Todd Longwell: Last News

Todd Longwell “Impeachment: American Crime Story” costume designer Meredith Markworth-Pollack didn’t meet Monica Lewinsky until near the end of the shoot for the FX limited series. But from the beginning, the one-time White House intern, who also served as a producer on the project, provided production with a wealth of photographs accompanied by detailed notes and some original outfits from her personal wardrobe.

Todd Longwell Will.i.am has a long list of accomplishments as a member of the mega-platinum hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas (“Imma Be,” “Boom Boom Pow,” “I Gotta Feeling”) and a songwriter and producer for superstars including Michael Jackson, Rihanna, Nicky Minaj, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and U2. But in his conversation with Variety senior entertainment and crafts editor Carolyn Giardina at today’s Variety Summit at CES 2025 at the Aria in Las Vegas, he focused on his innovative work as a tech entrepreneur, most notably as founder and CEO of fyi.ai.Will.i.am spent the bulk of his time on stage giving a demonstration of the fyi.ai app, billed as “an AI-powered productivity tool designed to serve the creative community and beyond.”On Monday at CES, will.i.am appeared at LG’s press conference to introduce the line of audio products he developed as the “experiential architect” of the company’s new “xboom by will.i.am” brand, including Bluetooth speakers that use AI to automatically adjust their sound to emphasize the melody, rhythm or voice.Will.i.am told Giardina that regulations and governance for AI is needed as soon as possible, but he’s not scared by the technology.“I’m not worried about AI making music because it’s making music differently than what I need to make music for,” he said.

Todd Longwell Producer William Selig and director Francis Boggs came west from Chicago in 1909 to establish the first Los Angeles-based movie studio in a neighborhood that is today known as Echo Park. By 1916, 60% of the films made in the U.S.

Todd Longwell Charles D. King has an impressive list of accomplishments, including an Oscar nomination for best picture for his 2021 feature “Judas and the Black Messiah.” But his proudest moment came when he told his young sons that he was quitting WME, where he was the first Black partner, to launch Macro, a multi-platform media company amplifying the voices and perspectives of people of color. “They said to me, ‘Dad is going to be a boss!’ and started jumping up and down on their bed,” recalls King.

Todd Longwell From the majestic-but-aged environs inhabited by the British royals Netflix’s in “The Crown” and the decadent sun-drenched luxury of the San Domenico Palace resort in Taormina, Sicily, in HBO’s “The White Lotus” to the foreboding Ontario wilderness where a girls’ soccer team is stranded in Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” the locations used in this year’s Emmy-nominated dramas loom so large they can be viewed as characters unto themselves that interact with the performers and help shape the narrative. It’s especially true of the role Albuquerque, N.M., plays in AMC’s “Better Call Saul.” There’s no telling if the series would even exist if creator Vince Gilligan had gotten his way back in the mid-2000s and the studio suits at Sony agreed to let him use Riverside, Calif., as the setting for its predecessor “Breaking Bad” (2008-2013), which established the “Saul” characters and their dramatic universe.

Todd Longwell Back in 2017, Kevin King was looking to retire from ABS Payroll, the company he founded in 1985 to service independent productions, and hand the business off to his son Kris. He invited BondIt Media Capital co-founders Matthew Helderman (above, left) and Luke Taylor (above, right) to lunch. Their production company Buffalo8 had been an ABS client, and when the duo launched BondIt in 2013, the King family participated in its first round of financing. Now, King was offering BondIt the opportunity to return the favor and invest in ABS. “Kris was running the day-to-day, and his father wanted him to be surrounded with executive-level or MBA-minded support, as opposed to a scenario where he hired an investment bank and sold the business, and his son would likely be pushed out,” says Helderman.