Kris Bowers: Last News

Bridgerton might be synonymous with soapy drama and steamy sex scenes but it’s also known for orchestral covers of classic pop songs.Created by Chris Van Dusen, the Netflix period drama follows the fictional Bridgerton family as they navigate London high society in the early 1800s.After two seasons and a spin-off, the show returned for a third season in May 2024. A fourth season is currently in development.For the third season, Adjoa Andoh, Jonathan Bailey, Nicola Coughlan, Luke Newton, Claudia Jessie, Luke Thompson and Simone Ashley all reprise their roles.

If Vladimir Putin was watching the Academy Awards on Sunday night from his dacha on the Black Sea, his mood may have been blackened by the Best Documentary Feature category. As Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast had predicted, the Oscar went to , Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing film about the early days of Russia’s brutal siege of the Ukrainian port city. 

For the second time in the last three years, the Oscar for Best Documentary Short has been claimed by Ben Proudfoot. The Canadian-born filmmaker and his fellow director Kris Bowers won the Academy Award tonight for their film The Last Repair Shop, the story of craftspeople in Los Angeles who keep 80,000 musical instruments in working order for the city’s public school students. It’s the only big city school system that keeps kids in tune with free bassoons, trombones, sousaphones, cellos, piccolos and every other kind of instrument.

At the age of 84, documentary legend Sheila Nevins today earned the first Oscar nomination of her career.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Composer Kris Bowers calls the score to Ava DuVernay‘s “Origin” “one of the most meaningful” of his career, but there’s one music cue, “Leaves,” which he says “stands out as one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever composed.” Inspired by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, “Origin” follows Wilkerson’s journey in writing the book. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Isabel as the film explores how caste systems have shaped societies.

In a hidden corner of Los Angeles, a small group of people toil in obscurity, tending to broken pegs, stuck valves, clogged tubing and damaged keys – all to restore musical instruments to perfect working order for the city’s public-school students. 

The Color Purple often succeeds as a thoughtful fusion of two other adaptations of Alice Walker’s landmark novel that still confidently hums its own tune.In shakier moments, though, confidence gives way to nostalgia, when the film hammers home its reinterpretations of quotable scenes and dialogue from the Quincy Jones-produced, Steven Spielberg-directed 1985 adaptation with an insistence that borders on flashing “Hey, remember this?” in bold type onscreen.Creating and saying something new with such proven material, while also purposely coaxing audience sentiment for a beloved original, surely posed a formidable challenge for Bazawule and company. And having Jones, Spielberg, and Oprah Winfrey — the big guns and big breakout from the 1985 film — onboard as producers must have eased and complicated the gig in unfathomable ways.Oprah and Jones also had a hand in the original Broadway musical adaptation, which has spun off its own lore and legacy, and adds another meta layer of pop-lit gloss to what this film aims to freshly reinterpret.The stage musical — with a book by Marsha Norman, and lyrics and music by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray — has amassed its own roster of breakout stars, including American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino, who made her 2007 Broadway debut stepping into the lead role of Celie, and Orange Is the New Black‘s Danielle Brooks, Tony-nominated for playing Sofia opposite Cynthia Erivo in the 2015 Broadway revival.Barrino and Brooks reprise their respective roles here with a lived-in grace and fortitude that does freshly illuminate Walker’s moving narrative, the lifeblood that courses through every iteration.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 96th Oscars ceremony. Overall, Greta Gerwig’s meta-comedy “Barbie” had the most mentions with five including sound, original song for its three submissions from Billie Eilish (“What I Was Made For?”), Dua Lipa (“Dance the Night”) and Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“I’m Just Ken”), and original score, from the latter duo. The big miss for “Barbie” was in makeup and hairstyling, which was the category that yielded the most surprises.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “The Color Purple” director Blitz Bazawule hesitated to take on the latest incarnation of Alice Walker’s sacred text. However, when he revisited the book, the first line (“Dear God, I’m 14 years old”) struck him as a way to navigate a familiar story and “keep expanding Celie’s imagination.” In the new musical movie adaptation, as Celie (Fantasia Barrino) is bathing Shug (Taraji P. Henson), an old record plays on a gramophone in the background.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Ava DuVernay‘s latest drama “Origin” has added an original song to its Oscar prospects. New Zealand Māori artist Stan Walker performed the new song, “I Am,” at a private film screening at the Edition Hotel in West Hollywood on Wednesday. He also co-wrote the track with Michael Fatkin, Vince Harder and Te Kanapu Anasta.

Searchlight Pictures and the L.A. Times Studios on Wednesday announced their boarding of The Last Repair Shop, an acclaimed documentary short, which just received two Critics Choice Association nominations and a spot on DOC NYC’s Short List, on the heels of its premiere at Telluride.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor When director Justin Simien was looking for a composer to score Disney’s “Haunted Mansion,” he called his frequent collaborator Kris Bowers. The two had worked together on “Dear White People” and Simien’s last feature, “Bad Hair.” “I’ve always wanted to have that relationship with the director where you work on a number of projects and develop this trust,” says Bowers. For their latest film, which opens in theaters July 28, Bowers pays homage to the Disney theme-park ride and its famous “Grim Grinning Ghosts” tune while making his mark on the feature.

Disney’s Haunted Mansion premiere at Disneyland this Saturday will turn into a fan event should the SAG-AFTRA strike occur.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Disney’s red carpet premiere for “Haunted Mansion,” held on July 15 at Disneyland, will take place even if there is a SAG-AFTRA strike. If the actors guild does call a strike, the premiere will pivot to a “fan event,” according to a source. It is the first major world premiere set to take place after the strike deadline. The stars of the movie, including LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Chase W. Dillon, Daniel Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hasan Minhaj, Marilu Henner and Lindsay Lamb, would no longer be able to take part in the festivities in the case of a strike.

Academy Gold Rising career development program. Gold Rising teams up with several studios and organizations to aid students and young professionals from underrepresented communities develop their careers in the film industry. This year’s slate includes 90 students and 21 film and entertainment companies. The eight-week program kicked off on Wednesday with a two-day orientation process, consisting of a presentation on the Academy Film Archive and tours of the Margaret Herrick Library and Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.  The Gold Rising program will commence with a graduation ceremony on August 10. After completion of the program, participants will be matched up with an Academy member for an eight-month mentorship experience. 

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story – check it out below.Created by Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy), the Netflix prequel series follows young Queen Charlotte’s (India Amarteifio and Golda Rosheuvel) rise to prominence in the late 18th century.A synopsis reads: “Young Queen Charlotte’s marriage to King George of England sparks an epic love story and transforms high society in this Bridgerton universe prequel.”Alongside Amarteifio and Rosheuvel, the show’s cast includes Arsema Thomas, Adjoa Andoh, Ruth Gemmell, Corey Mylchreest, Michelle Fairley and Sam Clemmett.After scoring the first two seasons of Bridgerton, Kris Bowers returns to provide the soundtrack for Queen Charlotte. Along with working with Jay-Z, Kanye West and Jose James, his other past credits include When They See Us, Dear White People and 2018 Oscar winner Green Book.You can stream the official score below.Like Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte features orchestral covers of pop songs throughout.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor It took the combined talent of composers Kris Bowers and Michael Abels to help filmmaker Stephen Williams ensure Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ music lives on after his life story was erased from the history books. Williams’ new film, “Chevalier” tells the story of the illegitimate son of a plantation owner and slave. Played by Kelvin Harrison Jr., Chevalier is a promising young Black musician who excels at fencing, playing the violin and wooing the court of Marie Antoinette. In dividing their tasks, Abels wrote the music for the on-camera performances while Bowers composed the film’s score.

Onyx Collective has landed a pair of documentaries including Questlove’s upcoming Sly Stone film.

Nicola Coughlan, Simone Ashley and Charithra Chandran gather up for a group photo as they arrive for Netflix’s Bridgerton FYSEE event held at Raleigh Studios on Sunday (May 15) in Los Angeles.

Netflix’s FYSEE Space’s opening night ATAS panel on Sunday night showcased Shondaland’s Bridgerton season 2 and revealed big news about Season 3.