Month: December 2018

December 14, 2018 7:46AM PT Already the most famous Indian producer in Hollywood, Hyde Park Entertainment founder Ashok Amritraj was on Friday honored by the French government. At a ceremony in Mumbai, Amritraj was presented with the Knight of the Order of Arts and of Letters (Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) medal.
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Ryan Kadro, the executive producer of “CBS This Morning,” told staffers of the A.M. program Friday that he would step down from his position in early January, citing a desire to find a new challenge. “Nearly nine years after we created CBS This Morning, I’m stepping aside and leaving it in very capable hands.  This
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Welcome to “Remote Controlled,” a podcast from Variety featuring the best and brightest in television, both in front of and behind the camera. In this week’s episode, “Dirty John” showrunner Alexandra Cunningham sits down with Variety‘s senior features editor of TV, Danielle Turchiano, to talk about working with Connie Britton to develop a scripted version of
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Every critic’s worst movie is another’s best, but Variety critics Peter Debruge and Owen Gleiberman had to draw the line somewhere. Whether it was the year’s top film at the box office, or a right-wing documentary that’s even worse than the filmmaker’s previous outrages, it was a good year to hate-watch. Peter Debruge’s Five Worst
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Even by recent standards, these are times that try human souls. And not surprisingly, that was reflected in the music of 2018: Whether metaphorically responding to the political realities of America (“Black Panther), mimicking the ADD nature of modern culture (Terra Whack) or simply providing a distraction, however brief, from too much reality (take your
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Kamasi Washington, “Heaven and Earth”Washington has proven to be an unclassifiable asset, both in his own name and as a contributor to Kendrick Lamar’s albums, including the Pulitzer-winning “DAMN.” This second three-CD set in three years (which encompasses the “hidden” EP “The Choice”) demonstrates the tenor saxophonist’s towering ambition and further breaks down the boundaries
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Elvis Costello & the Imposters, “Look Now” (Concord) There are other Rock & Roll Hall of Famers who are Costello’s songwriting equal — blokes named Bob and Bruce come to mind — but none who’ve maintained such a consistently high level of lyrical and melodic invention over four decades or more. As a record-maker, Costello had pretty
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Marylise Dumont’s “Black Dog,” Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen’s “Ashes and Snow” and “Each of Us” are among the 20 projects which will be pitched at the 10th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival’s Co-Production Village. The Co-Production Village will run alongside the festival which will be presided by Ruben Ostlund, the Swedish helmer of Palme d’Or-winning
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1. Kacey Musgraves, “Golden Hour” “Golden Hour” is, hands-down, the greatest stoner-pop-country-folk-disco album ever recorded. And the fact that it’s the only album that matches that description shouldn’t diminish the accomplishment – it simply shows how, three albums into her career, Musgraves is following her arrow further away from Nashville’s comfort zone than anyone would have reasonably
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For music critics, your year-end list is like a combination of a masters’ thesis and an I.D. — something labored over that defines you, if only in one moment, because all of us would redo the list within the next hour, year or decade. I always try to make these lists an honest representation of
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December 14, 2018 6:05AM PT Ariana Grande continued the march to her next album, “Thank U, Next,” by dropping a new single called “Imagine” late Thursday. The song is the second she’s released since she dropped her “Sweetener” album in August, following the chart-topping title track to her next album. Unlike “Thank U, Next,” “Imagine”
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MADRID — New York’s Visit Films announced at Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur market, that the company has secured distribution in Mexico and Spain on Maria Alché’s directorial debut, “A Family Submerged.” In Mexico, the film was snagged by top indie production and distribution company Interior 13 Cine, distributors for Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s Colombian
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In a last-minute deal inked at Ventana Sur, Breaking Glass Pictures (BGP) snapped up North American rights to gay-trans drama “Marilyn,” the feature debut of Argentine helmer-scribe Martin Rodríguez Redondo. The Philadelphia-based company has been on a mini-buying spree, having previously snagged threesome drama “We Are Three” at the Buenos Aires confab. BGP has bought
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December 14, 2018 4:24AM PT Paramount Pictures has announced a deal to install a studio-branded theme park in an entertainment resort being developed in South Korea. The agreement was struck between Paramount and Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, which owns the Inspire Integrated Entertainment Resort in the South Korean city of Incheon. Mohegan has invested KRW
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BUENOS AIRES — In a return to film production after serving as president of Argentina’s National Institute of Film and the Audiovisual Arts (INCAA) and then as a member of parliament, film producer Liliana Mazure is teaming with prestigious counterparts in Mexico and Brazil on a three-part, pan-regional dark comedy, “Mental Health Not Included.” Lead
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The International Film Festival and Awards Macao and Variety combined forces for the second year running to put a spotlight on Asia’s acting talent. A well-attended meet-the-stars press event on Friday afternoon in Macau was addressed by leading local official, Maria Helena Senna de Fernandes. She turned the microphone over the five actors from different
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BUENOS AIRES — One of Mexico’s highest-flying production houses whose latest movie production, “I’m No Longer Here,” screens as a work on progress at Ventana Sur, Gerardo Gática and Alberto Muffelmann’s Panorama Global, will produce “Mario,” a bio series directed by Bernardo de la Rosa which underscores Latin America’s building drive into bilingual, bi-country U.S.-Mexico
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December 14, 2018 12:01AM PT Matthew Modine is outstanding as an amnesia-stricken bank robber in Brian A. Miller’s VOD-centric thriller. “You can’t kill me! I died seven years ago!” It’s very much to the credit of Matthew Modine that he persuasively sells this melodramatic scrap of dialogue, and every other aspect of his trickily written
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The Television Academy announced new rules for the 2019 Emmys Thursday night, including setting the minimum length for qualifying television movies at 75 minutes. The rules changes also included the addition of an Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Underscore) award, and restructuring the choreography categories as follows: Outstanding Choreography
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