Lighthouse Studios has named Claire Finn its new managing director. The animation studio is based in Kilkenny, Ireland, and has just finished work on Amazon series “Bug Diaries,” and started on another kids’ project for the streamer, the second season of “Give a Mouse a Cookie.” Lighthouse is a joint venture between Mercury Filmworks, one
Chris Brown has been detained by police in Paris on rape charges, according to multiple news reports. A 24-year-old woman claims that the singer assaulted her in a hotel suite in the city on the night of January 15-16 at the club Le Crystal and then returned to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where she claims
Mexico’s Televisa and Endemol Shine have inked a new pact for content development, cementing a long-standing relationship of 17 years. Mexico City-based Endemol Shine Boomdog, run by CEO Alejandro Rincon, and Televisa Studios will co-produce a slew of original scripted and unscripted series for the Hispanic markets of Mexico, the U.S. and the rest of
After several fallow years, the first-run syndication marketplace has come back to life with a half-dozen daytime strips on deck to premiere in fall 2019, including notably big-budget talk show efforts hosted by Kelly Clarkson for NBCUniversal and Tamron Hall for Disney. This burst of activity — and what it says about the willingness by
The new Disney-distributed talk show fronted by Tamron Hall has reached the 70% national clearance threshold now that stations from Sinclair Broadcast Group, Tribune Broadcasting, Cox and Meredith have signed on for the topical talker. Hall, the former “Today” anchor, is making the rounds at NATPE on Tuesday in preparation for the show’s fall launch.
“Roma” and “The Favourite” led nominations for the 91st Oscars, scoring 10 nods each. Both films were nominated for best picture, alongside “Black Panther,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “A Star Is Born,” “Vice,” and “Green Book.” Glenn Close picked up her seventh Academy Award nod for best actress in “The Wife,” while Lady Gaga nabbed her
January 22, 2019 4:54AM PT Studiocanal is resuming its search for a U.K. managing director after Elizabeth Trotman was forced to pull out from the role owing to visa issues, Variety has confirmed. Trotman was named U.K. MD last October, filling the position vacated by Danny Perkins, who is setting up his own business. Trotman
Scandi brands Zentropa, REinvent and TrustNordisk are launching NutAlone, a new streamer of European films and TV dramas. Rikke Ennis, CEO of Copenhagen-based packaging, sales and financing company REInvent Studios, has spent the last couple of years conceptualizing NutAlone with her former TrustNordisk colleagues and Zentropa CEO Anders Kjærhauge. Their idea was to dust off
MIAMI — Clinching more deals on one of Mipcom’s highest-profile premieres, Beta Film has closed early major territory sales on Movistar + Original “El Embarcadero” (“The Pier”), Alex Pina and Esther Martínez-Lobato’s follow-up to Netflix phenomenon “La casa de papel” (“Money Heist”), identified by the streaming giant in its first-quarter results last April as its
Pink, Muse and Chris Stapleton will headline Citi Sound Vault, the three-night live-music platform taking place at the Hollywood Palladium during Grammy week. Pink will kick off the Live Nation-produced series on Feb. 7, followed by Muse on Feb. 9 and Stapleton on Grammy night, the 10th. “This will be my first time performing at the
The 91st Academy Awards may be hostless, but its nominations will be led by Kumail Nanjiani of “The Big Short” and Tracee Ellis Ross from ABC’s “Black-ish.” The two actors will announce the nominees live beginning at 5:20 a.m. PT/8:20 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Jan 22. All 24 Oscar categories will be announced in a
MIAMI — To be presented Tuesday at Natpe by Globo, “Second Chance” marks “Central Station” co-screenwriter Joao Emanuel Carneiro’s second telenovela after “Brazil Avenue,” which he also created. Those are pretty hard acts to follow. Directed by Walter Salles, “Central Station” was nominated for two Academy Awards, foreign-language and best actress for Fernanda Montenegro: “Brazil
January 22, 2019 1:54AM PT Google has been fined €50 million ($57 million) in France by data regulator CNIL for breaching the European Union’s data protection rules. The CNIL said in a statement that Google had not sufficiently informed its users about the exploitation of their personnal data. “We’re not denying that Google informs users
The Broadway play “American Son” is set to be adapted for Netflix. Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale, Jeremy Jordan, and Eugene Lee will reprise their roles in the Netflix production. Kenny Leon returns to direct and produce, with Jeffrey Richards and Rebecca Gold serving as producers. Washington and Pilar Savone of Washington’s Simpson Street banner will
January 21, 2019 8:38PM PT Marvel Studios’ hotly-anticipated Brie Larson-starring blockbuster “Captain Marvel” will hit Chinese theaters on the same day as it debuts in North America. The female-led picture will release on March 8, 2019, International Women’s Day. Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the film tells the story of Carol Danvers, a
January 21, 2019 6:23PM PT Gross theatrical box office in Australia grew by 3.6% in 2018, to $890 million (A$1.25 billion). The score was propelled by a rebound in the performance of the top local films. Data from the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia published Tuesday showed aggregate cinema revenues recovering after a dip
January 21, 2019 6:23PM PT Gross theatrical box office in Australia grew by 3.6% in 2018, to $890 million (A$1.25 billion). The score was propelled by a rebound in the performance of the top local films. Data from the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia published Tuesday showed aggregate cinema revenues recovering after a dip
CBS reality show “Big Brother” loves to tell its audience to “expect the unexpected,” but things went pretty much according to the assumed with Anthony Scaramucci on the second season premiere of the celebrity edition of the show. Right from his introductory package, Scaramucci had to acknowledge he was fired from the White House, “for
MIAMI — Tyler Perry took time out of his “Madea’s Farewell” live stage tour and spent his Martin Luther King Jr. holiday giving an inspiring speech to aspiring producers and students gathered here for the annual NATPE convention. Perry was the keynoter Monday at the conference’s first ever “Living the Dream: A Career in Content” session
Megan Mullally is funny. The “Will & Grace” star can also sing and dance. While she’s not picking up the Oscar hosting gig after the Kevin Hart fiasco, Mullally will take center stage on Sunday, Jan. 27 when she makes her debut as the host of the 25th annual SAG Awards. Variety caught up with
January 21, 2019 3:49PM PT Sunday’s AFC and NFC championship games were nail-biters that went into overtime and sent viewership into overdrive. CBS harvested a whopping 53.9 million viewers as New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady led his team to their third consecutive Super Bowl berth in a hard-fought primetime game against the Kansas City
January 21, 2019 2:00PM PT The ex-Lumineers member collaborated with Los Angeles artist Liza Nelson for the clip to “Train.” [embedded content] Neyla Pekarek’s post-Lumineers solo career is off to a strong start with a show at the Opry at the Ryman on Saturday night and the Monday release of her new video for the
In a year when Lady Gaga stands to win at least one Oscar next month and has a decent chance at two, it may sound like a case of premature congratulation to suggest that she’s already enjoyed the most triumphant night she’ll have in 2019, if not in her career. But during Sunday’s opening performance
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, “Rent: Live” airs on Fox and “Celebrity Big Brother” returns for a second
Cocaine’s a hell of a drug, but you’re not seeing things: That, indeed is Showtime’s old 1980s-era logo pasted all over marketing materials and promos for “Black Monday,” a tongue-in-cheek tale of the excesses exhibited by Wall Street traders in the lead-up to the stock market crash of 1987. The logo, which hasn’t been in
With his fifth No. 1 box office opening, M. Night Shyamalan has plenty to celebrate. “Glass,” the conclusion to a trilogy that consists of the 2000 cult hit “Unbreakable” and 2016’s box office sensation “Split,” topped the box office last weekend — though its win comes with a few caveats. James McAvoy reprised his role
Abba fans rejoiced last April when the group, which split up 35 years ago, announced that they had recorded two new songs for a “Virtual Abba” experience in collaboration with “American Idol” creator Simon Fuller. The project first announced in 2016, and was scheduled to premiere, via digital versions of band members, on NBC and ABC
January 21, 2019 9:04AM PT [embedded content] Patra Spanou has picked up world sales rights to “Los miembros de la familia” (Family Members), which will world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section. Variety has been given an exclusive first look of the film’s trailer. The film is the second feature from writer/director Mateo
January 21, 2019 8:37AM PT Fox News has apologized for airing a graphic that incorrectly implied Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died. The 85-year-old Supreme Court Justice, who is very much alive, is at home recovering from lung surgery. The graphic ran during the morning show “Fox & Friends,” displaying a photo of Ginsburg with the
This is a particularly tricky review to write, but not because the merits of “Russian Doll” are at all ambiguous. On the contrary, the show is so striking and smart that I made a note to include it on my favorite TV shows of 2019 immediately after blowing through the season — which is saying