"variety" Articles & Blogs:
Variety honors a variety of Hollywood women
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Yesterday while I was taking editor in chief Peter Bart to the woodshed for his sexist comments about Jane Campion and Kathryn Bigelow the paper that he runs, Variety, was about to honor a plethora of women (including both Campion and Bigelow) for their c...[Read on] |
Female Producer to Finance Kathryn Bigelow’s Next Film
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Kathryn Bigelow is getting ready to start shooting her next indie flick now that she has secured financing from Annapurna Pictures which is run by Megan Ellison.
The pic written by Mark Boal will shoot in the summer and is still being written. Here&#...[Read on] |
Lifetime orders three cop pilots
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I do think Lifetime needs to get back into the real drama business. The shows aside from Drop Dead Diva and Army Wives has not been very stellar or interesting of late. (Army Wives even at times veers into the way too mushy territory)
They’ve order...[Read on] |
Reese Witherspoon and Nora Ephron to team on Peggy Lee Biopic
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Looks like Reese Witherspoon will be singing again now that she has secured the rights to Peggy Lee’s life story after meeting with her granddaughter. She then approached Nora Ephron and got her to agree to write and direct.
I like how Reese is taki...[Read on] |
Roman Polanski Wants to Be Sentenced in Absentia
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Seems that facing the music in a courtroom will most probably not be happening for Roman Polanski. From his house arrest in his Swiss chalet Polanski had his lawyers ask that he be sentenced in absentia. This looks a serious option and I’m betting ...[Read on] |
Women & Hollywood: New Movies Alert
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Lisa Cholodenko
Just read about two new movies where two sets of women play lovers.
Annette Bening and Julianne Moore star as partners and mothers in Kids. The film is about their kids’ search for their sperm donor (played by Mark Ruffalo) altering ...[Read on] |
Julia Louis-Dreyfus gets star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
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Some good news. The awesome comedy of Julia Louis-Dreyfus is being publicly recognized this morning in Hollywood with Julia receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In a piece in Variety Dreyfus talked about her comedy idols:
I’ve always adm...[Read on] |
WB sells Supergirl the brand but not the movie
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Usually when you read a story in Variety about merchandising, it’s about how a studio is going to create merchandising tie-ins for an upcoming film.
Now it looks like Warner Brothers’ consumer products division is going to by-pass the theatres and se...[Read on] |
Women Score at the Gotham Awards
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Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker started off the awards season with a win for best feature at the IFP’s Gotham Awards. The event also included a tribute to director Bigelow. We shouldn’t read too much into the win but last year’s winner Froze...[Read on] |
Women directors in competition at Venice
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The good news is that there are women in competition.
The roster of competition titles was announced and there are 3 women directed films out of a total of 22. Plus we have Julie Taymor’s The Tempest as the closing film.
That’s 13.6%.
Clearly b...[Read on] |
Women’s stories dominate Venice Film Festival
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Michelle Williams in Meek's Cutoff
In a very interesting piece in Variety writer Justin Chang says that it is the Year of the Woman at the Venice Film Festival. He starts off talking about the stark sexuality that he has seen in some movies. Films ...[Read on] |
Saving Grace to end its run next summer
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Saving Grace is ending its run after after only three seasons. Honestly, I am surprised. From what I read, TNT still wanted the show but its production company FOX TV studios declined the pickup based on money.
Strange. Canceling a show with an Emm...[Read on] |
Sex and the City, the Sequel, Gets Release Date
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The sequel is putting down roots. Mark the date of May 28, 2010 in your calendar for the release of Sex and the City 2. Just keep in mind the films about women don’t usually declare their arrival over a year before they are released and before a sin...[Read on] |
More Cannes Lineup - Women Directors
| It’s getting a bit more difficult to determine the exact gender of the lineups coming through from Cannes because the filmmakers are not as experienced and I can’t tell the gender from google searches.
So here is my best guess for the lineup just ann...[Read on] |
Jolie gets Scarpetta franchise
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Angelina Jolie is teaming up with Patricia Cornwell to play Kay Scarpetta in what will hopefully become a long term franchise says Variety. Women are not known to lead franchises, Jolie had a previous one with Tomb Raider. Other I can think of include...[Read on] |
Netflix Supports Women’s Films
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Some good news. Netflix is putting a little money into women. They have come aboard as a sponsor of Women in Film’s Finishing Fund which gives much needed money to women who are oh so close to finishing their films but can’t make it to the finish li...[Read on] |
Diablo Cody gets new gig
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Seems that Diablo Cody is continuing to beat the odds. Even though the Jennifer’s Body box office was weak she seems to have gotten her next gig. Let’s also keep in mind that Toni Collette won a surprise best actress Emmy on Sunday night for the U...[Read on] |
Sundance Awards Watch: Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone takes the Top Prize
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What a weekend for female directors!
First, Kathryn Bigelow wins the DGA award putting her in the drivers seat for the Oscar, and almost simultaneously, Debra Granik took the Grand Jury Prize for her film Winter’s Bone. That makes Granik two for two ...[Read on] |
Madeleine Stowe trades acting for directing
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Madeline Stowe best known for her role in The Last of the Mohicans has been sitting on a script she wrote for over five years because she hoped to star in it. She wrote Unbound Captives under the pseudonym OC Humphrey with her husband Brian Benben back ...[Read on] |
Executive Moves: Donna Langley becomes Co-Chair at Universal
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I guess we should look at this moment as a glass half full moment. Big congrats to Donna Langley the former president of production who recently returned from maternity leave to get promoted to a big new job co-chair of Universal Pictures.
While I thin...[Read on] |
A Woman on the Croisette: Julie Bertuccelli’s Film The Tree to close Cannes
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The Cannes Film Festival has woken up from it’s ridiculousness — they still do not get a pass on the fact that there are no female filmmakers in the competition — and have announced the Australian film The Tree written and directed by Julie Bertucce...[Read on] |
Rachel Weisz Takes on Two Feminist Roles
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Rachel Weisz is attached to two films with strong feminist type characters. The first is Whistleblower to be directed by Larysa Kondracki.
Here’s the description from Variety:
Based on a true story, “Whistleblower” chronicles the trials of a fem...[Read on] |
Will Women Rule the Box Office This Summer?
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One of Variety’s stories today leads with the following headline “Women take center stage at summer B.O.” Psych. It seems that finally people are thinking about how women have box office potential to match the guys.
About fing time.
Warner Broth...[Read on] |
The Lilly Awards — Kristin Chenoweth’s Statement
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On Monday night a packed house gathered at Playwrights Horizons people in NYC to celebrate women working in theatre. A bunch of people including playwrights Theresa Rebeck and Marsha Norman who call themselves the “Committee for the Recognition of Out...[Read on] |
Virginia Madsen Getting Into Olympic Fight
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I still have major issues with Madsen for shilling Botox, but her Title IX Productions which she formed last year is taking on a good fight - the right for women ski jumpers to compete in the Olympic games.
Film follows 15 athletes and their fight agains...[Read on] |
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