Premiere Entertainment Begins Production In El Salvador On Body Swap Comedy ‘The Ballad Of Hortensia’

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In body-swap comedies, the acting is its own kind of brazen put-on fun. Adult actors get to channel their inner innocent kid; young actors get to channel their “serious” adult. And that’s why, ever since the original “Freaky Friday” (1976) brought this genre into being, it’s been marked by instances of true Hollywood artistry, like Tom Hanks’ classic performance in “Big” (though that wasn’t technically a swap comedy) or the lyrically funny bedlam that Jennifer Garner brought off in “13 Going on 30,” one of the best movies of its year.

Hello, and welcome to the Scene 2 Seen Podcast!

Valerie Wu Intern “Reverence,” an upcoming thriller from writer-director Kyle Kauwika Harris (“Out of Exile”), has started production in Oklahoma. The film began principal photography this week, with a logline reading: “‘Reverence’ is a dark and moody missing person’s thriller about a traumatized father coming to terms with his violent military past, while searching for his missing daughter in a small, rural town.

At this point, the body switch comedy genre is pretty well worn. Big, Freaky Friday (twice), 17 Again, 13 Going On 30, etc. have pretty much defined and exhausted what can be done with the concept to keep it fresh. The latter 2004 hit actually starred Jennifer Garner, who is now returning to the genre again, this time as producer and star of Netflix‘s holiday comedy, Family Switch.

“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” stayed at No. 1 at the box office on Black Friday, retaining the top spot in its second week on the screens.

Brent Lang Executive Editor There’s a good old fashioned box office battle brewing. Disney’s “Wish,” an animated adventure that had been expected to dominate the Thanksgiving holiday is facing off against Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” for the top spot over the five-day stretch. And the dystopian prequel, which is currently in its second week of release, is showing impressive resilience against the family flick.

Masterpiece PBS and the BBC are set to begin production on Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, an adaptation of the final novel in Hilary Mantel’s award-winning trilogy.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Mystery-horror film “Five Nights at Freddy’s” landed on top of the South Korean cinema box office. But fellow new release title “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songs and Snakes” managed only a fourth placed start. “Five Nights” earned $1.78 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Local crime drama film “Last Suspect” returned to the top spot at the mainland China box office over the latest weekend, as “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” opened quietly in third place. Narrowly beaten last week by “The Marvels,” “Last Suspect” climbed one place while “The Marvels” fell out of the top five in China. In its third weekend of release, “Last Suspect” recorded $10.1 million (RMB76 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is nearing the $100 million mark worldwide after three days of release. Those ticket sales, including $44 million in North America and $54.5 million internationally, were enough to top the box office.

Refresh for latest…: Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes very (very) narrowly missed the $100M mark globally in its opening weekend, but it’s as near as dammit with an estimated $98.5M through Sunday worldwide. The Francis Lawrence-directed prequel came in slightly higher than pre-frame projections overseas with $54.5M from 87 international box office markets. The drag on getting to the century milestone was domestic at $44M versus hopes for $50M+. 

The Peasants would already be a daunting project in the best of times. Like their previous film, Loving Vincent, directors Hugh and DK Welchman oversaw a team of animators painting each frame of the film based on live-action reference material. Hugh, who came to Los Angeles from Poland just for his 12-minute Contenders panel, said The Peasants also had to work around COVID and the Ukraine War.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “You may know me from other stuff, but I don’t use a lot of colors, except when necessary,” says renowned costume designer Trish Summerville. So, when it came to designing the main outfit worn by Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” Summerville, whose credits include “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Mank” and “Gone Girl,” had to wrap her head around “a rainbow dress with ruffles and things she keeps in her pockets.” The rainbow dress was one of the first outfits Summerville tackled.

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate‘s prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is looking at a Thursday night between $5.75M-$6M after showtimes that began at 3PM.

Cruella,” “Joker” and “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” only strewn with young-adult corpses, silly clothes and Roman names.The trouble is that by the end of the over two-and-a-half-hour movie, directed by Francis Lawrence, viewers still can’t quite put their fingers on why Coryo (Tom Blyth) picks the nasty path he ultimately does. Is it a basic lust for power? A lightbulb realization that survival is more important than morality? Who knows? A lot is shoved into a long and anticlimactic third act, but we’re left hungry for a meatier conclusion.“Songbirds and Snakes” is set during the 10th annual Hunger Games — a televised battle to the death that pits 24 low-class kids against each other in an arena — 64 years before the events of the first film.

Hank Azaria, who recently went public with his thanks to his friend, the late Matthew Perry, for helping him get sober in 2006, has joined the producing team – along with Jason Biggs and Edie Falco – of The White Chip, an upcoming Off Broadway “recovery comedy” by Sean Daniels.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Jason Biggs, Edie Falco and Hank Azaria have joined the producing team of “The White Chip,” a comedy that will premiere Off-Broadway in 2024. Described as a “wry and wild” journey, the story follows an alcoholic’s unusual path to sobriety. They will work with the previously announced lineup of Annaleigh Ashford, John Larroquette (“Night Court”) and writer-activist Ryan Hampton.

The book The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, written by Suzanne Collins, has been adapted for the screen by director Francis Lawrence, alongside screenwriters Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt. The film delves into the chillingly formative years of Panem, a society not yet inured to the brutality of its central spectacle. This prequel, starkly contrasting its YA predecessors, morphs into a harrowing adult political thriller, unraveling the genesis of the Hunger Games with a disturbingly poignant lens — that is, when it can get out of its own way.

Katcy Stephan Tom Blyth is tired, but he’s doing a good job of hiding it. When the star of “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” sits down with Variety via Zoom, SAG-AFTRA is still on strike, and it’s been six short days since the Lionsgate thriller received an in- terim agreement from the guild. That means the press tour leading up to the long-anticipated release, typically spread across several months, has been condensed to just two weeks.

The Hollywood News Run by film fans for film fans! The Hollywood News Last night, the London premiere of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes took place at the famous BFI IMAX in the Waterloo area of town – quite literally the biggest and one of the best screens in the country. The cast and filmmakers arrived on the red carpet to talk about the new film ahead of its release later this month and we have some footage featuring the two main stars, Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth to share.This new film is set 64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute, and decades before Coriolanus Snow became the tyrannical President of Panem.The film follows a young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol.