| | | | | | What's news: General Hospital actor Johnny Wactor was shot and killed. Nicki Minaj was detained at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Damon Lindelof is working on DC's Green Lantern TV series. Max has canceled The Girls on the Bus. Sean Baker's Anora won Canne's Palme d'Or. — Abid Rahman
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Box Office Meltdown ►Disaster. Alcon and Sony’s The Garfield Movie is claiming victory ahead of George Miller's Furiosa with an estimated four-holiday gross of $31.9m, the worst Memorial Day No. 1 opener since Casper debuted to $22.5m nearly 30 years ago in 1995 (and that’s not adjusted for inflation). This stat excludes 2020, when theaters were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the race isn’t over just yet. Furiosa made more than Garfield for the three-day weekend with an estimated $25.6m versus $24.8m, but the four-day number is the key stat. Rival studios either show Furiosa slightly ahead for the long weekend, or have the two movies tied. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that neither film aced it with audiences, with each receiving a B+ CinemaScore.
With no holdovers to contribute in a massive way to the Memorial Day picnic, overall revenue for the four days plummeted to an estimated $127m to $130m, also a 29-year low. That excludes 2020 and 2021, when the pandemic was still raging, though Paramount’s A Quiet Place sequel was able to open to $57.1m over the holiday in 2021. The box office report. |
Baldwin to Face Trial Over 'Rust' Shooting ►"The court does not find prosecutorial bad faith." Alec Baldwin will face a trial in July stemming from manslaughter charges over the accidental shooting death of Rust’s cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Santa Fe judge Mary Sommer on Friday denied Baldwin’s bid to dismiss the indictment, concluding that prosecutors and the grand jury weren’t biased against him. Baldwin, a producer on the low budget Western, has been accused of negligently firing the gun when the scene only called for him to pull it from the holster and ignoring industry norms dictating gun safety. The story.
—Fatal shooting. Johnny Wactor, an actor on General Hospital, was shot and killed during a suspected catalytic converter theft attempt in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday morning, his family told ABC7. He was 37. The Los Angeles Police Department said officers responded to the area of Pico Boulevard and Hope Street around 3:25 a.m. Saturday. At the scene, they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound, who ABC7 later identified as Wactor. The actor played Brando Corbin on General Hospital from 2020 to 2022. He appeared in 164 episodes of the long-running ABC soap opera. The story.
—Detained. Nicki Minaj was detained at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands on Saturday, according to local media reports. The Dutch police said they "arrested a 41-year-old American woman at Schiphol Airport because of possession of soft drugs," but the woman wasn’t named. Later Saturday, the police posted on social media that they had "released" the woman they arrested that afternoon at the airport "on suspicion of exporting soft drugs." The story.
—Another suit. Sean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with another sexual assault lawsuit. April Lampros alleges in a lawsuit filed in New York that she was subjected to several “terrifying sexual encounters” by Combs, whom she met in 1994 when she was 21 years old and studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. The suit is a latest in a string of lawsuits filed by several different women against the scandal-plagued music mogul. The story.
—Request to dismiss. Andy Cohen has filed to dismiss Real Housewives star Leah McSweeney's lawsuit alleging workplace discrimination and alcohol- and drug-related favoritism. About three months after McSweeney sued Cohen, the Bravo producer asked a judge to dismiss her previous claims that she had experienced a "hostile work environment" during her time with the TV franchise, including sex/gender and disability discrimination. The story. |
Trump Attempts to Block Release of 'The Apprentice' ►"The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president." Donald Trump’s lawyers are attempting to head off a U.S. sale and release of The Apprentice by slapping the filmmakers with a cease and desist letter. The producers behind the movie look like they will not be swayed from seeking distribution for the movie stateside. "We want everyone to see it and then decide," a rep for the film’s producers said in a statement to THR. The story.
—📅 New dates 📅 Hollywood’s major crew union and top studios and streamers have set a new date to return to shared negotiations on core issues for West Coast Locals. The 13 IATSE West Coast Locals — a group that includes the International Cinematographers Guild and the Motion Picture Editors Guild and bargains on behalf of around 50,000 workers — will resume talks covering wages, working conditions, benefits and AI on June 3 through 5. The story.
—Nepo give up. North West, the 10-year-old daughter of Kim Kardashian and Kanye “Ye” West, was among the notable names who helped bring The Lion King to life in celebration of the original film’s 30th anniversary. Disney honored the popular animated film Friday at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with a screening of the film backed by a live orchestra. North West performed “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” onstage while dressed as young lion cub Simba. The story.
—"Opportunity to embark on a marriage with a sick and dying man." The children of The Band’s Robbie Robertson have filed a lawsuit against the late musician's widow, claiming that she abused him financially to inherit part of his estate by coercing him to execute documents that are “oppressive, abusive and contrary to his expressly stated intentions,” according to legal documents filed this week in California. The late guitar great's three kids are plaintiffs in the case against Janet Zuccarini, who they claim abused him financially. The story. |
Morgan Spurlock 1970 - 2024 ►"Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas and generosity." Morgan Spurlock, the documentarian whose first feature film was the Oscar-nominated Super Size Me, which shifted public perceptions of junk food and McDonald’s, died Thursday in upstate New York from complications of cancer. He was 53. Spurlock’s family said he died peacefully surrounded by family and friends. He also helmed the docs Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? (the search for the most wanted man behind the 9/11 attacks); Comic-Con IV: A Quest for Hope (the pop-culture event phenomenon); The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (product placement and marketing in the movies). The obituary.
—"He actually changed the world." Ted Sarandos, Alex Gibney, Brett Morgen, Josh Fox and Al Jean are among some of the Hollywood figures who took to social media to remember Morgan Spurlock over the weekend. The reaction. |
How 'Shōgun' Is Shaking Up the Emmy Race ►All to play for. THR's executive editor for awards Scott Feinberg writes that with award stalwarts like Succession and Better Call Saul out of the Emmy picture, sleepers like Slow Horses and freshman entries finally get a shot — but now they’ll have to contend with FX’s critical hit Shōgun. The analysis.
—Streamers' strongest. Platforms like Netflix, Apple and Amazon are dominating the run-up to the limited series, drama and comedy races at the 2024 Emmys. Scott's back and this time he's laid out the shows most likely to get nominated. The contenders.
—Let's go! Damon Lindelof is returning to television and to superheroes. The writer-producer, one of the co-creators of Lost who later brought Watchmen to the screen, is part of the creative team behind Lanterns from DC Studios. The series is based on the heroes seen in the Green Lantern comics. Chris Mundy, the showrunner behind Netflix’s crime series Ozark, as well as Eisner-winning and long-time DC comic author Tom King round out the creative team. Lanterns is one of the foundational shows for James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios slate. The story.
—🎭 No-brainer casting 🎭 Jeffrey Wright is returning to HBO. The Emmy winner and recent Oscar nominee has joined the cast for season two of The Last of Us, based on the best-selling video game franchise. Wright will have a recurring role as Isaac, the quietly powerful leader of a large militia group. It’s familiar territory for Wright, who provided the voice for Isaac in The Last of Us Part II video game. The story.
—No more years. Max has canceled The Girls on the Bus after a single season on the platform. The Warner Bros. TV-produced drama, originally developed at Netflix and The CW before landing at the studio’s streaming counterpart, wrapped its 10-episode run May 9. Inspired by a chapter in journalist Amy Chozick’s book Chasing Hillary, the series reunited EP Greg Berlanti with his former Supergirl star Melissa Benoist and chronicled four female journalists who followed every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates. The story. |
Sean Baker's 'Anora' Wins Palme d'Or ►🏆 Croisette conquerors 🏆 After two weeks of nonstop cinema, the winners of the 77th Cannes Film Festival were announced at a gala ceremony on Saturday night. The Palme d’Or, the fest’s top honor, went to Sean Baker's sex worker screwball comedy Anora. The Grand Prix went to Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light. The female stars of Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez (Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and titular lead Karla Sofía Gascón) won best actress, with Gascón becoming the first trans actress to win in Cannes. Emilia Pérez also received the jury prize. The winners.
—🏆 Double award 🏆 Chinese director Hu Guan's drama Black Dog snagged the top prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar on Friday night. The drama, set on the edge of the Gobi Desert, follows a man who returns home after a stint in jail and gets a job clearing a town of stray dogs before the Olympic Games. But he forms an unexpected bond with a black dog, and together, they embark on a new journey. The film’s canine star won a pooch prize earlier in the day, scooping up the Grand Jury award at the Palm Dog. The story.
—"Don't let yourself be intimidated." At the Cannes press conference for The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Iranian dissident director Mohammad Rasoulof called out Iran’s authoritarian regime and rallied his fellow filmmakers to resist. The filmmaker, who dramatically fled Iran on foot and had a hero's welcome in France for the premiere of his new film, was defiant, but also relaxed and confident, joking that his film crew referred to themselves as “the gangsters of cinema” for violating every rule of Iran’s state censorship in the making of the film. The story.
—Bagged. Sideshow and Janus Films scooped up another buzzy title out of Cannes, acquiring It’s Not Me from French auteur Leos Carax for North America. An autobiographical collage of old and new footage, referencing everything from silent movies and Hollywood Golden Age classics to scenes from his own work and personal home movies, It’s Not Me pays direct homage to the late, great Jean-Luc Godard in its deconstruction of the language of cinema and the treacheries of auto-fiction. The story. |
THR's Critics Pick the 20 Best Films of Cannes 2024 ►Best of the best. THR's crack team of critics — David Rooney, Lovia Gyarkye, Jon Frosch, Sheri Linden, Leslie Felperin and Jordan Mintzer — select their favorite films from the world's preeminent film festival. Films about a trans drug kingpin and masturbating zombies, a Danish drama about an unwanted pregnancy, a portrait of two nurses chasing romance in Mumbai and a Corsican mafia thriller are among the standouts from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The list.
—"Overtly political and deeply personal." THR's Jordan Mintzer reviews Mohammad Rasoulof's Cannes competition entry The Seed of the Sacred Fig. The writer-director of There Is No Evil, who dramatically fled Iran after receiving an eight-year prison sentence, unveiled his secretly filmed new feature in Cannes’ main competition. The review.
—"The Persian version." Jordan reviews Matthew Rankin's Universal Language. An amusingly offbeat homage to Iranian cinema set in Winnipeg, is the second feature by the Canadian filmmaker and won the first-ever Directors’ Fortnight audience award in Cannes. The review.
—"Too on the nose." THR's Leslie Felperin reviews Michel Hazanavicius' Cannes competition entry The Most Precious of Cargoes. The French Oscar winner (The Artist) latest is about a Jewish baby abandoned in the woods during World War II. The review.
—"Makes you purr with pleasure." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Gints Zilbalodis' Flow. The Latvian director’s second feature, an animated movie, tails a cat that bands together with other animals on a survival journey following a cataclysmic flood. The review.
—"Smart and compelling." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Sandhya Suri's Santosh. A gripping police procedural tells the story of a widow and a notorious police inspector who try to solve the gruesome murder of a teenager. The review.
—"Brava, Jessica." For THR, Caryn James reviews Michael Cristofer's The Great Lillian Hall. Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Pierce Brosnan, Jesse Williams and Lily Rabe star in the HBO film about an actress who struggles with early onset dementia. The review. |
Theater Review: 'Romeo & Juliet' ►"The biggest victim of the approach is the star turn." For THR, Demetrios Matheou reviewed Jamie Lloyd’s adaptation of Romeo & Juliet. Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers star in a minimalist take on Shakespeare’s doomed romance, playing in London’s West End. The review.
In other news...
—Reagan trailer features Dennis Quaid as the 40th U.S. President and his journey to the White House
—The Bear S3 trailer: Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri deal with a "dysfunctional kitchen"
—Beyond botox: Hollywood’s secret new beauty hacks
—Sofia Richie welcomes first baby with husband Elliot Grainge
—Darryl Hickman, young actor in The Grapes of Wrath and Leave Her to Heaven, dies at 92
What else we're reading...
—Kylie Robison reports that Google is scrambling to manually remove all the weird AI answers popping up in search [Verge]
—AJ Willingham explains who Jenny Nicholson is and why her four-hour-long YouTube deep-dive on the “Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser" experience at Walt Disney World has gone viral [CNN]
—Brittany Gibson And Peder Schaefer report on the crowds jeering Donald Trump during his Libertarian National Convention speech [Politico]
—Wendy Lee looks at whether breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster will actually lower concert ticket prices [LAT]
—Everybody is talking about Jenny Kleeman's interview with America’s premier pronatalists Malcolm and Simone Collins and for good reason, as it's pretty wild [Guardian]
Today...
...in 2010, Warner Bros. released Sex and the City 2 in theaters. Despite making almost $300m at the global box office, the film flopped with critics with 15 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and won three Razzies. The original review.
Today's birthdays: André 3000 (49), Paul Bettany (53), Joseph Fiennes (54), Jack McBrayer (51), Richard Schiff (69), Peri Gilpin (63), Shanola Hampton (47), Brad Peyton (46), Todd Bridges (59), Giuseppe Tornatore (68), Steven Brill (62), Lily-Rose Depp (25), Darin Brooks (40), Sara Wiseman (52), Ben Feldman (44), Lee Meriwether (89), Chelsea Field (67), Bella Heathcote (37), Izabela Vidovic (23), Eddie McClintock (57), Cindy Sampson (46), Jane Musky (70), Kimberley Sustad (37), Chris Colfer (34), Bruce Weitz (81), Lorne MacFadyen (34), Michael Steger (44), Ken Lerner (76), Dondré T. Whitfield (55), Mikki Padilla (50), Kenny Ridwan (25), Laura Dean (61) |
| | Richard M. Sherman, the Oscar-winning songwriter who partnered with his late brother to craft tunes for such Disney classics as Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Jungle Book, died Saturday. He was 95. The obituary. |
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