ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS) has boarded Rob Schneider’s “Love is Love,” a new Paramount Plus Original film which marks the multihyphenate’s Spanish-language directorial debut. Schneider also stars in the movie, which VIS is producing in association with transatlantic film and TV production companies El Estudio and Infinity Hill. “Love is Love” will shoot in Mexico
Month: December 2021
Rome-based 102 Distribution is bringing onto the market the Mexico-Italo co-production “500 Millions of Red Shoes,” directed by first time director Carlos Eichelmann Kaiser and co-produced by Mexico’s BHD Film. Gabriela Maldonado and Alexandro de Icaza are producing for BHD. “500 Million” was financed by Mexico’s Imcine film agency with the Eficine tax incentive instrument
Filmax has acquired international rights to “Amazing Elisa,” the newest title from Spanish director and fantastic festival name-stay Sadrac González-Perellón. The Barcelona-based boutique studio will screen a promo of “Amazing Elisa” during this week’s 2021 Ventana Sur market. The pick-up sees Filmax returning, this time as just as a sales agent, to the auteur genre
Growing up is never easy. Especially if you’re a parent. Winner of Ventana Sur’s $10,000 Paradiso WIP Award, one of the biggest prizes at the event, and one of the buzzed up titles this year in its Copia Final pix-in-post section, “Mars One” ‘Mars One’ portrays a lower middle-class Black family keeping its dreams alive
In time for International Day of Persons with Disabilities, this Friday, Dec. 3, ABC Owned Television Stations has produced “Our America: Accomplices – The Story of Ady Barkan,” which is set to premiere the same day on Hulu. The half-hour special follows the story of Ady Barkan, a lawyer and activist who has become a
The world is one big carnival, and we’re all just suckers — or “marks,” in the parlance of the traveling grifters so effective at fleecing those poor rubes who are not with it — in Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley.” A perfect match of material to auteur, William Lindsay Gresham’s pulpy 1946 novel and the
Finland’s leading indie company Rabbit Films, which has been thriving with non-scripted content for two decades, including local adaptations of “Saturday Night Live” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” has bowed its scripted division with a bang. Under the leadership of CEO Olli Suominen, the Helsinki-headquartered company has built a bullish slate including some
Three members of K-pop group BTS have sold some of their shareholdings in Hybe Corporation, the management company that launched them, netting them a combined $8.4 million. All seven idols are expected to miss the Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMAs) awards show in Seoul, following the reintroduction of health restrictions in South Korea due to
Carlos Santana has canceled several of his upcoming Las Vegas concerts to recover from a successful unscheduled heart procedure. No other specifics have been given on the nature of the operation. Santana made the announcement through a video posted to his official Twitter on Wednesday afternoon. “Last Saturday, I had an incident where my wife
The first reactions to Searchlight Pictures’ “Nightmare Alley” are thundering in following the film’s global premiere in New York City on Wednesday evening. Film critics and entertainment writers who attended the high-profile screening took to social media, praising Guillermo del Toro’s follow-up to his 2017 best picture winner “The Shape of Water.” Based on William
There are two movies within Searchlight Pictures’ “Nightmare Alley.” One makes eight-time nominee Bradley Cooper a long overdue Oscar winner. The other would add another statue to the shelf of visionary director Guillermo del Toro. Depending on which one entices an Academy voter, they could fall for one, both or neither of the options. The
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched “The Masked Singer” Season 6, Episode 11, “Group A Finale,” which aired December 2 on Fox. “The Masked Singer” has gotta have Faith. Singer Faith Evans was unmasked as the Skunk on the eleventh episode of Season 6, “Group A Finale.” She didn’t stink
Now more than ever, representation matters in the hyper-competitive world of music-making as firms have set their sights on synch, streaming and other avenues of monetization for their clients. Ricky Reed, Murda Beatz, Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins and Ian Kirkpatrick are just a few of the songwriters and producers represented by the managers below. Larry WadeDecible
Interpolations — which incorporate elements of familiar songs into new ones — are a phenomenon that’s here to stay in many genres. Like using gonzo remakes of classic tracks in trailers, it’s a way of catching the ear of older listeners, and as long as the mashup still works for younger music fans who don’t
‘Virtual production’ enthusiasts bemoaned high start-up costs and lack of cross-disciplinary talent as impediments to the growth of the technology in Asia, even as the pandemic forces changes in production practices in the region. Building out an LED volume, such as those used in the making of “The Mandalorian,” can cost millions of dollars, which
Diverse aspects of the human condition are key drivers of the projects from Vietnam selected at the Southeast Asia Film Lab, which is part of the Singapore Media Festival. Linh Dan Nguyen Phan went to film school in New York and then went to Vietnam and worked as a cinematographer and also directed a few
Acclaimed Germany based Indonesian filmmaker Monica Vanesa Tedja is preparing for her feature directorial project “Dear Family,” selected at the Southeast Asia Film Lab, which is part of the Singapore Media Festival. Tedja got hooked on the medium watching her father film family vacations with his handycam when she was seven. She studied filmmaking for
“billy12” is the name that is typed out at the bottom of William Orbit’s Zoom square as he appears on screen from his home in London, England. It’s an unassuming way for Orbit, who is practically a mythical figure in music, to refer to himself. The longstanding producer and artist has materialized over and over
Tyler Perry has shared his mourning over the death of Jacqueline Avant, stating that “every available resource will be used” to help find the philanthropist’s killer. Avant, the 81-year-old wife of music industry legend Clarence Avant and mother of Nicole Avant, was fatally shot early Wednesday morning by a home intruder at her Beverly Hills
Scripted formats and gameshows are performing strongly in Asia for Banijay Rights, the distribution arm of Banijay. “Grantchester” is a strong seller and the company licensed dramas such as “The Good Karma Hospital,” “Younger” and European titles locally to partners like Mola TV, says Banijay Rights EVP Asia Rashmi Bajpai. ” ‘Mr. Bean’ is an
Movie theaters across the globe have been experiencing a kind of pent-up demand that hasn’t been seen in… a while. At the center of stratospheric anticipation is everyone’s friendly neighborhood web-slinger, who takes the spotlight in Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” The comic book epic, which serves as a culmination to the Tom Holland-led trilogy
Capitalizing on its strength in video gaming, UTA is in the process of raising $200 million through a SPAC designed to pursue acquisitions of gaming-related companies. On Wednesday, UTA confirmed that the UTA Acquisition Corp. has launched an offering of 20 million shares priced at $10. Shares will trade on NASDAQ as of Thursday under
Cobie Smulders is set to appear in the “Secret Invasion” series at Disney Plus, Variety has confirmed. Smulders will reprise the role of SHIELD agent Maria Hill in the series. She joins a cast that already includes stars like Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Olivia Colman, and Emilia Clarke. The role reunites Smulders with
Lana Cho, a writer and producer whose credits include “I Know What You Did Last Summer” for Amazon Prime Video and the upcoming “American Seoul” for Hulu, has signed a multi-year overall deal at 20th Television. Cho will create her own comedies and dramas for all platforms while supervising series from other writers. As her
Variety’s “On the Carpet” pre-show from its fifth annual Hitmakers event, presented by Peacock and “Girls5eva,” will be streamed exclusively on Variety.com and on Amazon Music’s Twitch page starting at 11:30 a.m. PT on Saturday. Variety senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson and senior culture and events editor Marc Malkin host the red-carpet event live,
In today’s podcast roundup, Spotify and Apple have released their year-end rankings and lists of the top podcasts of 2021, among other news from the world of audio entertainment. RANKINGS Spotify revealed the most popular podcasts on its platform for 2021 — with controversial talk show “The Joe Rogan Experience” taking the No. 1 slot
The Berlin Film Festival is forging ahead with plans for an in-person celebration this February, though the new Omicron COVID-19 variant is forcing conversations about contingency plans, multiple individuals familiar with the matter told Variety. While festival insiders described the group as “determined” to gather in-person, there have been talks about pushing the event as
Susan Arnold, a veteran of consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble as well as the Carlyle Group investment firm, will take the reins as chairman of Walt Disney Co.’s board of directors, succeeding Bob Iger in the role when he departs on December 31. The transition will mark the end of an era for the big
A new documentary will tell the story about the fight against HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles. APLA Health announced on Wednesday, World AIDS Day, that production has begun on “Commitment to Life,” a feature-length doc about how AIDS activists, doctors, celebrities and studio executives changed the course of the epidemic. The film will feature stories about
Sequels, by their nature, are a remix of what’s come before: a new iteration of characters we’ve already met and a story we already know. In the latest trailer for “The Matrix Resurrections” — the sequel to the first “Matrix” trilogy that concluded 18 years ago with “The Matrix Revolutions” — it’s clear that director