Tag: Entertainment-Variety

Virginia Woolf herself was not the greatest admirer of her 1919 novel “Night and Day,” a complex and somewhat elusive work that wove a pensive reflection on women’s suffrage through a quasi-Shakespearean rotation of misbegotten and rearranged courtships — in a style far removed from the angular modernism of her later works. It remains perhaps the most underexposed of her books, and though it’s easy to imagine the period romantic comedy that Merchant-Ivory-style filmmakers might have made of it, it’s taken until now for anyone to attempt an adaptation. Though Tina Gharavi‘s film stresses its allegiance to the text with the title “Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day,” it’s actually quite a departure: Playing down the novel’s tangled relationships in favor of a straightforwardly empowering celebration of female agency and education, it trades some of the author’s elegance and nuance for a more crowdpleasing message.

Whether it finds many crowds to please remains to be seen. London-set and broadly accessible, “Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day” was a fitting opener for the second edition of the SXSW London multimedia fest, a few weeks ahead of its U.K. theatrical bow. But given its relatively low-profile source material and a solid cast of known names who nonetheless aren’t major big-screen draws, the film might fare better on streaming platforms internationally. For Iranian-born filmmaker Gharavi, who landed a BAFTA nomination for her punchy 2013 debut feature “I Am Nasrine,” this handsomely dressed and mounted production proves she can handle the demands of British heritage cinema, though it’s a less interesting direction for her.

An American who can seem amorphously international when required in such projects as “Cyrano” and “Widow Clicquot,” Haley Bennett is a vivacious and likable anchor for the film around her. She sports a convincing cut-glass accent as Katherine (or Kit, when the mood takes her), a spirited and intellectually curious young woman in Edwardian London with a particular passion for astronomy — one of many fields of study then barred to women, even relatively well-to-do ones like Katherine. She must disguise herself as a man to attend lectures at the Royal Astronomical Society, while her dreams of continuing her personal research at Cambridge face a patriarchal wall of opposition.

Her stuffy father (Timothy Spall) would prefer she find herself a suitable husband; she eventually accepts the proposal of her childhood friend William (comedian Jack Whitehall, easily adapting his signature posh-bozo persona to the period), a foppish and untalented poet, to get everyone off her back. Her cousin Cyril (Misia Butler), her closest male ally, is aghast at her pragmatism in this regard; in a major change from the novel, where the character unapologetically fathered children out of wedlock, here he’s a marginalized gay man, unwilling to live a lie to cut an easier path through the world. Naturally, no sooner has Katherine entered a loveless engagement than she strikes sparks with Ralph (Elyas M’Barek), a literary editor commissioned by her father to tame the unwieldy manuscript of her would-be writer mother (Jennifer Saunders) — an ostensibly kind but ultimately controlling male gesture.

Though it’s at the core of the novel, Katherine’s relationship with Ralph never comes into focus in Justine Waddell’s adaptation, as every male character bar Cyril is given pointedly short shrift in the film. More screen time is given over to her burgeoning friendship with firebrand suffragette Mary, played by singer Lily Allen in a deliberately anachronistic performance — her forthright speech and manner beamed in directly from the 21st century. The two women bond more closely here than they do in the novel, where their individualist and more community-minded stances were subtly contrasted; the film prefers a more robustly unified representation of female solidarity, driven home by dialogue that comes close to speechifying at several points. (On at least one occasion, when an incensed Katherine gives a sexist university selection panel what for, this streamlined progressive rhetoric is quite satisfying.)

Still, sometimes Bennett’s lively, headstrong performance feels like it’s swimming not just against outdated social currents, but the film’s own staidness. As much as Gharavi tries to energize proceedings with a bobbing handheld camera and an electro-tinged score that, in the closing credits, finally bubbles over into ethereal, Ellie Goulding-style pop, “Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day” can feel talky and stiffly didactic, however sincere in its convictions. Well-meaning but ultimately familiar in both message and delivery, the film speaks much of the bolder future ahead, but the filmmaking does little to disrupt the status quo.

Peabo Bryson, the veteran R&B singer best known as the singer behind the Disney film hits “Beauty and the Beast” and “Whole New World,” has died, according to a statement from his family. No cause of death was cited, although the family announced on Sunday that he had suffered a stroke

“With broken hearts and profound sadness, the family of two-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and balladeer, Peabo Bryson, announces his passing,” the statement reads in part. “He transitioned peacefully at 5:00 p.m. ET on the evening of Tuesday, June 2, 2026, surrounded by the love of his family and those closest to him.”

“For more than five decades, Peabo’s extraordinary voice served as the soundtrack to some of life’s most cherished moments. His music carried generations through joyful celebrations, great love stories and enduring moments of comfort and inspiration, creating a legacy that will forever live in the hearts of those who loved him and the countless lives he touched through song.

“In this deeply difficult moment, the family asks for privacy as they mourn the loss of a beloved husband, father, family member, friend and artist whose impact extended far beyond the stage.

“We are tremendously moved by the outpouring of love, prayers and support from fans, friends, and colleagues around the world,” the family shared. “While our hearts are broken, we find comfort in knowing how deeply Peabo was loved and how many lives were touched by his voice and his generous spirit. His legacy and music will live on for generations to come.”

Best known for his smooth voice and duet hit ballads, Bryson, 75, scored hits with the above two songs — duets with Celine Dion and Regina Belle, respectively from hit Disney films — as well as “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” “You’re Looking Like Love to Me” and “As Long as There’s Christmas.”

Yet his association with those films belies his long career as an R&B singer. A native of South Carolina, Bryson came up in the 1970s as a member of the group Moses Dillard and the Tex-Town Display. He was signed to the Atlanta indie label Bang Records as a solo artist and released his first album in 1976, and upscaled to Capitol the following year.

A long string of R&B hits ensued, including 1977’s “Feel the Fire” and “Reaching for the Sky” and “I’m So into You” and “Crosswinds” the following year. In 1984 he scored his first Top 10 pop hit, “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again,” and followed with “Show and Tell” and “Can You Stop the Rain.” In 1985, he appeared on the soap opera “One Life to Live,” adding vocals its theme song; that version was subsequently adapted as the show’s main theme and ran on every episode for the next seven years.

During this time his duets with female singers became hits and he followed that track for the next decade. He recorded an album of duets with Roberta Flack, “Born to Love,” in 1983, and over the following years scored hits with Angela Bofill (“For You and I”), a string of duets with Regina Belle and several of the above-mentioned hits.

Celebration of life and memorial arrangements will be announced at a later date.

Ernest Chambers, the writer and producer known for variety TV shows like “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” and “Click,” died on May 28 at home in Los Angeles following a brief illness. He was 97. 

Chambers produced, wrote and executive produced over 1,000 hours of TV over the course of his 50-year career, earning 11 Emmy and 4 Writers Guild Award nominations. He got his start writing on TV hits of the 1960s including “The Bob Newhart Show,” “The Danny Kaye Show,” “My Three Sons” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” 

Chambers served as the original showrunner of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” which he teamed up with writer-producer Saul Ilson on. The show ran for three seasons from 1967 to 1968. In the 1970s and 80s, Chambers continued to produce, creating TV specials and series for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Donna Summer, Carol Channing, Tony Orlando & Dawn, Sid Caesar, Tony Randall, Bobby Darin, Merv Griffin and Barry Manilow. He also produced “Dance Fever,” which ran from 1978 to 1987. 

He executive produced “Click,” the 2 season 1997 game show. The series was one of Ryan Seacrest’s first hosting jobs. 

Chambers also wrote for musicals, including the stage production of “Dennis the Menace”; he went on to executive produce the 1993 movie adaptation before stepping in as the VP of Television & Film at Merv Griffin Entertainment. He also wrote for the Carol Channing revue “Show Girl,” which ran on Broadway in 1961. 

Chambers was born on December 28, 1928 in Philadelphia. After serving in the army,  Chambers attended Columbia University. There, he served as The Jester’s, the university’s humor magazine, Editor-in-Chief. Post graduation and before he headed to Los Angeles, he balanced working in advertising as a copywriter while writing comedy sketches and songs for the 1950s New York City cabaret scene. 

Chambers is survived by his wife of 55 years, Veronica, his daughters Alison and Kathryn, son Christopher and five grandchildren. He is predeceased by his son, editor and television executive Brian Chambers.

A memorial will be held in Beverly Hills in the coming weeks. For details, email ECMemorial2026@gmail.com.

If there’s one key thing that PlayStation‘s Insomniac Games wants you to take away from the new gameplay footage for its upcoming “Marvel’s Wolverine,” it’s that this video game will be as bloody as promised.

“It’s planting our flag that this is a mature game,” Insomniac Games’ creative director Marcus Smith told Variety. “There was a lot of speculation about, especially Insomniac creating this game, were we going to be able to create that visceral high action that one would expect from a Wolverine game? And the answer is, yeah, absolutely, we’ve done that. We also are creating a storyline that is equally mature, that has more depth and ambiguity and deepness to go along with that. And then I would just throw out that we also understand that some people are squeamish when it comes to blood, and we do have an accessibility option to turn it off and do low-gore paths.”

Developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Insomniac Games in partnership with Marvel Games, “Marvel’s Wolverine” will launch Sept. 15 exclusively for the PlayStation 5. The game is described as delivering “the ultimate Wolverine fantasy, with fast, fluid, and ferocious combat; exhilarating, action-packed set pieces, and a gripping story that taps into the core tenets of one of the most compelling comic book characters of all-time.”

“Wolverine” game director Mike Daly knows Insomniac “packed a lot into that seven minutes” of new footage unveiled Tuesday during PlayStation’s “State of Play” presentation, which readers can view in the video below, so he has a few specifics he wants to point out in case you missed them.

“The things I’d call your attention to are that Logan can get around the world because he’s very strong, so his traversal abilities come into play,” Daly said. “Those blend smoothly into using his enhanced senses to detect enemies and scout them, so that he can opt to sneak into areas and take enemies out with stealth. And all that culminates in the claw combat, which is really the main gameplay aspect that we put the top priority on.”

Daly says that within Logan’s claw combat he will have “a very wide variety of moves.”

“He has explosive special moves that you’ll need to time just right to get the most out of,” the “Marvel’s Wolverine” game director said. “He has the ability to break down enemies’ defenses, to take advantage of environment opportunities, and work together with Jean to take out enemies faster. So all of those elements were derived from what are Logan’s special qualities and abilities? How do we bring those to life and combine them all to give you this player experience that makes you feel like Wolverine, while giving you a lot of options and variety and strategic choices to make, so that the game stays deep throughout the entire playthrough.”

See below for more from Variety‘s interview with Insomniac Games’ creative director Marcus Smith and game director Mike Daly about “Marvel’s Wolverine.”

First, was that Deadpool in the trailer footage at the end?

Smith: You are not the only one who has seen that character in that shot and thought that. Luckily, when you’re playing the game, there’s a lot of setup before any of that, and there will not be that confusion. Not Deadpool, but we were trying to build the ultimate Wolverine experience, and part of that is he is surrounded by beloved Marvel characters all around. So we did see Jean Gray, we saw Sabretooth, we’ve seen Omega Red, we’ve seen Mystique. Those are a few of the faces we can let you in on, at least.

How did you decide which of those X-Men characters to include?

Smith: First and foremost, with a character like Wolverine, who’s been around for 50-some-odd years, there’s a lot of different stories, so it really did behoove us to create our own story. It’s our own unique take on the world, and as such, we are putting it in modern times, but the X-Men do not exist. The X-Men are not in our game, and where we do start is Logan has been around for a while. He’s been part of a team called Team X. They’re a group of mutants who go all around the world and save other mutants who are in danger. In our world, mutants aren’t really that well known throughout the world, so they’re mostly in hiding because they’re pretty vulnerable. In our trailer that we set up, Logan is hunting down some mutants who’ve been kidnapped by cybernetically enhanced mercenaries called the Reavers, and that’s when he discovers there’s yet another mutant who is also trying to save them, and that’s where he and Jean cross paths.”

Daly: We wanted to bring to life a cast of iconic Marvel characters, but making sure that the story was fully and deeply about Wolverine was the top thing. So it’s not really about anything else other than telling Logan’s story, and then bringing in the characters that support that and bring it to life.

The game is definitely as graphic as previously promised, and for sure the most violent game ever from Insomniac. How did you land on exactly how violent it should be and why?

Daly: As a character who lives in our grounded video game world, but has these adamantium claws and this dark past, there was really no turning away from the violence that we’d need to put into the game in order to really live up to the character and deliver the experience that does them justice. So that was kind of part of the game’s DNA from the get-go. From that, it inspired the accessibility feature that Mark has mentioned. But it meant that all along the way, as we came up with the moves that you do, or figured out how your strategy can weave into combat effects, it meant, let’s lean into this, let’s deliver on it, and give the player that feeling, and, as a result of that, sort of an unapologetic embrace of the character and their violent nature. I think we’ve arrived at gameplay systems that are really endlessly satisfying, because when you put it all together and you get our cool dynamic blood tech working good solid connected hits, that feeling of heavy impact from a heavy character that can knock people around with this heavy skeleton, it really is fun. It just makes the game fun to play.

Smith: It’s not that Logan relishes it. I think that’s where it tips into something else. What we’re demonstrating is efficiency. What he’s doing is the quickest way to get to what he needs to do, right? So when you’re cutting through unequivocally bad guys, it feels pretty good to just be doing it. But there were times during development when somebody would do an animation where you just went, “Ah, that looks a little bit too much, like he’s enjoying it.” He’s not a sadist here or anything.

Logan’s regeneration is featured in the new footage. How did you work through what his health bar and healing powers would look like when Logan is well known for not being able to die?

Daly: We knew we needed to bring his healing factor into play in a way that was important to gameplay and affected your decision making, and obviously that’s a tricky challenge. Logan’s healing factor has manifested in a lot of different ways over the years, and where we ended up was our Logan can die. He dies when his heart stops, and his healing factor can no longer activate, and that’s represented by his health bar. It’s a simple system that players easily understand. Now that being said, Logan’s healing is — his body’s energy is able to regenerate at an incredible rate when it’s dedicated to these healing surges. So outside of combat, he can heal very quickly and get up totally fresh. You never have to worry about health packs or repairs or anything like that.

During combat, his energy is on fighting and taking enemies out and doing aggressive damage, so this healing factor slows down to a crawl. It’s still there, but in order to maintain your health, you need to be aggressive. So you can expand your repertoire of moves and apply some customization to your mutant abilities that let you heal through taking advantage of certain opportunities in battle. The other big way that his healing factor is represented is that when he takes so much damage that his heart stops and he’s going to die, if he has enough rage, that adrenaline can restart his heart and give him a healing surge mid-battle. So that was that moment you saw in the gameplay trailer, where you could come back to life, and you sort of see his body reconstitute. Because that’s adrenaline fueled, and it uses it all up, it’s sort of like a one-time chance, and it leaves you vulnerable for a while after that. So, if you’re going to get back in the game, you’ve got to really focus on getting through the rest of this fight without losing all your health again.

It’s clear the game is adult in the violent sense — but what about the storyline?

Smith: It’s definitely not like we’re making an “adult game,” from the air quotes standpoint. It is more emotional depth, it is more ambiguity and conflict. Probably can’t go super deep in that without getting into spoilers and whatnot, but I will say that, for example, Mike and I worked on “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart” as our last game where we teamed up together. And this allows us to tell a more mature story, is what I would say.

Daly: By knowing our target audience was adults we were able to put a lot of complexity into the characters and use different emotional tones and subtext to tell a story that’s a little bit more nuanced and, at the end of the day, come away with a story that has you empathizing with Logan in a way that gives you a little bit of heartache. It’s not like a fairy tale story, because that’s kind of the essence of Logan, where he gets sucked into things because of his big heart, and that’s what gets him into trouble.

Working with Marvel, has there been anything they weighed in on that they either wanted added or taken out of the game?

Smith: I think our partnership with Marvel Games has been great, because we’ve worked with them for so long, since “Spider-Man 1.” I can’t recall us butting heads on anything. It really does come down to we all have the same shared vision of staying true to a character; all of the characters along the way. So I think the only course correction that they had ever said was along those lines of, “This story point or this mechanic doesn’t seem like it’s honed in on the core essence of Wolverine.” So I can’t really give you any specifics because I don’t think we ever got into any real conflict, but it’s nice working with partners who have the same core vision.

Daly: We kicked ideas back and forth quite a bit, and it was very constructive, and always resulted in a better game.

Peabo Bryson, the veteran R&B singer best known as the singer behind the Disney film hits “Beauty and the Beast” and “Whole New World,” has died, according to a statement from his family. No cause of death was cited, although the family announced on Sunday that he had suffered a stroke

“With broken hearts and profound sadness, the family of two-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and balladeer, Peabo Bryson, announces his passing,” the statement reads in part. “He transitioned peacefully at 5:00 p.m. ET on the evening of Tuesday, June 2, 2026, surrounded by the love of his family and those closest to him.”

“For more than five decades, Peabo’s extraordinary voice served as the soundtrack to some of life’s most cherished moments. His music carried generations through joyful celebrations, great love stories and enduring moments of comfort and inspiration, creating a legacy that will forever live in the hearts of those who loved him and the countless lives he touched through song.

“In this deeply difficult moment, the family asks for privacy as they mourn the loss of a beloved husband, father, family member, friend and artist whose impact extended far beyond the stage.

“We are tremendously moved by the outpouring of love, prayers and support from fans, friends, and colleagues around the world,” the family shared. “While our hearts are broken, we find comfort in knowing how deeply Peabo was loved and how many lives were touched by his voice and his generous spirit. His legacy and music will live on for generations to come.”

Best known for his smooth voice and duet hit ballads, Bryson, 75, scored hits with the above two songs — duets with Celine Dion and Regina Belle, respectively from hit Disney films — as well as “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” “You’re Looking Like Love to Me” and “As Long as There’s Christmas.”

Yet his association with those films belies his long career as an R&B singer. A native of South Carolina, Bryson came up in the 1970s as a member of the group Moses Dillard and the Tex-Town Display. He was signed to the Atlanta indie label Bang Records as a solo artist and released his first album in 1976, and upscaled to Capitol the following year.

A long string of R&B hits ensued, including 1977’s “Feel the Fire” and “Reaching for the Sky” and “I’m So into You” and “Crosswinds” the following year. In 1984 he scored his first Top 10 pop hit, “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again,” and followed with “Show and Tell” and “Can You Stop the Rain.” In 1985, he appeared on the soap opera “One Life to Live,” adding vocals its theme song; that version was subsequently adapted as the show’s main theme and ran on every episode for the next seven years.

During this time his duets with female singers became hits and he followed that track for the next decade. He recorded an album of duets with Roberta Flack, “Born to Love,” in 1983, and over the following years scored hits with Angela Bofill (“For You and I”), a string of duets with Regina Belle and several of the above-mentioned hits.

Celebration of life and memorial arrangements will be announced at a later date.

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the three episode-premiere of “Not Suitable For Work,” now streaming on Hulu.

Let the record show that Mindy Kaling is well aware of the possibility of people looking up “Mindy Kaling NSFW” and finding “inappropriate photos” of the actor/writer/producer, rather than information about her newest TV show, “Not Suitable For Work,” now streaming on Hulu.

Originally titled “Murray Hill” after the Manhattan neighborhood the show is set in, Kaling agreed to switch the name to “Not Suitable For Work” after Hulu exec Craig Erwich (and B.J. Novak) told her the title was “boring and needs to change.”

“As a show creator, when you have to thank the literal head of your network, the person who made you make a change, and everyone likes it better, it’s not good for the ego,” Kaling tells Variety with a laugh. “But thank you, Craig.”

Joined by Kaling’s long-time collaborator Charlie Grandy as showrunner, Kaling views “NSFW” — which focuses on ambitious 20somethings in New York City — as the third installment in a series loosely based on her life, following the high school drama of “Never Have I Ever” and collegiate chaos of “The Sex Lives of College Girls.”

The show kicks off when AJ (Ella Hunt), an investment banker from Boston, moves to New York for a new job and begins living with her best friend, aspiring celebrity stylist Abby (Avantika). Across the hall in a “Friends”-esque set-up, live a trio of male best friends; Davis (Will Angus), AJ’s hopeless romantic co-worker who develops a crush on her pretty much at first sight; Josh (Jack Martin), a slightly pretentious nepo baby and aspiring journalist; and Kel (Nicholas Duvernay), an aspiring actor who drops out of med-school and begins teaching to cover the bills.

Much happens within the three-episode premiere, starting with Josh and AJ immediately getting off on the wrong foot, especially since AJ remembers their one-night stand from their college Model UN days and Josh doesn’t. On a practice run to her new office, she gets into a verbal fight with a stranger, who turns out to be her new boss, Bill (Jay Ellis), and later develops a burgeoning crush on him. Performing workplace shenanigans together, Davis falls hard and fast for AJ but remains in the dark about her hookup with Josh, who is eventually reminded of the fact by AJ. Josh, for his part, has his own issues to deal with; his girlfriend Vivian (Stella Everett) dumps him for a Property Brother, and his dad’s position as CEO helps him land an assistant gig at his role model and investigative journalist Wes Dryden’s show, but his new colleagues take a minute to warm up to him. Kel picks up a job as private school English teacher where he is mocked by teenage girls for not knowing who Elizabeth Bennet is, while having a subtle-as-a-sledgehammer crush on Abby, who, after managing to prevent her landlord from evicting her, finds herself being pursued by a client (and Cate Blanchett’s fictional nephew) Austin Blanchett (Harry Richardson) and struggles with her over-bearing boss, Vanessa (Constance Wu).

After an important save at work, AJ invites Davis over for a home-cooked meal, and he mistakenly believes it to be a date. AJ, on the other hand, panic-invites Bill and admits her attraction to him to Abby, who also attends the dinner and invites Kel to join. Josh is blamed for AJ’s wine shipment being nabbed from the lobby after he signs for the delivery and is tasked with picking up a new crate for her dinner party where Davis, despite having a shellfish allergy, keeps eating AJ’s seafood-heavy dishes and eventually finds out that AJ and Josh slept together after telling the group a story about a previous hookup of Josh’s he dubbed the “Philadelphia Sex Monster.” AJ, said Philadelphia sex monster, is less than happy with Josh when he arrives and the two begin trading facts about the night with their friends overlooking the exchange as a convicting jury. The guilty party? Josh, who left without a text after AJ asked “Is that it?” once they were done. In AJ’s defense, she reveals it was her first time, and in a later scene with just Josh and AJ, he reveals it was his too. In the midst of the fight, however, an increasingly red and swollen Davis passes out and is rushed to the ER, while the episode’s closing scene pans to Bill arriving to the party but deciding against going in.

Below, Kaling and Grandy spoke to Variety in separate conversations about the messy web of love interests, finding the right careers and character traits — and depicting the Gen Z workforce onscreen.

I loved that Ella Hunt’s character AJ never stopped wearing her Boston sports merch despite moving to New York. How did you decide that AJ’s move was where you wanted to kick the show off?

Mindy Kaling: A sort of delusional Boston person in other regions is something that I find very funny. Boston people, we grew up thinking that growing up in Boston is the same as New York. And then they leave Boston, they realize that no one else in the world thinks that. As someone who grew up in Boston and moved to New York, and felt I was a kind of sheltered kid and felt wildly out of place and overwhelmed, I related to that. I wanted to give it to that character, and just have her on her heels from the instant she first appears on the show.

Charlie Grandy, the showrunner for “Not Suitable For Work,” is also someone you’ve worked with throughout these other projects you mentioned.

Kaling: I was looking at him yesterday at a panel, and thinking: “I have known Charlie since I was 25 so I’ve known him for 21 years.” We started at “The Office” together, and he had come from “Saturday Night Live,” and was one of those guys that started at “SNL” when he was 21, had four Emmys already, and went to Harvard too. He’s this intimidating guy that I thought was going to be really snobby, and he wasn’t, and I loved him. He’s so funny. We worked together on “The Mindy Project” and “College Girls,” so we have such a great shorthand with each other. He thinks that we could not be more different as people, but he knows how to write for women so well, and he’s just an excellent writer who loves young people. He has three teenagers – no, one of them is in their 20s —  and so he really understands that generation too.

Charlie, how do you remember onboarding the project?

Charlie Grandy: This all sprung from the head of Mindy Kaling. She wrote the pilot, sold it and then brought me in. We’ve worked together a lot on numerous projects, going back to “The Office,” and I was lucky enough for her to just call me and say, “Hey, would you want to come work on this show? Would you want to run it for me?” And I said yes, and then she said, “Hold on, you’ll need to move to New York for four months,” and I pretended to be upset about that, but I was actually very excited. It was just an incredible experience to be able to shoot in the city.

The characters felt very real to me, especially the boys who are such specific archetypes of men that you find in New York. Were there people or incidents in your life that you drew inspiration from to create these characters or some of their dialogue?

Kaling: Thank you for saying that. I really take that as a huge compliment. I feel in TV we see this characterization of a finance frat guy, and when I went to Dartmouth, there could not have been more guys who were Econ majors who wanted to go off and work in an investment bank, but the kind of guys that I knew and was friends with had these very complex, deep wells of emotion, vulnerability, and just wanting to be like loved and accepted. That’s why so many men join fraternities. It’s kind of mandated friendship, and I just think that’s a really interesting, unexplored area.

The truth is, I don’t write for male characters that often. It’s not something that has typically interested me, but that kind of guy, when I was doing the show about the 20s, I was like, “Oh, I want to showcase this kind of guy that I went to school with, that I have so much affection for.”  That really was Davis, and Will Angus is so funny in the role. He has such a vulnerability, he’s been working in sketch comedy for such a long time, and he’s a writer as well, so I think he really approaches that character in a really original, funny way. Nicholas Duvernay is playing a character that I also relate to, because he’s the child of immigrants who don’t necessarily understand or support their son switching careers midway to go into the arts. I love those male characters. Their dynamic with each other is really funny and they have a really good chemistry, and that was not the writing — that’s just those guys.

Grandy: Yeah, absolutely. I feel that, especially with Josh, that was just a lot of guys that we’d gone to college with —  hyper-literate, very intellectual, snobby, but maybe didn’t realize it — and we’ve worked with the writerly type of persona as well, so we’d certainly come across many of those types of guys, whose hearts are in the right place, but it doesn’t always come out the right way. Davis was just writing to parts of who we want to be, in some ways, just so emotionally vulnerable, constantly stating what his deal is, and being so open especially for a man, who just says, “I just want to fall in love, that’s it.” Kel was a hard kind of character because we cast Nicholas, and then changed the character a lot, and we found it with him. He’s so lovely and winning and funny, that it was just like, “Oh, this is a guy who can also be vulnerable and charming.”

I’m curious to know how you changed Kel’s character after Nicholas came aboard.

Grandy: Originally, it was this character who was supposed to be a personal trainer, and he was South Asian. The character’s name was Ram. We’d seen a bunch of actors, and no one was quite getting it. I can’t remember what the chain of events was, but we met with Nicholas. He was like, “Am I going in for this South Asian personal trainer? I don’t think I can play that.” We just met, and that was sort of how we got Avantika as well. Mindy had worked with her, and she was so wonderful. We’re like, “Let’s just think about the character and see if we can make this work,” and it would, and so once we cast Nicholas, we just rethought the entire character, and everything snapped into place after that.

All five of the main characters have very Gen Z just-entering-the-workforce jobs. Were there other career paths that you considered and then decided against?

Kaling: It can be very tricky when you’re old, like me, trying to write for young people, and now this is the third show that I’ve done it. We had to pack our writers’ room with young people so that it could pass the test of naturalism and realism. I’ve seen a lot of shows about Gen Z kids who are screenagers, and we show a lot about influencer culture — by the way I love those shows — but in this one, we wanted to do something that was a little different. Of course, the characters have to send texts and are on their phones, but we wanted to divorce them from jobs that were very much tied up in the online world.

Grandy: I think Mindy really liked the idea of a stylist assistant, because fashion is such a big part of her life, and she has used stylists a lot and was fascinated by these people that are really doing it for the love of the job. Because it’s decidedly not glamorous, actually, the work of an assistant. A lot of it is just scrubbing deodorant stains out of blouses and returning clothes — the hours are long, and it’s grueling work, especially at that level. It was finding these very hard, often not well-paying jobs, with the exception of investment banking, that you’re doing it just because you genuinely love it. I mean, news producing is maybe the best example of that.

I’d have to agree with that. By the end of Episode 3, each character seems to be set up with a couple of possible love interests. Why was it so important to set up multiple possibilities from the jump? Are there any specific pairings that you think people are really going to root for?

Grandy: I hope! I think as a writer you want to give yourself as many outlets as possible, just to see where you’re going. We hadn’t even started the casting process by the time we’d gotten into Episode 3, so you want to give yourself the freedom to be like, “OK, what actors are going to have chemistry?” Sometimes you can be surprised and you don’t want to be too locked into anything, because if something really pops, once you start adding actual humans to the element, you can have the freedom to go in that direction. And for the streaming model, I think you want to keep people guessing, you want to have people invested. People that are Team Davis, Team Kel, Team Josh. You just want all of those options there for you.

Kaling: I love romance and triangles, wondering what’s going to happen, and hoping a character makes a certain decision romantically — sometimes they don’t, and sometimes they do. All my favorite shows growing up have those kinds of curveballs thrown in with romance, and I think that’s just — I don’t know, I’ve been ingrained in all the great romantic comedies I’ve seen.

Mindy, you’ve always made a point throughout your career to give South Asian people representation on screen and in the industry. Bela, Devi, Mindy Lahiri – they’re all beloved and charming characters, but Avantika’s Abby is charming in a different way and is very mainstream cool. Was that dynamic intentional, to represent an Indian character like that this time around?

Kaling: I think one of the great opportunities of making shows is being able to show young Desi characters in different lights. I got to play Mindy Lahiri, and she was a very certain way, very flawed in different ways, then I got to do Maitreyi [Ramakrishnan]’s character and Poorna [Jagannathan] and Richa [Moorjani, all actors on “Never Have I Ever”] and the three of them were so different. Now with Avantika, she was never a nerd, really. She is someone who has been self-possessed and knows what she wants. Abby still has a lot of flaws, she’s got a lot to learn. She’s very stubborn, a little snobby, but I think of her as very different than the other characters I’ve written, and that’s why it’s so fun to write for her. Avantika is also so funny. We first worked with her on “Sex Lives,” but only for an episode, and I was so happy that I can work with her in a bigger, more major way.

In the first episode, Abby tells AJ, “I can’t be your entire social ecosystem,” and asks her to commit to make making other friends. Abby presumably has other friends, but we never see hers or anyone else’s on screen. Was that set up on purpose?

Kaling: That’s ripped from the headlines of my life. I work with hundreds of people on many shows, and have had so many opportunities in my life to make long and deep-lasting friendships, and I have four friends. I have so many friendly acquaintances, but in terms of the person that I want to be really vulnerable with or just talk about the real stuff, I can count them on one hand. I don’t think I’ve ever told my friends, “Hey, I only have you guys, you need to be there for me,” and I really love that about AJ and Abby. AJ is like, “I only have one friend!” and Abby can say to her, “Go make another one.” This interview has become about my problems, but I really relate to having a very, very small circle, and for good and for bad, and so I really loved having the characters have the same issues.

The scene at the end of Episode 3 when AJ and Josh are breaking down the details of their hookup is almost a debate, with new details being revealed each round. What was shooting that scene like? It’s also one of the few scenes that all five of them together on screen.

Kaling: Our executives at Hulu, who we love and they love the show, they really understand the show and the one note they have is: “Can we see all the characters together?” Which is obviously such a smart note, because those scenes are so fun, but with characters who are really trying to make it in the world, they have to go off on their individual adventures. I love that scene. That episode was written by Charlie, and it was one of those episodes that feels like a very fun, classic sitcom episode where all the truths are coming out with multiple storylines. It really helps that there’s a lot of physical comedy going on too — there’s an allergy, there’s a broken coffee table, there’s a mean nickname, old memories resurfacing, there’s a little bit of sex in it. And so that was such an enjoyable scene to both write and shoot.

Grandy: That was difficult. Logistically we were really under the wire in terms of time. It was getting very late at night. It was the last scene we shot of a very long day. It was the first time we’d had all five characters together. Our sets were built like an actual New York apartment, so they weren’t big, so it was just very hard, moving cameras around, and it felt like every take was so important. So, my memory of it was incredibly high-stress, but the cast were incredible, so professional. We run a lot of jokes, we change a lot of things on the fly, and the cast all just rolled with it, and they brought it every single take. There’s a ton of coverage in that, so there are a lot of times that you know Jack and Ella are doing these incredibly emotional things. They’re not even on camera, we’re just doing a reaction pass on Will and Nicholas and Avantika. At that moment that night, it was such a gauntlet for us to run. It was the first time we were doing all five, and it was like, “We may really have something here,” because it was so stressful, but them was, “Oh, this is working.”

In your opinion, who goes through the most growth by the end of the season?

Grandy: I would say Davis probably goes through the most. He probably has the biggest season-long arc, but they all learn a lot. That was what was really fun about this ensemble, and having such talented actors, is once we got them in there, we were able to adjust scripts because we knew that they could handle it. They could handle anything we threw at them, from a comedy perspective, from a drama perspective. It allowed us to really kind of dig in and give them all something really emotional and juicy and real growth over the course of the season.

We’ve also gotten some really great cameos in the first three episodes alone (with more to come!), including Gigi Hadid and Zarna Garg. How did you approach cultivating those appearances?

Grandy: It was incredible. That was really why we wanted to do the show in New York, because we knew we would just have so much more access to talent of people that it’s in their backyard. It’s easy for them. We can send a car, we can pick them up, we can drive them to set. It just made it really easy. Mindy had a previous relationship with Gigi from voiceover work on “Never Have I Ever.” You always feel so lucky anytime you make an offer to someone and they say yes, and she was incredible. It was everything we could have hoped for, and more. Mindy is at a point now where, I think, people know that they will have fun stuff to do when they come to set, so it’s a little bit easier for her to get people because they know they’ll come and have a good time.

The show had the working title of “Murray Hill,” after the New York neighborhood in which it’s set and was later retitled. Why did you decide to change the name to what it is now?  Were you worried at all about people typing in “Mindy Kaling NSFW” on Google?

Kaling: And seeing a lot of inappropriate photos of me? Yes. I’ve never told this story before, actually. It was called “Murray Hill,” because I’m bad at naming things, and that felt straightforward. And Craig Erwich — who I’ve known very long time and was the one that put “The Mindy Project” on Hulu back in its earlier years — said, “I love the show. But the title is boring and it needs to change.” I remember arguing with him and being like, “No, Murray Hill is like a blank slate, it can be anything, this neighborhood blah blah blah,” and he’s like, “It’s not gripping enough, and I love the names of your other shows.” “Never Have I Ever,” “Sex Lives of College Girls” one could argue, have grabbier titles, and he changed it, and I was like, “I don’t know about this.” And my friend B.J. Novak was like, “Oh, I love that you changed the name, the new name is so much better.” As a show creator, when you have to thank the literal head of your network, the person who made you make a change, and everyone likes it better, it’s not good for the ego. But thank you, Craig.

Do you have any updates about there being a Season 2?

Kaling: I have only hopeful feelings. We love making the show. It seems like Hulu really likes what they’ve seen, but you never know. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed.

Grandy: Season 2, Season 3, we talked about it, we have everything pretty arced out. I think we know exactly what we would want to do for a Season 2, so hopefully people watch. Because we definitely know where we’re going, and it’s very good.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Tom Holland told Amy Poehler on the latest episode of the “Good Hang” podcast that acting alongside his partner Zendaya is a “lifeline” and “I couldn’t imagine doing what I do without her.” The two A-list stars have worked together in four “Spider-Man” movies, including this summer’s “Brand New Day.” They will also both appear in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.”

According to Holland, the duo had an “amazing moment” on the set of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” when they mutually acknowledged that a scene they were filming just wasn’t working. He explained that it was “only because of our relationship that” he had the courage to check in with Zendaya to make sure they both agreed the scene needed to be rewritten and reshot.

“We shot my coverage. Now we’re doing her coverage, and I would never ever dream of saying this to an actress that I wasn’t with. So I said, ‘Do you think that this scene is working?’ And she was like, ‘No. I don’t think the scene is working at all,’” Holland said. “I went to the producers and asked, ‘Do you think the scene is working?’ They said, ‘No,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, me and Z are really not feeling it.’”

Holland and Zendaya then took their concerns to the film’s director, Destin Daniel Cretton, saying: “Hey, man, listen, I know we’ve been shooting for hours and I hate to tell you this, but I just, I don’t think that this scene is working. What we’re supposed to feel, we’re not feeling it in the moment.’”

“He’s so calm. Nothing can throw him off,” Holland explained. “He listened and sat down and was like, ‘What are you trying to feel?’ I told him and he said, ‘That’s exactly what we need to be feeling.’ He said to the crew, ‘Everyone can go home and we’re gonna sit down and rewrite this scene.’ We came in the next day and reshot the scene and I’m so glad that we did because it sings in the movie. It was just so funny, I was thinking about, like, if this wasn’t Zendaya that I was sitting across from… imagine on someone else’s coverage being like, ‘Do you think this is working?’”

Holland went on to praise Zendaya as “fearless” when it comes to her acting, adding: “She’s just like absolutely 10 toes down, I’m gonna give this everything. When you watch her as Rue, she could not be more different to who she is in real life. And then if you see her as Emma in ‘The Drama,’ it’s just such a different performance, but with no less intent or passion or drive.”

Watch Holland’s full interview on the “Good Hang” podcast in the video below.

Netflix has released the trailer and first look at “I Will Find You,” a new series from Harlan Coben. An adaptation of Coben’s best selling novel, the drama will premiere on June 18. 

“I Will Find You” follows Sam Worthington as David, a father serving a life sentence for killing his son. “The thing is: I didn’t do it,” he says in the newly released trailer. Per the official logline, David will need to “break out of prison to find out the truth” after he “receives evidence that his child may still be alive.” 

In addition to Worthington, Britt Lower, Milo Ventimiglia, Logan Browning and Chi McBride star in the series, among others. Lower plays Rachel, David’s sister-in-law and an investigative journalist, and Ventimiglia plays Rachel’s ex-partner, Hayden. 

“I Will Find You” comes from creator, showrunner, executive producer and writer Robert Hull. Coben executive produces. Variety exclusively reported the show was picked up at Netflix in November 2024. 

Watch the trailer here and see first look images below. 

TRAILERS

Apple TV has released the trailer for Season 3 of “Silo.” The first episode of the 10-episode drama will debut on the platform on July 2, with one new episode following every Friday through September 4. 

Created and showrun by Graham Yost, “Silo” Season 3 will reveal “an origin story set centuries earlier, while continuing the saga of a dystopian society of 10,000 people living underground under mysterious circumstances,” per the official logline. “In the present, Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) survives her forced ‘cleaning’ but returns with memory loss as the silo recovers from rebellion and faces a dangerous new threat. Meanwhile, in the ‘Before Times,’ journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick) and Congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) uncover a conspiracy that pulls them into a chain of events with catastrophic, irreversible consequences.”  

The show, based on Hugh Howey’s New York Times bestselling trilogy, has already been renewed for a fourth and final season. 

“Silo” is produced by Apple Studios and executive produced by Yost, Michael Dinner, Nina Jack, Joanna Thapa, Ferguson, Morten Tyldum, Howey, Amber Templemore, Fred Golan, Rémi Aubuchon and AMC Studios.

Watch the trailer here.

EVENTS

Anna Konkle, Elle Chapman and Natalie Alyn Lind are among the speakers who’ve been added to the Women in Entertainment Summit’s roster. The ninth annual event, sponsored by Fox Entertainment, will take place on June 9. 

See the full list of additional speakers here. 

DATES

Starting June 10, “LG Channels World Pup” will bring together adorable dogs from around the world for the ultimate set of challenges.

Hosted by U.S. World Cup veteran Jimmy Conrad and made by Bright Spot Content, the producers behind “Puppy Bowl,” this four-part tournament follows 48 rescue puppies repping eight national teams.

According to an official press release, “Throughout the tournament, audiences will witness dramatic puppy face-offs and unexpected upsets from the athletes themselves, while fan-favorite dog influencers Chili and Lumi deliver commentary and plenty of scene-stealing moments. AirCorg also makes a special appearance, delivering the tournament’s final prediction.”

The goal of the tournament is to highlight rescue dogs from shelters across the country. Additionally, each puppy featured in the tournament is up for adoption, thanks to LG Channels partnering with 12 shelters and rescue organizations.

“LG Channels World Pup” will be available to stream on LG Smart TVs and at LGChannels.com. Watch an official sneak peek below.

All3Media CEO Jane Turton has offered a glimpse as to what the merger with Banijay will look like when it likely clears the antitrust review process.

The merger, which is set to go through by late summer, will see Banijay boss Marco Bassetti take the reigns as CEO while Turton will stay on as deputy CEO.

“I think consolidation is very much center of a lot of people’s minds,” Turton said during SXSW London in an off-site conversation at Shoreditch House with Variety co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton.

“All they are, these companies, by the way, is a combination of people and IP, and the people bit of it — the team of it — is the bit that matters I think enormously,” Turton continued. “The success of these businesses relies very heavily, if not almost exclusively, on the quality of the talent.”

Turton is featured on Variety’s first-ever Women’s Impact Report U.K. for steering the All3Media ship – comprised of 40 companies active in TV, film, theater and digital – since 2015.

During her Shoreditch House keynote she acknowledged that while mergers inevitably mean scale, that doesn’t always translate into value. “Of course, scale is important, but you’ve got to work out why scale matters,” she said. “It’s not just simply muscle, it’s got to be about something more nuanced and something considerably more sophisticated than literally size. You can be very big and very poor at your job, and you won’t grow your business. So the thing that’s exciting about this merger is that is the fact that you have then very deep bench of talent that covers every genre, literally.”

One example of organic synergy she offered was an upcoming theater adaptation of hit gameshow “The Traitors,” which has united three All3Media companies: Neal Street, who are producing the theater show, Studio Lambert, who produce the U.K. and U.S. versions of the gameshow and Holland-based IDTV, who created the format.

“That’s a brilliant example of what a shareholder would call synergy,” she said. “Call it what you want — teamwork, partnership — and it’s that type of thing that you can do more and more of when you have that deeper bench across multiple geographies.”

Turton pointed out that All3Media currently operates across only six markets, of which the biggest two are the U.K. and U.S., followed by Germany. While Banijay’s footprint extends across France, Italy, Spain and South America, Turton also pointed to their deep well of IP, which includes “MasterChef,” “Survivor” and “Big Brother,” saying: “That’s scale, but it’s a lot more refined than just a statement about pure size.”