| | | | What's news: U.K.'s Channel 4 will reduce headcount by 18 percent. Kim Kardashian is set to EP and appear in a BBC doc series about Elizabeth Taylor. Kate Hudson will star in a Netflix basketball drama inspired by the life of Lakers president Jeanie Buss. Suits was the most-streamed show over the course of 2023. The Beekeeper has crossed the $100m mark at the global box office. Vince McMahon is out at TKO. — Abid Rahman
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Miramax Eye Jonathan Glickman for CEO ►In talks. THR's Kim Masters and Aaron Couch have the scoop on Miramax possibly finding its new leader. Sources say Jonathan Glickman, the former MGM executive, is in talks to join Miramax as its CEO. He would step in for former CEO Bill Block, who departed last year after a six-year run. Glickman served as motion group president at MGM for nine years, where under his tenure, James Bond became a billion-dollar franchise. He also shepherded the rejuvenation of the Rocky franchise, relaunching it as the Creed movie series starring Michael B. Jordan. The story.
—"We have it in our power to control these technologies." SAG-AFTRA issued a statement Friday addressing the sexually explicit AI-generated images of Taylor Swift, which provoked intense backlash online. The actor’s union called the deepfake images "upsetting, harmful, and deeply concerning," and pledged support for Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act. Also on Friday, the White House weighed in on the issue, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre describing the AI images of Swift as "very alarming." The story.
—ICYMI. Vince McMahon is out at TKO. Following allegations of battery and sex trafficking from a former employee, McMahon "has tendered his resignation from his positions as TKO Executive Chairman and on the TKO Board of Directors. He will no longer have a role with TKO Group Holdings or WWE," stated WWE Nick Khan president in an email to staff late on Friday. McMahon has denied the allegations. The story.
—"The rate of change in our market is only speeding up." U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 on Monday unveiled a five-year strategy to reshape itself and "accelerate its transformation into an agile, genuinely digital-first public service streamer by 2030." Channel 4 will reduce headcount by 18 percent – including around 200 layoffs and the closure of approximately 40 unfilled roles. The story. |
A Mogul's Battle Against The Bel-Air Subway ►Train wreck. THR's Gary Baum reports on Fred Rosen — the 80-year-old ex-CEO who turned Ticketmaster into a much-hated powerhouse — leading a group of ultrarich Bel Air residents in a costly battle to halt a proposed metro line: "They don’t understand who they’re dealing with. OK?" The story.
—Suit filed. Caroline Manzo has sued Bravo, alleging she was sexually abused and harassed by Brandi Glanville during the upcoming season of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip. In a lawsuit filed Friday, Manzo claims Glanville forcibly kissed her during filming and "groped, grabbed, and forcibly fondled [her] vagina and breasts." She alleges producers were "listening to the interaction on audio" but "never opened the door or took any other action to intervene and stop the sexual assault." The story.
—"Agreed and encouraged." A father and daughter submitted a lawsuit this week claiming that Pauly Shore encouraged security members at Los Angeles’ The Comedy Store to attack the father in 2022. The suit alleges that security members at The Comedy Store "violently grabbed and attacked" plaintiff Sean Kehoe on Nov. 30, 2022, while his daughter, Kirra Lyn Potts, was present. The allegations also state that Kehoe sustained "severe injuries" which resulted in Potts facing "mental and emotional distress" and "extreme mental anguish." The story.
—Phoning it in. U2 is set to perform at the Grammys in a new, innovative way. The band is set to give the first-ever broadcast performance from the Las Vegas Sphere venue and will offer a special award presentation during the telecast. U2 recently had a record-setting performance, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at the $2.3b Sphere, last September. The band had opened the venue, which features a 160,000-square-foot wraparound interior LED display. The story. |
Kim Kardashian to EP, Appear in BBC Elizabeth Taylor Doc ►"Elizabeth Taylor was unapologetically herself." BBC Arts has commissioned Passion Pictures (Searching for Sugar Man) to make a three-part documentary series on Elizabeth Taylor, executive produced by and featuring Kim Kardashian. The BBC unveiled the project with the working title Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar on Monday. Also executive produced by Kari Lia and Hamish Fergusson, the series promises to feature privileged access to Taylor’s family, friends and colleagues. The story.
—🎭 Lead in place 🎭 Kate Hudson is set to star in a basketball comedy series inspired by Los Angeles Lakers president Jeanie Buss (who’s also an EP on the project) and the family business that is the NBA franchise. Netflix gave the Mindy Kaling project a straight to series order in June 2021. Hudson will play Isla Gordon, the only sister in a family of competitive brothers. Kaling, Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen — all alumni of The Mindy Project — are writing and executive producing the 10-episode series, with Stassen set to serve as showrunner. The story.
—Judge JoJo. So You Think You Can Dance has looked to its own past to find a judge to step in for the departed Nigel Lythgoe. JoJo Siwa, who served as a judge on the Fox show’s 17th season in 2022, will rejoin the panel for season 18. The singer and actress will join SYTYCD all-star and choreographer Allison Holker and former Dancing With the Stars pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy at the judges’ table for season 18, which is set to premiere March 4. The story. |
'Night Country': About That 'True Detective' Flashback ►"There was something yummy about not knowing the past, not seeing it and then discovering it slowly." For THR, Josh Wigler spoke to True Detective: Night Country writer-creator Issa López about the third episode of the HBO crime drama. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—Record breaker. Suits was the most-streamed show over the course of 2023 in the brief history of Nielsen’s rankings. THR's Rick Porter writes that it was a huge year for library series — which claimed all the top 10 overall spots in the year-end rankings — but there was a big upset among original series. Ted Lasso was the most viewed original show across the platforms Nielsen measures, despite being exclusive to Apple TV+. It’s the first show that doesn’t stream on Netflix to take a No. 1 ranking among either original or acquired series in the four-year history of Nielsen’s year-end charts. The streaming rankings.
—In the mix. Apple Original Films is in talks to pick up a package for the dramatic thriller The Lost Bus that has star Matthew McConaughey and director Paul Greengrass circling. Mare of Easttown writer Brad Ingelsby penned the script for the feature based on Lizzie Johnson’s 2021 fact-based book Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire that takes place amid California’s Camp Fire in 2018, which became the deadliest blaze in the state’s history. The story.
—🎭 Added voices 🎭 Illumination and Universal revealed the full cast of Despicable Me 4 when airing a trailer spot for the animated summer tentpole during Sunday's AFC championship game. Franchise newcomers include Will Ferrell, Sofia Vergara, Joey King, Stephen Colbert, Chloe Fineman and newcomer Madison Poland, who plays one of Gru’s (Steve Carell) daughters. Pierre Coffin, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier and Steve Coogan are among those returning to the ranks of the voice cast. The story. |
Art House Movies Are Having Their TikTok Moment ►18-to-34 demo FTW. A24's wrestling drama The Iron Claw has quietly grossed $31.5m domestically at the box office since its Christmas launch, a veritable fortune for an indie film in the post-pandemic age and one of the best showings ever for the distributor. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that Iron Claw isn’t the only specialty movie doing impressive business these days, thanks to a powerful new ally: younger adults. The analysis.
—Protect the Hive, innit. The Beekeeper is claiming victory over Mean Girls at the weekend box office with an estimated $7.4m from 3,337 theaters, but the Jason Statham-led action pic can’t bring home the honey just yet. Pam writes that rival studios show the two movies in a dead heat, while Paramount is claiming victory with $7.3m from 3,544 locations for Mean Girls. The rightful order will be decided today when final grosses for the Jan. 27-29 frame are tallied. One advantage for Mean Girls: Sunday’s two NFL championship games posed tough competition for Beekeeper.
Both films are in their third weekend, and their domination underscores the worrisome situation facing cinema operators as the production pipeline slows to a trickle because of production delays due to last year’s strikes. It is the second weekend in a row that there are no new nationwide releases.
Mean Girls' domestic tally stands at an estimated $60.8m domestically and $22.6m overseas, for a worldwide cume of $83.4m. Miramax's Beekeeper jumped the $100m mark globally upon finishing Sunday with a domestic total of $42.3m and $61.9m overseas for an estimated global tally of $104.2m.
A trio of Christmas holdovers — Wonka, Migration and Anyone But You — rounded out the top five. The box office report. |
The Best of Sundance 2024 ►Indie gems. With the Sundance Film Festival over for another year, THR's crack team of critics — David Rooney, Lovia Gyarkye, Sheri Linden, Daniel Fienberg, Jordan Mintzer and Jourdain Searles — list their 15 favorite features that screened in Park City this year. Making the list are Steven Soderbergh’s haunted-house movie, films starring Kieran Culkin and Aubrey Plaza, and docs about Christopher Reeve, Amazon workers and Argentinian cowboys. The list.
—🏆 Congrats to all! Part I 🏆 On Friday, Sundance revealed the winners of its various competitions. Alessandra Lacorazza's first feature In the Summers took the Grand Jury prize for U.S. Dramatic Competition and Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev's Porcelain War landing the award for U.S. Documentary Competition. Sujo won the jury prize for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section, and A New Kind of Wilderness won for World Cinema Documentary Competition. The winners.
—🏆 Congrats to all! Part II 🏆 The 2024 Slamdance Film Festival has announced its winners with Giuseppe Garau’s The Accident landing the narrative Grand Jury prize, and Matt Moyer and Amy Toensing’s Inheritance landing the top doc prize. African Giants from director Omar Kamara took the audience award for best narrative feature, with Demon Mineral from Hadley Austin taking the prize for doc feature. The winners.
—Standing ovations are now a thing. The 40th edition of Sundance is in the books, and THR's Chris Gardner and Mia Galuppo round up the big stories out of the festival, including a whopping $17m Netflix acquisition for a buzzy directorial debut, a pro-Palestine protest that shut down Main Street, a Sundance debut for a former first daughter, and the rise of standing ovations across Park City. The wrap up.
—🤝 Home straight 🤝 Megan Park’s sophomore feature My Old Ass is in final negotiations to land at Amazon MGM, with a planned wide theatrical release in North America. The deal is pegged in the $15m range. After a theatrical window, the sci-fi movie will move to streaming on Prime Video. The film, which counts Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap as a producer and stars Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza, received a standing ovation at its Sundance premiere. The story. |
The Great 'Barbie' Backlash-Backlash ►"Everyone lost their minds." THR's James Hibberd looks back on a remarkable week of commentary over the Academy Award nomination snubs for Barbie pair Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie. The discourse — on social media, on panel discussion shows and newspaper opinion pages — began with rage and fury on behalf of Gerwig and Robbie, but quickly reversed itself to the notion that the duo not getting nominated for their key categories is actually totally fine, really. "Not everyone gets a prize." The recap.
—"It is a Rorschach ink blot onto which people have projected their own beliefs and prejudices." In a guest column for THR, M.G. Lord, an associate professor at USC as well as the author of Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll, offers his take on the Oscar nomination snubs. Lord writes that whatever biases may have led the Academy to overlook Gerwig and Robbie have haunted Barbie from the beginning. The column.
—Is Josh Hawley a Barbie fan? Election-denying Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is no stranger to political malfeasance. But now, shockingly, Hawley is apparently stooping even lower with a dirty tricks campaign aimed at an even more sacred American institution; he appears to be meddling in the Oscar race with a subtle dig at Oppenheimer, writes THR's Benjamin Svetkey. The story. |
Film Review: 'The Tiger's Apprentice' ►"A game cast and brisk pacing work their spell." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Raman Hui's The Tiger's Apprentice. Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Lucy Liu, Bowen Yang, Sandra Oh and Greta Lee lead a top-notch voice cast in this animated film about a Chinese-American teenager takes on evil forces with the assistance of animal warriors. The review.
—"A bighearted work of delicacy." THR's Sheri Linden reviews Sally Aitken's Every Little Thing. Inspired by Terry Masear’s book about her work with the world's smallest birds, the documentary follows her during a busy caretaking season in Los Angeles. The review.
—"Essential viewing." For THR, Jourdain Searles reviews Yance Ford's Power. The essay-like Netflix film from the Strong Island director delves into the origins and implications of modern police violence in the United States. The review.
—"Visually confident but intellectually insecure." THR's Dan Fienberg reviews Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev's Porcelain War. The doc, the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Documentary Competition winner at Sundance, looks at the difficulty and necessity of producing art in times of conflict. The review. |
Film Review: 'Ponyboi' ►"A wild ride with a lot of heart." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Esteban Arango's Ponyboi. Intersex actor River Gallo, who wrote the script, stars alongside Dylan O’Brien in this crime drama about a sex worker and a goofy gangster. The review.
—"Best when focused on its bizarre love triangle." Lovia reviews Shuchi Talati's Girls Will Be Girls. In Talati’s debut feature, a mother's intervention in her teenage daughter's budding romance creates an unexpected emotional love triangle. The review.
—"A compact feature filled with moments of understated charm." Lovia reviews Klaudia Reynicke's Reinas. In this Peruvian family drama, a father reconnects with his daughters during a tumultuous summer in Lima. The review. In other news...
—Zac Efron hires John Cena to become his BFF in Peter Farrelly's Ricky Stanicky trailer
—Dev Patel's Monkey Man releases first trailer
—Joni Mitchell to make Grammy performance debut at 2024 ceremony
—Grammys: What's inside the luxury gift bag given to performers and presenters
—How L.A. gave pilates a "bit of a face lift"
—L.A.'s home sales slowdown sparks increase in luxury rentals
—Saks' new Beverly Hills Store is almost here: What to know
—Quintessential L.A. architect Pierre Koenig’s personal home hits market for $5m
—Blumhouse launching horror exhibit at The Shining hotel in Colorado
—Tom Johnson, Daily Show writer, dies at 55
What else we're reading...
—With Amazon now charging Prime members extra for ad-free streaming, Suzanne Vranica talks to longtime subscribers who have canceled Prime altogether, forgoing free shipping, over the move [WSJ]
—John Seabrook's profile of Lucian Grainge covers the Universal Music Group boss' push to control the rise of generative A.I. in the music industry [New Yorker]
—Phil Hoad looks into the motivation for China (Born to Fly) and India (Fighter) to produce their own Top Gun ripoffs [Guardian]
—Andrew Pulver reflects on the success this awards season of Hollywood's power couples, including Oppenheimer's Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas, Barbie's Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig and LuckyChap's Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley [Guardian]
—Ben Protess, Maggie Haberman and Susanne Craig report that the $83m judgment for E. Jean Carroll, and another potentially much larger one on the horizon, could compel the Donald Trump to sell some of his assets [NYT]
Today...
...in 2016, Gavin O'Connor's Jane Got a Gun was released in theaters. The Western, starring Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Noah Emmerich, Rodrigo Santoro, Boyd Holbrook and Ewan McGregor, finally made it to the big screen after suffering years of production problems after losing a director (Lynne Ramsay), lead actor (Jude Law) and cinematographer (Darius Khondji). The original review.
Today's birthdays: Oprah Winfrey (70), Tom Selleck (79), Heather Graham (54), Katharine Ross (84), Lewis Pullman (31), Justin Hartley (47), Edward Burns (56), Adam Lambert (42), Isabel Lucas (39), Kelly Packard (49), Bobbie Phillips (56), Madison Bailey (25), Andrew Keegan (45), Sara Gilbert (49), Diane Delano (67), Madeleine Madden (27), Sam Jaeger (47), Terry Kinney (70), Lisa Emery (72), Sam Trammell (55), Nicholas Turturro (62), Monica Horan (61), Jason James Richter (44), Marc Singer (76), Mark Rowley (34), Sharif Atkins (49), Brian Michael Smith (41), Paul Fusco (71), Olivia Morris (27) |
| Rod Holcomb, the Emmy-winning ER director, who also helmed episodes of Lost, China Beach, Wolf and The Six Million Dollar Man, has died. He was 80. The obituary. |
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