Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you haven’t watched “See You on the Other Side,” the Season 1 finale of “Surface,” now streaming on Apple TV+. What began with a leap ended with a cliffhanger as Apple TV+’s “Surface” closed out its first season with some good old-fashioned revenge and an enticing tease of the
Month: September 2022
Fans who love Rose McIver in holiday programming (see “The Christmas Prince” and its sequels) as much as they love her in “Ghosts” are in for a Yuletide treat. This season, the CBS comedy will include a special double holiday episode, Variety has exclusively learned. The back-to-back episodes will air Thursday, Dec. 15. Per the
In vampire movies, from “Nosferatu” to the “Twilight” films to “Only Lovers Left Alive,” bloodsucking is usually more than just bloodsucking — it’s about sex, addiction, power — and that’s why the main event in a vampire movie doesn’t have to be the literal spectacle of watching fangs tear into human flesh. The elegance of
John Harwood, a White House correspondent who joined CNN in 2020, is leaving the network — the latest exit in recent weeks as executives appear to be mulling the news outlet’s roster in the aftermath of corporate parent Discovery’s acquisition of WarnerMedia. Harwood, a veteran Beltway journalist whose career has taken him to The Wall
Nick Lowe and Shakespeare were wrong, about having to be cruel to be kind. A tour stop Tuesday in Anaheim that had Lowe supporting headliner Elvis Costello as an opening act before eventually joining him for three climactic duets was kindly and 100% cruelty-free, reuniting the two former studio workmates in a fashion that made
Content studio Propogate, who are currently working on Netflix’s upcoming Anna Nicole Smith documentary, are opening a London office. The company has also appointed Catalina Ramirez and Dan Thunell to co-heads of Propagate International, the company’s global distribution arm. Ramirez has been upped from Propagate International’s vice president of sales and acquisitions. Her new role
Being an actor sure comes in handy when it comes time to make a wedding speech. Jennifer Lopez revealed in her “On the JLo” newsletter that Ben Affleck slipped a line of dialogue he wrote for his 2016 directorial effort “Live By Night” into his wedding speech to her. Fortunately, the line was one of
After an unexpectedly robust summer at the international box office, there is a near-term question mark about what will happen next: Will recovery stall due to a paucity of Hollywood tentpole movies? Or will international theatrical decouple and find new drivers to maintain the momentum? The good news is that most of the international market’s
It’s Timothée Chalamet Day in Venice. This isn’t a national holiday, but perhaps it should be. It’s just past 1:30 p.m. outside the Venice Film Festival’s Sala Casino, and a crowd of youth have set aside work and school commitments to travel into the Lido to catch a glimpse of the American superstar arriving for
British synthpop pioneer Howard Jones has signed with Jonathan Wolfson, joining a roster that includes Daryl Hall & John Oates, Loverboy and Fee Waybill’s The Tubes. “Being a proud Gen X-er, I was always a big fan,” said Wolfson. “Not only was Howard Jones a ubiquitous force on MTV, but his eternally optimistic songs have
Tom Cruise’s blockbuster sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” has roared into the record books as the No. 1 best-selling digital sell-through title ever in the U.S. in its first week of release — at least, that’s according to Paramount Home Entertainment. The studio said “Top Gun: Maverick,” which was released on digital Aug. 23, 2022, also
“The lessons of the fire, as we reach for something higher,” a voice wails as images of flying crows and blood dripping down a rose’s thorny stem flood the screen. “With eyes we’ve all come to know, he’s the devil in Ohio.” This theme song has a self-conscious ludicrousness that’s ultimately earned by the series
Taylor Swift is about to become the hottest ticket at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The singer and songwriting star will appear in conversation with TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey and introduce her short film, “All Too Well,” at the annual celebration of movies. “In Conversation With… Taylor Swift” will take place on Friday, Sept. 9,
When it comes to fashion campaigns, few are more iconic than Calvin Klein. For decades, being handpicked to rock jeans and underwear has stood for much more than simply showing a little skin: it’s a sign of transcending a moment and becoming a bonafide cultural icon. For its fall campaign, the brand whittled its tried-and-true
The makers of hit Netflix series “The Crown” have revealed who is set to play Prince William and Kate Middleton in Season 6. Two actors have been cast as the young prince: 16-year-old Rufus Kampa and 21-year-old Ed McVey. Meanwhile Meg Bellamy will play Kate Middleton. Left to right: Ed McVey, Prince William in 2001
Romeo Santos is back with the highly-anticipated third installment of his “Formula” series, “Formula Vol. 3,” which comes today via Sony Latin. This time around, the set boasts collaborators like Rosalía, Christian Nodal, Santos’ own children and Justin Timberlake — who croons a few lines in Spanish for the ballad “Sin Fin.” Keeping with the
Taylor Swift is not the only one re-recording fairly recent albums. Now Brandi Carlile has done it, although with very different reasons than the ones that prompted Swift to revisit her catalog. Carlile has gone back into the studio to redo last year’s “In These Silent Days” in its entirety, in a new, acoustic-focused version
On Friday morning, Timothée Chalamet blasted the social media world we are living in at the Venice press conference for Luca Guadagino’s “Bones and All” in which he and co-star Taylor Russell play cannibal lovers on a road trip across America. Taking his cue from the fact that the story is set in the ’80s,
Just before director Christopher Nolan’s upcoming “Oppenheimer” plants a fixed image of Ted Hall in the popular imagination, along comes Steve James’s sensitive, studious documentary “A Compassionate Spy” to preemptively set any records straight. Unpacking the life and work of the prodigious teenage Manhattan Project physicist who passed key information about the endeavor to the
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are returning to U.K. – and to reality TV. The reigning couple of metal have signed on to a new docuseries titled “Home to Roost,” which will document their journey back to Britain as they re-start their lives in the countryside. “The series will follow the Osbournes as they celebrate one
The BBC has announced it will donate the sales proceeds of its 1995 “Panorama” interview with Princess Diana to charity. The broadcaster is donating £1.42 million ($1.6 million) to be split between seven charities linked to the princess, including Centrepoint, the English National Ballet and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. The corporation emphasized that
“Walls Can Talk,” the latest film by Spain Carlos Saura, director of “Raise Ravens,” “Deprisa, Deprisa” and “Carmen,” has been acquired for intentional sales by Madrid-based Latido. Produced by María del Puy Alvarado at Malvalanda (“Madre,” “The Mole Agent”) and distributed in Spain by José Maria nd Miguel Morales’ Wanda Vision, “Walls Can Talk” will
The political activism of pop stars is, as a rule, on the restrained side. Those who make their allegiances clear still tend to keep all factions in their fanbases sweet by limiting divisive rhetoric, or filtering their politics through broadly palatable humanitarian causes; those who speak a little more frankly still risk the wrath of
Prolific Singapore-based production company Akanga Film Asia, led by producer Fran Borgia, has revealed a robust film slate, including several global co-productions. Borgia and filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua teamed on 2018 film “A Land Imagined,” which reaped a rich haul of awards around the world, including top prizes at Locarno, Golden Horse, El Gouna, Pingyao,
Dystopian narratives have been popular with filmmakers lately, in times when dark prophecies resonate. But sometimes life pens a much better script than any screenwriter could, as is the case with Giulia Amati’s “Kristos, The Last Child,” which has its world premiere Friday in Venice Days, a sidebar of the Venice Film Festival. Leipzig-based Deckert
Master documentary filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi, whose “Sacro Gra” won the Venice Golden Lion in 2013, is back on the Lido with “In Viaggio,” a doc about Pope Francis’ travels in which the director creates a counterpoint between archival footage and images that Rosi shot himself. Variety has been given access to an exclusive clip (above)
Two Korean and two Indian movies make the cut in the Busan International Film Festival’s New Currents main competition section. Thet are joined by one each from Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Germany. The section has a track record of making significant discoveries among new Asian films and directors.The selected titles are eligible for multiple
Over 700 U.K. production companies, ranging from tiny indies to industry titans, have signed an open letter addressed to the next U.K. Prime Minister urging the privatization of public broadcaster Channel 4 to be halted in its tracks. Current Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who resigned in July but remains in office until next Monday (Sept.
Meghan Markle continued her reign atop Spotify’s podcast charts worldwide for the second week in a row, as the Duchess of Sussex’s “Archetypes” continues to attract a robust listenership. As of Friday, “Archetypes” ranked as the No. 1 podcast on Spotify in seven countries: the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, India, Australia, and New Zealand. It
The Italian film industry is in a paradoxical state: production is booming but box office is bust. Italy’s five features vying for a Venice Golden Lion – plus a myriad more scattered in other Lido sections – reflect cinema Italiano’s current creative vibrancy, if you look at the cream of the crop; however, the average