‘HWJN’ Review: A Colorful Application of Traditional Arab Mythology to the Modern World

Manchester City are World Champions after swatting aside Fluminense in Jeddah on Friday.

Adam Driver is back to barking in an Italian accent after the heinous “House of Gucci,” only this time he sounds a lot less Russian and thankfully did not take Lady Gaga along for the ride.Running time: 124 minutes. Rated R (some violent content/graphic images, sexual content and language). In theaters Dec.

Manchester City are 90 minutes away from potentially being crowned world champions - but one benefit they would get with that particular tag might well be delayed until the new year.

Manchester City breezed through to the Club World Cup final on Tuesday with a convincing 3-0 win over Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds in Saudi Arabia.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large And then there were four. Season 10 of Fox’s “The Masked Singer” airs this Wednesday with finalists Donut (Group C champion), Sea Queen (Group B winner), Cow (Group A victor) and Group A “Ding Dong Keep It On” recipient Gazelle.

Manchester City will compete in their first-ever Club World Cup this week and kick-off with a semi-final clash against Urawa Red Diamonds this evening.

Pep Guardiola said his Manchester City players would need to lift themselves as soon as possible as they aim to be crowned champions of the world next week.

No matter how you slice it, 2023 is arguably the year of Colman Domingo. Just this year alone, the Emmy-winning multi-hyphenate actor starred in the drama Sing Sing, summer blockbuster Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and animated comedy Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. However, it’s his two most recent and versatile roles as Mister, the meanspirited husband to Fantasia Barrino’s Celie in The Color Purple, and the gay Black Civil Rights icon Bayard Rustin in Rustin that has carried him over into the awards season.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor The third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival, wrapping Saturday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, felt like a direct response to a burning question from executives and investors present at the festival’s market arm last year: Could Saudi Arabia step out from drama and comedy and head into genre filmmaking? The answer offered by the festival, it turns out, was a resounding yes. “Arabs are closer to fantasy than the Western world,” director Yasir Al-Yasiri told Variety of this year’s Red Sea Film Festival opening film, “HWJN.” The film, a sprawling fantasy about the Arab Jinn culture set and shot in Jeddah, comes at the “right time,” according to the director.

Are you watching, Meghan Markle? Because Princess Catherine appears to have a message after being publicly called out as one of the alleged “royal racists”!

When you conduct an interview via Zoom these days, you often have no idea when you’ll actually speak to your interview subjects. Click a link, and you might be popped into a virtual conference room immediately, or you might find yourself wondering if someone forgot you were on the schedule.

The third annual Red Sea Film Festival handed out its Yusr Awards on Thursday night, with Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames taking Best Feature and Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher scoring a pair of wins including Best Actor for Saleh Bakri. See the full list below.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rising Saudi Arabian star Yaqoub Alfarhan, who is known for playing the titular drug trafficker and serial killer in hit MBC TV series “Rashash,” plays a very different role in the drama “Norah” by pioneering Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi, which is set in 1990s Saudi Arabia when conservatism was at its height and all forms of art and painting were banned for religion-related reasons. In “Norah,” which world premiered at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Alfarhan plays an artist named Nader who has given up painting and moved to a remote village to be a schoolteacher. There he intersects with this film’s titular character, played by Saudi newcomer Maria Bahrawi.

Omid Scobie must not be happy right now…

Nick Holdsworth International producers can count on help from the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia to take advantage of an “extraordinary explosion” in culture and film, U.S Ambassador Michael Ratney told Variety during the third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival. He said the ambition and drive of the Saudi film industry was an opportunity for international talent.

Kate Middleton and Prince William have arrived at Buckingham Palace's annual reception to highlight the UK's diplomatic relations and the role of the monarchy within it, as they put on a united front after the ongoing "race row" as a result of Omid Scobie's Endgame book. The Prince and Princess of Wales, both 41, looked spectacularly regal as they posed side by side in photos for the event, which came days after they appeared at the Royal Variety Show at the Royal Albert Hall, with mum-of-three Kate donning a stunning blush pink Jenny Packham gown.

How does a mistake like this happen?!?

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Christmas is not about money,” says Pepper (Jillian Bell), the passive-aggressive Christmas store elf in “Candy Cane Lane.” “Except that it is.” She could almost be describing Christmas movies. From the start, they’ve paired a celebration of the Christmas spirit, in all its enveloping toastiness, with a theme of raw economic desperation. You can trace this right back to the original Christmas movie — “A Christmas Carol,” and by that I don’t even mean the assorted film versions (though I grew up with them and especially loved the 1951 version with Alastair Sim) but the Charles Dickens novella, published in 1843, which essentially invented the modern Christmas.

Ryan Gosling sometimes regrets coining the phrase “Kenergy.” Speaking on Saturday at Variety‘s Hitmakers event, however, he embraced the idea of “Kenergy” — a term he said he made up while on a press junket for the hit film “Barbie” — to describe musician, songwriter and producer Mark Ronson. Gosling was at Hitmakers to award Ronson, the executive producer behind the “Barbie” soundtrack and a co-producer and co-writer on some of its standout tracks, this year’s honors for Soundtrack of the Year. In doing so, Gosling championed Ronson for being the prime example of “Kenergy” in the real world.

Nick Holdsworth Original TV series based on Arab and Muslim characters are beginning to go global, a Netflix executive said Saturday at the Red Sea Film Festival. Ahmed Sharkawi, director of Arab content, Netflix Europe, Middle East and Africa, said that a new, distinctive voice was emerging from the region. “Recently, a friend called me and her mother-in-law – who is 100% American – was recommending one of our Arab series [“Finding Ola,” starring Hind Sabri] to all her friends,” he said at a panel about writing for television.