| | | | | | What's news: It's magazine day! This week's cover star is the multi-talented megastar Selena Gomez. Shirley Halperin is the new co-editor-in-chief of THR, Donna Langley was the big winner in the c-suite shuffle at NBCU. Disney+ has confirmed a third season of Star Wars: Visions. A Fleetwood Mac doc from Frank Marshall is in the works. — Abid Rahman
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Selena Gomez Is Still Tricking Her Way Into Auditions ►On the cover. Despite successes like Only Murders in the Building and her new buzzy Netflix musical Emilia Pérez, Selena Gomez, the most-followed woman on the planet (and a newly minted billionaire), tells THR's Lacey Rose that she still encounters skeptical casting directors: "We don’t tell them it’s me." The cover story. |
THR's Next Gen 2024 ►Hottest young stars in Hollywood. Having taken over Broadway and the film festival circuit, leading top steaming films and awards season hopefuls, these ten rising stars are poised to continue their Hollywood climb. The list.
—35 rising Hollywood execs under 35. Meet THR’s Next Gen Class of 2024, an immensely talented group of agents, managers, lawyers and executives thriving in the face of contraction and other corporate woes. The list. |
Comcast Unveils Spinoff Plan for Cable Networks ►It's official. In a sign of just how embattled the pay TV business is, Comcast unveiled a plan on Wednesday to spin-off most of its cable networks into a separate entity. The conglomerate that owns NBCUniversal is cleaving its less lucrative cable networks away from its film and TV studio entertainment and parks businesses. According to the plan, MSNBC, CNBC, Syfy, E!, Oxygen, the Golf Channel and USA Network will move to a spinoff company, while Bravo will stay with NBCU. The story.
—Upped. NBCU is set to undergo major changes in its C-suite and in its TV business, with the company reorganizing its executive ranks in connection with its plan to spin off most of its cable networks. One big winner will be NBCUniversal Studio Group chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley, who will take on added responsibility as chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios, according to a memo from Comcast president Mike Cavanagh to staff Wednesday morning. The story.
—Alleged backroom deal. Last year, Meta quietly shut down its original programming arm for its in-house streaming platform Facebook Watch. Now a proposed class action, filed in Illinois federal court on Monday, points to the shuttering of the service as part of an allegedly anticompetitive agreement struck by the company to cede the video-streaming market to Netflix by hobbling Facebook Watch. In exchange, Netflix funneled customer data and ad spend to Meta, the lawsuit claims. The story.
—Gen AI-focused. A new Hollywood entertainment studio wants to put generative artificial intelligence at the heart of all its projects, and it has backing from a pair of major power players in the business: The North Road Company and Andreessen Horowitz. The new studio, Promise, is being led by George Strompolos, who was the CEO and founder of creator-centric software and media company Fullscreen; as well as Jamie Byrne, who most recently led creator partnerships for YouTube; and Dave Clark, a filmmaker who uses AI in his work. Strompolos will be CEO, with Byrne serving as president and COO, and Clark as chief creative officer. The story. |
Viola Davis to Receive Cecil B. DeMille Award ►🏆 Well deserved 🏆 Viola Davis will receive the 2025 Cecil B. DeMille Award, the top honorary award at the 82nd annual Golden Globes. The actress, activist, producer, philanthropist, and best-selling author, is part of the select group of creatives to have achieved EGOT status, having won an Emmy, a Grammy, Oscar and two Tony Awards. Davis won a best supporting actress Golden Globe in 2017, her first such award, for her performance in Fences, opposite fellow Cecil B. DeMille winner Denzel Washington. The story.
—Welcome Shirley! THR on Tuesday announced the appointment of Shirley Halperin as its new co-editor-in-chief, joining Maer Roshan to lead its editorial team. Both Roshan and Halperin are based in Los Angeles. Halperin will begin in her new role this month. “Shirley brings deep experience in entertainment journalism to this role and is one of the industry’s finest,” said Jay Penske, CEO and chairman of Penske Media Corp., parent company of THR. “We are excited to welcome her back and know her contributions will be key to THR’s growth and evolution.” The story.
—J-Law to lead. Also on Tuesday, THR revealed that Jennifer Lawrence will lead the scholarship presentation at the annual Women in Entertainment breakfast gala presented by Lifetime on Dec. 4 in Los Angeles. Lawrence, who previously accepted the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at this event in 2017, will present alongside Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff in Zurawski v. State of Texas, a Texas reproductive rights lawsuit spotlighted in the 2024 documentary feature film Zurawski v Texas. Lawrence serves as one of the executive producers on the film. The story.
—"I fell down. Boom, boom, boom." Jay Leno is recovering after falling down a large hill over the weekend, leaving him with an eye patch and a large bruise. The 74-year-old former Tonight Show host was asked about the accident by TMZ on Monday, where he shared that he was staying at a hotel located at the top of a hill and fell while walking to a nearby restaurant toward the bottom of the hill. In November 2022, Leno suffered third-degree burns in a garage fire. Following the incident, he said that his face caught on fire while he was working on one of his vintage cars and had to spend several days at the Grossman Burn Center. The story.
—Private service. Mourners gathered on Wednesday for the private funeral of former One Direction member Liam Payne, who died in Argentina on Oct. 16 aged 31. Fellow bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan were in attendance at the service, held at an undisclosed location not far from London, alongside family and close friends of the late singer. Malik decided to reschedule dates on his U.K. tour — set to start this week — so he could make the service. Simon Cowell, who first formed and signed the band after their X Factor appearance in 2010, was also at the funeral. The story.
—Idiocracy. Another TV personality is being nominated for a Senate-confirmed role in President-elect Trump’s administration. Trump has nominated Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs Medicare, Medicaid and other health care functions. Oz, of course, hosted a daytime talk show for 13 years before exiting to run for an open Senate seat in Pennsylvania in 2022. He lost that seat to John Fetterman. The story. |
'Star Wars: Visions' Renewed for S3 at Disney+ ►Get excited! Disney and Lucasfilm have revealed that animated anthology series Star Wars: Visions is coming back for a third volume in 2025. The news was announced on the first day of Disney’s two-day Content Showcase event in Singapore. Volume three of Visions will return to Japan, with 9 new animated shorts from anime studios in the country. The Japanese animation studios involved include David Production, Production I.G., Trigger, Kinema Citrus, and Kamikaze Douga. The first two volumes of the non-cannon Visions shorts were a huge hit with fans and critics. The story.
—Big hire. As it grows its roster of young adult and comedy series, Amazon MGM Studios is bringing on an executive to shepherd those shows beyond their first seasons. Alex Weinberger has joined the studio as head of YA and comedy ongoing series. She and her team will take on oversight of shows including the upcoming Cruel Intentions update and We Were Liars, along with Motorheads, Off Campus, Every Year After, Overcompensating and other series as they move into possible second seasons (though not all of those titles have been formally greenlit for second seasons). Weinberger will report to Laura Lancaster, head of co-prod television and ongoing series at Amazon MGM Studios. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 It’s been a little while since Suits was dominating the streaming charts, but NBC is banking on viewers being ready for more of the legal franchise. The network has set a Feb. 23 premiere date for Suits: L.A., a show set in the same world as (but not a direct spinoff of) Suits. The drama starring Stephen Amell and Josh McDermitt is set at a Los Angeles firm that specializes in entertainment and criminal law. The story.
—📅 Dinner time 📅 Yellowjackets viewers, feast on this: Season three has a return date. The hit survival horror and coming-of-age drama will return Feb. 14, 2025, with Showtime having some cheeky fun by using Valentine’s Day to mark the return of its Emmy-nominated series about stranded teenagers who resort to cannibalism in order to survive. The creepy and violent, albeit brief, teaser announcing the release date certainly leans into the holiday irony, telling viewers to, quite literally, “Eat your heart out.” Season three will launch with two episodes streaming and on demand for Paramount+ and Paramount+ With Showtime subscribers before its linear Showtime debut two days later on Sunday, Feb. 16. The story.
—🎭 Boosting the ranks 🎭 Lioness star Genesis Rodriguez is in talks to join Netflix’s espionage drama The Night Agent for its third season. The streamer has already greenlit a third installment of one of its most popular shows, which stars Gabriel Basso as a low-level FBI agent who’s thrust into a far-reaching conspiracy. Rodriguez is set to be a regular on season three, which is set to begin filming soon in Istanbul and continue in New York early next year. Details on her role are being kept quiet for now. The story. |
Fleetwood Mac Doc in the Works at Apple ►"Their extraordinary story in their own words." Fleetwood Mac is finally getting the documentary treatment thanks to Frank Marshall. The veteran filmmaker, who was behind music docs The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart and The Beach Boys, will direct what is being described by distributor Apple as the first fully authorized doc on the band. The film will feature never-before-seen footage, exclusive new interviews, and archival interviews of the late Christine McVie, who died in 2022. The story.
—🤝 First-look deal 🤝 Wicked star Cynthia Erivo and her production company Edith’s Daughter have signed a first-look film deal with Universal Pictures. No projects were revealed but the pact does build on the relationship the Tony, Grammy and Emmy award-winning actress has built in the several years with the studio and its specialty studio Focus Features. Wicked is shaping up to open massively this coming weekend and will follow up a year later with Wicked Part Two. Erivo also earned an Oscar nomination for her starring turn in Focus’ biopic Harriet. The actress earned raves for her stage work in The Color Purple in the mid-2010s and made her film debut in the 2019 Steve McQueen thriller Widows. The story.
—🎭 Leading lady 🎭 Emma Mackey, the British actress best known for her work in Netflix’s Sex Education, has nabbed the female lead in J.J. Abrams’ untitled feature at Warner Bros. The actress will now join Glen Powell and Jenna Ortega in what is described as being a trifecta of leads. Abrams wrote the script for the feature, whose logline and description is being kept under wraps. At one point it was speculated to involve time travel, but sources say that is not the case. The story. |
WB, CJ ENM Team for Movie Library Remakes ►🤝 Content partnership 🤝 Warner Bros. Motion Pictures Group and Korea's CJ ENM have unveiled a deal to jointly develop, finance and distribute feature remakes of each studio’s films. The new agreement will see WB become the lead studio on English-language remakes originating from CJ's library, while Miky Lee’s studio will take the lead on Korean-language movies drawn from the extensive WB library. WB will distribute the films globally, except for CJ handling releases in South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Turkey on its own remakes. The story.
—🎭 Can't fail 🎭 Jason Segel, Samara Weaving, Timothy Olyphant and Juliette Lewis are toplining Jorma Taccone's thriller The Trip. The 87North and XYZ Films project also stars Paul Guilfoyle and Keith Jardine and has started production in Finland. The Trip sees Segel and Weaving play a dysfunctional couple who travel to a remote cabin to reconnect, but secretly plan to kill each other. Taccone is part of the sketch comedy group The Lonely Island along with childhood friends Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer. He co-wrote and directed MacGruber, and with Schaffer directed the musical comedy Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which he also co-wrote and co-starred in with Schaffer and Samberg. The story.
—🎭 Three more 🎭 Richard E. Grant, Amir El-Masry and Felicity Jones have joined Nicholas Galitzine, Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe and Charli XCX in the ensemble cast of 100 Nights of Hero. Principal photography in England has wrapped on Julia Jackman’s adaptation of the graphic novel feminist fairytale. Set in an alternate world, ruled by the despotic Birdman, the film centers on a bet between two friends: Manfred wagers to Jerome he can seduce his wife, Cherry, in 100 nights. The story. |
Film Review: 'Wicked' ►"Monster stage hit makes a sparkling screen transition." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Jon M. Chu's Wicked. Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum star in the Wizard of Oz-inspired fantasy, based on the $1.7b Broadway blockbuster. The review.
—"Striking and urgent." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Nanfu Wang's Night Is Not Eternal. The latest movie from the Hooligan Sparrow and One Child Nation filmmaker explores her friendship with Cuban activist Rosa Maria Payá to better understand dissent against authoritarian rule. The review.
—"Smart writing and strong performances elevate a well-trod genre." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews HBO's Get Millie Black. The first series from Booker-winning author Marlon James (A Brief History of Seven Killings) stars Tamara Lawrance as a former Scotland Yard officer looking for a missing girl in Kingston, Jamaica. The review.
In other news...
—How to Train Your Dragon teaser trailer reveals first footage from live-action remake
—Denis Villeneuve to receive Cinema Audio Society’s Filmmaker of the Year Award
—Kevin Costner to receive Motion Picture Sound Editors’ Filmmaker Award
—Chris Collins, Kelly McKee launch genre content banner Generator Entertainment
—Vic Flick, guitarist on the James Bond theme song, dies at 87
What else we're reading...
—Brian Stelter reports that Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's meeting with Trump was driven by fears of retribution from incoming administration [CNN]
—William Vaillancourt reports that Morning Joe's viewership collapsed soon after Scarborough and Brzezinski revealed they had met Trump [Daily Beast]
—Incredibly disturbing story from Elizabeth Passarella, who reports that X users are uploading their health data to train Elon Musk's Grok AI [NYT]
—Alex Reisner reports that there's now no doubt that many AI systems have been trained on TV and film writers’ work [Atlantic]
—Liz Essley Whyte looks at how scientists lost the trust of Americans and surrendered health policy to skeptics, cranks and anti-vaxxers [WSJ]
Today...
...in 2015, Lionsgate released Francis Lawrence's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 in theaters. The final installment in the original film series, the epic feature made over $660m at the box office. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Andrea Riseborough (43), Sean Young (65), Joel McHale (53), Kingsley Ben-Adir (38), Jerry Hardin (95), Joe Walsh (77), Rajkumar Hirani (62), Ming-Na Wen (61), Nadine Velazquez (46), Callie Thorne (55), Bo Derek (68), Dan Byrd (39), Richard Masur (76), Jaina Lee Ortiz (38), Jacob Pitts (45), Jeremy Jordan (40), Hannah Kepple (24), Veronica Hamel (81), Margo Stilley (42), Sabrina Lloyd (54), Amelia Rose Blaire (37), Halley Feiffer (40), Joshua Gomez (49), Rodger Bumpass (73), Marisa Ryan (50), Ashley Fink (38), Rhys Wakefield (36), Michael Xavier (39), Hind Sabri (45), Angelica Bridges (54), Florian David Fitz (50) |
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