The HBO Max reboot of “Pretty Little Liars” has found its first two cast members. Chandler Kinney and Maia Reficco have both been cast in the series, which is titled “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.” In addition, Lisa Soper has come onboard to direct the first two episodes of the series. Twenty years ago, a
Superstar releases, or at least great superstar releases, were in short supply in the first six months of 2021, maybe because a lot of our most reliable earners were waiting for the pandemic to crawl to some kind of close before putting out the new albums that act as precipitating events for their real bread-and-butter,
After recordings of the remote audio from Britney Spears’ blistering 24-minute statement during her June 23 conservatorship hearing began circulating widely over the web, Los Angeles County courts have decided to end their remote audio attendance program completely. Despite warnings on the web page of the audio broadcast, which was open only to involved parties
Paris-based international sales and production company Totem Films has added Gábor Fabricius’ “Erasing Frank” to its Cannes market lineup. Set in 1983, behind the Iron Curtain of Eastern Europe in Budapest, the film follows Frank, the charismatic singer of a banned punk band that carries the voice of their generation against a totalitarian regime. Taken
The British Film Institute (BFI) has revealed a one-year fund worth £500,000 ($690,000) to support the U.K. distribution of international titles. The funding comes by way of the National Lottery and will be administered by the BFI Audience Fund. It is aimed at supporting exhibitors and distributors in the wake of the pandemic and aims
Madison Taylor Baez, Kevin Carroll, Jacob Buster and Ian Foreman have joined the cast of the Showtime drama pilot “Let the Right One In.” The project also stars Demián Bichir, who plays Mark, a husband and father whose perfect life is thrown into disarray when his daughter Eleanor (Baez) is bitten by a mysterious creature
Peacock, NBCUniversal’s U.S.-based streaming service, will carry all remaining NHL 2021 Stanley Cup Final games — with the Tampa Bay Lightning facing off against the Montreal Canadiens — as they are broadcast live on NBC. Coverage of the Stanley Cup will be available on Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99/month with ads, and Peacock Premium Plus,
Archewell Audio, the podcast arm of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s production firm, has tapped award-winning podcast producer Rebecca Sananes as head of audio. Most recently, Sananes for the last two years has been lead producer for New York Magazine’s “Pivot” tech, media and business podcast hosted by Recode cofounder Kara Swisher and NYU professor Scott
Brazilian audiovisual promotion group Projeto Paradiso and Argentina’s Cannes-backed market-festival Ventana Sur are launching a new $10,000 award to be handed out at the Buenos Aires event, earmarked for the best Brazilian fiction projects in post-production. The announcement was made by Projeto Paradiso’s Josephine Bourgois – executive director of the Olga Rabinovich Institute – and
A galaxy of Indian entertainment industry heavyweights are reportedly backing Reliance Entertainment group CEO Shibasish Sarkar’s special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) targeting the Indian media industry. Variety understands that Sarkar’s New Jersey registered International Media Acquisition Corp. (IMAC), of which he is set as chairman, CEO and leading shareholder, will have investment from actor/producer Ajay
Reflecting the blurring of boundaries between movies and TV, UniFrance and TV France International have merged their promotion organizations to form a new streamlined association. The orgs’ respective presidents, Serge Toubiana from UniFrance, and Hervé Michel from TVFI, were elected presidents of this new org, known just as UniFrance, on July 2 for a two-year
Award-winning Bangladeshi filmmaker Abdullah Mohammad Saad’s “Rehana” premieres in the Un Certain Regard strand of the Cannes Film Festival and Variety has access to an exclusive clip from the film. The film follows Rehana (Azmeri Haque Badhon), an assistant professor at a medical college, who struggles to keep the harmony between work and family, as
Filming is underway at Liverpool and Anglesey, U.K., locations on Ian Puleston-Davies’ feature film “Bolan’s Shoes,” starring Timothy Spall (“Mr. Turner”), Leanne Best (“Line of Duty”) and Mark Lewis-Jones (“The Crown”). The film features music by the pioneers of the glam rock movement of the 1970s, Marc Bolan’s T-Rex, and is designed as a celebration
The BBC has pounced on the keenly anticipated HBO Max reboot of iconic drama “Gossip Girl” as a U.K. premiere. The show will be available on BBC One and streamer BBC iPlayer later this year. In addition, all six series of the pop culture classic, which ran from 2007-2012 will be available on iPlayer. The
Fremantle has swooped in for Nordic Entertainment Group’s unscripted assets, Variety can reveal. The RTL Group-owned “Got Talent” producer will use their new assets — 12 companies in all across Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark — to form Fremantle Nordics. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close later this year.
Chile presents four powerful documentaries at Cannes Docs’ Docs in Progress: Showcase Chile this year, which will screen online on Wednesday July 7 and on-site on July 10 at the hybrid Cannes Marché du Film. Most of them reflect the deep trauma the country suffered under the brutal military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1970-1990). “Indeed, the Pinochet dictatorship has left a
Swifties, rejoice. After a series of online teasers that sent fans into a frenzy, Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon’s Big Red Machine project has released “Renegade,” the first of two collaborations with Taylor Swift that will be found on the group’s second album, “How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?,” due Aug. 27 via
Actor Jessica Joan had a long-awaited moment of closure when she read her victim’s statement at the June 30 sentencing hearing for Allison Mack, the “Smallville” star who became a leader of the sex cult tied to the now-convicted Keith Raniere and his NXIVM organization. Joan was the NXIVM victim previously identified in court documents
Richard Branson is closing in on winning the billionaire space race with Jeff Bezos — because Virgin Galactic now has a flight planned for next weekend, and the British billionaire will be onboard. Richard’s company announced plans Thursday to launch the rocket-fueled flight July 11 … just 9 days before Bezos plans to travel to
“I’m gonna cut myself free of you even if it’s the last thing I do.” The line, uttered by Emma (Megan Fox) to her husband the morning after celebrating their 10th anniversary at their remote lake house, is the kind of on-the-nose dialogue that sums up the bluntness of S.K. Dale’s wintry-set thriller, “Till Death.”
Kelsey Grammer and Julia Stiles do not make a natural romantic couple, and their awkward pairing is the largest misstep made by “The God Committee,” writer-director Austin Stark’s adaptation of Mark St. Germain’s play about a group of doctors tasked with deciding which of three patients should receive a heart transplant. Often resembling a schematic
Ilana Glazer admits she’s been really worried about what people would think of her new movie, “False Positive.” While a dark comedy at times, the Hulu movie is quite different compared to the colorful comedy of “Broad City,” the sitcom she co-created with co-star Abbi Jacobson. Co-written by Glazer and the film’s director John Lee,
After months of build-up involving heightened censorship, a propaganda blitz, and a flurry of patriotic film, TV and music content, the Chinese Communist Party at last celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding on Thursday. It marked the occasion with political speeches, a highly choreographed mass commemoration in Tiananmen Square, the broadcast of a jingoistic
Bill Cosby built an entertainment empire by playing a helpful, wholesome, fatherly figure in everything from his landmark “Cosby Show” on NBC to the animated “Fat Albert” series to memorable commercials for Jell-O Pudding Pops. But industry insiders say there is little chance that the disgraced 83-year-old entertainer may be able to chart a comeback,
Indie moviemaker Amy Seimetz pulls off the ultimate heist in “No Sudden Move.” Though relatively unknown to most viewers, Seimetz slyly steals the star-studded film out from under the likes of Don Cheadle and Benicio del Toro with her portrayal of a housewife who gets caught up in a dangerous plot to steal a priceless
Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Jennifer Hudson are among the first batch of artists announced to headline the New York City “homecoming concert” in New York’s Central Park this summer. While the concert, taking place on the park’s Great Lawn as part of a weeklong celebration of the city’s reopening, was provisionally scheduled for Aug.
The long-delayed but hotly anticipated “Black Widow” from Marvel Studios finally gets its bow before critics, garnering positive reviews thus far. However, with the Academy moving back to a guaranteed 10 nominees in best picture, and seemingly open to more populist choices in Hollywood, as seen with James Mangold’s “Logan” (2017) getting mentioned for adapted
Aaron Steven will write “Nightingale,” an all-ages podcast, for Gen-Z Media. Described as a cross between “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “Five Feet Apart,” “Nightingale” scopes in on a group of teens in the cancer ward of a children’s hospital who discover a secret world where they find that they aren’t defined by their illnesses,
Check out the official Beckett Trailer starring John David Washington and Alicia Vikander! Let us know what you think in the comments below. Want to be notified of all the latest movie trailers? Subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon to stay up to date. US Release Date: August 13, 2021 Starring: John
“The Tomorrow War” is a big, dumb, sometimes tedious, sometimes fun civilization-vs.-aliens showdown that sends a bunch of ordinary people through a wormhole into the future to save the human race. The creatures they’re fighting are odd-looking beasts. Imagine the big-jawed monsters from the “Alien” films crossed with Velociraptors crossed with rapidly galloping chickens, with