President Joe Biden took to Twitter to denounce Hitler and to encourage political leaders to “reject” antisemitism, noting, “Silence is complicity.” While Biden did not address Kanye West by name, the president’s message was posted less than 24 hours after the controversial rapper went on an antisemitic tirade during a Dec. 1 interview on Alex
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Immerse yourself in Westeros for the night with the “Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience.” Led by Emmy-winning composer Ramin Djawadi, the show is returning for a special encore at the Hollywood Bowl in
After more than two decades at Amazon, top exec Jeff Blackburn has decided to retire from the ecommerce giant. Blackburn, who joined Amazon in 1998 after advising on its IPO, left the company briefly in February 2021 to join Bessemer Venture Partners, but returned quickly that June as Amazon’s SVP of a new Global Media
It’s a business of authenticity and ingenuity, populated with born entrepreneurs, talented artisans and experienced business owners. The growing marketplace for unscripted TV related to food, home, design, beauty, health, wellness and related subjects was the focus of Variety’s inaugural Lifestyle Leaders breakfast gathering featuring conversations with “Property Brothers” stars Drew and Jonathan Scott and
MGM’s Orion Pictures has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Emmy-winning writer Cord Jefferson’s untitled feature directorial debut, starring Emmy winner Jeffrey Wright. Produced by MRC and Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman’s T-Street Productions, the film is based on the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett. Jefferson (“Watchmen,” “Maser of None”) also adapted the screenplay. “As longtime
At the core of Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” are the titular women, who, as cinematographer Luc Montpellier says, are “in the process of dismantling an old world that has been part of their lives their entire life.” In the film, an ensemble of actors led by Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley, discuss the
Prepare to see another familiar face in “Ballerina,” the spinoff set in Lionsgate’s “John Wick” universe. Lance Reddick is reprising his role as Charon, a concierge at the pivotal Continental Hotel, in the upcoming film. “Ballerina” stars Ana de Armas as a young female assassin who seeks revenge against those who killed her family. Len
Overnight success was a long time coming for Kim Petras. After a decade navigating every rung of the music industry, she finally hit the jackpot with “Unholy.” At the beginning of October, the slinky Sam Smith collaboration became Petras’ first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 and, to her complete astonishment, topped the chart a
Turin’s Talents and Short Film Market held the inaugural edition of training and pitching program A Long Way Home this week, showcasing five feature-length projects based on or inspired by a previously released short movie. The program wrapped on Wednesday, with the TorinoFilmLab Award going to “Inbetween Worlds,” directed by Diana Cam Van Nguyen. The
Julia Reichert, the veteran documentarian who won an Oscar in 2020 for her feature “American Factory,” died on Dec. 1 due to cancer, Variety has confirmed. She was 76. Across her more than 50 years as a filmmaker, Reichert received four Academy Award nominations and one win, two Primetime Emmys, a Director’s Guild Award and
“I thought about exploiting the pandemic to tell this story of intimacy,” Romanian-born, Swedish-based director Ştefan Constantinescu told Variety, after the screening of “Man and Dog.” The movie was showcased in the main competition of this week’s Torino Film Festival. Constantinescu’s debut follows Doru (Bodgan Dumitrache) who suddenly leaves his work in Göteborg, and returns
That Lil Nas X spent all of $30 to purchase the beat for “Old Town Road” has become the stuff of music-industry legend. As the story goes, a 19-year-old Dutch trap producer, Kiowa Roukema, who goes by YoungKio, built the beat from a sample of Nine Inch Nails’ “34 Ghosts IV.” He posted it to
Paramount’s Pluto TV launched its free, ad-supported (FAST) channels in Canada on Dec. 1, joining TUBI and the newly premiered CBC News Explore, which also made its Canadian debut this week. The Pluto TV debut is in partnership with Canada’s Corus Entertainment, which oversees national advertising for the new platform. At launch there are more
Pedro Almodóvar revealed that “Strange Way of Life,” his Western short film starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke, will premiere in May at the Cannes Film Festival. The director broke the news on Dua Lipa’s “At Your Service” podcast. Almodóvar described the half-hour film as a “queer Western, in the sense that there are two
Motown in the 1960s? Warner Bros. Records in the 1970s and ‘80s? One has to look back decades to find a record company that has maintained a high level of success and creativity for as long as Atlantic Records under the leadership of Julie Greenwald and Craig Kallman, who took the helm at the company
Jimmy Kimmel started the Dec. 2 episode of his ABC talk show by condemning Kanye West for praising Hitler during a horrific antisemitic tirade on Alex Jones’ “Infowars” talk show earlier that day. Kimmel called West a “Black white supremacist” and expressed shock over the fact that the controversial rapper still has a following. West
In Apple TV+ hit “Slow Horses,” Christopher Chung stars as the obnoxious (yet endearing) hacker Roddy Ho. Based on the Mick Herron book series of the same name, the show sees Gary Oldman play Jackson Lamb, a washed-up spy and reluctant ringleader of a group of MI5 losers put out to pasture in the unglamorous
The New York Film Critics Circle, one of the first critics’ groups to weigh in on awards season, announced its winners on Friday morning. The East Coast org is comprised of more than 50 journalists from publications such as Time and Variety. NYFCC’s winner for best film has typically had a strong correlation with the
Sarah Lancashire and James Norton are set to reunite when “Happy Valley” returns to screens in January, the BBC confirmed today. The third and supposedly final season of the show will drop in the U.K. on New Year’s Day, airing on BBC One and streaming platform iPlayer. (A U.S. release date has not yet been
Elon Musk kicked Kanye West off Twitter after the rapper-entrepreneur tweeted an image of a Nazi swastika embedded inside the Star of David. Musk, the mega-billionaire who bought Twitter about a month ago, said late Thursday that West’s account was suspended for “incitement to violence.” West’s boot from Twitter, where he had more than 32
Helena Bonham Carter transforms into 1980s soap opera star Noele Gordon in the first trailer from upcoming drama “Nolly.” Written by “Doctor Who” and “It’s a Sin” showrunner Russell T. Davies, “Nolly” tells the story of “Coronation Street” star Gordon (known to her friends and fans as Nolly) who was unceremoniously dumped from the show
Spend any time talking with those in the documentary sector, and they’ll lament how hard it is to land commissions without having a celebrity aboard – a precondition that invariably impacts on journalistic rigour. If you’re seeking the greenlight for a magazine show on 21st century sexuality, however, attaching model-turned-actor Cara Delevingne, polysexual pin-up and
When architects designed São Paulo’s Octavio Ferreiras de Oliveira Bridge, which opened in 2008, they didn’t set out to connect the two sides of Pinheiros River but rather to create a global symbol. The city’s citizenry largely approved. Its stunning, unique locations, which also prove part of the city’s narrative, are a big draw for
Speaking from the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Guy Ritchie revealed Friday that his thriller “The Interpreter” is now titled “The Covenant.” “Names, as it transpires, is about the most challenging aspect of filmmaking,” Ritchie told Variety. “The last few films I’ve done, the trickiest decision to make has been the name of
If Brazil is now back as a serious player at the climate emergency table following Lula da Silva’s stunning presidential election win in October, film and production investmentmay not be far behind. Launched in 2021, São Paulo city’s 20%-30% cash rebate for foreign shoots and international co-productions, the first of its kind in Brazil, is
Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks has snagged comedy “The Unexpected Joker” (“El Metodo Tangalanga”) by Mateo Bendesky, a buzzy comedy produced by prominent Argentine producer Diego Dubcovsky under his production banner, Varsovia Films. Disney’s new theatrical distribution banner, Star Distribution, will release the film in Latin America in January 2023. Comedy had its world premiere at Argentina’s
While video-based platforms like TikTok and YouTube hogged most of the attention and optimism at influencer convention CreatorWorld, industry insiders had wildly differing views instead on the future of Twitter, the embattled social news service. Alex Dwek of Nas Company is betting on the outsized personality of Twitter boss Elon Musk, and the nature of
Producers Rohit Shetty Productionz, T-Series Films and Reliance Entertainment have released the first trailer for keenly-anticipated comedy film “Cirkus.” Featuring Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma in dual roles, the film also stars Pooja Hegde, Jacqueline Fernandez, Johnny Lever, Siddhartha Jadhav, Sanjay Mishra, Tiku Talsania, Vrajesh Hirjee and Ashwini Kalsekar. The film also has cameos by
The Unhappy Holiday Movie has become almost a genre unto itself, this year’s new additions running a now-familiar gamut from the sour seasonal rebound rom-com to wreathed-in-gore Yuletide horrors (including this weekend’s “Violent Night” and “Christmas Bloody Christmas”). No matter how dyspeptic in spirit, all tend to hang onto a certain cuteness, reassuring viewers they
Top Middle East exhibitor Vox Cinemas, which is also active in distribution and production, is ramping up its investment in producing Arabic feature films and unveiling its first full-fledged slate of local original movies at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival. Vox’s Arabic line-up caters to local market demands by providing commercially viable works in