Actor Kai Ko, the mournful star of Un Certain Regard film “Moneyboys,” declined to jump the queue for vaccinations in his native Taiwan, and so couldn’t walk the red carpet in person at Cannes this year. Nevertheless, his performance in first-time director C.B. Yi’s exploration of Chinese hustlers balancing the pressures of love, family and
With growing concerns about a rise in COVID cases and a new indoor mask mandate for Los Angeles being implemented starting Saturday night, some in-person Hollywood events are already being canceled. A Friday night screening of “Joe Bell,” hosted by stars Mark Wahlberg and Reid Miller at WME in Beverly Hills, was canceled several hours
Paramount Plus has ordered Paramount Television Studios’ “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” to series, Variety has confirmed. The “Grease” prequel takes place four years before Sandy and Danny’s relationship throws Rydell High into a tailspin. Before rock ‘n’ roll ruled and before the T-Birds were the coolest guys in school, four fed-up, outcast girls dare
Jayson Blair has joined the cast of Kat Dennings’ Hulu comedy series “Dollface” in a recurring role. He will play Liam, a new love interest for Izzy (Esther Povitsky), who, for the “Dollface” uninitiated, is a friend and co-worker of Dennings’ main character Jules. The show centers on a young woman who is dumped by
All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. In a new Hulu documentary “McCartney 3, 2, 1,” out July 16, the 79-year-old rockstar spills never-heard-before anecdotes
The posthumous album is, sadly, as much a part of the hip-hop ethos as is sampling vintage soul snippets or rapping raw lyrics ripe with braggadocio. Be it rap veterans with opulent production values such as DMX, 2Pac and Mac Miller, or newer artists on the lo-fi tip such as XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD “releasing”
AMC Networks has reached a $200 million settlement deal with Frank Darabont and CAA in the long-running profit participation lawsuit over “The Walking Dead.” The deal calls for AMC Networks to pay Darabont and CAA a total of $200 million. They will continue to receive a share of future profits from streaming deals tied to
“Melrose Place” will host an unofficial reunion this summer on Fox’s “Fantasy Island” when Laura Leighton, Josie Bissett and Daphne Zuniga guest star as friends whose island birthday bash exposes the cracks in their friendships. The all new version of the show, which originally aired from 1977 to 1984, will premiere on Aug. 10 at
President Biden took a sharp jab at Facebook and other social networks, saying that they are “killing people” by facilitating the spread of misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. Asked by a reporter at the White House Friday what his message was to platforms like Facebook regarding COVID-19 misinformation, Biden replied: “They’re killing people.” He was addressing
No one utters the word “bipolar” until practically the end of Belgian director Joachim Lafosse’s “The Restless,” but you can sense that’s what the character Damien is dealing with from the opening scene, when a father-son day on the sea takes a startling turn. After steering a rented boat a certain distance offshore, the ever-impulsive
Brian Morewitz is out as senior VP of drama at ABC, the network confirms to Variety. Morewitz had been with ABC for almost 17 years, and had been in his most recent position since March 2016, when he was promoted by then-entertainment president Channing Dungey. There’s no word yet on how Morewitz will be replaced,
One of the biggest knocks against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — that its members can be swayed by trips, gifts and other freebies — is going away. The org confirmed in a statement on Friday that it has approved “new gift, travel and conflict of interest policies. Under these new policies, HFPA members shall
All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. After a year of podcasting, Instagram lives and socially-distanced shows, the biggest comedians are finally hitting the road
In preparing for his eponymous starring role in “Turner & Hooch,” Josh Peck got the Manny Pacquiao treatment. “I did physical fight training with Justin Fortune, who trains Manny Pacquiao. If someone drops out of the next Logan Paul fight, maybe I’ll hop in,” Peck told Variety at the Disney Plus series premiere event on Thursday.
CANNES — At a banner ceremony for female filmmakers, Russian writer-director Kira Kovalenko’s sophomore feature “Unclenching the Fists” won the top prize for best film in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival this evening. The film, a powerful study of a young woman attempting to assert her independence in a North
Mubi, the London-based streamer and theatrical distributor that’s been on a buying spree this week in Cannes, has acquired the rights for North America, U.K., and a host of other territories for Kira Kovalenko’s “Unclenching the Fists,” which took home the top prize in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, Variety can reveal.
It turns out that Warner Bros. almost developed a sequel to the 1997 crime film “L.A. Confidential,” and the late Chadwick Boseman would’ve starred in the movie. In an interview with The Ringer, screenwriter Brian Helgeland revealed that the potential sequel would have reunited stars Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce. Taking place in the mid-’70s,
C.B. Yi’s Un Certain Regard title “Moneyboys” is a moving exploration of Chinese rural-to-urban migration that feels authentically emotional despite being peppered with incongruous moments and details. The film follows Fei (Kai Ko), who moves from the countryside to different Chinese megacities to support his family as a hustler. When he realizes that they accept
All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. A$AP Rocky’s first collection as PacSun’s guest artistic director is finally here — and it’s chock-full of the
Jay Shaylor, the executive producer of “CBS Evening News,” has stepped down from his post, one of the first significant rearrangements of top producers at the ViacomCBS news division since it was placed under the aegis of new top executives. “Jay Shaylor is leaving the company. We thank him for his contributions to the broadcast
Returning director Adam Robitel had production designer Edward Thomas raise the stakes for the sequel to 2019’s “Escape Room.” The new challenges in “Escape Room: Tournament of Champions,” in theaters July 16, include a subway train, a gorgeous vacation beach that soon turns into quicksand and a high-security bank. Thomas found an old art deco
Alex Wolff has never been unacquainted with fame. After starring in Nickelodeon’s “The Naked Brothers Band” movie and series when he was a kid alongside his older brother Nat, he quickly rose to stardom as a young actor and musician. More than 15 years later, Wolff has appeared in a wide array of feature films,
One has to imagine that conceptualizing a shark attack scene must be relatively easy. There’s a reason that these animals have (unfairly, as any marine biologist will tell you) become such evergreen villains in nature thrillers, and the basic cinematic architecture of an attack scene hasn’t changed all that much since “Jaws.” But the scariest
Netflix is implementing some important leadership changes as it works to create more broadly entertaining film projects. As part of that shift, executives Kira Goldberg and Ori Marmur have both been promoted and will head up a team tasked with developing and producing big-budget and four-quadrant films. Their team will be autonomous from the one
Justin Kurzel’s exceptionally disturbing, horribly plausible “Nitram” opens with an excerpt from a 1979 Australian news report on firework accidents. A boy of about 12 is being interviewed from his Hobart hospital bed, and when the posh, compassionate voice of the presenter asks if the injuries he sustained will discourage him from playing with fireworks
The artwork and marketing campaign for John Mayer’s new album, “Sob Rock,” features the sort of imagery that pulls you in. That’s because its 1980s-inspired look spurs more questions than answers — is the music retro or just the visuals? Are you meant to laugh or groan? Is the homage related to a specific release
John Mayer’s new album seems like the material of which Grammy nominations are made — but the question is, should it be up in a pop or comedy category? Not that “Sob Rock” is outrightly comic at its earnest songwriting core, but everything else about it provides at least a gentle nudge to the ribs,
The TV development logjam that emerged across broadcast, cable and streaming last year as the pandemic raged is showing little sign of abating as COVID-19 restrictions lift. Multiple TV writers and lit agents tell Variety that the market is incredibly challenging, with little appetite from buyers for new projects. Among the factors contributing to the
Horror fans tuning into the final installment of Netflix’s trilogy “Fear Street,” based on the R.L Stine books, are transported back to 1666 to experience a nightmare that has been haunting the town of Shadyside for generations: a witch hunt. To create the soundscape, composer Anna Drubich, influenced by Ari Aster’s 2019 release “Midsommar” and
Jason Sudeikis showed his support for the English soccer players who were targets of racial hate after their team lost the Euro 2020 final on Sunday. At the season 2 premiere of “Ted Lasso” in West Hollywood on Thursday night, Sudeikis wore a sweatshirt that was emblazoned with the first names of Marcus Rashford, Bukayo