After California officials issued new guidelines Friday allowing theme parks and stadiums to reopen as early as April 1, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Tuesday that Disneyland is hoping open its gates again in a matter of weeks. “The fact is, it will take some time to get them
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Amid controversy over the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s diversity and inclusion practices, Time’s Up has released a set of recommendations the organization “believes are necessary in order for Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Dick Clark Productions, NBCUniversal, and Comcast to radically transform the Golden Globes.” In the notice, Time’s Up urges that action be taken quickly
In today’s Global Bulletin, Steven Knight’s “SAS: Rogue Heroes” starts shooting, Agnieszka Holland’s “Charlatan” cleans up at Czech Lion Awards, BBC Comedy hires “I May Destroy You” producer Tanya Qureshi, Content Catalyst Fund adds executives and reveals slate and George Takei’s “Allegiance” streams on BroadwayHD. Filming is underway on BBC One drama series “SAS: Rogue
On the same day that the BAFTA Awards weighed in with their choices on the best film and directing achievements of the year, the prestigious (and typically more telling of Oscar nominations) DGA Awards dropped their nominees, with some historic nods. Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) became the eighth and ninth
With no major new releases charting, Cardi B and Olivia Rodrigo are playing musical chairs at the top of the weekly songs chart. On the album chart, Morgan Wallen continues to have the No. 1 chair all to himself, coming out on top for the eighth consecutive week. Cardi B’s “Up” debuted three weeks ago
Peacock, NBCUniversal’s fledgling streaming service, was — unsurprisingly — drenched in red ink last year. Peacock had a $914 million adjusted loss for 2020, according to a Comcast filing with the SEC Monday. The streamer contributed $118 million in revenue to NBCU. In addition, Comcast recorded $989 million in “eliminations” for Peacock last year, which
“Judas and the Black Messiah” has been named best film by the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA), leading the list of winners at the 12th AAFCA awards with four awards, including accolades for stars Daniel Kaluuya and Dominique Fishback. Director Shaka King will also be honored with the breakout director prize. “Serving alongside an
Following a hit flagship voyage with “WandaVision,” Marvel Studios will let fans take a weeklong breather before releasing its next Disney Plus original series “The Falcon and the Winter Solider” on March 18. Ahead of the debut, Marvel’s chief creative officer Kevin Feige connected with Variety to discuss our reigning cover star Anthony Mackie, who
In the history of the Academy Awards, there have been 52 acting nominations for non-English-language roles. That pool is further reduced to under three dozen, when we exclude nods — like Robert De Niro in “Godfather Part II,” Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and all nine nominated sign-language performances — where the films were
Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Cathy Yan’s feature debut “Dead Pigs” which won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance in 2018. Film Movement will release the film in North America in theaters, virtual cinema, home entertainment and digital platforms in June. “Dead Pigs” is social satire about the trials and tribulations connecting
While Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi is dead and gone (except for a lingering legal dispute), his investment firm WndrCo is still actively funding other young startups. WndrCo co-led a $27 million Series A funding round in Wrapbook, a financial services startup catering to the gig economy initially focused on the entertainment industry. Also leading the funding
U.S indie distributor Film Movement has acquired North American rights from Italian sales company True Colours to Palestinian director Ameen Nayfeh’s drama “200 Meters,” about a Palestinian construction worker who takes huge risks to cross the West Bank wall to reach his hospitalized son. In September, “200 Meters,” which marks Nayfeh’s debut, launched from the
Five of the artists that are up for best new artist at next Sunday’s Grammy Awards are reimagining their original material as well as covering other artists’ songs, at Spotify’s behest — with Phoebe Bridgers and Chika debuting two new recordings to kick off the series today. Others taking part in the Spotify Singles rollout
In what is shaping up to be a historic year for the BAFTA Film Awards — the first edition since the org’s groundbreaking diversity review and one year on from the #BAFTAsSoWhite scandal — Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” and Sarah Gavron’s “Rocks” lead the nominations with seven nods each. “Nomadland” is nominated for best film as
The Berlin Film Festival’s European Film Market had a successful 2021 online edition with the participation of 12,000 attendees from 131 countries. The industry event, which took place March 1-5, gathered 504 exhibitors — 215 of which were newcomers at EFM — from 60 countries. The majority of participants was from Europe, followed by the
The BAFTA nominations were announced, throwing more unexpected turns in this overstretched awards season. What does it all mean for the Oscars? With the British Academy adopting juries for acting and directing, that’s where the nominees’ makeup was most different. In this final stretch before Oscar voting concludes on March 10, “The Father” and “The
Verzuz, the popular livestream music platform created by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, has been acquired by Triller Network, the parent company of the app. The agreement marks the end of Verzuz’s relationship with Apple Music. According to the terms of the agreement, the pair will join the Triller management team and become large shareholders in Triller Network. They
Dr. Anthony Fauci will be welcomed by Stephen Colbert to mark the one-year quaranniversary of “A Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s” last show live from the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan. The special, which airs this Friday, March 12 at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS, will mark the first time the White House’s chief medical
CNN’s Jeff Zucker and Technicolor vice chair Melinda “Mindy” Mount have joined the board of directors of Group Nine Acquisition Corp., the blank-check company looking to roll up other digital businesses with Group Nine Media. Discovery-backed Group Nine, whose digital-media brands include Thrillist, NowThis, the Dodo and Seeker, formed the special-purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC) in
REinvent International Sales has closed a raft of deals across its slate of family movies, including “A Christmas Tale,” “Twigson and the Sea Monster” and “Nelly Rapp – Monster Agent.” “Nelly Rapp – Monster Agent,” directed by Amanda Adolfsson, has been sold to the U.S. and Canada (Janson Media), Russia and CIS (Volga Films), Poland
There are some things you just don’t do on British television, and slamming the Royal Family tops the list. But in the course of two momentous hours, an unwritten, invisible code of conduct that quietly permeates most Royal-centric programming in the U.K. came crashing down. “Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A Primetime Special” aired on
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey was watched by an average of 11.3 million people in the U.K., according to overnight figures posted on Tuesday by BARB. The interview aired on U.K. broadcaster ITV on Monday, where it aired in a 9 p.m. slot. At its peak, the CBS sit-down — which
ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall has revealed that she completely believes Meghan Markle’s statements about mental health, which is at odds with ITV presenter Piers Morgan’s views on the matter. Outspoken presenter Morgan, co-host of ITV’s breakfast program “Good Morning Britain,” suggested that he did not believe Markle’s statements during the Monday edition of the
U.K. broadcaster ITV’s annual results were announced Tuesday and the picture is that of a business severely impacted by COVID-19, but there are plenty of green shoots. Total external revenue was down 16%. ITV Studios total revenues were down 25%, impacted by the disruption to the majority of ITV productions from March 2020 when the
“The Little Things” star Jared Leto enjoyed the physical transformation required by his character Albert Sparma, an unsettling man that may or may not be the serial killer responsible for the havoc unleashed in the film. “It’s a transformation from head to toe,” Leto said. “I had different color eyes, a different nose, different cheeks.
Fascinating backroom politics circa WWII are undermined by banal marital melodrama in Danish director Christina Rosendahl’s “The Good Traitor,” resulting in a so-so period drama that raises more questions than it answers. The film centers on the life of diplomat-gone-rogue Henrik Kauffmann (Ulrich Thomsen, stoic), who was posted to Washington, D.C., as Danish Ambassador in
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the March 8 episode of “The Bachelor.” Three women remained in Matt James’ search for love on Monday’s episode of “The Bachelor.” Rachael Kirkconnell, Bri Springs and Michelle Young continued on to fantasy suites in Matt’s attempt to find a wife. Matt started the
Matt James, this season’s star of “The Bachelor,” took to Twitter during tonight’s episode to address the conversation he had with his father on-screen before heading into fantasy suite dates. The deeply personal conversation is garnering a considerable amount of attention on social media with many calling the scene exploitative. The negative social media attention
It’s no secret that nearly every genre of music outside of pop itself suffers from a moderate or severe gender imbalance problem, but the spotlight rarely falls on how women fare (or, as the case may be, don’t) in electronic dance music. So students of sexism in the arts may take a ready interest in
VIS, part of ViacomCBS Networks International, has struck a partnership to develop formats and shows with South Korea-based Something Special. The deal expands the corporation’s activities in Korea and the Asian TV markets. Founded at the end of 2019 by Hwang Jin Woo, former president of CJ ENM, and Kim In-soo, former head of formats