Innholdsfortegnelse for 2/19/2016 i The Hollywood Reporter

SO HOW DOES SHARI Redstone get rid of her father’s successor, Philippe Dauman, enabling her to sell the dwindling Viacom assets that Dauman controls and that her father’s failing health and geriatric bouffe have effectively frozen? That’s the question Shari has engaged in a combination of corporate farce and grand strategy, and one that has many hedge fund managers — believing the fate of Redstone’s Viacom and CBS Corp. are the first dominos of a forthcoming media consolidation — on the edge of their seats. When Sumner Redstone, 92, resigned as chairman of CBS and was replaced by Dauman at Viacom on Feb. 2, Shari declined to assume the chairmanship, instead supporting the elevation of CEO Leslie Moonves at CBS and registering the single board vote against Dauman’s move to…

BEST DIRECTOR ALEJANDRO G. INARRITU The Revenant The Birdman director made history at the Feb. 6 DGA Awards, becoming the first director ever to win in back-to-back years. GEORGE MILLER Mad Max: Fury Road He lost at the DGA Awards, though he was applauded loudly, but got a prestigious call to be Cannes jury president. BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM Son of Saul His Hungarian film remains the frontrunner, but Laszlo Nemes lost DGA’s new first-time director nod to Ex Machina’s Alex Garland, an Oscar original screenplay nominee. Mustang The French entry about five Turkish sisters cleaned up at France’s Feb. 8 Lumieres Awards, where it claimed best film and best first feature. BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY EMMANUEL LUBEZKI The Revenant His film got a boost when his team won Camera Operator of BEST…

TO KILL a Mockingbird is getting the stage treatment courtesy of producer Scott Rudin and scribe Aaron Sorkin. The production is being prepped for the 2017-18 Broadway season, with Tony winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific) set to direct. Sources familiar with the project say it’s the culmination of a two-year battle for the rights to Harper Lee’s 1960 classic and does not include rights to her manuscript Go Set a Watchman, which was published in 2015. Nor does this deal include plans for a screen adaptation; Universal, which was behind the 1962 film version, has no stake in this new stage production, which only will be the second such rendering of the novel. A 1991 adaptation aimed at schools and local theater groups has run annually in Lee’s hometown of…

To be a fly on the tablecloth as David Geffen, Jimmy Iovine, Bono, Brian Grazer and Mark Wahlberg shared a table at The Palm. … Lorne Michaels, Richard Lovett, Bob Daly, Ron Meyer and Terry Semel convened at The Grill on the Alley. Other meetups: Tracey Jacobs and Gail Berman, Jerry Bruckheimer and Donald De Line, Mike Medavoy and Harry Sloan, Irwin Winkler and Randall Emmett, and Bill Haber and Michael Eisner. … Jimmy Kimmel, Emily Blunt and John Krasinski dined together at Hollywood’s The Hungry Cat, while Lorenzo di Bonaventura stepped in to the Santa Monica location. … Hinoki & the Bird has been a hotbed, with Jennifer Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Seth Rogen, Emma Roberts, Lady Gaga and Sundance king Nate Parker all recent arrivals. CAA’s Kevin Huvane and…

ON FEB. 2, NEW YORK MAYOR Bill de Blasio crowned Julie Menin his next film czar, handing her keys to the city’s office of media and entertainment. It’s no small civil-servant job, given the film and TV industry pumped $8.7 billion into the city’s economy in 2015. But the appointment was met with a collective “Who?” by many industry players. Menin’s credentials as an in-house lawyer at Colgate-Palmolive who morphed into a political operative — most recently heading the city’s department of consumer affairs — don’t exactly scream Hollywood. But de Blasio’s move might not be so baffling. City Hall insiders paint Menin, 48, as a “killer” and a deft navigator of New York’s layers of bureaucracy. And as founder of the nonprofit Wall Street Rising, she spearheaded the rebuilding…

BY THE END OF WHAT IS OFTEN A 50-HOUR WORK WEEK AT Sony Music Entertainment, Clive Davis is just getting started. At 4 p.m. or so on Friday, the 83-year-old chief creative officer is checking to make sure everything is arranged for the guests — there are always guests — headed to meet him at his fabled weekend compound in northern Westchester County, about an hour’s drive from Manhattan. Is their transportation on time? Are there fresh flowers in each of the many guest bedrooms? Is the 30-seat plush home theater set up for the “absolutely fantastic” show he has planned for Saturday night? “He’s the ultimate host,” says his friend and frequent guest, philanthropist and Hollywood doyenne Barbara Davis. “When you’re with Clive, whether you’re at the house or…

Until 1967, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handed out two Oscars for cinematography — one for films shot in color and another for those in black and white. While regular use of black and white faded from the scene, the rise of digital filmmaking has triggered a new conversation — at the American Society of Cinematographers awards committee, among others — about whether it’s once again time to hand out dual cinematography Oscars: one for ‘classically’ photographed movies and another for movies that employ lots of digital and visual effects work. “I wish there were two categories,” says cinematographer Robert Richardson, nominated for The Hateful Eight, because there are “films that are shot relatively ‘normal,’ and then there are films that are shot with all visual effects…

Filmmakers used to brag about how many CGI shots they pack into their movies. Nowadays, they brag about how many noncomputer-generated, in-camera elements they also included in their shots. “We wanted to go back to real locations and build sets and have creatures and effects happening in camera when we could,” says Roger Guyett, VFX supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic, the lead visual effects company behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was shot largely in those far, faraway galaxies known as Abu Dhabi and the U.K. Andrew Jackson, VFX supervisor for Mad Max: Fury Road, also went the natural route while shooting his film’s postapocalyptic landscapes in Namibia. “The majority of the stunt work was done on moving vehicles,” he notes. “Other driving shots were filmed stationary, so…

J Sheekey Oyster Bar 28-35 St. Martin’s Court Just a stone’s throw from the West End, this softly lit and Art Deco-inspired hideout features a horseshoe-shaped bar and photos of British theatrical luminaries adorning the walls (OK, one of them is Orlando Bloom). Enjoy the special V-Day offer of six West Mersea pearl oysters with glass of champagne for $27. Sexy Fish Berkeley Square This terribly named yet glitteringly opulent seafood spectacle, a $22 million new opening from Asian fusion star Richard Caring, has a VDay five-course tasting menu for $137 per person. Rita Ora sang at its opening to the likes of Lindsay Lohan and perennial London trendsetter Kate Moss, while Goldie Hawn and Amal Clooney also have been spotted. It might be worth booking ahead. ▲ The Ivy…

STRANGE, STRANGE, STRANGE,” was how David Bowie later described his 1975 experience as a first-time Grammy presenter — the night Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. hosted the show. The late singer, who will be honored with a tribute performed by Lady Gaga during the Feb. 15 Grammys show, was at New York’s Uris Theatre to present the female R&B vocal performance award to Aretha Franklin. (Bowie himself wouldn’t win a Grammy until 10 years later.) Clive Davis remembers seeing the singer that night and describes him as “a vision in an incredibly elegant tuxedo with white tie and his eye-catching shades of orange and yellow hair.” Before the show, Bowie, then 28, had a talk with John Lennon in which he told the ex-Beatle he didn’t think America understood…

DEAL OF THE WEEK NETFLIX’S SPLASHY spending at Sundance grabbed headlines, but the real story may be how the streaming giant is splurging on original content overseas. Netflix in 2016 is projected to spend about $1.2 billion on original productions, according to British research group Ampere Analysis. And about a quarter of that is expected to be titles produced outside the U.S. The projects start rolling out Feb. 19 with the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel’s release in China. But others include The Crown, an epic drama about the history of the British royal family. The series is written by The Queen scribe Peter Morgan and directed by Stephen Daldry and is projected to cost $143 million for its first two seasons, making it among the most expensive TV series…

FILM Channing Tatum (UTA, Management 360, Hansen Jacobson) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (WME, Jackoway Tyerman) will team for an untitled Universal musical comedy. Lupita Nyong’o (CAA, D2, Del Shaw) is in talks to star in Amblin’s sci-fi thriller Intelligent Life, with Ava DuVernay circling to direct. Jessica Chastain (CAA, Mosaic, Hansen Jacobson) will star as Sitting Bull’s confidante in the period drama Woman Walks Ahead. Tina Fey (WME, 3 Arts, Ziffren Brittenham) and her Little Stranger banner have inked a two-year, firstlook deal with Universal. James Franco (CAA, Untitled, Sloane Offer) will direct an adaptation of the Rolling Stone article “Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted.” Elizabeth Banks (UTA, Untitled, Ziffren Brittenham) will play villain Rita Repulsa in Lionsgate’s Power Rangers. Seth Rogen (UTA,…

THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE Arts and Sciences has spent years burnishing its image as the Hollywood gold standard. It describes itself as “the world’s pre-eminent movie related organization, comprised of 7,000+ accomplished men and women working in cinema.” And the annual Oscar show — with its ceremonial red carpet, its razzledazzle sets, its buffed-and-bejeweled parade of modern-day screen gods and goddesses and its obligatory homages to the greatest screen deities of the past — is designed to maintain that illusion. But all that glistens isn’t necessarily golden — and this year, Oscar has lost some of his sheen, as, for the second year in a row, the #OscarsSoWhite outcry has led the organization to accelerate efforts to diversify its membership in an attempt to transform what many view as…

CLIVE DAVIS’ PRE-GRAMMY gala is the same night as Apple executive and Interscope Records founder Jimmy Iovine’s wedding to Liberty Ross. Both are in Beverly Hills, mere miles away from each other — but that doesn’t make it any easier for insiders faced with this Solomonic decision as the two events start only an hour apart. The A-list conflict is sure to provide fodder for small talk at all the weekend’s bashes: THURSDAY, FEB. 11 Essence Black Women in Music The seventh annual event is sponsored by Lincoln and African Pride. Avalon Hollywood, 1735 Vine St. Recording Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing Honors Rick Rubin The eight-time Grammy winner will be feted at this annual event, sure to draw some of his collaborators including Adele and Justin Timberlake. The Village,…

TRUST WAS A BIG COMPONENT OF THE BIG Short editor Hank Corwin’s first collaboration with director Adam McKay. “I felt totally safe to try anything, and he trusted me and worked with me,” says Corwin. “This film couldn’t be in one style. It had to move around. It started as comedy and became a quiet tragedy.” It’s often said the director/editor relationship is among the closest on a film, and this was underscored in conversations with this year’s nominated editors, including J.J. Abrams’ longtime collaborators, Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey, who co-edited Star Wars: The Force Awakens. “J.J. is a true collaborator, and he’s interested in what the editor thinks,” says Markey. “When we are working on a scene, we make a lot of decisions together.” Brandon agrees, adding,…

LAKE SAN MARCOS -Flora was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. She attended the University of Minnesota and studied film production at USC. Flora was one of the first women ever accepted into the Directors Guild of America. She was a top production manager of the Dynasty Series which at the time was the number one television series in the world. She was an avid golfer, bridge player, and dancer. Preceded in death by parents, Lily and Harry Lang Silverman, and daughter Susan Aviner (Avi Aviner). Survived by daughters Carol Gordon (Jim McElroy) of Calgary, and Patricia Gordon of Las Vegas, her sister, Rose Jean Sharpe of Minneapolis, her beloved grandchildren, Hana, Ariel, Shira, AEitoan, Shura, Lilly, and Yair. 113 great-grandchildren of New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina and Israel,…

Forget Von Miller or even Beyonce: The real MVP of Super Bowl 50 might have been Matt Damon. A 30-second spot teasing his return as a CIA operative in Jason Bourne was the most buzzed-about movie trailer on game day, according to advertising metrics firm iSpot.tv. The trailer’s overall social impressions from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube edged out new footage of such summer tentpoles as X-Men: Apocalypse and Captain America: Civil War. The dominant sentiment among the more than 17,000 tweets mentioning Jason Bourne? “Excited,” according to social measurement firm Canvs, which also breaks emotional tweets into such categories as “love,” “good” and “crazy.” Still, not even Bourne was a match for Mountain Dew’s “PuppyMonkeyBaby,” which ranked as the No. 1 commercial of the night. 1 Jason Bourne Universal’s spy…

The Drifter BY Nicholas Petrie (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) AGENCY APA Petrie introduces a Jack Reacher-type hero in his new thriller. A battle-scarred Marine suffering from PTSD visits the Milwaukee home of a fellow soldier who committed suicide, where he finds a snarling pit bull — and a deadly plot that threatens to unravel his world. “The Tennis Racket” BY John Templon and Heidi Blake (BuzzFeed) AGENCY Gersh The BuzzFeed/BBC piece about match fixing in pro tennis has journalists’ attention, while producers may find the makings of a satisfying thriller in its story of elite players, Sicilian gamblers, secret payoffs and violent threats.…

“I am on primetime television with this stupid accent, I can’t trash anyone. It would be so ungrateful of me.” SOFIA VERGARA The Modern Family star, voicing her views on diversity in Hollywood. “Even Chris Martin is like, what am I doing here?” ANNA KENDRICK The actress, joking on Twitter about Beyonce upstaging the headliner of the Super Bowl 50 halftime show. “I am not supporting anybody.” DAVID GEFFEN The Hollywood mogul, declaring his neutrality in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. “I remember I surprised him at his house one day, and he had all these dots all over his face.” CUBA GOODING JR. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story actor, revealing that his Jerry Maguire co-star Tom Cruise has…

IF THERE WAS AN OSCAR for most obscure nominee, the frontrunner would have to be the Swedish comedy The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, nominated for best makeup and hairstyling along with Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant. Directed and co-written by Felix Herngren from a bestselling novel by Jonas Jonasson, the film stars Swedish comedian Robert Gustafsson as centenarian Allan, who jumps out of a window of his nursing home into a series of adventures. Along the way, flashbacks also reveal his past involvement in everything from the Spanish Civil War to the Manhattan Project. While the film rang up just $944,143 domestically when it was released by Music Box in May, it has grossed more than $51.1 million worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing…

IT’S FINALLY A “BILL MAHER ELECTION.” AND BY that I mean it’s a year of new rules — to borrow from Real Time — largely rewritten by Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. No one thought a politician could survive, much less stay in the lead for as long as Trump has, based on a campaign of braggadocio and utter contempt for political correctness. But the younger generation is leading a movement to prize authenticity above all. Trump is a petulant child, but at least that’s real, they seem to be saying. Bernie, too, is as real as real gets. (So real he doesn’t even own a comb.) Bernie tied in Iowa after starting 30 points down; as I write this, it looks like he’s going to win New Hampshire, and…

PACO DELGADO The Danish Girl Delgado’s favorite costume from The Danish Girl is not the most fashionable one, nor the one made from the most luxurious fabric. It’s a simple linen suit that Eddie Redmayne’s character wears in the middle of transitioning from Einar Wegener to Lili Elbe. “It’s a very ambiguous outfit,” says the Spain-born Delgado, who also received an Oscar nomination for 2012’s Les Miserables. “It is not yet completely a woman’s outfit, but it is not any more a man’s. It shows how costumes and clothes show or hide who you are but also get reactions from people — not just admiration but also hatred, as what happens to Lili in the scene.” (She gets harassed then beaten by two men.) “Sometimes when people see ambiguity, they…

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD “Max spends much of the film troubled by his past, acknowledged through an audio treatment we called ‘Max’s headspace.’ When he wakes up in the sand dune, we externalize his blood rushing in the catheter that bleeds him and the hyperstylized chains that confine him. When Max has a flashback on top of the War Rig, we removed all sound, an audio ‘blackout,’ to reinforce his loss of consciousness.” — MARK MANGINI, NOMINATED WITH DAVID WHITE THE REVENANT “We used wind and water in creating the power of the Earth through the sound to give the characters the sense of their smallness in relation to the greatness of nature.” — LON BENDER, NOMINATED WITH MARTIN HERNANDEZ SICARIO “Benicio Del Toro’s silencer pistol had to resemble the…

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WGA AWARDS YOU KNOW YOU’VE DONE something right with your career when you start receiving lifetime achievement honors before you turn 60. What David Crane, 58, and Marta Kauffman, 59, have accomplished is obvious to anyone who has turned on a TV during the past three decades, creating such series as Dream On, Veronica’s Closet and — Hollywood’s favorite show of all time, according to THR’s 2015 industry poll — Friends. The longtime writing partners now work on separate projects — he’s doing Showtime’s Episodes, she’s running Netflix’s Grace and Frankie — but on the eve of being given the WGA’s Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award at L.A.’s Writers Guild Awards, they spoke with THR about life beyond broadcast networks, finding a new title for showrunners and those persistent rumors of…