News

Good news for the new kidney on block: CBS has given freshman sitcom B Positive a full season order.

The network has picked up an additional five episodes of Chuck Lorre’s organ donor comedy, bringing its Season 1 haul to 18 episodes.

More from TVLineNCIS to Return in 2021 With Double Episodes, Including [Spoiler]'s ReturnThe Amazing Race's Will and James Reflect on Their 'Once in a Lifetime' Trip, Reveal 'Perfect' Race MomentKids Say the Darndest Things, With Tiffany Haddish, Revived at CBS

Through its first five episodes, B Positive has averaged a so-so 5 million (live) viewers and...

American Utopia begins where David Byrne’s 2018 album of the same name ended: with the song “Here.” “Here is an area of great confusion,” the former Talking Heads singer declares from a steel-gray, uncluttered stage, a model brain aloft in his hand. He points to another region on the brain: “Here is a connection with the opposite side.”

Connection — and not only between opposites, but in the manner of a neural network or, to make the obvious but still valuable analogy, a world community — is the guiding element, maybe even artistic theology,...

As part of our newly updated survey of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, we’re publishing a series of pieces on the making and impact of key records from the list. Talking Heads’ Remain in Light came in at number 39.

When Talking Heads entered Nassau’s Compass Point Studios in the summer of 1980 to begin work on Remain in Light, they were barely on speaking terms and had just a single song, “I Zimbra,” in any shape to record. Years of inter-band squabbles had caused frontman David Byrne to...

Exclusive: Universal Pictures Content Group is set to land international rights to Spike Lee’s David Byrne’s American Utopia following the concert film’s opening-night screening at the Toronto Film Festival.

HBO has domestic rights to the filmed version of the former Talking Heads frontman’s acclaimed Broadway show, and the pic is set to release stateside on October 17. Watch the first trailer here.

Universal Pictures CG is tying up a deal for all international rights and is eyeing a rollout starting in November. The film also will have its European premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 14.

Participant are executive producing and financing the project with River Road Entertainment, Warner Music Entertainment and Radical Media.

Broadway Review: ‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ Seeks Paradise, No Wires Attached

American Utopia launched on Broadway in 2019, with Lee filming the production in early 2020 during its Hudson Theatre run. The...

“David Byrne’s American Utopia” is the third music-oriented film in the last 10 years to serve as the opening-night attraction at the Toronto International Film Festival, after “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band” last year and U2’s “From the Sky Down” in 2011. But it’s the first that you could say is just a concert movie.

Then again, the word just really has no part in any discussion of the work of Byrne or of director Spike Lee, who turned the former Talking Heads front man’s Broadway show into a film that premiered at the slimmed-down TIFF on Thursday, and will come to HBO in October. In the strictest sense, “American Utopia” is just a filmed performance, but so was “Hamilton” and “Springsteen on Broadway” and “Stop Making Sense,” the 1984 Talking Heads film by Jonathan Demme that is widely considered one of the great concert films,...

When you watch the filmed version of a show like “Hamilton” or “Springsteen on Broadway,” it can feel like the next best thing to being there. But

Byrne’s spiky and exuberant 21st-century rock-concert-on-Broadway jamboree, which opened at New York’s Hudson Theatre on Oct. 20, 2019, consisted of the former Talking Head and 10 fellow musicians, all barefoot and dressed in silver-blue suits, dancing and marching and prancing and bopping around a bare stage as they performed 21 songs. A handful of the numbers came from Byrne’s 2018 album “American Utopia,” but close to half of them were Talking Heads songs, most of which were featured 30 years ago in “Stop Making Sense,” Jonathan Demme’s epochal Heads concert movie.

In “American Utopia,” the singer-musicians aren’t tethered to amplifiers or drum sets or big chunky keyboards. Most of them carry wirelessly amplified instruments, so they can stroll around the stage in a technologically liberated state of frictionless freedom.

Endowed with the Official Selection label, the films by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar and Danielle Arbid spearhead a slate that also includes the upcoming Philippe Béziat documentary. With a line-up of nine titles, including two features stamped with the Official Selection label, French international sales agent Pyramide International (headed up by Eric Lagesse) will be springing into action at the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film Online (22-26 June). The first film endowed with the label is A Good Man, the sixth feature by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar (who turned heads on the Piazza Grande at Locarno in 2016 with Heaven Will Wait as well as with the box-office smash Once in a Lifetime in 2014). The cast includes Noémie Merlant, Soko, Vincent Dedienne, Gabriel Almer, Alysson Paradis, Anne Loiret, Geneviève Mnich and Jonas Ben Ahmed.Written by the director together with Christian Sonderegger (Coby), the story revolves around Aude and Benjamin, who have been.

A Spike Lee-directed concert film documenting David Byrne’s unique American Utopia Broadway show will get its premiere on HBO later this year.

“It is my honor and privilege that my art brother, Mr. David Byrne, asked me to join him in concert, to invite me into his magnificent world of American Utopia,” Lee said in a statement. “And dat’s da ‘once in a lifetime’ truth, Ruth. Ya-dig? Sho-nuff. Peace and love. Be safe.”

“Spike and I have crossed paths many times over the years, obviously I’m a huge fan,...

As a longtime member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band and a 10-time Cma Musician of the Year award winner, it’s safe to assume Mac McAnally knows the value of perseverance and the importance of motivation. It’s also abundantly clear in the inspirational title cut of his forthcoming album, Once in a Lifetime, that’s he’s embraced the notion of treating each day — and each experience — as a gift. The uplifting, anthemic tune, which features co-writer Drake White sharing vocal duties with McAnally, was inspired by...

The afterlife remains a popular subject matter to explore in media and Amazon Prime Video is diving in with their new series, “Upload.” The series comes from “Parks and Recreation” and “The Office” scribe — and Emmy-winner – Greg Daniels, and focuses on an app developer named Nathan (Robbie Amell). As the trailer lays out, Nathan has been in a horrific accident and in this future world needs to choose between surgery and dying, only to have his consciousness “uploaded” into a virtual afterlife.

Nathan chooses the latter and is placed in a fantasy world where he has everything at his disposal, from the ability to own a talking dog to eating anything he wants … as long as he has the money for an in-app purchase. The 10-episode series will follow Nathan as he gets used to living in the ritzy afterlife community of “Lakeside,” where his girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edwards) and her family have purchased space.

Saturday Night Live alum John Mulaney returned as host for the third time last night. The show, featuring musical guest David Byrne and appearances by Jake Gyllenhaal, Larry David and SNL alums Jason Sudeikis and Rachel Dratch, drew a 4.0 Live+Same Day household rating in the 44 local metered markets and a 1.9 adults 18-49 rating in the 25 markets with local people meters. That was down from SNL‘s last original hosted by RuPaul with musical guest Justin Bieber.

The Feb. 29 show’s demo rating was in line with most SNL episodes this season, while the the household delivery was on the lower side.

The fall finale/holiday episode of SNL on December 21 continues to hold the season highs ratings benchmark with the return of Eddie Murphy as host (6.7 in metered-market Hh and a 3.4 in 18-49). Featuring Lizzo as musical guest, that episode has grown to a 6.88 rating in 18-49 and 20.8 million...

David Byrne returned to Saturday Night Live for the first time in 31 years to present songs from his American Utopia stage show as well as reunite with Sack Lunch Bunch cast mate John Mulaney for a Broadway pastiche about airport sushi.

Byrne opened his SNL musical guest spot — his first since 1989 — with the American Utopia rendition of Talking Heads’ classic “Once in a Lifetime,” with the singer and his barefoot troupe delivered a joyous take on the Remain in Light single.

For his second performance, Byrne and company once again...

The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (Ladf), in partnership with Kershaw’s Challenge and the City of Compton, will host a groundbreaking ceremony at Gonzales Park to kick off construction of its largest Dodgers Dreamfields project to-date.

Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw, Compton Mayor Aja Brown and Ayo Robinson will join to celebrate the legacy of her grandfather Jackie Robinson. Actor Anthony Anderson will serve as emcee.

With a multi-million-dollar investment, the Dodgers Dreamfields renovation will continue Ladf’s partnership with the City of Compton and provide safe park access to 28,000 local youth under 18 (29% of residents). The Dodgers Dreamfields at Gonzales Park will honor the Jackie Robinson family and revive baseball and softball play in the area among youth, as they grow and develop their skills throughout the years and advance from T-ball to high school and college athletics. Specifically, Field 42 will be designed for baseball and softball players ages 5-8, Rachel Robinson...

The Bonnaroo lineup dropped this morning and it’s pretty short on classic-rock acts unless Tool and Oysterhead now fall under that banner. But buried on the fifth line of the Friday section is the news that Turkuaz featuring Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew will perform the 1980 Talking Heads masterpiece Remain in Light. The funk band has been working with the Talking Heads guitarist for a number of years, and they’re gigging all over America this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the album.

“It’s been a...

Beyoncé and Jay-Z didn’t hit the Golden Globes red carpet for photos, but they did have a big presence inside the show.

To celebrate Beyoncé’s Golden Globe nomination for best original song – motion picture, the A-list couple made a rare awards season appearance together on Sunday night in Los Angeles.

Though they skipped the red carpet, when comedian Kate McKinnon made a heartfelt speech to introduce Ellen Degeneres‘ Carol Burnett Award honor at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards, Beyoncé and Jay-Z unveiled their looks as they each stood up to give a round of applause.

Jay-Z kept...

Beyonce and Jay-Z have arrived to the Golden Globes, albeit nearly an hour late.

The power couple entered the Beverly Hilton almost an hour into the ceremony, when Kate McKinnon was introduced on stage to present Ellen DeGeneres the Carol Burnett Award. They stood in the aisle during McKinnon’s introduction and took their seats before DeGeneres walked onstage.

It’s been more than a decade since Beyonce last attended the Golden Globe Awards. First nominated in 2006 for best actress in a motion picture – musical or comedy, for “Dreamgirls,” as well as best original song for “Listen” from the film, she was up for best original song two years later for “Once in a Lifetime” from “Cadillac Records.” This year, she’s again in contention in the original song race, for “Spirit” from the 2019 remake of “The Lion King” (also nominated are co-writers Ilya Salmanzadeh and Labrinth).

Beyonce first attended...

Just look at this line-up of nominees: Beyonce vs. Taylor Swift vs. Elton John vs. Cynthia Erivo — along with composer and Egot champ Robert Lopez and spouse Kristen Anderson-Lopez.

Will there be a glitzier or more highly competitive category at the 77th Golden Globes than Best Original Song in a Motion Picture? Too bad that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association doesn’t make room for musical performances during its party that passes as an awards show.

One can only hope that these are also the same candidates that will show up on the Oscar ballot. Perhaps John Travolta will be given another a chance to right his wrong when he weirdly introduced “Frozen’s” Elsa — Idina Menzel — as Adele Dazeem before she sang the winning”Let It Go” at the 2014 ceremonies — that is if she gets to wail “Into the Unknown” from its sequel, “Frozen 2.”

See 2020 Golden Globes film nominations forums reactions: Cheers for ‘Joker,...

[This story contains spoilers for season one, episode eight of HBO's Watchmen, "A God Walks Into Abar," as well as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' comic books on which the show is based.]

"Man plans, God laughs." The old adage, as well as its reverse, certainly applies in the case of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, the Watchmen actor who stars in Damon Lindelof's HBO series as Cal Abar — or, more accurately, Jon Osterman, the atomic scientist turned big blue superhero Doctor Manhattan.

In the aptly titled "A God Walks Into Abar," Abdul-Mateen II ...

One of rock’s great questions, a rung or two below Are You Experienced? and maybe Which One’s Pink? but still right up there, has got to be Why A Big Suit? David Byrne asked himself that in an early-mtv-era promo for Jonathan Demme’s brilliant Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, posing a query about an image – the angular frontman all Dada’d up in a gigantic gray, V-cut suit – that itself was a signature pose of the 1980s.

His answer had a bit to do with a love of geometric shapes but mostly reflected a desire to make his head seem small – a way, he suggested, of highlighting the physical, rather than the cerebral, in music. Of course the very contemplation of the matter funked things up more than a little; as, it turned out, shrunken heads are about as good at escaping attention as whispers.

The annual Tibet House benefit is a New York City musical tradition, always well-curated by composer and downtown arts ambassador emeritus Philip Glass. The organization’s mission is to preserve, protect, promote and advance Tibetan culture — and with its focus on peace (inner and outer), meditation, healing and happiness, that mission couldn’t be more timely. So the event, billed as the 32nd annual (give or take a few; no one seems to recall exactly), was especially welcome this year. And as usual, the music captured the spirit of the moment.

This is a major coup for HBO — Susanne Bier has signed on to direct all six episodes of The Undoing, the network’s high-profile upcoming limited series starring Nicole Kidman and written by David E. Kelley.

Bier, who also will serve as an executive producer, has been at the top of every network’s list of director choices following her work on The Night Manager, which earned her an Emmy Award. She had been unavailable, working on her feature Bird Box; this marks her first TV commitment since The Night Manager and first for an American TV production. Like the British The Night Manager, The Undoing is a limited series with Bier as the sole director.

An adaptation of Jean Hanff Korelitz’s book You Should Have Known, The Undoing centers on Grace Sachs (Kidman), who is living the only life she ever wanted for herself. She’s a successful...

Emmy-winning director Susanne Bier has signed on to helm the upcoming HBO series “The Undoing.”

Bier will direct all six episodes of the series, which is based on the book “You Should Have Known” by Jean Hanff Korelit, in addition to serving as an executive producer. The series stars and is executive produced by Nicole Kidman.

Bier won the Emmy for best directing for a limited series for AMC’s “The Night Manager,” with Bier having directed all six episodes of that series as well. Her film credits include critically-acclaimed works like “A Second Chance,” “Love Is All You Need,” “In A Better World,” “Things We Lost In The Fire,” “After The Wedding,” “Brothers,” “Once in A Lifetime,” and the upcoming “Bird Box.” She is repped by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Jackoway Tyerman.

In “The Undoing,” Grace Sachs (Kidman) is living the only life she ever wanted for herself.

“The Night Manager” filmmaker Susanne Bier has been set as the director for “The Undoing,” HBO’s next limited series from Nicole Kidman and “Big Little Lies” boss David E. Kelley, an individual with knowledge of production tells TheWrap.

Based on the book “You Should Have Known” by Jean Hanff Korelitz, the six-episode series stars Kidman as Grace Sachs, a loving wife, devoted mother and successful therapist whose life unravels when she makes discoveries about her husband’s past.

Here’s the official logline for the series: Grace Sachs (Kidman) is living the only life she ever wanted for herself. She’s a successful therapist, has a devoted husband and young son who attends an elite private school in New York City. Overnight a chasm opens in her life: a violent death, a missing husband, and, in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only a chain of terrible revelations.

Season 2 of Dynasty tries to find its footing without Cristal, in a slower episode weighed down by Blake and supersized exposition

This episode of Dynasty containts spoilers.

Dynasty Season 2 Episode 1 Review

Dynasty makes no bones about it: Cristal Flores Carrington is dead. And just to make extra sure, Alexis is on hand to bust open her urn.

The Cristal Flores fakeout was a bit transparent, but the worst part is that it reminds the viewer of a much better play that the show didn’t make. How amazing would it have been if all the drama around Nathalie Kelley leaving the show and revealing that secret had just been a rouse? That kind of meta gossip-mongering would have been an ace move from Dynasty, and it would have meant keeping Cristal in play, one of the best characters on the show. Without her, the show lacks the zippy pace and...

Midway through his first-ever headlining show at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Beck Hansen paused to make an admission – it wasn’t “actually, technically” his debut at the vaunted venue. He had a story to tell.

It was the 1997 Grammys, and his album Odelay was up for Album of the Year. After performing the album’s hit single, “Where It’s At,” for the telecast, Beck was “whisked around the catacombs backstage into some weird holding area.” Disoriented, the young star looked around. “There was one other figure there,...

It was a battle of Yves Saint Laurent biopics at the Césars (the French Oscars, if you will) this year as both the French foreign language Oscar submission "Saint Laurent" (leader of the pack with 10 nods) and "Yves Saint Laurent" picked up a ton of mentions. Oscar players that popped up include "Two Days, One Night" star Marion Cotillard and animated feature "Song of the Sea." Foreign film Oscar nominee "Timbuktu" also had a major showing. And of course, in the Césars' foreign category, films like "Boyhood," "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "12 Years a Slave" are duking it out. Check out the full list of nominees below, and remember to keep track of it all at The Circuit. Best Film "Les Combattants" "Eastern Boys" "La Famille Bélier" "Saint Laurent" "Hippocrate" "Sils Maria" "Timbuktu" Best Director Céline Sciamma, "Bande De Filles" Thomas Cailley, "Les Combattants" Robin Campillo, "Eastern Boys" Thomas Lilti,...

Update, 2:25 Am Pt: Last year’s dueling Yves Saint Laurent biopics each picked up several nominations this morning for France’s César Awards. Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent, the country’s entry for the Foreign Language Oscar, leads the pack with 10 mentions, followed by Thomas Cailley’s Directors’ Fortnight title Les Combattants with nine, and Oscar nominee Timbuktu with eight. Yves Saint Laurent, from helmer Jalil Lespert, took seven nods. Otherwise, there are a number of usual suspects in the batch including Best Actress Oscar nominee Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night, as well as Juliette Binoche for Olivier Assayas’ Sils Maria. In something of a departure — and a first — for the French Académie, they nominated American actress Kristen Stewart for her supporting turn in that Cannes competition entry. (Adrien Brody won the Best Actor prize in 2003 for The Pianist.) There are also six nominations for late 2014 release La Famille Bélier.

Annual event set to showcase 90 French productions, 48 of them market premieres.

Unifrance’s annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris will kick-off as planned on Thursday (Jan 15), a week after a series of terrorist attacks, in which 17 people were killed, rocked the capital.

France remains on high alert after the shooting of 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, by two radicalised brothers offended by its cartoon depictions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed; the shooting of a police woman and the slaughter of four people at a kosher supermarket in the east of the city.

The French government announced on Monday that it was deploying 10,000 troops to protect vulnerable sites across the country — including Jewish schools and neighbourhoods – amid news that security forces believed at least six members of the terrorist cell that plotted the attacks may still be at large.

Charlie Hebdo’s surviving staff have responded to the attack with a new edition of the...

Annual event set to showcase 90 French productions, 48 of them market premieres.

Unifrance’s annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris will kick-off as planned on Thursday (Jan 15), a week after a series of terrorist attacks, in which 17 people were killed, rocked the capital.

France remains on high alert after the shooting of 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, by two radicalised brothers offended by its cartoon depictions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed; the shooting of a police woman and the slaughter of four people at a kosher supermarket in the east of the city.

The French government announced on Monday that it was deploying 10,000 troops to protect vulnerable sites across the country — including Jewish schools and neighbourhoods – amid news that security forces believed at least six members of the terrorist cell that plotted the attacks may still be at large.

Charlie Hebdo’s surviving staff have responded to the attack with a new edition of the...