| | | | | | What's news: Hunter Biden has dropped his lawsuit against Fox News. Despicable Me 4 raced past the $500m mark globally. NBC has given a series order to Suits: LA. Oracle CEO Safra Catz is stepping down from Disney's board. Harvey Weinstein has a new date for an upcoming trial in New York. Sundance Institute revealed a shortlist of 6 cities that will host the festival. — Abid Rahman
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Biden Shocker! President Drops Out, Backs Harris ►ICYMI, somehow. In a historic decision, President Joe Biden has decided to halt his re-election campaign and no longer seek a second term in office. Biden announced the shock news via his official social media on Sunday, and noted he will speak to the nation later this week. In a follow-up message, Biden explicitly endorsed Harris to take his place at the top of the Democratic Party ticket. The story.
—"A patriot of the highest order." Hollywood paid heartfelt tribute to Joe Biden, after the president revealed he would end his re-election campaign. The likes of Robert De Niro, Shonda Rhimes, Ari Emanuel, Mark Ruffalo, Spike Lee, Julia Louis Dreyfus Damon Lindelof, Barbra Streisand and Lee Daniels were among the people who reacted to the shock news. The reaction.
—"We were planning for the news to leak out, followed by an address to the nation." THR's Alex Weprin writes that producers, anchors, correspondents and executives had spent days gaming out their plan should Biden end his 2024 campaign. Instead, the president caught the media brunching. Alex looks at how the historic news left the cable networks and broadcast news divisions scrambling. The story.
—LFG!!! The shock Biden and Harris news proved to be a shot in the arm for the Democrats, with the move spurring a flood of donations on Sunday night. ActBlue, the Democrat-linked fundraising platform, revealed that over $50m had been raised from small donors since Biden tweeted his statement that he was stepping down. Sunday was the single biggest day for online contributions to Democrats since the 2020 election. The story.
—Another Biden drops out, for now. Hunter Biden has dropped his lawsuit against Fox News. Biden dropped a filing of voluntary dismissal Sunday, just hours after his father dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. According to the filing, Biden dismissed the suit against Fox without prejudice, meaning that he could choose to re-file charges later on. Biden had sued Fox earlier this month over a fictionalized miniseries on the Fox Nation streaming service called The Trial of Hunter Biden. Fox had pulled the miniseries back in April. The story.
—Quick walk back. Aaron Sorkin is taking back his suggestion that the Democratic Party nominate Mitt Romney as its 2024 presidential candidate, expressed in a New York Times op-ed that was published online Sunday. Sorkin’s piece dropped before Biden made his shock announcement. Later, Sorkin’s West Wing actor Josh Malina posted what looked like a screenshot of a message from the writer. "I need to borrow your Twitter account again,” Sorkin’s note began before he offered a suggested tweet: “I take it all back. Harris for America!" The story.
—"Who knows where things could be by the time you actually watch this?" Last Week Tonight was pre-empted by a clarification note for its Sunday audience: “This show was taped on Saturday, July 20.” Sunday marked the return of host John Oliver to his HBO talk show after a nearly one-month hiatus and, even though his return was taped before the biggest news story that landed on Sunday, Oliver’s opening joke still landed: “Luckily, we didn’t miss much!” The recap. |
A Year After Strikes, Hollywood Reckons With the Aftermath ►Would you do it again? It's been just over a year since SAG-AFTRA joined the WGA on a strike that saw Hollywood coming to a standstill. THR's Katie Kilkenny spoke to some creatives who were involved in SAG-AFTRA's longest ever stoppage, and while some say the fight was absolutely worth the sacrifice, others feel it was "one of the great self-inflicted wounds in union history." The story.
—Dismissed. SAG-AFTRA has defeated a series of lawsuits over its COVID safety guidelines outlining terms to return to work, which for a time mandated vaccination against the virus. U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton, in an order issued on Thursday evening, dismissed the lawsuits. She found that the breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and negligence claims, among others, are blocked by a federal law protecting unions from alleged violations of state law based on labor contracts. The story.
—Decision incoming. The Sundance Festival is one step closer to finalizing a home for 2027 and beyond. On Friday, the Sundance Institute revealed a shortlist of cities that have been selected to move on to the next phase of its exploratory process to solidify a destination for the festival when its current contract with Park City expires. That list includes Atlanta; Boulder, Colorado; Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; Park City/Salt Lake City, Utah; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The story.
—📅 London calling 📅 South by Southwest London has set its festival dates. The inaugural fest, celebrating the convergence of “creativity, culture and innovation” will take place from June 2-7, 2025 in Shoreditch in East London. Building on the decades of success for the global festival in Austin, Texas, and now in Sydney, Australia, SXSW London is expected to attract over 20,000 attendees and the events across the U.K. capital. The story.
—🤝 "We are committed to deepening our relationships with the U.K. creative community" 🤝 Amazon is acquiring Bray Film Studios, the U.K. studio complex where The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power shot its second season. The vast production site is located in Water Oakley, Berkshire, 26 miles from central London, and is set to become the U.K. “creative home” for Amazon MGM Studios. Other productions that have been shot at Bray include the likes of Rocketman, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and the Amazon series Citadel. The story. |
Hollywood Fears of a Major Hack Are Growing ►"Everybody needs to realize that storage of this data presents huge risks to everyone." Earlier this month, the hacktivist group NullBulge dumped a terabyte’s worth of data from Disney, including communications from internal Slack channels, images, logins and other data. The hack followed another at AT&T. THR's Alex Weprin writes that as Disney and AT&T grapple with massive breaches, security experts are concerned that the industrywide rush to streaming and use of third-party services increases risk. The analysis.
—New date. A tentative new trial date has been set for Harvey Weinstein in New York, following the overturning of his 2020 rape conviction. In a hearing Friday, Judge Curtis Farber estimated that jury selection could begin on Nov. 12 for the new trial. In prior hearings, prosecutors have said they are investigating sexual assault claims from additional women who have come forward and may look for a possible new indictment against the former Hollywood mogul. The story.
—Indicted. Sean Kingston and his mother, Janice Turner, are facing decades in prison after being indicted on wire fraud charges. The rapper, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, and Turner both made their first appearances in Miami federal court Friday for their alleged involvement in a $1m wire fraud scheme. If convicted, Kingston and Turner each face up to 20 years in prison on each count. The story.
—Exiting. Disney's board of directors is losing a longtime member. Safra Catz, the CEO of tech giant Oracle, is resigning from her board seat, the company says. With Catz's exit, Disney’s board will shrink from 12 to 11 members. A source says that Catz's departure was partly to avoid a potential conflict of interest, with Oracle chairman Larry Ellison helping to finance a takeover of Disney competitor Paramount Global. That deal, assuming it closes, would see Ellison’s son, David Ellison, run Paramount. The Oracle chairman has committed $6b to the deal. The story.
—Concerning. The future of the Bruin and Village Theater, two historic Los Angeles movie theaters, is uncertain after Regency Theaters revealed that the company’s lease for the venues expires this month. In February, a group of 35 filmmakers led by Jason Reitman clubbed together to rescue the 93-year-old Village Theater, although plans on reopening the cinema have not been revealed yet. There was no similar campaign to save the Bruin, the 87-year-old cinema that prominently featured in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The story. |
'Twisters' Whips Up Record $80.5M Opening ►Glen scores again. Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters did better than forecasted, opening to a massive $80.5m in North America. The film easily boasts the top domestic opening ever for a natural disaster film, not adjusted for inflation, besting Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow, which bowed to $68.4m in 2004. It’s also the third-biggest start of the year to date behind Inside Out 2 ($154.2m) and Dune: Part Two ($82.5m) after edging out Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($80m).
Playing in 4,151 theaters, the turnout for Twisters cements the rising star status of Hollywood’s man-of-the-moment Glen Powell, along with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos. The film’s critics score on Rotten Tomatoes is a decent 77 percent, but its audience score is much higher at 92 percent, in line with an A- from Cinemascore.
Overseas, Twisters took in $27.1m from 76 markets this weekend for a cume of $42.7m, that puts the global total at $132.2m against a net budget of $155m.
Chung shot Twisters in Oklahoma, the heart of Tornado Alley. And, not surprisingly, the movie is doing its biggest business in areas impacted by the dangerous weather phenomenon (Friday’s top theater was in Oklahoma).
Elsewhere, Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 raced past the $500m mark globally. Domestically, it held at second place in its third outing with an estimated $23.8m for a cume of $159.5m. Overseas, the animated movie took in another $52m from 79 markets for a worldwide haul of $574.4m. The box office report. | 'HOTD' Director On Dragon Rider Reveal ►"What I loved was that this episode is about Rhaenyra and Alicent almost being at their lowest points in their lives." THR's James Hibberd spoke to director Andrij Parekh about "Smallfolk," the sixth episode of season two of House of the Dragon. Parekh answers some burning questions raised by the episode, such as that surprise kiss and whether Alys is a ghost. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—Series high. HOTD hit its highest mark to date in Nielsen’s streaming ratings for June 17-23. The series racked up 1.23b minutes of viewing on Max for the week after its season two premiere (and including a few hours of viewing for the second episode on June 23). HOTD's previous best showing was 1.02b minutes midway through its first season. Streaming figures for the show don’t include linear viewing on HBO. The ratings.
—Not great. The closing night of the Republican National Convention drew the gathering’s biggest TV audience of the week, one larger than the closing night of the RNC four years ago. It wasn’t quite large enough, however, to push the convention as a whole past 2020’s numbers. Thursday’s coverage of the convention, running from 10 p.m. to about 12:15 a.m. ET, averaged 25.38m viewers across 14 outlets, according to Nielsen figures. The ratings.
—No-brainer. NBC has given a series order to Suits: LA, a spinoff/companion show to Suits, the former USA Network series-turned-streaming juggernaut. The network has also picked up Grosse Pointe Garden Society, a murder mystery from the team behind Good Girls. NBC hasn’t scheduled either show yet, but it’s conceivable they could be ready for the second half of the 2024-25 season. Crime drama The Hunting Party is currently the only midseason scripted series on tap for the network. The story.
—Special tribute to a special talent. CBS, which was home to late Bob Newhart's two most successful TV series, will pay tribute to the legendary comedian with a special set to air tonight. The Entertainment Tonight-produced special, titled Bob Newhart: A Legacy of Laughter, will look back at Newhart’s life and career, from his start as a deadpan comedian through his TV and movie successes. The story.
In other news...
—Final Deadpool & Wolverine trailer reveals female characters Lady Deadpool and X-23
—Jabari Banks as Will Smith clashes with Banks family in Bel-Air S3 trailer
—NY Film Festival sets RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys as opening night selection
—Nonostante, September 5 to open Venice Horizons sidebar
—Kevin Spacey, Russell Brand docs among 2024 British Documentary Awards shortlist
—Venice Critics’ Week unveils 2024 lineup
—Venice Days lineup puts spotlight on women’s stories
—WNBA star Brittney Griner and wife Cherelle welcome first child together
—Whitney Rydbeck, Friday the 13th actor and crash test dummy in seat belt ads, dies at 79
—Donna Berwick, Da 5 Bloods and Hemlock Grove costume designer, dies at 66
—Esta TerBlanche, All My Children star, dies at 51
What else we're reading...
—Eli Stokols, Jonathan Lemire, Elena Schneider and Sarah Ferris have the inside story on Joe Biden stepping down, a story that reveals that Nancy Pelosi is the most powerful woman in America [Politico]
—Charlie Warzel has a fascinating piece on how, with a prospective opponent in Kamala Harris, Trump faces someone with committed "coconut-pilled" online fans [Atlantic]
—Historian Jon Meacham pens a touching tribute to Joe Biden, who he describes as "my friend and an American hero" [NYT]
—Ashley Parker writes that a Harris-Trump race would pit ex-prosecutor vs. recently convicted felon [WaPo]
—After spending more than $20b on film and TV content, Lucas Shaw reports on Apple's attempts to rein its spending after some lackluster results [Bloomberg]
Today...
...in 1996, Comedy Central unveiled a news-driven variety series, The Daily Show, with host Craig Kilborn. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Willem Dafoe (69), Selena Gomez (32), John Leguizamo (64), Terence Stamp (86), Danny Glover (78), Albert Brooks (77), Paul Schrader (78), Rhys Ifans (🏴57), Franka Potente (50), Skyler Gisondo (28), David Spade (60), A.J. Cook (46), Jaz Sinclair (30), Clive Standen (43), Patrick Labyorteaux (59), Adam Godley (60), Sharni Vinson (41), Alisha Newton (23), Madison Pettis (26), Javon 'Wanna' Walton (18), Joanna Going (61), Jamie McShane (58), Colin Ferguson (52), Rob Estes (61), Diana Maria Riva (55), Sarah Lind (42), Rena Owen (62), Irene Bedard (57), Isabelle Cornish (30), Josh Lawson (43), Karen Cliche (48), Keegan Allen (35), Johnny Strong (50), Jaime Camil (51), James Arnold Taylor (55), Parisa Fitz-Henley (47), Blake Harrison (39), Keenan Tracey (33), Camila Banus (34) |
| Christina Sandera, the companion of Clint Eastwood for the past decade, has died, the actor-director announced. She was 61. The obituary. |
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