News

Canal+ has commissioned French animation house Dandelooo to produce a new 2D animated series for three- to five-year-olds titled “Max & Rabbit.”

Based on the best-selling kids’ book series by French author Astrid Desbordes, illustrated by Pauline Martin, the show follows its titular protagonists through their daily routine.

Told from Max’s perspective, the show features unique and clever tools to teach young viewers about dealing with emotions, being a better listener, verbalizing and finding solutions to everyday problems that children may encounter.

Animation on the series will be executed out of Dandelooo’s Ooolala studio in Cartoucherie, Valence, starting next month. Episodes will be directed by Clément Céard, whose animator credits include Oscar-nominee “Persepolis,” the popular adult animated series “Lastman” and 2D sequences in Jim Capobianco and Pierre-Luc Granjon’s “The Inventor.”

Dandelooo and Canal+ share a fruitful history of working together. The former is currently in production on “The Upside-Down River,...

France’s Cnc has introduced a series of reforms to boost distribution of arthouse cinema in the country that will roll out over the next two years.

Scroll down for the top 10 arthouse releases in France in 2024

The annual budget for what is known in France as “le cinéma art et essai” has been set at €19m for 2024, up €1m from the previous year.

The increased funding is meant to better reward exhibitors who give what they call “fragile arthouse films a chance” and support the marketing of arthouse titles especially to the younger 15-25 age demographic.

The Cnc is...

Ankama, the French company behind the cult favorite adult animated feature “Mutafukaz” and video game franchises such as “Dofus” and “Wakfu,” has acquired a minority stake in Inthebox, a thriving Annecy-based animation studio.

The alliance will allow Ankama to “fast-track its production pipeline and benefit from Inthebox’s expertise with different techniques, such as 3D animation,” Ankama’s co-founder Anthony Roux told Variety in a conversation with Inthebox’s co-founders Mathieu Marin and Madjid Chamekh (pictured). “Even if they also do 2D and stop-motion projects, they have a know-how in 3D which we don’t have,” Roux continued.

Roux said that working with 3D animation opens many doors that are no longer accessible to 2D projects. “In France, there are still people working in 2D but as soon as you want to make a bit of money or be slightly more commercial it has to be in 3D,” Roux said,...

Ridley's cinematic career, marked by highs and lows, began with shorts and TV appearances before transitioning to feature films. Despite its success at the box office, Ridley's role in "The Quiet Ones" was underwhelming, marking an unimpressive debut in her filmography. Ridley's versatility is showcased in films like "Peter Rabbit," where she excels in a vocal role, contributing to the movie's commercial success.

After bursting onto the scene with her starring role in the Star Wars sequel series, Daisy Ridley has established herself as one of the most recognizable performers working today. Despite only making her feature film debut 10 years ago, Ridley has gone on to appear in 18 major movies and documentaries, including some of the most commercially-successful releases of all time. However, while many of her projects have made a major impact at the box office, not every Daisy Ridley movie has been a triumph.

Before appearing in...

Daisy Ridley feels more confident and prepared to reinvent Rey as a Jedi Master in Star Wars: New Jedi Order. Ridley's diverse range of roles in smaller movies has likely prepared her for the complexities of this new Star Wars project. Ridley admits she wasn't an adult when she first joined the Star Wars universe, but she's grown and now feels she's "owning" her role.

While little is known about Daisy Ridley’s upcoming Star Wars movie, New Jedi Order, the actor is feeling optimistic and prepared with the new experience she’s gained. Directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, New Jedi Order will take place fifteen years after the events of the Star Wars sequel trilogy and, as the title suggests, focuses on a new Jedi Order raised by Ridley’s Rey. Details are sparse, and a script hasn't been completed, but Ridley reportedly knows all the beats to the...

When Adam Changes, a Canadian animated film about an awkward teenager in suburban Quebec, won the Grand Prix at the Niigata International Animation Film Festival (Niaff).

The festival, now in its second year, ran from March 15-20 in Niigata, a port city two hours north of Tokyo.

Written and directed by Joël Vaudreuil, When Adam Changes premiered at last year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival. “Coming here and meeting so many people, and being able to meet and talk with the other competition directors was a gift in itself,” said Vaudreuil, acceping the award at Niaff’s closing ceremony.

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Mar 8-10)Total gross to dateWeek 1. Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros) £5.8m £19.3m 2 2. Wicked Little Letters (Studiocanal) £894,841 £6.1m 3 3. Bob Marley: One Love (Paramount) £828,871 £15.1m 4 4. Migration (Universal) £670,028 £18.4m 6 5. Imaginary (Lionsgate) £650,705 £650,705 1

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.28

Warner Bros’ Dune: Part Two neared £20m on its second weekend at the UK-Ireland box office; as Lionsgate horror Imaginary was the leading new title in fifth place.

Dune: Part Two added £5.8m – a 37.1% drop, that brings it to £19.3m total. This is a slightly bigger drop than 2021’s Dune, which fell 30.7% on its second weekend; but it is far ahead of...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2024 Oscars Predictions:

Best Original Score Killers of the Flower Moon Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone Credit: AppleTV+

Weekly Commentary: It’s Ludwig Göransson taking home another Oscar for “Oppenheimer,” following his first win for “Black Panther.”

Next.

Will Win: “Oppenheimer” (Ludwig Göransson)

Could Win: “Killers of the Flower Moon...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2024 Oscars Predictions:

Best Original Song Barbie

Weekly Commentary: With an original song win, Billie Eilish, 22, and Finneas, 26, would become the youngest artists ever to win two Oscars before the age of 30. The pair won for James Bond theme “No Time to Die” in 2022, and are nominated this year for “What Was I Made For,...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2023 Oscars Predictions:

Best Animated Feature

Weekly Commentary: Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” has garnered both the Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards, solidifying its status as a strong contender in the animated feature category. However, what’s intriguing is the absence of Miyazaki and his producer Toshio Suzuki at the award ceremonies,...

As Britain’s pre-eminent brainbox voices Leonardo da Vinci in new stopmotion film The Inventor, he answers readers’ questions on dinner parties, trivia quizzes and getting old

People regularly invoke your name as someone they’d like to join them at the perfect dinner party. Are you such a fantastic guest? hhhhssss

When people say that, I usually reply: “Ah, you haven’t seen me eat.” It’s a very charming thing to hear, a way people get, I guess, to list qualities of their heroes or people they admire and imagine very kindly that I’m a good speaker or that I’m a wit of some sort, and hope I’m friendly. The list usually includes Winston Churchill and Oscar Wilde and I always feel extremely unworthy, but I don’t want to bore anybody with, you know, the usual British modesty ritual. I’ll just say that...

Oscar frontrunner “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” won a leading seven races at the Annie Awards on Feb. 17, including Best Studio Animated Feature over two of its Oscar rivals — “The Boy and the Heron” and “Nimona” — plus “Suzume.” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” The fifth Oscar contender, “Robot Dreams ” won Best Independent Feature over “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia,” “Four Souls of Coyote,” “The Inventor” and “White Plastic Sky.”

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” went seven for seven with wins also for director, character design, editorial, FX, music and production design. “The Boy and the Heron” picked up a pair of prizes from its seven bids: character animation and storyboarding. Likewise “Nimona” prevailed in two of its nine races: voice acting (Chloe Grace Moretz) and writing.

Eight of the last 12 Annie Awards champs have previewed the Oscar winner: “Rango” (2012), “Frozen” (2014), “Inside Out” (2016), “Zootopia” (2017), “Coco” (2018), “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse...

The Oscar-frontrunning Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was the big winner at Asifa-Hollywood’s 51st Annie Awards (held February 17 at UCLA’s Royce Hall), grabbing seven awards, topped by best animated feature. As a 66 percent Oscar predictor, the Annie win bodes well for Sony and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

The other “Spider-Verse” awards were for FX, character design, direction, music, production design, and editorial.

The Oscar-nominated dark horse, “Robot Dreams” (Neon), from Pablo Berger, won best independent feature, and “War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko” (ElectroLeague) took best short. The prestige short got a boost in its race for the Oscar. It’s directed by Pixar alum Dave Mullins and executive produced by Sean Ono Lennon, in partnership with Peter Jackson and his Wētā FX Limited animation team.

Hayao Miyazaki’s summary film, “The Boy and the Heron“ (Studio Ghibli-GKids), won two Annies for Takeshi Honda...

In the new issue of the Film Stories magazine, we spoke to The Inventor director Jim Capobianco. Here’s a little taster of that chat.

Delightful and eccentric stop-motion movie The Inventor is the first feature film from Jim Capobianco, the director of Pixar’s Ratatouille short, Your Friend The Rat.

I recently had the pleasure to speak with him at length for Film Stories magazine – order your copy now, go on, why don’t you. The interview was so lengthy, in fact, that lots of interesting bits were left on the cutting room floor.

What follows are two short sections that might be of particular interest. Here, not only does Jim explain why he found it hard to get Italian producers to back his film about the great Italian Leonardo da Vinci, but he also answers my questions about casting Stephen Fry, Matt Berry and Daisy Ridley in light...

Producer/director Robert Rippberger (Those Who Walk Away) recently wrapped production on the sci-fi thriller Renner, which sees Frankie Muniz and Violett Beane taking on a manipulative A.I. Now Rippberger is heading to the European Film Market in Berlin to launch sales on his slate of upcoming films – the first project in the line-up being a horror thriller creature feature called Monstrosity, which is reminiscent of the classic sitcom The Munsters (which recently received a feature film update from Rob Zombie) in that it focuses on a family that consists of classic monsters. In this case, a werewolf, a vampire, a zombie, and Frankenstein’s Monster. The mixture also brings to mind the ’80s classic The Monster Squad.

Variety reports that Monstrosity, which is currently in pre-production, has the following synopsis: A young village boy goes missing down a mine shaft. His father blames a strange family in the neighboring house,...

U.S. director and producer Robert Rippberger, who recently wrapped sci-fi thriller “Renner” with Frankie Muniz, is headed to the European Film Market in Berlin to launch the sales unit of his banner Sie Films. Its slate will be fronted by his next project, the horror thriller “Monstrosity.”

“Monstrosity,” which is currently in pre-production, is a creature feature that Rippberger will produce and direct. To create its titular monsters, Rippberger recruited concept artist Aaron Sims, whose work includes “Stranger Things,” “Ready Player One” and “Wonder Woman 1984.” Production on the film is expected to kick off later this year in one of the Morgan International full-service special effects facilities in Europe. Writer Sabir Pirzada is producing “Monstrosity” alongside Rippberger.

“Monstrosity” opens on a young village boy who goes missing down a mine shaft. His father blames a strange family in the neighboring house, but of course far more is at play.

Daisy Ridley made her debut in the Star Wars franchise in 2015's The Force Awakens and shared the words of wisdom she got at the time of her casting from J.J. Abrams.

During an interview with Inverse to promote her upcoming movie Sometimes I Think About Dying, Daisy Ridley also addressed her Star Wars role. The actress played Rey, the protagonist of the sequel film trilogy. The actress received words of wisdom from director J.J. Abrams, who advised her to "understand the scale." He also advised, "This is not a role in a movie. This is a religion for people. It changes things on a level that is inconceivable." But she thought that she was "coping fine."

Related Star Wars: Daisy Ridley Addresses Question About Returning Co-Stars in Rey Skywalker Movie Rey actor Daisy Ridley tiptoes around a question about whether she will miss working with her sequel trilogy...

A UK print film magazine, and a big one too! Here’s Film Stories issue 48 – what’s in it, and how you can get it!

Introducing issue 48 of Film Stories, where once again we’ve clearly gone made and produced another 168 page bumper issue. And printed it on nice paper too!

We’re 100% independent, so this is an absolute labour of love for us.

We’re really proud of it. We hope you’re going to like it, and we hope you might consider supporting it. Sold primarily via mail order, and popping up in a few WHSmiths stores around the country too, here’s the cover of the new issue…

And inside?

Huge Exclusive

Bob Marley: One Love

The story of bringing Bob Marley’s life story to the screen: with director Reinaldo Marcus Green, stars Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch, and the irrepressible Ziggy Marley.

Plus

All Of US Strangers...

Not surprisingly, our five leading contenders for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars also dominate the Annie Awards nominations announced on January 11. The predicted Oscar winner, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” reaped a lucky seven nominations. However, it is another likely Oscar contender, “Nimona,” that topped the nominations chart with nine bids.

All three of these films contend for Best Studio Animated Feature as does six-time nominee “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” We expect another six-time nominee, “Elemental” to reap an Oscar bid for Best Animated Feature even though it was snubbed in the top race by the Annies. That category is filled out here by “Suzume,” which earned seven nominations in all.

The Best Independent Feature nominees are: “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia,” “Four Souls of Coyote,” “Robot Dreams,” “The Inventor” and “White Plastic Sky.”

These precursor prizes are presented by the Hollywood chapter of the International Animated Film Association.

“Nimona,” Netflix’s sci-fi fantasy about a disgraced knight and a shape-shifting teenager, led the features category of the 51st Annie Awards nominations with nine, including best feature, director, character animation, character design, production design, storyboarding, voice acting, writing and editorial.

In the feature race, “Nimona,” produced by Annapurna Animation for Netflix, will go up against critical darling “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” from Sony Pictures Animation, Japanese fantasy-adventure “Suzume” from CoMix Wave Films and Story and distributed by Crunchyroll/Sony Pictures, Paramount and Nickelodeon’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and newly minted Golden Globe winner “The Boy and the Heron,” the first feature from auteur Hayao Miyazaki in a decade, out of Studio Ghibli and distributed by Gkids.

“Blue Eye Samurai,” also a Netflix project, topped the field in the TV/media categories, picking up seven noms. It was followed closely by Disney TV Animation’s “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur...

“Nimona,” the underdog Oscar contender from Annapurna Animation/Netflix, was the surprise leader for Asifa-Hollywood’s 51st Annie Awards with nine nominations. Meanwhile, the leading Oscar frontrunners, Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” and Studio Ghibli/GKids’ “The Boy and the Heron” each scored seven nominations. The awards ceremony will be held February 17 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

They will compete for best feature honors with Crunchyroll/Sony’s “Suzume,” the latest 2D fantasy/adventure from anime master Makoto Shinkai, which also collected seven nominations, and Nickelodeon/Paramount’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” which grabbed six noms.

Pixar’s “Elemental” also earned six nominations, while Neon’s “Robot Dreams,” an indie Oscar hopeful from Spain/France, earned five nominations.

The other best indie feature contenders are GKids’ “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia,” “Four Souls of Coyote” (Cinemon Entertainment), “The Inventor” (Curiosity Studios), and “White Plastic Sky...

321 films are in contention for this year’s Academy Awards, while 265 features are eligible in the best picture category, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Monday as it released its annual “reminder list” for members.

To be eligible in the general categories, films (meaning a runtime of more than 40 minutes) must open in a commercial theater in at least one of the following areas: Los Angeles County; the city of New York; the Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia, between Jan. 1, 2023 and Dec. 31, 2023. Additionally, it must complete a minimum qualifying run of seven consecutive days in the same venue.

To be eligible for the best picture category specifically, the movies must be eligible for the general entry and have “submitted a confidential Academy Representation and Inclusion Standards entry form.” Additionally, the film must meet two of the four standards required, in addition to the theatrical component.

This marks the seventh year that the entire membership of the academy can take part in the nomination stage of the Animated Feature Oscar race. Previously, only select members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch and invited members from the other branches could serve on the committee that decided the nominees. Collectively, the committee tended to favor traditional and stop-motion films over CG fare. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2024 predictions for Oscars Best Animated Feature.)

Mandatory attendance at screenings has been dropped and voters who want to be on the nominations committee need only attest to having seen all the contenders at theaters or screenings or by way of the the academy’s streaming site.

The method of determining the nominees has also changed. Gone is the system where voters scored a film from 6 (poor) to 10 (excellent) with only those movies meriting an average mark of at least 7.5 eligible for a nomination.

Our Pmc sister website Variety is reporting that the motion picture academy has named 149 movies as eligible for Best Original Score at the 2024 Oscars. See the complete list below of every score currently on the ballot for the music branch. A total of 15 will be announced this Thursday, December 21, on the Oscar short list. A final five will be revealed on January 23 as the the actual nominees.

SEEOscars 2024: Which 94 tunes are eligible for Best Original Song?

Gold Derby has been offering you the opportunity to predict the Best Original Score category for the past few weeks. Among some of the surprise omissions: “Asteroid City,” “Flora and Son,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Wonka.” Each film used too much non-original music to remain qualified.

According to our most current Gold Derby odds with over 6,800 people predicting, here are the scores ranked in the top 10:

1. “Oppenheimer” – 71/20 odds

2. “Killers of the Flower Moon...

Our Pmc sister website Variety is reporting that the motion picture academy has named 94 tunes as eligible for Best Original Song at the 2024 Oscars. See the complete list below of every song currently on the ballot for the music branch. A total of 15 will be announced this Thursday, December 21, on the Oscar short list. A final five will be revealed on January 23 as the the actual nominees.

SEEDiane Warren interview: ‘The Fire Inside’ from ‘Flamin’ Hot’

Gold Derby has been offering you the opportunity to predict the Best Original Song category for the past few weeks. Among some of the surprise omissions:

“Barbie” producers have chosen not to submit “Barbie World,” “Speed Drive” and “Pink.” That film’s three official submissions are “I’m Just Ken,” “Dance the Night” and “What Was I Made For?”

“Trolls Band Together” producers have not entered “Family,” “Watch Me Work” and “Let’s Get Married.

Ninety-four songs and 149 scores have been deemed eligible in the music categories for the 96th annual Academy Awards, Variety has learned.

Voting began Thursday, with 390 members of the Academy music branch eligible to vote in this year’s competition. And for the first time in years, there appear to be no surprises or glaring omissions.

Any film can submit up to three songs, and the “Barbie” entries were as expected: Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made for,” Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” and the Mark Ronson-Andrew Wyatt song “I’m Just Ken.”

Five other films submitted the maximum of three songs, including two from Disney: the live-action “The Little Mermaid,” with “For the First Time,” “The Scuttlebutt” and “Wild Uncharted Waters,” all by Alan Menken (who won Oscars for the original in 1989) and Lin-Manuel Miranda; and “Wish,” the Julia Michaels-Benjamin Rice tunes including “I’m a Star,...

The Academy has revealed the list of eligible films for consideration in best animated, documentary and international feature of the year, encompassing a broad range of blockbusters and critically acclaimed titles.

GKids’ “The Boy and the Heron,” Pixar’s “Elemental,” Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” are among the 33 animated films in the running. This is up from 27 in 2023, when “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” took home the prize.

The eventual five nominees are determined by members of the shorts and animation branch, and any Academy members outside the branch who wish to participate. The number of outside members who opt in is unknown. All films submitted for animated feature also qualify for the Academy Awards in other categories, including best picture.

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

There are 88 films representing their countries for the international feature Oscar,...

MGM+ has announced the acquisition of the two-part docuseries “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, debuting on the streamer on March 17 and March 24 at 9 p.m. Edt/Pdt. It focuses on the career of musician Paul Simon.

Per the docuseries’ description, “In Restless Dreams” “juxtaposes Simon’s process of making a new album during the Covid-19 pandemic against archival material tracing Simon’s career and creative journey, including revelatory, previously unseen footage from such historic moments as the recording of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ and ‘Graceland,’ Simon & Garfunkel’s unforgettable reunion concert in Central Park, and, 10 years later, Simon’s solo concert there, where he performed before 750,000 people.”

Making appearances in the docuseries are “Saturday Night Live” creator and producer Lorne Michaels, Simon’s wife and singer Edie Brickwell and composer Wynton Marsalis.

Alex Gibney (“The Inventor”) directs and produces, with Jigsaw, Closer Media and Anonymous Content jointly producing.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker brings back familiar faces from the past 40 years, pleasing nostalgic fans and hitting the nostalgia spot. The main characters, Rey (Daisy Ridley), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), continue their journeys and face their own personal challenges. The cast includes iconic actors like Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa, as well as unexpected cameos and celebrity appearances that add to the excitement of the final installment.

Here's the full cast and character guide for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Billed as the end of the Skywalker saga - although not as the end of Rey's story - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker brought the forces of light and dark into head-on collision. Directed by J.J. Abrams, it brought back an array of familiar faces from the past 40 years, in addition to the younger new cast members.

Daisy Ridley trades the force for contemplation of mortality in the new romantic dramedy Sometimes I Think About Dying, directed by Rachel Lambert. The film follows Fran, an awkward office employee lost in existential questions, who must step out of her comfort zone when she meets a new coworker. Ridley, who also serves as a producer, joins a talented cast in Sometimes I Think About Dying and will soon return to the Star Wars universe in another sequel.

Daisy Ridley leaves the force behind and instead contemplates mortality in the first trailer for Sometimes I Think About Dying, the new romantic dramedy directed by Rachel Lambert (I Can Feel You Walking), coming to theaters on January 26, 2024. After debuting at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Sometimes I Think About Dying teases its theatrical release with its first official trailer. The plot centers on Fran, an extremely awkward office employee...

This list was compiled using data provided by IMDb.Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)As a new threat to the galaxy rises, Rey, a desert scavenger, and Finn, an ex-stormtrooper, must join Han Solo and Chewbacca to search for the one hope of restoring peace.Rating: 7.8/10Stars:...

Graphic: Images: IMDb

This list was compiled using data provided by IMDb.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

As a new threat to the galaxy rises, Rey, a desert scavenger, and Finn, an ex-stormtrooper, must join Han Solo and Chewbacca to search for the one hope of restoring peace.

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese returns to theaters just in time to take on Taylor Swift in the second weekend of her record-setting “The Eras Tour” concert movie. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” is Scorsese’s first movie since “The Irishman” in 2019, which ultimately ended up on Netflix. Adapted from David Grann‘s 2017 true-crime novel, it’s about a group of unscrupulous white men in the 1920s trying to rob the Osage Nation of Oklahoma out of their oil money.

“Killers” reunites Scorsese with two of the actors with whom he’s collaborated the most, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, though this is only the second time they star in one of his movies together.

See Grab the popcorn and sound off in our movie forums

De Niro’s relationship with Scorsese goes back 50 years to “Mean Streets,” but one of their...

New State Pictures has joined forces with Curiosity Rights to secure the life rights of scientist Susan Solomon, who led pioneering research into the destruction of the ozone layer in the 1980s.

The partners plan to produce a film that will place a spotlight on how the work undertaken by Solomon and her team led to global awareness of the issue and action to resolve the crisis.

Solomon, then only 30, along with her team, unearthed findings that have shaped our approach to environmental preservation. Their research pointed to the rapidly growing hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic. The continuing growth of the hole would have led to exposure to toxic sun radiation worldwide.

Her team established the adverse effects of chlorofluorocarbons on the ozone layer, which was instrumental in the historic adoption of the Montreal Protocol in 1987. This landmark agreement regulates the production and consumption of nearly 100 man-made...

While movie fans are hopefully enjoying Stephen Fry's wonderful performance as Leonardo da Vinci in the delightful film The Inventor, they can now anticipate another ebullient vocal performance, this time alongside some of the best and brightest voices in UK comedy. Fry will reunite with his old sketch comedy partner, Hugh Laurie, in an animated reimagining of the Oscar Wilde classic, The Canterville Ghost, opening exclusively in US theaters just in time for Halloween on October 20, 2023, via Shout! Studios and Blue Fox Entertainment.

The star-studded cast features Fry (Gosford Park) as Sir Simon de Canterville, along with Hugh Laurie (House), Freddie Highmore (The Good Doctor), Emily Carey (House of the Dragon), David Harewood (Supergirl), Meera Syal (Yesterday), Miranda Hart (Spy), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), and Imelda Staunton (The Crown). You can check out an exclusive look at the trailer below.

Related: Exclusive: The Inventor Filmmakers Talk da...

Kenneth Branagh returned both behind and in front of the camera as Inspector Hercule Poirot for “A Haunting in Venice,” the third threequel of September, which only did slightly better than its predecessor. Read on for the weekend box office report.

Despite “Venice” receiving better reviews than the previous two installments with 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, it still got caught up in a horse race for first place as Warner Bros. claimed victory with its own horror sequel, “The Nun II,” over Branagh’s third adaptation of an Agatha Christie murder mystery. Warners is estimating that “The Nun II” made $14.7 million this weekend, down 55% from its opening weekend, but if that number holds, it will indeed score a second weekend at #1. It has grossed $56.5 million in its first two weekends, just a little bit more than the original “The Nun” opened with in 2018.

See ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ trailer: Jason Momoa...

The Inventor is a stop-motion animated adventure film directed by Jim Capobianco and Pierre-Luc Granjon from a screenplay by Jim Capobianco. The British animated film follows the story of the legendary inventor Leonardo Da Vinci as he invents many wonderous things and tackles the meaning of life itself with the help of the French princess Marguerite de Navarre.

The list of voice actors in The Inventor is quite impressive as it includes Stephen Fry as Leonardo da Vinci, Daisy Ridley as Marguerite de Navarre, Jim Capobianco as Cardinal of Aragon, Matt Berry as Pope Leon X, Marion Cotillard as Louise of Savoy, and Natalie Palamides as Pierre Nepveu and Antonio de Beatis.

The Inventor – When Did it Come Out? Credit – Blue Fox Entertainment

The Inventor had its world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on 12 June 2023. Blue Fox Entertainment acquired the rights to distribute the film in the...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on September 14th, 2023, reviewing “The Inventor,” an animated epic on the final days of inventor and artist Leonardo Da Vinci. In theaters on September 15th.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

The film is an animated take on the life of Leonardo da Vinci (voice of Stephen Fry). We find da Vinci at a crossroads as the church in Italy, represented by Pope Leo the 10th (Matt Berry), condemns the painter and inventor for his progressive thought. When the King of France (Gauthier Battoue) and his mother Louise de Savoy (Marion Cottillard) convince da Vinci to move to France, he finds a muse in Marguerite (Daisy Ridley) and a new passion for creation in his last days.

”The Inventor” in in select theaters since September 15th. See local listings Featuring the voices of Stephen Fry, Daisy Ridley, Matt Berry,...

Craig Gillespie’s comedy-drama Dumb Money starts its three-step platform release this weekend courtesy of Sony, opening in eight theaters in LA, NY, Chicago, DC, Boston and San Francisco ahead of an expansion next week and a Sept. 29 wide release. Gillespie (I, Tonya, Lars and the Real Girl) saw lots of love in Toronto for the premiere of his tale of meme stocks, retail traders, riches and battles won and lost. Opening week cinemas include AMC Century City and The Grove (LA); AMC Lincoln Square, Regal Union Square (NY); AMC River East (Chicago); AMC Georgetown; AMC Boston Commons; and AMC Metreon (San Francisco).

The David and Goliath story is that of a phenomenon that exploded in 2021 where ordinary people surged into the market backing specific stocks, pounded them on social media and flipped the script on Wall Street as other piled in. They turned GameStop into the world’s hottest stock for a period,...

With “The Inventor,” Jim Capobianco (the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of “Ratatouille“) has managed to direct a family-friendly animated musical (in both stop-motion and 2D) about Leonardo da Vinci’s search for the meaning of life at the end of his life. That’s quite a da Vinci code to crack. That is why it took 12 years to make as a co-production with Curiosity Studio (Ireland), Foliascope (France), Aerial Contrivance Studios, and Robert Rippberger’s Sie Films.

Capobianco’s fascination with da Vinci began with the 2009 2D short “Leonardo,” after intense research into his legendary life as an inventor of flying machines, artist, and pioneer in the study of human anatomy. But what sparked Capobianco’s interest was the notion of da Vinci as “a real person struck with ideas beyond the technical, intellectual, and the societal capabilities of his time.” For him, “The Inventor” explores legacy, how you live your life,...

An exclusive new clip from the upcoming stop-motion movie The Inventor finds Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley singing in this tale of Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci. Coming courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment, Ridley voices princess of France Marguerite in The Inventor alongside The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy star and all-around legend Stephen Fry as Leonardo da Vinci. Check out our exclusive new clip from The Inventor below.

The official synopsis for The Inventor reads as follows:

“The Inventor tells the story of the insatiably curious and headstrong inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci (Stephen Fry) as he leaves Italy to join the French court where he can freely experiment, invent flying contraptions and incredible machines, and study the human body. Joined in his adventure by the audacious Princess Marguerite (Daisy Ridley), Leonardo attempts to uncover the answer to the ultimate question: “What is the meaning of life?"

An...

The September of sequels keeps rolling along with another journey into Agatha Christie territory for actor/director Kenneth Branagh with “A Haunting in Venice.” Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

The last time Branagh donned the trademark mustache of French Inspector Hercule Poirot, it was for the 2022 release “Death on the Nile,” another star-studded ensemble whodunnit that was released just as the Omicron variant of Covid was winding down. It opened with a pitiful $12.9 million and made $130.3 million worldwide, compared to the $351.8 million of 2018’s “Murder on the Orient Express.” Now, Disney has allowed Branagh to give the franchise another go.

“A Haunting in Venice” changes locale once again, this installment delving more into the realms of horror with Branagh joined by Tina Fey as mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh as a medium they encounter, Jamie Dornan and Jude Hill from Branagh’s “Belfast,...

Artificial intelligence has, controversially, become one of the most insisted upon and yet equally resisted tools in business, education, and creative careers. While some may insist that the simulation of human brainpower is a welcomed development, others will counter and claim that it is detrimental to the existence of humankind. In fact, one of the main contingencies in the film and television industry-wide strikes — the Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild — is in regard to A.I. and its threat to replace human thinkers.

In a recent exclusive interview with MovieWeb, Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Ratatouille) Jim Capobianco recently explained how The Inventor, his new independently produced animated film with co-director Pierre-Luc Granjon, though not intended to be an anti-artificial intelligence film, nonetheless offers a hopeful reminder about the everlasting need for human intellect.

Filming Leonardo da Vinci

The Inventor is a partly stop-motion animated feature about the life of...

The Inventor is an animated movie that explores the humanity behind Leonardo da Vinci's art, highlighting his search for the meaning of life. The film features a star-studded cast, including Stephen Fry as da Vinci and Daisy Ridley as Princess Marguerite de Navarre. The animation style of the movie combines 2D hand-drawn and stop-motion, each presenting its own challenges in production.

The world may know Leonardo da Vinci as a great artist, but few have thought about the person behind the legend. Jim Capobianco focuses on the humanity that drove the art in his new animated movie The Inventor. He wrote and directed the project, with Pierre-Luc Granjon serving as co-director, after first stepping into da Vinci's shoes in 2009 with his silent short film Leonardo. This time there are not only voices but also songs, which were written by his collaborator Alex Mandel.

The Inventor stars Stephen Fry as...

Long before society was pushed to embrace artificial intelligence as a vital way to think and imagine, virtually threatening the human's innate ability to do so, there were great thinkers whose minds were encouraged and celebrated much in the way advanced computer technology is today.

One such individual was Leonardo da Vinci, who lived during the 16th century and is perhaps best known for painting portraits like "The Mona Lisa" and murals like "The Last Supper." An accomplished and celebrated Italian artist, engineer, scientist, philosopher, and architect, as shown in the new animated feature film, The Inventor, da Vinci was also a complicated and flawed human being.

Written and co-directed by the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of Ratatouille, Jim Capobianco, and co-directed by Pierre-Luc Granjon (A Little Adventure), The Inventor is a seamless blend of hand-drawn and stop-motion animation that's gorgeous to look at. The film chronicles the journey of artist...

“People used to say I had my finger on the pulse,” Paul Simon tells Alex Gibney early in his artfully composed documentary, In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon. “I just have my finger out there and the pulse is running under it.” Either way, few people have had as central a role in American pop music and culture as Simon. Gibney, best-known for exposes including The Inventor, about Elizabeth Holmes’ tech-company fraud, and Going Clear, on Scientology, turns out to be the ideal director to explore Simon’s long, varied run.

Simon invited Gibney into his home studio in Wimberly, Texas, where the cameras watch him tinker with the sound on his latest album, Seven Psalms (released in May) and talk about his career, inspirations, aging and what the loss of hearing in his left ear has meant. With that album as an anchor, the film mostly flashes back and forth in time,...

Kenneth Branagh is back both in front of and behind the camera for another Agatha Christie adaptation in the form of "A Haunting in Venice." Based on one of the author's lesser-known Hercule Poirot mysteries "Hallowe'en Party," this will give Branagh's trilogy a more overtly spooky spin than his previous two adaptations, "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile." The big question is how this entry will perform commercially. Will it be a surprise fall success story like "Murder" before it? Or will it suffer theatrically like "Death" did last year?

Box Office Pro currently has the star-studded "A Haunting in Venice" taking in anywhere between $11 and $16 million on its opening weekend. That would be much closer to "Death on the Nile," which opened to $12.8 million in February 2022, when it was competing directly with the Super Bowl. On the opposite end of the spectrum, 2017's "Murder on the Orient Express...

Clockwise from upper left: Napoleon (Columbia/AppleTV+), The Marvels (Disney), Wish (Disney),

A Haunting In Venice (20th Century Studios), The Exorcist: Believer (Universal)Graphic: Libby McGuire

For those who embraced the summer of 2023’s great pop culture phenomenon, Barbenheimer, not only would the cast and crew of each film like to thank you,...

The North American box office has been a challenge to track the past couple of years, first with movie theaters shuttering along with almost everything else due to the Covid pandemic, and then in 2023, just when thing were returning to normal, a pair of Hollywood strikes has further complicated studios’ release-date strategies.

Still, as of last weekend of August, the 2023 domestic box office is already past $6.6 billion in grosses, up 25% over the same frame a year ago, and there are still busy festival and holiday seasons to help boost awareness — and attendance.

Check out 2023’s latest U.S release date schedule for the major and specialty studios below and keep checking back for the latest updates.

September Friday, September 1

The Equalizer 3

Sony Pictures (Wide)

The Good Mother

Vertical Entertainment (Moderate)

Cheta Singh

Seven Colors America (Limited)

Don’t Look Away

Level 33 (Limited)

Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia

Gkids...

“The Marsh King’s Daughter” is finally headed to the big screen. The adaptation of the bestselling 2017 novel by Karen Dionne, starring Daisy Ridley, Ben Mendelsohn and Garrett Hedlund, is due in theaters on Oct. 6, and the trailer has just arrived, still wet from the swamp. Watch it above.

Ridley plays a woman who, when she was a child (Brooklynn Prince plays her as a child), was abducted by her violent father (Mendelsohn). When he escapes from prison, she is forced to confront her past, open up to her husband (Hedlund) and brace herself for her father’s return. Will she make it out alive? Or will her father, nicknamed the Marsh King, take her down, once and for all?

The project was initially developed back in 2018, with “The Revenant” writer Mark L. Smith penning a screenplay for “The Imitation Game” director Morten Tyldum and Alicia Vikander in the role now played by Ridley.