Ron Howard Remembers Roger Corman’s Mentorship and Impact on Filmmaking: ‘What a Life’

Being away from home allows room for perspective, and for a group of U.S.-based documentary experts who made the trip to Cannes, the glass remains half full, despite the headwinds. The closure of Participant, Showtime Docs, CNN Films scaling back and belt-tightening across the board have led many to posit that a Golden Age of documentary films has ended. A discussion in the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival begged the question: If the Golden Age is over, what comes next?

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Alfonso Cuarón marked the 20th anniversary of his film “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” with a new interview in Total Film magazine, in which he admitted that he felt totally strange when Warner Bros. called to offer him the chance to direct the third “Harry Potter” movie.

Marta Balaga International filmmakers are calling for solidarity with Mohammad Rasoulof and persecuted filmmakers in Iran in an open letter, shared with Variety. Rasoulof – about to screen his latest film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in Cannes’ main competition – was sentenced to imprisonment and torture by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor For over a dozen years, n/naka chef Niki Nakayama has been revered among L.A. restaurant mavens and the Hollywood crowd alike as a master of the kaiseki style of dining — the elaborate Japanese interpretation of a seasonal tasting menu.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Fred Roos, casting director for landmark films such as “American Graffiti” and who went on to have a close relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, including producing best picture winner “Godfather Part II” and “Apocalypse Now,” died Saturday in Beverly Hills. He was 89.

Victoria Stevens The 2024 Cannes Film Festival is underway, with major premieres like “Megalopolis,” “Horizon,” “The Substance,” “Emelia Perez” and more. Check out some of Variety‘s photography from the festival.Hunter Schafer, who appears in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness, photographed at the Carlton Hotel in CannesJoe Alwyn, who appears in “Kinds of Kindness,” photographed at the Carlton Hotel in CannesKevin Costner, director and star of “Horizon,” photographed in Cannes.Nathalie Emmanuel, who stars in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” photographed in Cannes.Ron Howard, who was honored by Variety in Cannes, photographed after his Palais photo call.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Peter Caranicas, a Variety editor for 16 years who was respected for his expertise in production and technology, died Sunday in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer. He was 80. Caranicas covered film and TV production, the birth of cable and satellite TV and much more over his long career as a writer and editor at Variety and other entertainment business publications.

Lily Gladstone took a break from jury duty at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday to present Ron Howard with Variety’s Profile in Excellence Award. Howard was the guest of honor at the annual Welcome to Cannes Party, hosted in partnership with the Gotham Film & Media Institute at Lucia Beach, where an array of industry veterans — including The Gotham’s Jeffrey Sharp, Focus Features’ Jason Cassidy, Disney’s Keleigh Thomas Morgan, the Sundance Institute’s Eugene Hernandez and more — donned their best beach chic attire (with sunglasses) to mix, mingle and sip rosé.

Coronation Street star Alan Halsall has jokingly called out his castmate Andy Whyment saying he's 'changed' as they headed to partake in one of their favourite pastimes - watching Manchester United.

Gemma Atkinson has addressed comments on her latest Instagram post after sharing candid photos alongside the story of her c-section recovery. The Hits Radio host and her professional dancer fiancé Gorka Marquez welcomed their first daughter Mia into the world back in 2019 in a birth which left Gemma needing an emergency cesarean.

Mark Damon, a film producer, sales executive, and spaghetti Western actor, died at 91, representatives for the executive told Deadline.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Mark Damon, an actor-turned-independent sales executive who was a force in the foreign sales world and at film markets for many decades, died Sunday in Los Angeles, according to his wife. He was 91. Damon won the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer for his starring role in 1960’s “House of Usher” for director Roger Corman, who died Thursday, then went on to appear in numerous Spaghetti Westerns and other B-movies shot in Europe, from “Johnny Yuma” to Mario Bava’s “Black Sabbath.” Born Alan Harris in Chicago, Damon earned an MBA at UCLA, then moved to Rome where he established a busy acting career.

The Hollywood filmmaking community remembered Roger Corman today as a man who had a “can-do” attitude about making movies. Along the way, he touched many lives, blazing a path for newcomers to enter the business and others to keep the lights on through his relentless drive to produce films.

Variety yesterday that he passed away on Thursday (May 9) at his home in Santa Monica, California, surrounded by family members.Corman was seen as a trailblazer in the world of independent film, producing and directing hundreds of low-budget movies and giving an early platform to leading figures in the industry, including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro.“His films were revolutionary and iconoclastic, and captured the spirit of an age. When asked how he would like to be remembered, he said, ‘I was a filmmaker, just that,’” the family said in a statement.Known variously as ‘The Pope of Pop Cinema’ and ‘The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood’, he made his name in the 1960s, creating his own studios New World Pictures and New Concorde, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2009 for his “rich engendering of films and filmmakers”.His own films were often made quickly with low budgets and specialised in genres such as horror, science fiction and action.Several major names received early credits in Corman’s work, including Nicholson in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), Scorsese with Boxcar Bertha (1972), Cameron with Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) and Ron Howard with Grand Theft Auto (1977).Howard himself joked that Corman told him during the tumultuous making of his first film Eat My Dust that “if you do a good job on this film, you won’t ever have to work for me again!”Tributes have come in for Corman, with director John Carpenter writing on X: “Roger Corman, one of the most influential movie directors in my life, has passed away.

Roger Corman, the Oscar-winning “King of the Bs” who helped turn out such low-budget classics as “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Attack of the Crab Monsters” and gave many of Hollywood’s most famous actors and directors early breaks, has died. He was 98.Corman died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, California, his daughter Catherine Corman said Saturday in a statement.“He was generous, open-hearted and kind to all those who knew him,” the statement said.

Roger Corman, the independent filmmaker known as the “King of the Bs,” has died at the age of 98.

Roger Corman, who directed and produced hundreds of low-budget films and discovered such future industry stars as Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, has died. He was 98.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor Ron Howard first attended the Cannes Film Festival with his 1988 fantasy-adventure “Willow,” and he’ll never forget his first walk up the stairs at the Palais des Festivals, where the film premiered out of competition. “I remember that first time so vividly,” he says, more than 25 years later. “And what I really remember is how fun it was.” Howard would return over the years as an Oscar-winning director and super-producer (with Brian Grazer) behind Imagine Entertainment.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor A muse, a mother, a fashionista, an actor, a rock ‘n’ roll icon — it’s hard to describe exactly why Anita Pallenberg remains such a compelling figure more than a half-century after the captivating blonde sang backing vocals on the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” and starred in movies like “Performance” and “Barbarella.” The new documentary “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg” delves into both the beautiful and tragic moments of her eventful life with the help of a treasure trove of home movies and interviews, as well as an unpublished memoir penned by Pallenberg and narrated by Scarlett Johansson. The footage is coupled with interviews of the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, with whom she had a significant relationship, their children Marlon and Angela Richards, director Volker Schlondorff, who cast her in some of his films, and her former friends and associates.

Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas will be starring in “Eden,” a thriller film directed by Oscar winning director Ron Howard. Here’s all we know about the project: Ana De Armas brings boho chic back: Her Spring look includes chic tube top and maxi skirtSydney Sweeney wears Angelina Jolie’s iconic Oscars gown 20 years laterReports from Deadline claim the film is based on an unsolved mystery that occurred in the Galapagos island.