Movies

Discovery completed its acquisition of WarnerMedia from AT&T on Friday. The close of the transaction births new company Warner Bros. Discovery, which will begin trading on the Nasdaq Monday under the new ticker symbol “WBD.” WarnerMedia owns HBO, HBO Max, CNN, Warner Bros., DC Films, New Line Cinema, TBS, TNT, TruTV, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, Turner

The Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences met Friday morning to discuss the consequences for actor Will Smith following his slap of presenter Chris Rock during the 94th Oscars telecast, and voted to ban Smith from all Academy events including the Oscars for 10 years. Here is the Academy’s

WarnerMedia and Discovery are on the cusp of officially closing their deal. With the change in leadership at the new Warner Bros. Discovery, will there be pricing changes for the new conglomerate’s flagship HBO Max streaming service? Insiders say there aren’t any immediate plans to alter HBO Max’s pricing scheme — in the U.S., it

Warner Bros. Discovery is not going with the “initial wordmark” revealed last June as its official logo. Variety has obtained a low-resolution copy of a new logo that is being circulated on internal memos at Discovery and WarnerMedia on Friday, ahead of the expected close of the merger transaction later today. Discovery did not immediately

As Discovery closes its deal for WarnerMedia, John Stankey, the AT&T chief who oversaw the telecom company’s abandoned foray into the media world, bid farewell to his soon-to-be former colleagues. Stankey led AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV and Time Warner in 2015 and 2018, before replacing Randall Stephenson as CEO role of AT&T in July 2020.

The members of the Directors Guild of Canada in British Columbia have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, after a year of negotiations on a new contract reached an impasse. The union announced that the vote passed with 92.2% support, with 86.2% of eligible members casting a vote. Union officials hope the vote gives negotiators

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. “Start Trek: The Motion Picture,” the seminal first film of the franchise that first premiered in 1979, is finally available to stream on Paramount Plus. The remastered 4K version has been given a special

Shooting is underway on “Woken,” a psychological thriller set on a remote island in the North Sea starring Erin Kellyman (“Solo: A Star Wars Story”) and Maxine Peake (“Funny Cow”). The pic is being directed by first-time Irish director Alan Friel who previously worked with Peake on his prize-winning 2017 short “Cake.” Cameras are rolling in

Elizabeth Marvel (Hulu’s “The Dropout,” “News of the World”) has joined the star-studded cast of Blitz Bazawule’s adaptation of “The Color Purple”. The forthcoming Warner Bros. musical movie is an adaptation of Alice Walker’s iconic American novel, as well as the Oscar-nominated 1985 film and Tony Award-winning Broadway musical that it inspired. Production is currently

Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” opened to a sterling $6.3 million in Thursday previews, as the video game adaptation looks to outrace “Morbius” and “The Batman” at the box office. It won’t have much trouble lapping Universal’s “Ambulance,” the weekend’s other new release, which is expected to debut to $10 million, a disappointing result for

Slowing emerging from a two-year pandemic, France’s second biggest multiplex chain behind Pathé, CGR Cinemas, has been put on the market by its owners, Luc Raymond and Charles Raymond, Variety has confirmed. The family-owned business has an estimated value of about $1.1 billion, according to Jocelyn Bouyssy, CGR’s long-time managing director who has been tapped

The British Film Institute has announced five new board members including Netflix’s film chief Scott Stuber. Stuber joins the BFI’s board of governors along with eminent British industry exec and academic Monica Chada; producer Elizabeth Karlsen, co-founder of Number 9 Films (“Carol”); Laura Miele, vice-president and COO of interactive entertainment giant Electronic Arts; and writer,

Jimmy Wang Yu, once a superstar of multiple Asian martial arts genres, died on Tuesday. He was 79. News of his death in a Taipei hospital was posted on social media by Wang’s daughter Linda, herself a former Canto-pop star of the 1990s. She wrote that Wang passed away peacefully after a six-year battle with

Critics’ Week, the sidebar dedicated to first and second features that runs alongside the Cannes Film Festival, is launching a new award. Called The French Touch Prize of the Jury, the award is being backed by a French organization dedicated to promoting creative and cultural industries. “The French Touch is not just an economic sector,

Evan Rachel Wood is opening up about her experience being “publicly gaslit” for coming forward with abuse allegations against Marilyn Manson. On a new episode of Jameela Jamil’s podcast “I Weigh,” the actor dived deep into the “re-traumatizing” but necessary process of being involved in a sexual abuse investigation. Manson (real name Brian Hugh Warner)

“RRR” screenwriter K.V. Vijayendra Prasad will pen the script of “1770 – Ek Sangram,” a big-budget adaptation of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s 1882 Bengali-language novel “Anandamath” (aka “The Abbey of Bliss”). Set in 1770, the story takes place against the backdrop of the Sannyasi Rebellion when a brotherhood of monks banded together to fight the ruling

Ricky Gervais defended Chris Rock’s Oscars joke in controversial fashion. The comedian, who is no stranger to provoking celebrities at awards shows thanks to his five-year stint hosting the Golden Globes, said Rock’s joke at the 94th Academy Awards that resulted in Will Smith slapping him wasn’t even that offensive. Gervais then proceeded to joke

Daniel Roher is on a mission with “Navalny,” and it’s one he considers life or death. The documentary filmmaker, who last directed “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band,” believes that the more people see “Navalny” worldwide, the greater the spotlight will be on the imprisoned Russian dissident it is named for, and the

Pretty much every family has a reliably dutiful mitigator: They are the sacrificing person to whom siblings vent when familial affairs turn sour and parents call for on-demand assistance. Among the Frays — the family at the heart of Mayim Bialik’s soberly affecting if not a touch monotonous domestic drama “As They Made Us” —

Netflix has released the trailer for its first original TV show out of Nigeria, “Blood Sisters.” Produced by leading Nigerian production company EbonyLife Studios, founded by Mo Abudu, the four-part crime thriller directed by Biyi Bandele and Kenneth Gyang will launch globally on the streaming service on May 5. The show is Abudu’s latest project

With just a week to go before Cannes’ Official Selection is unveiled, festival director Thierry Fremaux took a break from binge-watching movies to tell Variety about the preparations for this year’s milestone edition. Although the festival has already confirmed the world premieres of “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Elvis,” a surprisingly small number of titles have

Selenis Leyva, Thaddeus J. Mixson, Spence Moore II and Mila Davis-Kent have joined MGM’s “Creed III,” directed by franchise lead Michael B. Jordan. The quartet join previously announced stars Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Florian Munteanu and Phylicia Rashad. Set for theatrical release on Nov. 23, “Creed III” marks Jordan’s feature directorial debut,

Thomas Dekker has been acting since he was six years old. Now 34, he’s best known for playing Zach on “Heroes” and John Connor on the short-lived “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” But the spotlight unexpectedly became much brighter in 2017 when former “Heroes” co-executive producer and writer Bryan Fuller outed Dekker during a speech

“It’s a Sin” actor Lydia West is set to star alongside Patricia Clarkson in spy thriller “Gray.” Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios is financing the eight-part show and will distribute it in the U.S., represented by CAA, while Lionsgate International will handle distribution in the rest of the world. West co-stars alongside Clarkson, who plays CIA

Swiss-based sales and distribution agency Lightdox has acquired world rights for “How to Save a Dead Friend,” the debut doc by Russian filmmaker Marusya Syroechkovskaya. Lightdox provided Variety exclusive access to the film’s trailer ahead of the film’s world premiere at Swiss doc film fest Visions du Réel next week. [embedded content] Shot over more

New Zealand-born actor, director and producer Russell Crowe had one of the most incredible runs in the late 1990s and early 2000s, quickly becoming a huge star in Hollywood. With a career that started opposite George Takei in “Blood Oath” (1990), he’s delivered a treasure trove of unforgettable performances over the last three decades. After

Swiss sales agent Lightdox has added competition titles “Kapr Code” by Lucie Králová and “Garçonnières” by Céline Pernet to its lineup at international doc festival Visions du Réel, which runs April 7-17 in Nyon, Switzerland. Competing in the Burning Lights category, “Kapr Code” is described as a “documentary opera” that traces the life of controversial

Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel has opened in Nyon with a homage to Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius, who was killed while filming in Ukraine last week. The 45 year old, best known for his conflict-zone documentary “Mariupolis,” which was screened at the 2016 edition of the fest and has been added to this

Syrian-American actor Jay Abdo (“Hologram for the King”) is set to play the lead in “Broadcast,” a drama about the atrocities of the Syrian civil war that will mark the directorial debut of U.S. actor and producer Grant Cramer. Cramer has produced several indie pics of various genres, including Afghanistan-set Special Forces thriller “Lone Survivor,”

Veteran Hong Kong director Herman Yau has assembled a top-notch cast for “War Customised,” a high-octane action thriller that is one of the highest-profile commercial productions to emerge from the territory in the past couple of years. The cast is headed by Jacky Cheung (“Private Eye Blues,” “Bullet in the Head”) and Nicholas Tse (“Raging