January 24, 2019 6:00AM PT Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway are left adrift in this silly, soggy island noir. Shortly after the publication of his short story “The Vane Sisters” – in which a plot twist is revealed through a hidden acrostic message in the final paragraph – Vladimir Nabokov quipped that the narrative trick
Month: January 2019
The Sundance Film Festival is all about independent film — but is it really? In between screenings and late into the night, Park City is actually Party City. From intimate cocktail soirées to musical performances, this year’s film festival has something for everyone. Here is Variety’s ultimate party guide for Sundance 2019… Thursday, Jan. 24 Lyft &
Market intelligence company SuperData released its latest extended reality (XR) findings on Thursday. It believes Oculus will sell 1.3 million units of its anticipated Quest headset this year, and annual XR revenue will reach $11.5 billion. The Oculus Quest is a standalone VR headset that doesn’t require a PC or mobile phone to operate. It
January 24, 2019 4:08AM PT A new documentary component means that the work-in-progress section of this year’s Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum will double from 10 to 20 projects. The selection includes Ruby Yang (“The Blood of Yingzhou District”) and Hou Hsiao-hsien (“The Assassin”) as documentary producers, and Brillante Mendoza (“Kinatay”) as producer
Three-time Oscar winner Thelma Schoonmaker, best-known for her editing work on Martin Scorsese movies such as “Raging Bull” and “Goodfellas,” will receive the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ highest accolade, the BAFTA Fellowship, at the EE British Academy Film Awards on Feb. 10. The BAFTA Fellowship is given to an individual in recognition
Microsoft’s Bing search engine appears to have been blocked in China. The move leaves the world’s largest population of Internet users without access to any well-known foreign search engines. Bing was only allowed to operate in China because it chose to comply with the stringent demands of Chinese censors, who run one of the most
January 23, 2019 11:45PM PT The collection includes renditions of A-Ha’s “Take On Me,” Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” TLC’s “No Scrubs” and, of course, Toto’s “Africa.” On the heels of Weezer’s mega-successful version of Toto’s “Africa,” the band has surprise-released a full album of covers. “The Teal Album” features renditions of such 80s hits as A-Ha’s “Take On
January 23, 2019 11:38PM PT Singaporean actor Aloysius Pang died Wednesday of injuries sustained while on military training in New Zealand. He was 28. Pang was best known for his appearance in movies “Young & Fabulous” and “Timeless Love.” He also had a string of credits in Singapore TV series. Pang was involved in an
Alibaba Pictures Group, the film business arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has struck a strategic cooperation deal with leading film studio Huayi Bros. The deal includes a $103 million (RMB700 million) loan to Huayi. Alibaba Pictures said the agreement was part of its recently announced strategy to be involved in major movies aimed for
January 23, 2019 8:45PM PT Netflix has added to its roster of Mandarin-language content with the acquisition of rights to Taiwanese dark comedy “Dear Ex.” The award-winning film will play out from Feb. 1. The story involves a recently bereaved widow and a gay man fighting over a dead man’s inheritance, with the woman’s teenage
“Seventeen artists, six days, one incredible album full of new music.” That was the description used by Def Jam Records to introduce the label’s “Rap Camp” concept, which yielded the compilation album “Undisputed” designed to introduce the roster’s slate of hip-hop newcomers. Def Jam is, of course, home to some of the biggest names in rap
The CW has picked up four pilots, including one for the potential spinoff of “Jane the Virgin.” “Jane the Novela” is described as a telenovela anthology series in the tradition of “Jane the Virgin,” where each season is based on a different fictional novel “written by” Jane Villanueva and narrated by the author herself. The first
Hours before the third episode of the second season of “Big Brother: Celebrity Edition” aired on CBS, houseguest and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci was making headlines for leaving the game. Viewers of the “Big Brother” live feeds noted his absence, but the linear broadcast on the Eye did not address it because
In today’s film news roundup, Pearl Studio and UCLA start a “Say Yes!” scholarship in memory of Audrey Well; Gina Lollobrigida and Claudia Cardinale are honored; and the “General Magic” documentary gets bought. SCHOLARSHIPS UNVEILED China’s Pearl Studio has made a gift of $100,000 for endowed scholarships to the UCLA School of Theater, Film and
There’s a good reason that much of Hollywood braves the thin mountain air each year to make the trek to the Sundance Film Festival, and it’s not to check out the nearby ski slopes. The annual launch of the indie film gathering brings with it the possibility of discovering the next big thing in moviemaking.
With nominees like “Black Panther,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and “A Star Is Born,” the 2018 class of movies proved the Oscars don’t need a popular films category to recognize movies that also made bank in theaters. But now that the academy has selected this year’s crop of awards hopefuls, is there any green left to squeeze
January 23, 2019 4:42PM PT A24 has bought the North American rights to Tilda Swinton’s romance-drama “The Souvenir – Part 2,” closing the deal on the eve of the Sundance Film Festival. “The Souvenir” is set to make its world premiere at Sundance on Jan. 27, followed by playing in the Panorama section of the
Venice, California-based painter Gustavo Zermeno Jr. paid tribute to what would have been Mac Miller’s 27th birthday on January 19 with an 11-feet x 50-feet mural spread across Express Label, a custom printing and graphic design firm on Beverly Blvd., just east of N. Virgil Avenue in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Miller died
January 23, 2019 4:01PM PT A new documentary about Oscar Wilde will tell the celebrated writer’s story with a star cast recreating excerpts from his greatest works, including “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Freddie Fox, Claire Skinner, Anna Chancellor and James Fleet will all perform in the 80-minute show, “The
BuzzFeed is slashing its workforce by 15% in a move to boost the internet-media company’s profitability and “focus on content that is working,” according to a memo from CEO Jonah Peretti sent to staffers Wednesday. The cuts will be made next week, according to Peretti’s memo. BuzzFeed has about 1,450 employees worldwide, so around 218
Despite what Netflix’s success may lead you to believe, the road to riches in streaming isn’t all about subscriptions. As the shift to digital causes the audience for linear TV to shrink, companies in the media space are increasingly looking to generate revenue via advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) services. • NBCUniversal announced last week
When actor Chiwetel Ejiofor optioned the rights for the 2009 best-seller “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” penning the screenplay for a feature directorial debut that world-premieres in Sundance and then appears in the Berlin Film Festival before being released globally by Netflix this spring, colleagues floated the idea of shooting the Malawi-set film in tried-and-tested
In today’s TV news roundup, FX announced the premiere date for “Fosse/Verdon,” and Comedy Central released a new trailer for the final season of “Broad City.” DATES “Workin’ Moms” is set to premiere Feb. 22 on Netflix. The series, which is currently in its third season, first aired in Canada on CBC Television and is
Variety has confirmed that Cardi B will be making money moves with her first Las Vegas residency this spring. Coming to KAOS, a new day and nightclub opening at the Palms Casino Resort the first weekend in April, Cardi joins a hip-hop and EDM-heavy lineup that will have G-Eazy, Above and Beyond, Kaskade and Skrillex taking
The escalating cost of awards campaigning may reach an all-time high this season as heavyweights such as “Roma” and “A Star Is Born” battle for Oscar gold. The quest for an Academy Award has always been expensive, but Netflix’s hunger to nab its first best picture win, coupled with the presence of legitimate studio contenders
Throughout the run of “Broad City,” creators Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer have been conflicted about how much of their on-screen characters (also named Abbi and Ilana) should come directly from their personalities and lives. But when it came to the final season, Jacobson in particular experienced a life-changing shift that she wanted to impart
January 23, 2019 3:15PM PT NBC has ordered a pilot for the multi-camera comedy “Uninsured.” In the series, young parents Dave and Rebecca end up having to take care of Dave’s parents who have mishandled their finances and need help to pay down a sizable debt. Dan Levy will serve as writer and executive producer, with
January 23, 2019 3:00PM PT Writer and producer Emily Kapnek has signed a three-year overall deal at ABC Studios, Variety has learned exclusively. Kapnek most recently developed the ABC single-cam comedy series “Splitting Up Together,” which is based on the Danish series “Bedre skilt end aldrig.” She was previously under an overall deal at Warner Bros.
Michael Angarano is in a unique position on “This Is Us.” Although his character, Nicky Pearson, is one of the adult characters on the show — and one of the ones who is alive in the multiple time periods the series covers — he does not portray the role at every age. Instead, Griffin Dunne
Ten years ago, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer wrote themselves a web series about their close friendship and the glorious paradox of being dirtbag ladies in New York City. With Jacobson playing the game Mary Tyler Moore character to Glazer’s wilder Rhoda, “Broad City” was frank, incisive and, most of all, funny as hell. But
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