In the ’70s and early ’80s, the era that defined him, Stephen King came up with a whole lot of horror-story metaphors for anger. There was Carrie, the angry telekinetic nerd-turned-pranked-prom-demon, and Christine the angry car, and Cujo the angry dog, and the novel that was the greatest of King’s rage mythologies — “The Shining,”
While staring glassy-eyed at interminably long stretches of “The Last Victim,” I was reminded of a ‘60s variety show sketch I viewed during my adolescence. The premise of the skit: Producers of some returning fall shows were told at the last minute that their series had been expanded from 30 to 60 minutes, and they
Kendrick Lamar’s fifth solo album, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” finally arrived on Thursday night — his first full-length in five years. The 18-track album includes guest appearances from Summer Walker, Ghostface Killah, Kodak Black, Sampha, Baby Keem, Beth Gibbons of Portishead and a deeply emotional performance from Taylour Paige on the harrowing “We
Buckle up, because Season 5 of “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” is set to premiere on May 27 and the lineup includes some of this year’s biggest stars, Variety can reveal exclusively. The new season of the Emmy-winning Apple TV+ show will feature the groupings of “Shang-Chi” star Simu Liu and “The Matrix Resurrections” actor Jessica
“Bridgerton” spent weeks in the No. 1 spot on Nielsen’s streaming rankings, but finally fell back to No. 3 in the April 11-17 viewing windoe after reality dating show “The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On” released its final two episodes. “The Ultimatum” debuted at No. 3 on the chart after its April 6, but the
“PBS NewsHour” typically dissects the news with a depth its counterparts at ABC, NBC and CBS do not. For tonight, at least, the venerable show is generating headlines of its own. Judy Woodruff, the veteran news anchor who logged time at NBC News and CNN before taking up anchor duties at PBS’ venerable “NewsHour,” is
Norm Macdonald may now be in the running for a posthumous Emmy. Netflix pulled a May surprise on Thursday, revealing that a final stand-up special from the legendary comedian, who died in September, will launch on May 30. The streamer confirmed that the special will be submitted for consideration, presumably in the outstanding variety special (pre-recorded)
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has made his first move into the podcast space with “Radioman,” a ten-part Audible Original crime drama. “Game of Thrones” actor Coster-Waldau co-created the series written by Joe Derick and produced by “The X-Files” vet Frank Spotnitz and Emily Feller. Set in a fictional Yorkshire town called Tanford, the story follows Chas, an
Leading Japanese indie studio Gaga Corporation is launching suspense thriller “#Manhole” next week at Cannes. Being directed by Kumakiri Kazuyoshi (“My Man,” “Sketches of Kaitan City”), from a screenplay by Okada Michitaka (“Masquerade Hotel”), the film depicts a promising young man, with everything going for him, who falls to the bottom of a deep manhole
In a memo obtained by Variety on Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery’s head of HR Adria Alpert Romm reiterated to staffers that they’d be required to work from the office three days per week beginning June 1. Discovery’s acquisition of WarnerMedia was completed on April 8. On April 26, Deadline reported the company’s first memo mentioning the
Florence Welch and the Machine appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” on Wednesday night to promote the band’s new album “Dance Fever.” But before the singer performed her danceable new single “My Love, Welch joined Jimmy Buffet for a surprise duet of his 1977 classic, “Margaritaville.” Fallon, of course, couldn’t help but jump
A member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association sued the organization on Wednesday, claiming he was sexually harassed and called a “terrorist” and an “angry Arab” by members of the group. Husam “Sam” Asi is a presenter on BBC Arabic, and has been a member of the HFPA since 2010. He was put on probation
The barest bones of “The Essex Serpent” make up a familiar enough story, whether taking place today or, as this new limited series does, in the late nineteenth century. An ambitious and attractive woman, seeking answers about what she should do next with her life, leaves the big city for a small town, where she
Dominique Fishback holds her own opposite Samuel L. Jackson in Apple TV+’s “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” and she says that was inspired by the strength of the character. “I wasn’t really nervous because Robyn is not nervous of Ptolemy,” she tells Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “She’s not intimidated by him. So therefore, I’m
Rafael Kapelinski’s drama “Budapest Diaries” wrapped shooting in Budapest this week. The Polish-Hungarian coproduction is set in 1981, when the political and economical crisis worsened in Poland, and many people travelled to Hungary where the repression was less severe, according to Film New Europe. Kapelinski is a London-based writer-director, a graduate of the U.K.’s National
My Chemical Romance has returned with its first new song since 2014. The six-minute track, titled “The Foundations of Decay,” harkens back to the emo band’s heyday with Gerard Way’s dramatic vocal delivery, soaring guitar riffs and an epic slow build. The song is produced by Way, Doug McKean and lead guitarist Ray Toro. The
Brad Wilson, HBO Max’s U.S. general manager and executive vice president of global data, CRM and growth, is exiting the streamer amid an ongoing shakeup at new company Warner Bros. Discovery, Variety has learned. News of Wilson’s exit comes one day after Variety reported TBS programming chief Brett Weitz is also leaving, three years after
Dominique Fishback holds her own opposite Samuel L. Jackson in Apple TV+’s “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” and she says that was inspired by the strength of the character. “I wasn’t really nervous because Robyn is not nervous of Ptolemy,” she tells Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “She’s not intimidated by him. So therefore, I’m
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official awards predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis; Awards Circuit Column, a weekly analysis dissecting the trends and contenders by television editor Michael Schneider
Netflix loves to tout its culture of avoiding rules and minimizing corporate red tape. But of course, the company does have operating guidelines, famously detailed in the Netflix Culture document posted on its website. Co-founder Reed Hastings even wrote a 2020 book elaborating on the principles, titled “No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of
Social justice got nearly equal time with branding at the 2022 Clio Awards, as music exec Jason Flom got a special award for his work on criminal justice reform, and a public service spot that married the message of Sandy Hook Promise and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” won a Clio in the “social good” category.
CBS has decided not to move forward with its gender-flipped “Early Edition” reboot project after completing the pilot, Variety has learned. The original ’90s drama “Early Edition” starred Kyle Chandler as a man who magically received tomorrow’s edition of the Chicago Sun-Times today, delivered to his door each morning by a mysterious ginger tabby cat.
CBS has ordered three new drama shows for the 2022-2023 broadcast season. According to sources, the network has decided not to move forward with any of its four comedy pilots. The network has picked up the police drama “East New York,” the firefighter drama “Fire Country” (formerly known as “Cal Fire”), and legal drama “So
“Legacies” has been canceled after four seasons at The CW, Variety has learned. The show is the latest CW drama to get canceled. Previously, the network announced it was not moving ahead with new seasons of the DC shows “Naomi,” “Batwoman,” and “Legends of Tomorrow” as well as “4400,” “Charmed,” “Dynasty,” “Roswell, New Mexico,” and “In
And just like that, the Television Academy took the “primetime” out of the Primetime Emmys. In December, I wrote about the new agreement between the formerly combative Los Angeles- and New York-based TV academies in which categories would start to be aligned by genre, rather than dayparts. And now, we’re starting to see the changes
Judd Apatow tried hard to get his “Superbad” cast to return for a sequel, but no one was interested in ruining a great thing. It turns out that’s not an excuse Apatow ever agreed with. From the way Apatow sees it, there’s no reason to think the cast and crew behind one of the most
A new horror film about the terrors of conversion therapy is coming to Peacock. “They/Them,” a horror film produced by venerable production studio Blumhouse and starring Kevin Bacon, will be hitting the streamer Aug. 5. Bacon stars in the film as Owen Whistler, the director of a conversion therapy camp named Whistler Camp, which attempts
Eugenio Derbez has been working on getting “The Valet” made for quite some time. “When we started writing this, Barack Obama was the president. Then Trump came in and we decided to change everything, because it was a different country,” the actor told me at the film’s premiere on Wednesday night at The Montalbán in
Disruptor Records may be known as the home of the Chainsmokers, but ever since New York-based label founder Adam Alpert turned the EDM duo’s success into a joint venture deal with Sony, the imprint is finding its legs outside of the world of electronic music. Most notably, the label has begun growing its own cadre
In what has become the soap opera of the radio industry, Kevin Weatherly, the former program director at Los Angeles’ KROQ, who helped build the station to become a leading arbiter of alternative rock music nationally, is returning to the frequency as senior vice president of programming. He leaves Spotify, where he held the position