Odyssey Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

The Ringer and Religion of Sports have unveiled Destination NBA: A G League Odyssey as the title for their NBA G League documentary greenlighted at Amazon, announcing that the film will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide on August 8th. The companies also this afternoon debuted a first-look clip featuring projected NBA Draft lottery pick and NBA G League Ignite star, Scoot Henderson, which you can view above.

Britain's Got Talent has revealed its wildcard for the highly-anticipated 2023 final on Sunday 4 June - and it is Tonikaku. The news was announced at the start of Sunday's show, where comedian Tonikaku appeared on stage as a surprise in the opening moments.

The winner of Britain's Got Talent 2023 has been announced as Viggo Venn, with Lillianna Clifton coming in second place and Cillian O'Connor in third.The champion, who was crowned in tonight's live TV final on ITV will go on to perform in front of King Charles, and other members of the royal family at the Royal Variety Performance on November 30 2023. Tonight's show saw the final ten acts; Musa Motha, Amy Lou, Viggo Venn, Olivia Lynes, Ghetto Kids, Travis George, Malakai Bayoh, Duo Odyssey, Cillian O'Connor, and Lillianna Clifton, go head-to-head to be crowned series champ.

Britain is bracing itself for an early summer heatwave, as some parts of the country could see temperatures reach a balmy 25C in the first week of June.

The dignity of labor is explored with gentle humor and a very melancholy sense of joie de vivre in Wim Wenders’ second 2023 Cannes entry after his 3D documentary Anselm. Shot entirely in Japan, with very little English spoken, Perfect Days is an unusual film from a westerner since it does nothing to “other” a country that is often romanticized as a series of specific cultural signifiers (as in the well-meaning Lost in Translation, for example). It’s a compliment to say that Jim Jarmusch could have made it.

Guy Lodge Film Critic On the mean streets of Casablanca dartingly navigated in “Hounds,” all life is shown to be casually disposable; an actual human body, however, is another matter. Taking place over one sleepless night of mounting misfortune in the Moroccan metropolis, writer-director Kamal Lazraq’s first feature is a trim, unsparing crime tale that pits social desperation against a nagging spiritual conscience. Its gig-economy gangsters may follow almost any grisly orders for a quick buck, but are equally bound to Muslim creeds and customs, glumly shrugging off any disparity between these two authorities. Following an impoverished father-son duo as an ostensibly rote criminal errand goes bloodily awry, the film is briskly told and humidly atmospheric, though a little tonal variation wouldn’t have gone amiss amid an overriding air of hardscrabble, stomach-knotted discomfort. As its central crisis deepens and darkens, Lazraq’s script keeps teasing a gear-shift into mordant farce to which it never quite commits, leaving both the characters and the drama a bit stymied. Still, this is a notably punchy debut, both visceral and confidently cavalier in its depiction of everyday underworld brutality, with a sharp, streetlit sense of place — and just enough genre-film vigor to hook distributor interest after its Un Certain Regard premiere at Cannes.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Amazon’s highly anticipated Gaming Week officially kicked off Monday morning, and the retailer is buzzing with limited-time deals that can help any avid gamer upgrade their setup at a fraction of the cost The promo week, which runs May 22 – 28, cuts a swath through the most reputable brands, from PC and Razer to Samsung and Sony.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Mixed martial arts thriller “Glass Dragon” has been picked up for international sales by MPI Media. The company is launching the title at the Cannes Market. The film, now in post-production, is produced by Asia-facing Los Angeles company Eleven Arts and RE:Anime, a firm that adapts beloved anime series into captivating live-action films. “Glass Dragon” stars Miki Mizuno (“Bayside Shakedown”), a martial artist and single mother who has to accelerate her life plans when things go badly wrong for her and her daughter. The picture also stars the veteran martial arts film star Mark Dacascos (“Cradle 2 the Grave,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “John Wick 3,” “Iron Chef America”). Other acting credits got to Maryjun Takahashi (“Rurouni Kenshin”) and Kiki Sukezane (“Westworld,” “Lost in Space”). 

Brock Media Pushes Into Podcasts

EXCLUSIVE: Drew Pearce’s upcoming action thriller, Cooler, starring Dave Bautista, which we first told you about, is launching sales at the Cannes Market, we hear from sources.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Studiocanal is releasing a newly re-mastered version of David Lynch’s 2006 surreal mystery drama “Inland Empire,” which is set to hit theaters in the U.K. and France later this month. Supervised by Lynch, the new 4K master was undertaken by The Criterion Collection with the support of Studiocanal. It features 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio and uncompressed stereo soundtracks, newly remastered by Lynch and original rerecording mixers Dean Hurley and Ron Eng. The first digitally shot feature from the famed director of such cult works as “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive,” “Inland Empire” stars Laura Dern as Nikki, a once-celebrated actress who lands the lead role in a film by director Kingsley Stewart (Jeremy Irons) alongside co-star Devon (Justin Theroux). The production is a remake of a work filmed several years ago but never finished because the main actors died before shooting wrapped.

Harry Styles has shared a new visual for "Satellite," a song from the English pop star's 2022 album Harry's House. The new clip comes from director Aube Perrie, who worked with Styles on the "Music For A Sushi Restaurant" video.

With things starting to warm up following the recent cold snap, now is the perfect time to get out and see the best of what Scotland has to offer.

Joaquin Phoenix is jokingly making a public service announcement to those people buying tickets to go watch him in his latest film Beau is Afraid.

Joaquin Phoenix has said that he once “just started screaming” on the set of Beau Is Afraid to prepare for a specific scene.Directed by Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar), the black comedy horror film follows mild-mannered but paranoid-ridden Beau Wasserman (Phoenix) who embarks on a surreal odyssey to return home to his mother.Speaking during an A24 podcast interview (via Variety), Phoenix said he was left “spinning in a panic” because Aster wanted to shoot an intense scene where Beau takes a bath in a single take. In order to feel “free” while filming the scene, the actor resorted to screaming to “fully humiliate” himself beforehand.“I’m a little reluctant to say this, because it sounds so fucking stupid and just like actor shit, but I remember… what I did before was I did the scene, but I wasn’t really volatile,” Phoenix recalled.“I was still nervous. I was still… In some way, I was controlling a little bit.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Joaquin Phoenix “just started screaming” on the set of Ari Aster’s “Beau Is Afraid” before filming one of the nightmare comedy’s most intense scenes. During a podcast interview for A24, the Oscar winner and Aster remembered filming a scene in which the eponymous Beau is taking a bath. Aster wanted to shoot the scene in one take, which got Phoenix “spinning in a panic.” The actor said it was important he felt “free” enough while filming so the scene could “reveal itself however it does when it does.” “I’m a little reluctant to say this, because it sounds so fucking stupid and just like actor shit, but I remember… what I did before was I did the scene, but I wasn’t really volatile. I was still nervous. I was still… In some way, I was controlling a little bit. I was controlling what people thought about me. I didn’t want to let people down. And it was like new crew were early on set. And I remember just realizing I had to do something that was fucking stupid, and I just so didn’t want to do it, but I just knew.”

Beau Is Afraid posted the top per-screen average of the year so far and the best limited opening for distributor A24 since Uncut Gems, grossing an estimated $320,396 at four locations in New York and LA for a hefty per-screen average of $80K+ in sold-out shows on both coasts. (Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler had a $105k PSA on five screens in 2019 — a limited-opening record at the time.)

The new Ari Aster film Beau Is Afraid, starring Joaquin Phoenix, is now playing in IMAX theaters in NY and LA ahead of a wide release next weekend.

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” in theaters now. With “The Super Mario Bros Movie,” Mario has officially entered Hollywood, as the adventurous mustachioed plumber takes on Bowser alongside Princess Peach for the first time on the big screen.

Mariah Carey was one of the celeb guests who stepped out to support the new A24 movie Beau Is Afraid at the L.A. premiere!

Joaquin Phoenix and director Ari Aster have brought their new film Beau Is Afraid to L.A.

love—requires a dedicated session with his blunt therapist (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who abruptly asks Beau, “Do you wish she was dead?” (Of course he doesn’t. Or so he says.)And that same scene is soul-crushingly sad because the poor guy who worries about everything—from accidentally swallowing a little mouthwash to a stray spider terrorizing his derelict building—can’t even get a word as simple as “love” out at first try.

At a surprise New York City screening, or rather unveiling, of Beau Is Afraid a few days ago, the Q&A moderator, actress Emma Stone, reportedly began by asking writer-director Ari Aster, “Are you okay, Ari?”

EXCLUSIVE: Four-time Emmy nominee Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey, Godless) has joined the cast of Here, Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of Richard McGuire’s graphic novel from Miramax.

Joaquin Phoenix kept a low profile at a screening for his highly anticipated new movie Beau Is Afraid.

UPDATED, 9:22 A.M.: Warner Bros has unveiled the latest trailer for Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated Barbie film, which bows in theaters on July 21.

Ethan Shanfeld As Nintendo takes its shot at the box office with “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” the first animated film featuring the iconic mustachioed plumber, the gaming company has been coy about revealing what’s next for the Super Mario video game franchise. But while Shigeru Miyamoto — the legendary video game designer, Nintendo fellow and self-proclaimed “Mario’s mom” — won’t say where Mario is running next, he is forthright about where he won’t be: your smartphone. Sitting down with Variety for this week’s cover story on the making of the film, Miyamoto said firmly, “Mobile apps will not be the primary path of future Mario games.” After two moderately successful but dwindling iOS games, plus another that shuttered after two years, Nintendo is pulling Mario away from the mobile market. Released in 2016, Super Mario Run grossed $60 million in its first year, while 2019’s Mario Kart Tour has generated $300 million (compared to Mario Kart 8’s $3 billion and counting). Without explanation, Nintendo removed 2019’s Dr. Mario World from app markets two years after its release.

Academy Award-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix is a man committed to his craft, able to garner attention on and off-screen. He certainly did just that when he fainted while filming a scene with Patti LuPone in his new film, "Beau is Afraid." In a Q&A at a surprise screening for the upcoming movie, writer-director Ari Aster revealed that Phoenix actually ruined a shot by passing out. "There was a scene that was very intense for Patti, and it was a shot that was on Patti, it was not on him and all of a sudden he fell out of frame," Aster said of Phoenix.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Emma Stone was blunt. “Are you okay, man?” she asked Ari Aster after a surprise screening of his latest film, “Beau Is Afraid” at Brooklyn’s Alamo Drafthouse on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Audiences around the country may be asking variations of the same question after they emerge from the occasionally creepy, often hilarious and deeply weird horror-comedy. It’s a movie about a neurotic man (Joaquin Phoenix) with serious mommy issues, who must endure a phantasmagoric odyssey as he labors to get home following a family tragedy. Over the course of his journey he will be kidnapped by a suburban couple (Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan), stalked by a hulking vet with PTSD, menaced by a paint-drinking teenage girl and embraced by an experimental theater troupe. There’s also an animated sequence, as well as a recurring gag involving Phoenix’s distended testicles, plus a sex scene with Parker Posey that may rank among the wackiest ever committed to film. Oh, and did we mention the whole thing is three hours long?