Ramin Setoodeh: Last News

Ramin Setoodeh Executive Editor“Holy Spider,” a gritty drama about a real-life Iranian serial killer, stunned the Cannes Film Festival at its premiere on Sunday afternoon, earning a thunderous seven-minute standing ovation and bringing a jolt of electricity to what’s been a sleepy festival so far.The film, from Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi (“Border”), chronicles a killing spree in the streets of the religious city of Mashhad, where 16 prostitutes were found dead from 2000 to 2001.  A local journalist, Rahimi (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi), is trying to crack the case as she grows frustrated by the police’s apathy toward finding the murderer. But in one of many twists in this drama, the identity of the serial killer is revealed early on — he’s a war veteran named Saeed (Mehdi Bajestani), a seemingly normal family man who spends his nights picking up women on his motorcycle and brutally strangling them in his home as a religious cleansing ritual.

Naman Ramachandran The Variety Welcome to Cannes party at the Unifrance terrace was the place to be on Thursday afternoon, with guests including Eva Longoria, Sony Pictures Classics’ Tom Bernard and Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente.The hot ticket event was a bubbles and canapes celebration where the movers and shakers of the entertainment industry turned up in force to mingle after two years of COVID-caused separation.Dayna Wolpa, managing director, programming and distribution at Variety, kicked off proceedings by saying that Variety has been covering the Cannes Film Festival for 75 of the publication’s 116 years of existence and that Variety.com has 35 million unique users. “That makes Variety the No.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorA visit from the dead? How chic.The Cannes Film Festival sprung back into action on Tuesday night, as this year’s opening night movie, “Final Cut (Coupez!)” received a 5-minute standing ovation. The gory zombie line, which straddled a tone somewhere between “The Blair Witch Project” and “Call My Agent,” kicked off a festival where few patrons were wearing masks in these COVID times.To commemorate the 75th edition of Cannes, festival director Thierry Fremaux selected a French movie — not to mention a French jury president, “Titane” actor Vincent Lindon — to keep things local at the start of the celebration of movies in the French Riviera.

Kim Cattrall has a favorite word: “No.”Cattrall’s favorite instance of saying “no,” as she explained in her speech at Variety‘s Power of Women dinner presented by Lifetime, is one of her most famous quotes, when she told The Guardian in 2019, “I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m not enjoying myself for even an hour.”There are other times she has said “no,” most notably when asked to reprise her iconic role as Samantha Jones in various reboots of the “Sex and the City” franchise. She recently elaborated on her decision to retire the role in a cover interview with Variety executive editor Ramin Setoodeh, in which she said that, after filming the second SATC movie, “Everything in me went, ‘I’m done.'” She mentioned other examples of taking satisfaction in saying no, including, “No, that salary is unacceptable” and “No, we are not having a meeting in your hotel room.”On Thursday evening, Cattrall encouraged other women to own their power in the same way, reminding the room of entertainment executives and fellow Power of Women honorees, “Saying no to the past is saying yes to the future, because you are the screenwriter in the movie of your own life.”“The word ‘no’ has difficulties sometimes traveling from the brain to the tongue,” Cattrall said.

Kim Cattrall has her reasons for not wanting to reprise her character, Samantha Jones, on HBO Max's spinoff series, .“It’s a great wisdom to know when enough is enough,” Cattrall tells of why she walked away from the franchise after six seasons and two movies. “I also didn’t want to compromise what the show was to me. The way forward seemed clear.”She says that after the second movie, «Everything in me went, ‘I’m done.’»While she had already decided not to play Samantha again, the 65-year-old actress notes, «I was never asked to be part of the reboot.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorVariety has promoted veteran editors Diane Garrett, Carole Horst and Terry Flores, giving the trio expanded oversight of the weekly magazine and more than two dozen Extra Editions published annually.Garrett and Horst have been promoted to Deputy Editor. Flores has advanced to Senior Production Editor.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterMichael Schneider has been elevated to Television Editor of Variety, overseeing TV industry coverage as well as TV awards-related news and features.Variety is also expanding its TV presence with editor-at-large Kate Aurthur taking on new responsibilities for leading fan-focused coverage of TV content. Variety is increasing its investment in coverage of current series, from series previews and first-looks to episodic recaps, cast and showrunner Q&As, critical commentary, post-mortems, scene breakdowns and other content that fuels word-of-mouth and social conversation around TV.Schneider and Aurthur will work closely together in steering the industry’s largest team of TV-focused reporters.

Dancing it out. Despite a dramatic Oscars night and his onstage fight with Chris Rock, Will Smith was solely focused on celebrating his best actor win after the ceremony.

Will Smith ended his time at the 94th Academy Awards with a smile and a dance. Hours after the Mar. 27 event – where Will, 53, slapped Chris Rock before winning the Oscar for Best Actor – the King Richard star attended Vanity Fair’s post-Oscar bash alongside wife Jada Pinkett-Smith. During the after-party, the DJ played Will’s songs “Gittin’ Jiggy Wit It” and “Miami.” In the video recorded by Vanity Fair editor Ramin Setoodeh, Will channels his “Bigg Willy Style” persona while holding his Oscar, rapping, and dancing along to his own music.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorIf Will Smith was feeling any remorse about slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars on Sunday night, he didn’t show it. The 53-year-old best actor winner, who took home the trophy for his performance in “King Richard,” arrived at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party just after midnight with a large entourage and immediately hit the dance floor.As the DJ played a medley of Smith’s biggest ’90s hits, the actor sang along to “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” and “Miami” as he shimmied in the middle of a mosh pit of his fans at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, swinging his gold statue in the air.Will Smith is at the #VanityFairOscarParty dancing with his Oscar to ‘Gettin Jiggy With It.’ pic.twitter.com/PvKrRICQEN— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) March 28, 2022“It’s all about love,” Smith told Variety, when asked how he was doing.Just hours prior, Smith overshadowed the 94th Academy Awards when he stormed the stage and slapped presenter Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorWhen Channing Tatum was promoting his latest movie “Dog,” he got the same question over and over again: Does the title character survive through the end credits?“People were saying I will not see this movie unless I know the dog lives,” Tatum says, laughing. “‘Marley and Me’ scarred everyone so hard.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorMeryl Streep chatted with Venus Williams. Lady Gaga reunited with Bradley Cooper, her co-star from “A Star is Born.” Andrew Garfield and Jamie Dornan fanned out for Cousin Greg (also known as Nicholas Braun) from “Succession.” And Will Smith, as warm as ever, mingled with practically everybody.Yes, it was like old times in Hollywood at the Santa Monica Barker Hangar on Sunday night. The 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards pulled off the first in-person awards ceremony of 2022, moving ahead as if things were normal after other gatherings canceled or went entirely virtual due to the omicron variant.

William Earl Brent Lang has been promoted to Executive Editor of Variety.In his new role, Lang will help guide the venerable showbiz brand’s editorial operations across digital and print platforms. He will continue to oversee Variety’s film, media and theater coverage, and he serves as leader of the New York bureau. “There’s an infinite number of words I would use to describe Brent Lang and my admiration for his breadth of genius, talent and skills as a journalist,” said Claudia Eller, Variety Editor-in-Chief. “He is also one of the most trustworthy, thoughtful and collegial people I’ve ever worked with and it’s a joy to watch him continue to flourish.”Lang most recently served as Executive Editor of Film and Media and New York Bureau Chief.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorChanning Tatum and his producing partner Reid Carolin aren’t just the brains — and brawn — behind “Magic Mike.” They’ve built up their company Free Association into a place to go for innovative storytelling, including the road trip movie “Dog” (which opens on Feb. 18), which they co-directed; the Starz TV series “Step Up: Highwater”; and the thriller “Pussy Island,” which will be Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut.“I think it’s a good partnership,” says Steven Soderbergh, who is directing “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” which Tatum will star in and Carolin wrote. “I think they have a shared sense of people and how the world works.”Tatum and Carolin speak to Variety about Free Association.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorAfter two movies, Channing Tatum thought he was done playing Magic Mike. But he’ll take one more swing around the stripper’s pole in “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” which begins shooting in London in March.In this week’s issue of Variety, Tatum talks about taking a four-year hiatus from acting to produce TV shows and movies with Free Association, the company that he launched in 2014 with his producing partner Reid Carolin. One of the company’s most anticipated projects is “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” the third and (supposedly) final movie in the franchise that was inspired by Tatum’s days as an exotic dancer.The film, which will be directed by Steven Soderbergh from a script written by Carolin, will premiere on HBO Max.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorIn this week’s Variety cover story, Channing Tatum talks about the road to co-directing his first movie, “Dog,” with his longtime producer partner Reid Carolin.But before he came up with the idea for the MGM indie (which opens on Feb. 18), Tatum and Carolin spent four years developing “Gambit,” a raunchy stand-alone movie based on the “X-Men” mutant.The superhero project was set up at Twentieth Century Fox in 2016, and Tatum and Carolin had lobbied to share the director’s chair. “The studio really didn’t want us to direct it,” Tatum says.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorAfter 42 shows and nearly three months, for the final song of his continent-spanning “Love on Tour” tour, Harry Styles wanted just a little bit more.“This is the last song of the entire tour,” Style said, raising his arms in the air, as he cut into the sexually provocative lyrics of the banger “Kiwi” at the new UBS Arena just outside New York City. “I’m going to need a little bit more.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorThe Swifties have spoken. If they had their way, “All Too Well: The Short Film” would sweep the Oscars and Grammys too.Before the 10-minute film is released later tonight, Swift attended a premiere of the project — which she wrote and directed — on Friday afternoon at the AMC Lincoln Square 13 (which has the same number of screens as her favorite number) in New York City.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorJane Campion, only the second woman to ever been nominated for an Oscar for directing, has been encouraged by the efforts she’s seen to get more women in the director’s chair.“All I can say is since the #MeToo movement happened, I feel a change in the weather that’s substantial,” Campion said on Thursday morning at a press conference at the 78th annual Venice Film Festival.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorSome critics were giving Venice bad reviews on the second day of this year’s film festival — but it had nothing to do with the quality of the movies.Long security lines operated by Italian police officers to get into the press screenings of two movies, Netflix’s “The Hand of God” and Focus Features’ “The Card Counter,” meant that some journalists weren’t able to make it inside their seats before the opening credits rolled.At the 8:30 a.m. showing of Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” on Thursday morning, the security line was so long, dozens of critics missed the beginning of the movie.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorLil Nas X has already shown his acting chops in music videos for “Montero (Call My By Your Name)” and “Industry Baby.”  In this week’s cover story for Variety‘s Young Hollywood issue, the 22-year-old hip-hop star reveals that he plans to one day follow in the footsteps of artists such as Lady Gaga and Beyoncé by starring in movies.“Absolutely, that’s going to happen for sure,” Nas says.When asked what kind of acting he envisions for himself, Nas explains: “Honestly, I want to dabble around in a lot of things like I do in music,” he says, before listing of some well-known films in different genres. “‘A Star is Born.’ Let’s also do a ‘Grown Ups 2.’ Let’s do an ‘Obsessed’ with Beyoncé.