Variety.com

Gemma Elizabeth Locke

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 22:39:56 EST

Births: Birth

U.K. homevideo sales climb 3%

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 22:35:58 EST

International News: 'Mamma Mia!' becomes fastest-selling DVD -- U.K. homevid sales climbed 3% last year even though the credit crunch torpedoed a number of DVD retailers and hit consumers in the pocket.

USC names Scripter finalists

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:49:26 EST

Web Exclusive: 'Button,' 'Slumdog,' 'Iron' among films chosen -- "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Iron Man," "The Reader," "Revolutionary Road" and "Slumdog Millionaire" have been named finalists for the 21st annual USC Libraries Scripter Award.

Mason Antonio Gonzalez

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:40:32 EST

Births: Birth

Alexa Rose Margolis

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:38:11 EST

Births: Birth

Who's Who List; Composers

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:35:13 EST

Music For Screens Winter '09: Who's Who List; Composers

Regent nabs rights to 'Departures'

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:00:00 EST
Film Festivals: Festival favorite finds distributor -- Regent Releasing has nabbed North American rights to Yojiro Takita's drama "Departures." Pic follows an unemployed cellist who takes a job as a Japanese "nokanshi," preparing dead bodies for the afterlife.

Aaron Ryder to run FilmNation outfit

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:00:00 EST
Exclusives: New production co. to make 'Raven,' 'Bull Rush' -- FilmNation Entertainment, launched by Glen Basner as a foreign sales company, has established a production arm and set Aaron Ryder to run it.

Polanski wants case moved from L.A.

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 20:15:28 EST
Legal News: Lawyers cite judicial misconduct by courts -- Roman Polanski's lawyers want his case moved out of L.A.

TNT ponders potential pilots

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 19:54:09 EST
Pilot Watch: Romano, McDermott wait for greenlight -- For TNT, the new year marks decision time for one of the most ambitious drama-development slates in the TV biz right now.

New American surge at Palm Springs

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 19:31:01 EST
Palm Springs Film Festival: Film festival's lineup features more domestic fare -- The international festival year regularly kicks off in the Southern California desert, where Palm Springs has successfully rolled out the welcome mat to a wide array of global film for 20 years.

Palm Springs Film Festival highlights

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 19:26:01 EST
Film Festivals: Palm Springs Film Festival highlights

NBC scores Bush's 'Soundtrack'

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 19:12:08 EST
Pilot Watch: Universal to produce series with Mosaic TV -- NBC's in tune with scribe Jared Bush's music-themed drama project "Soundtrack."

Helen du Toit takes reins at Palm Springs

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 19:11:13 EST
Palm Springs Film Festival: Event's new programming director is a team player -- One of my favorite things to do at a festival is to feast on films," says Palm Springs' new program director, Helen du Toit, "so the way I look at programming a festival with over 200 titles is to start by asking, 'What would I go see if I were a film buff spending time and money at a festival?'"

What's next for Palm Springs honorees

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 19:02:23 EST
Film Festivals: A look at the projects on their plates in 2009 -- New Year's resolutions: What P.S. honorees have on their plates for 2009.

Midem rolls out jazz and classical

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 18:57:44 EST
Music For Screens Winter '09: Despite waning sales, confab stays highbrow -- The economic downturn has meant serious reprioritizing for classical and jazz labels. According to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, classical's U.S. market share dropped to 1.9% from 3.2% between 2001 and 2006, while jazz plunged to 2% from 3.9% during the same period.

Music matters at Sundance

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 18:53:57 EST
Music For Screens Winter '09: Fest boasts healthy collection of rock docs -- Music matters at Sundance. Both the Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival have long supported the cross-pollination between music and film.

Sony keeping silent on Times rumor

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 18:53:26 EST
International News: Article claims studio is mulling massive restructuring -- Sony is refusing to comment on a report in the Times of London that alleges it is mulling massive restructuring, including shuttering entire divisions.

Sonny Bono's legacy shines bright

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 18:48:11 EST
Film Festivals: Palm Springs Film Fest celebrates 20 years -- At the first few installments of the Palm Springs Film Fest, the coveted invite was to the Founders Party poolside at Sonny Bono's house, where Hollywood luminaries like Jimmy Stewart mingled with locals and filmmakers.

U.K. 'Outnumbered' by new laughs

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 18:47:50 EST
Weekly International: BBC comedy uses partly improvised script -- Following "The Office" and "Gavin and Stacey," the BBC may have another hit laffer on its hands with "Outnumbered," a meticulously observed, downbeat comedy focusing on middle-class, cash-strapped, contemporary family life in suburban London.

Howie Do It

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 17:28:06 EST
TV Reviews: Although NBC has temporarily closed the case on "Deal or No Deal," Howie Mandel soldiers on -- here in a loud and mostly obnoxious Canadian co-venture that brings his penchant for hidden-camera pranks to the fore. Inasmuch as Mandel has showcased similar material on "The Tonight Show," consider this a foretaste of NBC's plan to turn its primetime lineup into TV's version of a discount mart -- a cheaper way to lose on Fridays than with scripted fare like "Crusoe."

13 -- Fear Is Real

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 17:17:39 EST
TV Reviews: To say that "13 -- Fear Is Real" is superior to "Estate of Panic" -- Sci Fi Channel's recent attempt to reshape the conventions of horror movies as a reality TV competition -- is the essence of damning with faint praise. Try as the producers (among them director Sam Raimi) might to gin up terror with grainy, shaky, "The Blair Witch Project"-style photography, it's hard to escape the pervasive sense that this is just a grown-up camping trip with handheld cameras and a $66,666 prize.

La Rondine

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 13:24:36 EST
Legit Reviews: Not seen at the Met since 1936, Puccini's "La Rondine" makes a welcome return bolstered by the star power of its real-life husband-and-wife leads Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna.

Lost and Found Orchestra

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:56:58 EST
Legit Reviews: Who'd have guessed? Barbra Streisand turns out to have been a revolutionary. In her 1973 TV special she sang "The World Is a Concerto" accompanied by everything her arrangers could find from a pop-up toaster and variable speed blenders to alarm clocks and vacuum cleaners.

Seven Pounds

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:33:10 EST
Film Reviews: "Seven Pounds" is an endlessly sentimental fable about sacrifice and redemption that aims only at the heart at the expense of the head.

The Tale of Despereaux

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST
Film Reviews: Kate DiCamillo's delectable novel about rodents, royals and the restorative properties of soup gets the star-laden, CG-animated bigscreen treatment in "The Tale of Despereaux."

Cadillac Records

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:56:04 EST
Film Reviews: Approaching the blues with the enthusiasm of an overcaffeinated brass band, helmer Darnell Martin nonetheless makes some kind of music with the percolating '50s biopic "Cadillac Records" -- mostly because she mines a righteous, mythic sensibility out of the story of Leonard Chess, Muddy Waters and the birth of the Chicago blues.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:27:36 EST
Film Reviews: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" represents a richly satisfying serving of deep-dish Hollywood storytelling. This odd, epic tale of a man who ages backwards is presented in an impeccable classical manner, every detail tended to with fastidious devotion.

Bolt

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:00:00 EST
Film Reviews: An "Incredible Journey" or "Homeward Bound" updated for the superhero era, "Bolt" is an OK Disney animated entry enhanced by nifty 3-D projection. The first inhouse feature from Disney Animation since Pixar guru John Lasseter took over the studio's creative reins, this tale of a canine forced to overcome his superdog complex and learn to become a regular pooch bears some telltale signs of Pixar's trademark smarts, but still looks like a mutt compared to the younger company's customary purebreds. While punchy enough to keep parents amused, pic will probably play best to small fry and, especially with Disney star Miley Cyrus onboard, will have no trouble chasing down hefty biz through the holidays.

Last Chance Harvey

Sun, 9 Nov 2008 08:37:25 EST
Film Reviews: There's never a doubt that the losers-at-love of British writer-director Joel Hopkins' "Last Chance Harvey" are on intersecting arcs, that they'll meet cute and stroll off into a sooty London sunset. But stars Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are so disarmingly charming that even the most treacly moments work an emotional magic.

Frost/Nixon

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:30:00 EST
Film Reviews: "Frost/Nixon" is an effective, straightforward bigscreen version of Peter Morgan's shrewd stage drama about the historic 1977 TV interview in which Richard Nixon brought himself down once again.

City of Ember

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 13:00:00 EST
Film Reviews: A fabulously designed underground metropolis proves more involving than the teenagers running through its streets in "City of Ember," a good-looking but no more than serviceable adaptation of Jeanne Duprau's 2003 novel.

W.

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 02:30:00 EST
Film Reviews: Oliver Stone’s unusual and inescapably interesting “W.” feels like a rough draft of a film it might behoove him to remake in 10 or 15 years.

Painted Skin (Hua pi)

Thu, 2 Oct 2008 20:36:10 EST
Film Reviews: Dubiously billing itself as "the first Eastern supernatural movie from China" -- what about "The Promise," for starters? -- costumer "Painted Skin" weighs in as an off-the-shelf drama-actioner that would have seemed much better 20 years ago. Assembled by a largely Hong Kong tech crew, but starring mostly Mainland thesps, yarn about a mysterious femme who's actually a flesh-eating fox-devil is the third and weakest pic version of the famous classical short story in the past 40 years. Opening across East Asia in late September, film scored good opening numbers in China but likely will be an ancillary item in Western markets.

Body of Lies

Thu, 2 Oct 2008 17:00:00 EST
Film Reviews: Neither the location-based verisimilitude of Ridley Scott's shooting style nor the estimable Middle East expertise of source-material author David Ignatius can disguise "Body of Lies" as anything other than the contrived phony-baloney it is.

The Baader Meinhof Complex (Der Baader Meinhof Komplex)

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:29:10 EST
Film Reviews: An explosive performance by Johanna Wokalek gives some relief to an otherwise long and humdrum series of characters, blow-'em-ups and prison locations in German terrorist drama "The Baader Meinhof Complex."

Last Stop 174

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:12:11 EST
Film Reviews: Bruno Barreto’s "Last Stop 174" goes through the motions of depicting a deeply troubled and bereft life but adds little new to the many bigscreen portrayals of poverty and desperation at the bottom of Brazil’s society.

Zift

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:33:02 EST
Film Reviews: A widescreen black-and-white genre thrill ride navigating a stylized 1960s Sofia underworld, "Zift," from Bulgarian theater vet and first-time helmer Javor Gardev, stakes out a style somewhere between Aki Kaurismaki and Guy Ritchie, making it work through sheer chutzpah. This is an instant midnight fest fave that could see limited specialized action before finding true cult status on homevid.

Appaloosa

Sat, 6 Sep 2008 20:48:13 EST
Film Reviews: “Appaloosa” is a decent Western made in an era when a Western has to be pretty darn good to rope people into a theater to see it.

The Wrestler

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 15:46:48 EST
Film Reviews: Mickey Rourke creates a galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances.