Poco’s co-founder and longtime frontman, Rusty Young, died Wednesday night. (Read Variety‘s obituary here.) He had no more fervent acolyte than Tom Hampton, a Nashville-based singer-songwriter who has been a session player and touring musician with the Marshall Tucker Band and other groups, and who had officially joined Poco last year after sitting in with
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Apple Music claims it pays artists a penny per stream in a letter posted Friday on the streaming service’s artist dashboard, according to the Wall Street Journal. The disclosure, made in a letter to artists delivered Friday via the service’s artist dashboard and sent to labels and publishers, is seemingly a response to Spotify’s “Loud
The “wolfvision” sequence in Cartoon Saloon’s Oscar-nominated animated feature “Wolfwalkers” is perhaps one of the most striking animated moments this year. Set in 1650 Ireland, the film follows Robyn (voiced by Honor Kneafsey), a wolf hunter’s daughter brought to Ireland as part of the English colonization of the Emerald Isle during the time of Oliver
From its modest beginnings on the campus of Indiana University a quarter century ago, Secretly Canadian has grown into one of the most respected independent labels in the world, having released albums by the War On Drugs, Antony and the Johnsons, Major Lazer, Yoko Ono and Jason Molina. The company, which was founded by brothers
Well, that was a short time-out: Less than a month after Chrissy Teigen said she was quitting Twitter for good — she’s back on the social network. “it feels TERRIBLE to silence yourself and also no longer enjoy belly chuckles randomly throughout the day and also lose like 2000 friends at once lol,” Teigen tweeted
Just days after DMX died, a new song from the Epix series “Godfather of Harlem” has been released, featuring the late rapper with his longtime friend Swizz Beatz and French Montana. The track, “Been to War,” is from the soundtrack to the second season of the series, which premieres April 18. The track is likely the first among many posthumous
In today’s Global Bulletin, “Agatha Christie’s Sven Hjerson” takes top honors at MipTV’s MipDrama; ScreenSkills launches an ambitious unscripted training program in the U.K.; San Sebastian opens the call for its Europe-Latin America co-production forum; We Are Parable plans 18 months of events to celebrate Black filmmakers in the U.K.; WarnerMedia commits ($344,650) to Sam
Veteran Italian auteur Daniele Luchetti, whose most recent film “The Ties” opened the 2020 Venice Film Festival, is now shooting season 3 of HBO-RAI series “My Brilliant Friend,” taking the reins from helmer-showrunner Saverio Costanzo, who is taking a break. The show’s hotly anticipated third season is based on the bestselling novel “My Brilliant Friend
“The Vanishing” is, as its name would suggest, a documentary film about a disappearance. Not just anyone’s disappearance, this project pitched at Visions du Réel (VdR)’s Industry platform is about the disappearance of the filmmaker’s own mother. Senegalese director Rama Thiaw won the Fipresci Critics Prize at the 2016 Berlinale for her documentary “The Revolution
Director Elaine McMillion Sheldon (“Heroin(e)“) and producer Shane Boris (“The Edge of Democracy”), two multi-award winning U.S. filmmakers, are joining forces on hybrid documentary “King Coal,” focused on post-coal Appalachia. Co-produced by Boris’ outfit Cottage M and Requisite Media, the Tennessee-based company directed by Sheldon, “King Coal” is in an early production stage, scheduled to
One highlight at Switzerland’s doc film festival Visions du Réel (VdR) is the Pitching section on its Industry platform. 29 projects have been invited to participate. One of them, an exciting new documentary project on the Siege of Sarajevo by award-winning French filmmaker Jean-Gabriel Périot (“A German Youth”), promises to attract many potential collaborators. The
Copenhagen-based DR Sales has picked up world rights to the Faroe Islands-set coming-of-age documentary “Skál,” produced by established production outfit Made in Copenhagen (“Motley’s Law,” “Putin’s Kiss”). Variety has been given exclusive access to the international trailer. [embedded content] Co-helmed by Danish-born Cecilie Debell (“My Mother Is Pink”) and Faroese debutant Marie Tórgarð, “Skál” marks
Top Bollywood star Ajay Devgn and former Disney India head Siddharth Roy Kapur are joining forces to produce comedy-drama film “Gobar!” Set in the agrarian area of Northern India known as the “cow belt,” during the 1990s, “Gobar!” (literally cow dung or bullshit) is a satire inspired by real events that transpire when an idiosyncratic
The WGA West has reached a big settlement with CBS over underpaid residuals for shows made available on the CBS All Access streaming platform from its inception in 2014. The guild disclosed in a letter to members Thursday that it has negotiated a settlement worth $3.4 million to cover 62 series featured on the subscription
Paul McCartney gets by on his new project, “McCartney III Imagined,” with a little help from… well, some strangers he may never actually have met before the album was completed. But the collection of remakes and re-thinkings of songs from his 2020 “McCartney III” album is bringing him some new pal now that it’s coming
As accomplished as Academy Award winner Viola Davis is in the industry, she still feels the unfair comparisons and judgments for the roles she chooses. “It’s so hard to get films made that don’t fit a certain box of how they see us,” Davis tells Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “Inclusivity cannot be a hashtag. You’ve
“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “Minari,” “One Night in Miami,” “Soul” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” were among the feature films honored by the Casting Society of America at the 2021 Artios Awards. The 36th annual Artios Awards, held by the Casting Society of America in its first-ever worldwide virtual ceremony, honored excellence in casting
The Gucci family is not happy with Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci” film. Patrizia Gucci, who is the great-grandchild of Guccio Gucci, told the Associated Press that she is worried the film “goes beyond the headline-grabbing true-crime story and pries into the private lives of the Guccio Gucci heirs.” “We are truly disappointed,” Gucci told
“The Last of Us” series adaptation at HBO has added Gabriel Luna to its cast, Variety has learned. Luna joins previously announced series leads Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, who will star as Joel and Ellie respectively. Luna will star as Tommy, Joel’s younger brother, a former soldier who hasn’t lost his sense of idealism and
The concept of a documentary-style series that follows the regional branch of a paper-distribution company in Scranton, Pa., doesn’t sound like it’d amount to one of the most successful comedies of all-time. But fill it with excellently crafted characters, an incredible cast and some of the most intensely uncomfortable moments you’re likely to witness on
Lori throwing up at his feet wasn’t quite the answer Doug expected when he popped the question at the start of “We Broke Up.” Then again, Doug calling it quits on the heels of that reaction wasn’t exactly what Lori imagined either. After all, the pair have been together for 10 good years. Luckily, audiences
It’s the summer of 2013 and spray cans rattle as Reefa (Tyler Dean Flores), an ambitious, 18-year-old graffiti artist, paints his signature symbol — an eye surrounded by flower petals — illegally on a wall in his suburban Miami neighborhood. Later his father (José Zúñiga) a Colombian immigrant nervously awaiting the arrival of the family’s
Frank Price is stepping down from his role as chair of the USC School of Cinematic Arts Board of Councilors at the end of the spring semester. Price, who serves as chairman and CEO of Price Entertainment Inc., has served as the board’s chair since its inception in 1992. His role will be filled by
Rusty Young, who co-founded the country-rock group Poco in 1968 and was the only mainstay through the band’s five-decade-plus history, died Wednesday at age 75. A representative said Young died of a heart attack at his home in Davisville, Missouri. “I just received word that my friend Rusty Young has passed away and crossed that
Anika Noni Rose has been cast in the “Let the Right One In” pilot at Showtime, Variety has learned. She joins previously announced cast member Demián Bichir. The series centers on Mark (Bichir), a father and his 12-year-old daughter, Eleanor, whose lives were changed forever 10 years earlier when she was turned into a vampire. Locked
Neeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon have been named to lead a new unit that combines CBS News and CBS local stations, one of the first big recalibrations of company assets by George Cheeks, the executive charged with oversight of ViacomCBS’ CBS operations. Khemlani, a senior executive at Hearst Newspapers, and McMahon, who had been overseeing
After collaborating on a number of hit songs over the years, Snoop Dogg and Jamie Foxx are now teaming up for vampire-hunter film “Day Shift.” Also joining the ensemble cast are Meagan Good and Karla Souza. Foxx stars in the new Netflix movie as a hard working, blue collar dad who wants to provide a good
UTA has signed award-winning filmmakers Adi Barash and Ruthie Shatz for representation in all areas. Known for making character-driven projects that touch on taboo subjects under their Yulari Films banner, Barash and Shatz created, produced and directed the Netflix docuseries “Lenox Hill,” which takes an intimate look at the lives of four doctors working at
Amazon spent a cool $11 billion on TV series, movies and music for its Prime services last year, an increase of 41% from $7.8 billion in 2019, the ecommerce giant disclosed in its annual report. The total content spending includes licensing and production costs associated with video and music offered to Amazon’s Prime members, as
Scott Ryan’s “Mr Inbetween,” which will premiere its third season on May 25 on FX, is ending with this upcoming season. The half-hour series, created by, written and starring Scott Ryan and directed by Nash Edgerton, centers on Ryan’s Ray Shoesmith, a criminal for hire who collects debts, drugs and guns, and sometimes “takes care