A docuseries based on “The 1619 Project” from New York Times Magazine’s and Nikole Hannah-Jones has been ordered at Hulu. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams will produce and oversee the series under his One Story Up production banner with producing partner and co-executive producer Geoff Martz. Williams will also direct the first episode. Emmy-nominated
Month: April 2021
The “Station Eleven” series currently in the works at HBO Max is rounding out its cast. Lori Petty and Daniel Zovatto have been cast as series regulars, while Andy McQueen, David Cross, Enrico Colantoni And Julian Obradors will recur. They join previously announced cast members including Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, David Wilmot, Nabhaan Rizwan, and
Rachael Leigh Cook will star in the Netflix original film “A Tourist’s Guide to Love,” Variety has learned exclusively. The film is based on an original idea of Cook’s with Eirene Donohue set to write the screenplay. In the film, after an unexpected break up, a travel executive (Cook) accepts an assignment to go undercover
Meet the new Amoeba… same as the old Amoeba? In many ways, yes, despite reopening in a geographically more iconic location, just a block east of the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, after year on pause. The new Hollywood outpost of Amoeba Music officially opens today, April 1, with lineups expected outside the store, at
Searchlight Pictures’ “Nomadland” has shown it has the ability to pass one of the thorniest tests in the Oscar season canon: the preferential ballot. That’s the method used for selecting a winner at the Producers Guild Awards, which is also used by the Academy Awards for choosing its top prize. On March 24, the film
The Screen Actors Guild Awards are always a unique one to predict, given the sheer size of the voting body. There are usually around 120,000 eligible voters every year, and they are spread out across the country. Often, the safe bet is to go with popular choices or names, given the broad SAG-AFTRA membership. This
Dan Stevens has been cast in the Starz series “Gaslit,” which will tell the story of the Watergate scandal, Variety has learned from sources. Stevens joins previously announced cast members Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. Roberts will star as Martha Mitchell, the protagonist and the celebrity Arkansan socialite who was one of the first to publicly
Michelle Obama and Lin-Manuel Miranda are set to appear on NBC’s “Roll Up Your Sleeves” vaccination special, which will air April 18 at 7 p.m. The special is designed to educate audiences on the importance of getting vaccinated and will also feature Matthew McConaughey interviewing Dr. Anthony Fauci, comedy acts, real-life stories and heartwarming surprises.
Longtime 20th exec Chet Dave has been tapped to lead the studio’s comedy division as senior vice president of comedy development, where he and his team will be tasked with shaping 20th’s comedy development strategy, identifying writers and guiding projects from pitch to series order. He replaces head of comedy Cheryl Dolins, who departed in
“Promising Young Woman” producers Margot Robbie and Josey McNamara believe that writer and director Emerald Fennell “can do it all.” “The great thing about Emerald as a filmmaker [is] from that very first moment she pitched us when she delivered the script, she knew the movie in her head instantly,” McNamara tells Variety’s Awards Circuit
Earlier this year, South London musician DWY (pronounced “Dewey”) released a concept album called “8-Bit Memories.” The tracks varied from “Black Boy,” an observation of society, to “Summers Over,” a song about growing up. Now the singer-songwriter has a short film, titled after the album, which producer RadicalMedia is planning to take on the festival
Olivia Rodrigo has returned with the follow-up single to her record-breaking debut release, “Drivers License,” and announced that her first album is coming on May 21. Released Thursday morning, the track, titled “Deja Vu,” details the suspicion that one’s ex-significant other is now doing everything that made a relationship special — with someone else. Rodrigo
Josh Richards, one of the most popular TikTok creators with more than 24 million followers on the short-form video platform, has signed with ICM Partners for representation in all areas. Richards previously was repped by Gersh. The 19-year-old digital influencer, entrepreneur, musician, writer, actor and host overall has more than 38 million followers across platforms.
“Moonlight” writer-director Barry Jenkins and his partners in Pastel have set up shop with HBO and HBO Max under a first-look deal that calls for A24 to executive produce all projects with the Pastel trio. Jenkins and Pastel partners Adele Romanski and Mark Ceryak had previously been under a first-look pact at Amazon Studios. The
WarnerMedia has named Asif Sadiq to the newly created role of senior vice president, equity and inclusion, international. Sadiq will be based in London, working to implement a comprehensive strategy to address all aspects of diversity across WarnerMedia’s workforce, programs, content, suppliers and community alongside the rest of the equity and inclusion team. “Asif’s proven
Prescription Songs, the independent publishing company founded by Dr. Luke, will be offering its roster of songwriters and producers the option of payment in Bitcoin. For this arrangement, the company has partnered with BitPay, a major provider of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment services. Prescription Songs’ catalog includes such hits as “Say So” by Doja Cat,
Patti Smith — singer, songwriter, poet, author and icon — will be sharing her writing in a new weekly newsletter on Substack. In a message posted Wednesday on her highly entertaining Instagram page, Smith wrote that she aims to use the newsletter to “form an inter-connective body of work for a responsive community,” posting “weekly
“Coming 2 America,” the long-awaited sequel to Eddie Murphy’s 1988 “Coming to America,” was the most-streamed title in the U.S. the week of its premiere, according to new Nielsen data. The movie, released March 4 on Amazon Prime Video, drew 1.413 billion minutes of total viewing for the week of March 1-7 among U.S. viewers,
The U.S. Supreme Court has paved the way for the FCC to relax some of its media ownership rules, reversing a lower court ruling that the commission did not take sufficient steps to study the effect of changes on women and minority owners. The nation’s high court unanimously agreed to reverse the 2017 decision by
ViacomCBS has taken a stance in opposition to the Georgia voting rights law that restricts voting access, making it the first major entertainment media corporation to do so and part of a group of vocal big businesses that include Delta and Coca-Cola. “We unequivocally believe in the importance of all Americans having an equal right
When Trishelle Cannatella quit “The Challenge” in 2013, she thought it would be her last time appearing on the MTV show. She had badly cut her foot on broken glass her first night in the house — the result of her housemates’ sloppy partying — and it became infected. After 10 days of not drinking while on antibiotics, Cannatella got wasted, and had a screaming fight with Aneesa Ferreira, who’d been told that Cannatella had made remarks behind her back about Ferreira being multiracial, in
Anchor Bret Baier has renewed his contract with Fox News Channel, extending a pact that was last negotiated in 2019. The deal will keep Baier at the network through 2025 and will maintain his roles as anchor and executive editor of the Fox Corp. network’s “Special Report” and as the outlet’s chief political anchor. The
Introducing a musical performance at the Academy Awards isn’t normally the biggest of deals, but for Chilean newcomer Daniela Vega, it was a landmark opportunity: At the 2018 ceremony, she became the first transgender person ever to present at the Oscars. The film that got her there, meanwhile, had already made history that same night.
Following on “Medici: Masters of Florence,” with Dustin Hoffman and Richard Madden, and “Leonardo,” starring Aidan Turner, Italy’s Lux Vide is teaming with ex-Hasbro chief content officer Stephen J. Davis (“Transformers”) to produce what may be its most ambitious production yet: “The Rising.” The English-language historical drama series focuses on what it described as the
For the past two years, the Academy Award for international feature has been a foregone conclusion. With both “Parasite,” and “Roma,” the overriding question was which other categories they might take, and in a history-making achievement now wistfully recalled by many as “the last good thing to happen before lockdown,” “Parasite” took both the international
The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center have announced the 50th anniversary edition of New Directors/ New Films. The annual program will be held virtually on April 28 through May 8, with in-person screening extending through May 14 at Film at Lincoln Center. This year’s festival is introducing 27 features and 11
Hemisphere Media Group said it is acquiring the remaining 75% stake of Pantaya, the U.S. Hispanic subscription video streaming service, from Lionsgate for about $124 million in cash. Pantaya was launched in August 2017 through a joint venture between Hemisphere and Lionsgate; previously, Hemisphere owned 25% of Pantaya. Currently, Pantaya has about 900,000 paying subscribers
Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino and Denmark’s Thomas Vinterberg first met years ago when the directors’ respective films “The Great Beauty” and “The Hunt” were both nominated for the 2014 Foreign Language Film Oscar, which Sorrentino’s pic won. Vinterberg was the only colleague on the awards circuit whom Sorrentino was really fond of, he recalls in an
The Oscar-nominated live action shorts come from filmmakers based in the U.S., U.K, and the Mideast. They all center on the human desire to be seen as people. Feeling Through Doug Roland and Susan RuzenskiRoland’s entry into the deaf-blind community came through a chance meeting about 10 years ago with a man holding up a
“Godzilla vs. Kong” debuted in the U.S. on Wednesday and nabbed a sizable $9.6 million, marking the best opening day total of the coronavirus era. It has the added benefit of playing in more theaters than any other movie that has been released during the pandemic. “Godzilla vs. Kong” screened in 2,409 venues on Wednesday