Month: January 2021

Donna Speciale, the Madison Avenue veteran, will take over ad sales at Spanish-language broadcaster Univision as that company re-organizes under new management. Univision on Monday named six executives to senior roles at the company, which is now controlled by Searchlight Capital Partners and ForgeLight, with Mexico’s Televisa continuing to control a minority stake. Wade Davis,
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Movistar initiated production in Chile on Jan. 4 on its most ambitious original series to date – about seminal Chilean band Los Prisioneros which hit its heights under one of the bloodiest dictatorships in modern Latin American history, giving voice to unheard youth across the region. Shown by Movistar exec Joanna Lombardi and produced by
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The first trailer for Paramount’s “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” explores the tragic story of singer Billie Holiday, the racial inequalities of 1940s America and her encounters with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The jazz singer, portrayed by Andra Day, came under fire by the agency after performing the song “Strange Fruit,” which condemns
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William Morris Endeavor agent Tanya Cohen, known as a rising star and champion of female directors, is leaving the agency to pursue a management career. Cohen recently made partner, and has a roster that includes helmers Gabriela Cowperthwaite (“Blackfish”), Jennifer Yuh Nelson, (“Kung Fu Panda 2”) and comedy veteran Paula Pell. She is said to
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Wearing a dark gray hoodie and framed by neon lights in a garage, NBC News’ Gadi Schwartz is forgoing the traditional suit and anchor’s desk as he explains to viewers the growing conversation around climate change, as exemplified by California’s shrinking Salton Sea. The graphics are snappy, the aerial footage is grand, and the explanation
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Lee Daniels’ “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” is the next enigma in this awards season and could prove to be one of the more divisive entries. Daniels, who became the second Black filmmaker to be nominated for best director for 2009’s “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” (the first was John Singleton
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Black Bear Pictures and Plan B Entertainment have acquired the feature film rights to Richard Powers’ upcoming novel, “Bewilderment,” in a highly competitive situation. There were multiple bidders circling the project, a degree of interest that’s probably due to the fact that Powers’ previous novel, “The Overstory,” won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and was critically
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Kevin Hart is taking his talents to Netflix. The comedian-turned-actor-turned-producer forged a first-look film production deal with the streamer for his HartBeat Production banner. Kicking off the nascent pact, Hart is producing and starring in four new movies that will play exclusively on Netflix. “Partnering with Netflix is an amazing opportunity for HartBeat and myself,”
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Contact Film, a well-established Dutch distribution company specializing in arthouse films, is preparing to fold after a 30-year run, Variety has confirmed. The company, whose past releases include the Oscar-nominated documentary “Honeyland” and Oliver Laxe’s Cannes prize-winning “Fire Will Come,” has ceased acquiring films, said founder and CEO Gérard Huisman, who is retiring this year.
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Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the United States, said he believes concert venues and theaters could reopen “some time in the fall of 2021,” depending on the effectiveness of the vaccination rollout, and with the caveat that audiences may be wearing masks and practicing social-distancing for suggested that audiences may
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British star and producer Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures and BAFTA-nominated producer Kris Thykier’s Archery Pictures are entering a multi-year joint venture to work together on select future film and TV projects. Thykier was BAFTA-nominated for “The State” and “Trash.” Archery recently completed production on fantasy series “Fate: The Winx Saga” for Netflix, the third
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Netflix has ordered a series adaptation of “The Lincoln Lawyer,” Variety has learned. The series was originally set up at CBS before moving to the streamer. CBS had given the series a significant production commitment during last year’s pilot season, but the network pulled the plug on the project in May. This new iteration will still
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Joel Katz, one of the music industry’s most powerful attorneys and founding chairman of the Greenberg Traurig’s entertainment and media wing, has resigned “by mutual understanding” from the firm. A rep for the firm declined requests for further information; sources tell Variety the move has been in the works for some time and Katz is
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As SAG Awards voting begins today, the acting races are still evolving. To showcase Sophia Loren’s return to performing, Netflix released a new featurette for Edoardo Ponti’s “The Life Ahead,” starring his Academy Award-winning mother. The featurette highlights the relationship between Ponti’s sensitive and compelling direction and how Loren brought Madame Rosa’s toughness and fragility
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Range Media Partners has signed Mari Copeny, a 13-year-old activist and philanthropist, also known as “Little Miss Flint.” Copeny first gained national attention in 2016 when she wrote a letter to then-President Obama asking him to visit Flint, Mich., which was published in the Los Angeles Times. The letter sparked a dialogue around the water
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As the U.K. advises stricter measures to control the rapid spread of the coronavirus pandemic, film and TV production won’t be affected. There aren’t currently any plans to shut down production, Variety has confirmed with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), the government body that deals with the entertainment industry. “The next
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