brightlight Archives

Jun152024 by cineverseNo Comments

Monte-Carlo Television Festival Chief Talks Morgan Freeman, ‘Fabulous Highlights’ of 63rd Edition, ‘Fan Favorite’ Awardee

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By Marta Balaga )According To The Daily) Monte-Carlo Television Festival has rolled out the blue carpet welcoming star guests for its 63rd edition, but it also has an eye on the future. “We’re always working towards expanding and developing the festival. Each year, we get better and better,” executive director Cécile Menoni says. Listing “fabulous highlights,” Menoni gushes over this year’s Crystal Nymph winner: Morgan Freeman. The award recognizes the “stellar body of work” of the veteran actor, who recently exec produced “The Gray House,” which celebrated its world premiere Friday at the opening ceremony. Mary-Louise Parker, Daisy Head, Amethyst Davis and Ben Vereen attended. “It’s such a thrill for us to honor him,” Menoni says. The fest will also t...

Jun132024 by cineverseNo Comments

Indie Film Musical ‘Heart Strings’ Get Los Angeles Premiere at American Cinematheque

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By Jack Dunn (According To The variety) Indie musical “Heart Strings” will have its Los Angeles premiere June 30 at American Cinematheque‘s Loz Feliz Theater. Director Ate de Jong (“Drop Dead Fred”) co-wrote the film with Steven Gaydos, Variety executive VP, Global Content, who is also co-producing. “It’s a great honor to screen at the American Cinematheque. And especially to play the film at their Los Feliz location where ‘Heart Strings’ first began as a screenplay decades ago when I lived there after working on a Roger Corman film in Georgia,” Gaydos said. “Fans of 1970s American indie cinema might be surprised to find that Ate de Jong has just made an audience-engaging film with the subversive spirit and maverick attitude of that time. It only took 50 years to get t...

Jun132024 by cineverseNo Comments

Emmys Update Submission Rules Ahead of Voting, Lowering Threshold Required for Nom and Invites Members to Join Jury for Scripted Variety

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By Clayton Davis (According To The variety) Ahead of the Emmy nomination voting on Thursday, the Television Academy has revised its Emmy rules regarding submissions and nominee numbers. This update will significantly impact the scripted variety category, which includes “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” and “Saturday Night Live.” The new Rules and Procedures document on the Emmys website, updated on May 22, details changes under the Nominations Procedures section. Previously, categories with fewer than 20 submissions required contenders to be screened by a peer group, with nominees needing at least 90% approval. If no submissions met this threshold, the highest vote-getter would be declared the winner. The updated rules have lowered the nomination threshold from 9...

Jun132024 by cineverseNo Comments

Kartik Aaryan on Physical and Mental Transformation for Bollywood Sports Drama ‘Chandu Champion’: ‘It’s all About Willpower’

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By Naman Ramachandran (According To The variety) Bollywood star Kartik Aaryan has undergone a remarkable transformation for his latest film “Chandu Champion.” Directed by Kabir Khan (“’83”), the film is a biopic of Murlikant Petkar, who became India’s first Paralympics gold medalist in 1972. Petkar served as a soldier in the 1965 India-Pakistan war and sustained injuries that left him physically impaired. He overcame these and became a champion sportsman across several disciplines. “There were so many skill sets that were required for the character, swimming, boxing, wrestling, and he [Petkar] was very good in all of them. I had problems going into the deep end of the swimming pool, because I didn’t know how to swim professionally,” Aaryan told Variety. “A...

Jun122024 by cineverseNo Comments

Ricky Martin Talks Navigating Hollywood After Coming Out in 2010: ‘Would You Ask Brad Pitt If He’s Afraid’ of ‘Being Typecast as a Straight Man?’

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By Thania Garcia, Angelique Jackson (According To The variety) All eyes were on Ricky Martin during CAA’s seventh annual Amplify summit on Tuesday where the Grammy-winning entertainer took the stage to discuss his storied career with Bruno Del Granado, the head of CAA’s global Latin music touring division. Martin discussed his role in Apple TV+‘s (newly-renewed for Season 2) “Palm Royale,” and opened up about his major career milestones, including his impact on Latin American music in the United States, and LGBTQ+ representation in mainstream spaces. Martin showed love for his “Palm Royale” castmates and the “life-changing” stories they’ve been able to portray. Set in the 1960s in Palm Beach, Martin portrays Robert, a gay man and a bartender...

Jun122024 by cineverseNo Comments

After Paramount Merger Talks Collapse, Skydance CEO David Ellison Tells Staff: ‘We Are Stronger Because of This Process’

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By Todd Spangler (According To The variety) David Ellison, chief executive of Skydance Media, thanked employees of his company for their focus as he was engaged in a months-long bid to merge with Paramount Global. And even though that effort failed, he said that Skydance is stronger after having gone through the M&A cycle. On Tuesday, Shari Redstone’s National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global, said it had ended merger talks with Skydance because it was not able “to reach mutually acceptable terms regarding the potential transaction with Skydance Media for the acquisition of a controlling stake in NAI.” In a memo to Skydance staffers Tuesday evening obtained by Variety, Ellison wrote, “As you all know, for the l...

Jun112024 by cineverseNo Comments

French Animation Distributor Eurozoom Inks Strategic Alliance with Special Touch Studios, takes Four Titles to Annecy Animation Festival (EXCLUSIVE)

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By Anna Marie De La Fuente (According To The variety) Eurozoom, a leading French distributor for Japanese animation, has forged a strategic partnership with major French animation producer Special Touch Studios, led by founder and CEO Sebastien Onomo. “We both share the same passion for animation and want to tell bold stories with a particular attention to professional diversity,” said Eurozoom’s CEO-Founder Amel Lacombe, who added that they were jointly working on a six-animation feature lineup. Leading the pack is “Melvile,” directed by Romain Renard and Fursy Teyssier. Initiated and produced by Anne-Laure Guégan alongside Onomo, the feature is an adaptation of the eponymous graphic novel “Les Chroniques de Melvile” by the multi-awarded comic artist Romain Renard. ...