Exodus, Ridley Scott’s epic retelling of the story of Moses, will not be released in the United Arab Emirates after censors in the country objected to what they described as historical and religious inaccuracies. The move follows on from similar decisions in Egypt and Morocco. "We found that there are many mistakes…

Ridley Scott’s Exodus has been banned in Egypt after the country’s head of censorship objected to a number of “historical inaccuracies” in the epic Biblical tale. Deadline first reported weeks ago that Fox’s revisionist take on Moses and his flight from Egypt would struggle to get past censors in the country, where it…

God is the holy grail of special effects. Sure, CGI wizards have mastered creating miracles from the diminutive; it's one thing to make Yoda or Gollum unlikely world beaters. But when you're talking about the Almighty, the effects have got to be, well, mighty. For more than half a century in cinema, though, divine…

The 65th Berlin Film Festival kicks off on February 5 next year with Darren Aronofsky atop the jury. Contrary to many recent Berlinale jury presidents, the Noah helmer has never had a movie in the official selection. He’s no stranger to the festival circuit, however, having made his feature debut with Sundance entry Pi…

Whither the 90-minute dramatic feature? Even though Darren Aronofsky’s students at NYU, where he is teaching these days, tell him they want to make movies, the director of Noah and Black Swan told the crowd at Produced By NY today that the future of movie-going is relegated to horror, comedy and event…

It’s usually a tipoff that something’s wrong when an earnings release talks about how much cash a company gave back to shareholders in a quarter, and then focuses on future endeavors. But in Viacom‘s case, on first glance, the fiscal Q2 results out this morning look merely blah, not bad. Net income at $502M was +5% vs…

Since bowing in Korea and Mexico in late March, Darren Aronofsky’s Noah has continued to draw strong numbers overseas. As of Sunday, it had an international cume of $197.4M, and a North American haul of $93M. Paramount and Regency Enterprises today say the biblical epic rose to $207M internationally, and $93.8M…

Are you kidding? Did Paramount just officially start the 2014 Oscar campaign even as we are barely getting the Emmys off the ground and the Tonys are two months away? Uh, yes. Looks like it. One top studio exec (not from Paramount) forwarded me an email he got yesterday from the Paramount Awards Office that pronounced…

Highlights: Rio 2 (FOX) has $63.4M weekend, lands $12.6M in China debut; Captain America: The Winter Soldier (DIS) crosses $300M international; Noah (PAR) adds $36.2M; Divergent (LGF/SUM/var) nears $50M; Spanish Affairs (UNI) has 5th No. 1 weekend in Spain… 4th UPDATE, 7:15 PM, PST: The final Divergent  numbers are…

Jon Stewart has deconstructed the media’s consternation over Hollywood’s depiction of religion in Noah and Son Of God — particularly Fox News Channel and CNN. Fortunately for Paramount, which distributes Noah, and 20th Century Fox, which distributes Son Of God (a repurposing of History's hit 10-hour miniseries The Bibl…

OPENING: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (DIS), smashes April opening records with estimated $95M to $96.2M opening and ended up at $95M. UPDATED, MONDAY, 1:00 PM: Captain America: The Winter Soldier‘s final numbers are in, and it’s on the low end of the estimate to $95M with international numbers still coming…

Highlights: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (DIS) bests Iron Man 3 China bow with $39.2M; Frozen (DIS) ices competition in Japan with $75.1M total, studio passes $1B in global box office; Rio 2 (FOX) lifts to $55.5M cume on extra $22.2M; Noah (PAR) builds to $106.2M; Divergent (LGF/SUM/var) adds $10.9M in 44…