Innholdsfortegnelse for 11/1/2023 i Variety

• Matthew Perry will most often be remembered for his wit and charm, but there was so much more to him. The pilot script of “Friends” had a lot of heat at the agencies, and young actors both familiar and fresh were vying for the roles. Once we saw and heard Matthew’s audition we knew that our prayers had been answered. The pilot that tested as a “high weak” would show itself to be a hit. Week in and week out, Matthew would reveal just how gifted he was comedically. At the fall upfront advertiser presentation in May of ’96, a crisis hit. Due to an electrical failure, the presentation stopped. I panicked. But then, out walked Matthew, who proceeded to entertain the audience. He winked and gave me a…

Priscilla Beaulieu was a 14-year-old Army brat when she met the world’s biggest star, Elvis Presley, sparking a love story that’s the stuff of rock ’n’ roll legend. When “Priscilla” star Cailee Spaeny was 14, she developed a different kind of crush — a cinematic one — on Sofia Coppola. It started when she watched “The Virgin Suicides,” Coppola’s directorial debut. “It cracked me open,” Spaeny tells Variety. “It was the first time I asked myself who was behind the camera.” So it was surreal when, a decade later, Spaeny’s reps told her to get on a plane because “Sofia wants to have coffee with you in New York.” At the meeting, Spaeny tried to play it cool while eating croissants with her idol. “All my childhood dreams were coming…

The 87 submissions for this year’s Academy Award for international feature mark a slight dropoff from the last few record-setting years when that number has been consistently in the 90s. Whether this is a reaction to the Academy’s rule change mandating that at least 50% of every national selection committee needs to comprise “artists and or craftspeople from the field of motion pictures” is an open question. But the big hitters remain in the race and so, pending the official confirmation of the eligibility of the below films from the Academy, here is the full international feature submissions list for the 96th Academy Awards. The 15-title shortlist is slated to arrive on Dec. 21, while the nominations announcement is Jan. 23; the ceremony is dated for March 10. ALBANIA Alexander…

In August 2021, as the U.S. withdrew forces from Afghanistan and the Taliban took power, many people fled the country. But despite having U.S. citizenship, the then 73-year-old Mahbouba Seraj stayed. The journalist, activist and co-founder of Afghan Women’s Network had been forced to leave her country once before, but this time she would remain. “If you educate one woman, you educate her whole family,” Seraj explains. “And the women of Afghanistan are absolutely dying for education.” Anna Coren, an Emmy-winning journalist for CNN, soon learned of Seraj and set out to tell her story in the documentary short “The Noble Guardian,” which recently won best documentary at the 2023 L.A. Shorts Intl. Film Festival and is eligible for the 2024 Oscars. Coren was there to capture the joy when…

As they were writing the pilot script for their new Max comedy series “Bookie,” co-creators Chuck Lorre and Nick Bakay thought it would be fun to add a real-life Hollywood star playing a version of themself as an inveterate gambler. The show stars stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalco as a Los Angeles sports betting bookie, so it made sense that his character might run into a few high-roller celebrities during his travels. In early drafts, the character was left as a “TBD.” But Lorre couldn’t shake an idea he had for who might be perfect for the role: “It should be Charlie,” he tells Variety. “I remember Charlie was very much engaged in sports betting, and he would tell me stories about it all the time. You know, when things were…

Every year the race for the Oscar for best documentary feature gets more expensive and less inclusive. The challenging doc marketplace favors a handful of bigname filmmakers commissioned to make one-off films or docuseries. During the last two years, directors of independently made docs, especially those tackling hard-hitting social issues, have been facing an uphill battle to secure distribution. The major streaming services, who just a few years ago were spending millions to acquire indie fare, seem to no longer be interested in garnering titles out of festivals. There have, of course, been exceptions. Matthew Heineman’s “American Symphony” sold to Netflix immediately after the film’s Telluride premiere in September, and HBO Documentary Films/Max picked up Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize U.S. Documentary winner “Going to Mars:…

TV REVIEW Drama: Netflix (4 episodes; all reviewed); Nov. 3 Starring: Aria Mia Loberti, Louis Hofmann, Lars Eidinger “All the Light We Cannot See” is not exactly a comfort watch. Like the Pulitzer Prize-winning Anthony Doerr novel on which it’s based, the four-episode limited series takes place in a walled city under siege by a bombing campaign — hardly a relaxing break from today’s headlines. But the Netflix show is, in a way, a return to simpler times. This particular walled city is in Nazi-occupied France, on the verge of American liberation in August 1944. As written, “All the Light We Cannot See” is already set amid a conflict that’s far closer to good versus evil than most armed struggles. (This is one explanation for the enduring popularity of World…

Tinseltown is all about sweeping storytelling, and the tale of the Egyptian Theatre is as stirring as any Golden Age epic. Movie stars, earthquakes, dinosaurs, elephants, hidden tunnels — the 101-year-old Hollywood Boulevard movie palace has seen it all. Now, after a meticulous rebuild, new owner Netflix, along with partner the American Cinematheque, is ready to unspool the next reel of the theater’s story. More than just a remodeling, the extensive renovations roll back time to undo earlier modifications but also position the 516-seat auditorium for the future of cinema via cutting-edge projection, sound, lighting and live event capabilities. For Netflix, it’s a way to preserve Hollywood history while providing a splashy roost for film and TV premieres, exhibits and live events. The streamer has taken over New York’s Paris…

AWARDS CIRCUIT It’s not homework, it’s “American Fiction.” At first glance, writer-director Cord Jefferson’s satire about the exploitation of Black people in media might seem like another “message” movie offering difficult conversations around politics and race. Well, it is that — but it’s also funny. So funny, it just might be this year’s Oscar best picture winner. Jefferson’s MGM-distributed debut is taking the festival circuit by storm. Since its world premiere at Toronto, where it won the People’s Choice Award — an Oscar bellwether — the film has also tacked on audience awards from regional festivals Mill Valley and Middleburg. The last two movies to win those three prizes were “Belfast” (2021) and “Green Book” (2018); both were Oscar nominated, and the latter took home best picture. Considering that “American…

No documentaries have been nominated for a best sound Oscar since Michael Wadleigh’s “Woodstock” more than half a century ago — even potential contenders such as Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” did not make the cut. Sam Green hopes that his doc “32 Sounds” will break that dry spell and become the second documentary nominated in the category. Green’s film, which premiered at Sundance last year, explores the phenomenon of sound through 32 specific sonic experiences. When he began the project three years ago, he didn’t know much about sound, but his interest in it grew after directing “A Thousand Thoughts,” a 2018 docu about classical-music group the Kronos Quartet. “I started reading all these books about sound, and in one of them there was a reference to Annea Lockwood, who…

Profiles by Peter Caranicas, Nick Clement, David Cohen, Paula Hendrickson, Karen Idelson, Todd Longwell, Geoff Mayfield, Lily Moayeri, Mike Wass AI. IP. Branding. Technology. Release windows. Fandom. Culture. DEI. Marketing. Touring. Publicity. Promotion. Social media. Partnerships. Finance. International ties. Not to mention human nature. It takes a profound understanding of many of these concepts and disciplines to qualify for Variety’s New Leaders report, which each year highlights the creatives and executives in film, TV, music, agencies, management, law and talent that are newly emergent at the forefront of the entertainment industry. But most of all, it takes, well, leadership. Classical definition: Leadership is the ability of an individual or group to influence and guide followers. But that doesn’t do full justice to the idea. True leadership involves setting an example…