Innholdsfortegnelse for 12/2/2021 i Variety

The outpouring of loving tributes to the late Stephen Sondheim this week has been extraordinary and so deserving of a genius whose unmatched talents brought the world immense musical and emotional joy over the decades. Naturally, most of what’s been written about Sondheim, who died Nov. 26 at age 91, focuses on the eight-time Tony winner’s countless contributions to musical theater, with his limited involvement in movie music understandably a footnote. Still, I thought it would be nice to catch up with Warren Beatty, with whom Sondheim collaborated on two of the actor-director’s films — 1981’s “Reds” and 1990’s “Dick Tracy” — to hear about his experiences and memories of their working together. When I reached Beatty, he initially agreed to talk with me a bit later in the day…

Having launched its first batch of mobile games for Android and iOS in November, Netflix has followed through on statements it made in 2019 that free-to-play games like Fortnite are serious competitors. However, Netflix’s own games, led by two “Stranger Things” titles, incorporate neither of the mobile “freemium” hallmarks — integrated ads and in-game purchases — and are simply an add-on feature for subscribers. The streaming giant clearly wants to boost subscription value amid SVOD competition, but Hub Research data demonstrates that Netflix exists in an ecosystem where console gamers stream video about half as much as they play games. If the company wants to redirect subscribers to its smartphone games, it needs to adopt the models that enable many mobile games to thrive. For more data from VIP+, visit…

The most coveted collaboration in music in 2021 isn’t a track from Kenny Beats or a guest verse from Justin Bieber. It’s an artist-branded meal or menu item with a national fast-food chain, thanks to a trend kick-started by Travis Scott and McDonald’s in September 2020. The fast-food chain’s first-ever Famous Order with a musician, dubbed the Travis Scott Meal, became an instant sensation, prompting sellouts of key ingredients for Scott’s fave — the Quarter Pounder with cheese — and a resell craze around Scott’s branded McDonald’s merch items, including T-shirts, shorts and a McNuggets body pillow. In the nearly 18 months since the Travis Scott Meal first appeared, a veritable fast-food frenzy has swept the music industry. Not only has McDonald’s rolled out similar Famous Order partnerships with J…

Interpolations — which incorporate elements of familiar songs into new ones — are a phenomenon that’s here to stay in many genres. Like using gonzo remakes of classic tracks in trailers, it’s a way of catching the ear of older listeners, and as long as the mashup still works for younger music fans who don’t immediately know the reference, they can give a song a significant leg up. But the varieties of interpolations are vast. For example, Paul McCartney had nothing to do with Drake using a bit of “Michelle” in “Champagne Problems” — it’s actually a sped-up sample of Masego sampling the Beatles classic from a 2017 track. At even more of a remove, there’s inadvertent interpolation — as when Olivia Rodrigo ended up giving co-writing credits to Paramore…

EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR Broadly speaking, record-label bosses tend to have similar backgrounds, rising through A&R, promotion or management ranks, usually hitting a massive success that lands them the big job. And while Max Lousada, Warner Music Group’s head of recorded music, has followed some of that model, his background is unusual by any stretch, and is reflected not just in WMG’s approach to music but in the roster itself. Among the acts Variety’s Executive of the Year oversees are Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and Silk Sonic, Lizzo, Cardi B, Brandi Carlile and Saweetie; newcomers Don Toliver and NBA YoungBoy; and Nigerian acts CKay and Burna Boy. He’s also played a key role in recent career-spanning deals with classic artists like David Bowie, Madonna, Coldplay and David Guetta.…

(not pictured) SalXCo; 10Q Management Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” featuring SZA Saweetie’s “Best Friend” featuring Doja Cat “Team” is the keyword when it comes to SalXCo, the management concern behind Doja Cat, the Weeknd and others. In addition to Slaiby and Dillard, 10Q Management’s Asrat handles Doja Cat’s A&R, with Kaplan orchestrating deals that helped push the multi-talented star to the lofty peaks she’s reached over the past year. “Doja walked into the session and said she wanted to make a song about kissing, and that’s exactly what happened,” says Asrat of “Kiss Me More.” “It’s truly organic and free flowing and fun when she is making music.” The unique video for “Kiss Me More” went a long way in amplifying the song, another testament to Doja’s creativity. The…

LABEL OF THE YEAR As 2021 draws to a close, to say the hits keep on coming for Columbia Records would be an under-statement. At press time, Variety’s Hitmakers Label of the Year, led by chairman Ron Perry and executive VP-general manager Jenifer Mallory, had the top three songs on Mediabase’s Top 40 chart (Lil Nas X’s “Industry Baby” featuring Jack Harlow, the Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” and Adele’s “Easy on Me”). That’s on the heels of a stream of smashes from Polo G (“Rapstar”), Lil Tjay (“Calling My Phone” featuring 6lack) and 24kGoldn (“Mood” featuring Iann Dior, a co-release with Barry Weiss’ Records), all of which landed in the top 25 for 2021. That the company has been able to break multiple new artists is a testament…

CROSSOVER AWARD In a year when many were forced into isolation, Kali Uchis’ “Telepatía” struck a chord as the Spanglish pop hit, in which the singer muses about making love telepathically, proved a dreamy tonic during the height of the early 2021 pandemic surge. “The song first started going viral around Valentine’s Day,” says the American singer-songwriter, who has Colombian roots and is a 2022 Grammy nominee for música urbana album. “What really helped it was the fact that people were not able to be physically connected with others due to coronavirus. The whole hook of the song is, who would have thought you can make love telepathically while not being near them.” The 27-year-old’s Latin chart topper connected with Spanish-speaking and English-speaking fans globally. “Telepatía” racked up more than…

As the content universe expands at a rapid clip, music has never been more appreciated as an essential aspect of visual storytelling. That’s the 30,000-foot view of the film and TV music marketplace from dozens of industry insiders, tunesmiths and top players who are taking part in Variety’s annual virtual Music for Screens Summit. The three-day event, running Dec. 1-3, examines how the global content boom has enlivened the work of composers, music supervisors, songwriters and artists. Veteran creators and curators say respect for what scores and soundtracks add to storytelling has increased because there’s never been more collaboration among composers and music supervisors with directors, producers, actors and other key talents. “We had this fantastic conversation right from the get-go,” says director Garth Jennings of how his instant connection…

To come up with the closing theme of the Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect,” a dream team was assembled but had to work independently during the pandemic from L.A., Chicago, Nashville and even Idaho. “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” is an end-credits capper that has Jennifer Hudson, who plays Franklin, singing a gospel-influenced original song that takes the film to church one last time. Assisting in this effort were two co-writers, the legendary Carole King and Jamie Hartman, and her producer, Black Eyed Peas leader will.i.am. Hudson, Hartman and will.i.am got together at an L.A. studio earlier this month to take part in Variety’s annual Music for Screens conference to discuss their work on the MGM film. MUSIC FOR SCREENS It would have been easy to throw in one…

This year, a who’s who of Grammy-nominated artists and household names lead the original song Oscar race. But it’s still early days so anything can happen. Original song reigning queen H.E.R. has “Automatic Woman,” from “Bruised,” while “Right Where I Belong” by Brian Wilson and Jim James that plays in the doc “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road” could gin traction with voters. Lead actress contender Jennifer Hudson teamed with Carole King for “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home),” a potential contender from “Respect.” But let’s look at the front-runners. Will Billie Eilish’s title song from “No Time to Die” win over, or will Lin-Manuel Miranda finally achieve EGOT status? “Be Alive” from “King Richard” Beyoncé’s contribution to the original song race has been strong, but her ace has been…

Carter Burwell has scored 19 of the movies of Joel and Ethan Coen, including such classics as “Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski” and “No Country for Old Men,” yet he’s never been nominated for a major industry award for any of that music. That could change this year with his dark and disturbing sounds for Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. What did Joel Coen say he was looking for in the music? One thing he knew he didn’t want: He didn’t want it to be Scottish. It’s all shot on soundstages, and fairly surreal ones, and that’s the way I took it — not as a physical reality but as a psychological reality. He was interested in the way the play suggests certain genres…

The field of contenders in the animated feature Oscar race is pretty crowded, with Variety looking at 20 of the top toons in contention. The Addams Family 2 DIRECTORS: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon VOICES: Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz STUDIO: Cinesite Animation, Nitrogen Studios DISTRIBUTOR: United Artists Releasing • Critics weren’t kind to this CG sequel, not that Charles Addams’ creepy and kooky clan would have minded negative reviews, and the franchise certainly has its fans. Back to the Outback DIRECTORS: Harry Cripps, Clare Knight VOICES: Guy Pearce, Isla Fisher, Eric Bana STUDIO: Reel FX Creative Studios DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix • With echoes of “Madagascar,” this cutesy CG jailbreak comedy from two first-time directors follows a koala and a quartet of wild animals who escape from a reptile sanctuary…

Every year, the Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund pays thousands of musicians for their movie and TV work when it appears on cable, free TV, streaming services or home video. But not every musician is aware of this benefit when they begin their recording career, and many who have left the business are still owed money — sometimes, a lot of money, FMSMF officials say. The fund website (fmsmf.org) lists thousands of musicians (and in some cases their beneficiaries) who are owed, in all, several million dollars in residuals for movies and TV shows but have somehow dropped out of the system. Even FMSMF executive director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth discovered, to her surprise, that she was on the list. “My dad was a musician, in New York. It turned out…

TV REVIEW Reality show: Netflix (six episodes; all reviewed); Dec. 3 Starring: Colton Underwood, Gus Kenworthy In April, Colton Underwood, a former professional athlete who’d been the lead of the reality franchise “The Bachelor” just two years prior, came out of the closet on “Good Morning America.” When considered in the most forgiving of lights, it seemed in the moment like a positive, potentially helpful thing. Prior to his interview, Underwood had been the subject of an ongoing scandal involving Cassie Randolph, the woman he’d chosen at the end of his “Bachelor” season. She had alleged Underwood had stalked her and placed a tracking device on her car, prompting her to file a restraining order against him. That’s a lot for the viewer at home to look past, but Underwood’s…

René Rechtman, CEO and co-founder of Moonbug Entertainment, was gearing up to launch an IPO for his 3-year-old digital kids’ content company. But earlier this year, two of his former Disney colleagues — Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer — came calling with an offer he couldn’t refuse. The duo dangled $3 billion in cash and stock for Moonbug to become part of their new media company, backed by privateequity firm Blackstone, according to sources familiar with the deal. “We had no plans of selling our business. We’re growing like wildfire, and we had a lot of banks pitching up to go public next year,” says Rechtman. After some internal debate, he and his co-founder, chief operating officer John Robson, decided to accept the deal: “In Tom and Kevin, we see…

Talk about a warm welcome. Brian d’Arcy James (1) tells me that Steven Spielberg surprised him during his first day of shooting on the much-buzzed-about “West Side Story” remake. “Steven Spielberg has this fantastic tradition of stopping after the first shot that you’re in, and basically announcing and applauding anybody who has entered into the making of the movie,” says James, who plays Sgt. Krupke. “The first scene that I was in, I was way in the back — I might as well have been wallpaper. He says, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Brian d’Arcy James is in the movie!’ And then he went on and did that for everyone else too.” James talked with me from the L.A. set of his upcoming untitled CBS comedy, based on the true story of…

Sneaker Garden has unveiled its first Los Angeles pop-up (8472 Melrose Place), open through February. A destination for rare sneakers — think Off White x Jordan 1 UNCs ($3,500) or Nike SB x Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Dunky ($2,100) — the space also houses clothing brands such as Kanye West’s Sunday Service, Bape and Fear of God Essentials. With a celebrity clientele list that includes Lil Nas X, Saweetie, Tiësto and Teyana Taylor, the vintage streetwear destination, which has a location at 1540 N. Cahuenga Blvd. and another in Las Vegas, is gearing up to open a second L.A. brick-and-mortar in Beverly Hills next spring. Los Angeles-based brand Nana Jacqueline, worn by everyone from Hailey Bieber to Ariana Grande to Blackpink, has expanded from its online-only roots to a pop-up…

Nov. 18 ‘House of Gucci’ Premiere Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles Lady Gaga exclusively revealed to Variety that her destined-to-be-iconic line, “Father, son and House of Gucci,” was actually an ad-lib. “I would do it in the trailer all the time,” she said. “I was doing it in the trailer, and then something about that scene when we were doing it felt right. We did it, and it’s a testament to Ridley Scott as a director because he uses the stuff. He uses the creativity. He uses the love.” The premiere took place less than a week before the movie was set to open in cinemas. “I can’t wait for people to go out into theaters and see this movie because it’s so fun. So fun,” Gaga said.…

When Polo G began planning the rollout of what would become his breakout single, “Rapstar,” the song didn’t even exist — at least not in its current form. Instead, both the creation and promotion of the song evolved in a masterfully drawn-out tease campaign, engaging fans over the course of nearly an entire year. Upon its release on April 9, as the first official single from Polo G’s third album, “Hall of Fame,” “Rapstar” would go to the top at Spotify and Apple Music in its first day, then enter the charts at No. 1, fending off Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” in pole position for two weeks straight. “Nothing can beat that first No. 1!” the 22-year-old Chicago native (real name: Taurus Tremani Bartlett) exclaims.…

Wendy Goldstein, the A&R executive who runs point on the Weeknd, Ariana Grande, the Jonas Brothers and now John Legend, received some strong, backhanded inspiration when she was starting out as a 19-year-old assistant at Epic Records. “I was constantly told, ‘Women can’t be A&R people — what’s wrong with you?’” recalls Goldstein, Republic Records’ co-president, who’s receiving Variety’s inaugural Hit-makers A&R Award. “I was like, ‘Oh yes, I can!’ And I figured it out.” Did she ever: Goldstein and Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman — the two friends used to go clubbing together in New York City as teenagers — are among the longest-running and most successful A&Rs in the business aside from Clive Davis. Over the course of a career that reaches back to that entry-level job in…

Back in 2013, Austin Rosen wanted to give creators a base from which to build a career, so he started his own management company. That business has proven to be wildly successful for Electric Feel Entertainment, where Rosen’s stable of hitmakers has contributed to an aggregate 215 billion audio streams. Among them: Louis Bell, Blake Slatkin and Carter Lang, three who helped shape the sound of 2021 with credits on such inescapable songs as 24kGoldn’s “Mood” featuring Iann Dior, SZA’s “Good Days” and the Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s “Stay.” Electric Feel also houses a publishing arm (to which Omer Fedi is signed) and represents artists like Post Malone, giving Rosen a 360-degree view of the industry. “I built my business on signing writers and producers because I wanted to…

COLLABORATOR AWARD “In order for me to make sense of what I want to say to the world, it has to make sense to myself — it starts with me,” says 25-year-old Normani, whose collaborations with Cardi B, Khalid and Sam Smith have made her a household name throughout the pop and R&B worlds. She is speaking of her highly anticipated untitled debut solo album, one that for three straight years, her label, RCA, and fans, have awaited — not exactly patiently (there were Reddit forums dedicated to the subject “Why is Normani taking so long?”). Back in 2019, the expectation was that new music would follow the release of “Motivation,” a bouncing powerhouse of a lead single that conjured the confident playfulness of early Janet Jackson, Beyoncé and Rihanna…

DECADE AWARD Some artists launch themselves into the world with a cautious toe in the water; some make a huge splash. Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games,” which may have been one of the first songs to “go viral,” was more than just a song — it was a statement of intent and a blueprint for everything she’s done since. With loved-up, ominous lyrics cloaked in shadowy production, the baroque ballad heralded the arrival of a songwriter who wielded vulnerability like a weapon. Over the course of seven studio albums, the prolific Del Rey has refined her sound into many different shapes — all unmistakably her. It all started in June 2011, when “Video Games” hit the internet. “I remember being in Long Island with my family and seeing the Weeknd…

Country singer Walker Hayes is no stranger to the world of music in advertising, having attended conferences and panels “where they try to help guide you on getting syncs,” he recalls. Nothing ever came of it. And then “Fancy Like” happened … the year’s most out-of-nowhere country smash, in which Hayes crows, “Yeah, we fancy like Applebee’s on a date night / Got that Bourbon Street steak with the Oreo shake,” among other references to no-frills food, fashion and fun. Hayes actually backed into the tie-in. After years of slinging songs in the genre, even cracking the top 10 once, the chances of him making the big leap were diminishing. “We’d put out a few things that were really strong that didn’t get it done,” says Shane McAnally, Monument Records…

Given the choice, composer Devonté Hynes prefers to write movie scores that don’t have a lot of music in them. “For me, the best scores that I’ve worked on are when the director thinks about music,” Hynes says. “They actually know about sound, and it’s a part of the thing they created. You’d be surprised how that’s not always the case.” Hynes spoke of his latest screen collaboration, working with Rebecca Hall, writer, director and producer of the period drama “Passing,” as part of Variety’s Music for Screens virtual summit. Hall’s debut feature is based on the Harlem Renaissance novel by Nella Larsen that follows a Black woman who reunites with a childhood friend who’s passing as white in 1920s New York. Against the aural backdrop of the Jazz Age,…

By his own admission, Lin-Manuel Miranda went back to school this year. Miranda had so many projects and commitments to juggle at once this year that the only way he made it through was to pretend he was back in college. The multihyphenate behind “Hamilton” saw the release of “In the Heights,” the film adaptation of his first Broadway musical, which he co-wrote and produced with director Jon M. Chu; and the debut of his feature directorial debut with musical drama “Tick Tick … Boom!” He also contributed original songs to Disney’s animated fantasy “Encanto” and starred in the voice cast of the Netflix animated movie “Vivo.” “Because I’m not a very good multitasker, I need to daydream. I need to, like, space out. That’s where the good ideas come…

Unlike a lot of kids, Lin-Manuel Miranda says he never dreamed of becoming president. “I was never that kid. I fell in love with musical storytelling because of ‘The Little Mermaid’ (he has the VHS on hand), and wanted to know how those songs got written.” The “Hamilton” creator got his taste of Disney musical storytelling when he crafted songs for “Moana,” but with the Mouse House’s 60th animated feature, “Encanto,” he came into the process early in helping blend the story of the Madrigal family, magical realism and Colombian culture through the eight songs that he wrote for the film. What’s the recipe for writing songs that serve and advance the story and crafting that into the storytelling? On “Encanto,” we talked about what music should do and what…

Oscar-winner Rachel Portman (“Emma”) supplied a delightful score for “Julia,” the documentary about influential cooking personality Julia Child from “RBG” filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen. Curiously, the English composer had never seen Child’s public television series “The French Chef” and, although she loves to cook, does not own Child’s classic book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Portman spoke with Variety about the music behind “Julia.” How did “Julia” come to you? It helped that I had written the music for “Chocolat” [Lasse Hallstrom’s 2000 film about a chocolatiere in 1959 France] — the whole thing about food, and music and France. This film gave me an opportunity to convey the idea of cooking for others as a way of showing love. What did the film need, musically? Julia’s…

GRAY’S GOLD Amazon’s “The Tender Bar” is George Clooney’s eighth film as director, with William Monahan scripting from J.R. Moehinger’s book about a family that spans the years, with Daniel Ranieri, then Tye Sheridan as J.R. and Ben Affleck as his Uncle Charlie. It’s a personal film for Clooney, partly because of the subject matter but also because of the production. “We wanted to do a smaller movie because it was during the pandemic,” he tells Variety. “All these actors showed up with their hearts open. So you have Lily Rabe, Chris Lloyd and everyone swinging for the fences, which was really fun. In the middle of that was Ben, who doesn’t usually get these kinds of roles and was so excited. I was proud to be a part of…

What does the future hold for the Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund? As with so many aspects of a rapidly changing media business, it’s hard to predict. When union musicians struck the networks and studios in 1980, the hope was to gain residual payments for reruns of network TV series, something that had been overlooked in earlier negotiations with producers dating back to the 1960s. But they failed, and have never been able to achieve that goal in any contract talks since. Streaming services that produce their own series are very often a “dead end” in terms of residuals, because shows that air exclusively on Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus or other services — and don’t pass on to a secondary market like DVD or Blu-ray — will not generate later…

AWARDS CIRCUIT The Gotham Awards are usually the first stop on the awards season trail. This year, the Nov. 29 dinner was also the first in-person awards ceremony in New York City since the pandemic changed everything nearly two years ago. So what did we learn from the show? The two big winners of the night were streaming movies: “The Lost Daughter” from Netflix and “CODA” from Apple Original Films. For the first time in the show’s 31-year history, the two prominent acting awards were not separated by gender, which is better in theory than in practice. “The Lost Daughter,” a Netflix drama from debut writer and director Maggie Gyllenhaal, walked away with four awards out of five nominations: best feature, breakthrough director, screenplay and outstanding leading performance for Olivia…

For Olivia Rodrigo, songwriting is more than a craft — it’s the method by which the Gen Z teenager is able to process heartbreak. “I always write songs when I’m in the thick of whatever emotion I’m feeling,” says the 18-year-old, who is being recognized as Variety’s Hitmakers Songwriter of the Year. “It’s like my therapy.” Thanks to the success of her debut single. “Drivers License,” and the follow-up one-two punch of “Deja Vu” and “Good 4 U,” millions are also able to share the insights of her hard-earned introspection. The numbers speak for themselves: In January, “Drivers License” smashed Spotify’s record at the time for most streams in a single week (on its way to a total of 1.1 billion as of mid-November) and catapulted the Disney actor to…

Mike Dean is fielding texts from Madonna, promoting his latest solo album, “4:22,” nursing a joint and trying to answer interview questions. But there’s beauty in the chaos. Variety’s Hitmakers Producer of the Year does it so effortlessly — like a modern-day maestro conducting his own symphony — as he tries to remember the news of the various records he’s worked on. PRODUCER OF THE YEAR In March came word that “For the Night,” the posthumous record by Pop Smoke, the Brooklyn drill rapper killed in a 2020 shooting, had been certified four-times-platinum. Dean, a co-producer on the song, was tasked with adding the “flutes, bells and whistles” to the ominous track. “It was a little weird,” he admits, of the circumstances. “I didn’t know him personally, but it’s always…

How do you follow an all-conquering, Grammy-nominated hit like BTS’ “Dynamite”? By strategically crafting an even bigger one. That was the goal a group of songwriters and producers set for “Butter.” And, remarkably, they achieved it. The K-pop group’s second English-language single, Variety’s Hitmakers Record of the Year, broke YouTube and Spotify marks during its 10-week reign at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Butter” was recorded at the start of 2021. But the song’s journey began three years earlier when Stephen Kirk penned a banger called “Down to a Tee.” Hibernating on his computer, it came to mind when songwriter-producer Rob Grimaldi reached out in search of material for BTS. That song would provide the bones for “Butter.” “We ended up making a lot of changes, but the…

City Girls’ hustle is strong. The hiphop duo — composed of JT and Yung Miami — have been friends since middle school and were forced to grow up fast due to their circumstances. But even back then, they realized the future is female. Sadly, City Girls’ story is not atypical. Both grew up in tough Miami neighborhoods — Opa-Locka and Liberty City — where poverty was a fact of life. For JT, whose mother was a drug addict, that meant living with relatives and conjuring ways to make money — like credit card theft. FUTURE IS FEMALE AWARD The two bonded, sharing an aversion to boys who made their lives even more difficult, and the song “Fuck Dat N---a” was birthed in 2017. Between their brazen attitudes and brash delivery,…

“It’s been a very loooong year-and-a-half or two years,” says Billie Eilish of the song “No Time to Die,” which was released in February 2020, three months after the James Bond film was scheduled to hit theaters. The movie finally arrived in October 2021 (seven months after the theme won a Grammy for best song written for visual media), grossing more than $700 million worldwide. “I was nervous, because I was like, are people going to be tired of me by the time this movie is out? … It’s funny — I was 17 recording it and I’m about to turn 20, and that’s such a large difference in your life and who you are.” Adds Finneas: “To me, the agony of being out for 18 months before the film…

GROUP OF THE YEAR For a band from England, Glass Animals, Variety’s Group of the Year, has spent so much time touring the United States, it may as well be American. “I feel comfortable here, and I get to eat all the food I grew up with, like Hot Pockets,” says Dave Bayley, the quartet’s ringleader and songwriter-producer, on a Zoom call during a break between two sold-out shows in Santa Barbara in late October. Bayley did grow up in America, partly in Texas, where he says he was “very much exposed to U.S. culture,” including a hip-hop radio station that he loved as a preteen. But it’s not Bayley’s upbringing in the Lone Star State that has endeared American fans to Glass Animals. It’s the band’s music, and their…

Bono hasn’t taken up many offers to work as an actor despite his years in the public eye. But when writer-director Garth Jennings came calling with an opportunity to collaborate on Universal’s animated “Sing 2,” Bono embraced the challenge of getting in the head of his character, a reclusive rock star lion Clay Calloway. In the film, Calloway is encouraged to come out of retirement by the central figure in the “Sing” franchise, porcupine rocker Ash, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. The lion has a hard time finding his roar at first. Although the movie is a children’s comedy-adventure, the storyline prodded Bono to think hard about “what is it that makes a singer,” he said during his keynote conversation with Jennings at Variety’s Music for Screens Summit. “What would quiet…

Superheroes may dominate the industry, but they’d be nowhere if they saved the day in silence. “Musically, we’re called to make it believable that, you know, a person dressed in leather and latex can actually fly,” says composer Sherri Chung (“Kung Fu,” “Batwoman”) during a Music for Screens session. “Because without [the music], it seems a little silly.” Crafting scores for costumed crime fighters also allows for composers and music supervisors to stretch beyond the regular boundaries of their profession. “You have a lot more room to be over the top and exaggerated,” says Chung, who was joined by Madonna Wade-Reed, music supervisor, “Batwoman”; Lolita Ritmanis, composer of “Young Justice: Phantoms” and “Batman: The Killing Joke”; Sean Miyashiro, founder and CEO of 88rising, and a music producer and writer for…

Netflix has never won an Oscar for music. But that could change this year, as at least three of its late-year releases are strong candidates for nomination in the original-score category: “The Power of the Dog,” by Jonny Greenwood; “Don’t Look Up,” by Nicholas Britell; and “The Lost Daughter,” by Dickon Hinchliffe. For Jane Campion’s Western “Power of the Dog,” English composer Greenwood (of Radiohead fame) searched for sounds befitting the cowboy scene in 1925 Montana, and they turned out to be a handful of string instruments, a couple of French horns and a mechanical piano that was commonplace at the time. “We recorded the string groups while running random scenes from the film, and the colder they played, the better it suited the picture. Likewise the French horns — to…

When “Summit of the Gods” director Patrick Imbert graduated from France’s Les Gobelins school of animation in the late 1990s, he entered an industry still looking for its right footing. “The market and industry was not as developed as it is today,” Imbert tells Variety. “There were much fewer projects because there were much fewer screens. We did pre-production in Paris and sent most of the production work overseas. You couldn’t imagine becoming a film director or a character designer or anything so prestigious. You were happy enough to simply make your living by drawing, hoping to work on cool projects. That was our vision of animation.” Suffice it to say, France’s animation ecosystem has grown by leaps and bounds over the following decades. Buoyed by advances in digital software…

The Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund, which collects and distributes residuals to union musicians who play on film and TV shows, will mark its 50th anniversary in 2022. It’s become a financial lifeline for many musicians, from helping them to achieve financial security to being a primary income source during their retirement years. Every July 1, the FMSMF sends checks to nearly 17,000 working and retired musicians, and the beneficiaries of those who’ve passed away. According to executive director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth, this money constitutes about 1% of the so-called “producers’ gross receipts” from the sale of a film or TV show into a “secondary market”: free TV, cable TV, streaming services, home video or other venues. (Musicians are not entitled to share in profits from the original box…

George Clooney’s “The Tender Bar,” set in the working-class neighborhood of Manhasset, Long Island, spans 15 years starting in 1973. In the film, which bows Dec. 17 in theaters, young JR Maguire, played by Daniel Ranieri, spends his time among family members: his mom (Lily Rabe), grandmother (Sondra James), grandfather (Christopher Lloyd) and uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck), the last of whom owns a bar called The Dickens. The Dickens was a real Long Island establishment, but for the film, based on J.R. Moehringer’s memoir, the period setting was re-created in a number of Massachusetts towns, including Beverly, Braintree, Lowell and Worcester. Production designer Kalina Ivanov outfitted a bar that reflects its past — not just in the thick hardback books that line its shelves but in the rest of the…

Cinematographer Drew Daniels came highly recommended to “Red Rocket” director Sean Baker by “Waves” filmmaker Trey Shults. The job was a good fit, since Daniels hails from Texas, the setting for “Red Rocket,” opening Dec. 10. Simon Rex stars as Mikey, a former porn star who winds up home in Galveston, where 17-year-old doughnut shop worker Strawberry (Suzanna Son) catches his eye. Baker found the “sex shots” between Son and Rex the easiest to shoot because he had ideas in mind for the choreography. He pointed Daniels to Italian genre films from the ’70s, paying homage to the style of Fernando Di Leo (“The Italian Connection”) and Umberto Lenzi (“Spasmo”). “I looked at how they tackled sexploitation films and eroticism in cinema,” the director says. “I wanted Drew to look…