In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix shared a trailer for the “Pretend It’s a City’” docuseries about Fran Lebowitz, and Starz offered a teaser video for “Power Book III: Raising Kanan.” DATES Bravo announced plans to bring new series “Below Deck Galley Talk” to television with a 7 p.m. premiere on Jan. 1. The show
The first ever NFL game to be shown exclusively on streaming platforms scored solid numbers, showing encouraging signs for future streaming-only games. Saturday’s encounter between the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals delivered an averaged minute audience of 4.8 million viewers on Amazon, Twitch, Verizon, the NFL and the two teams’ platforms. For comparison,
A Delaware computer repair shop owner sued Twitter, alleging the social network defamed him by effectively labeling him a “hacker” after his business was cited as the source for info obtained from a laptop allegedly owned by Hunter Biden that served as the basis for several New York Post articles published in October. In the
Fans of the Alec Baldwin-voiced “Boss Baby” are going to have to wait a little longer to get their fix, as the animated comedy has been moved from its planned March 26 release date to Sept. 17, 2021. Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation announced today that the animated sequel, “The Boss Baby: Family Business,” would
Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Reed Hastings and other top Netflix corporate executives will not receive salary increases in 2021. Netflix disclosed Monday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO and chief content officer, will see his 2021 salary stay the same as 2020 at $20 million. Hastings, co-CEO and chairman, will be
Fresh from taking over family home entertainment centers for yet another holiday season with her vocal appearances in the “Frozen” films, Idina Menzel is un-animating herself with a new web show aimed at kids and parents, “Idina’s Treehouse,” which premiered Monday morning on her YouTube channel. [embedded content] Technically, the iPhone-shot series takes place in
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Bridgerton,” streaming now on Netflix. A story driven by emotionally complex relationships, with an added mysterious “whodunnit” element about a gossip columnist spilling high society’s secrets under a pen name, in many ways, feels like it walked right out of the minds of those
The road for Alex Thompson’s “Saint Frances” began on March 11, 2019, at the South by Southwest Film Festival where it won the audience award and a special jury prize for breakthrough voice. Written by and starring Kelly O’Sullivan, the film was picked up by Oscilloscope Laboratories and released in theaters on Feb. 28, just
Tom Cruise is set to resume shooting “Mission: Impossible 7” in the U.K., this time at Longcross Film Studios. Longcross used to be a U.K. Ministry of Defence site used to test army tanks, but has since been redeveloped as studios, housing blockbuster productions including “Skyfall,” “Thor: The Dark World” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Channing Tatum is in final negotiations to star opposite Sandra Bullock in the Paramount Pictures film “The Lost City of D,” multiple sources tell Variety. Bullock is producing the project through her company Fortis Films, along with Liza Chasin and her 3dot Productions. To be directed by Adam and Aaron Nee, the pic stars Bullock
Fox expanded its “Masked Singer” franchise with the debut of “The Masked Dancer” last night, as the spinoff continued the formats’ strong ratings trend. The show’s premiere delivered a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49 and drew 4.8 million total viewers, which easily represented the top non-football programming of the night. That viewership figure is roughly
The music licensing community was intrigued by the Dec. 21st launch of Songview, a new one-stop platform presented by performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI combining both databases for easier searchability. It’s simple enough to find rights holders for recordings issued by record labels, especially if there’s only one owner involved. But songwriter info can
Exclusive Kenya Barris — the creator of “Black-ish” and other spinoffs — is asking a judge to step in to force his sister to keep her distance … because he claims she’s cashing in on his name, and threatening his kids. The wildly successful writer, director, actor and TV producer just filed for a restraining
George Lopez has joined the cast of Dito Montiel’s “Afterward.” It’s unclear what role Lopez will play in the dramatic thriller, but he joins an ensemble that includes Aaron Eckhart and Terrence Howard. Lionsgate Grindhouse is distributing the film in North America. “Afterward” will shoot this winter in California. Angel Oak Films is backing the
Netflix’s “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” which will debut its fourth and final season Dec. 31, reimagines the popular teen witch in a dark coming-of-age drama told through a distinctly feminist lens. The series sees the titular Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) and her ragtag group, The Fright Club, fight against the evil, and often male, powers
Welcome back to Tune In: our weekly newsletter offering a guide to the best of the week’s TV. Each week, Variety’s TV team combs through the week’s schedule, selecting our picks of what to watch and when/how to watch them. As many across the country continue to practice self-isolation due to coronavirus, why not while away
Yes, linear TV still exists, and it’s still watched by millions of viewers. But 2020 was another tipping point for traditional television, and it’s not just because of the pandemic. What has been steady viewership erosion for broadcast and cable went into overdrive this year, despite a pandemic that should have increased or at least
Hilaria Baldwin responded to accusations that she’s been faking her Spanish accent and cultural roots in an Instagram video on Sunday. “My family is white. Ethnically, I’m a mix of many, many many things,” Baldwin explained. “Culturally, I grew up with two cultures, so it’s really as simple as that.” Her video comes as a
The clock is winding down toward New Year’s Eve, and with most of the world ready to kick the most difficult year ever to the curb, the self-proclaimed “hottest band in the world” is ready to “KISS 2020 Goodbye” in grand fashion with a virtual concert live from Dubai. “We have never been known for
Mexican ballad singer and composer Armando Manzanero died Monday morning in Mexico City, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced. Manzanero was 85. He was previously hospitalized as a result of coronavirus complications, and his manager Laura Blum told the Associated Press he died following difficulties with a kidney problem. Manzanero was best known for
Nick McGlashan, a fisherman who was a regular cast member on Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch,” died Sunday in Nashville, Tenn., his family told TMZ. He was 33. “Our deepest sympathy goes out to Nick’s loved ones during this difficult time,” a Discovery Channel spokesperson told Variety. “Nick came from a long line of crabbers and was
Principal photography began on Monday in Glasgow, Scotland, on “Blind,” a Bollywood remake of the eponymous 2011 Korean action thriller. Sonam Kapoor (“Veere Di Wedding”) headlines the cast, which also includes Purab Kohli (“Sense8”) and Vinay Pathak (“A Suitable Boy”). “Blind” follows a woman who loses her sight after a car accident, only to find
Lori Loughlin is being released from prison Monday after serving nearly two months for the college admissions scandal. Meanwhile, her husband Mossimo Giannulli will continue to serve his five-month sentence. On October 30, Loughlin surrendered to federal authorities and began her sentence at a prison in Dublin, Calif. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons
In today’s Global Bulletin, a citizen journalist is sentenced to four years of jail time by the Chinese government, ITV Hub posts record 2020 statistics and Irrfan Khan-starrer “The Song of Scorpion” gets a special re-release to honor the actor. TRIAL Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer-turned-citizen journalist, has been sentenced to four years in prison,
Few content industries have been harder hit by COVID-19 than Latin America’s. Brazil has the second highest mortality rate in the world. Argentina is still in first-phase lockdown, its Incaa state film-TV fund decimated. Chile hasn’t been able to shoot. In such a context, one sector, animation, has stood tall in 2020, demonstrating a “resilience”
Robert Rodriguez famously made his first feature, “El Mariachi” (1993), for $7,000, and in the years since he’s made a point, rather charmingly, of staying in touch with that DIY side of himself. This first became apparent in the early 2000s, when he churned out three “Spy Kids” films in a row, working out of
“I have already lived my death — all that’s left is to make the movie.” So says celebrated Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco in a documentary that, sure enough, attempts to bring closure to a life already concluded. After three decades of living with cancer and related complications, Babenco passed away in 2016 aged 70; directed
Hong Kong’s “Shock Wave 2” out-earned “Wonder Woman 1984” in China in just two days, topping the local box office this weekend with a $51.4 million debut, according to data from Maoyan. By the end of Christmas Day, “Shock Wave 2” had grossed $28.6 million (RMB187 million), more than the $23 million (RMB151 million) “Wonder
“Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train,” the animated film that has become the Japanese entertainment world tsunami of 2020, pushed its cumulative earnings to $313.7 million (JPY32.5 billion) over the Dec. 26-27 weekend. This makes the film that the biggest-ever box office hit in Japan, overtaking the previous record-holder, Miyazaki Hayao’s 2001 animated fantasy “Spirited
Veteran publicist Randy Alexander, founder and CEO of Randex Communications and a longtime presence on the Philadelphia and New Jersey music scene, died Sunday (Dec. 27) after a four-month battle with late-stage pancreatic cancer. He was 62. News of his passing was shared on a recently created GoFundMe page by fellow publicist and friend, Renee