Innholdsfortegnelse for 2/26/2016 i The Hollywood Reporter

NBC SPORTS EXECUTIVES ARE remaining optimistic that the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus won’t interrupt plans to deploy thousands of employees to Rio de Janeiro for the Summer Olympic Games. “We are packing our shipping containers and bringing down our many thousands of pieces of equipment,” NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel tells THR. “Right now it’s full steam ahead, and we anticipate a great Olympics.” The positivity comes as Brazil has become the epicenter of an outbreak linked to a spike in cases of microcephaly, which causes small heads in newborns. The World Health Organization, which in January declared Zika a global health emergency, said Feb. 12 that vaccine trials still are 18 months away and advises pregnant women to consider delaying travel to affected countries. The same day,…

DURING HIS 12 YEARS IN UTA’S story department, Scott Foster estimates he read about 5,500 screenplays. “Even if it was the worst script ever, I had to read it cover to cover,” he says. So when Foster left the agency in 2013, he teamed with Portland, Ore.-based techie Brian Austin to create ScriptHop, an artificial intelligence system that manages the volume of screenplays that every agency and studio houses. “When I took over [at UTA], we were managing hundreds of thousands of scripts on a Word document,” says Foster. “The program began to eat itself and become corrupt because there was too much information to handle.” ScriptHop can read a script and do a complete character breakdown in four seconds, versus the roughly four man hours required of a reader.…

Valiant Ambition BY Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking) AGENCY ICM The author of In the Heart of the Sea (adapted by Imagine in 2015) and Bunker Hill (in development with Ben Affleck and Chris Terrio) tackles the tragic relationship between George Washington and his friend turned traitor Benedict Arnold. Solarman BY Joseph Illidge and Brendan Deneen (Scout Comics) AGENCY Macmillan With Black Panther and Cyborg getting their own big-screen treatments and the Luke Cage series coming to Netflix soon, this character, originally penned by Stan Lee during the 1980s, receives a timely reboot as an African-American teen hacker with alien superpowers.…

Vital Stats Age 19 Born Miami Big break Sundance 2015 hit The Witch (Feb. 19) Reps CAA, Troika and Felker Toczek ANYA TAYLOR-JOY BECAME ONE OF those brief Sundance sensations in 2015 with her very first movie role, playing the eldest daughter in a Puritan family threatened by witchcraft in The Witch. A year later, A24 finally is set to release the film Feb. 19. But she’s used the time well. Raised in Argentina and the U.K. as the youngest of six children, the former ballet dancer already has shot lead roles in Morgan, Fox’s sci-fi thriller directed by Luke Scott, Ridley Scott’s son, and M. Night Shyamalan’s new thriller Split. Next up is the drama Huntsville opposite Shea Whigham. How did you get the role in The Witch? I put…

FOR MOST OF THIS YEAR’S OSCAR contenders, campaigning will end Feb. 28, the day of the 88th Academy Awards. But behind many studios’ fortress-like walls, the campaign is just beginning, as executives jostle for credit on the winning pictures. That’s because Oscar can go a long way toward redeeming a career or giving a boost to execs whose good luck has dried up and whose movies haven’t performed at the box office. Rarely has that been truer than now, when several studios with serious Oscar contenders are in turmoil, their regimes facing upheaval or threats to their very existence. “It’s not a life-saver, but it’s nice to have,” says one producer with deep ties to Warner Bros. “If you’re Courtenay Valenti or Sue Kroll, and Mad Max: Fury Road wins,…

Boulevard at a Glance Robertson stores that survived the post-Kitson era — or didn’t CLOSED 1. GREGORY’S 147 N. Robertson 2. KITSON MEN 146 N. Robertson 3. KITSON STUDIO 142 N. Robertson 4. RALPH LAUREN 143 N. Robertson 5. NEWSROOM CAFE 120 N. Robertson 6. KITSON KIDS/NEW LINE CINEMA 116 N. Robertson 7. CHAYA BRASSERIE 8741 Alden Drive 8. LES HABITUDES 101 N. Robertson 9. KITSON 115 S. Robertson 10. ZIMMERMANN 110 S. Robertson 11. LISA KLINE 136 S. Robertson 12. HALE BOB/INDIGO SEAS 123 S. Robertson 13. LISA KLINE MEN 123 S. Robertson 14. TORY BURCH 142 S. Robertson 15. BCBG 154 S. Robertson 16. D&G 147 S. Robertson 17. AMERICAN APPAREL 315 S. Robertson *OTHER EMPTY SPACES 144 N. Robertson 135-137 N. Robertson 104 N. Robertson 116 S.…

Matt LeBlanc On-the-air series LeBlanc, 48, might be the most active of the Friends alums. Showtime’s Episodes is set to start production on a fifth (and likely final) season this summer. He’ll also host Top Gear for the BBC. Not-quite-on-the-air series He’s hoping the CBS pilot I’m Not Your Friend (get it?) scores a pickup. It comes a decade after NBC’s Friends spinoff Joey was canceled. David Schwimmer On-the-air series Schwimmer, 49, is getting strong reviews for playing Robert Kardashian in FX’s hit The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Not-quite-on-the-air series He scored a starring role in AMC’s straight-to-series drama Feed the Beast, which comes two years after ABC passed on Schwimmer’s 2014 pilot Irreversible. Lisa Kudrow On-the-air series Kudrow, 52, returned last year for HBO’s The Comeback,…

BEST PICTURE The Revenant Alejandro G. Inarritu headed across the pond, where his film won a field-leading five trophies at the Feb. 14 BAFTA Awards, including picture, director, leading actor and sound; and the film’s Emmanuel Lubezki won for cinematography for the third year in a row following his victories for Gravity and Birdman. BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Cartel Land Asif Kapadia’s Amy remains the documentary to beat — it picked up BAFTA’s doc prize. But on the heels of Matt Heineman’s DGA upset, where his film beat out Amy, the maker of this chronicle of vigilantism along the U.S.-Mexico border was center stage Feb. 16 at a Q&A at CAA moderated by the film’s exec producer Kathryn Bigelow. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS KATE WINSLET Steve Jobs The 2009 Oscar winner added a BAFTA to…

WITH THE 2016 campaign heating up, HBO Documentary Films is backing a feature that will tackle a key issue for voters: campaign finance reform. Alexandra Pelosi, a four-time Emmy nominee, is directing and producing an untitled film that HBO will debut in the fall to coincide with the final stretch of the presidential election in November. HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins is executive producing, while Lisa Heller will serve as the film’s senior producer. Pelosi, 45, hails from political royalty as the daughter of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. But the documentarian, who began shooting footage for the film in November 2014, is no stranger to crossing party lines. She chronicled the 2000 presidential race for the documentary Journeys With George, about George W. Bush’s bid for the White…

“I’m going to make him get fully naked in the next one. Everybody wants to see the D. The Dornan D.” DAKOTA JOHNSON The Fifty Shades of Grey star, commenting on how she showed more skin in the film than her co-star Jamie Dornan. “… My greatest wish was to stab Harvey Levin with a rusty implement and watch his entrails go running down my forearm.” ALEC BALDWIN The actor, confessing his disdain for Levin in a New Yorker story about TMZ and its founder. “It’s not polite to talk ill of the dead. Even a racist.” TERRY MCMILLAN The Waiting to Exhale author, tweeting after the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. “BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!!” KANYE WEST The rapper, throwing his support behind the disgraced comedian during…

FOR MUCH OF THE PAST YEAR, SHARON Levy, 45, has been leading a radical reinvention of Spike TV. She has overseen scripted and nonscripted development at the Viacomowned channel since joining Spike in 2005. But her greatest mission has been to transform the formerly bro-focused property to a more femalefriendly lineup. That’s meant moving away from male-leaning shows (think Cops reruns) to capture a more diverse audience with original shows like Lip Sync Battle and scripted miniseries like Tut. The result: 2015 was Spike’s most watched among women in seven years. That’s a radical change for a cable channel that once billed itself as “The First Network for Men.” Levy, a former exec at film and TV production company Stone Stanley Entertainment, believes women hold the key to Spike’s growth.…

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD IS one of only four films in Oscar history to have earned nominations in all eight of the so-called “craft categories” — cinematography, film editing, sound editing, sound mixing, makeup/hairstyling, production design, costume design and visual effects. (The other three films are The Revenant, 2003’s Master and Commander and 1997’s Titanic.) To ensure all the movie’s various craftsmen were in sync with his vision — which first came into focus back in 1999 when he, comics writer Brendan McCarthy and storyboard artist Mark Sexton created more than 3,500 panels visualizing the film’s postapocalyptic world — director George Miller, 70, saw himself in the role of conductor. His goal, he says, was to make sure everything came together “in a way that’s harmonious. Probably the most important…

THE SANTA ANITA RACETRACK SITS IN SILENCE AT THE FOOT OF the San Gabriel Mountains, bathed in sunlight, steaming in the heat. As I pull into its parking lot, I’m struck by the uncommon calm. A few hundred cars are parked in perfect alignment, but space after space is empty. Perhaps that’s because it’s Super Bowl Sunday, and only hard-core horse-racing fans (or football haters) have peeled themselves off their couches to venture 30 minutes northeast of Los Angeles. I pay the $1 entrance fee and place my $2 bet, and 10 minutes later I’m standing by the finish line, transfixed, as six horses thunder around the track. For a moment, it looks as if my pick, a mottled gray beauty named Rocket Heat, will break from the pack. Then…

THE ELUSIVE, DISTRACTED young men have returned in force to the multiplex, first for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and now for Deadpool. The Ryan Reynolds superhero movie opened to an astounding $132.4 million for the three-day Valentine’s Day weekend and $152.2 million for the four days, the biggest R-rated debut of all time and the seventh-biggest for a comic book movie. Few in Hollywood predicted those types of numbers — even Fox — since the movie’s rating was seen as limiting. But the demographics tell the story: At least 62 percent of ticket buyers were males, according to PostTrak. And 47 percent were under age 25, a higher share than any recent comic book movie. Nearly 37 percent of Deadpool’s audience was between 18 and 24, a stellar turnout…

APPLE’S EFFORTS TO BREAK INTO THE streaming video business have received most of the industry buzz, but it’s actually Apple Music that could benefit the most from the technology giant’s first scripted TV series. THR revealed Feb. 12 that Apple is bankrolling an edgy, semiautobiographical project from one of its own executives, Beats Electronics co-founder Dr. Dre. Vital Signs, from veteran music video director Paul Hunter and writer Robert Munic (Empire), is planned as six half-hour episodes, each focused on a different emotion that Dre’s character experiences. It likely will be distributed via Apple’s $9.99-a-month music streaming service. The move to bolster programming for the 7-monthold service comes after Apple spent the better part of 2015 in talks with TV networks about creating a “skinny” programming bundle that it would…

DEAL OF THE WEEK MOVE OVER, Deadpool. The latest franchise star to earn a spinoff is Transformers’ daredevil Autobot Bumblebee. Paramount will sandwich a Bumblebee movie between its next two Transformers pics. The three films will roll out in successive summers beginning with a Michael Bay-helmed Transformers 5 on June 23, 2017, followed by the Bumblebee spinoff June 8, 2018. Another stand-alone will arrive June 28, 2019. “There are characters in the Transformers universe that can be and should be made into their own movies,” Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO Brad Grey tells THR. “We will make the first movie with Michael and go right into a Bumblebee movie, which will be at a lower cost.” Considering the Transformers franchise has spawned $3.8 billion in worldwide box office since 2007,…

FILM Benicio Del Toro (CAA, LBI, Hansen Jacobson), Laura Dern (CAA, Untitled, Gang Tyre) and newcomer Kelly Marie Tran (Talent House LA, Arc Artist, Stone Genow) have joined Star Wars: Episode VIII. Idris Elba (WME, the U.K.’s Artist Partnership, Headshell, Hertz Lichtenstein) will star in Fox 2000’s romantic drama The Mountain Between Us. Johnny Depp (UTA, Bloom Hergott) will star in Universal’s The Invisible Man. Kristen Stewart (Gersh, McKuin Frankel) will join James Franco and Helena Bonham Carter in JT LeRoy. Taraji P. Henson (UTA, Vincent Cirrincione, Stone Meyer) will star in Fox 2000’s NASA drama Hidden Figures. Danny McBride (CAA, Hansen Jacobson) is in talks to join Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant. Hannibal Buress (WME, 3Arts, Hansen Jacobson) will join Dwayne Johnson’s Baywatch for Paramount. Kate Winslet (CAA, the U.K.’s…

John Carrabino and Danielle Panabaker met at Bouchon, while Gersh’s Leslie Siebert and Jagged Films production president Victoria Pearman were in. Jim Brooks, Lawrence Kasdan and Alan Hergott shared the room on another day. … Jeffrey Katzenberg and Dana Walden each have been in to Toscana of late. … Mel Brooks, Jay Kanter and Alan Ladd Jr. cracked one another up at Porta Via. Kevin Connolly and Doug Ellin were in together on another day, when Jessica Alba also dined. Josh Brolin and rapper Eve also have been in. … Baskets’ Zach Galifianakis and Louie Anderson were joined by Jon Hamm, Ed Helms and Kenneth Choi at Fig & Olive. … Clint Eastwood and mega spec developer Mohamed Hadid shared the room at Shu. … Eastwood also hit Dan Tana’s.…

1. A. Lange & Sohne’s 39.5mm diameter Lange 1 Daymatic in 18-karat yellow gold features an outsize date-and-seconds dial and a 50-hour power reserve; $43,200, at A. Lange & Sohne, South Coast Plaza 2. Laurent Ferrier’s 41mm Galet Square Sunburst showcases a champagne-toned dial in a stainless-steel case; $38,000, at Fourtane, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif. 3. Patek Philippe’s 39.5mm Ref. 5496 Perpetual Calendar with moon phases is crafted in platinum with a honey-brown dial and gold-applied hour markers; $107,700, at Patek Philippe at Gearys, Beverly Hills 4. The bubble-like sapphire crystal of MB&F’s 40mm LM101 Frost shows off the sparkling gold dial and flying balance wheel. Limited to just 18 pieces; $64,000, at Provident Jewelry, Jupiter, Fla. 5. Rolex’s 40mm Oyster Perpetual Day-Date in 18-karat Everose gold; $37,550, at Rolex at Gearys,…

The latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the definitive reference manual for mental health professionals, has redefined the criteria for the condition. No longer grouped with unclassified disorders like kleptomania, gambling disorder has been realigned with substance-related addictions. The questionnaire below outlines the problems that most typically are associated with gambling disorder. In the past year, has the individual … 1 Felt the need to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement? 2 Been restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling? 3 Made repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop gambling? 4 Often felt preoccupied with gambling — persistently reliving past gambling experiences, planning the next venture or thinking…

When I was beginning, the bane of my existence was that people were going to put John Williams’ [music] in [as] temp scores and want me to do something like that,” says Carter Burwell, 61, a first-time nominee for his delicate work on Carol. “The breadth of his compositional palette and his orchestration is just way beyond me and I’m always amazed by it.” For Burwell and fellow composers Johann Johannsson, 46, and Thomas Newman, 60, earning an Oscar nomination alongside musical heroes like 84-year-old Williams and Italian master Ennio Morricone, 87, makes the honor even sweeter. “I’m a huge fan of them both and both had an influence on the Sicario score,” says two-time nominee Johannsson — citing in particular Williams’ use of the low end of the orchestra,…

BEING 17 This quiet stunner represents a return to peak form for French filmmaker Andre Techine. Depicting the awakening of gay adolescent desire and self-knowledge, the director has crafted an intimate epic about high schoolers Damien (Kacey Mottet Klein) and Thomas (Corentin Fila), who navigate an eruption of confused feelings for each other. The performance of Sandrine Kiberlain as Damien’s mother can’t be overpraised, and the drama builds in unexpected ways to a final act of searing poignancy. — DAVID ROONEY DON’T CALL ME SON Written and directed by Anna Muylaert, whose The Second Mother won raves in 2015, this Brazilian drama tells the story of a cross-dressing teen boy who finds out he was stolen at birth and then is forced to move in with his wealthy biological parents.…

IF NOT FOR DOC KANE, SOME OF YOUR favorite movie lines would be mumbles. The ADR mixer — the guy who recorded Robin Williams’ dialogue in Aladdin, Billy Crystal’s in Monsters, Inc. and Tim Allen’s in Toy Story — is a fourtime Oscar nominee who is getting the Career Achievement Award at the Cinema Audio Society Awards. “ADR stands for automatic dialogue replacement, though there really isn’t anything automatic about it,” says Kane of the process. “In animation, we record everything first [before anything is drawn]. The actors read the script, but they can go off book, and a lot of times that ends up in the movie. So you have to be ready for it. You have to be prepared for Robin Williams or Billy Crystal — or any…