‘Perfect Strangers' Director Scores Smash Hit With New Comedy ‘Madly' With Raft of Remake Deals to Close at Cannes Market (EXCLUSIVE)
'Madness' – which is titled 'FolleMente' in Italy – depicts a first date between a man and a woman in Rome and features all the voices that live in their brains which oscillate between embarrassment and laughter, each played by a different actor. The romance-tinged comedy has scored more than 2 million admissions and grossed more than $18 million at the Italian box office since it's Feb. 20 local release via RAI Cinema's 01 Distribution — and is still going strong.
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Genovese co-wrote the screenplay with Isabella Aguilar, Lucia Calamaro, Paolo Costella and Flaminia Gressi.
'We are getting remake requests from all over the world,' producer Raffaella Leone tells Variety, adding that this time around 'we want to manage things a bit differently' from what happened with 'Perfect Strangers,' meaning that her Leone Film Group is 'looking to coproduce the film's remakes in European countries such as Spain, France, and Germany,' she said, adding that 'we are discussing the possibility with Paolo that he could direct the U.S. adaptation.'
Leone Film Group will be 'taking an office in Cannes,' she said, where they expect to close a slew of deals on 'Maybe.' RAI Cinema International Distribution is handling sales on the readymade Italian version of the new Genovese film on which Leone says a slew of deals are already being negotiated that will also officially be sealed in Cannes.
'Perfect Strangers,' which launched in 2016 and was sold by Medusa, holds the Guiness Book of World Record for the most remade movie in cinema history, having spawned remakes in 24 territories including France, Germany, Spain, Greece, and South Korea. According to Leone these remakes have grossed some $400 million, excluding the U.S. where the The Weinstein Company held the rights that were long put on hold after the company went under.
Raffaella and Andrea Leone are the lead producers on 'FolleMente' – which stars an A-list Italian cast featuring Edoardo Leo and Pilar Fogliati as the leads and Claudia Pandolfi, Vittoria Puccini, Emanuela Fanelli, Maria Chiara Giannetta and Marco Giallini, Maurizio Lastrico, Claudio Santamaria and Rocco Papaleo. The hit film is co-produced by Leone Film Group's Lotus Production with RAI Cinema and in association with Disney+, which has streaming rights for top European territories, and Vice Pictures.
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Yahoo
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PETA Urges Nintendo to Remove ‘Mario Kart World' Cow's Nose Ring: ‘It's-a Mean!'
Animal-rights advocacy group PETA wants Nintendo to remove the brass nose ring from Cow, the joyful anthropomorphic vehicle-driving character in the recently released top-selling game 'Mario Kart World.' Yes, really. PETA this week launched a campaign to urge the Japanese game maker to redesign the Cow character 'without the nose ring — a painful reminder of the cruelty cows endure in the meat and dairy industries.' More from Variety Nintendo's Switch 2 Sales Near 6 Million 'Legend of Zelda' Live-Action Movie Casts Bo Bragason and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Zelda and Link With the Release of the Nintendo Switch 2, the Nintendo Switch 1 OLED Is on Sale Online 'The brass ring in Cow's nose glosses over real-world violence and cruelty to animals. That's why we're asking you to give this beloved bovine a small but meaningful upgrade: Remove the nose ring and let Cow race freely — without any painful reminders of the industries that treat animals like profit-making machines,' Joel Bartlett, PETA's SVP of marketing engagement, wrote in a letter addressed to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, which the group posted on its website. He added, 'leave the rings to Sonic and let Cow breathe free!' Reps for Nintendo of America did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 'Mario Kart World' was released June 5, 2025, as a launch game for the Nintendo Switch 2. As of June 30, the company had sold 5.63 million copies, according to Nintendo, making it the best-selling title for the new console. In the game, 24 players compete against each other to see who can zoom through open-world racetracks the fastest. Online commenters have pointed out that it's possible — in the context of the 'Mario Kart World' universe — that Cow chose to get the nose ring herself. 'How do they know the cow didn't go to a body piercing place to get it? The damn thing knows how to drive so it's not completely… ordinary,' an X user posted Friday about the issue. According to PETA, in a press release about Cow's nose ring that said 'It's-a mean!', the cattle industry uses nose rings as a tool of torment, not a fashion accessory: 'Nose rings are used by the meat and dairy industries to exploit, control and even drag animals to their deaths. These brass rings are crudely stabbed through the sensitive septum of cows and bulls, which can cause lasting pain and discomfort.' It's not the first time PETA has targeted Nintendo. For example, the advocacy group in 2020 criticized the game giant's 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons' for 'encouraging abusive behavior toward fish and insects, where players can tear wildlife out of their homes and display them in cramped cases in a museum.' And in 2017, PETA said Nintendo had 'sold its soul' by partnering with McDonald's to include 'Super Mario' toys in Happy Meals. 'Nintendo should stay in the business of selling creative video games, not cruel and unhealthy chicken nuggets,' the group said at the time. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Disney+ in August 2025 What's Coming to Netflix in August 2025
Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Dogs, kids, pizza and fine wine: A new Altadena gathering spot
The feel of an Italian festa in Altadena, the South Bay's 'time capsule' Japanese food scene, delivery drones, a tasting menu hidden in a parking lot, more downtown L.A. closures, a Basque restaurant's last days. Plus, recycle or reuse? And a bar that celebrates burlesque and red Solo cups. I'm Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week's Tasting Notes. When I first started going to Italy for summer vacations with my late husband, Jonathan Gold, and the extended friends and family of chef Nancy Silverton, we'd get to know different areas of Umbria and Tuscany through festas or sagras, local gatherings centered around a specific regional dish or ingredient — maybe cinghiale (wild boar), porcini mushrooms, summer truffles or various pastas such as strozzapreti (which is being celebrated this week in the Umbrian town of Paciano). These are kid-friendly, come-as-you-are parties, typically on a soccer field or town square with long tables, local wine poured into plastic cups and food often served by volunteer cooks pitching in to help raise money for a good cause. Until recently, the closest I'd come to experiencing that sagra spirit in Los Angeles was the run of summer movie nights that Leo Bulgarini used to host outside his Altadena gelateria and restaurant Bulgarini Gelato Vino Cucina. He and his crew piled plates with pasta and salad before sunset signaled the start of the movie, often an Italian comedy or melodrama, projected onto an outdoor wall or a large, jerry-rigged screen. People would bring their kids and dogs, meet up with neighbors and settle into camping chairs or benches with their wine or cups of gelato once the movie began. Bulgarini's restaurant, which escaped the flames of the Eaton fire in January, has yet to reopen because of smoke damage and the loss of so much of the neighborhood around his shop — not to mention the fact that he, his wife and their son lost their home in the blaze. But two other Altadena business owners have joined forces with local restaurants to create one of the most welcoming neighborhood gatherings with the soul of an Italian sagra. As senior food editor Danielle Dorsey wrote in the guide she and Stephanie Breijo put together on the 21 best new bars in Los Angeles, a summer pop-up series has emerged outside Good Neighbor, 'the first cocktail bar to open in Altadena in 40 years,' and West Altadena Wine + Spirits, both opened last year by Randy Clement and April Langford, the couple behind Everson Royce Bar in the Arts District, Silverlake Wine and the former Pasadena wine shop Everson Royce. On Tuesday nights, Brisa Lopez Salazar's Casa pop-up serves tacos with a different handmade tortilla each week — maybe white heirloom corn with beet juice or masa infused with turmeric or activated charcoal. On Thursdays, Triple Beam Pizza shows up; Fridays there are oysters, poke bowls and lobster rolls from Shucks Oyster Co.; Saturdays you can get smash burgers from For the Win and, new to the line-up, Altadena's recently reopened Miya Thai restaurant is serving on Sundays. Two weeks ago, an Instagram post from Triple Beam about its newest heirloom tomato pizza drew me to the outdoor space just outside the Altadena burn zone. I found the patio packed, sagra-style, with groups of families and friends from the neighborhood and beyond. Kids chased each other in and around a wood-chip-bedded play area fitted with reclaimed tree stumps; more freshly sawed stumps were repurposed as stools and tables around the outdoor space. Dogs sat on laps or at customers' feet. A roving Good Neighbor barkeep took cocktail orders at the picnic tables. And on the side of the building, at a takeout-style window, a West Altadena Wine merchant was selling glasses and flights of wine. Almost as soon as I arrived, I reconnected with a friend I hadn't seen in years as well as a family from my daughter's old high school. The San Gabriel mountains in the near distance turned pink and purple during sunset, framed by a U-Haul sign as we ate our pizza, which arrived with all colors and shapes of tomato. With it, we sipped Sébastien Bobinet and Émeline Calvez's Piak blanc de noir from clear plastic cups. It was a perfect summer evening, made poignant with a stop on the way out at the wall-sized map created by Highland Park production designer Noel McCarthy marking the more than 9,000 homes and businesses destroyed or damaged in the fire, and the places where people died. The map, as writer Marah Eakin reported in April, has helped people visualize the shocking extent of the fire's devastation, even as Good Neighbor's summer gatherings have brought people together, a reminder of why so many want to rebuild this community. Food's summer intern Lauren Ng is headed back to school soon, but before she left to resume her studies at New York University, the Torrance native finished a project examining the 'time capsule' nature of Japanese food in the South Bay. The area is 'home to the biggest suburban Japanese community in the United States,' thanks in no small part to three of Japan's biggest automakers — Toyota, Honda and Nissan — establishing their U.S. headquarters in the region during the 1960s. The car companies are now gone, but many of the restaurants remain, with a new generation of South Bay places opened in recent years. Ng visited many of them and wrote a guide to 18 of the best Japanese restaurants and food producers in the South Bay. In 2019, when former Times columnist Frank Shyong reported on the changes in Chinatown that contributed to the closure of Ai Hoa Market and G and G Market, he wrote that one of the few places left to buy affordable fruits and vegetables in the neighborhood was Amy Tran's Yue Wa Market. Now, as columnist Jenn Harris wrote this week, Tran and her family will close Yue Wa next month after 18 years serving Chinatown. A spate of robberies, slow pandemic recovery, ICE raids and the forces of gentrification contributed to the family's decision. 'I don't feel ready to let go of the store, but there's not much I can do to bring more people in,' Tran told Harris. 'Business was booming and a lot of people used to come around, but now there is no foot traffic and a lot of people have moved away from Chinatown.' More downtown losses: It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was at downtown L.A.'s Tokyo Fried Chicken, where, I must admit, the dining room was sparsely populated but four-wheeled robot carts were kept busy with takeout deliveries. Yet as Karla Marie Sanford reported this week, after owners Elaine and Kouji Yamanashi announced they were closing the restaurant Aug. 10, customers suddenly showed up and waited in an hours-long line for one last chance to eat the chicken known for its super-crisp skin and soy sauce-ginger marinade. It was a brief return to the restaurant's days in its original Monterey Park location where lines for a table were constant. The downtown location had the bad luck to open just before the pandemic and never had a chance to reach its full potential. Elaine Yamanashi told Sanford that she and her chef husband hope at some point to find a new location for Tokyo Fried Chicken. 'We're taking this time, not off,' she said, 'but to reflect.' Meanwhile, Angel City Brewery, founded in 1997 by Michael Bowe then acquired in 2012 by Boston Beer — a year after the company established its downtown brewpub location notable for its distinctive neon signage that acted as a welcome to the Arts District — announced that it will close next April when the building's lease is up. 'The brand no longer lines up with our long-term growth strategy,' said a Boston Beer spokesperson, adding that the company plans to focus on its 'core national brands,' which include Samuel Adams. And LA Cha Cha Chá in the Arts District, with its lush, tropical rooftop, is also set to close sometime this fall according to co-owner Alejandro Marín. There wasn't an empty seat at Glendora Continental when contributor Jean Trinh stopped into the 45-year-old restaurant on Route 66, 'a reminder,' she writes, 'of fading connections to the Basque diaspora in California.' Now that the owners have put the restaurant up for sale, its days are numbered so regular customers have been showing up for live music and the Continental's 'mix of Basque, French and American food,' including lamb shank, prime rib, pickled tongue and escargots à la bourguignonne. 'I would say it's Basque with a sprinkle of American,' co-owner Antoinette Sabarots told Trinh, 'or vice versa.' Despite all the closure news, as Stephanie Breijo reports, good restaurants keep opening in Los Angeles, including Baby Bistro from chef Miles Thompson and his sommelier business partner, Andy Schwartz. They call it an 'Angeleno bistro,' with inspiration from Japanese, Korean, Italian, Mexican, French and more cuisines. 'I think the food is really defined by the cultures of Los Angeles,' Thompson told Breijo. 'If you already eat at any of the regional or international restaurants in this city, you'll find inspiring foods that go into this menu.' And chef Jeff Strauss, of the Highland Park deli Jeff's Table and OyBar in Studio City, has set up a weekend-only six-course tasting menu spot called Vey in the back parking lot of OyBar. As Strauss described it to Breijo, he thinks of it as 'a casual, rolling omakase.' Another hidden spot is Evan Funke's new Bar Avoja (slang for 'hell yeah'), a Hollywood cocktail lounge accessed through the dining room of the chef's Mother Wolf restaurant. In addition to drinks, Roman street food is on the menu. Meanwhile, the chef's namesake Beverly Hills restaurant, Funke, is temporarily closed due to a fire in the kitchen's exhaust system on Tuesday. As Breijo reported, no one was hurt and there was minimal damage. Also, Hong Kong's Hi Bake chain has opened a pet-friendly branch in Beverly Hills serving 'banana rolls, thousand-layer cakes, meat floss rolls and egg tarts. And San Francisco's Boichik Bagels, which opened in Los Feliz earlier this year, is now serving at downtown L.A.'s landmark Bradbury Building. Former L.A. Weekly nightlife columnist and Los Angeles magazine editor Lena Lecaro writes about Uncle Ollie's Penthouse, a new downtown L.A. bar with 'wild, color-saturated decor, potent cocktails served in red Solo cups and a soundtrack that inspires stomping the floor with pals or singing along with strangers.' 'I can't remember the last time I felt so connected to my hometown as an L.A. native,' musician Taleen Kali told Lecaro. 'I also love that you get to keep your own party cup all night — it's a total vibe, plus it's less wasteful and more sustainable.' When Mei Lin, chef and proprietor of 88 Club in Beverly Hills and former 'Top Chef' and 'Tournament of Champions' winner, demonstrated her spicy mung bean noodle recipe in the Times Test Kitchen for our 'Chef That!' video series, we all wanted to try making the noodles. It's a lot easier and fun to do than most of us thought. You start with a startchy base that thickens into jelly in a bowl. After you unmold the gelatinous blob, you scrape a grater over the mound, forming the noodles. Then it's just a matter of seasoning the noodles with chile, peanuts and herbs. The Times' Food Bowl Night Market, this year presented by Square, is taking place Oct. 10 and 11 at City Market Social House downtown. Among the participating restaurants announced so far are Holbox, Baroo, the Brothers Sushi, OyBar, Heritage Barbecue, Crudo e Nudo, Hummingbird Ceviche House, Rossoblu, Perilla LA, Evil Cooks and Holy Basil. VIP tickets that allow early entry always go fast. Check for tickets and info. And at this year's LA Chef Conference on Oct. 6, an all-day event taking place at Redbird and Vibiana in downtown L.A., I'll be on a panel with Roy Choi, Nancy Silverton, Ludo Lefebvre and Evan Kleiman talking about the legacy of Jonathan Gold. Find information on tickets and other events at the conference here.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
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Tristan Rogers, ‘General Hospital' Actor, Dies at 79
Tristan Rogers, who starred as Robert Scorpio on 'General Hospital,' died Friday of lung cancer. He was 79. Roger's longtime manager, Meryl Soodak, confirmed the actor's death to Variety. More from Variety Kirsten Storms Exits 'General Hospital' as Maxie Until the End of 2025 but Returns in August While Making a Permanent Move to Tennessee Chris Robinson, 'General Hospital' Actor Who Played Rick Webber, Dies at 86 Denise Alexander, 'General Hospital' and 'Days of Our Lives' Actress, Dies at 85 Soodak told ABC 7 Eyewitness News that he had never been a smoker. She told ABC that Rogers' portrayal of Scorpio in the soap opera 'meant everything to him.' She added, 'He loved being Scorpio, and he created that role from nothing. He was supposed to work a day, and he ended up making it into something huge. He was just a genuinely loyal, kind human being, and he loved his family.' Following the news of his death, 'General Hospital' showrunner Frank Valentini shared a statement with Variety. 'The entire General Hospital family is heartbroken to hear of Tristan Rogers' passing. Tristan has captivated our fans for 45 years and Port Charles will not be the same without him (or Robert Scorpio). I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to his family and friends during this difficult time. Tristan was a one-of-a-kind talent and will be greatly missed. May he rest in peace.' As the impossibly suave, cool, sarcastic spy Robert Scorpio, in the early 1980s (he joined the show in December 1980), Rogers was a key member of the 'General Hospital' acting ensemble — alongside 'supercouple' Luke (Anthony Geary) and Laura (Genie Francis) — that propelled daytime drama into the pop culture stratosphere. That era reached its peak on Nov. 17, 1981, when Luke and Laura married (Scorpio was Luke's best man), Elizabeth Taylor guest-starred as the villainous Helena Cassadine — and the show drew an audience of 30 million viewers. Robert had his own romantic entanglements, and was the third member of a famous love triangle between former grifter Holly (Emma Samms) and fellow spy Anna Devane (Finola Hughes). Later, Robert and Anna's daughter Robin (Kimberly McCullough) also became a hugely significant character in the history of 'General Hospital,' when she contracted HIV as a teenager. In a 2023 interview with Variety to commemorate 'General Hospital' turning 60, Rogers reflected on his time on the show. He'd been cast by Gloria Monty, the executive producer who'd saved the show from cancellation, and said that after he'd told her 'this is not the way an Australian would react under these circumstances,' she gave him permission to make the dialogue his own. 'And that's what started my steamrollering through pretty much any script at the time,' he recalled. Rogers described his wild experiences of 'General Hospital' when it was at its 1981 apex. 'That was the year that 'General Hospital' really went supercharged,' he said. 'There was this hysteria that surrounded anything to do with 'General Hospital.' It was crazy. Nuts. Dangerously crazy, sometimes.' When asked about the enduring appeal of soap operas, Rogers said: 'They're orderly. We solve our problems. A lot of people look at the show and say, 'Why can't I live my life like that?' Well, your life isn't being scripted! We have a beginning, a middle and an end.' Throughout his career, the Australian actor has appeared in several films and TV shows. His TV credits include 'The Bay,' 'Studio City,' 'The Young and The Restless,' 'Family Law' and 'Marie.' He appeared in films including, 'Jack Rio,' 'Raven,' 'The Los Angeles Ripper,' among others. Although many of his earliest TV credits were on Australian soap operas, portraying Scorpio on 'General Hospital' became his most notable role. After becoming one of the show's leading men, he continued to appear on the show on and off for 45 years. Rogers is survived by his wife, two children and a grandchild. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Disney+ in August 2025 What's Coming to Netflix in August 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
