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Harry Potter: Wizards Of Baking has cooked up some solid numbers at Warner Bros. Discovery.

The competition series, which Deadline revealed back in May, premiered on November 14 on Food Network and Max. It scored a 0.57 rating in the 25-54 demo and a 0.74 across women in the same bracket, more than doubling the benchmark over the previous six weeks, per Nielsen live+three day data.

The show, which comes from Warner Horizon and theoldschool, is on pace to be Food Network’s highest rated freshman series of the year and helped the network to its highest Thursday night prime rating since 2021.

The company said that the two-hour premiere reached more than 5.2M people across linear, Max and Discovery+.

Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking features a range of cake creations. Shot at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, which was where the Harry Potter movies were filmed, the series gives bakers and pastry chefs...

A new baking show focusing on the “Harry Potter” series will air on Food Network this week. Nine teams of pastry chefs and cake artists will compete to make the most impressive showpieces based on “Harry Potter.”

The show was filmed at Leavesden Studios in England and is hosted by James and Oliver Phelps, aka Fred and George Weasley

The show’s judges will be Carla Hall, Jozef Youssef, and several stars from the films, including Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), and Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley).

Here is the “Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking” trailer:

The official synopsis of the show

“In a celebration of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, James and Oliver Phelps, who played the Weasley twins in the films, host as pairs of professional pastry chefs and cake artists compete at Leavesden Studios in England, on the actual sets where Harry Potter’s...

Following Season 1’s success, Solo Leveling has made a name for itself as one of the greatest webtoons in the game. While the manhwa has reached incredible heights and the anime is making its mark, Solo Leveling arguably had one of the most hyped and anticipated animation debuts in recent memory.

Sung Jinwoo’s physique in Solo Leveling. [Credit: A-1 Pictures]

The manhwa readers can rejoice as A-1 Picture has confirmed Season 2’s premiere in January 2025. Amidst all the excitement, the franchise finds itself surrounded by criticism, largely focused on its lack of an engaging storyline. While the anime is generating significant buzz online, some suggest that Solo Leveling is struggling to make a lasting impact by adhering to trends in the manhwa industry that may be limiting its success.

Why the Manhwa Industry’s Limitations Are Holding Solo Leveling Back

Solo Leveling‘s success in the anime world shows that manhwa,...

‘General Hospital’ (Gh) spoilers thinks it looks like there are some good things already happening since Donald Trump was elected as the 47 President of the United States.

The stock market and bitcoin saw a big jump, the leader of Hamas wants an immediate ceasefire, and people are waiting for celebrities to keep their campaign promise and move to Canada.

‘General Hospital’ Spoilers: Nancy Lee Grahn Loses It On X (Twitter) After Donald Trump Victory Over Kamala Harris, Vows To Leave Platform For Ever!

Then there’s ‘General Hospital’s’ Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis Davis). She’s a great actress, and over the years she’s been very vocal on Twitter, now X, about the evils of anyone she disagreed with.

But now that Trump was reelected and there won’t be any censorship to suit her delicate ears, she’s leaving X. Her reason? Elon Musk freedom of speech.

How...

Alicia Keys, campaigning for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania today, refused to mention Donald Trump by name while warning that his platform would “turn back the clock” on women’s rights.

“If you don’t vote for her, or you don’t vote at all, you’re voting for the chaos and the hate,” she told a rally in Montgomery County, Pa, where she was appearing with former First Lady Michelle Obama.

“You’re voting for a cruel tomorrow for immigrants, people of color, women, girls, our children and our planet,” she said.

Keys said that she wants to see her children “grow up in a world where they can see that leadership has many faces, and that one of them looks like Kamala Harris.”

She added, “It’s crazy because too many people think women can’t lead just because they haven’t seen enough of it. When our kids...

Spoilers for "The Platform 2" follow.

Both Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia's "The Platform" and "The Platform 2" take place in the same futuristic prison, and abide by the same rules. The prison is a massive, narrow tower, hundreds of floors high. There is one cell on each floor, each occupied by two cellmates. A massive hole punctures through all the floors, and prisoners can look up and down at one another. Once a day, a floating platform covered with food floats down through all the cells, stopping briefly on each floor. Prisoners on the top can eat however much they like, but the prisoners below get their scraps. 

In "The Platform 2," unlike the first, the prisoners have instigated a strict code of behavior about the food. To make sure everyone is fed, they are all instructed -- on the honor system -- to take only a small amount of food earmarked for them.

Warning: this article contains spoilers for "The Platform 2"

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia's "The Platform 2" debuted on Netflix on Friday, October 4, and it was a slight improvement over the original. Frustratingly, "The Platform 2" didn't do much to expand on the mythology of the original film, or extend outside the same prison where the first "Platform" takes place, merely telling a very similar story in a slightly more dynamic way. To reiterate the premise: "The Platform 2" takes place in a futuristic, tower-like prison with one cell occupying each floor. There is a table-sized hole in the middle of the floor in every cell, and every day, an antigravity platform festooned with food lowers from the top of the prison all the way down to the bottom. 

Prisoners at the top can eat whatever they like, while down below, they have to feast on table scraps. By the time the...

It's difficult to ascertain where the quote came from, but someone wiser than myself once said that civilization is only nine meals away from anarchy. That is: if the citizens are starved, en masse, for three full days, governmental systems will collapse. One may be a moral, upstanding citizen, but if starved for three days, food theft becomes an attractive, natural option. Another old saying: If you see someone stealing food at the grocery store, no you didn't.

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia's "The Platform 2," arriving on Netflix without fanfare on October 4, details the above adage in knuckle crunching detail. This new sequel has the same premise and setting as the first "The Platform," which was consumed voraciously by Netflix subscribers in 2020 right at the start of Covid-related lockdowns. Who would have guessed a bleak, sci-fi story about being trapped inside with limited food would resonate at such a time? "The Platform 2...

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s social horror The Platform was a whole different experience back when it came out. What I mean to say is that if you watch the film now, it will have a vastly different impact than it would’ve had back in 2019. And that’s what’s gotten me intrigued about Urrutia’s decision to make a sequel to the film that, frankly, may not seem too unique in 2024. All that means is that there are only two ways the sequel can go. You’re either getting a follow-up that underlines and emphasizes the message The Platform passed on. Or, you’re getting to experience that hellish vertical prison through the perspective of someone who’s about to apply his own solution to the problem. I’d rather not speculate on the outcome of their efforts. But since Urrutia himself is helming the sequel, I’d put my money on the latter.

Here are some of the exciting releases on Netflix in October! (Photo Credit – Instagram)

The Ott streaming platform Netflix has bought an exciting line-up for you in October this year. From thrillers, and reality shows to documentaries, you will be definitely spoilt for choices when it comes to these Netflix releases. We have gotten your binge list curated for you with these Netflix releases.

October Netflix Releases

Release Date: 1st October, 2024

Making It in Marbella

The Swedish agents at the luxury real estate firm Homerun Brokers compete for the best listings in Marbella, Spain’s high-end holiday destination. The real estate based show is one of the most anticipated Netflix releases.

Trending The Greatest Of All Time To Sarfira: Here Are The Ott Releases in October 2024 That You Simply Cannot Miss Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha Ott Release: After Box Office Failure, Will Ajay Devgn Starrer Redeem Itself With Staggering Viewership?...

Industry insiders from Google, Warner Bros., Disney, DC Studios, Pinterest and more returned for Variety’s annual Entertainment and Technology Summit, presented by City National Bank. The day-long summit, held at the London Hotel in Los Angeles, explored the ever-changing relationship between technology and the entertainment industry.

The morning started with an electric conversation between CEO of AMC Theatres, Adam Aron and Variety’s Senior Entertainment Writer Matt Donnelly. The movie theater mogul predicted a very “bright future” for the business and revealed that the theater chain spent $100 million on coke freestyle machines for all their theaters.

“Why?” Aron asked. “Because they have 140 flavors, and that beats having eight flavor choices.” (Watch the full conversation here).

“Fortnite” co-creator Donald Mustard, who recently joined Anthony and Joe Russo’s production company Agbo, broke down how they measure risk at the “Power Couple: Entrepreneurship + Entertainment” panel discussion. A very special episode of...

"People die if the Law is not upheld." Netflix has revealed the official trailer for the sequel to the hit Spanish lo-fi sci-fi film The Platform from 2019 (it landed on Netflix in 2020) called simply The Platform 2. The first film is one of the best capitalism-is-terrible films of modern times. This continuation is again directed by the same Spanish filmmaker Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia who made the original film (he has been making this in secret for years). As a mysterious leader imposes their rule in the Platform, another resident becomes embroiled in the battle against this controversial method to help fight the brutal feeding system. But when eating from the wrong plate becomes a death sentence, how far would you be willing to go to save your life? Milena Smit and Hovik Keuchkerian star in the second installment of the dystopian sci-fi horror movie, with Óscar Jaenada, Natalia Tena, Bastien Ughetto,...

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia brings the highly anticipated sequel The Platform 2 to Netflix on October 4, and the streamer has debuted the bonkers official trailer this afternoon.

Begin the resistance by watching the official trailer for The Platform 2 below.

In Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s sequel, “A mysterious figure has managed to establish a new law in The Platform, but can justice truly be enforced in hell? And who will enforce it?”

Milena Smit and Hovik Keuchkerian star.

The first film is set inside a vertical prison system, where inmates are assigned to a level and forced to ration food from a platform that moves between the floors. Inmates on high floors eat better than those below, and one man tries to effect change so everyone gets enough.

Rafael reviewed The Platform for us at TIFF, raving in his 4.5-star write-up: “The Platform takes full advantage of its isolated setting and small cast...

Back in 2020, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia made his feature directorial debut (after a couple decades of making short films) with the thriller The Platform, which was released through the Netflix streaming service. You can read my very positive review of that film at This Link, but the gist of it is that I was very impressed and was left eager to see what Gaztelu-Urrutia would make next. He was assembling a film called Rich Flu before the strikes last year, but it turns out that the next movie we’ll see from him is a sequel to his debut, The Platform 2. This one will also be heading out into the world courtesy of Netflix – and the streamer will be releasing the film on October 4th, helping kick off the Halloween season. With that date just a couple of weeks away, Netflix has shared a clip from the film, and that can...

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform was a massive hit for Netflix back in 2020, and hotly anticipated sequel The Platform 2 is headed to the streaming service on October 4.

Watch the first clip from The Platform 2 below, which features Milena Smit and Hovik Keuchkerian. Netflix previews, “The names of the leading characters have been revealed. Who is Zamiatin? What motivated Perempuán to enter the platform? Find out in this clip.”

In Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s sequel, “A mysterious figure has managed to establish a new law in The Platform, but can justice truly be enforced in hell? And who will enforce it?”

The first film is set inside a vertical prison system, where inmates are assigned to a level and forced to ration food from a platform that moves between the floors. Inmates on high floors eat better than those below, and one man tries to effect change so everyone gets enough.

Veteran producer-diistrbutor David Kosse has set up a first-look development deal with Prime Video for the UK under his new production outfit Rockwood Pictures.

Kosse was most recently the London-based head of international film at Netflix.

The company’s development deal sits with the streamer’s UK licensing team under Chris Bird, managing director of Prime Video UK. It will cover the development and production of films, Prime Video confirmed to Screen.

The London-based Kosse set up Rockwood in 2023 with former Netflix colleague Claire Willats, who led the Nordics team at the US streamer and produced films such as Troll,...

2024 is shaping up to be a great year for video games. This year we saw the release of some of the best games that were widely celebrated by the fans.

There is still more in store as we move towards the final 3 months of 2024. Here are some of the games that are scheduled for a 2024 release.

Final Fantasy XV1 (PC) Final Fantasy debuts at PC soon. Image Credit: PlayStation

Final Fantast XV1 was released in 2023 for PlayStation 5 and is now coming to PC on September 17. The game is available for pre-order on Steam.

The Plucky Squire Nintendo Switch has many exciting games of the like scheduled for release. Image Credit: All Possible Futures

The Plucky Squire is an upcoming action-adventure game by indie developer All Possible Futures. The game is set to be released across platforms on September 17.

Entoria: The Last Song Brace yourselves for Entoria: The Last Song’s release.

The Toronto International Film Festival will be placing an ever larger emphasis on the international in its name.

Outlined to Variety by Toronto chief programming officer Anita Lee, the move comes in response to the emergence of younger audiences driving the post-pandemic box office rebound, reshaping audience tastes in both U.S. independent cinemagoing and at film festivals.

“Our festival audiences have become younger, and younger audiences are coming out for the non-English international arthouse films,” Lee told Variety, adding it was Toronto’s “biggest growth and shift” in audience attendance.

Drivers for this evolution abound, Lee said, such as the fact that audiences are consuming more international content. In the last few years, a new breed of “crossover or slightly more accessible international arthouse films” has emerged, she added, citing Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness.” “That’s on the rise. There’s more industry attention to films which could work in this way,...

Nvidia founder Jensen Huang and Adobe were two of the big winners of the 76th Engineering, Science and Technology Emmys. While Huang was the recipient of the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award, Adobe will be receiving both the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award and an Emmy for its Substance Painter product. The ceremony will be held on Oct. 23.

The Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded to an individual whose contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering. Huang was awarded the honor due to Nvidia, a company he founded and where he has served as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors over the course of his career. Nvidia was the company behind the Gpu (graphics processing unit) in 1999, which sparked the growth of the modern PC gaming market, forever changed computer graphics and led to the modern era of AI.

Named after the influential film Platform (2000) by the great “Sixth Generation” master filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke, it’ll soon be a decade since TIFF introduced the Platform section – the fest’s only competition section meant to promote innovative and bold type cinema and comes with a cash award but unfortunately no trophy. Previous winners include Pablo Larraín, Pietro Marcello, Anthony Shim and last year it was Tarsem who won for Dear Jassi (we were there). This year’s batch of ten has a handful of familiar names in Mexico’s Rodrigo Prieto and Spain’s Nacho Vigalondo and Carlos Marqués-Marcet.

Prieto’s Pedro Paramo is the cinematographer directorial debut.…...

TIFF has announced the competitive Platform lineup today with a jury that includes Oscar nominated filmmaker Atom Egoyan as its Head, South Korean filmmaker Hur Jin-ho and award-winning American filmmaker and essayist Jane Schoenbrun. Jin-ho directed last year’s A Normal Family which made its world premiere at TIFF.

Named after Jia Zhang-Ke’s groundbreaking second feature, Platform, the nine-year old program showcases bold and distinct directorial voices and emerging international talent. This year there’s ten in the sidebar from 17 countries. Of those Platform films that continued on to bigger success are Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal, which received multiple Oscar nominations, winning Best Sound and Best Film Editing. The 10 films in the section are eligible for the Platform Prize, an award of $20,000 Cad given to the best film in the program.

Previous jury members include: Claire Denis,...

The Platform was first released in 2019 and became a surprising hit. This Spanish social science fiction horror film directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia was originally released as El Hoyo, which translates as “The Hole.” It starred Iván Massagué, Antonia San Juan, Zorion Eguileor, Emilio Buale Coka, and Alexandra Masangkay, receiving the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness in Toronto, and a series of positive reviews.

The movie takes place in a huge “Vertical Self-Management Center,” modeled after a skyscraper. Residents are transferred in for a variety of crimes or desires, and they are required to rotate between the tower’s many floors once a month. Food is provided by a platform that starts at the top floor and progressively lowers through the levels, pausing for a set period of time on each, which leads to struggles.

Due to the movie being a major success, a sequel has been announced and Netflix,...

"What are you hungry for?" Surprise! Netflix has been developing a sequel to the hit Spanish lo-fi sci-fi film The Platform from 2019 (it landed on Netflix in 2020). It's one of the best capitalism-is-terrible films of the modern era. Netflix has debuted the first look teaser trailer for The Platform 2, once again directed by the same Spanish filmmaker Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia who made the original film (he's been working on this in secret for the last 5 years). As a mysterious leader imposes their rule in the Platform, another resident becomes embroiled in the battle against this controversial method to help fight the brutal feeding system. But when eating from the wrong plate becomes a death sentence, how far would you be willing to go to save your life? Milena Smit and Hovik Keuchkerian star in the second installment of the dystopian sci-fi horror movie, with Óscar Jaenada, Natalia Tena, Bastien Ughetto,...

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform was a massive hit for Netflix back in 2020, becoming one of the most watched original movies in the streaming service’s history.

The director returns for The Platform 2, and Netflix has announced this morning that the sequel will begin streaming October 4, 2024. Watch the official teaser trailer for a taste…

Milena Smit and Hovik Keuchkerian star in The Platform 2.

Netflix previews, “A mysterious figure has managed to establish a new law in The Platform, but can justice truly be enforced in hell? And who will enforce it?”

The first film is set inside a vertical prison system, where inmates are assigned to a level and forced to ration food from a platform that moves between the floors. Inmates on high floors eat better than those below, and one man tries to effect change so everyone gets enough.

Rafael reviewed The Platform for us at TIFF,...

Netflix has revealed an Oct. 4 release date for the anticipated second part of The Platform universe, after the first film was one of the most popular Spanish movies on the streamer.

Ranking fifth in the non-English film top ten category with nearly 83 million views, The Platform was released to huge success in 2019. By July 2020, Netflix said the film had been watched by 56 million households over its first four weeks of release, garnering further popularity over the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

La niña. La panna cotta. 333 niveles. Lo único Obvio es que el 4 de octubre vas a devorar #ElHoyo2...

The highly anticipated sequel to sci-fi horror “The Platform” has set a release date, with the residents of The Pit returning to screens after five years.

The film is set to hit Netflix on Oct. 4, just in time for spooky season.

2019’s “The Platform” is one of the streamer’s most popular Spanish films ever, getting to the fifth spot in the non-English Film Top Ten category with over 82,800,000 views.

The film is set in a multi-storey prison nicknamed “The Pit” which sees its residents get increasingly desperate as they fight for survival.

The tower’s real name is the Vertical Self-Management Center and it works by allocating a handful of prisoners to each floor. When it comes to meals, a platform abundant with food slowly descends, stopping at each floor for a specific amount of time. But inevitably it means those at the top get first pick – while those...

Since late last year, conservatives have telegraphed their extreme plans to leverage the whole of the federal government to attack abortion access if Donald Trump wins a second term. At the same time, Trump’s campaign advisers and allies have signaled their intent to position him as a “moderate” on abortion — even though he backed a national abortion ban as president and assembled the conservative Supreme Court supermajority that overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protection for abortion rights.

On Monday, that fiction won out, as the Republican National Committee...

Bango was one of several companies to take home a 2024 StreamTV Award during this StreamTV Show in Denver. (File photo by Matthew Keys for The Desk)

More than a dozen companies and executives were honored as the recipients of StreamTV Awards during the 2024 StreamTV Show in Denver on Monday.

The winners include executives from AMC Networks, the Walt Disney Company, Paramount Global’s Pluto TV, Xperi, Fubo and Samsung, with industry awards bestowed upon Bango, Roku, the Tennis Channel, Wurl and others.

The finalists included dozens of executives and brands responsible for some of the industry’s most-innovative and recognized streaming video services and technology. The full list of award recipients is below:

Advertising Executive of the Year Winner: Jamie Power (the Walt Disney Company) Finalist: Amy Leifer (DirecTV Advertising) Finalist: Ria Madrid (Wurl) Finalist: Tony Marlow (LG Ad Solutions) Content Partnerships Executive of the Year Winner: Amy Kuessner (Pluto...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the latest film from China’s great auteur Jia Zhang-ke, “Caught by the Tides.” The film premiered in competition at Cannes in May 2024.

A love story at heart, “Caught by the Tides” stars Jia’s wife, the longtime actress Zhao Tao, in a story set across 23 years. As with his previous masterpieces “Platform,” “The World,” “A Touch of Sin,” and “Mountains May Depart,” the film is a canvas on which to portray the rapid changes in China this century — a period of explosive economic and technological growth. Zhao is romantically entangled with Li Zhubin against this backdrop, some of which Jia actually shot over the past 23 years. Like his “24 City,” it combines non-fiction and fiction elements. In this case, even clips from Jia’s previous films appear.

Jia is unique in being a Mainland filmmaker deeply committed to exploring life in China today and...

'Seriously Red' writer and star Krew Boylan and creator of 'Bump' spin-off 'Year Of', Jessica Tuckwell are among this year's Platform: Lab participants, with the cohort to benefit from the expertise of international producers Samm Haillay (UK) and Mmabatho Kau (South Africa).

The post For Film’s Sake announces creatives for Platform development programs appeared first on If Magazine.

The Tide is High: Zhangke Splices Thwarted Romance Across Changing Times

Filmmaker Jia Zhangke presents something of an experimental anomaly with his latest feature, Caught by the Tides (Feng Liu Yi Dai), spanning two decades of shifting cultural climates and landscapes. Assembling footage shot across several periods beginning in 2001, Jia Zhangke transposes a quiet narrative within these archival moments for a uniquely cobbled hybrid. Jia Zhangke’s wife, Zhao Tao, who has appeared in a majority of his narratives since 2000’s Platform, remains the vibrant highlight as a mute, melancholic woman fashioned like a figure from silent cinema.…...

A recurring motif in the films of Jia Zhang-ke is the enchantment of watching his extraordinary muse, Zhao Tao, dance — in the glitzy faux-Vegas spectacles of The World; leading a routine to the Pet Shop Boys’ “Go West” in Mountains May Depart; strutting in formation to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A” in Ash Is Purest White. In the Chinese master filmmaker’s decades-spanning drama Caught by the Tides (Feng Liu Yi Dai), Zhao shimmies around a dance floor to pulsing Edm, unaware that the man in her life will soon leave town, dropping her into a 20-year romantic limbo.

Eclectic music choices have always played an important part in Jia’s chronicles of social change and shifting values in a contemporary China surging forward, driven by cultural and economic expansion, urbanization and globalization, its traditional insularity increasingly pierced by Western influences.

Songs are more present than ever in his new film.

At today’s Warner Bros. Discovery (Wbd) Upfront presentation at Madison Square Garden, Chairman and CEO of U.S. Networks Kathleen Finch underscored the group’s focus on expanding its global franchises and developing new platform-agnostic shows that can drive linear ratings and engage audiences on Wbd’s streaming platform Max.

Emphasizing Wbd’s strength across the true crime, food, home, relationship, adult animation, and adventure genres, Finch announced that John Cena will host Discovery’s 36th annual Shark Week and that Food Network will create a baking competition inspired by Wbd’s Harry Potter.

“We are the most powerful creators of unscripted content across platforms and places. We draw the biggest collective audience in cable and provide an unparalleled way to reach consumers in a trusted environment. Our shows, franchises, and brands continue to deliver value to consumers and advertisers on linear and Max. Regardless of how or where they watch,...

The boy who lived lives on – this time in the kitchen. A new baking show called Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking will be joining the Food Network lineup this upcoming holiday season. Set in a unique cooking format, the books and movies will take a new life for itself as pastry chefs compete to create Harry Potter-inspired sweet creations. The show will be hosted by the original Weasley twin actors James and Oliver Phelps. Warner Bros. Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking will be shot at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the studio where the Harry Potter movies were filmed, and the backdrop of the reality series will be set against Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter. The bakers and pastry chefs will have unprecedented access to the real film locations including The Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Platform 9¾, Gringotts Wizarding Bank, and The Burrow.

Exclusive: Harry Potter is valuable IP for Warner Bros.

The wizard books and movies are now the subject of a new cooking format that has been greenlit at Food Network.

Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking (w/t) will feature a range of cake creations. Shot at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, which was where the Harry Potter movies were filmed, the series will be set against the incredible backdrop of Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter.

It will give bakers and pastry chefs unprecedented access to the actual film sets, revisiting locations – including inside The Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Platform 9¾, Gringotts Wizarding Bank and The Burrow.

The series is set to be unveiled by Warner Bros. Discovery Chairman and CEO US Network Kathleen Finch at its upfront later. It will air over the holiday season.

It comes as a scripted series is...

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform was a massive hit for Netflix back in 2020, becoming one of the most watched original movies in the streaming service’s history.

Coming soon? The Platform 2! Netflix has shared two first look images from the upcoming sequel this morning, which will again be directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia.

Milena Smit and Hovik Keuchkerian star in The Platform 2.

Netflix previews, “A mysterious figure has managed to establish a new law in The Platform, but can justice truly be enforced in hell? And who will enforce it?”

No word yet on a Netflix premiere date for The Platform 2. Stay tuned.

The first film is set inside a vertical prison system, where inmates are assigned to a level and forced to ration food from a platform that moves between the floors. Inmates on high floors eat better than those below, and one man tries to effect change so everyone gets enough.

A federal judge tossed out a lawsuit brought by X/Twitter against a watching group that produced a study that examined the proliferation of hate speech on the platform.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer concluded that the platform, owned by Elon Musk, was attempting to chill the speech rights of the Center for Countering Digital Hate and other groups.

The judge wrote that X’s “motivation in bringing this case is evident. X Corp. has brought this case in order to punish [Center for Countering Digital Hate] for Ccdh publications that criticized X Corp.—and perhaps in order to dissuade others who might wish to engage in such criticism.”

X/Twitter had sued the group, claiming that in doing their study, they unlawfully “scraped” the platform for its data that led to an exodus of advertisers.

“X disagrees with the court’s decision and plans to appeal,” the company said.

Read the judge’s decision in the X case.

Ajay Devgn, On An Average, Delivered 7 – 8 Films In A Year(Photo Credit –Facebook)

Ajay Devgn has kickstarted this year with great numbers in his supernatural horror flick Shaitaan. The film, which opened at 15.21 crore, has maintained a good hold over the week as well. This will be a moral booster for his upcoming films. The actor is ready with as many as four more releases at the box office.

However, there was once a time when the actor used to frequently drop 7 – 8 films a year. While he delivered 8 films in a year twice, he also delivered 7 films a year twice. His third best was obviously delivering 6 films a year, still better than actors in today’s era.

However, how these films worked at the box office actually brings forth the reality. Out of the 8 films he delivered twice, none was a hit. In fact, even when he delivered 7 films a year twice,...

Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke, who “humanizes China’s modern history – and turns it into poetry,” according to one critic, will be the guest of honor at Visions du Réel. The documentary film festival’s 55th edition runs April 12-21 in Nyon, Switzerland.

Jia, a leading figure in independent Chinese cinema, will present a masterclass exploring his body of work, and a retrospective of his films will run throughout the edition. The tribute is made possible thanks to the collaboration with the Cinémathèque suisse and Ecal, the university of art and design in Lausanne.

“Since the outbreak of Covid-19, I haven’t left China for almost four years,” Jia said. “I feel like embracing the world again, as excited as a child about to go on a long trip for the first time. I am heading to Nyon for cinema that reveals the world as it really is.”

Jia belongs to...

The 6th edition of the El Gouna Film Festival (Gff) has wrapped with a feeling of quiet triumph. The glitz and celebrities were largely absent, although Egyptian star Yousra and legendary French actor Christophe Lambert both appeared at In Conversation events. But in a way, this allowed festival organizers to better focus on the core values which they wish to take forward.

For artistic director Marianne Khoury, the mission was clear, though the challenges were extraordinary, even before the horrific attacks on Israel on Oct. 7. “I joined in June, so it was quite a crazy summer where we’re working almost every day. Then on the 10th October, we decided to postpone. So it was very overwhelming. Since then, we were on hold every day. We wanted this edition to take place before the year end.”

Better late than never; better small than not at all

With the 2022 edition already having been canceled,...

The Streaming Era began with a promise of nurturing shows without fear of ratings pressure and quick cancellations. Of course, that was a lark. Soon enough, the streamers began slashing shows as quickly and brutally as any Nielsen-obsessed broadcaster, and they were all flooded with same complaint: “The streamers just cancel everything! Nothing gets more than a season anymore!”

How true is that really? After all, the streamers are looking for hit shows, just like traditional networks. If a show gets high viewership relative to the cost of producing it, it gets renewed. Otherwise, it is canceled. That is how it has worked since the days of black-and-white TV.

To get to the heart of the matter, Variety Intelligence Platform (VIP+) and Luminate collaborated on a data exploration to determine how often the leading U.S.-based streaming and linear programmers have canceled series TV series over the past three years.

Toronto’s Platform is set to be enriched by Jaione Camborda’s poignant second feature “The Rye Horn.” The film, set against the backdrop of 1970s Galicia, unravels the tale of María, a midwife thrust into a life on the run following a devastating incident. Her path to freedom takes her from Galicia to Portugal, retracing ancient smugglers’ trails.

The film, supported by the Galician broadcaster Tvg and the region’s Agency of Cultural Industries (Agadic), was brought to life under the banner of Andrea Vázquez’s Miramemira and Camborda’s own label, Esnatu Zinema, and Elástica Films, behind “Alcarràs” and “Creature.” Portugal’s Bando à Parte and Belgium’s Bulletproof Cupid co-produce. Elastica also distributes in Spain.

With the film also bound for San Sebastian main competition, for its European premiere, Camborda’s return to her hometown is particularly poignant. “For me, it’s like a gift… I grew up in the Basque Country,...

Screen has first-look image of Roberts.

Jackrabbit Media has acquired worldwide rights to the Eric Roberts western thriller 5 Outlaws and commenced sales in Toronto this week.

Mark Padilla, Jackrabbit’s president of worldwide sales and acquisitions, is showing exclusive first footage to buyers on the story from first-time directors Joey Palmroos and Austen Paul.

5 Outlaws centres on the titular bandits who awaken to find their hard-earned bag of loot from a train heist is mysteriously empty. Each cowboy becomes the focus of a high-stakes interrogation as the group attempts to unmask the thief among them.

With no witnesses and only...

Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg among the producers.

Bradley Cooper’s Maestro at Netflix has been named as the closing night selection of AFI Fest on October 29.

The film just received its world premiere in Venice where it earned strong reviews, bolstering its Oscar credentials as Hollywood heads into awards season.

Cooper directed the feature and stars as the celebrated conductor, composer, and musician Leonard Bernstein opposite Carey Mulligan as his wife Felicia Montealegre Cohn.

Cooper co-wrote the screenplay with Josh Singer (Spotlight) and the producers are Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Cooper, Fred Berner, Amy Durning, and Kristie Macosko Krieger.

As previously announced,...

Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario, a surrealist comedy starring Nicolas Cage, will open this year’s Zurich Film Festival.

The feature, the English-language debut of the Norwegian director — who wowed Cannes last year with his feature debut Sick of Myself, sees Cage play Paul Matthews, a hapless family man whose life is turned upside down after millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. Dylan Baker, Kate Berlant, Michael Cera, Dylan Gelula, and Tim Meadows co-star.

Dream Scenario will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, where it will open TIFF’s Platform competition program. A24 is releasing the film domestically. This marks the first time the Everything Everywhere All at Once studio will have an opening night film in Zurich.

The ongoing dual writers and actors strike means the cast of Dream Scenario is not expected to attend the Zurich premiere but director Borgli will be in attendance,...

Seoul, Aug 14 (Ians) Sk Telecom, South Korea’s largest wireless carrier, said it will invest $100 million in the US artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic in a partnership deal to expand its footprint in the AI sector. Anthropic is a San Francisco-based AI safety and research company, with products like the AI assistant Claude. It was founded in 2021 by former members of OpenAI, the operator of ChatGPT.

Sk Telecom said it planned to collaborate with Anthropic to develop an AI platform, as well as a large language model (Llm) that supports various languages, including Korean, English, German and Japanese, reports Yonhap news agency.

Anthropic’s chief scientist and co-founder Jared Kaplan will lead the development of a new Llm, Sk Telecom said.

Based on the collaboration, Sk Telecom plans to bolster its own Llm model to better and more efficiently serve customers’ needs.

Last month, Sk Telecom signed an agreement with Deutsche Telekom,...

New Delhi, Aug 3 (Ians) London-based consumer electronics brand Nothing on Thursday said it will launch a smartwatch and earbuds later this year.

Nothing CEO and Co-founder Carl Pei announced a major expansion to the company’s business portfolio.

In a public address, Pei introduced ‘Cmf by Nothing’, a new range of products that makes better design more accessible to a wider group of consumers.

“Nothing is dedicated to making tech fun again and has proven its abilities to break boundaries in industrial design. As such, the company believes it can make good design more democratic and impact more people,” it said in a statement.

Understanding that different consumers want different things, Cmf by Nothing will serve to bridge the gap in the value segment with better quality products that offer clean and timeless design, it added.

Cmf by Nothing will first launch a smartwatch and earbuds later this year and...

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced the world premieres of ten features that will be included in the 2023 Platform Programme for this year’s festivities. Anita Lee, the Chief Programming Officer of TIFF, has shared her excitement for this year’s entries, “I am delighted to announce that we have an international dream jury with acclaimed filmmakers Barry Jenkins, Nadine Labaki, and Anthony Shim as jury members for the Platform programme at TIFF. Together, they represent the bold and independent spirit of the Platform Prize.”

Robyn Citizen, Director, Programming & Platform Lead, has added her own statement of enthusiasm for the line-up they have compiled. “We are thrilled to present this year’s extraordinary films in the Platform programme, and especially delighted to present Kristoffer Borgli’s latest film Dream Scenario, starring Nicolas Cage, as Platform’s opening film. This surrealist satire-comedy has sharp, timely observations about social media culture...

The Toronto Film Festival on Wednesday revealed the 10 titles in its Platform program, a sidebar that will tee off with A24’s Kristoffer Borgli comedy Dream Scenario starring Nicolas Cage. This year’s Platform includes movies from 12 countries across three continents, all of which are making their world premiere at TIFF, which this year runs from September 7-17.

In addition, the fest today unveiled this year’s Platform jury, which includes Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins as chair; Cannes Jury Prize–winning director, writer, and actor Nadine Labaki; and 2022 Platform Prize–winning filmmaker Anthony Shim.

The Platform program, going into its eighth year, is curated for its bold directorial visions. The movies in the 2023 program are eligible for the Platform Prize, an award of CA$20,000 selected by the in-person international jury.

Barry Jenkins

“I am delighted to announce that we have an international dream jury with acclaimed filmmakers Barry Jenkins, Nadine Labaki,...

Barry Jenkins will head the jury for the competitive section.

Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario has been set as the opening night film for the Platform section at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) (Sept 7-17).

Barry Jenkins has been named jury chair for the competitive section, which according to the festival “champions bold directorial visions.” Other jury members are Nadine Labaki and Anthony Shim, whose Riceboy Sleeps won the Platform prize, which comes with an award of Cad $20,000, last year.

Among the other nine world premieres in this year’s section are Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s Dear Jassi,...