Month: March 2020

March 5, 2020 9:17PM PT The moody music and lyrics from the Bob Dylan playbook both define and heighten Conor McPherson’s haunting vision of the Depression. Some people think Bob Dylan’s music is depressing — and in “Girl From the North Country,” Conor McPherson makes the case by setting more than twenty of Dylan’s songs
0 Comments
Perhaps it’s fitting that “Westworld” is the recipient of the most extensive, and jarring, reboot in recent TV history. After all, the show’s characters are hyperintelligent androids, forced in the show’s early going to forget who they once were and what they’ve endured in order to begin their “storylines” anew. Later on, these unhappy automatons
0 Comments
March 5, 2020 8:02PM PT Starring Daniel Radcliffe as a jailed anti-apartheid activist, this true-life prison-break thriller is stronger on genre mechanics than political nuance. “You are the white Mandela,” says a ham-faced warden, all but spitting in the face of anti-apartheid activist Tim Jenkin upon his arrival at Pretoria Local Prison in 1978. It’s
0 Comments
March 5, 2020 7:04PM PT A psychiatric patient’s convoluted backstory drives this intriguing if overloaded indie genre exercise. One of three directors who first won attention with 2007’s excellent three-part thriller “The Signal” (not to be confused with another enterprising sci-fi-tinged indie of that title from 2014), Dan Bush has made several interesting genre features
0 Comments
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Leave a Light On,” the 16th episode of Season 16 of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Adios, Alex Karev. Justin Chambers has officially been written out of “Grey’s Anatomy.” In the March 5th episode entitled “Leave a Light On,” Chambers’ longtime character revealed in a heartfelt letter that
0 Comments
In today’s film news roundup, Pearl Jam teams with Abramorama, “Bloodshot” get an Immersive Cinema Experience release, Philip Kaufman is honored, the Doc10 Festival unveils its slate and “Testament” gets rolling.  RELEASE DATES Pearl Jam and Abramorama have scheduled the “Gigaton Listening Experience” for March 25 in more than 200 Dolby Atmos-equipped theaters in 20
0 Comments
The Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have agreed on a successor deal to the DGA master contract. The tentative agreement, announced Thursday evening, came after four weeks of talks that opened on Feb. 10. with both sides agreeing to a news blackout until the negotiations concluded. “Details
0 Comments
Political advertising floods the airwaves every four years like clockwork. But this time around, two candidates alone — billionaires Mike Bloomberg and Tom Steyer — delivered an unprecedented $600 million gift to local TV stations during the past few months. Bloomberg and Steyer together spent about $599.6 million in total TV advertising, according to Kantar/CMAG,
0 Comments
Veteran Hollywood executives Jeff Sagansky and Harry Sloan are launching Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp. with a $600 million initial public offering. It’s the sixth public acquisition vehicle since 2011 launched by Sagansky and Sloan. These kind of acquisition companies have gained in popularity in recent years as a means for investors to participate in new
0 Comments
Ocean MacAdams has departed Group Nine Media’s Thrillist, the lifestyle digital media brand covering food, drink, travel and entertainment, after two and half years, Variety has learned. With MacAdams’ exit, Thrillist will be headed by chief content officer Meghan Kirsch, a former Vice and A&E exec who joined the company last summer. It’s not clear
0 Comments
Ozzy Osbourne is the latest to cancel appearances at the SXSW conference and festival, following companies like Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Neflix and Apple, due to concerns over the coronavirus. He was scheduled to attend the Austin conference, which runs March 13 to 22, to support the world premiere screening of A&E’s forthcoming “Biography: The Nine
0 Comments
Leslie Odom Jr. and Freida Pinto make sympathetic, easy-on-the-eyes lovers in “Only,” an absorbing post-catastrophe drama, in theaters and on demand March 6. Consider “Only” a variation on the “What would you do in this horrid situation?” subgenre. Only it’s more a “What would we do?” which can be an exponentially more challenging proposition. (Hard
0 Comments
Legendary Television has entered into a first-look deal with dj2 Entertainment, the production shingle behind the recent box office hit “Sonic the Hedgehog” which specializes in adapting video games for film and TV. As part of the multi-year deal, Legendary and dj2 are developing multiple projects from the likes of Ed Ricourt (“Raising Dion”), Thor Freudenthal
0 Comments
James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s younger son, has a new mission: He wants to help try to “fix the internet.” James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems, the investment company he established after exiting as CEO of 21st Century Fox following the Disney deal, has joined up with seed-stage venture-capital firm Betaworks to launch an incubator that will invest
0 Comments
Following the storm surrounding one pick for her book club on Apple TV Plus, Oprah has reined back on another. Winfrey had originally chosen “My Dark Vanessa” by Kate Elizabeth Russell as the March selection for “Oprah’s Book Club,” but the decision has been taken to ditch the forthcoming novel, Variety has confirmed. “Ultimately we did
0 Comments
March 5, 2020 1:40PM PT [embedded content] Janelle Monae is dealing with a time-traveling nightmare of slavery in Lionsgate’s latest trailer for the horror film “Antebellum.” In the footage released Thursday, Monae portrays modern-day author Veronica Henley, shown explaining how women are the future: “We’re expected to be seen, not heard. But we are the
0 Comments