Innholdsfortegnelse for 8/23/2023 i Variety

In typical years, the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival threatens to outshine the Oscars. The annual fest, led by Alberto Barbera, has established itself as the opening act of awards season and the endpoint of Hollywood’s August doldrums. Just last year, the festival launched “The Whale,” “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Tár.” Brendan Fraser, Colin Farrell and Cate Blanchett showed up on the Lido to promote their work, and Variety’s journalists took out our stopwatches to measure the standing ovations. This year, Barbera had locked in one of his strongest lineups yet — only to see it threatened when the SAG-AFTRA strike began in July. As Barberatells our Italian correspondent Nick Vivarelli, he held his breath as things dangled in limbo, only exhaling once he got confirmation from…

The breakout popularity of “Stranger Things” and “Wednesday” was a boon for Netflix execs, but also a lesson — both forced a scramble to line up marketing and licensing deals after launch. If the streamer’s upcoming fantasy-adventure series “One Piece” similarly turns into a phenom — as the early hype indicates — this time they’ll be ready. Of all the titles promoted out of Netflix’s June 17 Tudum fan event, “One Piece” — the live-action TV series adaptation of the bestselling manga — was the most talked about, outpacing everything else featured at the São Paulo, Brazil, affair four to one, according to Netflix. “One Piece” lead actor Iñaki Godoy has seen his Instagram following spike from 28,000 to 450,000 ahead of the show’s Aug. 31 premiere. Based on Eiichiro…

The Venice Film Festival has only continued to garner momentum under longtime festival director Alberto Barbera, who in recent years has managed to lure significant star power — from Lady Gaga to Joaquin Phoenix to Timothée Chalamet to Harry Styles — to the Lido. So imagine the heartbreak and fear last month when — just as Barbera was about to lock in one of his strongest lineups yet — he learned that, as a result of the SAG-AFTRA strike, many movie stars wouldn’t be able to make the trek to Italy this year. Could Venice even take place without Zendaya, who carried what was supposed to be the opening night movie, Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers,” not to mention Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) and Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”)? During the first few days…

Padma Lakshmi wants a man … a gold man, that is. After 16 Primetime Emmy nominations throughout her career, she makes no qualms about wanting to make a trip to the stage to accept a statuette. She’s double nominated this year for outstanding host for a reality or competition program for Bravo’s “Top Chef” and outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special for Hulu’s “Taste the Nation.” Lakshmi has emceed the Bravo series for 17 years and in June, she announced, via social media, that she would be exiting after the recently aired 20th season. Hollywood has taken great strides in the past few years to increase AAPI representation on screen, with a record number of Asians landing Emmy nominations and wins. This awards season, more AAPI actors are fighting for…

Variety chief correspondent Stephen Rodrick dove into 40 years of Michael Mann projects for his cover profile, and left with a distinct impression that crime does pay if it doesn’t kill you. International correspondent Nick Vivarelli was afraid that the actors strike would deprive the Venice Film Festival of American movies. That didn’t happen, so he will be back on the Lido in full fatigues rather than in guerrilla mode. Senior producer Tiana DeNicola is particularly proud of directing Michael Mann for Variety’s cover video after the filmmaker told her he’d never been directed for a video about his work. Cover photographer Art Streiber says, “Legendary director Michael Mann eschewed the pomp of traditional magazine photo shoots. So I photographed Mann standing in the street at rush hour. The resulting look…

Variety has promoted Elsa Keslassy to executive editor of international. In her new role, Keslassy will lead the magazine’s global team of award-winning correspondents, while guiding its reporting at the leading international film and television festivals and markets. She will continue to be based out of Paris, where she has spent more than a decade covering the entertainment industry across France, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Israel. “Variety has been my home for most of my professional career, and I’m honored to take on this new role to spearhead our international coverage, which has grown tremendously over the last few years,” Keslassy says. “I look forward to working even more closely with the best and most dedicated team of reporters overseas, who cover the TV and film business at a time…

A music supervisor has a big job, as defined by the TV Academy: She or he “creatively contributes to the story, character development and overall narrative of the program by engaging in song selection, guiding original song creation and production, overseeing on-camera music performances … contributing to the creation of a unique music aesthetic.” This year’s five Emmy nominees all reflect those ideals: Frankie Pine, music supervisor for “Daisy Jones & the Six,” was hired five years ago; she was even part of the casting process for the rise-and-fall story of a ’70s rock band. “It was all-encompassing,” she says, “being able to do every aspect of music to help create that authenticity.” Pine submitted episode 8, which depicts the band touring the U.S. “We had all those on-cameras. Everything…

TV REVIEW Network: MGM+ (10 episodes; 5 reviewed); Aug. 20 Cast: Iain De Caestecker, Stuart Campbell, Ellie James The MGM+ series “The Winter King,” adapted from a trilogy of novels by English author Bernard Cornwell, derives much of its plot from Arthurian myth. But in practice, the drama acts more like earthbound historical fiction than fairy tale or fantasy. This Arthur Pendragon (Iain De Caestecker) doesn’t pull a sword from a stone in the five episodes provided in advance, nor does he encounter any dragons. Instead, “The Winter King” deals in more pragmatic concerns: natural resources, national sovereignty and the political alliances required to attain them. There are hints of the supernatural in figures like Merlin (Nathaniel Martello-White), though their abilities are presented not as objective reality but subjective belief…

Daniel D’Addario is stepping into a new role at Variety. The journalist, who was brought on as chief television critic in 2018, has been named chief correspondent for the magazine. In his new position, D’Addario will be writing substantial features as well as commentary for print and online. He will continue to work with editor-at-large Kate Aurthur. “I am so excited to try new kinds of writing for Variety,” D’Addario says. “I love thinking like a critic, but bringing my perspective to bear on narrative journalism after getting out in the field and talking to people represents an exciting opportunity, and a fun challenge.” In his time covering television for Variety, D’Addario has won multiple Los Angeles Press Club Awards, including prizes for political commentary for his coverage of the…

MICHAEL MANN IS RUNNING OUT OF TIME. I am in the 80-year-old director’s West Los Angeles office, talking to him about his new film, “Ferrari,” and he asks me to move closer and speak up. He then fills the room with beeps and boops as he takes a minute to start his own tape recorder — I already have two running. I was told, a few days ago, that Mann, a known control freak, prefers to have, if not the questions, then the areas of interest of his inquisitor in advance. I thought this was rude and decided to comply by overwhelming him with convoluted queries like a white-shoe law firm doing a document dump on an underfunded plaintiff. Mann is unfazed. He glances at my multi-page memo before sorting…

“Working with Mr. Spielberg was one of the biggest honors. I would try my best not to geek out.” Lane Factor spent most of his teen years on camera, growing up on FX’s “Reservation Dogs.” The hit series premiered in 2021 and comes to an end in September after three seasons. Factor plays Cheese Williams, one of the show’s four Indigenous teenagers living on the “rez” in rural Oklahoma. The Oklahoma native, who is of Creek-Seminole and Caddo descent, talked to Variety before the SAG-AFTRA strike about learning the craft, how the cast and crew helped him overcome his anxiety and working with Steven Spielberg in “The Fabelmans.” • What has the journey been like for you, getting to grow up on TV as Cheese and taking him through this final…