A small group of Chinese move theater owners have cancelled plans to attend this year’s CinemaCon, the annual gathering of global exhibitors in Las Vegas, Variety has learned. A delegation of roughly 24 people from China have pulled out over travel restrictions in the region, a spokesperson for the National Organization of Theater Owners, which
“Dau. Natasha,” the Russian art project-turned-movie franchise competing at the Berlinale, has triggered headlines in the local and international press over the years due to its epic scale, scenes of graphic violence and anecdotes of an allegedly oppressive work environment for women. Hours before the film’s premiere at a presser on Wednesday, Ilya Khrzhanovsky, who
In a time of digital transparency, keeping seismic events a secret until they actually come to pass has proven to be an almost insurmountable task. For media companies, the challenge is tripled: Many of them employ staffers whose job it is to ferret out news before it happens and make it known to the general
Maren Morris is not one for a super-extended maternity leave. After previously announcing a handful of festival dates for the summer, Morris has now revealed plans for a full amphitheater tour that will take her across North America through the summer months and into the early fall, wrapping with a return to L.A.’s Greek Theater
With “The Invisible Man,” a terrifying thriller starring Elisabeth Moss, Universal is attempting to revive the cinematic prospects for its classic monster properties. After “The Mummy” with Tom Cruise flamed out theaters in 2017, the studio scraped its plans to form an interconnected Dark Universe and instead retooled its vision to create standalone stories unique
In 2013, Sally Potter lost her younger brother, artist and musician Nic Potter, to early onset dementia, although the disease is so cruel, one could say that she began losing him a couple years earlier — that he started to disappear on her in 2010 — and that her film “The Roads Not Taken” is
Legendary Entertainment has appointed veteran sports-media attorney Matthew Erramouspe to the newly developed role of chief legal officer and executive VP. Erramouspe has been co-chair of O’Melveny & Myers’ Entertainment’s Sports and Media practice group. He will report to Legendary’s CEO Joshua Grode and work closely with the heads of Legendary’s business units. “Matthew has been
As the star of CBS’ courtroom drama “All Rise,” Simone Missick takes playing Judge Lola Carmichael seriously, even if the character isn’t always that herself. “I’ve got the fortune of coming up after Viola Davis, after Kerry Washington, that showed networks and buyers and audiences that they did want to see [these] stories told,” Missick
FandangoNow, the on-demand transactional movie and TV service from NBCUniversal-owned Fandango, is now available on Amazon Fire TV devices and Fire TV Edition Smart TVs. The expansion to Amazon’s TV hardware platform comes as Fandango vies to get a bigger slice of the digital-entertainment pie — competing with Amazon Video, as well as Apple, Google
After a long development process, Steven Spielberg is handing the directing reins on “Indiana Jones 5” to another filmmaker for the first time in the franchise’s 39-year history, Variety has learned. Sources say, while a deal hasn’t closed, “Ford v Ferrari” director James Mangold is in talks to take the job. Mangold has been put
Starz CEO Jeffrey Hirsch has outlined the local originals strategy for Starzplay, revealing that a slate of shows are being planned out of the Middle East and India as the business looks to complement its U.S. and English-language pipeline of content. Speaking at the Berlinale Series Market and Conference on Wednesday, the executive told Variety that the
Lana Condor is not Lara Jean Covey. She might share the same face, voice, and (platonic) love for Noah Centineo, but she stays true to herself. With the bubbly energy of the child star she isn’t, her contagious positivity is instantly reassuring—and she’s generous to a fault. She really wants to talk about her love
February 26, 2020 9:10AM PT Film executive Danielle DiGiacomo is joining the upstart distribution company Utopia as head of content, Variety has learned. In this new role, she’ll be acquiring movies and developing release strategies for the boutique label, which last year released titles such as the drama “Mickey and the Bear” and Errol Morris’
Cohen Media Group has acquired North American rights to the Holocaust drama “Persian Lessons,” following its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, where it has become a buzz title. The film was produced after the lead producers met at a Variety “10 Producers to Watch” event in Cannes in 2018, and decided to work
Cyma Zarghami spent the better part of her career overseeing the kids-media empire known as Nickelodeon. At last, she’s ready to come out and play. Zargahmi, who left in 2018 as president of the Nickelodeon operations at the company once known as Viacom, has returned to the business of creating content for kids. She has
Nahnatchka Khan could have another series coming to ABC. The “Fresh Off the Boat” creator is an executive producer on a pilot called “Valley Trash,” which has been picked up at the Disney-owned network. A single-cam comedy, “Valley Trash” hails from “Speechless” writer Niki Schwartz-Wright (who will serve as writer, EP and showrunner) and is
Macaulay Culkin is one of the stars set to join the “American Horror Story” franchise for its upcoming tenth season. Series creator Ryan Murphy announced the new and returning cast members via a suitably gloomy video posted to his Instagram, set to the tune of the song “Dead of Night” by Orville Peck. Two mainstays
The Alliance, the pact formed by Europe’s top state broadcasters to counter the growing power of Netflix and other streaming giants, has joined forces on a high-end adaptation of bestselling environmental sci-fi thriller “The Swarm.” As previously announced, multi Emmy award-winning producer Frank Doelger (“Game of Thrones”) is executive producing the English language series via
The twin pillars of Alfred Döblin’s epochal 480-page 1929 German-language novel and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s deeply influential 15-hour miniseries, first broadcast in 1980, together create an overarching shadow from which Burhan Qurbani’s relatively svelte three-hour contemporary reworking of “Berlin Alexanderplatz” struggles to escape. Although promising a deep-cut dash of contemporary topicality by reimagining the main
February 26, 2020 7:22AM PT Producer and outgoing board of governors member Margaret Ménégoz has taken over as interim president of the Cesar Academy. The new president is to oversee a transition period until a new board is announced in April. Ménégoz, who has produced films for Michael Haneke, Eric Rohmer and Andrzej Wajda under
SZA and Justin Timberlake released “The Other Side,” the first song from the upcoming “Trolls World Tour” soundtrack. Of course, Timberlake’s Grammy-winning 2016 hit “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” from the first “Trolls” film, was one of the most massive hits in a career filled with them, and like that song, this one involves co-writer Max
Minute Media is poised to hunt for more acquisition targets in sports and entertainment digital media after raising a fresh round of $40 million in venture-capital funding. The New York-based company in January acquired sports property FanSided (which had been part of Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated group) from Meredith Corp. for a reported $15 million.
AMC Networks delivered lackluster earnings for the fourth quarter that were dragged down by write-downs in the international unit and declining advertising revenue for its U.S. networks. The results underscore the crossroads that pure-play programmers such as AMC Networks have reached in terms of growth potential for the traditional linear channels that are its core
Check out the official Rumble Trailer starring Will Arnett! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Sign up for a Fandango FanAlert for Rumble: https://www.fandango.com/rumble-2020-222775/movie-overview?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc Want to be notified of all the latest movie trailers? Subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon to stay up to date. US Release
Mohammad Rasoulof’s “There is No Evil,” which is having its world premiere at the Berlinale on Feb. 28, has been sold by Films Boutique to major distributors across Europe. The sixth feature from Rasoulof, the critically acclaimed Iranian auteur facing censorship challenges back home, “There is No Evil” made a big impression on buyers and
Compton rapper YG today unveiled a joint venture between his 4Hunnid label and Epic Records. The Sony Music company will exclusively release, distribute and market new music from the rapper’s Los Angeles-based independent label. The first release from the partnership is scheduled to come from Compton female rapper Day Sulan, who was featured on YG’s
Global streaming giant, Netflix is partnering with six different Japanese creators in order to expand its slate of originals anime content. Among the deals are ones with Clamp, the female manga collective that was responsible for the “Cardcaptor Sakura” franchise. Another is with Mari Yamazaki, whose “Thermae Romae” manga was turned into two hit live-action
Dutch public broadcaster EO has commissioned a local adaptation of Keshet Intl.’s “The A Word” from Fiction Valley. The series is based on Keren Margalit’s hit family drama “Yellow Peppers,” produced by July-August Prods. for Keshet Broadcasting. Like the original, Fiction Valley’s six-part adaptation traces a family’s painful and often humorous journey of denial and
When the final act came in the corporate succession drama that has captivated Hollywood for years, it turned out that Bob Chapek was the logical candidate who was hiding in plain sight the whole time. The news that Chapek would succeed Bob Iger as CEO of the Walt Disney Co. hit the entertainment industry like
February 26, 2020 6:23AM PT To be a teenage girl is to be a tight coil of confused rage, a fact that “I Am Not Okay With This” both knows and depends upon. The new Netflix comedy tells the story of Sydney (Sophia Lillis), a seething Pennsylvania teen who first seems to be, as she