Tag: Entertainment-Variety

Winona Ryder has booked a guest star role in “Wednesday” Season 3, Variety has learned.

The role means a “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” reunion is set for the hit show’s third season. “Wednesday” star Jenna Ortega played Ryder’s daughter in the film, while Ryder’s longtime collaborator Tim Burton directed the film and continues to direct and executive produce “Wednesday.” Meanwhile, “Wednesday” creators and showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar wrote the screenplay for “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.”

“I am so happy that Winona has joined us, she fits right into this world,” “Wednesday” director and executive producer Burton said in a statement. “And she’s a dear friend. I always feel lucky to work with her.”

The role marks a swift return to Netflix for Ryder, who recently starred in the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things,” having originally joined that show in 2016. Exact details on who she will play in “Wednesday” are being kept under wraps.

“When it comes to Outcasts, Winona Ryder is the GOAT,” said Gough & Millar. “Her legendary partnership with Tim Burton has defined some of cinema’s most unforgettable characters. We loved collaborating with her on ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ and couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome her to Nevermore.”

Ryder is the latest new cast member announced for Season 3 of the show, following the news that Eva Green would portray Morticia Addams’ sister Ophelia.

Ryder famously starred in the original “Beetlejuice” in 1988 before returning for the long-awaited sequel in 2024. She and Burton also worked together on the critically-acclaimed feature “Edward Scissorhands” as well as the 2012 animated movie “Frankenweenie.” Ryder is a two-time Oscar nominee — one for best supporting actress for “The Age of Innocence” and another for best actress for “Little Women.” Aside from “Stranger Things,” her other TV roles include “The Plot Against America” and “Show Me a Hero.”

She is repped by WME, Anonymous Content, and Hirsch Wallerstein.

Aside from Ortega, the cast of “Wednesday” includes: Emma Myers, Hunter Doohan, Joy Sunday, Moosa Mostafa, Georgie Farmer, Isaac Ordonez, Billie Piper, Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo, Victor Dorobantu, Evie Templeton, with Luis Guzmán, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joanna Lumley, and Fred Armisen.

The show is based on characters created by Charles Addams. Gough, Millar, and Burton are all executive producers. MGM Television is the studio.

“Wednesday” Season 2 was released in two parts in August and September 2025. Like the first season, the second went on to become a massive hit for Netflix, where it currently ranks as the streamer’s fifth most-watched English language season of TV ever. Season 1 is the most-watched season ever.

Sarah Turney and Kourtney Nichole have teamed for “The Final Hours,” a new true-crime podcast that closely examines clues from the last few hours before someone goes missing — an effort, they say, to give unsolved cases the attention they deserve.

The weekly podcast comes from PAVE Studios under its Crime House banner. “The Final Hours” premieres on Monday (Feb. 23) across all major podcast platforms. New episodes will release every Monday.

For Turney (above left), the subject matter hits close to home: Her sister, Alissa Turney, went missing in 2001 in Arizona, and Sarah has become an advocate for trying to locate missing people through her “Voices for Justice” podcast. Nichole (host of “Crime With Kourt”) also has a personal connection to true crime: At a young age, she learned that someone in her own family had committed a violent crime, an incident she has subsequently investigated.

“I’ve spent years fighting for my sister’s case to be heard, and I know firsthand how many families are still waiting for that same attention,” Turney said. “Partnering with Kourtney and Crime House gives us the platform to shine a light on the cases that deserve a second look, the ones where critical details were dismissed or overlooked. This isn’t just another true-crime show. It’s about accountability, and making sure these stories don’t fade into the background.”

Nichole said, “What drew me to this partnership with Crime House is the opportunity to do true crime differently, with intention and respect for the families still living with unanswered questions. Teaming up with Sarah on this series feels like the most natural thing I’ve ever done. We both became advocates in this space through deeply personal experiences, and that shapes how we approach every case. These stories deserve more than headlines. They deserve the kind of attention that can actually make a difference.”

“The Final Hours” will cover a different missing-person case each week, looking at details that may provide new leads — an untouched dinner, an unmade bed, an unsent text or an unlocked door. “From final conversations, to the last known steps, to red flags and red herrings, Sarah and Kourtney understand the things that replay over and over in the minds of those who’ve lost a loved one,” PAVE Studios said in announcing the podcast.

Turney, who has more than 1.3 million followers across social platforms, launched “Voices for Justice” in 2019, which reached No. 1 on Apple Podcasts and led to a documentary collaboration with Peacock. Alissa’s case and Sarah’s advocacy are also the focus of an upcoming Netflix documentary.

Nichole’s true-crime show “Crime With Kourt” reaches more than 3 million followers across social platforms. Her work has consistently helped push stalled investigations back into the public conversation, according to PAVE.

Founded by Max Cutler, Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based PAVE Studios produces podcasts under two banners: Crime House and lifestyle-oriented OpenMind, whose shows include “Khloé in Wonder Land” hosted by Khloé Kardashian.

Listen to the trailer for “The Final Hours”:

David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance has a Monday deadline to submit its best and final offer for Warner Bros. Discovery — and Paramount is expected to come back with an offer above its previous $30/share bid for WBD, angling to outflank Netflix to win the deal.

The board of Warner Bros. Discovery, with the permission of Netflix, opened a seven-day window to talk with Paramount about an improved offer. That discussion period ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Feb. 23, coming after teams from both companies worked over the weekend.

Paramount has declined to comment on its next move. Insiders tell Variety that Paramount’s revised offer for Warner Bros. Discovery will likely come in at $32/share.

How will Netflix respond? After Paramount submits a revised proposal, the streamer has four days to either come back with a matching offer — or exit the M&A drama.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, in an interview Friday with Variety‘s Cynthia Littleton, declined to say how the streamer would respond to a higher offer from Paramount. But he did say that Netflix has a “rich history” of being “willing to walk away and let someone else overpay for things.”

“The next move is up to somebody else. We have a signed deal with Warner Bros. Discovery,” Sarandos said in the Feb. 20 interview. “If someone wants to make a better deal, which the Warner Bros. Discovery board has said has not happened yet, then we’ll see what happens down the road. But let’s not get ahead of that process. And I certainly wouldn’t comment on the bidding strategy anyway. But the core of it is, you know, we’re super-disciplined buyers, as you probably know we have a reputation for such so that I’m willing to walk away and let someone else overpay for things. We have a rich history of that.”

If Warner Bros. Discovery agrees to accept Paramount Skydance’s higher offer, WBD will be on the hook to pay a $2.8 billion breakup fee to Netflix. In its most recent proposed offer, Paramount has said it will foot the bill for that.

On Feb. 17, WBD said it was engaging in discussions with Paramount to “seek clarity” on its “best and final offer.” WBD wanted Paramount Skydance “to clarify your proposal, which we understand will include a WBD per share price higher than $31,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and board chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr. wrote in a letter sent to Paramount’s board.

The Warner Bros. Discovery board cited a communication from a “senior representative for PSKY” to an identified WBD board member that if the WBD board authorized M&A talks, Paramount “would agree to pay $31 per share and that the offer was not PSKY’s ‘best and final’ proposal.” In addition, WBD set March 20 for the special meeting of shareholders to vote on the Netflix deal — which the board at the time said it still recommended that investors vote for.

“The question now becomes how high PSKY is willing to go — and whether Netflix will exercise its matching rights and increase its offer as well,” MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman wrote in a Feb. 20 research note. “In short, we do expect PSKY to go to at least $32 per share to put the pressure back on NFLX to increase its bid likely to the $30 per share range.” He added that if Paramount Skydance “truly wants to win the bidding war with NFLX, we think it will take a bid in the range of $34 per share to avoid an ongoing debate over the value of Discovery’s Global Networks.”

Under Netflix’s current agreement with WBD, the streamer would buy Warner Bros.’s studios and streaming businesses for $27.75 per share. WBD shareholders would retain equity in Discovery Global, the company’s proposed spin-off entity house CNN, TBS and other linear networks.

If Netflix were to up its offer above $30/share, “we have difficulty making the accretion math work,” Fishman wrote. That’s factoring in incremental debt, “likely revenue cannibalization and necessary programming spend cuts needed.”

“While we see the longer-term benefits of owning Warner Bros., HBO and HBO Max, we expect NFLX to walk away from the deal following a disciplined approach if PSKY pushes its bid well beyond $32 per share,” the MoffettNathanson analyst continued. “We think it will be difficult for PSKY to win the bidding war for WBD if it decides to take a less aggressive approach during this waiver period, giving NFLX the opportunity to match at a more modest increase from its current bid.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump — after earlier this month saying he would not be involved in the review of the Netflix-WB pact — in a social media post Saturday demanded that Netflix “immediately fire” board member Susan Rice or else “pay the consequences.” Trump cited a tweet by far-right commentator Laura Loomer, who said Rice, who served as U.N. ambassador under Obama, was “threatening half of the country with weaponized government political retribution.” Loomer also bizarrely claimed that if Netflix is allowed to acquire Warner Bros., “positive messaging of the Democrats’ upcoming witch hunts against Trump from Barack Hussein Obama and his anti-White racist wife Michelle would likely be blasted across all streaming services.”

On Monday, Sarandos addressed Trump’s comment. “He likes to do a lot of things on social media,” Sarandos said in a BBC Radio 4 interview. “This is a business deal. It’s not a political deal. This deal is run by the Department of Justice in the U.S. and regulators throughout Europe and around the world.”

The Justice Department in recent weeks has expanded its review of the proposed Netflix-WB agreement to examine whether the combined company would violate antitrust laws with respect to the market for entertainment programming. The DOJ’s Antitrust Division has sent inquiries to independent studios inquiring whether the Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros. “may substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act or Section 2 of the Sherman Act,” according to a copy of one of the letters reviewed by Variety.

Netflix has argued that it does not have anything close to monopoly control over any market. In a statement to Bloomberg about the expanded DOJ probe, chief legal counsel David Hyman said, “Netflix operates in an extremely competitive market. Any claim that it is a monopolist, or seeking to monopolize, is unfounded. We neither hold monopoly power nor engage in exclusionary conduct and we’ll gladly cooperate, as we always do, with regulators on any concerns they may have.”

On Friday, Paramount said its proposed WBD takeover had cleared a milestone at the DOJ, after the expiration of the statutory waiting period following Paramount Skydance’s “certification of compliance” with the Justice Department’s second request for information under the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust act. Netflix’s Hyman accused Paramount of continuing to “mislead stockholders and distract from the facts,” saying that “routine HSR milestones do not signal DOJ approval nor that any decision has been made.”

“Golden Swan,” which has its world premiere in the International Competition section of the 28th Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival, has debuted its trailer.

The film, directed by Anette Ostrø, looks back to 1995, when her brother, Hans Christian Ostrø, travelled to India in search of meaning and artistic growth. Months later, he is kidnapped in Kashmir and held hostage by the militant group al-Faran.

During five weeks in captivity, he secretly writes poems and letters to his sister. Found on his body after his execution, these texts become the foundation of an intimate reconstruction of his final months.

Anette Ostrø said in a statement, “I was 25 when my only brother was brutally killed. The trauma changed my life completely. I am not sure I would have become a filmmaker if not for this event. The desire to tell my brother’s story has followed me throughout my career.

“British journalists Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark contacted me while researching their book ‘The Meadow – Kashmir 1995,’ where the terror began. Sharing with them the information and memories surrounding what happened to my brother made me realize that telling his story had become necessary – and urgent – now.

“As both sister and filmmaker, I approach this story personally while placing it in the wider context of global terrorism. In a polarized world defined by fear, Hans Christian’s choice to recognize humanity in his enemy rather than give in to hate feels urgently relevant.

“Through this film, I want to share the legacy he left behind – one that I believe can inspire many.”

The producers are Beathe Hofseth and Siri Natvik of Fri Film in Norway; the co-producers are Helle Faber of Made in Copenhagen in Denmark, Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen of 100% Film in Netherlands, and Erika Malmgren of Cinenic Film of Sweden.

Japan remains one of the world’s most insular television format markets, exporting globally successful unscripted hits while importing almost no foreign concepts, according to data presented by Virginia Mouseler, CEO of The WIT, during the “Fresh TV: Japan” session at Mip London.

Using the company’s real-time tracking database, Mouseler said Japan currently ranks as the world’s seventh-largest exporter of formats, “at the same level as South Korea,” even as it adapts very little international IP.

WIT’s Top Formats tool showed Japanese-origin “Dragon’s Den” continuing to rank among the most widely adapted unscripted formats globally over the past year, alongside international hits including “The Floor,” “The A Talks” and “The Traitors.”

Among Japanese formats themselves, the most adapted unscripted titles over the past 12 months include “Dragon’s Den,” “LOL,” “Freeze” and the long-running game show “Run for Money,” highlighting the export strength of high-concept entertainment formats built around simple game mechanics.

At the same time, Japan remains highly resistant to importing foreign formats. According to WIT data, only two international formats were adapted locally over the past year, compared with none the year before.

One of those imports was the South Korean relationship competition “Wedding Wars,” based on CJ ENM’s “Wedding Fighters,” which premiered on streaming platform Abema in April. The other was a reboot of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” returning to Japanese television 26 years after its first local version.

Mouseler noted that Japan has “a long, long tradition of importing no formats,” with the country currently ranking 15th globally as a format importer.

Much local activity instead revolves around revivals and reinventions of homegrown IP, including the recent reboot of the classic game show “Challenges on Fire,” which returned three decades after its original run.

The presentation also highlighted a new generation of Japanese entertainment formats centered on visually driven physical mechanics and social-strategy gameplay, including hybrid deduction formats, endurance-based competition shows such as “Cash or Splash,” and Nippon TV’s rotating-stage challenge format “Turn” (“Mawase”), underscoring Japan’s continued focus on highly visual, easily exportable game concepts.

“Sinners” production designer Hannah Beachler has said that Alan Cumming’s “throw away apology” over the N-word being shouted during the BAFTA Film Awards made the situation “worse.”

“I keep trying to write about what happened at the BAFTAs, and I can’t find the words,” Beachler, who was nominated for an award, posted on X after the ceremony. “The situation is almost impossible, but it happened 3 times that night, and one of the three times was directed at myself on the way to dinner after the show.”

She continued: “And a third time at a Black woman. I understand and deeply know why this is an impossible situation. I know we must handle this with grace and continue to push through. But what made the situation worse was the throw away apology of ‘if you were offended’ at the end of the show. Of course we were offended…but our frequency, our spiritual vibration is tuned to a higher level than what happened. I am not steal [sic], this did not bounce off of me, but I exist above it. It can’t take away from who I am as an artist.”

Beachler was understood to be referring to a number of outbursts by Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson, whose life inspired the BAFTA-nominated biopic “I Swear.”

As well as shouting out the word “fuck” multiple times during speeches, including “shut the fuck up” during BAFTA chair Sara Putt’s introduction to the ceremony, he was also heard shouting the n-word when Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented “Avatar: Fire and Ash” with the award for best visual effects.

BAFTAs host Alan Cumming made two statements about Davidson’s outburst during the ceremony, the first explaining that the “strong language in the background” can be a symptom of Tourette’s for some people and thanking the audience for their “understanding and helping create a respectful space for everyone.”

He later added: “Tourette’s Syndrome is a disability and the tics you’ve heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette’s Syndrome has no control over their language. We apologize if you are offended tonight.”

Despite the ceremony airing with a two-hour delay on BBC One in the U.K. and E! in the U.S., the slur was not cut from the broadcast.

“I Swear” went on to win a number of awards during the evening, including one for actor Robert Aramayo who beat out Jordan as well as Leonardo DiCaprio and Ethan Hawke to take home the leading man statue for his portrayal of Davidson, who was diagnosed with Tourette’s at the age of 25 after years of outbursts.

Before the ceremony began a floor manager, who addressed the audience to issue a number of notices regarding things such as fire safety protocol, flagged that Davidson was in the audience and that he has “Tourette’s Syndrome so please be aware you might hear some involuntary noises or movements during the ceremony.”

After winning the BAFTA Film Award for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer, “My Father’s Shadow” helmer Akinola Davies Jr. ended his speech by saying “free Palestine.” However, these words were then cut from his speech when the ceremony aired two hours later on the BBC.

Towards the end of Davies Jr.’s speech during the taping of the awards — and in one of the only politically-charged moments of the show — he said: “To the economic migrant, the conflict migrant, those under occupation, dictatorship, persecution and those experiencing genocide, you matter and your stories matter more than ever. Your dreams are an act of resistance. To those watching at home, archive your loved ones, archive your stories yesterday, today and forever. For Nigeria, for London, Congo, Sudan, free Palestine. Thank you.”

But this part was entirely cut from the show’s broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer, with only the first section of Davies Jr.’s speech — in which he thanks his family and brother and co-screenwriter Wale Davies — making it to air. “My Father’s Shadow,” which was submitted as the U.K.’s official Oscar entry for best international feature, follows two brothers who attend a family reunion in Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election and witness their father’s daily struggles.

Representatives for the BBC and Davies Jr. did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.

There are always cuts made to the BBC broadcast of the awards as the ceremony is edited from three hours down to two, but Davies Jr.’s “free Palestine” not airing sparked particular outrage as several outbursts during the taping — including the N-word — did.

Tourette’s advocate John Davidson — who inspired “I Swear,” which won star Robert Aramayo the best actor BAFTA — was in attendance at the ceremony, and the audience was warned of potential outbursts including strong language. However, when Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo took the stage to present the first award for special visual effects, he shouted the N-word, causing controversy.

BAFTAs host Alan Cumming addressed this during the ceremony, saying: “You may have noticed some strong language in the background. This can be part of how Tourette’s syndrome shows up for some people as the film explores that experience. Thanks for your understanding and helping create a respectful space for everyone.”

In a second statement later on, Cumming added that “Tourette’s Syndrome is a disability and the tics you’ve heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette’s Syndrome has no control over their language. We apologize if you are offended tonight.”

However, the moment — and the BBC’s decision to keep the N-word in the tape-delayed broadcast — resulted in widespread debate on social media, with disability advocates reminding viewers that Davidson has no control over the remarks, while others still deemed the airing of the racial slur unacceptable.