Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement honoring legendary singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who died Monday at the age of 84. In it, he recalls meeting Lightfoot as a child, when Trudeau’s father Pierre was prime minister in the 1970s and ’80s. “I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing yesterday of , one of Canada’s greatest singer-songwriters. “Mr.
Month: May 2023
Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ruled the U.K. and Ireland box office collecting £3.06 million ($3.8 million) in its fourth weekend for a total of £45.7 million, per numbers from Comscore. In its second weekend, Studiocanal’s “Evil Dead Rise” earned £1.05 million in second place for a total of £3.3 million. There were a
The first trailer for director Neil Blomkamp’s “Gran Turismo,” adapted from the popular PlayStation video game racing franchise, has been released. Blomkamp, whose notable directing credits include “District 9” and “Elysium,” departs from his typical science fiction subject matter to take on the sports racing film. Based on a true story, “Gran Turismo” follows a
Fox’s 2022 broadcast of Super Bowl LVII has a new score. Nielsen has added audience to the overall total of the February 13, 2022 broadcast, and the new viewership makes the game the industry’s most-watched TV event. According to a revamped Nielsen report, 115.1 million viewers tuned in to watch the Big Game across Fox,
It’s all Conan — all the time. Samsung Electronics America and Conan O’Brien announced a partnership that will bring highlights of his original Emmy Award-winning show “Conan” exclusively to Samsung TV Plus, the consumer electronics giant’s free, ad-supported TV service, starting next month. Conan O’Brien TV — the comedian and host’s first FAST channel —
As strike action is set to get underway in Los Angeles and New York, the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain has officially instructed its members to halt work on projects within the jurisdiction of the Writers’ Guild of America. A statement released by the WGGB on Tuesday afternoon local time reads as follows: “We understand
AWARD British presenter, broadcaster, filmmaker, author and historian, professor David Olusoga, will be presented with a BAFTA Special Award at the upcoming BAFTA Television Awards on May 14. The award is one of BAFTA’s highest honors recognizing an outstanding contribution to film, games or television. Olusoga’s credits include presenting history series “A House Through Time”
Leading Chinese film director Chen Kaige is poised to shoot historical epic “Swan Song” as his next feature movie. It will focus on 18th century classical music composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky through critical failure, persecution for his sexuality and a mysterious death during the strife of the soon-to-collapse Russian Empire. Moonstone Entertainment will launch pre-sales on
Animayo, Spain’s leading animation festival, is celebrating its 18th edition with the help of Disney legend Andreas Deja who will be presenting his independently-produced short, “Mushka.” “Having Deja choose Animayo to debut his film in Spain is the greatest honor,” said Damian Perea, founder-director of the festival, which unspools May 3-6 on the island of Gran
After reaching a fresh peak of 4.6 million net new customer additions in the final quarter of 2022, boosted by the FIFA World Cup soccer competition, premium subscription video growth in Southeast Asia slowed sharply in the first three months of 2023. Research from consultancy and advisory firm Media Partners Asia and its consumer use unit
Hybe Corp., the structure behind K-pop icons BTS, enjoyed strong financial performance during the first three months of the year. The results were achieved despite BTS’s effective hiatus and quarter of corporate skirmishing in the Korean music sector. The company Tuesday reported revenues of KRW411 billion in the three months to end of March and
It’s time to lace up your kicks: Ben Affleck’s “Air” will be available to stream on Prime Video beginning May 12. “Air” debuted April 5 on more than 3,500 screens, which marked an unprecedented theatrical release for Amazon, as the studio affirmed its billion-dollar commitment to making movies for the big screen. The film is
Picture Tree Intl. has come on board to handle the international sales of black comedy “Shooting Blanks,” written and directed by Žiga Virc (“Houston, We Have a Problem!”). The Slovenian film looks at what happens when a family goes to war with itself. The film is in post-production. PTI will present a first private market
Munich-based sales agency Global Screen has acquired romantic drama “Falling Into Place” for worldwide theatrical distribution. The English-language film is written and directed by Aylin Tezel, one of Germany’s leading young actors, and stars Tezel (“7500”) and Chris Fulton (“Bridgerton”). The directorial debut is set in Scotland on the Isle of Skye and in London.
Contract talks between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and Writers Guild of America ended Monday without an agreement, raising the specter of a writers strike starting as soon as Tuesday. “Negotiations between the AMPTP and the WGA concluded without an agreement today,” the AMPTP said in a statement issued Monday night.” The
While walking the May 1 Met Gala carpet in a bold pearl ensemble, Kim Kardashian spoke to Variety‘s Marc Malkin about her upcoming role in “American Horror Story: Delicate.” “We start shooting my stuff at the end of this month. But production has already started and I’m so excited,” Kardashian said. Although she couldn’t tease
Emmy-winning TV and film editor John Gordon Wright, who cut notable titles including “Speed,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “X-Men” and “The Passion of the Christ,” died April 20 at his home in Calabasas after a battle with cancer. He was 79. Wright, who worked frequently with directors including John McTiernan and Mel Gibson, received
Singer-songwriter , the Canadian folk music laureate who crossed over to major pop fame in the U.S. during the ‘70s, died Monday evening at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. He was 84 years old. Lightfoot’s death was confirmed by his longtime agent, Victoria Lord. Lightfoot topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974 with “Sundown” and also
There were big shoes to fill when Alice Birch decided to recreate “Dead Ringers” as a limited series for Amazon Prime Video. But she didn’t set out to tell the same story as David Cronenberg’s 1988 thriller. Instead, she opted to use the close and often times dark relationship between her twin protagonists Beverly and
Brooks & Dunn, Chris Stapleton and Diplo closed out the 2023 Stagecoach Festival — and made the 106-degree heat well worth it. Early Sunday evening, Brooks & Dunn took the Mane Stage, returning to the desert for the first time in 13 years. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn played a 14-song, hour-long set, which included their
Not long after Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola” became the first top-five regional Mexican hit on the songs chart, Grupo Frontera and Bad Bunny notch the second with the No. 5 entrance of “un x100to.” Produced and composed by Latin music hitmakers Edgar Barrera and MAG, “un x100to” is the Texas-bred Grupo Frontera’s first Hot 100
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences
“I hate dolls,” writer-director Lagueria Davis states early in her debut documentary “Black Barbie.” By turns a celebration and an interrogation (sometime both simultaneously), the film delves into the history of the titular Black doll Mattel released in 1980. That was 31 years after the first Barbie began her rise to becoming the most iconic,
Jason Reitman has set another feature at Sony Pictures, with the studio ordering a film based on the first broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” in October 1975. Reitman and his “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” co-writer Gil Kenan penned the original screenplay for the project, drawing from the pair’s series of interviews with living cast, writers and crew
Sydney Chandler has been cast as a lead in Noah Hawley’s “Alien” series currently in the works at FX, Variety has learned. Plot and character details are being kept under tight wraps on the project, which was first announced in December 2020. The only detail that has been confirmed is that the show will take
As the second season of Hulu’s “Taste the Nation” starts streaming May 5, executive producer and host Padma Lakshmi again takes viewers among the immigrant communities in the U.S. via their taste buds. Lakshmi spoke with Variety for AAPI Month ahead of the show’s season premiere. She says she and her team get lots of
Thanks to a towering debut by “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions,” Taylor Swift now has three albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, as the vinyl-only Record Store Day exclusive sold through all 75,000 of the available copies to land at No. 3 for the week. The double-LP release joins two other
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences