Two decades after his breakthrough as a documentary filmmaker, Chris Smith is on a tear in the non-fiction realm, having directed “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond,” “Fyre,” and “Operation Variety Blues: The College Admissions Scandal” in the past four years, while also serving as an executive producer of last year’s pandemic docuseries sensation “Tiger
“You’re trying to punish me. Surely the Southern Hemisphere is bad enough.” So says Edie Henley (Harriet Walter) to her daughter Kate (Frances O’Connor) in the early scenes of the drama “The End.” This dark comedy created by Samantha Strauss comes to Showtime after a 2020 run in Australia; its first episode shows us how
Tom O’Connor, the British comedian and host of game shows like “Crosswits,” “Password” and “Name That Tune,” has died. He was 81. O’Connor’s family told the BBC that the comedian, who had Parkinson’s disease for over a decade, died in a hospital in Buckinghamshire on Sunday. O’Connor began his career in show business on the
The Tune Squad ruled over the court and box office charts this weekend. In an unexpected win, “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” which sees LeBron James team up with the animated Looney Tunes crew, dunked on the competition with $31.6 million in ticket sales. The Warner Bros. sequel to 1996’s “Space Jam” sailed past forecasts,
Continuing its victory lap around the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, indie studio Neon has acquired the North American distribution rights to “A Chiara.” The Jonas Carpignano film won the top prize in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section. It is a companion film to his 2017 “A Ciambra,” for which he took the same award that
Mark Hamill and Lupita Nyong’o were among the winners on Saturday night as the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) announced the winners of the 48th Annual DaytimeEmmy Awards in the children’s and animation categories. The show represented the second of three Daytime Emmy ceremonies this year; the third will be live streamed
Scott Borchetta, Big Machine Label Group’s founder and president-CEO, has spoken up in defense of the company’s promotion of a liberal-bashing song by Aaron Lewis, “Am I the Only One,” that trashes Bruce Springsteen and advocates keeping Confederate statues. Borchetta’s words praising the song came in a letter to industry blogger Bob Lefsetz, who had
For close to a half-century, anyone who trusts lyric sheets and official artist websites has been certain of one thing: In Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,” Mary’s dress waves, and it does not sway. No matter what some people might think they hear him singing, it’s been right there in writing, from the lyrics included with
An executive for global entertainment company Live Nation has been identified as one of the victims in the June 24 Surfside condo collapse in Florida. Theresa Velasquez, 36, was listed as a victim of the collapse on Saturday in the Miami-Dade Police Department’s daily press release. The Miami-Dade PD noted that Velasquez’s body was recovered
A Queens, N.Y. grand jury indicted TV actor Isaiah Stokes for murder on Friday. Stokes is accused of fatally shooting a man who sat in a parked car in Jamaica, Queens in February. “The defendant is accused of unloading nearly eleven shots during this brazen afternoon shooting,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a
The sad news that legendary legacy rapper, beat master and comic actor Biz Markie had passed away at age 57 was not unexpected. For the last several weeks, and after a reported stroke and long struggle with Type II diabetes, the human beat box and genius floacist behind early hip-hop hits such as “Just a
Play video content The Cray Podcast Damon Dash almost followed in Alice’s footsteps back to Wonderland — walking face-first into a see-though wall he apparently didn’t see … perhaps speaking to where his head’s at lately. The rap mogul arrived for a podcast sesh Thursday with TV producer Rob Weiss, Shawn Chase and O’Neal McKnight
Spike Lee jumped the gun, announcing Palme d’Or winner “Titane” before the other prizes at the Cannes Film Festival awards. The unplanned goof could have robbed the awards of their usual suspense, but instead, created a thrillingly unpredictable energy as presenters and attendees alike tried to imagine how to get the train back on track
Since Amnesty Intl. was founded in 1961 there has been, sadly, no shortage of filmmakers who have been killed or persecuted because of their work. Sixty years on, that danger remains. In 1975 poet-turned-director Pierpaolo Pasolini was murdered in Italy, possibly by the country’s secret services. More recently, in 2012, filmmaker and activist Bassel Shehadeh
CANNES — Spike Lee jumped the gun, announcing Palme d’Or winner “Titane” before the other prizes at the Cannes Film Festival awards. The unplanned goof could have robbed the awards of their usual suspense, but instead, created a thrillingly unpredictable energy as presenters and attendees alike tried to imagine how to get the train back
Evoking the sentiment of her own pop anthem “Stronger,” Britney Spears vocalized in an Instagram post that she’s had enough of the insincere behavior from those closest to her. “There’s nothing worse than when the people closest to you who never showed up for you post things in regard to your situation whatever it may
“Black Adam” has officially wrapped. Dwayne Johnson broke the news on social media about the DC movie, due July 29, 2022. “I knew many years ago, the opportunity for me to make BLACK ADAM would be a ONCE IN A CAREER EVENT,” he wrote on Instagram. “It has been my true honor to go shoulder
UPDATE: Production on Season 2 of “Bridgerton” has shut down once again following its second COVID-19 case in a week, Variety has confirmed. Production has been paused for an indefinite period of time on the popular Netflix show. Though the streamer declined to comment on whether the person who contracted COVID-19 was a member of the cast
SPOILER WARNING: Do not read if you haven’t seen all of Season 1 of “Loki,” currently streaming on Disney Plus. Ever since “Loki” first premiered in June, Kate Herron, who directed all six episodes of the Marvel Studios series, has had to pretend like she knew far less than she really does. For one, she
Warner Bros.’ “Space Jam: A New Legacy” is poised to steal the box office ball away from “Black Widow” this weekend, with a projected North American 3-day gross of $32 million. The basketball movie, a standalone sequel to 1996’s “Space Jam,” brought in $13.1 million from 3,965 locations on Friday, scoring Warner Bros.’ largest pandemic
Check out the top new trailers released this week that you’ve gotta see! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Sign up for a Fandango FanAlert or Buy Movie Tickets: https://www.fandango.com?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc Want to be notified of all the latest movie trailers? Subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon to
Remember when Robert Johnson was all the Delta variant anyone needed? Mask up and imagine those more innocent days as you line up this weekend for the second half of Record Store Day 2021, which was divided up into two parts this summer to theoretically keep crowds down. As anyone who attended the first of
Sharon Stone wasn’t getting the bids that she wanted. Around midnight on Friday night in France, after a dazzling fashion show on the lawn of a mansion in Antibes, the actor-turned-emcee was auctioning off 32 one-of-a-kind gowns by designers such as Versace, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Givenchy and Balenciaga at the amfAR Cannes gala. Joined onstage
The Deauville American Film Festival is set to reteam with Cannes to showcase five movies that have played on the Croisette during its next edition and will launch a mini-strand dedicated to anticipated French movies. Cannes joined forces with Deauville last year following the cancellation of its physical edition due to the pandemic. The partnership
The renewed indoor mask mandate coming from Los Angeles County Department of Public Health this weekend is unlikely to have a big effect on production in the region because strict COVID safety rules on set have not been relaxed since they were implemented last fall. But the surge in the infection rate in LA County
The three-day 2021 virtual edition of the NALIP Media Summit will feature a conversation with Marvel Studios’ EVP Victoria Alonso moderated by Variety‘s Marc Malkin. The three-day event will feature diverse creative leaders from the Latinx community that will connect with attendees through a series of sessions, workshops, exclusive screenings and mentorship opportunities. The 22nd
Biz Markie, the rapper, singer and actor behind the 1989 hit “Just a Friend,” died Friday in Baltimore. He was 57. “It is with profound sadness that we announce, this evening, with his wife Tara by his side, hip hop pioneer Biz Markie peacefully passed away,” his rep Jenni Izumi said in a statement. “We
“Central Park” creator Josh Gad actually called the election results early during a Zoom call with the show’s composers Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel. “I’ll never forget that because we all just cried, and then he was like, ‘No wait, never mind that was a fake news article,’” Samsel says. Gad, who also stars in the
When the trailer for “Space Jam: A New Legacy” was released, it required multiple viewings just to spot all the cameos of famous Warner Bros. characters. Filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee packed even more appearances into the film’s two-hour runtime, so if you’re watching at home on HBO Max, frequent pausing might be necessary to find
The New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center will unspool the 2021 edition Aug. 6-22 at FLC, kicking off with the premiere of “Escape From Mogadishu,” directed by Ryoo Seung-wan. In all, 60 films will screen to audiences in person and virtually, with premieres of first and second features from directors for