“DaBaby is in the building!” The anticipation for the “Rockstar” rapper’s arrival had been somewhat palpable at Drai’s Beachclub & Nightclub in Las Vegas on Saturday, but not like a typical concert. The doors opened at 11 a.m. and the crowd was happily occupied by the crystal blue pools, floating beach balls and seemingly endless
Month: April 2022
The 7th MipDrama – an industry centrepiece at Cannes MipTV trade fair – wrapped with Germany’s “House of Promises” scooping the prestigious Buyers’ Coup de Cœur award. The romantic drama proved the clear favorite among the MipDrama audience gathered in the Debussy Theatre at Cannes’ Palais des Festivals, receiving the most rapturous applause of the
You could say, going back to Hitchcock or the silent-film era, that the thriller is the quintessential form of cinema. You could also say that the quintessential moment of a thriller is one that makes you go “Oh. My. God.” When that happens (kind of a rare occurrence these days), it’s a privileged and intoxicating
Germany has been a source of shows for the international market for decades, but with series like “Deutschland 83” in 2015, and “Babylon Berlin” and “Dark” in 2017, the bar was raised and the sense of what constituted German drama shifted, and international buyers took note. One of them was Christian Vesper, who bought “Deutschland
Jacob Batalon is best known as Spidey’s BFF Ned Leeds in the box office-smashing “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” but he’s exploring his undead side in upcoming Syfy comedy drama “Reginald the Vampire.” In the series, based on Johnny B. Truant’s “Fat Vampire” novels, Batalon plays a recently turned vampire, Reginald, who finds he still has
“Morbius,” the latest comic book adventure from Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters, opened in first place at the domestic box office, though ticket sales were considerably softer than recent superhero blockbusters. Dinged by comically terrible reviews, “Morbius” sunk its teeth into $39.1 million from 4,268 North American theaters in its first weekend of release. That
Limonero Films, a boutique distributor of factual shows and documentaries, based in London, has announced a string of sales ahead of MipTV. Make Waves Media’s “Thirties in Color: Countdown to War” has been sold to Japan’s NHK, Italy’s RAI, Spain’s RTVE and Germany’s RTL, which also licensed “Victorian Britain on Film” and “Wild Relations.” The
Veteran businessman Ian Cheshire has been appointed the next chair of U.K. broadcaster Channel 4, media regulator Ofcom revealed on Sunday. Cheshire will join the broadcaster’s board on Apr. 11, succeeding interim chair Dawn Airey. Cheshire is currently chair of Spire Healthcare plc, chair of the environmental investment trust Menhaden plc, and a non-executive director
The latest from Belgium’s Eyeworks Film & TV Drama and director Wouter Bouvijn – who teamed on Canneseries hits “The Twelve” and “Red Light” – “1985,” sold by Studiocanal, works on multiple levels as a coming-of-age series. Two young Gendarmarie police recruits, Marc and Franky, and his sis Vicky, a law student and pirate radio
An eerily quaint and picturesque Galician town sets the scene for a chilling high-profile murder in “Rapa,” the highly anticipated follow-up to Spain’s Movistar Plus hit “Hierro.” After coming to the aid of bloodied Mayor Amparo Seoane (Mabel Rivera), lone witness and stymied professor Tomás (Javier Cámara, star of Almodóvar’s “Talk to Her”) becomes obsessed
One of the highlights of the April 2 episode of “Saturday Night Live” was the return of Pete Davidson, who had missed a few previous episodes due to a busy film shooting schedule. Luckily, he was in the mood to rap, praising his love for time-efficient cinema in the music video for “Short-Ass Movie.” The
In anticipation of screening at Cannes’ MipTV market, Beta Film, which handles distribution, has provided Variety exclusive access to the international trailer for Greek abduction thriller “Silent Road.” Written by Melina Tsampani and Petros Kalkovalis and directed by Vardis Marinakis, the series dissects the entangled lives of an affluent family in Athens after a school bus carrying
Though embattled by a staff and talent revolt over its stance on incendiary policies toward trans youth, the Walt Disney Company pulled off a significant win at the 2022 GLAAD Media Awards on Saturday. The entertainment giant’s Marvel Studios division won the media watchdog’s prize for outstanding wide release film, for Chloé Zhao’s “Eternals.” As
On the heels of a rare public gaffe for The Walt Disney Co. — regarding the media giant’s silence over Florida’s incendiary “Don’t Say Gay” law — the GLAAD Media Awards used its annual Los Angeles show to caution the rest of Hollywood about the perils of ignoring the LGBT community. “Don’t wait until you’re
If you were expecting this week’s “Saturday Night Live” to kick off with a sketch parodying the Will Smith/Chris Rock slap at the Oscars, you may have been disappointed by the cold open. (That came later.) The slap was indeed mentioned, but it was just one of several topics brought up as the show once
Estelle Harris, who memorably played George’s mother Estelle Costanza on “Seinfeld” and was the indelible voice of Mrs. Potato Head in the “Toy Story” franchise, has died at 93 years old, her representative Michael Eisenstadt confirmed to Variety. Harris was best known for her distinctive voice and comedic timing, forever cemented by her role as
Cody Rhodes made his return to WWE on Saturday night at WrestleMania 38, coming back to the promotion that he famously exited nearly six years ago. In that time, Rhodes has wrestled all over the world and was integral to the founding of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), the rival wrestling promotion run by Tony Khan.
Separately from each other, producers Mike Dean (pictured above) and Jeff Bhasker (below) are both synth gods in their own right. As a unit, performing their first show on Friday (April 1) at OffSunset in West Hollywood, the two were otherworldly. The intimate set reunited the Kanye West collaborators, who each have five Grammy Awards,
There are very few people that can claim to have stamped the collective visual consciousness the way Ukrainian director Tanu Muino has. Her colorful and undeniably memorable iconography is what led her to be nominated alongside Lil Nas X for best music video at the 2022 Grammys for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” Muino’s
UCLA’s latest Hollywood Diversity Report found some improvement in 2022 in regards to hiring women and people of color, but activist group FWD-Doc is demanding that UCLA address other overlooked groups such as LGBTQIA+ individuals and the “invisible minority” — disabled people — in the industry. Jim LeBrecht, co-founder of FWD-Doc and co-director of the
Sydney Sweeney says her favorite meme from Season 2 of “Euphoria” is the one from Cassie’s bathroom meltdown scene in episode three. “I would have to say it’s the ‘I’ve never ever been happier’ meme. I love that meme,” she told Variety on Saturday at the Canneseries TV festival, being held on France’s Côte d’Azur. Asked
As the Will Smith–Chris Rock feud simmers down, so too has another long-standing beef in Hollywood — namely, the one between Mo’Nique and Lee Daniels … which is awesome. The two stars officially buried the hatchet Friday night at the Mo’Nique’s comedy show in Staten Island, where she brought out Daniels as a surprise guest
With due respect to Joni Mitchell’s lyrical prowess, never were there less prophetic words than “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” — if only for the due that Mitchell herself is receiving while she is around to take it in. The queen of singer-songwriters got
Netflix has slowed development on its upcoming action-thriller “Fast and Loose,” which Will Smith has been attached to star in. The project has been moved to the streamer’s back burner in the days following the 2022 Oscars ceremony, during which Smith walked onstage and slapped Chris Rock after the comedian made a joke about the
Check out the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Official TV Spot starring Elizabeth Olsen! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Sign up for a Fandango FanALERT for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: https://www.fandango.com/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-222999/movie-overview?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc Want to be notified of all the latest movie trailers? Subscribe to the
Anyone who feels the Grammy Awards can be stodgy today might want to consider how far the show has come since the 1990s. Not only was it an utterly abysmal time for fashion — The hair! The shoulder pads! The big, stiff suits! — but the music industry was riding the CD boom, which took profits
After consoling Will Smith after Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, Denzel Washington has now spoken publicly about what happened at last Sunday’s awards show. Washington attended author and bishop T.D. Jakes’ leadership summit on Saturday morning for a discussion about his career and faith when Jakes asked him about what happened between Smith
Crime has always been part of television’s DNA, but in global marketplaces, true crime is enjoying unprecedented levels of success across the streamers and on more traditional outlets. Earlier this year, Shonda Rhimes’ “Inventing Anna,” starring Julia Garner as the fake heiress Anna Sorokin (aka Anna Delvey), became one of Netflix’s biggest shows ever. “Inventing
They say that a person should never invite a vampire into one’s house, but what about a vampire inviting a person into a movie theater? It seems that a modest amount of viewers are accepting that request, as Columbia Pictures’ “Morbius,” starring Jared Leto, is sinking its teeth into the domestic box office’s top spot
Gillian Anderson, speaking at a masterclass at the Canneseries TV festival on France’s Côte d’Azur Saturday, teased that she is developing “something else” based on the life of a historical figure, following her roles as Margaret Thatcher in “The Crown” and Eleanor Roosevelt in upcoming series “The First Lady.” No further details were forthcoming from