There is a dizzying amount of damage control and chaos still unfolding from the wreckage of the now most infamous Oscar ceremony on record. The more time people have had to process Will Smith’s shocking assault on Chris Rock on March 27, the angrier many have become at Smith for hijacking Hollywood’s biggest night of
Movies
“Bridgerton” Season 2 has broken the record for most-viewed show in a week among Netflix’s English TV series, per the streaming service’s newly released weekly Top 10 list. While “Squid Game” still holds the overall record for most-viewed show on Netflix in general across a seven-day period, with 571.76 million hours viewed, the second season
Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Donatella Versace was in Los Angeles for the Oscars, attending the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards gala and the Vanity Fair party. She also caught up with her friend Britney Spears. Versace is designing a wedding dress for the newly liberated pop princess. “She’s on vacation now,”
The Discovery–WarnerMedia merger could close as early as this Friday, April 8, Variety has learned exclusively. Previously, insiders said the transaction between Discovery and WarnerMedia’s current owner AT&T would be formally completed on Monday, April 11. On Tuesday, amid WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar formally announcing his exit timed to the rapidly approaching close of the
Two-time Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi and his French producer Alexandre Mallet-Guy are denying reports that the Iranian auteur has been sentenced and found guilty on a charge of plagiarism pertaining to his latest film, “A Hero.” Farhadi’s former student Azadeh Masihzadeh has accused the filmmaker of stealing the idea for “A Hero” from a documentary
Situated in the southeastern tip of Florida, Miami-Dade County and its cities, led by the capital of Miami and resort town Miami Beach, have long been a hotbed for entertainment. As Miami-Dade’s Daniella Levine Cava, elected as the county’s first-ever female mayor in November 2020, points out: “Miami-Dade County is a major production hub for
Kenny Rock, Chris Rock’s brother, railed against Will Smith and the Academy in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times. Kenny said his brother was not aware of Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia prior to making a joke at the Oscars about her bald head while presenting the documentary feature category. The joke led Smith
WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar announced on Tuesday that he is stepping down ahead of the completion of Discovery’s acquisition of the currently AT&T-owned company, which is expected to occur on April 11. While Kilar’s exit from WarnerMedia upon the completion of the merger had been expected ever since the planned transaction was first announced by
The school half-term holidays saw the release of family-friendly fare at the U.K. and Ireland box office and consequently Paramount’s animated sequel “Sonic The Hedgehog 2” claimed the box office crown. The film debuted with £4.9 million ($6.5 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. The other big family targeted release, Universal’s “The Bad Guys,”
Remember way back in the year 2000, before even the first Harry Potter movie had been released? Big as a cinderblock and nearly as heavy, the fourth novel in J.K. Rowling’s bestselling YA series inspired fans to line up at bookstores around the country days in advance. At 734 pages, “Harry Potter and the Goblet
“Morbius” director Daniel Espinosa remains “proud” of his comic book tentpole despite the movie earning abysmal reviews from film critics. The Jared Leto-starring superhero movie boasts a paltry 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the lowest-rated Marvel films ever released. Espinosa confronted the film’s negative reviews in an interview with Insider. “When I
Jan Šimánek and Petr Záruba have dropped the trailer of their new film “Adam Ondra: Pushing the Limit,” which follows four years in the life of Adam Ondra, considered to be one of the best rock climbers in the world, as he prepares for and competes in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The film will
Continuing his streak of using the magnetic child stars of awards season in his advertising campaigns, New York-based designer Thom Browne has cast Jude Hill as the face of his spring childrenswear line. This year’s Critics Choice Award winner for best young actor, 11-year-old Hill and his delightful Irish accent stole hearts all season in
Production has wrapped on the long-gestating “Ajoomma,” a feature film that delves into the fascination that Korean pop culture holds for middle-aged women in Asia. The story, said to be based on the mother of director He Shuming, involves a K-drama-obsessed widow from Singapore who tries to find new purpose in life and instead ends
As Variety has previously reported, “Elvis” Baz Luhrmann’s drama about the rock-and-roll legend Elvis Presley, starring Austin Butler (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) and Tom Hanks, will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Cannes confirmed the premiere on Tuesday, adding that Luhrmann, Hanks and Butler will attend the premiere
Arrow Films have acquired U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland rights to Berlinale title “Incredible But True,” by French writer-director Quentin Dupieux (“Mandibles”). The quirky comedy, which had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, sees a husband and wife move into a suburban house of their dreams only to discover that a
Picture Tree International (PTI) has acquired Constantin Film’s hit comedy film series “Bavarian Rhapsody,” about a laid-back cop in a small town in southern Germany. The eight-part movie series, which PTI is presenting at the MipTV mart in Cannes this week, includes the latest installment, “Guglhupf Squadron,” which Constantin is releasing in theaters in August.
Feature documentary “The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft,” directed by German filmmaker Werner Herzog and distributed by Abacus Media Rights, has been acquired by Arte for France and Germany. In addition, ahead of its official launch at MipTV in Cannes, AMR has pre-sold the feature, about French volcanologists Maurice and Katia
Sono Sion, the self-proclaimed maverick Japanese film director known for raunchy indie movies including “Love Exposure” and “Antiporno,” has been accused of sexual harassment by several actresses in Japan’s film industry. The accusations were published Monday by the Shukan Josei PRIME entertainment news and gossip site. In a lengthy article, several actresses made accusations against
Indian star Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao Jr., popularly known as NTR Jr, is elated with the success of S.S. Rajamouli’s “RRR.” An action-drama set in the 1920s, the historical fiction story by Vijayendra Prasad and Rajamouli makes real-life Indian freedom fighters Alluri Sitarama Raju (played by Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (NTR Jr) meet and
On the heels of a successful in-person event that welcomed such stars as Woody Harrelson, Amy Poehler, Liev Schreiber and “Dopesick” creator Danny Strong, the 2022 Sun Valley Film Festival, which ran from March 30 to April 3, announced its juried film award winners. Best narrative feature film went to “Linoleum,” directed by Colin West.
If the increasingly bare-knuckle battle between Florida’s conservative Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, and the Walt Disney Co., over the Sunshine State’s new “Don’t Say Gay” law and other legislation, sounds eerily familiar, it should. The current clash of values and culture between the Sun Belt and the West Coast sharply echoes the 1990s Southern Baptist
Michael Bay isn’t here for your questions about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. Bay directed Smith in two of his signature action movies, “Bad Boys” and “Bad Boys II.” Asked by Yahoo to weigh in on the slap, Bay responded, “I don’t really care.” “I wasn’t watching. I saw it. First
Jared Leto is known for staying in character throughout the duration of his film shoots, and on the “Morbius” set that apparently meant using a wheelchair to go to the bathroom. Similar to his character in the movie, Leto used crutches on set to maintain his character’s physicality. However, the crutches made Leto’s bathroom breaks
For Alexander Skarsgård, being one of the sexiest actors in Hollywood hasn’t always been a blessing. The Emmy winner recently told The Sunday Times that all the focus on his physical appearance during the early parts of his careers had a negative impact on the choices of roles he was being offered. “I don’t really
The COVID-19 pandemic spawned its own genre of sorts: the quarantine film, which examines the bizarre, disorienting early days of the crisis as people confined themselves to their homes. In this realm of sometimes heavy movies, one of the lightest and most charming is “7 Days,” which uses this setup for an opposites-attract rom-com. Karan
Whoopi Goldberg predicts Will Smith’s career will come back to normal after he slapped Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards last month. Reports surfaced almost a week after the incident that Netflix was pumping the breaks on its Will Smith-starring action-thriller “Fast and Loose.” The project was moved to the streamer’s backburner in the
Mexico’s Peninsula Films & Entertainment and Monica Lozano’s Alebrije Prods. have teamed up to produce feature film “El Hombre de la Multitud” (“The Man of the Crowd,” a working title in English) about Mexican tabloid photojournalist Enrique Metinides. His iconic, at times grisly, photos chronicled scenes of accidents, crimes and historical events from the 1940s
Wētā FX, has announced the opening of its Vancouver office as part of the next phase of the company’s growth following the $1.6 billion technology deal with Unity late last year. The company behind films such as “Eternals,” “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” Canadian presence marks the company’s first dedicated visual
Digital Domain VFX supervisor Matt Butler is no stranger to visual effects transformations, and his north star is always to ensure the actor’s performance and idiosyncrasies come through. In this case of the new superhero film “Morbius,” Butler had to make sure audiences could still see elements of Jared Leto’s transformation, while staying true to