Noir Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

MGM+ and Prime Video have handed a series order to Noir, a live-action series based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir, with Oscar winner Nicolas Cage set to star.

EXCLUSIVE: Kaya Scodelario (The Gentlemen) and Billie Lourd (Booksmart) have signed on to star alongside Josh Gad, Anthony Carrigan and Alex Winter in Winter’s darkly comic modern noir Adulthood.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Thirty years ago (in fact, it will be 30 years to the day this Sunday), Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and cinema was never the same. Tarantino’s 1994 epic-crime-pretzel-meets-pop-monologue masterpiece smashed open one door after another, and an inevitable result is that we saw a great many movies in the ’90s that were Tarantino knockoffs — underworld capers of baroque violence and exuberant scuzz, movies that not only bent the dirty hedonism of film noir into new shapes but did it with a special brand of self-consciousness, a “Look at what we’re up to!” effrontery.

Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor, Variety.com Action romance is a tricky genre to master — it requires the right balance of heart and spectacle. But when done well, à la “True Lies” or “Mr. and Mrs.

squarely among their tradition. Farrell joins Matthew Rhys (“Perry Mason”) and Clive Owen (“Monsieur Spade”) in the group of heavy-hitting recent actors who have dusted off the genre. The show constantly makes us wonder if his disposition is a front.

Alison Herman TV Critic If John Sugar, the PI played by a gravel-voiced Colin Farrell in the eponymous crime drama “Sugar,” seems like too much a collection of noir clichés and male fantasies to be a plausible protagonist, that’s partly by design. But the Apple TV+ series, created by screenwriter Mark Protosevich (“I Am Legend,” Spike Lee’s “Oldboy”), executive produced by Audrey Chon (“The Twilight Zone” reboot, “Invasion”) Simon Kinberg (the original “Mr.

A stylishly engaging and crisp neo-noir steeped in the hardboiled detective tradition, Apple TV+’s “Sugar,” starring Colin Farrell, is rather terrific—that is, until it’s not. Created by Mark Protosevich (“I Am Legend”) and fabulously directed by Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles (“City Of God”) and Adam Arkin (“The Offer”), “Sugar” is initially sleek and captivatingly crafted in its depiction of L.A.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Sleeping Dogs,” starring Russell Crowe as a retired cop with Alzheimer’s disease, is a half-rusted scrap heap of a detective mystery. It’s patchy, it’s badly lit, it’s glum, it’s overloaded with suspects, and it’s almost proud of its contrivances. Yet in its logy, booby-trapped way, it keeps you watching.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Jamie Dornan will lead the cast of a new crime noir series that has been ordered at Netflix titled “The Undertow,” Variety has learned exclusively. “The Undertow” is based on the Nordisk Film Production AS television series “Twin” created by Kristoffer Metcalfe. Dornan will star in the series as twin brothers Adam and Lee.

“Choices, choices…,” says the narrator, a young seamstress, in this strange and striking debut from Freddy Macdonald. A neo-noir in the early Coens tradition, Sew Torn also features a bold tri-part structure in which the heroine, Barbara (Eve Connolly) — like Lola before her in Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run — gets three standalone chances to pursue a different destiny after stumbling on the bloody aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong on a quiet country road.  

Marta Balaga Finnish comedy “Money Shot,” about an ex-porn star venturing out of her comfort zone, is heading to Canneseries. Sari, now in her forties, gets fired from her last role. Forced to find a new way to make a living, she teams up with Linnea – an aspiring director who struggles to get into film school.

Housing in America is becoming a huge issue, with astronomical housing prices beginning to eliminate a generation of potential home buyers. Monthly rents are soaring; it’s a real-life issue ripe for dramatic exploration in both features and television.

EXCLUSIVE: Napoleon star Vanessa Kirby will reunite with The Crown’s Benjamin Caron on a movie based on Willy Vlautin’s 2021 novel The Night Always Comes, about a working-class woman in the Pacific Northwest who embarks on a 24-hour quest to call in old debts and raise enough money to keep a roof over her head. 

Annika Pham One of Banijay’s scripted centrepieces at the London TV Screenings, the Swedish crime drama “Fallen” (“Sanningen”), sees the first reunion of star actor Sofia Helin, writer Camilla Ahlgren, and Stockholm-based Filmlance International since the multi-season hit crime show “The Bridge” (2011-2018). Their collaboration has paid off again as “Fallen” has wooed a first batch of global sellers – including MHz Choice for the U.S.

The hitman has proven a consistent source of inspiration for movies, from 1942’s “This Gun For Hire” to 1967’s “Le Samourai” to the recent “Hitman.” With so many movies centered around a hitman, it’s hard not to feel derivative. One of the ways that filmmakers make their take on the hitman feels fresh and unique is to give the contract killer a quirk, an easily distinguishable characteristic.

EXCLUSIVE: FX has handed a pilot order to The Sensitive Kind, a high-profile drama project starring and executive produced by Ethan Hawke and created and executive produced by Sterlin Harjo, co-creator, executive producer and showrunner of the network’s acclaimed series Reservation Dogs.

Annika Pham Once upon a time, there was the Swedish queen of crime Camilla Läckberg, steadily delivering international best-selling adult/children’s books, cook books and song lyrics. Some of her books have turned into series –“The Fjällbacka Murders” – or soon will be – “The Golden Age,’ optioned by Legendary Entertainment.

Alex Ritman The 20th edition of the Glasgow Film Festival has landed one of Sundance’s most talked-about films for its opening night. “Love Lies Bleeding,” Rose Glass‘ queer romantic noir starring Kristen Stewart that earned critical acclaim in Park City, is set to raise the curtain on the event with its U.K.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic There was a time, in the ’90s, when indie film noir thought it was being hip by imitating the trappings of ’40s thrillers ­— the dark shadows, Venetian blinds and “slinky” femme fatales. But a true noir never really looks back; it’s always pushing forward, toward fresh new varieties of desire and dread. “Love Lies Bleeding” is like that.

Alison Herman TV Critic All works of IP exploitation are, on some level, legitimized fanfiction. Once divorced from the original author, the line that separates a franchise’s sequel, prequel or reboot from the average post on Wattpad is a great deal of money and the blessing of an estate and/or corporation.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Temps Noir, the French documentary production powerhouse behind Mediawan Rights sales hits “Kubrick by Kubrick” and “Cinecittà: Making of History,” has boarded “Passengers for the Last Trip,” the fiction feature debut of Cuba’s Marta María Borrás (“Atardecer en el Trópico”). It will hit Spain’s Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (MAFF) this March as the most laureled of Latin America’s projects in the showcase.

Over the past several years, Paul Schrader has experienced a massive resurgence. No longer just a legendary screenwriter from decades past, he has become one of the most interesting and relevant filmmakers working today, even though many at his age are either retired or lesser versions of themselves, creatively.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “If you really missed not seeing us on screen together, then ‘The Goldfinger’ is your opportunity to do so,” says Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau of his new crime movie where he is again paired with Tony Leung Chiu-wai (“In the Mood for Love”). The film releases at the end of the month in different parts of Asia and North America (from Dec. 30).

When it comes to hair colour trends, 2023 has been all about the red-tinged hues, with cowboy copper, cinnamon cookie and apple cider all making their way onto our styling mood boards over the last 12 months. However there’s one crimson shade that’s been slowly creeping into our peripheral vision, and its a much more subtle way of getting a red haired hue without quite so much commitment.

Steve Lightfoot, known for his work on Apple’s Shantarum and Netflix’s The Punisher, has signed on as co-showrunner on Amazon‘s live-action Spider-Man Noir series based on the Marvel comic, Deadline has confirmed.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The Spider-Man Noir live-action series in the works at Amazon has brought on Steve Lightfoot as co-showrunner, Variety has learned exclusively. The show was first reported to be in the works at Amazon back in February. Oren Uziel is the writer on the project and will serve alongside Lightfoot as co-showrunner and executive producer.

OK! has put together a comprehensive guide to the shopping event with answers to common questions like when is Black Friday 2023? Jo Malone's Pomegranate Noir has gained a dedicated following, with many considering it as Jo Malone's signature scent. However, its hefty price tag of £118 for 100ml is definitely a costly splurge, especially when it comes to this time of year. However, Jo Malone enthusiasts can now get their hands on the Pomegranate Noir perfume for just £18 thanks to the Jo Malone London Tantalising and Seductive Travel Cologne Duo, which includes two of the brand's popular fragrances for only £36 here.

Gkids has acquired North American rights to Mars Express, the French animated feature from first-timer Jérémie Perin, which was an official selection this year of both Cannes and Annecy.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Only the River Flows,” a pitch-black crime noir from auteur Wei Shujun, comfortably topped the mainland China box office on a quietish weekend. The film, ostensibly a murder mystery, but one concerned more with atmosphere than linear plotting, earned $12.6 million (RMB90.8 million) in its opening three days, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway, or close to a third of the market. The film had its premiere in Cannes where Variety gave it a rave review, calling it an “inventive riff on Asian-noir” and making comparisons with films by Park Chan-wook and Diao Yinan. “Only the River Flows” has since played at a succession of festivals ever since, including New Zealand, BFI London, Vancouver, Adelaide and last week’s Pingyao event in China. Falling to second place at the box office after three weeks on top was Zhang Yimou’s “Under the Light,” which earned $6.9 million for a four-weekend cumulative of $176 million. Chen Kaige’s war, propaganda film “The Volunteers: To the War” earned $5.3 million in third place.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The second season of the tropical noir crime drama “Troppo” has completed production in Queensland, Australia, with Thomas Jane (“Boogie Nights”) and Nicole Chamoun (“Safe Harbour,” “On the Ropes”) reprising their roles as private investigators Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharrell. A director known for “The Expanse” and “Dark Country,” Jane also serves as a director for two episodes of Season 2.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic I’m a fan of Chris Pine: the early Shatner-smooth charisma, the powerful chops he’s displayed in movies like “Hell or High Water,” the authoritative snap of his performance as the cult-leader heavy in “Don’t Worry Darling.” So I take no vicious pleasure in saying that “Poolman,” a movie that Pine co-wrote, directed, and stars in, is not only the worst film I saw during the fall festival season but would likely be one of the worst films in any year it came out. Okay, maybe I’m taking a bit of vicious pleasure in saying that, since I had to sit through the goddamn thing.

Michael Keaton has been acting in movies long enough to know that if you’re making one, as he does for the second time with the proficient neo-noir “Knox Goes Away,” your opening shot needs to say something. His says it all: a tight close-up inventories the personal affects of an unseen figure taking them one by one, heading out the door, then doubling back to grab the watch, filling the audio track with its relentless ticking.

What’s not to love about this upcoming TV series? After the success of “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix in 2022, creators Scott Frank and Allan Scott went into high demand. And for Frank’s next project, he teams up with “OZ” and “Homicide” writer and “City On A Hill” showrunner Tom Fontana for a take on Dashiell Hammett‘s legendary detective Sam Spade.

It was 22 years ago that Skip Hollandsworth wrote a Texas Monthly article about Gary Johnson, a school teacher who moonlights as a hit man who doesn’t kill people. Now if that doesn’t sound like the formula for a hit movie, you may understand why it has taken so long for Gary’s story to make it to the silver screen, so long in fact that its subject passed away before he could hit the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival where the film is having its World Premiere tonight. Nevertheless Glen Powell never forgot the story and has teamed with Richard Linklater to finally tell it, but it is only “loosely” based on the article. Certain details in the screenplay co-written by Linklater and Powell are made up, and those are the details that actually help make this a hilarious winner, as well as perhaps Linklater’s most commercial movie since School Of Rock. Its quirky true crime element also has a bit in common with Linklater’s Bernie which starred Jack Black. The director seems drawn to this kind of offbeat tale, with some level of truth to it.

Jessica Kiang Imagine that one of Hitchcock’s villains — say, the guy missing the tip of a pinkie in “The 39 Steps,” or the shrink who runs the institute in “Spellbound” — did not simply come from a place of murderous intent but from a different place altogether, perhaps another dimension. Imagine that villain’s supranatural malfeasance backdropped by jagged mountains, captured in black-and-white so crisp it could cut, and widescreen frames so wide whole Alpine ranges fit comfortably inside them. And imagine it all unfolding to a deliberately overpowering score, like Bernard Herrman and Scott Walker conceived a baby during a sonic boom.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Next time someone wistfully insists, “They don’t make ’em like they used to,” why not point that nostalgic cinephile to the work of Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon? The Belgium-based creative couple are almost single-handedly keeping the classic burlesque tradition alive on screen — if the word “single-handedly” can fairly be used to describe a near-silent comic duo with four hands between them, plus a growing company of collaborators (including dancer Kaori Ito) and a prosthetic arm with a mind of its own. In “The Falling Star,” Abel and Gordon bring their old-school comedic sensibility to what could loosely be described as a detective story, told in a film noir style punctuated with flashes of color: a red dress, a tiny green car, a bright yellow scooter.