Month: February 2023

The story of Italy’s most-wanted Mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro, whose recent arrest by police in Palermo after 30 years on the run made global headlines, is set to become a big-budget film. Rome-based producer Marco Belardi (“Perfect Strangers”) has acquired rights to ace anti-Mafia journalist Lirio Abbate’s book about the Cosa Nostra boss. The
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Banijay company Tiger Aspect has promoted head of drama Lucy Bedford to managing director, reporting into Banijay U.K. CEO Patrick Holland. Bedford, who takes up her new role immediately, has appointed Gabriel Silver, previously director of commissioning, drama at Sky studios, as creative director,  drama. Bedford will be responsible for the creative leadership of the
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Actor Phil Davis has dramatically resigned his BAFTA membership following last Sunday’s awards ceremony, calling the show an “embarrassing travesty.” Davis, who has appeared in film and TV projects including “Doctor Who,” “Vera Drake” and “Alien 3,” cited host Richard E. Grant’s introduction – during which he pretended to arrive in a Batmobile before appearing
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Watching “Kiss the Future,” a documentary about the band U2’s relationship with wartorn Sarajevo in the 1990s, it’s hard not to think: “We’ve seen this movie before.” That’s not to do with the doc itself so much as how aspects of the 30-year-old footage from Bosnia’s brutal civil war parallel what we’ve seen in the
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ITV has revealed first-look images for crime drama “Six Four,” starring Kevin McKidd (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and Vinette Robinson (“Boiling Point,” “Sherlock”) as leads Chris and Michelle O’Neill. The four-part drama, inspired by the bestselling novel “Six Four” by Hideo Yokoyama, is created by BAFTA Scotland-winning screenwriter, Gregory Burke (“Black Watch”). Set primarily in Glasgow, the
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Rising filmmakers were honored Wednesday night at the inaugural Sony Future Filmmaker Awards. The award show, created by Creo and Sony, celebrates creators and independent filmmakers across the globe. The filmmakers received a cash prize, a trip to Los Angeles and an industry immersion experience led by Sony Pictures execs. Thirty filmmakers were honored across
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NPR will lay off 10% of its workers, or at least 100 employees, as the public radio broadcaster has been pinched by a slowdown in advertising and sponsorship revenue particularly for its lineup of podcasts. Final decisions about which jobs will be cut are expected to be made by March 20, in consultation with unions
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Half a century ago Hollywood was frantically trying to figure out the newly-dominant “youth market.” Since some of that market had recently found Jesus, there was a brief spate of related films: Zefferelli’s hippie-fied St. Francis biopic “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” adapted stage musicals “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Godspell,” the Billy Graham-produced “A Time to
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Showtime’s upcoming series, “Waco: The Aftermath,” will debut on the streaming service and on-demand April 14, followed by its linear premiere on April 16 at 10 p.m. A first-look image has been released in addition to the premiere date (see above). “Waco: The Aftermath” follows the 2018 limited series “Waco,” which retold the true story
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The V&A Museum in London has acquired a massive, 80,000-piece archive of material from the estate of David Bowie, it confirmed today. The archive contains items including handwritten notebooks, letters, costumes, instruments, awards, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set designs and more — many of which were exhibited during the “David Bowie Is” traveling museum
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Documentary filmmaker and producer Ben Cotner has joined celebrity-driven online learning platform MasterClass as vice president of creative, leading the company’s creative and development teams. Cotner reports to chief content officer Len Amato, the former HBO exec who joined MasterClass a year ago. Cotner joined indie studio A24 in 2019 as head of documentaries where
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer confirmed in an interview with Time magazine that the organization has implemented a new “crisis team” for the upcoming 2023 Oscars in order to quickly navigate any potential real-time emergency. The creation of a crisis team is a response to the 2022 Oscars, where Will
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Acclaimed actor Vijay Varma is one of the leads in “Dahaad” (“Roar”), the first Indian series to compete in the Berlinale Series competition. Produced by Excel Entertainment and Tiger Baby and directed by Reema Kagti (Amazon’s Prime Video series “Made in Heaven”) and Ruchika Oberoi (Venice winner “Island City”), the series’ other leads are Sonakshi Sinha, Gulshan Devaiah and
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Chase Stokes is the star of Netflix’s smash hit teen drama “Outer Banks,” but it turns out he missed his chance to be in an even bigger Netflix blockbuster. Speaking to Access Hollywood ahead of “Outer Banks” Season 3 launching on Netflix, Stokes revealed that he auditioned to play Steve Harrington in “Stranger Things” but
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Isabella Pollok, a member of the Sarah Lawrence sex cult featured in the Hulu docuseries “Stolen Youth,” was sentenced Wednesday to 54 months in federal prison. Pollok, 31, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit money laundering, avoiding a trial. According to prosecutors, she served as the chief lieutenant to Lawrence Ray, who relied
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From “All Quiet on the Western Front” sparking tears for Colin Farrell to “Triangle of Sadness” making Brian Tyree Henry laugh so hard he cried, this year’s Oscar hopefuls spoke with Variety‘s senior culture and events editor Marc Malkin at the annual nominee luncheon about which film most recently brought them to tears. For Farrell
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