Maya Rudolph is one of six creative leaders in comedy honored for Variety‘s 2021 Power of Women. For more, click here. When Maya Rudolph was a kid, she’d stage one-girl musicals in her living room and play make believe in empty corners of her mother’s recording studios, creating makeshift stages anywhere she could to satisfy
While actor David Oyelowo had been toying with the idea of directing, it wasn’t until “The Water Man” — out May 7 — that the opportunity arose for him to step behind the camera. Oyelowo, who starred in last year’s “The Midnight Sky,” felt the family entertainment films of the ’80s were missing from the
“Here Today,” starring Billy Crystal as a venerable TV comedy writer and Tiffany Haddish as the saintly, rough-around-the-edges street singer who becomes his unlikely pal, is a movie that feels like it could have been made 30 years ago: a friendly, adult-skewing, tart-witted but never nasty, jokes-and-hugs-built-around-a-serious-crisis character study that’s just ’90s enough to be
Snap is pulling new star power into its 2021 slate of original shows for Snapchat, unveiling reality series with Megan Thee Stallion and the D’Amelio Sisters, the sibling digital influencers who rose to fame on rival app TikTok. The new shows are among nine new and renewed Snap Originals aimed at Snapchat’s young-skewing user base.
Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Emma Stone may be taking on the role of Cruella de Vil in Disney’s “Cruella,” but that doesn’t mean Glenn Close is done playing the Disney villain. “I have a great story to make another Cruella with my Cruella,” Close tells me. She’s tightlipped about details but teases,
After spending two months in rehab, John Mulaney is back on the stand-up scene — and his first five comedy shows are already sold out. The comedian, who checked out of rehab in February, is doing a residency at Manhattan’s City Winery called “John Mulaney: From Scratch” from May 10-14. While tickets are currently unavailable,
A Los Angeles Times expose published on Wednesday alleges that women and people of color have been subjected to harassment and bullying at ICM Partners. The story spoke to 30 former and current employees at the Hollywood agency. A rep from ICM told the Los Angeles Times, “HR does not have any records of such
Alternativet Produksjon, the Norwegian film banner behind Guro Bruusgaard’s “HIM,” has more thought-provoking projects in the pipeline, including Mariken Halle’s pandemic-themed film “The Outdoor School” and Katja Eyde Jacobsen’s feminist movie “The Second Sex.” The company was launched in 2017 by four filmmakers, including Halle, Jacobsen, Bruusgaard and Magnus Mork to produce their movies collectively,
Adelaide Clemens, Patrick J. Adams, Douglas Smith and Kathleen Turner will star in “The Swearing Jar.” The musical romance will be directed by Lindsay MacKay (“Wet Bum”) from a script by Kate Hewlett (“Malory Towers”), who adapts her play of the same name. David Hewlett (“The Shape of Water”) and Jade Ma (“Zero Chill”) round out
Bailee Madison, most recently seen as the lead in the Netflix musical “A Week Away,” isn’t saving her singing strictly for the odd screen appearance. She’s moving full-on into it off-screen as well, plotting a music career that she’s announcing concurrent with the signing of a management deal with Kevin Jonas Sr.’s Jonas Group Entertainment.
The struggle that independent music venues have been undergoing for the past 14 months has gone on for so long that even supporters have begun to grow numb to it — but the reality is that the independent concert venues that up-and-coming musicians depend on keep seeing federal relief move farther and farther away. Now,
Meghan Markle’s case against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) received a further boost on Wednesday with the latest ruling in her favor. Markle had sued Associated Newspapers, publishers of The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, for publishing articles that in 2018 reproduced parts of a letter she had sent to her father Thomas Markle, on the
Kate McKinnon is one of six creative leaders in comedy honored for Variety‘s 2021 Power of Women. For more, click here. Kate McKinnon is exceedingly uninhibited, unselfconscious and brazen in her spot-on, wacky impressions of everyone from Robert Durst, Betsy DeVos and Justin Bieber to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Jeff Sessions and Rudy Giuliani. It makes
Avant-pop singer MNDR has returned with her first new material since 2019, a single co-produced by Grammy-winning producer Mark Ronson (Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse) called “Hell to Be You Baby.” The song is the title track from her second full-length album, slated for release on June 18th on WonderSound Records. The official video, directed by
No music artist is more intrinsically identified with Los Angeles than Los Lobos — unless, say, we’re talking the Beach Boys, Thee Midniters, Jackson Browne, Little Feat, Buffalo Springfield or the Blasters, to name a few of the fellow homegrown musicians that the group proudly covers on “Native Sons,” their debut for the New West
Check out the official A Quiet Place: Part II Final Teaser Trailer starring Emily Blunt! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Sign up for a Fandango FanAlert for A Quiet Place: Part II: https://www.fandango.com/a-quiet-place-part-ii-221936/movie-overview?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc Want to be notified of all the latest movie trailers? Subscribe to the channel and click
A picture paints a thousand words, the old cliché goes, but it’s truly amazing how much publicity photos of musicians can say about a certain year: The clothes, the shoes, the hats, the belt buckles, the scarves — and most of all, the hairstyles (and lack of styles). G. Brown’s collection of photos and words,
Facebook’s decision to suspend Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts was upheld by the company’s Overnight Board. But Trump could get a rehearing in the case later this year. Facebook’s Oversight Board, the independent body established by the social giant to review content-policy decisions, on Wednesday issued a ruling upholding Facebook’s January decision to suspend
We may soon begin to run low on famous cases from the past to reframe into true-crime series. Following on recent series about the Night Stalker and the Ted Bundy murders, Netflix now drops “The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness,” about the Son of Sam killings in New York City in the late
Winners of prestigious global awards including the Oscars, Grammys, BAFTAs and Golden Globes are among the categories of people who are now fast-tracked for U.K. visas. The U.K. Home Office revealed on Wednesday that people who have won any of these awards will be able to skip the endorsements previously required as part of the
A little over three years ago, the partners at Jax Media took a big gamble. The New York indie production banner had prospered through its artisanal approach to producing TV series for such multi-hyphenate stars as Samantha Bee, Amy Schumer, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, as well as its ability to execute high-gloss scripted series
As millions of people tune in to the Tokyo Olympics later this year, one of the world’s biggest advertisers hopes to give them something during the commercial breaks that is as inspiring as anything they might see around the swimming pool or on the gymnastics pavilion. Procter & Gamble, which has become a regular participant
Shane Allen, BBC’s director of comedy, is leaving the broadcaster to team with recently departed head of comedy commissioning Kate Daughton to launch a new outfit. Boffola Pictures Limited will specialize in scripted comedy and comedy drama and is backed by “Les Miserables” producer Lookout Point. The BBC will begin recruitment immediately for a new
“The Crown” star Claire Foy is set to lead a new thriller from streamer BritBox U.K. Eight-part thriller “Marlow,” from Motive Pictures and Endeavor Content, centers on feuding families the Marlows and the Wyatts, who have existed in the “Edgelands” of the Thames Estuary for centuries. Foy stars as Evie Wyatt, who was born and
Building its presence in Europe, ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS) has closed a deal with on-the-rise Spanish production company Fasten Films to co-produce “Pastor,” a social-issue drama. Created and written by Natxo López, the creator of “Stolen Away” and writer for Mediaset España banner series “Caronte,” “Pastor” will be directed by Spanish film-TV helmer Jorge Dorado,
Pathe International has unveiled the poster and trailer for Paul Verhoeven’s subversive period thriller “Benedetta.” Cannes also confirmed that the film will world premiere at this year’s festival on July 9 and will be released in French theaters on the same day. Inspired by true events, “Benedetta” is set in the late 15th century and
Specialist sales agency Good Move Media has picked up international rights to “Ancient Soul,” which had its world premiere in March at the Berlin Film Festival. The film, aka “Mbah Jhiwo,” is a Spanish-produced docu-drama about life in the Sulphur mines of Java, Indonesia. It was directed by Alvarro Guerra and will next play at
Global streaming sports platform DAZN and Brazilian soccer legend Ronaldo have closed a multi-project development deal kicking off with “El Presidente,” a docu-series chronicling the former striker’s tenure as part owner of Spanish club Valladolid FC, which will launch globally on May 20. Best known for its live sports streams and the headaches it initially
Writer-director Carlos V. Gutierrez’s “Locked In” is not to be confused with 2017’s “Locked In,” nor 2010’s “Locked In,” nor the numerous short films that have also used that title in the past two decades. Nonetheless, this low-budget potboiler’s common moniker is emblematic of its generally generic nature. A thriller about a woman’s efforts to
Netflix’s coming-of-age documentary “Audible,” which world premiered this week at Hot Docs Film Festival, follows Maryland School for the Deaf high school athlete Amaree McKenstry and his close friends during their senior year. Director Matt Ogens speaks to Variety about the film, whose exec producers include actor Peter Berg, the Emmy nominated creator of “Friday