June 10, 2019 8:05AM PT The reimagining of the anthology series “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” is coming together at Nickelodeon. The new limited series, which will consist of three hour-long episodes, will premiere this October and introduce a new Midnight Society group of kids who will tell the terrifying tale of the Carnival
H.E.R., who won Grammys for Best R&B Album and Performance earlier this year, will curate and headline the inaugural “Lights On” festival — which, not surprisingly, is loaded with up-and-coming R&B colleagues including Jhené Aiko, Daniel Caesar, Summer Walker, Ari Lennox and more. The festival, in partnership with Live Nation Urban, will take place at
The Tony Awards may be a night of competition, but once their respective afterparties have ended, the cast and crew of every Broadway show end up in the same place: publicity firm DKC/O&M’s party at the Carlyle Hotel. On Sunday night (and well into Monday morning), stars ranging from Laurie Metcalf to Billy Porter put
Can Mailchimp — yes, the email-marketing services provider — produce a series as entertaining and engaging as anything on TV or Netflix? That’s the goal for the company, which is assembling a slate of short-form unscripted and scripted programming to promote its brand in concert with entertainment industry partners like Vice Media, WME, Scout Productions
When Disney announced its $71.3 billion acquisition of 20th Century Fox, X-Men was among the film properties that had executives at the Magic Kingdom frothing at the mouth. The historic merger meant that the Fox-owned band of mutant superheroes could reunite with its comic-book brethren in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was the kind of
HBO is not renewing Vice Media’s “Vice News Tonight,” ending the premium cabler’s seven-year relationship with the youth-culture media company — throwing another curveball at Vice as it tries to turn its business around. Vice announced that it has tapped Jesse Angelo, former CEO and publisher of the New York Post, to oversee all news
Hulu is owned by TV companies – and now it’s working to try to capture some of TV’s ad dollars before it’s too late. The streaming-video hub has been offering lower rates of increase to advertisers willing to commit more dollars than in the past to its business, according to four people familiar with recent
The fourth edition of Culture Creators’ annual “Innovators and Leaders” Awards Brunch will take place on Friday, June 22 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Recognizing minorities in film, television, music and fashion, the event will honor Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Entertainment Studios, with the Icon Award, and “Black-ish” star
Animation companies are moving haltingly to promote women to key roles producing and directing the films and shows they make, according to a new study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. In the past 12 years, 3% of the directors of animated movies were women, and just one, “Kung Fu Panda 2’s” Jennifer Yuh Nelson,
Renée Zellweger and Sam Rockwell sat down for a chat for Variety’s Actors on Actors. For more, click here. Sam Rockwell and Renée Zellweger both owe a career reinvention to the legendary choreographer and director Bob Fosse. Zellweger cemented her stardom with the 2002 film adaptation of Fosse’s musical “Chicago”; now she’s the latest big-screen superstar to
Rebeca Leon, co-founder and CEO of Lionfish Entertainment, oversees the careers of three of the biggest artists in Latin music: J Balvin, Rosalia, and Juanes, with whom she founded the company several years ago. A featured executive on Variety’s International Music Impact list, Leon began her career with marketing and A&R gigs at Sony Music
June 10, 2019 5:41AM PT Gkids has acquired North American rights to Chinese animated feature “White Snake.” The film was released in China earlier this year and this week has its international premier at the Annecy Int’l Animated Film Festival. The company, which has handled multiple Oscar-nominated animated films, plans to release “White Snake” theatrically
“X-Men: Dark Phoenix” may have notched the worst opening weekend in the franchise’s history in the U.S., but it led China’s box office with $32.1 million over the country’s three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday weekend, debuting last Thursday, a day before its U.S. release. The film’s China opening is nearly on par with its $33
The cast and producers behind “When They See Us” sat down for a very special conversation with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday night at Netflix’s FYSEE location in Hollywood. But the night’s discussion wasn’t just about the stars of the limited series – Winfrey also sat down with the five men, formerly referred to as “The
ANNECY — Three European animation powerhouses – Didier and Damien Brunner’s Folivari, Canal Plus and Studiocanal – are linking to develop “The Baker Street Four,” a premium tween/family animation series marking a striking spin off from the Sherlock Holmes franchise. “My Life as a Zucchini” French producer Blue Spirit will serve as the animation studio,
MADRID — It’s no coincidence that Netflix has chosen Annecy, a fairy tale-looking town nestling in the French Alps, to unveil scenes from its first two animated movies; or that Warner Bros. Animation will world premiere at Annecy’s Intl. Animation Film Festival its first Looney Tunes Cartoon; or that Didier Brunner, the doyen of Europe’s
Following in the footsteps of previous honorees Brad Bird and Isao Takahata, French filmmaker Jean-François Laguionie will receive the 2019 Honorary Cristal at the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival, which runs June 10-15. The venerable filmmaker will also be on hand to present his latest offering, “Le Voyage du Prince (The Prince’s Journey),” in a
June 9, 2019 10:50PM PT Cartoon Network has greenlit a third season of Indian-produced comedy “Lamput,” with a new run of longer episodes heading to its networks around the world. The show has been a hit on digital platforms, notching 250 million views on Cartoon Network’s digital apps and channels in Asia, and a further
June 9, 2019 10:49PM PT ANNECY — Frédéric Puech, one of the movers and shakers on the French animation scene, has ankled Planet Nemo Animation, the Ankara production-distribution company he founded 15 years ago to create Play Big, a distribution company launched in partnership with Paris and Lille-based services and production entity Something Big. As
ANNECY — Announced on the first day of Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival, Nickelodeon is launching the “Intergalactic Shorts Program,” aimed at developing the next generation of animation talent from around the globe. The venture is to be spearheaded by Nickelodeon’s EVP animation production and development Ramsey Naito, along with newly-hired producer Conrad Vernon (“Sausage
ANNECY, France — Having traveled from the floor of Bikini Bottom to the shores of Lake Annecy in France, SpongeBob SquarePants is kicking off his 20th year at Europe’s most important animation festival with a Nickelodeon panel and accompanying sneak peek of the upcoming special “SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout.” A few lucky Annecy Intl. Animation Film
The Tony Awards celebrated the best of Broadway during a ceremony that was packed with music, dance and celebrations of the theater world’s diversity with calls for more diversity, too. But there was a lot going on that the cameras didn’t catch before, during and after the big show. Here are some of the highlights…
ANNECY — Again, we’re not saying these are the best shorts at Annecy this year. That will be left to the festival’s juries to decide. They most certainly, however, underscore the current creativity of animation, its healthy diversity. The selection is, moreover, limited to official sections so does not take in DreamWorks Animation’s “Marooned,” which
Aton Soumache’s On Entertainment (“Playmobil”) is allying with Joann Sfar, the revered French comicbook artist and filmmaker, on an ambitious live action mini-series inspired by French aviator and author Antoine de Saint Exupery’s 1943 philosophical and self-reflective parable “The Little Prince.” The project, which is still at an early development stage, is being conceived as
Zedd, the producer and star DJ who’s spent the last few days under fire, still isn’t returning it — but he did issue a very controlled, polite and lengthy statement via social media, defending himself against singer Matthew Koma’s accusations that he takes credit for others’ work. “I just wanted to let my fans know
June 9, 2019 9:45PM PT Bong Joon-ho’s Cannes Palme d’or-winning “Parasite” remained on top of the South Korean box office. The family drama earned $12.4 million from 1.67 million admissions between Friday and Sunday for a total of $51.0 million from 7.02 million admissions after two weekends. The CJ Entertainment release accounted for some 47%
June 9, 2019 9:45PM PT Bong Joon-ho’s Cannes Palme d’or-winning “Parasite” remained on top of the South Korean box office. The family drama earned $12.4 million from 1.67 million admissions between Friday and Sunday for a total of $51.0 million from 7.02 million admissions after two weekends. The CJ Entertainment release accounted for some 47%
ANNECY — Ed Noeltner’s L.A. and Paris-based Cinema Management Group (CMG), one of the world’s leading sales agent specializing in international animated features, has closed both France and South Korea plus a swathe of South East Asian territories on “Salma’s Big Wish,” which bows in Annecy on Monday as one of eight titles in its
Bushwick Bill, a member of the veteran Houston rap trio Geto Boys, has died at the age of 52, his rep confirmed. The rapper, who was born Richard Shaw, revealed last month that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in February. Reports that the rapper had died began circulating early Sunday after fellow Geto
The last time James Corden hosted the Tony Awards, the CBS late-night host was understandably subsumed by events onstage and off; not merely were his last bits on the Tonys stage, in 2016, occurring against the backdrop of a “Hamilton” sweep, but they were also happening in the wake of a massacre of predominantly gay