If HBO’s “Girls” characterized a certain type of young, disaffected millennial, fumbling cluelessly around a gentrifying Brooklyn, and if “Sex and the City” used Manhattan as a tantalizing playground for a class of well-connected, glamorous and decidedly 90s-bound women, both shows had one thing in common: they were painfully, inevitably white. “We’re gonna fix that!,”
As “Outlander” pauses before submitting its characters to a new wave of 18th century horrors, the creators are also looking to the future. Starz just announced three “Power” spinoffs — would exec producer Ronald D. Moore ever consider the same for “Outlander?” “We are definitely talking about it, there’s nothing official but we’re in conversations
R. Kelly has been hit with new federal charges in Chicago, alleging that he sexually abused a minor female for four years, beginning in 1997, according to the Chicago Tribune. The superseding indictment, which was made public Friday, alleged Kelly sexually abused a girl who was identified as “Minor 6.” Kelly is already in prison
February 14, 2020 11:16AM PT Aaron Loeb’s darkly comic one-act play “Ideation” will be turned into a movie, Variety has learned. The Off-Broadway production centers on a group of corporate consultants who work together on a mysterious and ethically ambiguous project for the government. It premiered in 2016, and went on to become a New
Andrew “Rapman” Onwubolu has been tapped by Paramount Players to direct the thriller “American Son,” which is based on the critically acclaimed French film “A Prophet.” The movie will mark Rapman’s first directing job at a major studio. Dennis Lehane wrote the screenplay and Neal H. Moritz is producing through his Original Film banner. The
The bombshell news about the resignation of the governing board of the Cesar Academy, which distributes France’s equivalent of the Oscars, was greeted with relief within the French film world on Friday. On the heels of an industry-wide backlash, the 21-member board of the Association for the Promotion of Cinema – the organization overseeing the
The world is Bong Joon Ho’s oyster following last Sunday’s Oscar triumph. “Parasite’s” surprise best picture victory was a statement-making moment for the South Korean filmmaker and for Neon, the indie distributor that helped catapult the film into the awards season race and its founder Tom Quinn, who has been a longtime backer of the
February 14, 2020 11:45AM PT Taylor Russell is going behind the camera. The star of “Waves” and Netflix’s “Lost in Space” is making her directing debut with “The Heart Still Hums,” a documentary short that she co-directed with her best friend, Savanah Leaf. “It’s about women in Sacramento who are pregnant or young mothers who
February 14, 2020 11:01AM PT Investor Dan Loeb has added small stakes in ViacomCBS and Amazon to the portfolio of his Third Point LLC investment firm during the final months of 2019. Third Point disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday its ownership of shares in the newly merged Redstone empire and
Jane Austen’s “Emma.” is a world of elegance and refinement; its story centers on class distinction and the power of vanity, and how those cause tension between friends and lovers. The challenge for costumer Alexandra Byrne and production designer Kave Quinn to help director Autumn de Wilde deliver her vision of the classic, which hits theaters
February 14, 2020 10:30AM PT David Buckley will score the movie “Unhinged” starring Russell Crowe. Directed by Derrick Borte and written by Carl Ellsworth, the Solstice Studios psychological thriller rooted in a story of road rage is the company’s first theatrical release and is slated to open on Sept. 4. It is currently in post-production.
February 14, 2020 10:57AM PT Sony Pictures’ sequel “Jumanji: The Next Level” has crossed the $300 million box office milestone 63 days after it opened in North America. The film opened in first place at the box office with $60.1 million over the Dec. 13-15 weekend, beating “Frozen 2,” the box office champ of the
Freeform’s forthcoming Valentine’s Day film, “The Thing About Harry,” is an earnest romantic comedy that follows high school enemies who are forced to share a ride to their hometown to attend a friend’s engagement party, only to have car trouble, bond overnight in a motel, and come out the other side with complicated feelings about
The burgeoning podcast biz is looking for its own version of the Oscars, Emmys and Grammys. On Friday, a group of podcast publishers and producers including Spotify, NPR, PRX, Sony Music Entertainment and Wondery announced the formation of the Podcast Academy, a membership-based organization dedicated to promoting the medium. As part of its charter, the
Andrew Morales/WWD/Shutterstock I was the first in my family to be born in Australia. My parents came from South Sudan as refugees; the South Sudanese Civil War was really hard, and my dad wanted the best for us. He came over first with a few friends, and the rest of the families followed. (My mother
The day after Universal Music Group revealed that it is planning an IPO within three years, an attorney for four artists who have claimed to have lost recordings in a 2008 fire that destroyed thousands of assets in the company’s archives has accused UMG of “gamesmanship” and downplaying and refusing to reveal the extent of
It’s probably no surprise to anyone that pain continues to inspire Ozzy Osbourne. “Someone told me writers come up with the best stuff when they’re miserable. And I was pretty f–king miserable,” Osbourne said about his upcoming album, “Ordinary Man,” to the 30-plus fans gathered at SiriusXM’s live music space in Hollywood on Feb. 13
When “Outlander” returns with Season 5 on Feb. 16, it does so with a special event — the wedding of Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger (Richard Rankin). It is a formal event for their friends and family to attend, but both actors feel their characters have been married in spirit for awhile now. “For Roger and
As with just about any phrase that gets repeated over and over throughout the years, “representation matters” has threatened to become a benign catchall for Hollywood’s ills. But the saying is nonetheless rooted in a simple, powerful sentiment: that seeing a piece of yourself meaningfully represented in media can enable deeper understanding for you and
Jimmy Kimmel is turning his hand to writing once again. The late-night host is set to pen and executive produce a single-cam comedy pilot titled “Adopted,” which has been ordered at ABC. The prospective series also comes from two military veterans: Shawn Vance, a former United States special forces Green Beret, and Daril Fannin, a
Simon Bowles designed the massive set of the Judd spaceship on HBO’s “Avenue 5” with one central thought in mind: It doesn’t matter how beautiful an environment is when you realize you might be trapped in it forever. “I’ve designed these types of enclosed spaces before,” says the production designer, who collaborated with series creator
A new paid meme campaign on Instagram by billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who’s running a guerrilla bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has prompted Facebook to clarify that influencers on the platform must disclose such arrangements. This week, Bloomberg’s presidential campaign launched a broad campaign across at least 19 top Instagram accounts with a collective
Topher Grace is eyeing his return to network TV. The “That 70s Show” star has been cast to play one of three brothers in “Home Economics,” a single-camera comedy pilot at ABC which hails from Lionsgate and ABC Studios. If the project goes to series, it would mark Grace’s first regular role on broadcast TV
“Grey’s Anatomy” and “Young Sheldon” tied for first place in the broadcast ratings charts on Thursday night, while ABC came out on top in the network race. Both “Grey’s” and “Young Sheldon” scored a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49, which represents no movement week-to-week for “Sheldon,” and only a slight downtick for “Grey’s.” The CBS
Spanish-language broadcaster Univision has entered sales talks with an investor group that includes Searchlight Capital Partners and Wade Davis, the former chief financial officer of Viacom, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. A Univision spokeswoman declined to comment on the report, which cited “people familiar with the matter.” The financial backers of
Turns out Netflix’s appetite for “Insatiable” wasn’t entirely, well, insatiable. The dark comedy, which faced considerable backlash and was accused of promoting fat shaming before it even premiered, has been canceled by Netflix after two seasons. “Insatiable” followed Patty (Debby Ryan), who for years has been bullied, ignored, and underestimated by those around her because
Roku, in announcing strong 2019 holiday-quarter results, gave a bit of a flex in claiming it was a key part of Disney Plus reeling in 26.5 million customers in Q4. CEO Anthony Wood, on the company’s earnings call Thursday, gave props to Disney for blowing past Wall Street expectations with the new streaming service in
“Sonic the Hedgehog” raced to a solid $3 million at 3,150 North American locations on Thursday night. Meanwhile, Universal’s romantic drama “The Photograph” grossed $650,000 in previews from 2,250 theaters on Thursday night. The figure matches the preview number for “How to Train Your Dragon: the Hidden World,” which opened last year with $55 million. Preview
Justin Bieber still doesn’t really get the credit he’s earned. The string of celebrity relationships, the bad-boy behavior, the tattoos and ever-evolving hair styles and hues — all these things have had a tendency to distract from the obvious, which is: That boy can sing. He’s a blue-eyed soul stirrer who somehow always has avoided
The Recording Academy says an investigation of ousted CEO Deborah Dugan’s claims of sexual harassment is underway, among other measures to address the firestorm of controversy that has emerged around the organization in recent weeks, according to a pair of memos from Board of Trustees head Harvey Mason Jr. The memos were distributed Thursday to