News

As part of its strategy to attract the next generation of media consumers iHeartMedia is partnering with Zigazoo, a kid-centric social video platform dedicated to fostering healthy online interactions and digital literacy.

Zigazoo Kids, which serves children under 13, is the largest social network for Generation Alpha — but the company also has a Gen-z-focused app for ages 13 and up. The platforms aim to make screen time “healthier, safer and more creative” and are backed by the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, Serena Williams, Charli & Dixie D’Amelio and the NBA. They’ve also attracted brands including Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, Amazon, WWE, Penguin Random House, Apple TV+ and Netflix.

Through their collaboration the two companies will look to combine the power of iHeart’s music and podcasting portfolio and Zigazoo’s young content creators.

“Welcoming iHeartMedia as a strategic investor and partner marks an inspiring new chapter for Zigazoo,” said Zigazoo CEO and Founder Zak Ringelstein.

Richard Fleischer’s Biblical epic is a class act all the way, and one of producer Dino De Laurentiis’s greatest accomplishments. Anthony Quinn’s guilty, perplexed bandit survives and subsists but never understands the importance of the man crucified in his place; the view of early Christianity is respectful and free of pious clichés. It’s an excellent image of the ancient world, with gladiator scenes that are possibly the best ever. Fleisher does exceedingly well with the enormous sets and a well-chosen international cast: Ernest Borgnine, Valentina Cortese, Vittorio Gassman, Katy Jurado, Arthur Kennedy, Silvana Mangano, Jack Palance.

Barabbas

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 132

1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 137 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 39.95

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Katy Jurado, Harry Andrews, Vittorio Gassman, Norman Wooland, Valentina Cortese, Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine, Arnoldo Foa’, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Payne, Douglas Fowley, Robert Hall, Joe Robinson, Friedrich von Ledebur,...

Ascap has announced the org’s 22nd annual showcase series at the Sundance Film Festival, with a lineup of artists that includes Spinal Tap’s Derek Smalls, the Bird and the Bee, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Joseph Arthur, Barry Zito, Zz Ward and Matt Berninger, the member of the National who’s come into his own as a film composer with scores like “The Two Popes.”

The Ascap Music Cafe runs daily for nearly the entirety of the film festival, from Jan. 24-31, with music starting at 2 p.m. each day and all performances free to badgeholders over 21. The performance space will be set up at 751 Main Street in Park City.

Additionally, Ascap will throw an invite-only cocktail party for composers and filmmakers in the middle of the festival, on Monday, January 27. The performing rights organization is trumpeting dozens of composers who scored films in this year’s program, among them Hans Zimmer,...

Justin Simien, the creator and director of “Dear White People,” has been tapped to direct an untitled project at Warner Bros. about “The Mother of Hip-Hop,” Sylvia Robinson.

Robinson, who started her career as a singer in the duo Mickey and Sylvia, went on to become a prominent record producer, writing and producing for artists such as Ike and Tina Turner, Kid Rock, P. Diddy, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

She founded the record label Sugar Hill Records in the 1970s, named after the affluent African-American Harlem district, with husband Joe Robinson and was responsible for helping to bring rap and hip-hop into the mainstream.

Also Read: Gugu Mbatha-Raw's 'Fast Color' Picked Up by Lionsgate's Codeblack

Robinson’s initial cut of The Sugarhill Gang’s iconic song “Rapper’s Delight” was a whopping 15 minutes long.

Famed producer Paula Wagner, who last produced 2017’s “Marshall,...

Exclusive: Award-winning filmmaker Justin Simien is set to direct Warner Bros. untitled Sylvia Robinson project about the famed singer, songwriter, and Sugar Hill Records founder known as ‘The Mother of Hip-Hop’.

The script, written by Tracy Oliver, Malcolm Spellman and Carlito Rodriguez, is a rags-to-riches tale about how Robinson blazed a trail as a female record producer and music mogul in a male-dominated industry. In 1979 she recorded the first rap record “Rapper’s Delight” which ushered in the new era of hip-hop and cemented her legacy as the “Mother of Hip-Hop”.

Simien’s Dear White People feature won the special jury prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Roadside Attractions. The pic was ultimately spun off as a Netflix series over three seasons. Simien recently wrapped production on his second feature, the horror satire Bad Hair, which stars Laverne Cox, Vanessa Williams and Michelle Hurd. Simien is...

iHeartMedia and online news publication Ozy Media today announced a creative multiyear partnership. The pact will combine Ozy Media’s news and storytelling capabilities with iHeartMedia’s national cross-platform network to reach potentially hundreds of millions of consumers across the country.

Beginning today, Ozy stories — which range from politics and culture to technology and sports — will be featured in iHeartMedia’s morning shows across 150 markets in the U.S. The new partnership also includes promotion across iHeartMedia’s multiplatform network including radio, digital, social and live events.

“We are impressed with Ozy’s rapid growth, diverse content and versatility across platforms, especially in today’s competitive media landscape,” said Joe Robinson, President of Ventures for iHeartMedia. “We are excited to partner with Ozy, and with our massive reach of a quarter of a billion listeners a month across the country, this partnership gives us the opportunity to share even more...

“And On The Eighth Day Bava Created Color.” That’s my sentiment with every new quality restoration of a Mario Bava picture. This amazing new disc of Il Maestro’s teeth-clenched Viking epic delivers stunning action scenes and eye-bending widescreen fantasy visuals. Arrow’s Blu-ray is spiked with a new Tim Lucas commentary.

Erik the Conqueror

Blu-ray + DVD

Arrow Video USA

1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Dyaliscope) / 90 min. / Street Date August 29, 2017 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95

Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Alice & Ellen Kessler, George Ardisson, Andrea Checchi, Françoise Christophe, Raf Baldassarre, Joe Robinson, Folco Lulli.

Cinematography: Mario Bava, Ubaldo Terzano

Film Editor: Mario Serandrei

Original Music: Roberto Nicolosi

Written by Oreste Biancoli, Mario Bava

Produced by Ferruccio De Martino

Directed by Mario Bava

Far too good to be slammed as a mere imitation of Richard Fleischer’s The Vikings, Mario Bava’s exciting Erik the Conqueror is one of the best of the Italian-made...

Joe Robinson, 2004. (Photo copyright Cinema Retro. All rights reserved.)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Joe Robinson, the estimable stuntman, stunt arranger and occasional actor, has passed away in his native England at age 90. Robinson came from a family of wrestlers and he won the European Heavyweight Championship in 1952. Robinson drifted into the film industry initially as an actor, starring in the 1955 movie "A Kid for Two Farthings". Leading man status eluded him but he found a steady career arranging stunts for films and television shows and occasionally acting in them as well. Like many British and American actors, he gravitated to Italy in the early 1960s to appear in some of the "Hercules"-inspired strongman films that were quite popular during that era. He scored small action roles in "Barabbas" and "Ursus" before returning to England, where he had a supporting role in Tony Richardson's classic "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Rnner.

Tiger Joe Robinson, a real-life British judo, karate and wrestling champion who famously engaged Sean Connery in a fierce fight in an elevator in Diamonds Are Forever, has died. He was 90.

Robinson died July 3 after a short illness in Brighton, England, his family announced.

Robinson also jumped in the ring to wrestle the Italian giant Primo Carnera in director Carol Reed's A Kid for Two Farthings (1955), which competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

In Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Robinson, who played a...

Hollywood and Broadway producer Paula Wagner has acquired the film rights to the life story of the late Sylvia Robinson, the singer, songwriter, record producer, publisher, and record company head known as “the Mother of Hip-Hop.” The film will feature rap music owned by Robinson’s family and administered by Universal Music Publishing Group. Rights were acquired directly from the family. Sylvia’s son, Joey Robinson, will exec produce and consult on the project. Veteran music executive Robert Kraft will co-produce. Grandmaster Melle Mel, lead rapper of the group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5, will serve as a consultant to Joey Robinson.

Robinson earned the nickname as producer of the landmark 1979 hit “Rapper’s Delight” and co-founder of Sugar Hill Records with her husband Joe Robinson. She had earlier success as part of Mickey & Sylvia, who scored with the 1958 hit “Love Is Strange.”

“Sylvia Robinson’s life story has all...

Sylvia Robinson, a singer, songwriter and record producer, who formed the pioneering hip-hop group Sugarhill Gang and made the first commercially successful rap recording with them, died at 75 years old, in September 2011, of congestive heart failure, after being in a coma. She built a successful career as an R&B singer before she and her husband, Joe Robinson, formed Sugar Hill Records in the 1970's, and went on to nurse a musical genre that came to dominate mainstream music.  In the late 1960s, Ms. Robinson became one of the few women to produce records in any genre when she and her husband founded All Platinum Records. She played an important role in the...

The Young and the Restless tallied 23 nominations as honors were announced this morning for the 40th annual Daytime Emmy Awards. Restless’ impressive take helped CBS lead all networks with 50 overall nominations. PBS and ABC followed, with 44 and 38 nods, respectively.

General Hospital, which earned 19 nominations, joined Restless in the race for Outstanding Drama Series, and Sesame Street received 17 nods, including three for Kevin Clash, the voice of Elmo who faces allegations of sexual misconduct.

Good Morning America and Today will bring their ratings rivalry to the Emmys, where they’ll be joined by CBS Sunday Morning in the Outstanding Morning Program category.

You may have heard the song “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang (“I said a hip hop, a hippie, a hippie to the hip hop”), but what you might not know is this song helped hip hop break into the mainstream and helped a genre that, up until that point had been brushed off as a fad, start to take root in our musical history. Even though the group was changing the face (and sound) of the music industry, The Sugarhill Gang found themselves on top of the charts with barely a dime to their name. While this is not the first time we have heard stories of talent swindled by shady and greedy record executives, the story of the Sugarhill Gang is not just about losing money, it is about having their name and the true identity of the band member’s themselves stolen from them. The Sugarhill Gang was originally made up of Wonder Mike...

Getty Former South Africa President Nelson Mandela and wife Graca Machel wave to the crowds prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Final match between Netherlands and Spain at Soccer City Stadium on July 11, 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Nelson Mandela’s children to star in reality show; producer Sylvia Robinson passes away…

Mandela’s Grandchildren to Star in Reality Show: The grandchildren of South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, will star in their very own reality show.

This is regarding the Your Highness: Swords & Sorcery Supreme event we posted on Facebook. If you’re just hearing about it now, the RSVPs are closed and counted and we will not be taking anymore. Thanks for your understanding.

Wow. We had quite a day trying to get this event set up, and due to some miscommunication, things got… well.. miscommunicated. Let’s start from the beginning! We get a lot of opportunities to bring you guys advanced promotional screenings for soon-to-be-released films. These opportunities usually come in the form of a studio request and are usually promoted via Facebook. Facebook isn’t necessarily the strongest system for managing the sheer volume of excited people RSVPing to these events, however, and this became very clear today.We are already moving forward on a new system that will allow us to announce RSVPs to our loyal Facebook followers but use...