As the touring business continues its uneven return after nearly two years of lockdown, one major bright spot has been the famed U.K. festival sector, which came back with a bang this summer. Reading & Leeds Festival, the traditional finale to the season, took place last weekend and was completely sold out well in advance,
As a filmmaker, Noah Baumbach has always been a dyed-in-the-wool dramatic realist, talky coastal neurotic division. He hasn’t always been as good at it as he is today; “The Squid and The Whale” (2005), the divorce drama that established his reputation and is held in supremely high regard by many cinephiles, isn’t half the movie
Justin H. Min has joined the cast of Searchlight Pictures’ “The Greatest Hits,” Variety has learned exclusively. Star of Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy” and breakout in the Sundance player “After Yang,” Min joins the previously announced Lucy Boynton in the emotional movie musical from writer-director Ned Benson (“The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby”). While character details are
It took a village — and several hours a day — to transform “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” actor Owain Arthur into Prince Durin IV for the Amazon Prime Video series launching Sept. 2. The Peter Jackson films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” brought Middle Earth to
As a journalist, I’m always uncomfortable becoming part of the story. But I was met with an abnormally high amount of online dissent several days ago, after contributing to a Variety list detailing “The Worst Series Finales of All Time.” My sole contribution was the 1991-1994 sitcom “Dinosaurs,” a show I watched religiously as a
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is only days away, and the Amazon Prime Video series has earned mostly rave reviews with a few mixed reactions (and one flat-out pan) as critics returned to Middle-earth. As Variety chief TV critic Caroline Framke wrote in her review: “It’s safe to say that Amazon
To celebrate the release of his self-titled new album, British singer Yungblud has announced “Occupy the Strip,” which will see him performing at three legendary venues on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip on September 8, with the concerts being livestreamed globally via the Amazon Music channel on Twitch. Yungblud says, “Some of the most iconic artists
About six weeks ago, locals and visitors to the famed intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street saw one of the bare walls in the area begin to show some shapes and colors. Over on Instagram, posing at the same spot, Los Angeles urban pop artist Tristan Eaton wrote on July 17, “My dream wall
A24 is backing the new movie “Earth Mama,” a coming-of-age story from Olympian-turned-director Savanah Leaf. Written and directed by Leaf, “Earth Mama” follows a pregnant single mother who embraces her Bay Area community as she determines the fate of her family. The cast includes Bay Area musician Tia Nomore, Erika Alexander (“Living Single,” “Run the World”),
Carolina Markowicz’s dark satire “Charcoal,” which world premieres on Sept. 11 at Toronto Film Festival, has debuted its teaser trailer with Variety (below). World sales are being handled by Urban Sales. The film, which plays in the festival’s Platform section, centers on a poor family living in a remote area in Brazil, who earn a
“The Flash” is not the only upcoming movie starring Ezra Miller that is being forced to contend with the actor’s recent controversies. The upcoming Toronto International Film Festival will close with the premiere of Mary Harron’s “Dalíland,” which features Miller in a small supporting role as a young Salvador Dalí. Ben Kingsley stars in the
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 2 at Amazon has cast Kyra Sedgwick and Elsie Fisher in recurring roles. Variety exclusively reported that the show based on Jenny Han’s book series of the same name was renewed for a second season before Season 1 had premiered. Season 2 is currently in production but no premiere
Live Nation Women is joining forces with the When All Women Vote campaign to put together a week of events called Beautiful Noise Live, taking place in Atlanta from Sept. 19-23. Fans can register ahead of time for a chance to win a variety of prizes including VIP experiences for the Brandi Carlile concert on
When the Television Academy revealed this year’s Primetime Emmy submissions in June, there were a few glaring omissions. Fans of Netflix’s young adult drama “Heartstopper” (pictured above) were particularly perplexed, until they learned that the show instead opted to vie for a trophy in the new Children’s & Family Emmy Awards run by the National
Paramount is flexing a new bundle muscle: The company has combined Paramount+ and Showtime into a single, merged service — letting subscribers access content from both streamers in one place. It’s also offering promotional discounts on the Paramount+/Showtime bundle of up to 33% for the next month. Available starting Aug. 31, the new Paramount+ with
More than 10 years after its debut, the official music video for “We Are Young,” the chart-topping hit by Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe, has surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube. The milestone marks both artists’ first entry into YouTube’s Billion Views Club. The music video, directed by Marc Klasfeld, was shot at L.A.’s David Sukonick
Hanif Harji runs Figo, an Italian joint a block away from the heart of the Toronto International Film Festival. Over the years, he’s had a chance to see a lot of A-listers in their element. There was that time Bill Murray started a conga line, or the evening when Joaquin Phoenix stepped outside to take
Russell Crowe will play a former homicide detective tasked with re-examining a brutal murder case from his past in “Sleeping Dogs.” The Nickel City Pictures film marks the directorial debut of Adam Cooper, who wrote the script with Bill Collage. The film is an adaptation of E.O. Chirovici’s acclaimed novel, “The Book of Mirrors.” Cooper and Collage previously
A24 stunned moviegoers in late July when it debuted the first look at Brendan Fraser in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale.” The drama, adapted from Samuel D. Hunter’s play of the same name, features Fraser under up to 300 pounds of prosthetics in order to play a man struggling with severe obesity. A new report on
BMG has posted the best-ever half-year results in its 14-year history, with revenues up 25% year over year, according to an announcement from the Berlin-based music company and its parent, Bertelsmann. According to the report, revenue for the period that ended June 30 was up 25% to approximately $405.7 million and operating EBITDA increased 46% to $79.8
Naughty Dog has been one of PlayStation’s most prestigious developers, known for franchises like “Jak & Daxter” as well as “Uncharted.” However, Naughty Dog’s magnum opus is arguably 2013’s “The Last of Us” for the PlayStation 3, which blended cinematic action gameplay with incredible storytelling. Almost a decade later, Naughty Dog has remade the game
Directing Penélope Cruz in Venice competition title “L’immensità,” Italy’s Emanuele Crialese is teaming with Argentina’s Nicolás Gil Lavedra to produce “Rona,” the second feature by Emiliano Torres, writer-director of San Sebastian Special Jury Prize winner “The Winter.” Produced by Crialese’s Italy-based Now and Buenos Aires Gamán Cine, set up by Lavedra and Torres, “Rona” is
Check out the official Trailer for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey starring Craig David Dowsett! ► Visit Fandango: https://www.fandango.com/?cmp=Trailers_YouTube_Desc Subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon to be notified of all the hottest trailers: http://bit.ly/2CNniBy US Release Date: Coming Soon Starring: Amber Doig-Thorne, Maria Taylor, Danielle Ronald Director: Rhys Frake-Waterfield Synopsis: Winnie
Check out the official Trailer for Nanny starring Anna Diop! ► Visit Fandango: https://www.fandango.com/?cmp=Trailers_YouTube_Desc Subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon to be notified of all the hottest trailers: http://bit.ly/2CNniBy US Release Date: December 16, 2022 Starring: Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls Director: Nikyatu Jusu Synopsis: An African woman hopes her new
Several years (and several hundreds of millions of dollars) after Amazon bought the TV rights to “The Lord of the Rings” from the J.R.R. Tolkien estate, the mammoth effort to boost Prime Video’s profile with the same kind of phenomenon HBO found in “Game of Thrones” is upon us — and it’s just as grand,
Georgia Brown, head of Amazon Studios in Europe, is stepping down after five years in the role, Variety can reveal. The executive’s last day at the business is Wednesday (Aug. 31), though her departure is understood to have been in the works for some time. Brown is believed to be moving on to another opportunity,
Richard Roat, a character actor whose career spanned five decades and included roles in “Seinfeld,” “Friends” and “Dallas,” has died. He was 89. Roat died on Aug. 5 in Orange County, Calif., The Los Angeles Times reported. Roat’s career took off with the early ’60s soap opera “The Doctors,” on which he appeared in 172
Rob Schneider said during a recent interview (via Mediaite) that “Saturday Night Live” was killed for good when Kate McKinnon sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” as Hillary Clinton during the cold open of the show’s first episode back after the 2016 presidential election. McKinnon parodied Clinton throughout the 2016 election cycle, but the show took a
Snap announced that it was cutting 20% of its workforce in a bid to contain costs — eliminating nearly 1,300 positions — and that the company will discontinue funding original series. With the moves, Snap estimated it will save $500 million in cash expenses on an annualized basis relative to the second quarter of 2022.
Swedish director Ruben Ostlund has reacted to the sudden death of Charlbi Dean, the star of his Palme d’Or winning film “Triangle of Sadness.” Ostlund posted an emotional tribute on social media, saying her death was “a shock and a tragedy.” “It is an honor to have gotten to know and work with her. Charlbi