The all-new Hollywood Reporter offers unprecedented access to the people, studios, networks and agencies that create the magic in Hollywood. Published weekly, the oversized format includes exceptional photography and rich features.
I’M LOOKING MORE FOR QUALITY AND not so much quantity.” That’s what Universal Television president Bela Bajaria said about her studio’s 2016 broadcast sales when speaking with THR in mid-May. Just two weeks later, her five-year run at the studio ended abruptly after several seasons of niche launches mostly on streaming outlets and an absence of legitimate hits at sister network NBC. Vertical integration now is a mandate at the broadcast networks, and the well-liked exec’s May 31 dismissal demonstrates studios are just as accountable for ensuring ownership. Sources say NBC Entertainment’s Bob Greenblatt and Jennifer Salke were looking for a reason to shake things up after increasingly failing to see eye-to-eye with Bajaria, and the fact that Universal-produced series accounted for just half NBC’s orders for the 2016-17 season…
IT HAS BEEN 15 MONTHS SINCE Tom Rothman took the film chairman job at the troubled Sony Pictures, and now he has firmly put his stamp on the studio. On June 3, Rothman appointed Sanford Panitch, 48, to run the main Columbia Pictures label, succeeding Doug Belgrad, who says he’s stepping down to set up a yet-to-be-funded production company. Rothman and Panitch have known each other for 15 years: Panitch worked at Rothman’s former studio, Fox, and at New Regency before following Rothman to Sony to oversee local-language production as president of international film and television. Panitch tells THR the seven years he has spent working in foreign markets — recently he helped set up Attraction, a sci-fimovie from Russian director Fedor Bondarchuk (Stalingrad), which is headed to Imax theaters…
IT’S NOT JUST POLITICIANS PLEADING WITH British citizens about the June 23 referendum to determine if the U.K. remains part of the European Union. Hundreds of stars and showbiz insiders also are growing vocal about what such a move would mean for the entertainment industry. More than 250 British celebrities — including Patrick Stewart, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Keira Knightley, Jude Law and director Steve McQueen — signed a “love letter” June 2 urging Brits to oppose exiting the EU (known as a Brexit, an initiative sparked over concerns ranging from competitiveness of British business to immigration). “Our global creative success would be severely weakened by walking away,” the letter asserts. They believe the fate of Hollywood’s favorite overseas backlot (currently home to Fox’s Assassin’s Creed and Disney’s new Star…
JAMES CORDEN MADE HIS Broadway debut in 2006 in the ensemble of The History Boys, set at a grammar school, and he won a lead actor Tony in 2012 for One Man, Two Guvnors. Now CBS’ Late Late Show star, 37, returns to host the 70th annual Tony Awards on June 12 at the Beacon Theatre, where he might make a Hamilton reference or two. Hosting the Tonys in the year of Hamilton is like hosting the Oscars when Titanic won it all. How do you inject surprise? I just feel very, very proud to be hosting the show on a night when there is a genuine cultural phenomenon at the center of it. The thirst and the warmth for that show is, firstly, absolutely deserved, and secondly, incredible to…
HOW BAD IS HOLLYWOOD’S SEQUEL SLUMP? Nearly every follow-up film of 2016 has failed to beat its predecessor, and many haven’t bowed to half of the original’s opening. “The landscape is littered with sequels that have come up short and call into question the notion of the inherent appeal of non-original, franchise-based content,” notes analyst Paul Dergarabedian. Poor reviews haven’t helped. Adds Paramount vice chair Rob Moore, whose Ninja Turtles sequel lagged 46 percent behind the first reboot: “Audiences are challenging us to make sure the story will be unique and different.”…
PROFESSIONAL SPORTS today is as much show business as it is athletics. It is a form of grand entertainment, the same as a circus, a Beyonce concert or an Avengers movie. They are all in the putting-a-butt-in-a-seat business. Often luring butts requires something outrageous — antics that would embarrass a booger-eating class clown. No one understood this dynamic better than Muhammad Ali. However, Muhammad’s method of entertainment was different from anyone else’s, probably because he had a passion and talent for all forms of entertainment that most athletes don’t share. He had movie-star good looks, which he liked to remind us by shouting, “I am the prettiest!” In another life, he would have been right up there with Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte as big-screen hunks. He did appear in…
