Could Glinda the Good Witch also be Glinda the Gay Witch? “Wicked” star Ariana Grande thinks she “might be a little in the closet” — and original Broadway lead Kristin Chenoweth agrees. In an interview with The Gay Times leading up to the premiere of the movie musical, Grande and co-star Cynthia Erivo discussed the […]

Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who is both one of India’s most revered filmmaking veterans and a self-confessed angry man, took to the stage on Friday for a (mostly) good-natured introspective conversation punctuated with musical interludes. Though he scarcely needed prompting, Chopra, the dynamo behind “3 Idiots,” “Munna Bhai MBBS” and “12th Fail,” was pressed by friend […]

U.K. and India-based production company Civic Studios is presenting “Just Like Her Mother,” a series exploring the women’s rights movement through an intergenerational story, at India’s Film Bazaar co-production market. Venice Film Festival winner Ruchika Oberoi (“Island City”) is in talks to direct. The series follows a daughter’s investigation into her mother’s disappearance, while examining […]

A panel of film industry veterans at Film Bazaar highlighted both opportunities and challenges facing independent Indian cinema, particularly in distribution and theatrical exhibition. During a discussion moderated by Rajeev Masand, COO of Dharma Cornerstone Agency, panelists addressed the complex ecosystem required to sustain independent filmmaking in India. “There is absolutely no independence,” said filmmaker […]

The American Society of Cinematographers presented a discussion about artificial intelligence, focused on how it’s being used today in filmmaking and its legal implications, during cinematography festival EnergaCamerimage. To the latter, there were a lot of questions for panelist Angela Dunning, an attorney at Cleary Gottlieb, including those surrounding copyright class-action suits against developers for […]

On the heels of a world premiere at the 28th Annual Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival’s First Feature Competition and ahead of its screening at Latin America’s largest film market, Ventana Sur, Paris-based sales outfit MPM Premium and Santiago-based Infractor Films have given Variety exclusive access to the trailer for Chilean filmmaker Diego Figueroa’s frantic psychological thriller, […]

Sylvester Stallone has seldom played the villain onscreen, and judging from the stolidity of his turn in “Armor,” it seems unlikely he’s wanted to. That lack of enthusiasm will be echoed by most viewers watching this uninspired action programmer, in which top-billed Jason Patric’s driver and coworker-son Josh Wiggins get waylaid by armed robbers while […]

The kid’s gonna be fine. It’s the parents who are not all right in “Spellbound,” a straight-to-Netflix computer-animated fairy tale with a smart concept (what’s a girl to do when her home life is shattered?) and its heart in the right place. If only the movie were transparent about its premise from the outset, as […]

Jason Kelce is ready to blitz the ranks of TV’s late-night hosts in a limited-run wee-hours program on ESPN. “They Call It Late Night With Jason Kelce” will air on five consecutive overnights heading into late-season NFL football weekends. The series will run at 1 a.m. on Saturdays starting January 4 on ESPN, with the […]

If it had been released just two years ago, “Bonhoeffer” might have come across as simply the latest in a long line of respectable but predictable period dramas about brave Germans who dared to stand up to the Nazi regime. Today, however, the movie feels more like an uncomfortably timely cautionary tale with unsettling echoes […]

The U.S.’s two satellite TV providers aren’t getting hitched anymore, at least anytime soon. DirecTV on Thursday formally announced that it was nixing the agreement with EchoStar to buy Dish Network. The deal is being terminated effective as of 11:59 p.m. ET on Nov. 22, DirecTV said. DirecTV’s official termination of the agreement follows Dish […]

Bhutanese filmmaker Dechen Roder’s “I, The Song” has been acquired by Fidalgo Film Distribution for Norway. The film had its world premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, where the acquisition was made, and has its Asia premiere at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa. In the film, to save her job and reputation, a […]

“Bidjara Kumari,” a pioneering feature film bridging Australian Aboriginal and Indian cultures is taking shape, it was revealed at the ongoing Film Bazaar in Goa. The announcement comes as Australia takes center stage as the focus country at the International Film Festival of India IFFI, of which Film Bazaar is the project market component. The […]

Ridham Janve, an already acclaimed director attending the Film Bazaar with his second film “Hunter’s Moon” (aka “Kaatti Ri Raatti”), likens the editing process to a game of long-distance chess that he played with star editor Amit Dutta. “I would send him bursts of files, notes and elements of the mood, but not the narrative. […]

Was he a sideman or a star? The only way you become a star is to chase it forcefully enough, and there was a lingering part of Preston that was more comfortable standing in the shadows.

Latino actors have long been outspoken about the types of roles they are frequently relegated to in most American productions: criminals, migrants, housekeepers. On that front, the romantic comedy “Say a Little Prayer” succeeds at defying the status quo by presenting professionally accomplished American Latino characters (who own enviable homes) in a plot that doesn’t […]

Chinese video streaming group iQiyi incurred setbacks in subscriptions and advertising, but was able to improve its content sales, leading to a July to September quarter that was down in revenue and profit terms. Total revenues were RMB7.2 billion ($1.0 billion), a decrease of 10% year over year in the third quarter of iQiyi’s current […]

Veteran TV agent and producer Michael Carlton “Cal” Boyington, whose credits included helping package MTV’s “The Osbournes,” has died. He was 53. Boyington was found unresponsive at his home in San Pedro on Nov. 18. The TV talent and packaging agent founded his own firm, the Vital Artists Agency, in 2020. Before that, he was […]

In the new Broadway musical “Death Becomes Her,” a so-so 1992 movie gets a stunning makeover. Headlined by Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and a slew of special effects, the film followed two vain women in their desperate quest for eternal youth and beauty — with a supernatural twist. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the black comedy […]