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The premier source of entertainment news. Turn to Variety.com for timely, credible articles, reviews and analysis of film, TV, music, theater, video, gaming and movie and television production -- information vital to your showbiz career.
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Decade's big 'Survivor'
TV News: Reality show helped rewrite TV model -- Take a bow, producer Mark Burnett: "Survivor" is the most influential program of the soon-to-be-concluded decade. (There's no prize, but you seem to be doing OK.)
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Television
Survivor
Biz sees decade of tumult
Weekly: Changes in film, TV figure to spill over into the ’10s -- The new millennium began with a sigh of relief about what didn't happen: Y2K. But since then, the past decade has offered nonstop action.
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Houston critics salute 'Locker'
Award Central: Director Bigelow among pic's prizes -- "The Hurt Locker" added three more prizes to its war chest Saturday when the Houston Film Critics Society saluted helmer Kathryn Bigelow's intense drama.
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Movies
The Hurt Locker
Italy to cut pay-TV advertising airtime
International News: Messages will be reduced by a third within 3 years -- Italians will likely be seeing fewer marketing messages, after the government announced that the maximum airtime that Italo pay-TV operators can give over to advertisements will ...
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'Lost' specials to DirecTV
TV News: Prelude to final season heads for 101 channel -- On the cusp of its final season on ABC, "Lost" will get exposure on DirecTV's 101 channel in the form of six specials airing on consecutive Saturdays beginning Dec. 26.
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Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon dies
Film News: Scribe's credits include 'Alien,' 'Total Recall' -- Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon, whose credits include "Alien" and "Total Recall," has died. He was 63.
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The Misanthrope
Legit Reviews: Director Thea Sharrock has so miscast the title role that her production never achieves comic lift-off.
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All eyes on 'Avatar'
Film News: Fellow directors shower praise on Cameron -- Few will remember 2009 as one of cinema's great years but at least it ended on a dramatic note: "the most expensive movie ever made" premiering in 3D at Grauman's Chinese Theater to an audience ...
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Movies
Avatar
Mackintosh makes 'Private' public
Legit News: New tuner is based on 1984 Brit screen comedy -- Cameron Mackintosh will produce a new stage musical based on the 1984 British screen comedy, "A Private Function," originally scripted by Alan Bennett.
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Music
Britney Spears
Fix Me
Film Reviews: Ramallah-based documaker Raed Andoni delves into his own psyche and, by extension, into the mental health of Palestine in "Fix Me."
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The Bogeyman (L'uomo nero)
Film Reviews: "The Bogeyman" recycles shop-worn Italo nostalgia without giving it a fresh coat of paint.
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Italy's Susan Boyle?
Weekly International: Crix accuse show of fielding a 'Talent' lookalike -- Does Italy have "Talent"?
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Television
Susan Boyle
Decade changed film biz
Weekly Film: 3D pics, overseas auds changed gameplan -- Back in 2000, studios were flush with cash and made movies for U.S. audiences first. New Line and MGM were still players. DVDs were new and had yet to turn into Hollywood's cash cow. Watching a ...
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London crix like seeing 'Red'
Legit News: Rothko biodrama may be Broadway-bound -- Will Broadway soon be bathed in "Red?"
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Broadway workers reach agreement
Legit News: League, union hammer out three-year contract -- The threatened strike of Rialto theater service workers union SEIU Local 32BJ has been averted following an agreement reached late Thursday with the Broadway League for a tentative three-year ...
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Spanish nets form TV giant
International News: Telecinco, Prisa combine forces in billion-dollar deal -- Mediaset's Spanish broadcast network Telecinco and Spanish conglom Prisa have combined forces to create Spain's biggest TV group in a deal worth 1.05 billion ($1.5 billion). ...
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The Door (Die Tuer)
Film Reviews: Nifty little fantasy-thriller that could be even better in English-lingo remake it cries out for.
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Turner loses PR chief
TV News: Powell to leave post at year's end -- Turner Broadcasting communications chief Shirley Powell is leaving the network, effective at the start of the new year.
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Singer Yvonne King Burch dies at 89
Obituary: King Sisters member brought musical clan to showbiz -- Yvonne King Burch, who gained early fame as one of the singing King Sisters in the big-band era and later brought her extended musical clan into show business as the King Family, died on ...
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Fox flipping 'Idol' timeslot
TV News: Reality giant to air before 'Human Target' -- It looks as though Fox is flipping its Wednesday night lineup, putting reality behemoth "American Idol" at 9 p.m. and using new series "Human Target" as a lead-in.
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Television
Human Target
American Idol
ADG taps Marsh for lifetime award
Award Central: Designer won Oscars for 'Dr. Zhivago,' 'Oliver' -- Production designer Terence Marsh, who won Oscars for "Dr. Zhivago" and "Oliver," has been tapped to receive Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Movies
Academy Awards
'Avatar' grosses $3.5 million in midnight runs
Front Page Breaking Story: Fox and James Cameron's 3D epic enters box office -- Twentieth Century Fox's "Avatar" grossed $3.5 million in midnight runs from approximately 2,000 locations in a strong start for James Cameron's sweeping 3D sci-fi fantasy. ...
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Movies
James Cameron
Avatar
Disney to release 'Toy Story 3' on June 18
Film News: 3D animated sequel to receive simultaneous Imax bow -- Disney's "Toy Story 3" will receive an Imax 3D release simultaneously with its June 18 wide release.
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Movies
Toy Story 3
Disney Studios
Cameron's titanic achievement
Technology News: 'Avatar' revolutionarizes film production process -- One of the decade's last movies is likely to be one of next decade's biggest game-changers.
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Movies
Avatar
Titanic
'Moon' shines overseas
Twilight: 'Avatar' expected to eclipse vampire movie -- Summit Entertainment's vampire romance New Moon" took its last big bite out of the foreign box office over the Dec. 11-14 frame, grossing $23.2 million from 8,735 screens in 66 territories for a ...
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Celebrities
Twilight
Avatar
New Moon
Moon
Dubai outlook brightens
Film Festivals: Fest features awards, stars, announces cash influx from Abu Dhabi -- LONDON At times it felt like a tale of two fests at this year's Dubai international film fest, which unspooled Dec. 9-16.
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French soaps a washout
Weekly International: Nets dump halfhour series in favor of hourlongs -- Tough times have seen one major TV casualty in France -- daily soaps.
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Television
Soap Opera
German tale ends in court
Weekly International: Constantin lands pay out from EM.TV founders. -- German entertainment and sports licensing group Constantin Medien landed a E48 million ($70 million) windfall last week following years of litigation against the managers of its ...
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French production dips
Europe: Fewer films made in 2009 due to recession -- All is not cool in Gaul.
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Music sales took a hit
Music News: Piracy, technology send sales model back to the '50s -- Someone teleported through time from the early 1950s to 2009 would find a music business curiously similar to the landscape of 60 years ago. Few specialty record outlets. Department ...
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American musicals' comeback
Legit News: After yielding to the British, 'Producers' leads U.S. charge -- If the '00s have not been a golden age of American musicals, they most certainly represent a comeback.
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Decade of change on Great White Way
Legit News: Broadway en route to becoming $1 billion business -- The 1980s brought the rise of the imported Brit mega-musical -- think "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera."
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Music
Britney Spears
Great White
Hollywood busts the plan
Peter Bart: Show business rarely adheres to rules -- "Paranormal" crashed through the $150 million barrier recently, promptly inspiring its distributor, Paramount, to announce a new program of micro-budget pictures. The dubious conceit: That Hollywood ...
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Lost 'Star' rises
Weekly Film: German collector restores 'Trek' pilot -- Thomas Booch, head of Berlin-based distrib Magic Picture Home Entertainment, has become a hero to Trekkies around the planet after not only providing Paramount and CBS Home Entertainment with the ...
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Movies
Star Trek
Decade's wrong turns
Weekly First Look: Events prove the conventional wisdom wrong -- Hollywood is addicted to visions of the apocalypse, whether in movies like "2012" or in the pervading sense that the business is going to hell in a handbasket.
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Vidgames come of age
Technology News: Sales tripled over the decade to $21 billion -- As the decade began, the videogame industry had an image problem. Players were widely viewed as socially awkward nerds -- and games themselves were rarely taken seriously.
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TV saw many changes
Weekly TV: Decade included growth of cable and reality, and viewer control of timeslots -- Ten years ago, the "Survivor" tribe hadn't yet spoken. Jeff Zucker was the executive producer of the "Today" show. Downloads, social networking and DVRs were ...
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Television
Survivor
Videogames come of age
Videogames News: Sales tripled over the decade to $21 billion -- As the decade began, the videogame industry had an image problem. Players were widely viewed as socially awkward nerds -- and games themselves were rarely taken seriously.
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Other
Discovery topper John Ford exits Channel
Front Page Breaking Story: Clark Bunting to oversee network, Science Channel -- John Ford is out as the head of the Discovery Channel.
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John Ford out as Discovery CEO
TV News: Clark Bunting to oversee cable Channel -- John Ford is out as the head of the Discovery Channel.
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Symphony 3D buys MasterImage
International News: Fund to inject $15 million into Korean company -- U.S.-based investor Symphony 3D Holdings has acquired Korea's 3D imaging systems maker MasterImage.
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CBS tops Thursday behind new episodes
TV Ratings: 'Survivor,' 'Mentalist' play well in 18-49 demo -- Airing first-run episodes of its Thursday shows against competition made up mostly of repeats, CBS had no trouble winning the night's ratings race among viewers 18-49 and overall, ...
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Television
Survivor
The Mentalist
'FF13' sells a million units on first day
International News: A quarter of Japan's PS3 owners buy game -- Square Enix's "Final Fantasy 13" game for the PlayStation 3 console sold one million units on Thursday, its first day on sale in Japan.
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Ibermedia hands funds to 40 pics
International News: Projects include films by Trapero, Burman -- Pablo Trapero's "Carancho" and Pablo Stoll's "Tres" are among 40 co-production projects to receive coin from film fund Ibermedia.
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Cinepolis opens first theater in India
International News: Mexican exhibitor plans to build 500 screens -- Mexican movie theater chain Cinepolis launched its operations in India Friday with the opening of a four-screen multiplex in Amritsar, Punjab.
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Gothenburg reveals world premieres
International News: Lineup includes four Swedish documentaries -- The Gothenburg Film Festival, which runs Jan. 29 to Feb. 8, has selected five Swedish pics, all of which will be world preems.
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Italy restricts ad time on pay TV
International News: Airtime for commercials cut from 18% to 12% -- The maximum airtime that Italo pay TV operators can give over to advertisements will be cut by a third within three years, the government has announced.
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Showtime brings 'Sunshine'
TV News: Cabler is adapting Amy Adams starrer for series -- In his review for "Sunshine Cleaning," critic Robert Wilonsky said he thought the indie film had "the markings of a great Showtime series."
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Movies
Amy Adams
Sunshine Cleaning
A. Smith ramps up cable
TV News: Series slate includes 'Unsung,' 'Conspiracy' -- A. Smith and Co., the shingle behind Fox's "Hell's Kitchen," is looking to up its presence in the cable world.
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Television
Hell's Kitchen
Disney sets 'Manny' time
Exclusives: Kiddie spinoff program to start Jan. 25 morning -- Disney Channel has set a launch date for the short-form spinoff of its popular kids series "Handy Manny."
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