CBS is in the midst of very public will-they-or-won’t-they merger chatter as it reportedly circles Viacom, teasing a union that would promise big changes. But at CBS-owned Showtime, new co-presidents of entertainment Gary Levine and Jana Winograde are bullish that their premium cable network is established enough and autonomous enough to continue on its own merry
Imagine Entertainment’s Kids and Family division has partnered with Breyer, a maker of collectible model horses and other toys, to develop a live-action horse-themed TV series. The series will be executive produced by Imagine Entertainment chiefs Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, as well as Stephanie Sperber, president of Imagine Kids and Family. Ashley Avis, writer
The stream of content being developed at Quibi keeps on flowing, with Darren Criss being the latest name to attach himself to the forthcoming Jeffrey Katzenberg-founded platform. The “Glee” and “American Crime Story” star is set to lead, executive produce and write original songs for “Royalties,” a musical comedy series which is described as a
Director Tim Miller is set to storm Hall H with “Terminator: Dark Fate,” his new vision for the beloved Arnold Schwarzenegger action franchise, which Paramount and Skydance will release in November. The Comic-Con vet has not only mounted blockbusters like “Deadpool” in San Diego but has also been attending for 25 years. Here’s his fanboy
As comic book lovers air out sleeping bags and uncap fresh Sharpie autograph markers ahead of the annual San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios is quietly preparing a splashy rollout aimed at generating excitement among fanboys and fangirls for the next phase of “Avengers” sequels and spinoffs. The superhero content engine, which is still selling tickets
Natina Nimene has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Urban Promotion at Def Jam Recordings, it was announced today by Rodney Shealey, the department’s EVP. She will remain based in New York and report to Shealey. According to the announcement, in her new post, Nimene will be responsible for the development and execution of Def Jam’s artist-related
Snap is opening up Snapchat to let celebrities and influencers to create their own shows — and make money from the content — in the same short-form, vertical-video orientation as Snap’s slate of 80-plus original series. Creator Shows will start streaming Wednesday on Snapchat, with more rolling out through the summer. The shows include those
Bruce Springsteen called in to the E Street Radio channel on Sirius XM to chat about his new record, “Western Stars” and share some news about a new film based on the music. “We made a film of us playing the ‘Western Stars’ album start to finish, plus some other things,” he revealed. “I knew
Mindy Kaling’s forthcoming Netflix comedy series, based on her childhood, has cast Canadian newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan in the lead role. Ramakrishnan was selected from 15,000 applicants who replied to the open casting call that Kaling posted online. Making her on-screen debut, Ramakrishnan will play Devi, an overachieving high school sophomore who has a short fuse that gets her
July 10, 2019 7:55AM PT Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has approved a bill to designate a portion of the M-10 motorway in Detroit as the “Aretha L. Franklin Memorial Highway,” according to the Associated Press. Whitmer, a Democrat said in a statement that Franklin’s “creativity and voice contributed to our musical and cultural history in
Everything old is new again in television. So how do you get the word out about a reboot when viewers are inundated with options? MTV assembled a “swat team” that worked for nearly a year on the development, marketing and promotion for the successful relaunch of “The Hills” reality franchise. Jacqueline Parkes, chief marketing officer
BET has appointed former Netflix exec Devin Griffin to lead its recently announced streaming service, Variety has learned. In his new role as general manager of BET+, Griffin will oversee oversee business strategy and operations for the African American targeted service, including original programming, content acquisitions, marketing, distribution, planning and analysis. It was announced that the Viacom-owned
July 10, 2019 7:20AM PT R&B singer August Alsina was hospitalized after losing his ability to walk, apparently temporarily, according to an Instagram message he posted from a hospital bed. The ailment caused him to miss his scheduled appearance at the Essence Festival in New Orleans over the weekend. “Hi guys,” he says in the post,
Amazon announced plans for a massively multiplayer online game set in J.R.R. Tokien’s Middle-earth — but in an era well before the events in “The Lord of the Rings.” Amazon Game Studios has teamed with Leyou Technologies, a Hong Kong-based games company. The companies will jointly develop the game for PC and consoles, and Amazon
Ching Lo, the businesswoman who heads Camsing International, owner of Stan Lee’s Pow! Entertainment, is at the center of a web of massive fraud allegations. Noah Holdings, one of China’s largest private wealth managers, is suing Camsing and e-commerce giant JD.com. It emerged on Monday that Ching had been arrested by Shanghai’s Public Security Bureau.
July 10, 2019 7:03AM PT Former “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Suits” star Katherine Heigl has been cast as one of the leads in Netflix’s upcoming series adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s novel “Firefly Lane.” Heigl will play the role of Tully Hart, who is described as a magnetic, ambitious and fiercely loyal woman. The show revolves around
It’s easy to forget now how singular “Orange Is The New Black” is in the grand scheme of TV history. With its prison setting and focus on women who rarely get the spotlight, the Netflix drama changed the game by testing the limits of what streaming television could — and should — do back in
Lionsgate’s local-language film consortium, Globalgate Entertainment, has added TF1 Studio, the movie label of France’s TF1 Group, to its global collective of 13 production and distribution partners. Other Globalgate partners include Televisa, Nordisk, Tobis, Rai, Kadokawa, Lotte, TME, Paris Filmes, CineColombia/Dynamo, Viva and Belga. Lionsgate launched Globalgate three years ago to produce and distribute local-language
July 10, 2019 6:30AM PT Watch a clip from “A Life on the Road” of Sting revisiting The Police’s punk rock roots in New York City. AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson is bringing his rock-themed talk show to the U.S. “Brian Johnson: A Life On The Road,” which aired in the U.K. on Sky Arts, will
Discovery is teaming up with Alan Alda to become the presenting sponsor of Alda’s one-year-old “Clear+Vivid” weekly podcast. All profits from “Clear+Vivid” go to Stony Brook University’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, which the actor-writer-director established in 2009 to help scientists and medical professionals communicate their work more effectively to diverse audiences. “This is
July 10, 2019 5:55AM PT Kobalt has promoted Sam Taylor to executive vice president, creative. The publishing and A&R executive, who was named to Variety‘s 2018 Hitmakers list, played a key role in Drake’s “Nice for What” and “In My Feelings” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright,” and is credited with signing and developing songs from Gunna,
July 10, 2019 5:55AM PT Tonight, Taylor Swift will headline Amazon’s second Prime Day live-streaming concert, held at an undisclosed venue in New York to promote the e-commerce giant’s annual shopping-deals extravaganza and its Amazon Music subscription service. The two-hour special will also feature live performances by Dua Lipa, SZA, and Becky G. The “Prime Day Concert” will be
China’s Internet ecosystem is becoming younger and smarter, while also becoming larger — and more isolated. According to the second annual “China Internet Report” published by research firm Abacus and the Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post newspaper, China added 57 million Internet users, to give a 2019 online population of 829 million. That is roughly
July 10, 2019 4:00AM PT Longtime NBCUniversal research executive Tony Cardinale has launched a research and consulting shingle designed to work on brand management for corporate clients and voter tracking in the political realm. American Insight & Strategy , based in Chappaqua, N.Y., aims to offer political clients a proprietary voter-sentiment tracking system, dubbed VoterDNA,
Valentina Cortese, an Italian actress who held the extremely rare distinction of having been nominated for best supporting actress for her work in a foreign film, Francois Truffaut’s 1973 classic “Day for Night,” has died, according to Italian news agency Ansa. She was 96. In Truffaut’s “Day for Night,” considered by many to be the
July 10, 2019 2:22AM PT Streaming service StarzPlay has snagged “Batman” prequel series “Pennyworth.” The show is for Epix in the U.S., and Starz’s international on-demand service has snagged it for the U.K. and Ireland, as well as Austria and Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Spain. It has also picked it up for Latin America. The
Play video content Exclusive TMZ.com Karlous Miller — an OG cast member on Nick Cannon‘s “Wild ‘N Out” — says his triumphant return to the show came as a result of a heart-to-heart with its host. The comedian — who got fired from the show last year after a reported falling-out with Nick — told
Turkish actor Cagatay Ulusoy plays the titular character in Netflix’s first Turkish original, “The Protector,” currently in production on its third season. His role as young antiques dealer Hakan Demir, who discovers he hails from an ancient line of superheroes and must protect present-day Istanbul from evil forces, marks the first foray into fantasy tropes
“American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel” is a documentary about an idea that’s now such a contradiction in American culture that it has come to feel like an oxymoron, or maybe an M.C. Escher brain teaser: liberal Christianity. I mean liberal in the classic sense (per Webster’s: “marked by generosity…associated with ideals of individual
July 9, 2019 10:12PM PT Post-Korean War Seoul is the setting for a claustrophobic, politically charged murder mystery. Artists, agitators and intellectuals are put through the ringer in “The 12th Suspect,” a crisply executed mystery-thriller about a military detective investigating the murder of a civilian in the immediate aftermath of the Korean War. Set almost