‘Memoir of a Snail’ Review: Adam Elliot Spins a Series of Unfortunate Events Into a Stop-Motion Heart-Tugger

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer The Green Lanterns’ light is officially ready to shine again. HBO has officially picked up “Lanterns,” the first live-action series created expressly for DC Studios under co-chairmen/co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran.

Prime Video’s “The Boys,” based on a popular comic book series of the same name, is a massive hit series for the streaming service. One of the biggest on the platform.

EXCLUSIVE: Comic book Proof is being turned into a TV series at Fox.

EXCLUSIVE: Chad Powers has found its first director.

As the old saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Peak TV may be coming to an end, but even with the decline in new programming, it’s still possible for a new show to evade your radar. One program that might have slipped by you is the Peacock stop-motion animated series “In The Know,” created by Zach Woods, Brandon Gardner, and Mike Judge.

Jamie Lang The Annecy Animation Festival hosted its closing ceremony on Saturday, where there were two clear winners from the main feature film competition. Adam Elliot’s “Memoir of a Snail” took Annecy’s top award, the Cristal for best feature, and Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow” scooped just about everything else.

As a small child, motherless Grace started keeping snails in a jar, writing names on their shells and watching their life cycle — mate, breed, die — with loving fascination. “They were my friends,” she muses in voiceover in Memoir of a Snail, which this week had its premiere at the Annecy International Animation Festival. “I knew they’d never leave me, hurt me — or die.” Moments before, we saw Gracie’s huge ovoid eyes, spill over with tears as the aged Pinkie, her only human companion, breathed her final death rattle. “I’m so alone,” says Grace, not for the first time. “Goddamn life! Such a stupid, stupid puzzle!”

Actress Emma Rigby, who originally appeared in Hollyoaks as Hannah Ashworth from 2005 to 2010, has resigned from the soap following her high profile return last year. According to The Sun, Emma has quit after producers decided to drastically reduce the number of cast members and the number of episodes. When Emma returned to the series in November 2023, Hollyoaks aired five nights a week, but now there will be just three 20 minute episodes per week and a reduced cast and crew as 135 staff have lost their jobs.

Marta Balaga Animation wizard Henry Selick has seen the remastered “Coraline.” And he loves it. “It’s gorgeous. I saw it about a week and a half ago and it very much represents the original dream of how to use the 3D really well,” Selick said during a surprise appearance at Variety‘s “Laika Celebrates Coraline’s 15th Anniversary” panel at Annecy Animation Festival.

Selena Kuznikov Lionsgate Television has optioned journalist Adam Ciralsky’s Vanity Fair article “Take No Prisoners” to be developed as a series by showrunner Alexi Hawley. The article details the work of the U.S. Special envoy for hostage affairs and his colleagues, working for the release of Americans held captive worldwide.

Lionsgate Television is developing the series The Envoy based on the June 2024 Vanity Fair article “Take No Prisoners” from Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist Adam Ciralsky.

Jamie Lang Pyramide Films will handle sales of the stop-motion animated feature film “Olivia and The Invisible Earthquake,” Variety has learned. Based on Maite Carranza’s children’s novel “The Movie Of Life,” — which has sold more than 24,000 copies in Spain — the film focuses on 12-year-old Olivia. She sees her life collapse when her family is evicted from their home.

Jamie Lang Ahead of today’s Warner Bros. Animation studio focus panel at the Annecy Animation Festival, Variety has learned that Cartoon Network Studios (CNS) is working on three new “Adventure Time” properties, including a movie and two new series. Currently in development, details are still scant regarding the “Adventure Time” movie, but the project features an animation superstar lineup of talent including “Steven Universe” creator Rebecca Sugar, “Over the Garden Wall” co-creator Patrick McHale and “Adventure Time” showrunner Adam Muto.

Alex Ritman In live-action filmmaking, a continuity error may be very annoying, but is usually straightforward to fix — simply reshoot the scene again. In the painstakingly slow world of stop-motion animation, where seconds of footage can take months to shoot, it can be something of a headache. So when Claude Barras realized that that he’d filmed several segments of his new film, “Savages,” with his lead character, the teen girl Keria, not carrying the rucksack she’d had on earlier in the story, he had a problem.

Oscar-winning Australian director Adam Elliot is at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival with his long-awaited second stop-motion feature Memoir of a Snail, which world premieres in the main competition.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Will Arnett is expanding his relationship with Fox Entertainment. The actor and comedian, who hosts Fox’s “Lego Masters,” has sealed an overall producing deal for his Electric Avenue Prods. to produce fare for the network’s in-house production company.

Hallmark Channel fans are going to love this news: Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott are reuniting for another film!

EXCLUSIVE: Hallmark Channel is reuniting Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott for His & Hers (working title), a new movie set to premiere later this year during the network’s annual Fall into Love programming event.

“Hey Mom, did you feel emotional the first time you drove in Sacramento?” asked Saoirse Ronan’s titular character in “Lady Bird” during an impassioned final monologue that makes the streets of the Californian capital glow. The city provides a similar site of reconciliation between a pair who’s grown gradually estranged in Michael Angarano’s “Sacramento.” It feels emotional, too, albeit in a more familiar way.