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New Movie Alert: The Best Flicks Hitting Each Streamer This Spooktober Week - Main Image

Having a hard time keeping track of new film releases on popular streamers? We've got you covered! Check out this list of new movies releasing this week!

From classic films to cinematic stories hitting digital streaming platforms, this article navigates the best new flicks available for each streamer: Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, you name it!

New Movies Hitting Netflix This WeekBook Club (2018)Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)Family Pack (2024) Don't Move (2024)The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024)

Apart from bringing back the classic Book Club and of course, Kung Fu Panda 4 officially hitting streamers, Family Pack, Don't Move, and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin offer a variety of themes.

Family Pack has a similar storyline to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Don't Move is for lovers of escape thrillers, while The Remarkable Life is a...

This is a stacked weekend for movies that could get awards attention but probably won’t, both in theaters and on digital platforms. First up is a lively ode to one of cinema’s musical masters.

The contender to watch this week: “Ennio”

Giuseppe Tornatore‘s documentary about influential composer Ennio Morricone has been a long time coming, and not only because Morricone’s career dates back to 1946. “Ennio” premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in 2021 and was released in Italy in 2022. But don’t take its delayed domestic debut as a bad omen: The movie is a spellbinding tribute to the two-time Oscar winner, who wrote the scores for “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “Days of Heaven,” “The Untouchables,” “The Hateful Eight,” and Tornatore’s own “Cinema Paradiso.” The talking heads include Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Quincy Jones, and Bruce Springsteen. Following a theatrical run in February,...

On February 23, 2024, Cohen Media Group released “Io Capitano” in the United States, Italy’s Oscar-nominated Best International Feature film directed by Matteo Garrone. The movie is a Homeric fairy tale that tells the adventurous journey of two young boys, Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall), who leave Dakar to reach Europe. The 2024 Oscars contender has received widespread acclaim from critics, scoring a perfect 100% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The critics consensus reads, “A journey toward hope, ‘Io Capitano’ perambulates through the ravishing Saharan landscape encountering the most sublime and debased corners of humanity.” The castings, under the direction of Henri-Didier Njikam, took place on the African continent and features mostly newcomers. Read our full review round-up below.

See Watch our exciting interviews with 12 of the 20 Oscars 2024 acting nominees

Damon Wise of Deadline says, “Despite its technical elegance — and the film is near flawless in that respect — the...

The great Martin Scorsese returned to the Eternal City, accompanied by the star of the moment, Lily Gladstone, as the guests of honor of a gala dinner at the Hotel Hassler by the Spanish steps Wednesday night. The event, honoring Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and hosted by co-chief of Leone Film Group, Raffaella Leone, daughter of great Italian film director Sergio Leone, and Paolo Del Brocco, head of Rai Cinema, the Italian distributor of Killers. Hot off the film’s 10 Oscar nominations, including a record-setting 10th best director nod for Scorsese and the historic best actress nod for Gladstone as the first Native American nominated in the category, the event was a must-attend for the Italian film scene.

The Hollywood Reporter Roma was the only media outlet admitted to the event, and we were a fly on the wall for the parade of A-list industry guests, which...

After finding much favor with The Academy when it came to craft categories for his previous feature Pinocchio, Italian director Matteo Garrone has now earned his first Best International Feature Film nomination this year for his acclaimed migrant drama Io Capitano. In celebration, NYC’s Quad Cinema will hold a retrospective titled “The Great Garrone,” taking place February 16-22, leading up to Cohen Media Group’s February 23 release of his latest film.

“A real son of Rome, director and screenwriter Matteo Garrone carries the mantle of Italy’s neo realist and surrealist-fantasist traditions of cinema and lifts them into the 21st Century,” notes Quad Cinema. “His accolade-laden filmography toes the lines of narrative, documentary, and fantasy exquisitely, bringing forth to the surface the depth of humanism and understanding through resonant human stories and an artist’s eye for fine detail. The Quad is thrilled to present this retrospective of Matteo Garrone,...

Exclusive: Cohen Media Group has set Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone’s latest pic, Io Capitano, for a nationwide release.

The film — which has been shortlisted as Italy’s submission for the Best International Feature Oscar — will roll out nationwide on February 23.

An Italy-Belgium-France co-production, the timely drama tells the story of the adventurous journey of Seydou and Moussa, two young men who leave Dakar to make their way to Europe. Synopsis reads: Io Capitano is a contemporary Odyssey through the dangers of the desert, the horrors of the detention centers in Libya, and the perils of the sea.

The film world premiered to critical acclaim in Competition in Venice, winning Best Director for Garrone, Best Young Star for co-star Seydou Sarr, and Best Production Director for Claudia Cravotta. The pic is the first film Garrone — a two-time Cannes jury prize winner — screened in competition at Venice.

The Deadline review out...

"We want to go to Europe." Cohen Media Group has revealed an official US trailer for a survival called Io Capitano, made by the acclaimed Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, best known for his films Gomorrah, Reality, Tale of Tales, and Dogman. The film premiered at the 2023 Venice Film Festival and won the Best Director prize there, with stops at AFI Fest and San Sebastian as well. Io Capitano is a Homeric fairy tale that tells the adventurous journey of two young boys, Seydou and Moussa, who leave Dakar to reach Europe. A modern Odyssey through the dangers of the desert, the sea and the ambiguities of the human soul. The film stars newcomers Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall. This incredible film is one of these examples of filmmaking where I just have no idea how they pulled off and filmed certain jaw-dropping scenes, it's all so astonishing to watch. It's...

Io Capitano, Pinocchio, Tale Of Tales director Matteo Garrone with Anne-Katrin Titze: “I would say that fairy tales, as Italo Calvino used to say, fairy tales are true. It’s a different way to talk about the human condition.”

Italy’s Oscar submission and Venice Film Festival Unesco and Best Director Silver Lion winner Matteo Garrone’s suspenseful and fleet Io Capitano (Me Captain), co-written with Massimo Ceccherini (Garrone’s Pinocchio), Massimo Gaudioso, and Andrea Tagliaferri, shot by Paolo Carnera stars the naturalistic duo of Seydou Sarr (Marcello Mastroianni Award Best Young Actor) and Moustapha Fall with Ndeye Khady Sy, Oumar Diaw, Issaka Sawadogo.

Matteo Garrone on Io Capitano shot by Paolo Carnera: “Paolo put himself in the service of the story and he worked carefully on the light, but tried always to be natural, …”

Garrone’s Tale of Tales, based on Giambattista Basile’s early 17th century fairy tales,...

New York Film Festival Artistic Director Dennis Lim with Ferrari director Michael Mann and stars Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Gabriel Leone Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Michael Mann’s Ferrari, starring Adam Driver (as Enzo Ferrari) and Penélope Cruz (his wife Laura) with Gabriel Leone (Alfonso De Portago), Shailene Woodley (Lina Lardi), Patrick Dempsey (Piero Taruffi), and Jack O’Connell (Peter Collins) was the Closing Night Gala selection of the 61st New York Film Festival.

Michael Mann on the costumes: “You want to put on that period wardrobe. So that’s terribly important. The true richness to me is in being.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini is the go-to person when it comes to clothing characters of folktale or legend. Enzo Ferrari definitely fits into the larger-than-life category and his conservative tweed suits, pale yellow sweater vests and suspenders hide a maniac addicted...

Italy has submitted Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano as its candidate for Best International Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

The timely drama follows the hardships of two Senegalese teenagers as they try to make it to Europe via the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea.

The film world premiered to critical acclaim in Competition in Venice winning Best Director for Garrone, Best Young Star for co-star Seydou Sarr and Best Production Director for Claudia Cravotta.

The Deadline review out of Venice describes the film as “a blisteringly topical drama” that could be Garrone’s “best” film to date, in a filmography that also includes Gomorrah, Tale of Tales and Dogman.

The selection was made by a committee overseen by Italian cinema organisation Anica. Its members comprised Alessandro Araimo, Domizia De Rosa, Esmeralda Calabria, Daniela Ciancio, Francesca Lo Schiavo, Giorgio Moroder, Cristiana Paternò, Michele Placido, Paola Randi, Riccardo Tozzi and Gianpiero Tulelli.

Film programming, like history, doesn’t repeat itself but does rhyme. This is proven by the fact that two highly complementary, equally excellent films about immigration, Me Captain (Io Capitano) and Green Border, both landed in competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

Agnieszka Holland’s meticulous Green Border offers a polyphonic examination of the plight of refugees trying to enter the EU through Belarus, but also encompasses the views of local Poles to create a panoramic, intellectually rigorous view of the situation. Italian director Matteo Garrone’s emotionally searing but ultimately uplifting epic, on the other hand, confines itself to the experience of Seydou, a 16-year-old boy from Senegal.

Indelibly played by non-professional Seydou Sarr, offering a remarkably mature performance, he makes his way with his cousin (Moustapha Fall) from their home in West Africa across thousands of miles on a quest to reach Europe. Taking viewers with...

Even if the critical reactions have been mixed, Italian films have proven much stronger than usual at this year’s Venice Film Festival, with a notable resurgence of genre filmmaking in the likes of Adagio and Enea. Ironically, Matteo Garrone, the one local director in the selection whose actual stock in trade is genre of all stripes — gangster realism, satirical comedy (Reality), and baroque fantasy (Tale of Tales) — arrived this year with a blisteringly topical drama that might be his most traditional, and best, yet.

Migrant dreams are a hot topic this year, and Garrone’s Io Capitano (literally “Me Captain”) follows hard on the heels of Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, which covers the same topic from a different angle: where Holland’s film deals with the experience of immigrants as they arrive in Europe, Garrone’s film fills in some of that backstory, showing the punishing...

Though it’s become a convenient catch-all term for journalists covering the subject, the phrase “European migrant crisis” can’t help but leave a sour taste in the mouth — implying as it does that Europe, the destination for so many hard-up voyagers from variously ailing or hostile countries, is the disadvantaged party in all this. That bias carries through to the bulk of well-intended films on the matter, which tend to pick up migrants’ stories, however sympathetically, on European turf. Breaking from such Italian titles as Jonas Carpignano’s “Mediterranea,” Emmanuele Crialese’s “Terraferma” and Gianfranco Rosi’s “Fire at Sea,” Matteo Garrone’s stirring “Io Capitano” instead takes Europe not as its setting but as a near-mythic objective, tracing one Senegalese teen’s vast journey from Dakar to Tripoli to overloaded migrant boat in gripping, sometimes agonizing detail.

For Garrone, this proves an energizing shift in focus, yielding his most robust,...

With no official film market and a more laid-back attitude than Cannes, Berlin or Toronto, Venice has never been the go-to festival for movie deals.

But opportunistic buyers could spot a bargain this year, as many of the hottest titles arrive at the Lido without major distribution in place.

Just ahead of Venice, Sideshow and Janus Films picked up domestic rights to Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car follow-up Evil Does Not Exist, and Mubi snatched up Sophia Coppola’s Priscilla, an A24 release in the U.S., for several markets, including the U.K., Germany, Latin America and Turkey.

Here are some of the other prime targets for dealmakers in the 2023 Venice Film Festival lineup.

Aggro Dr1ft

Director Harmony Korine

Stars Travis Scott, Jordi Molla

Buzz Another slice of extreme avant-guard from Spring Beakers and Trash Humpers director Harmony Korine, this experimental action film — shot entirely in infrared...

Matteo Garrone, who is a two-time Cannes jury prizewinner with “Gomorrah” in 2008 and “Reality” in 2012, is set to be in competition in Venice for the first time with his immigration-themed drama “Io Capitano.”

Shot over 13 weeks in Senegal, Italy and Morocco with a cast of non-professional actors, the Italian auteur’s new film – the title for which translates to “I Captain” – narrates the Homeric journey of two young African men, Seydou and Moussa, who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe. It depicts their plight through the pitfalls of the desert, the horrors of detention centers in Libya and the dangers of the sea.

“‘Io Capitano’ was born from the idea of ​​telling the epic journey of two young Senegalese migrants who cross Africa, with all its dangers, to pursue a dream called Europe,” Garrone said in a statement to Variety. “To make the film, we started from the true...

A must see first look! 01 Distribution in Italy has unveiled a trailer for the thriller Io Capitano, a new film from the acclaimed Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, best known for his films Gomorrah, Reality, Tale of Tales, and Dogman. It was also just announced earlier today as a major premiere at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, playing in the main competition. The film will open in Italian theaters the same week it premieres in Venice, though no other international dates are set yet. Io Capitano is a Homeric fairy tale that tells the adventurous journey of two young boys, Seydou and Moussa, who leave Dakar to reach Europe. A modern Odyssey through the dangers of the desert, the sea and the ambiguities of the human soul. The film stars newcomers Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall. It's not surprising to see Garrone tell a story about African refugees coming to Italy, after his films about Italian mobsters,...

John C. Reilly will head up the jury for the 2023 Cannes Un Certain Regard sidebar.

Reilly has been a frequent visitor to the French film festival, screening such titles as The Lobster, Tale of Tales and We Need to Talk About Kevin.

“I have had so many life-changing moments at the Festival de Cannes (from my miraculous first trip with Paul Thomas Anderson to celebrating my 50th birthday from the Palais stage!) So to be chosen as the president of Un Certain Regard Jury is truly such an incredible honor,” Reilly said in a statement. “Many of the films I have been lucky to appear in have been selected by the Festival over these many years and nothing feels as special as being invited to this amazing annual gathering of the very best cinema has to offer the world. I look forward to helping launch another generation of filmmakers on...

New feature from the director of ‘Sheherazade’ added to Un Certain Regard strand.

US actor John C. Reilly will preside over the jury for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, which has added Salem by Cesar award-winning French director Jean-Bernard Marlin to its line-up.

Alongside Reilly on the five-person jury are French director and screenwriter Alice Winocour, German actress Paula Beer, French-Cambodian director and producer Davy Chou and Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne.

Reilly made his film debut in Brian De Palma’s Casualties of War in 1989 by Brian De Palma and played roles in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line,...

U.S. actor John C. Reilly will serve as president of the jury of the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes Film Festival. “Salem,” directed by Jean-Bernard Marlin, has been added to the lineup.

The other members of the jury will be French director and screenwriter Alice Winocour, German actor Paula Beer, French-Cambodian director and producer Davy Chou, and Belgian actor Émilie Dequenne.

The Un Certain Regard section showcases art and discovery films by young auteurs.

In a statement, Reilly said: “I have had so many life changing moments at the Festival de Cannes (from my miraculous first trip with Paul Thomas Anderson to celebrating my 50th birthday from the Palais stage!) so to be chosen as the president of Un Certain Regard jury is truly such an incredible honor.”

Reilly’s movie credits include Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Hard Eight” (1996), “Boogie Nights” (1997), and “Magnolia” (1999), Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line...

John C. Reilly will preside over the Un Certain Regard Jury at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, running May 16-27.

He will be joined by French director and screenwriter Alice Winocour, German actress Paula Beer, French-Cambodian director and producer Davy Chou and Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne.

“I have had so many life changing moments at the Festival de Cannes, from my miraculous first trip with Paul Thomas Anderson to celebrating my 50th birthday from the Palais stage! So to be chosen as the President of Un Certain Regard Jury is truly such an incredible honor,” said Reilly.

“Many of the films I have been lucky to appear in have been selected by the Festival over these many years and nothing feels as special as being invited to this amazing annual gathering of the very best cinema has to offer the world. I look forward to helping launch another generation of...

Francis Ford Coppola continues to fill out the ensemble for his epic Megalopolis, with Talia Shire (The Godfather), Shia Labeouf (Honey Boy), Jason Schwartzman (The French Dispatch), Grace Vanderwaal (Stargirl), Kathryn Hunter (The Tragedy of Macbeth) and James Remar (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) its newest cast additions.

The actors are set to star alongside the previously announced Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne and Aubrey Plaza. Details about the newest additions’ roles weren’t disclosed.

In Megalopolis, which is billed as a story of political ambition, genius and conflicted love, the fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems. Coppola will direct the independently produced film from his own script, at a budget just south of 100 million, with production set to kick off this fall.

Coppola’s sister Shire earned an Oscar nomination for her turn in his film The Godfather Part II,...

A24 is teaming up with filmmakers Max Eggers (The Lighthouse) and Sam Eggers (Olympia) — otherwise known as The Eggers Brothers — on their feature directorial debut The Front Room, a psychological horror pic that will star Brandy Norwood (Queens), Kathryn Hunter (The Tragedy of Macbeth), Andrew Burnap (Snow White) and Neal Huff (Waves).

The film based on Susan Hill’s short story follows a young, newly pregnant couple forced to take in an ailing stepmother who has long been estranged from the family.

The Eggers Brothers will direct from their own script, with A24 producing alongside Lucan Toh, Babak Anvari and Bryan Sonderman of Two & Two Pictures, and Julia Oh and David Hinojosa of 2Am. A24 is also financing the film and handling global distribution.

Norwood is a Grammy-winning musician and actress who stars in the ABC series Queens, and has also been seen on shows like Star, Zoe Ever After,...

Tamsin Egerton (“The Look of Love”), Jessica Plummer (“The Girl Before”) and Bebe Cave (“Tale of Tales”) have been cast in British indie feature “Tell That To The Winter Sea,” Variety can exclusively confirm.

Variety can also reveal that the film, which is written by Greta Bellamacina and Jaclyn Bethany, has been snapped up by Kaleidoscope Film Distribution, who will distribute in the U.K. and rep international sales.

Emmy award winner Bethany (“The Falling World”) also directs.

“Tell That To The Winter Sea” stars Bellamacina (“This England”) and “Peaky Blinders'” Amber Anderson as friends and former lovers Jo and Scarlet who reunite in a remote country house the weekend of Jo’s wedding.

Egerton, Plummer and Cave will play some of the all-female cast who descend on the country house ahead of the nuptials.

Josette Simon (“Anatomy of a Scandal”) also stars as Kat, a dancer in a prestigious...

Actress/model Stacy Martin ("Vox Lux"), also brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton, poses for the company's 'Holiday 2021' campaign, photographed by Nadine Ijewere, as well as starring in a new short film by Roman Coppola:

As a model, Martin was part of the "Rag & Bone" Spring 2014 campaign, the "Miu Miu" 2014 and 2015 Fall/Winter campaigns and serving as 'the face' of Miu Miu's first fragrance. 

Notable film roles include the character 'Faye' in the feature "High-Rise" (2015), 'Young Dora' in the film "Tale of Tales" (2015)...

...'Léna' in "Amanda" (2018), 'Eleanor' in "Vox Lux" (2018) and as 'Juliette Voclain' in the feature "The Serpent" (2021). 

Click the images to enlarge...

Exclusive: Cohen Media Group and Curzon have jointly acquired all U.S., U.K. and Irish distribution rights to Mark Cousins’ Cannes Film Festival documentary The Storms Of Jeremy Thomas about the Oscar-winning producer of The Last Emperor.

A theatrical release is expected later in 2021 for the movie, which is a David P. Kelly Films production.

In The Storms Of Jeremy Thomas, filmmaker and writer Mark Cousins (The Story Of Film: An Odyssey) accompanies legendary producer Thomas on the latter’s annual pilgrimage to the Cannes Film Festival.

Each year for the last 45 years, Thomas has made the journey to Cannes. This time Cousins is along for the off-beat grand tour on sea and land, chatting with Thomas as they take in landmarks and people connected to the producer’s films and life, from the Paris locations of Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers,...

The story of “Pinocchio,” the wooden puppet who wants to become a real boy, has been retold since the publication of Italian author Carlo Collodi’s book in 1883. However, Matteo Garrone’s 2021 Oscar-nominated live action version is almost certainly the first to deal with the hazards of a slime trail.

“Mamma mia, it was a nightmare!” said costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini, recalling how one actress would routinely fall on the sludge left behind by the giant snail as the blue Fairy (Alida Baldari Calabria) followed. “More than once, alas, the little girl slipped. The stains that were getting onto the costume of the fairy were, of course, very difficult to remove.”

In an era of sophisticated CGI-driven storytelling, Garrone’s “Pinocchio” stands out for its unique focus on practical effects, snail stains and all. While not devoid of digital assistance, the movie provides a welcome balance between handcrafted textures and modern tech.

Five years ago, Italian auteur Matteo Garrone made his English-language debut with “Tale of Tales,” a bloody, imaginative take on Italian writer Giambattista Basile’s 17th century fairy tales. The movie featured exuberant turns from John C. Reilly, Salma Hayek, and others. These days, Garrone regrets that decision.

“If I could go back, I would probably make ‘Tale of Tales’ with Italian actors,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I think it’s very important to keep the cultural identity of every country in its films. This was an Italian project, taken from one of the best books of Italian fairy tales. But it looked like I was taking other actors because we don’t have good actors in Italy. This is wrong.”

Now, Garrone is making up for that decision. With “Pinocchio,” he has adapted another definitive Italian fairy tale, this time with an all-Italian cast. Following its 2019 release in Italy,...

"Who are you...?" "Pinocchio!" Yes, of course. We all know who he is... Roadside Attractions in the US has unveiled one final US trailer for their upcoming release of the Italian update on Pinocchio, from director Matteo Garrone. This originally premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year after opening in Italy on Christmas last year. This new take on the story from Carlo Collodi's novel of the same name is staying true to that book, telling a more grounded story with fantastical elements. Roberto Benigni (who previously directed his own Pinocchio film in 2002) stars as Geppetto, Federico Ielapi plays Pinocchio, with a main cast including Marine Vacth, Marcello Fonte, Gigi Proietti, Davide Marotta, Massimiliano Gallo, Rocco Papaleo, and Massimo Ceccherini. This version has been dubbed into English - the same as the UK version we've teased before. This honestly looks so pretty bad, and I'm not sure...

Exclusive: Roadside Attractions is opening Roberto Benigni’s new Pinocchio movie from filmmaker Matteo Garrone on Christmas Day stateside on 2,000 screens. It’s more good news for those theaters which are braving the Christmas holiday. This past Thanksgiving proved that families will venture out during the pandemic where they feel safe and head to the movies; Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods: A New Age moving to a $14.2M five-day opening.

Having grossed $1.1M in the UK via distributor Vertigo Releasing back in August from an English language version, that Pinocchio print will be booked at U.S. and Canada theaters versus a subtitled one. Garrone’s Pinocchio opened in Italy a year ago where it grossed $17.1M, repping 84% of the pic’s $20.4M WW box office to date. The movie also played this past year’s Berlin Film Festival.

In this live-action version, which Roadside acquired U.S. on back on Nov.

Roadside Attractions has acquired U.S. wide theatrical release rights to Pinocchio, the live-action take on the classic tale from Matteo Garrone and starring Roberto Benigni. The deal was struck with HanWay Films.

No release date set yet in the U.S., but the film was released in December 2019 in its home country Italy and other overseas territories and is carrying a worldwide gross of $20.31 million.

In the pic, the Oscar-winning Benigni (who wrote and directed and played Pinocchio is his own feature film version of the story in 2002) now plays Geppetto, the woodcarver whose puppet creation magically comes to life with dreams of becoming a real boy. Easily led astray, Pinocchio (Federico Ielapi) tumbles from one misadventure to another as he is tricked, kidnapped and chased by bandits through a wonderful world full of imaginative creatures – from the belly of a giant fish to the Land Of Toys and the Field Of Miracles.

Live-action adaptation premiered at Berlinale

Roadside Attractions has acquired US rights from HanWay Films to Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio and is planning an awards-qualifying release.

The adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s beloved novel premiered at the Berlinale earlier this year and stars Roberto Benigni as Geppetto, the woodcarver whose puppet creation magically comes to life and dreams of becoming a real boy.

Pinocchio, played by nine-year-old Federico Ielapi, gets caught up in a series of adventures that bring him into contact with bandits, the belly of a giant fish, the Land Of Toys, and the Field Of Miracles.

Garrone co-wrote...

Drawing on the original children’s story for his new live-action version, the Gomorrah director combines sentimentality and the grotesque in a unique way

There is something rich and strange and generous in Matteo Garrone’s new live-action version of the Pinocchio story, for which the director and his co-screenwriter Massimo Ceccherini have gone right back to the original 1883 children’s tale by Carlo Collodi. They have given us a story that combines sentimentality and grotesqueness in a really startling way. It looks like a horror film. This Pinocchio could almost have one of the stories that Garrone dramatised in his freaky-fabular movie Tale of Tales, and the story is very different from the legendary 1940 Disney musical version – without which, admittedly, no one would care about any new remake or reinvention.

Walt Disney, for example, never had Pinocchio being brutally hanged from a tree by two swindlers who wanted to rob him.

Universal Pictures has debuted a new trailer for Sally Potter’s drama ‘The Roads Not Taken’ featuring Javier Bardem.

The film follows 24 turbulent hours in the life of father and daughter Leo (Bardem) and Molly (Fanning) as she grapples with the challenges of dealing with her father’s chaotic mental state. But as they weave their way around New York City, their ordinary but stressful day takes on a hallucinatory and epic quality, for Leo is seamlessly flowing in and out of two other parallel lives – a passionate marriage with his childhood sweetheart Dolores (Hayek) in Mexico a life of solitude on a remote Greek island, where a chance encounter with two young tourists unmasks some uncomfortable truths….

Directed by Sally Potter, the film stars Javier Bardem (Skyfall, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, No Country For Old Men), Elle Fanning (The Beguiled, Neon Demon, Maleficent), Salma Hayek (Tale of Tales, Frida, Once Upon a Time in Mexico...

"I don't want to be a puppet..." Vertigo Releasing from the UK has debuted a new trailer for their upcoming release of the Italian update on Pinocchio, from director Matteo Garrone. This premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year after opening in Italy on Christmas last year. This new take on the story from Carlo Collodi's novel of the same name is staying true to that book, telling a more grounded story with fantastical elements. Roberto Benigni (who previously directed his own Pinocchio film in 2002) stars as Geppetto, Federico Ielapi plays Pinocchio, with a full cast including Marine Vacth, Marcello Fonte, Gigi Proietti, Davide Marotta, Massimiliano Gallo, Rocco Papaleo, and Massimo Ceccherini. This version has been dubbed into English for the film's UK release. Early reviews have been quite mixed - but if you think it looks interesting, it's worth renting at least. Here's the full UK...

For the busiest man in movies, life during quarantine hasn’t been all that different from the way it was before. Taking a rare break from work in order to field a phone call from his recording studio in the heart of Paris, ultra-prolific composer Alexandre Desplat admitted that he’s been undeterred by the global shutdown: “It’s been very quiet in the streets, and it’s sad not to see my friends, but aside from that things have actually been almost the same as normal for me. I’ve still been able to go to the studio — every day I am here!”

Desplat never slows down, even when the world stands still. You wouldn’t expect anything less from someone who’s scored at least 70 different films since he broke into the English-language market with “Birth” in 2004. Desplat’s range and virtuosity is unrivaled in modern cinema — who...

Not definitive, but interesting news items…

Next year the Berlinale will be February 11–21, 2021. Sundance will be Thursday, 21 January and will end on Sunday, 31 January 2021. Rotterdam will go from Wednesday, 27 January and will end on Sunday, 7 February 2021.

Winner of the Berlinale Golden Bear, for There Is No Evil

The Hollywood Reporter Berlin Edition Day 3 February 22: “It all seems so 2016…A few years back the independent film industry was hit with what might be called near-term streamer anxiety…theatrical exhibitors and distributors made calls to boycott streamers from film festivals and the battle lines were drawn…At Berlin's European Film Market this year, streaming is still on everyone’s mind, but the buzzword these days is not confrontation, it’s cooperation. Independent distributors are finding new models to jointly buy and release films with Svod platforms in a way that both boosts subscriptions numbers and fills theater seats…”…the next question is,...

“Pinocchio” will never stop becoming a real boy. Nearly 150 years after its initial publication and exactly 70 after the first Disney adaptation, the story continues inspiring new interpretations, from Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming animated version for Netflix to the just-announced Robert Zemeckis live-action take for Disney, which knows a thing or two about the potential for recycling IP.

By the time these updates arrive, however, Matteo Garrone’s “Pinocchio” will have already set a high bar for modern takes. The only new “Pinocchio” movie actually made in Italy, the tale’s country of origin, Garrone’s enthralling version

Despite an unruly running time and some rough transitions, the movie loads up on imaginative visuals and surreal flourishes that feel like a natural continuation — and a more complex variation — of the fairy tale playground the filmmaker last unleashed with 2015’s anthology “Tale of Tales.” Garrone takes his cues from Carlo Collodi’s 1883 story collection,...

Director and co-writer Matteo Garrone embraces the grotesqueness and sentimentality of Collodi’s 1883 story

There is something rich and strange and generous in Matteo Garrone’s new live-action version of the Pinocchio story, for which the director and his co-screenwriter Massimo Ceccherini have gone back to the original 1883 children’s tale by Carlo Collodi. They have given us a story which combines sentimentality and grotesqueness in a very startling way. It often looks like a horror film. This Pinocchio could almost have been one of the stories that Garrone dramatised in his freaky-fabular movie Tale of Tales, and the story is very different from the legendary 1940 Disney musical version.

Walt Disney, for example, never had Pinocchio being brutally hanged from a tree by two swindlers who wanted to rob him. But one of the interesting things about this drama is that Pinocchio - the magical wooden puppet who yearns to...

Enough time has passed since Roberto Benigni’s ill-starred “Pinocchio” for the actor to move more happily into the role of Geppetto in Matteo Garrone’s visually rich though oddly subdued version of the perennial tale. Given the director’s penchant for multi-strand narratives, the classic story would seem a good fit, offering potential to explore some of the darker elements present also in the Disney masterpiece. Instead however, Garrone’s live-action entry, while more faithful to Carlo Collodi’s original novel, underplays the significant elements of cruelty, creating a child-friendly movie with its fair share of enchantment but curiously lacking in memorable highlights.

Whereas the animated film brilliantly managed to subsume the piecemeal nature of the storytelling with an exciting narrative cohesion, this “Pinocchio” doesn’t hide the novel’s composite structure, resulting in a movie reliant on familiarity with the source material and the superb work of the makeup artists and prosthetics makers.

Matteo Garrone broke out internationally with “Gomorrah” (2008), considered one of the most realistic mob movies ever made. His English-language debut was dark fantasy/horror film “Tale of Tales” (2015), followed more recently by violent revenge drama “Dogman,” which won the best actor prize at Cannes last year.

Garrone’s new live-action adaptation of “Pinocchio” – which just opened in Italy in the No. 2 spot after “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” – sees the Italian auteur take a different tack by deliberately seeking to make a mainstream family film, albeit with his personal stamp. “Given my previous films, there might be a tendency for people to think that this ‘Pinocchio’ could be dark or violent. Instead it’s a light and luminous movie. It’s a film for all audiences,” Garrone told Variety in an exclusive interview, edited excerpts of which follow.

Berlin artistic director Carlo Chatrian, in announcing the film’s gala screening at the 2020 Berlinale,...

With Roberto Benigni as the woodcutter and rising child star Federico Ielapi as his walking, talking creation carved from a tree trunk, Matteo Garrone’s new Pinocchio brings genuine emotion to one of the most ambitious film adaptations to date of Carlo Collodi’s 1883 kid classic. Though nowhere near as scary as the director’s Tale of Tales, which was based on 17th century Neapolitan fairy tales at the limit of sadism, this is still an uncensored, unadulterated version of the book’s dark 19th century portrait of mistreated children. It's one of those rare films that can attract mixed ...

With Roberto Benigni as the woodcutter and rising child star Federico Ielapi as his walking, talking creation carved from a tree trunk, Matteo Garrone’s new Pinocchio brings genuine emotion to one of the most ambitious film adaptations to date of Carlo Collodi’s 1883 kid classic. Though nowhere near as scary as the director’s Tale of Tales, which was based on 17th century Neapolitan fairy tales at the limit of sadism, this is still an uncensored, unadulterated version of the book’s dark 19th century portrait of mistreated children. It's one of those rare films that can attract mixed ...

British producer Jeremy Thomas, whose credits include “The Last Emperor,” “Crash” and “Sexy Beast,” is attending the Marrakech Film Festival where he was interviewed onstage by U.K. film critic Jason Solomons, who introduced him as “the Last Emperor of independent cinema.”

Interviewed by Variety, Thomas talked about Matteo Garrone’s “Pinocchio,” starring Roberto Benigni, which will be released on 600 screens in Italy on Dec. 19 and will be released in Germany, Russia and other European territories on March 20. He is still negotiating English-language world rights.

Garrone is essentially known for his dark films, such as gritty crime movie “Gomorrah,” but has dreamt of adapting Carlo Collodi’s “Pinocchio” since he was a child.

Thomas has previously produced Garrone’s English-language picture “Tale of Tales” (2015), and his crime drama “Dogman,” which competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

Italian comedy star Benigni (“Life Is Beautiful”) – who directed...

There are a few different feature film versions of the classic fairytale Pinocchio in development. We have a stop-motion film coming from Guillermo del Toro, and Disney is developing their own live action remake. The other adaptation has kind of been off the radar because it’s an Italian film that comes from director Matteo Garrone.

We have the first teaser trailer to share with you today for this movie, and as you’ll see, this is going to be a very different and dark take on Pinocchio. I like what I’m seeing! I really love the visual designs of the film and the characters that fill it.

The movie stars Italian actor Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful) in the role of Geppetto. This is the second Pinocchio film that he’s been a part of. In 2002, Benigni wrote, directed, and starred in his own Pinocchio movie. The movie...

The wooden boy returns again. From the director of Roman Summer, Gomorrah, Reality, Tale of Tales, and Dogman comes a new take on... Pinocchio. Wait - for real? Yep. Garrone is finishing up a new Pinocchio movie that is scheduled for release on December 25th, Christmas Day, this year in Italy - but has no other release dates set yet. This new take on the story originally published in Carlo Collodi's novel of the same name is staying true to that book, telling a more grounded story rather than going all out with fantastical elements. Roberto Benigni (who previously directed his own Pinocchio film in 2002) stars as Geppetto, Federico Ielapi as Pinocchio, with a cast including Marine Vacth, Marcello Fonte, Gigi Proietti, Davide Marotta, Massimiliano Gallo, Rocco Papaleo, and Massimo Ceccherini. We all know that Guillermo del Toro has been working on his own version of this story, but...

Acclaimed Italian director Matteo Garrone is returning to the type of dark fairy tales that he made memorable in 2015’s Tale of Tales, with his newest film, a take on Pinocchio. Just one of many different iterations being made, including a stop-motion version by Guillermo del Toro and a live-action Disney remake, Garrone’s film looks to be visually and narratively darker than those.

Perhaps best known for his gritty 2008 Mafia film Gomorra, Garrone’s newest film sees Italian actor Roberto Benigni star as Geppetto, an odd twist considering Benigni’s follow up to his Oscar winning Life is Beautiful was his widely panned 2002 version of Pinocchio in which Begini wrote, directed, and starred as the titular character.

With Garrone behind the camera, it looks to be a much different retelling than Benigni’s previous film. While the trailer is Italian, without subtitles, you can get a sense for the...

IFC Films is getting into the streaming game, launching its own subscription-based, video on demand streaming service on Thursday.

Called IFC Films Unlimited, the catalog of movies will draw on titles from the IFC Films, IFC Midnight and Sundance Select labels, including so far “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” “The Trip,” “45 Years,” “The Babadook” and more as part of an initial offering of several hundred movies.

The service launches today and will be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video channels for $5.99 per month. The service hopes to eventually be available on additional platforms.

Also Read: 'The Sound of Silence' With Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones Acquired By IFC Films

The launch was made to coincide with the Cannes Film Festival, taking place now. IFC has distributed five winners of the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, and three of those movies, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” “Dheepan...

Claire Denis announced as jury chair last month.

UK-French actress and former Screen Star of Tomorrow Stacy Martin is among the four new members of the Cannes short films and Cinéfondation jury, joining previously announced jury president Claire Denis.

Completing the jury are writer-directors Eran Kolirin from Israel, Panos H. Koutras from Greece and Cătălin Mitulescu from Romania.

The jury will select the short film Palme d’Or winner from the 11 titles playing in Competition, with the award given at the closing ceremony on Sunday May 25.

They will also award prizes to three of the 17 films shown as part of the Cinéfondation selection,...

Claire Denis announced as jury chair last month.

UK-French actress and former Screen Star of Tomorrow Stacy Martin is among the four new members of the Cannes short films and Cinéfondation jury, joining previously announced jury president Claire Denis.

Completing the jury are writer-directors Eran Kolirin from Israel, Panos H. Koutras from Greece and Cătălin Mitulescu from Romania.

The jury will select the short film Palme d’Or winner from the 11 titles playing in Competition, with the award given at the closing ceremony on Sunday, May 25.

They will also award prizes to three of the 17 films shown as part of the Cinéfondation selection,...

Little Joe and Sorry We Missed You both selected for Cannes Competition.

Following last year’s disappointing Cannes showing for UK movies, with only one Polish-language UK co-production in Competition (Cold War), this year’s presence looks to be an improvement.

Following today’s announcement, which saw 90% of the Official Selection titles unveiled, two films with significant UK involvement have been selected for Competition.

Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You sees the director once again break his own record with his 14th selection – his latest film focuses on the UK’s gig economy. Loach’s last film I, Daniel Blake...