‘We Wrote a $500 Million Film’: Tarantino’s ‘Crazy’ Django/Zorro Film Hooked Antonio Banderas

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterArizona has adopted a new tax credit for film and TV production, as the state aims to attract productions that have gone to New Mexico and other states in recent years.Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, allowed the legislation, HB 2156, to become law without his signature on Wednesday. Ducey’s office declined to comment on the unusual maneuver.The program will provide a refundable credit worth 15% to 20% of qualified production costs, plus additional bonuses for meeting certain criteria.

Zack Sharf “Friends” creator Marta Kauffman told the Los Angeles Times that she’s so “embarrassed” by and feels such “guilt” over the lack of diversity on her classic NBC sitcom that she’s donating $4 million to create the Marta F. Kauffman ‘78 Professorship in African and African American Studies at Brandeis University.

As the 56th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) is about to kick off on Friday, there will be plenty to discuss at this year’s event in the picturesque Czech spa town. The prominent Central European festival, which is returning to its usual early July slot after last year’s edition was delayed to August because of the pandemic, will see 33 films from five continents screen across its three sections – the Crystal Globe Competition, the Special Screenings section and its new competition, Proxima, which replaces the former East of the West section.

K.J. Yossman The Israeli government has introduced a new film and TV tax rebate said to be worth around 45 million shekels ($13 million) over two years.The rebate, which was introduced via a government directive, is worth around 23 million shekels ($6.7 million) in the first year, and 22 million ($6.4 million) the second year.

EXCLUSIVE: Alice Eve (Belgravia), Shelley Hennig (Unfriended) and Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory) have signed on to star in Jon Keeyes’ thriller The Last Girl for Yale Entertainment, which will head into production in Ireland this summer.

Longtime friends and collaborators Antonio Banderas and Andrew Lloyd Webber are joining forces under the banner of new company Amigos Para Siempre (APS), aimed at producing theatre, musicals and live entertainment shows, including some of Webber’s best-loved works, for major Spanish-speaking markets.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentAndrew Lloyd Webber and Antonio Banderas are teaming to create a joint company Amigos Para Siempre (APS) aimed at producing musicals, stage plays and live entertainment for major markets in the Spanish-speaking world, including the Latino U.S. Upcoming productions will include Spanish-language makeovers of Lloyd Webber classics, such as “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Starlight Express,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Evita,” “Cinderella,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “School of Rock.”Spanish-language adaptation rights to these works will be ceded to the new joint venture  by Lloyd Webber’s company, Really Useful Group.  Building on a decades-long friendship, APS will also license third-party works, as well as develop and produce original shows for the Spanish-speaking market, the biggest easily accessible non-English-language market in the world, whose theater and musical scene is experiencing robust growth. The joint venture will be overseen by Emanuel Nuñuz, CEO of the NuCO Media Group, who has a deep knowledge of the Spanish-world entertainment scene, and Jessica Koravos, president of Really Useful Group. “Antonio Banderas not only forms part of entertainment royalty but is also one of the most versatile creative minds with whom I’ve have the pleasure of working,” Lloyd Webber said.He added: “It’s really moving to associate with Antonio to present my work, as well as other brilliant Broadway and West End titles, in new markets. Though millions of people in all of the Spanish-speaking world already love our shows and music, there’s an extraordinary appetite to receive more and the levels musical and stage play talent is extraordinary.

There won’t be a crossover of the Django Unchained and Zorro films.

In 1994 at the Cannes Film Festival when Quentin Tarantino‘s “Pulp Fiction” was announced as the winner of the coveted Palme d’Or prize, many in the audience gasped, booed, and nearly rioted. The feeling was Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski‘s “Red,” the masterful finale of his breathtaking Three Colors trilogy was robbed, and look, “Pulp Fiction” might’ve changed American cinema and pop culture and made a big meteor-like crater on the landscape, but there’s no way anyone can tell me that Kieślowski’s “Red,” didn’t deserve the prize instead (to this day there are lots of articles about this controversial moment in cinema, including our own).

The Gaslight Anthem played a surprise show in New Jersey at the weekend (June 18) ahead of their comeback tour later this summer.The band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2015, but played together in 2018 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their second album ‘The ‘59 Sound’.In March 2022, frontman Brian Fallon announced online that the band would be returning to “full-time status”, including working on their sixth album and heading back out on the road. The tour is set to kick off in Europe in August.Before that, however, The Gaslight Anthem surprised fans who turned up at New Jersey venue Crossroads for a solo show from Fallon.

Several years ago, it was announced that Quentin Tarantino was going to team up with writer-comedian Jerrod Carmichael for a potential “Django/Zorro” crossover film. Not much else was known at the time, but it was assumed that the film would include Jamie Foxx reprising his role as Django.

Jaime King and Antonio Banderas are teaming up in the new action thriller Code Name Banshee!

Jonathan Bailey and Rege-Jean Page have reunited!

Jerrod Carmichael is one of the most underrated comedians working today. After years of standup, supporting roles in films, and his own sitcom (“The Carmichael Show”) that ran for three seasons, Jerrod Carmichael is sadly still not a household name.

Christopher Vourlias For the first edition of the Evia Film Project, a new initiative launched by the organizers of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the festival’s industry arm, Agora, hosted a series of events looking to bring both environmentally focused films and sustainable film production to the fore. The program was designed to help revitalize Greece’s second-largest island, which was hit by a devastating series of wildfires last summer.Speaking to Variety ahead of the festival, Agora head Yianna Sarri stressed the importance of getting the global film community to rethink its ways of doing business in order to make the industry more environmentally friendly.

IFC Films opened Official Competition starring Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez at four theaters in NYC and LA for an estimated three-day gross of $34,000 and per-theater-averages of $8,500 for the comedy directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat following it U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Festival last week.

Austin Butler paid a visit to the “Tonight Show” and got host Jimmy Fallon all shook up.