Rome-based distribution and production exec Thomas J. Ciampa — who last year exited WarnerMedia where he was Italy, Spain and Portugal country manager — is joining Rainbow Group, the prominent Italian indie best known for creating the hit “Winx Club” TV franchise. In his new position as Rainbow Group’s COO, Ciampa will play a key
KOREAN ROMANTIC REMAKE IS 28 YEARS BETTER LATE THAN NEVER Leading Korean star Jung Woo-sung (“A Moment to Remember”) will star opposite Shin Hyun-been (“Hospital Playlist”) in “Tell Me That You Love Me,” an original series for Genie TV. The show is a remake of the hit Japanese series of the same name that first
After a flurry of weekend negotiations, Microsoft said it hired Sam Altman — two days after the board of OpenAI abruptly ousted him as CEO — while OpenAI recruited Emmett Shear, most recently chief executive of livestreaming platform Twitch, to step in as interim CEO. Altman will lead a new artificial-intelligence research team at Microsoft,
A documentary about Eddie Hall, the strongman and “Expendables 4” actor, has been acquired for worldwide theatrical release and streaming by sports media company Generation Iron. “Taming The Beast – The Emptiness Within” is a feature-length doc from Switzerland-based Jeridoo Universe about British strongman Hall. “The film follows Hall, the world’s strongest man, as he
Yes Studios, the Tel Aviv-based producer and distributor behind “Fauda,” has scored major deals on “44 Hours,” a documentary feature about Gil Avni, a healthy 33-year-old father of two who was diagnosed with cerebral edema and miraculously recovered. The feature-length documentary has been acquired by Amazon Prime Video in the U.S. and by NRK in
Colleen Ballinger has addressed her infamous ukulele apology video, posted in June, in which she denied allegations of grooming through song. In a new video simply titled “fall vlog,” Ballinger returned to YouTube for the first time in four months and acknowledged that the apology was “really embarrassing.” “Obviously, the last video that I posted
As U.S. and European sales agents and distributors gather in Buenos Aires next week for Ventana Sur, there will be a very large elephant in the room: the stunning victory in Argentina’s presidential election Sunday of far right Javier Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist.” Milei won 55.8% of the vote promising to do away with inflation,
Leading Japanese indie film company Gaga Corporation has seen a controlling share stake sold to Genda Inc., a fast-moving entertainment conglomerate with its roots in arcade gaming. Genda is buying the 78% share holding owned by Gaga chairman Tom Yoda’s T.Y. Limited company. Yoda will retain the outstanding 22% in his own name and stay
With enough passion and grit, powerful, personal stories made one-man-band style can stand up against the best work of top Hollywood talent with far greater budgets. Warwick Thornton’s “The New Boy,” inspired by his own experiences of being packed off to a Christian boarding school in Australia as a youngster, was in development for 18
Shakira has reached a deal with Spanish authorities to settle her tax fraud case, on the day the trial was set to begin. The Colombian pop star was due to appear in court on Monday to face tax evasion charges. Spanish authorities had claimed Shakira owed over €14.5 million in taxes between 2012 and 2014,
Blackpink, the multinational female music act that is the biggest girl group in the Korean pop (K-pop) firmament, may finally be close to renewing its collective contract with YG Entertainment. The news was widely reported in Korea on Monday and comes after months of speculation that the four-piece act – Jisoo (real name Kim Ji-soo),
Japanese manga series “Tiger Mask” is being adapted into a live-action feature for the international market by Italy’s Fabula Pictures and Brandon Box and Japan’s Kodansha. The popular manga, which follows a ruthless professional Japanese wrestler named Naoto Date who after making it big in the U.S. returns to his country and fights against evil
Michael Mann’s “three decades of research” provided the key to putting audiences in the driver’s seat of vintage Ferraris racing down a thousand miles of Italian roads that are well known for taking human lives. That’s what “Ferrari” cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt discovered when he teamed with the director of crime classics such as “Heat” and
Veteran actor Ciaran Hinds and Odessa Young have joined “Euphoria” star Jacob Elordi in the cast of premium Australian miniseries “The Narrow Road to the Deep North.” Production is now under way. An adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning novel by Richard Flanaghan, the five-part series is love story set against the backdrop of World War
Morgan Wallen and Taylor Swift were the big winners at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards, which broadcast live on multiple platforms Sunday night. Wallen led the winners list with 11, Swift was close behind with 10; Drake had five, Zach Bryan and SZA four, and 21 Savage, Bad Bunny, Beyonce and Miley Cyrus all scored
AMC’s “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live,” featuring the return of beloved characters Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne Grimes (Danai Gurira) from the original series, has released a new teaser. The series is the next installment of the popular “The Walking Dead” franchise and will premiere Feb. 25, 2024, on both AMC and
Local crime drama film “Last Suspect” returned to the top spot at the mainland China box office over the latest weekend, as “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” opened quietly in third place. Narrowly beaten last week by “The Marvels,” “Last Suspect” climbed one place while “The Marvels” fell out of the
Mystery-horror film “Five Nights at Freddy’s” landed on top of the South Korean cinema box office. But fellow new release title “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songs and Snakes” managed only a fourth placed start. “Five Nights” earned $1.78 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by
A nine-film retrospective of Indian cinema acting legend Amitabh Bachchan is set for the Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes, France. The retrospective, titled “Amitabh Bachchan, Big B Forever,” will showcase different aspects of the actor’s oeuvre including his persona as the ‘angry young man,’ created by writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, action, drama,
Liz Phair remains larger than life, in a way — even taller than 6’1”, if you will — as a result of her utterly down-to-earth yet myth-making first album, “Exile in Guyville,” in 1993. Thirty years after it changed the course of rock ‘n’ roll, that debut is being celebrated on a cross-country tour in
Dex Carvey, the son of comedian and former “SNL” star Dana Carvey, died of an accidental drug overdose on Nov. 15. He was 32. Dana Carvey confirmed the news in a joint statement with his wife Paula Zwagerman on Instagram. “Last night we suffered a terrible tragedy. Our beloved son, Dex, died of an accidental
Joss Ackland, the veteran British stage and screen actor who was known for starring in “White Mischief” and “Lethal Weapon 2,” died on Sunday. He was 95. “Joss was a long term client and great friend who remained lucid, erudite and mischievous to the very end, he died peacefully with his family this morning,” said
“The Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is nearing the $100 million mark worldwide after three days of release. Those ticket sales, including $44 million in North America and $54.5 million internationally, were enough to top the box office. But they didn’t come close to recapturing the glory of the original “Hunger
Rosalynn Carter, former first lady and wife of the 39th U.S. President Jimmy Carter, has died. She was 96. Rosalynn Carter died at her home in Plains, Ga., on Sunday, the Carter Center announced in a statement. She had been living with dementia and entered hospice care on Friday. “Rosalynn was my equal partner in
Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes” won best film at the 17th edition of Leffest Lisboa Film Festival, which announced awards Saturday night. Marking Erice’s first feature film since his 1992 docudrama “The Quince Tree Sun” and garnering almost universal positive reviews – Variety called it “an aching ode to film, time and memory” – following its world
Zack Snyder announced earlier this year that “Rebel Moon,” his two-part science-fiction epic for Netflix, would have director’s cuts for each movie. The director revealed more details on what these director’s cuts would entail in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. While both “Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire” and “Rebel Moon Part
Nearly four decades ago, Lifetime Channel launched as a woman-centered network airing mostly talk shows and syndicated series. Four years later, the whole cable network changed, premiering its first TV movie, “Memories of a Murder.” The 1990 movie, starring Nancy Allen, set the tone for what was to come, with a plot about a stepmother
If movie and TV studios get nervous about advertising, so should everyone else. Advertisers loathe controversy, and often “pull” or “yank” their commercials from individual pieces of content that generate it. But the studios have stiffer spines. They don’t run garden-variety commercials, but rather trailers and sneak previews of much-anticipated TV programs, and their target
In “Dashing Through the Snow,” Lil Rel Howery has the off-the-cuff funk energy of a hustler who’s so quick that you believe his spiel before you’ve had the chance to outthink it. The whole issue of believing is key to the movie, since Howery plays Santa Claus — or, perhaps, a petty criminal who’s pretending
Before production got underway on Apple TV+’s “Silo” in 2021, creator Graham Yost’s inbox was a constant barrage of questions. “I would get 50 emails a day from production design and set dec and costuming with questions about the logic of what would be in a silo,” the creator tells Variety. Who can blame them?