| | | | | | If it's late August ... Telluride and Venice are in full swing, ringing in a whole new season of narratives on the features we'll be talking about until March. One great primer? THR's 32-page Venice Festival Daily. Meanwhile, The Weekender has the must-reads and plotlines to watch for. — Erik Hayden
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Cruel SummerSo far, 4 members of SNL’s cast aren’t returning for season 51, which is set to begin Oct. 4. The exits of Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Devon Walker make for the largest cast turnover since 2022, when 8 performers left.
As THR ratings expert Rick Porter writes, "It’s far from unprecedented — the show has rarely gone more than a few years without a major overhaul of its cast. Those changes have often led to 'Can SNL survive?' headlines. The answer has been 'yes' so far." The biggest SNL cast shake-ups.
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The Boss Gets Thumbs UpNot a negative review so far on Rotten Tomatoes after the critic embargo lifted on Deliver Me From Nowhere timed to the Telluride premiere. THR chief film critic David Rooney calls Scott Cooper's biopic, starring Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen, "A nuanced portrait suffused with heart and hurt." The review.
Guessing that may soon impact... |
Awards Season NearsOscars expert Scott Feinberg is out with his initial assessment of the Academy Awards landscape as the Venice Film Festival and Telluride contenders start screening for critics. Here's the top category snapshot and the full Feinberg Forecast:
Best Picture Frontrunners Sinners (Warner Bros.)
Sentimental Value (Neon)
Nouvelle Vague (Netflix)
Train Dreams (Netflix)
It Was Just An Accident (Neon)
F1 (Apple/Warner Bros.)
Materialists (A24)
Weapons (Warner Bros.)
Warfare (A24)
The Life of Chuck (Neon)
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Yes, They Did Say That... “The crass answer would be, why not?” — Luca Guadagnino, replying to a question in Venice about why After the Hunt uses the Woody Allen font.
"I have nothing to do with that; it’s not authorized by me in any way." — Karen Read, reacting to Prime Video developing a limited series on the Read trial starring Elizabeth Banks.
"[They] replaced the faces of two very short, two-second characters in the movie with mine and David." — James Dolan, at The Sphere's Wizard of Oz premiere, noting that he and David Zaslav got AI cameos.
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Oz at The SphereThe immersive Wizard of Oz event debuted in Las Vegas on Thursday. THR events editor Kirsten Chuba was there, and writes, "Upon arrival, attendees — many of whom donned looks straight out of the Emerald City for opening night — enter the Sphere's Atrium, with a hot air balloon and flying monkey hanging from the ceiling and a menacing Wizard of Oz head staring down from above. The room is drenched in sepia tones to really put one in the Kansas mindset ... but quickly upon entering the theater, it's clear we're not in Kansas anymore." Inside Opening Night I Behind the Music |
The Will Smith ParadoxSteven Zeitchik offers the wider lens view of the cringeworthy (alleged) AI use by the star for his tour video: "Smith’s act is not singular at all. It is something universal, or at least soon-to-be universal. Influencers and spinmeisters have been using AI upscaling for years, if quietly, the way you might round up your current salary in a job interview. It’s only going to grow more popular as the tools get better." The column |
'Prada' and Paparazzi The Devil Wears Prada 2 is the latest target for movie fans and professional photographers trying to get first-look shots, but one veteran producer says it's time to enact laws to combat some of the practices that make it possible.
And yet ... “Many filmmakers welcome me, because they realize good publicity early in is helpful,” Steve Sands, one of New York’s more well-known paparazzo, tells THR's Carly Thomas. The report. |
Behind Coppola's 'Megadoc'The endlessly fascinating Megalopolis saga took another turn this week, as Mike Figgis' Megadoc bowed in Venice. The director reflects to Patrick Brzeski on the folly and glories of the 83-year-old cinema legend's $140 million experimental epic: “Name another filmmaker of that stature still taking risks like this.” The interview. |
7 Days of DEALS Anthony Ippolito, who portrayed Al Pacino in the The Offer, is tackling Sylvester Stallone in I Play Rocky from Amazon MGM and Peter Farrelly ... Amy Adams, Flynn Gray and Aaron Pierre joined Ryan Gosling in Star Wars: Starfighter ... Pedro Pascal is circling the lead in Todd Haynes' gay romance feature De Noche after Joaquin Phoenix exited ... Cobra Kai crew Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald are in talks to adapt Knight Rider for Universal ... Alex Gibney’s Elon Musk doc Musk will get a theatrical run from Bleecker Street ... Osgood Perkins is set to direct The Young People for Neon, with Lola Tung and Nico Parker starring ... Bryan Singer directed a secret film starring Jon Voight. |
Events of the Week Benito Martínez Ocasio (A.K.A. Bad Bunny) joined Sony Pictures' Tom Rothman at the New York premiere of Caught Stealing ... Kate McKinnon, Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Samberg and Allison Janney walked the carpet at the New York premiere of their Searchlight Pictures film The Roses ... Melvin Gregg, Oscar Nunez, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Gbemisola Ikumelo, and Domnhall Gleeson debuted The Office spinoff The Paper in L.A. ... Jacob Elordi, Kaley Cuoco and Douglas Urbanski supported Gary Oldman at his hand and footprint ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre on Aug. 22 in Hollywood .. and much more. The week in photos.
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The Bottom Line A busy week for THR reviewers in Venice ... Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly, starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler, is "More often distancing than disarming" ... Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt, featuring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield, is "Too deliberately opaque to be stimulating" ... Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’ Seymour Hersh doc Cover-Up is "An exhilarating portrait of an American hero" ... Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby's new HBO crime drama Task is "A bummer, in more ways than one" ... Highway 99, Ethan Hawke's doc tribute to Merle Haggard, is "A vivid paean to an extraordinary life." |
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