Limelight Lights Up Toronto with Three Acquisition Titles and a Coachella Comedy in the Works [EXCLUSIVE]

EXCLUSIVE: Joseph Amenta, whose debut feature Soft just had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, has signed with M88 for representation.

There’s some major royal news today, and it’s not about the British royal family.

Trent Reznor reunited with several early members of Nine Inch Nails for the band’s belated Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction celebration.Two years after a virtual ceremony for their initial induction, a live performance took place at Blossom Music Center in Reznor’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, on Saturday (September 24).There, Reznor was joined by Chris Vrenna, Richard Patrick, Danny Lohner, and Charlie Clouser, members in an early Nine Inch Nails line-up.The group – who haven’t played in Ohio since 2013 – performed six songs from their ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ era; ‘Sin’, ‘Wish’, ‘Gave Up’ and ‘Eraser’. The band also performed a cover of Filter‘s ‘Hey Man Nice Shot’ before closing out the set with their seminal hit, ‘Head Like A Hole’.Check out fan-shot footage of the show below:In 2020, Nine Inch Nails were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Iggy Pop.During the virtual ceremony, Pop likened listening to the industrial rock outfit as “hearing the truth”.

Creator Taylor Sheridan had been intrigued by the idea of a show like Paramount+’s “Tulsa King,” which features Brooklyn-bred mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone) being unceremoniously transplanted in Oklahoma. The “Yellowstone” creator, who also serves as executive producer, broke down the genesis of the series in a new making-of featurette.

David Cronenberg returned in a big way this year with “Crimes Of The Future,” his first film since 2014’s “Map To The Stars.” And Cronenberg has more projects on the way. He shopped around “The Shrouds” and a television adaptation of his 2015 novel “Consumed” at the Cannes Film Festival before the world premiere of “Future.” “The Shrouds” comes first, and at the San Sebastian Film Festival, Cronenberg shed some light on the project.

Ben Croll Coming on the heels of their pitch at Cartoon Forum in Toulouse, Norway’s Den Siste Skilling and Germany’s Knudsen Pictures have shared with Variety a first-look at their upcoming project “Cocobanana.” Created by screenwriter Rolf-Magne Golten Andersen (“Headhunters”) and directed Markus and Tommy Vad Flaaden (“Space Chickens in Space”), the comedic children’s series follows a school-age whizz-kid whose madcap inventions don’t always work out as they’re supposed to. While the produce-aisle handyman only wants to make life easier for his coconut dad, banana mom and baby sis, sometimes chaos — and his own imagination — gets the better of him.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Ecuador’s Ana Cristina Barragán, an alum of San Sebastian’s post-graduate film school Elias Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE), has come full circle with her second feature “La Piel Pulpo” (“Octopus Skin”) as it competes at the San Sebastian Festival’s Horizontes Latinos, a year after it participated in the festival’s Work in Progress strand (WIP Latam). A coming-of-age family drama “La Piel Pulpo” turns on twins Iris and Ariel who live with their mother and younger sister on a remote island. Having grown up in this rarified environment with only the mollusks, birds and reptiles for company, the teens are inseparable and have formed a near transcendental connection with nature. Curious about the world beyond their island, Iris hitches a boat ride with a rare visitor to explore the mainland and search for their estranged father. The act of physically separating from her twin brother puts a strain on their relationship.

King Charles is considering the importance of each of his family members having royal titles. According to royal expert Katie Nicholl, the matter of royal titles is «enormously important» to the new monarch.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Jason Priestley (“Beverly Hills, 90210”) has joined the cast of Viaplay’s English-language series about NHL ice hockey legend Börje Salming. Currently filming in Sweden and Canada, the biopic series stars Valter Skarsgård (“The Playlist”) as Salming and is created and directed by Amir Chamdin, winner of the Best Series Award at Canneseries 2020 for “Partisan.” The show is written by Martin Bengtsson, who previously wrote “Tigers,” which was Sweden’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2022 Academy Awards. Priestley portrays Gerry McNamara, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs talent scout who discovered Salming and fellow Swede Inge Hammarström and helped launch their North American careers.

Brent Lang Executive Editor RLJE Films has acquired “Nocebo,” a thriller starring Eva Green and Mark Strong. The film will open in theaters on Nov. 4 and on-demand and digitally on Nov. 22. Shudder will release the film in 2023. Both RLJE and Shudder are business units of AMC Networks Shudder focuses on streaming movies in the horror, thriller and supernatural genres. “Nocebo” centers on a fashion designer (Green), who suffers from a mysterious illness that confounds her doctors and frustrates her husband (Strong). Help arrives in the form of a Filipino nanny (Chai Fonacier) who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying truth. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor It was supposed to be all about the movies. But even here at the Toronto International Film Festival, an ocean away from the United Kingdom, the death of 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II has loomed large. It has provided an opportunity for festival organizers, filmmakers and talent to reflect on the life and legacy of a monarch whose 70-year reign ranks as the longest in her country’s history. That’s partly due to Canada’s status as a member of the British Commonwealth, but it’s also because the festival is such an international A-list affair, one that attracts movie stars and directors who have often had personal encounters with the queen.

There is definitely a trend of late for film directors to take a look in thinly disguised cinematic memoirs of their early influences that shaped the artist and person they have become. Kenneth Branagh with Belfast and Paolo Sorrentino with The Hand Of God did it last year. Of course there is Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, others over the years. Sam Mendes, while not drawing a portrait of his younger self revisits the movie palaces of his youth in another 2022 offering, Empire Of Light, which premiered last weekend at Telluride and will also hit the Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF is also where the man I recently described as the GOAT, Steven Spielberg, has chosen to debut his own story where the names have been changed but the story is  clearly his. The Fabelmans basically chronicling his early Jewish family life and infatuation with making movies  had its World Premiere Saturday night, the first of Spielberg’s directed movies ever to premiere at a film festival. This one seems entirely appropriate, and it has been gestating in the director’s head ever since he and his co-writer Tony Kushner started kicking it around during the making of Lincoln over a decade ago. He says he finally made it primarily as a way to bring his late parents Leah and Arnold (to whom the film is dedicated) somehow back to his life. Movies can do that, and no one knows it better than Steven Spielberg.

Selome Hailu “Maggie” has been canceled after its first season at Hulu, Variety has learned exclusively. The single-camera comedy was ordered to series at ABC in May 2021, though parent company Disney moved it to stream on Hulu in January 2022 ahead of its premiere on July 6, when it debuted to mixed reviews. The series was based on the 2019 short film of the same name by Tim Curcio. Rebecca Rittenhouse starred in the title role, a woman navigating the world of dating as a psychic. Maggie’s gift allows her to see into the future of her friends, parents, clients and random people on the street. But when she begins to see glimpses of her own destiny after meeting an unexpected stranger, her romantic life suddenly gets a lot more complicated as she attempts to let herself fall in love while thinking she knows how it will end.

A new direction. Prince William and Duchess Kate have officially stepped into new roles within the British royal family after Queen Elizabeth II‘s death.

There’s something depressing in watching talented comedians struggle to get laughs from weak screenwriting. This repeatedly happens in the first three-to-four episodes of Hulu’s “Reboot,” a show with a great cast and even a clever idea but faulty comic timing and clichéd joke writing.

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s new royal titles have been updated on social media following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday.

Manori Ravindran International Editor New Zealand rugby icon Jonah Lomu and former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel will be the subjects of two new documentaries from U.K.-based sales agent and distributor Dogwoof and Sylver Entertainment. The companies previously collaborated on “McEnroe,” a documentary about the tennis great John McEnroe, which was released in U.K. cinemas in July and premiered on Showtime on Sept. 2. As development financiers and executive producers on both projects, Dogwoof will be presenting the projects to buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival this week.

Trent Reznor has praised the tribute concert held in honour of late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.Discussing the event at Nine Inch Nails‘ concert on Saturday (September 3), Reznor called the tribute — which saw a star-studded list of musicians honour Hawkins at London’s Wembley Stadium earlier that day — “very touching and sincere”.“Did any of you happen to catch the tribute to Taylor Hawkins today?”, Reznor asked the Nine Inch Nails audience at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, “I thought, ‘I’ll tune in.’ I knew Taylor. He was a really sweet guy.

Callum McLennan “Tequila, Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll,” from Goya Award-winning producer-helmer Alvaro Longoria, has been acquired for international sales by Latido Films.  Set up at Madrid’s Morena Films, which Longoria co-founded, doc marks a return to directing for Longoria, whose 2012 debut, “Sons of the Clouds,” produced by Javier Bardem, scored a Spanish Academy Goya while 2015’s “The Propaganda Game” nabbed a nomination. Meanwhile, just in the last few years, Longoria has produced Asghar Farhadi’s Cannes opener “Everybody Knows” and Spanish box office juggernaut “Champions.”   “I produce, that is how I make a living, but I direct documentaries as a passion.’ said Longoria.

Vincent Cassel is getting some support on the red carpet.