Twitter netted 6 million new daily active users in the fourth quarter of 2021, a bit lighter than analyst forecasts, and beat Wall Street estimates on the bottom line. Revenue was in line with expectations, as the social network reported only “modest” impact from Apple’s iOS privacy changes. Twitter shares opened down 3.6% Thursday before
Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales and the heir to the throne of the United Kingdom, has tested positive for COVID-19. This is the second time he has tested positive, after a bout with the virus in 2020. “This morning The Prince of Wales has tested positive for COVID-19 and is now self-isolating,” tweeted the
Media giant Mediaset has acquired Italian distribution rights to Spanish writer-director Benito Zambrano’s drama “Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake,” produced and sold by Barcelona-based studio Filmax. News of the deal comes just before Filmax screens “Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake” to buyers at this year’s online European Film Market. Described as high-quality cinema for adults
In a year when a festival darling like Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” was able to garner four Oscar nominations, including best picture, questions for the Berlin Film Festival jury — which includes Hamaguchi — centered on the role of film festivals in connecting both arthouse and mainstream audiences. Declaring that he “felt like a
The impact of COVID-19 was ingrained throughout the annual financial results of CJ ENM, the most diversified entertainment company in South Korea. Music gained ground, while film was lossmaking. Similarly, the group’s streaming business rapidly grew its top line, but its heavy investment costs kept the unit in the red. For the year to end
Trinity Cine Asia has acquired rights to mainland Chinese blockbuster “The Battle at Lake Changjin II” for release in the U.K. and Ireland. The deal was struck with sales agency Distribution Workshop. Trinity plans an almost immediate release from Feb, 18, 2022, barely two weeks after the film launched in Chinese theaters on Feb. 1,
Orange Studio has signed a two-year distribution deal with the aggregation company Under The Milky Way. The pact will allow the outfit to handle the distribution of titles from Orange Studio’s library across English-speaking territories as well as Latin America on transactional VOD services such as Amazon, PlutoTV, Roku and Tubi. The first films which
Sony Pictures Television and WarnerMedia have extended their content deal across Central and Eastern Europe, which will see titles from the Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) slate of current and upcoming films shown exclusively on HBO channels and streamer HBO Max across the region. The slate includes “Spider-man: No Way Home,” “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,”
One of the hottest titles from Spain at this year’s European Film Market, is Catalan director Carla Simón’s sophomore feature “Alcarrás,” the hotly anticipated follow up to her 2017 debut “Summer 1993.” There, Paris-based MK2 Films will be talking to interested buyers of the recently-finished arthouse entry. To mark the occasion, the sales company has
Fremantle has sold out most major territories worldwide on the Martin Freeman-led BBC One smash hit “The Responder,” consolidating the acclaimed crime drama’s contention, even at this early stage, to become one of Europe’s top series of 2022. Banner deals take in France (Canal Plus), Italy (Disney Plus), Germany’s (Magenta TV). Spain (Movistar Plus) and
Canadian content-creation company BGM Inc. has tapped ex-Cineflix exec Kim Bondi as senior vice-president of development. Bondi, who will oversee development strategy and BGM’s premium factual production slate, takes over from development head Sean Connolly. She is the second high-profile hire over the past year for BGM, which was acquired by Sphere Media in 2020
For his sophomore feature, “Beautiful Beings,” playing in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama, Icelandic helmer-writer Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson returns to the subject of his prize-winning first feature “Heartstone” (2016): fraught adolescent friendships and difficult family lives. In “Beautiful Beings,” a horrendously bullied youth forms a tentative rapport with a trio of tough outsiders. Together, the
Hong Kong and Paris-based All Rights Entertainment has picked up a mandate to handle sales duties on “Lendarys,” an animated family entertainment movie that is now in production. The film is being produced on budget of $30 million and is set for delivery in 2023. All Rights Entertainment is launching the picture for international sales
Global Screen has secured a presale of the female-led drama “Lost Transport” to Menemsha Films for the U.S. and Canada ahead of the European Film Market in Berlin. Inspired by true events, the film tells the story of the final days of World War II when German soldiers abandon a deportation train, leaving the fate
Tom Hanks, Gerard Butler, Evan Rachel Wood and Rosamund Pike headline projects being brought onto Berlin’s virtual European Film Market. Just how large its top-tier offers may be is, and the volume of deals, are still open for debate. “Very compact,” Constantin’s Martin Moszkowicz said mid-last week of the EFM, which swelled somewhat thanks to
François Ozon, the prolific and provocative French director who won the Berlinale’s 2018 Golden Bear Award with “By the Grace of God,” is returning to the festival with “Peter von Kant” which will world premiere on opening night. A twist on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s cult film “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant,” Ozon’s movie
Barcelona-based Filmax has picked up international sales rights to psychological thriller “Girl Unknown” (“La desconocida”), the sophomore film by Spanish director Pablo Maqueda (“Dear Werner”). The film is based on the hit play “Grooming,” penned by Paco Bezerra, which has been adapted in more than 10 countries. Filmax is launching the film with a first
It’s a new dawn for Chile’s audiovisual industry. When Gabriel Boric, Chile’s youngest (at 35) and most left-leaning president since Salvador Allende, was elected in December, his pledge to more than double the state’s contribution to the arts was greeted with great fanfare. After all, Chile’s prodigious film output this past decade has been remarkable
Key Chilean projects being moved at this year’s European Film Market: Alis Directors: Clare Weiskopf and Nicolás van Hemelryck Casatarántula produced this Chile-Colombia-Romania doc along with Pantalla Cines and Defilm. Produced by Alexandra Galvis and Radu Stancu, it world premieres at Berlinale’s Generation 14plus sidebar. The Bogota, Colombia-set doc follows 10 teens at a public boarding
Two-time Berlinale prize winner Małgorzata Szumowska (“Body,” “Mug”) will write and direct “The Gambler Wife,” a revelatory portrait of novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s wife Anna Snitkina, to be produced by Russia’s Hype Film, Variety can reveal. Adapted from Andrew D. Kaufman’s book “The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved
Nordic streamer Viaplay is partnering with filmmaker Mikael Håfström to produce the ambitious period film “Stockholm Bloodbath.” The female-led epic adventure movie will mark the service’s second English-language film original, following Oscar-nominated helmer Lasse Hallström’s biopic “Hilma,” which will premiere later this year. Set in 1520, “Stockholm Bloodbath” explores a dark chapter in Sweden’s history,
It’s been nearly six years since Will Smith suited up as Deadshot in Warner Bros.’ “Suicide Squad.” Although the star hasn’t returned to DC films since, he supports the idea that a director’s cut of David Ayer’s supervillain team-up movie should be released to the public. “Let me tell you, there’s a whole lot that
Hollywood Teamsters Local 399 have voted in favor of ratifying a new three-year contract with the industry’s major employers. The new deal includes increased pay for weekend work, higher overtime rates and gains for meal money and cell phone allowances. The deal between Teamsters Local 399 and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers
How will Neil Young fare as a streaming presence now that he’s taken his music off Spotify, the service that accounted for close to half of his streaming revenue prior to his initiating a break amid the ongoing Joe Rogan? The long-term effect on consumption for Young’s songs remains to be seen or felt, and
This year’s Oscars ceremony will not require in-person attendees to provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19, Variety has confirmed. After a 2021 ceremony that saw the Academy Awards downsize to a smaller gathering at Los Angeles’ Union Station, the Oscars will return to its traditional setting in the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard for its
CBS has given a pilot order to “East New York,” a drama series written by William Finkelstein and Mike Flynn. The series follows Regina Haywood, the newly promoted police captain of East New York, an impoverished, working class neighborhood at the eastern edge of Brooklyn. She leads a diverse group of officers and detectives, some
Angelina Jolie returned to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday afternoon to voice her support for victims of domestic abuse, urging the Senate to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which she argues provides basic protections to survivors of abuse. “Standing here, at the center of our nation’s power, I can think only of everyone who’s
Bob Saget, the legendary comedian and “Full House” star who was found dead on Jan. 9 in a Florida hotel at the age of 65, died of head trauma, his family said on Wednesday. The family disclosed the cause of death in a statement to Variety, writing: “In the weeks since Bob’s passing, we have been
Judd Bernard, the producer and screenwriter behind films such as “Point Blank” and “Double Trouble,” died Jan. 25 in Burbank, Calif., his family confirmed to Variety. He was 94. Bernard was born in 1927, and grew up in Chicago. He attended University of Wisconsin, and after graduation moved to New York City to become a
Dave Chappelle helped kill plans for an affordable housing development in his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio, the Dayton Daily News reports. The comedian appeared at a council meeting this week and threatened to pull several businesses he’s developing for Yellow Springs if the town moved forward with the affordable housing development. Along with his