Month: January 2020

Warner Bros.’ Hamburg-based German division, Warner Bros. Entertainment GmbH, has agreed for the first time to financial contributions of €1 million ($1.1 million) annually for regional funder Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (FFHSH). The three-year deal, signed between Warner Bros. and the FFHSH on Friday, marks the first time that Warner Bros. has contributed to any of
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A private investigator was called to testify on Friday afternoon during the Harvey Weinstein trial. Sam Anson, an investigator for the company Guidepost Solutions, was called in as a witness by the state. Anson said he was approached directly by Weinstein to investigate people he believed were talking to journalists about his sexual conduct with
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In this week’s International TV Newswire Variety recaps more NATPE news from All3Media, Comedy Central Latin America, AMC’s Acorn TV, VIS, El Deseo, Globo and Univision, ZED pre-sales from Realscreen and Aardman’s latest distribution pickup. All3Media Sells to Comedy Central, AMC Networks in Latin America Comedy Central Latin America and All3Media International have closed a deal for
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Aiming to reduce its waste and emissions, London-based “Idol” producer-distributor Fremantle has formed a partnership with Albert, a collaborative industry-backed project aimed at tackling the environmental impact of the entertainment sector.  Founded in 2011, Albert is governed by an industry consortium that includes BAFTA, independent companies and broadcasters.  Fremantle is working with Albert to develop
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Facebook is throwing its weight behind the 62nd Grammy Awards, hoping to engage music fans and demonstrate its commitment to the industry and artists. The social giant, in addition to splashing videos, photos and key moments from this Sunday’s Grammys across Facebook and Instagram, will air its first Grammys TV ad in the CBS telecast
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Aerosmith’s star-studded tribute concert as the 2020 MusiCares Person of the Year honorees on Friday night (January 24) will cement another important milestone in the historic Boston-founded band’s contributions to the American rock canon. But over the past decade, some of the band’s best-known music has remained part of the cultural conversation through some of
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“Black Mirror” creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones have departed their Endemol Shine-backed production banner House of Tomorrow amid ongoing talks for an exclusive deal with Netflix, but Variety understands concerns around IP ownership are throwing a spanner in the works.  The pair, who are long-time creative collaborators, resigned earlier last year, but officially stepped
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Aubrey Plaza gives a go-for-broke performance in “Black Bear,” a galvanizing and serpentine thriller about a weekend getaway that goes dangerously off the rails. The film premieres at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday and Plaza’s work is a million miles removed from April Ludgate, the deadpan and apathetic intern from “Parks and Recreation” that
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STX’s Matthew McConaughey crime comedy “The Gentlemen” has opened with a moderate $725,000 at 1,885 North American locations on Thursday night. Horror thriller “The Turning” launched with $425,000 at 2,200 sites on Thursday night. The movie, based on Henry James’ 1898 novella “The Turn of the Screw,” stars Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard and Brooklynn Prince.
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There’s an exceptional level of craftsmanship among this year’s nominees for the Cinema Audio Society Awards, which recognizes outstanding accomplishments in sound mixing, a collaborative discipline that requires sound editors, re-recording mixers, Foley and ADR artistry to work together to create a harmonious finished product. The categories considered are: live action, animated and documentary features,
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After opening its doors in Paris last week, Netflix is setting up an office in Rome, Variety can reveal. The streaming giant has confirmed that it will move its Italian team, which is now based in Amsterdam, to new offices in the Italian capital, where they are currently seeking a space. The process will take
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January 24, 2020 3:22AM PT Reel Suspects has acquired international sales rights to Caru Alves de Souza’s coming-of-age tale “My Name is Baghdad,” which will world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the Generation 14 section. The film was produced by Manjericão Filmes and Tangerina Entretenimento. It follows a 17-year-old female skater named Baghdad
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The 70th edition of the Berlinale will open with Philippe Falardeau’s anticipated “My Salinger Year,” headlined by a powerful female duo, Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley. Set in New York’s literary world in the 90’s, the coming-of-age-story is based on Joanna Rakoff’s international bestseller and follows Joanna (Qualley), who leaves graduate school to pursue her
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The year is 1989 and New Jack Swing is about to push black culture from the margins to the mainstream. The question for the black employees of Culture, the music TV station at the center of writer-director Justin Simien’s delightfully macabre horror-dramedy “Bad Hair,” is what image do they — and their white executive Grant
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Fly-on-the-wall portraits of pop-music stars used to be dominated by, you know, pop music. The life and personality and woe-is-me-I’m-caught-in-the-media-fishbowl spectacle of the star herself was part of the equation, yet all that stuff had a way of dancing around the edges. Now, though, it’s front and center. In “Taylor Swift: Miss Americana,” we catch
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Deeply personal but indulgently campy, Justin Simien’s Sundance opener “Bad Hair” is a genre-blending horror show that the director said serves as a tribute to the struggles of black women. The mind behind  “Dear White People” staged the world premiere for the project at Park City’s Ray Theater on Thursday night, before a cast that
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