After five years of wild misadventures and invaluable life lessons emerging through generous clouds of pot smoke, the final season of Comedy Central’s “Broad City” pulled one of its riskiest moves to date: it let its brassy heroines grow up. After spending most of their 20s attached at the hip, Abbi (co-creator Abbi Jacobson) and
After a ten-year hiatus where he produced the films of other directors in the U.S. and Latin America, Rodrigo Bellott returned to directing with gay drama “Tu Me Manques,” which trumped other local contenders to represent Bolivia at the Academy Awards and Spain’s Goyas. He confesses that the experience nearly broke him. “It was a
The cast and crew of “The Banker” are rising to the defense of the film after Apple delayed its release. The technology giant had originally planned to debut “The Banker” in the height of awards season, giving it a prime release date as it moves more aggressively into the content space. However, things changed after
December 2, 2019 9:00AM PT “The Baller Alert Show” is headed to iHeartMedia’s iHeartPodcast Network. The pop-culture podcast will air weekly on Mondays, discussing and dissecting entertainment news, opinion and gossip. Closing in on 90 episodes, “The Baller Alert Show” podcast is hosted by Kenny Burns, dubbed the “lifestyle specialist”; Su Solo, an entrepreneur, influencer
Slamdance Film Festival has unveiled its 25th anniversary narrative and documentary feature film competition programs, as well as the lineup for its new breakouts section. The narrative lineup includes director Heather Young’s drama “Murmur.” The movie, which won the Fipresci Discovery Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival, stars Shan MacDonald as an older woman
December 2, 2019 8:43AM PT British exhibitor Cineworld has canceled several showings of the gang-themed film “Blue Story” in northern England after a stabbing at one of its theaters Sunday evening. The movie, about two friends who become embroiled in violence between South London gangs, has been in the headlines since Vue, the U.K.’s third-largest
Now that the streaming apocalypse is fully upon us, how are people in the home-entertainment business coping? Mostly by reducing expectations for those once lucrative discs. With revenue shifting toward established subscription video-on-demand services such as Netflix, Amazon and CBS All Access, and even more competition from Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus, studios are
“Cats,” Tom Hooper’s upcoming adaptation of the long-running musical, ignited the internet with hot takes after the first trailer introduced audiences to “digital fur technology” and full-figured felines. But Taylor Swift, who stars in the buzzy film alongside Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson and James Corden, is on board with its quirkiness. “I really
December 2, 2019 8:05AM PT Ariana Grande has spent most of 2019 on her “Sweetener” tour, and for the past several weeks has been posting about a live album to be released from it. Over the weekend she posted that its deadline is coming up “soon,” which could mean that the album can be expected
Disney’s “Frozen 2” and Laika’s “Missing Link” led the 47th Annie Award nominations Dec. 2 with eight each and will battle it out for best animated feature along with DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” Netflix’s “Klaus” and Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” when the ceremony is held on Jan. 25 at
Disney is getting into the Cyber Monday deals swing with a special, limited-time offer: You can get the Disney Plus streaming service for $59.99 per year — a $10 discount off the regular $69.99 annual price. The Disney Plus discounted offer for the 12-month plan is available only to customers in the U.S. and Puerto
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson will direct “Black Woodstock,” a feature documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival, Variety has learned. Held in 1969, the outdoor festival featured performances from some of the leading black musicians of the day — a group of heavy-hitters that includes Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, B.B. King, the
Laurie Segall spent years at CNN examining the rise of Big Tech. Now she hopes to help people inundated by everything digital to feel a little more flesh and blood. The journalist, who covered tech start-ups and Silicon Valley while at the news outlet, is launching her own production company, Dot Dot Dot, with colleague
Disney’s “Frozen 2” was the undisputed box office champion this Thanksgiving, generating a record-setting $124 million over the five-day frame. But moviegoers feasted on more than just the further adventures of Princesses Anna and Elsa during Turkey Day. Lionsgate’s murder mystery “Knives Out” and Universal’s romantic drama “Queen and Slim” also beat expectations while countering
December 2, 2019 5:38AM PT Alanis Morissette today announced dates for a 31-date “Jagged Little Pill” 25 th anniversary tour, launching on June 20 in Portland, Oregon. The tour is a virtual badass 1990s female-artist nostalgia tour, as she will be joined by special guests Garbage and Liz Phair. The tour is produced by Live
Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” will go head-to-head with two other big Spanish films – Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War” and “The Endless Trench,” from Aitor Aguirre, Jon Garaño and José Mari Goenaga – at Spain’s 34th Goya Academy Awards, to be held Jan. 25 in Malaga. “Pain and Glory” garnered 16 nominations,” “While at
Co-written by producer Bernardo Pérez and director Santiago Aguirre, “Together” scooped the Cinecolor México & Shalala Estudios Award at the Filmarket Hub’s first ever CDMX Film Pitchbox, which unspooled on Friday at the installations in Mexico City of Cinecolor, the event’s principal partner in the Mexican capitol. The award is worth Pesos 500,000 ($25,000) of
Melina Marchetta’s young adult novel “On the Jellicoe Road” is being adapted for TV by Germany’s ZDF Enterprises, Australia’s Werner Film, and Wild Sheep Content, the fledgling producer formed by Erik Barmack, Netflix’s former head of international originals. Australian author Marchetta’s book was first published in 2006 in Australia. It was published in the U.S.
With his new political thriller “Arana” (“Spider”), Chile’s Andres Wood traces the roots of the ultra-nationalist movement that led to Salvador Allende’s downfall and the rise of military dictator General Augusto Pinochet. He represents Chile at the Best International Feature Oscar race for the third time with “Araña.” The drama turns on Inés, Justo and
Katherine Butler is joining The Ink Factory, producer of “The Night Manager” and “Fighting With My Family,” as creative director. She will join the London and LA-based film and TV indie in the newly-created role from producer Raw, where she has served as scripted creative director. She is also a former deputy head of film
Disney’s “Frozen 2” stayed ahead of the competition in its second weekend in China, holding on to the top box office spot with a three-day gross of $26.7 million. According to consultancy Artisan Gateway, the “Frozen” sequel has now earned a cumulative $90.9 million in the world’s second-largest film market after releasing day-and-date with the
BUENOS AIRES — Bringing onto the market what looks like by far the biggest new movie at Ventana Sur, Latido Films has acquired international sales rights to Agustí Villaronga’s “Born a King,” starring Ed Skrein, fresh off his star-turn in “Midway.” Latido Films’ director Antonio Saura and Juan Torres, intl. sales head, will introduce “Born
SAG-AFTRA has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Gabrielle Union’s departure from “America’s Got Talent.” In a statement sent to Variety Sunday night, a spokesperson for the performers’ union said, “While we have taken steps to investigate this matter, we have nothing to report now.” Variety reported exclusively Tuesday that Union was let go
Shelley Morrison, who played Karen Walker’s sharp-tongued yet endearing maid Rosario Salazar on “Will & Grace” from 1999-2006, has died. She was 83. Morrison died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from heart failure after a brief illness, Morrison’s publicist, Lori DeWaal, told The Associated Press. Rosario, who hailed from El Salvador, was originally
“CBS Evening News” is pushing deadline. Though executives had originally hoped to have the show move to Washington, D.C. in November, the venerable CBS News evening newscast will on Monday start to broadcast from the nation’s capital on most nights. The move to D.C. is a bid to gain new traction and relevance – not
December 1, 2019 5:24PM PT Lori Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade Giannulli has returned to YouTube after taking a monthslong hiatus following the college admissions scandal, known as Operation Varsity Blues. Giannulli, who has 1.93 million subscribers on YouTube, posted a two-minute video titled “hi again” Sunday explaining her return. “Obviously I’ve been gone for a
Premiering one film at Berlin and another at Cannes all in one year would already be quite the feather-in-the-cap for any rising young filmmaker, but “Hellhole” and “Ghost Tropic” director Bas Devos took it one step further by making the latter project in the period between the two festivals. “It was a peculiar year to
“The Personal History of David Copperfield” won five awards Sunday at the British Independent Film Awards, as Renee Zellweger walked away with the best actress prize for her star turn as Judy Garland in “Judy.” David Livingstone from “Judy” producer, Calamity Films, accepted it on her behalf. Feature documentary “For Sama” scooped four awards, including
“Babyteeth” director Shannon Murphy has just been confirmed as the director of the television adaptation of the novel “The Strays” – a psycho-sexual drama, set against the hedonistic art world of 1930s Sydney, and 1970s London during the rise of the feminist movement. Murphy has also just finished shooting episodes 5 and 6 of season
Prolific Indian auteur Anurag Kashyap (“Gangs Of Wasseypur”) is working on a raft of projects across formats. Kashyap was head of the jury for the Asian feature film competition at the Singapore International Film Festival this year. Set in the U.K. and India, is a film currently identified as “Project 10,” that Kashyap describes as