| | | | What's news: Apple TV+ renews Surface. ABC orders a Supreme Court drama pilot. Lance Reddick joins the John Wick spinoff. A Britney Spears musical is hitting Broadway. Orion Pictures lands the directorial debut of a Watchmen writer. — Ryan Gajewski |
'Tár' Named NY Film Critics Circle's Best Film ►A good day for Lydia Tár. The critics group voted on its 2022 winners Friday. Tár star Cate Blanchett was named best actress and Colin Farrell selected as best actor for his work in both After Yang and The Banshees of Inisherin, with the latter winning best screenplay for writer-director Martin McDonagh. The story.
—"A brand new chapter." Apple TV+ has picked up a second season of thriller Surface starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw. The renewal comes three months after the conclusion of its eight-episode first season. The story.
—Filling his dance card. Lance Reddick has signed on to star in Ballerina, the new film set in the John Wick universe. Reddick will reprise his role as Charon, a concierge at the Continental, for the feature toplined by Ana de Armas and directed by Len Wiseman. The story. |
Weinstein Rape Trial Now in Jury's Hands ►Five-week trial wraps. The Harvey Weinstein proceedings culminated with the prosecution emphasizing the consistent pattern across the alleged sexual assaults. A Los Angeles jury of nine men and three women will now vet the credibility of the accusers and witnesses to decide the producer's guilt. The story.
—Heading to the highest court. ABC has ordered a pilot for a drama titled Judgement, from writer Joey Falco (The CW's Charmed). The self-described legal soap will center on a potential Supreme Court justice in the near future — while also exploring the candidate’s complicated present-day life. The story.
—Hit me Broadway. Britney Spears' biggest tunes are getting a fairy-tale makeover with the arrival of Once Upon a One More Time on the Great White Way. The show combines classic storybook characters — think Cinderella, Snow White, Little Mermaid and more — with hits from Spears' extensive catalog. The story. |
Amazon Exec Jeff Blackburn Retires ►"A lot of building over two-plus decades." Jeff Blackburn, the head of Amazon’s Global Entertainment Group, will sign off from the company in January after more than two decades with the retail giant and streaming platform. The news comes a year and a half after Blackburn returned from a yearlong sabbatical in a new role. The story.
—A 2001 novel is set to hit the screen. Orion Pictures has acquired the feature directorial debut of Watchmen writer Cord Jefferson. Jeffrey Wright stars in the project that is based on Percival Everett's 2001 novel Erasure and centers on a writer and English professor whose writing career has stalled because his work isn't deemed "Black enough." The story.
—"I need to learn from this." Balenciaga creative director Demna has personally apologized for the brand's controversial ad campaigns. The images used to promote the company's Spring 2023 releases featured children with allusions to BDSM and child pornography. The story. |
Takeoff Shooting Suspect Arrested ►Taken into custody peacefully. Police have arrested a 33-year-old man on a murder charge in the fatal shooting of Migos rapper Takeoff, who they said was an "innocent bystander" to gunfire last month outside a bowling alley in Houston. Patrick Xavier Clark was being held in jail Friday awaiting a bond hearing. The story.
—"It’s been 34 years, but it feels like only yesterday." THR's Brian Davids spoke to Warwick Davis, who returns as sorcerer Willow Ufgood in the Disney+ sequel series Willow. The actor, who was just 17 when he first played the character in Ron Howard's 1988 original film, explains how he took a page from Mark Hamill in his approach to revisiting the role. The interview.
—"Predator meets The Dirty Dozen meets Underworld." Jonathan Rhys Meyers is teaming up with former UFC light heavyweight champion and actor Rampage Jackson for World War II horror film Operation Blood Hunt. THR's Alex Ritman has the scoop on director Louis Mandylor's feature, which recently completed shooting in Bangkok, Thailand. The story. |
THR's Animation Roundtable ►"I care most about the kid audience." THR's Carolyn Giardina sat down with filmmakers Guillermo del Toro (Pinocchio), Joel Crawford (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish), Henry Selick (Wendell & Wild), Domee Shi (Turning Red), Don Hall (Strange World) and Nora Twomey (My Father's Dragon) as they discuss their movies' fascination with mortality, respect for the genre ("We shouldn’t be reined in to being a McNugget") and what's next for animation. The roundtable.
In other news...
—Lopez vs. Lopez snags a full season at NBC
—Jane Fonda returns to Washington for first in-person climate change event since the pandemic
—President Biden condemns Holocaust denialism and antisemitism
—TikTok's "Pasta Queen" Nadia Caterina Munno signs with CAA
What else we're reading...
—Mark Landler examines how ascending to the throne has helped King Charles III weather The Crown's latest season [NYT]
—Ryan Faughnder and Meg James on the rise and fall of Disney exec Kareem Daniel [LAT]
—Sidney Wollmuth celebrates the release of Violent Night by ranking cinema's sexy Santas [Vulture]
—Rebecca Ford sits down with Keke Palmer and Angela Bassett, with the former known for her impression of the latter [Vanity Fair]
—Ellen Gamerman evaluates Will Smith's Emancipation apology tour [WSJ]
Today...
...in 2010, Disney premiered Tron: Legacy, with the first official sequel to Tron coming nearly three decades after the 1982 original. The Joseph Kosinski-directed film starred Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde and Jeff Bridges. The review.
Today's birthdays: Brendan Fraser (54), Amanda Seyfried (37), Julianne Moore (62), Tiffany Haddish (43), Jenna Dewan (42), Daryl Hannah (62), Ozzy Osbourne (74), Liza Lapira (41), Keegan Connor Tracy (51), Anna Chlumsky (42), Dascha Polanco (40), Michael Angarano (35), Holly Marie Combs (49), Andrew Stanton (57), Brian Bonsall (41) |
| | Cliff Emmich, the character actor who made his mark in Payday, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and Halloween II, has died. He was 85. The obituary. |
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