Meredith Stiehm, co-chair of the Writers Guild of America’s agent negotiating committee, has signed with Verve talent agency. She’s the second high-profile WGA leader to sign with Verve in recent days. “Big Fish” screenwriter and WGA West board member John August announced on June 28 that he had signed with Verve, which had agreed to
July 1, 2019 12:52PM PT [embedded content] A few of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes paid a visit to the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. “Spider-Man: Far From Home” stars Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jake Gyllenhaal signed autographs, took selfies and hung out with patients on Thursday. The surprise visit came after an exclusive screening of the
The tempest in a tea cup that took over the news cycle on Sunday continues into the holiday week, as Taylor Swift supporters like Haim and Allesia Cara add their name to the social media squad, while Scooter Braun defenders include clients Demi Lovato and Justin Bieber. Braun’s SB Projects is home to such artists
After a spell of underperforming sequels, Tom Holland’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is swinging by to hopefully salvage the box office. “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” from Sony’s arsenal of Marvel characters, should prove an exception to a summer otherwise plagued with a contagious case of franchise fatigue. Overall, the domestic box office is pacing almost 10%
July 1, 2019 12:22PM PT “Master of None” star Aziz Ansari is returning to Netflix with a new stand-up special, four years after his previous special streamed on the platform and two years after the second season of “Master of None” ended. The new special, titled “Aziz Ansari: Right Now,” is set to drop July
July 1, 2019 12:10PM PT Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina have signed on to play Flounder and Scuttle, respectively, in Disney’s live-action adaptation of “The Little Mermaid.” Variety first reported that Melissa McCarthy would be taking on the role of Ursula the Sea Witch. Over the weekend, journalist Kris Tapley announced on Twitter that Tremblay and
The “Gremlins” animated series is officially moving forward at the WarnerMedia streaming service. The series, which Variety exclusively reported back in February, will be titled “Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.” Set in 1920s Shanghai, the series will tell the story of how 10-year-old Sam Wing (future shop owner Mr. Wing in the 1984 movie) met the
July 1, 2019 11:47AM PT The third season of the HBO series “Divorce” will be the show’s last. Season 3, which will consist of six episodes, will debut tonight. The series is described as the story of a very, very long divorce. It stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church as Frances and Robert,
July 1, 2019 11:22AM PT Netflix has put out an order for a new horror series from Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy, the creators of “The Haunting of Hill House.” The seven-episode series, titled “Midnight Mass,” will follow an isolated island community which experiences miraculous events – and frightening omens – after the arrival of
Half of the 842 new members invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are women, the group announced on Monday. The organization behind the Oscars also disclosed that 29% of the new invitees are people of color. Should those people accept, and they almost universally do, the Academy will have doubled the
CAA has become the latest top talent agency to file a federal lawsuit against the Writers Guild of America, accusing the union of “stunning overreach” in its quest to ban packaging fees and agency-affiliated production operations. CAA’s suit comes a week after WME filed a similar complaint, followed on June 27 by UTA. The three
RIP, WatchESPN. ESPN has officially killed off WatchESPN, first launched in April 2011 to provide pay-TV customers authenticated access to live games, in a move to simplify its app portfolio and consolidate access to all content into one service. On Monday, the Disney-owned sports programmer pulled WatchESPN from Apple’s App Store, Google Play and other
July 1, 2019 10:31AM PT Greenwich Entertainment and 1091 have co-acquired the North American distribution rights to the documentary “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.” Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman directed the movie with James Keach, Michele Farinola and CNN Films producing. The film was co-financed by PCH Films and CNN Films. CNN Films
A new Leon Bridges song will premiere in the final episode of Season 2 of HBO’s “Big Little Lies” and be featured on the second soundtrack for the series. “He had great timing,” says music supervisor Simon Astall. “We got this demo for a song that’s going to be on his next album and it
Welcome back to Tune In: our weekly newsletter offering a guide to the best of the week’s TV. Each week, Variety’s TV team combs through the week’s schedule, selecting our picks of what to watch and when/how to watch them. This week sees the highly anticipated return of “Stranger Things,” with season 3 dropping on
After less than a year, Spotify has decided shut down a test program that let independent artists upload their songs directly to the music-streaming giant. Instead, musicians — as they have had to do previously — will need to work with pre-approved distributor to get on-boarded to Spotify, if they’re not repped by a label.
“MY FIRST TIME IN ANOTHER COUNTRY!!! INSANE,” tweeted Lil Nas X on June 30 along with a video of him stealing the spotlight from both Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival. But as far as impressive firsts go — like re-writing the hip-hop rulebook with his twang-trap sound, or rocking Europe’s
July 1, 2019 9:12AM PT “What Just Happened??!” Fred Savage’s new Fox show premiered to pretty poor numbers, that’s what. The after-show spoof series aired its premiere episode last night to a 0.3 rating and a meager 800,000 total viewers. The premiere was squashed in the 9:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. time period by “$100,000
German filmmaker Jan-Ole Gerster made a major splash with his critically acclaimed and award-heavy 2012 debut feature “Oh Boy” (“A Coffee in Berlin”), starring Tom Schilling (“Never Look Away”). In Gerster’s latest film, “Lara,” Corinna Harfouch portrays a woman, who, on her 60th birthday, plans to attend the premiere of piano concerto performed by her
July 1, 2019 9:01AM PT Broadway audiences will soon be singing along with “Cracklin’ Rosie” and “Sweet Caroline,” at least if the producers of a new musical about Neil Diamond get their way. Producers Ken Davenport and Bob Gaudio announced that they are eyeing a run on the Great White Way for the stage show.
Audiences first got to know Niecy Nash as a comedic actress on shows like “Reno 911.” But the short-lived HBO series “Getting On,” which mixed comedy with plenty of drama, gave Nash a chance to show off another side of her acting skills — something that she’s since put on display in the TNT comedic
July 1, 2019 8:37AM PT Quibi will crown nature’s “Fierce Queens” with a series about female animals. The project comes from the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, which is behind blue-chip natural history shows including the “Blue Planet” and “Planet Earth” series. It is BBC Studios’ first commission for Quibi, the short-form streaming service founded
As black filmmakers gain more traction within the Hollywood studio system, the Locarno Film Festival is putting the spotlight on black cinema around the world with a major retrospective titled Black Light set to kick off with Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” freshly restored by Universal in 4K for the landmark race drama’s 30th
Nobody can quite explain why, but there’s long been a significant thread connecting the Newport Beach Film Festival to British film culture. The Southern California festival, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this spring, always features a popular showcase of U.K. films. And now, for the fifth year running, the Southern California fest’s U.K. Honors is
Breaking News LaVar Ball is going scorched earth on Charles Barkley for calling him an “idiot” … saying Chuck is jealous of his success … and Barkley wishes he was his dad. Remember, just a few days ago Barkley blasted LaVar for the comments he made to ESPN’s Molly Qerim … with Charles saying, “Wherever
Exclusive TMZ Wag! dog walking app promises to put your pets in the hands of the best walkers, but comes up way short and then dangles Olivia Munn as a shiny object to quiet upset owners … according to a new lawsuit. Dog lovers probably already know, but for the rest of you … Wag!
Check out the official Jumanji: The Next Level trailer starring Dwayne Johnson! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Sign up for a Fandango FanAlert for Jumanji: The Next Level: https://www.fandango.com/untitled-jumanji-welcome-to-the-jungle-sequel-2019-219414/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
Celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, India’s Toonz Media Group announced on Monday a change in leadership at its Spanish subsidiary Imira Entertainment, one of Spain’s leading producers and distributors of kids and family content. The doble move sees seasoned animation producer Carlos Biern joins Toonz as its new president of animation productions & co-productions
July 1, 2019 6:14AM PT [embedded content] Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Jack Black are heading back to the jungle. Sony debuted the first look at “Jumanji: The Next Level,” a sequel to the 2017 surprise hit “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.” In the upcoming adventure the gang returns to Jumanji only to
MobiTV, a provider of internet-video delivery services, announced that it closed over $50 million in new funding from existing investors Oak Investment Partners and Ally Financial and new investor Cedar Grove Partners. The company said it will use the investment to accelerate its international footprint and continue to build out its MobiTV Connect platform, which