For Variety’s FYC Fest, screenwriters Aaron Sorkin (“Being the Ricardos”), Paolo Sorrentino (“The Hand of God”), Adam McKay (“Don't Look Up”), Tracey Scott Wilson (“Respect”) and Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”) gathered virtually to discuss their own individual movies, as well as the state of the film business.McKay kicked off the conversation by talking about how he’d adjusted “Don’t Look Up” — his Netflix comedy-tragedy about a comet hurtling toward Earth — because of COVID-19, when current events had made daily life...
Paolo
Sorrentino
Having turned 50 amid the coronavirus lockdown, the Oscar-winning director of “The Great Beauty” decided to go the personal route, toning down stylistic flourishes in favor of more meaty substance. He returned to his native Naples after 20 years to make “The Hand of God, a Netflix film released in November 2021 that won two prizes at the Venice Film Festival, bolstering his status as Italy’s most bankable director. Sorrentino was on the verge of making his first Hollywood movie when the pandemic got in the way, but he had still earned praise for Sky and HBO’s “The New Pope” series and its predecessor “The Young Pope,” both directed by Sorrentino. Meanwhile, a third season of Sorrentino-produced “My Brilliant Friend” has been filmed.