Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, Todd Haynes, Emerald Fennell & More Set For Deadline’s Contenders London Return

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar and BAFTA-winning VFX firm Framestore has hired industry veteran and former MPC exec Gary Brozenich. He will take up the new position of international production supervisor. 

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” an epic look at the French emperor and military leader’s rise to power, is one of the final potential awards hopefuls awaiting its first reactions from critics and pundits. As awards season approaches, Variety has learned exclusively which Oscar categories the film will be submitted for. Most notably, Vanessa Kirby will vie for best supporting actress.

The world premiere of “Promising Young Woman” at Sundance in 2020 instantly made Emerald Fennell a female director to keep an eye on. And while the COVID-19 pandemic may have delayed its arrival to audiences a bit, the film still racked up the accolades, winning Best Original Screenplay at the 93rd Academy Awards.

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor EnergaCamerimage, the cinematography-focused film festival that will take place in Torun, Poland, Nov. 11-18, has announced three more films for its Main Competition: “El Conde,” “Filip” and “Ferrari.” “El Conde,” helmed by Chilean director Pablo Larraín (“Jackie,” “Spencer”), is billed as a dark comedy/horror picture that imagines a parallel universe in which Chile’s late fascistic dictator Augusto Pinochet is a vampire hiding away in a ruined mansion.

Ridley Scott may have sung the praises of Fede Alvarez‘s upcoming sequel “Alien: Romulus,” but he doesn’t feel the same about “Top Gun: Maverick.” JoBlo reports that at the recent DGA Latino Summit, Alvarez said Scott was unimpressed with the sequel to his brother Tony Scott‘s 1986 original. In Scott’s words: “My brother’s was original and this is like eh.”   READ MORE: Ridley Scott Says He Has A “Fantastic” 270-Minute Director’s Cut Of ‘Napoleon’ That Focuses More On Vanessa Kirby’s Josephine Alvarez brought up the anecdote when speaking about how tough Scott is on follow-ups to his films, which is something the director was afraid of regarding his “Alien” sequel.

LOL, at Ridley Scott and “Napoleon” to borrow the boastful phrase, “I’m built different”—did Andrew Tate come up with that one?—and tweak it to, “I’m not built like other men,” in his new trailer for this war epic. It’s slightly comical to hear modern verbiage in period movies and period movie trailers, but hey, it’s not the first time.

Fede Álvarez is directing a new sequel to Alien and Ridley Scott has seemingly given his notes on the movie and thinks it’s “f***ing great.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Don’t Breathe” and “Evil Dead” director Fede Álvarez is reviving the “Alien” franchise next year with the release of a new sequel (reportedly titled “Alien: Romulus“), which he co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues. The film will tell a new story within the “Alien” universe after the film franchise came to a halt following Ridley Scott‘s prequel films “Prometheus” (2012) and “Alien: Covenant” (2017). The latter’s middling box office ended Scott’s run.

Even though he didn’t direct “Alien 3” or “Alien: Resurrection,” the “Alien” franchise is arguably Ridley Scott‘s.

Michaela Zee The 61st annual New York Film Festival concluded on Friday night with the North American premiere of Michael Mann’s “Ferrari.” Mann walked the red carpet at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and sat down for a post-screening Q&A alongside “Ferrari” stars Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley and Gabriel Leone, who were able to attend the premiere due to the film’s SAG-AFTRA interim agreement. “The mindset of a racer was something we talked about,” Driver said of his preparation with Mann for the Enzo Ferrari biopic.

Todd Haynes tells me that May December, his gripping melodrama starring Oscar winners Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, “aggressively disturbs our moral moorings.”

“He came from nothing. He conquered everything.” So goes the tagline for Ridley Scott‘s upcoming historical epic “Napoleon,” in theaters this Thanksgiving.

Ridley Scott has confirmed a four-hour director’s cut of his upcoming film Napoleon will be released on Apple TV+.The director, who previously said he had a “fantastic” cut of the historical epic which spanned four hours and 30 minutes, explained to TotalFilm that the director’s cut, which has since been reduced by 20 minutes, will be officially released.Asked about the director’s cut, Scott said: “I’m working on it. It was four [hours] 10 [minutes] this morning.

Ridley Scott is no stranger to having multiple cuts of films. Hell, just take a second and try to wrap your head around all the various versions of “Blade Runner,” when you can.

Deadline kicked off movie-awards season Saturday with Contenders London, which featured creatives and key craftspeople from 13 buzzy films that will be at the forefront of kudos conversations leading up to the Oscars in March.

One of the year’s most anticipated films is definitely “Napoleon.” Though his recent output hasn’t been as consistent as we’d like, there’s no denying Ridley Scott is one of the best filmmakers of the past several decades. Not only is he behind the camera for the historical epic, but we also get Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role.

Ridley Scott has criticised Joker for “the way it celebrated violence”.The director has worked with Joaquin Phoenix – who played the titular DC villain in the 2019 film – in his new movie Napoleon, and was inspired to cast the Oscar-winner after seeing his performance in Joker.However, Scott explained in a new interview that while he was impressed by the performance, he wasn’t the biggest fan of the film as a whole.“I was blown away by his outrageous film Joker,” the filmmaker told Deadline. “I didn’t like the way it celebrated violence but Joaquin was remarkable.”“I thought he’d be an amazing asset to Napoleon, [not only creatively] also in a commercial sense,” he added.

Ridley Scott has opened up about his casting of Paul Mescal in the upcoming new Gladiator 2 film.The new film will follow Lucius (Mescal) – the son of Lucilla (Connie Neilson) and Maximus (previously played by Russell Crowe) – and the nephew of Emperor Commodus, who Joaquin Phoenix played in the first film. Pedro Pescal has also been cast in the film although details about his character are as yet unknown.Scott spoke to Total Film about Mescal’s casting. On how he came across Mescal he said: “I watched Normal People.

Michael Mann’s upcoming high-octane sports feature Ferrari has been two decades in the making and speaking at Deadline’s Contenders London event on Saturday, the director admitted there were times he thought his passion project about the life of Enzo Ferrari would never take off. 

May December director Todd Haynes said of first reading Samy Burch’s script, “I loved how disquieting it was for the reader and thought, ‘Wow, if there was a way to convey this on screen and ignite that sense of engaged questioning and uncertainty’… It reminded me of the kind of movies that I came of age watching. It made you question your assumptions going in, made you want to discuss them and think about them later.” Haynes was speaking at Deadline’s Contenders London event this afternoon.