Innholdsfortegnelse for 3/11/2016 i The Hollywood Reporter

THE BIGGEST STAR TO TAKE THE STAGE during the Academy Awards arguably was the #OscarsSoWhite controversy as Chris Rock hammered home Hollywood’s diversity issues during the three-plus-hour telecast. But now that the curtain has closed, the question becomes how the industry will avoid a repeat. The wheels already might be in motion: Since the Oscar nominations were announced Jan. 14, a slew of diverse stories and color-blind castings have gained momentum. Newly announced projects include the young Barack Obama movie Barry and Disney’s immigrant story Dr. Q. (Those come on the heels of the record-breaking $17.5 million Sundance deal for Nate Parker’s slave drama The Birth of a Nation). “There’s definitely a big conversation taking place right now in our business,” says Management 360 partner Darin Friedman. “From both the…

BY EARLY AFTERNOON ON Feb. 26, film distributors started to see grosses for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny pop up on reporting service comScore. Then they disappeared. Netflix and Imax decided not to disclose opening-weekend grosses, sparking buzz the numbers weren’t good. The film’s release was controversial from the get-go. Cinema owners who operate Imax screens were furious in fall 2014 when Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos and Imax announced a deal to make the long-awaited follow-up to Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning film, released in 2000, available on the streaming service and Imax theaters at the same time. Imax, the film’s U.S. distributor, backed off, and the film later was pushed from August to now. Yuen Woo-ping’s Sword of Destiny, whose lead producer is The Weinstein Co., ultimately…

DEAL OF THE WEEK TIME WARNER’S latest salvo in the battle against cord-cutters: buying a streaming service specializing in Korean soap operas. Warner Bros.’ Feb. 23 deal to acquire the streamer DramaFever might seem a bit unorthodox because it provides primarily English-language audiences access to international programming. But the real play is for the New York-based company’s technology and its ambitions to operate a slate of streaming channels. It already powers horrorthemed Shudder, which former DramaFever investor AMC launched in the summer, and the documentary streaming service SundanceNow Doc Club. Given Warner Bros.’ expansive library, it should come as no surprise that DramaFever will tap into that content for future niche subscription offerings. “We have the full tool kit inhouse along with the team to be able to launch a…

FILM Michael B. Jordan (WME, MGMT, Bloom Hergott) will star in MGM’s new remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda (WME, Liebman, Schreck Rose) is in talks to join Emily Blunt in Disney’s Mary Poppins sequel. Tye Sheridan (WME, Mosaic, Stone Genow) will star in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ready Player One. Age of Adaline’s Lee Toland Krieger (UTA, Anonymous, Nelson Davis) is in talks to helm Ascendant, the Divergent franchise’s final installment. J.K. Simmons (Gersh) will join Mark Wahlberg in the Boston Marathon bombing film Patriots’ Day. Demian Bichir (CAA), Jussie Smollett (CAA, Vincent Cirrincione) and Carmen Ejogo (the U.K.’s Conway van Gelder Grant, Management 360) have joined Alien: Covenant. The Lego Movie’s Dan and Kevin Hageman (CAA, Underground, Hansen Jacobson) will write Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation…

All in at once at The Palm two days before the Oscars: Steve Tisch with Allen Grubman, Sonya Rosenfeld with Nick Khan, and Kelly Ripa with Mark Consuelos. Plus: David Nevins, Avi Lerner and Richard Weitz. Three days earlier, Irving Azoff joined Tim Leiweke as Sylvester Stallone, Brad Grey and Ari Emanuel lunched nearby. … Emanuel shared the room with Frank Marshall at Toscana. Also in: Jon Feltheimer, Chuck Lorre, Eddy Yablans and Howard Kurtzman. … Jane Fonda met producer Keri Selig at Craig’s. … The Weeknd met attorney Kenny Meiselas at Cecconi’s. … At Ray’s & Stark Bar: Annette Bening, David Crosby and Ringo Starr. … Harrison Ford stopped by Cassia in Santa Monica. … Matthew Weiner took a seat at Du-par’s at the Farmers Market. … Stacey Snider…

DOMINIC NG MIGHT BE ONE of Hollywood’s most influential power players you’ve never heard of. He avoids splashy premieres, isn’t one to read scripts of the movies he backs, and he watched the Oscars at home so he could skip the commercials. Yet Ng has emerged as one of only a handful of top U.S.-based bankers connecting American studios with wealthy Chinese investors. The longtime chief executive of East West Bank is the conduit for high-profile deals such as Perfect World’s recent $250 million investment in a slate of Universal movies and Robert Simonds’ STX Entertainment’s 2015 pact to produce 18 films with Huayi Brothers. He has helped raise cash that has powered such blockbusters as The Martian and The Hunger Games franchise, along with smallscreen hits like Netflix’s Orange…

THE TECH-CREATIVE office boom in and around Silicon Beach has spawned an explosion in the residential market, with developers, architects and interior designers rushing in to decipher and deploy tech execs’ specialized home requirements. In Playa Vista, the 1.3-square-mile hotspot that hosts offices for some of the world’s biggest companies (Facebook just signed a lease for Playa Jefferson, a nearby five-building, 35,000-square-foot office), homes are getting larger and more luxurious. Brookfield Residential has opened the community’s latest neighborhood, Marlowe, which includes 30 family homes with prices ranging from the high-$2 millions to more than $3 million — the highestpriced in the community, where other new single-family homes run from the low- to mid-$2 millions. Marlowe was built with tech executives in mind: category 6 data wire for phone lines and…

AS THE CONTROVERSY about the film world’s whiteness rages on, ABC has very quietly assembled an implicit corrective: a pair of shows, Black-ish and American Crime (airing backto-back on Wednesdays at 9:30 and 10 p.m., respectively), that grapple with issues of race, are models of diversity both behind and in front of the camera, and, in the process, have become the very best series on network television. Hollywood would be wise to pay attention. Their approaches couldn’t be more different: American Crime is an hourlong drama with enough heart to earn viewers’ tears; Black-ish is a half-hour comedy whose razor-sharp humor generates laughs aplenty. What they have in common is their fearlessness in tackling American demons that have proven stubbornly difficult to tame and their willingness to allow their fiction…

Female Filmmaker Scorecard February studio movies directed and written by women* 0 DIRECTORS WRITERS 2 *10 studio releases; 6 major studios and Lionsgate WITH LOS ANGELES JUDGE DAVID Cowan setting a May 6 trial to determine the competency of ailing billionaire Sumner Redstone, the battle for the 92-year-old mogul’s media empire is moving closer to a denouement. It’s been years since Hollywood has witnessed a fight this epic over the fate of legacy properties — in this case, CBS and Viacom. Cowan said in his Feb. 29 decision that he needs to hear from witnesses to determine whether Redstone’s former companion Manuela Herzer is right in arguing that the frail billionaire lacked the mental capacity to remove her as his health-care representative in October. Redstone’s attorneys say he was capable…

OSCAR WINNER BRIE Larson’s breakout role was in Short Term 12, a SXSW hit in 2013. This year, the Austin festival that kicks off March 11 includes hundreds of aspiring Larsons, the next wave of wannabe tech moguls and Netflix’s first homegrown movie in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, featuring the return of the character Pee-wee Herman. The film festival, once an afterthought amid buzzier music and digital gatherings, has emerged as a key launchpad for studios and indies courting young tastemakers. “SXSW is a unique event in terms of the types of people who are there from the entertainment, tech and media worlds,” says Patrick Starzan, senior vp marketing at Funny or Die, which will host Tracy Morgan in his first SXSW appearance. Here’s the rundown: FILM The 2015 movie lineup…

That Hopey Changey Thing (Ecco) BY David Litt AGENCY UTA The former Obama speechwriter — he was the go-to joke guy — and newly named Funny or Die D.C. head writer is attracting buzz for his forthcoming comedic comingof-age memoir about being a 20-something working in the West Wing. Henry & Eva (HarperCollins) BY Andrea Portes AGENCY Original Artists A 9-year-old genius and his 11-year-old sister (who can talk to ghosts) investigate their parents’ deaths. The middle-grade book is the first in a planned series that Portes and screenwriter Joel Silverman seek to adapt as a potential film franchise (their Anatomy of a Misfit is in development at Paramount).…

“It’s very rare for somebody to come out, so this is very brave of you.” MEGYN KELLY The Fox News anchor, congratulating Tim Allen for “coming out” as a Hollywood Republican “I have never, not for one moment, regretted my abortion.” AMY BRENNEMAN The Leftovers actress, revealing why she allowed her personal story to be included in a Supreme Court brief for an upcoming abortion rights case. “It’s f—ing lipsynced! Hello! That’s not a show! I’d rather go see a drag queen. F— off.” ELTON JOHN The singer, bashing Janet Jackson’s Las Vegas residency and the positive reviews it has garnered. “Morgan Freeman never ages. He’s been 80 years old for 60 years.” MARLON WAYANS The Fifty Shades of Black star, tweeting about the 78-year-old Oscar presenter during the telecast.…

GRAZER & SMILEY Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer married Veronica Smiley on Feb. 20 at their Santa Monica home in front of guests including Oprah Winfrey, Bob Iger, Leslie Moonves, Brad Grey, Dana Walden, George Lucas, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Michael Keaton, Terrence Howard and Lionel Richie. Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment partner Ron Howard handled the toast, and Paul Anka performed “My Way.” The couple became engaged in April 2014. BIRTHS Writer-director-producer Greg Berlanti (Arrow, The Flash, Blindspot) welcomed son Caleb Gene Berlanti on Feb. 18. He announced on social media that he had become a dad via surrogate: “There is nothing I’ve wanted more, or waited for longer, than to be a father.” CONGRATS James Pitaro was named chairman of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media on Feb.…

THE DRESSES 1. CATE BLANCHETT The Carol nominee wowed in Armani Prive — a sea -foam green cap-sleeve gown with hand-sewn Swarovski crystals and feathers. Blanchett added extra sparkle with Tiffany & Co. diamonds. Said her stylist, Elizabeth Stewart: “We made a black version of the dress for the Globes, and then Cate dreamed up this color and we waited to see how it would look. We had the black one and another look that we’re saving for Cannes in the running, but we ultimately loved this soft color on Cate for the Oscars.” 2. NAOMI WATTS “We wanted a ‘date night’ dress as it was Liev’s night — we narrowed it down to two gowns, and Naomi asked him to call it the morning of, so it was gentleman’s…

THE COLD WAR ENDED IN 1989, BUT the age of cyberwar began six years before that. In 1983, after President Ronald Reagan saw War Games, the Matthew Broderick thriller about a teen who hacks into the NORAD computers and almost starts World War III, he asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “Could this really happen?” The answer produced the first national security policy on cyberwarfare. Today, the U.S. military spends more than $14 billion a year on cyberwarfare. Pulitzer Prize-winning national security reporter Fred Kaplan tells this story for the first time in his new book Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War (Simon & Schuster). In this exclusive excerpt, he goes behind the scenes of the December 2014 hack of Sony Pictures to show how a shadowy group…

THE MOST TALKED-ABOUT recent film phenomenon in Hong Kong centers on the territory’s tiniest local release. The dark, provocative indie drama Ten Years was produced on a microbudget of $75,000 and opened in December at a single cinema in Hong Kong’s Yau Ma Tei district. A surprise run of sellout screenings resulted in the movie beating the local per-screen average of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which opened the following day. Ten Years comprises five shorts — all set in the year 2025, and each directed by a different Hong Kong filmmaker — that explore ways in which life in the territory might change during the next decade. Collectively, the vignettes reveal a dystopic vision of Hong Kong’s future in which human rights and political freedoms in the semiautonomous territory…

SPOTLIGHT’S BEST PICTURE VICTORY CAME ON the heels of an aggressive six-month Oscar campaign that’s been applauded for its effectiveness by the film’s backers and competitors alike. The Open Road Films release benefited from the strength of its ensemble cast (which resonated with the Academy’s actors branch) and from the employment of a preferential ballot for best picture voting (nearly everyone at least likes Spotlight, while rivals The Revenant and The Big Short were considered more love or hate). But it was Spotlight’s awards campaign — which began in earnest at the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals — that helped send it over the top. Open Road chief Tom Ortenberg, whose 5-year-old company becomes the youngest to release a best picture winner, retained LTLA’s Lisa Taback, the veteran awards…

CALL IT THE supergroup of altruism. WME Foundation executive director Sarah Adolphson and fellow veteran philanthropic advisers Catherine Kimmel, Regina Miller and Michelynn Woodard (formerly of the CAA Foundation) are teaming to launch The Artemis Agency, a group dedicated to providing support to individual, corporate and nonprofit clients. Its roster already includes WME|IMG, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation and Bono’s ONE Campaign. “There are firms that specialize in campaigns, fundraising or programmatic strategy, but there was a need for that onestop shop,” says Adolphson. “We’re here for you from soup to nuts. It’s not just that immediate, ‘Congratulations, you raised a significant amount of money at this event’ — we want to be there the morning after to help them determine how to spend it wisely.”…

Bea Arthur Has New Life Thanks to Deadpool Fox’s $600 million box-office juggernaut Deadpool is introducing a new generation to the unlikeliest of heroines: Bea Arthur. The face of the Golden Girls star, who died in 2009 at age 86, appears on a tank top worn by the Marvel antihero, played by Ryan Reynolds. Fans of the comic were aware of the vigilante’s crush, a plot point dreamed up by Deadpool writer-creator Fabian Nicieza: “I was simply channeling Deadpool’s very idiosyncratic — or insane — point of view on things.” Reynolds, also an executive producer on the film, reached out to set designer Daniel Saks, 51, one of Arthur’s two sons, for permission to use her image. Says Saks: “I was on Dharma & Greg on Stage 21 at Fox…

EVERYBODY HAS A FAVORITE MOVIE LINE, EVEN MOVIE MOGULS. Disney’s Alan Horn likes, “I’ll have what she’s having,” from When Harry Met Sally …. Fox’s Stacey Snider picks “You complete me,” from Jerry Maguire. Tellingly, several top executives — Viacom’s Philippe Dauman, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos — choose “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse,” from The Godfather.  Of course, to compile THR’s latest poll, the magazine didn’t merely talk to moguls. Just as with previous ballots (Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Films, Hollywood’s 100 Favorite TV Shows), THR surveyed a vast range of industry professionals — more than 1,600 producers, directors, actors, agents, publicists, craft workers and yes, even writers (Salman Rushdie picks “It was Beauty killed the Beast,” from King Kong) — and this time asked them to…

JUNE 11, 2014 The first trailer for the movie is released. Over the next month, North Korea calls its release an “act of war” and accuses the U.S. of “sponsoring terrorism.” NOV. 24, 2014 Sony learns it has been hacked as employees are frozen out of their computers and the “Guardians of Peace” hackers threaten to leak internal company documents. DEC. 9, 2014 Thousands of Sony files are leaked, including five movies and Amy Pascal’s emails with unflattering comments about Angelina Jolie. DEC. 16, 2014 The Guardians of Peace threaten 9/11-style attacks on theaters showing The Interview, and the movie’s Dec. 18 premiere is canceled as a precaution. DEC. 17, 2014 Sony co-chairs Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal cancel the Christmas Day release of the movie as U.S. officials publicly…

1. THE ICE STORM (1997) As a Nixon-era Connecticut housewife with a cheating husband (Kevin Kline), Allen is exquisitely contained, embodying the awkward grace and indefinable ache that suffuse this masterpiece by Ang Lee. 2. OFF THE MAP (2003) Allen expertly anchors this movie about an odd New Mexico family, playing a woman who must navigate the uncharted emotional terrain around her restless daughter, depressed husband and a smitten IRS agent. 3. THE CONTENDER (2000) Allen scored an Oscar nomination for her performance as a senator being vetted for vice president, finding a flinty complexity in what might have been a sentimental heroine. 4. THE CRUCIBLE (1996) As Elizabeth Proctor, Allen creates a figure of silent accusation and anguished self-reproach in this adaptation of the Arthur Miller play about the…

Josh Dallas Prince Charming/David “In the pilot episode, when Prince Charming rides in on the horse and sees Snow White in the glass coffin and gives her true love’s kiss and she wakes up. We were filming out deep in the woods in Vancouver, and it was cold and rainy to start off with. Then the camera started rolling, and we started to shoot the scene, and as I arrived, it started to snow. You can call it whatever you want, but it felt bigger than what we were actually doing.” Jennifer Morrison Dark Swan/Emma “The Back to the Future-inspired doublepart episode [season three’s ‘Snow Drifts’ and ‘There’s No Place Like Home’] was my favorite. It felt like we got to shoot a movie for those two episodes and [Michael…