VMI Worldwide Hires Former XYZ Films Exec As President Of Global Sales

Risks in Hollywood pay off. “Barbie” has already grossed half a billion dollars after nine days in theaters, with no signs of slowing down as the film heads into its second box office weekend.

Way back in 2019, it was reported that Daniel Kaluuya was involved as a producer in a new feature film adaptation of “Barney,” the classic kids’ show featuring the iconic purple dinosaur. Since then, there have been a few tidbits here and there about the film, but it many people are curious why one of the best actors working today is so excited about making a film about a huge, silly purple dinosaur.

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Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is refusing to row back on his decision to invite controversial movie-biz bigwigs Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson to the late summer event, which will take place despite the potential disruption by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. “Luc Besson has been recently fully cleared of any accusations. Woody Allen went under legal scrutiny twice at the end of the ’90s and was absolved,” Barbera said in a new interview with Variety.

Way back in 2019, it was reported that Daniel Kaluuya was involved as a producer in a new feature film adaptation of “Barney,” the classic kids’ show featuring the iconic purple dinosaur. Since then, there have been a few tidbits here and there about the film, but it many people are curious why one of the best actors working today is so excited about making a film about a huge, silly purple dinosaur.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent In one of the big deals announced out of Canada’s Fantasia Film Festival, XYZ Films has boarded North American sales rights to “New Life,” John Rosman’s feature directorial debut which is hailed by Fantasia itself as “one of the major discoveries of Fantasia 2023.” “New Life” stars Sonya Walger (“For All Mankind,” “Lost”) and Hayley Erin (“Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists,” “General Hospital”) and Tony Amendola (“Annabelle,” “Curse of Llorona”). XYZ Films has also dropped the film’s first teaser, shared in exclusivity with Variety, ahead of “New Life’s” world premiere on Aug.

treadmills and exercise bikes often steal the spotlight. However, they also tend to neglect your upper body.

Naman Ramachandran XYZ Films will represent documentary “London Recruits” for North American sales, it was revealed at the ongoing Durban FilmMart. Directed by Gordon Main, the film sheds light on a pivotal moment in South Africa’s history. In 1970, the struggle against the apartheid government in South Africa developed a new secret weapon. Oliver Tambo hatched a plan to infiltrate young British activists into the country, posing as tourists. Their mission, in the face of brutal lockdown by the racist regime, was to help inspire ordinary South Africans to join a liberation movement that would never give up till freedom was won. To mark the partnership, Ronnie Kasrils, now 86, the former underground African National Congress (ANC) freedom fighter at the heart of the story, participated in detonating a bucket “leaflet bomb” outside the market hotel. These were the devices deployed in 1970 by amateur secret agents that Kasrils recruited in London on orders from Tambo. The devices brought messages of hope from the banned ANC to the South African population at large.

Michael Kors Summer Sale is overflowing with serious deals on gorgeous purses, shoes, sunglasses and dresses. This weekend, you can add a little more designer into your life with prices starting at just $19.Shop the Michael Kors SaleNow , Michael Kors is offering up to 60% off sale styles for double the discounts on handbags, sandals, and sneakers just in time for warmer days. No discount code is needed to take advantage of these impressive deals.

Vulture, Jackson said some tear-jerking scenes that were ultimately cut from the movie “kept [him] from getting an Oscar.”“But also the things they took out kept me from getting an Oscar,” Jackson said. “‘Really, motherf–kers? You just took that s–t from me?’ My first day working on that film, I did a speech in a room with an actor and the whole f–king set was in tears when I finished. I was like, ‘Okay.

Piers Morgan Added To RTS Cambridge Lineup

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Summer Sale. Just in time to add some new shoes to your summer footwear rotation, the Zappos sale is offering major savings on thousands of trending styles. If you've been mulling over the prospect of giving your wardrobe a long-overdue refresh in honor of the season, this Zappos sale is officially your sign to clear out your current shoe stock in favor of some newer, trendier styles.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Les Films du Losange has unveiled the trailer for “Un Silence,” Joachim Lafosse’s thought-provoking film starring Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Devos that will world premiere in competition at San Sebastian Film Festival. Tackling themes of abuse, the timely film revolves around Astrid (Devos), the wife of an acclaimed lawyer (Auteuil). Silenced for 25 years, her family balance suddenly collapses when her children initiate their own search for justice. One of Belgium’s leading filmmakers, Lafosse is best known internationally for 2012’s “Our Children,” a heart-wrenching drama based on a true story starring Emilie Dequenne and Tahar Rahim. “Our Children” represented Belgium in the Oscars race. “Un Silence” will mark Joachim’s follow up to “The Restless,” which competed at Cannes in 2021 and also explored imploding family dynamics.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired North American rights to “Once Within a Time” from Godfrey Reggio, the experimental filmmaker behind the cult masterpiece “Koyaanisqatsi.” The indie studio will release “Once Within a Time” theatrically in the fall of 2023, following its premiere as part of The Museum of Modern Art’s film series “Total Cinema of Sight and Sound: Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass,” which runs Sept. 26 – Oct. 4.  The movie is co-directed by Jon Kane, with original music is composed by Philip Glass with additional music and vocals by Sussan Deyhim. Glass, a legendary experimental composer, first worked with Reggio on “Koyaanisqatsi,” which was “presented” by Francis Ford Coppola in 1982. Reggio and Glass have collaborated on seven films over the last four decades, including “Visitors,” “Evidence,” and “Anima Mundi.”

EXCLUSIVE: Woody Harrelson (True Detective) and Owen Wilson (Loki) have been cast as leads in feature thriller Lips Like Sugar, which will be directed by Grammy-winner Brantley Gutierrez and has been written by Anthony Tambakis (Warrior). 

Bill Immerman, who was a Senior EVP during the 20th Century Fox 1970s heyday that produced such box office hits as Star Wars, Young Frankensten, and The Omen, died June 24 at his Los Angeles home of natural causes. He was 85.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter ESPN Films is working on a docuseries about the legendary Gracie family, Variety has learned exclusively. Titled “Gracie,” the series will delve deep into the family’s history and dissect how they became the founders of Brazilian jiu jitsu, which serves as a major cornerstone of modern mixed martial arts (MMA). The official description of the series states: “Featuring larger-than-life personalities, triumphs and tragedies, deep loyalties, passionate loves and deadly feuds, ‘Gracie’ will explore the essence of family, honor, legacy, and humanity’s innate desire to fight. Told through the eyes of key Gracie family members, the series will dive deep into an epic family saga that takes audiences from Scotland and Japan, to Brazil and America.”

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Films Boutique will handle international sales on Filipino master Lav Díaz’s “Essential Truths of The Lake,” one of the highest-profile titles in the just announced main International Competition at this year’s Locarno Festival.  The Berlin and Lyon-based production-sales company’s fifth collaboration with Diaz following, among others, Venice Golden Bear Winner “The Woman Who Left” and Berlin Silver Bear Winner “Lullaby To A Sorrowful Mystery,” “Essential Truths of The Lake” marks a prequel to Diaz’s ‘When The Waves Are Gone’ that premiered out of competition at Venice last year. It reprises the character of the ethically conflicted police lieutenant Hermes Papauran, one of the best investigators of the Philippines. When asked what drives a man to search for the truth, Papauran says dejectedly that maybe he just wants to keep inflicting pain on himself. 

“Barbie” isn’t the only feature film based on a toy in the works at Mattel – far from it. But as audiences gear up to see how the Oscar-nominated director brings an artistic touch to the story of a toy doll, Mattel is also working on a “Barney” movie that one exec describes as “surrealistic” and not unlike the work of “Adaptation” and “Being John Malkovich” duo Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze.“We’re leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids,” Mattel Films executive Kevin McKeon told the New Yorker in a profile on the studio’s many projects that they have in development.