Month: June 2019

You could almost call it Masterpiece Theater. Following an early Sunday morning announcement that Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings had acquired Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Records for a reported $300 million, Taylor Swift posted an impassioned social media post in which she described feeling “sad and grossed out” by the deal, which includes the rights to
0 Comments
The entertainment industry has rarely been shy to put politics under the lens. In recent years, shows like “Veep” and “House of Cards” provided side-splitting satire and dystopian shock and awe respectively, before the current administration threw a spanner in the works. Now, creators are having to adapt to the new political reality and executives
0 Comments
Ithaca Holdings LLC., a media holding company led by SB Projects founder Scooter Braun, has acquired Big Machine Label Group, the independent record label founded by Scott Borchetta, the companies announced today. The acquisition encompasses all aspects of BMLG’s business, including its client roster, distribution deals, publishing sides and owned artist masters — including the
0 Comments
June 30, 2019 9:39AM PT Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are still doing whatever it takes to beat “Avatar’s” all-time box office record. Disney’s re-release of “Avengers: Endgame” brought in another $5.5 million in its 10th weekend in theaters, marking a 200% increase in ticket sales from its previous outing. “Avengers: Endgame,” which originally opened April 26,
0 Comments
Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Forky are still ruling the box office. Despite solid debuts from newcomers “Annabelle Comes Home” and “Yesterday,” Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” easily dominated North America. The fourth chapter in the animated series collected another $58 million, boosting its domestic haul to a huge $237 million. After two weekends in
0 Comments
Displacement, grief, the generation gap and gay relationships characterized by cultural difference — Cambodian-British filmmaker Hong Khaou’s second film swims in similar thematic waters to his acclaimed first, “Lilting.” But while “Monsoon” broaches these subjects with Khaou’s already trademark, borderline tremulous sensitivity, it comes from the opposite direction, tracking the hesitant attempts of a Vietnamese-born
0 Comments
The debut of “Stranger Things” in 2016 marked the first real, huge streaming TV phenomenon. Other Netflix shows had made an impression before: “House of Cards” in 2013 and “Orange Is the New Black” shortly thereafter proved that streaming was coming for cable’s gig, hard. But it was the nostalgia grabs and exhilarating monster chases
0 Comments
Oscar winner Julianne Moore praised the power of film to promote empathy and warned against the danger of history repeating itself Saturday at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where she was promoting her latest film, “After the Wedding,” alongside the film’s director, her husband Bart Freundlich, and co-star Billy Crudup. Moore received the festival’s Crystal
0 Comments
Of all the here’s-a-cool-way-to-make-a-pop-biopic! ideas floating around in “Rocketman” that work better in theory than they do onscreen, one of the most pivotal was the decision to have Taron Egerton do his own singing. That almost never happens in music biopics (Rami Malek lip-synched in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Jamie Foxx lip-synched in “Ray,” Marion Cotillard lip-synched
0 Comments
June 29, 2019 11:12AM PT Keanu Reeves has issued his support of the Italian cinema collective Cinema America, after it was attacked by an alt right organization. Reeves joins a number of high profile film leaders in signing a statement issued from Cinema America, which condemns the violence directed at the film collective. The organization
0 Comments
Wondery, the three-year-old podcast publisher headed by former Fox International Channels chief Hernan Lopez, this week announced the closing of $10 million in Series B financing. With the funding, the company plans to expand internationally and has hired Declan Moore, most recently CEO of National Geographic Partners, the joint venture between National Geographic Society and
0 Comments
In a pair of cost-cutting moves, Pierre Omidyar’s First Look Media is shuttering the Topic Magazine digital publication dedicated to nonfiction storytelling and is dropping its funding for political cartoon site The Nib. Topic Magazine, launched two years ago, is ceasing publication as First Look plans to put more resources toward Topic.com’s original video content
0 Comments
In today’s film news roundup, Michael Moore’s film festival will include appearances by Kathy Griffin and Lily Tomlin, a gerrymandering documentary gets sold and pop singer Meredith O’Connor gets cast. FILM FESTIVAL Kathy Griffin and Lily Tomlin have signed on to appear at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival, now in its 15th year. Griffin
0 Comments
Laurie Luhn, the former Fox News staffer who made sexual abuse allegations against Roger Ailes, has dropped a $750 million lawsuit against Showtime over the forthcoming miniseries “Loudest Voice.” Luhn filed suit in January, accusing Showtime, Blumhouse and journalist Gabriel Sherman of violating her right to privacy. The suit alleged that Sherman was “cashing in”
0 Comments
iHeartMedia will begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on July 18th, as a direct listing rather than an initial public offering, the company announced today. The move is similar to the one Spotify took last year and frees the company from some of the restrictions of a traditional IPO. It will trade under
0 Comments