The BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival has been canceled days before it was set to launch in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Set to open on Wednesday and run until March 29 at London’s BFI Southbank, BFI Flare is one of the world’s leading LGBTIQ+ festivals. This year’s event was due to present
Amazon Prime Video has greenlit a sports docuseries about top flight French football club, Paris Saint-Germain. The latest in a line of Amazon original documentaries about top sports clubs and individuals, the four-part series includes interviews with previous and current players, coaches, supporters and executives from the club. It also features footage from inside the
Theatrical box office in South Korean capital, Seoul dipped to a 16-year low, as ticket sales have moved in inverse proportion to the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus rises. Exhibitors have turned to re-releases to try to entice audiences. Data from the Korean Film Council’s KOBIS service showed that just 244,000 tickets were sold
Due to coronavirus concerns movie theaters have been shuttered across most of the Middle East where the United Arab Emirates, which is the region’s top market, on Saturday also announced closure of Hollywood theme parks including Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi and the Legoland Waterpark in Dubai. Across the Middle East and North Africa the only
The coronavirus outbreak is set to trigger a brutal reality check for the French film industry. With theaters shut down, film and TV shoots halted and movie releases canceled, the country’s rigid window release schedule, lack of proper piracy law and struggling independent distributors are facing epic challenges. For a number of days now, France
As the coronavirus outbreak escalates in the U.K., union leaders and lawyers are calling for enhanced support for freelance film and TV workers, who are projected to fall at the sharpest edges of a crisis that could decimate the independent production sector if prolonged. With 800 positive cases and a death toll of 10 at
India will temporarily stop all film, television and digital productions from March 19 through 30 as a response to the spreading novel coronavirus pandemic. Indian media industry regulatory bodies met on Sunday and arrived at a unanimous decision to suspend production. “The health and safety of our colleagues comes first, hence we completely support the
Europe’s film and TV industries are embarking on damage limitation. In one of the first Europe-wide moves, the Paris-based European Producers Club, one of the continent’s most-prestigious industry associations, is calling on national governments and the European Union to implement a 10-point rescue plan vital for Europe’s film and TV industries’ survival. Circulated on Saturday
March 16, 2020 12:10AM PT Aaron Pedersen, star of “Mystery Road” and “Goldstone” has begun filming in Australia of factual lifestyle series “Back to Nature.” The show, comprising eight half-hour episodes, is co-hosted with author Holly Ringland (“The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart”). The series is a new exploration of Australia’s hugely varied landscapes, geographies
Disney Plus has linked with O2 as its exclusive U.K. mobile network distributor, a week ahead of its highly anticipated launch. New and upgrading monthly customers to O2 with get six months of the streamer for free as part of their deal. Existing customers can add the £5.99 ($7.40) service and receive £2 ($2.50) off
Captain America is sick and tired of Donald Trump. On Sunday afternoon, the president told Americans to “relax” during a press briefing with health officials, saying his administration had “tremendous control” of the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected over 3,000 people in the U.S. and killed at least 61. “We’re all going to be great
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti have ordered movie theaters in their respective cities to close in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s the first time in history that cinemas have shuttered en masse not due to weather concerns. New York City also took dramatic steps on Sunday
“Happy Old Year,” directed by Thailand’s Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, was named as the winner of the Grand Prix best picture award at the Osaka Asian Film Festival, which concluded its virus-impacted 15th edition at the weekend. While many festivals around the world have been postponed or cancelled due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the Season 3 premiere of “Westworld.” “Westworld” viewers, bring yourselves back online. Run a diagnostic — what the heck happened at the end of Season 2, which finished airing almost two years ago? Don’t remember? It’s fine, the Season 3 premiere gives more than
Standing six feet apart on an airless and suddenly sparse Democratic debate stage, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders set the tone for a particularly somber and unusual night. With COVID-19 spreading ever more rapidly throughout the country, co-hosts CNN and Univision first announced that the previously planned debate would have no
SPOILER ALERT: Do not keep reading if you have not yet watched the fifth episode of Season 5 of “Outlander,” entitled “Perpetual Adoration.” Prior to the fifth season premiere of “Outlander,” executive producer Maril Davis spoke with Variety about the challenges of adapting “The Fiery Cross,” the Diana Gabaldon book on which the season is
Former Vice President Joe Biden pledged on Sunday to pick a woman to be his running mate, should he get the Democratic nomination. Biden made the pledge more than an hour into the first one-on-one debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders, carried on CNN and Univision without an audience due to coronavirus concerns. “My administration will
March 15, 2020 4:52PM PT Hoping to reach international fans disappointed over coronavirus-related tour cancellations, Yungblud has scheduled his concert for an unusually early start time Monday morning. “Working from home” has taken on a very different meaning for musicians who’ve postponed or canceled tours but seek to connect with disappointed fans on social media
Debate just how deep the impact coronavirus will be on the U.S. economy in the coming weeks, but even the best-case scenario is bleak for a broad range of industries. It’s an awful truth that is just beginning to hit home in the movie industry, where audiences fearing contagion are staying away in droves, if
Google sister company Verily on Sunday evening launched a pilot of an online tool to provide risk screening and testing for people at high risk of coronavirus (COVID-19). But the site currently covers just two Northern California counties: Santa Clara County and San Mateo County. Donald Trump had claimed last Friday that the Google-backed test-screening
Universal Music Chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge has been hospitalized after testing positive for coronavirus, multiple sources exclusively told Variety. He is currently receiving treatment at Los Angeles’ UCLA Medical Center, sources said. A UMG spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. Word of Grainge’s illness has rattled West Coast power players who attended his
March 15, 2020 1:48PM PT “Field of Dreams” cinematographer John Lindley has been elected at the new national president of the International Cinematographers Guild, a month after Lewis Rothenberg resigned from the post. The news was announced Sunday following an online meeting of the national executive board. He will serve for the remaining two years
March 15, 2020 12:23PM PT The board of trustees of the Directors Guild of America’s health plan has announced that there will be no charge for coronavirus testing for participants in the plan. “Effective immediately, all patient cost-shares (co-pays, co-insurance, deductibles) will be waived for all COVID-19 related testing through June 15, 2020, as long
The international box office has taken a major hit because movie theaters in China, Italy, South Korea and other areas heavily impacted by coronavirus have been entirely or partially closed for weeks. Multiplexes that remained open in various parts of the world were likely still negatively affected by the rapidly spreading virus since audiences opted
Lorenzo Brino, an actor who appeared on the family drama “7th Heaven,” died on Monday, March 9, in a car accident. He was 21. Brino was driving a 2016 Toyota Camry a little after 3:00 A.M. in Yucaipa, Calif., on Monday when he lost control of the car, according to a press release from the
March 15, 2020 10:12AM PT Reruns of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” will be pushed back a half-hour in the coming week as ABC seeks to give a bigger platform to “Nightline” episodes focused on the coronavirus pandemic. ABC said Sunday that “Kimmel” repeats will shift to the 12:05 a.m. slot starting Tuesday through Friday as “Nightline”
March 15, 2020 10:19AM PT As countries including France, Spain and Italy continue to tighten quarantine measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic, things are moving a bit more slowly in the United States and Canada. Amid reports of full restaurants and bars, celebrities including George Takei, Kumail Nanjiani, Jeffrey Wright, Padma Lakshi and Debra
For those who work in the motion-picture industry, the coronavirus must feel like a crisis coming on the heels of an earthquake — a disruption built on a disruption. The toll that it’s about to take on our collective moviegoing habits is already profound. The canceling of film festivals, led by SXSW, was the first
Much of public life in the United States essentially ground to a halt this week. In the entertainment world, theme parks shut down, Broadway went dark, studios pulled major tentpoles from their release calendar, and virtually all Hollywood movies and TV shows halted production as coronavirus continues to rapidly spread across North America. The exhibition
On March 15, 2010, Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” music video, featuring Beyonce, hit YouTube. To say that it made an impact in pop culture would be an understatement. The sprawling, nearly 10-minute video started with Gaga in prison (picking up directly after her crimes in the “Paparazzi” music video) and followed her and Beyonce as they