Disney investors rallied behind Bob Iger’s reinstallation as the chief executive of the Mouse House, with the company’s shares climbing more than 8% in early trading Monday. On Sunday, Disney’s board made the surprise announcement that Iger, who previously led the company as CEO from 2005-25, would return for a two-year term. Iger replaces Bob
France’s top two commercial channels, TF1 and M6, have decided to sell their stakes in Salto, the French streaming service, Variety has confirmed. That will leave Salto without two of its three parent companies. The service, which launched in 2020 after multiple delays, was created by TF1, M6, France Televisions in an effort to give
The Cairo Film Festival’s Cairo Film Connection co-production market spread the love at an award ceremony Sunday night, with 15 projects claiming 20 prizes in the Egyptian capital valued at some $225,000. Among the standouts were Suzannah Mirghani’s “Cotton Queen” and “Lamp in the Dark,” from Sudanese filmmaker Mahdi El-Tayeb, which both took home awards
“Drishyam 2,” headlined by A-lister Ajay Devgn has brought some much needed cheer to the beleaguered Bollywood box office with a strong opening weekend gross of INR890 million ($11 million). The suspense thriller, which also stars Tabu and Akshaye Khanna, is a sequel to 2015 hit “Drishyam.” The Hindi-language films are remakes of the Malayalam-language
Actor and director Konkona Sen Sharma (“A Death in the Gunj”) will join the likes of Dave Chappelle, Lena Dunham and Russell Brand as podcast platform Luminary launches an India unit. Launched originally in the U.S. in 2018, Luminary operates a premium podcasting platform addressing a subscription audience with “smart and entertaining content.” The company
Viaplay has assembled a top notch international cast for “Stockholm Bloodbath,” Mikael Håfström’s female-led epic adventure movie. The ambitious movie marks Viaplay’s second English-language film original, following Oscar-nominated helmer Lasse Hallström’s biopic “Hilma.” “Stockholm Bloodbath” will star Sophie Cookson (“Kingsman: The Golden Circle”), Claes Bang (“Dracula,””The Square”), Emily Beecham (“Cruella”), Alba August (“Becoming Astrid”), Adam
Bollywood megastar multi-hyphenate Shah Rukh Khan, one of Indian cinema’s global icons, will be celebrated with an honorary award by Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival. Khan — affectionately called King Khan — has won most popular actor accolades three times at the Central European Bollywood Awards. A thriving actor-producer, Khan has been making
NBCUniversal International Networks and direct-to-consumer is set to launch DreamWorks, the 24-hour channel dedicated to kids and family entertainment. DreamWorks is distributed as a linear and on-demand service on SFR, the French telco group available on French TV sets. The service is available to all SFR subscribers. “We are thrilled that DreamWorks is now available
“Last Film Show” (aka “Chhello Show”), India’s Oscar contender, was this weekend named winner of the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles. Writer-director Pan Nalin and producer Dheer Momaya were presented with the Snow Leopard trophy at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills. “The best movie encompasses everything we want to see in a
Bob Iger was always going to be a tough act to follow. But Bob Chapek’s tenure at the helm of Disney was also marked by unforced errors that ultimately made it impossible to escape Iger’s shadow. On Sunday night, Chapek was ousted and replaced by Iger, a little less than three years after Chapek succeeded
SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers up to Episode 4 of “The White Lotus,” airing Sundays on HBO and streaming on HBO Max. Think you know Ethan? Think again. On Season 2 of “The White Lotus,” Will Sharpe plays the reserved, if not slightly awkward, tech guy who recently came into wealth and embarks on
Killing off someone in the AMC series “The Walking Dead” is tough. Doing so often requires striking a violent blow to the brain. On Sunday, the task became even more complex, thanks to a little help from Madison Avenue. Four old characters from the series’ more than 177 episodes returned Sunday night, but not during
Warning: Don’t open, spoilers inside. Stop here if you haven’t yet watched “The Walking Dead” series finale, which aired Sunday night on AMC. “The Walking Dead” ended its 11-season and 177-episode AMC run on Sunday night with a hopeful note, as the Commonwealth had entered a period of peace and the show’s stars prepared to
It’s hard to talk about “The Walking Dead” without talking about death. It built its reputation as a show where anyone could be killed off, and indeed, it turned over roughly a third of its cast every season in its early years. (Lest you forget them, the series finale gives its final moments over to
Japanese animation film, “Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween” leaped to the top of the mainland China box office and gave the industry its best figures in six weeks. It also helped push the industry’s year-to-date cumulative past the $4 billion mark. The film opened with $11.7 million (RMB81.7 million) according to data from consultancy
UPDATED with Bob Iger’s full memo: Bob Iger has replaced Bob Chapek as Disney’s CEO, a shocking turn of events for the world’s largest media company that has been in turmoil ever since Iger stepped down as CEO in February 2020. The shakeup that caught the entertainment industry and Wall Street mostly by surprise was
Last week’s season premiere of “Yellowstone” was very dramatic: John Dutton (Kevin Costner) became the governor and already hates it, Beth (Kelly Reilly) has Jamie (Wes Bentley) under her thumb, and Monica (Kelsey Asbille) loses her child in a freak car accident. Things are still high-impact in Episode 3, and Variety gathered loose thoughts, burning
Amid an alleged controversy over a Chris Brown-helmed Michael Jackson tribute that was canceled at the eleventh hour, the singer won Favorite Male R&B Artist trophy and got a shout-out from Kelly Rowland. “Chris brown is not here tonight, so I’m accepting this award on his behalf,” Rowland said, before responding to some unclear shouts
A volley of new releases kept life in the South Korean box office over the weekend. They ranked second, third and fourth, leaving “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” with a narrow lead in first place for the second week. “Wakanda Forever” earned $2.99 million in its second weekend, a 55% week-on-week decline. The score was enough
Jean-Marie Straub, the French director who created an influential body of rigorous political films with his late partner Danièle Huillet, died Saturday evening in Rolle, Switzerland. He was 89. Straub’s death was confirmed by the French publication Le Monde. In 1954, Straub met Huillet in Paris when she was a member of Cahiers du Cinema
The launch of a segment called ‘Book to Box Office’ within the Film Bazaar project market in Goa this week is an attempt to bridge the gap between filmmakers and authors, publishers and literary agencies. The emergence of a panoply of streaming platforms in India competing for content has led to a rush for established
The talent enrichment program 75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow was launched in 2021 to coincide with 75 years of Indian Independence. In its second year, the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) sidebar aims to recognize and nurture an additional community of young filmmakers. A further seventy-five young and aspiring filmmakers and artists from across
The Film Bazaar project market in Goa will be the first outing for semi-autobiographical drama film project “The Last Lane” (‘Band Galli’), to be directed by Gautam Arora. Production is handled by Kite Rabbit Films, the label headed by Shaunak Sen, whose “All That Breathes” won the best documentary at the Cannes Film Festival and
During Elton John’s performance at Dodgers Stadium Saturday evening, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced a $1 million donation to the artist and performer’s activist organization, the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The Rocketman’s final United States tour concluded over the weekend with three sold-out shows at Dodger Stadium. During the 75-year-old singer’s penultimate performance, Dodgers chairman
One week after being overtaken by Drake and 21 Savage’s “Her Loss,” Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” has returned to the No. 1 spot atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Nov. 26), claiming third nonconsecutive week at the peak. The album racked up 204,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 17 (down 32%), according to
The 2022 American Music Awards air live Sunday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, hosted by Wayne Brady. Bad Bunny leads the pack of nominees with eight nods, followed by Beyoncé, Drake and Taylor Swift with six each. The Weeknd, Adele and Harry Styles each have five nominations. This year’s awards show introduced some
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are reuniting as business partners with the launch Artists Equity, a production venture backed by RedBird Capital Partners that vows to expand profit participation and provide a ‘talent-friendly’ environment to creatives. Media investor Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird is said to have committed at least $100 million to funding the venture. Affleck
Unhappy Bob Dylan fans who spent $599 to buy 900 personally “hand-signed” copies of his new book, “The Philosophy of Modern Song,” are set to receive refunds, after the publisher, Simon & Schuster, acknowledged Sunday afternoon that complaints pouring in about the signatures actually being mechanical duplicates were valid. “To those who purchased the ‘Philosophy
Jason David Frank, the actor who originated the role of Tommy Oliver a.k.a. the Green Ranger in the “Power Rangers” franchise, died Nov. 19 in Texas. He was 49 years old. Frank’s death was confirmed to the Associated Press by his manager, Justine Hunt. No further details about the actor’s death could be confirmed, but
When first looks at the upcoming “Barbie” film dropped in June showing off Ryan Gosling’s chiseled six-pack, orange spray-tan and platinum mop-top, the internet went gaga for the two-time Oscar nominee’s look as Ken. In the photo, Gosling sports personalized underwear and a rugged denim outfit from head-to-toe, though “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig revealed the