Call it Deadbox. In another nail in the coffin of physical media, Redbox is shutting down after more than two decades of serving up DVD rentals from thousands of kiosks across the U.S. Redbox’s network of 24,000 DVD rental kiosks and its streaming services will be shut down after its parent company, Chicken Soup for […]
CreatorIQ, a vendor of influencer-marketing software, hired digital marketing veteran Chris Harrington as CEO. Harrington takes over the role from interim CEO Jon Namnath, co-founder of creator analytics platform Tribe Dynamics, which CreatorIQ acquired in 2021. Namnath, formerly chief growth officer, will remain a “key member” of the executive leadership team and a member of […]
Actor Martin Delaney has stepped into the shoes of a tech visionary in the new film “The Man Who Saved the Internet With a Sunflower.” Delaney portrays Robert Ryan, the founder of Ascend Communications who played a crucial role in the early days of the internet. The film has already garnered critical acclaim, recently winning […]
“Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience” has been snapped up by the BBC for U.K. audiences. The six-part series will follow five U.K. contestants as they’re flown to South Korea and put through a rigorous 100-day K-pop training course in the hope of emerging as the world’s biggest new boy band. “Cameras go behind closed […]
Edward Bluemel, the “Killing Eve” and “Sex Education” star most recently seen as the brooding love interest in Amazon’s alt-history fantasy “My Lady Jane,” has joined the cast of Netflix’s upcoming Agatha Christie series “The Seven Dials Mystery.” Bluemel joins “How to Have Sex” breakout Mia McKenna-Bruce, who Variety announced last month would lead the […]
At a conference on film and artificial intelligence over the weekend in South Korea’s Bucheon, it was difficult to know whether the new technology was being embraced, normalized or underestimated. Bucheon, a high-rise city on the outskirts of Seoul, has long harbored both high-tech and cultural industry aspirations. The city turned a WWII bunker into […]
Will Seefried’s romance drama “Lilies Not for Me,” led by Fionn O’Shea (“Normal People”) and Robert Aramayo (“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”), has been boarded by Memento International in the run up to its world premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The cast of rising actors also includes Erin Kellyman (“Willow”), […]
The Melbourne International Film Festival has set ten features to play in its Bright Horizons competition section. They include: India Donaldson’s “Good One”; Luna Carmoon’s “Hoard”; Annie Baker’s “Janet Planet”; Leonardo Van Dijl’s “Julie Keeps Quiet”; Ena Sendijarević’s “Sweet Dreams”; Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language”; Mo Harawe’s “The Village Next to Paradise”; Gints Zabalodis’ animated “Flow”; […]
A documentary about U.K. rapper Skepta, directed by BAFTA nominee Hector Dockrill (“Post Malone: Runaway”), is in the works. The project is the first from a new creative alliance between Skepta’s production company, 1PLUS1 Production, and the L.A.-based hospitality and lifestyle marketing company the H.Wood group. The untitled film promises to be a “stirring documentary […]
BUSAN DEAN APPOINTMENT Zhang Lu, the Chinese Korean director, has been appointed as dean of the Chanel x BIFF Asian Film Academy, part of the Busan International Film Festival. Zhang has been making feature films since 2004, when his “Tang Poetry” won acclaim at the Locarno and Vancouver festivals. He has since made titles including […]
Charlize Theron, Serena Williams, Rosalía and Omar Sy will be in Paris to kick off Olympics festivities at Prelude, an exclusive event co-hosted by Pharrell Williams and LVMH boss Bernard Arnault. Prelude will take place on the eve of the Opening Ceremony, on July 25, in Paris at the Foundation Louis Vuitton. Williams and Arnault […]
Benji Gregory, former child actor and star of the 1980s sitcom “Alf,” has died. He was 46. His sister, Rebecca Hertzberg-Pfaffinger, told the New York Times that Gregory and his service dog were both found dead in his car on June 13 at a bank’s parking lot in Peoria, Ariz. Hertzberg-Pfaffinger also announced the news […]
Netflix has announced an exclusive partnership with Japanese producer Isoyama Aki. Starting this month, Netflix will exclusively produce and distribute new series and films by Isoyama for the next five years. Her most recent hit, the time-traveling comedy “Extremely Inappropriate!,” topped Netflix’s most-watched list in Japan for three weeks. Last June, Netflix also premiered her “Let’s Get […]
Maverick investor Bill Hwang was found guilty Wednesday by a Manhattan federal jury of fraud and racketeering charges in a market manipulation case involving ViacomCBS shares and other stocks. Hwang was found guilty of 10 out 11 counts of fraud and racketeering related to his stock trading activity. In 2020 and 2021, he stealthily amassed […]
Composer Nomi Abadi is suing “Batman” and “Beetlejuice” composer Danny Elfman for defamation stemming from statements he made to Rolling Stone last year that were included in an investigative piece about a settlement he made with his one-time protégé after she accused him of repeated sexual harassment and misconduct. Abadi’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior […]
Fresh off announcing her sixth studio album “143,” Katy Perry went live across her social media profiles to share snippets of songs off the record. The album, which arrives on September 20, is what the pop singer described as a dance album, something she’s “always wanted to make.” “I’ve been talking about [doing] two albums […]
Jon Stewart is not backing down on his criticisms of President Joe Biden. In Thursday’s episode of his “Weekly Show” podcast, he compares Biden to Donald Trump, during a conversation that features “Pod Save America” hosts Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor and CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers. The four analyzed Biden’s performance in his recent […]
The WGA West has reached a $3 million settlement with CBS Studios after an arbitration fight over what the WGAW insisted were payments owed to 24 writers under the terms of the guild’s Minimum Basic Agreement. The WGAW called the settlement “precedent-setting.” The guild pursued claims on behalf of writers for CBS Studios dramas “MacGyver,” […]
Rorschach is back on the case. Matthew Rhys (“The Americans”), Katee Sackhoff (“The Mandalorian”), Titus Welliver (“Lost”), Michael Cerveris (“The Gilded Age”) and Troy Baker (“The Last of Us”) are among the voice actors cast in “Watchmen Chapter I,” the new animated feature adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal graphic novel. The two-part […]
“Escape from Extinction Rewilding” has been acquired by Western Films for U.S. distribution. The indie player made the acquisition in association with American Humane, the United States’ first national humane organization and the world’s largest certifier of animal welfare practices. Directed and produced by Matthew Brady through his company MRB Productions, the documentary showcases how […]
IATSE has published the Memorandums of Agreement for the Hollywood Basic, Videotape and Area Standard Agreements–which is the specific contract language of the tentative deals reached between IATSE and the AMPTP–ahead of a ratification vote that begins on Monday. Eligible IATSE members will vote on whether to ratify these agreements between July 14-17, with the […]
In an online report, James Hunter has provided new details regarding his lawsuit against “MaXXXine” star Mia Goth, director Ti West and A24 alleging that Goth kicked him in the head while he was performing as a background actor on the set of the horror film. In his original complaint, Hunter claimed that he informed […]
Brian Lowry, the veteran Hollywood scribe and media critic who has worked at CNN as a senior writer since 2016, is set to exit the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed news outlet as part of a group of layoffs unveiled Wednesday. The news outlet is cutting approximately 100 jobs as it works to boost its digital business. […]
Jameelah Michl, the woman who shot and killed film marketing consultant and social justice advocate Michael Latt, was sentenced on Wednesday to 35 years to life in state prison by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kerry White. The 33-year-old Latt was attacked and fatally shot by Michl with a semi-automatic weapon in his home in the […]
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in partnership with Universal Music Group, has announced the renewal of the the Jonas Gwangwa Music Composition Initiative, a development program for Black musicians interested in composing music for film. The initiative is in honor of South African musician, composer and Oscar nominee Jonas Gwangwa, who died […]
