Legendary football player Tom Brady will join Fox Sports as part of a multi-year deal once he ends his NFL career, lending the company a potential new boost after it lost mainstay announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to ESPN. The news was disclosed by Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch during an investor call. The
Laverne Cox will be honored as advocate of the year at the upcoming 2022 Webby Awards. The actor and producer will be recognized by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) for her LGBTQ advocacy work. “Laverne Cox understands the true power of showing up by example,” Webby Awards president Claire Graves told Variety exclusively
Daniel Battsek, director, Film4, has been elevated to chair, while deputy director and creative director Ollie Madden will succeed Battsek as director. Film4 is the filmmaking arm of U.K. broadcaster Channel 4, which invests £25 million ($31 million) annually to develop and co-fund British films with British talent. Since its launch, films it has backed
After buying WarnerMedia from AT&T, the company now known as Warner Bros. Discovery has a new acquisition target: primetime ad dollars that have been going to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. The new entertainment giant has been talking to big media-buying agencies about an enhanced package of commercial inventory in top programs that encompass not
Anurag Kashyap’s “Dobaaraa” has been set as the opening night film of the London Indian Film Festival. Despite its name, the festival will play at venues across the U.K., and will present 24 features and 18 shorts. “Dobaaraa” is a supernatural thriller that LIFF describes as involving a young woman trapped between two lives in
A new documentary on tennis superstar Boris Becker is nearing completion and is set to be sold at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. Alex Gibney, Oscar-winning director of “Taxi to the Dark Side” and John Battsek, producer of the Oscar-winning “One Day in September,” have had exclusive access to Becker since 2019 and have been
Starzplay has acquired Stephen Dunn’s reimagining of groundbreaking British series “Queer as Folk” for a slew of territories including the U.K., several continental European countries, and Latin America. The Peacock-produced reboot of the Russell T. Davies series from the ’90s about three clubgoing men in Manchester’s gay village, has been acquired by the streaming service
Shivkumar Sharma, Hindustani classical musician and co-composer of several memorable Bollywood film soundtracks for the late Yash Chopra, died on Tuesday in Mumbai. He was 84. Sharma, addressed by the honorific Pandit, had kidney related ailments for the past six months and eventually succumbed to a cardiac arrest. Born in Jammu, Northern India, Sharma became
Play video content It’s Tricky with Raquel Harper Gillie Da Kid says he’s not holding a grudge against Wiz Khalifa … despite the fact he thinks Wiz got him kicked off Instagram over a misinterpreted diss. Here’s the deal … Gillie claims Wiz got him banned from IG because the “Black and Yellow” rapper didn’t
Sony Group Corporation saw gains in sales and net profits in the fourth quarter of its financial year, but full year profits shaded down by 14%. For the newly begun financial year, running from April 2022 to March 2023, it forecasts further downward pressure on profits. Group sales in the January to March period increased
For some time, the French VFX sector suffered an acute case of brain drain, as young professionals would graduate from internationally admired institutions and nearly immediately take their talents abroad. “Years ago, when I spoke with students from [the renowned school] ArtFX, something like 95% of them planned to leave after graduation,” says VFX supervisor
Playing a foundational role in the history of film and benefitting from enough picturesque locales to launch a thousand postcards, France has long attracted directors and crews from across the globe. Keeping them on site for more than a few days, however, was once a different story altogether. The 2009 passage of the Tax Rebate
Viewed with 20/20 hindsight, all of history appears inevitable simply because it went to the trouble of happening. More than four decades after it defied skeptics, entertained millions, and hit the No. 2 spot (just behind “The Empire Strikes Back”) on the list of top-grossing 1980 movies, green-lighting “9 to 5” might now appear to
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the fifth episode of “Better Call Saul” Season 6, titled “Rock and Hard Place.” Move over, Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather: The biggest boxing showdown of all time just unfolded on “Better Call Saul.” In one corner stands Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian), managing
HBO has released the first teaser for the upcoming fourth season of “Westworld,” revealing footage of the next installment to the science-fiction series. HBO planned the release of the trailer as an easter egg for fans to uncover. The teaser surfaced online to all on Monday evening. Cryptically titled “It doesn’t look like anything to
AWARDS CIRCUIT COLUMN: The Emmys Are Better Than the Oscars, But Here’s How to Bring Back the Fans: Tap Into ‘Law & Order’ and Comic-Con Perhaps the best reaction ever to one of my Emmy columns came via a reader on Twitter: “The ‘Law & Order’ pitch reads like a cocaine-fueled fantasy.” That’s why I
Jack Kehler, a prolific character actor, died Saturday from complications due to leukemia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif. He was 75 years old. Kehler’s death was confirmed by his son, Eddie Kehler. Born May 22, 1946 in Philadelphia, Pa., Kehler set his career off in acting at the age of 24 by
Republic Records has announced the promotion of Chris Blackwell to EVP of A&R and Content Strategy, as announced today by label president Wendy Goldstein. According to the announcement, in this new role, Blackwell will continue to shepherd the creation and development of content for the entire Republic Records roster. Additionally, he will work with new
Future tops two key music charts this week as “Wait For U” featuring Drake and Tems debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, and his latest album, “I Never Liked You,” accomplished the feat on the Billboard 200. Although the song is Future’s second (his first was alongside Young Thug on
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” is canceling the taping of new episodes “until further notice” after its host exhibited COVID-19 symptoms. The news comes only a few weeks after Colbert’s COVID diagnosis paused taping from April 21 to May 2. “Stephen is experiencing symptoms consistent with a recurrence of COVID,” “The Late Show’s” official
There are countless accounts on TikTok dedicated to “The Mandalorian” star Pedro Pascal, where fans gather to ruminate on his acting skills and, of course, dashing good looks. But who would expect that the account calling him the “daddiest daddy” would be Lionsgate, the distributor behind Pascal’s latest film, “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent?”
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not seen “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” in theaters now. When Benedict Wong was introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016’s “Doctor Strange” as Wong, the titular superhero’s sidekick and fellow sorcerer, the British actor quickly became a fan favorite. Since, Wong has appeared in
Forget about Happy Meals — let’s talk about happy filmmakers. “Encanto” star Stephanie Beatriz has teamed up with McDonald’s for Spotlight Dorado, a short film contest for Latino talent. “McDonald’s has a long history of fostering community. Not only do they essentially feed the community, but they also are trying to sort of put a
Fresh off the first-ever Netflix is a Joke comedy festival, the streamer confirmed which performances will be available to view in the coming weeks, including tributes to late comedians such as Bob Saget and Robin Williams and the yet-to-be-announced date for Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias’s groundbreaking set at Dodger Stadium. Featuring a wide range of events
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Benedict Cumberbatch and members of the “Saturday Night Live” cast showed their support for women’s rights and Roe v. Wade. Much of the latest episode centered around the leaked draft ruling that reveals the
FX is developing a series based on the 2010 Searchlight Pictures film “Never Let Me Go,” Variety has learned. Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich, who served as producers on the original film, will executive produce the series. Adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel of the same name, “Never Let Me Go” was directed by Mark Romanek
A bizarre and disturbing trend has swept across TikTok over the last several days: Dozens of posts on the short-form video service — some amassing millions of views — have used video or audio from Amber Heard’s wrenching testimony in the Johnny Depp trial, with the creators of the videos dramatically reenacting it, performing dances
Minnie Driver was only 26 years old when she auditioned for the role of Skylar in Gus Van Sant’s “Good Will Hunting.” It’s a performance that would earn Driver an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress, but it’s one she recently told The Telegraph almost never happened because producer Harvey Weinstein believed “nobody would want
Blue Fox Entertainment has acquired the worldwide rights to “Jane,” a YA thriller starring “Riverdale’s” Madelaine Petsch. The cast also includes Grammy-nominated singer songwriter Chlöe Bailey, Oscar-winning actress Melissa Leo, and model Chloe Yu. Blue Fox Entertainment will release “Jane” theatrically this fall, with the film debuting simultaneously on Creator+. For the unfamiliar, Creator+ produces
In a show of support for Ukraine, U2 members Bono and the Edge gave a surprise performance at a Kyiv subway station being used as a bomb shelter. On Sunday, U2’s official Twitter account shared that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had invited Bono and the Edge “to perform in Kyiv as a show of solidarity