Month: April 2020

Pluto TV, ViacomCBS’s free-streaming TV division, expanded its senior leadership team with two hires: Shampa Banerjee as chief product officer and Scott Reich as SVP of programming. Banerjee, who most recently was chief product officer at Eros International’s digital Indian entertainment platform, will oversee Pluto TV’s product road map, designing and developing the experience of
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When nutritionist Lisa Roth found herself looking for the perfect gift for a friend’s baby shower back in the mid-2000s, she never figured on starting a musical movement for the toddler set and their parents. But the lightbulb flicked on and “Rockabye Baby!” was born. The series turns the greatest music catalogs from every genre
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Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, plans to launch a $750 million private-placement debt offering, along with the option for buyers to purchase up to an additional $112.5 million of the convertible securities. Per the boilerplate text in the announcement Thursday, Snap said it plans to use cash from the offering for “general corporate purposes,”
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Richard Lechartier, the former CEO of French producer and distributor Marco Polo, has launched new U.K. film distribution company ILY Films, with Bruce Willis actioner “Open Source” as its first acquisition. ILY Films is focused on acquiring film rights for digital download releases. Lechartier tells Variety that ILY Films will concentrate on buying English-speaking commercial,
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Facebook is rolling out a 10-part series with CNN International as part of a slate of programming collaborations celebrating Ramadan during the coronavirus pandemic. The short-form CNN International series is entitled “Together Apart: Stories of Ramadan,” with five-minute episodes focusing on weekly themes such as family, community, spirituality, wellness and hope, and illustrated by personal
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The BBC is leading nominations for the 2020 Rockie Awards, a juried competition organized by Canada’s Banff World Media Festival to celebrate achievement in television and digital media from around the world. The BBC was nominated for 27 Rockie Awards, followed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation with 13 noms, Sky with eight noms, National Geographic
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Netflix has placed an order for “Vinterviken 2021,” a contemporary adaptation of the acclaimed 1993 Mats Wohl novel, “Vinterviken,” the U.S. streaming giant announced Thursday. In a coup for Endemol Shine’s EMEA scripted division, “Vinterviken 2021” will be produced by Filmlance International, part of the Endemol Shine Group and producer of the original “The Bridge”
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The road to recovery for much of Europe’s exhibition sector may still be an ambiguous prospect, but Vue International, one of the continent’s largest cinema chains, hopes to jumpstart business by mid-July. The exhibitor, which operates close to 2,000 screens across 10 countries including the U.K., Italy, Germany, Denmark and Taiwan, has shuttered all 228
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Even in a pandemic, Hipgnosis Songs continues its acquisition spree of major music-publishing catalogs. The company, which was founded just two years ago, has bought up catalogs by hitmakers ranging from Timbaland and the Chainsmokers to Jack Antonoff and Jeff Bhasker — and the latest is 70% of seven-time Grammy-and-Oscar-winning songwriter, artist and producer Mark Ronson.
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A host of New Jersey’s most celebrated musical talents — including Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Charlie Puth, Halsey, SZA and Fountains of Wayne, plus one adopted son from New York, Tony Bennett — came together Wednesday for “Jersey 4 Jersey,” a benefit webcast to raise funds to fight the medical, social and economic impact
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Derek Jones, the guitarist for post-hardcore rock band Falling in Reverse, has died at 35. The cause of death is currently unknown. Jones’ bandmate and Falling in Reverse vocalist Ronnie Radke announced Jones’ death via Instagram on Tuesday, posting a series of photos in memoriam. “I’ll never forget when you picked me up from jail
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In today’s film news roundup, Michael B. Jordan’s “Without Remorse”  and the fourth “Jackass” movie are delayed, “Algorithm: Bliss” gets a release date, “Bad Trip” is released briefly, and AFI gets a $3 million gift. RELEASE DATES Paramount Pictures has decided to move its Michael B. Jordan spy thriller “Without Remorse” back two weeks from
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Hulu’s upcoming series adaptation of “The Mysterious Benedict Society” has found its main cast. Ryan Hurst, Kristen Schaal, MaameYaa Boafo, Gia Sandhu, Mystic Inscho, Emmy DeOliveira, Seth Carr, and Marta Timofeeva have all joined the show in series regular roles. They joined previously announced cast member Tony Hale, who will play Mr. Benedict and his
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In today’s TV News Roundup, Netflix announced the premiere date for Season 3 of “Somebody Feed Phil” and more original programming, and SiriusXM announced a weekly live call-in show hosted by Gayle King.  DATES Netflix has announced a slew of release dates for content premiering on the service next month. “Reckoning,“ an Australian thriller series
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Ed Helms’ musical side pursuits have been well-known for years, if perhaps just slightly shy of being well-known enough to have him commonly hyphenated as “actor-banjoist Ed Helms.” But the shutdown of Hollywood production has allowed him more time now to devote to what he considers his “passion project,” the Bluegrass Situation, an organization focused
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Longtime television producer Joel Rogosin died Sunday of complications from COVID-19 at the Motion Picture Television Fund’s retirement home in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills. He was 87. He is the fifth MPTF resident to die of coronavirus complications in the past two weeks, beginning with John Breier on April 7 followed by
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Lady Gaga has revealed the tracklist for her forthcoming-but-delayed “Chromatica” album — which includes collaborations with Ariana Grande, Elton John and Blackpink — just a few hours after Target (presumably accidentally) listed it on its website. The album was originally scheduled for an April 10 release, so who knows why it appeared today. (She revealed
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Magic Leap, the augmented-reality hardware company whose backers include Warner Bros., AT&T and Alphabet, is making significant layoffs — and mothballing efforts to create consumer-oriented AR products. In a blog post Wednesday, Magic Leap founder/CEO Rony Abovitz announced that the company is “making targeted changes to how we operate and manage costs,” citing the current
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A new “Star Wars” series is in the works at Disney Plus, Variety has learned from sources. The series hails from Leslye Headland, the co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed Netflix series “Russian Doll.” Details of the exact plot of the series are being kept under wraps, but sources say it will be
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