Samuel Ishimwe was reared on a diet of 1980s action thrillers and Hollywood B-movies. Growing up in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, a bucolic city of jacaranda trees and terraced hills, he dreamed of becoming a filmmaker and working with the larger-than-life stars he saw on TV: action heroes including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude van […]
Bandai Namco, publisher of the “Tekken” and “Soulcalibur” series, is partnering with independent developer DigixArt and “Wallace & Gromit” creator Aardman Animation Studios on a new story-driven World War I adventure game called “11-11: Memories Retold,” the companies announced today. As of right now, details on “11-11” are relatively scant, but based on the game’s […]
The Roots drummer also revealed the uber A-list DJ gig that almost made him hang up his decks. It’s a well-established fact that Roots drummer Questlove is a Prince superfan. The leader of the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon house band has expressed his love for the late rock icon dozens of times over the years, […]
The Music Business Association (Music Biz) has added Pandora CEO Roger Lynch as a keynote speaker at its upcoming Music Biz Conference, which will be held in Nashville from May 14-17. Lynch’s keynote will take the form of a conversation with Sony Music Nashville chairman and CEO Randy Goodman on May 16; which will focus on his […]
Universal Music Group announced today it has entered into a multi-year deal with independent distributor EMPIRE, the company founded by San Francisco-based executive Ghazi Shami in 2010. The agreement will cover global distribution for “select artist projects,” according to a press release. EMPIRE first made its name as a distribution company that catered primarily to hip-hop artists, […]
April 24, 2018 10:00AM PT French billionaire Vincent Bollore, who last week stepped down as chairman of media giant Vivendi, was taken by police into custody on Tuesday for questioning as part of an investigation into allegations of corrupt business practices in Africa. The head of the Bollore Group, who is 66, is being questioned in […]
Hayley Atwell may have made a name for herself among American television audiences when she joined the Marvel universe as Peggy Carter in “Agents of SHIELD” and “Agent Carter,” but that is far from the London-born actress’ only period drama. In 2010 she starred in “The Pillars of the Earth” and now she is taking […]
A casualty of the Nintendo Switch port of “Dark Souls: Remastered” being delayed, the upcoming Network Test on the console has also been pushed back, developer From Software revealed yesterday on the official “Dark Souls” Twitter account. The Test on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One is set to continue as planned. “Unfortunately, the change of […]
Just as fans begin to recover from last month’s back-to-back single releases from Shawn Mendes, the Canadian sweetheart evokes another flood of emotion with his music video for “In My Blood,” which dropped Tuesday (Apr. 24). The rock ballad, which was released March 22, had members of the Mendes Army feeling all the feels over some of the singer’s most […]
Life Is Beautiful Music & Arts Festival is returning to Las Vegas for another round in 2018, and the just-released lineup is jam-packed with today’s top artists. The headliners cross multiple genres, combining the R&B talents of The Weeknd, Tyler, the Creator, N.E.R.D and Travis Scott with alternative and dance favorites Florence + the Machine, CHVRCHES […]
Jason Aldean‘s eighth studio full-length, Rearview Town, launches atop the all-genre Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts (dated April 28), with 183,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 19, according to Nielsen Music. Of the sum, 162,000 were in traditional album sales. Produced by Michael Knox, the set is the first […]
At the start of April, a spattering of American and French journalists gathered, Champagne in hand, at the home of French consul general to Los Angeles Christophe Lemoine for the lineup announcement of the 21st City of Lights, City of Angels film festival, which kicks off tonight with Eric Barbier’s Romain Gary biopic “Promise at […]
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, “The Handmaid’s Tale” returns for Season 2 and Kevin James drops his first […]
With fresh investment from The Raine Group in hand, Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens’ Propagate has bought into Incognita, the French shingle run by Edouard de Vesinne. The timing worked for both sides with Propagate having a warchest for investments after Raine backed the company, and De Vesinne exiting EuropaCorp. “This was the first […]
New York-based entertainment law firm Serling Rooks Hunter McKoy & Worob has appointed Craig Averill as a name partner and announced the reopening of a Nashville office. The firm, which represents a wide range of labels, artists, producers, publishers, managers and booking agencies, has also promoted attorneys Patrick Sabatini and Jeffrey Koenig to partners. The newly christened Serling Rooks Hunter […]
Electronic music producer Alesso and YouTube personality and musician Rudy Mancuso are both working with Shots Studios entertainment company, which means it’s quite easy for the two creatives to come together and make something exciting. After some friendly hangs, the pair have come up with a collaboration. It’s an instrumental track all about blending their styles, aptly-titled […]
If there’s one thing America knows how to do, it’s how to vote for a total winner. And so it should thrill fans of American Idol that “the power is finally in your hands,” as Ryan Seacrest announces on Sunday (Apr. 22) night’s episode, to select who from the Top 14 you want to see move […]
April 22, 2018 8:01AM PT Wherever Beyonce goes, gossip precedes her, and rumors abounded that she would dramatically change up her world-beating Coachella performance last Saturday for the festival’s second weekend — one of her dancers even told Variety that the performers would “switch up a couple things.” While there were some tweaks — mostly […]
“A Quiet Place” had another noisy weekend at the domestic box office, reclaiming the No. 1 slot in its third frame. John Krasinski’s thriller co-starring Emily Blunt continued on its stellar run, earning $22 million from 3,808 locations. “A Quiet Place” had another impressive holdover, declining only 34% to bring its domestic tally to $132 million. […]
In a bid to keep up with the fast-evolving TV viewing habits of its audience, Telemundo has launched a new Sunday night drama franchise billed as “Series Premium.” The new weekly program aims to bring a host of high-concept series that run 10 to 15 episodes per season, a big shift from the traditional telenovela […]
Maren Morris and Zedd found musical kismet in their pop-crossover collaboration with Grey, “The Middle,” and a new video by The New York Times retraces the journey that led them to the massive hit. For the Times‘ new series, Diary of a Song, Zedd, Morris, Grey, songwriter Sarah Aarons and producers Monsters & Strangerz go back to […]
Chic‘s long-awaited upcoming album, It’s About Time, will feature a host of noteworthy guest appearances, the group’s guitarist and co-founder Nile Rodgers recently teased. As previously reported, It’s About Time, Chic’s first new album in 25 years, will include appearances by Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Disclosure, Nao, and British soul singers Jorja Smith and Ray BLK. But […]
Record Store Day 2018 started off strong in Brooklyn on Saturday (April 21) with the third annual Record Store Day Crawl. The vinyl-enthusiast event began with a breakfast buffet (the highlight once again being the French toast sticks) and morning drinks at Baby’s All Right, providing crawlers with energy to power through the day of crate […]
April 20, 2018 6:40PM PT A southern widower moves to California, where he falls into a romance with a transgender sex worker, in Timothy McNeil’s contrived indie. Love, companionship, healing and deliverance often come from unexpected places, but in movies, it’s far too easy for out-of-the-blue twists of fate to feel creakily contrived. That fact […]
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Chapter Eighty-One,” the season 4 finale of “Jane The Virgin.” The fourth season finale of “Jane The Virgin” was supposed to be a time of celebration: Alba (Ivonne Coll) became an American citizen; Rafael (Justin Baldoni) planned to propose to Jane (Gina Rodriguez); Rogelio’s (Jaime […]
The Weinstein Co., which is two weeks away from a bankruptcy auction, appointed a new board member on Friday who will weigh in on the sale. Ivona Smith is a consultant at Drivetrain Advisors, a firm that provides independent board service for companies in bankruptcy. According to a statement on Friday night from the Weinstein […]
News of Avicii’s death on April 20 has hit the music industry hard — not just because he was one of the most successful dance music producers of the last decade, but also because Tim Bergling, the man behind the EDM moniker, was beloved as a human being. Among those closest to Avicii were the […]
“Grey’s Anatomy” has been renewed for a fifteenth season at ABC, making it the longest-running primetime drama in the history of the network. “‘Grey’s Anatomy’ has a special place in my heart and millions of viewers feel the same way,” said Channing Dungey, president of ABC Entertainment. “Thanks to fiercely loyal fans who have been […]
Any major fan of Todd Rundgren’s Utopia has pretty much been living in a constant state of dystopia for the last 25 years. It’s been more than three decades since the band went on seemingly eternal hiatus and a quarter-century since they did their seemingly one and only reunion tour in Japan. But now Rundgren’s […]
Verizon is shedding another asset from its Oath division: The telco has sold photo-sharing service Flickr — which had been part of Yahoo — to SmugMug. Terms of the deal, announced late Friday, weren’t disclosed. SmugMug said Flickr will continue to operate separately, telling users that SmugMug and Flickr accounts will “remain separate and independent […]