The prequel to Paramount’s 2019 horror film “Pet Sematary” has added “Jackie Brown” star Pam Grier to its call sheet. Grier joins a cast that includes Jackson White (“Mrs. Fletcher”), Forrest Goodluck (” The Revenant”), Jack Mulhern (“Mare of Easttown”), Natalie Alyn Lind (” The Goldbergs”) and Isabella Star LeBlanc. The upcoming “Pet Sematary” will
For an aspiring director in Hollywood, it’s hard to say no to a job. That’s why acclaimed filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra has no qualms about his early days shooting commercials, nor what he called a “natural” transition to horror films. Collet-Serra Is behind some of the most thrilling low-key action and suspense titles of the past
The French box office has taken a big hit and dropped 70% this week due to the new sanitary measures enforced on July 21 which require a proof of vaccination or a recent negative PCR test to enter cultural venues, including movie theaters. French President Emmanuel Macron announced on July 12 that the EU Digital
Now that the world is slowly opening up again, so many people have their sights on getting back to some sense of normalcy. While Getting Dressed Again has its merits, the past year has inspired me to really invest in my loungewear. Make no mistake, I’m all for revenge dressing, great shoes, and pants that
Showtime has released a trailer for “American Rust,” premiering Sept. 12. Starring Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney, the limited series based on Philipp Meyer’s novel of the same name follows Del Harris (Daniels), the chief of police of a Pennsylvania Rust Belt town, as he decides how far he’ll go to protect the son of
Dua: Instagram; Juicy: Getty Images; Courtesy of the brands. Style Points is a weekly column about how fashion intersects with the wider world. It might have been the return of low-rise jeans that broke people. Every other aughts craze, from UGGs to Juicy Couture sweatsuits, had had its high-fashion moment by that point— the former
Welp, Lil Nas X definitely is not backing down from stirring up controversy. After a series of sexually provocative videos and TV appearances that found him lap-dancing Satan, soul-kissing a man on national TV, and splitting the crotch of his pants on “Saturday Night Live” (okay, that last one was an accident), he’s actually stripped
Recent Oscar winner and late-night star Jon Batiste is premiering a new track, “Sweet Loraine,” that serves as the leadoff single from an upcoming benefit album, “Relief: A Benefit for the Jazz Foundation of America’s Musicians Relief Fund.” Variety has the song’s exclusive debut, below. [embedded content] The album comes out on all formats —
Despite all odds, an ongoing pandemic and almost definitely common sense, the Olympic Games kicked off in Tokyo on Friday to much fanfare, a practically empty stadium and a sizable anti-Olympics protest outside that NBC pointedly never mentioned during its many hours of coverage. Mired in controversy, and unfolding in a country struggling to keep
PUPPETS BritBox U.K.’s “Spitting Image” will return to the airwaves on Sept. 11, with a lineup featuring several new puppets of prominent national figures. Last year, the program was a massive hit for BritBox, the streaming platform co-developed by the BBC and ITV, reaching an audience of more than 4.4 million viewers for the series’
In his first interview with a news outlet since his racial-slur scandal broke six months ago, country superstar Morgan Wallen told “Good Morning America” co-host Michael Strahan that his use of the N-word was the result of being in a drunken climate with friends where they “say dumb stuff together,” and was not meant “in
Gun violence is an issue that has plagued the United States for years. ABC News hopes its efforts to track the problem across a recent week will shed new light on it. The Disney-backed news outlet is on Sunday launching “One Nation Under Fire,” a new project in conjunction with news staffers at ABC’s local
Today (July 23) marks the 22nd anniversary of Woodstock ‘99 festival, and a new HBO documentary fittingly titled “Woodstock ’99: Peace, Love and Rage” takes audiences back to the violence-filled, three-day music festival that turned from a celebration into riots, looting and sexual assaults. Director Garret Price, who also served as co-editor alongside Avner Shiloah, opens
Production on season 2 of Sky and AMC’s crime drama series “Gangs of London” has been paused after a crew member tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. The crew member tested positive during regular production testing, Variety understands. Production will pause for the appropriate isolation period — 10 days — in line with the latest
The Tokyo Olympic Games got underway on Friday a year late and after much rethinking — not to mention behind the scene drama and protests. Its opening ceremony, without spectators in the stadium, began in both spectacular and ethereal fashion. With a mixture of pre-recorded and live performances in the stadium, the ceremony opened with
Coming just five months after “Framing Britney Spears,” Curious Films’ new documentary, “Reclaiming Amy,” about late singer Amy Winehouse, takes a similar tack in examining the flesh-and-blood woman behind the paparazzi pictures. Only two years apart in age, Spears and Winehouse dominated the mid-2000s tabloid headlines with their public unravelling although, unlike Spears, Winehouse’s story
The past isn’t just a different country, but a different movie entirely, in “The Last Letter From Your Lover,” a lushly mounted pair of love stories — one present, one past — that are faintly enmeshed but almost entirely disparate in tone, style and emotional impression. In the first, Shailene Woodley and Callum Turner fall
Keshet International has completed further pre-sales on “Surviving 9/11,” Top Hat Productions’ feature-length documentary for the BBC. The BBC had commissioned the film to mark 20 years of the tragedy, which falls this year. Keshet has finalized license deals with The Seven Network in Australia; Globo in Brazil; CBC in Canada for both the CBC
Bollywood star Kartik Aaryan (“Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety”) will headline RSVP and Baweja Studios’ “Captain India,” to be directed by acclaimed filmmaker Hansal Mehta. Inspired by one of India’s successful rescue missions from a war-torn country, Aaryan will play a pilot who spearheaded the operation and displayed exemplary bravery and courage in the process.
The seemingly impossible just happened at the end of Kanye‘s album release event in Atlanta … Jay-Z hopped on a track, when many believed the two were still enemies. Kanye played “DONDA” for tens-of-thousands of fans at Mercedes Benz Stadium Thursday. West wore all red — a look he made famous back in 2010 —
Kanye West premiered his long-delayed studio album “Donda” at a listening event at Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium on Thursday that was broadcast live on Apple Music. While many details about the album have leaked in the days after hints about its imminent arrival first popped up on Sunday, one that didn’t was a fiery guest
CBS has ousted the leaders of its O&O stations in Los Angeles and Chicago after concluding a six-month investigation into misconduct claims at the CBS Television Stations group. Jay Howell is out as general manager of KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV Los Angeles, as is Derek Dalton at WBBM-TV Chicago. The terminations were disclosed in memos Thursday
Michael Chernus has signed on to star alongside Rachel Weisz in the “Dead Ringers” series currently in the works at Amazon. The series was announced at the streaming service in August 2020 with a straight-to-series order. It is a modern update of the 1988 David Cronenberg film of the same name. The series version will
Sean Penn has set an ultimatum on the set of the upcoming Starz Watergate series “Gaslit”: either the entire cast and crew receive COVID-19 vaccines, or he’s not returning to work. Although NBCUniversal, “Gaslit’s” studio, imposed mandatory vaccines for “Zone A” cast and crew members (those in close proximity during production), and provided an on-site
The movies have done their job for HBO Max. The steady stream of new Warner Bros. theatrical releases landing on HBO Max this year as day-and-date theatrical and streaming premieres has delivered a big boost of buzz and, most importantly, subscribers to the fledgling streaming streaming service that launched in late May 2020. But with
Travis Barker has signed an exclusive worldwide administration deal with Warner Chappell Music, the publishing arm of Warner Music Group, the company announced Thursday (July 22). He is best known as the drummer of multiplatinum pop-punk band Blink-182 but has also played with his bands the Transplants and +44, and co-written and produced songs for
Ten projects in development will be presented to industry professionals during the 8th Transilvania Pitch Stop (TPS) at this year’s Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, with a hybrid pitching session on July 29 including a range of film funds, distributors, sales agents, producers and financiers both online and on-site in the host city of Cluj. Launched
Three volunteer workers set out from Bucharest in a convoy destined for the mountainous hinterlands of Romania, where they plan to distribute aid supplies to remote villages. But when their SUV breaks down after they decide to help a lonely old man on a desolate mountain road, their notions of empathy and charity get put
The unforgettable final shot of Tatiana Huezo’s last film, the songlike documentary “Tempestad,” is the silhouette of a figure swimming in blue water – an amputee, missing one of her legs from the knee down. Combining grace and trauma, the image is also striking because of its perspective: She’s floating but, seen from below, from
The shortlist for the U.K.’s prestigious Mercury Prize have been announced, and includes such recent Variety favorites as indie singer-songwriter Arlo Parks (pictured above), alt-R&B outfit Sault, R&B singer Celeste and rock savants Wolf Alice, as well as instrumental vets Mogwai, rapper Ghetts and more. The full list appears below. The award, sponsored by Hyundai,