Schools: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: Peyton List has signed with Gersh for representation in all areas.

After Adolescence shot to the top of Netflix‘s most-watched charts, the streaming service spent some of the weekend answering questions about how the searing Stephen Graham series was made.

Siddhant Adlakha On the verge of graduating high school, two cisgender boys pretend to be transgender to get into the girl’s locker room. It sounds like a ferocious right wing fever dream (not all that different from the plot of “Lady Ballers,” the hatemongering Daily Wire sports comedy).

Naman Ramachandran In a deal unveiled at Hong Kong FilMart, Korean filmmaker July Jung’s emotionally charged drama-thriller “Next Sohee” will make its long-awaited stateside theatrical debut in May through Zurty Studios and Echelon Studios, following a celebrated international festival run. The film, which closed the 2022 Cannes Critics’ Week to a seven-minute standing ovation, offers a harrowing narrative inspired by true events.

Naman Ramachandran Korea‘s Showbox has added “Taboo: The Silent Day,” a horror mystery directed by first-time helmer Park Kyung-kun, to its sales slate at Hong Kong FilMart. Shot in Indonesia with a Korean crew and cast, the film centers on a group of friends whose vacation in Bali takes a terrifying turn when they accidentally break a mysterious urn, unleashing vengeful spirits during Nyepi Day — Bali’s sacred Day of Silence, when all forms of eating, pleasure, travel and lights must cease. The film stars Kwon Da-ham (“A Killer Paradox,” “D.P.”), Choi Tae-eun (“Graceful Friends,” “Checkmate”), and Lee Jeong-hoon (“High School Love Story”).

Adolescence is one of the big new hits on Netflix, although one of the stars nearly quit the TV show.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The 3rd Annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards, hosted this year by voiceover actor Eric Bauza (whose credits include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety and Marvin the Martian) are under way at Television City in Los Angeles. Disney+’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” leads this year’s nominations, with 16 nods, including for young teen series — which it won over competitors such as Disney+’s “Goosebumps,” Netflix’s “Heartstopper,” Netflix’s “One Piece” and Roku Channel’s “The Spiderwick Chronicles.” Christian Slater won the Emmy for lead performer in a preschool, children’s or young teen program as Mulgarath in “The Spiderwick Chronicles.” Other big winners included Nickelodeon’s “Blue’s Clues & You” for preschool program, Apple TV+’s “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock” for children’s or family viewing series, and Meryl Streep for “Storyline Online” in the children’s personality category.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In the summer of 1969, a sensitive, X-rated studio movie called “Midnight Cowboy” proved a box office surprise, upending norms when it won best picture at the Oscars. Flash forward to this year, and the screwball Stripperella comedy “Anora” unexpectedly repeated that coup, demonstrating once again that the industry is capable of looking beyond stereotypes where sex workers are concerned.

Christopher Vourlias South African producer Kutlwano Ditsele’s Ten30 Pictures is developing a slate of projects to follow on the heels of the Netflix original series “GO!,” which launches globally March 21. Speaking to Variety in Johannesburg, where the streamer will host the show’s premiere on March 16, Ditsele said this is just the first step for his young production outfit, insisting he plans on turning Ten30 into “the A24 of Africa.” “The biggest thing is to have an identity that says these stories are different to what’s [already out there],” he said.

Warning: Adolescence spoilers incoming…Adolescence on Netflix is a show that stays with you for a long time after watching it. It’s a powerful, terrifying, and vitally important study on the current crisis of modern masculinity and the devastating impact it is having on the epidemic of violence against women and girls.The four-part is the brainchild of Peaky Blinders and This Is England star Stephen Graham and Joy writer Jack Thorne.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic If high school is a popularity contest — the mistaken-priorities assumption that drives writer-director Amy Wang’s SXSW-winning assimilation satire “Slanted” — then Chinese American senior Joan Huang (Shirley Chen) could be justified in ditching her heritage for a shot at being crowned prom queen. That’s the devil’s bargain Wang entertains in a provocative comedy-cum-thought-experiment that veers hard into “The Substance” territory when Joan agrees to a radical racial overhaul so thorough, Wang substitutes a different actor (Mckenna Grace) as her new persona for the rest of the movie.

Naman Ramachandran In an post-screening Q&A ahead of the Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong, filmmaker Neo Sora discussed his nominated feature “Happyend,” a contemplative exploration of fractured friendship against the backdrop of political unrest in near-future Japan. In the film, in near-future Tokyo, the threat of a catastrophic quake looms.

J. Kim Murphy Seth Rogen took a studio note personally on “Superbad,” when Sony objected to Jonah Hill‘s character using a PlayStation 2 in a scene because he was too “reprehensible.” “They were like, ‘We can’t have him interact with our products as a character, because it’s too vile a character.’ And I was like, ‘It’s based on me, that’s very insulting,'” the star said through laughs, speaking with RottenTomatoes on the red carpet for the SXSW premiere of his new Apple TV+ series “The Studio.” “Sony made the movie and we were told that Jonah Hill’s character, Seth, was so reprehensible to the studio,” Rogen said.

Tiger Woods has a new girlfriend… and she’s a former member of the Trump family.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic When Richard Dreyfuss walked onto the Mothership at the end of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” it was just about the first time — and also nearly the last — that a movie hero voluntarily went on any such ride. More familiar notes of terror and disorientation come with the UFO territory of Peter Cilella’s “Descendent.” It has “The Walking Dead’s” Ross Marquand as a working-class Southern Californian whose world comes unglued once he suffers an apparent alien abduction.

Brian Roberts, chairman-CEO and controlling shareholder of NBCUniversal parent Comcast, and the Roberts family have gifted $125 million to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to create Roberts Children’s Health, a new state-of-the-art, 20-story tower, and to revitalize the existing hospital.  

Matt Minton mminton@variety.com “Seinfeld” writer Spike Feresten is auctioning off his 1966 Triumph Bonneville T120R motorcycle, with the funds helping the continued recovery efforts in the wake of the Palisades fire. Fans hoping to own Feresten’s motorcycle have through Wednesday, March 19 to put in their bid through Bring a Trailer, with the website reading: “The auction winner will have the option of taking delivery of the motorcycle directly from Spike on the set of Spike’s Car Radio.” On Instagram, Feresten wrote in his post: “We’re honored to be part of this charity auction benefiting the Palisades Charter High School Booster Club (@palihighboosterclub) and their fire recovery efforts.” A post shared by Cabiglio Garage (@cabigliogarage) Proceeds will go to the Palisades Charter High School Booster Club in order to support recovery efforts in the Palisades, one of many places in Southern California devastated by the wildfires back in January.

The Masked Singer is back!

As part of our third annual series—which spotlights —we sat down with Sofie Pavitt, celebrity aesthetician and founder of two-year-old skincare brand Sofie Pavitt Face. With this series, we're committed to giving female founders who own 51% or more of their business a platform.

Poker Face is coming back!

Aimee Lou Wood portrays the role of Chelsea on season three of HBO’s The White Lotus and fans are absolutely loving her performance.