Innholdsfortegnelse for 06/19/2024 i Variety

Omar Apollo may be a singer-songwriter, but he has a penchant for telling stories visually. “In my head, when I write, I can see the scene of a song,” says the Grammy-nominated performer. “Maybe when I’m 67 and not touring, I’ll focus all my time on making soundtracks — this next album is definitely in alignment with that goal.” Said album, “God Said No” (out June 28) follows 2022’s “Ivory,” which earned Apollo his first Billboard Hot 100 hit, “Evergreen,” and featured guests including Kali Uchis and the Neptunes. He’s had little downtime since, supporting the record with a tour and releasing the EP “Live for Me.” There, Apollo refashions poems into songs like “Ice Slippin,” which recounts the moment he came out to his parents: “And you thought what…

It’s New York City, 1989. Susan Seidelman is in the delivery room, in labor with her son. “Siskel and Ebert” plays on the TV above her head, and in between contractions, the two critics are tearing apart her new movie “She-Devil.” “Watching them review my film literally with the doctor’s hand inside of me telling me to push was very strange,” Seidelman recalls. That surreal scene is just one of the memorable moments the pathbreaking director recounts in “Desperately Seeking Something: A Memoir About Movies, Mothers, and Material Girls.” By turns reflective and celebratory, the book covers the surprises and setbacks of a career carved out at a time when women filmmakers were a rarity. It was a college film appreciation class that sparked the interest of the suburban Philadelphia…

The Oscars will turn 100 in 2028. But with dwindling ratings for its telecast, to say nothing of the existential problems facing the movie business, will the show be around for another 100 years? It’s falling to Bill Kramer, the CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the awards, to figure out a way for the Oscars to stay relevant and financially secure. ¶ “The Academy sits in two worlds: the film industry and the nonprofit arts and culture sector,” Kramer says. “And both are undergoing radical shifts in their business models right now. We need to diversify our support to ensure we thrive for the next century.” ¶ Kramer took over the Academy in July 2022, having built a career in fundraising for…

Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival is readying for its upcoming edition, featuring “lots of interesting themes, lots of different countries and lots of female directors,” says programmer Vojtěch Kočárník. Themes of “fragile family bonds and explorations of love driven by complex female characters,” Kočárník says, will also feature prominently in many of the fest’s films, such as Norway’s “Loveable.” In addition, there are a few period dramas with a contemporary touch, such as Margarida Cardoso’s “Banzo,” Bruno Anković’s “Celebration,” about young men seduced by right-wing ideology, and Iveta Grófová’s 1940s-set “Hungarian Dressmaker.” “Supporting young cinema enthusiasts is crucial. We try to be as accessible as possible, hoping that maybe we will wake up a future filmmaker inside of them.”Karel Och “In many historical films, there is this clear distinction between…

When U2 opened up Las Vegas’ Sphere last September, the band’s longtime creative director, Willie Williams, had a hard time fathoming how another act could follow the group into the new $2.3 billion dome, given the demands of the giant wraparound screen. “I can’t imagine how anybody else is ever going to play here, frankly,” Williams told Variety at the time, “because we’ve had 18 months to put it together — and absolutely everything is bespoke and involving things that we haven’t really had to think about before.” Cut to summer 2024. Dead & Company, the Grateful Dead spinoff, is in the middle of a three-month residency that nearly everyone agrees is equally mind-blowing. So how long has it been in process? And did the group know there would be…

MARCH 4, 1987 Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements Inc. acquires Viacom for $3.4 billion MARCH 11, 1994 Viacom acquires control of Paramount Communications for about $10 billion SEPT. 7, 1999 Viacom announces deal to acquire CBS Corp. for $35 billion MARCH 16, 2005 Sumner Redstone shocks Hollywood and Wall Street with plan to split Viacom and CBS Corp. into separate entities DEC. 31, 2005 Viacom and CBS Corp. split is completed. Tom Freston named CEO of Viacom; Leslie Moonves to lead CBS SEPT. 5, 2006 Sumner Redstone fires Tom Freston as CEO of Viacom, naming Philippe Dauman as his successor OCT. 16, 2014 CBS Corp. launches CBS All Access streaming service FEB. 3, 2016 Sumner Redstone resigns as Viacom and CBS Corp. chairman under pressure from shareholders about his mental capacity…

As the first genuine female superstar to emerge out of Mexico’s century-old banda scene, Rivera cut an entirely unique figure throughout the early 2000s, imbuing one of North America’s most storied — and male-dominated — music genres with a spirit that was unabashedly feminist and entirely modern. A student of the music’s heritage, who steadfastly refused to abide by its strictures, her list of firsts is extensive: she was the first female regional Mexican music star to sell out Los Angeles’ Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena), the first woman to win Mexico’s Premio Lo Nuestro award for banda artist of the year and the first Latin artist to earn a dedicated exhibit at the Grammy Museum. Rivera, who died in 2012 at age 43, sold more than 15 million albums…

Orphan Black: Echoes Platform AMC Premiere date June 23 Episodes 10 Creator Anna Fishko Cast Krysten Ritter, Keeley Hawes, Amanda Fix, Avan Jogia Set nearly 40 years after the end of the original series, “Orphan Black: Echoes” opens as a woman named Lucy (Krysten Ritter) awakens in an unfamiliar environment. Though the scientist (Keeley Hawes) who rouses her tries to calm her down, Lucy is agitated and eventually flees. When the audience meets Lucy again two years later, she seems content with the quiet life she’s built on a farm in the Massachusetts countryside with her lover, Jack (Avan Jogia), and Jack’s young daughter, Charlie (Zariella Langford-Haughton). Inwardly, however, she’s haunted by the fact that she has no memories from before the scientist (who has major ties to the original…

The sultans of media and tech will break out their windbreakers and puffy vests for Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley conference next month. It’s a chance for these high-net-worth individuals to look “oh so casual” as they discuss the state of their industries and the world. The vibe is relaxed, but things aren’t going swimmingly for these denizens of one-percent-dom. The economy remains wobbly, new technologies are upending old ways of minting money, share prices are tumbling and geopolitical turbulence is intensifying. And though we don’t know exactly what will go down at the weeklong confab (Sun Valley is an off-the-record affair), we have a pretty good sense of what’s on these moguls’ minds as they hit the Idaho resort. • Who Gets the Keys to the Magic Kingdom?…

2024 has been loaded with horror releases, with scary stories about everything from rampaging spiders to satanic late-night talk shows. This crop is distinctive for its unconventional reworkings of well-worn tropes. There’s a slasher that owes as much to Terrence Malick as to Jason Voorhees; a dystopian-future tale that eschews global destruction to examine the implosion of one family; and two movies about nuns with evil pregnancies. Better yet: Several of these efforts have made waves at the indie box office, illustrating the horror audience’s affinity for going to strange new places. Some of the year’s biggest titles are to come, from original works (“Trap,” “Longlegs”) to hotly anticipated sequels (“MaXXXine,” “Alien: Romulus”) to bone-chilling indies (“Terrifier 3,” “Oddity”). But the following already stand tall among 2024’s best releases. In…

Tony Awards David H. Koch Theater, New York JUNE 16 The 77th edition of Broadway’s biggest night saw “Stereophonic” lead with four wins, including best play. “The Outsiders” earned best musical, while “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Appropriate” were recognized with best musical revival and best play revival, respectively. Daniel Radcliffe went home with his first Tony for featured actor in a musical for “Merrily.” His co-star Jonathan Groff, who won for leading role in a musical, spoke of dressing up as Mary Poppins when he was a little boy. “Two seconds and I’m already crying,” a teary-eyed Groff told reporters after his win. “My mom let me dress up as Cinderella and Peter Pan. They took me to see theater even though my parents are jocks. My dad is…

Inside Out 2 Director Kelsey Mann Screenplay Dave Holstein, Meg LeFauve Starring Kensington Tallman, Maya Hawke, Lilimar, Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos Distributor Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures In “Inside Out 2,” Riley, the displaced tween from “Inside Out,” is now 13 (and voiced by Kensington Tallman), which means that she’s on the verge of a whole new set of emotions. In the Headquarters of her brain, a siren flashes, so it’s time for renovation workers to tear down the walls and install a new console that can accommodate Riley’s budding adolescent feelings. The original quintet of Anger (Lewis Black), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale), Disgust (Liza Lapira) and the beloved Joy (Amy Poehler) are still around, but they’re now “suppressed emotions,” shoved to the back of her mind. (Over…

Robert Evans inherited a mess. In 1966, the failed actor turned obscure producer was handed the job of Paramount’s vice president of production by Charles Bluhdorn, CEO of the studio’s new owner, Gulf+Western. Paramount had seen better days, and by the time Evans was promoted to president of production, the studio was stuck in ninth place, having suffered one costly flop after another. But under Evans, Paramount adapted a youthful swagger, aligning itself with a number of up-and-coming auteurs. This bet on emerging talents such as Roman Polanski, Peter-Bogdanovich and Francis Ford Coppola paid off with hits such as “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Paper Moon” and, of course, “The Godfather.” The latter was a tumultuous project, with Evans and Coppola clashing over the final cut and the casting of Al Pacino as…