MONDAY, AUG. 10 Drive-in Screenings Scheduled for Outfest Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival will hold drive-in screenings at the Calamigos Ranch in Malibu, launching with the Los Angeles premiere of Sundance 2020 title “The Nowhere Inn,” starring Annie Clark and Carrie Brownstein. The 11-day festival kicks off Aug. 20. and features more than 160
The most surefire way to make people interested in a product is to ban it from circulation. ABC found this out the hard way in 2018 when it pulled an episode of “Black-ish” (“Please, Baby, Please”) from its schedule less than a week before it was due to air, which all but guaranteed that it
In the era of social distancing, watching movies on streaming services has become everyone’s plan for Friday night (or every night). The first decision is picking a platform: Netflix? Hulu? Amazon Prime? HBO Max? YouTube? The list goes on. But even then, it can be hard to know which movie to watch — and on
Amid the greater restructuring happening at AT&T-owned WarnerMedia, Warner Bros. Television Group is realigning its scripted and unscripted TV production operations, merging Warner Bros. Television and Warner Horizon Scripted TV to create a new division. The scripted units will be led by WBTV presidents Susan Rovner and Brett Paul, while Warner Bros. unscripted and alternative
Kurt Luedtke, who left journalism for Hollywood and won an Academy Award for his “Out of Africa” screenplay, died Sunday in Michigan after a long illness. He was 80. The Michigan native died at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, the Detroit Free Press reported. He had worked at the newspaper starting in 1965 and was
In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix revealed the trailer for its drama series “Away,” and OWN announced a post-finale special for “Greenleaf.” RENEWALS Quibi announced that “NighGowns,” the documentary performance series, has been renewed for a second season. The series’ first season follows the personal and artistic lives of Sasha Velour and other drag artists
Kelly Clarkson will temporarily take over for Simon Cowell on the “America’s Got Talent” judging panel. The news comes after it was reported over the weekend that Cowell underwent back surgery over the weekend following a bike accident. “My friend, Simon Cowell, is doing better now but was in an accident and won’t be able
The next season of ABC’s “The Bachelor” will feature the franchise’s first Black star in 25 seasons with leading man Matt James. However, a few seasons before James was selected, the network had been eyeing fan-favorite contestant, Mike Johnson, who appeared on Season 15 of “The Bachelorette” and then on “Bachelor In Paradise.” Johnson was ultimately not
U.S. President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order that will effectively ban TikTok, unless the app is sold to a U.S. buyer by mid-September. Here’s what you need to know to get up to speed on what’s happening and what this will mean. What is TikTok, and what is its relationship to China?
In playing at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Sunday night, the band Smash Mouth did not feel any need to avoid the elephant in the room, which would be the fears of outsiders — and apparently few in attendance — that the socially un-distanced gathering could be a breeding ground for a coronavirus “super-spreader event.” “F—
Last week’s glimpse of Shaka King’s “Judas and the Black Messiah” was one of the most powerful trailer drops in recent memory. The commanding 107-second teaser, which sees Daniel Kaluuya star as Fred Hampton, chairman of the Black Panther party, delivered further proof that the London-born star’s incredible run won’t be stopping any time soon.
Zac Efron will star in a remake of the 1987 hit comedy “Three Men and a Baby” for Disney Plus. Gordon Gray, whose producing credits include “The Rookie” and Ben Affleck’s “The Way Back,” is producing. Will Reichel has written the script for the remake. A director for the remake has not yet been set.
The “Please, Baby, Please” episode of “Black-ish,” which was controversially shelved before airing by ABC due to its political content back in 2018, will finally make it to air on Hulu. “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris shared the news in a statement Monday. “We were one year post-election and coming to the end of a year
As film and TV sets start to reopen and production resumes, the key concern is keeping cast and crew safe and coronavirus off the set. Santa Monica-based Quantgene, which normally focuses on blood tests that detect several types of cancer, is helping production companies and studios by offering fast turnaround on tests. While some companies
Amid hundreds of layoffs, WarnerMedia is still preparing for one crucial hire. The media company has yet to name a president to lead its advertising-sales efforts, and has not filled the position since executives abruptly pushed out industry veteran Donna Speciale in July of 2019 after she wrangled millions from sponsors to support WarnerMedia’s most
Composer Bobby Tahouri, who’s worked on some of the biggest games of the past decade (“Rise of the Tomb Raider” and “Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark” among them), will score the music for the new “Marvel’s Avengers” game. Tahouri crafted original music for the Avengers, creating an epic and sweeping score for the loved
Patrick Star is about to become the star of his own show. A “SpongeBob Squarepants” spinoff series centered around SpongeBob’s pink friend is in the works at Nickelodeon, Variety has confirmed with sources. “The Patrick Star Show” will see Bill Fagerbakke continue to voice the character. The series will be a deep dive on Patrick and his
It has already been a banner year for Black women filmmakers, with historic achievements like Nia DaCosta set to become the first Black woman to direct a Marvel film with “Captain Marvel 2” and Ava DuVernay selected as the first female filmmaker to receive the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish prize. And film fans should
The GSA BAFTA student film awards acknowledged achievements in animation, documentary and live-action with UC Berkeley’s Lucas Guilkey taking the prize for doc “What Happened to Dujuan Armstrong?,” which follows a woman’s search for justice after her son dies in a Santa Rita jail. The animation trophy went to “Sous la Glace” made by a
On August 23, 1989, teenage Yusuf Hawkins took the train into Bensonhurst, Brooklyn with a few of his friends to look at a car for sale. What they didn’t know, being young Black boys from East New York, was that tension was running high in that other pocket of town. A predominantly Italian American neighborhood
Rarely has a high-level TV-exec job opening been announced quite so loudly. When NBCUniversal pulled the trigger on a massive reorganization of its television business last week, the company made clear that one key position in the new structure had yet to be filled — a new head of entertainment programming who would oversee creative
Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” is officially a hit single again 39 years after its release, thanks to a pair of twins from Gary, Indiana whose spontaneous reaction to the unexpected drum break in Collins’ ballad has caused it to be possibly the most meme-d song of August 2020. “In the Air Tonight” currently
Hundreds of employees at WarnerMedia are being let go on Monday as part of a company-wide restructuring. Among the staffers being let go are Jeffrey Schlesinger, the president of Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution. Ron Sanders, who served as president of Warner Bros.’ worldwide theatrical distribution and home entertainment as well as executive vice president
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
Keep your budgets low and have faith in the resilience of arthouse cinema and theaters, film festivals and markets. But also be ready to engage with streamers that could become an integral part of new indie business models in the post-pandemic landscape. Those were some of the upbeat tips that surfaced from the Locarno Film
Day three of the Locarno Film Festival StepIn 2020, moderated by Variety‘s Leo Barraclough and hosted by the Variety Streaming Room platform, brought professionals from various parts of the film festival and market sectors together for a panel on the Future of Film Festivals and Film Markets. Jérôme Paillard, executive director of Cannes Film Market;
Can the indie ecosystem that’s at the heart of the European film industry survive with streaming giants encroaching on its underlying business model, just as the theatrical experience is teetering? Maybe. But if the indie filmmaking ethos does survive, its business model will definitely be different. That was the main takeaway of a webinar on
Disney’s plans for a third “Tron” movie just got big software update. Garth Davis, who made his feature directing debut with 2016’s biographical drama “Lion,” has signed on to direct a new “Tron” movie for the studio, Variety has confirmed. The new film, however, will not be a direct sequel to 2010’s “Tron: Legacy” and
TikTok is facing an uncertain future — and the popular app may be effectively banned in a few weeks by the Trump administration in the U.S. — but it’s still plowing ahead as if all systems are go. Last month, TikTok announced the formation of a new Creator Fund to support creators who are building
Carla Hall, a longtime Food Network contributor who has also logged stints on ABC’s “The Chew” and Bravo’s “Top Chef,” has struck a new talent pact with the Discovery-owned media property. Hall’s new deal means she will work exclusively with Food Network across its linear and digital outlets, and will take part in “Halloween Baking