In the 10 years since the release of Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive,” the lives of two key figures behind its pivotal soundtrack, Johnny Jewel and Cliff Martinez, have changed for the better, thanks to the film. “Before ‘Drive’ coming out, I was standing by the freeway with a cardboard sign that said, ‘Will score for
Selma Blair has been in pain her entire life, enduring bladder surgeries during her suburban Michigan childhood, getting unnecessary root canals as an adult and periodically even losing her vision. She had, and still has, ceaseless muscular-skeletal pain, and muscle contractions called dystonia in her neck that affect her speech. Blair just thought it was
Jane Powell, who starred as an angelically visaged young actress in a number of MGM musicals including “Royal Wedding” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” during the 1940s and ’50s, has died of natural causes. She was 92. The blonde, blue-eyed Powell usually played characters with a gentle mischievous streak in her musical comedies, but
Post Malone has revealed the lineup for the third annual Posty Fest, the festival he holds in his home state. Hosted by Kerwin Frost and headlined by Post himself, the Dallas-area festival also includes Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Uzi Vert, Roddy Ricch, Jack Harlow, $uicideboy$, Polo G, Rod Wave, Tyga, Iann Dior, Koe Wetzel, Turnstile, Tyla Yaweh, Flo Milli,
Filmmakers and stars Elizabeth Banks and David Wain of “Wet Hot American Summer” are reuniting for a new movie musical at Amazon Studios. Wain is directing the project, titled “Where the Fore Are We?”, and will produce with Banks and partner Max Handelman via their Brownstone Productions. Wain wrote the script with Zach Reino and
The 41st season of “Survivor” was always going to be different. But after COVID and new attention on the show during the pandemic, it’s been reimagined. “The original title two years ago was going to be ‘Dawn of a New Era,’” Jeff Probst, the show’s host and showrunner, recently told Variety. “With everything that was
Mandy Patinkin will star in the detective drama “Career Opportunities in Murder and Mayhem,” which has been ordered to pilot at Hulu. The series asks the question: How do you solve a murder in a post-fact world? Especially when sailing the Mediterranean on an ocean liner filled with the wealthy and powerful. Everyone on board
On the white-washed rooftop of the PUBLIC Hotel in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, celebrity stylist Dani Michelle looked most at home with a pair of stilettos in her hands. Accompanied by a team of Designer Shoe Warehouse publicists and tastemakers, she floated past the trays of champagne flutes and well-dressed, well-credentialed guests to survey a
Freddie Combs, a minister known for singing on Season 2 of “The X-Factor,” died Sept. 10, according to a Cocoa, Fla. funeral home. He was 49. Though he did not last on “The X-Factor” for long, Combs was a fan favorite. He auditioned in Greensboro, N.C., singing Bette Midler’s 1988 song “Wind Beneath My Wings”
As the 2021 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival wraps up, its third annual Tribute Awards are set to take place on Sept. 18. This year’s honorees include Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), director Denis Villeneuve (“Dune”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog” and “The Electrical Life of Louis Wain”), special
Check out a Blue Bayou Official Behind the Scenes Featurette starring Justin Chon and Alicia Vikander! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Buy tickets for Blue Bayou: https://www.fandango.com/blue-bayou-108925/movie-overview?cmp=CSYT_YouTube_Desc Want to be notified of all the latest clips and behind the scenes footage? Subscribe to the channel and click the bell
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) announced that five trainees in the television division have been promoted to agent: Allie Cohen and David Romero in scripted television, Alixandra Haley in alternative television and Rachel Mathias and Lubna Salad in International Television. The new agents were participants in CAA Elevate, a training and practical development curriculum with an
This is the fourth installment of a five-part series examining the transformation of television as the industry prepares to celebrate the Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 19. Each fall, as part of a long-held ritual, TV networks release dozens of new programs — and dozens of gimmicks, promotions, and marketing schemes to call attention to
Jaime King, Antonio Banderas and Tommy Flanagan have joined the cast of “Banshee,” an action film from director Jon Keeyes. The film follows a freelance assassin, codenamed Banshee (King), who is ambushed by Anthony Greene (Flanagan), a powerful mercenary who killed her father, and who is now seeking to collect a bounty on Caleb (Banderas),
The changing of the legacy guard in Hollywood continues in a business focused on prioritizing content for streaming customers. Last week, we learned that seasoned studio chief Jim Gianopulos, who for decades has been shepherding big, successful theatrical movies, was being pushed out after four years as chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures in favor
As the days stretch on without any word of a China release for “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” there are increasingly slim odds that residents of the world’s largest film market will get to see Marvel’s first Asian superhero on the big screen. Those odds have grown slimmer still after jingoistic social
After taking a break last year from the show’s usual artist-honoring format to put a pre-recorded spotlight on pandemic heroes, “CMT Artists of the Year” will return to both a live broadcast and music celebrities being celebrated in its 2021 incarnation, set for Oct. 13. The five stars selected by the country music network for
This time last year, Variety’s annual TV Producers Impact Report had a heavy bent on those who successfully and innovatively pivoted their productions post-shutdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With the pandemic still raging on, those creating content for traditional broadcast networks, cablers and streaming platforms alike have had to double down on originality of story
Netflix has ordered the heist drama “Jigsaw” to series. Spanning 24 years, the series centers around the largest heist ever attempted, and the vengeance, scheming, loyalties, and betrayals that surround it. It’s loosely inspired by the real story where $70 billion dollars in bonds went missing in downtown Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy. Giancarlo Esposito, Paz
When Debbie Allen received a call from Television Academy chairman and CEO Frank Scherma saying she’d been selected to receive the 2021 Governors Award, the entertainer was totally shocked. “It took my breath away a bit,” Allen tells Variety. Over the course of her illustrious four-decade career as an actor, dancer, choreographer, director and producer,
With all due respect to the streamers who kept us distracted during the pandemic, movies were meant to be seen on the big screen, in the company of others and, ideally, debated and dissected with fellow cinephiles as we exit the theater. Cautiously reopening megaplexes have restored that experience to some degree, although film festivals
Fighting the gender gap in the music industry is not a role that Mattel’s Barbie doll traditionally has taken on, but the company has used the iconic figure for exactly that purpose with its awesome Music-Producer doll, which it announced earlier this week. The company, which partnered with veteran songwriter-producer Ester Dean for the series,
Check out the Dear Evan Hansen Official Movie Trailer starring Ben Platt! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Buy tickets for Dear Evan Hansen: https://www.fandango.com/dear-evan-hansen-2021-224778/movie-overview?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc Want to be notified of all the latest movie trailers? Subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon to stay up to date. US
Pocket.watch, the kids and family media company centered on creating franchises around YouTube stars, hired seasoned industry exec Xavier Kochhar as its first COO and CFO. Kochhar, who starts at Pocket.watch on Thursday, most recently was at AT&T in a corporate strategy and development role and prior to that headed strategy and biz dev for
Max Harwood is a self-proclaimed “theater geek” living the dream. Not long ago, he went to see one of London’s hottest musicals, “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.” Loosely based on the documentary “Jamie: Drag Queen at 16,” the show (with music by Dan Gillespie Sells and book and lyrics by Tom MacRae) tells the story of
Dianne Doan has joined the cast of “Reunion.” The film centers on a murder that takes place during a high school reunion party and has already attracted a cast of comedy heavyweights and in-demand actors. Doan will appear alongside Lil Rel Howery, Billy Magnussen, Jillian Bell, Nina Dobrev, Jamie Chung, Michael Hitchcock and Chace Crawford.
How do you make a movie about colorful televangelist and gay icon Tammy Faye Bakker without veering into caricature? That was the challenge for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” costume designer Mitchell Travers and star and producer Jessica Chastain, who were united in their vision for the look of the film. “We never wanted it
One of the most exciting things about the shared Emmy nomination for visual-effects supervisor Stephan Fleet and VFX producer Shalena Oxley-Butler of Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys” was being able to see each other in person again after a year of working remotely, over video conferencing software and email, from different countries. But the tone
Prominent Italian thesps Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”) and Silvio Orlando, who plays Cardinal Voiello in “The Young Pope,” had never had a chance to share the screen before director Leonardo Di Costanzo cast them – respectively as a prison guard captain and an incarcerated Mafia boss – in his prison drama “The Inner Cage.”
With so many podcasts in the audiosphere and only so many hours in the day, it can be a challenge just testing the waters, let alone finding one that delivers what you’re looking for. Well, along with Variety’s own illustrious “Strictly Business,” which focuses on music once a month, here is a selective list of