Ron Howard Salutes George Lucas, Roger Corman and Jim Henson at Variety’s Welcome to Cannes Party

William Earl Variety has added an illustrious roster of programming to its TV FYC Fest, taking place on June 6 in Los Angeles. The all-day summit will feature panels and keynote conversations with the talent, showrunners, creators and executives behind top television programming.

Michael Nordine Universally beloved figures are increasingly rare these days, with a distressing number of our former heroes having been outed as one kind of monster or another in recent years. Jim Henson is a notable exception.

George Lucas is defending the Star Wars franchise against criticism that he cast “all white men” in the movies.

Star Wars creator George Lucas was fêted with an Honorary Palme d’Or at this evening’s Cannes Film Festival closing ceremony.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic CANNES — Hosted by “Call My Agent” star Camille Cottin, the awards show for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival competition is underway. Presenters started making political statements right away, as short film jury president and Belgian actor Lubna Azabal called for the release of all hostages in Gaza.

A witness is speaking out after a video of Travis Scott and Alexander “AE” Edwards fighting at a party amid the 2024 Cannes Film Festival went viral.

Star Wars films were “all white”, countering that “most of the people are aliens”.Lucas was the executive producer, writer and director of the Star Wars franchise up until Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith in 2005, and also conceived and produced the Indiana Jones film series.Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival after receiving an honorary Palme d’Or Award, he responded to the accusation directly.“They would say, ‘It’s all white men’,” he said (via Variety). “Most of the people are aliens!”“The idea is you’re supposed to accept people for what they are, whether they’re big and furry or whether they’re green or whatever.

EXCLUSIVE: Buffalo 8 has acquired worldwide rights out of Cannes to The President and the Dragon, a Jimmy Carter documentary from Sudanese writer, director and producer Waleed Eltayeb and Irish director-cinematographer Ian D. Murphy.

George Lucas returned to the Cannes Croisette for the first time since 1971 this week to receive an honorary Palme d’Or. So what did the 80-year-old director say about his career as he talked to a packed audience at the Debussy Theater after accepting the prize? Well, to the surprise of no one, THR reports that he mainly talked about “Star Wars.” Along the way, Lucas defended the prequel trilogy, his continual updates to the original trilogy, and lamented how Disney misused his ideas after he sold Lucasfilm to the company in 2012 for $4.05 billion.

“We weren’t really that interested in making money, we were interested in making movies,” said Star Wars franchise architect George Lucas about the early days of his career with mentor Francis Ford Coppola in a Cannes sit down discussion today.

Glen Powell has revealed that he was once “hit in the face” by a bouncer who failed to recognise him.In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You star recalled his experience promoting The Expendables 3 at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014.“I did this movie Expendables 3 – it’s like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Antonio Banderas, Wesley Snipes, Jason Statham,” said Powell, who played hacker Thorn in the film. “Somehow I’m the ‘random’ guy that snuck in.

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?

The Megalopolis parties and debates last week generously fed Cannes’ appetite for media buzz. Fest-goers were reminded that Francis Coppola’s journey had been a thrill ride for those who witnessed it, invested in it or were impacted by its turmoil.

Skywalker Ranch, located roughly 40 minutes north of San Francisco, from 6 p.m. to midnight. Owned by Lucas, Skywalker Ranch is home to a main house, the man-made Lake Ewok, and Skywalker Sound, the 153,000-square-foot postproduction facility that has a 300-seat theater.

It may not be too much of an exaggeration to say that Jim Henson came up with the concept for an immersive video dome long before Sphere bubbled up in Las Vegas.

Celtic hero Cameron Carter-Vickers jumped on a table to send his condolences to Rangers – as Parkhead punters lapped up his title celebrations.

Greta Gerwig addressed the growing #MeToo movement in France at the jury press conference on opening day of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. “I think people in the community of movies telling us stories and trying to change things for the better is only good,” Gerwig said when asked how she felt about #MeToo-related rumors swirling ahead of the festival. “I have seen substantive change in in the American film community, and I think it’s important that we continue to expand that conversation.

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.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Roger Corman, who died Saturday at 98, was famously involved with many of the greats of filmmaking at the start of their careers. In the case of Ron Howard, he helped the young actor transition from being a child star into a versatile director, giving him his first directing job with the action comedy “Grand Theft Auto” in 1977. Howard noted that Corman was also known for giving women more opportunities than they typically had in the film industry at that time, including Penelope Spheeris and Gale Ann Hurd.