Tag: Entertainment – Variety

Evan Rachel Wood isn’t among the “Practical Magic” cast members returning for the forthcoming sequel — and she’s opening up about her disappointment. Speaking to “Entertainment Tonight” at the red carpet premiere of her new series “The Shards,” Wood called it “sad” not to be asked back for “Practical Magic 2.”

“It is sad, because we bonded with that cast so much as children, and so to miss out on the opportunity to look at that cast and look at that house as an adult and see the history in our eyes, it’s something that can’t be faked,” the actor said. “I’m sad that doesn’t get to exist, especially for the fans.” 

In the 1998 movie, Wood and Alexandra Artrip played Kylie and Antonia Owens, the daughters of Sandra Bullock’s witch character. In the sequel, Wood is replaced by “The Act” star Joey King, while Artrip’s younger-sister character is played by “Game of Thrones” standout Maisie Williams.

The sequel, out September 11, is adapted from “The Book of Magic” by Alice Hoffman, a sequel to her own novel “Practical Magic,” which inspired the first film.

“I read the book and it seems like they’re not following the book,” Wood said. “I think in the book it would have made sense to bring me back; I think in the way they’re redoing it and approaching it, it didn’t make sense.” 

This isn’t the first time Wood has spoken out about the film; last year, she wrote on Instagram” “I offered my services, even if it was one scene or one line. I was told they are re-casting. I am sorry to disappoint the fans. It was not in my control or my choice. I would have happily rejoined my sisters.”

Returning cast members include leads Bullock and Nicole Kidman as sisters and fellow practitioners of magic, as well as Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest as their loopy aunts. Wood, who was 11 when “Practical Magic” came out, counts the movie as one of her very first roles; among the leading child stars of her generation, she went on to appear in “Thirteen,” “The Upside of Anger” and the TV series “Once and Again” before making the transition to grown-up stardom on “True Blood” and “Westworld.” Literary adaptation “The Shards,” on which Wood plays a wealthy L.A. mom in the 1980s, debuts on FX August 5.

Mary Beth Barone knows her debut Netflix special, “Galaxy Brain,” might piss some people off. In fact, she’s keeping a list — on it are J.K. Rowling, Mark Zuckerberg and male comedians in general, to name a few.

“I’m just fully ready to get it out there and see who’s mad at me,” Barone tells Variety over Zoom with a sly smile. For the comedian and actor — who got her start in the New York City club scene before breaking through with comedy podcasts “Obsessed” and “Ride” alongside collaborator and bestie Benito Skinner — this moment has been a long time coming.

Over the past two years, Barone had been workshopping material for a potential special while touring, and decided last summer to start putting feelers out to buyers. Then, things happened fast — a few weeks after an L.A. gig in August, Netflix called.

“I don’t feel excitement very much, but that was a moment where I was like, ‘Holy shit, this is actually happening,’” she says. “It’s such a career milestone for any comedian and I just felt like, ‘Woah, they said yes.’”

But that doesn’t mean that Netflix is safe from being the butt of Barone’s jokes. In the first 10 minutes of “Galaxy Brain” — filmed at New York City’s Skirball Center in March — she razzes the streamer for the rarity of women-led specials and riffs on their advice for winning over viewers. It sets the tone that Barone is willing to go there, and over the next hour, no topic is off limits as she tackles bad behavior from the men in her field, Ozempic, sex, politics and more.

“I’m sure some of [the jokes] will be a little bit shocking, but I think women and queer people get shit on enough,” Barone says. “And it’s time to shit on people back.”

Below, Barone tells Variety more about “Galaxy Brain” (out now on Netflix), making jokes she wouldn’t be able to say online and what’s in store for Season 2 of “Overcompensating,” the Prime Video comedy series she co-writes and stars in with Skinner.

What was your process for workshopping material for the special, and how much did it change?

When I first started doing the hour, I would say it was probably 90% different material. Obviously, our lives are constantly changing and I always want the set to feel current but also sort of evergreen. So if there’s any topical references, just making sure that will be relevant whenever it comes out and as long as the special is available — I guess until we all drown from global warning when the sea levels rise. It’s a tough process because sometimes there’s jokes that you love that just weren’t playing as well. But I wanted to balance anything topical with things that happened a really long time ago, so the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, for example, or Jack the Ripper, things like that that are sort of timeless in their own way. I think one of the only super topical references was “Wicked,” and I thought about changing that out to be something that happened more recently — but then I just thought like, “Wicked” is forever.

You don’t hold back in “Galaxy Brain.” In the beginning of the special, you point out how rare it is for women to actually get Netflix specials and share advice they gave you for winning people over within three minutes. Why was it important for you to cheekily call that out?

They were really great about… they didn’t have me cut anything. They definitely gave me some best practices — that thing about getting people’s attention in the first three minutes was an actual conversation that we had. And I’m a good student, so of course I was going to try to do that. I used to have a joke in the beginning of the set that was poking fun at cities that aren’t New York, L.A. or Chicago, and they said, “You have three minutes to catch people’s attention, to win them over. You don’t want to alienate them right away.” So it was genuinely me on tour trying to figure out what to say in three minutes to make people want to keep watching, and working that into the set just felt really natural.

I think there’s a lot of edgy moments in the special. I want it to feel cheeky and also like, stand-up is such a specific performance piece that I can’t imagine going on stage and just launching in and not acknowledging the moment — that we’re all in a room together and I have a microphone and I’m going to try to make you laugh now.

Do you think the situation for women in comedy is improving at all?

The internet, of course, has done really, really good things for comedy and then some not so good things for comedy. But what’s great is it’s made comedy more democratic, because people can start with live performance and post online and then they create their own audience; the right people find them. And I think that’s translated into having more women and queer people who are stand-up comedians that can tour and support themselves financially. That’s been really fun to watch since I started comedy, when it was dominated by the club scene and if you couldn’t get in there and work your way up and be one of the boys, there was less opportunity. Now with all these indie venues — especially in New York and in so many other cities like Pittsburgh, Denver, Chicago — it’s been wonderful to be surrounded by more and more women and the LGBTQ+ community, because those are the people that I want to make laugh and those are the people that I want to be friends with.

You also don’t shy away from calling out male comedians.

They’re some of the worst people that we have!

You mention specific people, including Chris D’Elia, and later jokes mention J.K. Rowling, Woody Allen, Mark Zuckerberg and more. How did you decide who to call out specifically?

I wanted to strike a balance between cultural references and general experiences and moving through the world with my unique point of view, but there were just certain names that I felt like belonged in the canon of this special. What I try to do is write the joke about that person that no one else would or could write. So I do hope that’s where I landed with these ones, and I’m sure some of them will be a little bit shocking, but I think women and queer people get shit on enough and it’s time to shit on people back.

There are some jokes in the special that you say you wouldn’t be able to post online, including one about Ozempic that riffs on Kim Kardashian’s infamous “get your fucking ass up and work” quote — which she said to Variety, by the way. What’s the line for you when it comes to risky jokes and possibly offending people?

Here’s the thing about that — I understood what she meant and I think it started a conversation. And that, to me, is a successful interview.

With that joke specifically, part of what is so almost absurd about it is that it probably will end up online with a comments section, and that’s just part of putting out a special these days … But I think for me it’s like, of course I’m going to explore uncomfortable topics at times, but I don’t find joy or feel a sense of accomplishment punching down. I always want to feel like my jokes are punching up. And sometimes you find just by doing the jokes that they’re not always on the correct side of that line. But yeah, it’s difficult. I want to make the right people uncomfortable, and I want to offend the correct people. Sometimes it is trial and error.

Since the internet is forever, what’s your advice for comedians coming up now when it comes to navigating social media?

I’m sure there’s an instinct if you’re starting out to just post as many clips as possible and try to gain traction that way. But I would say that there’s no substitute for experience and stage time, and the more real-world experience you can get playing off of an audience — you need that foundation because you can’t really fake that.

And the comments section is always something you can look away from. I really struggle with that; I read comments. I’m trying to stop, and I’ve definitely created more boundaries for myself. There’s more and more people that I meet in the industry who don’t have internet access or they don’t use social media at all, they pay someone to post for them. It’s hard as a comedian, because I want my online presence to be an extension of me and feel very authentic, but I know people reach a limit where it’s just not healthy. I can, even now where I’m at, see how people completely lose themselves and their grip on reality … So I feel a lot of gratitude that things have happened really gradually for me. I’m 35 now, so I have so many friends from before, I have an amazing family, I have a lot of support and people that I can surround myself with that are not in the industry to ground me.

I do believe that the age you blow up at is the mental age you can be stuck at forever.

The other side of that too, which we see especially with comedians, is potentially a level of being out of touch where you have to fall back on just being offensive in order to feel like you’re saying something. So my pledge to the public is that if I ever reach a point where I can’t write about something that’s relatable, I just won’t do a stand-up special. I think when you have a totally frictionless life and you’re flying in a private jet everywhere and everyone around you is just saying yes to your every whim, that’s probably when you should just sit back and count your money and leave the public alone.

You’re wearing a stunning dress in the special. Who designed it and what inspired the look?

That is a dress by Jackson Wiederhoeft. We met with their team last year — pretty much as soon as we knew we were going to make the special, I knew that I wanted them to design the dress. And so the references that we gave were the dress in “The Little Mermaid” when she comes out of the water; so fabulous, so beautiful, burned in my brain as a kid. And then Megara from “Hercules” also sort of came in as a reference. I knew I wanted it to be lilac, and it was actually such a specific color that they had to custom dye the fabric and just completely blew me away with what they were able to create. And then on the corset, we had beading done in the shape of the Gemini constellation — because I’m a Gemini — so that felt like a fun tie-in to the sort of overall theme.

I also want to ask about “Overcompensating” Season 2 because I know you just wrapped filming. What can you tease about Grace’s arc this season?

It’s sadder but also funnier. What was cool about arriving to Season 2 was that the characters already felt really lived in, so Benny’s approach was like, what can we do that’s surprising but also fan service? I do think the direction it goes is going to surprise a lot of people, but I can say I have a really wonderful love interest this season and I am excited to see it on screen.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Thailand’s first purpose-built international content marketplace wrapped its debut edition this month with an estimated THB2.2 billion ($65.5 million) in business value generated across three days of structured deal-making and co-production talks.

The Bangkok International Content Market 2026 – known as BICM2026 – ran earlier this month at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok, organized by the Creative Economy Agency (CEA) under the Thailand Content Market 2026 umbrella. More than 600 participants, spanning content companies, production studios, distributors, and streaming platforms from Thailand and international markets, took part in sessions covering film, television series, and production services.

The event’s flagship business matching program drove more than 1,200 one-on-one meetings between content owners and buyers, yielding deals that ranged from licensing and adaptation-rights acquisitions to international co-production agreements. BICM2026 also formalized regional ties with QCinema International Film Festival in the Philippines, JAFF Market in Indonesia, Taiwan Creative Content Fest, and the Danang Asian Film Festival in Vietnam – connections CEA framed as part of a broader push to position Thailand as the gateway to a consumer base of more than 700 million people across ASEAN.

A pitching competition, supported by White Light Studio, Kantana Sound Studio, Gear Head, and QCinema International Film Festival, drew more than 55 production-ready projects. The Asian Project Pitching prize of $10,000 went to “Honey Milk” from Taiwan, a feature directed by Chien Yu Lin and produced by Man Yin Tseng. Two Thai projects each took $5,000 grants: Woottidanai Intarakaset’s feature “The Mining,” written by Chanikarn Opaspimoltum, won the Thai Project Pitching award, while “The Kindness of Miss Ari,” produced by Pinyada Poommek and written by Chalermpong Udomsilp, claimed the Thai Story Pitching prize.

Industry forums and workshops drew strong turnout, with sessions on regional content formats, foreign production incentives, and government support mechanisms for domestic Thai filmmaking proving especially popular.

Nalina Chayasombat, executive producer at Jungka Studio, one of the companies that participated in the business matching program, said: “BICM2026 gave us the opportunity to meet new companies and new people. It acted as a bridge, connecting us with creators and potential partners that we can genuinely collaborate with. At Jungka, we’re not simply looking for projects – we’re looking for new ways of working and strong creative teams with the potential to grow and reach wider audiences. This platform has opened up exciting opportunities for collaboration and for developing new creative works and business models that can meet future market demands.”

Chakrit Pichyangkul, executive director of CEA, added: “The success of the inaugural BICM2026 has clearly demonstrated that a dedicated marketplace is the missing piece that Thailand’s content ecosystem has long needed. Bringing together buyers, investors, and creators from around the world on one platform in Thailand – and seeing real business agreements emerge — proves that Thai content possesses genuine commercial potential. CEA is committed to developing BICM into an annual international marketplace that continues to grow year after year, empowering Thai creators to move beyond contract production and become owners of high-value intellectual property. Our long-term ambition is to firmly establish Thailand as the content hub of Asia.”

CEA confirmed plans to stage a second edition of the market, continuing to build on the international partnerships and deal flow established at the inaugural event.

Back in May 2025, it was revealed that Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” ” would be the first feature film shot entirely with Imax 70mm cameras. That announcement sparked interest from other filmmakers.

As “The Odyssey’s” box office sails to nearly $300 million domestically, with Imax 70mm screenings sold out for weeks in advance, a source at Imax says that success is likely to launch interest in shooting entirely on Imax into another stratosphere.

Ever since Nolan first used Imax on “The Dark Knight,” he’s been working towards this. Visually, “The Odyssey” is sharper, and the projection is much brighter making the audience experience even more immersive.

But which filmmakers aside from Nolan have the skill and resources to shoot a film entirely on Imax?

Shooting with the cameras isn’t cheap. “The Odyssey” cost $250 million to produce and is the most expensive film of Nolan’s career to date. Raw film stock alone costs approximately $1.50 per foot, and with the production sailing through two million feet of film, that total alone equates to roughly $3 million.

Then there are the developing and processing costs. A source confirmed that one print of “The Odyssey” costs $50,000. “It’s also up to the studio how many prints they actually want to create,” the source added.

So who could be next? Denis Villeneuve has revealed he shot much of “Dune: Part Three” on Imax 70mm film. At the film’s trailer event, he said, “A big part of it was shot in Imax film, which was the first time for me, but I kept the desert in digital because I like the brutality of the digital Imax.” Filming with the “epic” Imax cameras was unique, he said. “When you see the result on screen, it’s quite unmatchable,” he added. “I hope I will have the chance to do it again.” The James Bond movie is up next for Villeneuve — and could be a large-scale canvas to work on.

And then there’s Ryan Coogler, whose next film is “Black Panther 3.” Coogler, working with his longtime collaborator, cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, shot sequences of “Sinners” using a combination of 15-perf Imax film (for a towering 1.43:1 ratio) and Ultra Panavision 70 (for an ultra-wide 2.76:1 ratio).

While it’s not yet confirmed if Durald Arkapaw will shoot the film, it was revealed during Marvel Studio’s Comic Con panel that the film will partially be shot in large format on 70mm film – becoming the first Marvel film to shoot that way. The Imax source says, “Ryan is an amazing partner. We were deeply involved in ‘Sinners’ and very supportive of that film. He shot sequences on film. We hope that he would do it again without question.”

The Imax source continues, “We cannot speak at all to whether they’re interested in the challenge of taking it on fully. But we have enough cameras and we have enough blimps that if those guys wanted to do it, we would figure out a way to make it happen.”

With the success of “The Odyssey,” and audiences filling theaters to watch films in Imax, there’s no question that the format will continue to draw interest — whether it’s shooting on film or in digital. Michael B. Jordan’s “The Thomas Crown Affair” remake was shot for Imax as well as “The End of Oak Street” (filmed for Imax), “Resident Evil” (filmed for Imax) and “Digger” (filmed in VistaVision and shown in Imax).

As Imax continues to be a gamechanger at the box office, the company says its mission is to serve filmmakers, and there are other options available.

“Project Hail Mary” was shot using Imax-certified digital camera, but the company created film prints for it.

So, if Villeneuve or Coogler, or any ambitious filmmaker wants to shoot their next film entirely on Imax, it’s possible. “As long as we’re able to handle it from like a scheduling perspective in terms of the cameras, and as long we have enough time to work on each production to create the film prints in partnership with Kodak and Fotokem, we’re willing to do as much as people want to do,” says the Imax source. “If people want to create for our format, we do everything within our power to enable them to do that. We try to create a lot of different options so we can serve a variety of different filmmakers.”

“Obsession” star Michael Johnston is in early talks to join the fourth installment of “The Mummy,” Variety has confirmed.

Johnston previously starred in the TV series “Teen Wolf,” but this year’s “Obsession” brought him to the attention of moviegoers when the low-budget Curry Barker horror film became a box-office sensation.

As previously reported, Academy Award winners Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are officially returning for a fourth installment of the blockbuster franchise, “The Mummy.”

Universal Pictures has dated the movie, directed by Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, for a wide theatrical release on Oct. 15, 2027.

Fraser and Weisz, whose involvement was first reported last fall, have closed deals to reprise their roles as adventurer Rick O’Connell and Egyptologist Evelyn O’Connell in the movie, plot details for which are being kept — not unironically — under wraps.

Fan favorite John Hannah was also confirmed to return to the film’s franchise.

“The Mummy” follows a treasure hunter who accidentally awakens a cursed Egyptian priest with supernatural powers. The movie and its 2001 sequel “The Mummy Returns” were major box office hits, reviving the classic monster movie IP and establishing Fraser as a bankable action star. Weisz, however, did not appear in the 2008 threequel “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” so her return to the franchise is particularly thrilling for fans.

Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett (“Ready or Not” and sequel “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come”) direct the new “Mummy” movie from a screenplay by David Coggeshall (“The Family Plan,” “Orphan: First Kill”). Sean Daniel — who has produced each installment of the $1.8 billion-grossing franchise at the studio since 1999’s “The Mummy,” including “The Mummy Returns,” “The Scorpion King,” “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” and the 2017 Dark Universe project — also returns for the film.

William Sherak, James Vanderbilt and Paul Neinstein, whose joint credits include “Nuremberg,” the Scream franchise and “The Night Agent” series, will produce through Project X Entertainment. 

Clayton Townsend will produce.  Brendan Fraser and Hivemind’s Jason F. Brown will executive produce the film.

Universal had no comment.

The news was first reported by The Insneider.

Horror is red-hot at the box office, but what is up next for the genre?

Ideas flowed freely at the San Diego Comic-Con panel for Bold Voice of Contemporary Horror: Tenth Anniversary Edition, which took place on July 24. Panelists included both actors and behind-the-camera talent, including Dan Stevens, star of AMC series “The Terror”; Deborah Ann Woll, star of Shudder’s upcoming thriller “The Cycle”; director Zachary Wigon, who helmed Bleecker Street’s “Victorian Psycho,” which debuted during this year’s Cannes Film Festival; and Dave Boyle, who directed SXSW audience award winner “Never After Dark.” The discussion was moderated by Michael Lerman, the co-founder and director of film programming at the genre-based Overlook Film Festival, and was curated by convention mainstay Rachel Walker, who founded the panel in 2015.

What were their thoughts and theories? Read more below.

Keeping audiences on their toes by not being boxed into one type of genre.

Touching on different tones is a great way to keep viewers discombobulated and primed for a scare.

“I mentioned ‘The Descent’ as being one of my favorite movies. Part of the reason for that is that it shifts,” Woll said. “You’re not always quite sure what kind of horror movie you’re in. Is it a psychological thriller? Is it a survivalist thriller? Is it a creature feature? To me, films that can play with genre in that sense are often the most engaging. When I read this script [for ‘The Cycle’], that immediately made me say, ‘I have to do this.’”

Bring in ideas from other types of storytelling, even if they’re not fully reflected in the final work.

Creatives should take from everything they’ve ever worked on — even if it doesn’t immediately seem transferable.

“I think that the thing that really prepared me to jump into the genre was working on action, just because of how precise and communicative you have to be,” Boyle said. “There are so many moving pieces, so many things to think about and keep track of. Working in Japan for the first time, it’s interesting; Japanese scripts leave half the page blank. Then the director actually draws in the cuts where each cut is gonna happen, so that you have a real sense of how the movie’s going to come together, and there’s a real precision to it if you use that system and lean into it. That’s what prepared me to jump into my favorite genre, which is horror.”

Horror mixed with humor continues to be on the rise.

This goes even beyond the influx of funny directors like Zach Cregger and Curry Barker making their mark on the industry.

“Something I’m pleased to see spreading at the moment is horror with more humor attached,” Stevens said. “I find that humor is so powerful in horror and can often be overlooked. It’s sometimes a scary word when you mention that to producers: ‘I’d like to bring some humor into this.’ ‘It’s not a comedy.’ ‘I know it’s not a comedy, but by bringing some humor in, by bringing elements of humor, you bring in humanity, which I think exists in even the most batshit of situations.’ That can really ground a story sometimes. I’ve really enjoyed seeing a proliferation of those kinds of movies recently.”

Revel in withholding some information from the audience to make for even bigger payoffs.

Conjure up interest by dropping some clues that don’t get solved right away.

“I feel like horror is a subgenre of mystery,” Wigon said. “When I think about horror storytelling, it’s almost like you have a patchwork quilt, and you can’t see what’s in any of the patches at the beginning of the movie. Then as it goes along, you start to reveal that this is one little patch, that’s one little patch, and you’re creating mystery because the audience doesn’t understand how these patches connect to one another, and that’s the game that everybody’s playing. Then as it goes along, you start to realize that you’ve been looking at one image the whole film, and the pleasure is in seeing how these seemingly disparate pieces of information come to connect.”

Watch the new trailer for “The Cycle,” which debuted during the panel, below.