Arthur Sando, a veteran PR executive who worked for such notable figures as Ted Turner and Larry Flynt, died Sept. 3 of a heart attack in Washington, D.C. He was 71. Sando headed Sando Communications in recent years, based in his hometown of Washington, D.C. Starting in 2012, he served for several years as spokesman
Month: September 2019
With her self-titled debut album for United Artists Records in Nashville nearly 45 years ago, singer Crystal Gayle immediately established a winning sound that would take the 24-year-old younger sister of country music legend Loretta Lynn repeatedly to the top of the music charts. Hit records such as “Wrong Road Again,” “I’ll Get Over You,”
Post Malone discussed his new album “Hollywood’s Bleeding,” Mac Miller and Lil’ Peep’s death and much more in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1 that even features a cameo from the rapper’s dad. Lowe and Post sat down to talk in Provence, France, where the musician is busy making rosé. He
The founder of Crushers Club, one of the two charities splitting a $400,000 donation from Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and the NFL as part of their social-change partnership, has apologized for posting “insensitive” photos of her cutting the dreadlocks of two black teenagers, according to USA Today. She said the two tweets, which were posted in
Warner Bros.’ “It: Chapter Two” has launched solidly in international markets with $16.5 million, finishing in first place in 48 markets. The horror sequel opens in an additional 27 markets on Friday, including the U.K., Mexico and Spain. France opens the following week on Sept. 11 and Japan on Nov. 1. “It: Chapter Two” notched
Isaiah Mustafa was a journeyman pro football wide receiver with a dream of becoming an actor. Then he landed the spot as the suave Old Spice spokesman who burst out of the shower wearing nothing but a bath towel and deodorant. The moment led to appearances in sitcoms like “Anger Management” and “Baby Daddy,” after
Barcelona-based studio Filmax has acquired international sales rights to José Luis Garci’s “The Crack: Inception,” the third part of a film noir trilogy whose first two installments represent for many the Spanish director’s finest achievement. Introducing the new film to buyers at Toronto, Filmax will also distribute it in Spain, opening the crime thriller on
September 6, 2019 9:26AM PT Giant Pictures has acquired worldwide digital rights excluding SVOD and Australia/New Zealand to Serge Ou’s documentary “Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks,” Variety has learned exclusively. The deal was unveiled Friday. The film held its world premiere at the recent Melbourne International Film Festival and will have its US premiere at
September 6, 2019 9:21AM PT Guatamalan director Jayro Bustamante’s genocide revenge drama “The Weeping Woman” (“La Llorona”), set during the 1960s civil war in his country, has won the Venice Days Director Award, the top nod in Venice’s independently run section. This is the second feature by Bustamante, who put Guatemalan cinema the map with his debut,
September 6, 2019 9:00AM PT “All This Victory,” a tense war drama directed by Lebanon’s Ahmad Ghossein and set in 2006 in his country during the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, is the big winner at the Venice Critics’ Week section dedicated to first works. The film is about a young man named Marwan who during
Back in 1970, Tony Richardson’s “Ned Kelly” hit upon a neat idea: What if you got an honest-to-God rock star, Mick Jagger, to play Australia’s most notorious 19th-century folk hero? A neat idea is all it was, though, and the listless, unconfidently acted movie that resulted was duly forgotten. Nearly half a century later, however,
Boston’s public broadcaster WGBH is trying out a new way to bring science programming to young audiences: The station’s Emerging Platforms Initiative is set to broadcast a space-themed escape room challenge, dubbed the Escape Lab, on Twitch this coming Monday. The one-hour challenge will be tackled by well-known YouTube family The Skorys, who will be
You’re a Northern-born rapping singer on somewhat of a Southern tip, melding country, rock, hip-hop and modern soft soul into one frothy whole. You’ve gone platinum many times over, with 2016’s “Stoney” and 2018’s “Beerbongs & Bentleys,” for that same sandy mix and its drowsy drawl. On your brand new album, you’re playing host to
September 6, 2019 8:30AM PT Former ABC comedy head Jamila Hunter has joined Paul Lee’s independent studio Wiip on a temporary basis, Variety has learned from sources. Hunter will fill in at Wiip until January while Nne Ebong is out on maternity leave. Hunter was most recently president of TV for Kenya Barris’ Khalabo Ink
Neon’s distribution topper Elissa Federoff hits Toronto with some high-profile titles: Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or-winner “Parasite,” Alfre Woodard-starrer “Clemency” and Celine Sciamma’s Cannes prize-winner “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” Neon has seen success in a subdued specialty pic B.O. climate with docs such as “Three Identical Strangers” and recently with “Luce,” “Honeyland” and “Wild Rose.” The specialty
Melanie Martinez is taking her fans on a fantastical trip. In her directorial debut, the singer presented “K-12” in Los Angeles Tuesday (Sept. 3), ahead of the film’s worldwide one-night-only release on Sept. 5. The colorful feature-length production was financed by Martinez’s label, Atlantic Records, totaling an investment of $5 to $6 million, she estimates.
September 6, 2019 8:02AM PT Nick Holmsten, Spotify’s head of music, will be stepping down from his post and will transition to an advisory role that will work across several areas of the company, a rep for the company confirmed to Variety. The news was first reported by Hits. The rep confirms that the company’s
Global TV streaming service Rakuten Viki has struck new licensing deals with CJ ENM and JTBC, two major South Korean entertainment companies. Under the deals, Viki will add dozens of Korean and Chinese dramas to its catalog, including some that became unavailable to U.S. audiences when Warner Bros. shut down its Korean drama streaming service
“It: Chapter Two” has launched impressively with $10.5 million domestically in Thursday night preview showings. The figure is $3 million less than the $13.5 million preview gross from “It” two years ago, when the horror adaptation stunned the industry with a $123 million opening weekend. Warner Bros.’ much-anticipated sequel is kicking off the fall movie
September 6, 2019 7:20AM PT Last night’s low-scoring game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears may have been a bit of a snooze fest, but it still managed to produce a three-year ratings high for an NFL kickoff game. The game scored a 15.3 in the overnight metered-market ratings, topping the 13.4
Sofar Sounds has made a name, a culture and a thriving business for itself by staging “secret gigs and intimate concerts” featuring emerging artists for an invited, engaged audience. Its model has been a rousing success, in terms of popularity and, presumably, profitability. Launched in London in 2009, Sofar has spread to four countries (the
In this week’s International TV Newswire, “Hierro” breaks records in Spain, Sky readies fora diabolic Mipcom, NENT realigns, reflecting new market realities, Buena Vista drills down on gender crime, DRG, All3Media and EndemolShine strike production or sales deals. Renewed, “Hierro” Triumphs in Spain Movistar+, the pay TV unit of Telefonica, Europe’s third biggest telecom, has
Facebook faces another antitrust investigation, with the New York State Attorney General announcing Friday that a coalition of nine AGs has launched an investigation into the social-media giant for potential antitrust violations. The investigation focuses on “Facebook’s dominance in the industry and the potential anticompetitive conduct stemming from that dominance,” according to the announcement from
Crunchyroll, the anime streaming-service division of WarnerMedia’s Otter Media, entered into a pact to become the majority owner of Viz Media Europe Group, the top anime distributor and manga publisher in Europe. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The agreement will bring together Crunchyroll’s global streaming platform with Viz Media Europe Group’s network of partners,
Jack O’Connell is in advanced negotiations to play Happy Mondays’ frontman Shaun Ryder in AGC Studios’ “Twisting My Melon.” The project, which AGC will fully finance and co-produce, was announced at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. In addition to O’Connell, Jason Issacs is in talks to play Derek Ryder, Shaun’s father. Holliday Grainger (“Cinderella”)
Every now and then a documentary doesn’t just open your eyes but tears you apart by exposing a moral rift with resonance far beyond the film’s home country. “Collective,” Alexander Nanau’s explosive observational documentary about unfathomable corruption at the heart of the Romanian medical industry, is such a work. Taken on its own, this chilling
September 6, 2019 1:18AM PT Alejandro Amenábar dramatizes the beginning of the Franco regime in this handsomely mounted but somewhat dramatically muffled Spanish history lesson. Alejandro Amenábar went 15 years without making a feature in Spain, and his first such since the excellent “The Sea Inside” is notable not only for being a 20th-century Spanish
Cairo-based Tunisian actress Hend Sabry, who is at the Venice Film Festival as a member of the jury for debut films, is having a good year. “The Blue Elephant 2,” a thriller with horror elements in which she stars – directed by Marwan Hamed who cast her more than a decade ago in “The Yacoubian
September 6, 2019 12:54AM PT Angelina Jolie has given her support to female-led Afghan film “Hava, Maryam, Ayesha,” made by first-time director Sahraa Karimi. The pic, which has its world premiere Friday at the Venice Film Festival, chronicles the lives of, and the difficult choices facing, three Afghan women from different social backgrounds. In a
September 6, 2019 12:53AM PT In this Canadian neo-noir, a Niagara Falls native returns to her hometown for a funeral and winds up investigating a mystery from her past. The notion of Niagara Falls as more than a tourist trap — as a place where people live and labor into the off-season, when the water
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