After more than a year of fanfare caused by the 2022 merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery, David Zaslav’s WBD has finally launched Max. Branded as “the one to watch,” the new streaming service combines the offerings of HBO Max and Discovery+ into one platform. In April, WBD held an event announcing the name, launch
Television
Showtime research and scheduling chief Kim Lemon is exiting his post after 34 years with the company. Upon his exit, MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks’ Laurel Weir will be adding oversight of the Showtime brand (soon to be renamed Paramount+ With Showtime) to her purview. Most recently executive vice president of data strategy,
United Talent Agency (UTA) has announced its latest round of promotions, with 65 employees elevated across 20 of the company’s departments. “These promotions reflect our longstanding tradition of investing in our people,” stated UTA president David Kramer, announcing the promotions. “UTA continues to aggressively expand our footprint and our offerings to clients, I’m excited to
CBS has set premiere dates for its summer slate of reality television programming, including three returning and one new series. “Secret Celebrity Renovation” kicks off the lineup with a July 28 premiere followed by the Aug. 2 debut of “Big Brother” Season 25. The all-new musical game show “Superfan” will launch on Aug. 9, and
There’s nothing quite like having an Oscar-winning actor in your corner, or perhaps a star of one of the biggest TV Series of all time. In the case of Kick Gurry, creator, producer and actor in the forthcoming Stan Original Series “Caught,” the backing of Sean Penn and Matthew Fox has undoubtedly been a boon.
Though Wanda Sykes began working on “I’m an Entertainer,” her latest Netflix stand-up special, in 2019, hardly any of the material she wrote prior to March 2020 made it into the show. Instead, it was the radioactive events of the pandemic era — from COVID vaccinations to the Jan. 6 insurrection, the battle over trans
CNN has launched CNN Fast, a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel. CNN Fast is set up as a curated channel of short-form videos that will feature international stories across major news events, business, entertainment, sport and the environment. It launched on Tuesday across several European countries on Rakuten TV, and will also be available
Mainland Chinese star Wang Luodan (“The Dead End,” “Struggle,” “The Continent”) and Hong Kong-born Bosco Wong (“Lives of Omission,” “Triumph In The Skies”) head the cast of “My Dearest Stranger.” The high-end suspense drama series is a production fronted by mainland Chinese distributor-producer Hishow Entertainment, which announced the production at the Cannes Market, adjacent to
What The Weeknd wants, The Weeknd gets in “The Idol,” a skintastic, dark-side-of-showbiz fable that perpetuates the myth that pop stars are corporate puppets with no say in their own image-making, even as it allows hit-maker The Weeknd to call the shots (and reshoots, apparently, since the five-part HBO series was overhauled late in production
LL Cool J surprised “NCIS” fans with his cameo on the Season 2 finale of “NCIS: Hawai’i” on Monday night. The rapper turned actor reprised his role of Sam Hanna and will join the series as a recurring guest star in the upcoming third season. LL first appeared on the franchise’s flagship series “NCIS” in
Indian Oscar winner Guneet Monga Kapoor’s Sikhya Entertainment and multihyphenate Karan Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment have teamed for the first time to produce original series “Gyaarah Gyaarah” for streamer ZEE5. Directed by Umesh Bist (Sikhya-Balaji Motion Pictures-Netflix film “Pagglait”) and co-written by Puja Banerji and Sunjoy Shekhar, the series, described as being in the investigative fantasy
The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp shut down the Croisette to show the price of fame — and plenty of raunchy intrigue — at the Cannes premiere of “The Idol” on Monday. Making direct parallels to superstar meltdowns like the one suffered by Britney Spears, the HBO Original series finally revealed itself at a packed gala
Hulu’s football docuseries “Algiers, America” reaches both an emotional and musical peak in its fifth and final episode. As the students of Edna Karr High School near graduation, one of their classmates, Keyron Ross, is killed by gun violence. The series profiles the New Orleans high school’s football team while also looking at the reality
With “The Last Thing He Told Me,” Apple TV+ has achieved its most watched limited series ever since the streamer’s launch in 2019. According to Nielsen data obtained by Variety, the series reached 4.5 million unique viewers in its first 31 days of streaming, beating out previous Apple limited series as well as several titles
CANNES — Belinda, one of Mexico’s biggest popstars and a star of Netflix hit “Welcome to Eden,” is attached to headline “The Red Diamond,” the latest project from Erik Barmack’s L.A. and Mexico City-based Wild Sheep Content. One of the fastest-growing of production companies in international markets, Wild Sheep has a production alliance with The Mediapro
Latin American companies have descended on the 60th LA Screenings, mindful of the ever-shifting panorama in content distribution and production. The ongoing writers’ strike is viewed by some as a boon for international content. Take what Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said at the company’s first quarter financials report presentation when the writers’ strike was looming:
Thomasin McKenzie, the versatile star of “Last Night in Soho” and “Jojo Rabbit,” is already hoping for the second season of darkly comedic series “Totally Completely Fine,” which saw her transform once again. This time, she morphs into twentysomething Vivian who inherits her grandfather’s cliffside house. The problem is, many strangers actually come there to
Hulu’s “God Forbid” and Netflix’s “Cocaine Cowboys” producers Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman have set their sights on their next subject: one of the members of Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani’s former inner circle, Florida businessman Lev Parnas. Corben and Spellman’s Miami-based production company Rakontur is currently in production on “From Russia With Lev,” following
LA Screenings Independents hosted a panel of leading U.S.-based Latino producers who held forth on the challenges of creating Latino projects from the heart of Hollywood. Organized by C21 Media, the panel kicked off with Axel Kuschevatzky, director-owner of Infinity Hill, a producer of the Oscar-shortlisted “Argentina 1985,” who pointed out the asymmetry of the
President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate veteran telecommunications lawyer Anna Gomez as an FCC commissioner. The president also announced the renominations of FCC commissioners Brendan Carr (a Republican) and Geoffrey Starks (a Democrat) for five-year terms. If Gomez is confirmed by the Senate to serve as an FCC commissioner, Democrats will have a
Lionsgate has acquired the worldwide distribution rights to the the Biblical epic series “The Chosen.” Three seasons of “The Chosen” have been produced to date. Seasons 1 and 2 are available on Peacock and Amazon Prime Video, while Season 1 is also on Netflix. It is also availabile in France on Canal+, the Netherlands on
Authentic Brands Group has launched Authentic Studios, which aims to develop and produce a wide range of film/TV and commercial content from the company’s portfolio. Based in Beverly Hills, Authentic Studios will kick off as the home to Shaquille O’Neal’s Jersey Legends, David Beckham’s Studio 99, Sports Illustrated Studios and Authentic Productions. Authentic Studios plans
Warner Bros. Discovery is on the eve of launching Max, its new streaming service that combines the already-existing platforms of HBO Max and Discovery+. But don’t expect Aubrey Plaza to be among Max’s subscriber base. “The White Lotus” star revealed to Vanity Fair that she refuses to use streamers because she often gets enraged while
FLX (“Quicksand”), the Nordic banner owned by SF Studios, is set to adapt the bestseller “Shadowland” (“Skuggland”) into a thriller series revolving around bullying. The show will take place at an exclusive private school in Stockholm and will follow 11-year-old Daniel, who isn’t from a rich family unlike his classmates and is constantly bullied. After a serious
Zinc Media label Supercollider has partnered with Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures and Sabrina Elba’s Pink Towel on documentary series “Paid in Full: The Battle for Payback” (working title) for public broadcasters CBC and BBC. The series (3 x 60′), produced in association with Catalyst, examines the exploitation of Black artists by the music industry
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “NMB NMP,” the fifth episode of “Somebody Somewhere” now streaming on HBO Max. Season 2 of HBO’s slice-of-life dramedy “Somebody Somewhere” has, up to this point, put its platonic love story between Sam and Joel in a slowly ascendant bubble, according to star Bridget Everett. But in Sunday’s
It’s clear by this point in the run of “Barry” that the show is no longer about whether or not its title character (series co-creator Bill Hader) is a redeemable human being; as Hader puts it, despite all of his lying and killing, “he doesn’t understand what he did wrong.” Instead, as the fourth and
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Church and State,” Season 4, Episode 9 of “Succession,” now streaming on HBO Max. First comes the coronation, then the hangover. On this Sunday’s “Succession” — the penultimate episode of the series and the longest so far, clocking in at over 70 minutes — the morning after the election
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav felt the effect of the WGA strike while delivering a commencement speech at Boston University, getting jeered and facing chants of “pay your writers” while he was trying to speak. “Late Night with Seth Meyers” writer Mike Scollins posted a video of one moment during the address in which
In a highly anticipated animation event at this year’s Cannes Festival, Emmy-winning Spanish director Rodrigo Blaas attends on Sunday the screening of his short film “Sith,” part of Disney+’s “Star Wars: Visions” Season 2 anthology. The first big-screen exhibition of “Sith” — released worldwide May 4 on Disney+ — followed by a meet and greet