Tag: Entertainment – Variety

A consortium of 22 different advocacy organizations are lining up to support Walt Disney Co. as it continues to tangle with the Federal Communications Commission.

“We urge you to continue to defend and exercise your First Amendment rights, so that we can all continue to exercise ours,” reads the letter, addressed to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro and signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, TechFreedom and several other groups.

Disney has for the past several weeks grappled with unorthodox pressure from the Trump administration. The Federal Communications Commission, led by Chairman Brendan Carr, ordered Disney to file for renewals for eight of its stations years ahead of schedule. In filings, Disney has said its applications were made “under protest in response to an unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional order.” “The View,” which has thrived in recent years with discussion of politics, has also found itself in the administration’s cross-hairs. The FCC has probed whether the program has violated so-called “equal-time” election laws following the appearance of political figures, launching its investigation after James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate from Texas, appeared on the show in February. The FCC issued new guidance in January that late-night and daytime hosts needed to give equal time to political candidates from various parties, claiming the programs might be working along partisan lines.

 “Freedom of the press is such a core component of having a functioning democracy,” says Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel for the ACLU, during a recent interview. The groups wanted to remind Disney that “when you’re standing up for yourself, you are standing up for all of us,” she says. Eroding the ability of media organizations to report on things that governments may not approve of will also undermine the nation’s democratic values, she adds. 

“Meaningfully fighting back requires more than strongly worded regulatory filings. It requires that you make clear to the public what is happening to you and to them — that the government is violating the First Amendment,” the letter to D’Amaro reads. “Remember: the public rebelled against the heavy-handed attempt to force Jimmy Kimmel off the air, and stood with you. Disney now has the opportunity to stand with all of us in protecting our rights to watch, read, and access information the government wishes we would not. Illegal jawboning demands decisive and vocal resistance. Your rights, and all of our rights, depend on it.”

Other signatories include Fall of Freedom, Issue One, PEN America, People for the American Way, LGBT Tech, The Media and Democracy Project, The Trevor Project, The Tully Center for Free Speech and UnidosUS.

Penélope Cruz, Lee Chang-dong, Rosalind Eleazar, Siân Heder and Isabelle Huppert are the first honorees announced for the eighth annual TIFF Tribute Awards, the gala set for Sept. 13 during the Toronto International Film Festival.

Cruz, who won the supporting actress Oscar for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” will receive the TIFF Special Tribute Award. Eleazar and Huppert will each be honored with the TIFF Tribute Performer Award, while Lee will take the TIFF Ebert Director Award. Heder, whose “Being Heumann” is this year’s opening night selection, will receive the TIFF Tribute Award in impact media.

“Now in its eighth year, the TIFF Tribute Awards celebrate some of cinema’s most exciting artists at an event dedicated to the transformative power of film,” says Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF. “From the captivating performances of Isabelle Huppert, Penélope Cruz and Rosalind Eleazar to Lee Chang-dong and Siân Heder’s vital filmmaking, each has shown a profound impact on screen storytelling. It’s our privilege to recognize their achievements as we gather to celebrate another exceptional year in film and rally support for TIFF’s ongoing work.”

Cruz arrives in Toronto with two titles including the Spanish-language drama “La Bola Negra” which premiered at Cannes, where directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi won best director. She also stars opposite Oscar winner Javier Bardem in “Bunker,” from writer-director Florian Zeller, the Oscar-winning scribe of “The Father” (2020).

Lee returns to the festival with the Special Presentations premiere of “Possible Love,” his first feature since “Burning” in 2018. Eleazar, the breakout of Apple TV’s “Slow Horses,” appears in “Misty Green,” which Chris Rock wrote and directed. Huppert, whose career spans more than 100 films, reunites with director Marc Fitoussi, who guided her through “Paris Follies” in 2014, for the comedy “All About Corinne,” a gala presentation.

Heder makes her festival debut with the world premiere of “Being Heumann,” her follow-up to “CODA,” which won best picture at the 2022 Academy Awards and earned her the adapted screenplay Oscar.

The Tribute Awards is TIFF’s largest annual fundraiser, with proceeds supporting expanded access to cinema, artist development and industry initiatives.

The 51st Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 10-20. The fest has long served as a launchpad for Oscar-winning fare, particularly through the People’s Choice Award, whose past winners include “Chariots of Fire” (1981), “American Beauty” (1999), “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) and “Green Book” (2018).

Jean-Pierre Dorléac, the costume designer behind “Somewhere in Time” and “Battlestar Galactica,” died July 23 from natural causes. He was 83.

Dorléac earned an Oscar nomination for the 1981 film “Somewhere in Time.” He also landed 11 Emmy nominations for his TV work, winning two for “Battlestar Galactica” in 1979 and “The Lot” in 2001.

Dorléac was born in Toulon, France, in 1943 to an American military service member stationed with his family in Europe. There he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in France. After his family moved back to the United States, he started his career as an actor in Hollywood. But when one of his theater productions was looking for a costume designer, he took that opportunity, which led him to design the costumes for the play “Marat/Sade” in 1973 for West Coast Theatre in Los Angeles, earning critical acclaim and a Drama Critics Circle Award.

He became Edith Head’s protégé, and as a film and television costume designer he designed for multiple productions. Dorléac was also a writer. Among his works, he wrote “Abracabra Alakazama” in 2005, and “The Naked Truth: An Irreverent Chronicle of Delirious Escapades” in 2015. 

He frequently shared gossip and opinions on social media, where he became a controversial figure. Back in 2021, he took to Twitter and made several comments about “Battlestar Galactica” actor Patrick Macnee. He wrote, “Patrick Macnee was just as abysmal, conniving, nasty and evil as the part he played [Count Iblis]. He was a horrid person and a lousy actor who went out of his way to make life miserable for others on the show. The only thing of value to him was his ego. A major, terrible disappointment.”

In his tell-all, “The Naked Truth,” he wrote, “I think this business is like King of Hearts, where they opened the asylum doors and let the patients loose. No one in production knows much about anything, and all the behind-the-scenes people are merely pretending, just like actors. They have no inkling regarding good taste, flair or panache, or the ability to create.”

He is survived by his spouse, Gilberto Mello, whom he met 41 years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Banijay Entertainment has posted it first financials since its mega-merger with All3Media was completed.

Half-year revenues at the TV giant were down slightly in the first half of 2026, reaching at €1.37 billion ($1.56 billion), with production volume falling, a drop of 2.2% on the same six months in 2025.

However, the latest results do not yet include the performance of All3Media, whose figures will be included as part of the results from the second half of this year.

Meanwhile, Banijay Entertainment’s production revenue dropped 11.9 percent, with the company citing “anticipated phasing in production.” But distribution revenue rose 10.5 percent, something it said was “fueled in particular by a format sale in the first quarter” without detailing the particular format in question.

There was an unprecedented growth in Banijay’s live event business, which is grouped with Banijay Entertainment, where revenues soar almost 50% thanks to both the Winter Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup.

 “The FIFA World Cup generated unprecedented player acquisition and engagement, supported double-digit pro forma revenue growth and strengthened our ability to grow across all products,” the company said. “In Entertainment & Live, record live activity and continued momentum across our content portfolio in distribution partly offset the anticipated phasing of content production, demonstrating the strength and diversification of our business model.”

Earlier this month, Banijay completed the merger of its entertainment arm with RedBird IMI’s All3Media to create an $8 billion Goliath, with the combined group — housing shows such as “The Traitors,” “Big Brother” and “Peaky Blinders” — spanning 25 territories and housing one of the largest content catalogues in the industry, with more than 265,000 hours of content. Banijay Entertainment Chair Jeff Zucker asserted it was the largest indie producer ever created.

“2026 is definitely a transformational year for Banijay Group,” said François Riahi, CEO of Banijay Group, of the latest results. “In the second half, we will enhance the integration processes in our two business units and will start delivering synergies.”

Kavinsky, the French electro music producer and DJ whose hypnotic anthem “Nightcall” became a cult classic after opening Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film “Drive,” died on Tuesday. He was 50.

The artist was found dead at his Paris home on Tuesday evening. Authorities have opened an investigation into the circumstances of his death, though no foul play has been reported. French media said the musician had complained of headaches in the days leading up to his death, according to Reuters.

While Kavinsky had long been a respected figure on France’s electronic music scene, “Nightcall” transformed him into an international cult favorite. Produced with Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of Daft Punk and featuring vocals from Lovefoxxx of Brazilian band CSS, the song helped define the film’s aesthetic and became one of the signature electronic tracks of the 2010s.

Kavinsky most recently performed the song alongside Phoenix and Angèle at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games closing ceremony, which was broadcast globally, introducing it to new audiences over a decade after “Drive’s” release.

Born Vincent Belorgey in Seine-Saint-Denis in 1975, he came to music relatively late after first working as an actor and appearing in films by longtime friend Quentin Dupieux. Inspired by 1980s action movies, arcade games and sports cars, he developed the fictional persona of Kavinsky, a mysterious, undead driver said to have returned from a fatal Ferrari crash to make electronic music.

He emerged in the mid-2000s through the influential French label Record Makers, releasing the EPs “Teddy Boy,” “1986” and “Nightcall” before touring alongside artists including Daft Punk and Justice. His debut album “OutRun,” released in 2013, expanded on the retro-futuristic sound that would become synonymous with the growing synthwave movement. After a long hiatus, he returned with a second album, “Reborn,” in 2022.

Although he never achieved the mainstream commercial profile of fellow French electro artists such as Daft Punk or Justice, Kavinsky had a large influence on a generation of producers drawn to nostalgic, cinematic electro music, and helped popularize the synthwave genre well beyond France.

“Under Paris,” “Deep Water,” “Thrash,” “Chum” — the shark movies come so thick and fast these days, there’s scarcely any time between them to deem it safe to go back in the water. That said, if this recent run of films is to be believed, regular old beaches are fine these days. Seems the toothy predators are increasingly seeking less obvious locations to graze on wet human flesh: a mid-Pacific plane-crash site, the City of Lights, and now, in “The Devil’s Mouth,” a dark, dank, tight-squeeze cave in idyllic coastal Thailand. This claustrophobic danger zone brings a smidge of novelty to director Jeff Wadlow‘s aquatic thriller, but the formula is otherwise familiar: five hot young things on vacation, one bull shark very much in business mode, and a pecking order that most viewers can guess five minutes in.

It’s odd that the shark movie has lately joined the romantic comedy in the ranks of genres most favored for straight-to-streaming fodder, since its pleasures, from “Jaws” onwards, have traditionally been communal, cinematic ones: From the safety of your sofa, a great white jump scare just doesn’t land in quite the same way. A Prime Video release, “The Devil’s Mouth” sometimes feels ill-suited to the small screen, given the frequently squint-inducing murkiness of its setting; on the other hand, the very lax progression of Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner’s Black List-featured script feels tailored to the requirements of second-screen viewing, with character tensions brewing slowly and repetitively between sporadic feeding frenzies.

If the dialogue and characterization never rise above the pedestrian, however, those tensions do at least bring some malicious rooting interest to the essential survival drama — with a strain of toxic friction evident from the get-go between nice-girl protagonist Sarah (Kathryn Newton) and her narcissistic BFF Max (Lana Condor), a self-declared “CEO of fun,” on their luxury post-graduation vacation. Both stars are better than their thin roles require them to be, with Condor clearly enjoying an opportunity to spike her wholesome “To All the Boys” star persona a bit; perhaps her young fans will resist how blatantly the film’s sympathies are stacked in Sarah’s favor.

Or perhaps not: Sarah has a pretty rough time of it from the start. The unpaired fifth wheel on what is otherwise a lovey-dovey couples’ trip — with Max and mutual college friend Adrienne (Tommi Rose) accompanied by their respective, equally bland boyfriends James (Nico Hiraga) and Greg (Gavin Casalegno) — Sarah is quite literally an afterthought when, at the end of a day’s yacht hire in a picturesque cove, the other four set sail while she’s still in the water, leaving her at the mercy of a smack of jellyfish. Cue an initial sea-creature attack less bloody than those to come, but perhaps the film’s most eerily and alarmingly constructed setpiece.

A cursory apology from Max (“I’m trying to be accountable here,” she says, unconvincingly) doesn’t quite smooth the waters between the two by the time of the group’s next adventure: a remote coastal cave-swimming expedition led by local guide Wat (“The White Lotus” star Tayme Thapthimthong). A cautionary-tale tone soon sets in as the entitled Americans, led by Max, repeatedly overrule Wat’s native expertise. (The safer cave route he recommends is marked on the map in green; the one they choose is marked in red. How many more flags do you need?) You can hardly blame him for leaving them to their fate when, several caves in, ravaged remains float to the surface, followed in short order by the dreaded fin slicing through the water.

How did the beast find its way into these cramped quarters? “I don’t think this is something we need to figure out right now,” says one of the guys, and fair enough, even if that rather lets the screenwriters off the hook. A more immediate priority is navigating a route out of this cave network, with the shark, given limited room to roam, tailing them at every turn. Needless to say, not everyone’s going to make it out alive. The panic-inducing narrowness of the potential escape routes make a change from the genre’s usual spatial dynamics, with Wadlow — recycling some of the atmospherics from his 2020 “Fantasy Island” film, minus the fantasy — and DP James Kniest exploiting those most effectively in a couple of extended, suitably suffocating underwater setpieces.

It’s the shark’s appearances, surprisingly, that lack bite. Denied a point of view or much in the way of a closeup, the CG killer never feels a particularly distinctive or palpable presence, while its lunges take on a fairly predictable pattern. The gore, meanwhile, is unexpectedly discreet, which is a strange place for the film to exercise subtlety: A washed-up sea turtle with a cartoon-style bite taken out of it is the most visceral sight here, and the most saddening. The human bait, on the other hand? Have your fill, buddy.

“The Gilded Age” star Ben Ahlers and Wesley Taylor have wrapped production on ‘Movin’ On Up,’ a workplace satire short film directed by Jacob Wahba .

Taylor (“Only Murders In The Building,” “Smash,” “Spongebob Squarepants: The Musical”) stars as a directionless white-collar worker who is catapulted up the corporate ladder. He lands in an “MGM Musical Meets Silicon Valley world” where employees dance through the halls and the company’s actual purpose is a mystery.

The cast also features Ainsley Seiger (“Law and Order: Organized Crime”), David Mattar Merten (“Enemy of the People”) and Denise Lute (“The Path,” “Up Here”).

The aesthetics of the satiric short were “inspired by the intricacy of 1950s MGM musicals—films like ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and the work of Vincente Minnelli and Busby Berkeley,” Jacob Wahba said Tuesday. The short film is Wahba’s film directorial debut, following work across editorial campaigns, New York City theatrical productions and 20th Century television series.

“It captures a uniquely 2020s feeling that we all have inside of us – that feeling of ‘I’m not sure what I’m doing, but if I don’t do it fast I might die.’ It’s unsettling in real life, but hilarious on screen,” writer Patrick Daly said.

Max Johnson, Chloé Ryan and Wahba are producers, with executive producers Frankie Seratch and David Treatman, co-producers Maria Noto and Daly, and associate producers Katherine McGuire and Joseph Hayes. 

Pierre Marais (“As Apple Pie,” “Ghost Light), recently a leading man in Broadway’s “Sunset Boulevard,” served as editor. Veteran studio gaffer Jason Velez (“The Meyerowitz Stories,” “When They See Us”) is director of photography, while costumes are by Kala La Fortune Reed (“Only Murders in the Building,” “Musica”), production design by Lucas Degirolamo (“Run Amok,” “The Mill”) and choreography by Matthew Steffens (“Once Upon a Mattress,” “Into the Woods”). Joseph Hayes (“The Alto Knights,” “The Bear,” “Masquerade”) served as casting director. Composers are Natalia Karaseva and Christian McGhee and Zachary Schur is music supervisor.

Ahlers is repped by Gersh and Artists First. Taylor is with Innovative and Anonymous. Seiger is repped by Gersh and Authentic. Merten is with Innovative and CLA Partners and Lute is repped by the Bloc Agency.