Frank Grillo has an insatiable appetite for flexing his movie muscles. The actor is superhumanly prolific, practically cornering the market on macho roles as he veers from facing off with Captain America in “The Winter Soldier” to entering the ring with Nick Jonas in “Kingdom.” Since 2014, the 55-year-old Grillo has starred or had a
Month: February 2021
The difference in our ages was only three years, but in those early years in Montreal, Chris was more advanced as an actor, with experience and talent. He was part of the theatrical scene of Montreal, and he was making a living working on Canadian Broadcasting Corp. radio and in theater. I had the opportunity
Guild awards season is officially underway. The 27th annual SAG Awards nominations are proving to still be a good indicator of how things may shake out at the upcoming Academy Awards. In many ways, the same can be said for the television series and talent that broke onto this ballot after having its first go
Feature documentary “Tina,” about music icon Tina Turner, will debut March 27 in the U.S. exclusively on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max. Universal Pictures Content Group has taken world rights excluding North America and U.K. with a theatrical release planned across multiple territories in early summer before its release on
After nearly 11 years at Facebook, Doug Frisbie has jumped to Snap to head up the Snapchat parent’s business marketing efforts. Frisbie joined Snap this week in the new role of VP of business marketing, reporting to CMO Kenny Mitchell. Frisbie will oversee global business marketing for Snap, working to drive awareness and adoption of
Prize-winning European animated feature film “The Prince’s Voyage” has been picked up for U.S. release by Shout! Studios. The film will be released stateside across multiple media at an unspecified future date. The film (aka “Le Voyage de Prince”) was directed by French animator Jean-François Laguionie (“The Painting,” Cannes Palme d’Or winning short film “Rowing Across the
At just 23, Finneas has already accomplished a lot of major milestones for a singer, songwriter and producer. With sister Billie Eilish, he swept the top three categories of the 2020 Grammys (song of the year, record of the year and album of the year) and also won producer of the year (non-classical), making him
The Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics have long been something reserved for primetime TV — a glitzy event that draws big crowds with spectacle and flash. For the 2021 version, however, NBC plans to make them available before most viewers have had their first cup of coffee for the day. NBC plans to pre-empt
Country star Kane Brown is venturing out with his own imprint, 1021 Entertainment, which he’s starting up as a joint venture with his own label home, Sony Music Nashville. The new label’s first signing, Restless Road, releases its debut single, “Took One Look at Her Momma,” today. Having his own imprint “wasn’t something that I
Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Attention Cardi B! Kesha may be sliding into your DMs. The “Praying” singer-songwriter tells me she’d love to have the “WAP” hitmaker on her podcast “Kesha and the Creepies.” “I just love listening to her, and she makes me feel calm,” she says. “She’s like a walking rainbow
From the launch of television in the 1940s through the advent of MTV in 1981 and multiple threats from shiny new technologies, radio has survived many challenges to its business. But can the medium navigate competition from streaming? In an era when streams account for 85% of U.S. labels’ music revenue and other, newer media
French animation studio Superprod, the company behind standout feature films such as the Jack London adaptation “White Fang” and Oscar-nominated “Song of the Sea,” has acquired a majority stake in Italy’s Red Monk Studio and plans to revamp the Milan-based company and turn it into a prominent Italian animation player. Pedro Citaristi (pictured), former international
As the pandemic raged on last fall, it was no surprise when veteran folk singer Arlo Guthrie called off his plans for future live performances. After suffering a series of strokes over the past three years, Guthrie, 73, decided he no longer could perform “up to the standards I expected of myself, let alone the
A deal that would give Oracle and Walmart ownership stakes in TikTok is up in the air — and may not happen at all, as the Biden administration reviews Trump’s actions and policies against Chinese tech companies, according to a new report. Last summer, then-President Trump ordered Chinese internet giant ByteDance to sell TikTok, its
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced 16 nominees for its 2021 class of inductees, offering some satisfaction at last for fans who have long lobbied to see the Go-Go’s and Iron Maiden get on the ballot, while Foo Fighters and Jay-Z made it into contention in their very first year of eligibility.
Podz, a startup whose app auto-generates highlight clips of podcasts to create what it touts as the industry’s first “audio newsfeed,” has enlisted a trio of female investors and advisers for its launch: former TV news host Katie Couric, influencer and entrepreneur Paris Hilton, and investigative journalist Mara Schiavocampo. In a nutshell, Podz works like
The Berlin Film Festival has revealed 12 titles from 16 countries that will compete in the festival’s Encounters strand, including Denis Côté’s “Social Hygiene” from Canada, Alice Diop’s “We” from France, and Fern Silva’s “Rock Bottom Riser” from the U.S. The selections also take in “As I Want” (Egypt/France/Norway/Palestine) by Samaher Alqadi; “Azor” (Switzerland/France/Argentina) by
Following hard on the heels of the film’s selection for this year’s Berlin Film Festival Encounters section, director Denis Côté has shared a first trailer for his new movie “Social Hygiene,” the latest from the Canadian director who won a Silver Bear for 2013’s “Vic+Flo Saw a Bear.” At first glance, if the trailer is
The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne reopened on Wednesday after a $30.9 million (A$40 million) overhaul. Before it closed the venue, which evolved from the State Film Centre of Victoria, was the second most visited museum in Australia and claimed to be the most visited film museum in the world. However, its
Sales agency Global Screen, part of Will Smith and Marc Forster’s Telepool, has picked up global distribution rights to $24 million family adventure movie “Jim Button and the Wild 13.” The pic, which is the second most expensive German movie of all times, according to Global Screen, will be launched at the European Film Market
ARRI Media Intl. has signed a deal with Faktura Film to handle the international sales for the Marxist vampire comedy “Bloodsuckers.” The film has been selected to world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Encounters section, which aims to “foster aesthetically and structurally daring works from independent, innovative filmmakers.” Variety has been given exclusive access
Actor and writer Matt Berry is going to Hollywood, and moving to the BBC, with “Toast of Tinseltown,” the fourth season of the sitcom that won him a BAFTA for best male comedy performance. “Toast of London,” written by Arthur Mathews and Berry, played for three seasons from 2013 through 2015 on U.K. broadcaster Channel
More than 80% of movie tickets in China are sold online or via mobile device, one of the world’s highest penetration rates. That gives the country’s ticketing agencies unusually accurate insight into audience behavior and film tracking. After the early part of last year was wiped out by the coronavirus, how strong is the theatrical
Emmanuel Mouret’s “Love Affairs” (The Things We Say, The Things We Do) is leading the nominations for the Cesar Awards, France’s top film honors. Nominations were announced online on Wednesday. The film, which was part of Cannes 2020’s official selection, weaves together a series of romantic tales exploring love, friendship and infidelity with an ensemble
Eligibility controversies. Category name changes. Executive committee “saves” allowed. Executive committee “saves” disallowed. The introduction of a nine-entry shortlist. The expansion to 10. Then to 15…and so on. There has been no Academy Award category more frequently and fitfully tinkered with than best international feature film (formerly best foreign language feature). And so to the
The Princess of Pop has finally spoken out following the Feb. 5 debut of controversial FX documentary “Framing Britney Spears.” While not directly addressing the matters raised in the film, which include her conservatorship by her father and the #FreeBritney campaign, the troubled singer took to Twitter late on Tuesday evening, and shared a video
Determined to turn his life and career around after two decades of stops and starts, Emmanuel Kelly came up with a wish-list of chart-toppers with whom to perform by the end of his 22nd birthday year. Dreaming big was natural for the musician, who escaped growing up amid bombs and bullets in Iraq to build
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Zoey’s Extraordinary Reckoning,” the mid-season finale of “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” Season 2. When “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” returns with the second half of its second season on March 28, audiences are not just going to be dissecting the titular character’s love life or the heart
PBS won four prizes in the 2021 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Awards, an annual recognition of some of the best work in the reaml of audio and video journalism. Radiolab won two of the contest’s coveted silver batons, and other winners included NBC News, Vice and and Netflix. Fifteen honorees were named Tuesday evening in a
Universal Music Group (UMG) and K-pop giant YG Entertainment have invested an undisclosed sum in an up-and-coming global digital live-streaming platform established by BTS backer Big Hit Entertainment and cloud video tech firm Kiswe, the companies announced Tuesday. Leading K-pop firm and YG rival Big Hit first linked up with New Jersey-headquartered Kiswe in an
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