Jennifer Maas Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A new “Astro Bot” game will be launching on PlayStation 5 on Sept. 6, Sony’s PlayStation revealed Thursday during its virtual “State of Play” presentation featuring upcoming titles.

William Earl As Variety expands its coverage of gaming, Jennifer Maas has been promoted to senior business writer, TV and video games. She will lead the entertainment news brand’s heightened coverage of the video game industry with special emphasis on the convergence of game content and IP with TV shows, movies, books and other media. With the promotion, Maas will drive enterprise reporting, features and breaking news coverage of gaming and related subjects, in addition to her duties covering TV business news.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery has increased the price for the ad-free Max streaming plans just ahead of HBO’s “House of the Dragon” Season 2 premiere on June 16. Beginning Tuesday (June 4), Max’s ad-free tier in the U.S.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Lauren Paget has been named senior vice president of Littleton Road Productions, headed by “Dr. Death” and “The Girl From Plainville” writer Patrick Macmanus and producing partner Kelly Funke.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Chip and Joanna Gaines‘ beloved home renovation series “Fixer Upper” is turning 10 and the couple is celebrating with the launch of a new special edition season, “Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse.” Premiering Sunday on the Gaines’ Magnolia Network (part owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) and HGTV, the original home of the “Fixer Upper” franchise, and streaming same day on Max and Discovery+, the six-episode “Lakehouse” follows Chip and Jo as they take on a unique mid-century modern lakehouse flip near Lake Waco, a new neighborhood for the home reno couple based in Waco, Texas. “Chip found a set of plans in this lakehouse that showed the house was built in 1965 and the husband loved mid-century modern style and the wife loved that Spanish revival style,” Joanna Gaines tells Variety.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Games has hired video game company 2K’s chief marketing officer Melissa Bell as its new executive vice president of global marketing. In her new role, Bell will oversee all aspects of the Warner Bros.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Fallout 76″ has found a whole new world of players thanks to the popularity of Amazon’s “Fallout” TV series. The Bethesda Game Studios title, which first launched in October 2018, crossed 20 million downloads and plays as of Wednesday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Fourteen seasons in, Gordon Ramsay‘s Fox cooking competition “MasterChef” has found a way to reinvent itself once more: pitting generation against generation in a battle that will prove whether baby boomers, Gen X, millennials or Gen Z cooks have culinary supremacy. Debuting Wednesday at 8 p.m., “MasterChef” Season 14 will begin with the audition rounds for the contestants that qualify as millennials (a group that usually encompasses those born between 1980-1994), followed by episodes devoted to whittling down the boomers (1946-1964), Gen X (1965-1979) and Gen Z (1995-2009) competitors.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Eric Kripke is gonna catch ’em all. “The Boys” showrunner has slowly but surely been casting the stars of the iconic CW series “Supernatural,” which Kripke created, on his R-rated Amazon Prime Video superhero drama. And he’s got one “very big one” he’s eyeing to bring on in Season 5, even if it’s for “a single episode” — Jared Padalecki, a.k.a.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The “Call of Duty” franchise is expanding. Microsoft’s Activision revealed new title “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” Thursday, along with a teaser for the previously unannounced first-person-shooter game. Though no other details were revealed, the game developer promises more info to come out of Xbox Games Showcase in June, which will be followed by a “Black Ops 6 Direct” presentation.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The Muppets Take “Disney Speedstorm”: Kermit the Frog is joining the free-to-play kart racing game as a mid-season racer for Season 7. The game features a “hero-based racing system where Disney and Pixar heroes and villains are reimagined as high speed road warriors with race tracks inspired by their unique worlds.” “Disney Speedstorm” initially launched with characters including Captain Jack Sparrow, Mickey Mouse, Sulley, and the Beast among its racers, and has continued to grow its lineup with new racers and tracks added to the game on a regular basis.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Yulin Kuang‘s new novel “How to End a Love Story,” which was released April 9. Yulin Kuang was deep into her romance-novel era before she released her own first attempt at the genre, “How to End a Love Story,” last month. The debut author, who has thus far spent her career focused on TV and film writing, actually started penning her book while in the middle of adapting two rom-coms by best-selling author Emily Henry: “Beach Read” (which Kuang will also direct) and “People We Meet on Vacation.” “How to End a Love Story” follows the straight-laced, successful author Helen and charming former jock Grant, who fall in love while working together in a TV writers’ room that is adapting Helen’s YA book series.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A new study has found that while stress relief is still self-reported as the top reason people are playing video games, 46% of gamers now list “creation, imagination and self-expression” as their main motivations for gaming. That stat is up 10% from last year, per entertainment website and online fan community Fandom‘s fourth annual “Inside Gaming” report.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Wake up, fans of “The Sandman,” we’ve got some Season 2 news for you: The Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s epic graphic novel series has cast the final three siblings in the “Endless Family” of Tom Sturridge’s Dream — Esmé Creed-Miles as Delirium, Adrian Lester as Destiny and Barry Sloane as “The Prodigal.” In “The Sandman” comic book series, The Prodigal is the estranged Endless sibling named Destruction, but Netflix has taken care to label Sloane’s role as “The Prodigal,” which is the way the character is referred to throughout the first volumes of the story. The three new castings point to “The Sandman” Season 2 covering the graphic novel’s iconic installment, “Season of Mists.” The trio of new “The Sandman” Season 2 actors will join the Endless siblings returning from Season 1: Death (Kirby), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), Despair (Donna Preston) and Dream, The Sandman himself.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Grand Theft Auto 6″ has been slated for a fall 2025 release by Rockstar Games. The news was announced Thursday when Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive reported its fourth-quarter and full fiscal year 2024 earnings, revealing the company posted a $2.9 billion loss for the Jan. 1-March 31 period.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Microsoft‘s Activision has launched a new internal, standalone studio with one mission: creating a new narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise. Titled Elsewhere Entertainment, the studio will be headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, with additional staff in the United States.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The actors behind the iconic Weasley Twins will be around to stir up trouble on Food Network‘s new “Harry Potter“-themed competition, “Wizards of Baking.” Variety has learned exclusively that James and Oliver Phelps, who played Fred and George Weasley throughout Warner Bros.’ eight-film “Harry Potter” franchise, will be hosting “Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking.” The project, which will air on Food Network and be available to stream on Max, was announced by Warner Bros Discovery U.S. networks chief Kathleen Finch during the company’s upfront presentation in New York City Wednesday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery kept up with TV upfronts week’s biggest trend at their presentation out of The Theater at Madison Square Garden Tuesday: Promoting not just its TV slate as a prime ad-buying opportunity — but also its film franchises. First up from CEO David Zaslav’s team, WB Discovery revenue and strategy chief Bruce Campbell addressed the Madison Avenue crowd following a sizzle featuring top WBD IP and brands across film and TV series.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Food Network has a new magical treat in store for viewers this holiday season: The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned cable channel has ordered a baking competition inspired by the beloved “Harry Potter” franchise.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The theme of Disney‘s 2024 upfront presentation to advertisers Tuesday was “connections” — and not just because of the running bit started by “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Rob McElhenney, which involved their constant replaying of a five-second ad spot that said “Connections!” with a Disneyified logo and voiceover. No, the symbol of unity across Disney’s brands was made up of a slew of announcements from Marvel, and about such other high-wattage projects as “Star Wars,” “The Bear,” “Only Murders in the Building,” the “Wizards of Waverly Place” sequel series, “9-1-1,” Ryan Murphy’s new slate of FX titles and more franchises with intersecting talent. Disney kicked off the event when Oscar-winning “Poor Things” star Emma Stone introduced the Mouse House’s big boss, Bob Iger — a job like that would traditionally go to a top ABC star.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A sequel to Amazon’s “Road House” movie is in the works with Jake Gyllenhaal reprising his leading role as Dalton. While Amazon is keeping quiet on any other details for now, it still made sure to give the news of the high-profile project it’s due with Amazon MGM Studio chief Jennifer Salke revealing it at the top of its first-ever upfront presentation to advertisers Tuesday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A sequel to Amazon’s “Road House” movie is in the works. Per Amazon MGM Studios, the first film “has attracted nearly 80 million worldwide viewers to-date.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Game developers that have worked on Sid Meier’s “Civilization,” “XCOM” and “The Sims” have launched their own life sim-focused venture, Midsummer Studios, with backing from investors including Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions. Founded by Firaxis Games vets Jake Solomon (creative director) and Will Miller (game director), as well as chief operating officer and chief financial officer Nelsie Birch, Midsummer launches with $6 million raised in seed funding led by Transcend Fund, along with Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Fund, Krafton and Day Zero Productions.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer When NBCUniversal kicks off TV’s traditional week of upfront presentations on Monday, picket-free sidewalks outside Radio City Music Hall will be a sight for sore eyes following last year’s noisy protests in the first weeks of what proved to be the nation’s “hot labor summer.” Hosting a programming presentation at a megawatt New York City venue like Radio City or Javits Center is stressful enough. Executives are eager to return to business as usual in wooing Madison Avenue.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Nebula is aiming to break into the big-league movie biz with the launch of Nebula Motion Pictures, the new studio arm of the creator-community-focused indie streaming service, and tapping director and cinematographer Valentina Vee as the company’s director of motion pictures. Under her new overall deal, which marks the first pact of this kind for Nebula, Vee will move in-house at Nebula and focus on the formation of the new film studio alongside Nebula Production vice president Trenton Waterson, an alum of Marvel Studios, to build and scale Nebula Pictures.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Netflix is teaming up with Roblox to launch its own “digital theme park” on the online gaming platform. Dubbed “Nextworld,” the web-based universe will feature characters and content from Netflix IP including “Stranger Things,” “One Piece,” “Cobra Kai” and “Rebel Moon.” The offering debuts in early access Wednesday on Roblox.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Creator of “The Walking Dead” franchise Skybound Entertainment has tapped Activision Blizzard vet Kaleb Ruel as vice president of marketing for its in-house video game studio. During his tenure at Activision Blizzard, Ruel was a key part of the record-breaking launch of “Diablo IV,” which marked the fastest-selling game in Blizzard’s history at $666 million in sales within its first five days.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. will release the first of its new batch of “The Lord of the Rings” films in 2026, which will focus on Andy Serkis’s Gollum. Original “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy filmmaker Peter Jackson and his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are producing the movie and “will be involved every step of the way” on the movie, Warner Bros.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer New transmedia company Iconic Arts launched Tuesday with $3.1 million in financing at a $20 million pre-seed valuation. The entertainment studio boasts support from screenwriter Eric Roth, Grammy winning artist Will.i.am and exec vets of Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment and JP Morgan.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Microsoft‘s Xbox will shut down four studios run by its Bethesda Softworks publisher, including Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Studios, Tango Gameworks and Roundhouse Games. Xbox Game Studios chief Matt Booty announced the restructuring in a memo to staff Tuesday, writing that the closures were “grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades.” “We are making these tough decisions to create capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games,” Booty wrote.