Month: February 2020

February 19, 2020 12:23AM PT Blackhall Studios, the Atlanta-based production hub that has hosted several high-profile shoots in recent years, has signed an agreement with the University of Reading to develop its first U.K. facility. Due for completion in early 2022, the new studio will offer physical production stages alongside digital media facilities tailored for
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Sky Studios and Italy’s The Apartment, the Fremantle-owned production company headed by Lorenzo Mieli, have forged a multi-year development and production partnership that marks Sky’s first agreement of this type outside the U.K. Under the deal, Sky Studios, which is the Comcast-owned pay-TV broadcaster dedicated production arm, will provide The Apartment development funding for a
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BARCELONA – “20,000 Species of Bees,” “Something Like Happiness” and “Los quinquis” are among five feature projects that will be put through development at the ECAM Madrid Film School’s pioneering Incubator program. The Incubator forms part of The Screen, a program at the ECAM Madrid Film School, which is aimed at fostering links between on-the-rise Spain-based
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February 18, 2020 10:24PM PT In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv, Disney Pixar claims the top spot in spending with “Onward.” Ads placed for the animated film had an estimated media value of $4.99 million through Sunday for 784 national
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Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, whose last film “Leto” competed at Cannes in 2018, is teaming with “Wasp Network” producer Charles Gillibert to adapt the best-selling French novel “The Disappearance of Josef Mengele.” Winner of the prestigious Renaudot Prize in 2017, Olivier Guez’s novel “The Disappearance of Josef Mengele” was published in more than 30 countries
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In today’s film news roundup, Sabrina Carpenter’s “The Short History of the Long Road” gets a home, comedian Jo Koy’s life will become a movie, “True to the Game” is getting a sequel and APA promotes Chris Ridenhour. ACQUISITION FilmRise has acquired Sabrina Carpenter’s coming-of-age drama “The Short History of the Long Road” and is
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Between a high-profile press tour, a vortex of online negativity and a raging conversation around female genitalia, it is likely you are aware that Gwyneth Paltrow launched a docuseries on Netflix in late January. “The Goop Lab,” announced exclusively by Variety last year, is a six-episode manifestation of Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop and its many
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Seasoned Asian TV production executive, Erika North has joined Amazon as head of Asia-Pacific Originals at Amazon Studios. North’s LinkedIn profile was updated to show her new status since February. North did not respond to  enquiries, but an Amazon source with knowledge of the situation told Variety that she took up the role from Tuesday.
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Redbox, best known for its network of fire-engine-red DVD-rental kiosks, has thrown its hat into the free-TV ring — with an ad-supported service that looks a lot like ViacomCBS’s Pluto TV. The company’s Redbox Free Live TV service, which soft-launched earlier this month, is now available nationwide as of Tuesday (Feb. 18). Like Pluto TV’s
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Cash and Maverick Baker, teen-brother digital influencers and musicians with big followings on the TikTok short-video social app, have signed with management company Shots Studios, whose talent roster also includes Lele Pons. Born and raised in Henryetta, Okla., the Baker brothers run a joint TikTok account (with 7 million followers) where they post comedy, lip-sync
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Stella Meghie loves love. And she’s currently feeling a lot of it. As “Sonic the Hedgehog” soared to number one over Presidents’ Day weekend, “The Photograph” made a solid $13 million. Catching up with Meghie early Saturday morning after the film’s debut, the writer/director/executive producer admitted she’d been looking at the numbers. “I’m grateful people
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Netflix has ordered an eight-episode limited series on the origins of the opioid crisis titled “Painkiller,” Variety has learned. Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster will write and serve as showrunners and executive producers on the series. The pair recently wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-nominated film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and previously collaborated
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The idea that the technology industry has the power not just to reshape the world in which we live but — through acts of creative destruction — build a new one overlaying and eventually supplanting it has been fertile territory for the arts in recent memory. Indeed, to this point, one of the bards of
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As if the name “CD Baby” weren’t already an anachronism, the independent distributor announced late last week that it is shutting down its retail store, although it will continue to distribute physical product through other channels. “CD Baby’s mission is to help artists monetize and promote their music in the best ways possible,” a message
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