Month: February 2024

European giant Beta Film, known for ambitious titles such as “Babylon Berlin” and “The Swarm,” has shared with Variety in exclusivity a first-look picture of 1o-part series “Rise of the Raven,” which it hails as “one of the most epic European TV productions of all time.” “Rise of the Raven” weighs in as a passion project of
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U.K.-based distributor DCD Rights has pre-sold the fourth season of New Zealand’s mystery drama “My Life Is Murder” to a raft of territories ahead of its Feb. 27 official launch at the London Screenings.  Starring Lucy Lawless (“Top of the Lake,” “Spartacus,” “Xena: Warrior Princess”), the series’ brand new season rights have been secured by
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Enough with the winter gloom: Feel-good shows are about to take over TV market London Screenings, as distributors echo Russell Crowe’s Maximus iconic words: “Are you not entertained?”  “Most platforms are looking for entertaining shows. Escapism is a big thing,” says Fremantle International CEO Jens Richter.    “You want to take the audience somewhere else
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Is this now an age of TV caution? A brace of big swings at this week’s London TV Screenings belie that trend, and few come bigger than the English-language action thriller “Paris Has Fallen,” which Studiocanal launches at this week’s  London TV Screenings.    Like other major LTVS plays, it takes a mainstream genre  – such as,
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When “Dune: Part Two” star Stellan Skarsgård saw Austin Butler as the cruel and sadistic Feyd-Rautha for the first time, he laughed. “I laughed so much because it was so obvious that he really enjoyed being evil,” Skarsgård told Variety at the “Dune: Part Two” premiere Sunday night in New York City. Butler’s Feyd-Rautha is
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The Berlin Film Festival said Monday that it has filed criminal charges following the hacking of its Panorama section’s Instagram social media site, which was used to post antisemitic messages. After a politically charged edition, festival organizers also attempted to distance the Berlinale management from the stances taken by some of the awards winners at
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Ariana Grande appeared on the “Zach Sang Show” on Monday night to discuss her new record, “Eternal Sunshine,” out March 8, and her role as Glinda in the upcoming “Wicked” film. Though the details of the singer and actor’s current ventures were slim, Grande did discuss multiple trending topics for both projects. After being asked what
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Randy Spendlove, president of worldwide music and publishing at Paramount Pictures, is no stranger to musical biopics. His roster includes “Dreamgirls” and “Rocketman.” When it came time to bring reggae icon Bob Marley’s story to the big screen, his challenge remained the same as always: “How do you tell the story about a legendary figure?
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Disney executive Sean Bailey is exiting after 15 years as the motion picture group’s president of production. He’ll be replaced by Searchlight’s chief David Greenbaum, who has been named to the newly created role of president of Live Action and 20th Century Studios. In his new post, effective immediately, Greenbaum will report to Disney Entertainment
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E. Duke Vincent, an Emmy-winning TV producer, died on Feb. 10 in Montecito, Calif. He was 91. With Aaron Spelling, the duo worked on 43 TV series, such as “Dynasty,” “Hotel,” “Vegas,” “Matt Houston,” “The Colbys,” “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place,” in addition to seven miniseries including Jackie Collins’ “Hollywood Wives” and James Micheners’
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J.K. Rowling criticized Sky News on X (formerly Twitter) after the British television news channel posted a story about a 26-year-old being jailed for murder and referred to her as a “woman” and not a transgender woman. Scarlet Blake was found guilty last week of murdering a man four months after she live-streamed a video
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As expected, Atlantic Music Group announced on Monday that it will be laying off around two dozen people, with the majority coming from the radio and video departments. In an internal memo to the company’s staff obtained by Variety, chairman-CEO Julie Greenwald said Atlantic will be “bringing on new and additional skill sets in social
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Christopher Nolan seems primed for the sort of coronation the Oscars bestow now and again — his film “Oppenheimer’s” sweep of precursor awards has had a sort of lumbering majesty to it, a sense that the grandest spectacle of the year is about to get a commensurate celebration from the Dolby Theatre stage. There’s a
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A joke referencing the term “fire crotch” has been removed from the digital version of 2024’s “Mean Girls” after Lindsay Lohan publicly took issue with it. “Fire crotch” was infamously associated with Lohan after socialite Brandon Davis made crude comments about the actor’s body in a 2006 paparazzi video that also featured Paris Hilton. Lohan,
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Jennifer Yale has joined the untitled Peacock espionage thriller series starring Simu Liu as co-showrunner, Variety has learned. The show was announced with a straight-to-series order earlier in February. Thomas Brandon created the series and will also serve as co-showrunner alongside Yale. The official description of the series states, “Five minutes in the future, a
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The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the creation of two separate branches, dividing the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch into two distinct entities: the Animation Branch and the Short Films Branch. The Animation Branch will represent approximately 700 Academy members working in the animation industry. This
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Nippon powerhouse Toho has thrown its weight behind directors Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s “Ghost Cat Anzu,” overseeing the Japanese release and marking the occasion with a brand-new teaser. As previously announced, specialty distributor Gkids has already picked up the film for North America, while Charades continues to roll out international sales. Bringing together Japan’s
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One year after launching with an ambitious aim to become the premier industry confab for dealmakers on the African continent, the JBX Content Market returns to Johannesburg with an expanded, three-day event that will touch on some of the key trends in the fast-growing African market. Running parallel to the Joburg Film Festival, whose sixth
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