‘Despicable Me 4’ Set for Summer 2024 by Illumination, Universal

Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania: Transformania has been granted an April 3 theatrical release date in China. Sony last summer licensed the fourth installment in the successful franchise to Amazon worldwide, but retained China rights.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe world’s largest music company, Universal Music Group, posted a record $9.4 billion in revenue for 2021, the company announced in its earnings report on Thursday. That marks a 14.4% increase over 2020, although comparisons with the pandemic year are obviously skewed.Recorded music revenues were up 14.3% to around $7.52 billion, while streaming soared nearly 17% to just under $5 billion.

South by Southwest Conference and Festivals today announced a final round of Keynotes and Featured Speakers for the 36th annual Conference taking place in Austin, TX from March 11-20, with Ron Howard, Ted Lasso stars Brett Goldstein and Brendan Hunt, actor-filmmaker Gillian Jacobs, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, former U.S. representative Beto O’Rourke, and musicians Brian Eno and Nathaniel Rateliff among the notable additions.

Tom Holland took a flight from Rome to London on Friday (February 25) and was seated next to a fan, who posted a video about the experience on her TikTok page!

Leading job site Indeed, Emmy winner Lena Waithe (Master of None, Twenties) and her company Hillman Grad Productions have today named Cara Lawson, Gbenga Komolafe, Georgia Fu, Jalmer Caceres, Justin Floyd, Leon Cheo, Shanrica Evans, Tara Motamedi, Travis Wood and Urvashi Pathania as the 10 filmmakers selected for the second edition of their Rising Voices program.

Jane Seymour on TV, with the actress starring in an all-new murder mystery on Acorn TV in addition to her recurring role on the CBS sitcom,. Ahead of ’s April debut, ET has the exclusive first trailer for the series, which sees Seymour’s character starting a detective agency after retirement. Created and co-written by David Logan, Harry Wild follows a woman named Harriet who finds herself at a crossroads after retiring from her long career as a university literature professor.

Kelly Osbourne has revealed that she has lost someone "very dear" to her on Tuesday. Ozzy and Sharon's daughter shared the heartbreaking message on her Stories and advised her fans to show their loved ones that they care before it's too late.MORE: Sharon Osbourne's daughter Kelly divides friends with controversial post about her pizza topping of choiceKelly wrote in her Stories: "I lost someone very dear to me today.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNielsen is poised to release another batch of new data about TV viewers as it battles with TV networks over which yardstick will be paramount in the industry’s coming upfront marketplace.The media measurement giant is expected as soon as Wednesday to announce it will issue streaming data from connected TV sets, according to two people familiar with the matter. The information, Nielsen is expected to tell clients, will give advertisers, media buyers and media companies more information in their efforts to understand how audiences are behaving across a range of different screens.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn celebration of Daft Punk’s 25th anniversary of their groundbreaking debut album, “Homework” comes the surprise release of “Homework Digital Deluxe.”  The physical boxed set arrives in April; the full track list appears below.It will be previewed with an unreleased, exclusive and time-limited piece of content showing on 2/22 at 2:22pm PST: a one-off livestream of the “Twitch of the Mayan 97” concert that you can hear here. The concert was filmed at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles on December 17, 1997, during the “Daftendirektour,” the duo’s first concert tour.The news comes exactly one year after the vastly influential duo announced their split.

Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment will release “Despicable Me 4” over Independence Day weekend in 2024, the studios announced Friday. The fourth film in the “Despicable Me” animated franchise will open in theaters on July 3, 2024. Illumination has also announced the date for another original animated film from writer Mike White called “Migration,” which will open in theaters a year earlier on June 30, 2023.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer“The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” — the original anime feature from New Line Cinema and Warner Bros.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBCUniversal wants to add an interesting new story to Jenna Bush Hager’s “Today” book club.For nearly four years, the co-host of the 10 a.m. hour of “Today” has chosen a book each month for members of her “Read with Jenna” club to peruse and discuss.

Sting is selling his music catalog, including hits he made with the Police and as a solo artist, joining a chorus of stars who are cashing in with investors who see value in licensing their songs.Universal said Thursday that its music-publishing arm bought the catalog, including “Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne" and “Fields of Gold.” Financial terms were not disclosed.In recent months, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Stevie Nicks, Neil Young and others who sold millions of albums to Baby Boomers have sold their recordings, songwriting catalogs or both. Buyers typically get the permanent right to use the artist's songs or recordings in commercials, movies, television shows and other formats.Prices are rarely disclosed, but music industry experts put Springsteen's sale to Sony Music Entertainment in December at $550 million and Dylan's deal the same month with Universal Music Publishing Group at between $300 million and $500 million.Sting, whose real name is Gordon Sumner, helped form the Police in London in the 1970s as its lead singer, songwriter and bass guitar player.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs long expected, Universal Music Publishing has acquired 17-time Grammy Award winner Sting’s career catalog of music. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but in recent months the artist was said to be seeking around $350 million.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterThe medic who rushed to help “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins after Hutchins was shot on set last fall has filed a negligence lawsuit against several crew members and the film’s production entity.Cherlyn Schaefer was summoned to the church building at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, N.M., on Oct. 21, after the film’s star, Alec Baldwin, shot Hutchins and director Joel Souza while preparing for a scene.

Adele's ex-husband Simon Konecki will be his best man when he and his fiancee Victoria Shores tie the knot at their upcoming wedding. Sid shared the news on Monday's GMB, where he and Victoria, 50 and 42 respectively, spoke about the birth of their daughter Skye last month. The EastEnders star explained that he and charity CEO Simon, 47, 'have been friends since they were teenagers'.