Sony Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Chase Sui Wonders is circling a role in the upcoming reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer!

Brent Lang Executive Editor The Brat Pack may be getting back together. Demi Moore, currently generating Oscar buzz for her daring turn in “The Substance,” revealed that discussions are underway with Sony, the studio behind “St. Elmo’s Fire,” to make a sequel to the seminal 1985 film.

Katcy Stephan Sony and Columbia Pictures are expanding their release rollout for Jason Reitman‘s “Saturday Night.” The film, which was previously scheduled to solely release wide on Oct. 11, 2024, is now getting a three-step platform release. It will first land exclusively in L.A., N.Y.

Rudie Obias editor If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. One of the best things about “Astro’s Playroom,” the free game that came pre-installed with every Sony PlayStation 5, is that it was a showcase for the console’s new PS5 DualSense Wireless Controller. It made it possible to actually feel what it was like to be inside of a game with advanced motion controls, adaptive triggers and detailed haptic feedback.

Rudie Obias editor If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. When the Sony PlayStation 5 launched in 2020, it came with one pre-installed platform game called “Astro’s Playroom.” It was a short demo featuring an adorable caped robot that gave new gamers a feeling for the new console and the new PS5 DualSense Wireless Controller. And now, four years later, Sony dropped a full sequel simply titled “Astro Bot.” Starting at $59, “Astro Bot” for PS5 is now available to purchase at Target.

Prime Video has orderd four-part docuseries Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story, about the popular Lisa Frank brand. Directed by Arianna LaPenne, the series comes from Sony Pictures Television’s Maxine Productions (Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV). It will stream exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. Per the description, Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story “penetrates the neon-hued world of Lisa Frank Inc., a brand that defined girlhood for a generation of Americans only to seemingly disappear overnight. Behind the rainbows and psychedelic illustrations, we unravel a nostalgia-soaked, stranger-than-fiction tale that takes us into the hidden world that has been lurking at the heart of the company for decades.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer When PlayStation‘s “Astro Bot” launches Friday, it will give PS5 owners access to a brand new, fully fleshed out story starring the little robot whose previous claim to fame was teaching gamers all the cool new features for the Sony gaming console launched in 2020 through pre-loaded title “Astro’s Playroom.” Four years later, Astro has broken out of his playroom and is on a bigger mission: Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Sony Interactive in an easy-entry platformer that features more than 150 cameos of beloved PlayStation characters from across mega hits and deep cuts, including “God of War,” “Ratchet & Clank,” “Ape Escape” and many more. However, the original idea for the game from Team Asobi was simply to give Astro a bigger space adventure game with more to do, while sprinkling in a few PlayStation references and characters here and there.

Selome Hailu Amazon Prime Video has ordered a docuseries about the popular Lisa Frank brand titled “Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story.” According to its official description, “Glitter and Greed” will examine “the neon-hued world of Lisa Frank Inc., a brand that defined girlhood for a generation of Americans only to seemingly disappear overnight. Behind the rainbows and psychedelic illustrations, we unravel a nostalgia-soaked, stranger-than-fiction tale that takes us into the hidden world that has been lurking at the heart of the company for decades.” The four-part series features over twenty interviews with insiders and enthusiasts of Lisa Frank Inc., along with multiple journalists.

Veteran TV creator and showrunner Hank Steinberg has entered a broadcast direct deal with Fox Entertainment where he executive produces the upcoming medical drama Doc. Under the pact, Steinberg, creator and executive producer of the hit CBS series Without A Trace, will be developing new, Fox-owned scripted dramas for the network.

Stereogum, Smith may face roughly 60 years in prison.As per Variety, the musician was accused of creating thousands of bot accounts on streaming services such as Spotify and used them to stream music he owned and allegedly discovered ways around the platform’s fraud-detection programs all while creating as much AI music as possible.His indictment claimed that Smith emailed two co-conspirators and wrote: “We need to get a TON of songs fast to make this work around the anti fraud policies these guys are all using now.”The indictment also claimed that at the beginning of 2018, he worked with an AI music company as well as a music promoter to generate hundreds of thousands of songs.

Burial submitted his soundtrack for Harmony Korine’s new film Baby Invasion via PS5, the director has revealed.During a recent press conference, Variety asked the cult filmmaker how the electronic musician and producer (real name William Emmanuel Bevan) ended up working on his experimental thriller.Korine didn’t disclose many details about the collaboration out of “respect” for Burial. However, he did tell the outlet that the pair had never actually met or even talked to each other.“I mean, Burial’s amazing.

Naman Ramachandran The 68th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its star-studded 2024 lineup, featuring Angelina Jolie, Elton John, Daniel Craig, Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield, Saoirse Ronan, and more in a program boasting 39 world premieres and 12 international premieres among its 253 feature, short, series and immersive works. The festival’s headline gala screenings will showcase a range of high-profile films.

Sony has decided to pull video game Concord not even two weeks into its release.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights to Laura Piani’s Jane Austen Wrecked My Life ahead of the pic’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Sony Pictures Classics has acquired rights to “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The studio will distribute the film in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and on worldwide airlines.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Blake Shelton and Warner Music Nashville had one of the longest-surviving artist/label relationships in the business, going back more than two decades, but it’s over now, as the singer and the company jointly announced Tuesday that they are “amicably parting ways.” Shelton’s first album with Warner’s Nashville division was his sophomore release “The Dreamer,” which came out in early 2003, following an earlier debut on the Giant label. His last full album for the label, “Body Language,” came out more than three years ago, in May 2021.

Subhash Chandra, chairman emeritus of Indian media giant Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), has accused Madhabi Puri Buch, chair of regulator Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) of scuppering the Sony-ZEEL merger. In a press conference on Monday, Chandra alleged that Buch is “corrupt” and “vindictive” and that Zee’s issues with SEBI was the “main reason” that the merger fell apart. In June 2023, SEBI barred ZEEL MD-CEO Punit Goenka and Chandra from holding any managerial or directorial positions in listed companies.

When a studio world premieres a movie at Telluride to tee off its chances during awards season, they have to make sure they’ve got the goods, and Sony certainly did coming away from its launch of Jason Reitman‘s all-star Saturday Night about the 90-minute agita experienced by SNL producer Lorne Michaels before the show’s first broadcast in the fall of 1975.

SUNDAY AM: Nothing seismic going on in a traditional weak Labor Day weekend in regards to box office fluctuations, but we’ll leave you with this: Disney, together with its 20th Century Studios label, led summer 2024 (May 3-Labor Day) with $1.53 billion thanks to a comeback in brands Pixar with Inside Out 2 and MCU with Deadpool & Wolverine as well as its Fox brands of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Alien: Romulus. Disney is up +121% over last summer’s $692M misfires of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The Haunted Mansion and the foreign fallout of Little Mermaid.

George Clooney has commented for the first time on his New York Times op-ed asking Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race. “I’ve actually never had to answer that question so I suppose I will do it here,” Clooney said when asked about it at the Venice press conference for his new film “Wolfs.” “The person who should be applauded is the president, who has done the most selfless thing a president has done since George Washington,” he said, adding: “What should be remembered is the selfless act of someone who, it’s very hard to let go of power — we know that, we’ve seen it all over the world — and for someone to say I think there’s a better path forward, all the credit goes to him. And that’s really the truth … I’m just very proud of where we are in the state of the world right now.” Elsewhere, when asked about Apple moving the film from a wide theatrical release to a limited one, Clooney also brought up a New York Times report from last week by Nicole Sterling that he and Pitt were paid more than $35 million each.

J. Kim Murphy The summer always gets colder by the end. Even in its sixth weekend, Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” is landing the top slot on domestic charts once again as theaters take in an assortment of low-performing new releases, including Dennis Quaid’s presidential biopic “Reagan” and the Blumhouse horror feature “Afraid.” The Marvel Studios production earned another $3.6 million on Friday, down about 26% from its daily total a week ago.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Television is bolstering its drama division, bringing on Eric Phillips as VP of Drama Development. In his new role, he will focus on developing new drama series for all platforms for the U.S. scripted division. 

Michaela Zee Michelle Mendelovitz has stepped down as head of Mattel Television Studios, Variety has confirmed. Mendelovitz joined the studio in November of last year, where she oversaw the development, production and distribution of Mattel’s slate of episodic content on broadcast and streaming globally.

Time and time again Amazon has shown that quality tech doesn't have to be expensive.

Disney’s merger with Reliance Industries in India is going ahead after the country’s competition authority gave the deal a greenlight.

Bad Bunny has lined up his next acting project!

A source is speaking out about the potential for a sequel to the film It Ends With Us starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.

EXCLUSIVE: Grammy Award winner Bad Bunny is the latest to join Austin Butler in Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller Caught Stealing for Sony Pictures. Aronofsky will direct the pic, which is based on the book by Charlie Huston. The script will be written by Huston, with Protozoa producing.

Remakes are a fact of life in Hollywood nowadays. If a project was popular at one time and it’s been a while since its release, why not remake it? At least that’s the logic involved.

VP, production, FX Networks The recipient of 25 Emmy nominations and tens of millions of eyeballs, “Shōgun” was nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. Causey says that her involvement in the James Clavell adaptation began seven years ago, making its success feel especially sweet.

Two wide entries held previews Thursday, with the Zoë Kravitz-directed thriller Blink Twice and Lionsgate/Edward R. Pressman presentation’s The Crow filing $820K and $650K in previews, respectively. Neither is expected to move the needle this weekend with single-digit openings.

Sony announced on Thursday that Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom, Crunchyroll‘s new animated feature continuing the story of the anime series Overlord and the same-name series of novels from Kugane Maruyama, hits theaters November 8.

Michael Jackson‘s estate can continue with its sale of the late musician’s catalogue to Sony Music.The ruling rejected Jackson’s mother – Katherine’s – objections which aimed to stop the sale from going forward. It came a month after the court had issued a tentative ruling against her and finalized that decision yesterday (August 21) ruling that Jackson’s estate executors – John Branca and John McClain did not violate the King Of Pop’s terms while making the deal with Sony.“The will gave the executors broad powers of sale, with no exception for the specific assets at issue in this case,” the court wrote (per The Hollywood Reporter).

Angelique Jackson Jack Black and Paul Rudd are in early talks to star in Columbia Pictures’ re-imagining of “Anaconda” from writer-director Tom Gormican. Gormican, who helmed the Nicolas Cage-starring meta movie “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” and penned “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” co-wrote and will direct the new “Anaconda” movie, which is said to put a more comedic spin on the serpentine story. Kevin Etten is the co-writer.

Paul Rudd and Jack Black may be heading to the jungle. Deadline is hearing that while no deal is done, the two are in early talks to star in Anaconda at Sony Pictures. The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent writers Tom Gormican and Kevin Ettin penned the script, with Gormican planning to direct. Brad Fuller and Andrew Form are producing through Fully Formed banner.

The It Ends With Us movie drama has captured the attention of the internet. Blake Lively and her co-star and director Justin Baldoni, who seem to have gotten into some massive feud on the set of the film, causing pretty much the entire cast to avoid the director amid the press tour and premiere.