Month: November 2023

These weren’t your grandfather’s CMA Awards… or even yours, from, say five years ago. A new generation has been firmly installed, between the big look for Lainey Wilson, who is only on her second major-label album but was named entertainer of the year, and other winners from Luke Combs to Hardy, who were also unknown
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Variety’s fourth annual “Variety Salute to Service” special, airing on the History Channel on Veterans Day, honors contributions and sacrifices by veterans. This year’s special is hosted by Marine Corps and Navy veteran Montel Williams, former host of “The Montel Williams Show” and current host of “Military Makeover With Montel.” The special highlights veterans making
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Homer Simpson’s reported decision to stop strangling his son, Bart, has fans talking — at least on the Internet. That’s where everyone, of course, has an opinion. And now, the executive producers behind “The Simpsons” have put together a response — in animated form: Their one comment? “Homer Simpson was unavailable for comment as he
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The 2023 “Cool Comedy Hot Cuisine” fundraiser for the Scleroderma Research Foundation was filled with tributes to the late comedian and scleroderma research advocate Bob Saget, who died in 2022. Held at the Edison Ballroom in New York City on Wednesday night as part of the 19th annual New York Comedy Festival, the event was
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The marketing for Disney and 20th Studios’ “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” got off to a strong start with 75 million views in 24 hours across platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, X/Twitter and more, Variety has learned. Social engagement for the trailer came in with 72,000 mentions in 24 hours, boosted by 11,000
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Apple TV+ has released the official trailer its for nine-episode war drama “Masters of the Air.” Set during World War II, the limited series centers on members of the Air Force fighting against Nazi Germany. “Masters of the Air” stars Oscar nominees Austin Butler (“Elvis”) and Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) as fighter pilots Major Gale Cleven and Lt. Curtis Biddick,
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Paramount+ has signed a partnership with Microsoft for the streaming service to be available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S across several international markets.  Under the deal, Paramount+ will roll out on Xbox consoles in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latin America (including Brazil), Switzerland and the U.K. The offer will include
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Veeps, the streaming platform founded by Joel and Benji Madden, is expanding its reach to include a comedy vertical featuring new specials from superstars like David Cross, Brad Williams, Katherine Ryan, and Reggie Watts. The Live Nation Entertainment-affiliated company will also be the exclusive streaming home for select sets from SF Sketchfest’s 21st edition in
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Jasmina Kuhnke, a German-born writer, actor, author and activist, has signed with CAA for representation, Variety has learned exclusively. Kuhnke’s debut novel, “Black Heart,” is a bestseller. The semi-autobiographical book recounts her experience growing up on the outskirts of the Ruhr region in Germany in the ’90s, and how she grappled with racism. Through a
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Zac Efron has heard the news about Matthew Perry wanting to cast him in a biopic about the “Friends” actor’s life, and Efron would be “honored” to do it. The “High School Musical” and “Baywatch” actor spoke to People magazine on the red carpet for A24’s “The Iron Claw” and called Perry a “mentor” figure
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Netflix film chief Scott Stuber once ran Universal Studios – today he sometimes feels like the operator of “the AMC 6000” given the volume of movies that Netflix produces and acquires. From Greta Gerwig’s plans for Narnia adaptations to wooing Denzel Washington and Steven Spielberg, Stuber shared Netflix’s vision of film’s future in a wide-ranging
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Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival has announced a new batch of mostly international titles set to launch in its Festival Favorites and Treasures strands, including the international premiere of U.S. actor-turned-director Jennifer Esposito’s New York City mob drama “Fresh Kills.” Inspired by Esposito’s upbringing in Staten Island, “Fresh Kills” – in which Esposito co-stars
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When asked how she felt about this year’s opening film at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) having been supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund (IBF), the fund’s executive director and IDFA deputy director Isabel Arrate Fernandez beamed with pride, stating it is “amazing, most of all because it’s a beautiful film.” The film
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“It is undoubtedly the best debut in Spanish cinema for years,” Pedro Almodóvar announced of Alauda Ruíz de Azua’s movie “Lullaby,” as it began to prove one of Spain’s liveliest sleepers of 2022, going on to score a Spanish Academy Goya Award for new director. Having made such an illustrious first feature, what kind of
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Hengameh Panahi, the celebrated French-Iranian producer who founded Celluloid Dreams and forged long-standing bonds with auteurs around the world, has died. She was 67. Panahi, who worked with the likes of Jafar Panahi, Jacques Audiard, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Jia Zhangke, died on Nov. 5 after battling a long illness, according to a statement sent by
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Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o is stepping into an executive producer role to support Sudan’s second-ever Academy Award international feature film submission, “Goodbye Julia.” The timely film, directed by Sudanese filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani, takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan and won the Un Certain Regard section’s Prix de Liberté (Freedom Prize) at
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Deckert Distribution CEO Liselot Verbrugge is to launch a new company as the German sales agency prepares to wind down its operations in 2024, with founder Heino Deckert moving fully to production. Verbrugge is attending IDFA documentary festival this week, where the Sundance awarded film “Against the Tide,” one of the agency’s bestsellers this year,
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U.K. entertainment unions Bectu and Equity are celebrating the tentative agreement between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP that is set to end the longest actors strike in Hollywood history. In an announcement on Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA said that the 118-day strike would officially end on Thursday at 12:01 a.m. The deal was approved by a unanimous vote
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The past 18 months have produced an abundance of celebrity documentaries, but Netflix’s newly-released “Robbie Williams” sets out to do something different. Charting Williams’ rise from clueless teenager in British mega-boy band Take That to solo superstar, there’s no talking heads and no glossing over the less salubrious moments in Williams’ 35-year-career, including his relationships,
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Taiwanese production companies DaMou Entertainment and KOKO Entertainment unveiled a starry local cast for “Fired Up,” their Taiwan remake of hit Korean series “Itaewon Class.” At an event held within the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) on Thursday, the two companies also confirmed plans for a second season of “The World Between Us,” a 2019
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An entertainment-industry crowd turned out on Wednesday for the Los Angeles premiere of “Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre,” a controversial 47-minute documentary assembled by the Israeli Defense Forces.  “Witness” features extremely graphic footage from the atrocities committed last month that claimed the lives of 1,400 Israelis and resulted in terrorist group Hamas taking
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