career: Last News

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief To this day, Stuart Ford’s mother would prefer that her son had used his Oxford University degrees to build a career as a top lawyer or as a member of the U.K. parliament, representing the left-leaning Labour Party.  But if the career choice of the founder of indie powerhouse AGC Studios is a source of regret to his mom, her son’s approach to life and business has every chance of making her proud.  Variety will be feting Ford with the Billion Dollar Producer honor at a May 19 cocktail receptionin Cannes.  Ford has built AGC on policies of calculated risk-taking, diversity, diversification and integrity. He’s betting that these qualities position the company well for the globalized streaming era.

Scarlett Johansson is taking a trip down memory lane.

George R.R. Martin has no patience with mini-rooms and how they make it impossible for new writers to succeed.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Joe Russo is sounding the alarm about artificial intelligence. Six days before the Writers Guild of America (WGA) called for a strike, I spoke to Joe Russo at the Los Angeles premiere of “Citadel” about his concerns regarding AI. The use of AI has become a major point of contention between the guild and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTA). “I think everyone should be scared of AI,” Russo said. “I don’t know if you’ve heard any of the Drake ‘songs’ that have been dropping on social media, but it’s here. It’s not going anywhere.” The “Avengers” director said in order for AI to work, it must be a “tool servicing us rather than us servicing the tool.”

Offscreen love. In addition to his prolific acting career, Robert De Niro has welcomed six children and adopted one more with several different partners over the years.

Ethan Shanfeld George R.R. Martin wrote another impassioned blog post about the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, doubling down on his support for the Guild while honing in on what he believes is the strike’s most pressing issue: mini rooms. Writers in Hollywood are fighting for a number of key issues, among them the dissolution of the mini-room model, which enables studios to hire fewer writers, make them as disposable as possible and divorce them from the production process, which is pivotal for compensation and career growth. As Martin puts it on his Not a Blog website, getting rid of mini rooms “is the most important of the things that the Guild is fighting for. The right to have that kind of career path. To enable new writers, young writers, and yes, prose writers, to climb the same ladder… Streamers and shortened seasons have blown the ladder to splinters.”

Hibs history maker Lewis Stevenson has penned a new deal at Easter Road - and revealed his dream to play out his career at Easter Road.

Robert De Niro is officially a father of seven!

News broke today (May 9) that Robert De Niro is now a father to seven after welcoming another baby.

Josh Heuston says modelling gave him “more confidence" to become an actor. The 26-year-old star started his career as a model and is best known these days for playing Dusty Rein in Netflix’s drama ‘Heartbreak High but explained that acting presented more of a challenge and credits his modelling experience for giving him the confidence to appear in front of the camera. He told Beauty Crew: “I think that the modelling experience gave me way more confidence in front of the camera.

Tatiana Siegel Jeremy Renner’s road to recovery prompted a partial reassembling of The Avengers.  Last month, Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans made an under-the-radar trip to Los Angeles to visit Renner, who was involved in a near-fatal accident on Jan. 1 when he was crushed by a 7-ton snowcat. The “Hawkeye” actor broke more than 30 bones and suffered orthopedic injuries and blunt chest trauma while trying to reach his nephew who was stuck in a snowdrift. “I was honestly so fucking happy to see him. I didn’t know if I was ever going to see him again,” Johansson tells Variety in a cover story about her 30-year career that includes eight Marvel movies, several of them alongside Renner. “To not only see him again but to see him thriving and in such an amazing space, mentally. He’s a very spiritual person in general and a very soulful person. And you can see that in his work. It comes through. He has such a depth to him. And I just was so happy to see that he is full of life and light, and he’s also hilarious. We laughed a lot.”

Two months later, around the same time Cosmo was cracking his first smiles, Johansson and Disney settled the suit. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Johansson’s payout reportedly eclipsed $40 million. In the history of Hollywood, the stars who have successfully sued studios are few and mostly men, from Burt Lancaster to Kevin Costner to Sylvester Stallone, with Olivia de Havilland and Elizabeth Taylor being rare exceptions.

Holidaymakers were left in tears after a TUI flight from Glasgow to Tenerife was forced to abort landing twice due to extreme turbulence.

The Demon Headmaster, has died aged 86.The news was broken with “great sadness” by his agent earlier today, who described him as a “beloved client and much-loved stage and screen actor” (via BBC). As of yet, no further details have been announced.Hardiman first rose to fame in the ‘90s, for his role in The Demon Headmaster — a CBBC series which scared a generation of kids between the period of 1996 and 1998.

Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli from "Happy Days" is the role that catapulted actor Henry Winkler to stardom and is also the one that hindered his success, leaving him in "debilitating" pain. Opening up about his time as Fonzie, Winkler admitted when the show was over after 11 seasons, so was his career, if only for a time. "There were eight or nine years at a time when I couldn't get hired because I was The Fonz, because I was typecast," he said.

Rio Ferdinand has jumped to the defence of David de Gea after the Manchester United goalkeeper's mistake in Sunday's 1-0 defeat to West Ham.

Naman Ramachandran The Cannes Film Market has launched Cannes Investors Circle, which will commence with a keynote introduction by Liesl Copland, Participant’s executive VP, content and platform strategy, who will offer her perspective on the modern media landscape. The initiative will also feature a panel discussion titled Navigating Film Finance in a Changing World that aims to offer insights on global financing and market trends in 2023 and beyond. The panelists will include Elisa Alvares, finance expert at Jacaranda Consultants; Rikke Ennis, CEO of REinvent Studios; Emilie Georges, co-founder and CEO of Paradise City; Mike Goodridge, U.K. producer at Good Chaos who is also presenting Jessica Hausner’s “Club Zero” in the festival’s official competition; with film festival consultant Wendy Mitchell moderating.

Terrence Hardiman has died aged 86, his agent has said.

Tom Hanks is backing Idris Elba to be the next James Bond. The 66-year-old actor is unequivocal in his verdict that the 'Luther' star should be granted 007's "licence to kill" and succeed Daniel Craig as the legendary spy. Hanks told the BBC: "Understand this.

Manchester United target Harry Kane has discussed his frustration at Tottenham's dismal results this season, which have seen the club thrown into disarray and fall out of contention for Champions League football.

U.S. director Harmony Korine will be heading to Switzerland this summer to receive an honorary award at the 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, running from August 2 to 12.