Innholdsfortegnelse for 06/05/2024 i Variety

Each Actors on Actors starts with a dream — that one big “get.” This year, with “The Crown” having aired its final season, we had an impossible vision: to bring together the two actors who’d played Princess Diana. Both performers, Emma Corrin and Elizabeth Debicki, are in high demand, and their schedules seemed to make it unfeasible. But with only weeks to go before we were to film, something shifted. Corrin, who can be seen in FX’s “A Murder at the End of the World” on Hulu, flew from London to L.A just to talk to Debicki about channeling the people’s princess. Their conversation did not disappoint. The two Dianas looked back on how they found her voice, summoned her poise and grappled with her relationship with the paparazzi. And…

Nelson Peltz lost the battle with Disney. But he may have won the war. Peltz, the headline-grabbing activist hedge-fund billionaire, waged an aggressive five-month-long campaign seeking to nab two seats on Disney’s board. His argument was that investors deserved fresh thinking to boost the company’s financial performance. The stated goal of Peltz’s Trian Partners: “Fundamentally and crudely, we want the stock to go up,” he said in a video posted in February to Trian’s “Restore the Magic” website. Disney’s stock price did go up: It jumped 33% from the time Peltz announced his renewed proxy fight in late November to the day before the company’s April 3 shareholder meeting. That was due, in part, to CEO Bob Iger announcing new strategic initiatives, including the fall 2025 launch of ESPN’s stand-alone…

More than a century after Alice Guy-Blaché became one of the film world’s first directors when she brought “La Fée aux Choux” (“The Cabbage Fairy”) to the screen in 1896, the movie business hasn’t progressed much in giving female auteurs an equal share of jobs. But the pioneer filmmaker might be happy to know that the daytime drama genre has afforded opportunities for women to call shots from the control booth. Women have been directing soap operas since Gloria Monty, the iconic “General Hospital” producer, directed CBS’s “The First Hundred Years” in the early 1950s, and she went on to direct Joan Crawford during her stint on “The Secret Storm” in 1968. Lela Swift followed in those footsteps and won the 1977 Daytime Emmy for outstanding individual director for a…

When it comes to the race to win an Emmy, there will be a collective buzz around the award’s 60+ categories until Sept. 15 when we find out who gets the gold. Arguably one of the most highly competitive awards doesn’t happen at the main event but the weekend before at the Creative Arts ceremony. That’s when the winners in the four guest performer categories (which include guest actor and actress in both comedy and drama genres) are awarded for a one-time or re-curring role. (Think Jamie Lee Curtis’ two-episode performance on FX’s “The Bear” — a likely candidate.) In looking back at early precursors, this award has quite a checkered past with numerous category name changes and head-scratching nominee groupings over the years. For example, in 1977, the bracket…

As festivals have increasingly endeavored to showcase more diverse talent, benchmarks of inclusivity occasionally run the risk of feeling like a dutiful checklist. The Bentonville Film Festival, though, has celebrated — and elevated — under-represented voices since its inception. Returning for its 10th edition from June 10-16, the northwest Arkansas festival has always taken as its mission statement the centering of work from not only LGBTQ+ and BIPOC creators but also other historically marginalized groups. That focus shouldn’t be surprising, given that the festival’s roots stretch back to the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, a nonprofit research organization the actor founded after noticing the disparity in female characters while watching TV series and movies with her daughter. While co-founder Davis remains Bentonville Film Festival’s chair, president Wendy Guerrero…

A day to celebrate the best in television is back this year with Variety’s annual TV FYC Fest. The full-day summit, featuring panels and keynote conversations with talent from in front of and behind the camera, will take place at the 1 Hotel in Los Angeles on June 6. From reality stars, actors and executive producers to showrunners, creators and executives, the day will feature a taste of all the biggest contenders in this year’s awards season. As always, TV FYC Fest will kick off with the supporting actors roundtable featuring Dakota Fanning (Netflix’s “Ripley”), Ricky Martin (Apple TV+’s “Palm Royale”), Lisa Ann Walter (ABC’s “Abbott Elementary”), Jennifer Jason Leigh (FX’s “Fargo”), Greta Lee (Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show”) and Lewis Pullman (Apple TV+’s “Lessons in Chemistry”). The breakout stars…

You’re watching your favorite show, and one of the main characters is in a jam. He’s held captive by mercenaries and, for the past two episodes, has struggled to escape a labyrinthine prison. It’s unclear whether our hero will live or die, but the next episode opens with a warning: “The following contains a depiction of suicide. Viewer discretion is advised.” Welp, you think, I know how this story ends. So what happens when trigger warnings need spoiler warnings? As content disclaimers trend in television, some viewers are taking issue when they give away crucial plot details or ruin surprises. Take Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer,” which dulled a shocking assault scene with a preemptive warning reading, “The following episode contains depictions of sexual violence which some viewers may find troubling.” Or…

As digital media mushrooms, advertising messages get disseminated across a growing variety of platforms — in increasingly inventive ways. Rather than the products being sold, it’s these marketing communications that take the spotlight at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The 71st edition of the Lions awards runs June 17-21 in Cannes, France, to celebrate ingenuity in advertising, branding, marketing campaigns and marketing messaging. “The ready availability of so many new tools makes the landscape wildly competitive, and most entry barriers have been eliminated,” says Madeline Nelson, head of U.S. independent label relations at Amazon Music, who serves at jury president for this year’s Entertainment Lions for Music competition. “Immediate insights like ‘views,’ ‘likes’ and audience demographics means that creators are able to pivot, adapt and update content based…

Geena Davis hesitates to call herself The Oscar-winning actor and activist will accept Variety’s Creative Impact in Leadership Award at the Bentonville Film Festival June 10 recognizing her work advocating for marginalized voices. But she admits the title of the honor gives her pause. “I don’t necessarily think of myself as a leader,” she says. “But then again, here I am, launching things left and right. I’m just thrilled to be in a position where I can try to do something about the issues I care so deeply about.” Davis is being modest. In addition to her acting, producing and writing work, she’s been a tireless advocate for representation. In 2004, she launched the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, a nonprofit organization that conducts research examining parity in…

Kinds of Kindness Director Yorgos Lanthimos Screenwriters Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou Cast Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe Distributor Searchlight Pictures A submissive office worker lets his boss dictate everything, from what he wears to the woman he marries. In the next segment, the same actor (Jesse Plemons) assumes a different role, playing a cop grieving his wife’s disappearance. When she resurfaces (in the form of Emma Stone), he’s less than enthused when she tries to dominate him in the bedroom. Finally, a woman (also Stone) abandons her marriage to follow a kinky cult leader (Willem Dafoe) who’s ordered her to find an elusive faith healer. With “Kinds of Kindness,” director Yorgos Lanthimos — a pioneering member of the Greek Weird Wave — serves up a triple helping of strange. After…

The 2007 launch of “Mad Men” established Jon Hamm as a throwback to another era — a classic dramatic leading man. Quickly, Hamm set about dismantling that persona to show he could hang with the vanguard of absurdist comedians. He found a frequent collaborator in his Actors on Actors partner Kristen Wiig, who cast him as her self-absorbed frenemy-with-benefits in 2011’s “Bridesmaids.” This came after Hamm hosted “Saturday Night Live” three times — the first in 2008 — proving himself a genuine comedy crossover star; he continued making regular cameos in sketches like this one, in which they share a kiss, from Wiig’s final episode as a cast member in 2012. As comfortable as he has seemed on the Studio 8H stage, Hamm had a rocky introduction; in a 2022…

Tribeca Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal doesn’t follow a North Star as she and her team sift through tens of thousands of submissions each year. But as they whittle down those applicants to the 100 or so films comprising the final lineup, themes tend to emerge. “It’s not like we set out to say, ‘This is what we want to do.’ As an activist film festival, we always look for [political] films,” says Rosenthal, who created Tribeca Festival with Robert De Niro in the wake of 9/11. “This year, there’s a mental health narrative. I don’t know if that’s a post-COVID thing.” Tribeca, now in its 23rd year, will take place from June 5-16 and highlight films led by Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone and Jenna Ortega. “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in…

The hair was a whole thing. In “Run Lola Run,” the 1999 German thriller that made Franka Potente a star, the actress hurtles through the streets of Berlin, seemingly propelled by her flaming-red tresses. “My hair had been jet-black from my previous job, so they bleached it eight times,” she says, shaking her head slightly. “For Lola, we tried all these different colors before they found this red dye that came from London. But it would wash out, so I couldn’t wash my hair during the production because it would mess up the continuity.” And making the low-budget movie meant long hours and, as the title suggests, a lot of running. “Run Lola Run” finds its 20-something protagonist in a race against the clock to help her boyfriend replace a…

When Peabody holds its 84th awards ceremony on June 9, it will finally be in Los Angeles — after four years of trying. The org had decided in 2020 to move its annual event from New York to the West Coast. And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the ceremony went virtual for three years. Last year, it was ready to try again — until the Hollywood strikes forced another in-person cancellation. Now, Peabody and its executive director, Jeffrey Jones, are ready to give it another shot. “I don’t know what’s going to stop us now,” says Jones, trying not to jinx it. But speaking to Variety just weeks before the event, he was optimistic that this year’s Peabody Awards, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and hosted by Oscar- and…

Over past decades, Variety has introduced a number of editorial features designed to help readers navigate the newest and the most impactful players in the fast-moving, complex global entertainment industry. The Variety 10 to Watch series, introduced in 1997, remains the gold standard for talent-spotting in a wide range of disciplines including actors, directors and producers. And for nearly 20 years, we have highlighted the most important industry leaders in philanthropy via our Power series. Today, we bring you our first edition of the Variety 10. Our goal is to focus on a specific field or discipline and highlight the 10 individuals we feel are the most important and consequential leaders of the moment. It’s entirely appropriate that we begin by looking at the world of brand marketing, where all…

When the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative released a report surveying film roles for Native Americans last October, of the 100 highest-grossing theatrical movies released between 2007 and 2022, only one had an Indigenous performer in a lead role. Yet when speaking to Native creatives and performers, there is an overwhelming sense of optimism for what’s to come for their representation in entertainment. “I feel very hopeful about where we are,” Jana Schmieding, who recently starred on “Reservation Dogs,” tells Variety. “I want to think that studios see the value in our storytelling.” Variety’s inaugural Indigenous Storytelling in Entertainment Breakfast, which will take place June 5 in Los Angeles, will focus on both the value and future of such stories. The invite-only breakfast program will feature a series of keynote and panel…

Fantasmas Platform HBO Premiere date June 7 Episodes 6  Showrunner Julio Torres Cast Julio Torres, Tomás Matos, Joe Rumrill As a writer for “Saturday Night Live” from 2016 to 2019, Julio Torres was able to create immersive worlds — the existential melancholy of a sink; the font obsession of an “Avatar” super fan — in just a few minutes’ worth of sketch. Over time, the comedian has only acquired more space and resources to realize his singular vision. Since 2019, Torres has co-created and co-starred in the surreal sitcom “Los Espookys”; recorded the hourlong special “My Favorite Shapes”; and directed his feature debut, “Problemista,” acting opposite Tilda Swinton. With every added level of authority, Torres has assumed even greater control of the ultra-specific sensibility evident in his earliest “SNL” breakouts.…