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Stars: Nell Hudson, Wil Coban, Florrie Wilkinson, Alice Eve, Joel Fry, Lenny Rush, Sophia Dunn-Walker, Wesley Alfvin, Maddison Nixon | Written by Tom Vaughan | Directed by Gary Shore

Horrors on the high sea are a common enough theme, from Ghost Ship and Deathship to The Haunting of the Mary Celeste and Titanic 666 there are plenty of them. The most recent of these, The Haunting of the Queen Mary opens on Halloween Eve,1938 when the ship’s festivities are replaced with terror as an axe-wielding man hacks his way through its corridors.

The plot then circles back a few hours to show Gwen and David Ratch sneaking into an exclusive party in an attempt to get their daughter Jackie introduced to some Hollywood stars who they hope can help her become the next Shirley Temple.

In the present day, Anne and Patrick Calder along with their son Lukas visit the ship with...

Stars: Nell Hudson, Wil Coban, Florrie Wilkinson, Alice Eve, Joel Fry, Lenny Rush, Sophia Dunn-Walker, Wesley Alfvin, Maddison Nixon | Written by Tom Vaughan | Directed by Gary Shore

Horrors on the high sea are a common enough theme, from Ghost Ship and Deathship to The Haunting of the Mary Celeste and Titanic 666 there are plenty of them. The most recent of these, The Queen Mary opens on Halloween Eve,1938 when the ship’s festivities are replaced with terror as an axe-wielding man hacks his way through its corridors.

The plot then circles back a few hours to show Gwen and David Ratch sneaking into an exclusive party in an attempt to get their daughter Jackie introduced to some Hollywood stars who they hope can help her become the next Shirley Temple.

In the present day, Anne and Patrick Calder along with their son Lukas visit the ship with the idea of...

Even as “F9” opened as an international theatrical hit, Universal made its streaming priorities clear: “The Boss Baby: Family Business” will debut day-and-date July 2 in theaters and on Peacock while a theater-only release is set for the same day in the rest of the world.

The original 2017 DreamWorks Animation release, “The Boss Baby,” grossed $175 million in North America and double that in the rest of the world. It was previously scheduled as a theater-only release September 17. Universal’s theatrical releases fall under an established Premium VOD deal that allows for PVOD showings after 17 or 31 days, depending on opening gross. This includes revenue sharing with at least some exhibitors.

This announcement indicates that whatever the intricacies of that agreement, Universal retained the right to play films of their choosing day and date via streaming, with theaters then free to play at their choice.

From the perspective of domestic theaters who may...

It’s safe to say that the Covid content drought is just about over. Netflix prides itself on being the most, let’s say, prolific streaming service in the game. With its list of new releases for May 2021 it’s once again revealing why.

There is a lot going on for Netflix this month and it all starts with some high profile original films. Zack Snyder’s latest zombie effort Army of the Dead premieres on May 21. That will be preceded by Monster, the adaptation of Walter Dean Myers’ classic YA book, on May 7 and Amy Adams Rear Window-esque The Woman in the Window on May 14.

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Netflix’s TV offerings in May 2021 are just as packed. The adaptation of Millarworld superhero comic Jupiter’s Legacy...

This year’s Oscars have set a new record for the largest number of entries ever in the Best Original Song category, but the 105 eligible songs do not include Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ “(If Only You Could) Save Me,” a 1930s-style big band song from “Mank” that was recently nominated for the second annual Society of Composers and Lyricists Awards.

The song is heard briefly coming from a radio in the background of one scene and plays for only about 40 seconds. Academy rules require “a clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition of both lyric and melody,” and the song was judged to not fulfill that requirement.

Other songs that didn’t make the list, although they were thought to be in the running, include “Uh Oh” from “Promising Young Woman” and “Boss Bitch” from “Birds of Prey.” Even without those, the list of eligible songs tops 100 for the first time...

Sandcastle Studios’ “Jungle Beat: The Movie,” produced in collaboration with South Africa’s Sunrise Productions, had big theatrical plans for its post-festival life. But all that changed when the world went into lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“When the pandemic came, we realized theatrical wasn’t going to happen, so we started thinking about putting it on VOD,” Sunrise founder Phil Cunningham told Variety in a call ahead of the film’s June 15 Annecy world premiere.

“But then the big question became, how are people going to know about it?” he asked.

In choosing to distribute themselves, Sandcastle also picked up the responsibility of marketing the film. And, while they did employ some traditional marketing practices, most of their publicity efforts went to identifying and contacting influencers whom they felt represented the values of the company as well as the “Jungle Beat” franchise and who themselves enjoyed the film.

Annecy 2020, the world-class French animation festival, is going online this year due to the pandemic. The official selections for feature films and Vr works were revealed on Monday.

There are 20 features competing in the two categories (Official and Contrechamp) from France, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Chile, Mauritius, and Egypt. Standouts from the Official category include Takashi Yamazaki’s “Lupin the 3rd: The First,” the latest in the popular “gentleman thief” heist franchise, which GKids picked up for theatrical release this year; “Calamity: A Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary,” the biopic about Martha (Calamity) Jane’s empowering journey West in 1863, from French director Rémi Chayé (“The Long Way North”); and “The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks,” an experimental drama about Stalin’s reign of terror from Russian director Andrey Khrzhanovsky.

The Official competition also includes Seven Days War” (Japan), an anime about young adult social rebellion from Yuta Morano; “Bigfoot...

Films by Joann Sfar, Rémi Chayé, Takashi Yamazaki and Andrey Khrzhanovsky to compete for festival’s Crystal award.

The Annecy International Film Festival has unveiled the 20 works that will compete in its main feature-length competition and Contrechamp competition, aimed at works by emerging talents.

The French lakeside animation festival and industry event will run online June 15 to 30, following the cancellation of its 2020 physical edition due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

French filmmaker Joann Sfar’s comedy Little Vampire and Japanese animator Takashi Yamazaki’s adventure tale Lupin III: The First will be among the 10 feature animations competing for the Crystal award...

France’s 2020 Annecy Festival, the highest-profile animation gathering in the world, has unveiled its main Feature Film competition and major Contrechamp sidebar.

There are no U.S. titles in either section: America’s presence, both studios and global platforms, will most likely make itself felt when Annecy announces its work in progress and screening events sessions from later this week.

The difficulties of transferring online a lineup with even works from prominent European animation auteurs, plus such Japanese franchise installments such as “Lupin III; the First” was seen Monday when the Annecy Festival confirmed that not all of the films in official competition and Contrechamp may be screened online in their entirety.

“In the event that certain films cannot be offered to all festivalgoers, we have requested the producers provide a minimum 10-minute extract or produce a short documentary presentation,” the festival said in a statement Monday.

Made up in...