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Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music A long list of artists including Robert Plant, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, Peter Frampton, Bryan Adams and more have joined the late British singer Steve Marriott’s children and bandmates in opposing the release of “new” recordings featuring AI-generated versions of his vocals. The former frontman of the Small Faces and Humble Pie (and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee) was one of the most influential rock singers of the 1960s, renowned for songs like “All or Nothing,” “Tin Soldier,” “Itchykoo Park,” “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and more.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Michael Douglas has starred in some of the most iconic erotic thrillers ever made, from “Basic Instinct” to “Fatal Attraction,” so he knows a thing or two about crafting a memorable movie sex scene. In a new interview with The Telegraph, the actor gave his honest opinion about intimacy coordinators becoming the new normal in Hollywood when it comes to filming intimate moments on set.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Jeremy Strong could be joining Jeremy Allen White in “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” the 20th Century Studios movie about Bruce Springsteen and the making of his 1982 album, “Nebraska.” The “Succession” star is in talks to play Springsteen’s (White) longtime manager Jon Landau in the Scott Cooper-directed feature. Cooper is also writing the film, which is based on Warren Zane’s 2023 book “Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.” “Nebraska,” the follow-up to Springsteen’s 1980 double album “The River,” was expected to be a blockbuster rock record with the E Street Band.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Nearly three years after a crowd crush at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival left 10 concertgoers dead, event promoter Live Nation has settled nine of the 10 wrongful death lawsuits that came in the wake of the catastrophe. News of the settlements comes as one of the lawsuits was set to go to trial this week.

Ben Croll A competitive tax rebate, combined with public and private initiatives to revitalize the local infrastructure, has substantially boosted the number of international productions shooting in France. Last revamped in 2020, Gaul’s Tax Rebate for International Production scheme now supplements a 30% across-the-board rebate with an additional 10% — applicable on all eligible expenses — for productions that spend $2.2 million with local VFX and post houses. And once the tax incentive put France back on the map, the country’s flourishing production ecosystem has kept projects on site longer than ever before. “The preconceived idea that France was too expensive clearly has changed,” says line producer John Bernard of Peninsula Film. “Projects with strong French DNA have very much embraced the whole process, basing themselves in France from beginning to end, using local crews and amenities.

Steve Albini, a leading light of indie-rock’s sound and morality as frontman of Big Black and Shellac and recording engineer for Nirvana, PJ Harvey and many other artists, has died at the age 61. The news was confirmed to Variety on Wednesday by Taylor Hales, who works at Albini’s Chicago recording studio, Electronic Audio.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor he new Apple TV+ series “Dark Matter” centers on a man who discovers alternate universes populated by other versions of himself. In other words, it’s a twisty sci-fi mind-bender. But not if you’re its star, Jennifer Connelly, who saw the show as a love story.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The category is… Renewed. “RuPaul’s Drag Race Live Untucked” has been renewed for Season 2.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In “Hollywood Con Queen,” director Chris Smith chronicles one of Hollywood’s most audacious scams that involved an impostor who posed as top entertainment studio executives to swindle aspiring artists. Based on the original reporting of entertainment journalist Scott Johnson, and his book, “Hollywood Con Queen: The Hunt for an Evil Genius,” the three-part Apple TV+ docuseries features first-hand accounts and insights from Johnson, private investigator Nicole Kotsianas, the alleged con artist, Hargobind Tahilramani, and his victims.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The new iteration of “The Office” has been picked up to series at Peacock, Variety has learned. As has been previously reported, the show is not a reboot of spinoff of “The Office,” but rather a new mockumentary show with a new cast set in the same universe.

Lexi Carson NBCUniversal’s Emmy FYC House is set to return for its third annual pop-up activation at The Aster in Los Angeles from May 16 through May 22. Additionally, on Wednesday night, Peacock will host their official FYC event for “The Traitors,” a reality show where contestants move into a castle and compete on challenges to earn money for a prize pot.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Michael Peña has joined Taylor Sheridan‘s upcoming Paramount+ series “Landman” in a guest star role, Variety has learned exclusively. Peña joins previously announced series lead Billy Bob Thornton in the show, as well as cast members Ali Larter, Michelle Randolph, Jacob Lofland, Kayla Wallace, James Jordan, Mark Collie, Paulina Chávez, and Demi Moore. Jon Hamm will appear in a recurring guest star role, while Andy Garcia will guest star.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Sigh. Get ready to hear that a lot from civilian friends and family — if you haven’t already — as we get deeper into this Emmy season. And of course, they’re not wrong.

Bob Iger, CEO2023 compensation: $31.6M/+110.7%Median employee compensation $54,010Iger pay ratio to median employee: 595 It was a contentious time for the congenitally congenial Disney chief. First, he made some ill-considered remarks at Sun Valley, a conference for media barons held in a posh resort, characterizing striking actors’ demands as “not realistic.” Those words were slammed by SAG-AFTRA head Fran Drescher, with Iger becoming exhibit A for corporate greed.

Naman Ramachandran Welsh actor, writer and director Celyn Jones has set “Madfabulous” as his next directorial venture. The British indie is based on the true story of Henry Cyril Paget, fifth Marquess of Anglesey, who was once one of the richest men in Britain but died penniless and forgotten at the age of 29 in France.

Selome Hailu Netflix has unveiled the Season 2 cast of “Perfect Match.” The series follows 22 singles from across Netflix’s various unscripted titles who return to the streamer to couple up and test their new romantic relationships through compatibility challenges. Winning couples gain power in the game to bring in new singles to match with their castmates — setting up potential love matches or stirring trouble in paradise as they compete to be the strongest couple at the villa, crowned the Perfect Match. Nick Lachey hosts the series, which is produced by Kinetic Content (“Love Is Blind,” “The Ultimatum,” “Married at First Sight”).

Michaela Zee Investigation Discovery has set the U.S. premiere date for “Spacey Unmasked,” as well as released a first look at the docuseries about Kevin Spacey. “Spacey Unmasked” will premiere Monday, May 13, at 9 p.m.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” opens with Caesar lying in state, surrounding by a horde of mourning chimps, as his dead body is covered in flowers and ritually set on fire. The movie then cuts to the jungle, where a title informs us that it’s “many generations later.” In other words, the tale we’ve been watching in the last three “Apes” films — “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011), “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (2014), and “War for the Planet of the Apes” (2017) — is now ancient franchise history.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to “Daytime Revolution,” a documentary about the week that John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted “The Mike Douglas Show” in early 1972. Directed by Erik Nelson, with creative consultation from Ono and her son, Sean Ono Lennon, the doc uses archival footage from each of the five 70-minute shows as well as interviews with six surviving guests, including Ralph Nader, to tell the behind-the-scenes story of theses shows.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Multinational studio Dori Media Group (DMG) is presenting two episodes of its gripping new series “Amia” at the LA Screenings along with a notable lineup of scripted and unscripted series, encompassing various regions, languages and cultures. Filmed mostly in Uruguay as well as Argentina, “Amia” is inspired by the terror attacks of 1992 on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and in 1994 against its Argentinian Jewish community, specifically the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association. “Amia” tracks the journey of a Mossad operative grappling with the loss of his sister in the 1992 Embassy attack.

Alex Ritman Writer-director S. Craig Zahler (“Bone Tomahawk”) is set to reunite with his “Dragged Across Concrete” and “Brawl in Cell Block 99” star Vince Vaughn and Oscar winner Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”) for upcoming crime thriller “The Bookie & the Bruiser.” Anton will introduce the film to international distributors at the upcoming Marche du Film in Cannes. UTA Independent Film Group and Range Media Partners arranged the financing and will be representing the North American distribution rights.

K.J. Yossman Israel’s leading documentary co-production market CoPro is set to return next month for its 26th edition in a hybrid format amidst the ongoing war in the region.

Alex Ritman Alexander Skarsgard (“The Northman,” “Succession”) and Harry Melling (“The Pale Blue Eye,” “The Queen’s Gambit”) are set to lead the cast of “Pillion,” described as a “fun and filthy romance with heart” and being produced by multi-Oscar-winning powerhouse Element Pictures. The film — to be launched in Cannes by Cornerstone, which is handling worldwide sales — marks the feature debut of Harry Lighton, whose short “Wren Boys” was nominated for best British short at the 2018 BAFTAs, was nominated for a BIFA and had its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor NBCUniversal inked a deal with iHeartMedia making it the exclusive audio partner for the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Under the agreement, iHeart will provide 24-7 play-by-play audio channels for select NBCU linear coverage of the Olympic Games.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “The Chi” has been renewed for Season 7 at Paramount+ with Showtime. The news comes ahead of the series’ return for the second half of its sixth season, which will debut on Paramount+ with Showtime on May 10 before its linear debut on Showtime on May 12 at 9 p.m.ET/PT.

Emily Longeretta Apple TV+’s highly anticipated adaptation of Laura Lippman’s mystery novel “Lady in the Lake” — starring Natalie Portman — will premiere with the first two episodes on July 19, the streamer announced Wednesday. The seven-part limited series follows a bored Jewish housewife (Portman) in the 1960s, who divorces her husband and moves to Baltimore to work as an investigative journalist.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent French director Jonathan Millet riffs on manhunt tropes in “Ghost Trail,” the psychological thriller that will be the Cannes Critics’ Week opener. Variety has been given an exclusive first-look clip from the film, which is inspired by real-life events. “Ghost Trail” is the story of a Syrian man named Hamid who is part of a secret group pursuing fugitive leaders that perpetrated horrors in the name of the Syrian regime during the country’s civil war.

Aramide Tinubu The phrase “we’re our own worst enemies” takes on a literal meaning in Apple TV+‘s “Dark Matter,” based on Blake Crouch’s 2016 novel of the same name, and adapted by the author for television. A massive and intricate puzzle, the series is shocking and unsettling, but doesn’t quite satisfy in the end. “Dark Matter” opens in present-day Chicago.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music (This article is unintentionally a counterpoint to my colleague Owen Gleiberman’s considerably more-positive take on the Beatles‘ “Let It Be” film, restored by Peter Jackson and released today on Disney+.) When I was a Beatles-obsessed seven-year-old, my mother, in an act of selfless parental love, took me to a Fab Four film festival: “Hard Day’s Night,” “Let It Be,” “Yellow Submarine” and “Help!,” one after the other. My mom was a cool assistant professor of English at the local university who dressed “hip,” loved music and picked up some listening habits from her students.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor North West is set to make her Hollywood Bowl debut next month at Disney’s live-to-film concert/screening of “The Lion King.” West, the daughter of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, is set to star alongside Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane, Billy Eichner, Ernie Sabella, Jason Weaver, Jennifer Hudson and Bradley GIbson. Broadway actress Heather Headley and Lebo M. round out the cast.

Alex Ritman Mubi has kicked off its 2024 Cannes Film Festival early and in style, acquiring worldwide rights to one of the buzziest films set to premiere in competition. The arthouse distributor, production banner and streamer has landed Coralie Fargeat’s body horror “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Denis Quaid, picking up all rights for North America, U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, Latin America and Benelux, where it will release theatrically this year. Mubi has also acquired the rights for Turkey and India.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Cirque du Soleil is known for their extravagant visual displays but the entertainment brand is tapping into more sensory experiences (the ones you can smell) with the launch of a debut fragrance.

SquareOne Entertainment, part of rising European film studio Vuelta Group, has acquired German film and TV production, distribution and licensing company Telepool, which was owned by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook. The news was announced Wednesday by Vuelta Group chairman Jerome Levy and CEO of SquareOne and Vuelta Group Germany Al Munteanu.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corp. said it swung to a profit in its fiscal third quarter despite slumps in advertising revenue, largely due to the absence of charges associated with a massive legal setback tied to Fox News Channel and a boost in affiliate fees.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer New transmedia company Iconic Arts launched Tuesday with $3.1 million in financing at a $20 million pre-seed valuation. The entertainment studio boasts support from screenwriter Eric Roth, Grammy winning artist Will.i.am and exec vets of Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment and JP Morgan.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett is set to star as the leader of the “Alpha Gang,” an alien invasion comedy by “Sasquatch Sunset” filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner. The hot package will be launched at Cannes by MK2 Films (“Anatomy of a Fall”) handling international sales and CAA Media Finance handling North American distribution rights. “Alpha Gang” is set to start filming in the Fall.