Ilia Malinin is making history with his incredible figure skating routine!
08.03.2024 - 20:00 / deadline.com
Universal Television’s top comedy development executives said business is thriving with EVP Jim Donnelly calling the moment “oddly busy.”
“The world is crazy right now and people love the comfort of comedy. And post-strike, everybody really wants to work … We have five new series in development that we’re excited about. We have a pilot for NBC,” he told a panel at SXSW, where NBCU’s Hacks will premiere Episode 3 here tomorrow ahead of its debut on Max in May.
“I feel like we need comedy more than ever.”
He was joined by colleagues Megan Macmillan and Beth Miyars, both SVPs for Comedy Development. The team is behind successful and anticipated television comedies Never Have I Ever, Girls5eva, Harlem, Bupkis, A Clasic Spy, St. Denis Medical and The Four Seasons.
Of course challenges there are. The explosion of streamers changed some of television’s fundamentals and that’s being followed by a contraction in spending. The execs cited a years-long dip in series episodes from 24 to 10 or less, and said high production costs that are forcing projects out of LA to Canada and Europe including one ti Montreal and one to Prague.
“We miss those days of 24 episodes year, and it’s a real challenge for everyone right now. How do you train people where there are so few episodes? We don’t know the answer,” said Donnelly. The group said Universal Television has a stable of top show runners committed to fostering talent.
A more existential question lately is around categories — what defines a comedy or drama.
“Honestly,” said Miyars, “The Bear is a half hour. Succession was an hour. We all think Succession was funnier than The Bear.” Not that they didn’t love The Bear. But “it’s different these days. So, it’s, it’s a really
Ilia Malinin is making history with his incredible figure skating routine!
Young Fathers have announced they will curate and headline Stirling City Park’s new all-day festival this summer.The Edinburgh trio is set to participate in a new Scottish festival at Stirling City Park, which has a capacity of 15,000 concertgoers. It will be the biggest headline show Young Fathers have played in Scotland to date.Stirling City Park Festival will take place on June 29, with further guests still to be announced.
A couple moved across the world in search for their dream home and were left emotional after finding 'the one'. Tiffany and George from Canada appeared on Escape to the Country and were moved to tears after packing up their life to move to Wales.
Prime Video has debuted the first official photos of Jacob Elordi‘s new series!
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Fashion, East-West Asian identities, corporate espionage and romance are on the agenda in “Morning, Paris!,” a new mini-series project being pitched at Series Mania by veteran filmmaker Quentin Lee (“The People I’ve Slept With,” “White Frog”). “’Morning, Paris!’ is a heartfelt comedy about a young modern BIPOC Canadian woman discovering herself in the most romantic city in the world,” says Lee. “Or put another way, it is a limited television series about an aspiring female fashion designer from Vancouver who ends up in Paris Fashion week with a very unlikely companion because she wants to spy on her boss on whom she has a crush.
Lise Pedersen Speaking to Variety ahead of her film’s world premiere at leading European doc fest CPH:DOX, Lisa Jackson was keen to emphasize that “Wilfred Buck” is what she calls a “feel-good story” despite addressing dark issues related to Canada’s colonial past. Written and directed by Jackson (“Biidaaban: First Light”), the film is a hybrid doc that follows the extraordinary life story of the eponymous charismatic science facilitator, an expert in Indigenous lore about astronomy, who overcame a harrowing history of displacement, racism and addiction by reclaiming ancestral star knowledge and ceremony.
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds have today (March 15) announced details of a UK and European tour – check out the full dates below.The tour will take place this autumn and follows on from the recent announcement that the band will release a new album this summer, ‘Wild God’. The band will kick off their tour on September 24 in Oberhausen, Germany, and will end in Paris, France on November 17.
Netflix‘s upcoming arctic comedy finally has a name and has rounded out cast, as it goes into production in snowy Nunavut, Canada.
Netflix‘s upcoming arctic comedy finally has a name and has rounded out cast, as it goes into production in snowy Nunavut, Canada.
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Plastic People” is one of those essential state-of-our-world documentaries. If and when it gets a release (it premiered this week at SXSW), I urge you to see it, to ponder its message, to consider what it’s saying about how microplastics — plastic particles that are less than 5mm in length, though the key ones may be microscopic — have invaded our food, our water, our air, and, quite specifically, our bodies. For decades, it’s been a trope of environmental filmmaking to showcase the ugliness of landfills, and to ask where all the plastic we throw out is ultimately going to go.
Alex Ritman Elliot Page heads to the U.K on Thursday to open the BFI Flare, London’s LGBTQIA+ film festival, for the European premiere of “Close to You.” Written and directed by Dominic Savage (behind the recent acclaimed “I Am…” anthology series that has starred the likes of Kate Winslet and Letitia Wright), the film — which bowed in Toronto — marks Page’s first feature since 2017. It’s a return to the big screen he says “felt amazing,” allowing him to experience the “joy of what it means to get to create and being creative.” It was also an acting experience unlike anything Page had undertaken before, with much of “Close to You” improvised.
Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Daisy Ridley took a moment during the post-premiere Q&A for her indie thriller “Magpie” at SXSW on Saturday night to reflect on the journey of bringing the film to life. “I remember the first day on set when I saw the trailers saying ‘Oh my god, we’re making a film.’ Now, I feel like, ‘Oh my god, we’re here,’ ” Ridley said after “Magpie” had its world premeire at the State Theater in Austin, Texas. “Magpie” hails from Bateman’s Werewolf Films, 55 Films and Align.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 44th edition of genre film festival Fantasporto, which runs in Portugal’s second city Porto from March 1-10, has bestowed its best film award on Japanese sci-fi fantasy pic “From the End of the World,” directed by Kaz I Kiriya. The movie follows 10-year-old Hana, whose dreams transport her across various eras in Japanese history, and have the ability to save humanity. The jury’s special award went to “The Complex Forms,” Italian director Fabio D’Orta’s debut feature.
EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of its world premiere at SXSW on Saturday (March 9), feature doc Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics has found an international distributor in the UK’s Rainmaker Content.
The organizers of Canada’s well-regarded Just for Laughs festival, a major gathering in Montreal where a number of comics have been discovered, have canceled the 2024 edition and filed for bankruptcy.
Nicki Minaj is back on the road!
EXCLUSIVE: Working Title Television is developing a TV series version of Scott Alexander Howard‘s buzzy debut novel The Other Valley.
Ricky Martin is single, but he’s not alone. The Puerto Rican singer has been traveling the world alongside his twin sons, Matteo and Valentino. The 15 year olds have joined their father as he tours all manner of cities in the United States and Canada, likely making the ride more enjoyable and spending tons of quality time together.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor have debuted three brand new tracks while kicking off their 2024 world tour.The group kicked off their massive 2024 tour on Saturday, February 26 at the Knockdown Center in Queens, New York. While hitting the stage, they treated gig attendees to three new tracks that have yet to be released.
EXCLUSIVE: Michael MacMillan retired from the world of television 17 years ago. Except, he didn’t.