June 19, 2019 11:30AM PT Max Landis has been dropped as a client by his manager, a day after sexual assault allegations emerged against the screenwriter. “I do not represent Max Landis,” Britton Rizzio at Writ Large Management told Variety in a statement. Landis is facing allegations of sexual abuse and psychological manipulation from eight
June 19, 2019 11:30AM PT Rachel Morrison, best known for cinematography on “Black Panther” and “Mudbound,” is in negotiations to helm Universal’s “Flint Strong” as her feature directorial debut. The film is based on the 2015 boxing documentary “T-REX” directed by Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper. Barry Jenkins penned the script and had been eyeing
June 19, 2019 11:21AM PT Another round of layoffs are going down for employees merged in Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, individuals with knowledge of the company told Variety. The Wednesday reduction is the smallest round the studio has enacted since formally acquiring the film and TV assets of 20th Century in March, with
Following a heated bidding war, Netflix has walked away with the rights to “Tick, Tick… Boom,” a musical adaptation to be directed by “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. Sources say Andrew Garfield is the top choice to star, though no deal is done. “Dear Evan Hansen” writer Stephen Levenson adapting the script based on the original
The 17th annual AFI Docs Film Festival will launch this year’s eclectic program from June 19-23 in Washington, D.C., and Silver Spring, Md., showcasing 72 films from 17 countries, with a strong emphasis on female filmmakers. Of the current slate set to unspool, 48% of the directors and 68% of the producers are women, marking
Dana Walden was already one of the most powerful executives in television during her time as co-head of 20th Century Fox Television and Fox Television Group. The merger of Disney and 21st Century Fox has put her at the forefront of Disney’s bold bid to tackle what she describes as the entertainment industry’s “existential crisis.”
June 19, 2019 11:00AM PT “Yellowstone” has scored an early Season 3 renewal at Paramount Network, Variety has learned. The news comes ahead of the Season 2 premiere of the drama series, which airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET on the Viacom-owned cable channel. Season 3 will consist of 10 episodes, as will Season 2. The
NBCUniversal is rearranging the toys it uses in its kids-programming playground. The company’s Universal Kids will place a bigger bet on its ties to DreamWorks Animation, which NBCU bought in August of 2016 for approximately $3.8 billion. The network will stop developing original shows that are not based on DreamWorks properties, according to a person
Sean Penn is set to direct and star in the conman drama “Flag Day” alongside his daughter Dylan Penn, his son Hopper Penn, Josh Brolin and Miles Teller. The cast includes two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz (“Fosse/Verdon”), Dale Dickey, Eddie Marsan, Bailey Noble, and Katheryn Winnick (“Vikings”). Jez Butterworth (“Edge of Tomorrow”) wrote
CBS Entertainment has signed the Ruderman Family Foundation’s Audition Pledge, a commitment to audition actors with disabilities for new productions picked up to series. The company, which includes CBS Television Studios and CBS All Access, is the first in the industry to respond to the advocacy organization’s request for increased disabled representation. “We take pride
China Film Group announced a line-up of 28 films at a large event on the sidelines of the Shanghai International Film Festival that feted both the mainland’s main distributor and the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. “Nearly a thousand film industry people wished the motherland a beautiful and happy
June 19, 2019 10:35AM PT Hope Hicks appeared at the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning to give closed-door testimony on her involvement in the special counsel investigation of President Trump. The Fox communications chief was subpoenaed in May to provide documents and testimony that would aid in the committee’s investigation into obstruction of justice.
Yannick Bollore, chairman of the supervisory board of Universal Music Group parent company Vivendi, implicitly extended the projections for the sale of UMG by around six months in a interview today. He said Vivendi is “not in a hurry” to wrap the sale and is “very confident” it will find the right partner to purchase
The nominations for the 2019 Teen Choice Awards have been revealed, and voting has opened for the top movies, TV shows and music that has dominated the last year. “Avengers: Endgame” and “Aladdin” are the top contenders in the movie category with nine and five nods, respectively. In TV, “Riverdale,” “The Flash” and “Shadowhunters” each
It’s hard to imagine a more idyllic setting for a concert by music’s fastest-rising star than an open-air, rooftop venue beside New York’s East River, with the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges illuminated behind the stage and stunning panoramic views of the harbor and the city everywhere else. It’s mid-June, school is about to let out
After a lackluster few weeks at movie theaters, it’s Woody and Buzz Lightyear to the rescue. The dynamic duo is returning to multiplexes for Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 4.” The fourth installment in the CGI series is expected to earn north of $140 million when it opens in 4,500 theaters across North America. If
June 19, 2019 9:16AM PT “Pokemon Go” maker Niantic is getting ready to launch its next big game: “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite” is set to launch in June 21, the company revealed in a tweet this week. The tweet said that fans should keep their “eyes peeled and wand ready for more information” as the
Roughly a year after first unveiling its podcasts creator program, Google is renewing its commitment to train budding podcasters. Together with public radio and podcast distributor PRX, Google has chosen 6 podcasters from around the world to participate in the next round of the creator program. The podcasts included in the second cohort are “37
June 19, 2019 8:16AM PT The Weather Channel cabler will return to the lineup of Verizon Fios next week after a four-year absence. Weather Channel, now owned by Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios, was dropped by Verizon Fios in March 2015. Weather Channel had been a staple of the cable TV bundle since its launch in
Big Deal Music Group today announced a series of promotions among its senior staff, naming Jamie Cerreta and Casey Robison (pictured above, right and left) co-presidents. The announcement comes from Kenny MacPherson, who is assuming the new role of Chief Executive Officer. All three executives will continue operating out of the company’s Los Angeles headquarters.
Jon Hamm was a longtime fan of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s novel “Good Omens” before Amazon and the BBC developed it into a series, and said he signed on for the show without even reading Gaiman’s scripts. Hamm stars as a nattily dressed Archangel Gabriel in the series, which he describes as part buddy-comedy
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the actor best known for his turn as Mitchell Pritchett in the popular sitcom “Modern Family,’ will host HGTV’s ten-episode remodel of the popular home-improvement series, in which families and communities in need of help are given a massive reworking of their homes. “I was so inspired by the original series and
Movie sales and distribution company Infotainment China comes to the Shanghai International Film Festival optimistic about Chinese audience trends, but gloomy about current business conditions. “The market is bad and industry players are very pessimistic. I just hope it doesn’t get worse,” said Infotainment CEO Cindy Lin, though she noted that such periods of trouble
Showtime’s “Escape at Dannemora” won the Crystal Nymph in the limited series and TV movie section of the 59th edition of the Monte Carlo Television Festival on Tuesday. The ceremony was attended by Michael Douglas, who received a lifetime achievement award from Prince Albert of Monaco. “Escape at Dannemora’s” Patricia Arquette, playing a female prison
Camila Cabello was the featured speaker at a Tuesday afternoon panel at Cannes Lions, the annual gathering of marketing, design and entertainment professionals in the south of France. Joined by Spotify chief content officer Dawn Ostroff, the talk, moderated by Variety editor Shirley Halperin, was centered around the theme of the golden age of sound
“Am I tired?” Don Lemon asks himself. “Sometimes, but it’s a day to day thing. Am I weary? Yes. I am. I have to be honest with you. It’s a lot.” Lemon, a CNN anchor on the air nightly at ten, would seem from some angles like someone who should be celebrating. For one thing,
Who would have guessed that “Billions,” a cutthroat and hedonistic look at Wall Street hedge fund magnates and the politicians gunning for them, would deliver a groundbreaking representation of gender non-binary identities? Certainly not Asia Kate Dillon, who portrays non-binary investment wunderkind Taylor Mason on the Showtime series and also identifies as non-binary off-screen. The
On “Billy on the Street,” Billy Eichner has made a name for himself running up and down Manhattan’s sidewalks, ambushing clueless New Yorkers and interrogating them about pop culture. A brash physical comedian, Eichner has no qualms about asking perfect strangers embarrassing questions, hectoring pedestrians about their willingness to have a threesome with Jon Hamm
Janet Mock is making history. The “Pose” director, producer and writer has signed a sweeping deal at Netflix, making her the first out transgender woman empowered to call the creative shots at a major content company. The three-year multimillion-dollar pact gives the streaming giant exclusive rights to her TV series and a first-look option on
Jim Parsons just stepped away from a 12-year commitment — and is preparing to step into a new yet familiar role. After four Emmys and untold numbers of physics-inflected jokes on “The Big Bang Theory,” Parsons is reprising a part he played on Broadway in 2018. A Netflix adaptation of the drama “The Boys in