Woodstock 50 has filed for a court order against its former investment partner, Dentsu, asking the New York Supreme Court for an injunction that would require the firm to return $17.8 million organizers say Dentsu “pillaged” from the festival bank account. Woodstock further contends the Japanese firm is actively urging artists and vendors to pull
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May 9, 2019 9:00AM PT The world of Harvey Birdman is expanding. Adult Swim has given a series order to “Birdgirl,” a spinoff of “Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law” with Paget Brewster set to lend her voice to the title character. Brewster previously voiced Birdgirl in the original series as well as the recent special
May 9, 2019 9:00AM PT Gunpowder & Sky has acquired worldwide rights to the Lil Peep music documentary “Everybody’s Everything.” The film, directed by Sebastian Jones and Ramez Silyan, premiered at South by Southwest in March. Gunpowder & Sky will release the film later this year, and kick off foreign sales at the Cannes market
After 12 seasons and 279 episodes, “The Big Bang Theory” will sign off on Thursday, May 16. But the decision to end the comedy came in August of 2018, which has allowed the cast and creative team to have a long goodbye to the series — for better or worse. “It’s like a long, drawn-out
May 9, 2019 8:52AM PT “Titanic” director James Cameron tipped his hat to Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios for the historic box office success of “Avengers: Endgame.” After just two weekends in theaters, “Avengers: Endgame” surpassed “Titanic” as the second-biggest movie of all time. “Titanic,” a box office juggernaut in its own right, raked in
Netflix announced that it acquired StoryBots, the children’s media brand created by brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, the founders of JibJab Media. In addition, the Spiridellis have entered into an overall deal with Netflix to expand the preschool entertainment and educational franchise into new areas. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The price tag is
May 9, 2019 7:29AM PT China’s Huahua Media has signed on to remake two classic war films from the Balkans as part of a push to improve diplomatic ties between the Middle Kingdom and countries taking part in its “Belt and Road” global infrastructure project, Chinese reports said. The news follows Huahua’s return to the
May 9, 2019 7:28AM PT Fox News is known for its flagship property, the Fox News Channel, but in months to come executives intend to expand its halo, the unit’s top executive said in remarks to investors Thursday. “Fox news is an important part of the company’s DNA,” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott said to
May 9, 2019 7:01AM PT FX has boarded “Peaky Blinders” scribe Steven Knight’s upcoming adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” with Guy Pearce playing Scrooge and Andy Serkis the Ghost of Christmas Past. The new take on the Dickens classic had already been announced in the U.K., and FX has now come on as the U.S.
Cheerleading is a sport that commands attention. It whips the crowd into a controlled fervor, getting people off their feet and cheering with excitement. Unfortunately, director Zara Hayes’ “Poms” barely manages to do the same with its story about a group of retired women who reclaim their vitality and challenge societal norms by forming a cheerleading
Dennis Rodman Accused of Clothing Heist … Captured On Video 5/9/2019 12:50 AM PDT EXCLUSIVE The owners of an upscale yoga studio are accusing Dennis Rodman of participating in a brazen daytime clothing heist … and the whole bizarre thing was captured on video obtained by TMZ Sports. Here’s the deal … the NBA Hall
Audible and Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s media company focused on telling women’s stories, have revealed three audio memoirs they’re co-producing exclusively for the Audible platform. Audible’s initial Hello Sunshine originals are first-person narratives from three women: music-industry veteran Sophia Chang, judge Rosemarie Aquilina, and comedian-activist Maysoon Zayid. The multi-hour audio memoirs will be available on
SF’s logo is one every Scandinavian is familiar with. A film production company, distributor and the owner of a movie theater chain across the Nordic and Baltic countries until recently, it is a cultural landmark not only in its native Sweden, but also across the Nordic countries. Founded as Svensk Filmindustri in 1919, SF played
After a landmark year for female pilot directors in 2018, the 2019 season has seen further movement in representation for women behind the camera With execs at the major broadcasters making decisions on the fate of pilots at this very moment, it’s worth noting that of the 63 pilots ordered this season across the five
A young woman struggles in the water to free her bloodied former lover from the seat of a submerged small plane, perched precariously on the ledge of an underwater cliff descending into the abyss of the Indian Ocean. It’s a scene — shot in the tank at Pinewood, with visual effects to be added by
Chris Hughes, who co-founded Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg and others 15 years ago when they were students at Harvard, believes the federal government should dismantle the extraordinarily powerful social-media giant. In a 5,700-word New York Times op-ed piece published Thursday, Hughes argued that Zuckerberg holds “unchecked power” that is “unprecedented and un-American.” “Mark is a
As SF Studios bulks up its pipeline with ambitious in-house productions, the company’s international sales division is now aiming to widen its scope through third-party pickups, with an eye on non-Scandinavian projects. Spearheaded by Anita Simovic, SF Studios’ international sales team will be bringing to Cannes a couple pickups: Santiago Requejo’s heartfelt comedy drama “Grandpas,”
Rupert Murdoch opened Fox Corp.’s Investor Day presentation on Thursday with a promise that the slimmed-down company will be a Wall Street growth story. Murdoch, Fox Corp. chairman, told the crowd in New York that he decided to sell most of his Hollywood assets to Disney in order to make the most out of all
Facebook launched a new Birthday Stories feature that lets users create and share multimedia birthday greetings for friends and family — complete with a selection of famous b-day songs to pick from. The social giant’s Birthday Stories lets users add birthday cards, photos, videos, and songs via a “music sticker” to a story. Facebook has
SF Studios — the Swedish major that’s turning 100 this year — is banking on the production of high-concept, talent driven English-language and local films, as well as TV series, to become a key European player and thrive in today’s ultra-competitive landscape increasingly dominated by deep-pocketed OTT services. Once the home of Ingmar Bergman, SF
Mexican director-writer-producer Manolo Caro whose hit Netflix series “The House of Flowers” (“La Casa de las Flores”) was renewed for two more seasons last year, has inked an exclusive production pact with the streaming giant. In an unprecedented multi-year deal for a Mexican director, Caro has committed to creating several TV series for Netflix. First
May 9, 2019 5:50AM PT Discovery and ProSiebenSat.1’s joint streamer has a new name, Joyn. The partners said it will have the biggest collection of free-TV content in the German market, with programming and live streams from more than 50 channels. They also set a June launch date for the newly branded streamer. Joyn is
May 9, 2019 5:31AM PT Netflix took a step toward greater transparency Thursday, at least in the U.K., by publishing its first top-10 lists of most-watched content on its platform after having promised investors that it would start divulging more viewing information. The streaming giant said it would post the lists weekly in the U.K.,
France’s Wild Bunch will be in charge of international sales and ARP will do French distribution for Chinese writer-director Gu Xiaogang’s debut feature, “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains,” the closing film at this year’s Critics’ Week at Cannes, the production team told Variety. The film does not yet have a distributor for China. “Dwelling” is
Elliot Grainge, founder and CEO of the Los Angeles-based independent record label 10K Projects, announced today that he has appointed industry veteran Brittney King Brock to the newly created position of president of operations and general manager at the label. According to the announcement, in her new role, Mrs. Brock will oversee all label operations,
May 9, 2019 4:37AM PT It was, by most measures, a bad few months to be a major theater chain. And AMC Entertainment as the world’s biggest exhibitor, felt the burn from a series of flop films and underperforming blockbuster hopefuls during its most recent quarter. The company’s revenues fell 13.2% to $1.2 billion, while
May 9, 2019 4:21AM PT Indie sales house, Free Stone Productions has picked up sales rights on “To The Ends Of The Earth,” the new film by Japanese directing icon Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Starring Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, and Shota Sometani, the film is a rare example of a Japanese-Uzbekistan co-production. Production is by Eiko Mizuno-Gray and
Anubhav Sinha’s “Article 15,” starring Ayushmann Khurrana, will have its world premiere at the 10th edition of the London Indian Film Festival. The opening night film and red carpet will take place at London’s Picturehouse Central. Khurrana plays a police officer from a privileged background in “Article 15.” His first posting is to rural north
This summer will see the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. It may also provide opportunity to meditate upon the fact that an awed populace back then could hardly have imagined an American near-future in which anti-science sentiments would become so widespread, particularly at the highest levels of a government that once rated
Ellen DeGeneres isn’t ready to throw her support behind a single Democratic presidential candidate to face off with Donald Trump, but she hints that she may be leaning toward one. DeGeneres told Variety that although she remains mostly apolitical on her talk show and in her standup, she’ll definitely be involved in the 2020 campaign.