The “Pitch Perfect” series at Peacock has added Jameela Jamil, Sarah Hyland, and Lera Abova to its cast, Variety has learned. The trio joins previously announced series lead Adam Devine and cast member Flula Borg. In the series, Bumper Allen (Devine) moves to Germany to revive his music career when one of his songs becomes big in
Cary Baker has had a distinct niche in music publicity for a good portion of the 42 years he’s worked in the field. To skip past the list of the genres and subgenres he championed, starting with his helping establish R.E.M. as a superstar act, and past a recent boutique roster of high-quality clients that
Ed Sheeran is fighting a copyright lawsuit over his hit single “Shape of You.” The case, which is being heard in London’s High Court, is the culmination of a 4-year legal battle between Sheeran and songwriters Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue. Chokri, a grime artist, is better known under his pseudonym Sami Switch. O’Donoghue is
Director, Oscar-winning actor and special envoy for the UN refugee agency, Angelina Jolie has signed a three-year international filmmaking agreement with producer and distributor Fremantle. Under the agreement, effective immediately, Jolie and Fremantle will jointly develop a “sophisticated, powerful, and internationally focused slate of feature films, documentaries, and original series in which she will produce,
The 60th edition of the New York Film Festival will take place from Sept. 30 through Oct. 16. Along with the newly announced dates, Film at Lincoln Center’s recently promoted president Lesli Klainberg shared that Dennis Lim has been elevated to the New York Film Festival’s first-ever artistic director and Eugene Hernandez has been upped
Those who do not know Oscar history are surprised when it repeats. It’s a different take on philosopher George Santayana’s famous quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Statistics are an important piece to consider when analyzing an Oscar race. Too often, from the casual awards-watchers on social media, contenders
“CODA” started as “a scrappy production with few resources and filmed in a short amount of time,” says writer-director Siân Heder. But it earned the audience favorite award at Sundance and has chalked up other honors recently, including the key best-acting-ensemble at the Feb. 27 SAG Awards. It is nominated for three Oscars: supporting actor
Cardi B‘s legal victory over a blogger who defamed her isn’t stopping the woman from trashing Cardi … so now, the rapper wants a judge to gag her forever. Cardi filed docs Thursday night in federal court, demanding a permanent injunction against Tasha K, who Cardi defeated in a defamation trial back in January. The
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Tyler, the Creator knows footwear. And with over 15 shoe collaborations under his belt (on top of six chart-topping albums), some might say the multi-hyphenate artist traverses the fashion industry as natively as the
After going virtual in 2021, the Rendez-Vous With French Cinema Festival is returning as an in-person event at the Lincoln Center in New York with a bevy of heavy hitters, including Claire Denis, Juliette Binoche, Jacques Audiard, Arnaud Desplechin and Mathieu Amalric. Kicking off with the North American premiere of Denis’ Berlinale Silver Bear winning
“The Batman,” Matt Reeves’ pitch-black take on the oft-told story of the billionaire who became a costumed crime fighter, earned a muscular $21.6 million in Thursday previews. The superhero reboot is eyeing a debut of $100 million or more, buoyed by good reviews and interest in Robert Pattinson’s take on the title role. The former
Parker McCollum and Lainey Wilson were named as, respectively, best new male artist and best new female artist in early honors announced by the Academy of Country Music in advance of Monday’s live ceremony from Las Vegas on Prime Video. The Academy posted videos of both artists getting the news from country superstar Miranda Lambert.
In a first for Disney’s flagship direct-to-consumer streaming service, Disney Plus will launch an ad-supported subscription plan later this year. The ad-supported Disney Plus plan will be introduced beginning in the U.S. in late 2022, with plans to expand internationally in 2023, the media conglomerate announced Friday. No pricing or specific launch date was announced.
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Hollywood stars are fundraising for Ukraine on Cameo. As Russian troops continue to attack major Ukrainian cities, displacing more than a million refugees from their homes, actors such as Olivia Colman, Busy Philipps, Denise
Netflix has released the first trailer for ‘The Bubble,’ Judd Apatow’s upcoming comedy about a cast and crew of a blockbuster movie in production during the COVID-19 pandemic. In “The Bubble,” Karen Gillan and Pedro Pascal play the lead actors in the action film “Cliff Beasts 6: The Battle for Everest: Memories of a Requiem,”
LevelK has boarded the buzzed-about Australian horror movie “Sissy” which have its world premiere at SXSW’s Midnighters section. The company is handling international sales on “Sissy,” while XYZ films is representing North American rights. Penned and directed by Hannah Barlow (For Now) and Kane Senes (Echoes of War, For Now), the film stars Aisha Dee
Cymande was an early ‘70s group of Black British musicians who released three albums, split in 1975 and largely faded from view — until years later when, in a now-familiar story, their records began being sampled by hip-hop, house, drum n’ bass and other DJs and producers. The Fugees’ “The Score,” Wu-Tang Clan’s “Problems,” De La
Russia has passed a new censorship law in a bid to suppress news of its assault on Ukraine. The Duma, Russia’s parliament, has passed a bill enabling anyone accused of publishing “false information” regarding Russia’s military to be prosecuted and potentially imprisoned. According to Russian news agency TASS, those found guilty of disseminating “false information”
Dolphin Entertainment, an entertainment marketing and premium content production company, has entered into a strategic partnership with The Flower Girls, a fine art female-led non-fungible tokens. The NFT collection boast 10,000 unique works of art by revered artist Varvara Alay. Launched in December of 2021, The Flower Girls has surpassed over $15 million in sales
Netflix has greenlit a trio of series across Japan, Australia and Taiwan, featuring top talent. Japanese sitcom “Let’s Get Divorced” follows a rookie politician and his actor wife who struggle with their marriage life and they decide to split up. However, their parents and agents don’t allow them to do it. It is co-written by
Lady Gaga will present the Rising Star segment at the BAFTA awards in London. Actors Ariana DeBose, Harris Dickinson, Lashana Lynch, Millicent Simmonds and Kodi Smit-McPhee are the 2022 nominees for the BAFTA EE Rising Star Award. It is the only BAFTA award voted on by the British public. Lady Gaga, who is also nominated
Premium documentary titles featuring iconic musicians including John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Tupac Shakur and Amy Winehouse have sold widely for BBC Studios. Rogan productions’ feature-length documentary for BBC Two, “Freddie Mercury: The Final Act,” charts the final chapter of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury’s life story. International sales include the U.S. (The CW Network), Australia (ABC),
As “Love Is Blind” comes to an end, “The Ultimatum” is born. During the Season 2 reunion special of the hit dating series, Netflix announced a new upcoming series from the same team. “The Ultimatum,” which comes from “Married at First Sight” and “Love Is Blind” producer Kinetic Content and creator Chris Coelen, follows six
The Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX), which runs March 23-April 3, has revealed its conference program. Among the filmmakers taking part are Sara Dosa (“Fire of Love”), Daniel Roher (“Navalny”) and Renzo Martens (“The White Cube”), and Brazilian indigenous cinematographer Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau (“The Territory). The conference program, known as CPH:CONFERENCE, is presented in partnership
Deckert Distribution has announced that it has picked up world rights for feature-length documentary “Outside,” directed by the Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba. The film will premiere in the main competition section of the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX), which runs March 23-April 3. Zhurba’s short fiction film “Dad’s Sneakers” had its premiere in the
“2nd Chance” may be the best Errol Morris movie that Errol Morris never made. It’s the first documentary feature directed by Ramin Bahrani, who has often brought a real-world edge to his dramas (“The White Tiger,” “Chop Shop”), and the figure at the film’s center could be a true-life character out of Morris land —
As “American Song Contest” approaches its March 21 premiere date, the “Eurovision Song Contest”-inspired NBC show has announced 56 artists that will compete in representing the 50 U.S. states, along with a new deal with Atlantic Records to release the upcoming series’ original songs. Some familiar names pop up on the stage-by-state list of competitors
Sherri Shepherd wasn’t a nominee at the 13th AAFCA Awards on Wednesday night, but she certainly had the look of a winner. Shepherd was on hand at the annual awards show — which celebrates the best in film each year — to present the best actress award to her “Chi-town sister” Jennifer Hudson, who the
Vix and Vix Plus — a two-tier, macro-scale Spanish-language streaming service with more than 50,000 hours of content across genres for users in the United States, Mexico and Latin America — will launch March 31 as the first lovechild of TelevisaUnivision since the two media giants united. Vix may not signal the beginning of a
CBS is doubling down on its commitment to Sheryl Underwood, the Emmy-winning host of “The Talk.” Underwood has inked a multi-year deal to remain on the panel of the daytime talk series through Season 15 (“The Talk” is currently in its 12th season), plus she’s entered into a new two-year first-look deal with CBS Studios.