Month: July 2020

Bob Costas, the sportscaster who narrated World Series games, boxing matches and NBC’s Olympics telecasts and elevated his commentary to include politics and culture, is joining CNN as a contributor, the cable-news outlet announced Monday. He is expected to offer perspective on sports issues as that industry grapples with the coronavirus pandemic and a range
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When Europe’s theaters slowly began reopening mid-June, exhibitors were hopeful that after a few weeks spent warming up audiences with archive films and rereleases, they’d have big new U.S. movies to lure customers en masse mid-summer. But the successive delays of tentpoles such as Warner Bros.’ “Tenet” and Disney’s “Mulan” and the scrapped theatrical release
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Italian A-listers Alba Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazzaro”), Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”) and Silvio Orlando (“The Young Pope”) are set to star in a high-profile prison drama to be directed by Leonardo di Costanzo, who is best known for social-realist drama “The Intruder.” Di Costanzo crossed over from documentary to feature filmmaking first with “The
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On what would have been Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell’s 56th birthday (July 20), his estate has posted the singer’s previously unreleased cover of Guns N’ Roses’ ballad, “Patience.” The song, originally released on GNR’s 1988 compilation “Lies,” unveiled a more acoustic and sensitive side of the band that it had showcased during low-key performances after
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International production music company BMG Production Music (BMGPM) has acquired award-winning Los Angeles and London-based outfit Dynamic Music. The two companies started a global sub-publishing agreement in 2018 that saw Dynamic’s revenue double. Under the deal, the parties also secured more than 100 hours of music use across global television and radio stations from some
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The Rotterdam Film Festival’s facilitation and talent incubator wing IFFR Pro has teamed with the Sundance Institute, European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs and the Realness Institute for Creative Producer Indaba, a year-long professional development initiative aimed at supporting producers from Africa. The inaugural batch of 17 emerging producers was announced Monday. They will participate in online workshops
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Moonyeenn Lee, the acclaimed South African agent and casting director who cast films such as the foreign-language Oscar winner “Tsotsi” and Oscar-nominated “Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom,” died in Johannesburg on Saturday due to coronavirus-related complications. She was 76. Lee’s company, Moonyeenn Lee & Associates, announced the news in a statement on its Facebook page
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China reopened its cinemas on Monday after nearly five months of closure, but audiences are only trickling in. The re-opening was restricted to theaters in cities and regions where the coronavirus is deemed to have been vanquished. That excluded Beijing, where recent weeks has seen a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. By 6 p.m. local time, cumulative
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U.K.-based production company and financier Fugitive has signed a wide-ranging partnership with South African independent producer Helena Spring for a diverse slate of projects. Spring produced “Yesterday,” a 2005 Oscar nominee for South Africa in the foreign language category. The film was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy and an Independent Spirit Award. The new
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Canadian broadcast group Corus Entertainment has picked up a wide-ranging slate of comedies and dramas from Sky Studios. Sky Original dramas and comedies such as “Intelligence,” “Devils” and “Bulletproof” will land on Corus’s roster of channels and platforms, which includes national network Global Television, following the multi-year pact between Corus Entertainment and NBCUniversal Global Distribution,
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The much-awaited release of “Peninsula” in South Korea lived up to the hype, despite capacity limitations and other social distancing measures imposed across the nation’s cinemas. The “Train to Busan” sequel earned a thumping $9.20 million over the weekend from 2,575 screens, giving it an unapproachable 93% market share. Including revenues earned between its Wednesday
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Pixar technical artist Dylan Sisson will discuss the studio’s RenderMan technology and the art of movie magic during the VIEW Conference’s latest free PreVIEW event Friday, July 24, beginning at 2:30 p.m. PT. Sisson will talk about the ever-evolving RenderMan software, created by Pixar and used by visual effects and animations studios worldwide. The surfaces
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August Alsina is capitalizing on everyone’s interest in his “entanglement” with Jada Pinkett Smith with a new song called, you guessed it, “Entanglements.” The singer released the song late on Saturday night, after which it became trending on Twitter by Sunday morning. The song, which features rapper Rick Ross, makes numerous nods to his relationship
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Kanye West has scheduled his first campaign event since announcing he was running for President two weeks ago. And despite the fact that there were reports last week that West was ending his White House bid before it ever started in earnest, the kickoff event in South Carolina (for registered guests only) is the clearest
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If “The Princess Bride’s” Inigo Montoya were to ever attend a Donald Trump rally or watch his campaign’s videos, it’s clear what he’d say: “You keep using that song. I do not think it means what you think it means.” From the 2016 campaign through the present day, music fans have been baffled by Trump’s
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