Long-time Fremantle executive Rob Clark, who has been virtually synonymous with the company’s success in the global formats business, is retiring after almost 20 years. The director of Global Entertainment — an animated character well known to many in the international industry — will officially depart in February 2023. Fremantle has confirmed that there will
Ralph Fiennes, who played Lord Voldemort in the ‘Harry Potter’ series, has defended the books’ author, calling the relentless abuse and death threats aimed at J.K. Rowling “disgusting” and “appalling.” “J.K. Rowling has written these great books about empowerment, about young children finding themselves as human beings,” Fiennes told the New York Times during a
Some seven months after “Top Gun: Maverick” hit theaters in the U.K. and Ireland it’s finally heading to Paramount+. It will be available to the streaming platform’s U.K. and Ireland subscribers from Dec. 22, no doubt providing an early Christmas present for Tom Cruise fans. The sequel to the 1986 hit sees Cruise training a
Characters created by beloved children’s author Roald Dahl are coming to the Calm meditation and sleep app, in a series of bedtime stories read by actors including Henry Golding and Kirby Howell-Baptiste. Calm entered into a multiyear deal with the Roald Dahl Story Company, which Netflix acquired last year, for a series of exclusive Sleep
The 26th edition of the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival will screen 300 films, including a retrospective on American Oscar-winning innovator Shirley Clarke, and what fest organizers describe as the largest-ever retrospective of Filipino cinema outside Asia. The fest, running Oct. 25-30, will include work on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a conference on
Picture Tree Intl. has picked up the global sales rights to Austrian horror movie “Smother” by up-and-coming director Achmed Abdel-Salam. The Glitter and Doom production is tentatively set for a local theatrical release in early 2023. After the sudden death of her estranged father, Michi, a young mother and former alcoholic, decides to stay in
James Corden took some time at the start of Monday’s episode of “The Late Late Show” to acknowledge a recent controversy involving his now-reversed ban from New York restaurant Balthazar, offering an apology for “the rude comment” he directed toward to the business’s waitstaff. Corden said he made the comment “in the heat of the
Having not released a second of music or video imagery from “Midnights” prior to that album’s release four nights ago, Taylor Swift is making up for lost time. She’s released the second music video for a song from the album just days after the first, with “Bejeweled” hitting the Swift-isphere hot on the heels of
Acclaimed film and theatre director Julie Taymor paid tribute to legendary Japanese filmmaker Kurosawa Akira in Tokyo on Tuesday, crediting his influence on her deciding to enter the film industry and contributing to her multi-cultural world view. “I go back to when I saw my first ‘foreign film’ in Paris, when I was 15 years
The first woman to testify in Harvey Weinstein’s Los Angeles trial broke down in tears, crying and breathing uncontrollably as she faced the jury Monday to detail her sexual assault allegations against the former Hollywood producer and already-convicted rapist. The witness, known as Jane Doe #1, was the first to be called by the prosecution.
A month from now, Martin Scorsese will turn 80, and the fact that he goes back that far has always given him a special angle on the rock ‘n’ roll world. From the start, he has been about looking at rock and watching it age — first in “Mean Streets,” where part of the hypnotic
Will Smith’s comeback got a boost from the likes of Rihanna and Dave Chappelle, who were just two of several high profile guests in attendance at a recent screening of “Emancipation.” The Antoine Fuqua-directed slavery drama marks Smith’s first movie release since the 2022 Oscars, where he slapped presenter Chris Rock on stage. In a
Harvey Weinstein’s defense told the jury that there is absolutely no evidence against their client and that every woman who will testify in his trial is an actress who will be playing a role on the stand — all to fit the narrative of #MeToo, which they characterized as an “asteroid” of a movement that
A former girlfriend of actor Danny Masterson testified Monday that she awoke one night in November 2001 to find that he was raping her. The woman — who is identified in court as Christina B. — told jurors that she yelled at him and tried to shove him away. But he just pressed down harder,
Plans for the sequel to 2018’s massively popular ‘Black Panther’ shifted dramatically when star Chadwick Boseman, aka King T’Challa, sadly passed away due to colon cancer. Marvel pressed on, choosing not to recast Boseman, and two years later, ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ is finally coming to theaters. RT correspondent Naz Perez takes us through everything
Netflix has canceled adult animated comedy “Bad Crimes” mid-production, and the project is now being shopped around to other platforms. “Bad Crimes” was being produced by comedy veterans Greg Daniels and Mike Judge (“King of the Hill”) with Nicole Byer and Lauren Lapkus set to voice the lead roles. The series is described as a
Sunu Gonera, co-creator and executive producer of AMC’s upcoming drama series “Parish,” has been removed from the project following an internal investigation into “very serious allegations” against him. “We recently became aware of some very serious allegations against an individual working on this production, who was immediately suspended and then terminated at the conclusion of
SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from the Oct. 23 Season 1 finale of “House of the Dragon,” now streaming on HBO Max. Unlike most “House of the Dragon” viewers on Sunday night, Olivia Cooke, who plays Alicent Hightower, wasn’t watching the finale — because she wasn’t in it. Instead, she and co-star Emma D’Arcy, who
Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” has become the first album to register a million units in a week in five years. The last album to do it? Taylor Swift’s “Reputation,” all the way back in 2017. Moreover, “Midnights” accomplished the feat in just its first three days on the market. Luminate tells Variety that the new record
Japan’s ColorBird Inc., is launching a trio of new titles at TIFFCOM, the rights market that accompanies the Tokyo International Film Festival, and which is this year held online only. Newest is “Winny,” a fact-based drama film that takes place in the early days of the Internet and sees a software developer wrongfully arrested by
Happinet Phantom Studios, the Japanese mini-studio which released Oscar contender “Plan 75” in its home market, is also handling international sales on a raft of new titles. These were introduced at the in-person Busan market and will be given a further launch this week at the online only Tokyo market (TIFFCOM). Headlining the slate is
Nippon Television, the Japanese broadcast and production group that owns Hulu Japan, has made headlines in recent months with the success of its TV formats. However, it is using the recent Busan and this month’s Tokyo rights market to tout a slate of theatrical movies. In the live action category, it is readying “Nemesis,” a
Could Marlon Wayans get away with making “White Chicks” in 2022? It’s a question that was recently posed to the comedian by Buzzfeed and led him to rail against “cancel culture.” Wayans stated that movies like “White Chicks” are needed more than ever despite the risk of being canceled. The 2004 comedy starred Marlon and
“The Great British Baking Show” (aka “The Great British Bake-Off”) knew what kind of reaction doing a “Mexican Week” might provoke. The new season’s fourth — and sure enough, immediately controversial — episode opened with hosts Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas standing in a bucolic English garden, sporting matching ponchos, sombreros, and excitable grins. “I’m
Production on Season 3 of “Call Me Kat” will pause production following the death of Leslie Jordan, Variety has learned. The actor died on Monday in a car accident age 67. Season 3 is currently airing on Fox, having premiered on Sept. 29. Since the comedy series debuted in 2021, Jordan has held the series
Warner Bros. Discovery, trying to get its balance sheet in order, said it will incur between $3.2 billion and $4.3 billion in pre-tax restructuring charges related to Discovery’s acquisition of WarnerMedia. The media company disclosed expected ranges for the charges in an SEC filing Monday. For the third quarter of 2022, WBD estimates it will
The first When We Were Young festival has come to an end. The pop-punk event, which included performances by My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Avril Lavigne, Taking Back Sunday and many more, started out on a rocky foot as they were forced to cancel day one due to high winds. Luckily, Sunday’s show was able to
The period-appropriate ‘80s pop hits assembled for Netflix’s “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” by veteran music supervisor Amanda Krieg Thomas provides a welcome contrast to Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ eerie, otherworldly and ominous score. Thomas, who has worked with Ryan Murphy and his production head Alexis Martin Woodall on “Pose,” “American Horror Story: Apocalypse”
Japanese indie studio Gaga is activating international sales on a handful of films in post-production, with the “We Make Antiques! Osaka Dreams” and “#Manhole” the headline titles. “Antiques” is a comedy about get rich quick schemes, art forgeries and the world of antiques. It is directed by Take Masaharu, the hitmaker with credits that include
“Outlander” served as Sam Heughan’s breakthrough acting role, but it would’ve been James Bond had he not been turned down by franchise producers. In his new memoir, “Waypoints: My Scottish Journey,” Heughan reveals he auditioned to play James Bond in “Casino Royale.” The role ended up going to Daniel Craig, who starred as 007 in