Featuristic Films has unveiled an exclusive first look at the feature documentary 'Afghanistan.' It follows filmmaker James Glancy, a former British Royal Marine Commando who was decorated in 2012 for his actions in combat, as he returns to Afghanistan with a small, handpicked team to help him answer the question that has haunted him over the past decade: Was it worth it? Dramatically, mid-way through the shoot, President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. would be pulling troops out by 9/11, starting a Taliban offensive that has led to the dramatic fall this week of the Afghan government, amidst chaotic evacuation scenes in Kabul as American forces withdraw.

https://variety.com/2021/film/global/afghanistan-james-glancy-featuristic-films-1235042807/

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Wrath of Man, a heist thriller starring Jason Statham, is leading box office charts with its $8.1 million debut. Its hardly the start to summer movie season, which typically kicks off the first weekend in May, that many theater owners were hoping would ignite with Marvels...

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/box-office-wrath-of-man-opening-weekend-1234969499/

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Adriana Ugarte, star of hit Spanish TV drama The Time in Between and Pedro Almodvars Julieta, will play the lead role in Atresmedia original series Madre. A remake of successful Turkish TV drama Anne, in turn an adaptation of Japanese series Mother, Madre continues Spanish media conglomerate ...

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/adriana-ugarte-atresmedia-tv-buendia-estudios-madre-1234969619/

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Greetings from Variety Awards Headquarters!Today isMay 10, 2021, which means its21daysuntil Emmy eligibility ends onMay 31;38daysuntil nomination-round voting starts onJune 17;46daysuntil the Daytime Emmys telecast onJune 25;49daysuntil nomination-round voting ends onJune 28;64daysuntil ...

https://variety.com/2021/tv/awards/awards-hq-may-10-emmys-newsletter-1234970169/

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Fox has canceled Prodigal Son after two seasons,Variety has learned. The news comes ahead of the second season finale, which is scheduled to air on May 18. That episode will now serve as the series finale. An insider with knowledge of the situation characterized the move to cancel the ...

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/prodigal-son-canceled-fox-1234970189/

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While the theater industry is currently reeling from being on lockdown for the past 14 months, the curtains are about to rise again. After Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that Broadway theaters will reopen at full capacity on Sept. 14, theater productions have started to declare their intended return ...

https://variety.com/2021/theater/news/broadway-show-tickets-where-to-buy-1234970196/

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BTS has set the television performance debut of the groups forthcoming single, Butter, for the Billboard Music Awards May 23. The vocal group will perform remotely from Korea on the show, to be broadcast on NBC live across time zones in the U.S. at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Butter, ...

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/bts-butter-billboard-music-awards-performance-premiere-1234970665/

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Giorgio Dirittis biopic Hidden Away, about crazed primitivist painter Antonio Ligabue, was the big winner at Italys 66th David di Donatello Awards, the countrys top film prizes. The Davids were held with an in-person ceremony aired from two venues amid a strong spirit of restart as Italian movie ...

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/giorgio-dirittis-hidden-away-italys-david-awards-sophia-loren-1234970972/

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J.R.R. Tolkien fans across the globe encountered the seemingly impossible last month: a film version of The Lord of the Rings theyd never heard of. There was Gollum gargling in his cave. Except that in this version, hes speaking Russian, sports orange eye-shadow and has what appears to be ...

https://variety.com/2021/film/actors/russian-lord-of-the-rings-khraniteli-1234968603/

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Gillian Jacobs and Wood Harris have both joined HBOs upcoming drama series about the Los Angeles Lakers,Variety has learned. The untitled series was ordered at HBO in December 2019. It is described as chronicling the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of ...

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/gillian-jacobs-wood-harris-hbo-los-angeles-lakers-series-1234971461/

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From the NewFronts to the upfronts, brands are jockeying for position to claim the infusion of advertising dollars coming back into the marketplace in 2021. The rebound is being fueled by Americans shaking off the pandemic, according to Brian Wieser, global president of business intelligence at ...

https://variety.com/2021/biz/news/upfronts-newfronts-post-covid-future-1234969567/

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Playing the main character in a biopic is a tall order for any actor, but taking on the role of influential musician Boy George in the forthcoming film Karma Chameleon seems even more of a challenge considering his multi-faceted life as a cultural icon, fashion trailblazer and the sound of the 1980s...

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/boy-george-karma-chameleon-adam-lambert-olly-alexander-1234970881/

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The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder at Disney Plus expanded its cast with the addition of Billy Porter, Zachary Quinto and EJ Johnson. The role will be a pivot for Johnson, who has cemented himself in the world of reality and unscripted television on shows like Rich Kids of ...

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/proud-family-disney-plus-billy-porter-zachary-quinto-ej-johnson-1234971592/

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SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 5 Episode 11 of The Masked Singer, which aired May 12 on Fox. Hanson has been mmm-boped off The Masked Singer. The pop star brothers were unmasked on Wednesdays episode as the Russian Dolls. The trio became the first group to compete on...

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/the-masked-singer-reveal-season-5-episode-11-recap-russian-dolls-1234971853/

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Woe betide the grade-school-age lad who finds himself in a movie by writing-directing duo David Charbonier and Justin Powell: He may survive their plotlines, but it wont be pretty. Their official first feature, The Boy Behind the Door (which will debut on streaming platform Shudder July 29) found ...

https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/the-djinn-review-1234971919/

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Lotus Entertainment and ROAR have boarded French Touch, a music-filled coming-of-age movie set in New York, starring French singer-songwriter David Hallyday and his real-life daughter Emma Smet. The film will be directed by Shirley Monsarrat, who most recently helmed season 7 of the ...

https://variety.com/2021/film/global/french-touch-david-halliday-lotus-entertainment-1234968713/

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YouTube, locked in a fight with Roku, is doing an end-around to let customers access the YouTube TV from its main app on connected TV platforms. YouTube is launching a new feature that lets users access to YouTube TV from within the YouTube app, starting with Roku. The move comes after Roku last ...

https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/roku-youtube-tv-access-youtube-app-1234968887/

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A group of more than 100 Hollywood publicity firms say they are concerned about the Hollywood Foreign Press Associations recently released plans to overhaul the ogranization. We will continue to refrain from any HFPA sanctioned events, including press conferences, unless and until ...

https://variety.com/2021/awards/news/golden-globes-reform-plans-hfpa-hollywood-foreign-press-association-1234968927/

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Chance the Rapper has wrapped up a deal with AMC Theatres to have a new concert film, Magnificent Coloring World, premiere exclusively on the chains screens this summer. A teaser was issued Friday for the movie, which celebrates five years since the release of Chances ...

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/chance-the-rapper-amc-theatres-release-concert-film-1234968989/

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Michaela Coel is best known as a creator of great art, with I May Destroy You and Chewing Gum, but shes also a consumer. And her taste in movies, television, podcasts and books is as varied in tone as that of her work. Over the last year, Coel dove into heady podcasts and...

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/eurovision-michaela-coel-i-may-destroy-you-1234968926/

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This week, Van Morrison put the crazy in Crazy Love. His new release, the double album Latest Record Project, Vol. 1, spans over two hours and consists of a series of bizarre rants and blues numbers that criticize millennial culture, Facebook, the mainstream media, psychiatrists, judges and, with no...

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/van-morrison-craziest-lyrics-album-latest-record-project-1234969093/

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Belgian composer Peter Baert had never worked on feature film scoring until a chance encounter with actor and filmmaker David Oyelowo changed that. The two first met when Oyelowo was in Brussels shooting Les Miserables and needed a studio to record a voiceover narration for Penguin ...

https://variety.com/2021/artisans/news/peter-baert-david-oyelowo-water-man-1234968742/

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Twenty years since the release of her first album, Miranda Lambert still happily confounds countrys hardcore traditionalists as to who she is, precisely, while maintaining Texas and Nashvilles interest and fandom. Precise just isnt her thing. Ruckus-raising revenge fantasias; housewife tomes ...

https://variety.com/2021/music/album-reviews/miranda-lambert-marfa-tapes-jon-randall-jack-ingram-1234969181/

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March marked the 65th anniversary of the wrap of the first season of the Mickey Mouse Club, and the recent death of one of the original Mouseketeers, Johnny Crawford, reminded fans of the enduring talent that the show, and especially its early 1990s iteration, brought to the entertainment industry. ...

https://variety.com/2021/film/spotlight/mouseketeers-1234969044/

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Miley Cyrus opened the May 8 episode of Saturday Night Live with a song dedicated to all the moms out there. Taking place the night before Mothers Day, this episode has historically been treated as a Mothers Day episode, with special songs and sketches ...

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/saturday-night-live-may-8-cold-open-1234969423/

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Baz Halpin, the music touring creative director who founded Silent House 11 years ago, announced an ambitious expansion Tuesday, with his brainchild to now be known as Silent House Group and expanded into three separate companies Silent House Studiios, Silent House Events and Silent House ...

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/baz-halpin-silent-house-group-expands-1234966128/

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Kym Whitley and Danny Garcia have been cast in recurring roles in the Amazon YA pilot Hot Pink,Variety has learned exclusively. The pair joins previously announced stars Sarah Michelle Gellar,Nina Bloomgarden, David Iacono, Mimi Davila, Dana Donnelly, and Myra Molloy, as well as fellow...

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/kym-whitley-danny-garcia-amazon-hot-pink-1234966331/

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NBCUniversal has instituted a production assistant training program in New Mexico aimed at residents who are interested in pursuing a career in film and television production. The two-day training program, scheduled for May 22 and 23, will be free to accepted applicants and will cover everything ...

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/nbcuniversal-production-assistant-new-mexico-1234966570/

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Oscars producer Steven Soderbergh has opened up about the decisions made to change the show order of the 2021 ceremony and whether he regrets not allowing Zoom acceptance speeches. In an interview published today by the Los Angeles Times, Soderbergh, who served as producer alongside Stacey Sher and ...

https://variety.com/2021/awards/news/steven-soderbergh-oscars-show-order-1234966659/

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Global streaming sports platform DAZN and Brazilian soccer legend Ronaldo have closed a multi-project development deal kicking off with El Presidente, a docu-series chronicling the former strikers tenure as part owner of Spanish club Valladolid FC, which will launch globally on May 20. Best known ...

https://variety.com/2021/streaming/news/ronaldo-dazn-el-presidente-la-guerra-1234966481/

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