Octavia Spencer will receive the James Schamus Ally Award at this year’s edition of LGBTQ film festival Outfest. The announcement comes just after the recent news, first reported by Variety, that the Oscar winner has boarded the documentary “Right to Try” as a producer. The Zeberiah Newman-directed film, which will have its world premiere at
Prior to the pandemic, assessing the financial success or failure of a film was relatively simple and finite. For a big-budgeted movie, the volume of ticket sales collected in its first three days in movie theaters gave a good indication of whether or not it would be profitable. There were exceptions, of course, but for
Last year, Paris Hilton appeared in the documentary “This Is Paris,” in which she made the argument that she isn’t the person we see on TV. Her somewhat vapid persona, she said, purposefully obscures her real self. Her new Netflix series, the lushly overproduced series “Cooking With Paris,” seems like a first attempt at testing
Noel Clarke is officially out from his production company, Unstoppable Film and TV, following multiple sexual misconduct and bullying allegations that emerged against the British actor this spring. A spokesperson for “Fleabag” superindie All3Media, which backed Unstoppable in 2018, tells Variety: “Noel Clarke has left Unstoppable Film and TV. Jason Maza has also left the
©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett CollectionEverett For as long as I can remember, I’ve admired the way writers dress. Good style, it seems, by measure of the frequency with which it appears, is a trait practically essential to those who achieve prolific careers in publishing. Who would not fall as infatuated with Kathy Acker in her
Actor Nia Long has joined the cast of Netflix’s upcoming romantic comedy “Plus/ Minus.” Long, whose recent onscreen credits include the thriller “Fatal Affair,” 1960s-set drama “The Banker” and “Roxanne Roxanne,” will appear alongside “Riverdale” star Lili Reinhart and Luke Wilson. The previously announced ensemble also includes “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” actor Danny
Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, North America’s largest genre dedicated film festival, will host a special pre-festival screening of James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” on Wednesday evening, before kicking off in earnest on Thursday and running Aug. 5-25. Much of this year’s event will be held online, as travel to and from Montreal is still
Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine has been sold for north of $900 million to a media company backed by the private-equity firm Blackstone Group Inc. Witherspoon and Sarah Harden, Hello Sunshine’s CEO, will join the board of the new company and will continue to oversee day-to-day operations. They will also remain significant equity holders. The Wall
Italian health authorities have announced that the country will recognize COVID-19 certificates issued by five countries outside the European Union, including the U.S. and U.K., in what amounts to good news for international film delegations set to attend the upcoming Venice Film Festival. However the ordinance, issued late last week by Italy’s Ministry of Health,
“The Chi” has been renewed for Season 5 at Showtime. News of the renewal comes just after the series aired its Season 4 finale. Per Showtime, the series is averaging 4.2 million viewers per episode this season. Season 4 spotlights the benefits and challenges of community policing on the South Side after Jake (Michael V.
Check out the official Venom: Let There Be Carnage Trailer starring Tom Hardy! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Sign up for a Fandango FanALERT for Venom: Let There Be Carnage: https://www.fandango.com/venom-let-there-be-carnage-2021-223021/movie-overview?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc Want to be notified of all the latest movie trailers? Subscribe to the channel and click the bell
A day after DaBaby was dropped from the Lollapalooza lineup for his homophobic comments last week, New York’s Governors Ball canceled his performance at the festival, which takes place in September. In a tweet labeled “Stay tuned for a lineup addition,” the festival’s promoter wrote in a social media message: “Founders Entertainment does not and
PRODUCTION BBC Studios Germany has secured its first commission since launching in the territory this year — a local adaptation of British sitcom “Miranda” — and is co-producing the eight-part series for ZDF Neo with Studio Zentral. “Miranda,” a BBC production written by and starring Miranda Hart, will be adapted for a German audience with
Ever since Steven Spielberg’s career-launching blockbuster “Jaws” broke out in 1975, the world’s obsession with sharks has not slackened. Evidence of this is the glut of films – and TV series – about the much-maligned and misunderstood predator. “The movie ‘Jaws’ had a massive impact on me becoming a filmmaker, and it began my lifelong
XYZ Films has acquired North American rights to “Indemnity,” an action thriller from South African director Travis Taute that’s set to world premiere at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival. Written and directed by Taute, “Indemnity” tells the story of an ex-firefighter in Cape Town who’s forced to fight for his life after being accused of murdering
Comedian Kathy Griffin took to social media to reveal that she has stage one lung cancer and is undergoing surgery to have half of her left lung removed. “I’ve got to tell you guys something. I have cancer. I’m about to go into surgery to have half of my left lung removed. Yes, I have
Crooked Media, the podcast company formed by a trio of former Obama staffers, continues to spread its wings beyond its progressive-politics roots. The company’s new development slate spans entertainment, pop culture, history — and a show about whether the internet is rotting people’s minds. Coming this fall is weekly interview show “Offline With Jon Favreau,”
News Corp, the news and media conglomerate headed by Rupert Murdoch, will pay $1.15 billion in cash for the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), continuing its recent M&A streak to expand its business-to-business digital information portfolio. OPIS, which News Corp is acquiring from S&P Global and IHS Markit, will become part of Dow Jones’ Professional
Dolphin Entertainment and West Realm Shire Services Inc., owner and operator of FTX.US, are teaming up to create an NFT marketplaces for major sports and entertainment brands. The pact will combine Dolphin’s creative and marketing prowess with FTX’s knowledge of crypto currencies. The marketplace is described as “large-scale” and “consumer-facing” and comes as the trading
Latin American powerhouse BTF Media and Mexico’s Morbido Group have initiated principal photography in Mexico City on “La Exorcista,” a new feature hailing from famed genre director Adrían García Bogliano and starring María Evoli. The film marks another expansive move by BTF as it drivbes into feature film production, building on its roster of high-level
Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. rights to “Stanleyville,” starring “Goodnight Mommy’s” Susanne Wuest, ahead of the film’s world premiere at this month’s Fantasia Film Festival. One of the high-profile Fantasia deal announcements, the pick-up, brokered with Yellow Veil Pictures, will see Oscilloscope open “Stanleyville” in U.S. theaters this Winter. “Stanleyville” marks the feature film debut
Brooklyn-based Utopia has picked up worldwide sales rights to Hayley Garrigus’ “You Can’t Kill Meme,” a documentary feature which drills down on the political meme warfare enshrined by Donald Trump’s presidential victory in 2016. The acquisition comes just ahead of the film’s world premiere at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival this month. An on demand release
As if coming out of the closet were not daunting enough, Canadian filmmaker Robbie Lemieux amps up the fear factor in his feature debut, “Fester.” A participant in the Frontières Co-Production Market, run by the Fantasia International Film Festival alongside Cannes’ Marché du Film, “Fester” is not your average coming-out story. “Writing ‘Fester’ was essentially
The Weeknd teased new music early Monday morning in a snippet posted on social media called “The Dawn Is Coming” and talked generally about it in a new GQ article, calling it “the album I’ve always wanted to make.” The song has a heavy electronic dance groove reminiscent of “Alive 2007”-era Daft Punk, but with
When Discovery Communications purchased the European rights to the 2018-2024 Olympics six years ago, ousting competitors such as the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and agency SportFive in the process, there was little public interest, let alone outcry. Discovery had bought the pan-European network Eurosport in 2014 and were keen to make a mark with their
The upcoming 21st series of “I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!” will return to the Gwrych Castle, Abergele, in North Wales, for the second year in a row, ITV has revealed. The show used to be filmed in Australia until the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world. Australia has some of the toughest
Timo Pelz, after eight years at Instagram and Facebook, has been recruited to be Reddit’s first VP of business marketing. Pelz, who most recently served as Instagram’s head of business marketing, is tasked with setting go-to-market strategy for Reddit’s advertising products spanning the discussion site’s 100,000-plus communities. He will oversee all aspects of business marketing
Selected last week for San Sebastian’s New Directors strand, the festival’s main sidebar, Turkish director Salman Nacar’s “Between Two Dawns” has confirmed distributors for France and Spain. Sales agent Luxbox has also released a first trailer and poster for the film, both of which Variety obtained exclusively. In France, the film’s release will be handled
Korean-made action film “Escape From Mogadishu” overcame new release “Jungle Cruise” and holdover “Boss Baby 2” to dominate the South Korean box office over the weekend. “Mogadishu,” directed by the consistently successful Ryoo Seung-wan, played on 1,688 screens nationwide and earned $4.93 million between Friday and Sunday. That gave it a 57% share of the
“American Epic” director Bernard MacMahon has revealed the title of his long-awaited and recently completed Led Zeppelin feature documentary: “Becoming Led Zeppelin.” The project, which was first announced in 2019, has unprecedented access to the band, marking the first and only time the group has participated in a documentary in 50 years. Though 1976 doc