Meta is offloading Giphy — which maintains the world’s biggest database of animated GIFs — to content marketplace company Shutterstock. Shutterstock is paying $53 million for Giphy. Three years ago, Meta (then Facebook) bought Giphy for $400 million. However, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ruled that Meta’s acquisition of Giphy was anti-competitive —…

Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid” is both a faithful and expanded adaptation of the studio’s 1989 animated classic, which featured an iconic voice performance from Jodie Benson as princess Ariel. News broke in April that director Rob Marshall and his “The Little Mermaid” team changed lyrics to classic songs such as “Kiss the Girl” and…

Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” is a hot property in Cannes, and it’s yet to even premiere. Several buyers are currently circling the Japan-set, music-infused title from master filmmaker Wenders, which bows in competition on Thursday. Sources tell Variety that interested parties so far include Utopia, MUBI, Magnolia, Sideshow and Janus Films and Sony Pictures Classics….

Finnish actors Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen have been making names for each other for a while now. But playing leads in Aki Kaurismäki’s latest film, “Fallen Leaves,” was a whole different story. “He has always been that household name, even when I was growing up on a farm in the 1980s, kicking a ball…

Prince Harry has lost a legal challenge in the U.K. over paying for private police protection according to the Press Association. The prince, who is also known as the Duke of Sussex, had attempted to launch a judicial review over the decision to reject his bid to privately hire members of the U.K. police force…

Max, Warner Bros. Discovery’s bulked-up and revamped streaming service that takes the place of HBO Max, makes it U.S. debut on Wednesday (May 23). Max makes several subtle enhancements aimed at making the service easier to use and more engaging — while execs say it should also be more stable than HBO Max. According to…

Validated at Cannes by a U.S. sale to Neon for Pablo Berger’s “Robot Dreams,” Catalan animation is on a roll – thanks to ambitious creatives muscular state funding, cutting edge talent and diverse stories that captivate global audiences. “Catalonia’s long had a strong tradition of important animation production companies, which developed ambitious projects,” Edgar Garcia,…

Mainland Chinese star Wang Luodan (“The Dead End,” “Struggle,” “The Continent”) and Hong Kong-born Bosco Wong (“Lives of Omission,” “Triumph In The Skies”) head the cast of “My Dearest Stranger.” The high-end suspense drama series is a production fronted by mainland Chinese distributor-producer Hishow Entertainment, which announced the production at the Cannes Market, adjacent to…

CO-PRODUCTION “Lioness,” an official Indo-U.K. co-production being made under the 2008 bilateral treaty, will star Aditi Rao Hydari (“Jubilee”) and Paige Sandhu (“Emmerdale”), it was revealed at the Cannes India pavilion on Tuesday. Written and to be directed by Kajri Babbar (“Khoj”), the film is inspired by the research of Peter Bance, the historian who…

CNN has launched CNN Fast, a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel. CNN Fast is set up as a curated channel of short-form videos that will feature international stories across major news events, business, entertainment, sport and the environment. It launched on Tuesday across several European countries on Rakuten TV, and will also be available…