‘Overlooked and Underappreciated’: Video Game Music Finally Gets Its Own Grammy Category

Images from two Perthshire photographers made the finals of this year’s prestigious Scottish Portrait Awards.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer “Rust” will resume production in January, more than a year after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on set. But the production will not return to New Mexico, where a criminal investigation and state workplace safety proceedings remain unresolved. The production is still looking for a new location, but California is a possibility, said Melina Spadone, the attorney for Rust Movie Productions LLC. The production company announced a settlement on Oct. 5 with Matthew Hutchins, the widower of the cinematographer. Under the agreement, the production will be able to resume after a 15-month hiatus. Matthew Hutchins said in a statement that completing the film would be a way “to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work.”

EXCLUSIVE: Latin Grammy winner and Grammy nominee Camilo is the latest music star to land a concert special and documentary at HBO. Camilo: El Primer Tour De Mi Vida will premiere Friday, November 18 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO Latino and HBO Max in the U.S. and Latin America.

Jon Burlingame editor The Grammys’ new video game score category appears to be a success in its first year, as more than 70 original scores have been entered. First-round voting is underway now, and Recording Academy members have plenty to choose from. But will they vote based on popularity of the game or on quality of the music? Grammy voters tell Variety the ballot includes currently popular games such as the dark fantasy “Elden Ring” (music by Yuka Kitamura, Yoshimi Kudo, Shoi Miyazawa, Tsukasa Saitoh and Tai Tomisawa), the action-adventure “Tunic” (music by Janice Kwan and Terence Lee), the post-apocalyptic “Horizon Forbidden West” (music by “various artists,” the only game on the ballot that doesn’t specify a composer) and the horror-filled “The Quarry” (music by Ian Livingstone).

Jon Burlingame editor The centennial of Henry Mancini, composer of “The Pink Panther,” “Moon River” and other movie songs, isn’t until 2024. But the celebration began on Thursday when an all-star parade of Oscar, Emmy and Grammy-winning musicians got together to re-record one of his most famous works: “Peter Gunn.” With legendary composers John Williams and Herbie Hancock on keyboards, jazz great Arturo Sandoval on trumpet and music mogul Quincy Jones conducting an 18-piece band of L.A. session players, Mancini’s 1958 TV theme rocked the Warner Bros. scoring stage all afternoon. It was old home week for many, who seemingly spent half the three-hour session embracing, laughing and snapping photos. Williams and Jones called each other “Q” and “John T.,” the nicknames they had when the two were toiling side-by-side at Universal Television in the 1960s, before each started collecting Oscars and Grammys for their work in films and records.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s only the first week of first-round voting for the Grammys, but the awards process has already stirred up a major controversy in the hip-hop world and beyond, bringing sparring between rappers Nicki Minaj and Latto out into the open after Minaj said she felt the Recording Academy was showing a bias toward Latto in the way their work was being categorized. As the Twitter war between the two went full-bore Thursday night and Friday morning, Minaj called the newcomer “an entitled Karen,” while Latto returned fire by saying that Minaj was “a 40-year-old bully” acting in a way unbecoming of her age and stature. The younger artist even referred to Minaj as “my idol-turned-rival” as the conversation went nuclear. “Super freaky grandma is married AND related to fucking rapists. You ain’t gone bully me BITCH! My idol turned rival now u hating!”

Nicki Minaj‘s latest hit won’t be nominated for a Grammy – in the rap category, anyway.

Lenny Kravitz is, apparently, not afraid of sharing the occasional thirst trip — especially when it could lead to a big project! The 58-year-old rocker flashes his abs in the trailer for and on Instagram, where his shirtless photos have garnered a hilarious response from his daughter, Zoe Kravitz, and even her boyfriend, Channing Tatum.In an interview with ET's Rachel Smith, Lenny jokes about the time that Zoe and Channing commented on his posts with questions about whether he intended to audition for . «Well I figured, you know, your boyfriend might give me a job,» Lenny cracks, acknowledging that he «missed the boat» on the franchise's third installment. «There's always the number four,» he jokes. Unfortunately, however, the upcoming  is expected to be the final piece of the franchise. A post shared by Lenny Kravitz (@lennykravitz)Lenny spent Wednesday evening celebrating the launch of his latest business endeavor, a partnership with the new spirit Nocheluna Sotol. The drink originates from the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico and is harvested from the Dasylirion plant. «I tasted it and I fell in love with it,» he says.

according to Kotaku, the character — who creator Blizzard praised for “her nimble reflexes and quick thinking to pilot a state-of-the-art mech in defense of her homeland” — temporarily outranked adult film stars like Valerie Kay or Nina Kayy.To be clear, the trending search is actually spelled out as “overwatch dva,” as users were seemingly too eager to include the period in her name. The searches lead to pornographic videos of either live actresses dressed up like the character or of manipulated CGI clips of the character having sex, made by third parties.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is making a video game.In a recent job listing, production company Blinklink announced that it is “looking to take our first steps into the games industry with our new initiative, Blink Games”.The listing states that the company has several game concepts in the works and is now looking for a producer to “guide us through the different parts of the journey towards the launch of our first game”.No further details about the project have been announced, with its development still in the very early stages.Blinklink is a London-based studio specialising in animation and mixed-media filmmaking. Previously, the company developed an episode of the Netflix anthology series Love, Death & Robots, as well as music videos for artists such as Dua Lipa and Iron Maiden.Its breakout success, however, came in the form of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, a psychological horror show featuring puppets and other colourful characters that seemingly belong in a children’s TV programme.The show debuted on YouTube over a decade ago and has since racked up more than 200 million views.

Five Nights at Freddy’s” video game franchise is in the works for Blumhouse in collaboration with the game’s creator Scott Cawthon.The studio has tapped Emma Tammi (“The Wind,” “Blood Moon”) to direct the “Five Night’s at Freddy’s” film, which according to an official synopsis follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.And bringing the terrifying animatronic characters to life for the film is none other than Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, which will work alongside Blumhouse on the film.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In a clear vote of confidence for Colombian director Juan Sebastián Mesa, Bordeaux-based Dublin Films has boarded his third film “Lovers Go Home!” The company also co-produced Mesa’s lauded sophomore pic, “The Rust.” “Lovers Go Home!” centers on a Colombian single mom who leads a double life as a webcammer. One day she meets a U.S. veteran online who becomes obsessed with her. He flies to Colombia to meet her in person. Their meeting makes them reflect on who they truly are. In development, the project participated in this year’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, one of San Sebastian Film Festival’s key industry events, which ran over Sept. 19-21. 

After a three-year struggle, Google has decided to wind down the operations of Stadia, its video game streaming service.