The Guardian Culture

How Harlan Coben became the king of potboiler TV

The prolific crime author’s latest Netflix thriller I Will Find You has become one of the streamer’s most-watched shows of all time – but what’s his secret?Netflix’s all-time top 10 English language series chart is starting to look like a stale old thing. It is topped by Wednesday, which is four years old, and includes dusty old hits including Stranger Things season four (four years old), Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (four years old), The Queen’s Gambit (six years old), and Bridgerton seaso

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Variety

Giorgio Armani Series in the Works From Fremantle-Owned Lux Vide and Iconic Designer’s Fashion House (EXCLUSIVE)

The life and career of Giorgio Armani is set to be the subject of a high-end TV series produced by Italy’s Lux Vide, which is collaborating with the fashion house founded by the iconic designer known for his close ties to Hollywood. The still-untitled Armani biopic series — which will be tailored for the international […]

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Variety

Matthew Macfadyen and Claire Foy to Lead Adaptation of David Nicholls’ ‘You Are Here’ for BBC and Starz

Matthew Macfadyen and Claire Foy are to lead the TV adaptation of “You Are Here,” the bestselling novel by “One Day” author David Nicholls. The 8-part series — which was first announced by Variety earlier this year — has been green lit by the BBC and Starz, with Lenny Abrahamson directing, reuniting with the BBC for the […]

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Matthew Macfadyen, Claire Foy to Lead Adaptation of David Nicholls Romance ‘You Are Here’

The eight-part BBC and Starz series, following the undeniable attraction between characters Michael and Marnie, is based on Nicholls' best-selling novel of the same name.

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Variety

‘Balcanica,’ Starring Matilda De Angelis, Picked Up by M-Appeal Ahead of Venice World Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

Berlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has picked up international sales rights to Nicola Sorcinelli’s “Balcanica,” starring Matilda De Angelis, which will have its world premiere in competition at the 23rd Giornate degli Autori, also known as Venice Days, held alongside the 83rd Venice Intl. Film Festival. “Balcanica” follows the journey of the orchestra conductor Nasar and […]

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Variety

Mubi to Release ‘La Mesías,’ From ‘La Bola Negra’ Cannes Best Director Winners, in the U.K., Germany, Canada and Beyond (EXCLUSIVE)

“La Mesías,” the multi-prized series created by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, behind the Cannes best-director winning “La bola negra,” will be released by Mubi in U.K., Canada, Turkey, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria, streaming exclusively from Sept. 3. A Movistar Plus Original, produced in collaboration with Ambrossi and Calvo’s  label Suma Content, “La Mesías” […]

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Locarno Director Touts “Adventurous” Lineup for “Era of Algorithms” and Highlights Theme of Community

Giona A. Nazzaro also discusses actors as "living history of cinema," why he focuses on talent rather than celebrity factor, the importance of a sense of wonder and select films from the 2026 program.

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

‘September Afternoon’ Dives Into the Mundane: “In an Age of Arbitrary Extraordinariness, Plain Banality Is Stimulating as F***” (Exclusive Clip)

In German writer-director-editor Nicolaas Schmidt's first feature-length film, debuting at Locarno, "a couple refuses to accept that summer is over" before, well, "a contemporary cosmic catastrophe."

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Variety

Busan’s Asian Project Market Unveils 30 Selections for 2026 Edition

Busan’s Asian Project Market (APM) has unveiled the 30 feature projects selected for its 2026 edition. APM set a new all-time submissions record for the third consecutive year, receiving 604 entries from 48 countries. That marked an increase of 149 submissions year-on-year, following 455 submissions from 44 countries in 2025, 441 from 44 countries in […]

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘They played noughts and crosses on the PM’s huge forehead!’ An Indian standup picks his favourite gen Z protest memes

They turned the news into a Funny or Die video. They cooked up a romcom between PM Modi and Giorgia Meloni. And they fought the police with Lana del Rey memes. Our writer observes the Cockroach party’s bold new strategyI’ve spent 16 years doing standup in India, 10 of them under prime minister Narendra Modi’s government. I’ve learned – especially at corporate events, private shows and turns at various associations, universities and business schools among the English-speaking urban elite – that p

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘Give respect to Africa and the bush people’: Mulatu Astatke on pioneering Ethio-jazz and honouring his roots

The multi-instrumentalist faced resistance when he premiered his sound in the 60s but audiences have fallen in love with it since. Now aged 82, he’s still finding new directions – and wants recognition for Africa’s indigenous artists“Do you know the Metro club?” I feign recognition to the 82-year-old father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke, who knows the UK capital’s vanished haunts better than I do (the Soho venue closed down decades ago). By then, he had immersed himself in the city’s 60s jazz&nb

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Halo: Campaign Evolved review – they don’t make ‘em like this any more

PC, Xbox, PlayStation 5; Halo Studios/Xbox Game StudiosHalo’s modernised introduction to all that was great about the 00s’ first-person shooter is also a welcome return trip for those of us who were there at the timeThis 25th-anniversary remake of Xbox’s most iconic shooter comes loaded with symbolism. It arrives at a time when Xbox’s whole gaming division (and indeed the games business as a whole) is in turmoil. It’s been made by Halo Studios, an outfit that has arguably never quite recaptured

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

‘The Bombing of Pan Am 103’ Review: Netflix’s Sensitive Lockerbie Drama Is Restrained to a Fault

Connor Swindells, Patrick J. Adams and Merritt Wever are among the ensemble cast of the six-part miniseries, about the 1988 terrorist attack and the subsequent search for answers.

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Variety

Thanh Hang, Hong Anh’s Vietnamese Period Drama ‘Madame in Saigon’ Lands North American Rights Deal With Reel Citrus, Live On (EXCLUSIVE)

Reel Citrus has acquired North American rights to the Vietnamese period drama “Mesdames Thanh Sắc,” which it will release as “Madame in Saigon,” through a partnership with Ho Chi Minh City-based production and rights partner Live On. Directed by Thắng Vũ, “Madame in Saigon” is set in 1960s Saigon and follows dancer Cầm Thanh (Thanh […]

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Snowy valleys, balloon bikes and a wild game of buzkashi: a different view of Afghanistan – in pictures

As the son of Afghan refugees, Daniel Malikyar wanted to paint a picture of the country he knew, rather than the one he read about in news headlines Continue reading...

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Mario Vargas Llosa by Gerald Martin review – the passions and politics of Peru’s Nobel laureate

This stylish biography of the author traces his journey from left to right, and from ‘posh Lima’ to Cricklewood“At what precise moment had Peru fucked itself up?” Those words on the opening page of Conversation in the Cathedral announced the arrival of a writer who understood that national history could become the organising principle of fiction. At precisely the moment when Latin America was discovering the intoxicating possibilities of magical realism – a form whose exuberance had an

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

The Guardian Culture

TV tonight: the two women who made a podcast about their ex-partner’s lies

True-crime show Don’t Date Brandon is a shocker. Plus: Harriet Walter delves into her Italian family heritage in Who Do You Think You Are? Here’s what to watch this evening10pm, Channel 4Amber Rasmussen thought Brandon Johnson was “the full package” when they met on Tinder. They quickly got engaged but there was one problem: his “crazy ex” Athena Klingerman was apparently making wild demands. As this three-part true-crime series shows, it was – shocker! – Brandon causing all sorts of trouble. Th

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘People say I’m pouring Coca-Cola into fine malt whisky’: why is the National Theatre shaking up Sophocles?

In a bold new production starring Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss, the NT is fusing Sophocles and Ingmar Bergman. So what can two stories written 23 centuries apart tell us about how we live today?In around 420BC, Sophocles staged Electra, in which the title character avenges the murder of her father by her mother, Clytemnestra. In 1966, Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman premiered Persona, in which a psychiatric nurse, Alma, is caring for Elisabeth, an actor who has suffered a breakdown while pl

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Homer Gere Says It’s “Really Funny” Working With Kaia Gerber on ‘The Shards,’ 30 Years After Famous Parents’ Divorce

Homer's dad, Richard Gere, and Kaia's mom, Cindy Crawford, were married from 1991 to 1995.

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026

Variety

Joyce Carol Oates Defends ‘The Odyssey’ and Slams Translator for Scathing Review: ‘Speaks in the Crude Language of MAGA Folks’

Author Joyce Carol Oates came to the defense of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” after translator Emily Wilson wrote a viral review attacking the film. “Rather than disagreeing with interpretations of Homer in a collegial manner, this person, who has benefited enormously from Nolan’s film, speaks in the crude language of MAGA folks attacking someone with […]

entertainment  Jul 30, 2026