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“To make a movie through committee, I think, is very hard,” Daniel Espinosa said of his 2022 superhero flick.

In the world of viral movie marketing, Morbius is a fascinating case study for all the wrong reasons. Initially released to a critical hammering in 2022, the film denied a decent opening to gross a fairly lackluster (for a superhero film) $165m at the global box office.

After viral memes began (ironically) singing the film’s praises, Sony attempted to ride the internet wave and put it back into cinemas the following year. As a result, Morbius holds the unhappy accolade of being one of the few films to flop at the box office twice, making just $280,000 on its second opening.

All that, we imagine, can’t have been easy on director Daniel Espinosa, especially when a lot of the film’s flaws seemed to be out of his control.

Read more: Madame Web...

Morbius director Daniel Espinosa has opened up about his 2022 critical and box office flop and revealed that he believes he was not a good fit to direct the movie. Espinosa is best known for crime thrillers like Easy Money, Safe House, and Child 44. His 2017 film Life generated a great deal of buzz because Sony Pictures produced it, and many thought it was going to be a stealth prequel to Venom. While that did not turn out to be the case, Espinosa was hired to direct Morbius in June 2018 in what would eventually become a four-year project, since Morbius was delayed from 2020 to 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since the release of Morbius, Espinosa has moved on, and is back to his roots with the thrillers Madame Luna and The Helicopter Heist. Speaking with Deadline, Espinosa talked about his struggle making Morbius, a film that notably went through various behind-the-scenes changes.

Veteran film festival chief Marco Müller took over the reins of Taormina in April, giving him a short window to pull together the ongoing 70th edition. After a week that has included the world premiere of Saint Clare starring Bella Thorne, the Italian premiere of Warner Bros/Universal’s Twisters and Baltasar Kormakur’s Touch from Focus, as well as a high-profile visit from Sharon Stone, he still appears to be on the fence about returning next year.

“The festival harvest is like the weather, so sometimes you just have to shake the tree and the beautiful fruits come into your hands,” Müller told Deadline. “This year, with the strike in Hollywood and the fact that I signed my contract around April 12, the fact that both Warner Bros and Universal went for Taormina for me is a good starting point for the future — if ever I would have a future here.

A filmmaker with an affinity for the dark, Daniel Espinosa caught international attention with 2010 Swedish thriller “Easy Money.” Hollywood was immediately and understandably intrigued by his capacity to make us care about shady criminal types, and for his part, the Chilean-born, Sweden-based director couldn’t resist the lure of making an American studio movie. Or three. Alas, each paycheck took Espinosa farther from his core strength: finding the humanity in morally compromised characters. Now, in a hard swing from ill-advised snabba cash project “Morbius” in 2022, “Madame Luna” can be seen either as penance or simply a return to form. Either way, this tense, tragic contemporary immigrant drama makes infinitely better use of his instincts.

Where Espinosa’s past four credits allowed him to work with an enviable roster of English-speaking stars — Denzel Washington, Tom Hardy, Jake Gyllenhaal and Jared Leto — this smaller, more sociological character study gives him a chance...

Niclas Larsson’s “Mother, Couch” was awarded the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at Goteborg, taking home the considerable amount of Sek 400,000.

Led by Ewan McGregor – this year’s recipient of the Honorary Dragon Award – the U.S.-Swedish-Danish co-production also features Ellen Burstyn and “Bones and All” breakout Taylor Russell, making it one of the starriest Goteborg winners in recent years.

“My therapist was wrong! I pitched him this idea a few years ago and he said: ‘Don’t do it.’ I am from here and this festival has meant the world to me. Standing on this stage is a bit surreal,” said Larsson.

Jurors Lena Endre, Ramata-Toulaye Sy, William Spetz, Tonia Noyabrova and Anna Novion appreciated the way it shows “how difficult it is to let go of the past, accept loss and finally embrace the future.” They praised “original and bold storytelling, with a lot of humor,...

Niclas Larsson’s Mother, Couch took the Dragon award for best Nordic film at Goteborg Film Festival, which held its closing ceremony this evening.

The Swedish-us drama received the 400,000 Sek prize from the five-person jury, consisting of actors Lena Endre and William Spetz, and directors Ramata-Toulaye Sy, Tonia Noyabrova and Anna Novion.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

The jury chose the film for its “original and bold storytelling with a lot of humour; with the use of creative cinematography and sharp and witty dialogue.”

Mother, Couch centres on three children who are brought together when their mother...

Daniel Espinosa’s “Madame Luna,” about an Eritrean refugee-turned-people smuggler — which premieres at the International Film Festival Rotterdam — is facing legal turmoil. According to filmmaker Binyam Berhane, it’s based on his original story and research.

“I am very saddened to hear these accusations towards the movie and genuinely hope that all parties that are involved in this will be heard,” Espinosa tells Variety.

“I sincerely hope Binyam Berhane is well, I’ve only heard good things about him and he is a very talented documentary director. What I can express is a genuine trust in the producers and the production company Momento Film, and I hope this clears up for everyone involved.”

As per Deadline, the $2 million lawsuit is directed at Momento Film, Rhea Films and Hercules Film Fund.

“It is surprising to read Binyam Berhane’s version of events. At this time, we must refrain from commenting in detail,...

Exclusive: Update 9.30 am, 1/27 Pt The producers of Daniel Espinosa’s Italy-set immigration drama Madame Luna have expressed “dismay” at a lawsuit lodged against them by filmmaker Binyam Berhane, who says they misappropriated an original story and material created by him for the film.

The lawsuit filed in L.A. County Superior Court last week is directed at David Herdies at Stockholm-based company Momento Film as well as Los Angeles-based Rhea Films and the Luxembourg-based Hercules Film Fund.

“It is with great dismay that we read Mr. Berhane’s version of events, which differs drastically from ours. Since a lawsuit has been filed we cannot go into the details of our defenses at this time. It is with sadness that the universal message of Madame Luna is being unfairly tarnished by this unnecessary litigation,” said Herdies in an emailed response.

Hercules Film Fund and Rhea Films issued a separate joint statement.

The Göteborg Film Festival’s film industry confab, the Nordic Film Market, unspooling Jan 31-Feb. 2, has unveiled in exclusivity to Variety its 2024 lineup comprising 58 new and upcoming Nordic films.

These are directed by newcomers and bona fide helmers such as Hans Petter Moland, Rúnar Rúnarsson, Charlotte Sieling, Daniel Espinosa and Pirjo Honkasalo.

Just over two weeks before kick-off, a record number of delegates – 507 from 33 countries – have signed up for the biggest film market in the Nordic region.

The 90-plus international buyers, 90 funding bodies, 60 festival programmers and 50 sales agents can look forward to a revamped showcase, both in terms of programming and set-up, with a new hub for networking and accommodation at the Clarion Hotel Draken. “We’re very excited about making this year’s venue both new and familiar for delegates coming to Göteborg,” said head of industry Josef Kullengård.

“The industry has entered a slowdown, but creatively, the Nordic...

The French sales outfit has the first image of Tomer Sisley in The Price Of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure.

Goodfellas has boarded Claire Burger’s anticipated coming-of-age drama Langue Etrangère, starring Chiara Mastroianni and Nina Hoss, ahead of this week’s Rendez-Vous with France Cinema this week in Paris.

Langue Etrangère is about teenage pen pals in France and Germany and is produced by Anatomy of a Fall producer Marie-Ange Luciani’s Les Films de Pierre with Belgium’s Les Films du Fleuve and Germany’s Razor Film Produktion. Burger wrote the film in collaboration with The Five Devils’ Léa Mysius.

Actors Ewan McGregor, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, directors Ruben Östlund, Ernst de Geer, Ramata-Toulaye Sy and Cannes Film Festival honcho Thierry Frémaux are some of the stellar guests set to walk the red carpet at the 47th edition of Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival.

This year’s Göteborg Fest unspools from Jan. 26 to Feb. 4.

For his last run as artistic director of Scandinavia’s biggest film festival, Jonas Holmberg has selected 240 films from 82 countries, and what he calls “one of the strongest lineups ever” for Göteborg’s main Nordic competition strand. Among the highly anticipated titles vying for the coveted Best Nordic Film Dragon Award worth Sek 400,000, is Norway’s “Handling the Undead” by Thea Hvistendahl, set to kickstart the festival on the heels of its Sundance world premiere.

“This will be the first time we open with a zombie horror,” notes Holmberg, who looks forward...

Momento Film, the leading Swedish banner founded by David Herdies (“Winter Buoy”) and Michael Krotkiewski (“Bellum — The Daemon Of War”), is boasting a slate of projects including the documentaries “Leaving Jesus” and “The Underdog,” as well as Simón Mesa Soto’s “A Poet.”

While at Cannes, the banner also started teasing one of its biggest project so far, “The Swedish Torpedo,” Frida Kempff (“Winter Buoy”)’s period film inspired by the life of Sally Bauer, the first Scandinavian to swim across the English Channel in 1939. “The Swedish Torpedo” will start shooting in August with a topnotch cast led by Josefin Neldén, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, as well as Lisa Carlehed (“The Emigrants”).

Co-produced by Sweden, Estonia, Belgium and England, the film opens in 1939, as Europe is on the brink of war. Sally, a 30-year-old single mom, dreams of being the first European woman to cross the English Channel. While society and...

Frida Kempff (“Winter Buoy”) is set to direct “The Swedish Torpedo,” a period film inspired by the life of Sally Bauer, the first Scandinavian to swim across the English Channel in 1939. The prominent Nordic cast is led by Josefin Neldén, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, as well as Lisa Carlehed (“The Emigrants”).

Produced by David Herdies and Erik Andersson at Momento Film, the film will start shooting in August in Sweden, Estonia, Belgium and England.

“Five years ago I didn’t know who Sally Bauer was and even less what she had achieved. Five days ahead of the outbreak of WWII she swam across the English Channel,” said Kempff I feel this is a story that needs to be told, about a woman who accomplished the impossible and shattered both social norms and world records.”

Neldén, who will play Bauer, said she feels “such a strong connection to Sally’s dreams, life and ambitions.