Author: Hollyood rep

“The fact that you’d drive up to this hell-hole, Santa Barbara, means the world to me,” Will Ferrell joked on Wednesday night as he thanked family, friends and costars — including Kristen Wiig and Octavia Spencer — for coming to the picturesque “American Riviera,” two hours north of Los Angeles, to participate in the Santa Barbara International Film Festival‘s presentation to him of the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film. SBIFF has since 2006 annually presented the honor, which is named after the late star of Hollywood’s Golden Age who lived part-time in town, at a black-tie gala dinner at the local…

Ridley Scott‘s plans to work with Paul Mescal again might be on hold, thanks to the Beatles. During a conversation with fellow filmmaker Christopher Nolan that followed a screening of Scott’s latest title, Gladiator II, at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Scott said that he plans for his next project to be the thriller feature The Dog Stars. When Nolan asked if Mescal is set to star in the film, given that this had been recently reported, Scott confirmed this as true before correcting himself and explaining that Mescal’s schedule may prevent the Gladiator II…

Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, BlacKkKlansman) took a brief break from his work as the president of the main competition jury at the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, sharing industry and career insights during an “In Conversation With” session and talking about being in post-production on his fifth film with Denzel Washington. He calls his partnership with the actor “the dynamic Duo of D and Lee,” the legendary filmmaker told a crowd in Jeddah Old Town Al-Balad that was hanging on his every word amid growth in Saudi production activity and box…

Bollywood star Shraddha Kapoor, coming off her horror-comedy Stree 2, which broke box office records in India, appears ready to only take on certain roles. “I feel the best is yet to come, if I have to say. I feel that there’s a lot that I want to do, different kinds of films, different kinds of characters,” Kapoor told the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during an informal conversation on Monday.   That means being picky about roles she will take on going forward. “I’m okay to not do something, or do films back to back, that…

Hollywood star Olivia Wilde warns social media and the embrace of fame pose an existential threat to filmmaking as a storytelling art.   “Directors have to decide at a certain point do you want to be a celebrity or an artist,” Wilde said while taking part in an informal conversation at the Red Sea Film Festival on Saturday. She argued directors and actors are increasingly expected to have an online profile on TikTok and other digital platforms. “Because of social media, it’s becoming even more combined to something that is quite dangerous for the art form,” Wilde insisted. Her advice…

Over 2,500 film industry figures in South Korea have signed their names to a petition calling for the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol after his misbegotten declaration of martial law on Tuesday. Many of the country’s biggest names in film and K-drama — including Parasite director and multi-Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho and A-list actors like Gang Dong-won (Peninsula), Son Ye Jin (Crash Landing on You) and Park Eun-bin (Extraordinary Attorney Woo) — signed their names to the document, as did 77 local film industry organizations, such as the Directors Guild of Korea and the Producers Guild of Korea.  Altogether, 2,518 Korean…

Cynthia Erivo has much to celebrate, including the box office records and critical success of Wicked, but on Friday also shared insight into how she works, including her special relationship with Ariana Grande, and spoke out against the cyberbullying against her co-star. Appearing at an “In Conversation With” session at the Red Sea International Film Festival in the old town Al-Balad in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the English star called the reaction to the movie “a really wonderful experience to watch,” adding that nobody could have predicted the huge success even though “we all knew it was really, really special.” After she arrived on stage…

Fremantle and its Singapore-based production company Beach House Pictures said Thursday at the Asia TV Forum & Market that they are partnering with Vietnam‘s Anh Teu Studio on a film adaptation of Dumb Luck (Số đỏ), Vietnamese author Vũ Trọng Phụng’s acclaimed 1936 satirical novel. Filmmaker Phan Gia Nhật Linh (Em Va Trinh, The Girl From Yesterday, Sweet 20) will write and direct the feature adaptation, with Lê Thanh Phong, Yuno Choi and Vũ Quỳnh Hà signed on to produce. Popular Vietnamese signer Mono will play the story’s memorable lead role of Red-Haired Xuân. The production companies’ official story summary…

Marcus Loges has been named the new head of production at storied German backlot Studio Babelsberg, the studio unveiled on Wednesday. On Jan. 1, he will take over from Henning Molfenter, who has run Babelsberg’s production operations for the past 20 years. Loges has production credits on multiple features that shot at Babelberg, including on sci-fi epic Cloud Atlas, co-directed by the Wachowski siblings and German helmer Tom Tykwer, and on the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit. He worked on several Wachowskis-produced projects that shot in Germany, including as a producer on the Wachowskis’ Netflix show Sense8 and as a…

The fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) in Jeddah is set to once again put a spotlight on the burgeoning film industry in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and beyond. Showcasing a competition lineup of 15 titles, film festival circuit favourites, and more, it kicks off on Dec. 5 with an opening night gala screening of Karim Shenawi’s The Tale of Daye’s Family, the story of an 11-year-old albino, and close on Dec. 14 with Michael Gracey’s Robbie Williams biopic Better Man. Viola Davis is among the stars to be featured during the fest this year. Ahead of the…