The “Grey’s Anatomy” season 17 premiere heralded the return of Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd in an extended dream sequence. Dempsey’s shocking appearance helped the ABC show top the Thursday night ratings charts, delivering a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49 and 5.7 million total viewers. While that was enough to see off the
(SPOILER ALERT: Do not read on if you have not watched the third episode of season 2 of Disney Plus’ “The Mandalorian.”) After the second episode delivered more creepy-crawlies than plot, episode 3 “The Heiress” (directed by Bryce Dallas Howard) kicked season 2 into hyperdrive. The episode begins with Mando, Baby Yoda and Frog Lady
Fox News veteran Geraldo Rivera said via Twitter Friday that President Trump will in the end leave the White House if states certify a victory for Joe Biden, but wants to continue to fight. Rivera said he had a conversation with Trump Friday, which he described as a “heartfelt phone call” with a “friend.” “He
Foster the People premieres songs from the band’s new EP, “In The Darkest of Nights, Let the Birds Sing” in the fifth and latest episode of “Live From My Den,” the Artists Den series presented with Variety. In a reflection of our lockdown times, the segment was filmed across five cities and three time zones
After creating the biggest musical moment of the pandemic year with his record-breaking Easter Sunday livestream, Andrea Bocelli will be staying in a holiday streaming spirit with a followup event, “Believe in Christmas.” The singer will perform from the Teatro Regio di Parma opera house in Italy on December 12, with different streaming kickoff times
The New York sports world has another morning option to consider. MSG Networks is launching a new weekday morning program, “MSG A.M.,” led by Monica McNutt and Kazeen Famuyide. The program will air on the regional sports network Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. eastern. “We are looking forward to waking up
On the day of the 2019 Chicago mayoral election, candidate Neal Sáles-Griffin went to a polling place first thing in the morning to cast a vote for himself, a celebratory moment he’d worked towards for months. Instead, the digital machine immediately failed. He had to wait as the harried volunteers rebooted it, called tech support,
Screechy, still-strongly Geordie-accented vocalist Brian Johnson in a tweed apple cap? Check. Angus Young in a schoolboy outfit with a loosely knotted tie around his neck and his signature Gibson SG around his chest? Check. Taut, fast, crunching rock ‘n’ roll and blues-metal tracks penned by the brothers Young (Angus, Malcolm), with contagious, catch-them-If you-can
Netflix’s announcement last week that it’s trialing a traditional linear offering for subscribers in France took many by surprise, but there’s some sound reasoning behind the move, analysts tell Variety. “Though Netflix has forecast the death of linear for decades I expected them to eventually introduce the approach,” Colin Dixon, chief analyst and founder of
Strand Releasing has acquired North American distribution rights for “Africa,” Israeli director Oren Gerner’s personal story about an aging man learning to reinvent himself, Variety has learned. “Africa” is the story of 68-year-old Meir, a retiree who discovers that after 30 years of planning the annual village celebration, the job has been given to an
UPDATED: Senior executives at BMI, one of the two major U.S. performing rights organizations, have been accused of “casual racism” and a “toxic” work environment by more than 15 current and former employees and musicians in an extensive report published by Rolling Stone. At the center of the accusations is a Facebook post from last
“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion” will premiere next week on HBO Max, Will Smith told fans Friday, also announcing the release of the trailer for the special, which brings the Banks family back together 30 years after the sitcom’s debut. The reunion special will debut Thursday, Nov. 19, on WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, the exclusive
A powerful new ad campaign for Beats By Dr. Dre launched on Thursday featuring tennis champ Naomi Osaka, rapper Lil Baby and newcomer Bubba Wallace. “Queen and Slim” director Melina Matsoukas helms the visual, while Grammy winner Solange Knowles provides the score. The narration was provided by independent artist Tobe Nwigwe. Also appearing is activist Janaya
Variety published this week a digital Chile Documentary Spotlight, looking at one of Latin America’s fastest-evolving content production scenes, galvanized by changing narratives, historic socio-political upheaval and unprecedented opportunities in distribution presented by global platforms. Chilean documentaries and projects have and will feature at many of the year’s most high-profile documentary get-togethers including Switzerland’s Vision du Reel,
Finnish cinematographer Rauno Ronkainen is continuing his collaboration with director Antti J. Jokinen with the action films “Omerta 6/12” and “Omerta 7/12,” based on Ilkka Remes’ popular novel “6/12,” and starring “BlacKkKlansman’s” Jasper Pääkkönen. The films are shooting in Estonia. Ronkainen and Jokinen previously worked together on three film: “Purge,” which brought Ronkainen the second
If you’re struggling to find a job right now, Patrick Schwarzenegger’s character in the upcoming movie “Echo Boomers” can relate. In the heist thriller — which also stars Alex Pettyfer and Michael Shannon — Schwarzenegger plays a recent college graduate who can’t find work in a particularly unforgiving job market. He’s deep in student debt and
Patient viewers of Netflix’s royal drama “The Crown” are in for a serious pay-off with season 4, which introduces Princess Diana for the first time and delights in the painful tension between the Queen and then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. “Up until [this] point, we had been in deep history. But I do think this is
Spectrum Originals is adding a new drama to its slate. Charter Communications’ OTT service has picked up Australian drama “Eden,” with the aim of debuting the eight-episode series on Spectrum on Demand in 2021. “Eden” hails a from “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” creators Fiona Eagger and Deb Cox, as well as “Skins” co-creator Bryan Elsley
Winner of Andalusia Cinema Awards for best new director and new actress (Silvia Acosta), Guillermo Rojas’ debut feature “Once Again” (“Una vez más”) has been acquired for international by Javier’s Krause KAF Films. The news comes just before “Once Again” bows in the Market Premieres section of Spain’s Malaga Festival Spanish Screenings, which run Nov.
A new drama about Tudor queen Anne Boleyn, starring Jodie Turner-Smith, has found its Henry VIII. British actor Mark Stanley has been cast as the iconic monarch. Best known for playing Grenn in the HBO series “Game of Thrones,” Stanley has also had starring roles in “Kajaki,” “Our Kind of Traitor” and “Dickensian.” Boleyn was
China has become one of the last major countries to congratulate Joe Biden on being elected U.S. president. Along with Russia and Mexico, which also have testy relations with the U.S., China had appeared to hold off from making any public endorsement of either presidential candidate. “We respect the choice of the American people,” foreign
Last year, and for more than four decades before that, if you’d said the words “Black Christmas movie,” a lot of people’s minds would have gone straight to Bob Clark’s sorority-house slasher flick “Black Christmas” — that’s how few holiday films Hollywood has made for and featuring African Americans. Writer-director David E. Talbert started to
Gracia Querejeta’s “The Invisible,” toplining Emma Suárez, star of Pedro Almodovar’s “Julieta,” and Toni Bestard’s “Pullman” have been acquired for international sales by Feel Content. They will be made available for online access to buyers as part of next week’s Malaga Festival’s Spanish Screenings Market Premieres showcase, one of the industry event’s main draws. A
Boston-based international sales company 34T has picked up Enrique García’s Spanish thriller “Black Stain.” Set in an isolated Andalusian village in the early 1970s, the story revolves around a family mourning the death of the elderly matriarch and the deep tensions that are reignited with the return of her estranged son Eugenio, who left years
Chile’s premier international documentary forum, Conecta, is seeing a sizable boost in attendance for its upcoming virtual edition. It’s the proverbial silver lining in the global pandemic that has allowed more people to attend festivals and markets, albeit online, which time constraints and long distances may have thwarted in the past. Normally held in December, Conecta’s
Chile has experienced an historic cultural change over the past year, led by a mobilized and energetic generation of young and highly educated people demanding change. The world has looked on as many of the stains of Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship have been washed away, making room for new narratives to be explored by an enthusiastic
Chile’s documentary film industry is making a major impact internationally with a raft of projects having recently featured at Germany’s Dok Leipzig festival and another batch headed to Amsterdam’s IDFA next week. While the Pinochet dictatorship proves as unavoidable as ever when compiling a list of Chilean productions, recent works promoted by Chiledoc have proved
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read until you have watched the season 17 premiere of “Grey’s Anatomy.” “Grey’s Anatomy” didn’t hold back in its two-hour season premiere Thursday, which was dedicated to frontline healthcare workers. Patrick Dempsey returned as Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd n a dream sequence, five years after his death shocked fans. The topical
November brings not just a new Chris Stapleton album but the fifth anniversary of the signal moment that made him one of the most significant figures in contemporary country music: the CMA Awards that had Justin Timberlake joining the then-niche artist for a viral duet of “Tennessee Whiskey.” From then, Stapleton has been that thing
John Mulaney spent several years writing for “Saturday Night Live” when Seth Meyers was a cast member. Now he will spend some time writing for Meyers’ late-night program. Mulaney has joined NBC’s “Late Night,” which Meyers hosts, as a staff writer, according to a post on Twitter from Mike Shoemaker, the show’s executive producer. Meyers’