The outlook for big screen comedies keeps getting brighter, as beloved “Saturday Night Live” alum Kristen Wiig is joining Jonah Hill in his new Warner Bros. feature “Cut Off.”

Wiig has booked the co-lead alongside Hill. They’ll reportedly play wealthy siblings whose parents turn off the money faucet and force their adult kids to support themselves. Hill is directing the project and co-wrote the script with Ezra Woods.

The studio has carved out a July 17, 2026 release date for the comedy, setting the table for a blockbuster summer romp from Wiig and Hill — the team that gave us the viral “Liza Minelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp” sketch in her “SNL” days.

News of the film leaked earlier this year when it was reported that “Cut Off” would receive $10 million in California production tax credits, against a budget close to $50 million. Cameras will roll this fall. Hill will produce...

Cineverse and Air Bud Entertainment have launched a nationwide talent search to find the next golden retriever to star as Air Bud in the upcoming film, “Air Bud Returns.”

Beginning this August, dog owners across the U.S. are invited to submit their purebred golden retrievers for a chance to carry on the legacy of the beloved canine star. Submissions can be made through the official Air Bud website, and all entrants will be eligible to win a variety of prizes as the film’s release nears — including official “Air Bud” jerseys and a trip to the Hollywood premiere.

Variety exclusively reported in July that “Air Bud Returns” was in development and slated for a summer 2026 theatrical release. It will be written and directed by Robert Vince, who founded Abe. Vince was a producer on all of the original films (including franchise spinoffs like “Santa Paws”) and wrote and directed 10 of them.

With “Paradise,” James Marsden received an Emmy nomination for playing the leader of the United States — but it’s not the first time we’ve seen him sitting in the driver’s seat. Soon, Marvel fans will see the actor once again portraying the leader of the X-Men as well.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Marsden opened up a bit about “Avengers: Doomsday” and his anticipated return to his earliest iconic role: Scott Summers (a.k.a. Cyclops) in 20th Century Fox’s “X-Men” film series.

“I’m getting a little long in the tooth to put on the superhero costume,” Marsden laughed. “I was excited because you’re a part of something gigantic, and I’ve spent 20 years listening to people say, ‘When are you coming back? When are you coming back? Are you coming back?’ I’m dead. Well, maybe not.”

Marsden is one of several 2000s...

Talk about a good first impression. On the first day of David Ellison’s takeover at Paramount, his film studio won a highly competitive auction for the big screen reunion between Timothée Chalamet and James Mangold.

Paramount will distribute “High Side,” starring Chalamet and directed by Mangold, who previously collaborated to Oscar-nominated success on the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.”

Chernin Entertainment will produce the project based on an original story by Jaimie Oliveira, who will also adapt the script. The film is described as “Heat” meets “Hell or High Water.” Chalamet will play a former Motocross racer, haunted by a career-ending crash and a long history of abandonment in a broken family. His estranged brother draws him back on the bike and into danger for a series of bank robberies as the FBI closes in on the pair.

“We’re thrilled to be in business with visionary artists like James and Timothée,...

Fans of the caped crusader have had to exercise extreme patience as they await the follow-up to Matt Reeves' The Batman, which introduced Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight. Warner Bros. just announced The Batman Part II will begin filming in spring of 2026 and expects the sequel to land in theaters in October 2027.

The Batman was released in 2022 and raked in an impressive $773 million at the worldwide box office, despite writer-director Reeves' extra-broody take on the character. Reeves only recently turned in a completed script to the studio this past June. Now that a release date is on the calendar, the speculation can begin as to which villains may appear and which comic book storylines Batman might explore. We do know the movie will have some connection to the Emmy-nominated series "The Penguin," and Colin Farrell will be returning as Oswald Cobb. The only other confirmed cast include Pattinson, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, and Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth.

Stay up to date on The Batman Part II on IMDb ...

James Gunn will write and direct “the next installment in the Super-Family,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav confirmed during the company’s earnings call.

Gunn had previously said in various interviews during his “Superman” press tour that he was writing a new movie featuring David Corenswet’s Superman in it, although he always remained coy on whether it was a standalone “Superman” sequel or something else. Zaslav provided no clarity there, opting to say “next movie in the Super-Family,” but it’s news that Gunn will direct the movie in addition to writing the screenplay. He served the same dual role on “Superman.”

Warner Bros. recently relaunched the DC Universe with Gunn’s “Superman,” which ignited to $125 million domestically in early July and has since generated $315 million in North America and $550 million globally.

Next up for the franchise is “Peacemaker” Season 2, followed by the “Supergirl” movie and the “Lanterns...

New Line has no intention of trying to stop death. In fact, it’s inviting even more.

The Warner Bros. division is moving forward with a follow-up to its horror hit Final Destination: Bloodlines, hiring that movie’s co-writer, Lori Evans Taylor, to pen the next installment.

The hiring comes after Bloodlines, released in May, grossed over $286 million at the worldwide box office, $138.1 million of that domestically. That movie was the sixth installment of the horror franchise and the first one since 2011.

It was by far the most successful outing of the movie series, with its domestic total more than double the next movie down, 2009’s The Final Destination.

Taylor was a key player on the script, which was co-written with Guy Busick (Ready or Not) from a story by Taylor, Busick, and Jon Watts, the Spider-Man: Homecoming director who was creatively involved with Bloodlines. Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein directed the film.

It's been a long, long time since horror fans have been treated to new media featuring Jason Voorhees killing young people near a lake. Even "Friday the 13th: The Game" was shut down last year. But at long last, the folks at Horror Inc. and the recently launched Jason Universe are amending the situation. While we're not getting a new feature film just yet, an official short titled "Sweet Revenge" is dropping online next week. On top of that, we now know who is playing Jason in the so-called vignette.

According to Bloody Disgusting, Guinness World Record holder and stunt man Schuyler White will portray the machete-wielding murderer behind the mask in "Sweet Revenge." Directed by Mike P. Nelson ("Wrong Turn"), the forthcoming short is 13 minutes long and, as the trailer below indicates, it will deliver some classic "Friday the 13th" thrills. That said, specific plot details are being kept...

Spoiler Alert: This story discusses all major plot developments, including the ending, in “Weapons,” currently playing in theaters.

Zach Cregger’s new horror film “Weapons” has been released, and the marketing for the movie is centered upon a mystery printed on the poster: “Last night, at 2:17 am, every child from Mrs. Gandy’s class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, opened the front door, walked into the dark … and they never came back.”

Too scared to go see the movie, but curious to find out what happened? Read on for a breakdown of the plot.

The film starts right away with the central mystery, and the increasingly desperate parents in the town are convinced that Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) knows something about why every middle school student — besides a young boy named Alex (Cary Christopher) — from her class disappeared and where they went.

As the search hits...

Tom Hanks has shared a tribute to James A. Lovell, the astronaut he portrayed in the 1995 feature “Apollo 13.” Lovell died Thursday at the age of 97. The film, directed by Ron Howard, starred Hanks as Lovell and dramatized the Apollo 13 lunar mission, which faced an explosion after launching and forced NASA scientists to improvise solutions to return its crew safely to Earth.

“There are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to the place we would not go on our own. Jim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person of our planet, was that kind of guy,” Hanks wrote in a tribute shared on his social media platforms. “His many voyages around Earth and on to so-very-close to the moon were not made for riches or celebrity, but because such challenges as those are what fuels the...

“Pee-wee as Himself” offers a refreshing contrast to celebrity documentaries shaped by estate-approved image control. Director Matt Wolf approached the film as a gay man profoundly influenced by “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” and its message of non-conformity — and as someone eager to unpack the complexity of Paul Reubens, a brilliant artist who re-entered the closet and disappeared behind his iconic persona to thrive in Hollywood.

However, Wolf didn’t expect the project to nearly break him. It changed him personally and professionally — but it also earned five Emmy nominations, including Best Director. On this week’s Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, he reflected on the toll of making a film about his idol.

Wolf’s introduction to Reubens came through Josh and Benny Safdie, who would later come aboard as producers.

“Paul had met with other directors whom he either didn’t connect with artistically or who were not open to his level of involvement,...

Nicholas Colia’s feature directorial debut “Griffin in Summer” is aptly getting a summer release. The writer-director helms the indie coming of age story that debuted at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival and subsequently won the Founders Award at the festival for best U.S. narrative feature and best screenplay in a U.S. narrative feature. The film also landed a special jury mention for director Colia, who went on to be nominated for the Someone to Watch Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

“Griffin in Summer” centers on an ambitious 14-year-old playwright Griffin Nafly (Everett Blunck) who is determined to self-produce a divorce drama titled “Regrets of Autumn” while living with his mom (Melanie Lynskey). Yet a newfound friendship with Brad (Owen Teague), an older performance artist and handyman, changes Griffin’s plans for stardom. Kathryn Newton and Abby Ryder Fortson co-star.

The IndieWire review credited Colia for infusing the film with “cheeky humor,...

Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation is a smartly unconventional look at the 1957 novel that captured a counterculture and continues to resonate with outsiders and inner journey seekers to this very day. Directed by Ebs Burnough (The Capote Tapes), the peripatetic doc includes “never-before-seen material” from the personal archive of Jack Kerouac along with images that provide much-needed context to the sexy author’s postwar milieu. But rather than centering the mythologized man or his alter ego Sal Paradise, Burnough instead takes the inspired […]

The post “The Greatest Gift We Have is Community, Which is Such an Integral Part of the Human Experience”: Ebs Burnough on Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

To celebrate the home video release of "Jurassic World Rebirth," Universal Home Entertainment invited /Film and a few other outlets to Thailand to see several of the locations where the film was shot, as well as interview director Gareth Edwards and some of the cast.

Thapanee Kiatphaibool, the governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, was on hand to explain why Thailand is a great place for Hollywood productions to shoot, and she spoke about how part of the draw is the variety of landscapes that can be found here within a relatively short distance. As if to underline that point, we spent the next few days exploring three distinctly different environments seen in the movie. Here are the highlights of our "land, air, and sea" adventure.

For the "land" section, we drove two hours from our hotel to the grasslands in Krabi, where the titanosaurus DNA is obtained in the movie.

2021 was a very bizarre year for the movie business. The box office was on straight-up life support after the 2020 shutdowns brought on by the pandemic. But Hollywood did try to bring audiences back to theaters, with blockbusters like "Godzilla vs. Kong" welcoming people back in a meaningful way. Then there were smaller movies like Universal's action/comedy "Nobody," which became a decent little hit for the studio, particularly while grading on the pandemic curve. Now, four years later, Bob Odenkirk ("Better Call Saul") is back as Hutch in "Nobody 2." The question is, can the sequel succeed on its own terms in a radically different marketplace?

"Nobody 2" hits theaters next weekend and is currently looking at an opening in the $11 to $16 million range domestically, per Box Office Theory. While that's not exactly lighting the charts on fire, the original opened to a mere $6.8 million in North America before...

Straight-up comedies have struggled to find a foothold in theaters since the pandemic, but after last weekend’s encouraging “The Naked Gun” launch and this weekend’s promising “Freakier Friday” prospect, it looks like studios are ready to invest in comedy all over again.

Variety has shared that Kristen Wiig — the “SNL” alum who powered one of the ’10s most successful laughers, “Bridesmaids” — will co-star with Jonah Hill as siblings in the upcoming Warner Bros. release “Cut Off.”

The pair will play adult siblings forced to adjust to real life after their parents stop paying for them. Ezra Woods co-wrote with Hill, who will also direct. “Cut Off” will hit theaters on July 17, 2026, placing it as counter programming to “The Odyssey,” which — of course — already has sold out advance IMAX screenings for that date, 11.5 months ahead of its actual release.

Wiig will return to live action features for the first...

Eddie Murphy stands by “Norbit,” his infamous 2007 comedy that many have suspected cost him the best supporting actor Oscar for “Dreamgirls” at the 79th Academy Awards. Murphy portrayed multiple roles in “Norbit,” including the title character’s overweight wife Rasputia. The comedy opened in theaters Feb. 9, 2007 amid the comedian’s rave reviews for “Dreamgirls,” in which he played the charismatic soul singer James (Jimmy) “Thunder” Early.

As the story goes, Murphy received his Oscar nomination for “Dreamgirls” just over a week before “Norbit” opened in theaters. He had emerged as the season’s supporting actor frontrunner after winning prizes from the Golden Globes and Screen Actors’ Guild Awards. Then “Norbit” opened to abysmal reviews from critics. Alan Arkin ended up winning the Oscar for best supporting actor for “Little Miss Sunshine.” The industry was quick to blame the “Norbit effect” for why Murphy lost the Oscar.

During a recent video...

Viola Davis and Walter Murch were awarded honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degrees by the American Film Institute at the conservatory’s commencement ceremony. The event took place at the Tcl Chinese Theater on Friday morning.

Davis told the graduates that “they already have their ruby slippers.”

“You have to know that you have the power within you to make it, whatever that making it means,” Davis told Variety moments before accepting the honor. “That’s what I want to remind them.”

Davis also talked about the significance of AFI recognizing her contributions to the film and TV industry.

“It’s always especially potent when it’s given by your peers,” she said. “I consider everyone that is in this profession — no matter how long they’ve been in it, known, unknown, faceless — my peers. They know the work. They know the artistry. It makes me feel capable. It makes...

Spoiler Alert: This article contains minor spoilers about “Weapons,” now playing in theaters.

Director Zach Cregger’s sophomore feature, “Weapons,” is a story about a small town overtaken by a malevolent force. One night, all of the kids from a specific classroom run away, and the townspeople become increasingly furious that the police have no leads. The narrative follows several locals — including troubled teacher Justine (Julia Garner), whose class went missing; Paul, a cop (Alden Ehrenreich); Archer (Josh Brolin), whose son is one of the missing kids; and a young burglar (Austin Abrams) — as they get pulled into the central mystery.

Although he was unable to talk about any specific spoilers at the end of the film, Cregger broke down many key elements in “Weapons,” Including the film’s use of humor, gore and that surreal moment with the floating assault weapon.

You’ve cited Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia...

Pedro Pascal is staying within the “Star Wars” family, but this time, for an indie film. IndieWire can confirm that the “Mandalorian” actor is in talks to lead “Andor” creator Tony Gilroy’s feature “Behemoth!” for Searchlight Pictures. Deadline reported that the deal is not yet closed.

The plot remains still under wraps but the feature is believed to be centered on a cellist. Oscar Isaac was originally attached in the lead role, which Pascal is now eyeing. Gilroy will produce the yet-untitled film along with Sanne Wohlenberg. Principal photography will begin this fall in Los Angeles, with release plans to be announced at a later date.

Pascal has been playing musical chairs to juggle his full slate of projects: The actor appeared in “The Last of Us: Season 2, “Materialists,” “Eddington,” and “Fantastic Four: First Steps” all in 2025. He will reprise his “Fantastic Four” role of Reed Richards for “Avengers: Doomsday...

A seventh “Final Destination” movie is in the works at New Line with “Bloodlines” co-writer Lori Evans Taylor returning to pen the new installment.

Craig Perry, Sheila Hanahan Taylor, Jon Watts, Dianne McGunigle and Toby Emmerich also return to produce the Warner Bros. and New Line movie with Warren Zide executive producing.

“Final Destination: Bloodlines,” the sixth movie in the 25-year-old horror franchise, opened at No. 1 at the global box office this May. With a $51 million domestic debut, the movie achieved the best opening weekend in the series to date. By the end of its theatrical run, it became the franchise’s highest-grossing film, with a $286 million global haul. Overall, the feath-driven series has earned over $983 million worldwide, making it New Line’s third-biggest horror franchise behind “The Conjuring” universe ($2.3 billion) and the “It” movies ($1.2 billion).

Taylor co-wrote the screenplay for “Bloodlines” with Gary Busick, reviving a franchise that had...

“Home Alone” favorite Macaulay Culkin appeared on the latest episode of “Hot Ones” and got asked to pick his favorite movie in which he played Kevin McCallister. Does Culkin prefer the 1990 original “Home Alone” or its 1992 sequel, “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York”? It turns out the answer is not too complicated for the former child star.

Culkin did not hesitate to answer “Home Alone” 2 and quipped: “I got paid more. I think I own five percent of the net. And also 15 perfect of the merchandising. So, if you buy a Talkboy I’m like yeah, I’ll take 15 percent of that. Thank you very much. By the way, buy a Talkboy this Christmas.”

Both “Home Alone” movies are considered classics and were box office hits. The franchise remains near and dear to Culkin’s heart, not only because of its success but also due to the relationships he...

The Babadook and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries star plays a corporate scientist pushing the limits of human survival in the new series Alien: Earth

Essie Davis didn’t watch much horror growing up in Tasmania; the 55-year-old actor can still bitterly recall the moment when, aged four, she was left at home while her older siblings went to see Jaws at the local cinema in Hobart.

“I stood by the back door going, ‘I will remember this day for the rest of my life!’” Davis recalls, speaking from her current family home, also in Tasmania.

Extraterrestrial influencers making social media content about human food, a scientist producing genetically modified fruits and the soul-sucking dangers of capitalist hustle culture all come together in “Boys Go to Jupiter.” Inherently unexpected in the landscape of American independent film, Julian Glander’s idiosyncratic delight is the rare animated feature made outside of this country’s major studios. With his hilariously offbeat, uniquely stylized and surreptitiously profound debut, Glander joins a small but notable list of directors daring enough to try their hand at indie animation in the U.S., joining the ranks of Bill Plympton, Dash Shaw and Don Hertzfeldt.

Billboards preaching threatening Bible verses and orange groves with sinister origins proliferate in the Florida beach town where “Boys Go to Jupiter” unfurls. There resides brooding 16-year-old Billy 5000 (Jack Corbett), who has left his childish interests behind to become preoccupied with making money delivering food via an app called...

Perhaps the secret to making a great coming-of-age movie in 2025 is making everything look like it’s happening in a mobile game. As early adolescence becomes an increasingly online experience — sure, kids still play sports and go outside, but the kind of unsupervised exploration captured in films like “Stand by Me” is now far more likely to happen in open world games than on bikes without a parent in sight — it helps to meet dejected youngsters on their own hyper-colorful, overstimulating level.

Not that Julian Glander’s delightful debut feature “Boys Go to Jupiter” ever acknowledges its digital sheen. The 3D animator, who branches out into filmmaking after a career spent making graphics for everyone from The New York Times to The New Yorker and short films for Adult Swim, immerses us in a world that appears to be constructed out of virtual Play-Doh, with candy-colored blobs forming a...

Disney’s planned 2026 integration of Hulu into Disney+ could represent more than streaming consolidation — it creates unprecedented opportunities for both Disney and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to reshape awards broadcasting for the streaming era.

As the Academy’s current ABC deal approaches its 2028 expiration, Disney’s unified platform offers global reach while the Academy Awards provides Disney with a big launch platform and the prestige of hosting one of the year’s biggest events in entertainment.

Disney’s recent acquisition of Comcast’s last remaining equity interest in Hulu paves the way for Disney and the Academy to come up with creative ways to showcase the Oscars via streaming. The last deal between the sides was set in 2016 — well before the launch of Disney+ and the rest of the streaming explosion.

“If the Oscars stay at ABC, it represents the best of both worlds,” a veteran awards strategist tells Variety.

Even after a successful premiere that led to their documentary becoming not only one of the best reviewed films out of Sundance 2024, but one of the biggest acquisitions out of the festival, “Will & Harper” director Josh Greenbaum and subject Harper Steele were not aware of just how long the journey to becoming an Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special Emmy nominee would take them.

“I had no idea we were even eligible for an Emmy, quite honestly,” said Steele to IndieWire over Zoom. “Depending on the mood I’m in, it was either a cherry on the top or a sad surprise,” she joked, thinking back on the prospect of a second year of awards campaigning.

“Will & Harper,” about Steele going on a road trip with famous friend Will Ferrell to re-establish their relationship now that she has come out as a transgender woman, is the latest example of...

Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms caters to its own niche of film obsessives.

From the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel to the new frontiers of streaming offered by the likes of Metrograph at Home and the Kino Film Collection (now on Roku!), IndieWire’s monthly guide highlights the best of what’s coming to every major streamer, with an eye toward exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.

Here’s your guide for August 2025.

This article contains spoilers for "Weapons."

"Weapons," the latest horror feature from writer/director Zach Cregger, is a masterclass in manipulation — in more ways than one. Cregger's prior film (his first as a solo filmmaker), "Barbarian," was a movie that was very clever in its misdirection, leading audiences to believe one thing was happening when it wasn't, and hiding what was actually happening from people until the proverbial trap was ready to be sprung. Given the general rapturous response to that movie, Cregger must have been aware that his follow-up would be under heavy scrutiny for any big twists and turns from the start, something which "Barbarian" didn't have to deal with. As such, Cregger has built "Weapons" around the very idea of an unsolved mystery. In other words, both the film's characters and the viewing audience are asking the same central question: what happened to 17 particular children who left...

After four years in charge, Fran Drescher will not seek another term as president of SAG-AFTRA.

Drescher’s decision has been known within the union for some time. But it was made official on Friday when the union released the list of candidates for the upcoming election.

Sean Astin, who has served on the negotiating committee and the national and local boards, will run for president against Chuck Slavin, a member of the local board in New England.

Drescher took the helm of SAG-AFTRA in 2021 with the goal of uniting an organization that had been riven by factional politics. She largely did that, in part by taking the union on strike against the major film and TV companies for the first time in four decades.

Drescher had little to no experience in union politics before taking the top job. She was re-elected in 2023 on a “unity ticket,” as the two...

Spoilers follow.

Movies these days can't just be their own thing. Thanks to success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, studio execs everywhere salivate at the idea of a cinematic universe. Why make one movie that stands on its own when you can instead use that film as a launchpad for sequels, prequels, and spin-offs? Of course, more often than not, this plan backfires (just take a look at Sony's now-aborted Spider-Man-free Spider-Man universe). Good idea or not, modern moviegoers have been conditioned to expect this treatment for new films.

Case in point: Zach Cregger, who helmed the excellent horror pic "Barbarian," is back with "Weapons," a wild and crazy new fright flick full of shocking twists and turns. While "Weapons" obviously isn't a sequel to "Barbarian," lots of digital ink has been spilled speculating that this new Cregger film has some sort of direct connection to the previous.

So ... does it?...

Gkids has acquired the North American distribution rights to the Chinese box office hit, “The Legend of Hei 2.”

The film is a follow-up to the 2019 feature “The Legend of Hei.” Derived from the animated series of the same name, the film continues Luo Xiaohei’s journey as he confronts a new crisis following an attack on a formidable guild, exploring themes of resilience and friendship.

The official logline reads: “When an attack shatters the fragile peace between the spirit world and humanity, Hei teams up with Luye, the last disciple of his Shifu Wuxian, to expose a conspiracy that threatens both realms — and the bond they’ve sworn to protect.”

“We’ve long been impressed with the world and characters that Mtjj has developed over the years,” said Gkids VP of Distribution, Chance Huskey. “The Legend of Hei 2 delivers a dazzlingly animated action adventure with a strong emotional...

At this point, it’s fair to say that no human being who has ever walked the earth has been better at adapting movies into TV shows than Noah Hawley. The man turned “Fargo” into an acclaimed crime anthology series whose only real connection to the Coen brothers film was its distinctly Midwestern brand of dark folksiness. He found prestige TV source material in the “X-Men” franchise with “Legion,” one of the boldest episodic superhero projects of the 21st century.

And now he’s doubling down for his biggest bet yet: “Alien: Earth.” The new series sees Hawley offering an earthbound origin story for Ridley Scott’s iconic sci-fi franchise that IndieWire’s Ben Travers called “a fascinating and frightening extension of an oft-confined space.”

At a private event at Hawley’s Austin offices attended by IndieWire, reporters were treated to a wide-ranging conversation with the showrunner about the gargantuan...

Summer 2025 was always going to be a critical season for superhero cinema. Fans and critics alike knew that the fate of Warner Brothers’ DC Studios depended on the success of James Gunn’s “Superman” and that “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” would launch Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after the franchise saw wilting box office returns across Phases Four and Five. Fortunately, both movies garnered fan appreciation and performed respectably at the box office.

The films could owe their successes to solid scripts, iconic characters and ubiquitous marketing. However, they also share a distinct quality that has evaded comic book adaptations over the past couple of decades. Both “Superman” and “Fantastic Four: First Steps” feel like… comic books.

Comic books are, of course, a broad medium that can vary from the action packed to the avant garde. They also offer bright colors, quippish dialogue, and cartoonish superheroes showcasing...

Michael Nyman had been to the mountaintop. After a long career in marketing, PR and communications, he was chairman and CEO of communciations and PR powerhouse Pmk-bnc in 2018 when he decided to step down to start over.

On the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Nyman explains the motivation and the vision behind Acceleration Community of Companies, which is the umbrella “architecture,” as he details, for a collection of firms with distinct and complementary specialties. Among his acquisitions over the past half-dozen years include experiential marketing firm Mkg; Pink Sparrow, a design and fabrication studio; Event Marketer; New York PR powerhouse Dkc and PR firm Trailblaze; influencer marketing agency Pixly; data and analytics firm Stripe Theory; and creative agency Hangar Four.

“I felt the virtues of being in a community or with a group of companies was a good thing, and I felt that for certain clients, there was...

The second film acquired by Eli Roth’s The Horror Section is a low-budget, found footage nightmare that has taken horror festivals by storm.

“Dream Eater,” co-written and co-directed by Jay Drakulic, Mallory Drumm and Alex Lee Williams and starring Williams and Drumm, is set to debut theatrically on Oct. 24.

Per the official logline, “The story follows Mallory (Drumm), a documentary filmmaker, who heads to a remote cabin in the mountains with her boyfriend Alex (Williams) to document his violent parasomnia. As his condition worsens, Mallory suspects something more sinister may be at play. As the nightmares escalate, so do the scares, right through the final frame.”

“I vividly remember every movie that truly terrified me,” Eli Roth, founder and chief creative officer of The Horror Section, said in a statement. “I remember standing on 25th street in New York City when my friend Kevin Foxe handed me a VHS...

Los Angeles music obsessive Amy Berg still remembers what it was like to be a Jeff Buckley fan back in her twenties. “Grace” “changed my life,” she told me during a recent interview. “I would see every single heavy grunge punk band that came through Los Angeles: I was at Nirvana’s first show in L.A. at Jabberjaw. When I heard this album, it settled me. It was Ok to be in your body, but Jeff made it all Ok to feel.”

“It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley,” the latest documentary from Berg, is not as dark as her exposés “Deliver Us from Evil” (2006), “West of Memphis” (2012), and “An Open Secret” (2014), or her definitive Janis Joplin portrait, “Janis: Little Girl Blue” (2015).

Mostly, it’s a celebration of Buckley’s life and music, primarily the only album he ever released, “Grace,” in 1994, lauded by David Bowie as one of ten...

Warner Bros. has kept “Weapons,” its new original horror movie from “Barbarian” director Zach Cregger, close to the chest when it came to providing early looks to the majority of the entertainment press. Still, IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” co-hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio did finally get a chance to see the movie earlier this week, which is about 17 schoolchildren from the same class who go missing in the dead of night in a small town, leaving just one classmate behind.

And, lo and behold, it’s a brilliantly entertaining and twisty movie that Warner Bros. ought to want more critics and press to see.

The cast is terrific — Julia Garner as an alcoholic teacher bucking under mental torture by her students’ parents, Alden Ehrenreich as a mustachied cop, Josh Brolin as a brawny grieving dad, and Austin Abrams as a twitchy druggie who may have stumbled on the key to the mystery.

James Marsden is returning to his “X-Men” roots in Marvel’s upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday,” which is set to feature the actor alongside several of his original cast members from 20th Century Fox’s “X-Men” film franchise. Marsden told Vanity Fair that filming “Doomsday” has been a “blast” and a “homecoming.”

“I was excited because you’re a part of something gigantic, and I’ve spent 20 years listening to people say, ‘When are you coming back? When are you coming back? Are you coming back?'” Marsden said. “I’m dead. Well, maybe not. I’m going to have a tough time struggling to get into costume if they waited a couple more years. So it’s been a blast. It really has.”

“It’s been a nice little homecoming to a role that really put me on the map,” he continued. “It was the first real event project that I was ever a part of,...

Screenis running this regularly updated page with the latest film festival and market dates from across the world.

To submit details of or alter your festival dates, pleasecontact us herewith the name, dates, country and website for the event.

Ongoing

Festival Of Cinema NYC, US - August 1-10

Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival, US - August 1-9

Greenpoint Film Festival, US - August 6-10

Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland - August 6-16

37ºSouth Market, Australia – August 7-10

HollyShorts Film Festival, US - August 7-17

Melbourne International Film Festival, Australia - August 7-24

Chichester International Film Festival, UK - August 8-24

August

Gramado Film Festival,...

The box office is getting a lot freakier this Friday, with two new movies hitting theaters and battling for the No. 1 spot: “Freakier Friday” and “Weapons.”

The Disney body-swap comedy has made $3.1 million in Thursday previews at the box office, while Warner Bros.’ horror thriller has $5.7 million.

“Freakier Friday,” starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis 22 years after the original movie, is on track to make $27 million to $30 million this weekend, while director Zach Cregger’s “Weapons,” the follow-up to his 2022 hit horror “Barbarian,” is expected to be neck-and-neck with $25 million to $30 million. Both of them will take on Marvel’s “Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which is aiming to make $18 million to $20 million in its third weekend of release. After debuting to a strong $117.6 million two weeks ago, “Fantastic Four” plummeted 66% in its sophomore weekend. Dropping 50% in its third weekend would put it among Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World...

The star of 90s TV series Lois & Clark and wannabe Ice agent has expressed his horror at Gunn’s ‘woke’ hero. Is there a market for Superman: Border Patrol?

It’s almost impossible to divide superheroes along political lines. Captain America might seem like a patriotic, commie-bashing lunatic, as he was in the 1950s comics during the McCarthy era, until you remember that he has also spent much of his fictional career telling corrupt government agencies to shove it. And, in the Marvel Comic Universe, at least, he went on the run rather than sign up for an authoritarian superhero registry. Superman was once the square-jawed poster boy for US exceptionalism, cheerfully posing on propaganda comic covers urging readers to buy war bonds, but he’s also been written as a Kansas farm boy so suspicious of concentrated power that in one storyline he renounced his citizenship to avoid...

"South Park" has always been incendiary and controversial, from its early days as an animated show with very R-rated humor, to enough banned episodes on streaming and controversies to start international incidents. Though the last couple of seasons have been slightly less biting in their parody and commentary, "South Park" is back in season 27 with its most shocking and politically charged episodes in several years. The premiere had twice-impeached president and indicted felon Donald Trump in the role the show once gave to Saddam Hussein (as the boy toy of literal Satan). Now, the second episode turns its eyes toward the sheer modern evil of Ice.

In the new episode, Matt Stone and Trey Parker continue their war on the current administration (rather than their corporate overlords at Paramount) with an episode that follows Eric Cartman as he becomes furious over people taking what he views as his unique bigotry...

Sam Nivola just might be living out M. Night Shyamalan’s “Old.” The breakout “The White Lotus” actor is lamenting how difficult it is for rising, younger stars to land roles in Hollywood due to older, more established actors extending their careers by way of plastic surgery; the augmentations allow for actors to play characters who were meant to be years younger than the stars’ themselves. Nivola warns that the cycle is icing out new talent, and might leave a deficit in Hollywood after certain aging actors pass away.

“The old movie stars are getting plastic surgery, and they’re looking younger and they’re staying young,” Nivola told Variety during a recent interview. “You have these really old people playing young roles. And it’s not giving any space for the young’uns to move in and make a name for themselves. With all due respect to those people,...

Fiftieth Anniversary screenings of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and Ramesh Sippy’s Indian action epic Sholay are among the TIFF Classics programme unveiled on Friday by Toronto International Film festival.

The selection of 4K restorations include the late Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira’s children’s tale Aniki-Bóbó, Iranian New Wave pioneer Bahram Beyzaie’s Bashu, The Little Stranger, T’ang Shushuen’s early independent Hong Kong film The Arch, and Michael Almereyda’s New York-set Dracula interpretation Nadja.

TIFF Classics are supported by Ontario Creates and the Canada Council for the Arts, presented by Mubi, and programmed by Robyn Citizen,...

Netflix UK grew subscriber revenues 11% to hit £1.8bn in 2024, although profits slowed, according to its latest financial accounts.

In a Companies House filing for its subsidiary Netflix Services UK, the streaming giant’s revenues increased from £1.7bn in 2023.

Netflix attributed this to membership fees and services provided to its Amsterdam-based Netflix International business and US business Netflix, Inc.

It added that average paid memberships grew 11%, although the UK operation does not break down subscriber numbers. Barb’s recent Establishment Survey said Netflix had increased its presence in UK homes to reach 17.4m in Q1 2025 up from 17.1m in Q4 2024.

However,...

Remi Bigot, head of the film department for Cannes Critics’ Week, and German producer Maren Schmitt are among the international jury for the 8th edition of European Works in Progress in Hamburg.

Schmitt, one of the producers behind Cannes jury prize winner Sound Of Falling, and Bigot are joined by Simon Ofenloch, who works as a commissioning editor for the Zdf/Arte’s fiction department.

Rounding out the jury is Beatrice Gulino, acquisition and distribution executive at Italy’s Teodora Film; Yuan Sui, co-managing director at German sales and production company Picture Tree International; and Aaron Kassaye, founder of Ethiopia’s...

After 30 years, “Nadja” will return to theaters — this time with a 4K director’s cut to showcase Michael Almereyda’s original vision for the cult vampire film. “Nadja,” executive produced by late auteur David Lynch (who also has a cameo in the film), first debuted at the 1994 Toronto International Film Festival. Now, the 4K restoration of the feature will premiere at TIFF 2025.

IndieWire can announce that Grasshopper Film and Arbelos will be distributing “Nadja” in 4K. Grasshopper Film and Arbelos acquired the international distribution rights for the new version and will release it in North American theaters in late 2025, followed by a release on streaming platforms.

“Nadja” blends André Breton’s surrealist 1928 novel of the same name with 1936 film “Dracula’s Daughter.” Elina Löwensohn stars as the titular young vampire who returns to NYC to avenge her father’s death at the hands of Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Fonda). Jared Harris,...

On Aug. 9, Locarno Film Festival’s red carpet will be rolled out for the second time in a row to the acclaimed U.K. experimental filmmaker and artist Ben Rivers. After “Bogancloch” – acquired for North America by Cinema Guild – the helmer’s latest work, “Mare’s Nest,” will vie for the festival’s Golden Leopard. Its next festival stop will be Toronto where it will open the Wavelength section. Variety debuts the trailer here.

Wrapped in Rivers’ signature cinematic style which merges fiction, documentary, poetic essay and fable, the movie is loosely based on U.S. author and playwright Don DeLillo’s play about climate change “The Word for Snow.” In the all-child-cast futuristic road-movie, we follow the young girl Moon (played by rising talent Moon Guo Barker) as “she travels through a mysterious unexplained world free of adults” the logline reads.

“Moon meets a scholar turned sage and her translator in a mountain hut,...

Zach Cregger started his entertainment career in the world of comedy as part of the Whitest Kids U' Know troupe. But in 2022, Cregger jumped from humor to horror with "Barbarian," a buzzworthy flick that wowed genre fans with a series of jaw-dropping twists and turns no one saw coming. The film made Cregger a hot name in horror, and after producing this year's excellent "Companion," Cregger is back in the director's chair with "Weapons."

Like "Barbarian," Cregger has once again crafted a film where the element of surprise is key (you can read my spoiler-free review right here). The fantastic marketing for the film sets up the basic premise: One night at 2:17 Am, a group of kids from the same small town elementary school class mysteriously leave their house, run into the darkness of their suburban neighborhood, and seemingly vanish without a trace. The town is understandably spooked by...