Moby will executive produce and provide music for “Meat the Future,” a new documentary about the revolutionary new practice of “cultivated” meat. In addition, conservation legend Dr. Jane Goodall has signed on to narrate the film, which is directed by Liz Marshall, the award-winning filmmaker behind “The Ghosts in Our Machine” and “Water on the
SALE John Malone’s multinational telco Liberty Global — owners of “Fleabag” and “1917” producer All3Media and joint owners with Telefonica of the merged Virgin Media and O2 – has reached an agreement sell its Polish operations to the iliad group’s Polish mobile subsidiary Play. Liberty Global has agreed to sell UPC Poland for a total
Spanish genre auteur Alex de la Iglesia has tweeted a photo of himself in the center of Pedraza, the small town where his HBO Original Series “30 Coins” is set, with the caption “Coming back,” seemingly confirming that a second season of the horror series is on the way. Coming back. pic.twitter.com/1YjlmX52Wp — De la
Calm is ramping up original kids content, as the meditation and mental-wellness app company looks to persuade more parents to shell out $70 for an annual subscription — with a roster of celebs and new characters to help their young’uns chill out and get to sleep. The app, first launched in 2012, already has material
In today’s podcast news roundup, Reese’s Book Club gets embedded with Google’s voice assistant; Apple Podcasts adds new content-discovery features; Warner Bros. TV takes “Bachelor Nation” and “Band of Mothers Podcast” shows to Audacy; the 2022 Ambies awards open for nominations; and more. PROGRAMMING Google inked a deal with Reese Witherspoon and her media company,
Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” It sounds like Michelle Obama will appear on the final season of “Black-ish.” After star Anthony Anderson teased the possibility when I caught up with him at the Television Academy’s pre-Emmy party for performer nominees, sources tell me that the former first lady’s appearance isn’t a done deal just yet, but they’re
When Kim Jones took over as Artistic Director of Fendi at the start of this year, the Renaissance man headed straight to the storied Italian house’s vast archive in the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana. There, Jones found inspiration aplenty for his first ready-to-wear collection for Fendi: from silhouettes sketched by the late Karl Lagerfeld to
Argus Capital Corp., a special purpose acquisition vehicle backed by Joe Ianniello and other former CBS Corp. executives, went public Wednesday and is projected to raise about $265 million to acquire media, sports and entertainment-related properties. Argus Capital’s pitch to investors and acquisition targets is that Ianniello and Argus president Marc DeBevoise have gathered a
J. Cole gave fans a surprise on Tuesday by releasing a new video and song titled “Heaven’s EP” that finds him rapping over the beat of Drake’s “Pipe Down,” from the Canadian rapper’s just-two-weeks-old “Certified Lover Boy” album. Cole raps on the track: “Some people say that I’m running third, they threw the bronze at
On Thursday, just 15 months after it was formed, the Black Music Action Coalition will host its inaugural Music in Action Awards gala in Los Angeles, honoring musicians, executives, businesses, entrepreneurs, and activists who have made significant contributions to social justice, change, and/or equity over the preceding year. BMAC, which was formed after the transformative
Nothing is scarier than holiday shoppers in search of a deal. In that spirit, Screen Media has acquired “Black Friday,” an alien invasion holiday horror film ahead of its world premiere at Fantastic Fest this week. Directed by Casey Tebo (“Happy Birthday”) and written by Andy Greskoviak, “Black Friday” stars Bruce Campbell of “Evil Dead”
In its fourth “Hashtag” section, #letSEXplore, Zurich Film Festival will explore sexuality and desire. Through films that have already generated heated discussions (Ninja Thyberg’s “Pleasure,” Radu Jude’s Berlinale winner “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”) as well as those that deserve to be rediscovered, starting with Alex Liu’s documentary “A Sexplanation” (pictured), set to celebrate
Michael Strahan will continue to greet ABC morning viewers as part of a renewed pact that will keep him on “Good Morning America” for the next several years. Strahan, who was named a “GMA” co-anchor in 2016 and placed alongside Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, has signed a new four-year deal with ABC News, according
As the pandemic marches on, audiences are doubling down on streaming and still very hungry for their favorite genres of entertainment. At Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit presented by City National Bank from Sept. 22-23, industry experts will break down the impact of the continuing pandemic and other forces on viewing habits and content creation
MGM Motion Picture Group president Pamela Abdy and chairman Michael De Luca are to open the Zurich Summit on Saturday with a keynote conversation with CAA Media Finance co-head Roeg Sutherland. Billed as a boutique conference, the two-day Summit gathers around 100 film producers, sales executives and creators in film, TV and entertainment as well
In telling the story of champion alpine ski racer Franz Klammer, one of Austria’s most revered and beloved sports heroes, director Andreas Schmied forewent the usual biopic tropes, focusing instead on a few fateful days that culminated in his victory at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck. It was that focus that ultimately convinced Klammer to
The latest season of Channel 4’s “The Great British Bake-Off” has gone down like a deflated soufflé with U.K. viewers compared to last year’s pandemic-induced numbers. Season 12 launched on Tuesday night with an average audience of 5.7 million, making it Channel 4’s highest rating commission so far this year. However it marks a decline
Pop singer Kikka, a.k.a. Kirsi Hannele Viilonen, who passed away in 2005 at just 41 years old, will finally get her due in the upcoming biopic being produced by Helsinki’s Komeetta. Founded by producers Daniel Kuitunen and Kaisla Viitala, the production company’s slate already includes Zaida Bergroth’s “Maria’s Paradise,” shown in Toronto in 2019, and
In the Icelandic musical adventure “12 Hours to Destruction,” writer-director Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir revels in a wholeheartedly youthful story of a school band battling nasties to save their dance. The film, part of the Finnish Film Affair’s Nordic Selection of works in progress being held this week in Helsinki, is an ambitious project, produced by
The spectacular rise of green-haired Finnish pop star Alma has inspired one of Finnish Film Affair’s most buzzy documentaries in progress, “Alma – Who Am I?” Finnish director and actor Pamela Tola spoke to Variety about her film. Produced by Helsinki production company Lucy Loves and Oskari Huttu, and being pitched at the Helsinki film
The Abu Dhabi Film Commission is understandably proud that Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures filmed at the Liwa desert, the large oasis area in the Western Region of the Emirate that doubled as the desert world of Arrakis, and in the past also served as a set for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” “Dune”
If we have learned anything from movies of recent years, it is that moving into one’s dream house will surely lead to terror and death. That improbable yet familiar arc is traced again in “Intrusion,” wherein the domesticity under threat belongs to a wide-eyed Freida Pinto. Director Adam Salky and writer Christopher Sparling’s thriller will
India’s Viacom18 Studios and media personality Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions have partnered for a theatrical, broadcast and streaming distribution slate. The two entities will collaborate on a range of Hindi-language films, which are in various stages of production and are expected to release over the next 18 – 24 months. Films under the deal include
Polish filmmaker Aga Woszczyńska – together with co-writer Piotr Litwin – started to work on the script of her first feature film “Silent Land” in 2016, and notes that since then, her film – which centers on the world’s response to migrants – has sadly become even more timely. Set in Italy, the slow-burning drama
Selected by Variety as a talent to track, Spain’s Jaione Camborda is developing her sophomore effort, “The Rye Horn,” a story that takes place in ‘70s Galicia. After a terrible event, midwife María is forced to become a fugitive and, to wrestle back her freedom, flee Galicia for Portugal along an old smugglers’ route. Camborda attended Prague’s
The trouble with unimaginable horror is precisely that: It cannot be imagined. For Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba, two Slovakian Jews who escaped from Auschwitz in 1944 to bring evidence of the systematic genocide within the camp, the hardest part of issuing The Vrba-Wetzler Report was simply being believed. Director Peter Bebjak’s “The Auschwitz Report,”
TrustNordisk has closed key deals on John Andreas Andersen’s anticipated Norwegian disaster film “The North Sea.” Now in post-production, the ambitious movie is produced by Fantefilm Fiksjon, which previously delivered the Scandinavian blockbusters “The Quake” and “The Wave” that TrustNordisk sold around the world. The film, the trailer for which has just been unveiled by
ViacomCBS’ Pluto TV, the fast-growing, free, ad-supported, linear TV-style streaming service, is set to launch in Italy on Oct. 28 with 40 thematic channels spanning multiple genres. Pluto TV’s Italy launch will expand the service’s European footprint, segueing from successful bows in the U.K., Germany, France and Spain. It will also mark Italy’s first FAST
Viaplay, NENT Group’s leading Scandinavian streaming service, is set to launch in five new markets: U.K., Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The company began expanding its international footprint last year with a rollout in the U.S. and Poland, among other countries. The streamer’s launch in the U.K. is scheduled for the second half of 2022,
Willie Garson was, in his most famous role as “Sex and the City’s” Stanford Blatch, a constant. Lovers came and went for Stanford’s best friend, Carrie Bradshaw, but Stanford was a perpetual presence — reliably warm, witty and humane even when being drawn in once again to Carrie’s chaos. It’s a testament to Garson, who