It’s official: Denis Villeneuve’s hotly anticipated “Dune” reboot will world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September. As first anticipated by Variety, the fest has announced that the big budget sci-fi epic toplining Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya will world premiere in Venice out-of-competition on September 3. The film is adapted from Frank Herbert’s seminal science
Disney EMEA hosted its annual Studio Focus at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival, lamentably pre-recorded for the second edition in a row, where the company announced a pair of new African series, the sci-fi anthology series “Kizazi Moto: Generation of Fire” led by “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” co-director Peter Ramsey, and a musical kids show
Bloomberg Media has tapped British broadcaster and journalist Emma Barnett for a new weekly interview show on their social news network Bloomberg Quicktake. Barnett is currently the host of BBC Radio 4 show “Woman’s Hour” and presents the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme “Newsnight”. She will continue to work on both shows in addition to
In the past year, there’s been countless stories and documentaries made from inside retirement homes. These usually aim to inform the public on how COVID-19 impacts elder people’s mental wellbeing as much as their physical health, touching upon themes of isolation and loneliness. The context of a global pandemic has indeed pushed many people –
Oscar-nominated Danish director Lone Scherfig (“An Education”) will be making her return to television with “The Shift,” an emotional series set in a contemporary maternity ward headlined by Danish star Sofie Gråbøl (“The Killing,” “The Undoing”). The prestige eight-part series starts shooting this week, commissioned by Danish commercial channel TV2 and TV2 Play, and is
Disney has tapped top toon talents from across the African continent for “Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire,” a Disney Plus Original anthology of animated films set to premiere on the Mouse House’s streaming platform in late 2022. Inspired by the continent’s diverse histories and cultures, the 10-part anthology brings together a slate of rising animation talents
Kim Kardashian now has legal protection against the man who allegedly showed up to her home on multiple occasions and sent a package containing Plan B and a diamond ring … thanks to a restraining order. KK filed docs Wednesday against Nicholas Costanza, whom she claims is the person who disturbingly shipped Plan B pills
With almost no tours having been undertaken in the past year, the Pollstar Awards pivoted in two different directions for the 31st annual edition of the show held Wednesday night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel ballroom. One shift in focus was to deliver awards to the top touring artists of the last decade, instead of
It’s hard to imagine a football coach starting off with less than real-life hero Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson) does when he arrives at Fort Worth’s Masonic Home in “12 Mighty Orphans”: No shoes for his team, no field for his team and no team. Nothing but potential, you might say, and that’s just enough for
Starlight Media, a Chinese-owned film financier, will leverage its growing Hollywood connections and partner with a group of leading Chinese entertainment firms to launch global streaming service SYSM. The platform, whose initials stand for See You See Me, will combine film, TV and user-generated content as well as e-commerce, digital asset trading and social media.
Rita Moreno has posted a new statement saying that she is “incredibly disappointed” following her comments about the lack of Afro-Latino representation in “In the Heights.” During an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night, Moreno defended “In the Heights” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda over criticism that the film did not cast
One of the stars of Netflix’s “Bling Empire” got called out for allegedly spreading Asian hate by dissing a famous sushi joint — but he’s hollering right back … respectfully, calling BS. Kane Lim — a Singaporean real estate developer — was recently filmed on a pal’s IG Story, hyping up the fact they were
Doug Liman is a renowned filmmaker behind an array of hit blockbusters from “The Bourne Identity” to “Edge of Tomorrow.” During his director series at the Tribeca Festival 2021, which was moderated by Jason Hirschhorn on Tuesday night, Liman revealed that he created his first film at the age of six. It was a short
Chris Miller and Phil Lord have partnered with nonprofit Film2Future for its 2021 summer program. “As filmmakers we strongly believe in supporting and cultivating future generations of storytellers,” Lord and Miller said in a statement. “The next great idea can come from anywhere or anyone and having creative conversations with people no matter age, background
Australian indie producer Aquarius Films is to develop and produce a comedy drama series adapted from the acclaimed feminist manifesto book “Fight Like A Girl.” The book, a memoir and expose of how unequal the world continues to be for women, was published in 2016 by feminist writer and online sensation Clementine Ford. It earned
No doubt playing a serial killer could really mess with one’s psyche. Just ask Tahar Rahim. The actor portrays real-life 1970s French murderer Charles Sobhraj in Netflix’s eight-episode “The Serpent.” When they first began shooting, he thought he was able to leave the work behind him when he went home at the end of the
For Mariska Hargitay, the departure of Christopher Meloni and his “Law & Order: SVU” character, Elliot Stabler in 2011 after 12 seasons, was “so painful for me and so hard because the way he left, there was no closure. There was just a big hole.” But Meloni is back, in the spinoff series “Law &
Play video content The Black woman who claims she was dragged down a flight of steps due to racial profiling was in the mix of a brawl right before the brutal act — but she’s sticking to her version of events. Somebody captured what happened to Keisha Young at D.C.’s Nellie’s Sports Bar last weekend
In Amazon Studios’ upcoming sci-fi blockbuster “The Tomorrow War,” Chris Pratt stars as Dan Forester — a soldier sent to the year 2051 to fight off against an alien invasion. Beyond the film’s grandiose sci-fi elements, it deals with an array of contemporary family themes and the notion of what one generation owes to the
Gary Cole is in talks for a major role in “NCIS” Season 19, Variety has learned exclusively from sources. Details on the character Cole would play are being kept under wraps. The long-running CBS procedural was renewed back in April, with series lead Mark Harmon’s return to the series also being confirmed at that time. It
BAFTA Award-winning director and Emmy nominee Sam Miller (“I May Destroy You,” “Luther”) has been tapped to direct Apple TV Plus’ upcoming psychological thriller “Surface” starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw (“Loki”) and created by Veronica West (“High Fidelity”). In addition, Apple unveiled that Ari Graynor, Stephan James, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, François Arnaud, Marianne Jean Baptiste and Millie Brady
J.J. Abrams is ready to get to the bottom of unidentified flying objects, and Showtime is giving him the platform to do just that. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Glen Zipper are behind “UFO,” a four-part docu-series that will look at the phenomenon of mysterious objects in the sky and “what clandestine influence the American government,
NBC is working up a new play for the Super Bowl. Eager to generate millions of dollars in revenue from the Big Game, the Comcast-owned media conglomerate is talking to potential advertisers about a price tag of $6 million for a 30-second spot in the event, according to executives familiar with current negotiations, marking a
Fox saw increases in advance ad commitments for its primetime schedule and expanding digital venues as part of the industry’s annual “upfront” sales process, the latest of the nation’s big media companies to see robust activity as advertisers try to move forward as the coronavirus pandemic diminishes. The Fox Corporation unit saw advertising commitments rise
Will the next big advance in VR be… virtual-reality commercials? Facebook announced that it is kicking off a “small test” of in-headset ads for Oculus VR devices. The ads will first appear in “Blaston,” a dueling-shooter VR game from Resolution Games, as well as titles from a few other developers rolling out over the coming
Will Smith is set to host and star in a new one-hour comedy variety special at Netflix, Variety has learned. The special will include comedy sketches, musical performances, surprise celebrity guests, and noteworthy conversations among other things. It is set to launch on Netflix globally later this year. Westbrook Studios will produce the special for Netflix.
The Fox mutli-cam comedy “Call Me Kat” has found its Season 2 showrunner in Alissa Neubauer, Variety has learned. Neubauer takes over running the comedy series from Darlene Hunt, who stepped down from running the show at the end of its first season. Hunt also developed the show for American television, as it is based on
WSL Studios, the studio division of the World Surf League, has updated its development slate. The upcoming slate of programming will consist of competition series, docu-series and travel series that embody the ethos of surfing. Hosted and executive produced by Michael Phelps, “Racing on Water: The Ultimate Waterman Competition” is a global competition elimination series
Director Ryan White’s new short documentary “Coded” will have its world premiere on June 17 at the Tribeca Festival. White (“The Case Against 8”) dives into the history of illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, one of the most prominent advertising artists of the first half of the 20th century, who created hundreds of covers for the Saturday
Play video content TMZ.com Lil Pump‘s not just throwing his support behind naming Migos to rap’s Mt. Rushmore … he’s anointing them the G.O.A.T.!!! The “Gucci Gang” rapper and his entourage were in the middle of a serious L.A. shopping spree at A Bathing Ape, and we asked him about the whole “Mt. Rushmore” debate