Nicholas Britell: Last News

Ilia Malinin is making history with his incredible figure skating routine!

David Benedict “Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it.” OK, that’s the wrong play since it’s a line from “Macbeth,” but it best sums up Jonathan Bailey’s performance in the new London production of “Richard II”: The actor cranks up several gears the moment his character is forced by usurper Henry Bullingbrook to give up the throne of England for a life of imprisonment in the second half of director Nicholas Hytner’s staging of Shakespeare’s history play. But the fact that Bailey takes time to catch fire is not entirely his fault, since neither Shakespeare nor Hytner make life easy for him.

Oscars 2025 have been revealed – see the full lists below.Last night (December 17), the Academy announced the shortlists for several categories for the 2025 awards ceremony. Among the revealed lists are Best Original Song and Best Original Score.The shortlist for Best Original Song includes songs that were written specifically for the films they appear in.

While last year’s Oscar original song short list was dominated by pop stars such as Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and Olivia Rodrigo, this year’s lineup is filled with several ditties from musically themed movies such as Emila Perez, Moana 2, The Lion King, Piece by Piece to name a few with Oscar vets such as Diane Warren, Nicholas Britell and more eyeing a potential return to the Dolby Theatre on March 2, 2025.

Disney‘s “Mufasa: The Lion King” have started pouring in on social media, and members of the press are roaring with excitement over the prequel to the 2019 photorealistic remake of “The Lion King.” “‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ is the perfect prequel,” wrote Variety‘s senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay. “So beautifully crafted.

EXCLUSIVE: CAA has signed 3x Oscar nominated and Emmy winning Succession composer Nicholas Britell.

EXCLUSIVE: Saoirse Ronan, a four-time Oscar nominee, has been earning an entirely new set of props for her performance in Blitz, the latest feature from British filmmaker Steve McQueen. 

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Yes, that is Saoirse Ronan singing in Steve McQueen’s “Blitz.” In the World War II drama, now streaming on AppleTV+, Ronan plays a young mother, Rita, searching for her young son who has been sent away and gone missing. In one scene, Rita who works at a bomb-making factory, gets up to sing a wartime tune “Winter Coat” in front of her co-workers. Ronan is tipped to be in the running for best supporting actress, but landing the role was not that simple.

Jam frontman Paul Weller “was doubtful” about starring in his new World War II drama Blitz, but ultimately “trusted” the director.The film receives its world premiere at the opening night of the London Film Festival on Wednesday (October 9), and will then go into a limited cinematic release in the UK and US on November 1.The Oscar-winning director (12 Years a Slave, Shame, Widows) has cast newcomer Elliot Heffernan as the film’s protagonist, a nine-year-old boy that is sent from London for his safety as German bombs rain down on the city, but the boy is determined to return home.Saoirse Ronan plays his mother, while the film also stars Kathy Burke, Stephen Graham and Harris Dickinson, as well as musicians Weller and Benjamin Clementine.In a new interview with Variety, McQueen has spoken about his choice to cast the Modfather in his first major film role. “With Paul, I just thought there was an authenticity to his face,” the director said.“He looks like a person from that time.

American teenager Ilia Malinin made history, landing six quads to win the World Figure Skating Championship.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winner Adam McKay is at it again.

Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film Joe Hisaishi – “The Boy and the Heron”Ludwig Göransson – “Oppenheimer”Laura Karpman – “American Fiction”Robbie Robertson – “Killers of the Flower Moon”Anthony Willis – “Saltburn” Outstanding Original Score for an Independent Film Jon Batiste – “American Symphony”Mica Levi – “The Zone of Interest”Fabrizio Mancinelli, Richard M. Sherman – “Mushka”Daniel Pemberton – “Ferrari”John Powell – “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” Outstanding Original Score for a Television Production Nicholas Britell – “Succession”Natalie Holt – “Loki”Martin Phipps – “The Crown”Carlos Rafael Rivera – “Lessons in Chemistry”Gustavo Santaolalla – “The Last of Us” Outstanding Original Title Sequence for a Television Production Chanda Dancy – “Lawmen: Bass Reeves”Nainita Desai – “The Deepest Breath”Kevin Kiner – “Ahsoka”Atli Örvarsson – “Silo”Carlos Rafael Rivera – “Lessons in Chemistry” Outstanding Original Song for a Dramatic or Documentary Visual Media Production Jon Batiste, Dan Wilson- “It Never Went Away” – “American Symphony”Nicholas Britell, Taura Stinson – “Slip Away” – “Carmen”Sharon Farber, Noah Benshea – “Better Times” – “Jacob the Baker”Lenny Kravitz – “Road to Freedom” – “Rustin”Olivia Rodrigo, Dan Nigro – “Can’t Catch Me Now” – “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or Musical Visual Media Production Jack Black, John Spiker, Eric Osmond, Michael Jelenic, Aaron Horvath – “Peaches” – “The Super Mario Bros Movie”Heather McIntosh, Allyson Newman, Taura Stinson – “All About Me” – “The L Word: Generation Q”Billie Eilish O’Connell, Finneas O’Connell – “What Was I Made For?” – “Barbie”Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt – “I’m Just Ken” – “Barbie”Diane Warren

Fortress Talent Management, a leading agency for composers and music supervisors, has promoted Jake Kozarec to partner.

Emmy-winning producer and director Mark Mylod has been with Succession for all four seasons, as has composer Nicholas Britell, who won an Emmy for the iconic theme of the series marking the three-time Oscar nominee’s first TV show. However, it was the stunner of a Episode 3 in the series’ final season, “Connor’s Wedding,” that was unlike anything they had tackled before on the show, and it presented unique challenges.

Celebrating television might feel like a wasted effort right now, especially since 11,500 writers and 160,000 actors are walking the picket lines for the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. But it would be unfair to overlook the extraordinary work of so many Emmy-worthy creatives, even if the ongoing dispute between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers prevents writers and actors from talking about the very series that got them a ticket to the 75th annual Primetime Emmy Awards in the first place. Sadly, everyone will have to wait until January 2024 to see who will accept their just rewards. But this year’s Contenders Television: The Nominees virtual livestream event that kicks off Saturday at 10 a.m. PT will certainly make it worth the wait.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor When Emmy nominations were announced on July 12, artisans in the craft categories made a splash in more ways than one — some landed multiple nominations in several categories, others inched closer to achieving EGOT status and many received first-time recognition. Here, Variety looks at some of the contenders in the Creative Art categories. Editor Stephanie Filo landed three nominations this year in two different categories.

Jon Burlingame Despite all the musical superstars who entered this year’s Emmy competition, only one – Ed Sheeran – managed to score when the 75th annual Emmy Award nominations were announced Wednesday. Sheeran was nominated (along with co-writers Max Martin and Foy Vance) for the song “A Beautiful Game” for the season 3 finale of “Ted Lasso,” one of two songs from the popular Apple TV+ series that made it into the music-and-lyrics category. Emmy’s 550-member music peer group ignored the original songs entered by Dolly Parton, David Byrne, Steve Martin, Kid Cudi, Donald Glover and Lainey Wilson, as well as those from such Oscar-winning tunesmiths as Alan Menken, Steven Schwartz, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood, prosthetic makeup artist Barrie Gower, and composers Hans Zimmer, Nicholas Britell and Danny Elfman were among the industry heavyweights who landed Creative Arts Emmy nominations on Wednesday morning. Four-time Oscar winner Atwood landed her second Emmy nomination in the outstanding contemporary costumes for Tim Burton’s “Wednesday.” Speaking about her work on the show and about recreating the icon Morticia Addams’ costumes, Atwood said, “We reinvented look with this silver fabric on the side, which was bonded to the black, twisted and sewn over. The dress had a more contemporary shape to it. I think we honored the previous versions of Morticia that had come before.

Jon Burlingame Music has always been an integral part of the “Star Wars” universe, dating back to the John Williams scores for the original movie trilogy. So will Emmy voters recognize one, two or all three of the recent “Star Wars” TV series in the scoring categories? Vying for consideration: the 12-part “Andor,” with music by Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated Nicholas Britell (“Succession”); the six-part “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” with a new theme by Williams and score by English composer Natalie Holt (“Loki”); and the eight-part third season of “The Mandalorian,” with music by Joseph Shirley. All aired on Disney+. Britell spent more than two years on “Andor,” the backstory of “Rogue One” hero Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), including several months creating music that was played on the set during filming – from the Time Grappler’s hammer-banging signals on Ferrix to the alien electronica in the clubs on Morlana and the amateur funeral band playing a dirge for Cassian’s mother in the finale.

Melissa Barrera, at first, was hesitant to sign onto a film like Carmen. "I'm always very careful about coming onto a project that touches upon immigration, because I'm so used to the stereotypes," says the Mexican actor, who first moved to the US to study musical theatre at New York’s Tisch School of the Arts. "I'm so used to the narrative always being violence and struggle.

Thania Garcia Composer Nicholas Britell, who has scored films for Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight,” “If Beale Street Could Talk”) and Adam McKay (“The Big Short,” “Vice,” “Don’t Look Up”), as well as HBO’s “Succession,” has inked a new label services deal with Secretly Distribution. The Emmy-winning composer, pianist and producer collaborated with Secretly to release “Succession: Season 4 (HBO Original Series Soundtrack)” on global streaming services — just hours after the highly-anticipated series finale aired — via the composer’s newly launched Lake George Music Group imprint. “It has long been a dream of mine to release music through my own label, and I’m tremendously excited to have the final season of ‘Succession’ as our label’s first release,” said Britell in a statement. “Lake George Music Group is proud to partner with the team at Secretly.”