abundance of good, great and spectacular movies from which to choose for the remainder of 2022. Just a few of the high profile directors with previous Oscar wins or nominations:

“Amsterdam” directed by David O. Russell; starring Christian Bale and Margot Robbie.

Dark Winds is off to a strong launch at AMC.

The cabler today announced that it has ordered a second season of the Western noir crime thriller Dark Winds.

Produced by AMC Studios, the six-episode second season will arrive on AMC+ and AMC next year.

The series premiere on June 12 attracted an audience of 2.2 million viewers on AMC in Nielsen live+3 ratings, becoming the #5 cable drama premiere of the current broadcast TV season.

Dark Winds is also the #1 new series launch in AMC+ history.

The series has a rare 100-point score on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Set in 1971 on a remote outpost of the Navajo Nation near Monument Valley, Dark Winds follows Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Tribal Police as he is besieged by a series of seemingly unrelated crimes," the logline reads.

"The closer he digs to the truth, the more he exposes the wounds of his past. He is joined...

Exclusive: Anna Baryshnikov (Dickinson) will join Oscar nominee Kristen Stewart in A24’s romantic thriller Love Lies Bleeding from double BAFTA Award-nominated director Rose Glass (Saint Maud).

The film written by Glass and Weronika Tofilska is reportedly set in the world of bodybuilding, examining a romance fueled by ego, desire and the American Dream. Film4 developed the project alongside the filmmakers and will co-finance alongside A24, which is producing and handling the pic’s global release. Andrea Cornwell is also producing for Lobo Films, alongside Oliver Kassman for Escape Plan Productions.

Baryshnikov starred as Lavinia Dickinson, sister of poet Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld), in Apple’s Peabody Award-winning series, Dickinson, which came to the end of its third and final season last December. The actress made her feature film debut in Amazon’s Oscar-winning Manchester by the Sea, written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, also appearing opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal in...

Exclusive: Two-time Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins (Armageddon Time) has boarded Rebel Moon—the sci-fi adventure film that Zack Snyder (Army of the Dead) is directing for Netflix.

Rebel Moon is set in a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy that finds itself threatened by the armies of the tyrannical Regent Balisarius, then dispatching a young woman (Sofia Boutella) with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them make a stand. Hopkins will voice Jimmy, an impossibly sentient JC1435 mechanized battle robot and one-time defender of the slain King.

The film will also star Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Stuart Martin, Cary Elwes, Corey Stoll, Michiel Huisman, Alfonso Herrera, Ed Skrein, Cleopatra Coleman, Fra Fee, Rhian Rees, Jena Malone, E. Duffy, Charlotte Maggi, Sky Yang and Staz Nair, as previously announced.

Rebel Moon is the first feature to fall under...

Following its screening at the Overlook Film Festival, XYZ Films has acquired Mark Meir's The Summoned, with plans to release it in July!

Press Release: "XYZ Films is very proud to announce their acquisition of director Mark Meir's Faustian morality tale, The Summoned, out of the 2022 Overlook Film Festival. The distributor is planning a North American release of the film in July of 2022.

In the picture, young Elijah (Hamilton's J. Quinton Johnson) attends a self-help retreat with his rockstar girlfriend Lyn, unaware that the enigmatic doctor who runs the estate has summoned him here to settle a generations-old supernatural debt.

Directed by Meir with a script by Jewish-Ukrainian writer Yuri Baranovsky, The Summoned's powerful cast features Johnson, Emma Fitzpatrick (The Social Network), Salvador Chacon (FX's Mayans M.C.), Angela Gulner (Netflix's Glow), and Freddy Douglas (Hallmark's The Odyssey). A Wicked Myth and Happy Little Guillotine Studios co-production,...

The upcoming Venice Film Festival is getting ready to unleash a robust roster of Oscar hopefuls promoted by boatloads of Hollywood stars, with Netflix spearheading the Lido landing in September.

As Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera begins to lock in his selection, Variety understands there are four Netflix original films in the Venice mix.

The streamer’s Venice titles include Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe drama “Blonde” starring Bond girl Ana de Armas (“No Time to Die”) as the Hollywood icon; Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” with Greta Gerwig, Adam Driver and Jodie Turner-Smith, which is based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Don DeLillo; “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” the new film from Oscar winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu, which chronicles the story of a Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker going through an existential crisis; and Romain Gavras’ modern tragedy “Athena,” co-written by the French...

Jake Gyllenhaal is continuing his foray into animated features.

The Oscar-nominated actor made his voiceover debut in last year’s “Spirit Untamed” and now is leading Disney animated adventure film “Strange World,” in theaters November 23.

With a plot mostly kept under wraps, “Strange World” follows the Clade family of explorers, who journey into an uncharted land where fantastical creatures await discovery. Co-directed by Academy Award-nominated “Raya and the Last Dragon” filmmakers Don Hall and writer Qui Nguyen, “Strange World” also stars Alan Tudyk; the rest of the cast has yet to be announced.

Gyllenhaal stars as Searcher Clade, the son of a famed explorer who states in the teaser that he is nothing like his parent; instead, he is just a farmer, but still finds himself on a mission to a land “past space and time.”

“Strange World” director Hall previously has said that the feature is a nod to...

The Producers Guild of America has announced that the 34th Producers Guild Awards will take place at the Beverly Hilton on Feb. 25.

Nominations for documentary motion pictures will be announced Dec. 12; for sports, children’s and short form on Dec. 8, and for theatrical motion pictures, animated motion picture, TV series/specials, streamed or televised motion pictures on Jan. 12.

The Producers Guild recognized films including “Coda,” “Encanto,” “Summer of Soul,” “Ted Lasso,” “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” at the 2022 ceremony. Also at this year’s event, George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy were honored with the Milestone Award; Rita Moreno with the Stanley Kramer Award; Mary Parent with the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures; Greg Berlanti with the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television; and Issa Rae with the Visionary Award.

The Guild will also host East and West Coast Celebrations of the...

Tori and Lokita, the latest from the eerily consistent Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, pulls you in opposite directions when assessing it. It is as consummately made and passionately intended as anything they’ve done, but the filmmakers, as is apparent in less-successful films, can really undermine themselves with choices in plotting. I’ll never forget viewing my first, The Son, as a student in undergrad, both marveling and being almost perturbed at what a simple, elemental conflict—a man forgiving the murderer of his child—drove the entire film and generated all its tension. As in Lorna’s Silence and The Unknown Girl, this story can’t move without plot streaming out of every corner, contrivances piling upon contrivances, the way the tape could peel out of an old analog cassette or VHS.

Comparing the Dardennes to Ken Loach, one of their most profound influences, is significant too. Film critics can...

The Cannes Film Festival celebrated its 75th anniversary this year and its big prize, the Palme d’Or, was awarded to Ruben Ostlund’s Triangle of Sadness, a satire of modern capitalism. This is the Swedish director’s second time winning the coveted prize. In 2017, he won for The Square, a satire of the art world.

In honor of the festival’s milestone year, the Dardenne brothers were recognized for their social-realist drama about European refugees, Tori et Lokita. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have won the Palme d’Or twice before,...

, a distinction that shouldn’t be taken lightly in the context of filmmakers who’ve spent the last three decades carving diamond-sharp moral dramas from the plights of Belgium’s most dispossessed people.

Like most of the duo’s work, “Tori and Lokita” leverages the irreducible nature of human dignity against the ever-worsening apathy of human civilization. Like much of their work — including the Palme d’Or winner “Rosetta” and the 2002 masterpiece, “The Son” — the film’s threadbare story hinges on effectively parentless children whose need for support leads them towards danger. And like the best of their work, which this sobering return to form represents from its curious first shot to its furious last beat, its premise pulls tighter until even the simplest actions are endowed with breathless intensity.

But it’s the anger that sets “Tori and Lokita” apart from the rest of the Dardennes’ films — the anger...