Composer Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Darts player Luke Littler may have been a bit bleary-eyed when he appeared on Good Morning Britain the morning after making history as the world's youngest PDC World Darts Championship finalist. And so he will very much be forgiven for suffering a bit of a blunder during his first appearance on the ITV news programme.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director John Williams recently told The Times UK that he’s not ruling “anything out” when it comes to staying retired from film scores. The five-time Oscar winner turns 92 years old on February 8. Back in June 2022, Williams teased his retirement by telling the Associated Press that his work on “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” would probably be his last.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Greta Gerwig‘s “Barbie” wasn’t just the year’s biggest box office winner. It also made history as the highest-grossing movie directed by a woman. Despite the film’s outsized success, major studios gave most of their biggest gigs to male filmmakers.

Revered composer John Williams has walked back his retirement talk, saying of previous reports that he’d put down his baton for the final time, “I don’t care much for grand pronunciamentos, statements that are firm and finished and surrounded by closed doors. If I made one without putting it in context then I withdraw it.”

Jamie Dornan has revealed that he had an unsettling experience with a stalker.

Bradley Cooper is widely considered one of the biggest movie stars of the last decade.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Bram Inscore, best known for his work with Troye Sivan, Beck and BTS, has died at the age of 41. The songwriter, producer and instrumentalist died by suicide after a battle with depression, according to a statement from his family and friends.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Mbongeni Ngema, a distinguished South African musician and creator of the musical “Sarafina!,” died on Wednesday in a car accident. He was 68. “Ngema was killed in a head-on car accident while returning from a funeral he was attending in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape this evening,” his family said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Jaden Thompson Barack Obama has revealed his favorite movies of the year, an annual tradition from the former President of the United States. The first three films on the list — “Rustin,” “Leave the World Behind” and “American Symphony” — were produced by his company Higher Ground, which he founded alongside his wife Michelle.

Did Kanye West use AI software to write his public apology to the Jewish community??

Jon Burlingame Ryan Murphy’s upcoming FX series “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” boasts one of the greatest casts of the TV season. But it has also broken new ground on the music side: a father-daughter team providing the musical score.

The Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) has announced the nominees for the 2024 SCL Awards, including songwriters Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Lenny Kravitz, Diane Warren, and Jon Batiste, all who earned spots on the Academy Awards shortlist for Best Original Song.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 96th Oscars ceremony. Overall, Greta Gerwig’s meta-comedy “Barbie” had the most mentions with five including sound, original song for its three submissions from Billie Eilish (“What I Was Made For?”), Dua Lipa (“Dance the Night”) and Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“I’m Just Ken”), and original score, from the latter duo. The big miss for “Barbie” was in makeup and hairstyling, which was the category that yielded the most surprises.

UTA has added veteran lit agent Max Grossman to its expanding theater department.

Deadline has confirmed that Byron Allen is taking another run at BET Media Group in a $3.5 billion bid sent to Paramount Global for BET and VH1. The offer followed a report that Paramount is in talks to sell BET to a management-led investor group.

Bradley Cooper treated the Broadway community to a special screening of his new movie Maestro, just a couple days ahead of the film’s Netflix streaming release.

Maestro producer, Kristie Macosko Krieger, has spoken out about the backlash she received surrounding the casting of Carey Mulligan.The biopic, directed by and starring Bradley Cooper as the composer, Leonard Bernstein, received a three-star review from NME.It largely centres around Bernstein’s relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein, who is played by Mulligan.Around the time of its release on Netflix last month, viewers have been critical of Mulligan’s casting in the role of the famous Chilean-American actress, when she herself is British.Speaking recently with GamesRadar+, Krieger shared that Mulligan’s casting was approved by Bernstein’s family. “She got the approval of the family and that for us, we were doing it right,” she revealed.She continued: “It was Bradley [Cooper]’s idea to cast her and we agreed.

Netflix film, Spaceman, has just been released.The movie, which will star Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan is set to premiere on March 1, and is directed by Chernobyl’s Johan Renck.The sci-fi movie has been adapted from Jaroslav Kalfař’s 2017 novel, Spaceman Of Bohemia, and is being produced by Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin, along with many others.The story involves an astronaut named Jakub, played by Sandler, who is trying to regain the affection of his wife, Lenka, played by Mulligan, after spending six months on a solitary mission to the edge of the solar system.When he realises this might be more difficult than planned, he seeks romantic tips from a mysterious alien creature named Hanuš, who is voiced by Paul Dano.Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin and Isabella Rossellini also star in the film.Spaceman will mark the next installment for Sandler on the streaming service, following his hugely successful film, You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah, which received a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes upon its release back in August.The film will see Sandler playing a weightier role opposite Oscar nominee Mulligan, who recently starred in Maestro, a biopic about composer, Leonard Bernstein (played by Bradley Cooper) which aired on Netflix earlier this month.Spaceman is set for release on March 1 2024.Earlier this year, the Netflix animated film Leo, led by Sandler and his longtime collaborator, Robert Smigel, gained more 34.6million views in its first week on the streaming platform.The movie received praise for its humour, soundtrack and handling of sensitive topics.

Variety asked writers and editors to suggest their lesser-seen favorite films of the year. And while you’re desperately searching for new content, check out Nida Manzoor’s jaw-dropping, action flick “Polite Society” or the tear-inducing animated feature “Robot Dreams.” Do not sleep on the middle-of-nowhere Australian crime documentary “Last Stop Larrimah,” centered around the mysterious disappearance of the local favorite, thus making everyone a suspect.

The Les Arcs Film Festival has handed out a raft of prizes to feature projects and works-in-progress participating in its 15th Industry Village, running from December 16 to 19.

EXCLUSIVE: Laura Karpman was drip-fed jazz notes when she was a baby. Her mother’s turn-table featured a playlist that included Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Wes Montgomery and Thelonious Monk, the virtuoso pianist, whose music informs and underpins her own jazz-infused score for Cord Jefferson’s scorching American Fiction.

K.J. Yossman Danny A. Abeckaser is directing and starring in a new World War II drama, “Bardejov” from a screenplay by Shmuel Lynn.

James Gunn is entirely open on social media on the progress of Superman Legacy and sharing details of the upcoming DC Studios film.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Discovery-owned Eurosport has acquired streaming rights in 54 countries to Olympic refugee documentary “We Dare to Dream” by Waad Al-Kateab, the Oscar-nominated Syrian director of “For Sama.” “We Dare to Dream” is the story of the refugee Olympic team that competed at the 2020 games in Tokyo, which featured stateless athletes from Iran, Syria, South Sudan and Cameroon who swim, run and fight their way to safety in host nations across the world. It’s told through the personal prism of Al-Kateab while she is coming to terms with the reality that she can never return to Aleppo, where she shot “For Sama.” The doc premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June and had an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run at New York City’s IFC Center in October.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Is “May December” camp or not? That’s the question the internet is currently obsessing over, but whether you fall on the “definitely” or “no, rude question!” side, one clue can be found in the dark comedy’s notably prominent score by Marcelo Zavros. Ten minutes into the Todd Haynes movie that’s loosely based on the story of Mary Kay Letournau, Julianne Moore, playing Gracie, the wife and mother, opens the fridge while getting ready for a family barbecue. As she casually comments, “I don’t think we have enough hot dogs,” the lush chords familiar from the 1971 movie “The Go-Between” burst loudly into the scene, lending the mundane moment an unexpected melodramatic punch.

Katcy Stephan Baldur’s Gate 3 was the big winner at The Game Awards, snagging six trophies, including Game of the Year, in the annual ceremony recognizing the best and brightest titles in gaming. It also earned prizes for Best Community Support, Best RPG, Best Multiplayer, Players’ Voice and Best Performance (for Astarion actor Neil Newbon). Going into Thursday’s awards, Alan Wake 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 had the most nominations, each earning eight nods.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend took the witness stand on Thursday for the third consecutive day, where she faced questions from the “Creed III” actor’s defense attorney about the injuries she sustained on the night in March she was allegedly assaulted. Majors’ attorney Priya Chaudhry asked Grace Jabbari, 30, about why she had gone out to a nightclub immediately after the alleged assault, suggesting that her injuries must not have been particularly serious. “I was feeling pain but I was choosing to ignore it.

Femme until the film slides out of cinemas – it is absolutely one of the best films of the year – and here comes a new clip from it as it continues to grab the best lead award (it won gongs at the BIFA ceremony on Sunday for leads Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George Mackay).If you’re not familiar with Femme, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February, here’s the official synopsis from Signature who have it in the Uk and Ireland.Jules’ life and career as a drag queen is destroyed by a homophobic attack, but when he re-encounters his attacker in a gay sauna, he is presented with a chance to exact revenge. Related: Interview with the directors of new British film ‘Femme’Starring George MacKay (1917), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Misfits), John McCrea (Cabaret), Nima Taleghani (Heartstopper), Aaron Heffernan (Brassic), and Antonia Clarke (The Serpent Queen).

Variety FYC Fest on Dec. 6 in Los Angeles. Variety‘s senior awards editor Clayton Davis, Senior Artisans Editor Jazz Tangcay and Senior Entertainment & Media Writer Matt Donnelly moderated several panels throughout the event.

BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri was caught giving the camera the middle finger live on air in what she says was a “private joke” gone wrong.Moshiri was momentarily seen with a raised middle finger as BBC News switched to the studio for the headlines. Realising that she was live on air, she quickly scrambled to compose herself and then told viewers: “Live from London, this is BBC News.”The blunder has been clipped and shared by various X (formerly Twitter) accounts, and has since gone viral.

Max Richter has announced a new audio workshop, SRM Sounds, created in collaboration with his multimedia production studio, Studio Richter Mahr.SRM Sounds offers musicians an opportunity to harness the sound of Richter’s personal collection of instruments and sonic explorations at Studio Richter Mahr in the English countryside and to compose their own songs with them.Working with ex-Spitfire Audio CEO Will Evans and his new venture Song Athletics – to bring the instruments in his studio to digital life – the first product to be released is SRM Sounds #001 which is a Steinway grand piano.With Richter’s distinct musical signature meticulously captured and transformed into digital format, creators will be able to immerse themselves in the tones and intricate nuances of the revered instrument.Essentially, once SRM Sounds #001 has been purchased and downloaded, any composer around the world can use that sound, and ‘play’ as though Richter himself was there.“For composers, sound is an incredibly personal and very emotional thing. For many of us, the experience of falling in love with the physical and tactile aspects of sound is what got us into music in the first place, so working with sounds that aren’t quite right is really disturbing.

Variety’s senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay during Variety’s A Night With Artisans. The creatives who helped build the Los Alamos set for “Oppenheimer” or acquired 1,000 blankets for “Killers of the Flower Moon” shared their creative processes and stories from set. In six separate conversations, Tangcay spoke with the teams behind “Oppenheimer,” “Saltburn,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “American Fiction” and “The Color Purple.” See the full Variety A Night With Artisans recap below.

Rideback Rise, the 501c3 non-profit BIPOC content accelerator launched by producer Dan Lin (LEGO movies, It, Aladdin) to advance racial equity, has selected its inaugural cohort of 16 writers and filmmakers who will be financially and creatively supported as they seek to develop their own market-ready mainstream TV and film projects.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Growing up, Kris Bowers felt like he was an outsider trying to fit in. These days, he is anything but that in Hollywood. The Oscar-nominated composer has scored a wide array of projects in the past five years, ranging from “Green Book” to “When They See Us,” and worked with Ava DuVernay and Shonda Rhimes repeatedly.

Jon Burlingame Laura Karpman is one of very few composers who has made a genuine difference in the scoring community. A five-time Emmy winner, she co-founded the Alliance for Women Film Composers, which is widely credited with helping to propel the nearly invisible community of female music writers into prominence. No one asks “why aren’t there any women film composers?” anymore.

EXCLUSIVE: Seven Bucks Productions, the production company co-founded by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia and run by Hiram Garcia, has come on board to co-produce with Nacelle the upcoming RoboForce animated series, inspired by the action figures.