While Snoop Dogg had kept his reminisces about DMX to social media since his friend’s death on Friday, he spoke at length about him during an appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” Monday. Snoop spoke about when the two, who had been friends for three decades, faced off in a Verzuz battle last
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Brett Alperowitz has been promoted to executive vice president of A&R for Republic Records, as announced today by Wendy Goldstein, the label’s president of West Coast creative. Alperowitz, who was named senior VP in 2015, maintains his role of General Manager of Casablanca Records. He will continue to sign, develop, and cultivate talent for Republic Records and simultaneously oversee
Looking to upgrade your Roku remote? The company launched its first rechargeable remote control, priced at $30, that will let you track it down if you’ve lost it by simply saying “Hey Roku, find my remote.” The Roku Voice Remote Pro works with all of the company’s players and Roku TV models dating back to
Netflix wants to get tykes clicking into their favorite TV shows and movies faster: The streamer is launching a redesigned kids profile on connected TVs to prominently feature characters from their most-watched titles right on home screen. It’s an effort by Netflix to engage kids more immediately, by using a visual language they grasp more
Epic Games, the company behind global smash hit “Fortnite,” announced that it completed a $1 billion round of funding — giving it a whopping equity valuation of $28.7 billion. The round includes an additional $200 million investment from Sony, which pumped $250 million into Epic last year (for an implied valuation of $17.9 billion at
Play video content BROOKLYN CENTER Newsflare The second night of unrest in Minnesota had echoes of 2020 protests past — as citizens remain furious over Daunte Wright‘s death at the hands of police. Even more people took to the streets Monday evening in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center … where folks gathered outside a
Swiss doc company Lightdox has just acquired world sales rights to documentary “Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege” Abdallah Al-Khatib’s debut, co-produced by Films de Force Majeure and Bidayyat for Audiovisual Arts, premieres in Vision du Réel’s platform on April 21 in its main International Feature Competition A Lebanon, France and Qatar co-production, the film follows the
Global Citizen, which was synonymous with advocacy-themed entertainment specials in the early months of the pandemic, will return in May with “Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World,” a special that will be shot at L.A.’s new So-Fi Stadium to run on major TV networks as well as streaming platforms. Selena Gomez will host
Onscreen representation for women in film took a sharp dive in 2020, according to the latest “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World” report. The analysis of the top 100 grossing films of 2020, released today by Dr. Martha Lauzen, reveal that only 29% of 2020’s top grossing films had female protagonists. The percentage of female protagonists
Screen Media has acquired North American rights to “The Birthday Cake,” a mob crime drama that boasts a murderer’s row of talent. The film may be Jimmy Giannopoulos’ feature directorial debut, but the director attracted such stars and veterans as Shiloh Fernandez, Ewan McGregor, Val Kilmer, Lorraine Bracco, William Fichtner, Ashley Benson, Luis Guzman, Paul
Netflix has renewed its biggest new original series, “Bridgerton,” for seasons 3 and 4. Season 2 of the sex-soaked show set in Regency London is currently in production and in keeping with the novels, tells a new romance story — that of Lord Anthony Bridgerton’s quest for love. Sadly for fans of the show, Season
U.K. production company Shakespeare Sisters has acquired the film rights to the popular YA novel “The Upside of Unrequited,” written by best-selling scribe Becky Albertalli. The author’s debut novel, “Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda,” was adapted as the gay teen romantic comedy movie “Love, Simon,” which – distributed by 20th Century Fox – grossed
Best known is its early decades as a sports broker, services provider and producer of auteur films, from Woody Allen and Roman Polanski to Spain’s Isabel Coixet and Fernando Aranoa, few companies have powered so fast and bullishly into high-end drama series production than Spain’s Mediapro. That drive has seen The Mediapro Studio launch in
Sky Studios, the pay TV network’s production arm, has promoted Gabriel Silver – who oversaw the commissioning of “Chernobyl” – to the role of director of commissioning, drama in the U.K., overseeing a broad slate of ambitious projects. Silver, who is currently senior commissioning editor and executive producer at Sky Studios, takes up his new
“The Crown” executive producer Suzanne Mackie has landed one of the first projects out of her newly formed production banner, Orchid Pictures, scoring the option on author Alice Feeney’s highly anticipated thriller “Rock Paper Scissors.” Feeney is the New York Times-bestselling author behind “His & Hers,” which is also being adapted into a series by
Among its slate of MipTV presentations, The Wit hosted its first-ever Fresh TV Young Adult Content. After the last series of in-person sessions hosted by The Wit at MipCom, the importance and influence of YA drama was unmistakable, inspiring this year’s MipTV dedicated session hosted by The Wit founder-CEO Virginia Mouseler. “It’s our mission at
Channel 4 format “The Write Offs” is getting local versions in Australia and Denmark, marking the first international deals for the Banijay-sold format. Originally created by Shine TV for Channel 4, “The Write Offs” finds former “Great British Bake Off” host Sandi Toksvig helping a group of adults improve their literacy. Metronome Productions will make
Google is killing off the Google Play Movies & TV app, which lets users purchase and rent films and series, from Roku devices and smart TVs. As of June 15, 2021, the Google Play Movies & TV app will no longer be available on the Roku players or TVs or Samsung, LG and Vizio smart
Spain’s Black Panther Films and Chile’s Invercine Prods. (“Dignidad”) have joined forces to co-produce a gangster thriller series based on the eponymous bestseller “Matadero Franklin” (“Slaughterhouse Franklin”) by Simon Soto. The first season, starring Chile’s most bankable star, Alfredo Castro (“My Tender Matador”), comprises six episodes while a second season is already in the works.
Newen Connect, the distribution branch of Newen, the Paris-based international production and distribution company owned by French’s biggest TV network, the TF1 Group, has boarded a bevy of upscale international drama series, including “Lost Luggage,” “Memento Mori,” Christian” and “Agent K.” The Paris-based company will help finance and sell internationally these shows. “Since creating Newen
David Beckham is set to present a new Disney Plus series called “Save Our Squad.” Co-produced by Twenty Twenty and Beckham’s production outfit Studio 99, the series will find the football icon returning to East London football pitches where he played as a child. He will mentor a young grassroots side who are struggling to
Toronto-based Syndicado Film Sales has snapped up world rights to the CPH:DOX competition entry “Oh, It Hertz!” by Norwegian helmer Gunnar Hall Jensen and unveiled the trailer exclusively to Variety. [embedded content] The film, selected for the Nordic:DOX competition program, is produced by UpNorth Film, the company behind the festival hits “iHuman” (2019), “Golden Dawn
Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) has swooped for global distribution rights to International Emmy-nominated series “How to Buy a Baby.” The digital original from Canadian public broadcaster CBC is produced by Toronto-based LoCo Motion Pictures and follows a couple struggling to conceive a baby. The series, created by Wendy Litner, provides a voyeuristic view
Richard Rush, the director of “The Stunt Man,” died April 8 at the age of 91, and if you look up his credits he has only 14 of them (and one was an episode of “The Mod Squad”). In a career that spanned 35 years, he made just a dozen features. Yet to an unusual
The news that the Arclight Cinemas are closing permanently — part of the larger closure that includes Pacific Theaters in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic — hit the film industry, and the greater Los Angeles community, like a shockwave. Filmmaker John August was one of the first to tweet about the news: “Oh no.
Arclight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres will close down, a victim of a global pandemic that brought moviegoing to a standstill. The news comes as things were beginning to look up for the hard-hit exhibition industry and serves as a reminder of the economic devastation wrought by a public health crisis that upended cultural life. “After
Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson’s “Man From Toronto” is set for an early 2022 release. Hart, Harrelson, and Kaley Cuoco star in the action-comedy from Columbia Pictures, which will open on Jan. 14, 2022. The film revolves around a case of a mistaken identity after the world’s deadliest assassin, known as the “Man from Toronto,”
Demi Lovato wasn’t just dancing with the devil; she was dancing with the top spot on the album chart, as her new release had a late surge of support and nearly toppled Justin Bieber from atop the rankings. Lovato’s “Dancing With the Devil… The Art of Starting Over” bowed at No. 2 with 68,600 album
Yuh-Jung Youn is under some serious pressure. At the spry age of 73, the Korean actor is in the middle of a career surge, taking on the role of caring yet foul-mouthed grandmother Soonja in Lee Isaac Chung’s family drama “Minari” — and, with her historic SAG and BAFTA Awards wins, facing new expectations from
The BBC is gearing up for this year’s “Eurovision Song Contest,” with Graham Norton set to return alongside Chelcee Grimes, Rylan Clark-Neal and Scott Mills. Produced by BBC Studios, “Eurovision” semi-finals will air on May 18 and 20 on BBC Four, while the grand final is set for May 22. This year’s awards will be