Mark Lazarus was an executive at Turner Broadcasting in the 1990s when the company was the NBA’s sole national cable-TV partner. As such, he had a front-row seat for the hand wringing that occurred when Michael Jordan abruptly left pro basketball in 1993. “There was a ratings hit,” says Lazarus, who became president of Turner
Month: January 2020
In today’s film news roundup, the PGA selects a site for its Produced By Conference, Ana Gasteyer is hosting the WGA Awards, and Docu-Day is set for Feb. 8. PGA CONFERENCE The Producers Guild of America will hold its 12th annual Produced By Conference on June 6-7 at Fox Studio Lot in Los Angeles. The
Sometimes there’s so much bad news that it’s wonderful to have a reason to celebrate, and in a weekend marred by Kobe Bryant’s death, the scandal surrounding the Recording Academy’s controversial ouster of president/CEO Deborah Dugan, presidential impeachment proceedings and more depressing stuff, the music business managed to push back the clouds and throw down
NBA legend Kobe Bryant’s untimely death has had reverberations around the world, where fans from Italy to the Philippines have united in expressing their grief and honoring the late basketball player, who was one of the most global-facing athletes the league has ever produced. The coronavirus sweeping China momentarily relinquished its grasp on the nation
Kobe Bryant’s studio has released his Oscar-winning short, “Dear Basketball” for free following his death on Sunday. Granity Studio, Bryant’s multimedia production company, made the short film available on the dearbasketball.com website and on Vimeo. The Academy Award-winning film, narrated by Bryant, is based on a poem he wrote in November 2015 in The Players’
The nominees for this year’s Academy Awards gathered Monday for the annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon and class photo. Bong Joon Ho, Greta Gerwig, Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt were among those who received the loudest applause and cheers when their names were called for the photo. The annual event kicked off with a cocktail
Ethan Hawke will direct and adapt “Camino Real,” Tennessee Williams’ wildly experimental play, into a feature film. Uri Singer, who worked with Hawke on the upcoming Sundance Film Festival entry “Tesla,” will produce and finance the picture through his company, Passage Pictures. It’s a passion project of the actor, writer, and filmmakers — one that
You can do anything with a face on screen these days, whether it’s shaving decades off with a digital scalpel or deepfaking it into unrecognizable oblivion. Usually this wizardry has the air of a stunt, a transformation pulled off merely because it’s possible. Never, however, have such effects proven as chillingly essential as they are
In today’s TV news roundup, Ray Romano got a guest star gig on “One Day at a Time” and Freeform released the trailer for “The Thing About Harry.” FIRST LOOKS Freeform released a trailer for “The Thing About Harry,“ which premieres Feb. 15. The upcoming rom-com tells the story of high school enemies, “uber-jock” Harry
What happens when you mix cats, a couple of Facebook watchdogs and a deranged killer who publishes homicidal videos to the Internet? One of the most talked-about (and disturbing) true-crime shows in recent memory. (SPOILER WARNING: Plot Details Ahead) “Don’t F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer,” about a group of Facebook sleuths attempting to
January 27, 2020 3:00PM PT Paramount Pictures is looking to revamp its “Transformers” franchise in a big way, as sources tell Variety two simultaneous scripts are now in active development: one by James Vanderbilt and one by Joby Harold. Paramount’s most recent take on the franchise was 2018’s “Bumblebee,” a coming-of-age tale that was produced
Lin-Manuel Miranda is having a busy Sundance. The prolific playwright is in Park City, Utah this week as the interview subject of three documentaries — “Siempre, Luis,” “We Are Freestyle Love Supreme” and “Mucho Mucho Amour” — all premiering at this year’s film festival. Miranda’s indie movie tour is only the beginning of his foray
Ten years after Zeina Durra launched her well-regarded debut “The Imperialists Are Still Alive!” at Sundance, the London-born director returns with a mature meditation on the effects of trauma shrewdly incarnated by the always welcome Andrea Riseborough. “Luxor,” set in the eponymous Egyptian city of ancient temples, is a slow-burning, accessibly elliptical story in which
Fundraising for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has reached more than $368 million in pledges and cash, making up 95% of its $388 million campaign goal. The announcement was by Academy President David Rubin at the nominees luncheon on Monday, less than two weeks before the 92nd Academy Awards on Feb. 9. The Academy
Elvis Costello picked up his second contemporary Grammy on Sunday for his 2018 album “Look Now,” making his first trip to the podium since he and Burt Bacharach won for their joint project “Painted from Memory” 21 years ago. But, of course, it’s his first miss, all the way back in 1979, that continues to
Deborah Barak, the president of business operations of CBS Entertainment, CBS Television Studios and CBS News since 2015 and a veteran of the company for well over three decades, will be exiting at the end of 2020. Barak’s exit is not related in any way to the recently closed ViacomCBS merger, a source familiar with
Awkwafina’s incredible run of success continues, as the numbers for the debut of her new Comedy Central show make for more than pleasant reading. Episode 1 of “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens” has amassed 818,000 total viewers after three days of delayed viewing, which represents a healthy 67% boost from the Live+Same Day tally of
As the CW’s “Arrow” prepares to sign off after eight seasons, the writers had a difficult balance to strike in the final episode: acknowledging the changes that have come to Earth Prime in the aftermath of the timeline-changing “Crisis on Infinite Earths” arc, wrapping up the characters from the mothership series and also leaving enough
From Demi Lovato’s emotional comeback to the Grammy’s stage to Billie Eilish’s five award wins, this year’s ceremony honoring the best in music got Twitter talking. Of the most memorable moments during the show, the internet praised Lovato (so choked-up that she had to start her performance over again) as she debuted her song “Anyone.”
The 2020 Grammy Awards fell off enough to hit a new key demo low in the Nielsen ratings. In the time zone adjusted fast nationals, the Sunday awards telecast on CBS drew a 5.4 rating in adults 18-49 and 18.7 million viewers. That is down a scant 3% in the key demo and 6% in
The upcoming continuation of “Saved by the Bell” at the NBCUniversal streamer Peacock has found the final members of its main cast. Haskiri Velazquez, Mitchell Hoog, Alycia Pascual-Pena, and Belmont Cameli will all star in the series. They join previously announced series lead Josie Totah as well as John Michael Higgins, who will play the
Carmi Zlotnik, Starz’s president of programming, is exiting the company after a decade with the premium cabler to “pursue new creative endeavors,” Variety has learned. Zlotnik has been with the company since 2010, overseeing the development and production of “Power,” “Outlander,” “American Gods,” “Vida,” “The Girlfriend Experience,” “The White Queen,” “Black Sails,” “Magic City,” and
Innovative Artists has signed a deal with the Writers Guild of America that allows the agency to represent WGA members following a nine-month standoff. The agency issued an announcement Monday through Owner and President Scott Harris, along with the Innovative Artists’ Executive Committee. “We are proud to support our literary agents and the talented writers they
The Recording Academy’s “In Memoriam” section, which traditionally runs towards the end of the Grammy Awards ceremony and honors those in the music industry who died in the previous year, is bound to displease many — as the internet’s ire proves annually. Omissions are to blame: some due to time constraints, others to very recent
Netflix is looking to up its adult animation game. The streamer has signed a multi-year production commitment overall deal with Titmouse studio, the animation house behind “Big Mouth.” Under the deal, Netflix will have a first look at shows that Titmouse develops. “When Netflix asked if we wanted to go steady, we were thrilled. When
Aline Brosh McKenna has signed a three year overall deal with ABC Studios. Brosh McKenna was previously under an overall at CBS Television Studios, where she and Rachel Bloom co-created the Emmy-winning CW series “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” on which she also served as showrunner in addition to directing the season finales of all four seasons. She
Welcome back to Tune In: our weekly newsletter offering a guide to the best of the week’s TV. Each week, Variety’s TV team combs through the week’s schedule, selecting our picks of what to watch and when/how to watch them. This week, Super Bowl LIV hits the turf, “Masked Singer” season 3 premieres, and both
Sony’s commitment to sustainability began as a pledge to plant a tree in the community where it shoots for each day of production. It’s a commitment to the environment that most Hollywood studios are taking very seriously, collaborating and sharing ideas on how to conduct the business of production in a sustainable way. Today, Sony
Filmdom’s battle between the haves and have-nots moved off-screen when Oscar nominations were announced earlier this month: Four films scored 10 or more nominations, with Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” leading the pack with 11, and Sam Mendes’ World War I nail-biter “1917,” Martin Scorsese’s epic gangster tale “The Irishman” and Quentin Tarantino’s retro “Once Upon a
Will love and mercy prevail again this year, or will one of the season’s darker offerings take home the ultimate prize? Last year, Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” triumphed, its period story about a friendship that blossoms between a boisterous white bigot and a black, highly educated classical musician an unlikely balm at a time of
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- …
- 58
- Next Page »