Variety

Xsolla president’s new book reveals how gaming companies can ‘get off that hit-driven hamster wheel’

Amid more layoffs and contraction and renewed going-discless discourse, we are facing no shortage of opinions about what strategies will finally rightsize the global-gaming-industry ship. Apart from r...

1 week ago

Jay Pharoah, Cheri Oteri, Adam Devine Among ‘Universal Basic Guys’ Season 3 Guest Stars (EXCLUSIVE)

“Saturday Night Live” alums Jay Pharoah and Cheri Oteri, as well as “Workaholics” star Adam Devine, are among the guest stars set to appear on the upcoming Season 3 of Fox’s animated series “Universal...

1 week ago

‘Quiz From God’: Japanese Remake of CJ ENM K-Drama, Starring Mamiya Shotaro, Sets Global Prime Video Launch (EXCLUSIVE)

Mamiya Shotaro leads a Japanese remake of CJ ENM’s Korean hit drama “Quiz From God,” which will stream exclusively on Prime Video from Dec. 4. The Prime Original series casts Mamiya as Hatsushima Haru...

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Variety Power of Women: Industry Leaders Mingle With Stars to Celebrate Female Empowerment and Philanthropy

A packed lineup of talent and industry executives stepped out for Variety’s Power of Women event at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Wednesday night. Making the rounds at cocktails and inside the ballroom w...

1 week ago

‘Avengers: Endgame Encore’ Adds 4 New Scenes Tying to ‘Doomsday’: [SPOILER] Fights Doctor Doom, [SPOILER] Travels to the Past and the Multiverse Colla...

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Avengers: Endgame Encore,” now playing in theaters. In the lead-up to “Avengers: Doomsday,” Marvel has re-released “Avengers: Endgame” in theaters wi...

1 week ago

Letterboxd Suitors Include A24 and New York Times; Sale Could Value Social Movie Platform at $300 Million: Report

A bidding war may be in full flower for Letterboxd, the popular film-reviews and social service that has been fielding inbound acquisition offers for several months. Indie studio A24 and the New York ...

1 week ago

Tamera Mowry-Housley Joins ‘Scrubs’ Reboot Season 2

Tamera Mowry-Housley is checking into Season 2 of the “Scrubs” reboot. The “Sister, Sister” and “Twitches” star has boarded the ABC sitcom as a guest star. She will play Dr. Steffie, a pediatric docto...

1 week ago

Serbia’s Screen Industries in Crisis Amid Claims That Blacklists, ‘State-Sponsored Censorship’ Are Designed to ‘Starve Independent Production’

The Serbian film and television industries are in a state of crisis, with independent production in the Balkan powerhouse crippled by what leading industry groups describe as “a coordinated campaign o...

1 week ago

‘Shrinking’ Season 4 Casts Judith Light (EXCLUSIVE)

Judith Light has joined “Shrinking” Season 4 in a recurring role, Variety has learned exclusively. Light will appear in the fourth season of the Apple TV series alongside returning stars Jason Segel, ...

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Canada’s Oscar Entry, Berlin Prizewinner ‘Nina Roza’ Acquired in U.S. by Dekanalog (EXCLUSIVE)

New York-based indie distributor Dekanalog has acquired the U.S. rights to “Nina Roza,” Canada’s Academy Awards submission. Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ film won the Silver Bear for best screenplay at ...

1 week ago

Judge Questions Legal Points of Paramount’s Settlement With States at Hearing, Says a Ruling Will Come in ‘Due Course’

The judge overseeing the antitrust case filed by 12 state attorneys general seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger questioned the parties about their settlement at a hearing Thur...

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Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts signs with 3 Arts Sports and Sanders Sports & Entertainment

Los Angeles Dodgers player Mookie Betts has signed with 3 Arts Sports and Sanders Sports & Entertainment (SSE) for personal representation. “I’ve always believed in surrounding myself with people ...

1 week ago

Sam Worthington and Sofia Carson to Star in ‘The Parsifal Mosaic’ TV Show in the Works at Hulu, Legendary (EXCLUSIVE)

Sam Worthington and Sofia Carson are executive producing and attached to star in “The Parsifal Mosaic,” a drama series based on Robert Ludlum’s 1982 spy novel in development at Hulu. The small screen ...

1 week ago

Former Disney CEO Bob Iger on What He Valued in a Successor After Chapek Ouster: Can They Deal With a ‘Real Crisis’ in ‘Reasonable and Sane and Steady...

It’s no secret that former Disney CEO Bob Iger didn’t end up loving his first choice successor, Bob Chapek, following Chapek’s very public firing and Iger’s rehiring. But now that Iger has left the to...

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The Federal Film Incentive Bill: What’s In and What’s Out

A bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled a bill on Thursday to create a 20% federal film incentive, with bonuses that could bring the total rebate to 30%. Here’s a quick rundown on what’s included and...

1 week ago

‘Forgotten Island’ Review: A Delightful Animated Celebration of Friendship and Filipino Culture

In Hollywood, parallel thought is a funny thing. As in every other sphere, two or more people can have a similar idea at the same time, but when those ideas bloom into movies, their release can feel l...

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‘Sesame Street’ Movie Set at Netflix, Plus ‘Gabby’s Dollhouse’ Spinoff and ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Game

After kids and family content brought Netflix 15% of its viewership in the first half of 2026, the streamer is doubling down on its children’s slate. Netflix announced several family-oriented projects...

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‘Musk’ Trailer: Alex Gibney Dissects the Legacy of the World’s Richest Man in Sprawling Documentary

Bleecker Street has released the trailer for “Musk,” Alex Gibney’s new documentary about the world’s richest man, tech mogul Elon Musk. “Musk” premiered out of competition at the 83rd Venice Internati...

1 week ago

Deacon Phillippe on His Feature Film Acting Debut and Parents Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe: ‘I Acknowledge That I’m Extremely Lucky’

Deacon Phillippe insists he wasn’t going to rely on his Hollywood genes — his parents are Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe — to make it in Hollywood. So much so that the 24-year-old aspiring music...

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U2’s First Album in Nine Years, ‘Carnaval De Luz,’ Will Feature a Dolly Parton Duet With Bono, Said to Be Her Last Recorded Vocal

For anyone waiting for years to get a U2 album again, it might have seemed as if the band was, you know, running to stand still. But the day is at hand, as the group’s first full-length recording in.....

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Charlie Brooker’s New Netflix Series Gets Title, ‘Blackmere,’ as Rory Kinnear Joins Cast and First-Look Photos Revealed

Charlie Brooker’s new Netflix series has revealed its title — “Blackmere” — not to be confused with the writer and producer’s other show for the streamer, “Black Mirror.” Netflix announced the show’s ...

1 week ago

‘Black Doves’ Season 2 Trailer: Keira Knightley Investigates Spy Murders With a New Team in Netflix Action Thriller

Keira Knightley is back in the first trailer for Netflix’s “Black Doves” Season 2. All six hour-long episode will release on November 5. The logline for Season 2 teases: “Helen (Knightley) is still be...

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Ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek Says Bob Iger Ran ‘Relentless Three-Year Campaign’ to Fire Him: ‘Made It Seem as If I Had Committed Some Terrible Offense’

Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek claims his predecessor-turned-successor Bob Iger underwent a “relentless three-year campaign to push me out” after initially appointing him to the job. “The way Disney’s b...

1 week ago

‘Day Drinker’ Trailer: Johnny Depp’s Hollywood Comeback Continues in a Twisty Thriller With Penélope Cruz and Madelyn Cline

Lionsgate has released a trailer for “Day Drinker,” the Marc Webb-directed thriller starring Johnny Depp, Madelyn Cline and Penélope Cruz. The film will hit theaters on March 26, 2027. “Day Drinker” f...

1 week ago

Macklemore Announces ‘Free Palestine’ Tour With All Ticket Sales Being Donated to Charity

Macklemore has announced the “Free Palestine” tour, with three shows set for Dublin (Oct. 26), Paris (Oct. 29) and London (Oct. 30). The news comes after the Grammy-winning rapper was infamously dropp...

1 week ago

RedBird Capital Signs Deal to Acquire Majority Stake in Puck, Valuing Media-Biz Outfit at $250 Million

Puck, the five-year-old media upstart, has a new owner: RedBird Capital Partners, the investment firm that is a backer of other media companies including Paramount Skydance’s merger bid for Warner Bro...

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Meta Unveils VR Glasses for $1,299, Promises 3D Films from Lionsgate, James Cameron, and Enhanced Versions of ‘Avengers’ and ‘Star Wars’

Meta’s given its glasses a virtual-reality upgrade. Meta unveiled its new $1,299 VR glasses at its annual Meta Connect event on Wednesday, an upgraded version of its Quest headset line. The product, t...

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‘The Mick Jagger of Auctions’ Celebrated in Simon Wallon’s ‘The Hammer’: ‘He’s in the Shadows but Also in the Spotlight’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Everyone knows Jeff Koons or Marina Abramović, but the art world has been hiding another celebrity: star auctioneer and former Sotheby’s chairman Simon de Pury. “He’s in the shadows but also in the sp...

1 week ago

ECAM Incubator Title ‘Copy’ Pairs a Heartbroken Film Assistant With a Movie Star Accused of Murder

What happens when an emotionally stranded young film worker becomes indispensable to one of the world’s biggest stars who may also be a murderer? That collision drives “Copy” (“El participio del verbo...

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Zurich Film Festival Heads on Theatrical-Loving Gen Z, Prioritizing Private Equity and Tilly Norwood a Year Later: This Is the ‘Place Where You Addres...

If one film could define this year’s Zurich Film Festival, it would be Peter Farrelly’s “I Play Rocky,” a heartfelt drama about the making of the Sylvester Stallone-starring classic that is playing as...

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Marlene Emilie Lyngstad Addresses First Reactions to Controversial Love Story ‘Cute’: ‘Maybe People Are Confronted by Their Own Monsters?’

Marlene Emilie Lyngstad has ruffled some feathers at San Sebastián with her feature debut “Cute.” “I find it interesting and exciting that the film creates such strong reactions,” she tells Variety. “...

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Paramount to Raise $7.5 Billion More in Debt to Fund Warner Bros. Deal

Paramount Skydance said Thursday it is launching a syndication to raise $7.5 billion through a proposed senior secured incremental tranche of term “B” loans. The David Ellison-led company it will use ...

1 week ago

‘American Horror Story’ Returns With Three-Episode Premiere: How to Watch Season 13 Online

“American Horror Story” is back. Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s long-running FX horror anthology returns Thursday, Sept. 24, with a three-episode premiere and one of the franchise’s biggest reunions y...

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Terence Winter, Dan Farah Team to Develop Series Based on UAP Memoir ‘Out of the Shadows’

Terence Winter and Dan Farah are partnering for a series take on the memoir of former U.S. Intelligence official Jay Stratton titled “Out of the Shadows,” Variety has learned. In the memoir, which wil...

1 week ago

Taylor Swift’s ‘Patient Zero’ Music Video, Starring Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell, to Debut at VMAs

Taylor Swift has recruited a couple of A-listers for her “Patient Zero” music video. Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell will star alongside Swift in the video for the new song, which releases on Friday ...

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In ‘Tenzing,’ Jennifer Peedom Ensures the Iconic Himalayan Mountaineer Is Finally ‘the Protagonist of His Own Life’

Tenzing Norgay was the first person to summit Mount Everest alongside Edmund Hillary. The Apple Original film “Tenzing,” opening Zurich Film Festival, reframes the story of that first ascent. “It’s of...

1 week ago

Judge Orders Trump White House to Restore Access to CNN, MS NOW, Politico Immediately

A federal judge has ordered the White House to immediate reinstate access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists, after President Donald Trump summarily banned them last Friday. U.S. District Judge T...

1 week ago

‘Percy Jackson’ Season 3 Stars Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries Set to Attend Italy’s Lucca Comics and Games

Disney+ will spotlight Season 3 of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” at Italy’s Lucca Comics and Games Festival, where stars Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri, and the show’s co-cr...

1 week ago

Block the Merger Coalition File Legal Request to Oppose Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal

A coalition of groups working under the Block the Merger banner have filed an emergency request to oppose Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery ahead of a court hearing in California this ...

1 week ago

Gaza Documentary ‘NAZA’ Set For Global Release Via Innovative Distribution Model That Will Involve Free Viewing Online Following Theatrical Outing

“NAZA,” the hot-button documentary about killings in Gaza that won a special jury prize at the recent Venice Film Festival, is set to soon be released theatrically in more than 50 territories and will...

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BBC Sets New Irish-Language Comedy Film ‘Baile,’ Starring Marion O’Dwyer and Hazel Doupe (EXCLUSIVE)

Production has started this week on “Baile,” a new comedy feature co-commissioned for the BBC Gaeilge, the Irish-language arm of BBC Northern Ireland, and Ireland’s national Irish-language broadcaster...

1 week ago

Beta Film Acquires ‘The Man from Milan’ and ‘Silent Nava,’ World Premieres ‘Queen Silvia’ at Mipcom (EXCLUSIVE)

Beta Film, which is heading to Cannes with the world premiere of Swedish royal romance drama “Queen Silvia,” has acquired world distribution rights to Italy’s “The Man from Milan” and, from Ukraine, “...

1 week ago

‘Nightborn,’ ‘The Danish Woman’ Win at Inaugural Edition of Nordic Film and TV Awards, Also Known as the Freyas

Hanna Bergholm’s Finnish horror film “Nightborn,” starring “Compartment No. 6” lead Seidi Haarla and Rupert Grint, won best film at the inaugural edition of the Freyas, also known as the Nordic Film a...

1 week ago

Ranbir Kapoor Bears a Bullet Wound in New Image From Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Love & War’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Top Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor carries a bullet wound in a new image from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming feature “Love & War,” in which he stars alongside Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal. The ima...

1 week ago

‘Ghost in the Shell,’ ‘Attack on Titan’ and ‘Blue Lock’ IP Lands at Dentsu in New Kodansha Partnership for the Americas (EXCLUSIVE)

Dentsu has struck a partnership giving clients in the Americas access to a broad swath of anime and manga intellectual property owned by Japanese publisher Kodansha Ltd., including “Attack on Titan,” ...

1 week ago

‘Suro’ Director Mikel Gurrea on ‘Saints,’ Directing ‘The Belovd’ Star Victoria Luengo, Religious-Art Theft and Finding Mystery in Care

For director Mikel Gurrea’s latest he didn’t have to travel far in search of a story. “I live in Barcelona’s district of Sants and, having done my previous film in the woods, this time I wanted to fin...

1 week ago

‘The Eternaut’ Star Ricardo Darín on Argentina’s Resilience: ‘We’re Like Peter Sellers in ‘The Party,’ the Bugler Who Never Dies’

The premise of Argentina’s Ricardo Darin’s latest feature, “Therapy Done Right” (Lo dejamos acá”), world premiering at the San Sebastian Festival, is deceptively simple: A pragmatic psychoanalyst lose...

1 week ago

San Sebastian’s Creative Investors’ Conference: 10 Takeaways from AI to ‘Obsession,’ YouTube and Why International Movies Could Dominate the Oscars

It wasn’t just a sea breeze and late summer sun which brought a sense of new airs and targeted optimism blowing through the San Sebastian’s 2026 Creative Investors’ Conference. For four years, CIC, co...

1 week ago

Netflix’s ‘A Different World’ Is a Bold, Fun and Timely Reboot Centering the Uniqueness of Gen Z: TV Review

Thirty-nine years after the beloved NBC series premiered, Netflix is reopening the gates of the fictional, historically Black Hillman College with “A Different World.” Created by Felicia Pride and exe...

1 week ago

Asia Video Content Spend to Hit $15 Billion in 2026 as Streaming and Local Film Draw Capital, Media Partners Asia Report Finds

Spending on video content in seven major markets across Asia is expected to climb to $15.1 billion in 2026, according to Media Partners Asia’s “Asia Video Content Dynamics 2026” report. Streaming and ...

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