‘Star Trek,’ ‘Ghosts’ Set For Master Classes at Banff Festival (EXCLUSIVE)

Asian Heritage Month vibe is rubbing off Saara Chaudry, who was all praises for her “The Muppets Mayhem” co-star Lilly Singh.

EXCLUSIVE: Ashley Moore (I Know What You Did Last Summer) and Camren Bicondova (Gotham) will topline Festival of the Living Dead, a Tubi film inspired by the classic 1968 zombie pic Night of the Living Dead co-written and directed by George A. Romero.

EXCLUSIVE: Coda star Emilia Jones is set to star in romance Charlie Harper, which Picture Perfect Federation is launching for sales at next week’s upcoming Cannes market.

EXCLUSIVE: Lucy J. Mukerjee has joined Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith’s media company Firelight Media, geared toward nonfiction cinema by and about communities of color, as the new director of its flagship Documentary Lab.

Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard not only reunited all of the Next Generation crew, but also gave them a fitting sendoff for which fans have been waiting since the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis. It wasn’t easy for anyone, including composer Stephen Barton.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “Yellowstone” may have been shut out at the 2022 Emmys, but Paramount+’s Western spinoff “1923” is hoping to break that cycle. Creator Taylor Sheridan, who wrote the entire first season of the freshman series, has chosen to submit the premiere episode, titled “1923,” for Emmy consideration, Variety can exclusively confirm. In addition, the same kickoff episode will serve as Ben Richardson’s official submission for outstanding directing for a drama. Read Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Emmy predictions in all categories. The eight-episode prequel to Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone” and sequel to Paramount+’s “1883” follows a generation of the Dutton family during various hardships, including prohibition, drought and the early stages of the Great Depression.

Naman Ramachandran Principal photography has commenced on Adam MacDonald’s survival thriller “Out Come the Wolves.” The feral feature, which will be shot on location in Dundas, Ontario throughout May, follows the story of a woman who takes her fiancé to a secluded cabin to meet her best male friend, before things take a dark turn during a hunting trip. The film is represented for international by Altitude Film Sales, who will be discussing the film with buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. MacDonald’s credits include “Backcountry”, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and “Pyewacket”, which also debuted at TIFF. He also directed the third and fourth seasons of “Slasher” and the upcoming season five for AMC’s Shudder. Most recently, he completed directing the first virtual reality horror movie experience for Meta entitled “Be Mine.”

Naman Ramachandran Film Soho, official partners of the Cannes Film Market and Cannes Next, has revealed the speakers for the fireside chat at this year’s Global Virtual Production Summit. The opening event, to be held on May 18, will feature “1899” cinematographer Nik Summerer, BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor at ILM, David Vickery (“Avatar: The Way of Water,” the Jurassic World franchise), and actor Christina Chong (Star Trek series “Strange New Worlds”) discussing the topic How Virtual Production is Empowering Film and Storytelling Visionaries. The discussion will be moderated by BBC Radio 1 film critic Ali Plumb. The ticketed event will take place at the new beachside venue Plages des Palmes. Later that evening, the venue will play host to the official Cannes Next opening party presented by Film Soho.

EXCLUSIVE: BBC boss Charlotte Moore, director Kevin Macdonald and Sky UK drama chief Meghan Lyvers are set to appear at an Edinburgh TV Festival conference on climate-focused content.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Memento International has closed major deals on Martin Provost’s “Bonnard, Pierre And Marthe” ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Slated for Cannes Premiere, the period film revolves around the colorful relationship and epic love between renowned French painters Pierre and Marthe Bonnard who are played by Vincent Macaigne (“Irma Vep”) and Cecile de France (“Lost Illusions”). The film has been pre-sold by Memento International to key distributors in Italy (I Wonder), Canada (Sphère Films), Latin America (California Filmes), South Korea (AUD), Taiwan (Flash Forward), Airlines (Skeye), Poland (Hagi), Hungary (Vertigo), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Czech Republic (Cinemart), Bulgaria (Beta Film), Ex-Yugoslavia (Demiurg).

Thanks to the success of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and its spinoffs, drag has hit the mainstream in recent years — and at the same time, is under attack in the U.S., with several Republican-run states having introduced legislation to ban drag while scaling back hard-fought LGBTQIA+ rights.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Monte-Carlo Television Festival has revealed the nominees for its Golden Nymph Awards. The festival will open June 16 with the world premiere of the first episode of “Harlan Coben’s Shelter.” Hollywood producer and writer Howard Gordon (“The X-Files,” “24,” “Homeland,” “Accused”) will receive the Honorary Golden Nymph Award, the festival’s highest accolade, bestowed on a professional for their contribution to the entertainment industry. In the Fiction competition are “Poker Face” (U.S.), starring Natasha Lyonne, “The Warrant: Breaker’s Law” (U.S.), “Ten Pound Poms” (U.K./Australia), “The Seed” (Germany, Norway, Czech Republic), “Chorus Girls” (Denmark), “Fence” (Japan), “Le Colosse aux pieds d’argile” (France), “Miró” (Spain) and “Trust No One” (Israel).

K.J. Yossman Content company Catalyst has partnered with intimate apparel company Knix to launch a documentary fund. The Knix Fund Catalyst Docs for Change Project is set to launch at Banff World Media Festival, which kicks off on June 11. Catalyst founder Julie Bristow and Knix founder Joanna Griffiths will appear at the festival in a moderated conversation on June 14 to outline the fund’s objectives. The fund will open to submissions around the same time, with Catalyst and Knix green lighting the most promising entry. “The values of Knix and the thought-leadership that Joanna has provided on so many women’s issues align perfectly with Catalyst’s mission to open eyes, minds, and hearts with unapologetically brilliant storytelling by and about women,” said Bristow. “To achieve a more inclusive world, we need more stories led by women creators. Sometimes the only way to catalyse change is to challenge legacy business models by investing in new paradigms. This partnership does just that. We will ensure important stories get told because we’ll finance them.” 

EXCLUSIVE: Fiona Shaw (Andor), Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice) and Chaske Spencer (The English) have entered production in NYC on Park Avenue, a new indie drama from Sundance alum Gaby Dellal (On a Clear Day), who directs from her script written with Tina Alexis Allen.

While “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” crosses the billion-dollar mark this weekend at the global box office, another big Chris Pratt film is heading to theaters next week with “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.

Bad Sisters creator and star Sharon Horgan is the latest keynote speaker to be revealed by the Banff World Media Festival.

premiered in 1987, Denise Crosby helped Patrick Stewart and co. launch a new chapter of Gene Roddenberry's universe. But unlike Captain Picard and other OG characters, security chief Lieutenant Tasha Yar didn't survive s inaugural outing — let alone reunite with the Enterprise crew during Star Trek: Picard's final season.ET was on the set of «Skin of Evil» in 1988, as Crosby filmed Tasha's now-infamous death scene, following a sit-down between the actress and Roddenberry, who «came together agreeably» while discussing her exit from the series.«I am leaving the show.

Russ Weakland Just days before the “Star Trek: Picard” team celebrated its series finale with an FYC red carpet event in Hollywood Wednesday night, Paramount+ announced that Michelle Yeoh will reprise her role of Philippa Georgiou in the upcoming event film, “Star Trek: Section 31.” The announcement had the cast of “Picard” extremely excited for Yeoh’s return and eager to give kudos to the newly minted Oscar winner. “It is a really cool time to have Michelle Yeoh back in the family,” Jonathan Frakes, who plays Commander William Riker and has directed dozens of episodes across the “Star Trek” television universe, told Variety. “I had the privilege of directing her a number of times on ‘Discovery.’ She’s a very special human being. She is a special actor. So the idea that we get her now on ‘Section 31’ is kind of a big deal.” 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Trinity CineAsia has acquired rights to Chinese tentpole action movie “Born to Fly,” and will release the film in cinemas in the U.K. and Ireland.

Patrick Stewart is saying farewell to his “Star Trek: Picard” character, Jean-Luc Picard, almost four decades after he took on the role in 1987 for “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.