“Raya and the Last Dragon” is set in the land of Kumandra, a re-imagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilization where humans and dragons once lived together in harmony. Star Kelly Marie Tran tells the “Just for Variety” podcast that the real-life atmosphere on the set of the Disney movie, which arrives in theaters and
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“I love dressing up, I just do not want to go out,” Laura Kim shares over Zoom, sitting next to Fernando Garcia. “If last night was any indication, people are thirsty for a little bit of a dressing up,” Garcia adds. It’s the day after yet another successful (albeit virtual) awards show for the designers,
Alec Mapa has signed on to star alongside Alec Baldwin and Kelsey Grammer in an ABC multi-cam comedy series, Variety has learned. The untitled series revolves around three men who were roommates in their twenties until their warring egos drove them apart. Now, the trio are reuniting decades later for one more run at the lives
Comedian Chris D’Elia was sued on Tuesday for allegedly soliciting nude photos from a 17-year-old girl. According to the complaint, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, D’Elia sought and received more than 100 explicit images and videos from the girl over the course of several months. The suit also says he had urged the
FuboTV grew its internet pay-TV subscriber rolls at a rapid clip last year — and it sustained heavy losses to get there. The company ended 2020 with 547,880 subscribers, up 73% year-over-year. It gained 92,800 net new subscribers in the fourth quarter, an increase of 237% year-over-year. Total net loss for last year was $570.5
Navigating the precarious aspects of growing up while simultaneously buried deep in the throes of grief is one young woman’s struggle in director Jessie Barr’s “Sophie Jones.” This meaningful drama, co-written and starring Barr’s sister Jessica, taps into the immediacy of being a teenager and the intimacy of sorrow, yielding astute insights. The pair set
Valentino’s last couture collection was an example of true decadence. Set in a gilded galleria, presenting gilded gowns, gilded nine-inch heels, and even gilded visages, the opulence was overt. In stark contrast, creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s fall offerings are subdued. The designer opted for a quieter runway, whispering in sweet nothings. In many ways, Piccioli
Joe Exotic is getting the best revenge he can against Carole Baskin — hiring the attorney who recently repped the family of her missing husband … who’s now working to free him. John M. Phillips of the Phillips & Hunt firm broke the news Tuesday, saying he’d been retained by the ‘Tiger King’ himself in
“The Day Sports Stood Still,” a documentary about the unprecedented sports shutdown of March 2020, will debut on March 24 on HBO Sports. The film centers on NBA All-Star and NBA Players Association president Chris Paul, who is also an executive producer. At the time, Paul played point guard for Oklahoma City Thunder and was
Hugh Grant has been cast as the villain in Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley’s untitled “Dungeons & Dragons” film adaptation. Grant will play the main antagonist in the film, which is being jointly produced and financed by eOne and Paramount. Sophia Lillis, known for her work in “Uncle Frank,” the “It” films and Netflix’s
Ione Skye has joined the HBO Max series “Made for Love” in a guest star role, Variety has learned exclusively. The dark comedy series follows Hazel Green (Cristin Milioti), a thirty-something woman on the run after 10 years in a suffocating marriage to Byron Gogol (Billy Magnussen), a controlling tech billionaire. Soon she discovers that her
Rachel Lindsay, the first-ever Black star of “The Bachelorette,” is calling out the ABC franchise for staying silent as the ongoing racial controversy involving host Chris Harrison and “The Bachelor” contestant Rachael Kirkconnell continues to spiral. On Lindsay’s podcast “Higher Learning,” which she hosts with Van Lathan, she said the show shouldn’t begin filming “The
The return of Season 20 of NBC’s hit singing competition “The Voice,” featuring celebrity coaches Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Blake Shelton, knocked the Monday primetime crown off of “The Bachelor’s” head, dropping the long-running ABC show in ranks after several weeks of being at the top. “The Voice” drew a 1.1 in the Nielsen
When the Will Ferrell-Rachel McAdams comedy “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga” hit Netflix last year, it garnered a lot of fans. Among those are the residents of Húsavík, the small fishing village in Iceland with 2,300 residents, where the film is set. And they couldn’t be more thrilled that the song from
More than a dozen books penned by Dr. Seuss hopped onto Amazon’s best-sellers ranking after the company that oversees the estate of the iconic children’s author said it decided to discontinue publication of six titles that “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” As of Tuesday afternoon, 13 of the top 20 best-selling
Sister, the upstart studio from Elisabeth Murdoch, Jane Featherstone and Stacey Snider, has signed esteemed production company Market Road Films to a first-look film and TV deal. Comprised of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage and Emmy-winning director Tony Gerber, Market Road will develop and produce series and feature content in both scripted and unscripted categories.
Jahmil French, who played Dave Turner on “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” died on Monday, his agent Gabrielle Kachman confirmed to Variety. He was 29. “It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of a dear friend and client Jahmil French,” she said in a statement. “He will be remembered by many for
Chris Cuomo held up a giant cotton swab on TV last May and poked fun at his brother, the governor of New York, during an interview. Now journalism observers wonder if CNN must clean up a lapse in journalism ethics. Cuomo anchors what has become CNN’s most-watched program, a 9 p.m. hour that in the
E.W. Scripps will launch two digital multicast networks, Doozy and Defy TV, in July, taking advantage of the broadcaster’s expanded bandwidth for channels following its acquisition of Ion Media. Doozy is aimed at women in the 25-54 demographic who are big consumers of reality TV shows such as “Storage Wars,” “Married at First Sight,” “Hoarders”
Oscar balloting for the final five nominees in the song and score categories begins March 5. But none of the music supervisors that worked on those movies will get to vote. That’s because the Academy music branch, which chooses the nominees, bars music supervisors — the people who advise and collaborate with filmmakers on songs
As Netflix boasts the success of “Bridgerton’ — the show reached 63 million households in its first month — the L.A,-based ensemble the Vitamin String Quartet has seen its music catalog surpass a billion streams. Since the release of a “Bridgerton” soundtrack in December, Vitamin String Quartet has seen a 350% increase in streams across DSPs
Director Ariel Vromen has found his next project, the buzzy Los Angeles riots script “April 29, 1992” from writer Sascha Penn. Vromen, whose credits include the well-received Michael Shannon thriller “The Iceman,” has boarded the project with an eye for fast-tracked production, as early as June. The film takes place on the first night of
Rob Schneider is taking his comedic wits into the vocal booth. Schneider, Dolph Lundgren (“Creed II”) and Nicholas Turturro (“BlacKkKlansman,” “NYPD Blue”) have joined family comedy “Pups Alone.” The “Saturday Night Live” alum will lend his voice to the live-action feature alongside a cast that includes Jennifer Love Hewitt (“Ghost Whisperer,” “9-1-1”), Keith David (“The
Beta Nordic Studios, the umbrella for Beta’s production activities in Scandinavia, has acquired a majority stake in Cinenord, a leading Norwegian production banner specializing in high-end series. Founded in 2004, the company is led by Silje Hopland-Eik and Alexander Eik, the producer-director duo behind the popular Scandi series “Atlantic Crossing” and “Wisting,” as well as
After only premiering two years ago, in 2019, Fox’s “The Masked Singer” is already set to debut its fifth season. In turning out so much content so fast it hasn’t shied away from making updates, such as the addition of the Golden Ear in Season 4, in order to continue to draw large viewing audiences
“Fortnite” creator Epic Games has acquired Tonic Games Group, the parent company of “Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” studio Mediatonic, the companies announced on Tuesday. The companies did not disclose numbers behind the deal. A blog post on Mediatonic’s website, however, confirmed that the game will remain purchasable on Steam and PlayStation, and the previously announced
Mexican filmmaker Fernando Frias’ latest feature, “I’m No Longer Here,” has garnered a host of awards since it was minted at the Sundance Screenwriters lab. Now streaming on Netflix, the film’s depiction of a nearly extinct countercultural movement framed against an immigration drama has won accolades from Oscar-winning directors Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron.
Did Jeffrey Epstein kill himself, or was he murdered before the wealthy sex offender could point a finger and potentially implicate any of the high-profile, well-heeled predators in his orbit? That’s the premise of Dasha Nekrasova’s provocative directorial debut “The Scare of Sixty-First.” It’s a subject of intense interest to Nekrasova, an actor and host
Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks Int’l has scooped up worldwide rights to Paraguayan filmmaker Simon Franco’s “Charlotte,” a dramedy starring the grande dame of Spanish cinema, Angela Molina. “Charlotte” is produced by Franco’s Paraguay-based Lemon Cine, along with Argentina’s Pelicano Cine and FAM Contenidos. In addition, Lemon Cine has acquired the remake rights to Chilean comedy “Sin
Nearly six months after “Tenet” was released in the United States, Warner Bros. announced that the Christopher Nolan sci-fi spectacle will open in five New York City movie theater locations this Friday. On Feb. 22, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that movie theaters located in New York City will be able to open their