At a time of strife, division, anxiety, and war, you might think the moment would be right for a nostalgic escape to the retro-excessive trash-movie mystique of the ’90s — an age when action thrillers were big, loud, decadent, “rebellious” and, as often as not, ripped off from “Die Hard.” “Ambulance,” however, could make you
When asked what advice she would give her 20-year-old self, Tara Reid barely skips a beat: “Stay home.” Reid laughs, but it’s a laugh that feels loaded. It was after her breakout success in turn-of-the-millennia films such as “The Big Lebowski” and “American Pie” that Reid found herself at the center of rumors about her
Style Points is a weekly column about how fashion intersects with the wider world. Sometime in the late spring of 2020, Johnny Cirillo started noticing everything had become see-through. He hadn’t suddenly developed X-ray vision–but his street photography subjects had overwhelmingly begun opting for sheer looks, even as they covered their faces with masks. The
More than a week before “The Ultimatum” premieres on Netflix, the dating series has been renewed for a second season, the streamer announced on Thursday amid an avalanche of other dating show news. Season 2 will follow an all-queer, mostly female cast. The Kinetic Content-produced series follows six couples on the verge of marriage. While
Netflix has fully committed to the reality dating show craze, announcing a robust year-round slate, including new seasons of “Love Is Blind,” “Love on the Spectrum” and “Indian Matchmaking.” “Love Is Blind,” the second season of which premiered on Feb. 11, has now been renewed for Season 4 and 5. But fans won’t have to
SPOILER WARNING: This story discusses specific events in Season 2, Episode 4 of “Star Trek: Picard,” currently streaming on Paramount Plus. As even casual fans of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” know, one of the beloved sci-fi show’s most meaningful relationships was between Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the proprietor of the main bar
Netflix and Kinetic Content are teaming up once again. The streaming giant announced a new reality show coming soon, featuring stars from “Too Hot To Handle,” “Love Is Blind,” “The Circle,” “Selling Tampa” and more. “Singles from Netflix reality shows have done some crazy things to find love. But they’re still single,” the official description
Amazon Prime Video is continuing its mission of commissioning “local for local” shows as its European operation becomes more entrenched. Georgia Brown, head of Amazon Studios for Europe, told a packed Series Mania session in Lille on Thursday that her regional staff across the continent aren’t looking for international ideas, but rather location-specific conceits. “If
Veteran dance music executive Patrick Moxey has announced details of his new label group and has signed a new, worldwide deal for two key record labels with Warner Recorded Music. The agreement, which encompasses the legendary Payday Records and the newly created Helix Records, will see Warner Recorded Music handling global digital distribution via its
Los Angeles chef Evan Funke knows his way around the Oscars. Not only is his father, Alex, a three-time Academy Award winning visual effects director (“I’ve been to a couple of Oscars as a guest of my dad’s,” Evan says), but he’s also helped create the dishes for the annual Governors Ball several times alongside
Sharon Horgan’s new Apple series has set its main cast. The series, now titled “Bad Sisters,” will star Horgan, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle, Sarah Greene, and Eve Hewson as the Garvey sisters. Claes Bang, Brian Gleeson, Daryl McCormack, Assaad Bouab, and Saise Quinn also star. The series follows the lives of the Garvey sisters bound
“Barons,” a surf and business drama series that plays this week at Series Mania, is a calling card for the newly re-structured Australian operations of TV giant Fremantle. In recent weeks, leadership of the unscripted side of the business has been put in the hands of Eureka, a company in which it bought an increased
The Recording Academy has unveiled a second round of performers for the 64th annual Grammy Awards: nominees Jon Batiste, Foo Fighters, H.E.R., Nas, and Chris Stapleton, and, as revealed by Variety Wednesday night, a special In Memoriam performance featuring songs of Stephen Sondheim by Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler. The
Priya Dogra, president of WarnerMedia Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia (excluding China), took the stage on Thursday to deliver a keynote speech at the Series Mania TV fest in Lille, France, and the message was clear: the U.S. conglomerate is ramping up production in Europe. “Our industry is becoming more global,” said Dogra.
Top stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalco surprised fans at his shows in the New York area by giving away free commemorative NFTs to all ticketholders — the first comedian to launch such an offering using the next-gen digital collectible technology. The observational comedian’s complimentary NFTs (nonfungible tokens), designed by his wife, Lana Gomez, are uniquely designed
Streaming was the biggest growth story in India during a pandemic affected 2021, while the film and TV sectors recovered, the annual EY/Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry media industry report reveals. The streaming audience grew from 450 million in 2020 to 497 million in 2021 and the report estimates that the number
Montea Robinson has been named chief executive officer of Ghetto Film School. The GFS alumna will guide the non-profit organization’s plans to expand its reach and impact, with an emphasis on building out its program and enhancing career opportunities for its students. Founded in 2000, Ghetto Film School serves 8,000 individuals, between the ages of
During ABC’s Academy Awards broadcast on March 27, Snap will air its first-ever Oscars TV spot, honoring the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. The ad shows people using Snapchat’s augmented-reality Lenses to learn American Sign Language. The ad (watch below) was inspired by the Oscar nominations for Apple Original Films’ “CODA” — the first motion picture
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex and actor-turned-would-be-media-mogul, will have “uncensored conversations” about stereotypes that have historically applied to women on her forthcoming podcast for Spotify. The podcast series, “Archetypes,” is slated to debut this summer on Spotify. It’s the first production to land on Spotify under the streaming service’s exclusive deal inked in 2020
The Third Floor (TTF), who are responsible for visualization work on dozens of Marvel blockbusters including “Avengers: Endgame,” have launched an animation group as well as a suite of animation tools. The tools, which have been developed over Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, enable creatives to develop ideas and render in real time. TTF estimate they
Alicin Reidy Williamson is leaving Endeavor after more than two years to join Yahoo, which spun off from Verizon last year, as the media and tech company’s chief diversity and culture officer. Reidy Williamson will lead Yahoo’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts globally, reporting directly to CEO Jim Lanzone. Based in New York, she
Spotify paid $7 billion in royalties to rights holders — primarily labels and publishers, but also distributors, performing rights organizations and others — in 2021, the company announced on Thursday in its annual “Loud and Clear” report. That total is more than any other service — with more than 180 million paying subscribers, Spotify is
Less than two years after joining France Televisions, former Canal Plus executive Manuel Alduy has contributed to bolstering the French public broadcaster’s roster of international series with shows such as “Bardot,” a mini-series biopic of Brigitte Bardot, and “L’Insoumise” about Alice Guy, the first female filmmaker ever. Ahead of France Televisions’ press conference at Series
Paramount Plus, which is the global streaming service of recently rebranded Paramount — formerly ViacomCBS — has forged a three-year partnership with Gaumont, the storied French studio behind Netflix’s “Lupin” and “Narcos,” to jointly produce a slate of high-end original shows for its growing subscribers around the world. Under the partnership Gaumont will produce these
Very few The Mediapro Studio shows, indeed very few Spanish series in general, have lit a fire on the open market like “The Head,” an Antarctic-set thriller which lifts off as a murder mystery to constantly evolve into other realms. Starring Álvaro Morte, “Money Heist’s” Professor and Japanese pop idol Tomohisa Yamashita, written by Alex
The BBC World Service has sought and will receive £4.1 million ($5.4 million) in additional funding to counter disinformation around the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The emergency funding would to help the BBC “continue bringing independent, impartial and accurate news to people in Ukraine and Russia in the face of increased propaganda from the
The New Zealand International Film Festival will return to an in-person event this year, but in a scaled-down format. It will operate in multiple cities between July 28 and Sept. 4, 2022. Management explained the downsizing as both a reaction to the impact of COVID-19 and as a means to bouncing back bigger in 2023.
At a time when journalists are under attack in many parts of the world and the odious term “fake news” has become part of the global lexicon, Spain’s Mediacrest presents the topical drama series “Fake” at a key event in France-based Series Mania, the invitation-only Spain Pitching Breakfast, on Thursday. Leading the charge is industry
A wider representation of gender roles, more training opportunities for women filmmakers, and reaching out to women audiences are all ways forward to promote women-centric stories in Southeast Asian cinema, say women filmmakers from the region. The lively discussion involving Thai-American director Pailin Wedel (“Hope Frozen”), Indonesian actor Marissa Anita (“Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens”),
UGC, the long-running French film studio whose biggest hits include “Amelie Poulain,” has successful branched into TV series by acquiring stakes in a flurry of talent-driven production companies such as Itineraire Productions (“HPI”) and Headline Pictures (“Call My Agent!’s” British remake) in the U.K. Opting for a different approach to Gaumont’s or large media groups