Lionsgate and Starz are ready to ramp up production in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. “This is going to be a sellers’ market for some time to come because a lot of new content has not been made,” said Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns on Wednesday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference. “We’re ramping
ABC has canceled “Stumptown” despite previously renewing the show for a second season. According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, due to timing and scheduling needs for the current season that have been impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, ABC opted not to move forward with the second season as planned. Studio ABC
Hit songwriter Diane Warren laid into Kanye West on Twitter, after the rapper/presidential candidate posted a video of himself — or someone — urinating on a Grammy Award that had been placed in a toilet. “How vile and disrespectful of U,” Warren wrote. “This was given to U by your peers out of respect for
Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming musical drama “Elvis” has added several prominent Australian actors to its cast. Richard Roxburgh, Helen Thomson, David Wenham, and Dacre Montgomery have joined an ensemble that includes the previously announced Tom Hanks, Austin Butler and Olivia DeJonge. Roxburgh, who worked with Luhrmann on “Moulin Rouge!,” will portray Elvis’s father, Vernon Presley. Rufus
Production on HBO’s “The Gilded Age” shut down three days before it was slated to begin back in March, and actor Cynthia Nixon has finally had her first fitting as the industry begins to ramp back up. She was picked up at her New York City apartment by a Teamster driver. “I showed him my
HBO Max has acquired the rights to stream children’s book author Mo Willems’ collection of animated shorts, “Mo Willems Storytime Shorts.” The collection is scheduled to premiere on the platform Sept. 17, when 15 shorts from 2006 to 2019 will be made available. The complete list of which will be available is provided below. Willems
Baby Yoda aka The Child is not just a pop culture phenomenon, but now also a major awards winner: “The Mandalorian,” which put its brand-new streamer Disney Plus squarely on the Emmys’ map this year with 15 overall nominations, picked up its first statues at the Creative Arts ceremony on Wednesday night. “The Mandalorian” picked
In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix announces the premiere date for “Emily in Paris” starring Lily Collins, and ABC owned and affiliate stations launch fundraiser phone bank for those affected by West Coast wildfires. DATES “Emily in Paris,” a romantic comedy series starring Lily Collins in the titular role, will premiere Oct. 2 on Netflix.
ABC has given out a straight-to-series order to the drama series “Rebel.” Katey Sagal stars in the show, which is inspired by the life of Erin Brockovich. It is slated to debut in 2021. Sagal stars as Annie “Rebel” Bello, a blue-collar legal advocate without a law degree. She’s described as a funny, messy, brilliant
Long-time Pulse Films executive Lucas Ochoa (pictured, left) has left the “Gangs of London” producer to join “Normal People” outfit Element Pictures as an executive producer. Also joining the production company is Silverprint Pictures’ Michael Dawson (right). Ochoa’s hire is a major coup for Element Pictures, and comes as a surprise given his years spent
Tim Stark — known as one of the players in the exotic animal world on ‘Tiger King’ — has been found in contempt of a court order in a strange case involving … you guessed it, zoo animals. According to legal docs … the court ordered all of the animals belonging to Stark’s Wildlife in
The 2020 holiday season’s game console showdown is set. The PlayStation 5 next-gen system will roll out starting in North America and Japan on Nov. 12, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced today. That will be followed by Europe and additional regions on Nov. 19. The PS5 Digital Edition will be available for a recommended retail price
“I Care a Lot’s” director J Blakeson and stars joined Variety’s Virtual TIFF Studio presented by Canada Goose to discuss the crime drama’s complex characters, story and message. Blakeson said his “deliciously Machiavellian” characters were inspired by real news stories about predatory guardians taking advantage of the elderly and other vulnerable populations. He added that
Amazon Music is now offering millions of episodes of free podcasts and has set a slate of original programming coming to the platform — representing a major new rival to Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The free podcasts are available on all tiers of Amazon Music for no additional cost and have first launched for customers
The Kid Mero and Desus Nice just got some more than nice news. Showtime has officially renewed their late-night talk show “Desus & Mero” for a third season. News of the pick up comes as the pair are producing season 2 from their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic. The show, which is Showtime’s first
ABC is developing a single-cam comedy from two former “Single Parents” writers. The project is titled “Happy for You.” Taylor Cox is attached to write while Kim Rosenstock will serve as executive producer. The network has given the project a script commitment with a penalty attached. 20th Television, where Rosenstock is currently under an overall
This year’s New York Comic Con will be available to fans across the globe, not just those lucky enough to be in town for the event. The 2020 panels featured will be made virtually available, with live and prerecorded content available to watch on the NYCC YouTube page. “Star Trek” and “The Stand” have been
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The Production Music Association has announced the full list of nominees for the sixth annual Mark Awards, which celebrate the top achievements of the production music community in 24 categories. Jaswinder Singh and Jenna Dicken are among the artists who earned best hip-hop track nominations, and folk music artist Ruby Landen earned a nod for
Among the many praiseworthy qualities of “My Tender Matador,” the most notable is its honesty. It would have been so easy for the film, about a transgender woman in Pinochet’s Chile and her relationship with a straight political activist, to have overplayed its hand with ill-judged sentiment or sensationalism, but instead director Rodrigo Sepúlveda Urzúa
When Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy “broke” the Cannes Critics Week selection six years ago with the devastating “The Tribe,” casting deaf actors in an institutional parable exclusively told through sign language, it seemed some sort of event horizon for authenticity and formal daring had been reached. But the deserving Best European Film winner in the Giornate sidebar
Universal Pictures is moving the domestic release of animated comedy “The Croods: A New Age” forward by a month, from Dec. 23 to Nov. 25 — the start of the Thanksgiving holiday. That sets the sequel five days after the release of Pixar’s existential toon “Soul.” Variety first reported on Monday that Disney is exploring various
“Saturday Night Live” has tapped Jim Carrey to play Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden as the show gears up to put a satirical touch on the run up to Election Day – typically one of the series’ most influential periods. Carrey gets a role that has been played by others
Janie and Jack rolls out very cute wares for the small set seasonally. But its most recent collection has a more high fashion bent— a collaboration on a children’s collection with Harlem’s Fashion Row, founded in 2007 by Brandice Daniel as a platform for multi-cultural designers. And BAZAAR has a sneak peek at three of
After a pandemic-induced delay and several production shutdowns and rescheduling, singer-songwriter and “Power” star Rotimi presents his official video for “In My Bed,” featuring Wale. The clip is steamy but reps assure that safety protocols for talent and crew were strictly followed. “This record has been a blessing for me and I felt like the
Samuel L. Jackson’s profanity-laced persona on the Alexa voice assistant is getting a major [expletive deleted] upgrade. The actor’s voice skill on Alexa, which Amazon introduced a year ago, is adding over 30,000 new phrases on the platform with new jokes, roasts, stories and other content. Based on popular demand, that includes five times the
“Prison is the only place that won’t kick you out no matter how badly you behave,” remarks the ex-con protagonist, who gets no second chances in Japanese society. Directed with piercing insight, emotional depth and true compassion by Miwa Nishikawa, “Under the Open Skies” tells the heartbreaking tale of a pariah whose soul is crushed
There are troubles of the familial kind at the center of “Wildfire,” writer-director Cathy Brady’s gloomy debut feature set in a border town of Northern Ireland. Then there are “The Troubles,” the decades-long conflict between the region’s unionists and nationalists, the aftermath of which gives Brady’s straightforward and overstretched story its faint backdrop. Throughout, the
Mona Scott-Young had been in the music business as a manager for years when opportunity knocked in the form of a reality TV show about the significant others of hip hop stars. That was a decade ago. The durable VH1 franchise “Love & Hip Hop” is now the cornerstone of Scott-Young’s Monami Entertainment banner, which
Veteran cable executive Chris McCumber is leaving NBCUniversal. The exec, who announced his departure in a memo to staff in Wednesday, played a key role in USA Network’s success during the aughts “blue sky” era and later developed and launched that channel’s most prestigious hit, “Mr. Robot.” Most recently he oversaw USA and sibling channel