Month: September 2019

Armando Iannucci believes that modern (British) comedy owes a considerable debt to Charles Dickens, and he should know. Iannucci produces some of the wickedest, and most colorful, laughter to be found on (British) television: “I’m Alan Partridge,” “The Thick of It” and, for export, “Veep.” Dickens, on the other hand, has produced a mostly dreary
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September 5, 2019 10:31PM PT Longtime exec Angelica McDaniel has exited her post as executive VP in daytime programs, CBS Entertainment. McDaniel leaves amid a restructuring that will see her department absorbed by current programming, headed by Amy Resisenbach. The move is being made in an effort to streamline the reporting structure at CBS Entertainment
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Helen Reddy was very far from a one-hit-wonder. Indeed, she had more chart hits than practically any other solo female act of the 1970s. Yet in a way, the song most associated with her feels like it came from an artist who was never heard from before or since. “I Am Woman” arrived exactly as
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Variety’s Entertainment and Technology summit featured a host of conversations surrounding the use of advertising in media and the ways in which perpetually advancing technology is constantly affecting how fans consume content. From “Spider-Man’s” departure from the Marvel Universe to Crypt TV’s possibly long future with Facebook Watch, take a look at the 10 biggest
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In today’s film news roundup, Lily James circles a British drama role, “Blackjack: The Jackie Ryan Story” has started production, Laika makes a veteran hire and “Beanpole” and “Just Noise” get distribution. CASTINGS Lily James is in negotiations to join Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes in the British historical drama “Dig,” set up at Netflix.
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Even with a steady supply of eye-opening documentaries coming out of Syria, we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of the human stories emerging from the country’s ongoing crisis. Two years after his multi-award-winning “Last Men In Aleppo” — co-directed by Steen Johannessen and following a trio from the selfless volunteer rescue collective “The White
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Rwanda-born writer Scholastique Mukasonga’s 2012 novel “Notre-Dame du Nil” is not specifically about the 1994 Rwandan genocide but rather how class division, colonialism and economic disparity created a toxic stew of resentment and prejudice that made the genocide possible. By using a Rwandan all-girls Catholic boarding school as her microcosm, she lays out how the
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The regular major-festival presence of the films of Robert Guédiguian is a curious, if not wholly unwelcome, anomaly. Amid punchier, more provocative, more aesthetically challenging arthouse titles, his work moves to the calmer rhythms of classical naturalism, in which each new title feels more like a new chapter in a career-spanning novel — or a
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September 5, 2019 3:40PM PT Veteran film production exec Jon Mone has been named by Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith as co-president of Westbrook Studios and head of motion pictures. “Jon has an exceptional track record that speaks volumes to his creativity, talent relationships and incredible eye for storytelling,” said Westbrook Inc. co-founders Jada
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Lech Majewski, the Polish film and theater director and writer, will be the recipient of the Directing Award at the Camerimage International Film Festival, which will take place in Torun, Poland, on Nov. 9-16. Known for helming such films “The Mill and the Cross” and “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” Majewski is a dual U.S.
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Fans holding out hope that Spider-Man might be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be disappointed to hear that “for the moment the door is closed,” according to Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra. Speaking at Variety‘s Entertainment & Technology summit, Vinciquerra cryptically added that “it’s a long life,” implying that perhaps in the
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September 5, 2019 2:25PM PT Hulu is no longer developing John Grisham’s “The Rainmaker” and “Rogue Lawyer” for the streaming platform, Variety has learned. Michael Seitzman, creator of CBS dramas “Code Black” and “Intelligence,” had been tapped to oversee the multi-series so-called “Grisham Universe” alongside “Detroit 1-8-7” creator Jason Richman. The two Grisham series were
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Justin Timberlake has signed to star in “Palmer,” SK Global’s upcoming dramatic feature with shooting starting in the late fall. Fisher Stevens is directing. “Green Book” producer Charles B. Wessler will produce alongside SK Global co-CEOs John Penotti and Charlie Corwin. Sidney Kimmel and Daniel Nadler will also produce.  SK Global and Nadler will co-finance
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Rhombus Media’s Kevin Krikst and Fraser Ash have jointly won the Canadian Media Producers Assn.’s 2019 Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award, it was announced this afternoon at the Indiescreen Awards, the opening event of the Toronto film festival’s industry conference at Glenn Gould Studios. The Toronto-based pair’s latest feature is Albert Shin’s “Clifton Hill,” a
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September 5, 2019 1:17PM PT Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution president Gina Brogi is leaving the company, Variety has learned. The exit marks another departure in the wake of Walt Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets, and follows last week’s news that Disney had laid off nearly 60 employees in its Media Distribution
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