Sugar23 has raised $30 million in financing and unveiled a bench of top executives that it hopes will help the company expand more aggressively into everything from talent management to podcasting. Founded in 2017 by Academy Award-winning producer, manager and entrepreneur Michael Sugar, the company is hoping to be something of a catch-all service provider
This will be the last year for the IFP Gotham Awards, as the organization behind the event — Independent Film Project — is formally changing its name to the Gotham Film and Media Institute, or the Gotham for short. The rebrand, which coincides with the award show’s 30th anniversary, is intended to reflect the organization’s
Alex Garland is set to reunite with A24 for his latest film, titled “Men.” Jessie Buckley is in talks to star in the film, playing a woman who goes on a solo vacation to the English countryside after the death of her ex-husband. Rory Kinnear has also been tapped to join the project, which is
A “Lords of Dogtown” series is in the works at IMDB TV, Variety has learned. The one-hour drama is set in the 1970s skateboarding scene in southern California and centers on a hell-raising teenage girl growing up in the foster care system. She falls in with a crowd of skaters who idolize the famed Zephyr Skateboard
Reboots aren’t just for grown-ups anymore. The proliferation of streaming platforms reliant on free-flowing programming pipelines has led to the development of new versions of shows such as “Battlestar Galactica” and “True Blood” that last aired when Barack Obama was president. That same industry-shaking shift away from linear and toward streaming, coupled with the emergence
As the COVID-19 pandemic approaches its one-year anniversary of ravaging the globe and disrupting workflows, PBS is coming into 2021 strong with a robust slate for what network president and CEO Paula Kerger calls one of its “brand-defining programs”: “Masterpiece.” “When you ask people what they think about when they hear ‘PBS,’ many people will
PBS prepares to celebrate “Masterpiece’s” 50th anniversary on the heels of another gold celebration: that of the first book in author James Alfred Wright ’s veterinary series. Wright, who became better known under his pen name of James Herriot, released “If Only They Could Talk” in the U.K. in 1970, and that story became part
It’s been said that love’s not a competition, but a new installment to the “90 Day Fiancé” universe will look to prove that, actually, there are winners and losers in the game of romance. Twenty-four iconic couples from the franchise will be going head-to-head— and heart-to-heart —in “90 Day Fiancé: Love Games,” a new fierce
In March, Brian Stokes Mitchell was just four days away from performing a concert at New York’s City Center when the pandemic forced theaters to close. All the other jobs that Mitchell, who won a Tony in 2000 for his performance in “Kiss Me Kate,” had lined up for the year also vanished. In April,
While there are still months to go in the Oscars race, many of the frontrunners seem to be falling into place. Variety’s experts took a look at the Circuit Contenders — films that have a shot at two or more nominations in categories including: picture, director, screenplay, foreign film and all acting races. Ammonite(Neon)Over the
Despite their immediate on-screen chemistry as comic foils on the new NBC comedy “Mr. Mayor,” Ted Danson and Holly Hunter didn’t know each other prior to working on the show. “I run in shallower circles then Holly,” Danson jokes. “At the Golden Globes, she’s sitting in the movie section I’m down in the TV section.”
Play video content Mitt Romney endured a mighty long 4-hour plane ride to our nation’s capital, because he was basically flying Air Trump — a loud group of Trump supporters calling him a “traitor” to his face. The Utah’s GOP Senator got on a flight Tuesday headed for D.C., where he was confronted by backers
A naïve teenager comes of age amid the carnage of World War I’s Eastern Front in this propulsive adaptation of Aleksandrs Grins’ 1934 patriotic classic “Blizzard of Souls.” With its muscular direction by former documentarian Dzintars Dreibergs, atmospheric cinematography and careful attention to period detail, this account of a troop of Latvian Riflemen fighting first
“Joker” proved to be the top U.K. home entertainment title of 2020 as consumers stayed home during the pandemic, the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) revealed Wednesday. “Joker” sold more than 1.4 million copies across disc, electronic sell through (EST) and TVOD (transactional video-on-demand). Based on data from the Official Charts Company, Futuresource Consulting
UPDATED: President Donald Trump slammed the news media once again as he rallied supporters at a demonstration outside the White House today, speaking just an hour before Congress is scheduled to begin a showdown over the certification of the 2020 presidential election. “The media is the biggest problem we have,” Trump said in the opening
For older television audiences raised on cable, ViacomCBS’ free ad-supported Pluto TV service might be a flashback to their youth: hundreds of genre-specific linear channels to flip through while navigating via a helpful on-screen program guide. But Pluto TV execs chuckle as they share a very different reaction from the under-25 Netflix generation. That demo
Actor Jonathan Majors recalls his mother telling him, when he was a child, to always come home before the street lights came on. But it wasn’t until he was filming “Lovecraft Country” that he realized that was not because “my mother was afraid I wouldn’t be able to find my way home in the dark,”
Don’t adjust your calendar’s sync function: This year’s Golden Globes really will have different eligibility windows for film and TV. As COVID-19 wreaked havoc during 2020, causing months-long production shutdowns and pushed many high-profile premiere dates (see HBO’s “The Undoing” and FX’s “Fargo”), the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. (HFPA) reacted by moving its annual awards
Family Video is shutting down all of its 248 video-rental locations across the U.S., with the 42-year-old chain citing the COVID pandemic as the final blow to a business already decimated by the rise of streaming. The company, which at its peak operated some 800 locations, on Tuesday announced the decision to shut down. The
Breaking News If Jake Paul wants to run his mouth and call his older brother a “fake fighter” … Logan has a simple solution — “Let’s box!!!” Remember, Jake recently gave his thoughts to TMZ Sports about Logan’s upcoming exhibition against Floyd Mayweather … saying “It’s bad for the sport. I think it’s just for
Glassnote founder Daniel Glass and the company’s GM Chris Scully have announced the formation of Connection Music Publishing. They have appointed publishing industry-veteran Jackie Post as the new company’s head of publishing. According to the announcement, Connection will have “the same ethos Glassnote has carried” through its 14 years as a formidable indie label, with successful releases
Given its timing as the first awards show of the calendar year, the Golden Globes prides itself on recognizing new series and talent first. That’s been especially true in the streaming age, as Netflix’s “The Crown,” Amazon Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and Hulu’s “Ramy” all landed significant Globes before moving on to their
When Emily arrives in Paris, she thinks she has her whole life sorted out. But the titular character in Netflix’s aptly titled comedy “Emily in Paris” being in a foreign environment filled with some (at least to begin with) not so friendly faces makes her realize she doesn’t have it all figured out just yet.
Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) faces doubt and disdain from her male counterparts at every step of her journey to become a chess world champion, yet each time, without fail, she proves them wrong. The protagonist of Netflix’s breakthrough hit “The Queen’s Gambit” is one of several central characters in this year’s crop of Golden Globes
Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo has released the music video for “How Can I Tell You?” from the new documentary “Nasrin.” The song is written by Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty (music). The film chronicles the life of activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, who fought for women’s rights in Iran, as well as the rights of children
All eyes were on Georgia Tuesday night as votes were being tallied in the runoff election to determine whether Democrats or Republicans would control the Senate. Hollywood players mainly backed Democratic nominee Raphael Warnock, who beat incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler, and Democrat Jon Ossoff, who has a razor-thin lead over Republican David Perdue, but one
John Fogerty has dropped a pointed new song called “Weeping in the Promised Land,” a gospel-flavored, piano-driven lament about the state of the country and the world. With multiple references to President Trump as a “forked-tongued Pharoah” as well as Covid (“With dread in their eyes all the nurses are crying”) and the deaths of
Sacha Baron Cohen wanted to end “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” the sequel to his 2006 smash mockumentary, with a bang. But Rudolph Giuliani, the Trump apparatchik he hoped to prank into embarrassing himself on camera, wasn’t cooperating. The former mayor of New York City had arrived at a hotel suite to be interviewed for a documentary,
French sales company Wide Management has boarded Charles Officer’s crime-noir “Akilla’s Escape,” which world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. The film is headlined by poet-musician-actor Saul Williams, who also collaborated with Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack to create the original score. Williams stars in the film as Akilla Brown, a 40-year-old drug trader
Producing movies and television during a pandemic has been agonizing for filmmakers, but not for Doug Liman — the veteran director behind “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and numerous adventures with Tom Cruise. On Jan. 14, Liman will release “Locked Down” on HBO Max, a tale of a relationship soured in quarantine in the early days