The Most Anticipated Film Books Of 2022

It’s rarely discussed these days, or perhaps remembered, but David Fincher’s “Panic Room” was one of his most fraught productions—to this day it probably goes down as Fincher’s most difficult shoot and probably one he does not remember very fondly. Many may not remember, but Nicole Kidman was originally cast in the lead role, but she left the project two weeks into filming due to a knee injury.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAs we enter the final countdown to the Feb. 8 Oscar nominations announcement, Isabella Rossellini is clearly rooting for Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” which is Italy’s candidate for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and among the shortlisted titles.To help promote the pic with Academy voters, Rossellini engaged in an online chat with the director and young Italian actor Filippo Scotti, who plays Sorrentino’s alter-ego Fabietto in the pic. She also wore a gold horn amulet that belonged to her father, the late great Italian master Roberto Rossellini, for good luck.Here are edited excerpts of the conversation, to which Variety has been given exclusive access.

Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk has responded to the news that Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video has amended the film’s ending.In the final scenes of the original, The Narrator (Edward Norton) kills off his imaginary alter ego Tyler (Brad Pitt) and watches on as numerous buildings explode.In the version released on the Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video, however, the original’s anarchist ending is replaced with a black slate, captioned: “The police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding.” It also adds that Tyler was sent to a “lunatic system” for treatment.Palahniuk, who wrote the 1996 novel the film is based on, gave a sarcastic response to the altered ending in his newsletter on Substack.Have You Seen This Sh*t?This is SUPER wonderful! Everyone gets a happy ending in China! https://t.co/saVA2yro9B pic.twitter.com/20UzTi1nyI— Chuck Palahniuk (@chuckpalahniuk) January 25, 2022“Tyler and the gang were all arrested. He was tried and sentenced to a mental asylum.

Ed Meza @edmezavarGerman sales company Pluto Film is under new ownership following its sale by founders and former CEOs Heino Deckert and Torsten Frehse to Daniela and Benjamin Cölle.Deckert and Frehse, who established the Berlin-based shingle in 2015, are stepping down to focus on the activities of their respective companies, the Leipzig-based production shingle Maja.de and Berlin film distributor Neue Visionen.The new husband and wife team will head Pluto Film as co-CEOs, with Daniela Cölle also serving as head of acquisitions. Cölle has worked at the company since its launch, initially as festival manager.“We are very thankful to Torsten and Heino for trusting in us as new owners and CEOs,” she said.

Courteney Cox is happy and in love.

Pat Saperstein Deputy EditorIrwin “Butch” Wallace Young, the chairman of DuArt Film Laboratories who supported New York filmmakers for decades, died Jan. 20 in Manhattan.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterSundance Film Festival has revealed a mystery movie on its 2022 lineup.“Navalny,” a fly-on-the-wall documentary about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has been a late addition to the festival’s agenda. The film will debut on Jan. 25 at 6 p.m.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop made headlines awhile back thanks to the release of the “This Smells Like My Vagina” candles, and during her Friday night appearance on “The Tonight Show” she discussed the latest offering in Goop’s vaginal candle line.

Former Scotland skipper Colin Hendry has told Scott Brown he should hand over the Aberdeen armband as he compared him to Robbie Savage.

When Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino reached his milestone 50th birthday, he decided the occasion was ripe with the potential to break away from many of the enduring ways he made distinctive, much lauded projects (including Academy Award winner The Great Beauty, Youth, Il Divo, The Consequences of Love and The Young Pope) and experiment with new cinematic and storytelling techniques. And for his next film, The Hand of God, he decided to plumb the depths of his own past as well.

Attention single ladies of New York City: beware of West Elm Caleb!

Naman Ramachandran REFRESH THIS PAGE FOR UPDATES FROM 11AM CETThe 72nd edition of the Berlin Film Festival is revealing the films in the Competition and Encounters strands, as well as the not-yet-announced films of the Berlinale Special section. The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.

Somehow, Sundance 2020 — the last in-person iteration of the fest, pre-pandemic — feels like it was both a million years ago and just the other day. If COVID has taught us anything outside revealing the darkest side of humanity, it’s that time is definitely a construct.

Pitch Film Fund 2022 Unveils Winners

EXCLUSIVE: Two-time Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo (Harriet) is to star in and produce sci-fi feature Blink Speed for Netflix.

Alejandro González Iñárritu, Darren Aronofsky and Paul Schrader are among the indie favorites who have movies planned to debut in 2022.The coming year looks to be a pivotal one for the movie business, and the pandemic has accelerated the transition from a theatrical-dominant model to a time when each film gets evaluated on how it can best reach the audience, whether streaming, in theaters, for premium rental prices or a combination. But one thing is clear: There are plenty of exciting pics coming out in the next year, whether your jam is superheroes, sci-fi, horror or maybe something completely new.

Supporting her former partner. Coach Monica Aldama, star of Netflix’s Cheer docuseries, exclusively told Us Weekly about her relationship with Dancing With the Stars pro Val Chmerkovskiy and why she isn’t surprised that he might leave the hit show.