October 11, 2019 1:44PM PT Solstice Studios has made two key hires. Selena Arizanovic has been tapped as senior vice president of music, and Nathan Rodriguez has been named director of statistics and analytics. Arizanovic joins Solstice from Millennium Films, where she was music supervisor and head of music production. She has worked on more
Jennifer Aniston has never considered herself powerful. “It’s funny, I’ve never actually thought of myself as ‘powerful.’ Strong, yes. But powerful, not [really],” Aniston, one of Variety‘s six Power of Women honorees, said on Friday at the Beverly Wilshire. “It’s a distinction I’ve actually been thinking about a lot lately because that word — ‘power’
Activision Blizzard saw its stock recover Friday despite continued backlash over its decision to punish a “Hearthstone” player for publicly siding with Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters. The company’s share price was up more than 2% Friday, closing at $54.82. Activision had been in the spotlight ever since Ng Wai Chung, a player of its “Hearthstone”
Joaquin Phoenix remains the ruler of the North American box office as the second weekend of “Joker” heads for an easy victory with as much as $50 million at 4,374 sites, early estimates showed Friday. That’s far above a trio of new entries, led by MGM’s animated comedy “The Addams Family” with about $30 million
Awkwafina spoke about the ability of music to change lives and inspire young people at Variety‘s Power of Women luncheon Friday at the Beverly Wilshire hotel. The “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Farewell” star was honored at the event sponsored by Lifetime for her support of Building Beats, which provides equipment, workshops and mentoring for
Robert De Niro has taken fresh swipes at Donald Trump, branding the U.S. president a “dirty player” who is attempting to destroy institutions to “save himself.” The Oscar-winning actor was speaking onstage at the BFI London Film Festival ahead of the international premiere Sunday of “The Irishman,” Martin Scorsese’s crime drama, in which he plays
October 11, 2019 12:00PM PT The CW is getting into the mixed martial arts ring. Variety has learned that the broadcaster is developing a one-hour drama about a young woman who begins training in MMA. Titled “American Fighter,” the series follows JoJo Raines, who has a dead end life in a dead end town, hanging
October 11, 2019 11:25AM PT After beating “This Is Us” relatively comfortably in the premiere week Live+3 ratings charts, “The Masked Singer” only just managed to hold off the NBC tear-jerker in week 2. The second episode of “Masked Singer” saw a 40% bump after three days of delayed viewing from a 2.0 rating among
October 11, 2019 11:13AM PT CNN primetime anchor Chris Cuomo apologized for making an insensitive remark during the cable-news network’s broadcast of a “town hall” event meant to elicit views on LGBTQ issues from Democratic candidates. Senator Kamala Harris on Thursday at the event told Cuomo her personal pronouns were “she, her and hers.” Cuomo
October 11, 2019 11:07AM PT Jane Fonda was arrested on Friday in Washington, D.C. during a climate change protest, Variety has confirmed. “Today, the United States Capitol Police arrested 16 individuals for unlawfully demonstrating on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol,” Capitol Police communications director Eva Malecki said in a statement to Variety. She added that
At this point, it’s not uncommon for reality show siblings to leverage their fame into a full-fledged fashion or beauty careers—it’s basically a requirement. Keeping Up With the Kardashians spawned beauty and fashion careers for the KarJenners, Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills introduced us to now-famous models Bella and Gigi Hadid. Now, Delilah
October 11, 2019 10:45AM PT The Commission on Presidential Debates has set the schedule for both presidential and vice-presidential debates for 2020, setting in motion what are likely to be some of the most-watched events of the next presidential election. The first general election presidential debate will take place on Tuesday, September 29, 2020 and
October 11, 2019 10:42AM PT CBS Television Studios is continuing its push into animation. Senior vice president of comedy development Alec Botnick has been promoted, now adding head of animation to his title. He will continue to report to Kate Adler, executive vice president of comedy development for CBS TV Studios. “Alec has proven to
There came a point, naturally for most any longtime fan, of utter and somewhat awe-inspiring incredulity during Tyler, the Creator’s concert this past Thursday night at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. For some, it could have come the moment he appeared on stage, casually walking out in shades, a pink and red
Katy Perry, her label and her “Dark Horse” collaborators have filed an appeal of the July decision that found them liable to the tune of $2.78 million for plagiarizing elements of their 2013 hit from a 2008 Christian rap song. In documents filed Oct. 9, the defendants are asking the California courts to overturn or
ABC has given a put pilot order to a drama series inspired by Mandy Moore’s early music career, Variety has learned. Currently titled “90’s Popstar,” the project hails from writer and executive producer Amanda Lasher, with Moore set to executive produce alongside “This Is Us” showrunners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger. Adam Londy of Aptaker
Over a span of 13 years, Scott Z.. Burns has compiled an incredibly rich, diverse body of work as a screenwriter, collaborating with many of Hollywood’s most prestigious filmmakers and stars to make films that broke box office records and left a tremendous impact on popular culture. But when asked what quality unifies his uniquely
Disney is going to give “High School Musical” fans a treat prior to the launch of the standalone streaming service Disney Plus. “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” the series adaptation of the popular Disney Channel film franchise, will air its first episode across three Disney-owned networks nearly a week before it debuts at
Fresh off directing the enormous spectacle of China’s 70th anniversary gala earlier this month, Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou took to the much smaller stage of the Pingyao International Film Festival on Friday to discuss his involvement in such propaganda displays as well as his upcoming works. Since last year’s “Shadow,” Zhang has been at work
More human than human — yes, that’s a “Blade Runner” reference — yet it sounds like an unattainable standard when it comes to creating believable, photorealistic, digital human characters. But the visual effects team on Ang Lee’s “Gemini Man” set its sights on something even more difficult: creating a digital version of young Will Smith
The CBS All Access adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Stand” is continuing to round out its cast. Joining the likes of previously announced stars Amber Heard, James Marsden and Whoopi Goldberg will be Eion Bailey, Katherine McNamara and Hamish Linklater. “The Stand” presents an apocalyptic vision of a world decimated by plague and embroiled in
Microsoft’s Twitch competitor Mixer has lots its two co-founders: Both Matt Salsamendi and James J. Boehm, who co-founded the startup that eventually became Mixer in 2011, have both left the company over the past 2 weeks. The departure comes just a few weeks after Mixer poached famed video game streamer Ninja from Amazon’s Twitch. Salsamendi
NBCUniversal has stopped airing a Trump campaign commercial that accused various TV-news anchors of being in league with Democrats attempting to move forward an impeachment inquiry into the president’s conduct. The 30-second spot carried with it a debunked line about former Vice President Joe Biden being involved with the ouster of a prosecutor in Ukraine.
Breaking News TMZ Great news for Reggie Bush … his NCAA-issued ban requiring him to stay away from USC could expire in 2020, this according USC’s interim athletic director Dave Roberts. Roberts spelled it out to Ryan Young of TrojanSports.com … say a new rule “basically reduced any disassociation to a 10-year disassociation.” “So in
The Open Reel has acquired international sales rights to Andrea Adriatico’s “Bitter Years,” which plays at the Rome Film Festival. The movie, which follows the life of real life LGBT intellectual and activist Mario Mieli, stars Sandra Ceccarelli and Antonio Catania. The screenplay is by Grazia Verasani, Stefano Casi and Adriatico. The film is produced
Donald Trump has joined Twitch, the game-focused live-streaming service, apparently in an effort to widen his unfiltered 2020 reelection messaging as the embattled U.S. president faces a fast-moving impeachment inquiry. Trump’s first Twitch broadcast was from his campaign rally Thursday in Minneapolis, where among other targets he lashed out at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Somali
October 11, 2019 8:33AM PT The newly launched Boxoffice Company has unveiled its first overall content partnership with the Texas-based Cinemark Theatres chain, Variety has learned exclusively. Friday’s announcement comes a month after France-based media-technology network Webedia formed the Boxoffice Company to serve the publishing, technology and data needs of the global film industry. The effort
Will Smith’s “Gemini Man” topped the animated comedy “The Addams Family” with $1.6 million at 3,000 North American sites on Thursday night. Paramount’s sci-fi thriller launched similarly to Brad Pitt’s “Ad Astra,” which earned $1.5 million from Thursday previews before opening with $19 million. “The Addams Family” brought in $1.3 million at about 3,000 sites
Check out the official Jungle Cruise trailer starring Dwayne Johnson! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Sign up for a Fandango FanAlert for Jungle Cruise: https://www.fandango.com/jungle-cruise-213311/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.
October 11, 2019 7:55AM PT Camila Cabello today dropped a second song from her forthcoming sophomore solo album “Romance,” which is due later this “very soon,” the announcement promises, calling it “one of the most anticipated albums of 2019.” Cabello spoke about the new album’s inspiration in her cover story as part of Variety’s Young