Month: September 2021

Mara Brock Akil has launched the new production company story27 under her previously announced overall deal at Netflix. In addition, Akil has hired Susie Fitzgerald as president of development and production. “At story27, thoughtful and entertaining projects centering the humanity of the marginalized is the priority and that starts with identifying the best and most
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All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. The curtains are finally rising again on Broadway this month, with theaters officially reopening at full capacity. The
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“Aline,” the biopic loosely based on French Canadian hitmaker Celine Dion, has been acquired by Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films for U.S. distribution. The critically acclaimed musical comedy-drama world premiered out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It will be released theatrically in the U.S. in early 2022. Lemercier, one of France’s most
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The first trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” is here. The film will have a limited release on Nov. 26 and expand nationwide on Dec. 25. Set in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley during the 1970s, “Licorice Pizza” stars Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie, Valley native Alana Haim and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son Cooper Hoffman,
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Roblox and the National Music Publishers’ Association today announced an agreement that “settles any previous claims against Roblox and sets the foundation for future partnerships with global publishers that will unlock new creative and commercial opportunities on its platform,” according to the announcement. In June, a group of music publishers sued Roblox through the NMPA
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Condragulations are in order for Irish presenter Graham Norton, who’s set to host “Queen of the Universe,” a new unscripted international drag queen singing competition, Variety can reveal. Produced by “RuPaul’s Drag Race” producers World of Wonder, the Eurovision-style series finds countries going head to head with their top drag queens putting their real singing voices to
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Trevor Phillips has achieved the rare distinction of becoming both a national treasure and something of a provocateur in the U.K. Over the past four decades, he has turned his hand to writing, broadcasting, documentary-making, politics and even retail (he spent four years as president of U.K. department store John Lewis’s “partnership council”), among other
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Talks with Edward Enninful, editor-in-chief of British Vogue and European editorial director of Vogue and Ed Guiney, producer of “Normal People” and “Room,” are among the highlights of the BFI London Film Festival’s industry program. The festival’s LFF Connects strand, which celebrates the intersection between film and other creative industries, features Enninful and will explore
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ACQUISITION Red Arrow Studios International has picked up international rights to “Controlling Britney Spears,” the follow-up documentary to “Framing Britney Spears,” produced by The New York Times and Red Arrow Studios’ Left/Right. The documentary was inspired by a confidential report obtained by The New York Times in which Spears told a court investigator that her
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James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the long-time custodians of the iconic spy, have said the prospect of replacing Daniel Craig isn’t something they’re entertaining until 2022. In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s popular Today program on Monday morning, the half-siblings and heads of Bond outfit Eon Productions were asked if
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“Fever dream” has lately become an overused term in film marketing and criticism alike, often generically applied to anything faintly strange or surreal with fractured storytelling trickery and a lick of gauzy ambience. As a title for the latest feature from Peruvian director Claudia Llosa, it serves a similarly loose, woolly purpose, despite not being
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Indian film producers have set release dates for long-delayed Bollywood films that star the cream of the industry and have blockbuster potential. The moves follow an announcement by authorities in the state of Maharashtra, India’s biggest box office territory, that cinemas can re-open on Oct. 22 as the pandemic dies down. From Reliance Entertainment, Rohit
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Almost a year after the Tony Award nominations dropped, it’s finally time to announce the winners. Amid rising health concerns Broadway (and theater across the globe) went dark in March of 2020 as the world battled the pandemic. Only very recently has the curtain raised on the theater industry, with emotional returns for shows like
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