Adam B.Vary-Senior: Last News

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Nikki Finke, a tenacious journalist who revolutionized entertainment reporting with what became the Hollywood trade website Deadline, died Sunday morning in Boca Raton, Flor. after a prolonged illness. She was 68. After spending the beginning of her career reporting on everything from Moscow (for the Associated Press) to Washington, D.C. (for Newsweek), in 2002, Finke started a column for L.A. Weekly called Deadline Hollywood, which she took online in March 2006 as Deadline Hollywood Daily in an effort to better cover up-to-the-minute news. Rather than focus on celebrity or content, Finke placed a singularly unforgiving spotlight on the studio executives and high-powered agents who make the industry run. She was unafraid to call out what she believed to be ill-conceived or substandard decision-making in the bluntest possible terms, and her take-no-prisoners approach made her site a must-read in a media ecosystem Finke saw as excessively fawning and credulous.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Legendary filmmaker John Waters is stepping back to the directors chair for the first time in 18 years, for an adaptation of his 2022 novel “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance.” Waters — a pioneering independent filmmaker who catapulted to cinema infamy with bad taste masterpieces like 1972’s “Pink Flamingos” and 1981’s “Polyester” — will write and direct the project for Village Roadshow, with Steve Rabineau producing. It will be Waters’ first movie since 2004’s “A Dirty Shame.” “‘Liarmouth’ is the craziest thing I’ve written in a while so maybe it’s fitting that my novel was shocking enough to jumpstart the engine of my film career,” the 76-year-old filmmaker said in a statement. “Thrilled to be back in the movie business, hopefully to spread demented joy to adventuresome moviegoers around the world.”

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Blumhouse is ready to spend “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” The venerable horror production company has set Emma Tammi (“The Wind”) to direct an adaptation of the popular video game series, set in a Chuck E. Cheese-like children’s restaurant called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, where the animatronic creatures within go on a killing rampage after closing time. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop are handling the creation of the evil, murderous children’s mascots. Launched in 2014, the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” video game series quickly developed a robust and inventive fan base due in part to its unusual approach to survival horror gameplay. Rather than navigate the restaurant or fight off the rampaging animatronics, the game places the player in the role of the night watchman, who must remain in their office and use a limited number of grainy security cameras feeds and electronic door controls to track the movements of the creatures. If the player survives five nights — and a subsequent bonus night — they effectively win the game (by getting fired). Subsequent sequels expanded the scope of the world of the game and its macabre mythology.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Marvel Studios is one step closer to “Secret Wars.” The company has tapped “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” screenwriter Michael Waldron to write the script for 2025’s “Avengers: Secret Wars,” the climactic final film in the Multiverse Saga. Waldron has been instrumental in crafting the multiverse within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He created and served as head writer on the 2021 Disney+ series “Loki,” in which the single, sacred Marvel timeline was ultimately fractured into a multiplicity of alternative realities. In “Doctor Strange 2,” Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) encounters several new dimensions, and in the film’s mid-credits scene, he meets Clea (Charlize Theron), a sorcerer from the Dark Dimension who tells Strange that his multiverse-hopping adventures have caused an “incursion.”

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in the first six episodes of “House of the Dragon,” currently airing on HBO and streaming on HBO Max. If one of the big narrative challenges of “Game of Thrones” was managing the geographical sprawl of its many interweaving storylines, the challenge for the first season of its prequel series, “House of the Dragon,” is stretching the story of the civil war within the Targaryen family over multiple decades. George R.R. Martin’s bestselling book about the conflagration, “Fire & Blood,” spans generations — children are born and grow into adulthood within the two warring factions of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and her former best friend turned stepmother, Queen Alicent Hightower.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer “Heartstopper,” Netflix’s hit teenage romantic drama, has started production on Season 2 in the U.K., with four new cast members joining the series based on Alice Oseman’s best selling graphic novels about the budding love story between the bashful Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and the earnest Nick Nelson (Kit Connor). Jack Barton (Netflix’s “The Letter for the King”) has been cast as Nick’s older brother, David — a university student who is less than enthusiastic about Nick and Charlie’s relationship. British stage actor Nima Taleghani (“Cyrano de Bergerac”) will play Mr. Farouk, one of the teachers at Truham Grammar School, where Nick and Charlie attend with their friends Tao (William Gao) and Isaac (Tobie Donovan). 

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer SPOILER ALERT: This story includes plot points in Episode 4 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, as well as one major story development written by author J.R.R. Tolkien in the appendices of “The Lord of the Rings.” Like so many of her castmates of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” Cynthia Addai-Robinson didn’t know exactly who she was playing until she arrived in New Zealand to shoot the Amazon Prime Video series. Unlike several of her castmates, however, Addai-Robinson was not an obsessive fan of the expansive world of Middle-earth created by author J.R.R. Tolkien. But once she was cast as Míriel, the Queen Regent of the resplendently prosperous island nation of Númenor, the veteran actor (“Power,” “Shooter,” “Arrow,” “Spartacus”) dove in head first into the rich history of Númenor and Middle-earth.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer The cast of the Amazon Prime Video series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” released a pointed statement on Wednesday condemning “the relentless racism, threats, harassment, and abuse some of our castmates of color are being subjected to on a daily basis.” The message comes after months of epithets and smears surrounding the decision by executive producers and showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay to populate J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth — including humans, elves, dwarfs and harfoots (e.g., earlier versions of hobbits) — with actors of color. “Tolkien created a world which, by definition, is multi-cultural,” reads the statement. “A world in which free peoples from, different races and cultures join together, in fellowship, to defeat the forces of evil. ‘Rings of Power’ reflects that. Our world has never been all white, fantasy has never been all white, Middle-earth is not all white.”

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is as big a TV show as TV shows have ever been, with a record-setting budget spent on recreating J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth during the Second Age, and a cast of nearly two dozen series regulars and dozens more featured players deployed to enact its sprawling tale of the rise of Sauron. And yet one character sits undeniably at the show’s center: Galadriel. The ancient elf, so old she was born before the moon and the sun first graced Middle-earth, was a crucial character in Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” novels and Peter Jackson’s “Rings” trilogy, as played by Cate Blanchett.  In “The Rings of Power,” set thousands of years before the events of “The Lord of the Rings,” a younger Galadriel is not yet the serene and wise co-ruler of the Elven kingdom of Lothlórien. Instead, she’s consumed by her hunt for the Dark Lord Sauron, the mysteriously absent master of evil responsible for the death of Galadriel’s brother. In “Rings of Power,” Galadriel is at once hardened by the millennia she’s already been alive, but not yet the stately (and formidable) woman of stature she becomes in the Third Age.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses plot developments in Episode 3 of “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” currently streaming on Disney+. Roughly two weeks before shooting the third episode of Marvel Studios’ “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” head writer Jessica Gao pulled aside star Tatiana Maslany — who plays lawyer Jennifer Walters (aka She-Hulk) — to tell her who the show had cast for a crucial cameo in the episode. Jennifer’s former colleague at the D.A.’s office, chronic mansplainer Dennis Bukowski (Drew Matthews), sues an Asgardian shapeshifter for fraud, after she tricked him into dating her by transforming into a massive celebrity that Dennis had no chance in hell of actually dating.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Robert Aramayo had no idea when he first auditioned for “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” that the role he was vying for was Elrond, one of the most revered and crucial characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic saga of Middle-earth. Hugo Weaving played Elrond in Peter Jackson’s trilogies of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” and as a kid, Aramayo had been captivated by the films. So when “The Rings of Power” co-showrunner J.D. Payne told him that he’d been cast to play Elrond as a (relatively) young man, the now 29-year-old actor couldn’t believe it. “I had one of those moments where everything in your body feels like you’re on electricity,” he tells Variety. “I was shocked and surprised and felt really, really honored that they will consider me for him.”

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer SPOILER ALERT: The final question in this interview includes a spoiler for the Season 3 finale of “The Boys.” “I love Boimler,” says “Star Trek: Lower Decks” star Jack Quaid of his adorably hapless character Brad Boimler. “I love him so much.” Quaid’s third season voicing the Starfleet ensign launched on Paramount+ on Thursday, but as Quaid and co-star Tawny Newsome (who voices Ens. Beckett Mariner) announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July, both actors will get to play the roles in live-action for the first time in a Season 2 episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” in 2023. The actor explained to Variety how the episode was possible, why he’s proud of Boimler in Season 3 of “Lower Decks,” how his character on “The Boys” will react to the big reveal in the Season 3 finale and what he did for the cast of “The Boys” spinoff series “Gen V.”

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer From “The Lego Batman Movie” to just…Batman? While veteran producer Dan Lin is in contention for the top job overseeing DC’s film and TV adaptations for Warner Bros. Discovery, Variety has confirmed that no offer has been made to Lin, and several hurdles stand in the way of any deal moving forward. The biggest hurdle is Lin’s production company, Rideback, which has ties to several other studios, including a first-look deal from January 2021 with Universal Pictures, and development on several features for Disney, including a live-action version of “Lilo & Stitch.” Were Lin to decamp to Warner Bros. Discovery to run DC, his involvement with those productions would need to be sorted, if not severed outright.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses plot elements from Episode 2 of Marvel Studios’ “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” currently streaming on Disney+. Mark Ruffalo barely hesitated when Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige and co-president Louis D’Esposito asked him if he’d be willing to appear on the Disney+ series “She-Hulk: Attorney at Large” as Bruce Banner and his giant green alter ego, Smart Hulk. During his interview with Variety, Hulk’s future within the Marvel Cinematic Universe seemed to be weighing on Ruffalo’s mind. The 54-year-old has been playing the character since 2012’s “The Avengers,” when he took over the role after Edward Norton parted ways with Marvel Studios following 2008’s disappointing “The Incredible Hulk.” Since then, Hulk has fought alongside Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) — all of whom have since departed from the MCU. Ruffalo’s Banner, however, has thrived, tussling with Thor on the trash planet of Sakaar in 2017’s “Thor: Ragnarok,” melding his Banner and Hulk selves into Smart Hulk in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” and welcoming Shang-Chi to the MCU circus in the post-credits scene of 2021’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterTatiana Maslany knows from playing multiple roles on the same TV series. From 2013 to 2017, she embodied over a dozen clones on the sci-fi series “Orphan Black,” and won an Emmy for it in the process.On the new Marvel Studios series “She-Hulk: Attorney at Large,” however, Maslany tackled a new challenge: Transforming from the capable-if-neurotic Los Angeles lawyer Jennifer Walters into her green, six-foot-seven alter-ego known as She-Hulk.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterThe first day Kat Coiro met with Marvel Studios to discuss potentially directing episodes of “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” was the same day the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.“So, you know, there was a little pause,” she tells Variety.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterAsk Fabien Frankel about his favorite “Game of Thrones” character, and the actor drops his head seemingly in agony.“Where to begin?” he says with a groan. “Oberyn Martell.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterWhen veteran TV writer and producer Jessica Gao (“Rick and Morty”) first came into Marvel Studios to pitch about She-Hulk — i.e.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterWarner Bros.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterShea Couleé is in a superhero show, baby.The star of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” and finalist on “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars All Winners,” has joined the Marvel Studios TV series “Ironheart” in an undisclosed role.“Ironheart,” set to debut on Disney+ in the fall of 2023, stars Dominique Thorne (“If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Judas and the Black Messiah”) as engineering genius Riri Williams, who, in the comics, develops a supersuit similar to Tony Stark’s Iron Man.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer“Batgirl,” the feature film adaptation of the DC Comics character, has been killed at Warner Bros., Variety has confirmed. It will not premiere on any platform at the studio — neither theatrically nor on HBO Max.The $90 million production — starring Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon (aka Batgirl) and directed by “Bad Boys for Life” and “Ms.