Latino Representation in TV, Film and Media Grew by Only 1% in the Past Decade, Study Shows

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese director Kawase Naomi will lead the international competition jury of the 44th Cairo International Film Festival (Nov. 13-22). Kawase won the Caméra d’Or for best debut feature film at Cannes for “Moe no Suzaku” (1997) and also won awards there for “Mogari no Mori” (2007) and “Hikari” (2017). In 2000, her film “Hotaru” won the FIPRESCI award at Locarno. Cairo festival president Hussein Fahmy said that Kawase has had a distinguished career and possesses great experience that qualified her to obtain prestigious awards from various international festivals.

Exciting casting news for Pete Davidson and Michelle Yeoh!

Instagram Tuesday of both Davidson and Yeoh in the studio. Davidson will voice the Transformer Mirage, and Yeoh will voice Air Razor.

Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) and Pete Davidson (Meet Cute) have joined the cast of Paramount’s upcoming film Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts, based on Hasbro’s Transformers action figures. Yeoh will voice the Maximal Airazor, with Davidson to portray the Autobot Mirage.

The Native American Media Alliance announced today they have selected 10 participants for the 2nd Annual Native American Unscripted Workshop, a talent development program that aims to boost the careers of Native American filmmakers, journalists and media artists in the field of unscripted film and television.

Jessica Chastain, who plays a nurse in her latest film, said she feels nurses have been “forgotten about” following the pandemic. The American actress, 45, stars in The Good Nurse, which follows the true story of nurse Amy Loughren, who becomes suspicious that her colleague, played by Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne, is responsible for a series of patient deaths. The crime drama, directed by Tobias Lindholm, tells the story of serial killer Charlie Cullen and is based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Charles Graeber.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The creative mandate for the VFX team on “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” was to deliver a premium film with a singing and dancing CG character that both adults and children could believe was real. Based on the children’s book by Bernard Weber, the film follows Josh (Winslow Fegley), a young boy struggling to fit in, his dad (Scoot McNairy) and stepmother (Constance Wu). Upon moving to the city, the family finds out their new home is inhabited by a singing crocodile named Lyle, voiced by Shawn Mendes. Josh Gordon, who co-directed the film with Will Speck, says it was important that Lyle didn’t come off mean or menacing. Gordon explains, “That’s part of the character — he scares people — but Lyle is somebody who people judge by his cover. They don’t understand that underneath he is incredibly soulful and sweet.”

Guy Lodge Film Critic Children’s literature loves few things as much as a mighty monster who remains, against all outward appearances, defiantly benign — one who sets out to soothe young nightmares after initially stoking them, ultimately proving that fears and anxieties aren’t limited to little folk. Boris, the cheerfully dorky title character in Ruth Stiles Gannett’s 1948 book “My Father’s Dragon,” is cut from the same soft felt as Frank L. Baum’s Cowardly Lion, Roald Dahl’s Big Friendly Giant or Jill Murphy’s Worst Witch. A would-be flying fire-breather who hasn’t yet found his wings or his flames, he has even more growing up to do than fearful 10-year-old hero Elmer, and their mutual guilelessness sets the tone for Irish animator Nora Twomey’s winningly sweet-natured, visually transporting adaptation.

the frantic, bizarre, and deeply heartfelt sci-fi film directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert that became the first art-house hit of the post-pandemic era — and proved that at 60, Michelle Yeoh is still one of the world’s most formidable performers.As beleaguered laundromat owner Evelyn Wang, Yeoh is the center of a cosmic tale that rails against existential doom, declaring that in the infinity of the multiverse, what truly matters are the relationships that seem so small in comparison but provide stability amidst the chaos. The film is showcase for Yeoh’s unparalleled talents: She goes from a run-down everywoman trying to keep the peace with her daughter (Stephanie Hsu), save her marriage (Ke Huy Quan plays her husband) and salvage her business to a universe-hopping superhero in sensible sneakers who quite literally saves the world.

A beloved children’s novel is turned into a charming animation in My Father’s Dragon, which is world premiering at the BFI London Film Festival. Oscar-nominated director Nora Twomey (The Breadwinner) helms a story of childhood friendship based on the 1948 novel by Ruth Stiles Gannett, with animation from Cartoon Saloon (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers) and a screenplay by Meg LeFauve (Inside Out). It’s a sweet adventure with appeal for young kids and a starry voice cast including Jacob Tremblay as hero Elmer, and – in one of the film’s more amusing moments – Whoopi Goldberg as a cat. 

Shudder, AMC Networks’ streaming service for horror, thrillers and the supernatural, announced today the continuation of Studio71’s found footage anthology franchise, V/H/S, within an all-new installment, V/H/S/85. 

“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” book series is now a major motion picture. The live action/CGI musical comedy stars a whole host of names, including one Canadian singer as the voice of a talented crocodile. The film will feature songs performed by star Shawn Mendes and written by the songwriting team behind “The Greatest Showman” — Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — with an ensemble cast that includes Javier Bardem and Constance Wu.For “Lyle,” Pasek and Paul are joined by Ari Afsar, Emily Gardner, Xu Hall, Mark Sonnenblick and Joriah Kwamé.

mixed results. It wasn’t quite Mario or Italian, and it mostly sounded a lot like Pratt’s normal voice.

Nothing has quite the same screen allure as a secret world. Espionage is so secret, by definition, that we have to take even its existence as a matter of trust; all we know about what goes on behind the intelligence agencies’ closed doors is what is relayed to us through books, films and series like A Spy Among Friends, based on Ben Macintyre’s book about the British double agent Kim Philby. Presumably, a certain kind of person is drawn to that world where nothing can be let slip outside it. To work for both sides, one must constantly be aware of who said what to whom, who knows what, who saw you where, who remembers you there — that anyone should want that life is a mystery in itself.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, Whoopi Goldberg and Zendaya are just some of the stars who appear in Elvis Mitchell’s “Is That Black Enough for You?” Netflix documentary. Mitchell’s doc bows this weekend at the New York Film Festival. Mitchell, a film critic who has written for LA Weekly and The New York Times takes on the role of writer, director and narrator as he traces the history of Black representation in cinema. The documentary examines Black cultural achievement in the 1960s and ’70s and debunks the notion that Black cinema in that period only meant Blaxploitation films.

A favorite at film festivals this summer and fall, the new horror movie, “Sissy,” is now playing on Shudder. Directed and written by Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes, it’s one of the most original motion pictures you’ll see this year.

Clayton Davis Jordan Peele is looking to push boundaries as a writer, director and producer every time he creates something new. “I’m going to keep trying to come up with original stories, and meet the expectations the audience has for me,” Peele says. “I hope to continue to lift original filmmakers up.” On this episode of the award-winning Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, we sit down with Academy Award winner Peele to discuss his two feature film projects in the awards conversation: the sci-fi horror film “Nope,” which he wrote and directed, and the animated feature “Wendell & Wild,” which he voiced, co-wrote and produced. Also on the episode, he talks about his long friendship and collaboration with Keegan-Michael Key, and whether fans might ever see the comedy duo reboot their beloved Comedy Central and Emmy-winning sketch series “Key & Peele.”

Chris Pratt could be the hero of the mushroom kingdom.

first trailer for Illumination and Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has arrived and, well, it looks pretty much exactly like you’d expect an animated movie based on the beloved video game franchise would look.

Letitia Wright said she felt a responsibility to be a vessel for the voice of an asylum seeker while filming her upcoming project Aisha. The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever actress, 28, stars as a Nigerian girl caught in Ireland’s immigration system alongside co-star Josh O’Connor in director Frank Berry’s latest drama. Arriving at the film’s UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, Wright told the PA news agency: “When I read the script from Frank I just thought this is a beautiful piece of art, well crafted and well put together and this is why I wanted to be a part of it.

The first trailer for the upcoming film The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been released!

Grief is a wild animal: nobody knows what it will do next. In Christophe Honoré’s Winter Boy (Le Lycéen), high-school student Lucas (Paul Kircher) is asleep in his dorm when his older brother Quentin (Vincent Lacoste) and a family friend burst in. His father has had an accident. By the time they reach their small town in the foothills of the French Alps, Lucas has realized his father is dead.

“Big Mouth” pushes the envelope in the most absurdly wonderful ways but not every idea makes it to Netflix screens. Just ask Joel Kim Booster.

Andrew Barker Senior Features Writer “A Chinese Canadian tween undergoes magical puberty and turns into a giant red panda.” As far as elevator pitches go, it’s not exactly “‘Jaws’ in space” or “snakes on a plane.” But that highly specific logline is the one that Domee Shi used to persuade Pixar to greenlight her feature directorial debut, some half a decade ago when the then-20-something was a budding storyboard artist on the studio’s Emeryville campus. Shi’s film, “Turning Red,” delivers on every bit of that premise, focusing on a confidently nerdy Toronto girl named Mei and her loving yet strict mother, Ming, whose perfectly ordered lives are thrust into chaos by Mei’s sudden transformation. The film was released last spring, and immediately notched a number of milestones for the studio: the first Pixar feature solely directed by a woman, the first Pixar feature with all-female creative leads, and only the second Pixar feature directed by a person of Asian descent. But the particulars of Shi’s identity aside, it also represented the emergence of a singular new voice within the celebrated studio, and everything from its cultural specificity, to its animation style — impressionistic, frantically paced, anime-influenced — to its openness in addressing the messiness of early adolescence (from menstruation and mother issues to the suggestion that a tween girl’s love of a particular boy band might have some extra-musical motivations) felt both of a piece with the Pixar tradition and something invigoratingly new.

An Instagram account leaking explosive voice notes which allegedly Ferne McCann has returned to the app, just days after it was shut down. Formerly posting with the handle lucymay195, the account, which has over 31k followers, is back with the name @ladywhistledown195, in a nod to the fictional whistleblower in the hit Netflix series, Bridgerton.

Shawn Mendes opened up about his mental health this week after the sudden cancellation of his Wonder World tour this summer, telling ET he now feels more relaxed ahead of the premiere of his new movie, “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile”. 

some of Pratt’s Mario – or, at least, his backside. Illumination is, of course, the studio behind the “Despicable Me,” “Minions” and “Secret Life of Pets” franchises so many have been curious to see what “Super Mario Bros.” looks like, but the film was made with the explicit involvement of Nintendo, which co-financed the movie alongside Universal Pictures, and the Mario world does not appear to be Minion-ized here.Pratt voices Mario in something of a controversial choice, although the “Guardians of the Galaxy” actor is no stranger to voice work having led the “LEGO Movie” franchise.“Super Mario Bros.” also stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike.Originally scheduled for release in December, the film opens in theaters in the U.S.

Shawn Mendes opened up about his mental health this week after the sudden cancellation of his tour this summer, telling ET he now feels more relaxed ahead of the premiere of his new movie, «It doesn't feel like such high pressure,» Mendes told ET's Rachel Smith about the film. The movie will be the first time fans hear his singing voice after announcing canceling the tour dates.

Anna Tingley The furry friends of the Justice League can now be enjoyed on 4K. After arriving on HBO Max last month, “DC League of Super-Pets” will finally be released on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD on Oct. 4. The superhero comedy smashed the box office in July, beating out Jordan Peele’s “Nope” with an impressive $25 million debut. Based on the DC Comic of the same name, the film follows Superman’s dog Krypto the Super-Dog, played by Dwayne Johnson, as he teams up with the rest of the Justice League critters to rescue their kidnapped owners. Krypto’s main ally is Ace the Bat-Hound (Batman’s dog, voiced by Kevin Hart), alongside a group of sheltered animals voiced by Natasha Lyonne, Vanessa Bayer, Diego Luna, Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz, among others. The main villain of the film is Lula, a silky-voiced guinea pig played by Kate McKinnon who attempts to foil Krypto’s grand plans. “Though very much a comedy about a scruffy team of critter heroes, it’s also a movie that makes room for the famed demigods of the DC universe; it’s a full-on superhero extravaganza,” writes Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman in his review. “Watching it, what you realize — it’s something we all know but don’t think about too often — is that the gargantuan comic-book movie spectacles that our culture is fatally addicted to are all, in essence, cartoons.” So, how can you watch “DC: League of Super-Pets” online? You can stream the film with an HBO Max account, with plans starting at $9.99/month. Or, starting Oct. 4, you can purchase the film digitally on Amazon Prime and order the Blu-ray version in 4k below: Courtesy of Amazon

Antonio Ferme editor Almost 60 years after famous children’s author Bernard Waber published “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” the story is finally getting a live-action adaptation. The 1965 picture book, a sequel to “The House on East 88th Street,” follows a saltwater crocodile navigating the streets of New York City. At the worldwide red carpet premiere on Sunday, the cast and crew discussed the process of threshing out a grander narrative based on the ten books in the “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” series. “It’s like a 17-page book, so the room for growth and expansion is tenfold,” producer Kevin Vafi told Variety at AMC Lincoln Square 13 in New York. “It’s finding those homage points that you really want to do, like the note in the attic or meeting Lyle in the bathtub with Mrs. Primm — all these little callbacks to the book.”

Shawn Mendes hits the red carpet for his new movie premiere, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile!

A humbling moment. Christian Bale thought he and costar John David Washington were doing a great job singing while filming Amsterdam – until director David O. Russell had Taylor Swift step in to set them straight. 

William Earl The Gotham Film & Media Institute (The Gotham) announced today the launch of The Gotham/Variety Audio Honors, presented by Wondery, a groundbreaking initiative dedicated to recognizing the boldest voices in the ever-expanding world of audio storytelling. The honorees have been selected in recognition of their innovations in audio storytelling by a committee of distinguished audio industry professionals, chaired by award-winning podcast creator, producer and new host of NPR’s “It’s Been a Minute,” Brittany Luse. The Gotham/Variety Audio Honors are set to take place in person as a luncheon and a staged presentation in New York City on Friday, Oct. 14. “As an organization dedicated to celebrating and nurturing independent creators, we are proud to recognize these brilliant, innovative, and groundbreaking audio storytellers,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of The Gotham Film & Media Institute. “As audio content reaches a pivotal point of engagement and innovation, it is crucial that we launch new platforms of recognition, such as The Gotham/Variety Audio Honors, to celebrate the most daring creators in our industry.”

Interview Magazine and, speaking with Maggie Gyllenhaal, revealed that Chris Pine’s cultish leader in her film “Don’t Worry Darling” was based off of The Daily Wire’s Peterson. “We based that character on this insane man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community,” Wilde explained.