The once broken-up, now reunited country duo Brooks & Dunn were named to the Country Music Hall of Fame’s class of 2019 Monday morning, a few weeks before the release of their first album in 12 years. Also announced were comic singer-songwriter Ray Stevens, in the veteran performer category, and former producer and label chief
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Metro Goldwyn Mayer has hired industry veteran Robert Marick as executive VP of global consumer products and experiences. In his new role, Marick is responsible for overseeing the expansion of MGM’s traditional merchandise, interactive and consumer products business. He’s also developing a global strategy with a focus on core consumer products licensing, digital and gaming,
Wall Street is rooting for Disney as the media giant reaches the finish line this week in its 15-month quest to acquire most of Rupert Murdoch’s film and TV empire. Fox shareholders, on the other hand, are being a little more cautious. Disney is poised to close the $71.3 billion deal that took many twists
March 18, 2019 6:52AM PT Amanda Collins has been named executive vice president and global head of corporate communications for Sony Music Entertainment, effective immediately, it was announced today by CEO Rob Stringer. According to the announcement, in this role she will be responsible for the company’s global internal and external communications strategy and its
After several days of rumors and a last-minute attempt by local promoters to save it, Philadelphia’s Trocadero Theatre — part of the city’s entertainment skyline since 1870 — is closing at the end of May, owner Joanna Pang confirms to Variety. The last of the city’s mid-sized independent live venues, the 1,200-capacity Chinatown performance palace
Jordan Peele discusses the key role music plays in his new horror film “Us” — as well as the use of music in movie at large — in the first movie-sponsored takeover on Spotify. Beginning Monday, March 18, the Oscar-winning director-producer-writer will take over Spotify’s TV & Movies hub in a playlist that runs one
MADRID — Movistar +, the pay TV unit of telco giant Telefonica, has set a March 28 release for Season 2 of “Skam España,” the Spanish remake of Norwegian cult web-TV hit teen drama “Skam” (“Shame”) whose plot, at least in the second season, begins to diverge from the Nordic original. Produced in collaboration with
A brace of personal tales from China and Hong Kong are among the 23 projects vying for attention at the 17th Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum. Liu Miaomiao is a rare female ethnic Hui Muslim filmmaker. She came to international prominence with 1993’s “Chatterbox” that won the President of the Italian Senate’s Gold Medal
Josie Ho vows to master the art of calculated risk in the year 2019. As an actress and film producer, she is conscious of the choices of projects she makes: appearing in the new film by Japanese hotshot director Shinichiro Ueda, producing a new documentary feature while developing some 10 titles in the pipeline of
The death of former “Love Island” contestant Mike Thalassitis has led to calls for the producers of this and other reality shows to take greater steps to ensure participants are properly equipped to handle the effects of being in the spotlight – before, during, and after they appear on TV. Thalassitis, who had been dealing
Tech and data play a huge role for iQIYI, China’s second-largest streaming platform, as a way to innovate and step out ahead of its competitors, iQIYI founder and CEO Yu Gong explained in a keynote speech Monday at FilMart. “We don’t see a lot of innovation-driven entertainment companies yet. We want to be the one,”
Although Netflix and the Cannes Film Festival continue quietly to negotiate a potential settlement to their differences, the streaming giant will be absent from the Croisette again this year with no film in or out of competition, Variety has learned. The ongoing talks between the two sides have been friendly, including a dinner in Los
“The Dreamers,” one of the series to be presented at Series Mania’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, is a 10-part crime comedy produced by prominent Israeli filmmaker Shlomi Elkabetz (“Gett”) and Galit Cachlon at Deux Beaux Garcons Films. Produced for Israeli cable TV operator HOT, the series will be directed by Maysaloun Hamoud, a young Hungarian-born Palestinian
HBO Asia has unveiled a trio of new original series and a second season of its hit “The Teenage Psychic.” The new shows bring the number of original series commissioned and distributed by the Singapore-based offshoot of HBO to 15. “Dream Raider” will be HBO Asia’s first Asian sci-fi drama, an eight-episode hour-long series that
HBO Asia has unveiled a trio of new original series, and a second season of its hit “The Teenage Psychic” show. The new series bring the number of original shows commissioned and distributed by Singapore-based offshoot of the U.S. pay-TV giant HBO to 15. HBO Asia’s first Asian sci-fi drama, “Dream Raider,” is an eight-episode
Beijing’s Er Dong Pictures will establish a joint venture with Hollywood’s Gersh Agency this year as part of the fast-growing Chinese film investor’s ambitious plans to expand at home and abroad. The partnership means the 70-year-old American talent agency, which has more than 100 agents representing artists such as Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Olsen and Tony
The $120 million multinational disaster movie “Inversion” leads a slate of two feature films and a TV series from Hong Kong-Chinese producer and financier Sun Entertainment Culture (SUNEC). The two movies mark Sun’s English-language film debut. Founded in 2011, SUNEC has been involved in Hong Kong-Chinese co-productions such as 2017’s “Paradox” and 2015’s “SPL II:
March 17, 2019 6:30PM PT A lively chronicle of CREEM, the defunct sex-drugs-and-rock ‘n’ roll-fueled music mag that provided a gleefully impudent rival to upscale Rolling Stone. If Rolling Stone aspired (after somewhat “underground” beginnings) to be the Rolls Royce of rock magazines, CREEM was by contrast the Volkwagen band-van: pungent with reefer, speed sweat,
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” the Mar. 17 episode of “Supergirl.” After seasons of build-up, Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) made his “Supergirl” debut in the fourth season episode entitled “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Initially, the supervillain positioned himself as a sick man, eager
March 17, 2019 5:33PM PT Tashi Gyeltshen’s arresting debut feature examines urgent social issues in rural Bhutan through the eyes of a deeply troubled teenage girl. A blanket of gloomy gray cloud hovers above a remote village in the heavily symbolic Bhutanese drama “The Red Phallus.” Relating the tale of a 16-year-old girl driven slowly
Hong Kong director Kit Hung’s new film “Forever 17” is among the first projects to be supported by Gol Studios, a new LGBT production platform launched by Jay Lin’s Taiwan-based Portico Media. Aiming to take LGBT cinema into the mainstream, Gol Studio is a crowdsourcing website that helps film projects on three fronts: helping productions
Chinese films have won a shelf-full of top prizes at major festivals in the past few years. And the country is now making major movies that increasingly top global box office charts – Chinese sci-fi title “The Wandering Earth” is by far the highest- grossing movie in the world so far in 2019, grossing more
March 17, 2019 4:09PM PT Hong Kong- and Taiwan-based group Just Creative will use this week’s FilMart to launch “Be Water, My Friend,” one of the year’s biggest movies from Greater China. The drama is currently in production with Chow Yun-fat in the lead role as a pathological gambler who finds a way to communicate
Disneynature’s “Penguins” places character, or rather an Adélie penguin who’s quite the character, at the forefront. Directors Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson focus on one charismatic male coming of age in the harsh conditions of Antarctica’s spring/summer season as he sets up a nest, finds a mate, and fulfills his destiny as a father. With
March 17, 2019 3:35PM PT Three Uighur children are the subjects of a beautifully composed debut feature by Chinese filmmaker Wang Lina. An outstanding debut feature by Chinese writer-director Wang Lina, “A First Farewell” centers on three Uighur children and their farming families whose lives are upended by regulations demanding increased levels of Mandarin language-based
Tencent Penguin Pictures grew out of Tencent Video to bring content to the Chinese tech giant’s video streaming platform — one of the world’s largest by user numbers. It is distinct from Tencent Pictures, another production division, which is more closely tied to Tencent’s own IP through its online literature, comics and gaming sectors. Penguin’s
A downsized 2019 edition of South By Southwest meant no endless lines to see arena-sized headliners play small clubs. With the exception of a J Balvin drop-in, the biggest acts at the Austin fest were arguably longtime indie staple Broken Social Scene and Outkast’s Big Boi. But that allowed for the sort of chase that
March 17, 2019 2:59PM PT There are numerous cities and provinces with their own regional pavilions at FilMart, but the city that first started the trend was Hangzhou, capital of China’s eastern province of Zhejiang. One of China’s seven ancient capitals, Hangzhou has in modern times morphed into a tech hub known as China’s Silicon
Dick Dale, the “King of the Surf Guitar” who formulated the sound and attack of the Southern California-bred instrumental style in the early ‘60s, has died. He was 81. His bassist, Sam Bolle, confirmed the news to the Guardian. Dale’s self-released records with his band the Deltones led the way for countless other acts —
Cinema Given Special Spotlight in West Kowloon Cultural District – Variety You will be redirected back to your article in seconds March 17, 2019 2:45PM PT West Kowloon Cultural District, one of the world’s most expensive and ambitious cultural endeavors, is finally taking shape after two decades of political debates and construction setbacks. Stretching across