Director Ang Lee Sours On 3D After Experiences With ‘Billy Lynn’ & ‘Gemini Man’: “The Whole Ecosystem Is Bad”

Lise Pedersen Sporting a warm smile and a pair of sunglasses – “Sorry, I’ve been busy editing and my eyes hurt,” he explained – one of China’s leading indie directors Jia Zhangke, whose upcoming film “Caught by the Tides” will be vying for the Palme d’or in Cannes next month, was guest of honor at the 55th edition of Swiss doc festival Visions du Réel this week. Finished just in time for submission to Cannes, the film features his wife Zhao Tao, his muse over the last two decades, and tells the story of a couple spanning 20 years.

EXCLUSIVE: US-Bangladeshi action movie MR-9: Do or Die, starring ABM Sumon, Michael Jai White and Frank Grillo, has been picked up by Quiver Distribution for a North American VOD/digital release this month.

Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor, Variety.com After much anticipation, the sequel to the 2017 sketch “Papyrus 2” has finally emerged despite being cut for time during the live broadcast, making its debut on YouTube. The original sketch was conceived by former “SNL” writer Julio Torres, who was inspired by a past tweet in which he mused, “Every day I wake up and remember that Avatar, a huge international blockbuster, used the Papyrus font for their logo, and no one stopped them.” Directed by Dave McCary(who also shot the previously pointed Torres sketch “Wells For Boys” with his now-wife and current collaborator Emma Stone), this meditation on obsession and a questionable font became the logo for James Cameron’s massive franchise.

One of the country's most senior GPs has been struck off after being convicted of downloading hundreds of child abuse images. Dr Robert Varnam claimed he amassed the vile collection after 'neglecting his self-care' while working 75 hour weeks and 'rarely taking a break'.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer The venerable “Alien” franchise has nearly 10 films under its belt and, somehow, every time a space crew member’s chest bursts open and a horrifying little creature crawls out we’re still terrified. Such was the case on Thursday at CinemaCon, the annual convention of movie theater owners in Las Vegas, where Disney showed off an extended look at its latest entry “Alien: Romulus.” Directed by Fede Álvarez (“Don’t Breathe,” “Evil Dead”), the movie follows a group of solar explorers who stumble on an abandoned space station. Guess what’s on board? Cailee Spaeny leads a next-gen cast of unfortunate souls that must contend with creatures with fun names like facehuggers and Xenomorphs.

Katcy Stephan Tom Arnold (“True Lies,” “Roseanne”) has joined the cast of writer, producer, and director Rohit Karn Batra’s drama “The Gun on Second Street.” The film, for which Storyboard Media launched international sales during last year’s Cannes Film Market, is produced by Guy J. Louthan of Ransom Films (“The Call, The Road Within,” “There Be Dragons,”“From Scratch”) with Rikin Shah serving as one of the executive producers.

who died Wednesday at 76, had a varied career in Hollywood as an actor and a pitchman before his trial for double murder in the 1994 deaths of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.The former Buffalo Bills star with marquee good looks, nicknamed “The Juice,” was at the epicenter of pop culture for his movie, TV and commercial roles throughout the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s. It seemed, during those days, that you couldn’t turn on your TV without seeing one of Simpson’s Hertz commercials where — as a spokesman for the rental car company — he ran and careened through airports, nor ignore his big-screen work, most notably in the “Naked Gun” movies starring Leslie Nielsen.Simpson was a big enough star, in fact, that he was pitched to the “Terminator” director James Cameron to star in the 1984 action movie — a suggestion that Cameron said later, in an interview with Chris Wallace, he immediately dismissed.

Worldwide gross: $2,923,706,026Domestic gross: $785,221,649 James Cameron’s sci-fi fantasy epic “Avatar” smashed records and remains the reigning box office champion. Sam Worthington stars as paralyzed former Marine Jake Sully, who finds a new life on the planet Pandora when he begins inhabiting an avatar version of its native people.

While James Cameron has been intensely busy with his “Avatar” sequels, the filmmaker has been developing many projects over the years concurrently over at 20th Century Studios. One of those is a sequel to “Alita: Battle Angel” that he’s been speaking with Disney and Robert Rodriguez about—logistics such as budget and platform, surely part of the conversation.

Ben Croll James Cameron delivered a masterclass in Paris on Thursday night following a sold-out screening of his 1984 breakout “The Terminator.” With the title so fresh in his mind, the filmmaker spent much of the session sharing stories from the project’s improbable making of. For one thing, what the production lacked in financial resources it made up for in pre-production time — eight months, to be exact, as the team waited for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s schedule to clear.

Ben Croll Gallic cinephiles gave James Cameron a hero’s welcome at a Paris masterclass on Thursday, ushering the action auteur onstage with a reception so thunderous that it shook the filmmaker’s oft-unflappable public demeanor. “That’s the record,” he said in between laughs and in a show of uncommon giddiness. “That’s the record for the longest applause I’ve ever had in my life.

Titanic is one of the biggest films in history.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Ang Lee is moving on from 3D filmmaking after a trio of hit or miss releases: “Life of Pi” (2012), “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” (2016) and “Gemini Man” (2019). The former title was an acclaimed blockbuster that won Lee the Oscar for best director, while the latter two releases, also distributing in high-frame rate at 120 frames per second, were mostly critical misfires and big financial disappointments. Lee hasn’t made a movie since “Gemini Man.” “I tried higher frame rate and I tried 3D,” Lee recently told IndieWire.

EXCLUSIVE: A week after veteran talent agent Jed Abrahams resigned as KMR Talent’s SVP and head of the agency’s New York office, he has joined Los Angeles-based management and production company The Rosenzweig Group (aka The Rose Group) as a talent manager. He will open and head an office in New York, making The Rosenzweig Group — founded in 2018 by Marni Rosenzweig — officially bicoastal.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor On one hand, Ang Lee can’t believe it’s been 40 years since he graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. “Don’t remind me!” he responds with a laugh when this milestone is brought up. But at the same time, Lee says, little has changed since he received his MFA in film production.

Director Ang Lee is finally pointing the finger.

Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott reunited again earlier this week — but this time things ended in tears.

Rose promised Jack she’d never let go at the end of James Cameron’s film, Titanic. And she lived up to that vow until recently, when the door that saved her was the top-selling item at “The Treasures from Planet Hollywood” auction, which ended Sunday.

Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune: Part Two is getting Steven Spielberg‘s seal of approval. The Oscar-winning director is praising not only the film, but the Canadian filmmakers vision and creativity.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” — Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Kate Winslet — have reunited for a good cause.The film’s director, James Cameron, and Disney commissioned underwater photographer Christy Lee Rogers to photograph the actresses for the Nature Conservancy’s global Keep Our Oceans Amazing campaign. Wrapped in purple and blue flowy dresses, the famous trio keeps their eyes closed in the painting-like colorful shots, including snaps of them all together, in pairs and solo. Cameron, a longtime supporter of ocean conservation, said in a statement: “I have long admired Christy’s art and began collecting her works several years ago.