Studio71 Chiefs Adam Boorstin and Matt Crowley on Enabling Creators to ‘Become Their Own Media Company’

Emily Longeretta SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from the series premiere of Showtime’s “Fellow Travelers,” now streaming on Paramount+. The first episode of “Fellow Travelers” may have made you blush. The premiere of the historical miniseries features several explicit sex scenes between Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey) and Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer), two very different men who meet in 1952 in Washington, D.C., in the middle of the McCarthy Era. While Hawk, working behind the scenes in politics, avoids anything emotional with his conquests, that changes upon meeting Tim, a religious man struggling to find his place.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor “That’s like a billion dollars in Indiana.” That quip from Bobby Axelrod is one of the memorable lines in the series finale of “Billions,” the Showtime drama series that wrapped its seven-season run Oct. 27 with the crowd-pleasing episode “Admirals Fund.” Axelrod, played by Damian Lewis, delivers that line as he takes a victory lap after demolishing his latest foil, rival hedge fund manager Mike Prince (Corey Stoll). It’s a reference to that fact that Prince, after an elaborate sting pulled off by Axelrod and the core “Billions” ensemble, is left wiped out but for $100 million he invested with Black-owned banks a few years ago.

Will Tizard Contributor Producer Pierre-Olivier Bardet has become a hero to filmmakers who rock the boat – feature and documentary revolutionaries who work in ways that he says are “completely unique,” as he puts it: Albert Serra, Frederick Wiseman, Wang Bing and Alexandr Sokurov. And it’s hard to imagine anyone else who would have agreed to produce an English version of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” directed by Kenneth Branagh (after Francis Ford Coppola and several luminaries declined the project), set in World War I.

On the heels of the wonderful 2019 The Two Popes, in which Anthony Hopkins starred as Pope Benedict XVI in an imagined conversation with Jonathan Pryce’s future Pope Francis, Hopkins is once again involved in the same kind of cinematic historical fictional meeting as founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, who is engaged in a private debate with The Chronicles of Narnia author and theologian C.S. Lewis (played by Matthew Goode) on the existence of God. As with The Two Popes, there is no proof whatsoever that any meeting ever took place, but it clearly provides lots of material to wrap your head around. That is exactly what Mark St. Germain did in creating his 2009 play Freud’s Last Session, which was built on the 1967 Harvard lectures of Dr. Armond M. Nicholi Jr in his presentation “The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life.”

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor “Billions” ends where it began. At the close of “Admirals Fund,” Episode 12 of Season 7 and the series finale of the Showtime drama series, Bobby Axelrod is scheming once again to make a new fortune with his merry band of alpha-male traders, who are revved up by his leadership to kill in the name of capitalism.

Hilary Duff was one of thousands in attendance at the When We Were Young music festival in Las Vegas this past weekend!

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Aiming to grow its global direct-to-consumer distribution, Paramount+ has set the international rollout plans for its premium and ad tier subscriptions following a launch across more than 45 markets last year. The premium plan will launch in Australia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico on Nov.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Nadav Palti is about to mark his 20th year as CEO of Dori Media, the prolific Israeli production and distribution firm headquartered in Tel Aviv. Earlier this month, Palti and Dori executives from Argentina, Mexico, Switzerland, Spain, Singapore and other locations were busy preparing to bring the company’s largest-ever slate of TV shows and movies to pitch to global buyers. Everything changed on Oct.

Adam Thomas, who is taking part in this year's Strictly Come Dancing, admitted his work schedule is becoming intense this week as he has missed out on vital dance rehearsals with the show looming just a few days away after becoming unwell.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor CANNES – Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish delivered a testimonial to the power of “new age” local and regional content licensing partnerships during a wide-ranging Q&A held Tuesday after the Viacom veteran was feted as Mipcom’s Personality of the Year. During a wide-ranging Q&A that followed the award presentation, Bakish batted down industry speculation about Paramount’s financial health (“To say we were saved by the strikes is totally an overstatement”) and his hope that the SAG-AFTRA strike will soon be in Hollywood’s rear-view mirror (“We’ll get there”). Paramount Global unveiled a multi-year pact with Greek pay TV service Cosmote TV just before Bakish sat for a Q&A with Variety co-editor in chief Cynthia Littleton.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Canal+ Group chairman and CEO Maxime Saada, who was honored at Mipcom with the Variety Vanguard Award Monday, underscored how the experience of the past informs the company’s future strategy, which includes an emphasis on aggregation and a ramping up of in-house production. He also explained why he believes his company “owes so much to Netflix,” but fears Amazon and YouTube.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Eva Longoria and Cris Abrego have known each other for 20 years. As two of entertainment’s most prominent Latino figures, they have developed a strong friendship around shared experiences and a similar passion for nurturing creative talent.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor NBCUniversal content chief Donna Langley has vowed that the top executives involved in contract negotiations with SAG-AFTRA will devote the time it takes to reach a new deal. Langley, who is chairman of NBCUniversal Studio Group and chief content officer of NBCUniversal, declined to say much about the state of talks with the performers union during her address Wednesday evening at Bloomberg Media’s Screentime conference in Hollywood. But she did express that her executive counterparts in the negotiating room — Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Lowell Peterson‘s tenure as executive director of the Writers Guild of America East was destined to be bookended by strikes. After 15 years at the helm, Peterson will step down from his post as of Nov. 15 when his current three-year contract expires.

King Charles' skills with a brush and watercolours have made him a top-selling artist, and other family members have also shown they are quick on the draw. Not only does Charles reign over the country, but he has proven himself to be a king in the art world too, as one of the UK’s most successful living painters.The King’s love of using watercolours first began at Gordonstoun school in Scotland, and signed copies of his work now sell at auction for four-figure sums.

We guess you really can’t help Who You Love.

Suella Braverman has said some immigrants are 'not embracing British values' and are living 'parallel lives' to the rest of the country.

Adam Devine and Chloe Bridges are soon-to-be parents! The “Pitch Perfect” alum took to Instagram on Monday to share a photo with Brid

Helen Mirren thinks it is “ridiculous” that writers are being told to stay in their lanes.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor AI, streaming residuals and minimum rate hikes will be among the key issues on the table when SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s largest employers sit down Monday for the first formal bargaining talks since the performers union went on strike July 14. SAG-AFTRA and negotiators for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are expected to meet around midday at the union’s Miracle Mile headquarters at SAG-AFTRA Plaza. The talks follow the settlement the AMPTP reached last week with the Writers Guild of America after a 148-day strike.