Jonathan Cohen: Last News

Jonathan Cohen The prospect of a new version of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” with vocals from Britney Spears has sent the music world into a tizzy for weeks, particularly since Spears has not released fresh music in six years amid the knockdown, drag-out battle over her conservatorship. Luckily, “Hold Me Closer,” produced by Andrew Watt and Cirkut and finally due out at midnight ET, is an unabashed dance-floor celebration of good vibes much in the vein of John’s surprise smash 2021 collaboration with Dua Lipa, “Cold Heart,” which was built on elements of his past hits such as “Rocket Man.” John first worked with former Grammy producer of the year Watt while making a guest appearance on the 2020 Watt-produced Ozzy Osbourne album “Ordinary Man,” which led to Watt producing John’s “Cold Heart”-featuring “The Lockdown Sessions” album last year. “The song is still in the 20s on the global top 50, and it has been over a year,” Watt (pictured above) tells Variety of “Cold Heart.” “It really resonated with people, because the world is so serious right now. It was a way to scream an Elton John song while you’re out at a nightclub and also feel Dua’s energy. Elton wanted to do a follow-up to that song. Why wouldn’t he? We thought we’d try something with ‘Tiny Dancer,’ so they sent me the original stems.”

With Christmas just around the corner, Manchester's Bridgewater Hall is set to transform into a winter wonderland of music and festivities.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Music Box Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to “Daaaaaalí!,” the latest film by Quentin Dupieux whose upcoming movie “The Second Act” will world premiere on opening night at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars descended on Washington, DC to attend the 2024 White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night (April 27) at The Washington Hilton.

L.A. French cinema lovers were deprived of their annual fall fix of Gallic film culture this year with the cancellation of the American French Film Festival due to the Hollywood strikes.

Gaumont and Egerie Productions have announced they are teaming with Prime Video on heartwarming French-language drama My Mother, God, And Sylvie Vartan (Ma Mère, Dieu, Et Sylvie Vartan), which is the platform’s first French-language feature destined for a theatrical release.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Prime Video and Gaumont (“Intouchables”) are teaming up on an uplifting mother-son drama tackling disability, directed by Ken Scott (“Starbuck”), and starring French actors Leïla Bekhti (“All Your Faces”) and Jonathan Cohen (“Sentinelle”). Scott penned and will be directing the film which is titled “Ma mère, Dieu et Sylvie Vartan” and is based on Roland Perez’s novel by the same name. The project is the first theatrical film that Amazon Prime Video is co-financing as part of the French decree that kicked off in July 2021 and stems from the implementation of the European Commission’s legislation called Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS).

Jessica Kiang Salvador Dalí is walking down a hotel corridor. A hotel corridor is being walked down by Salvador Dalí.

Jessica Kiang Salvador Dalí is walking down a hotel corridor. A hotel corridor is being walked down by Salvador Dalí.

Jonathan Cohen When Gabe Saporta aligned with Atlantic in 2007 via his band Cobra Starship’s deal with Fueled by Ramen/Decaydence, he’d already been through two other major-label systems and wasn’t overly optimistic things would be much different this time around. Much to his surprise, “Atlantic was unique in always letting us be our weird little selves,” helping the group score two multi-platinum top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 amid a third wave of emo and pop-punk upstarts such as labelmates Fall Out Boy and Paramore. As such, it’s fitting Saporta is again back in business with Atlantic, even though he’s long since shifted from his lead singer role in Cobra Starship to one behind the scenes in management and artist development with his company TAG Music. (Note: Saporta’s company is not to be confused with a 1990s indie-centric Atlantic imprint also called TAG — for The Atlantic Group — that featured such artists as Jawbox and Fountains of Wayne.)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The blockbuster French cast of Amazon Prime Video’s third season of “LOL: Qui rit, qui sort” speaks volumes about the Japanese variety format’s tremendous popularity in France. The Amazon Original series, adapted from the format “LOL: Last One Laughing,” scored its biggest launch to date on Prime Video in France since bowing on March 10. The show is one of the streamer’s first unscripted originals in France and has been a major coup as a brand exercise that’s succeeded with limited resources — certainly in comparison to scripted comedy. Adaptations of “LOL” have also thrived in Italy and Germany where they have ranked as the most watched local titles on the service, respectively. Local versions are also available in Spain, Canada, Mexico and Australia (hosted by Rebel Wilson).

French director Quentin Dupieux has begun shooting his 12th feature film DAAAAAALI ! with a star ensemble French cast including Alain Chabat (Smoking Causes Coughing), Anaïs Demoustier (Alice And The Mayor), Pierre Niney (Frantz) and Gilles Lellouche (Little White Lies).

Jonathan Cohen Thanks to big syncs by the Weeknd, Motley Crue and yacht rock icon Christopher Cross, season four of Netflix’s “Cobra Kai” raised the bar in more ways than just its viewership, which propelled the show to No. 1 on Netflix’s English series chart for the two weeks following its New Years Eve release.

Jonathan Cohen Top rock photographer Danny Clinch’s two-day Sea.Hear.Now festival will return to the beach at Asbury Park, N.J., this fall, with that includes Pearl Jam, Patti Smith, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Idol and more. (See the full lineup and ticket information at SeaHearNowFestival.com.)Clinch, who grew up in Toms River not far from Asbury Park, first saw Pearl Jam on Aug.