Variety 7/14/2022

1 ‘Million Dollar Listing New York’ on ‘Pause’ at Bravo “Million Dollar Listing New York” — a key part of Bravo’s long-running real estate franchise — won’t be returning anytime soon, sources tell Variety. Bravo never uses the word “canceled,” instead considering series to be “paused,” since it sometimes brings shows back years later, as was the case with the revived “Real Housewives of Miami” on Peacock last year. In the case of “Million Dollar Listing New York,” the network had no comment, but the current incarnation of the show is over. — Kate Aurthur 2 Vice’s ‘Dark Side’ Franchise Adds ‘Comedy’ Spinoff Vice TV is adding another “Dark Side” series to its growing fan-favorite franchise with spinoff “Dark Side of Comedy.” The cabler describes the new show as “a…

No matter the studio, there’s nary a theatrical movie poster or TV spot today that doesn’t feature the phrase “only in theaters” as prominently as the film’s title. It’s not a coincidence. It’s a form of damage control. Hollywood’s unified marketing push comes after a two-year period in which movie distribution patterns were ceaselessly changing and nearly every major movie was released in a different way. Even though studios are using a one-size-fits-most approach for bringing movies to the masses, industry experts believe COVIDera effects are still reverberating. “We use every piece of paid or earned media as an avenue for in-theater messaging.”— Danielle Misher, Sony “Because of those hybrid strategies, the lines have been blurred,” says Paul Dergarabedian, a senior Comscore analyst. “It’s created consumer confusion that’s going to…

Phoebe Robinson, the stand-up comedian who with Jessica Williams co-hosted the podcast-turned-HBO series “2 Dope Queens,” is ready to bring her audio skills back to the screen. Robinson is the creator and star of the upcoming Freeform comedy “Everything’s Trash,” which is adapted from her 2018 essay collection “Everything’s Trash, but It’s Okay.” She and showrunner Jonathan Groff leaned into the humor of “Sooo Many White Guys,” her solo spinoff of “2 Dope Queens,” while developing “Everything’s Trash,” in which Robinson plays a fictionalized version of herself that she affectionately refers to as TV Phoebe. Groff “had listened to some episodes of ‘Sooo Many White Guys’ and really liked the rapport that I had with my producer, Joanna [Solotaroff],” Robinson says. “We wanted to replicate that, because we felt that…

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs decision overturning abortion rights that were established under Roe v. Wade in 1973, Hollywood creatives and bean counters have a new calculus to consider when determining where to shoot movies and TV shows: Do they accept tax incentives to film in states where abortion is banned or severely restricted, potentially endangering the reproductive rights of women working on those productions? The majority of U.S. states – 36 in all – offer some production incentives, but their reproductive laws are all over the map. Many of them ban abortion or place severe restrictions on it, and several more are poised to do so in the coming days and weeks. In others, including California, abortion rights remain in place. As it stands, Georgia…

Over the course of his career, James Caan brought a series of tough guys, gangsters and military men to vivid life on screen. But few films captured the actor’s swaggering physicality better than “Rollerball,” the 1975 dystopian classic with Caan as the star attraction of a futuristic game that devolves into gladiatorial chaos. Norman Jewison, the film’s director, says that Caan, who died July 6 at 82, was the only performer at the time who combined athleticism and heart. He spoke with Variety about “Rollerball” and the ineffable quality that made Caan such a great actor. When I was casting “Rollerball,” I was looking for an actor who was tough and athletic, and I couldn’t think of anyone else other than Jimmy, who could put on a pair of roller…

Before Danai Gurira returns this fall as the Wakandan general Okoye in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” she’s scheming and murdering her way onto the English throne in director Robert O’Hara’s new production of “Richard III” at the Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park. Here are three things to know about “The Walking Dead” star’s latest endeavors. Her “Richard III” is all about toxic masculinity. “We’ve always been around toxic masculinity, but I think there are ways that we’re labeling and seeing it now,” says Gurira. “There are these ongoing issues in how our nations are led and in how our politics function and in how toxic masculinity finds its way through society, and I hope it illuminates things when it’s coming through my being.” She adds: “It’s been interesting…