Multimedia Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Former ID-PR brands boss Michael Smith has launched a new communications firm, Midnight Dawn. Smith departed ID-PR in January. “Midnight Dawn has been 25 years in the making and I’m honored to have the privilege of representing a world class group of talent and brands,” Smith said in an exclusive statement to Variety on Tuesday.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Linmon Pictures, one of the most outward-looking mainland Chinese entertainment firms, is preparing premium series “Hate Coin.” The show is being produced in association with Jonathan Wong and Justina Shih’s production company Octagon Metatainment, a Hong Kong-based multimedia studio. “Hate Coin” is based on international best-selling novel “Second Sister,” by successful Hong Kong novelist Chan Ho Kei, whose previous book “The Borrowed” was a crime story that panned five-decades. The story follows the activities of a young woman whose school-age sister appeared to have committed suicide. Suspecting foul play, the woman trams up with a manipulative hacker and cybersecurity expert to try to dig deeper. “What follows is a cat and mouse game through the city of Hong Kong and its digital underground, especially an online gossip platform, where someone has been slandering Siu-Man.

Angelique Jackson CAA has signed Margaret Zhang for representation as an emerging filmmaker, writer and producer. The new alliance marks the next step for Zhang, who officially departs her role as editor-in-chief of Vogue China at the end of May.

Diego Ramos Bechara editor Batman comic book writer James Tynion IV announced the launch of a new independent multimedia production company, Tiny Onion, with plans to create content across television, film, animation and publishing. The company will seek to assemble top talent in the realm of behind-the-scenes comic book creation — their goal is to establish an independent editorial and design team to enhance their clients’ work via curation and packaging before presenting them to various publishing partners throughout the industry.

You kinda have to love the Jennifer Lopez/Ben Affleck marriage and relationship. One is a pop superstar who craves the spotlight, and the other is an actor/director who had his fill of fame in the ’90s and seemingly craves his own privacy.

Love Live! School Island Festival 2 alongside its imminent closure.First launched in 2013, the Love Live! games are an extension of the Love Live! multimedia series which also features anime, manga and actual music. The franchise focuses on fictional groups of children who become idols in order to save their school, and the rhythm games follow a similar narrative.An English version of the Love Live! School Island Festival mobile game was launched in 2014 while a sequel was confirmed in 2022, with players able to transfer their process to the new game that was due to entirely replace the original.The servers for the original Love Live! School Island Festival were then shut down on March 31, 2023 with the sequel launching in Japan a couple of weeks later.

Caroline Brew editor EDGLRD, a multimedia design collective, has announced its experimental tour for Harmony Korine‘s latest film “Aggro Dr1ft.” The tour’s first stop is at the strip club Crazy Girls in Los Angeles on Feb. 7, with an additional date the next day. “Aggro Dr1ft” debuted at the Venice Film Festival last fall, followed by runs in Toronto and New York.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount+‘s The Ex-Wife and Castaways producer BlackBox MultiMedia has landed its latest development, a TV version of Caro Carver‘s upcoming psychological thriller Bad Tourists.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Multimedia Music has closed a deal to acquire the music publishing rights from the film music library of Millennium Media, which includes titles such as “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “London Has Fallen,” “Angel Has Fallen,” “Hitman Wife’s Bodyguard,” “Hellboy,” “The Outpost,” “Mechanic: Resurrection,” “Rambo: Last Blood,” “Blackbird,” “Acts of Vengeance” and “The Expendables 4.” The deal follows Multimedia Music’s recent music partnership with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners, and its acquisition of STX Entertainment’s music library. The Millennium Media library includes music from leading composers including Brian Tyler, Atli Orvarsson, Mark Isham, Trevor Morris, David Buckley and Benjamin Wallfisch.

Livestream shopping platform NTWRK is teaming up with Amazon Music and its audio storytelling app Audible for Hip-Hop Sounds & Stories: A 50 & Forever Celebration, an immersive two-day experience that explores how fans have been listening to hip-hop over the last five decades. Read Next: NTWRK, Paramount Pictures, and streetwear brand We Are Little Giants celebrate Mutant Mayhem Happening August 26 and 27 at NTWRK LA, the free event will feature live performances from DJ Drama and SleazyWorld Go, exclusive audio content, and an in-depth discussion on the influences that have shaped the genre.

Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners has sold a 50% stake in its catalog of music publishing and music master rights from the film music library to Multimedia Music, including  marquee and award-winning films 1917, Green Book, The BFG, Bridge of Spies, The Post, Office Christmas Party, Thank You For Your Service and The Girl on the Train and others. The catalog features iconic music from several of the most renowned and celebrated composers in the world including John Williams, Thomas Newman, Danny Elfman, Alexandre Desplat, Rachel Portman, Mark Isham and Rob Simonsen. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Multimedia Music has closed an eight-figure deal to acquire the music publishing and music master rights from the entire film music library of STX Entertainment, including film titles such as “Bad Moms,” “The Gentlemen,” “Den of Thieves,” “Greenland” and “The Foreigner,” and music from leading composers including Hans Zimmer, Cliff Martinez, Marcelo Zarvos, Hauschke, Chris Lennertz, Andrew Lockington, Clinton Shorter and Nicholas Britell. STX will continue to develop and produce a slate of films through the studio’s new partnership with Lionsgate, but the Multimedia Music deal does not include rights in any of STX’s current or future slate of films.

Morgan Taylor, a Grammy-award nominee, died at age 52. The death of the multimedia artist who created music and art for kids came after a “brief and sudden illness,” according to a GoFundMe created by his friends. He is survived by his wife of 18 years, Rachel Loshak, and their children, Harvey and Ridley.

EXCLUSIVE: Multimedia Music, an emerging player in the film and TV music rights arena, has finalized three separate deals to acquire works by composers Tyler Bates, David Buckley and Michael Corcoran.

EXCLUSIVE: London’s Blackbox Media and Latin American firm EO Media have paired up to develop a drama series based on a novel about the origins of famed Spanish video game company Dinamic Software.

Jon Burlingame editorMultimedia Music today announced it has closed a deal to acquire master and publishing rights to a 48-title film score catalog from Atlantic Screen Music in what it calls a “mid-seven figure transaction.”Atlantic Screen Music includes rights to scores including “2 Guns,” “Lone Survivor,” “The Host,” “Dredd,” “Escape Plan” and “Broken City.” Multimedia said that, cumulatively, the films have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars at the global box office and even more through ancillary channels.Composers with works featured in the catalog include Max Richter (“Perfect Sense,” “Last Days on Mars”), Lorne Balfe (“Frozen Ground”), John Paesano (“Hirokin”), John Debney (“Alex Cross”), Atticus Ross (“Broken City”), Antonio Pinto (“The Host”), Steve Jablonsky (“Lone Survivor”), Clinton Shorter (“2 Guns”) and Paul Leonard Morgan (“Dredd”). “We are thrilled to acquire this catalog of premium film scores,” said Multimedia Music managing partner James Gibb (pictured above, left).

K.J. Yossman Actor Janet Montgomery (“This is Us”) and producer Tricia Small (“Salem”) have teamed with Blackbox Multimedia on a female-led period crime drama written by “Dracula” scribe Cole Haddon, Variety can reveal.Billed as a female version of The Godfather trilogy, “Aqua Tofana” was co-created by Montgomery and Small, who will also executive produce the high-end television series, which is set is 17th-century Italy.

EXCLUSIVE: Amid a streaming-spurred frenzy for music catalog rights, Multimedia Music has acquired film and TV scores from nine-time Oscar nominee James Newton Howard.

K.J. Yossman Fictional detective Ellery Queen is set to make a return to television – this time as a woman.Incendo and BlackBox Multimedia have optioned the TV adaption rights to the collection of novels and short stories in which Queen, originally written as a male character, appears.The two companies will co-develop and co-produce a modernized, high-end scripted series in which Ellery will be changed to female.

NEW YORK -- To say the third, full-length album from X Ambassadors has a lot going on would be a little bit of an understatement.It’s a concept album about a fledgling superhero but also a trip into Jungian psychology and a valentine to old-fashioned radio dramas. It has so much going on that it has inspired a companion podcast.“Anyone who knows our music at this point knows that we try lots of different things,” says keyboardist Casey Harris.

Naman Ramachandran “Nemesis,” a series based on “McMafia” writer Misha Glenny’s book “Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio,” is being co-produced by BlackBox Multimedia and Boutique Filmes. The story is based on the true-life story of Antonio Francisco Lopes, who went from a poorly paid man in Rio de Janeiro to “Nem,” the leader of one of Rio’s biggest slums and Brazil’s most wanted criminal and seen as a Robin Hood figure by the poor, but hated by the Brazilian elite.

CONCORD, N.C.

Johnny Depp, all that seems missing from former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial is someone trying out a new dance routine.Trump's lawyers fully embraced a TikTok defense on Friday, using manipulated video to complain about manipulated video and relying on rapid-fire, repetitive imagery.

 Jessica Simpson  is going back to television! The singer announced Wednesday that she signed a multimedia partnership with Amazon Studios that includes both a new unscripted docuseries and a new scripted series based on her bestselling memoir Open Book.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentChinese multimedia artist Yi Zhou is set to shoot her feature film debut “Stars and Scars,” an English-language sci-fier centered on the memory phenomenon known as Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM).The ambitious $20 million drama, set in 2050 and combining romance, action and science fiction tropes, has a still unspecified U.S. cast.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterJess Ryder’s psychological thriller novel The Ex-Wife is getting the series treatment, with Euro outfits BlackBox Multimedia and Night Train Media teaming for an international co-production.New York Times bestselling author and actress Catherine Steadman, known for roles in Downton Abbey and her novels including Something In The Water, has been drafted in to pen the screenplay, her screenwriting debut.The Ex-Wife follows newlywed Tasha, who has the perfect

On the face of it, grime is seen by many as just another music genre.