Just a few weeks after André Balazs bought the Chateau Marmont — he reportedly paid a little over $12 million for the 61-year-old, 63-room hotel in 1990 — he ran into legendary photographer Helmut Newton and his wife, June, in the lobby. The couple had been living part-time at the hotel for about three years.
In 2017, mountaineer Chris Bombardier became the first person with hemophilia to scale Mount Everest. “Bombardier Blood,” bowing on demand Aug. 17, captures the remarkable journey in which he attempts to complete his goal of climbing the Seven Summits — the highest mountain on each continent — while raising awareness of the blood disorder. The
Lulu Wang has set her follow up to “The Farewell” with a reimagining of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s acclaimed Japanese family drama, “Like Father, Like Son.” Variety has learned that Wang is attached to direct the project, which is currently in development stages at Focus Features, and will also produce the film with Josh McLaughlin of Wink
Come Aug. 26, virtually all roads in the lucrative U.K. and Ireland cinema market lead to Warner Bros.’ “Tenet.” In most of the countries’ cinemas on that date, you can watch any movie — just as long as it’s “Tenet.” At the Omnimax cinema in Limerick, Ireland, customers can choose from 19 showtimes for Christopher
Apple has ordered an animated series based on the classic children’s book “Harriet the Spy” by Louise Fitzhugh, Variety has learned. Beanie Feldstein will voice the titular Harriet, while Jane Lynch will play her nanny, Ole Golly. In addition, Lacey Chabert will voice Marion Hawthorne, the queen bee at Harriet’s school. Like the book, the series
Variety has selected its 10 Comics to Watch for 2020. This year’s honorees will be profiled in the September 29 issue of Variety and take part in a live virtual panel at this year’s Just for Laughs Digital Festival. Traditionally held every year in Montreal, the festival will going digital this year due to the
Few can argue that Latinos haven’t been greatly underrepresented in Hollywood, particularly at the creative level. A key reason, many say, is an insufficient comprehension of what the terms “Latino” and the gender-neutral “Latinx” mean. When Hollywood thinks about Latino or Latinx talent, its instinct is to turn to the Oscar-winning Mexican directors Alfonso Cuarón,
At the start of 2020, a television show featuring friends and family locked down in their respective homes as a deadly pandemic ravaged the globe would have been labeled as a dystopian drama and been treated as escapist entertainment for those looking to immerse themselves in a world completely unlike their own. But more than
It seems like it was a lifetime ago, but it was only last year that the busiest Emmy campaign season ever kept us out virtually every night of the week. That included seeing Bruce Springsteen and David Letterman onstage at the Netflix “FYSee” space, interacting with “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” exhibit during Amazon Prime Video’s
Verzuz — the popular DJ battle where artists like Snoop Dogg and DMX square off and showcase their hits in friendly competition while fans cheer on via social media — has upped its game via a partnership with Apple Music and Twitter, which not only lifts the series’ already high profile, it elevates the production
TikTok, facing the looming threat of a U.S. ban or a forced sale by its parent company, continues to tout the massive reach of its video app. According to TikTok, The Weeknd’s live, interactive virtual concert that premiered Aug. 7 (with several rebroadcasts for international audiences through Aug. 10), pulled in more than 2 million
How vicious is the Roy family from HBO’s “Succession”? Brian Cox, who plays powerful patriarch Logan Roy, and Jeremy Strong (as his son Kendall Roy) managed to help push out two mainstays in the Emmys’ lead drama actor category this year: Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”) and Milo Ventimiglia (“This Is Us”). Odenkirk was nominated
Fresh off the horror hit “The Invisible Man,” Elisabeth Moss is re-teaming with Blumhouse. The Emmy-winning actress and her Love and Squalor Pictures production company are developing the still-unpublished book “Mrs. March” into a feature film, which Blumhouse will back. Moss will also star in the film as the titular character, an Upper East Side
Like many, filmmaker Deon Taylor has been stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic. And like many, he’s been itching to get back to production. Inspired by quarantine and lockdown, Taylor told his wife, producer Roxanne Avent Taylor, he was going to make a film. He wasn’t sure how, but after some calls, “Power” star
Magician David Blaine will attempt his first live stunt in almost a decade in a YouTube-exclusive livestream later this month — this one involving a bunch of balloons. In the live special, Blaine will float through the air a la Pixar’s “Up,” elevated by helium-filled balloons. The multi-hour “David Blaine Ascension” global livestream event will
Both Don Cheadle and Jeremy Strong scored Emmy nominations for the second seasons of their shows. As the prodigal Roy son Kendall in HBO’s family media dynasty drama “Succession,” Strong enters the lead drama actor race for the first time ever (and sees his first Television Academy accolade overall). Meanwhile, Cheadle’s time as Mo Monroe
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko are no longer involved with the planned live-action adaptation of the series at Netflix. “Many of you have been asking me for updates about the ‘Avatar’ live-action Netflix series,” DiMartino wrote in an open letter on his website early Wednesday morning. “I can finally
Those who cast unscripted series often have thousands of audition tapes to pore through. Since the medium requires a diversity of perspective and personality, but not always special skills, what often catches the eye and helps one rise to the top of the pile is being an “open book,” says Goloka Bolte, co-founder of the
Peacock has ordered an eight-episode adaptation of “One of Us is Lying,” the streamer announced Wednesday. The new series, which is based on the best-selling young adult novel of the same name by Karen M. McManus, will be run by “Elite” co-creator Darío Madrona and star Marianly Tejada, Cooper van Grootel, Annalisa Cochrane, Chibuikem Uche,
When Joe Biden and Donald Trump meet for their first presidential debate in 2020, a lot of TV news executives are betting it might look like something from 1960. That was the year Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy squared off in various TV studios without a live audience to gasp, boo or cheer
Dime Davis already made Emmy history with her nomination in the variety series directing category for the freshman season finale of HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” which she also co-executive produces. (She is the first Black woman to break onto this ballot.) If she picks up the statue in September, she will break another
In a deal that closed last week, English music producer/TV talent show creator (“The X Factor,” “Britain’s Got Talent” and its various iterations) and all-around media mogul Simon Cowell has sold his main residence in Beverly Hills for exactly $25 million, as was first reported by The Real Deal. The unapologetically lavish property, which boasts
Like many people, John Sebastian, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee for his years as a founding member and vocalist for The Lovin’ Spoonful, was getting ready to write off 2020 as a wash. After abruptly canceling a planned solo tour in March due to the pandemic, “I was looking down the barrel
As a kid obsessed with not just television, but also the business of television, I was enamored with “SCTV Network” from the first time I saw it. Not only was it wickedly sharp — even to an 8-year-old — but its depiction of a faux television network, and the eccentric characters who ran it —
Although Netflix’s seven-episode limited series “Hollywood” took an alternate history approach to the types of movies being made — and the people allowed to make them — in its plot, nuances and visual details in the story had to pull directly from the reality of the post-World War II era. This included everything from production
When Archie (Jeremy Pope) is threatened with being removed from his own screenplay because making a movie written by a Black screenwriter would “sink the studio” in Netflix’s “Hollywood,” he responds with as much composure and restraint as he can muster. But given that the show is set in the 1940s, when Black individuals had
When it comes to the Emmys’ lead comedy and drama actor categories, the majority of men of color nominated fall into an interesting theme: They’re involved in storytelling about different kinds of families that are historically underrepresented on television. They are Black (Anthony Anderson, ABC’s “Black-ish”), Black and blended (Sterling K. Brown, NBC’s “This Is
Paramount Pictures is developing Elsie Chapman’s magic-themed “Caster” novel as a movie with Scholastic Entertainment, Josephson Entertainment and Weed Road Pictures producing. “Caster,” published in 2019 by Scholastic Press, centers on Aza Wu, who knows that real magic is dangerous and illegal because it killed her sister, Shire. Aza must step in to save the
Donald Trump was not happy with Bill Maher‘s show last Friday night, and we’re guessing it’s because Maher delivered a blistering fake eulogy of 45. Trump tweeted, “Watched @billmaher last week for the first time in a long time. He’s totally SHOT, looks terrible, exhausted, gaunt and weak. If there was ever a good reason
Anthony Hopkins, Chloé Zhao, and Mira Nair will be honored at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Hopkins, an Oscar winner for “The Silence of the Lambs,” will receive a TIFF Tribute Actor Award. Zhao, the director of “The Rider,” will receive the TIFF Ebert Director Award. Nair, best known for directing “Monsoon Wedding,” will