The Irish animation industry has become increasingly robust over the last 10 years, despite the pandemic and other challenges thrown at the entertainment business. It reflects an overall passion in the country for animation and storytelling as well as a commitment by the Irish government to support the business through economic incentives. Much of those
Television
Molto bene! Food Network has renewed its new Italian cooking competition “Ciao House,” hosted by Alex Guarnaschelli and Gabriele Bertaccini, for a second season. “Shot on-location in Italy, the series takes ten rising culinary stars on the journey of a lifetime to live in a breathtaking Italian villa and compete against each other as individuals
The first season of AMC’s “Interview With the Vampire” builds a textured, vibrant world, only to watchit burn and bleed. Anne Rice’s beloved story of long-dead vampire Lestat (Sam Reid) and his latest creation, Louis (Jacob Anderson), chronicles a relationship baptized in blood, fueled by passion and gutted by betrayal. Thanks to the series’ crafts
Whether it’s a collision in an office elevator or a case of mistaken identities, fans of romantic comedies have a love-hate relationship with meet-cutes: The central couple must meet somehow and, since this is a love story, preferably they should do so in a cute way. But how many more white shirts must be killed
SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “With Open Eyes,” the series finale of HBO’s “Succession,” now streaming on Max. During their cover story for Variety’s Actors on Actors, Claire Danes — who’s starred in a number of TV shows, including “Homeland” and FX’s recent limited series “Fleishman Is in Trouble” — asked Kieran Culkin whether he’d ever done
Kieran Culkin and Claire Danes worked together on Burr Steers’ 2002 indie “Igby Goes Down,” in which Culkin played the angst-ridden 17-year-old title character to Danes’ slightly older Manhattan socialite Sookie Sapperstein. All these years later, Danes is visibly pregnant, and they chat like old pals about the difficulty of naming her third child with
Machine Gun Kelly and 2 Chainz are among the artists to cameo in upcoming documentary “Life & Basketball: The Rise of Lethal Shooter” about iconic coach Chris Matthews. Directed by Mandon Lovett (“Boys In Blue”), the doc tells the story of Matthews’ inspirational journey from underprivileged childhood to professional athlete to homelessness to one of
Disney in India has announced that the Asia Cup and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup tournaments being held later this year, will be made available free-to-view to all mobile phone users accessing its Disney+ Hotstar streaming platform. “The move to lift the paywall for mobile-only viewers […] is aimed at further democratizing the game of
Thomas W. Sarnoff, a longtime NBC executive who went on to hold leadership roles at the Television Academy, died on June 4. He was 96. From 1965 to 1977, Sarnoff served as staff executive vice president, West Coast, and president of NBC Entertainment Corporation. During his time there, Sarnoff negotiated production deals with all-star talent
Paul Walter Hauser has made hamburgers the latest red carpet accessory. The actor has found himself making the rounds lately thanks to his stunning turn as serial killer Larry Hall in Apple TV Plus’ limited series “Black Bird,” a role that has already netted him a SAG Award nomination and wins from the Golden Globes
Laura Benanti has left Amazon’s upcoming TV adaptation of “Cruel Intentions.” The Tony-winner was set to appear in the recurring guest star role of Caroline’s (Sarah Catherine Hook) mother, Claudia. “Unfortunately due to a scheduling conflict, I’m no longer able to participate in ‘Cruel Intentions,’” Benanti told me Thursday afternoon. “I’m sure they’ll find a
SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from the series finale of “Never Have I Ever” now streaming on Netflix. The senior season of Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever” is here and, with it, the social, cultural, familial and sexual education of Devi Vishwakumar has reached its conclusion. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan stars as the quirky and ambitious
When Variety broke the news that Kim Cattrall will reprise her iconic role as Samantha Jones for a cameo in the Season 2 finale of “And Just Like That,” I couldn’t help but wonder… is there anything that could thrill a “Sex and the City” fan more? The answer is yes: the HBO show’s 25th
Bryan Cranston has a plan for his Hollywood career to come to a brief end in 2026 so that he can spend more time with his wife, Robin Dearden. The Emmy winner announced the plan in a new GQ UK interview, saying he will take at least six months off from Hollywood and move to
Rusicals have been a “RuPaul’s Drag Race” institution since Season 6 and something audiences look forward to each season. Executive producer Tom Campbell credits fellow producers John Polley and Michael Seligman for coming up with this year’s “Wigloose: The Rusical.” Says Campbell, “They said ‘Wigloose,’ like ‘Footloose,’ and it writes itself.” The maxi challenge puts
Netflix has released the official trailer for Season 3 of “The Witcher,” starring Henry Cavill as the monster-slaying Geralt of Rivia. The five-episode Volume 1 will release globally on June 29, with Volume 2 set for July 27. Along with Cavill, “The Witcher” stars Freya Allen as Ciri and Anya Chalotra as Yennefer of Vengerberg.
Mark Ruffalo is set for a lead role in a new HBO limited series that hails from Brad Ingelsby, Variety has learned. The untitled series is based on an original idea and is said to follow “a task force of law enforcement officers and the criminals they are trying to apprehend.” According to an individual
Chris Licht has left the building that houses CNN’s New York headquarters, but the things he did while he was there are likelyto last a little longer. Executives at the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed news outlet intend to follow the programming strategy Licht approved during his 13 months at the operation, according to three people familiar
“Poker Face” star and executive producer Natasha Lyonne makes an indelible impression as Charlie Cale in Season 1 of Rian Johnson’s “Poker Face,” but she’s far from the only one lending memorable acting chops to the Peacock series. Throughout the mystery-of-the-week comedy’s initial run, guest stars included (but were not limited to) Adrien Brody, Chloë
NBC Sports chief Pete Bevacqua is leaving, heading to a job at Notre Dame. Mark Lazarus takes oversight of sports. It is the second major executive departure from NBCU in recent weeks, and follows the exit of ad sales chief Linda Yaccarino. More to come….
The Netflix series “Zero Day,” which marks Robert De Niro’s first regular television role, has shut down production, Variety has learned from sources. The series had recently begun production in New York but is now on hold amid the ongoing writers’ strike. There is currently no set date for work to resume on the show.
Lester Holt has a new way of delivering headlines to the “NBC Nightly News” crowd. NBC News is updating the look of its venerable evening newscast, which has been on the air since 1970 and hasn’t undergone a significant overhaul of its graphics since Brian Williams sat in the anchor chair. The new presentation will
Kerri-Anne Donaldson, who participated in “Britain’s Got Talent” in 2014, has died. She was 38. Donaldson’s older sister Cara posted the news on her Facebook page. “My heart hurts and my world has just collapsed around me. My beautiful baby sister is no longer with us and I don’t know how to process it. I
A town of women vying for the love of a prince. A mansion of singles hoping to be chosen by a man. It’s a tale as old as time, thanks to movies like “Cinderella” and shows like “The Bachelor.” But “Daisy Jones and the Six” does the opposite — the women are a unit. “From
Turns out, playing the one who knocks is a great way to notch up some Emmy votes. “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston made Emmy history when he became the first actor from a cable series to receive three consecutive lead actor in a drama trophies for his work playing Walter White on the AMC series.
Hayden Christensen and Diego Luna have never met, but as Christensen puts it, they’ve occupied the “same galaxy” for years. Christensen rocketed from teenage obscurity in Canada when George Lucas cast him as Anakin Skywalker for 2002’s “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones” and 2005’s “Revenge of the Sith,” which chronicled the
Paramount+ has released the first trailer and set the premiere date for Taylor Sheridan’s latest star-studded project, the spy thriller series “Special Ops: Lioness.” The series, which is inspired by an actual US military program, will debut on the streamer on July 23. According to the official synopsis, the show “follows the life of Joe
Israeli crime drama “Your Honor,” which was adapted by Showtime as the Bryan Cranston-led thriller, has been revealed as the most successful new scripted format in the last three years by U.K. media intelligence consultancy K7 Media. The Yes Studios-produced scripted format has had seven adaptations since 2020, including the Showtime series, alongside versions in
Lionel Messi and Sony Music Entertainment will team with the Canary Islands’ Atlantis Animation to bring an animated series on the Argentine soccer megastar several steps closer to reality. The deal sees Atlantis producing as a service company a CG animated series trailer inspired by Messi himself. Sony Music’s Premium Content Division, which is producing
U.S. film and television content captures 30% of viewing time in key Asia-Pacific territories, according to a new research report by consultancy Media Partners Asia. Korean product takes 40%. The study “U.S. Content in the Asia Pacific” tracked the video consumption behavior between January and March this year of some 40,000 consumers in ten Asia-Pacific