Two years after R. Kelly was jailed on multiple sexual assault and misconduct charges, his trial in New York begins with jury selection after months of Covid-related delays. The multi-platinum-selling and Grammy-winning singer and producer, who has been accused of abusing multiple women since the early 1990s, is also awaiting trial in his home state
Despite the best-laid plans of Hollywood studio and cinema operators, the movie theater business is still struggling to mount a recovery from COVID-19. For a while, the box office looked poised for a comeback, with a string of pandemic-era record opening weekends, including “A Quiet Place Part II” ($48 million), “F9” ($70 million) and “Black
Kanye West has apparently removed a remix of his song “Nah Nah Nah” featuring DaBaby from streaming services. The remix, which was released last year and also featured 2Chainz, was disappeared from Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal over the weekend and was first reported by HotNewHipHop. DaBaby is entering a third week of negative reaction
Roku is betting its fire-sale pickup of the shows from Quibi, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-lived, short-form startup, will continue to pay off for the streaming platform. On Aug. 13, the company will premiere 23 new Roku Originals (each of them from Quibi’s library) exclusively on the Roku Channel to stream for free with ads. It’s the
Jon Stewart and Pete Davidson have teamed up to organize “NYC Still Rising After 20 Years: A Comedy Celebration,” an event next month meant to both mark the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and also benefit 9/11 charities. The show will take place on Sept. 12 at New York’s Madison Square
ANIMATION Legendary U.K. animation studio Aardman (“Chicken Run,” “Wallace & Gromit”) is teaming with filmmaker Gurinder Chadha (“Bend It Like Beckham”) on a new feature film project for family audiences. Described by the company as an “exuberant, warm-hearted musical,” the currently untitled Bollywood-inspired feature will follow Bodhi, a young Indian elephant from Kerala who dreams
Currently shooting “Sisi” for the RTL Group and Beta Film, Germany’s Story House Pictures has added N’Gone Thiam to the core writing team of six-hour suspense drama “Mozart/Mozart,” another powerhouse IP production, currently in development, which it will unveil an Series Mania. “We’re super proud to have a young German writer of African heritage writing
Expansive Paris-based media group Mediawan has picked up international sales rights to the Jerusalem-set ultra-orthodox drama “The Rabbi,” which participates in this year’s Series Mania Forum at its Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. Abuses of power aren’t unique to any one nationality, gender, sexual orientation or religion. With “The Rabbi,” celebrated filmmaker Eytan Fox proposes a fictionalized
Screenwriters Hagit Saad and Julie Anna Grignon first met at Series Mania in 2019 and return to this year’s event with a new series project, “In 1942,” backed by Mediawan company White Lion Films’ producer Noor Sadar. Working remotely from Paris and Tel Aviv, the series’ creators are co-alumni of the UCG Writers Campus who
Described by Spain’s San Sebastian Festival as “one of contemporary cinema’s most talented and versatile actors,” American actor Johnny Depp will receive San Sebastian’s highest honor, its Donostia Award, in a ceremony taking place on Sept. 22 at the festival’s Kursaal Auditorium. Depp is already one of San Sebastian’s favorite sons, having figured as one
Eminent British director and producer Ridley Scott (“Gladiator,” “Blade Runner,” “Alien”) will receive the inaugural Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker award at the 78th Venice International Film Festival (Sept. 1 – 11). The award is dedicated to a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry. The ceremony for Scott
In an unprecedented move, multi-Oscar nominated American composer and pianist Philip Glass (“The Hours”) has contributed key music to Mexican documentary “Cartas a Distancia” (“Letters from a Distance”) by Juan Carlos Rulfo. Credit goes to Glass’s decades-long friendship and collaboration with the documentary’s lead composer and music producer Leonardo Heiblum, whose notable list of film
After a muted 2020 due to COVID-19, the Norwegian International Film Festival in the picturesque coastal town of Haugesund will be back in full force over Aug. 21-27, with attendance expected to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, both for the on-site festival and parallel hybrid confab New Nordic Films, according to festival director Tonje Hardersen.
Musicians Ed Sheeran, Annie Lennox, A.R. Rahman and Mick Jagger are joining Steven Spielberg and a galaxy of Bollywood stars in supporting the We For India fundraiser for post-COVID relief relief work in India. Celebrities lending their name to the initiative include music group Sister Sledge ft. Sledgendary, Grammy-winning composer Nile Rodgers, Lebanese singer and
Leading Latin American animation studio Ánima has launched a dedicated adult-young adult division and announced that later this year it will begin production on “El Santos,” a serialized version of the company’s 2012 comic book-inspired feature “El Santos vs la Tetona Mendoza.” The star-studded, landmark film established Ánima as not only a regional powerhouse of
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read until you have watched “Rick and Morty” Season 5, Episode 8, “Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort.” After giant incest babies, turkey transformations, and massacres in the name of saving the planet, this week’s “Rick and Morty” finally gets back into the overarching swing of things. (To be fair, the
Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie has sold her 115-title song catalog to Hipgnosis, the fast-growing music company that has spent more than $2 billion in three years acquiring rights to a vast number of popular songs. McVie, who first joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970, is the writer of many of the long-running group’s biggest hits, including
“Escape From Mogadishu” held on to its place at the top of the South Korean box office for the second weekend. It comfortably overcame the challenge from newly released “The Suicide Squad.” “Mogadishu” earned $4.26 million in its second weekend of release, down only 14% compared with its first session, in which it took $4.96
From age 10 till 30, Aretha Franklin sure could sing, but she hadn’t yet found her voice. At least, that’s the take served up in “Respect,” a solid if somewhat conventional feature directing debut for Broadway helmer Liesl Tommy which flatters Franklin in practically every way, beginning with the casting of Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson
As the Tokyo Olympic Games wrap up Sunday, fans should be, and surely are, grateful to the work that went in to preserve the quadrennial athletic event, even a year later than originally scheduled due to the global health pandemic. But how many of these fans are there — and how many were served by
Jane Withers, a former child star known for her roles in “Bright Eyes” and “Ginger” and as the commercial character Josephine the Plumber, has died. She was 95. Withers’ death was confirmed by her daughter, Kendall Errair. She died Saturday evening surrounded by her loved ones in Burbank, Calif. The cause of death was not
Warner Bros. Pictures is considering legal action against “Line of Duty” showrunner Jed Mercurio over his new graphic novel “Sleeper.” Warner Bros., via their subsidiary DC Comics, own the rights to another graphic novel called “Sleeper,” written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Sean Phillips. It was released in 2003 and has been considered for
The list of major Hollywood tentpoles that have released in the U.S. in the past month but not yet fixed a China release date is growing ever longer — an issue of significant concern to industry players on both sides of the Pacific. “Black Widow,” “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” “Jungle Cruise” and now “The
The New Orleans Jazz Fest is no longer moving forward in October due to concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant. Organizers announced the news via a press release and social media on Sunday, writing that the festival will now look forward to the spring 2022 dates of April 29 – May 8.
Another week, another blown Kanye West release date — this time, for a second time, with his long-delayed “Donda” album. First it was coming out in July 2020, then July 23 of this year, then August 6, now it’s apparently August 13 — or maybe August 15! — according to eagle-eyed sleuths who spotted the
Robert Easter Jr. — a former boxing champ — is now a wanted man in Ohio for allegedly punching a woman and knocking her out cold. According to reports, the ex-IBF lightweight titleholder is being sought by authorities in Toledo after a warrant was issued for his arrest this past weekend — this after a
Valentin Merz’s “De Noche los Gatos Son Pardos” scooped the biggest prize, the Cinegrell First Look Award, at this year’s Locarno Festival First Look pix-in-post competition, one of its industry centerpieces. Now in its tenth edition, First Look’s focus this year was Switzerland with a jury and industry audience given the chance to preview six
Markie Post, who became a star in the 1980s playing a plucky public defender on “Night Court” and had a long run of TV roles, died Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 70. Post waged a nearly four-year fight with cancer. She kept working until very recently despite her illness. Post co-starred
Since the “PAW Patrol” series began airing in 2013, we’ve seen the heroic pooches and their fearless 10-year-old leader go on a pirate adventure, rescue dinosaurs and tangle with various other foes in their fictional, idyllic world. In the real world, the show has left its mark on the pop-culture zeitgeist with bountiful merchandise deals
“The Suicide Squad,” the very R-rated comic book adaptation directed by James Gunn, underwhelmed in its box office debut, collecting $26.5 million from 4,002 North American theaters. Those ticket sales were easily enough to lead domestic box office charts despite falling short of expectations heading into the weekend. There were several factors contributing to its