Variety 02/14/2024

The first time Jennifer Lopez fell in love with Ben Affleck, she lost control of the narrative. Bennifer 1.0, an 18-month pairing from 2002 to 2004, defined a rougher moment of tabloid culture — and with every public display of affection came a counterreaction from the celebrity press and the early blogosphere. Lopez and Affleck, who were both in their 30s at the time, became a punchline, hounded by the paparazzi, stalked and robbed of any privacy. In a final indignity, their two movies together — the infamous “Gigli” and Kevin Smith’s “Jersey Girl” — flopped. It’s amazing, then, that this Hollywood sequel two decades in the making has had a happy ending. Lopez and Affleck, both having long since climbed back from “Gigli” and now at the top of…

Chief correspondent Stephen Rodrick found profiling J. Lo a challenge. “So much has been written about her, I was worried about coming up with anything new,” he says. “But then she released a three-headed multimedia project. Problem solved!” Deputy features editor Jenelle Riley interviewed Sterling K. Brown about “American Fiction” but really wanted to talk about the “SNL” skit where he played a man obsessed with “Shrek.” It’s funnier than it sounds. Film reporter Rebecca Rubin has watched all of this year’s Oscar best picture nominees, but she has never seen “2001: A Space Odyssey.” She plans to get around to it someday. Cover photographer Greg Swales says, “I wanted to go with a natural aesthetic for J. Lo, so we waited until that late-afternoon light that gives the skin…

“Barbenheimer” may be the gift that keeps on giving. After Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” ignited the summer box office, the blockbusters with twin release dates are bringing populist energy to the Oscars. Yet the one-two punch of “Barbie” ($1.445 billion globally) and “Oppenheimer” ($957 million), along with a valiant assist from Martin Scorsese’s crime epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” ($156 million), can’t compete with the box office power of last year’s contenders. Led by “Avatar: The Way of Water” ($2.3 billion) and “Top Gun: Maverick” ($1.5 billion), the 10 films up for best picture in 2023 were collectively the highest grossing in more than a decade, racking up $4.4 billion worldwide. This year’s candidates for the top prize were still widely seen, with a combined $2.7…

Hollywood loves a bare-knuckle brawl. And the town got a battle royal with “Road House.” The reboot of the 1989 cult favorite, which launches on Amazon Prime on March 8, sparked a fierce fight behind the scenes over its release. While studio-filmmaker standoffs are not uncommon, this one featured such subplots as the involvement of a notorious private investigator, a cameo from Ari Emanuel and a director going scorched-earth. Even more shocking, some of the embarrassing details began to publicly spill out in recent months, culminating with director Doug Liman promising to boycott the film’s premiere at SXSW in March. Despite the drama, the movie is expected to be one of Amazon Prime’s most watched films this year. So how did things go wrong? In November 2021, Mike De…

“Barbie” is a cultural phenomenon, grossing nearly $1.5 billion and racking up eight Oscar nominations, all while launching scores of catchphrases and memes. So it’s understandable that Mattel, the company behind the iconic doll, is looking to capitalize on its cinematic success by developing roughly 45 movies based on its games and toys. Moviegoers can look forward to Barney, Bob the Builder and He-Man hitting the big screen in the not-so-distant future. But as Hollywood raids toy store shelves to feed its insatiable hunger for IP, it’s worth noting that when it comes to this type of film, for every “Barbie”-sized smash there’s a “Battleship”-like bomb. With that in mind, here are some of the movies that Mattel has in the works. 1 Barney KEY CREATIVE Daniel Kaluuya (producer and star)…

When Bonnie Timmermann is helping Ridley Scott or Michael Mann find the perfect person for a role in films like “Black Hawk Down” and “Heat,” she will buy auditioning actors pizza and grill them about their lives and ambitions. Sooner or later, they’ll get around to reading the scenes, but Timmermann has an innate sense of how to put performers at ease. “You need to understand who they are, so when they get in front of a director you know how to help them deliver their best work,” she says. “The only way you can do that is to understand their psyche.” And when she’s not overseeing casting calls, you’ll find Timmermann at screenings or plays on the prowl for talent. She likes to keep Polaroids and videos of actors…