Variety

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Here’s to a Better Summer for Hollywood

‘Tracker’ Makes Its Mark • ‘Sunday Night Football,’ ‘Survivor,’ game shows and a ‘Golden Bachelor’ also lead ratings for the strike-impacted 2023-24 TV season

Apple Hits a Sour Note • Why the tech giant’s tone-deaf ‘Crush!’ ad enraged Hollywood creatives

Costume Drama • Director Lance Oppenheim captures a real-life game of thrones in radically stylized HBO docuseries ‘Ren Faire’

Blood Simple • Producer Mark Johnson rarely tackled genre fare until he got a taste of Anne Rice’s work

Passing Glory • A new HBO doc tells the ‘story under the story’ of the meteoric rise and fall of MoviePass

Everything We Want • In a golden age for docs, the best music projects blend the familiar with moments of surprise

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THE FIRE INSIDE • Matt Smith rides the dragon again in the second season of HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel

BRiGHT LiGHTS, BEACH CiTy • The 77th annual Cannes Film Festival showcased an abundance of glitz and glamour. Here’s a look at some of the stars who caught up with Variety on the Croisette

Styling for the Times • Series set in different eras demand attention to detail

Evolutionary Changes • ‘Abbott Elementary’ artisans aim to show growth and maturity

Livin’ la Dolce Vita • Production designer David Gropman turns back time to re-create 1960s Italy in black and white

Big Night • Variety event trains spotlight on artisans in the Emmy race

Creating a Zero-G Illusion • DP Markus Förderer reveals how astronaut Scott Kelly helped forge the ‘Constellation’ effect

Historical Notes • Composers employ different strategies to anchor scores to specific time periods

Otherworldly Sounds • Scores for sci-fi series take cues from subject matter

Mood Swings • Drama series music centers on characters, incorporates time and place

From the Heart • How ‘Girls5Eva’ found its emotional beat in Season 3

Mood Music • Alexandre Desplat had free reign on ‘The Regime’

Big Bold Sounds • Marvel TV series scores aim to be epic

Music Meant for a Warrior • The raw sound of ‘Ahsoka’ nods to the past

Characters Count • Disney Television Animation celebrates 40 years of hit series

AI for Good? • Animators reckon with positives of the technology

‘Wild’ Debut • Helmer Chris Sanders hits Annecy for the first time

Hollywood’s Toon-Up • ‘Transformers One’ and ‘Despicable Me 4’ lead the high-profile animation pack at Annecy

Emotional Debut • Kelsey Mann talks about his feature bow, Pixar’s ‘Inside Out 2’

WELCOME TO CANNES

Lost Horizon • Part one of Kevin Costner’s meandering Western offers stately vistas but no sense of direction

All Strung Out • Benedict Cumberbatch plays an anguished, angry father in a haunting missing person drama with a monster puppet at its center

WRITRS GUILD OF AMERICA WAST • The WGAW wishes to honor the following members for their devotion to their craft and contribution to all of our lives. They will be missed.

The Toast of Cannes • From nine-digit budgets to nine-minute ovations, here are the fest’s buzziest titles

Megalopolis Now

THE DROUGHT IS OVER • Matt Smith lights a fire — and quenches our thirst — as ‘House of the Dragon’ returns