September 11, 2019 11:26PM PT “To the Ends of the Earth,” directed by Japan’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa has added a handful of international distribution deals. The Uzbekistan-set drama had festival premieres in recent weeks in Locarno and Toronto. Rights were licensed by sales agent Free Stone Productions to mainland China’s Hugoeast, and by AV Jet for
September 11, 2019 8:48PM PT Ava DuVernay (“When They See Us”), David Mandel (“Veep”) and Bruce Miller and Kira Snyder (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) were among those honored at the Television Academy’s Emmy nominees writers reception on Tuesday night in North Hollywood. There, ceremony hosts, “Escape at Dannemora” star Eric Lange and “Veep’s” Sam Richardson, kept the
Screenwriter Mardik Martin, a frequent collaborator with Martin Scorsese on films including “Raging Bull,” “Mean Streets” and “New York, New York,” died Wednesday in Los Angeles at 82. Born in Iran to an Armenian family and raised in Iraq, where he worked for a film distributor as a teenager, Martin moved to the U.S. to
Brandi Carlile was crowned artist of the year while John Prine picked up trophies for album and song of the year at the 18th annual Americana Honors & Awards, held Wednesday night at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The other competitive awards went to I’m With Her for duo/group, the War and Treaty for emerging
There may be no documentarian who’s ever taken the dictation to “show your work” more seriously than Ken Burns. The omnipresent filmmaker has made his name on deep, dense dives into American culture that provide as much context and archival material as possible without fogging up the overall narrative. It’s an impressive balancing act that
Shia LaBeouf is telling all. Sort of. The actor both wrote and stars in “Honey Boy,” which tells the story of his turbulent childhood under the care of his alcoholic and drug-addicted father. LaBeouf wrote the screenplay while in rehab after sharing some of his writing with his director and friend, Alma Har’el. “I was just
In today’s film news roundup, Lamorne Morris is starring in “Death of a Telemarketer,” Wonderfilm has attached a director to “Greco’s Game” and Fantastic Fest will host the U.S. premiere of “I Lost My Body.” CASTINGS Lamorne Morris, Jackie Earle Haley, Alisha Wainwright and Haley Joel Osment are starring in the independent comedy-drama “Death of
September 11, 2019 4:38PM PT A young woman In a provincial town in Senegal is caught in a fight between her father, a religious leader, and his fundamentalist brother. Power dynamics wrapped in religious intolerance drives a wedge between two brothers in Mamadou Dia’s engrossing feature debut, “Nafi’s Father.” While presenting two competing visions of
In today’s TV news roundup, OWN’s Emmy-winning series “Super Soul Sunday” premieres Sept. 15 and Boomerang teases its new animated series “Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?” FIRST LOOKS Boomerang has released a sneak-peek of the Sept. 12 season premiere of “Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?,” featuring Kenan Thompson. The animated series follows Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo
September 11, 2019 3:44PM PT Viacom has become the frontrunner to buy a stake in Miramax Films while Lionsgate has dropped out of the process, informed sources said Wednesday. The developments were first reported by Bloomberg, which said talks are ongoing about a possible deal for at least $100 million. The companies did not respond
Sterling K. Brown and his Indian Meadows Productions banner have found a potential home for their “Washington Black” series, based on Esi Edugyan’s award-winning novel. Hulu has given a script commitment plus penalty to the Brown-produced limited series, meaning the Disney-owned platform will be forced to pay a penalty if the project doesn’t go to pilot.
From the beginning, there’s something disconcerting about the exuberance of Lendita Zeqiraj’s feature debut “Aga’s House.” We’re immediately plunked down into the middle of a circle of women sitting on a remote Kosovan hillside in the sunshine exchanging salty anecdotes while preparing food. They laugh, bicker and throw cruel little jabs at one another, referring
September 11, 2019 2:30PM PT An amateur sleuth drama from Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain is in the works at CBS, Variety has learned exclusively. The untitled one-hour project follows four women who, fed up with feeling unseen after a neighbor mysteriously disappears from their tranquil Florida community, band together to find her by turning their
September 11, 2019 1:56PM PT Spotify’s chief accounting officer Luca Baratta has left the company, the music streaming service revealed in a SEC filing Wednesday afternoon. Baratta will be succeeded by Paul Sawyer, Spotify’s current controller. “Mr. Baratta’s departure is not the result of any disagreement with the Company’s accounting principles or practices,” declared the
Daniel Johnston, the eccentric singer-songwriter who was beloved by many fans in spite of — or even because of — his battles with mental health issues, has died at 58. The Austin Chronicle confirmed with Johnston’s former manager, Jeff Tartakov, that the artist died of a heart attack Tuesday night. Johnston released 17 albums and
It looks like Pam and Angela might be finally getting along. Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, who play Pam and Angela, respectively, in the famous NBC sitcom, have teamed up for an “Office”-related podcast. In “Office Ladies,” which premieres Oct. 16 on Stitcher’s comedy network Earwolf, the former “Office” stars and real-life best friends will
Quibi, the short-form mobile TV and tech startup led by Jeffrey Katzenberg, announced a deal with the BBC to produce daily international news programming. Earlier this summer, Quibi announced a similar pact with NBC News, for two daily shows. The announcement of the deal with BBC Global News comes after word of the departure of
Liv Tyler has been cast as the lead opposite Rob Lowe in Fox’s “9-1-1” spinoff, Variety has confirmed. The new entry to the budding franchise follows a sophisticated New York fireman (Lowe) who, along with his son, re-locates to Austin, Texas, and must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the
Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner’s Hazy Mills Productions has partnered with Test Pattern Media to launch a branded content division. The new initiative comes after Hazy Mill’s recent branch into branded content, winning awards for their Orbitz campaign, and partnering with other clients such as Lucasfilm, Amazon, Showtime, Starbucks, Capital One, TNT, TBS, Lincoln, P&G,
Oscar-winning screenwriter Tom Schulman has issued a strong endorsement for David Goodman for re-election as president of the Writers Guild of America West. In an email to WGA West members Wednesday, Schulman took issue with the claim by the opposition Writers Forward Together slate that they have never seen the Guild so divided. He noted that
“Haunt,” an early Halloween arrival that traps its collegiate protagonists inside an all-too-fatal holiday attraction, delivers a satisfying quantity of creeps and frights that more than compensate for the occasional lull. A step up from found-footage horror pic “Nightlight,” Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ last directorial collaboration, this latest isn’t a beacon of conceptual originality, either.
“Fargo” Season 4 has cast Uzo Aduba, Variety has confirmed. She joins previously announced cast member Chris Rock, who will lead the upcoming season of the critically-acclaimed FX series. The exact nature of Aduba’s role is being kept under wraps at this time. Aduba is best known for her role in the Netflix series “Orange
When “Power” began its run on Starz in 2014, Curtis Jackson was better known in the entertainment industry as the pugnacious rapper 50 Cent. Few of those involved with the show expected him to emerge as a force behind the premium cable channel’s most-watched series. But Jackson, 44, has never had a shortage of ambition. He
The feature continuation of “Downton Abbey” reunites the cast and much of the crew of the period TV series with a mandate to deliver more of the glamour, drama and just plain kindness that prompted millions of viewers on both sides of the Atlantic to fall under the spell of the sprawling Crawley family. “We wanted
Thomas ConcordiaGetty Images Though Serena Williams may not have won the Grand Slam at the US Open, the tennis player scored big at the Fall 2019 presentation of her S by Serena Williams collection. Presented at New York Fashion Week with Klarna Style360, the is a celebration of women who break limits, boundaries and tradition,
September 11, 2019 11:02AM PT Both “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and Tamron Hall’s self-titled talk show debuted to strong ratings in syndication this week. The “American Idol” and “Voice” coach’s NBCUniversal show scored a 1.9 household metered market rating and a 6 share in the 56 metered markets, which represents the highest debut for a
Of the major broadcasters, few are making any radical changes to their linear schedules for the fall Nielsen season, which begins Sept. 23. They’re relying instead on mostly established hits. No doubt the nets are looking to stanch the bleeding of linear viewers to digital and streaming platforms by providing continuity from season to season.
Despite the catastrophic crash that opens the series, it takes some time for “Undone” to reveal its story’s surprising depths. It seems at first to just be about Alma (Rosa Salazar), a San Antonio woman who spends just about every waking hour trudging through her own depressive fog, hoping that one day something extraordinary might
Sony Pictures Classics has picked up rights to “Lyrebird,” the directorial debut of billionaire businessman Dan Friedkin, Variety has confirmed. The pact is for North American rights and marks one of the only sales at an acquisitions market that could be charitably described as moribund. That could change if, as rumored, a deep-pocketed buyer ponies
Fox has settled its long-running profits litigation over the crime show “Bones,” during which an arbitrator accused top Fox executives of lying on the witness stand. The arbitrator, Peter Lichtman, issued a blistering ruling in February, in which he accused Dana Walden, Gary Newman and Peter Rice of engaging a “reprehensible” cover-up of Fox’s behavior.