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Just a day after New York Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival made major announcements, Venice Film Festival is here with their full lineup ahead of the festival taking place August 28 through September 7.

Highlights include Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements, Harmony Korine’s Baby Invasion, Pablo Larraín’s Maria, Takeshi Kitano’s Broken Rage, Errol Morris’ Separated, Lav Diaz’s Phantosmia, Thomas Vinterberg’s Families Like Ours, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April, and more.

Check out the lineup below with a hat tip to Cineuropa.

Competition

The Room Next Door – Pedro Almodóvar

Campo di battaglia – Gianni Amelio

Leurs enfants après eux – Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma

The Brutalist – Brady Corbet

Jouer avec le feu – Delphine & Muriel Coulin

Vermiglio – Maura Delpero

Iddu (Sicilian Letters) – Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza

Queer – Luca Guadagnino

Love – Dag Johan Haugerud...

The Talented Mr. Ripley novel has already been adapted countless times, but it will become a TV series for the first time later this year.

A series adaptation was announced to be in the works at Showtime several years ago, but we learned a year ago that Netflix had taken over the project.

It’s a good move because Netflix’s global reach has proven crucial to the success of shows in the past.

Even acquired shows are getting a second chance at life. Suits staged quite the comeback on the platform years after its cancellation and is now getting an LA-set spinoff.

Thanks to us fast approaching the Ripley Season 1 premiere on Netflix, details are starting to spill out.

Check out everything we know about Ripley Season 1.

When does Ripley Season 1 premiere?

After some lengthy delays, Ripley is set to premiere on Netflix on Thursday, April 4.

Unlike the split-season...

A first time in comp birth for the Hungarian filmmaker, this is Ildikó Enyedi‘s first visit back to Cannes since the landed a spot in the Un Certain Regard section with 1989 dramedy My 20th Century. With The Story of My Wife, we have Gijs Naber, Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel and Sergio Rubini populating the book to film adaptation.

Perhaps it’s the heavy traffic and scheduling issues with three competition film offerings on Wednesday, but not many of our critics committed to the two plus hour historical drama. Eleven of our critics gave this subpar scores ranging between 2 and 3 for an average of 2.4.…...

Though legendary for a callous disregard for the lives of the sailors who criss-cross her stormy surfaces, the sea turns out to be a far milder mistress than Léa Seydoux in Ildikó Enyedi’s handsome but heavy-bottomed “The Story of My Wife,” the Hungarian director’s first return to Cannes since winning the Camera d’Or for her charming 1989 debut, “My Twentieth Century.” Starring Imola Lang’s superb 1920s/’30s production design, Leá Seydoux’s bouncy, tousled bob and Seydoux herself — in roughly that order — the film probably contains enough visual flourish to fill a perfectly watchable, if hardly groundbreaking feature. Just not one that sails dangerously close to the three-hour mark, taking on water the whole time.

A central problem: This is much more the story of the veteran seaman husband of the titular wife, played recessively by Dutch actor Gijs Naber, who is apparently as passively weak-willed on...

"The Story of My Wife" is a new romantic drama, written and directed by Ildikó Enyedi, based on the 1942 novel of the same name by Milán Füst, starring Léa Seydoux, Gijs Naber, Louis Garrel, Sergio Rubini and Jasmine Trinca, now screening at Cannes:

"...naval 'Captain Jacob Storr' is in an unhappy marriage, suspecting his French wife 'Lizzy' of infidelity. It seems that Storr married Lizzie only after a friend dared him to marry the next woman who walked into the café they were sitting in..." 

Click the images to enlarge.... ...

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for “The Story of My Wife,” which screens in competition at Cannes Festival. Oscar-nominated director Ildikó Enyedi’s film stars Palme d’Or winner Léa Seydoux. Films Boutique is handling world sales rights.

Enyedi’s “On Body and Soul” won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2017 and was Oscar nominated the following year. Seydoux won Cannes’ Palme d’Or, alongside director Abdellatif Kechiche and co-star Adèle Exarchopoulos, for “Blue Is the Warmest Color” in 2013.

Also in the cast are Gijs Naber (“How to Avoid Everything”), Louis Garrel (“Redoubtable”), Josef Hader (“Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe”), Sergio Rubini (“The Stuff of Dreams”) and Jasmine Trinca (“Honey”).

“The Story of My Wife” is an adaptation of Milan Fust’s 1942 novel of the same name. The story, a variation of the legend of the Flying Dutchman, is set in the 1920s. In it sea...

The Italian actor-director is on set with his new film about the theatre company helmed by the De Filippo brothers, descendants of the acclaimed, early twentieth century playwright Eduardo Scarpetta. Filming kicked off just a few days ago in Naples (between Piazza del Plebiscito and Teatro San Carlo) on the new film by Sergio Rubini, who is stepping behind the camera once again after previously directing The Great Spirit, released in May 2019. The title, I Fratelli De Filippo (litt. “The De Filippo Brothers”), and the location leave no doubt as to the subject. We’re in the early twentieth century and the three brothers Peppino, Titina and Eduardo are living with their young and beautiful mother Luisa De Filippo. There’s no father in the family, or rather he’s hiding behind the disguise of “uncle” Eduardo Scarpetta, the most famous, most acclaimed and most wealthy actor-playwright of his time.

Italy’s Pepito Prods., at Berlin with competition drama “Bad Tales” by Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, is emerging as a new home for the country’s auteurs.

The company, headed by former Rai head of drama Agostino Saccà in January, scored more than $6 million in Italian cinemas with veteran Gianni Amelio’s “Hammamet,” a biopic of disgraced late Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi that marks Amelio’s best box office result in a decade.

“Bad Tales,” which world premieres Feb. 25, is the D’Innocenzo brothers’ followup to their debut, “Boy’s Cry.” That bowed in Berlin’s Panorama in 2018.

Giuseppe Saccà, who is a partner in the family-run indie along with his father and sister Maria Grazia, said they were approached by the self-taught directorial duo, now aged 30, with the screenplay for “Boy’s Cry” and were awed by the writing. They decided to take the plunge “even though they had never directed anything before,...

The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled a competition lineup Tuesday that features entries from countries ranging from Indonesia to Estonia – but not the U.S., which is engaged in an increasingly bitter trade war with China.

The government-affiliated festival, which runs June 15-24, will open with the premieres of two Chinese films: Huayi Bros.’ patriotic World War II epic “The Eight Hundred,” directed by Guan Hu, and “Chuanyue Shikong de Huhuan” by Zhang Jiarui, according to Chinese website Mtime. Actor Wu Jing – whose “Wolf Warrior II” and “Wandering Earth” are the top two earning films in Chinese film history – will be the festival’s ambassador.

Fifteen films from around the world will vie for the Golden Goblet Award in the main competition. Notable among them are “Many Happy Returns,” a new title directed by Germany-based Uruguayan filmmaker Carlos Morelli and produced by Germany’s Weydemann Brothers, and “Chicuarotes,” Gael Garcia...

A comic book about a chameleon-like master thief done as a live-action movie, a reinvention of the Spaghetti Western and a manhunt thriller with a Hollywood A-list cast are among buzz titles by Italian directors in various stages expected to soon be hitting the international festival circuit and, more important, entering the global movie market. Besides a shift toward genre moviemaking, they reflect a more international mindset while remaining firmly rooted in the Italian cinema canon.

“Born To Be Murdered”

Luca Guadagnino is producing this English-language manhunt thriller directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino (“Antonia”), toplining John David Washington and Alicia Vikander as a couple vacationing in Greece who become enmeshed in a tragically violent conspiracy. Pic also boasts “Call Me by Your Name” lenser Sayombhu Mukdeeprom and editor Walter Fasano, as well as Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. In production.

“Bad Days”

Twins Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, who made a...

Variety has been given the first-look image from Oscar-nominated director Ildikó Enyedi’s “The Story of My Wife,” starring Palme d’Or winner Léa Seydoux. We spoke to Enyedi about the film, which is being sold at Cannes by Films Boutique.

Enyedi’s “On Body and Soul” won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2017 and was Oscar nominated the following year. Seydoux won Cannes’ Palme d’Or, alongside director Abdellatif Kechiche and co-star Adèle Exarchopoulos for “Blue Is the Warmest Color” in 2013.

“The Story of My Wife,” budgeted at Euros 10 million ($11.2 million), is an adaptation of Milan Fust’s 1942 novel of the same name. The story, a variation of the legend of the Flying Dutchman, is set in the 1920s. In it sea captain Jakob Storr makes a bet in a cafe with a friend that he will marry the first woman who enters the place, and then in walks Lizzy.

Italy’s top film organizations on Tuesday announced a concerted initiative to lure more local moviegoers into theaters during summer months, just as the country’s box office continues to plunge after a disastrous 2018.

The country’s motion picture association Anica, which comprises reps from the Hollywood majors as well as Italy’s distributors, producers and exhibitors said they are jointly launching a push to release more movies between May and August, when Italians traditionally hit the beach en masse.

The dearth of summer releases in the past has been known to cause a glut of releases the rest of the year and is considered a major local impediment to market growth.

Italian distributors’ chief Luigi Lonigro called the country’s 2019 summer lineup the “biggest ever,” noting that “the big [Hollywood] blockbusters will finally be released day and date with the main European territories, along with titles by major Italian and international directors.

Four female Italian bandits known as “Le Drude” are the protagonists of “My Body Will Bury You” a Sicily-set revenge drama/Western set in 1860 that is among standout titles presented to prospective buyers and sales agents during the Rome Mia market’s What’s Next Italy showcase.

This second feature by Alessandro La Parola, whose bittersweet comedy debut “E se domani” won some prizes and critical accolades, is loosely based on the director’s research about the period when Garibaldi in his effort to unify Italy invaded Sicily, then a lawless territory where gangs of female rebels formed. Footage of the film (pictured) revealed a genre-bender that mixes period costumer, Western, and action tropes. The trigger-happy killer among the four fierce women — who have joined forces to avenge cruelties that they, and others, have been subjected to — is played by Sicilian actress Margareth Made who emerged in Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Baaria.

Italian sales company True Colours has taken world sales on a trio of Venice films, and Toronto title “The Vice of Hope,” by Edoardo De Angelis, whose “Indivisible” made an international splash.

New Venice pics on the True Colours slate include Horizons entry “If Life Gives You Lemons,” by Italian first-timer Ciro D’Emilio. Pic is about a 17 year old who dreams of playing in the country’s Serie-a soccer league. The movie has been praised by Venice fest artistic director Alberto Barbara as an unexpected gem. The others on the True Colous slate are suicide-themed comedy “Emma Peeters,” a sophomore work by by Belgium’s Nicole Palo (“Get Born”), which will close the Venice Days section; and Pippo Mezzapesa’s “My Own Good,” also in Venice Days, starring veteran Italian actor Sergio Rubini as the last inhabitant of a ghost town in southern Italy’s Apulia region.

“Emma,” which...

Title: Questi Giorni (These Days) Director: Giuseppe Piccioni Starring: Margherita Buy, Marta Gastini, Maria Roveran, Laura Adriani, Caterina Le Caselle, Filippo Timi, Sergio Rubini. Giuseppe Piccioni is known in Italy for being an auteur who is engaged with grasping his country’s social trends, depicting marginal human figures that are detached from the world, and traverse tormented love affairs. Questi Giorni (These Days) is a road trip. It’s the story of four teenage girlfriends who – as the genre imposes – will venture on a journey that is also meant to be a spiritual one. Caterina (Marta Gastini), is moving to Belgrade and will be accompanied by three of her old [ Read More ]

The post Questi Giorni (These Days) Movie Review (Venice Film Festival 2016) appeared first on Shockya.com.

Exclusive: Italian sales company has also acquired street art documentary Vertical Conquests.

Italian sales company FilmExport has acquired world sales rights to Italian director Sergio Rubini’s couples comedy Let’s Talk (Dobbiamo Parlare) and street art documentary Vertical Conquests.

Let’s Talk revolves around two couples – one conventionally married, the other cohabitating — whose friendship and lives are laid bare over the course of one evening following the revelation that one of the partners is having an affair.

Rubini plays 50-year-old writer Vanni who lives in a beautiful central Rome loft with his 30-year-old girlfriend Linda, played by former Efp Shooting Star Isabella Ragonese.

Fabrizio Bentivoglio co-stars as Alfredo, a heart surgeon conventionally married to Constance, played by Gomorrah co-star Maria Pia Calzone.

The film grossed $600,000 when it was released in Italy at the end of 2015.

Other new titles on FilmExport’s slate include found footage French Riviera-set thriller Wax: We Are The X and In The...

Streamlined Rome Film Fest sees inevitable drop in box office and attendance but puts on a good show; Mia launches with scope for content growth.

The Rome International Film Festival’s 10th edition concluded on Saturday (Oct 24) with Pan Nalin’s female “buddy” movie Angry Indian Goddesses winning the sole prize of the event - The Bnl People’s Choice Award.

The director, who also made India’s highest-grossing documentary, Ayurveda: Art of Being, continued his successful festival run after securing second place for Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, behind Lenny Abrahamson’s Room.

Both films were once again pitted against each other in the eternal city, with the heartwarming Goa-based drama this time winning out.

Piera Detassis, president of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, said: “I am pleased that a courageous and revealing film that sheds light on the condition of women in India, choosing a genre that is traditionally about male bonding...

New festival director criticizes “myopic” battle for premieres and reveals London Film Festival “alliance”.

In its tenth year the once again reinvented Rome Film Festival (October 16-24) will host a streamlined but crowd-pleasing combination of autumn festival titles and potential discoveries.

Among national debuts are Lenny Abrahamson’s well-received Room, James Ponsoldt’s The End Of The Tour, Peter Sollett’s Freeheld, Pal Nalin’s female buddy movie Angry Indian Goddesses and Paul Thomas Anderson’s recently announced music documentary Junun, about Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s travels to India.

Italian films set to unspool at the streamlined yet international festival are Claudio Cupellini’s Alaska and Sergio Rubini’s Dobbiamo Parlare.

UK documentary The Confessions Of Thomas Quick and Chinese box office giant Monster Hunt will also be among the 37 films, documentaries and TV series from 24 countries announced today in the official selection.

The semi-autonomous Alice Nella Citta strand will showcase titles including Deniz Gamze Erguven...

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has unveiled its 2015 line-up which includes films representing 54 countries, 23 world premieres and 53 U.S. premieres. The U.S. premiere of Niki Caro’s McFarland USA will close out the 30th fest. Based on the 1987 true story and starring Kevin Costner and Maria Bello, the film follows novice runners from McFarland, an economically challenged town in California’s farm-rich Central Valley, as they give their all to build a cross-country team under the direction of Coach Jim White (Costner), a newcomer to their predominantly Latino high school. The unlikely band of runners overcomes the odds to forge not only a championship cross-country team but an enduring legacy as well.

The festival runs from January 27-February 7.

Below is the list of World and U.S. Premiere films followed by the list of titles by sidebar categories.

World Premieres

A Better You, USA

Directed by Matt Walsh

Cast: Brian Huskey,...

A self-acknowledged "showcase for Academy Award frontrunners," the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is often overlooked for the actual films that earn it festival status. An amalgamation of international discoveries and ’merica’s circuit highlights, the Sbiff curates a week of best-of-the-best to pair with their star-praising. The 2015 edition offers another expansive selection, bookended by two films that aren’t on any radars just yet. Sbiff will open with "Desert Dancer," producer Richard Raymond’s directorial debut. Starring Reece Ritchie and Frieda Pinto, the drama follows a group of friends who wave off the harsh political climate of Iran’s 2009 presidential election in favor of forming a dance team, picking up moves from Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly and Rudolf Nureyev thanks to the magic of YouTube. The festival will close with "McFarland, USA," starring Kevin Costner and Maria Bello. Telling the 1987 true story of a Latino high school’s underdog cross-country team,...

Woody Allen has released the full cast list for his latest film set in Rome called "Bop Decameron."According to Variety, Allen will also act in the film, his first appearance since 2006's "Scoop."The rest of the cast includes Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Penelope Cruz, Alec Baldwin, Judy Davis, Greta Gerwig, Roberto Benigni and Alison Pill.Riccardo Scamarcio, Isabella Ferrari, Sergio Rubini, Antonio Albanese, Fabio Armiliata, Alessandra Mastronardi, Ornella Muti, Flavio Parenti and Alessandro Tiberi also star. The film will be set in present-day Rome but is inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron," a classic medieval collection of 100 crude novellas written in the 1350s.There will be four separate, non-intersecting vignettes with two involving American characters and two involving Italian characters.Shooting begins...

Italian actors Riccardo Scamarcio, Isabella Ferrari and Sergio Rubini are in talks to join Woody Allen's latest film set in Rome with the working title of "Bop Decameron."According to Variety, the cast includes Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Penelope Cruz, Alec Baldwin and Judy Davis.Allen will also act in the film, his first appearance since 2006's "Scoop."Roberto Benigni is also close to joining the film. The film will be set in present-day Rome but is inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron," a classic medieval collection of 100 crude novellas written in the 1350s.There will be four separate, non-intersecting vignettes with two involving American characters and two involving Italian characters.Shooting begins July 11 in Rome.Letty Aronson is producing with Stephen Tenenbaum and...

[1] Al Pacino is in talks to star in Imagine, playing an aging rocker who "decides to change his life after discovering a letter written to him by John Lennon." The note inspires him to reach out to his biological son, whom he's never met. Imagine will be the directorial debut of Dan Fogelman, the screenwriter behind Tangled and the upcoming Crazy Stupid Love. Fogelman has written the script for Imagine as well. At one point, Steve Carrell was attached to play the son. He's since dropped out of the role, though he remains involved as a producer. Which means we get to talk about who might be a good fit to fill the part -- who do you think could play Pacino's son? [Variety [2]] After the jump, Olivia Munn shacks up with Paul Schneider and a trio of Italians join Woody Allen's Italian movie. Whether or not you think Olivia Munn is funny,...

As Woody Allen's newest and critically acclaimed film "Midnight in Paris" is still expanding across the country (you can read our excellent review of the film right here), the active director is already busy gathering actors for his next picture.

With Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Page, Judy Davis, and Penelope Cruz already on board, Allen recently nabbed Italian actors Riccardo Scamarcio, Isabella Ferrari, and Sergio Rubini, according to Variety.

This new project will center on four unconnected vignettes that are based on the Decameron, a collection of 14th century novellas by Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio. Filming for the movie is set to commence on July 11, 2011.

With Woody Allen set to head to Rome for his next film, Bop Decameron, it was only a matter of time until the film’s cast got a bit more Italian.

Variety is reporting that the trio of Riccardo Scamarcio (star of the Cannes smash Polisse), Isabella Ferrari, and Sergio Rubini have joined the likes of Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, and Maricel Alvarez in the film’s cast.

Read more on Casting: Bop Decameron, Glutton, Terrence Malick’s next...

Bond 23

"Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Miami Vice" actress Naomie Harris has confirmed she has been talking with “James Bond 23” producers but wouldn’t reveal for which role or even if she will take it or if she’s been offered the part. [Source: The Playlist]

Paul Thomas Anderson's Next

Rami Malek ("24," "Night at the Museum") and Madisen Beaty ("The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button") have joined the cast of Paul Thomas Anderson's untitled religious drama.

Malek will play Clark, the son-in-law of Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) the creator of a new faith that closely mirrors Scientology. Beaty's role is unknown at present.

Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Laura Dern, Jesse Plemons, David Warshofsky, and Lena Endre also star. [Source: Movies.ie]

American Reunion

"Chuck" actor Vik Sahay has joined the cast of "American Reunion", the new "American Pie" movie from Universal currently shooting in Atlanta.

Sahay will play the boss to...

Woody Allen-directed Bop Decameron, may add Riccardo Scamarcio, Isabella Ferrari and Sergio Rubini. Woody Allen's Rome-set project is under a working title of Bop Decameron and also includes Roberto Benigni who, according to Variety, is expected to have a substantial role in the film. Bop Decameron is set in contempo Rome and loosely inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron," written in the 1350s and consisting of 100 novellas. There are four separate vignettes, two with American characters in Rome and the others with Italian characters in Rome, but the vignettes never intersect.

Woody Allen-directed Bop Decameron, may add Riccardo Scamarcio, Isabella Ferrari and Sergio Rubini. Woody Allen's Rome-set project is under a working title of Bop Decameron and also includes Roberto Benigni who, according to Variety, is expected to have a substantial role in the film. Bop Decameron is set in contempo Rome and loosely inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron," written in the 1350s and consisting of 100 novellas. There are four separate vignettes, two with American characters in Rome and the others with Italian characters in Rome, but the vignettes never intersect.

Woody Allen-directed Bop Decameron, may add Riccardo Scamarcio, Isabella Ferrari and Sergio Rubini. Woody Allen's Rome-set project is under a working title of Bop Decameron and also includes Roberto Benigni who, according to Variety, is expected to have a substantial role in the film. Bop Decameron is set in contempo Rome and loosely inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron," written in the 1350s and consisting of 100 novellas. There are four separate vignettes, two with American characters in Rome and the others with Italian characters in Rome, but the vignettes never intersect.

Asia Argento is off the single market. The Italian TV and film actress has married her film director boyfriend Michele Civetta in Tuscany, Italy on Wednesday, August 27. The pair exchanged vows in a civil ceremony held at the city hall in Arezzo.

Details of the wedding are not available. The newlyweds also have yet commented on their official union. Word on the block is that Asia and Michele are expecting their first child together.

Asia is the daughter of Dario Argento, an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter who's claimed to be known for his work in the Italian giallo genre, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies. She herself is best known for her starring role as Yelena in "XXX" (2002).

Prior to marrying Michele, she's been romantically linked to Sergio Rubini, Michael Pitt and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers among others. She has one daughter, Anna Lou who was...