NBCUniversal’s longtime executive vice president of unscripted current production, Shari Levine, is stepping down from her role and shifting to a non-exclusive consulting position, Variety has learned exclusively. Following her exit, Noah Samton will expand his purview as the new head of East Coast for unscripted lifestyle current production across all platforms, while Kathleen French
TF1 and M6 groups, France’s top two commercial networks, have abandoned their plans to merge after being auditioned by France’s anti-trust board. “Following the debates with the Authority and despite the additional remedies proposed, it appears that only structural remedies involving at the very least the divestment of the TF1 TV channel or of the
What a long, strange trip the long-lost Creedence Clearwater Revival Royal Albert Hall concert album and film has taken in the half century since it happened. The show and the on-the-road footage were recorded by the BBC during the group’s first European tour in April of 1970, but never broadcast. The recording presumably got hung
Yara Shahidi will kick it with celebrity peers in a new show premiering on Facebook Watch later this month. The actor, model, activist and self-proclaimed “music nerd” — best known for starring on “Black-ish” and “Grown-ish” — stars in and executive produces Facebook Watch original series “Yara Shahidi’s Day Off.” In each episode, Shahidi will
Super, the boutique distribution label from Neon, has acquired U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer” after it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize in Venice along with the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future award. “Saint Omer” was recently shortlisted for France’s submission to the Academy Awards and will premiere at the
“Entertainment Tonight” has promoted three reporters to on-air correspondents: Cassie DiLaura, Denny Directo and Will Marfuggi have been elevated as full-time additions to the broadcast’s 42nd season. DiLaura, Directo and Marfuggi been part of the brand’s digital team, previously serving as correspondents and producers with their work appearing across all platforms for “Entertainment Tonight.” In
Dennis Quaid is the latest addition to the cast of Steven Soderbergh and Ed Solomon’s HBO Max series “Full Circle,” Variety has learned. He joins previously announced cast members Claire Danes, Zazie Beetz, and Timothy Olyphant in the six-episode series. The official logline for the show reads, “An investigation into a botched kidnapping uncovers long-held
Matt Smith was a staple of Netflix’s “The Crown” during its first two seasons, where he starred as Prince Philip opposite Claire Foy’s Queen Elizabeth II. Smith’s portrayal of the British royal not only earned critical acclaim and an Emmy nomination, but it also generated an unexpected response from Philip’s grandson, Prince Harry. Smith revealed
Rap superstar Drake is feuding with the “internet’s busiest music nerd,” YouTube music critic Anthony Fantano. On Thursday night, Drake leaked his own direct messages to Fantano on his Instagram story, which read: “Your existence is a light 1. And the 1 is cause you are alive,” a reference to Fantano’s tradition of reviewing albums
Considering their short lifespan and relatively slim discography, the Velvet Underground may be the most thoroughly excavated and documented rock band of their era: Nearly every studio and concert recording, acetate and demo has been scrutinized, digitized and optimized for the many awesome boxed sets that have been released since the world caught up with
Sony’s “The Woman King,” starring Viola Davis, has earned $1.7 million at the domestic box office, as theatergoers slowly embrace one of the first major studio releases in a few weeks. The historical epic, co-financed by eOne and TriStar Pictures, is aiming for a $15 million opening this weekend, where it doesn’t face much competition
When PBS announced in 2017 that vaunted documentarian Ken Burns was hard at work on a four-part docuseries about Muhammad Ali, to debut in 2021, the news was greeted with much anticipation: one of the film world’s greats on the Greatest. The only hint of criticism came from some who thought Ali’s life was already
British Columbia Takes Steps to Tackle Growth It’s estimated that the production workforce in Vancouver, B.C., needs to expand by up to 5% annually, or 1,000 people a year, and those figures are drawn from a study conducted in 2017, before the streaming wars went into high gear. To help accommodate the growth, government-supported independent
Few designers today tread the line of bad taste and good taste like Tom Ford. In fact, he’s been doing it for almost 40 years now, since working for brands like Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci. He defined, then redefined, then redefined again what the modern woman wants and needs. In Ford’s mind’s eye, she
Netflix has released the official trailer of Ryan Murphy’s true crime series “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” starring “American Horror Story” alum Evan Peters in the titular role. The 10-episode limited series follows the story of real-life serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. Primarily told
Main title creators Mark Bashore and Katrina Crawford were given a unique challenge in creating the title sequence for “The Rings of Power,” a series from the world of J.R.R. Tolkien that would introduce fans of “The Lord of the Rings” to the much older and less familiar Second Age. Bashore credits Crawford with their
The first thing to know before seeing “Moonage Daydream,” Brett Morgen’s dazzling, exhaustive and exhausting memoir of David Bowie’s life and career, is that it assumes the viewer already knows a lot about the subject — his relevance, his influence, the brilliance of so much of his music, and the basics of his personal history.
Brooke Shields is coming soon to a pair of earbuds near you with her first podcast — in which the actor, model and author explores pivotal moments in people’s lives. “Now What? With Brooke Shields,” produced by iHeartMedia, is set to launch Oct. 11, to be available on the iHeartRadio app and all major podcast
An anime series based on popular open-world role-playing game “Genshin Impact” is officially in the works. HoYoverse, the Shanghai-based game developer behind “Genshin Impact,” announced a partnership with Japanese animation studio Ufotable to develop an anime based on the RPG. It also released a three-minute “concept trailer” in announcing the project (watch below). “Let’s step
Trevor Noah has joined the growing number of celebrities fighting back against racist backlash to Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid,” which stars singer Halle Bailey as the mermaid princess Ariel. Some fans are upset that a Black actor is headlining the new movie, to which Noah responded: “Really, people — we’re doing this again?” Addressing
The first part of “The Strangers,” a trilogy directed by Renny Harlin and produced by Lionsgate, has started production in Slovakia. Rastislav Kuril’s Frame Film is servicing the production in the country. The producers registered for the 33% cash rebate at the Slovak Audiovisual Fund in June, Film New Europe reports. Filming on the first
Packing its first full-on onsite edition since the pandemic, Spain’s San Sebastian Festival has never been busier or bigger. 10 Takes on what is shaping up as a vibrant edition: Playing Off Powerful Market Forces Nine of Netflix’s 20 Top 10 non-English-language films and TV series are sourced from Spain or Latin America. Platforms
A humdrum thriller that clumsily digs into themes of sexual and emotional trauma, Amy Redford’s sophomore feature “Roost” follows Anna (Grace Van Dien), an archetypal perceptive teenage girl on the cusp of maturity. Because she’s the observant kind who yearns for big ideas and possibilities outside of her small suburban world, it’s no surprise that
Thanks in part to a strong co-production drive, 13 Mexican-nationality movies play at San Sebastian this year, a major presence. Perlak frames Alejandro G. Iñarritu Venice player “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.” Much of the heat, in industry terms at least, will come from the the premieres and sneak peeks. In one highlight,
For India in general and the Sikh community in particular, 1984 is a particularly emotive year, including for musician and actor Diljit Dosanjh, the star of Netflix film “Jogi.” In June 1984, the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered an army operation against separatist militants at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a holy location
France’s broadcasting group, France Televisions, launched Slash, a niche platform skewing millennials, as part of its efforts to keep its brand relevant among younger viewers. In five years, the service has become one of France’s biggest showcases of daring scripted content created by and starring diverse talents. Slash, which is accessible on the pubcaster’s streaming
Film and TV studio Fifth Season (previously Endeavor Content) has appointed Ben Irving to the position of creative director for U.K. television. He will join in November. His remit will be to build on Fifth Season’s reputation for distributing series such as “Killing Eve” and “The Night Manager” and producing “Severance.” Irving will lead the
Leonardo DiCaprio could be invited to join the cast of Netflix’s Emmy winning global smash hit “Squid Game” in a future season, series writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk has said. At a Netflix-hosted congratulatory press conference in Seoul on Friday, when asked if any known Hollywood actor would star in “Squid Game” Season 2, Hwang said: “There
DR Sales, the commercial arm of the Danish broadcaster, has teamed with the up-and-coming Danish-Swedish banner Nevis Productions on “Nordland ’99,” a sinister crime series set in a fictional town in rural Denmark. Directed by rising talent Kasper Møller Rask (“Lemon World”), the show is being produced by Iben Søtang (“Lemon World”) and Anni Faurbye
Imagine a domineering father so dead set on messing with his two sons’ heads that he gives them both the same name. The ghost of one such dad haunts Rodrigo García’s “Raymond & Ray,” a tired, mild-mannered road trip drama that does the opposite of taking the path less traveled. Portraying the two Rays, stars