ATX Television Festival Sets ‘Scrubs’ And ‘Cougar Town’ Reunions

Just hours after Soulection released a flyer and lineup for its upcoming Lovers and Friends Festival on Tuesday (Feb. 18), former Bad Boy artists Mase and Lil Kim publicly rescinded their commitment to perform.

Oliver Stone will serve as jury president of the international competition at the inaugural Red Sea Film Festival, set to take place in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah next month.The Platoon and Wall Street director will oversee a jury that will be focused on "original, daring productions by emerging and established voices," the festival said, adding that there would be an emphasis on features from the Arab world and the "Global South," meaning emerging markets in Africa, Asia, Latin America

By Nancy Tartaglione, Patrick Hipes

The board overseeing the Cesar Academy, which distributes France’s equivalent of the Oscars, has revealed that it will resign following the Cesar Awards ceremony on Feb. 28. As a result, Alain Terzian, a French producer who presides both the Cesar Academy and the Association for the Promotion of Cinema, is also expected to resign. Other members who will resign include Danièle Thompson, Philippe Labor, Margaret Menegov and the former Cannes president Gilles Jacob.

Laura Chinn has signed an overall deal with Lionsgate Television.

Stormzy is to headline the Reading and Leeds Festivals in England.

Faced with mounting pressures within the French film industry and threats of a boycott, the board of the Cesar Academy (France’s equivalent to the Oscars), has vowed to reform its functioning and its corporate leadership with the help of a mediator.

The rapidly gentrifying, hipster-approved Eastside neighborhood of Los Angeles has recently attracted a huge swarm of successful showbiz players, many of them relatively young and lured in by the superior real estate bang-for-buck — versus the perilously pricey Westside — as well as for the area’s close proximity to a bevy of trendy shops and man bun-mobbed restaurants.

Fox 21 Television Studios has closed a multi-year first look deal with The Gotham Group.

Jennie Snyder Urman has signed an extension to her overall deal with CBS Television Studios.

Dust off your Penny Can and put your Dr. Acula fangs in, because the cast and producers of classic comedies Scrubs and Cougar Town are reuniting at the ATX Television Festival this June, the festival announced Thursday. The panels will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Scrubs finale and the 5th anniversary of the Cougar Town finale.

By Erik Pedersen

Filmmaker Tabitha Jackson has been named the incoming director of the Sundance Film Festival, succeeding outgoing director John Cooper.

The Sundance Film Festival awards are underway.

If you care about cinema, you take the Sundance Film Festival for granted at your peril. Yet despite some early-in-the-festival grousing (“Oh no! The first day has gone by without a masterpiece!”), this was the sort of year that didn’t allow one to take the festival for granted.

Julie Plec is departing her longtime studio home at Warner Bros. Television for a rich new deal with Universal Television, Variety has learned.

By Jake Kanter

Verizon Fios will start to offer Bloomberg Television as of January 29, extending the U.S. reach of the business-focused news network.

Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy” is leading the race for the Cesar Awards, France’s top film honors, with 12 nominations, followed by Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominated “Les Miserables.”