‘Disney Speedstorm’ Revs Up With Addition of Kermit the Frog as New Racer (EXCLUSIVE)

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Insecure” and “The First Purge” star Y’lan Noel will be the voice star of Xbox‘s eagerly anticipated “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.” Details about Noel’s unnamed character and the storyline of the game are being kept under wraps until formally unveiled by Activision at the Xbox Games Showcase event in Los Angeles Sunday, but Activision marketing chief Tyler Bahl teased to Variety Noel is playing “a new character” that is featured in the key art above. “He’s never worked in gaming before, but we really were impressed by his voice tapes.

William Earl As Variety expands its coverage of gaming, Jennifer Maas has been promoted to senior business writer, TV and video games. She will lead the entertainment news brand’s heightened coverage of the video game industry with special emphasis on the convergence of game content and IP with TV shows, movies, books and other media. With the promotion, Maas will drive enterprise reporting, features and breaking news coverage of gaming and related subjects, in addition to her duties covering TV business news.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Lauren Paget has been named senior vice president of Littleton Road Productions, headed by “Dr. Death” and “The Girl From Plainville” writer Patrick Macmanus and producing partner Kelly Funke.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Chip and Joanna Gaines‘ beloved home renovation series “Fixer Upper” is turning 10 and the couple is celebrating with the launch of a new special edition season, “Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse.” Premiering Sunday on the Gaines’ Magnolia Network (part owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) and HGTV, the original home of the “Fixer Upper” franchise, and streaming same day on Max and Discovery+, the six-episode “Lakehouse” follows Chip and Jo as they take on a unique mid-century modern lakehouse flip near Lake Waco, a new neighborhood for the home reno couple based in Waco, Texas. “Chip found a set of plans in this lakehouse that showed the house was built in 1965 and the husband loved mid-century modern style and the wife loved that Spanish revival style,” Joanna Gaines tells Variety.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Fallout 76″ has found a whole new world of players thanks to the popularity of Amazon’s “Fallout” TV series. The Bethesda Game Studios title, which first launched in October 2018, crossed 20 million downloads and plays as of Wednesday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Fourteen seasons in, Gordon Ramsay‘s Fox cooking competition “MasterChef” has found a way to reinvent itself once more: pitting generation against generation in a battle that will prove whether baby boomers, Gen X, millennials or Gen Z cooks have culinary supremacy. Debuting Wednesday at 8 p.m., “MasterChef” Season 14 will begin with the audition rounds for the contestants that qualify as millennials (a group that usually encompasses those born between 1980-1994), followed by episodes devoted to whittling down the boomers (1946-1964), Gen X (1965-1979) and Gen Z (1995-2009) competitors.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Eric Kripke is gonna catch ’em all. “The Boys” showrunner has slowly but surely been casting the stars of the iconic CW series “Supernatural,” which Kripke created, on his R-rated Amazon Prime Video superhero drama. And he’s got one “very big one” he’s eyeing to bring on in Season 5, even if it’s for “a single episode” — Jared Padalecki, a.k.a.

The Splendour of Life” (“Une splendeur de vivre”) is set to start principal photography at locations across Canada and the Philippines, the producers revealed at the Cannes Film Festival. The ensemble cast includes Camille Rutherford (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Garance Marillier (“Raw”), Sue Prado (“Your Mother’s Son”), Kyrie Samodio (“Hito”) and Amaryllis Tremblay (“Genesis”). Set against a lush countryside backdrop, Marie (Rutherford) questions her relationship, while Noée (Marillier) grieves her father.

Pirates Of The Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer has said he’d like to see Johnny Depp make a return to the franchise.Depp played Captain Jack Sparrow in the blockbuster film series between 2003-2017. A reboot of Pirates is now on the way, with writer Jeff Nathanson attached. Bruckheimer announced the news in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.However, Depp’s future as Jack Sparrow has been uncertain as he still remains absent from Hollywood following his 2022 libel trial against Amber Heard.Speaking about the reboot, Bruckheimer said: “[Nathanson’s] cracked it… He’s got an amazing third act.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Yulin Kuang‘s new novel “How to End a Love Story,” which was released April 9. Yulin Kuang was deep into her romance-novel era before she released her own first attempt at the genre, “How to End a Love Story,” last month. The debut author, who has thus far spent her career focused on TV and film writing, actually started penning her book while in the middle of adapting two rom-coms by best-selling author Emily Henry: “Beach Read” (which Kuang will also direct) and “People We Meet on Vacation.” “How to End a Love Story” follows the straight-laced, successful author Helen and charming former jock Grant, who fall in love while working together in a TV writers’ room that is adapting Helen’s YA book series.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Pirates of the Caribbean” producer Jerry Bruckheimer has provided more clarity on the current state of the Disney adventure franchise. He already teased in March that a total reboot was going to be the first “Pirates” movie out of the gate in the future because “it’s easier to put together because you don’t have to wait for certain actors.” This reboot is now confirmed to have writer Jeff Nathanson attached. Bruckheimer announced the news in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A new study has found that while stress relief is still self-reported as the top reason people are playing video games, 46% of gamers now list “creation, imagination and self-expression” as their main motivations for gaming. That stat is up 10% from last year, per entertainment website and online fan community Fandom‘s fourth annual “Inside Gaming” report.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Wake up, fans of “The Sandman,” we’ve got some Season 2 news for you: The Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s epic graphic novel series has cast the final three siblings in the “Endless Family” of Tom Sturridge’s Dream — Esmé Creed-Miles as Delirium, Adrian Lester as Destiny and Barry Sloane as “The Prodigal.” In “The Sandman” comic book series, The Prodigal is the estranged Endless sibling named Destruction, but Netflix has taken care to label Sloane’s role as “The Prodigal,” which is the way the character is referred to throughout the first volumes of the story. The three new castings point to “The Sandman” Season 2 covering the graphic novel’s iconic installment, “Season of Mists.” The trio of new “The Sandman” Season 2 actors will join the Endless siblings returning from Season 1: Death (Kirby), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), Despair (Donna Preston) and Dream, The Sandman himself.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Grand Theft Auto 6″ has been slated for a fall 2025 release by Rockstar Games. The news was announced Thursday when Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive reported its fourth-quarter and full fiscal year 2024 earnings, revealing the company posted a $2.9 billion loss for the Jan. 1-March 31 period.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Microsoft‘s Activision has launched a new internal, standalone studio with one mission: creating a new narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise. Titled Elsewhere Entertainment, the studio will be headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, with additional staff in the United States.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The actors behind the iconic Weasley Twins will be around to stir up trouble on Food Network‘s new “Harry Potter“-themed competition, “Wizards of Baking.” Variety has learned exclusively that James and Oliver Phelps, who played Fred and George Weasley throughout Warner Bros.’ eight-film “Harry Potter” franchise, will be hosting “Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking.” The project, which will air on Food Network and be available to stream on Max, was announced by Warner Bros Discovery U.S. networks chief Kathleen Finch during the company’s upfront presentation in New York City Wednesday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The theme of Disney‘s 2024 upfront presentation to advertisers Tuesday was “connections” — and not just because of the running bit started by “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Rob McElhenney, which involved their constant replaying of a five-second ad spot that said “Connections!” with a Disneyified logo and voiceover. No, the symbol of unity across Disney’s brands was made up of a slew of announcements from Marvel, and about such other high-wattage projects as “Star Wars,” “The Bear,” “Only Murders in the Building,” the “Wizards of Waverly Place” sequel series, “9-1-1,” Ryan Murphy’s new slate of FX titles and more franchises with intersecting talent. Disney kicked off the event when Oscar-winning “Poor Things” star Emma Stone introduced the Mouse House’s big boss, Bob Iger — a job like that would traditionally go to a top ABC star.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A sequel to Amazon’s “Road House” movie is in the works with Jake Gyllenhaal reprising his leading role as Dalton. While Amazon is keeping quiet on any other details for now, it still made sure to give the news of the high-profile project it’s due with Amazon MGM Studio chief Jennifer Salke revealing it at the top of its first-ever upfront presentation to advertisers Tuesday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A sequel to Amazon’s “Road House” movie is in the works. Per Amazon MGM Studios, the first film “has attracted nearly 80 million worldwide viewers to-date.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Game developers that have worked on Sid Meier’s “Civilization,” “XCOM” and “The Sims” have launched their own life sim-focused venture, Midsummer Studios, with backing from investors including Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions. Founded by Firaxis Games vets Jake Solomon (creative director) and Will Miller (game director), as well as chief operating officer and chief financial officer Nelsie Birch, Midsummer launches with $6 million raised in seed funding led by Transcend Fund, along with Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Fund, Krafton and Day Zero Productions.