Tag: Entertainment – Variety

A “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” sequel is in the works at Paramount, with original star Kate Hudson attached to produce the project, Variety can report exclusively.

Development on the sequel is in early stages, with the cast and several key creative roles yet to be selected, according to a source close to the project. The intention of the filmmakers and the studio is to have Hudson and her co-star from the original, Matthew McConaughey, reprise their roles. The project is currently seeking a screenwriter, so casting will depend on the take.

Stacey Sher is also on board to produce alongside Hudson through her Shiny Penny banner. Sher’s extensive list of producer credits includes “Pulp Fiction,” “Gattaca,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Vanilla Sky” and “Django Unchained.”

Reps for Hudson and McConaughey did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.

A follow-up to “How to Lose a Guy” seemed inevitable, considering the Y2K nostalgia wave washing over Hollywood right now. 2026 has so far brought “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” “Scary Movie” and “Toy Story 5,” all outsized box office hits that cashed in on late ’90s and early 2000s source material. The throwbacks aren’t slowing down either. “Practical Magic 2” and “Focker-In-Law” hit theaters soon, while “Shrek 5” and Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia” film are slated for 2027.

Plot details for “How to Lose a Guy 2” are still being ironed out. The 2003 original followed the cat-and-mouse romance between magazine columnist Andie Anderson, played by Hudson, and McConaughey’s broish advertising executive Benjamin Barry. Andie, as research for an article about modern dating, seduces Benjamin and then transforms herself into the girlfriend from hell. Benjamin bets his boss he can make any woman fall for him, and Andie is his target. With a huge campaign on the line, he’s determined to make things stick. Of course, true love blossoms from the absurd circumstances. Donald Petrie directed the film. Supporting cast members include Kathryn Hahn, Adam Goldberg, Thomas Lennon, Michael Michele and Shalom Harlow. The film grossed nearly $180 million worldwide on a reported $50 million budget and is considered an essential title in the rom-com genre.

Hudson’s most recent big-screen role was in 2025’s “Song Sung Blue,” for which she earned her second Oscar nomination. The first nod came for her iconic turn as Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous.” She is also leading the sports comedy series “Running Point” for Netflix. While “How to Lose a Guy 2” has not been cast, Hudson’s role as producer makes it easy to believe she is in the wings, waiting for the right deal to bring her back.

Of course, if Hudson were involved, McConaughey would presumably follow suit. The Oscar winner, who recently described “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days“ as an “anchor” in the rom-com canon, has long been absent from the genre he was once closely associated with. He consciously distanced himself from romantic comedies in the 2010s, transforming his career with roles in critical dramas like “Mud,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Interstellar” and “Dallas Buyers Club,” which earned him the 2014 Best Actor Oscar. He only recently ended a six-year big-screen hiatus with the release of “The Rivals of Amziah King.”

This week, “Big Brother” will make history by being the first primetime show to hit 1,000 episodes. And in true “Big Brother” fashion, the show is celebrating that milestone with a twisty, one-of-a-kind 90-minute episode that will air Thursday, Aug. 27.

“It’s been really interesting and fun to think about how to celebrate the show,” executive producer Allison Grodner tells Variety. “We want to take some time at the beginning to really reflect on the past and, through fan engagement, have some fun reveals of polls that were taken of favorite moments, favorite winners and people that should have won.”

Of course, the historic milestone comes as “Big Brother 28” is currently on the air. The popular reality program that airs three times a week on CBS is a one-of-a-kind social experiment where 16 strangers are locked in a house together for the summer. Each week, the houseguests compete for power and vote each other off. The catch is that not only are the houseguests completely cut off from the outside world, but everything they say and do is broadcast on the 24/7 live feeds.

Julie Chen Moonves has been hosting the show since Season 1, which was a very different game back in 2000. Famously, the first season (which was run by the creators of the original Netherlands version) struggled with ratings. As rumors spread that the show would get canceled mid-season, so did criticism of Chen Moonves as a host.

“I had such criticism from CBS News insiders, they were mad,” Chen Moonves says. “Andy Rooney was very upset that I was a CBS Morning News anchor and then, for 10 weeks, getting on a plane to Los Angeles to host an entertainment show. He went to the press saying that CBS News should immediately fire me. In his opinion, I was single-handedly blurring the lines between news and entertainment.”

It wasn’t until Season 2 that the show took a page from the “Survivor” playbook by introducing more strategic elements, like the Head of Household competition, which determines who holds the power each week. The houseguests also started voting each other off that season.

Those changes resulted in a more cutthroat “Big Brother,” causing a spike in the show’s popularity.

“I tip my hat to them, because they were asked to take over a show in a genre that was very new then,” Chen Moonves says of executive producers Grodner and her Oscar-winning partner Arnold Shapiro, who worked on the show until Season 7. “They are the reason why it is still successful today, because they put in those basic rules to playing.”

Rich Meehan joined as an executive producer in Season 5, and has been working closely with Grodner ever since.

“It would be really hard if the people who haven’t lived this experience for all these years weren’t here to do the show; you’d start going down some of the same paths, which we already know are dead ends,” Grodner says.

She continues: “Since we took off in Season 2, we’ve done well in the ratings, but it didn’t always guarantee that we were coming back the next year. Every single year in those first, maybe 10 to 15 seasons, at the end of the summer we’d go, ‘Are we coming back?’”

Inside the CBS reality umbrella, it was about finding how to differentiate the show from “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” which all launched in the early 2000s as part of the craze that erupted from MTV’s “The Real World.”

“We play in the comedy space, we play in the romance space. Obviously, the strategy and game are at the forefront, but there’s these other worlds we’re able to play in,” Meehan says. “If this is a show about people and it’s a microcosm of life, well, people are funny!”

Since Season 2, the show’s overall format has stayed largely consistent over the years — the basic idea being that the houseguests have to outsmart their fellow contestants, vote them out and then convince everyone at the end why they should win $500,000 (upped to $750,000 starting in Season 23). The Power of Veto, introduced in Season 3, crucially gives nominees the chance to save themselves from the block before eviction night.

But it wasn’t until Season 26 when the latest format change, the BB Blockbuster (then coined the A.I. Arena) added another dimension to the gameplay. Now, instead of two houseguests being nominated and only having one shot at safety, three houseguests are nominated every week; on live eviction night after the Veto is played, they go head-to-head to secure their safety.

“The current idea is that it’s like a new format piece for the live show, so I think, at least in the near future, it’s for sure something we’re going to continue to stick with, unless for some reason it stops working or generating,” Meehan says.

The idea for the BB Blockbuster came from watching “Big Brother 20” contestant Kaitlyn Herman fail to complete a puzzle after she was given a chance to save herself as part of a big twist.

“It captured so much energy and it was fun to watch. We were like, ‘How can we do that in the live show?’” Meehan says. “It’s super simple, but hey, increase the nominees and you’re making more enemies in the house, which creates more drama. And then also, we have this great ‘can’t miss’ sporting event that you have to watch. You don’t know who the final two up for eviction are until that moment.”

After all, Big Brother’s motto is “expected the unexpected.”

“We add in the twists and turns because more and more, you need those things that are promotable and you need those ‘can’t miss’ moments,” Grodner says. “We have what is the ultimate endurance competition in ‘Big Brother,’ just the whole season. Unlike other shows, we need to sustain interest for, in this case, 50 episodes.”

Some fans prefer when the game has fewer twists that disrupt the natural flow of alliances and power structures. “But you also remember we’ve got so many seasons that the new cast can watch; we need to make sure that there’s still something to keep them on their toes, right?” Grodner says. “That there’s still going to be something unexpected.”

On other reality shows, long-standing hosts have become more creatively involved behind the scenes over the years. Take Jeff Probst, the show’s host who also took over as showrunner 15 years ago.

Chen Moonves says that’s not her lane.

“I might suggest things, like ideas when we’ve had ‘Celebrity Big Brother,’” Chen Moonves says. “I like just being the host and not having that pressure of having to do creative or the casting.”

Of all the reality TV fandoms, the “Big Brother” online community is one of the most active, largely incentivized through the show’s 24/7 live feeds. Like all fandoms, that comes with both enthusiasm and sometimes criticism of production.

“We love the fans and their engagement, whether it’s passionate and opinionated, but we would be remiss if we produced a show based on just what’s happening on Twitter,” Grodner says. “And honestly, the creative for the show — how the summer is going to lay out and all that, for fairness reasons and so forth — is actually done well before the season starts. So those kinds of, ‘Oh, we’re adjusting something because of what’s being said online’ absolutely does not happen.”

As a social experiment, “Big Brother” is also a microcosm of society. Because of the live feeds, everything the houseguests say gets recorded. Racist and homophobic comments over the years have made headlines — in the most extreme instance with Season 15, leading several houseguests to lose their jobs.

The show has become more diverse since the 2020 CBS mandate, which set a standard for the network’s unscripted shows to feature at least 50% people of color in the cast. Historically, Black people have struggled against the odds on “Big Brother.”

“I remember when that mandate came down. I felt like, ‘Boy, at that point in history, we really needed it,’” Chen Moonves recalls.

“It’s great, because anybody can win [now] — I don’t think there’s anything holding anybody back,” Meehan adds. Since Xavier Prather’s groundbreaking Season 23 victory, the show’s winners have all been people of color.

Many show segments over the years have featured contestants talking openly about race, identity and how that shapes the way they navigate the game. Since the show casts complete strangers from different walks of life, watching them play against each other also leads them to learn from each other’s differences.

“[Those conversations] happen more than ever, but there have been many in the history of the show. I remember Ken and Bunky [from Season 2]?” Meehan says. “What’s happening in the world is going to happen in the house. It’s just the nature of the show and that’s why people play the game differently now than they did 25 years ago.”

As “Big Brother” nears another milestone with its upcoming 30th season, that also raises another question that many fans have been asking — will we ever see an all-winners season similar to what “Survivor” did with Season 40?

Yet because “Big Brother” is a three-month commitment, that’s a lot tougher of a sell for even the most cherished vets. Chen Moonves has pitched multiple versions of an all-winners season over the years, although she’s made some tweaks.

Her current take is multiple month-long versions of the game, akin to “Celebrity Big Brother.” One shortened season would bring back all the Season 1 houseguests to see how they’d play in the modern era of the show, while the next shortened season would group winners from different eras of the show.

“I think if it’s shortened, everyone would be game. I haven’t heard of a past winner who’s bitter, who never wants to have anything to do with ‘Big Brother,’” Chen Moonves says.

When looking to the future of “Big Brother,” some fans have speculated if Season 24 winner and “Big Brother: Unlocked” host Taylor Hale is being positioned to take on hosting duties were Chen Moonves to retire.

“I’ve wondered that too because, to me, she would be perfect,” Chen Moonves says, praising her on-air skills from serving as an “Entertainment Tonight” correspondent.

Chen Moonves also pitches Season 16 winner Derrick Levasseur, as well as Jeff Schroeder and Jordan Lloyd from Season 11 and 13, as possible options.

“But then I don’t know how the network would feel about, ‘Is it too close to home that they’ve walked in their shoes? Does that put them too much in a position of judgment?’” she says. “Part of me feels like maybe you want to keep the air pristine and have someone who comes from a news background. I got hired because I know how to do live interviews.”

“But old-school journalists,” Moonves clarifies, referencing Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen as potential options. “I feel a lot of journalists today go on the airwaves and I know exactly how they feel about an issue that they’re covering. To me, that’s not cool. Because then you have an agenda, you’re not really reporting.”

The reality TV landscape has changed a lot since “Big Brother” premiered back in 2000. In recent years, “The Traitors” has dominated the online conversation around competition shows — and even cast “Big Brother” veterans like Danielle Reyes and Britney Haynes.

“I do still think we are very unique, which is amazing to say that 28 seasons in, we still set ourselves apart,” Grodner says, adding that “Love Island” does have its own real-time element with how the episodes are structured. “But we dare to stream live and to have that other part of the show that people can interact with; no other show has done the live feeds to date.”

Leaning into comedy and absurdity, Grodner says declaratively, is what makes “Big Brother” set itself apart tonally, and will ensure, she hopes, the show’s future far beyond Season 28 and the 1,000th episode.

“Can any other show pull off a person in an egg suit, crying or screaming at someone at the nomination ceremony? And a teapot being banged around and have that become part of pop culture instantly?” Grodner says. “We can pull that off, but we can also pull off these amazing, compelling conversations.

“I think our range is unique, and I don’t know if any other show can encompass all of that,” she says. “I guess I dare them to!”

“The Traitors” has won more Emmys in three years than “Survivor” has won in 25.

It’s not close, either. Since arriving on Peacock, Alan Cumming’s Scottish castle whodunit has banked eight total Emmys — a casting win before it ever cracked the marquee race, back-to-back reality competition trophies in 2024 and 2025, two hosting wins for Cumming and a Creative Arts sweep in 2025 that added cinematography, directing and picture editing in a single cycle. CBS’ long-running “Survivor,” the show that made all of this possible, owns five. That includes Jeff Probst’s four consecutive hosting Emmys from 2008 to 2011 and a 2010 cinematography win. The trophy that matters most, however — outstanding reality-competition program — has eluded it since the Television Academy created the category.

And let’s be clear about why the category exists at all.

When “Survivor” premiered in the summer of 2000, it drew 51 million viewers to its season finale, which crowned Richard Hatch the first-ever Sole Survivor. The Academy created the reality competition program Emmy in 2003, in direct response to the boom “Survivor” ignited. Then it handed the inaugural trophy to its CBS sister series “The Amazing Race.” “Survivor” lost to “The Amazing Race” four straight times from 2003 to 2006, before it did something stranger than losing: It completely disappeared.

For 16 consecutive years, the biggest brand in the genre couldn’t even get nominated — from 2007 through 2022. That stretch included the “Cook Islands” and first Fiji seasons (Seasons 13 and 14), which crowned Yul Kwon — in the first season to feature a final three instead of a final two, a format that coincidentally included Season 50 contestant Ozzy Lusth — and Earl Cole, who became the first unanimous winner in the show’s history.

During that drought, “The Amazing Race,” “The Voice” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” took turns building dynasties. When the new-era “Survivor” finally clawed back into the field in 2023, it lost to “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” It took another year off before returning in 2025, only to lose to “The Traitors.”

An interesting note is the reality-competition Emmy has gone to a Mark Burnett production four times — all for “The Voice.” The category has spent two decades rewarding the man who helped define the genre while conspicuously never rewarding the show that made him.

So here we are again, coming off a celebratory 50th season — “In the Hands of the Fans” — that crowned Aubry Bracco over runners-up Jonathan Young and Joe Hunter in an 8-3-0 jury vote and awarded a record-setting $2 million grand prize.

“The Amazing Race,” a nominee in every eligible year of the category’s existence except the pandemic-scrambled 2020 ceremony, missed the cut entirely for only the second time ever. ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” riding its viral resurgence, is back in the race after an 11-year absence, chasing its own 0-for-10 correction.

The case for “The Traitors” is that it has become the category’s auteur piece.

Last year’s Creative Arts haul — directing, editing and cinematography — was the TV Academy telling us it doesn’t just enjoy the show; it admires the filmmaking. A third straight win would put it on the most exclusive shelf in reality television, joining “The Amazing Race,” “The Voice” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” as the only shows to three-peat.

Cumming, meanwhile, is chasing a hosting three-peat of his own, and the man he’d have to beat — for the third year running — is Probst. There’s a whole column in that proxy war alone: the tuxedoed theater lifer with two Tonys against the dimpled adventure guide who won this category’s hosting award the first four times it existed.

The case for “Survivor” is the one the Emmys sometimes secretly love, and that’s the “overdue” correction.

This is the Martin Scorsese- “The Departed” scenario — the institution that should have been honored in its prime, finally embraced late, with a milestone providing cover. “Survivor” hit Season 50 this spring, a fan-voted celebration of a quarter-century on CBS, exactly the kind of legacy moment that lets a voter feel like they’re honoring history rather than simply a season of television.

Probst has spent the year as the genre’s beloved elder statesman. If there was ever a cycle for sentiment to beat momentum, it’s a 50th-season cycle.

But sentiment has to overcome a structural problem: This category does not do lifetime achievement. It does dynasties.

In 23 previous ceremonies, it has crowned exactly seven different shows. And once it falls for something, it falls hard — seven straight for “The Amazing Race,” four in five years for “The Voice,” four straight for “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Television Academy voters — and this is a category voted on by the entire membership, rather than a specific peer group — aren’t correctors; they’re serial monogamists.

Right now, they’re in love with a castle in the Scottish Highlands.

Did enough of the all-stars fighting it out on the islands of Fiji build enough goodwill to get “Survivor” across the finish line?

“Survivor” has outlasted every rival, every trend and every obituary written for network television. The one thing it has never figured out how to outlast is Emmy voters’ attraction to the newest game in town — a lesson it has now been taught by three different shows across three different decades.

The torch, as Probst would say, represents life in the game. “Survivor” has kept its lit for 25 years — and will light a new one again this fall.

On Sept. 14, we find out whether the Academy finally notices — or whether the castle drawbridge stays up for one more year. Voting closes Aug. 26 at 10 p.m. PT.

This week’s updated Emmy winner predictions are below.

Drama Series: “The Pitt” (HBO Max)
Comedy Series: “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV)
Limited or Anthology Series: “Beef” (Netflix)
Outstanding Movie: “Remarkably Bright Creatures” (Netflix)
Lead Actor (Drama): Noah Wyle, “The Pitt” (HBO Max)
Lead Actor (Comedy): Matthew Rhys, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV)
Lead Actor (Limited/Movie): Oscar Isaac, “Beef” (Netflix)
Lead Actress (Drama): Rhea Seehorn, “Pluribus” (Apple TV)
Lead Actress (Comedy): Jean Smart, “Hacks” (HBO Max)
Lead Actress (Limited/Movie): Carey Mulligan, “Beef” (Netflix)
Supporting Actor (Drama): Tom Pelphrey, “Task” (HBO Max)
Supporting Actor (Comedy): Stephen Root, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV)
Supporting Actor (Limited/Movie): David Harbour, “DTF St. Louis” (HBO Max)
Supporting Actress (Drama): Sepideh Moafi, “The Pitt” (HBO Max)
Supporting Actress (Comedy): Kate O’Flynn, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV)
Supporting Actress (Limited/Movie): Linda Cardellini, “DTF. St. Louis” (HBO Max)
Guest Actor (Drama): Colman Domingo, “Euphoria” (HBO Max)
Guest Actress (Drama): Brittany Allen, “The Pitt” (HBO Max)
Guest Actor (Comedy): Rob Reiner, “The Bear” (FX)
Guest Actress (Comedy): Betty Gilpin, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV)
Variety Series: “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS)
Variety Special (Live): “The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny” (NBC)
Variety Special (Pre-Recorded): “Taylor Swift | the Eras Tour | the Final Show” (Disney+)
Directing (Drama): Vince Gilligan, “Pluribus” (Apple TV) — “We Is Us”
Directing (Comedy): Hiro Murai, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV) — “Welcome to Widow’s Bay!”
Directing (Limited/Movie): Lee Sung Jin, “Beef” (Netflix) — “Oh, the Comfort, the Inexpressible Comfort”
Directing (Documentary/Nonfiction): Alexandria Stapleton, “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” (Netflix)
Directing (Variety Series): Yvonne De Mare, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS) — “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Series Finale”
Directing (Variety Special): Hamish Hamilton, “The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny” (NBC)
Directing (Reality Program): Ben Archard, “The Traitors” (Peacock)
Writing (Drama): “The Pitt” (HBO Max) — “1:00 P.M.” by Kirsten Pierre-Geyfman and R. Scott Gemmill
Writing (Comedy): “Hacks” (HBO Max) — “Hacks (Finale)” by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky
Writing (Limited/Movie): “DTF St. Louis” (HBO Max) by Steven Conrad
Writing (Variety Series): “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (CBS)
Writing (Variety Special): “Wanda Sykes: Legacy” (Netflix) by Wanda Sykes
Writing (Nonfiction): “The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: Give the Man a Prize” (Comedy Central)
Game Show: “Jeopardy!” (ABC)
Host (Reality or Reality Competition): Jeff Probst, “Survivor” (CBS)
Host (Game Show): Jimmy Kimmel, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” (ABC)
Competition Program: “Survivor” (CBS)
Structured Reality Program: “Queer Eye” (Netflix)
Unstructured Reality Program: “Love on the Spectrum” (Netflix)
Documentary or Nonfiction Special: “My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay” (HBO Max)
Documentary or Nonfiction Series: “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” (Netflix)
Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special: “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman” (Netflix)
Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking: “The Librarians” (PBS)
Animated Program: “South Park” (Comedy Central) — “Sermon on the ‘Mount”

Paramount Pictures’ “The Heart of the Beast,” starring Brad Pitt and directed by David Ayer, has been added to San Sebastián Film Festival’s lineup, screening out of competition in its Official Selection.

Both Pitt and Ayer will attend San Sebastián to present the film, the Spanish film festival announced Monday. 

The survival thriller sees Pitt, a former Army Special Forces soldier, who must find a way back to civilization after his small plane crashes deep in the Alaskan wilderness. 

Aided by a retired service dog, Odin, who protects him from bears, wolves and other beasts, Pitt’s character must battle the elements and embark on a desperate attempt to stay alive, climb mountains and cross rivers.

Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons and Anna Lambe star with Pitt, who serves as a producer with Olivia Hamilton and Marty Bowen alongside Ayer.
“Heart of the Beast” was written by Cameron Alexander and executive produced by Alexander, Damien Chazelle, Scott Lumpkin, Chris Long, Pete Chiappetta, Anthony Tittanegro, Andrew Lary, Sophie Cassidy and Zack Conroy.

A Wild Chickens, Temple Hill, and Kino World production, the thriller was created in association with Domain Entertainment and Gulfstream Pictures.

Reuniting Pitt and Ayer after “Fury,” their 2014 World War II epic for Sony, “Heart of the Beast” marks the first announcement of big star presence at this year’s San Sebastián, which runs Sept. 18-26. 

Another big name is likely to be Penelope Cruz, star of Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite,” who also makes an extended cameo as a cabaret singer rousing the troops in Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s “La bola negra.” Both films are selected for San Sebastián’s best-of-fests Perlak sidebar. 

Vietnamese found-footage horror film “Lầu Chú Hoả: The Deadliest Mansion” is opening in North American theaters on Sept. 4, with Mockingbird Pictures placing the title across AMC, Regal and Cinemark circuits.

Directed by Hùng Trần, the film became Vietnam‘s first theatrical found-footage horror release and turned into a breakout hit after its June debut. It topped the local box office, drew more than one million admissions and crossed VND78 billion ($3 million) in cumulative grosses.

The story pulls from a well-known Vietnamese urban legend: a band of young streamers force their way into the notoriously haunted Hứa family estate, hoping the stunt will bring them fame and money. Instead their broadcast captures a dormant, malevolent force stirring back to life, pulling them into the century-old tale of the “Ghost of the Hứa Family.” The entire film was shot in found-footage style.

“Lầu Chú Hoả: The Deadliest Mansion” was produced by Runup Vietnam alongside South Korea’s Hive Media Corp, marking the Korean company’s first production investment outside its home market. Hive has backed several of Korea’s biggest recent releases, including “12.12: The Day,” “Inside Men,” “The Man Standing Next” and “Harbin,” along with the found-footage horror title “Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum,” which drew more than 2.6 million admissions in South Korea.

“Found footage has the power to make audiences feel as though they are experiencing the horror themselves,” said producer Lee Jin Sung. “Working with Hive Media Corp allowed us to bring that experience to a uniquely Vietnamese legend while preserving the identity and atmosphere that make the story distinctive.”

Mockingbird Pictures is overseeing the North American theatrical rollout as part of its broader effort to bring Vietnamese commercial films to international audiences.

“‘Lầu Chú Hoả: The Deadliest Mansion’ delivers one of the most intense Vietnamese horror experiences in recent years,” said Phong Duong, business director of Mockingbird Pictures and one of the executive producers at sister company Bluebells Studios. “We believe this is a film that can travel, and we want audiences around the world to experience that fear for themselves.”

Mockingbird Pictures’ distribution footprint spans more than 60 new theatrical releases a year in Vietnam and upwards of 100 titles across post-theatrical platforms, reflecting the company’s growing focus on bringing Southeast Asian films to international audiences.

Best Friend Forever has boarded international sales on Eugene Kotlyarenko’s “Vintage Violence,” starring Cole Sprouse (“Riverdale”) and Kiko Mizuhara, ahead of the film’s world premiere at Toronto’s Midnight Madness section.

WME is handling domestic rights on the thriller, which marks Kotlyarenko’s eighth feature. The filmmaker is known for weaving internet and online-video culture into contemporary stories, most notably with “Spree,” which premiered at Sundance in 2020 and later reached Netflix’s Top 10, and “The Code,” which played at Fantasia in 2024.

“Vintage Violence” also stars Nijiro Murakami (“Alice in Borderland”), Pierre Taki (“Like Father Like Son”) and Hio Miyazawa (“Egoist”). Mizuhara, who leads the cast with Sprouse, will also appear in Takashi Miike’s untitled Kyoto film.

The film follows a livestreamer who discovers a hidden cache of rare vintage denim in Colorado. After a subscriber lures him to Japan with the promise of a fortune for the jeans, he becomes embroiled in a dangerous turf war with the Yakuza.

The key crew includes Sean Price Williams, the topnotch cinematographer of “Good Time,” “The Sweet East” and “The Moment,” among others.

“‘Vintage Violence’ was made with lots of enthusiasm and cinephilia from everyone involved, so it’s great to work with Best Friend Forever, a company brimming with both those qualities,” said Kotlyarenko said. “Most importantly, we have the same goal in mind: for audiences all over the world to get rocked by this movie.”

The film reteams Kotlyarenko with producers Alex Hughes and Riccardo Maddalosso of Spacemaker Productions, which also backed ’s “Spree” and “The Code.” The company’s credits also include James Gray’s “Armageddon Time” and Sebastián Silva’s “Rotting in the Sun,” among others. Japan’s Barravento, whose credits include “Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle,” and Mam Film, behind “Love Life,” are co-producing.

“We’re huge fans of Eugene’s cinema and the unique way he turns our hyper-connected moment into a playful, fresh cinematic language,” said Best Friend Forever co-founders Martin Gondre and Charles Bin. “‘Vintage Violence’ feels like an exciting new step – a funny, romantic and irreverent thriller, made with a freedom of style that recalls Takashi Miike,” they continued.

“Vintage Violence” joins Best Friend Forever’s fall 2026 slate, which also includes the Toronto titles “Half” and Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner “Elephants in the Fog.”

Dirty Monkeys’ war comedy-drama “Once Upon a Time in the Middle East” held onto the No. 1 position at the mainland China box office during the Aug. 21–23 weekend, taking in RMB298.8 million ($43.9 million) in its second weekend of release, according to data from Artisan Gateway.

Directed by Wen Muye (“Dying to Survive”) and starring Shen Teng, Jiang Qiming, Aarif Rahman, and Omar Sherif, the hit production has accumulated $232.2 million since launching nationwide on Aug. 11. The story tracks a Chinese chef who moves to the Middle East to clear family debts by running a restaurant, only to see the venue become a community refuge when armed conflict breaks out across the region.

Pearl River Film Group’s crime drama “V” debuted in second place, pulling in $18.9 million over the three-day weekend frame. Bolstered by early screenings following its Aug. 19 premiere, the feature has reached a cumulative total of $30.7 million. Directed by Han Yan (“Love Never Ends”), the film features a heavyweight ensemble cast led by Tony Ka Fai Leung, Zhu Yilong, Tan Jianci, and Kara Wai. The narrative follows an ambitious figure who uses relentless daring and sharp enterprise to rise through the ranks and taste immense success, only to see dark consequences and long-buried shadows gather to threaten his triumph.

Universal’s epic “The Odyssey” took third position in its sophomore frame, collecting $15.9 million for a total of $68.7 million.

Pearl Studio’s animated fantasy feature “All Wishes Come True!” moved to fourth place in its sixth weekend, adding $9.8 million. Directed by Mu Zhengyang, the enduring family hit has amassed $255.7 million since its July 18 debut.

Sony’s superhero blockbuster “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” rounded out the top five, generating $4.6 million in its fourth full weekend, lifting its cumulative total in China to $219.9 million since rolling out on July 29.

Mainland China’s overall weekend grosses reached $103.1 million, while the 2026 year-to-date revenue stands at $4 billion, down 28.6% from the same period in 2025.

“The Odyssey” maintained its commanding position atop the South Korea box office during the weekend of Aug. 21–23.

According to data from KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, the Christopher Nolan-directed tentpole generated $10.6 million from 1,321,204 admissions over the three-day frame across 2,182 screens, capturing 66.3% of total weekend business. Showing formidable holding power in its third outing, the film pushed its cumulative local gross to $56.8 million from 7,109,368 total admissions since its Aug. 5 launch.

Superhero tentpole “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” held onto second place in its fourth frame, taking $2.9 million from 386,754 admissions. The film accounted for 18.39% of the market, lifting its cumulative South Korea haul to $61.4 million from 8,127,615 total admissions.

“Insidious: Out of the Further” opened in third place, generating $547,555 from 71,592 admissions across 678 screens. Since its Aug. 20 premiere, the release has collected $706,508 from 93,922 total admissions.

Local animated feature “Teenieping: Legend of the Whale Heartstone” finished fourth, adding $480,487 from 69,482 admissions. Directed by Kim Soo-hoon, the musical fantasy adventure follows Princess Romi, Heartsping, and their crew venturing into the deep sea to rescue Queen Velita. The sequel has grossed $5.3 million from 788,263 viewers since its Aug. 5 rollout.

Animated mystery “Detective Conan the Movie: Fallen Angel of the Highway” took fifth place in its second weekend, pulling in $380,240 from 50,053 admissions. Directed by Takahiro Hasui, the franchise installment has reached a total of $2.5 million from 356,276 tickets.

The local action-comedy sequel “Ok! Madam: Bon Voyage” took sixth place, generating $239,231 from 33,585 admissions. Directed by Lee Cheol-ha and starring Uhm Jung-hwa, Park Sung-woong, Lee Sang-yun, and Sooyoung, the film has now earned $2 million.

“Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” placed seventh, collecting $143,937 from 20,488 admissions to move its gross to $671,567 from 95,605 admissions.

Sci-fi thriller “Hope” took eighth place, adding $130,477 from 18,366 admissions. Directed by Na Hong-Jin and starring Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon, Michael Fassbender, and Alicia Vikander, the alien-encounter feature has accumulated $35 million from 4,518,395 admissions.

Studio Ghibli’s 2010 animated fantasy “The Secret World of Arrietty,” directed by Yonebayashi Hiromasa, placed ninth via a specialty re-release, earning $82,305 from 10,431 admissions to lift its lifetime South Korea gross to $5.6 million from 1,086,258 tickets.

Rounding out the top ten was “Warfare,” which pulled in $58,172 from 7,333 admissions over the frame. The real-time Iraq War encounter film has generated $108,585 from 13,863 admissions since its Aug. 19 rollout.

The overall market collective gross for the weekend was $16.1 million, down from last week’s $22.3 million.

In “Beloved,” opening the Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund, Erik Poppe takes on a script by Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse.

“It’s a project that has been on my desk for many, many years. Jon Fosse wrote it almost 20 years ago. After he received the Nobel Prize in Literature [in 2023], it felt like the whole world wanted to read it. But I always knew it was a powerful piece of work,” he tells Variety. 

“Beloved” follows a couple who meet in a small coastal town. They have a child, but Asle is drawn back to the sea while Gerd remains in the village.

The film, starring Leo Magnus de la Nuez and Kristi-Helene Giæver Engeberg, was produced by Paradox and SF Production. It’s sold by Reinvent Yellow Sales. 

One of Norway’s most acclaimed directors, Poppe is known for larger productions, from “The King’s Choice” to “Utøya: July 22,” “The Emigrants” and “Quisling: The Final Days.” But focusing on a more intimate story felt right this time.

“Looking at the world as it is right now, I needed to hold onto some sense of hope – or at least something more human. I wanted to explore the relationship between two people, as well as between a father and son, because it’s a story of daily life I can relate to.” 

He adds: “We’ve all seen how well they perform in the cinemas, surprisingly enough. People long for something honest and truthful that they can just dive into.”

The fact that Fosse is only growing in stature doesn’t hurt either. 

“He’s about to be named one of the most important living authors in the world today, and this isn’t based on his novels or plays. [The screenplay] is an original piece of work that he wrote with only one goal in mind: to make it into a movie.”

Still more adaptations are likely on their way. 

“I’m quite sure more movies will be made from his novels. As a filmmaker, he’s opening up the space between the dialogue for me to fill in. His style is so simple yet deep. You connect with it, understand it, and it hits you right in the stomach. His novels are short, but when you read them, it feels like Dostoyevsky. I find it extraordinary.” 

Despite following only two characters and their son, Poppe didn’t change his approach to working with actors.

“On all my movies, I insist on having at least eight or 12 weeks with them [prior to the shoot]. If I can establish a truthful, honest relationship with my actors, I can push them quite far,” he says. He also paid extra attention to their surroundings. 

“I spent a lot of time figuring out where to shoot this film. It’s almost like a mythical landscape, a mythical part of Norway. It’s the fourth character in the film.”

Misty and melancholic, it mirrors their insecurities and growing estrangement. 

“It’s quite typical of many relationships. It’s so hard to talk to each other,” says Poppe.

“I was raised by two parents who were almost exactly like these two. Except, it was my mother who left and my sister and I stayed home with my father. The film is about the language these two used to share, which is disappearing, it’s about where they are and what they’re longing for.”

Which is why, despite that title, there is a darker side to ‘Beloved.’

“Based on our first screenings, people have been surprised, but they also really love that it’s not your regular love story,” he admits. 

“I think it’s a brave piece of work by Jon. I was tempted by the fact that he doesn’t follow the paths we are so used to. I wanted to explore how that could work in a movie.”

The LA Phil has played with plenty of pop and rock acts before, but it may have taken Foo Fighters to really put the dude in Dudamel.

And not a moment too soon, with this being famed conductor Gustavo Dudamel‘s final weekend at the helm of Los Angeles’ primary house symphony. The Phil’s hookup with Dave Grohl and company Saturday night was the middle act in a three-night local finale for Dudamel — a delectable dip into what old-school symphony buffs would once have considered low culture. The entire weekend, though, was about asking Beethoven to roll over, as it were, for some of the maestro’s less classical loves. The Foos collab was sandwiched in between Friday and Sunday concerts where the focus was on acknowledging Dudamel’s connections to Latin American and specifically Venezuelan music.

Understandably, Grohl had to make it at least a little about himself, too, or more to the point, this being a milestone for his 32-year-old band. “ This is a first,” he told the sold-out crowd at the outset. “First of all, I don’t know if you know, but Foo Fighters has never played the Hollywood Bowl before… Usually in this part of the program I ask the audience if they love rock ‘n’ roll music… But tonight, i’m gonna ask this question for the first time: Do you love Dudamel? Me too. so let’s play some rock ‘n’ roll for Mr. Dudamel. That’s what we came here to do.”

For a while, it seemed as if this show might really mark a serious first: Grohl, who tends to pepper his stage banter with the F-word at least once in every sentence — used as an exclamation, adjective, adverb, noun, verb and preposition — seemed to be inspired by the occasion, and by the presence of dozens of the world’s finest musicians in formalwear, to be deliberately abstaining from profanity. But if that was indeed a goal, finally, toward the end, he couldn’t help himself. “Ladies and gentlemen, on an evening like tonight, I don’t really know how to say goodbye, because I wish that we could do this every fucking night for the rest of our lives with all of these amazing people.”

A quick, unscientific survey of Foo fans suggested that not one of them would have a problem with that (in, you know, the theoretical world where Grohl could outspend and out-prestige the New York Philharmonic, where Dudamel is headed next). Fans online — those who’d been at the concert and those just tracking it from afar — immediately began clamoring for a commercial release of Saturday’s show. That desire was well-justified. When some bands do symphonic hook-ups, it makes for a satisfying experiment, but not necessarily one you need to hear endlessly. The arrangements here were so well-balanced, and so in keeping with what made these tracks feel as dramatic as they did in the first place, that you could imagine recordings from the show taking the place of the originals in some fans’ streaming playlists, indefinitely if not for all time.

Some artists who do Bowl shows with the LA Phil or its sister symphony, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, run through something close to their normal set and require whoever is assigned to do the orchestrations to follow suit. Fortunately, Grohl took a broader view of what catalog material might benefit most from the augmentation, even if it meant narrowing down the length of the setlist, since orchestral players by definition don’t work rock ‘n’ roll hours.

“Listen, tonight we’re gonna play as many things as we can before we have to stop,” the singer said early in the hour-and-40-minutes performance. “You know, we usually play for three hours a night. But tonight, we picked the best songs that we could perform with our friends in the LA Phil and Mr. Gustavo Dudamel. Some of these you may have never heard before. So sit back and enjoy a song called ‘A320.’”

Now, pretty much the only people who’ve been holding out for “A320” to rejoin the Foos’ set after a quarter-century of absence are the half-dozen people still clutching to their CDs of the 1998 “Godzilla” soundtrack, where it first lived and kind of died a quiet death. But, as one of the rare songs to have included string arrangements on the original record, it was prime territory for revival here. (And the band has also been trying it out at a few non-orchestral tour stops this year, maybe with the thought of getting it ready for the Bowl.) As on the age-old original, the first half of the six-minute track was sweeping in its use of orchestral augmentation, and then the second half put aside both strings and vocals to turn into a pure band jam. That’s counterintuitive, since it would be more common to start a song without orchestration and then add it in, rather than the reverse. But the band fury is as climactic as anything that could be done continuing to have the full ensemble play… and Dudamel looked happy enough to put his baton down, turn around and just watch the group play for a few minutes. (The Phil was present at points on every one of the 15 songs song, but there were plenty of stretches within those songs where they took five.)

The band’s most faithful followers may be happy to hear “Times Like These” played for the 894th time (according to setlist.fm), but having “A320” come into the set early was a sign that this would really be a night to make the hardcore happy. And there ended up being three more rarities to set fans aflutter: “I Should Have Known,” being played live for the first time since 2012; “Razor,” being performed for the first time since 2006; and “Home,” getting a live airing for the first time since 2007 (and only the fifth performance overall). What these surprise additions meant, in human terms, is that Grohl understood the assignment, when it came to joining forces with another powerful institution: you find the songs that have been waiting for that moment.

Of course, he also considered some of the band’s greatest hits to be in that category. “This was made for the Hollywood Bowl, I think,” Grohl said, prefacing “My Hero.” It was hard to argue with that assessment, when the song took on a healthy dose of brass that sounded noble enough for a military funeral… not to mention a surprise solo harp for just a few seconds when the rest of the onstage complement dropped out for a dramatic pause.

But it really was some of the lesser known or slightly less celebrated songs making bigger impressions. A choir came out on two songs in the middle of the set, both of them highlights. First among them was “The Sky Is a Neighborhood” (the title of which lets you know that Grohl does have a poetic side, however much his stage banter falls into the category of basic-bitch). The frontman did some of his punkiest scream-singing of the night, content to know that the dozen or so berobed figures surrounding him could keep up the melodious quotient of the tune; Chris Shiflett turned in a short, sweet and rare guitar solo over some of that choral wailing, as the band thunderously pounded it out in 6/8 time. Maximalism doesn’t come much more maximal than that, and it was genuinely musical as well as bombastic.

Then, taking it way down, members of the participating YOLA (the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles), identifiable by their shirts (and by their, duh, youth), did a somber string opening for “Run,” replicating or replacing the studio version’s extended acoustic guitar intro, before the rock and the choir kicked in — another certain highlight, despite the tune not being on the list of internationally approved classics.

More expected standouts included “Aurora,” which Grohl has been faithfully dedicating nightly to Taylor Hawkins, with the orchestra again going silent during the final stretch so that the core band could use the hypnotically interesting riffage to send a former comrade into the afterlife with 17,000 phones aglow.

It didn’t seem as if it would get much more sentimental than that, yet it did, as the unlikely penultimate pick turned out to be “Home,” of which Grohl said, “We’ve only done this song once.” (He was off-count by about three instances, according to the online stats, but close enough.) Taking a stool for the most sedate of his ballads, Grohl explained that he was never previously able to get through the 2007 song “because it’s such a meaningful song to me that whenever I heard it, I couldn’t stop from crying. And whenever we played it, there’s no way I could make it through the entire song without just bursting into tears. But what I’ve found is that while you’re singing it, if you think of other things, you can actually make it to the end without crying.” There was a pause, while the audience waited for Grohl to explain if he was picturing the audience naked, or something. “I’m not gonna tell you what I was thinking about,” he then announced. “But we got to the end of the fucking song, so there you go.”

There might have been other reasons to wonder whether Grohl would make it through the set, early on — like, right, at the very beginning, when the set started with a slow and stark couple of verses of “Times Like These,” and the singer’s voice cracked when he sang that high, introductory “I…” And the same thing happened when that note came around again. Was it an inauspicious way to start the set, revealing a voice that was tour-ravaged… or was Grohl faking us out with some exaggerated emotion? Whichever was the case, he quickly rallied, or otherwise revved up to speed, and there were no worries about whether his howl would survive this hot night from then on. But he had us going for about half a minute there.

A good thing he turned out to deceptively be in top shape after all; this will go down in many fans’ books as one of the group’s all-timers. Whether the show is memorialized through some sort of commemorative recording or just cameraphone videos, it’s some of the little things that stick in memory, at least initially: the way that the horns filled in the space between the lines of verses on “All My Life” with frenetic stabs, or how, on “Learn to Fly,” the strings played slightly off the beat in the dramatic coda, versus the straightforward slamming of the band. And the fake endings … so many fake endings. But Grohl is showman enough to know: when a fast song leaves ’em wanting more, it doesn’t hurt to seem to quit and then actually give a little more.

Dudamel did not do much talking; if he has any sentimental feelings he wants to share with the L.A. audience about taking leave of them, presumably he will do it during Sunday night’s true swan song. But he did speak while introducing what amounted to the evening’s opening act — a 15-minute border-crossing suite, composer Aldemaro Romero’s “Fuga con Pajarillo,” which segued back and forth between the full orchestra and Venezuelan musicians, including Eduardo Betancourt, Jorge Glem and Moisés Torrealba. The main reason for the night was, as Grohl said, “to give Gustavo one more big rock show before he has to leave this wonderful city.” But even then, he couldn’t leave Venezuela out of it. New York will be blessed to have someone so faithful to his truest loves.

Which definitely do include rock. Dudamel’s performance conducting with Foo Fighters Saturday made you wish the LA Phil, or future employers, would dedicate one of the venue’s big screens solely to a Gustavo Cam, so everyone could see how headbanging really should look, when it’s being done by a pro.

Setlist for Foo Fighters with the LA Phil, Gustavo Dudamel and YOLA at the Hollywood Bowl, August 22, 2026:
Times Like These
All My Life
The Pretender
Walk
A320
My Hero
Learn to Fly
The Sky Is a Neighborhood
Run
I Should Have Known
Razor
Aurora
Best of You
Home
Everlong