The Los Angeles-based music and technology company Create Music Group has launched a beta version of Create Carbon, a credit card that it says will give music creators the ability to access their royalties as soon as they’re earned, rather waiting to receive them via regular monthly payouts. The company prides itself on showing artists
Month: February 2021
In lieu of a New Years Resolution, Paloma Elsesser has her word of the year: joy. Following the chaos of a year that robbed us of that very emotion and then some, the IMG model says she has been prioritizing her happiness. Right now, as we chat over the phone, that happiness looks a lot
James Graham, creator of hit ITV, AMC and Sony show “Quiz,” and writer of Emmy nominated “Brexit: The Uncivil War,” has created crime drama “Sherwood” for U.K. broadcaster BBC. Inspired in part by real events, the six-part series is set in the Nottinghamshire mining village where Graham grew up. The contemporary series sees two murders
AMC Networks and Toronto-based Shaftesbury have entered into a new strategic partnership that, through an investment in Shaftesbury, will grant AMC access to the production company’s slate and expand its content and development capabilities in Canada. The partnership, which builds on AMC and Shaftesbury’s existing production ties, was forged with the intention of growing Shaftesbury’s
Spain’s Bendita Film Sales has picked up worldwide sales rights to coming-of-age drama “The Saint of the Impossible,” the feature debut of Swiss director Marc Wilkins. Variety has had exclusive access to the film’s trailer. Based on a novel by Dutch writer and New York Times contributor Arnon Grunberg, “Saint” toplines Peru’s Magaly Solier (“The
Twenty-one projects have been selected to take part in the upcoming Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum’s Work-in-Progress section. It will be operated virtually alongside the Hong Kong FilMart that runs March 15-17, 2021. The ten documentary and eleven fiction film projects were selected from the 129 submissions, organizers said on Tuesday. The WIP section, open
Emmy and Tony winner Hal Holbrook, an actor best known for his role as Mark Twain, whom he portrayed for decades in one-man shows, died on Jan. 23. He was 95. Holbrook’s personal assistant, Joyce Cohen, confirmed his death to the New York Times on Monday night. Holbrook played the American novelist in a solo
A century ago, Winston Churchill made the case that “history is written by the victors,” but here in the year 2021, even — and sometimes especially — those crushed beneath the boot of authority have found ways to make their side heard. Every so often, with time, the underdog version of events wins out, putting
The sad spectacle of Brexit over the last five years has led many casual news-watchers to over-idealize the European Union, even as its uniform industry regulations and injunctions weigh harshly on a lot of innocent parties. A view from the other side comes in “Luzzu,” an honest, affecting slab of working-class portraiture, altogether bracing with
Jen Richards has joined the team at CBS’ “Clarice.” The transgender actor, writer, producer and activist was first recommended by GLAAD’s director of trans representation, Nick Adams, to consult on the show, but she will be appearing on-screen, as well. “All I can say is that the character intersects with Clarice’s storyline in a way
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the Jan 25 episode of “The Bachelor.” Last week’s episode left viewers with Matt James’ commitment to getting to the bottom of the bullying between contestants. Katie Thurston brought the drama to Matt’s attention after Anna Redman circulated a rumor that newcomer Brittany Galvin
Jamie Tarses, the TV executive and producer who was the first woman to head a Big Three network entertainment division, was remembered Monday by former colleagues and television executives as a gifted, whip-smart “force of nature” who forged a path for others in a male-dominated industry. Tarses died Monday at the age of 56. Her
Silentó, best known for his 2015 hit “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae),” has been arrested and charged with the alleged murder of his cousin, the DeKalb County Police Department confirmed to Variety. The rapper, whose real name is Ricky Hawk, is currently being held in the DeKalb County jail. Representatives for Silentó did not immediately respond
Rebecca Hall’s feature directorial debut “Passing” dives into the nuance of racial identity and the complex realities of racial passing, with Variety’s Sundance review touting Hall’s work: “This radically intimate exploration of the desperately fraught concept of ‘passing’ — being Black but pretending to be white — ought to be too ambitious for a first-time filmmaker,
Warner Bros. has announced that “Those Who Wish Me Dead,” a neo-Western film starring Angelina Jolie, has set its release date for May 14. As part of Warner Bros.’ 2021 lineup, the film will debut both in theaters and on HBO Max. Based on Michael Koryta’s 2014 novel of the same name, the film is
The enigma, at the beginning, is that the dog makes no noise. Unless you count the tinkling of his bone-shaped name-tag as he snuffles doggishly around the yard. Neighbors come by, politely, to complain about his whimpering, and his owner acknowledges the problem apologetically, but if he’s noisy, it happens offscreen. It’s that way with
If you had to say what the biggest difference is between the porn industry of the 1970s and the porn industry of today, you’d probably start with the obvious and overwhelming fact that people used to watch porn in grungy movie theaters and now access it on the Internet. You might talk about how even
Being a Hollywood assistant has always been a tough gig, but the COVID-19 pandemic has only made it tougher on the industry’s thousands of support staffers. According to the second annual #PayUpHollywood survey, which polled over a thousand support staffers, nearly 80% of respondents reported earning less than $50,000 in 2020, a 14.7% increase from
It’s been precisely a decade since the first edition of “Life in a Day” debuted at Sundance, though in internet years, that amounts to several eons. YouTube was young, Facebook was the hip subject of a hot movie, and TikTok was not yet a glimmer in a millennial developer’s eye. The film’s concept was simple
Hong Kong cinema operators and filmmakers are crying for help following a government announcement on Monday that COVID-19 social distancing measures will remain in place until Feb. 17. Crucially Hong Kong cinemas cannot reopen until after Chinese New Year and will have missed three important holiday seasons in the space of two months. The city
K-pop star Sowon’s management team apologized on Monday for photos featuring the popular GFriend girl group member posing lovingly with a mannequin dressed as a Nazi soldier. Sowon, 25, had posted the images of herself snuggling up to the Nazi-costumed dummy to her Instagram, where they quickly came under fire. One shows her closing her
The biggest challenge of discussing Mike Cahill’s “Bliss” lies in describing its premise without making it sound considerably wilder and more interesting than it actually is. In short, the film stars Owen Wilson as a sad-sack office drone who, after accidentally killing his boss, is rescued by an intense, shamanistic homeless woman played by Salma
I started writing these words on Jan. 20, 2021, a day of historical firsts: Kamala Harris was the first African American woman to be sworn in as Vice President of the United States of America. One of the first orders of business for VP Harris, also of South Asian descent (another first) was to swear
The team behind JuVee Productions, Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s production company, described how they offer a leg up to emerging creatives of color by giving them a “foot in the door” into an industry that often sidelines them. Variety, in partnership with Dell Technologies, hosted a panel conversation with JuVee CEO Davis, president of
ABC has given a pilot order to the drama “National Parks,” which hails from Kevin Costner. The project was first announced as being in development at ABC in Dec. 2019. Anthony Hemingway is now attached to executive produce and direct the pilot via Anthony Hemingway Productions. “Our partners at ABC, 20th Television and A+E Studios
In today’s TV news roundup, NBC announced the Season 20 premiere date of “The Voice,” AMC Plus moved the return of “The Walking Dead” on its streaming service up a few days early. DATES The Paley Center for Media will celebrate Black History Month with “A Salute to Black Achievements in Television presented by Citi”
To honor the first day of Black History month, on Monday the Weeknd — who is the headline halftime performer at Super Bowl LV — chose Mama’s Southern Soul Food a Black-owned restaurant in Tampa, Fla., to feed the frontline healthcare workers at AdventHealth Carrollwood. The hospital, which located near Raymond James Stadium, where the Super
Anyone who thought that a virtual Sundance Film Festival couldn’t recapture the same enthusiasm as a premiere in Park City’s Eccles Theatre would be sorely mistaken. After filmmakers, critics and journalists remotely screened “CODA,” a heartwarming family drama written and directed by Sian Heder, there was an immediate outpouring of love on social media that
Marilyn Manson‘s record label is dropping the hammer … cutting him hours after his ex, Evan Rachel Wood, publicly claimed the shock rocker abused her for years. The “Westworld” star posted a statement Monday morning, calling out her former fiance by name for the first time. She claims … “The name of my abuser is
Shochiku, a major Japanese film producer and distributor, has announced its remake of “Cube,” a 1997 fantasy-thriller by Vincenzo Natali about six people who find themselves trapped in a maze-like cube and have to figure a way out, while evading fatal traps. A Canadian production that premiered at Toronto, the original film became a cult