Kid-focused digital media company Pocket.watch — in its first international expansion — has tapped former Disney executive Danny Spronz to oversee business operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Spronz, based out of Pocket.watch’s new London office, serves as managing director EMEA, responsible for all business operations, advertising sales, consumer products licensing and content
Tubi says it’s continuing to gain momentum, drawing more viewers to its free-streaming service — and driving up more overall viewing time. In December 2019, according to the company, its monthly active user base grew to 25 million (up from 20 million six months earlier) while total viewing time hit over 163 million hours watched,
SiriusXM Holdings has invested $75 million in SoundCloud, the open audio platform beloved by musicians that has struggled to find a place in a the streaming-service hierarchy. SoundCloud will use this additional investment to accelerate its product development and enhance the services that fuel its global community of creators and listeners, according to the announcement.
Penske Media Corporation, owner of Variety and Rolling Stone, announced today a strategic investment in the British trade publication Music Business Worldwide, which first entered into a global content partnership with Rolling Stone and PMC in November 2018. With the addition of MBW to PMC’s family of brands, PMC will further leverage MBW’s expert business
Chinese streaming platform, and Alibaba subsidiary, Youku will exponentially increase its catalog of British scripted series thanks to a new licensing deal it has signed with BBC Studios. Building on the two companies’ existing licensing partnership, this newly announced content deal offers the Middle Kingdom platform an additional 80 hours of BBC Studios dramas. Partners
February 11, 2020 2:13AM PT Entertainment One has secured international distribution rights for the Canadian series “Family Law,” an upcoming scripted drama that mixes family dysfunction and legal intrigue. Produced by SEVEN24 Films and Lark Productions, the Vancouver-set series follows an attorney in recovery who is forced to practice family law alongside her estranged father,
Faced with mounting pressures within the French film industry and threats of a boycott, the board of the Cesar Academy (France’s equivalent to the Oscars), has vowed to reform its functioning and its corporate leadership with the help of a mediator. Presided by French producer Alain Terzian, the Cesar Academy has been under fire since
Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland’s “Charlatan,” which premieres in the Berlinale Special Gala section of the Berlin Film Festival. The film is based on the true story of Czech healer Jan Mikolášek, who dedicated his life to treat the sick using medicinal plants. Throughout the war
Variety has been given an exclusive clip from Berlin Film Festival competition film “Volevo Nascondermi” (Hidden Away) by Giorgio Diritti. The film stars Cannes award-winner Elio Germano (“La nostra vita”) as the 20th century Naïve artist Antonio Ligabue. Diritti describes Ligabue’s story as a “bitter fairy tale” in which “a significant bond with life and
Fear of the coronavirus increased its impact on the South Korean cinema industry. Films were cancelled and box office revenues dropped for a second weekend. Ticket sales fell by some 10%, compared to the previous weekend, which itself followed an already depressed previous session and a slow January. That caused Megabox to delay its Jeon
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the seventh episode of Season 24 of “The Bachelor.” This week, Peter Weber’s final six contestants were whittled down to four, who would eventually go on to hometown dates. But first, the pilot was joined by Kelley Flanagan, Madison Prewett, Hannah Ann Sluss, Natasha Parker, Kelsey
“BoJack Horseman” star Will Arnett has said it’s “hard to let go” of the freshly concluded Netflix original, while admitting that the cast is still thinking up future iterations of the show. Arnett, who voiced the washed-up Hollywoo star BoJack since the show’s debut in 2014, tells Variety: “It’s bittersweet. I feel satisfied with what
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the series finale of “Power.” After six murderous seasons, Starz said goodbye to “Power” with five episodes of a “whodunit” murder mystery. “Who shot Ghost?” was the final question the show answered in its series finale. After going through the other suspects, the final
February 10, 2020 6:28PM PT There’s a genuinely intriguing story at the heart of “For Life,” ABC’s new legal procedural. But it’s buried under a fair amount of frenetic drama that tends to obscure its most interesting ideas. The show, executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, is based on the true story of Isaac
Raphael Coleman, who starred alongside Emma Thompson and Colin Firth in the 2005 film “Nanny McPhee,” died on Friday after collapsing on a run. He was 25 years old. The British actor appeared in three feature films, “It’s Alive” and “The Fourth Kind” in 2009. He then studied zoology at the University of Manchester before
In today’s film news roundup, “Guest of Honour” and “Skin Deep: The Battle Over Morgellons” have found distribution and Screen Gems is developing “Urban Legend.” ACQUISITIONS Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to Atom Egoyan’s drama, “Guest of Honour,” starring David Thewlis, Laysla De Oliveira and Luke Wilson. The film premiered at the Venice Film
Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Sunday night Oscar win completed her clean sweep of top show-biz awards over the past five months. The Icelandic-born, Berlin-based cellist-composer won for her dark and disturbing “Joker” score. She also won the BAFTA on Feb. 2, the Critics Choice award on Jan. 12, the inaugural Society of Composers & Lyricists award
If you’re still wondering how Eminem wound up performing at this year’s Academy Awards, credit Justin Timberlake for the idea — sort of. Timberlake opened the 2017 ceremony with a performance of his hit “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” and since then, the Oscars has embraced including high-energy musical numbers to liven up the telecast. Last
Following his Oscar victory for “Jojo Rabbit,” Taika Waititi has turned his focus to Marvel’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” and gained some help in shaping the script. Sources tell Variety that Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who wrote and directed the Netflix pic “Someone Great,” has joined Waititi to work on the script prior to its production
Whether the nominees took home a golden statue or not Sunday, it was clear they all looked like winners upon arriving at the 92nd Academy Awards, rocking some of the most expensive jewels and accessories one can only find at the Oscars. Charlize Theron, Scarlett Johansson, Zazie Beets and Gal Gadot were just some a-list
Exclusive TMZ.com Aerosmith is ready to bring their original drummer back into the fold — Joey Kramer‘s set to take the stage with his bandmates, and even crazier … NO AUDITION NECESSARY! Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … Joey’s being brought on to play drums Monday night with Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and the
February 10, 2020 3:37PM PT In today’s TV news roundup, Kiernan Shipka and Diane Kruger were cast in Quibi’s upcoming comedy series “Swimming with Sharks” and a “Neopets” animated series has been put into development. CASTING Kiernan Shipka (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) and Diane Kruger (“In the Fade”) will star in Quibi’s upcoming series, “Swimming
“Muppets” filmmaker James Bobin is in talks to direct 20th Century’s “Clue” remake starring Ryan Reynolds. Jason Bateman had been previously attached to helm the murder mystery, but departed the project due to scheduling conflicts with Netflix’s “Ozark.” Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writing team behind “Deadpool,” penned the script. Reynolds’ Maximum Effort is
Neon is doubling the North American run of best picture Oscar winner “Parasite” to as many as 2,000 locations. Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” is the first non-English-language movie ever to win the Oscar for best picture. The South Korean film took in $1.6 million at 1,060 domestic locations during Oscar weekend, lifting its cumulative take
Like Thor’s computer-generated hammer raining down on his enemies, Hollywood’s Visual Effects Society is speaking out against last night’s Academy Awards telecast for making them the butt of a joke. In a scathing statement, the group of more than 4,000 artisans expressed offense over the presentation of the Oscar for best visual effects — which
Eminem rarely does interviews, and a conversation about last night’s surprise performance of “Lose Yourself” at the Academy Awards — some 17 years after the song won him an Oscar — would seem rarer still. The performance in many ways was a belated do-over: He’d decided not to attend the ceremony in 2003, leaving his
When director Jody Margolin Hahn first heard the idea for “The Conners’s” special live episode, in which characters would be watching and reacting to the results of the New Hampshire primary arrive in real-time on TV, her first thought immediately went to that pivotal prop. “The TV is downstage. It normally lives on the fourth
Every time I’ve wandered into a department store in the past decade or so, I inevitably run into a display of sassy, glittering shirts emblazoned with aggressively empowering phrases — “FEMINIST,” “GIRL BOSS,” “THE FUTURE IS FEMALE” — aimed at teenagers and millennial women like me. Corporate feminism like this tends to smooth the edges
February 10, 2020 1:00PM PT CBS Sports is making a bid to one-up its competitors in the rapidly developing arena for U.S. sports betting. CBS Sports and British bookmaker William Hill struck a partnership that makes William Hill, which has a sizable U.S. presence, the official sports book and provider of wagering data across all
If you promise not to tell anyone, we’ll sneak you inside the Vanity Fair Oscar party. At around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday night, “Little Women” director Greta Gerwig was standing next to Noah Baumbach (OK, she was actually swaying to a Bruno Mars song). Although neither of them had won any Oscars, they should get