Television

Icelandic production company Act 4 is set to turn Skuli Sigurdsson’s award-winning Nordic crime novel “Big Brother” (“Stóri bróðir”) into a TV drama. Act 4, founded earlier this year by a group of top Icelandic industry execs, has optioned Sigurdsson’s chilling debut novel with actor, producer and Act 4 co-founder Olafur Darri Olafsson (“The Tourist”)

Netflix’s Brandon Riegg, VP of unscripted and documentary series, spoke about the streamer’s dive into sports-themed content and the smashing success of “Beckham” — its docuseries chronicling the life and marriage of famed footballer David Beckham and Victoria Beckham, aka Posh Spice — at Content London on Wednesday. Riegg said Netflix did not give editorial

During the streaming boom, Sony was one of the few big entertainment companies that held back from creating its own platform. And now that the market has cooled down, Ravi Ahuja, chairman of Sony Pictures’ Global Television Studios, sees this as a massive advantage. During a keynote at Content London on Wednesday, Ahuja said that

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and U.K. news media organisation Guardian Media Group, which publishes the left-leaning The Guardian newspaper, have revealed a strategic creative collaboration. The agreement will see SPE gain exclusive first rights to all of the Guardian’s global journalism, with the aim of developing suitable materials for audio-visual adaptation. The deal spans the

It’s almost time for the “Dancing With the Stars” finale! During Tuesday night’s semi-finals, the remaining five pairs each danced two full routines — one Latin routine and one ballroom. Emotions were running high as they all eagerly wanted to make it to next week’s finale. During the episode, Jason Mraz admitted that “a few weeks

Peacock has released the trailer for Season 2 of “Dr. Death,” starring Edgar Ramírez and Mandy Moore. The series is based on a true story told by the popular Wondery podcast of the same name. Per the series’ description, Season 2 of “Dr. Death” centers on “’Miracle Man’ Paolo Macchiarini, a charming surgeon renowned for

The world of “The Boys” could soon be expanding to Mexico. According to sources, Amazon is currently developing a Spanish-language spinoff of their popular dark superhero series based on the Garth Ennis/Darick Robertson comic books that would be set in Mexico City. Exact plot details remain under wraps. Like “The Boys,” it would be produced

Paramount Global’s streaming division has elevated two content execs to new leadership positions: Jeff Grossman is now EVP of programming for Paramount+ and Amy Kuessner, EVP of programming for Pluto TV, the company’s ad-supported streaming service. Grossman will oversee a “holistic” content strategy for Paramount+ globally. He most recently was EVP of content and business

Disney CEO Bob Iger focused on instilling employees with renewed optimism about the Mouse House’s “blessed” and “fortunate” state during a virtual company-wide town hall Tuesday, rather than making any proclamations about the company’s future. The event, moderated by ABC News anchor David Muir, was held just over a week after the one-year anniversary of

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis squaring off against California Governor Gavin Newsom in a debate moderated by Sean Hannity? Sounds like an opportunity for another round of cable-news professional wrestling. The host hopes to keep the figure-four leg locks and piledrivers to a minimum. “It’s not going to be PBS. I don’t want it to be

Somewhat mysterious and fearless, Oscar-winning British actor Jeremy Irons has played a host of different characters during his decades-long career, from Adrian Veidt in Damon Lindelof’s TV series “Watchmen,” to Rodolfo Gucci in Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci,” British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in “Munich: The Edge of War” and Alfred Pennyworth in the DC Extended

Featuring a women screenwriters pitching session sponsored by Netflix, the biggest fiction series commissioner in Latin America, Ventana Sur has added this year a big spread from Chile’s TV agency Consejo National de Televisión, which could be a reaction to global platforms pulling out of Chile.  In terms of original titles there’s good word on

In the wake of three lawsuits alleging sexual assault, Sean “Diddy” Combs has temporarily stepped aside as chairman of Revolt, the music-oriented television network he co-founded in 2013. Representatives for Combs confirmed the news to Variety. A statement posted to Revolt’s Instagram page reads, in part: “Sean Combs has stepped down from his position as

Kal Penn and Charlamagne Tha God will each take another stab behind the desk of Comedy Central‘s venerable “Daily Show” as the Paramount Global network keeps looking for a new permanent host. Charlamagne Tha God will lead the show during the week of December 4 while Penn will orchestrate things during the week of December

Guy Fieri has signed a new three-year deal with Food Network, which sources tell Variety is valued at more than $100 million. This fresh pact means that Fieri retains his title as the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned cable channel’s highest-paid talent and bests his most recent multiyear deal, which closed in 2021 for $80 million. Food

Steven Wolfe Pereira, a veteran of the advertising and technology sectors, has been named chief client officer at TelevisaUnivision‘s U.S. ad sales unit, part of a bid to accelerate the company’s outreach to advertisers who may not invest heavily in Spanish-language media. Wolfe Pereira will be tasked with helping advertisers create new partnerships that utilize

Cineflix’s Rights’ Leonard Cohen series starring Alex Wolff as the iconic singer-songwriter has revealed presales in the U.K., Greece and Cyprus, with ARD’s Fabfiction in Germany joining as a co-producer. Titled “So Long, Marianne,” the drama has sold to ITVX in the U.K., Cosmote TV and Star Channel in Greece and Movies Best HD in

Streamer ZEE5 Global is taking a leaf out of the Prime Video Channels playbook by aggregating six South Asian streaming services within its platform in the U.S. Branded as Add-ons, the streamers are Simply South, which offers content in the South Indian languages Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, Oho Gujarati in the Gujarati language, Chaupal

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (“Game of Thrones”) and James Norton (“Happy Valley”) will lead the cast of CBS Studios‘ period drama series “King and Conqueror.” Norton will play Harold, Earl of Wessex and Coster-Waldau William, Duke of Normandy, the two 11th century men destined to meet at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 – two allies with

The arrival of “WandaVision” on Blu-ray has brought with it a first look at set footage from the upcoming spinoff series, “Agatha: Darkhold Diaries.” The series finds Kathryn Hahn returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as disgraced witch Agatha Harkness. Not much is known about the show, which was first announced in October 2021, but

In one of the biggest co-production deals unveiled at Content London, Mediawan‘s label Atlantique Productions has joined forces with Participant to make an ambitious limited espionage thriller series based on the Pegasus spyware scandal. Amit Cohen (“False Flag,” “Bad Boy”) and Ron Leshem (“Euphoria,” “No Man’s Land”) are on board as creators and showrunners for

Lightning International, the Hong Kong- and U.K.-based content distribution and solutions company, is expanding its staff ahead of the upcoming Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) in Singapore. It has hired Eric Tan to be director of content sales Asia. He will be responsible for all aspects of channel and content distribution. Specializing in the

Television Broadcasts (TVB), long the dominant free-to-air TV operator in Hong Kong is to dismiss 300 staff, or 8% of its already reduced workforce, in a further cost cutting move. The company said in a regulatory filing on Monday that it will shed 200 staff from its program production operations, merge two of its five

The Max series based on DeuxMoi’s novel “Anon Pls” has attached Diablo Cody and Ryan O’Connell to serve as writers, Variety has learned from sources. As initially reported in May 2022, the project is currently set up at Max with a script-to-series commitment. It is being developed as a one-hour drama series via Berlanti Productions

Only a comedic mind like John Mulaney’s could mine gold from one of the lowest points of his life. The comic released his third Netflix special, “Baby J,” in April. In stark relief to his previous, more ebullient hours, his latest work examined his 2020 drug relapse and the intervention that led to a successful

One week of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” has been canceled unexpectedly as Colbert recovers from surgery following a ruptured appendix. The news came via a post on the CBS show’s official Threads page on Monday. “Sorry to say that I have to cancel our shows this week,” the post reads. “I’m sure you’re

According to Marlon Wayans, the number one rule in comedy is “You can’t be afraid to offend.” Four of today’s hottest comics came together for Variety’s stand-up comedy roundtable — Marlon Wayans (“God Loves Me”), Tom Segura (“Sledgehammer”), (“Salute Me or Shoot Me”) and Matt Rife (“Natural Selection”) — to discuss the state of comedy. In the

Forget the fear of flying. In the upcoming six-episode thriller “Nightsleeper,” the real danger awaits on a train travelling from Glasgow to London. “When we were developing the show, we got all these experts in one room and asked: ‘How do you hack a train?’ An hour later, they said: ‘This is scary. We could

Paramount+ has revealed its lineup for Brazilian comic convention CCXP. The streamer will host a panel on the event’s Thunder Stage on Dec. 2 hosted by Brazilian stars Hugo Gloss and Nicole Bahls. It will feature talent from “Halo” Season 2, including Pablo Schreiber who plays Master Chief in the show, Joseph Morgan, who plays

“Frenchie Shore,” the local adaptation of the popular American reality show “Jersey Shore,” rivaled Ridley Scott’s historical epic “Napoleon” as November’s most polarizing entertainment topic in France. Since launching on Paramount+ and MTV France on Nov. 11, the reality show has inundated social media, especially TikTok where users have been posting sexually explicit, yet blurred,