Month: December 2020

When the history of the so-called streaming wars is eventually written, 2020 will be looked back on as an absolutely pivotal period. That’s what prompted the final episode of the year for Variety podcast “Strictly Business” to dispense with the usual guest interview and instead feature a marathon monologue filled with candid assessments of how
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It’s been a year many are eager to put in the past — especially those who were involved in 2020’s biggest tech and digital flops. The most epic fails of 2020 included Quibi’s spectacular flameout; the release of “Cyberpunk 2077,” unplayable for many; Twitter’s unprecedented celebrity hack; and President Trump’s failure to outlaw Chinese-owned TikTok
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Frances McDormand could make history for women at the Oscars. The 63-year-old actor has received raves for her performance in “Nomadland” from Chloé Zhao, landing her in contention for her sixth acting nomination after winning two best actress Oscars (1996’s “Fargo” and 2018’s “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri”). McDormand is also one of the credited
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Charlotte Rampling stars as a mysterious entertainer in a new film for fashion house Saint Laurent. The eight-minute video titled “Summer of ‘21,” commissioned by Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello and directed by Gaspar Noé, begins with a woman running and screaming in terror through a forest. As an instrumental cover of Donna Summer’s
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Amazon announced that it inked a deal to acquire Wondery, a four-year-old podcast creator and producer. Terms of the deal, under which the Wondery team will join the Amazon Music group, were not disclosed. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was in talks to buy Wondery in a deal worth over
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The Alliance of Women Film Journalists has announced their nominees for their 2020 EDA awards, with Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” leading with nine nominations including best film and director. With 25 individual categories, their awards are divided into three sections: the standard “Best Of” section, the “Female Focus” awards and “EDA Special Mentions.” Women dominated the
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Director Linda Mendoza has more than three decades years of production experience across scripted and specials content, and ironically it was HBO’s “Greater Tuna,” which she worked on in 1984, that best prepared her for Amazon Prime Video’s “Yearly Departed.” “Greater Tuna” featured two lead actors playing all of the roles of the inhabitants of
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Casting Julie Andrews as the voice of narrator Lady Whistledown on Netflix’s new buzzy period drama “Bridgerton” was such a tightly held secret that the stars of the show didn’t even know about it. Regé-Jean Page, who plays the dashing Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings, says he found out when it was announced on Twitter.
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A prank call from impressionist Rory Bremner could inadvertently have helped save then U.K. Prime Minister John Major’s leadership in 1993, newly released files from Britain’s National Archive have revealed. In October 1993, as part of his show “Rory Bremner, Who Else?” for U.K. broadcaster Channel 4, Bremner called member of parliament (MP) Richard Body,
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In today’s Global Bulletin, Netflix picks up the rights to Spanish feature “Sky High” for a series adaptation, French crime series “Balthazar” posts record audience numbers for TF1, Mexican filmmaker Juan Ernesto Regalado Morales receives this year’s Guillermo del Toro-backed Jenkins-Del Toro Scholarship, and French journalist Augustin Trapenard announces he’s leaving Canal Plus. ADAPTATION Netflix
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Hatem Ali, the influential Syrian multi-hyphenate whose hit historical TV dramas provided collective insight across the Arab world on the roots and complexities of the region’s turbulence, died on Tuesday at 58.  The cause of death, which took place in a Cairo hotel, was a heart attack, according to multiple Middle East news reports. Born
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Hong Kong is to provide cash subsidies to cinema operators as the city buckles under the pressure of a fourth wave of the COVID-19 outbreak. Cinemas were ordered to close in December, causing them to miss the lucrative Christmas and New Year holiday seasons. A one-off payment of HK$100,000 ($12,900) will be paid to each
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In a message to members on Tuesday, SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris and national executive director David White said that many productions will remain on hiatus for the next few weeks as Los Angeles County experiences a continued surge in COVID-19 cases. “We are writing to let you know that we are closely monitoring the recent
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