October 28, 2019 6:51PM PT Following Netflix’s announcement that the streamer is testing faster playback speeds — allowing consumers to watch films at a higher rate than intended — various industry members including Judd Apatow, Aaron Paul, and Brad Bird have come forward to share their feelings on the possible update. Apatow was particularly displeased
October 28, 2019 5:51PM PT Mark Damon’s DCR Finance Corp. has signed a deal to provide $65 million in financing for a new version of “Sinbad” with production set to begin in early 2020, Variety has learned exclusively. DCR, a media financing fund headed by Damon, Adi Cohen and Jordi Rediu, will unveil details to
October 28, 2019 5:12PM PT Angelina Jolie kept the crown away from Joaquin Phoenix over the weekend in one of the closest box office races in recent memory. Final figures released Monday showed that Disney’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” slipped past Warner Bros.’ “Joker” with $19.37 million to $19.25 million for the Friday-Sunday weekend —
The ASCAP Foundation will give singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant its Champion Award for her charity and humanitarian work at a ceremony being held Dec. 11 in New York City. Also being celebrated at the annual awards gala is Francisco Núñez, the founder and artistic director of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City and a composer/conductor.
In today’s roundup, National Geographic announced the ensemble cast joining “Genius: Aretha” and Comedy Central has ordered eight episodes of Bobby Moynihan’s digital series “Loafy.” CASTING Malcolm Barrett (“Timeless, “Preacher”), Patrice Covington (“The Color Purple”), Kimberly Hébert Gregory (“Vice Principals”), Rebecca Naomi Jones (“The Big Sick”), Sanai Victoria (“Black-ish”) have been cast alongside Cynthia Erivo
Need an update on what the heck is happening in the ‘Terminator’ universe? Check out this quick, fact-filled catchup that will get you up to speed before you go see ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ in theaters November 1! Watch More: ► Terminator: Dark Fate Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZbXA4lyCtqrPrcUPDltcoSy10amWY_wS ► Exclusive Interviews: http://bit.ly/2D4tzw4 ► Set Visits: http://bit.ly/2mktEBb ► Celebrity
October 28, 2019 4:18PM PT CBS and Viacom now plan to merge as soon as early December, the two media companies said Monday, setting in motion the last steps to yet another consolidation in the traditional media sector. The two companies, which will be known as ViacomCBS once the deal is complete, said the pact
Japanese screen legend Kiyoshi Atsumi built his entire career on one role. For nearly three decades, the comic actor played a character named Torajiro Kuruma — “Tora-san” to his onscreen family and real-world fans — appearing in approximately two new installments of the long-running franchise per year. To Japanese audiences, Atsumi was Tora-san, a connection the actor
For Coldplay’s eighth studio album, “Everyday Life” (out Nov. 22), the band has engaged in a decidedly old school roll-out. From the visuals, a 1919 image of guitarist Jonny Buckland’s great-grandfather’s band serves as the album cover and the official publicity photo, to the 500 manually typed and hand-signed postcard notes to fans around the
The streaming-war spotlight is shifting to AT&T-owned WarnerMedia on Tuesday, Oct. 29, when the media conglomerate will host a media event on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif., to unveil its over-the-top entrant, HBO Max. AT&T chief operating officer and WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey told Variety earlier this year that there is a “tremendous
Rummaging through racks of clothes at your local thrift shop requires stamina, a good eye, and a whole lot of patience—a few skills this online shopping connoisseur could use some help with. Plus, I have really bad allergies so sifting through dusty boxes doesn’t exactly sound like a fun time. But do I really need
October 28, 2019 2:43PM PT Bill Condon is back in business with Disney, developing a musical based on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Oscar-winning songwriter Stephen Schwartz has written the music for the film, told from the point of view of Jacob Marley. In Dickens’ story, Marley is Ebenezer Scrooge’s deceased business partner. He warns
A federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit claiming that Taylor Swift ripped off the chorus of her hit song, “Shake It Off.” The district judge dismissed the suit in February 2018, finding insufficient similarity between the song and the 2001 composition, “Playas Gon’ Play.” Judge Michael Fitzgerald held that the songwriters of the earlier
YoungBoy Never Broke Again has topped the Rolling Stone Artists 500 chart — which covers most-streamed artists — for the second consecutive week, according to results posted by the magazine on Monday. The chart covers the week of October 18 – 24. The Louisiana-spawned rapper’s total streams dipped to 149.7 million from 184.6 million, but
UPDATED: “Booksmart” director Olivia Wilde and stars Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein expressed shock and disappointment over news that an airline apparently censored their film’s lesbian sex scene. “I don’t understand it,” Wilde told Variety’s Marc Malkin on the red carpet at the Academy’s Governors Awards on Sunday night. “There’s censorship, airline to airline, of
Alex Gibney’s “Citizen K” is a devastating portrait of corruption in Vladimir Putin’s Russia that seems to grow ever more timely. It follows Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oligarch and ally of Putin who became an unlikely political dissident, risking everything to blow the whistle on the threat the Russian leader poses to democracy. “After 2016,
October 28, 2019 2:00PM PT The social media skirmish that broke out after Martin Scorsese called Marvel movies “not cinema” and compared them to “theme parks” has reached Japan. There has been heavy local coverage of the back-and-forth between Scorsese and allies such as Francis Ford Coppola, and Marvel defenders, including Marvel Comics Universe directors
After a rocky few years, cinema from the Philippines is once again bristling with energy and innovation. International interest is rising, and the Tokyo International Film Festival’s 2019 selection reflects some of that. The recent launch of two incentive schemes by the Philippines government may help the country’s production become more international. The Tokyo festival
October 28, 2019 1:27PM PT The House of Representatives will vote to formalize its procedures for the impeachment of President Trump sometime this week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday. The White House has refused to cooperate with the probe, arguing in part that the inquiry is invalid because the full House did not vote to
The Image Direct Felicity Huffman is swapping her prison green jumpsuit for a business casual look … but she’s still serious about settling her debt to society. The “Desperate Housewives” star and her hubby, William H. Macy, headed into a downtown L.A. building that’s homes to the federal probation offices. Unclear exactly who Felicity met
October 28, 2019 1:24PM PT Google is just like the rest of us: Sometimes, its investments just don’t pan out. The search giant’s corporate parent Alphabet generated a whopping $40.5 billion in revenue in Q3 of 2019, slightly beating analyst expectations. However, a massive $1.5 billion loss on equity securities dragged down net earnings, and
In sealing a $2.2 billion deal to buy Endemol Shine, Banijay Group chairman Stephane Courbit realized a long-held dream to own the producer and distributor of such shows as “Big Brother” and “Peaky Blinders.” But will the merger also pave the way for fulfilling the ambitions of another French media magnate, Vivendi’s Vincent Bolloré? Vivendi
ABC has given full season orders to freshman shows “Stumptown” and “Mixed-ish” as well as sophomore series “The Rookie.” Both “Stumptown” and “Mixed-ish” are produced solely by ABC Studios, while “The Rookie” is a co-production between ABC Studios and eOne. This marks the first full season pick ups for any of ABC’s fall shows thus
Robert Evans, Paramount executive and producer of “Chinatown” and “Urban Cowboy,” died on Saturday at 89. Hollywood executives, actors and producers shared their reactions to his death. Golden Globe winner and ex-wife Ali MacGraw, who married Evans 50 years ago last week, remembered her former partner fondly. “Our son Joshua and I will miss Bob
October 28, 2019 11:59AM PT Richard Gere is to receive the Special Award to an Actor at the 27th edition of EnergaCamerimage, in Torun, Poland (Nov. 9-16), an event that draws the world’s leading cinematographers. In a statement, the festival described Gere as “a charismatic and versatile performer of great charm and magnetic presence,” referencing
AT&T is telling investors it has the intestinal fortitude to win in the streaming wars — even as its traditional TV business continues to crumble. In guidance the telco provided Monday as part of its third-quarter earnings, AT&T said it will invest in the range of $1.5 billion-$2 billion in HBO Max next year. It
October 28, 2019 11:30AM PT The CW is developing a series about Superman and Lois Lane starring Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch. The potential series would follow the world’s most famous super hero and comic books’ most famous journalist as they deal with all the stress, pressures, and complexities that come with being working parents
Check out the official Knives Out trailer starring Daniel Craig! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Sign up for a Fandango FanAlert for Knives Out: https://www.fandango.com/knives-out-219390/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.
Francis Ford Coppola remembered his sometime-patron, collaborator and frenemy Robert Evans as a producer with “strong instincts” in an emotional tribute. Evans, the legendary producer and former head of Paramount Pictures, died on Saturday night at the age of 89. He played a crucial role in the creation of such film classics as “Rosemary’s Baby,”
Star couple Chrissy Teigen and John Legend revealed their choice for the 2020 Democratic ticket: Elizabeth Warren. In an interview with Karen Valby for Vanity Fair’s December issue, Teigen and Legend discussed their thoughts on the 2020 election, their Twitter feud with the president and their thoughts on rapper Kanye West and his wife Kim