Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s Cultural Revolution-set film “One Second” has at long last passed government censorship, clearing it for a theatrical release in China, local reports and an image of the approval document circulating online show. No release date has yet been set for the film, but it is listed on Chinese ticketing platforms as
As of Monday, “The Eight Hundred” became the highest-grossing movie of 2020 at the global box office, overtaking “Bad Boys for Life.” To date, the Chinese war epic has raked in $425 million and continues to exceed all expectations. The film is based on a true story, depicting a Chinese battalion who mounted a determined
John Cusack takes on his first regular TV role in Amazon Prime Video’s “Utopia” as Dr. Kevin Christie, the charismatic, megalomaniacal CEO of a Silicon Valley-esque tech corporation hiding dark secrets. But it’s rumored that Cusack turned down a different morally ambiguous role: that of Walter White in “Breaking Bad.” The role ultimately went to
It’s a curious thing that in the movie culture of the last 50 years, you can count on one hand (or maybe one middle finger) the good dramas that have been made about the political counterculture of the 1960s. The turbulence of that era has never stopped casting a shadow over our own. Yet there’s
While Kanye West’s recent Twitter binges, in which he calls for a drastic overhaul of recording contracts, commanded the music industry’s attention, there was a difference in tone for the missives posted Sept. 19-21 to the more volatile ones of a few days earlier. The tweets shared Sept. 15-16, in which West exposed more than
All paths lead to an unavoidable outcome, at least that’s the conclusion demonstrated by the teenage motley crew facing a nightmarish problem in director Alessio Liguori’s “Shortcut.” If only someone had course-corrected the filmmakers on their own route to making this letdown of a horror road-movie, which gets off to a good start before losing
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation has teamed up with WarnerMedia for a new series of PSAs supporting the trans and non-binary communities. The inaugural video features “Pose” star Dominique Jackson proclaiming, “I could not live without love, more importantly respect.” The series of short PSAs will begin airing Thursday and throughout the fall on all
When you love something — a person, a dessert, a hat, or in this case, an album — you tend to want more of it. Usually, in the case of albums, there are some leftover songs that are not-quite-as-good as the ones that made the cut, and occasionally there are great ones. But for the
HBO’s Asian Pacific American Visionaries winners will premiere their work on Sept. 25 at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET as part of the virtual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The three short films will be available to stream on HBO’s website. The winning pictures from APA creators — “Si” by Thomas Percy Kim, Tiffany
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group has announced a first-look deal with Vertigo Entertainment, the production company behind the “It” franchise and “The Lego Movie.” The wide-ranging deal covers all media other than television, including motion pictures, stage, location-based entertainment, podcasts and video games. With this new pact, Vertigo will become a prime provider to the Lionsgate’s
A major awards overhaul by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is being heralded by the U.K. industry as a “bold plan” that may finally spark enduring change. In an interview with Variety, BAFTA chair Krishnendu Majumdar described the new rules as a “wholesale cultural change” that has been in the works
In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix debuted a trailer for “The Queen’s Gambit” and announced new cast members for the third season of “Sex Education.” CASTING Jemima Kirke, Jason Isaacs and Sudanese American artist Dua Saleh will join the cast of Netflix’s “Sex Education” in Season 3. Kirke will play former Moordale High School student and
With their third bundle of joy due to arrive in March, high-profile celebrity power couple John Legend and Chrissy Teigen have bid adieu to their 90210 “starter” house — once owned by Rihanna — and upgraded to a more roomy, $17.5 million home elsewhere in the mountains above Beverly Hills, in a neighborhood known as
“The Boys” could soon be getting a spinoff. Variety has learned that Amazon is fast-tracking development on a new iteration of the popular comic book series adaptation. The news comes just under three weeks after the premiere of Season 2 of the series, which is based on The New York Times best-selling comic of the
Howard University and Amazon Studios will continue the Howard Entertainment program, a partnership designed to diversify the entertainment industry by creating a pipeline for Black and other marginalized students, for a second year. Participants will work, train and study alongside entertainment executives. “The continuation of Howard Entertainment is a testament to the immediate impact of
Universal Music Group’s Vietnam division on Thursday launched Def Jam Vietnam, a new local label focused on Vietnamese hip-hop and rap to ride the genre’s growing footprint in the region. It is the sixth local Def Jam label set up under the umbrella of Def Jam Southeast Asia, itself established last September, following prior launches
Gkids has released a teaser trailer for its latest film, “Lupin III: The First,” written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki. The animated feature is based on the popular manga series by Monkey Punch and focuses on the origin story for gentleman thief Lupin III as he and his criminal companions scramble to unlock the mysteries
Set partly in Ivory Coast’s “Mad Max”-like MACA correctional facility and partly in the imagination of its newest inmate, “Night of the Kings” feels radically different from most films set behind bars, and not just because of its one-of-a-kind location. Naturally, the wild plots and power games one typically associates with the genre still feature,
Amblin Television’s TV series based on “Rashomon” has landed at HBO Max for development. The project, which has been in the works since late 2018, will not be a direct adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s classic film, but will retain the key plot device. It is described as a drama centering around a grisly sexual assault and murder,
As organizers prepped the third edition of the NewImages Festival, they looked to expand the new media event’s international footprint. In previous editions, the festival hosted expansive foreign delegations while organizing VR residency programs with partners from that year’s country of honor. In 2020 they were supposed to build even further, presenting the fruits of
Wakanda forever. Disneyland unveiled a Chadwick Boseman mural in its Downtown Disney shopping district. The artwork from Nikkolas Smith shows the late Marvel star giving the Wakanda salute to a young fan wearing a “Black Panther” mask. Smith shared photos of his work on Thursday via Instagram, in which he is giving the Wakanda salute in
Amber Ruffin has made her name in late night, becoming one of the most defining and vital voices of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” since its 2014 debut. But even now, on the eve of launching her very own show, she has no problem acknowledging that cracking jokes behind a desk in a suit was
“The Simpsons” fans might notice at least one long-running character sounds a little different in Sunday’s Season 32 premiere. In the episode, Carl Carlson — Homer Simpson’s nuclear plant co-worker, and best friend to Lenny Leonard — is now voiced by actor Alex Désert (“Better Things”). Désert replaces Hank Azaria in the role, at least
Former Fifth Harmony member Ally Brooke will star in CDW Films’ “High Expectations,” an upcoming drama about a soccer player’s journey toward success after rejection by his father. Brooke’s starring role as Sofia, the main character’s ex-girlfriend, will mark the singer’s acting debut. She stars alongside Taylor Gray, Kelsey Grammar and Briana Scurry, a US
Hong Kong police on Thursday arrested prominent democracy activist Joshua Wong for his participation in a protest last October and for wearing a mask at the time. He was released the same day on bail. Wong, 23, has been an outspoken supporter of the global call to boycott Disney’s new live-action “Mulan,” tweeting on its
Brittany-based outfit Ten 2 Ten Films, an independent house run by producer Gwenaëlle Clauwaert, brings an eyebrow raising, and entirely uncommon, project to this year’s NewImages’ XR financing market. Currently in development, the animated project “369” is described as an “immersive erotic experience,” set during the Roaring 20s, about a temple dedicated entirely to female
Though Canada’s National Film Board has invested in interactive projects for well over a decade, 2020 has proven to be a banner year for the publicly funded organization, as three of their VR productions made waves across the international festival circuit. This past January, director Randall Okita’s “The Book of Distance” premiered at Sundance, kicking
As SVP of creative at Prescription Songs — the publishing company home to pop singer-songwriters like Doja Cat, Kim Petras and Emily Warren — Sara Walker is used to getting a lot of licensing requests for ad campaigns with the same buzzwords: “upbeat,” “…with a build” and the old standby “swagger.” So when the COVID-19
Mike Tirico’s autumn has converged with his spring and summer. The NBC sportscaster had originally planned to take one really big trip this year – to Tokyo, where he was slated to hold forth at the 2020 Olympics. But that was scuttled and now he’s racing through lots of shorter excursions, several of them for
Looking Glass, the band that had the No. 1 hit in 1972 with the classic “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl),” would surely have had its collective head explode had it lived to see the combined fineness of a collaboration between the two preeminent Brandi-/-ys of the 21st century. That has come to pass with this