| | | | | | What's news: Peacock has hit 34m subscribers. Endeavor boss Ari Emanuel was paid $65m in 2023. The OSHA will investigate an accident during production of Amazon's The Pickup that left several crew injured. Paramount+ has renewed Dora. Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes will star in 28 Years Later. Amy Adams will star in Kornél Mundruczó's next film. — Abid Rahman
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N.Y. Appeals Court Overturns Weinstein Rape Conviction ►"The accused has a right to be held to account only for the crime charged." The New York state Court of Appeals has overturned Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction. The court ruled that the judge in the New York City trial prejudiced Weinstein with improper rulings, including allowing women to testify about allegations that were not part of the case. The Court of Appeals — the highest court in New York state’s judicial system — ruled that a new trial must take place. In February 2020, Weinstein was found guilty of criminal sexual assault in the first degree and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. The story.
—"Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere." On Wednesday morning, President Biden signed into law a national security bill that would force TikTok to be sold by its owner, ByteDance, or face a possible ban in the U.S. Minutes later, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew responded with a video posted to the platform. "Make no mistake, this is a ban, a ban on TikTok and a ban on you and your voice," Chew says in the video. "Politicians may say otherwise. But don’t get confused." The story.
—"Harper Collins did not fact check this chapter in the book prior to publication." The U.K. edition of Rebel Wilson’s new memoir Rebel Rising will be published with redacted passages about her past on-set experiences with Sacha Baron Cohen. The Aussie actress previously shared that in chapter 23, titled “Sacha Baron Cohen and Other Assholes,” she recounts filming 2016’s The Brothers Grimsby with Baron Cohen. Earlier, she also claimed that the previously unnamed actor had hired “a crisis PR manager and lawyers” to “threaten” her over a chapter in her book. The story.
—Investigation opened. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation into the accident on the set of the Amazon MGM Studios film The Pickup. A U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson told THR early Wednesday that an inquiry had been initiated into the incident. The accident in question occurred on a second unit set of the Atlanta-based film on Saturday and injured multiple crewmembers. The story. |
Studio Profit Report: A Year of Major Transition ►A year to forget. It was another tumultuous year in Hollywood thanks to the dual labor strikes in 2023, the fallout on the film pipeline and the box office remaining below pre-COVID pandemic levels, among other factors. THR's business editor Georg Szalai writes that overall, only one studio unit among Hollywood conglomerates posted profit growth for the calendar year 2023. The report.
—Big screens, big returns. Imax continued its box office recovery during Q1 as Dune: Part Two has pulled in more than $143m in global box office to date, or 21 percent of the film’s total gross, the cinema technologies company reported Thursday. Overall revenue at the giant screen technologies company came to $79.1m, down 9 percent from a year-earlier $86.9m. However, Imax posted net income at $3.3m, up from a year-earlier profit of $2.5m. The results.
—Losses narrow. Peacock grew its Q1 revenue and narrowed its loss to $639m from $704m in the year-ago period, and $825m in Q4 of 2023, despite higher programming costs. The streamer ended March with 34m paying subscribers, compared with a year-end 2023 figure of 31m, the company also said on Thursday. The results.
—Nearing streaming profit. Spanish-language media giant TelevisaUnivision reported virtually unchanged U.S. revenue of $739.9m in Q1 of 2024, as a 4 percent drop in “other” revenue was offset by subscription and licensing revenue, as well as advertising revenue that rose minimally. It also touted that its streaming business, which had ended 2023 with more than 7m subscribers, would turn profitable by the back half of 2024. The results.
—Off the top rope. Endeavor’s $21b deal to merge its UFC with the WWE and create TKO Group Holdings last year created a live sports powerhouse. The deal, orchestrated by the Ari Emanuel-led holding company, also delivered rich compensation packages for its top execs. Emanuel took home a package valued at nearly $65m last year, including a $911,538 salary (it is prorated to reflect only Sept. 12, 2023 to the end of the year), a $24m bonus, and $40m in stock awards, per TKO’s 2023 proxy filing disclosed on Wednesday. The story. |
All Jesse Watters Wants Is a Little Good Press ►"You will always look at the hate and you will start thinking about the hate" Fox News primetime host Jesse Watters is used to getting name-checked by (and taking phone calls from) Donald Trump, but he insists to THR's Lachlan Cartwright that he’s not in the back-pocket of the former president. The interview.
—"You do get told, 'You won’t get work, you won’t do this.'" Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan opened up about her support for Palestine and how she was told it could affect the acting gigs she’s offered. In a new interview, the Irish actor got candid about her support for a ceasefire in Gaza. Coughlan has been vocal on social media about her support for the people, especially the children, of Palestine, who are caught in the middle of the Israel-Hamas War. She acknowledged her support stems from a “moral responsibility to give back” because of her privilege as a white woman. The story.
—Record breaker. Taylor Swift has broken another record, with her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, becoming Spotify's most-streamed album in a single week — after only five days. On Wednesday, it passed 1b streams since its April 19 release. This marks the latest record for Swift’s new album. On the day of its release, it became the first album in Spotify history to notch more than 300m streams in a single day. Swift also holds the record as the most-streamed artist in a single day, breaking her previous record for 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on Oct. 27. The story. |
Docuseries to Probe Nick Carter Allegations, Rift With Brother Aaron ►Tragedy and scandal. The controversies surrounding Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter and his late brother, Aaron Carter, will be the subject of an upcoming Investigation Discovery docuseries. The four-parter set to debut over two nights from May 27 on ID and Max follows the success of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, about former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider. The docuseries Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter will recall the Carter brothers’ outsized fame in the late 1990s and early 2000s before their struggles in recent years. The story.
—Say it with us! Paramount+ has renewed the animated preschool series Dora for a second season. The iconic Latina heroine returned in a computer-generated animated series from Nickelodeon Animation after the original series, Dora the Explorer, first launched on Nickelodeon in August 2000. Dora follows the bilingual explorer Dora, voiced by Diana Zermeño, and her best monkey friend, Boots (Asher Colton Spence), as they enjoy epic adventures in a fantastical rainforest. The story.
—🎭 Filling out 🎭 The prequel series to Starz's Outlander has found its lead actors and is heading into production. Filming has begun in Scotland on Outlander: Blood of My Blood, a show that will focus on the parents of the leads in the main series. Harriet Slater and Jamie Roy will play Ellen MacKenzie and Brian Fraser, who will eventually become Jamie’s parents in 18th century Scotland. Hermione Corfield and Jeremy Irvine will play Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp, Claire’s parents, whose story unfolds in World War I-era England. The story.
—Gosling bump. The April 13 episode Saturday Night Live, with host Ryan Gosling and musical guest Chris Stapleton, had several talked-about moments, from Gosling’s monologue with his Fall Guy co-star Emily Blunt to a Beavis and Butthead sketch that caused cast member Heidi Gardner to break. The water-cooler nature of the episode paid off in the ratings, as SNL hit some of its best numbers of recent years. The episode drew 8.9m viewers and a 2.0 rating (equivalent to about 2.64m people) in the adults 18-49 demographic, both of which are season highs. The ratings. |
Why It's Never Been Easier to Land in Director's Jail ►"Streaming was a good and bad thing for directors." Filmmakers who work on the (ever smaller) slate of major studio movies are dealing with risk-averse execs and a still wobbly distribution environment, with their films sitting in the larger ecosystem of publicly traded parent companies. THR's Mia Galuppo writes that if a movie flops with critics or at the box office, directors are the first to get sentenced to movie jail. The analysis.
—🎭 Heavyweight additions 🎭 Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes have signed up for zombie sequel 28 Years Later. Danny Boyle is once again directing, after helming 2002’s 28 Days Later, with Alex Garland back to write what is intended to be a trilogy of films for Sony. The original feature helped revive the zombie genre and already had a sequel, 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, which only nominally involved Boyle and Garland as executive producers. The story.
—🎭 Reunited 🎭 Steve Carell is reuniting with Tina Fey and Universal Television. The Office grad has closed a deal to co-star in Netflix’s The Four Seasons, the update of the 1981 Alan Alda feature film of the same name. Ordered straight-to-series in January after Netflix won the show following a bidding war after the conclusion of last year’s dual strikes, the adaptation was co-created by Fey and her fellow 30 Rock alums Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield. The role reunites Carell with Fey after the duo starred as a married couple in the 2010 movie Date Night. The story.
—🎭 Boston bound 🎭 Amy Adams will star in At the Sea, the latest drama from Kornél Mundruczó, the Hungarian filmmaker behind acclaimed films Pieces of a Woman and White God. At the Sea reteams Mundruczó with his frequent collaborator, the writer Kata Wéber. The film, which begins shooting in June in Boston, follows the life of a woman who, after a long rehabilitation, returns to her family at their beach holiday home, where she has to readjust to the complicated life she left behind. The story.
—🎭 Lead found 🎭 Julia Garner has nabbed the starring role in Weapons, the New Line horror movie from Barbarian filmmaker Zach Cregger. Garner will star opposite Josh Brolin in the feature, which is due to begin shooting in mid-May in Atlanta. Cregger wrote the top secret script for Weapons, which is described as an interrelated, multistory horror epic that tonally is in the vein of Magnolia, the 1999 actor-crammed showcase from filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson. The story.
—🎭 In demand 🎭 The ever-busy Brian Tyree Henry is set to join Pharrell Williams and Michel Gondry’s untitled musical for Universal, inspired by Williams’ formative years growing up in Virginia Beach in the 1970s. Henry joins a cast that includes Halle Bailey, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Gondry will direct and Williams will produce the project based on a script by Martin Hynes and Steven Levenson. The story.
—Scribe found. John Logan — the writer behind The Aviator and James Bond movie Skyfall — has been tapped to adapt Cormac McCarthy's violent Western novel Blood Meridian for New Regency. As previously announced, John Hillcoat, who directed McCarthy adaptation The Road, will helm. Hillcoat will produce along with Keith Redmon for New Regency. McCarthy’s son, John Francis McCarthy, will serve as executive producer, with McCarthy receiving a posthumous credit. The story. |
Will 'Fall Guy' Finally Get Stuntmen a Little Love? ►"It is just time to have the conversation that stuntpeople are integral to cinema." David Leitch’s latest action movie The Fall Guy stars Ryan Gosling as the stuntman hero, but the director tells THR's Rebecca Keegan that he is also fighting to get Hollywood’s anonymous daredevils some long overdue real-life respect. The interview.
—"We had a friendship of sorts." In a recent podcast appearance, Andrew Jarecki, the director behind HBO's The Jinx — Part Two, talks more about his relationship with Robert Durst and recalls the "chilling" encounter he had with Durst following his arrest: "If Bob wanted to tell any more of his story, he was going to tell it to me, right?" Warning: Spoilers! The story. |
TV Review: 'The Veil' ►"Fizzles after a promising start." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews FX/Hulu's The Veil. Boasting a British accent and action chops, Elisabeth Moss plays an MI6 agent trying to stop a terrorist attack in the new six-parter from prolific creator Steven Knight. The review.
—"Strictly for the fans." THR's Angie Han reviews Hulu's Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. The four-part doc from Gotham Chopra chronicles the rock star's recent vocal cord surgery and subsequent recovery, while also looking back at his band's four-decade career. The review.
—"An appealingly kooky supernatural adventure." Angie reviews Netflix's Dead Boy Detectives. The series, a Sandman spinoff, centers on a pair of teenage ghosts who take on supernatural cases while trying to avoid getting sent on to the afterlife. The review.
—"As much about community as it is about the tension of a bifurcated existence." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Amy Herzog’s Mary Jane. Rachel McAdams makes a moving Broadway debut in the play about a single mother navigating an unforgiving healthcare system while caring for her sick child. The review.
In other news...
—Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton gets the Hollywood treatment in The Big Cigar trailer
—Beef team, Cynthia Erivo among honorees at third annual Gold Gala
—Reba McEntire to host Academy of Country Music Awards
—AMC Theatres’ new distribution business hires Fandango veteran Stephanie Terifay
—Frank Miller strikes partnership with Abrams ComicArts
What else we're reading...
—Thomas Buckley looks at how Dune and Godzilla studio Legendary Entertainment is eyeing growth with Apollo Global Management, even without a Paramount merger [Bloomberg]
—Stuart Heritage reflects on Anne Hathaway outing herself as a Gooner (it means something different in the U.K.) and how she's been embraced by the Arsenal fanbase [Guardian]
—Bryce Elder digs into the numbers and finds that Taylor Swift is probably worth less per sale to Universal Music Group than its average artist [FT]
—With Luca Guadagnino's Challengers hitting theaters, Alex Abad-Santos and Kyndall Cunningham investigate whether the sport of tennis is actually sexy [Vox]
—Interesting Cara Buckley interview with rapper, filmmaker and committed vegan RZA about connections between meat and masculinity [NYT]
Today...
...in 2014, Relativity EuropaCorp released Camille Delamarre's Brick Mansions in theaters. The film, a remake of the 2004 French film District 13, was released five months after star Paul Walker's death, and was Walker's penultimate film appearance. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Al Pacino (84), Renée Zellweger (55), Adria Arjona (32), Jonathan Bailey (36), Gina Torres (55), Hank Azaria (60), Talia Shire (78), Jillian Bell (40), Jason Lee (54), Sofia Helin (52), Marguerite Moreau (47), Meghann Fahy (34), Sara Paxton (36), Daniel Sharman (38), Emily Bergl (49), Jeffrey DeMunn (77), Laura Birn (43), Jason Wiles (54), Sean Harmon (36), Daniel MacPherson (44), Casey Deidrick (37), Melonie Diaz (40), Adam Long (33), Daniel Kash (65), Allisyn Snyder (28), Giuseppe Andrews (45), Jason Canela (32), Peter Jurasik (74), Lynn Hamilton (94) |
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