Colombia’s entertainment industry is up in arms over a government decree which has reduced the 70% national production quota for primetime TV to 20% due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Its beleaguered producers, actors, screenwriters, crew members and ancillary services will face even greater challenges if demand for homegrown productions begin to fall. Independent producers org
George Dixon, global editorial director for BBC Studios, has left the producer-distributor after six years, Variety has confirmed. The executive, who is expected to leave formally in October, led on editorial for BBC Studios’ commercial linear and non-linear global services such as BBC Earth and BBC First. He also took the editorial lead in integrating commercial
Twenty-year-old New Zealander Stella Rose Bennett — professionally known as BENEE — has signed with Sony/ATV Music Publishing to a worldwide deal. The singer’s smash hit “Supalonely,” which has been described as a “quarantine anthem,” is at No. 10 on the Spotify Global charts with over 131 million streams. On U.S. radio, the song featuring
In a guest article written for Variety, Christine Eloy, managing director of Europa Distribution, which represents indie distributors across Europe, appeals for assistance for the sector as its survival is threatened by the impact of COVID-19, and underscores its critical importance to the independent film business as a whole. The long, unprecedented crisis we are
MADRID — Fulfilling predictions, John Malone’s cable company Liberty Global and Spain-based Telefonica have created a 50-50 joint venture, merging Liberty Global’s broadband network Virgin Media and Telefonica’s mobile platform O2, Telefonica and Liberty Global announced Thursday. The merger creates the leading fixed-mobile provider in one of the biggest telecoms market in Europe, with O2
Amazon Prime Video has taken the exclusive rights to drama series “Little Fires Everywhere,” executive produced and starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, in Europe, Latin America, Canada and Australia, where it will launch on May 22. Based on Celeste Ng’s 2017 bestseller, “Little Fires Everywhere” follows the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family
Back in the ’90s, “Seinfeld” fans wanted to know how the series ended so badly that they resorted to bribery. George Costanza actor Jason Alexander revealed that his publicist asked if he’d leak secrets about the series finale in exchange for money. Alexander virtually reunited with his co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Tuesday to reminisce about
Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose is only an occasional tweeter, so the odds that Secretary of the Treasurer Steven Mnuchin would have been someone the rocker would have chosen to take on as “officially an a–hole” would have seemed extremely slim before Wednesday night. Even more improbable, until it happened Wednesday: Mnuchin accepting Rose’s
Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are re-teaming on the superhero movie “Ball and Chain” following their collaboration on “Jungle Cruise.” The project is being shopped among studios, including Netflix, but no distribution deal has closed. “Ball and Chain” is being written by Oscar nominee Emily V. Gordon and is an adaptation of the ’90s comic
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 3, episode 15 of “The Masked Singer,” which aired May 6 on Fox. Singer Jackie Evancho knows people still think of her as the young child who was an “America’s Got Talent” finalist a decade ago. But now she’s all grown up, which
“Death Stranding” swept the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Awards, including winning the top prize of audio of the year. For the first time, the G.A.N.G. Awards were streamed live on Twitch.tv and featured a pre- and post-show on Wednesday night. A genre-defying action experience by Kojima Productions, “Death Stranding” also won sound design of
In today’s film news roundup, Benedict Cumberbatch’s spy drama “The Courier” and supernatural thriller “Star Light” get release dates, and the Quarantine Cat Film Fest is unveiled. RELEASE DATE Lionsgate and sister company Roadside Attractions have set an Aug. 28 theatrical release for the spy drama “The Courier,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The film, formerly titled “Ironbark,”
For a while, the question of when movie theaters would re-open was defined by a capitalist conundrum that no one wanted to talk about much, because its implications were too depressing. It went like this: Hollywood movies are staggeringly expensive. To have any hope of success, they need to open on a vast number of
Sky Studios has taken a minority stake in new drama producer Longboat Pictures, founded by “Bridgerton” director Julie Anne Robinson and former ITV executive Victoria Fea. The outfit was founded in 2019 by Los Angeles-based director-producer Robinson and ex-ITV commissioner Fea. The deal marks the latest investment for Sky Studios, which recently took a minority
The American Cornhole League (ACL) announced Cornhole Mania 2020 will be televised on ESPN and ESPN2 on Saturday, May 9. The event will be held in Rock Hill, S.C. at the Rock Hill sports and events center. The doubles competition is slated for 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET on ESPN, with singles in primetime
Left: Courtesy of GCDS; Right: Courtesy of Marc Jacobs, @animalcrossingfashionarchive and Kara Chung On a recent weekend, the designer Sandy Liang—the downtown darling known for her “clout fleece”—held an extremely exclusive pop-up sale. Only six people were allowed in at a time, with some attendees waiting in line for two hours. Before you panic about
Editor’s note: “TFW No GF” is one of more than 100 movies originally scheduled to screen at the SXSW Film Festival in March. After the coronavirus outbreak forced the festival to cancel, event organizers partnered with Amazon Prime to make seven of those features available to stream for free through Wed., May 6. The coronavirus
With the moviegoing business barely operating, Tribeca Enterprises is partnering with Imax and AT&T on “Tribeca Drive-In,” an entertainment series that will take place this summer at U.S. drive-in theatres and other venues. “We’re excited to give people something to look forward to this summer and reinvent a classic moviegoing experience for communities to enjoy
In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix announced the cast and creator of “Dead to Me” will host a live table read in celebration of its Season 2 premiere, and Paramount Network released the trailer of “Yellowstone” Season 3. DATES CNN Films has announced “Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer,” will premiere May 17 at
All too often, we forget to thank our Moms. For Mother’s Day, let’s hit pause on our busy lives and pay homage to the wonderful, wild women who birthed us. In honor of this year’s holiday, Italian heritage brand Ferragamo is honoring mothers in a way that is aligned with the spirit of quarantine: a
Though she bought the deluxe suburban spread not even two years ago, OG “American Idol” winner turned two-time Grammy winning pop-country superstar, “The Voice” coach and, as of last year, daytime chat show host Kelly Clarkson has decided to part ways with a stylishly appointed mansion tucked into the exclusive foothills above L.A.’s ever-more expensive
Former HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo has joined Entertainment One, Variety has learned exclusively. While he is currently working with the company as a consultant, Lombardo is expected to officially board the company in the near future to lead all of television. At eOne, the television veteran is consulting on ongoing and new project
Sinclair Broadcast Group agreed on Wednesday to pay a record $48 million fine to resolve a series of allegations with the Federal Communications Communication. The FCC announced that the agreement will end three investigations into the broadcaster, including charges that it failed to disclose the sponsor of paid content, and that it misled the FCC
Hundreds flocked this weekend to the reopening of Tiger King Park, the exotic animal zoo that was featured in Netflix’s docu-series “Tiger King” and previously owned by Joe Exotic. According to the Daily Mail, the Wynnewood, Okla. animal park was given clearance to reopen as long as both workers and visitors followed the Centers for
“The Masked Singer” will be back for more crazy singing and dancing. Fox has renewed the popular competition series for a fourth season, and is tentatively aiming for a fall premiere. The news was announced on the network’s investors earnings call. Based on the international format, the show features celebrities facing off against one another
Curious little fact: there’s no word in the Italian language for “privacy.” It’s a culture of togetherness that makes Italy and its people so endearing. And while the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly put a stop to the evening passeggiata and large, festive gatherings, Dolce & Gabbana recognizes that the spirit remains, if only a casa.
BJ Novak has landed a series order at FX for his half-hour anthology series that was first announced last year, Variety has learned. “Thrilled, excited, humbled — these are the words in every press release, and I can’t believe how much I actually mean them,” Novak said. “This is my dream show, and FX is the
The Super Bowl telecast in February and rising political advertising revenue at Fox News made for a strong start to the year for Fox Corp. Fox Corp. on Wednesday posted solid revenue and adjusted operating income games for the quarter ended March 31, which is the company’s fiscal third quarter. Revenue was up 25% to
Blake Lively will star in “Dark Days at the Magna Carta,” a post-apocalyptic thriller that’s being developed at Netflix as a possible trilogy. Michael Paisley will write the screenplay for “Dark Days at the Magna Carta,” set amid a catastrophic event and centering on a woman going to extreme lengths to survive and save her
The movie “Blue Story” tells the story of warring gangs in Southeast London through a unique lens — that of Andrew Onwubolu, aka Rapman, who makes the transition from rapper to director with his feature debut. Onwubolu has been on the U.K rap scene since 2013 and has worked with the likes of Margs and