Alia Bhatt Set as First Female Lead in Yash Raj Films’ Spy Universe (EXCLUSIVE)

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Apparently “The Rumble” is coming to “The Masked Singer” this season. Fox is taking the wraps off of the latest edition of the hit reality competition series, teasing the landmark 10th season with a first promo tonight — as well as a look at the first round of costumes. Variety has an exclusive look, above, of the Donut and the Hawk.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Screenwriter and director Charlie Kaufman will receive the honorary Heart of Sarajevo award at the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival, in recognition of his contribution to the art of filmmaking. The festival will also hold an open-air screening of 2002’s “Adaptation,” which was written by Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze.

Naman Ramachandran The U.K. Film and TV has appointed Marcus Ryder as its new CEO and Claire Tavernier as the new chair of trustees. Ryder, who will take up the role in the fall, replaces Alex Pumfrey who has joined U.K.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sound of Freedom, the indie action-drama film that has already earned over $125 million at the North American box office, will begin to move into international distribution from next month.Angel Studios, the crowd-funded, Utah-based production and distribution firm behind the picture, says it has set releases in territories including the U.K., Australia and Latin America. The company explained that it has arranged direct-to-theater distribution deals in Latin America, the U.K, and Ireland. In other territories it will take the more conventional route of partnering with distributors.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Switzerland’s preeminent Locarno Film Festival has tapped arts patron Maja Hoffmann, founder of the LUMA Foundation, to be its first female president in its 70-plus years of existence. The festival’s Board of Directors unanimously approved Hoffmann to succeed Marco Solari who has held the position for more than two decades.

The trailer for Guy Nattiv’s Golda has dropped showcasing Helen Mirren’s transformation into Israel’s first female Prime Minister Golda Meir. Watch the preview in the video posted above.

Kanoa Goo is about to make his Hallmark Channel debut this weekend!

Sophia Scorziello editor Live Nation’s concert streaming platform Veeps has set its first-ever global film premiere with rock documentary “What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?” The doc’s exclusive PVOD release on Veeps follows its March 2023 theatrical release, which was helmed by Abramorama. The exclusive Veeps screenings will take place on August 20 at 12 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET. Veeps is offering two tiers of tickets, the first going for $12.99 which gives access to the screening, and the second for $24.99, which includes screening access along with a CD copy of the documentary’s soundtrack. Both tickets provide audiences with a 3-day rewatch window. In addition, each of the two PVOD screenings will host a live Q&A with filmmaker John Scheinfeld and Blood, Swear and Tear’s band member Bobby Colomby.

The Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled its official selection for this year’s edition, with Elene Naveriani’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry among the titles playing in Competition.

EXCLUSIVE: After being forced to halt production with the launch of the SAG-AFTRA strike, the crime drama King Ivory from writer-director John Swab (Ida Red) is back up and running once again, in and around Tulsa, OK, having been named just recently as one of 39 productions that will benefit from a SAG Interim Agreement.

EXCLUSIVE: Filmmaking duo Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton, best known for their Oscar-winning short The Silent Child, have set a new slate of projects at their UK-based production company Slick Films.

Thania Garcia Gunna has announced a pair of headlining concerts — his first in two years — set to take place later this September. The shows will support the release of his fourth studio effort “A Gift and a Curse,” and come months after his release from jail following his plea in the YSL gang case. Gunna will perform first on Sept. 9 at New York’s Barclays Center in Brooklyn for a show dubbed “The Gift,” and follow up with another show, “The Curse,” at YouTube Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 28. Tickets for both shows will be available for general purchase starting July 21, and presale tickets for Citi card members will be available July 18. Artist Fan Club and Spotify Fan First presales go on sale July 19. In partnership with PLUS1, Gunna is also donating $1 per ticket to the Goodr Foundation, an organization supporting hunger relief initiatives.

EXCLUSIVE: The UK has a new South Asian-focused film talk show.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood A-lister Varun Dhawan’s next film is the keenly anticipated Prime Video film “Bawaal,” from Nitesh Tiwari, director of India’s all-time highest grosser “Dangal.” Dhawan plays a charming, vainglorious and image-conscious history teacher who gains redemption via profound realizations stemming from his study of WWII and from his new bride, portrayed by Janhvi Kapoor. The film shuttles between Lucknow in northern India and Western Europe. Dhawan and Kapoor read for their parts separately with Tiwari, deliberately. “It’s like yin and yang, we’re like two opposites that attract and form a team. But we really did go about this film as a team. There was a little method approach to it, like in the first half of the film, when my character is not very nice to hers. When we were shooting in Lucknow, I didn’t interact much with her, I was a little cold to her,” Dhawan told Variety. As the film progresses, their relationship thaws.

Naman Ramachandran India is on track to be the international production hub for global reality formats “Survivor” and “Temptation Island,” Banijay Asia CEO Deepak Dhar has confirmed. Dhar had revealed nascent plans for this late last year to Variety and they are now well into fruition. “Survivor” has had more than 50 international versions and “Temptation Island” more than 20. “Significant progress has happened in the last six to seven months in setting up the runway to really pave a lot of productions to happen in India, both reality and scripted. Reality is something that we’ve been pushing, because of the might of our Banijay Group catalog formats – shows like ‘Survivor’ and ‘Temptation Island.’ We are on the verge of setting up a ‘Temptation Island’ hub and ‘Survivor’ hub and a whole lot of the Banijay Group companies would come film here,” Dhar told Variety.

Sheila E., accompanied by Ringo Starr, made history as the first female solo percussionist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The unveiling of her star on Wednesday marked a monumental moment for the musician born Sheila Escovedo, who expressed her gratitude for this prestigious recognition.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Federico Fellini’s post-war immigration story “Napoli-New York,” which was penned for the big screen by the famed director but never produced, is set to become a graphic novel written by French comic book writer Jean-David Morvan. Meanwhile, as previously announced, cameras are rolling in Naples on the movie version by Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores. Fellini co-wrote the tale with his frequent collaborator Tullio Pinelli, a writer on the Italian maestro’s “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2,” as well as other titles. Turin-based media company Arancia Studio has now attached the prolific Morvan – who has written more than 250 books that have sold millions of copies – for the graphic novel adaptation.

The first reactions to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer have dropped following a world premiere in Paris. Following the nearly three-hour screening, critics are praising Cillian Murphy’s performance and calling the film “awe-inspiring,” “staggering” and a “spectacular achievement.”

EXCLUSIVE: Participant has partnered with TelevisaUnivision’s Pantelion Films and 3Pas Studios on Radical, the Eugenio Derbez-led film written and directed by Chris Zalla. Radical will be released in U.S. and Mexico theaters on October 20. Additionally, international sales have been made in several territories including the UK, Germany and Australia.

Meghan Markle has been tipped to make a magnificent return to acting as she and Prince Harry desperately try to save their £80m Netflix deal.