The ‘Reliably Superb’ Alfredo Castro, Next Up in Pablo Larrain’s ‘El Conde,’ Boards Theo Court’s ‘Three Darks Nights’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Fremantle kicked off its presence at the Venice Film Festival with a bang this year with the announcement of its new €150M ($162.7M) Scripted Fund forged in partnership with Israel-based IBI Investment House. 

Ellise Shafer The stars were out in Venice for Variety and the Golden Globe Awards’ party on Thursday night, featuring Chase Stokes, Kelsea Ballerini, Lukas Gage and Pablo Larraín. Presented by Iervolino and Lady Bacardi Entertainment, the event celebrated breakthrough talent and excellence in Italian filmmaking, handing out several awards under the moonlight.

Manchester hopes to become the first-ever European Capital of Cycling in 2024, council bosses have announced.

Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas biopic starring Angelina Jolie, a mystery thriller created by Jim Keeble and Dudi Appleton are the first projects to be backed by Fremantle and IBI Investment House’s €150M ($162.7M) Scripted Fund.

Pablo Larraín’s string of mostly 20th century biographical dramas hits a pinnacle of audacious brilliance with El Conde (The Count), a madly inspired reinvention of events embedded in the notion that longtime Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet became a vampire who ultimately tires of life and wants out after living some 250 years. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent As Chile prepares to mark 50 years since the Sept. 11, 1973 coup by Augusto Pinochet, Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín is back in Venice – following “Spencer” in 2021 – with scathing satire “El Conde,” in which Pinochet, a symbol of global fascism, resurfaces as a 250-year old vampire living in a rundown rural mansion after faking his death. “Pinochet had never been portrayed in film or TV before,” Larrain said.

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín returns to Venice this evening with his latest pic El Conde, a black-and-white satire of dictator Augusto Pinochet, which he co-wrote and directed for Netflix.

With six feature credits in the last decade, Pablo Larraín is among the most prolific filmmakers working today, but he returns to the Lido this week with a new proposition. 

William Earl Variety and the Golden Globe Awards continue their tradition of festival events with an exclusive invite-only party celebrating Italian cinema and talent attending the Venice Film Festival. The event will take place on Aug.

The 80thVenice Film Festival gets underway in earnest today and the landmark edition will be unlike any other, taking place as it does against the backdrop of two Hollywood strikes.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín is back in Venice – following “Spencer” in 2021 – with scathing satire “El Conde,” in which Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, a symbol of global fascism, resurfaces as a 250-year old vampire living in a rundown rural mansion after faking his death. The allegorical film, beautifully shot in black-and-white by ace cinematographer Ed Lachman, stars revered 87-year-old Chilean actor Jaime Vadell in the role of Pinochet, who in reality died at the age of 91 in 2006, unpunished and rich. During Pinochet’s 17-year regime, which began with a bloody military coup in 1973, more than 3,000 people died or disappeared due to political violence in Chile, which had previously experienced a long history of democracy.

Marta Balaga Paula Hernández’s “A Ravaging Wind” (“El viento que arrasa”) has debuted a poster and trailer ahead of its premieres at Toronto and San Sebastian. Based on the novel by Selva Almada – and written by Hernández and Leonel D’Agostino – “A Ravishing Wind” will play Toronto’s Centrepiece program, before opening San Sebastian’s Horizontes Latinos, a showcase of many of the best Latin American movies of the last year. It sees Alfredo Castro as Reverend Pearson, an evangelical pastor who travels Argentina by car in the 1990s with his daughter Leni (Almudena González, seen in “Argentina, 1985”).

Emiliano De Pablos Brazil’s Raccord Produções, Chile’s Araucaria Cine and France’s Nord-Ouest Films are teaming to produce acclaimed Brazilian filmmaker Gabe Klinger’s feature drama project “Okonomiyaki.” “Okonomiyaki” will topline celebrated Brazilian actor-helmer Leandra Leal (“A Wolf at the Door,” “The Oyster and the Wind”), Yuki Sugimoto, star of Disney+ series “Mila in the Multiverse,” and Marco Pigossi, of Netflix’s “Invisible City” and “Tidelands.” The feature-length project has been selected for the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum, its industry centerpiece, which runs Sept. 25-27.

Holly Jones Chilean cinema continues to see traction on Prime Video with “S.O.S. Mamis 2: Mosquita Muerta” bowing Aug. 2 to become the most-watched movie of any nationality on the streamer in Chile.

Netflix has a slew of intriguing titles getting their world premiere at the Venice Film Festival soon, including David Fincher‘s “The Killer,” Bradley Cooper‘s “Maestro,” and Pablo Larráin‘s “El Conde.” But don’t sleep on J.A. Bayona‘s “Society Of The Snow,” tapped as the festival’s closing night film.

Chile on Wednesday named the anti-colonialist Western The Settlers from first-time feature filmmaker Felipe Gálvez as its official entry for Best International Feature at the 2024 Academy Awards.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Victor Erice, one of the greatest of Spanish filmmakers, will receive a prestigious Donostia Award, given for career achievement, granted by the San Sebastian Film Festival. The award will coincide with screening of Erice’s latest film, “Close Your Eyes” (Cerrar los Ojos), which world premiered at the Cannes Festival this May.

Billie Eilish has opened up about what’s changed in the creative process as she works on her third album.The singer was speaking on the new episode of Dua Lipa‘s At Your Service podcast when she explained the “big jump” between the ages of 18 and 21, and how she had to convince herself she hadn’t “lost it”.Eilish’s debut album ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?‘ came out in 2019, followed up by ‘Happier Than Ever‘ in 2021. She’s now working on her third, confirming back in November that she and her brother/collaborator Finneas had recently “started the process of making an album”.A post shared by SERVICE95 (@service95)“Everything is different about it,” she said of the music making process.

The Killers have been named as the bookies’ favourites to headline next year’s Super Bowl LVIII.The new insight was shared by the oddsmakers at MyBookie, which speculated that the American rock band are now leading the race to be the next performer at the iconic Super Bowl Halftime Show.The upcoming event – Super Bowl LVIII – will be the first-ever Super Bowl to be hosted in Las Vegas, following the University of Arizona Symphonic Marching Band in 1967.Now, bookies have confirmed that The Killers are looking like the most likely act to be set to perform at the monumental slot, and stated that they now have -110 odds to hit the stage for the Super Bowl LVIII Halftime show.The prediction makes sense as the band originated out of Las Vegas back in 2001 – and would fit in with a potential desire for a local artist to play at the first-ever Las Vegas instalment.Similarly, the band have become household names since their formation 14 years ago and hit songs including ‘Mr.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Mexico’s El Relicario, whose “El rostro cubierto de besos” screened at Cannes Critics’ Week in its 2023 Morelia showcase, has boarded Ximena Valdivia’s Malaga Festival winner “4Eber,” a movie melding the modern teen dance scene in Cusco and ancient and contemporary fantasy and mythology. Written by Valdivia and Costa Rica’s Luisa Mora Fernández, a co-scribe on Mexican Kim Torres’ Cannes Festival-selected short “Luz Nocturna,” “4Eber” is now produced by Valdivia’s and El Relicario’s Mariano Rentería and Jorge Diez, in the first international feature co-production outing for the Morelia-based outfit.