Comcast is making its most radical move yet to embrace cord-cutters. The cable giant is launching an app for Sling TV, the over-the-top subscription television service from rival Dish Network, on the Xfinity Flex device for broadband-only customers. It’s a move that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, as Comcast — like
The trio formerly known as the Dixie Chicks — now just the Chicks — say in a newly published interview with the New York Times that they considered their name “stupid” and had long wanted to change it before doing so in June amid a national reconsideration of Confederate symbolism. “We were literally teenagers when
A decade ago Goloka Bolte and her business partner Ethan Peterson founded the Casting Firm, and a little over eight years ago they were brought on to cast “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and its subsequent spinoffs. Since then they have been nominated three times for reality casting Emmys and now Bolte, who also acts as president
As the titular Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) becomes a bigger name in standup comedy within Amazon Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” the venues she plays get larger and the scope of those scenes, too, continues to grow. Pivotal to making that possible are both co-creator, writer, executive producer and director Amy Sherman-Palladino and
The second season of Netflix’s “You” saw Joe Goldberg, played by Penn Badgley, relocate from New York to Los Angeles. Goldberg wanted to turn over a new leaf after murdering an ex and framing her therapist for the crime, and in doing so, he assumed a different life as a man named Will. But old
Giancarlo Esposito can arguably be called the king of peak TV, playing a key role in some of the most critically acclaimed TV of this era. Just this past year, he appeared in Disney Plus’ “The Mandalorian,” Netflix’s “Dear White People,” Cinemax’s “Jett,” Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys,” Epix’s “Godfather of Harlem” and, of course,
Demi Moore has taken a turn into audio erotica, toplining forthcoming original scripted drama series “Dirty Diana” from podcast and media startup QCode. Moore will star in and executive produce the podcast, created by writer-director Shana Feste (“Country Strong,” “Run Sweetheart Run”) and written by Feste and Jennifer Besser through their Quiet Girl Productions shingle.
The Venice, Toronto, Telluride and New York Film Festivals have joined forces in an alliance that will see the prominent fall events, all positioned six weeks from each other, collaborate rather than compete in a spirit of post-pandemic solidarity. The statement announcing this alliance provides scant details of what concrete form it will take, beyond
Roy Andersson’s “About Endlessness” and Tsai Ming-liang’s “Days” are among the highlights of the Masters and Auteurs section of the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival. The festival will hold screenings in front of live audiences next month. It had originally been scheduled to take place in March, but was postponed due to the coronavirus
Ten years after the original film, YouTube has ordered a sequel to “Life in a Day,” reuniting executive producer Ridley Scott and director Kevin Macdonald for a new documentary that will stitch together hundreds of user-submitted videos from across the globe on a single date. “Life in a Day 2020” is slated to premiere at
Former Hulu exec Johannes Larcher, who most recently worked for Dubai-based MBC Group, has been appointed head of WarnerMedia’s HBO Max International. Larcher, who is a dual U.S.-Austrian national, will join the company in August and report to Gerhard Zeiler, chief revenue officer for WarnerMedia, and president of WarnerMedia International Networks. Larcher worked at Hulu
Kanye West backed off of his support for President Trump, claimed he had a bout with Covid-19 in February, talked at length — if vaguely — about his own presidential campaign, slammed presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and plenty more in a sprawling four-hour interview with Forbes that published early Wednesday. He also shared his
Standout Spanish cinema actors Irene Escolar (“Official Competition,” “Tell Me Who I Am”) and Bárbara Lennie (“Everybody Knows,” “Magical Girl”) have teamed on a new anthology series commissioned by HBO España and produced by Calle Cruzada. Created and executive produced by the pair (pictured), who will also perform in the show, “Escenario 0” features six
Welsh actor Luke Evans (“Midway”) has revealed details of Hulu’s quarantine plans for the Australia shoot of limited series “Nine Perfect Strangers.” “We all have to be quarantined in a hotel room,” said Evans in an interview for the July 14 episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast “The Big Ticket.” “I can’t see anyone
Garth Brooks’ recent success as a drive-in movie attraction is begetting an entire summer series. Encore Live is using the sellout business that Brooks’ filmed concert did at many of the more than 300 outdoor locations where it was presented June 27 as the springboard to launch an entire series, to be presented under the
Amazon, looking to buff up Fire TV’s appeal among cord-cutters, is adding program listings for YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV to the platform’s live TV discovery features. Live content from Google’s YouTube TV and Disney’s Hulu will be directly integrated into Fire TV’s Live Tab, On Now rows, and the multi-app Channel Guide,
Facebook simply has not done enough to fight problems including hate speech and voter suppression, according to a report culminating a two-year independent audit of the social giant’s practices and policies. That has included Facebook’s failure to take action against disinformation and inflammatory comments posted by President Donald Trump, the report said. “Unfortunately, in our
Paolo Sorrentino will return to his hometown of Naples for feature film “The Hand of God” for Netflix. Produced by “The Great Beauty” director alongside Lorenzo Mieli for Fremantle-backed The Apartment Pictures, the film will be produced in Naples. Sorrentino will both write and direct, though further details about the project remain sparse. The film’s
European pay-TV operator Sky and Sony Pictures Television have agreed a new long-term partnership across the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. The deal includes a multi-year extension across all markets to the exclusive first pay window, and access to Sony’s film library, and extends to all of Sky’s transactional services across its markets.
British star Idris Elba has once again teased the prospect of a feature film version of popular BBC TV series “Luther,” according to Sky News. “There isn’t a real formal plan for ‘Luther’ at the moment,” Elba said. “I’ve made it very clear that I’d like to see ‘Luther’ come back as a film. And
Spackman Entertainment, a company listed in Singapore with a collection of Korean-themed investments, said that it has received a takeover offer for its Zip Cinema subsidiary, one of Korea’s leading independent production companies. In a regulatory filing, Spackman said that a non-binding letter of intent was delivered by Charm Accounting Corporation. Charm in turn is
“Harry Potter” writer J.K Rowling, “Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood and “Midnight’s Children” writer Salman Rushdie are amongst 150 public figures to have signed a letter condemning the practice of ‘public shaming,’ or cancel culture as it is known popularly. Cancel culture is a term used to describe individuals who have shared an unpopular opinion
Exclusive Netflix’s revival of “Unsolved Mysteries” might need to change its name to “Case Closed” — because the team’s getting inundated with new leads that may very well crack some of these cases. The show’s original creator, Terry Dunn Meurer, is once again heading up the rebooted series … and she tells TMZ that skyrocketing
SAG-AFTRA’s Los Angeles board has voted to oppose ratification of a successor deal on its master contract for feature films and primetime television work. The move came Tuesday, two weeks after the national board of the performers union had approved sending out the contract for ratification by a vote of 67.6% to 32.4%. Ballots are due
“American Idol” finalist and contemporary Christian singer Chris Sligh has COVID-19 and has developed pneumonia. Sligh, who finished tenth on the 2007 season of “Idol,” shared a picture of himself in a Nashville-area healthcare facility on Instagram late Monday, but was back at home Tuesday night. Sligh began exhibiting symptoms in late June that worsened
Jude Law may be heading to Neverland. The actor is in talks to play the classic Disney villain, Captain Hook, in the studio’s live-action Peter Pan film “Peter Pan & Wendy,” sources tell Variety. “Pete’s Dragon” director David Lowery is on board to direct the project. Lowery co-wrote the script with Toby Halbrooks, and Jim Whitaker
Sony/ATV Music Publishing announced the signing of Bobby Sessions to a global co-publishing deal. The rapper and songwriter is credited with co-writing Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage Remix” featuring Beyoncé, as well as Meg’s new single “Girls in the Hood.” A fellow Texas native, Sessions (pictured at right) signed a recording deal with Def Jam in
Movie theaters have been banking on a grand end-of-summer reopening to begin recovering from the closures forced by the coronavirus pandemic. The plan has been to remind consumers about what they missed about the theatrical experience by luring them back to cinemas with the promise of watching Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi adventure “Tenet” or Disney’s action epic
FX and Hulu have partnered to launch the documentary series “The New York Times Presents.” The show hails from the team behind FX’s “The Weekly.” The new show will present standalone documentaries on major stories via the journalists at the New York Times. “The New York Times Presents” will feature 10 individual documentaries that will
ESPN said it would cancel its flagship morning radio program, “Golic & WIngo,” while bringing Mike Greenberg, half of the team that helped the Disney sports-media giant carve a bigger business in the audio world, back to the medium as part of a reworking of its national lineup. Greenberg, who spent 17 years with co-host