Pluto TV Inks Deal With Gravitas for Streaming Rights to 2,000-Plus Movies (EXCLUSIVE)

Pluto TV, a video-streaming service stocked with free premium content, has secured a deal with Gravitas Ventures for access to the indie film distributor’s entire catalog of more than 2,000 titles. Under the terms of the pact, Pluto TV is launching a dedicated “Gravitas Movies” channel on the service, adding to its 100-plus channels that... Read more » Todd Spangler

Arcade Fire Channel ‘Dancing Queen’ on New Single ‘Everything Now’ (Listen)

Arcade Fire have been laying a trail of tantalizing clues teasing new music over the past few days, and watching people attempt to decode them was a Twitter-feed-cluttering experience rivaled only by the president’s latest misspellings on Wednesday morning. But the mystery was quickly unravelled — the group will be releasing a new single, on... Read more » Jem Aswad

CNN Fires Kathy Griffin From New Year’s Show After Donald Trump Beheading Stunt

CNN has fired Kathy Griffin from their annual New Year’s Eve program, which she cohosted with anchor Anderson Cooper. The network just made the announcement via Twitter. “CNN has terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year’s Eve program,” the CNN Public Relations account tweeted. CNN has terminated our agreement with... Read more » Lawrence Yee

William Friedkin to be Honored at Spain’s Sitges Festival

BARCELONA — Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin will receive the Grand Honorary Award at Sitges’ Catalonia Intl. Fantastic Film Festival as Europe’s biggest fantasy-genre fest celebrates its 50th edition this October. Friedkin was the recipient of a Sitges’ Time Machine Honorary Award in 2007. He won a Best Picture Oscar in 1972 for “The French Connection”... Read more » John Hopewell

Netflix Rides Cannes Wave of Momentum Into Emmy Season

Cornered at his own Cannes party, Ted Sarandos gave a title to the controversy that had engulfed his company and overwhelmed all other chatter on the Croisette. “Cannes loves a scandal, and this one is called ‘L’Affaire de Netflix,’” the streaming service’s content chief joked. “L’Affaire” was at times the only thing anyone talked about... Read more » Daniel Holloway

Milo Ventimiglia Says Producers Wanted Someone ‘Completely Different’ for His ‘This Is Us’ Role

It’s hard to picture anyone portraying the beloved Jack Pearson on “This Is Us” more perfectly than Milo Ventimiglia. But in an interview with Freida Pinto as part of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, he revealed that he wasn’t initially who the producers and directors were looking to cast for the role. “They wanted somebody completely different,” he... Read more » Rebecca Rubin

‘Silicon Valley’ Star Thomas Middleditch Joins ‘Godzilla’ Sequel (EXCLUSIVE)

“Silicon Valley” star Thomas Middleditch looks to have found his next project while on hiatus from the HBO show. Sources tell Variety Middleditch has joined Millie Bobby Brown and Kyle Chandler in Legendary’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.” Vera Farmiga and O’Shea Jackson Jr. are also on board. “Krampus” helmer Michael Dougherty is directing the project... Read more » Justin Kroll