Tech

“Aquaman” star Jason Momoa and producer Peter Safran have reteamed to develop a feature biopic about Duke Kahanamoku, the legendary Hawaiian Olympic swimmer who is widely credited with popularizing surfing as a sport. Momoa and Safran have teamed with producers Susan Miller Carlson and Eric Carlson of Carlson Company to bring Kahanamoku’s story to the

Pixy, we hardly knew ye. Less than four months after Snap CEO Evan Spiegel unveiled Pixy, a drone-powered camera that can record videos and photos for sharing on Snapchat, the company is shutting down development of the device. Pixy, currently priced at $250 apiece, remains available for purchase in the U.S. for now (presumably until inventory

International TV audiences may have fallen in love with Korean series “All of Us Are Dead,” “Itaewon Class” and “Dr. Brain” without ever being aware that each originated as a webtoon, or online comic. A clutch of Korean companies is now getting ready to make sure webtoons are the next big thing in the global

In today’s podcast news roundup, Dana Carvey and David Spade will be back for a second season of “Fly on the Wall,” revisiting iconic moments from “Saturday Night Live”; Apple Podcasts unveils two new charts for subscriptions; George R.R. Martin talks up “House of the Dragon”; and more. RENEWALS Audacy’s Cadence13 extended its partnership with

Warner Bros. Discovery is eager to lock in HBO Max customers on annual plans — even as the streamer is culling dozens of titles in a cost-cutting effort. On Thursday, HBO Max launched a new limited-time discount for new and returning customers, offering 30% off in the first year for users who prepay for a

K-pop titans Blackpink have announced the #PinkVenomChallenge in partnership with YouTube, launching at midnight ET tonight (August 19) and 1 p.m. KST, following the debut of their new music video “Pink Venom.” There will be a special countdown livestream starting at 11 p.m. ET/ 12 PM KST on the group’s official YouTube channel. “We are

Americans now watch more stuff on TV from streaming services than either broadcast or cable TV. Streaming platforms, led by Netflix, in July 2022 for the first time surpassed cable networks to claim the largest share of U.S. TV viewing for the month, according to new data from Nielsen. It was only a matter of

Where there’s a yearning for content, there’s a streaming service to meet it. And never has the invisible hand of the market been more evident than in the organic growth of platforms delivering content from South Korea and other Asian countries to viewers well beyond the continent’s borders. Rakuten Viki is one such streamer that

Netflix may not let subscribers on its forthcoming ad-supported streaming plan download TV shows or movies to mobile devices, a feature that’s proven to be popular among the streamer’s regular customer base. Last month, Netflix said it expected to launch the ad-supported plan to launch in early 2023. The streamer has not announced pricing or

Controversial podcast host Joe Rogan came out swinging in a heated conversation about abortion rights with guest Seth Dillon, CEO of right-wing satire site Babylon Bee. On Tuesday’s episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” exclusively distributed on Spotify, Rogan hosted Dillon in a wide-ranging discussion about American political culture. (The episode is available at this

Eboni K. Williams is launching a new season of her podcast with Interval Presents, the new in-house podcast network from Warner Music Group, Variety has learned exclusively. Williams — an attorney, journalist, TV host and author — recently starred on “The Real Housewives of New York City,” becoming the first-ever Black cast member to be

Boss Beauties, an NFT company and women-empowerment brand launched last year, has signed with WME. WME will exclusively represent Boss Beauties in all areas and assist in adapting its intellectual property across Web3, film, TV, digital and gaming platforms, as well as live events and brand partnerships. Boss Beauties’ first NFT collection, consisting of 10,000

It’s been a volatile year for cryptocurrency markets and a big year for Web3 thievery in general, from NFT kidnappings to hacks taking aim at the crypto exchanges and the “bridge” entities that facilitate sales and trades. Duke University lecturing fellow Lee Reiners has emerged as a vocal doubter of the viability of cryptocurrencies as

Fox Corp. operates the only one of the four major U.S. broadcast networks that isn’t tied to a major direct-to-consumer subscription streaming play. The company also is the only one among its peers that has launched a dedicated Web3 and NFT division. Those two things are related, says Charlie Collier, CEO of Fox Entertainment. “We

When Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” hit the multiplexes in 1994, few could predict the effects the kinetic, darkly comedic adventure would have on the film business. More than a quarter-century later, the movie many consider to be the director’s signature work has influenced Hollywood again — in ways no one could have foretold. Last year,

Audible inked a multi-project slate deal with podcast production studio At Will Media, the first of which is “Koz,” a hybrid scripted/nonfiction podcast starring Taylor Kitsch and Kate Mara scheduled to debut next month. “Koz” tells the true story of Darrin Kozlowski, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms special agent who spent two decades undercover

Blockchain — A distributed, publicly accessible database that functions as a ledger to record digital transactions (such as records of a cryptocurrency transaction). The blockchain provides a way to conduct verifiable, trusted transactions — without the need for a centralized third-party entity. Metaverse — A virtual-reality space in which users can interact within a computer-generated

Stoner Cats, CryptoPunks and Bored Apes. Blockchains and metaverses. Crypto-currencies and non-fungible tokens. Over the past 12 months, as the world has eased out of pandemic crisis mode, the pop culture-verse and the Wall Street-verse have been rife with discourse and deal-making around a belief in the revolutionary potential of mind-bendingly complicated, internet-enabled new systems

Sir Anthony Hopkins is spreading his wings into the metaverse. The Oscar-winning actor and artist has teamed up with Orange Comet, a Web3 creative studio startup, to create and launch his first NFT series, dubbed the Eternal Collection. “NFTs are a blank canvas to create art in a new format,” Hopkins told reporters during an online

Experiential media and immersive technology company Cosm will launch its first public venue in Hollywood Park, it announced on Wednesday. The location will be the first venue of its kind to utilize Cosm’s domed and compound curved LED technology. As part of Hollywood Park’s retail district, the venue will showcase a 26.6-meter diameter LED dome

Swizz Beatz and Timbaland have hauled short-form music video app Triller into court, with the pair of artists alleging Triller must pay them $28 million after acquiring Verzuz, their livestreaming rap-battle show. The duo founded the popular Verzuz virtual battle series in March 2020, then less than a year later agreed to sell it to

Doha-based beIN Media Group and its flagship beIN Sports channel — which is the official broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 across the Middle East and North Africa — have forged an exclusive partnership with Twitter to share tailored content throughout the upcoming soccer tournament. The planet’s biggest soccer event, which will take

Donna D’Errico is defying the haters who think she’s “too old” to wear a bikini. The “Baywatch” star announced that she has joined OnlyFans, the subscriber-only social media site, joining her former costar Carmen Electra on the platform. D’Errico, who is 54, shared an explanation for why she started a page on OnlyFans in a

Miguel Quiroga, after spending more than 20 years of his career at Verizon, is joining YouTube as VP of product partnerships. Quiroga will oversee the YouTube experience across the video platform’s partner ecosystem. That includes managing and developing partnerships for YouTube’s suite of products, including the YouTube app (on mobile and connected-TV devices), YouTube Music,

Netflix is launching an incubator to help foster female screenwriters in Egypt. The U.S. streaming giant has partnered with Sard, a dedicated hub for screenwriters in the Arab world on a writing program called Because She Created. Its stated goal is training twenty women from outside Cairo and to “expose untapped talent to the creative

Walmart reached a deal with Paramount Global to include the Paramount+ streaming service as part of the retailing giant’s Walmart+ membership program starting in September. The Paramount+ Essential plan, which includes ads, will be available for no extra cost to Walmart+ members. In the U.S., Paramount+ Essential is regularly $4.99/month. The Essential plan does not

It’s not going to make much of a dent to offset Snap’s stalling ad business, but the company is touting that it has signed up more than 1 million subscribers for Snapchat+, its service that provides exclusive access to pre-release and experimental features. Snapchat+ hit the one-million mark a little over six weeks after launching

The recent decision by Warner Bros. Discovery to shelve the nearly finished DC superhero movie “Batgirl” left fans confused and outraged. But it has also yielded a trove of fantastic memes. The $90 million Warner Bros. production, starring Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, won’t be released theatrically or on HBO Max, or anywhere else. Why?

Giddyap! The official music video for “Old Town Road,” the Western-themed 2019 breakout from Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, has joined YouTube’s Billion Views Club. The achievement marks both Lil Nas X and Cyrus’ first entry to YouTube’s Billion Views Club. The hip-hop/country hybrid spent a record 26 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1

Endeavor delivered strong second quarter earnings on Thursday with wind at the back of its sports, live events and talent representation operations. The company that is home to UFC, WME and IMG saw year-over year revenue gains at its key units for the quarter as sports and entertainment activity continues to adjust to the post-pandemic