Month: March 2023

When Lee Unkrich was 12, he saw “The Shining” for the first time. He remembers less from the screening than what happened shortly afterward, which set in motion a lifelong obsession with Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece of horror. On his way to summer camp, Unkrich bought the movie tie-in edition of Stephen King’s novel. “There were
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The trio behind Mediawan, the French company which recently acquired a majority stake in Brad Pitt’s Plan B, have made an offer to buy CGR Cinema, France’s second biggest multiplex chain, Variety has confirmed. The bid has been made by Pierre-Antoine Capton and French telecom tycoon Xavier Niel, the co-founders of Mediawan. Capton and Niel
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Kino Lorber has bought U.S. and Anglo-Canadian distribution rights to Nicolas Philibert’s poignant documentary “On the Adamant” which just won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical release later this year followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms. Sold by Films du
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ABC’s “The Bachelor” has earned a victory with its latest season. With a 2.39 rating, the January Season 27 premiere measures as the series’ highest-rated multiplatform telecast in 1 year among the adults 18-49 key demo. That’s its highest rating since Jan. 24, 2022 according to data from Nielsen. Additionally, “The Bachelor” premiere outperformed the
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Karamo Brown’s syndicated talk show “Karamo” has been renewed for Season 2. The news was announced Thursday morning by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios & E! News executive vice president Tracie Wilson.     To date, “Karamo,” which replaced Maury Povich’s talker, is sold in 85% of the country and appears on leading station groups across the country
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Hams Fekri, a 29-year-old Saudi wedding singer from Jeddah, has been crowned the winner of the first season of “Saudi Idol” during a moving live finale from The Boulevard Riyadh City recreational complex. The golden-throated Fekri was exultant after battling it out in front of a live studio audience and panel of judges for 13
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Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Hispanic has partnered with GroupM and Cocina Media on “El Toque de Aarón.” The all-new original series follows celebrity chef Aarón Sánchez and his team as they help Latino restaurants in the Los Angeles area reach new heights. Kimberly Clark’s VivaÒ Paper Towels Brand will be an integrated sponsor, with other
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Non-Londoners might think of the U.K. capital as a single city, the perceived interchangeability of its regions and locations evident in many a notionally London-set but geographically manic film where characters stroll from Chelsea Bridge to the heart of Soho in a matter of minutes. Residents know that its quadrants are so disparate as to
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Lucy Liu is making her comic book movie debut in “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” playing the villainous Kalypso alongside Helen Mirren and “West Side Story” breakout Rachel Zegler. The three actors play the daughters of Atlas, who come to our planet to reclaim the magic that fuels Zachary Levi’s Shazam. Liu was recently asked
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The living hell of concert ticket-buying loomed into the foreground again this week, but this time it was not millions clamoring for a limited number of Taylor Swift or Bruce Springsteen tickets but rather attempts by long-running British alternative band the Cure to avoid gouging fans for its forthcoming “Lost World” North American tour. While
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Jonah Hauer-King (“The Little Mermaid”) and Anna Próchniak (“Baptiste”) are starring in the limited event series adapted from Heather Morris’s “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” for Sky and Peacock. Now in production, the Peacock Original series is being produced by Synchronicity Films and will be entirely directed by Tali Shalom-Ezer, whose past credits include “Princess.” Claire Mundell and Jacquelin Perske
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Viaplay’s newly launched U.S. streaming service has unveiled the trailer for its anticipated original crime series “Cell 8” which will premiere exclusively in North America on the platform on April 13. The 6-episode series shot in both Swedish and English, and revolves around the justice system and death penalty. “Cell 8” tells the story of
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Bleak atmosphere and a David Fincher-inspired aesthetic are the first things that audiences will notice when watching “Boston Strangler.” Writer-director Matt Ruskin pulls us into this true-crime tale, centered on the dedicated reporters determined to solve Boston’s serial killings in the early 1960s, using similarly desaturated color, frame composition and camera movements. A distant cousin
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New York-based investment firm MEP Capital, which previously acquired the library of Lotus Entertainment, is launching West Side Pictures, a new independent rights management banner. Along with Lotus Entertainment, MEP also recently acquired the distribution rights to over 500 films and TV shows previously owned by Kew Media, including “Line of Duty,” “Thank You For
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Confirming the increasingly strong interest by international buyers in Spanish animated features, Pink Parrot Media has scored a bevy of key European pre-sales on upcoming Spanish family adventure toon film “4 Days Before Christmas,” led by deals with Splendid in Germany and Kaleidoscope in the U.K. Produced by Spain’s 3Doubles Producciones and Capitán Araña with
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Just a skosh more than a decade after Fede Alvarez’s carnage-crammed “Evil Dead” reboot jump-started the horror franchise spawned by Sam Raimi’s low-budget 1981 cult favorite, writer-director Lee Cronin has delivered his own imaginatively scary take on the “Book of the Dead” mythos with “Evil Dead Rise.” A kinda-sorta sequel, it offers incontrovertible evidence that
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The Mediapro Studio is teaming with Spanish director Jorge Dorado and author Cuca Canals on detective thriller “The Young Poe” in a bid to build a second English-language international franchise on the heels and of the scale of “The Head,” sold to 90-plus territories and TMS’ biggest breakout hit to date. Enrolling one of the
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“Luther” star Idris Elba and media mogul Mo Abudu are joining forces to empower talent from Africa and the diaspora through their respective production companies, Green Door Pictures and EbonyLife Media. The new partnership aims to provide opportunities through capacity building as well as large-scale global productions. New education and mentoring initiatives will launch through
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Hollywood producer Scott M. Rosenfelt has joined Filipino TV crime-action series, “Sellblock,” as U.S.-based Blue Fox Entertainment joins as the show’s sales and distribution representative. Planned as a three-season series, “Sellblock” chronicles the activities of one of Asia’s biggest drug empires which is operating from inside a Philippines maximum-security prison. Production is scheduled to start
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Cannes acclaimed filmmaker Marie Amachoukeli and leading French studio Miyu Productions will pair on “Happy End,” a macabre comedy Amachoukeli will co-direct with Vladimir Mavounia Kouka. Set for production in 2024, the project has already received backing from Bac Films and MK2, with the latter handling international sales. Variety has scored a first look at
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