The remake of “A Star Is Born” starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga has a new release date. The film will hit theaters 10/05/18, moving there from its previously assigned 05/18/18.

The move takes “A Star is Born” out of a very crowded month that starts with “Avengers: Infinity War” (May 4) and ends with Disney’s Han Solo movie (05/18/18), and lands it smack in the middle of awards season.

The third remake of the Oscar-winning 1937 film, “A Star is Born” tracks the relationship between two entertainers at opposing.

Get Out has been tapped as the recipient of the 2018 Stanley Kramer Award at the upcoming Producers Guild of America Awards.

The honor, established in 2002, recognizes "a production, producer or other individuals whose achievement or contribution illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues." It is named for the legendary producer-director behind such classics as Inherit the Wind, On the Beach, The Defiant Ones and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Get Out, written and directed by Jordan Peele, tells the story of Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), who go on a weekend getaway...

Nick Castle, who played Michael Myers, credited as “The Shape” in the original 1978 “Halloween” movie, will return to reprise the role in the upcoming Blumhouse movie, an individual with knowledge of the casting told TheWrap. David Gordon Green is directing the film that will also star original cast member Jamie Lee Curtis and also Judy Greer. Laurie Strode (Curtis) will have her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she barely escaped his killing spree four decades ago. David Gordon Green and Danny McBride are scripting the new “Halloween” film, due in theaters Oct.

Sony’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” is off to a solid start with an estimated $7 million to $8 million on its opening day at 3,765 North American sites, early estimates showed Wednesday.

The first numbers point to a six-day gross between $45 million and $55 million range for the six-day period that runs through Christmas Day. Studio projections that have been in the $45 million range for several weeks.

Initial estimates for Fox’s Hugh Jackman musical drama “The Greatest Showman” showed a first-day number of about $3 million at 3,005 locations — which would probably leave “Showman” with a six-day total of about $20 million, in line with recent forecasts.

Disney-Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is expected to continue to dominate domestic moviegoing. The tentpole took in $20.3 million domestically on Tuesday at 4,232 locations for the ninth-highest Tuesday of all time, down just 5% from Monday’s take. The North American total has hit $261.9 million in its first five days.

Principal photography has been completed on Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The film is the second in a planned five-film franchise at Warner Bros. that aims to prequelize the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on the big screen, initially based on J.K. Rowling’s book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. While that initial film, set in 1926 New York City, followed the exploits of magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his quest to round up his titular creatures, it also set up the major arc of this prequel franchise, which is the rise of Grindelwald …

Steven Soderbergh is a filmmaker known for taking risks with his projects. Rather than cash big checks working for the massive studios making tentpole films, Soderbergh has always been the guy who changes it up almost each time out. Sometimes that means taking brief “retirement” periods between films to focus on other media, like TV series (“The Knick”) or app hybrids (“Mosaic”). In 2017, Soderbergh came out of “retirement” to direct “Logan Lucky,” which is a sort of backwoods “Ocean’s Eleven.” And well, it didn’t do so hot.

Continue reading Steven Soderbergh Admits Social Media Marketing “Mistake” For ‘Logan Lucky’ at The Playlist.

Author Anne Mette Lundtofte has written an op-ed for The New Yorker that details the “dark side” of the work culture at Lars von Trier and Peter Aalbæk Jensen’s Danish film production company Zentropa. The company has been accused in the past of being home to “toxic masculinity” at the hands of von Trier and Aalbæk Jensen, but Lundtofte details new allegations in her first-person account of life inside Zentropa.

According to Lundtofte, who spent time at Zentropa while writing about the company for her book, “Zentropia,” von Trier and Jensen set up an initiation process of sorts that required employees to strip and go skinning dipping with them. Lundtofte refers to skinny dipping with von Trier and Aalbæk Jensen as a “Zentropa ritual.”

“When you’ve stripped naked in front of Aalbæk Jensen and von Trier,

The Jim Henson Company is coming on board to produce S. Craig Zahler’s movie adaptation of the orphan story “Hug Chickpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child.”

The designers at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop will work with Zahler to create and build the animatronic puppet versions of the titular character, Hug. Zahler will also direct and produce along with Dallas Sonnier of Cinestate.

The story, described as a gothic Dickensian take on “The Elephant Man,” centers on a hopeful, physically asymmetrical boy who faces challenges in an orphanage and the weird and dangerous world outside. The white-haired baby inspires both ire and pity at the orphanage, until the day that an elderly eccentric adopts him as a pet.

Zahler is the writer-director of “Bone Tomahawk” and “Brawl in Cell Block 99.” The latter starred Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, and Don Johnson and premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2017. His police thriller, “Dragged Across

Disney-Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” has sped through the half-billion dollar mark in box office grosses at $536.7 million worldwide in a week, with $42.1 million on Tuesday.

The tentpole took in $20.3 million domestically at 4,232 locations for the ninth-highest Tuesday of all time, down just 5% from Monday’s take. The North American total has hit $261.9 million in its first five days.

Tuesday’s international gross totaled $21.8 million for a foreign total of $274.8 million, led by the U.K. with $46 million, Germany with $27.6 million, France with $21.6 million, Australia with $19.8 million, and Japan with $18.3 million. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” began opening internationally on Dec. 13 and 14. China will open on Jan. 5.

Renee Zellweger is currently hip-deep in research for her next role, playing Judy Garland in Judy, an upcoming biopic about the late singer.

"There's so much material out there," Zellweger, 48, tells THR. Her favorite find so far: a clip of Garland performing with Mickey Rooney on CBS' The Judy Garland Show, which ran in 1963 and 1964. "She's so comfortable," Zellweger marvels of Garland, who died of an accidental barbiturate overdose in 1969. "You could see she's being herself. She was so funny and cool."

Still, there is one key resource Zellweger hasn't yet tapped for the film (which starts...

Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston whose failures to stop child molesters in the priesthood sparked what would become the worst crisis in American Catholicism, died early Wednesday, the Vatican said. He was 86.

Law had been sick and was recently hospitalized in Rome.

Law was once one of the most important leaders in the U.S. church. He broadly influenced Vatican appointments to American dioceses, helped set priorities for the nation's bishops and was favored by Pope John Paul II.

But in January 2002, The Boston Globe began a series of reports that used church records to...

Thérèse DePrez, the well-regarded production designer on such films as Black Swan, Summer of Sam and High Fidelity, has died. She was 52.

DePrez died Tuesday at her home in New York City, Black Swan graphic designer Derrick Kardos, a friend and frequent collaborator, told The Hollywood Reporter. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2015, and he set up a GoFundMe page to assist her with expenses.

"I told her to keep her expectations low. I said we'll get $5,000 or $10,000 if we're lucky," Kardos said. "Well, we raised almost $80,000 from hundreds of people....

Disney's Artemis Fowl has found it's lead with newcomer Ferdia Shaw, who will play the 12-year-old genius that runs his family's criminal empire.

Shaw, who will make his big screen debut in the Kenneth Branagh-helmed adaptation, was cast as the lead after an extensive search, which included more than 1,200 possible candidates.

The movie will was adapted for the screen by playwright Conor McPherson from Eoin Colfer's bestselling book series, which follows the intelligent Artemis as he attempts to uncover a hidden race of fairies who may be behind his father’s disappearance.

Disney announced Thursday that Josh Gad, who starred in the studio's live-action Beauty...

If you ask me, using Abba‘s already great songs for a musical is kind of cheat. But Universal didn’t ask me, and they did just fine with “Mamma Mia,” which earned $609 million worldwide a decade ago. Incidentally, that’s nearly $200 million more globally than the Best Picture nominated “La La Land.” But then again, that movie didn’t have Abba songs. Anyway, the sequel, “Mamma Mia!

Continue reading ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’ Trailer: Return To Greece For Another Abba Inspired Musical at The Playlist.

The lacklustre acquisitions market points to contextual challenges.

Source: Creative Commons

Odeon Holloway Road

Soon after returning from Los Angeles, where Screen International had attended the American Film Market (Afm), I met with the head of one of the UK’s largest distributors. “What is going on?” they asked, rhetorically. “It’s crazy out there.”

The industry veteran was referring to the general listlessness of the traditional independent acquisitions market but also specifically to inaction among UK buyers. Paramount’s splashy $10m deal for comedy Book Club, starring Diane Keaton and Jane Fonda, was the standout at an otherwise soporific Afm. Personally, I had never covered a major market as quiet.

To take the case of the UK, the territory has been shaping towards consolidation for some time. “We’re all going into markets much more cautiously,” Lionsgate UK boss Zygi Kamasa told Screen ahead of the market. Entertainment One and Lionsgate are increasingly leaning on output

Michael Hurst creates Green Pavilion Entertainment.

Vikings showrunner and The Tudors creator Michael Hirst has launched a TV drama indie, securing a multi-year deal with MGM Television for its premium projects.

Source: BBC Two

Vikings

The Bafta-nominated writer has teamed with long-time producing partners Morgan O’Sullivan and James Flynn to launch Green Pavilion Entertainment. It will develop and produce high-end dramas for international and domestic markets.

The indie has struck an exclusive first-look deal with MGM to develop and produce dramas across a variety of genres. The trio of execs previously collaborated with MGM Television on History’s long-running scripted drama Vikings.

Green Pavilion’s first project under the MGM deal is Ronin, a series inspired by United Artists’ 1998 spy thriller. In the movie, which starred Robert De Niro, a team of special operatives are hired to steal a mysterious briefcase.

The fledgling outfit has also hired Sharon Remmer as creative director.

Formerly a drama head

China’s Film Bureau has announced an incentive scheme to reward movie theaters that increase box office scores for local films. The move will take effect from Jan. 1, 2018.

The scheme rewards theaters which derive more than 55% of their box office revenues from Chinese films, by allowing them to keep half of a 5% tax they pay on ticket sales. There are bigger bonuses for those which score 60% and 66%.

The scheme is not the first time that China has announced such a scheme. In March last year it said that theaters earning 66% could keep half the tax.

“I don’t think the Chinese government reduced the target because they were feeling generous. They wanted results, and they weren’t getting them at 66%,” said lawyer Matthew Dresden at law firm Harris Bricken. Boosted by the $860 million gross for “Wolf Warriors II,” market share for Chinese films stood at 52% as of mid-November.

The scheme has numerous potential problems. These include

Leading Chinese auteur, Wang Xiaoshuai has completed a marathon three-month shoot for “Di Jiu Tian Chang.” The film is the first element of a trio of films that Wang brands as his Homeland Trilogy, examining changing times and families in modern China.

Working from a script co-written with “Under The Hawthorn Tree” screenwriter Ah Mei, the first part spans a 40-year period, starting with the economic reforms of the 1980s. The story follows the troubles that afflict and force apart two families that had previously been close.

Wang, says he is aiming to mount the trilogy on a far larger visual and narrative scale than his previous “Shanghai Dreams” or “Beijing Bicycle.” The shoot took in multiple cities from the North to the South of China.

Production is by Liu Xuan through Beijing-based Dongchun Films, with finance from Hehe Pictures and Fengshanjian. Discussions with international sales companies are ongoing, but have not concluded.

The cast includes

In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by the TV advertising attention analytics company iSpot.tv, Universal Pictures claims the top spot in spending with “Pitch Perfect 3.”

Ads placed for the comedy had an estimated media value of $8.99 million through Sunday for 1,352 national ad airings across 44 networks. (Spend figures are based on estimates generated from Dec. 11-17. Estimates may be updated after the chart is posted as new information becomes available.) Universal prioritized spend across networks including NBC, Fox and CBS, and during programming such as NFL Football, A Christmas Story Live! and The Voice.

Just behind “Pitch Perfect 3” in second place: Columbia Pictures’ “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” which saw 1,271 national ad airings across 47 networks, with an estimated media value of $7.56 million. This film also had the best iSpot Attention Index (128) in the ranking, getting 28% fewer interruptions than the average movie ad (interruptions include changing the channel, pulling up the

Wed., 10:43Pm Update: Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is coming in around $7.4M today and the industry continues to remain bullish that the Jake Kasdan film will get into the high $50Ms, with a shot at $60M by the end of Christmas Day. After dinner, that’s when everyone is expected to head to the cinema. Sneaks for Jumanji for Amazon Prime members grossed $2M on December 8, and that cash will be rolled into its total cume. CinemaScore audiences gave…