Innholdsfortegnelse for 6/17/2016 i The Hollywood Reporter

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…

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…

AS TOP DIGITAL TALENT are wooed by traditional Hollywood agencies, will they drop the digital-only multichannel network system? Not so fast, says Collab, an MCN that recently signed Vine star Andrew Bachelor. The comedian, whose 15.7 million Vine followers make his KingBach account the platform’s most popular, continues to be represented by UTA as the social media star crosses over into TV (a single-camera comedy from Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) and movies (New Line’s horror-comedy The Babysitter). But Collab co-founder James McFadden says there’s room for his firm to provide services that UTA wouldn’t focus on, unlocking more money from digital projects. McFadden says the MCN business still plays a role in social media stars’ increasingly diversified portfolios; for instance, he’ll help Bachelor, 27, monetize his viral Vines (the…

INCE 1997, ONLY THREE shows have won the Emmy for variety series: That’s five straight wins for Late Show With David Letterman at the turn of the millennium, two wins for The Colbert Report and an absurd 11 wins for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, including a victory in 2015. “It actually makes it nicer and more relaxing because you didn’t feel like you had any pressure to compose any kind of an acceptance speech,” laughs Jimmy Kimmel, host of this year’s Emmys telecast as well as ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a four-time nominee in the category. “Not once did I ever have a piece of paper folded up in my tuxedo.” But change is coming. Since December 2014, all three of those juggernauts have either changed hosts (and…

Mr. Robot (USA), American Horror Story (FX) Mac Quayle Quayle says it’s nearly impossible to create his music without “seeing scenes onscreen and hearing the dialogue.” Because there usually is very little turnaround time for creating a score, he makes it a point to chat regularly with producers from the start of a project: “It all begins with conversations about what they’re thinking for a show.” Fargo (FX) Jeff Russo “The best way to create a show’s sound is to get a composer involved early,” says Russo, who has scored the first two seasons of Fargo, based on the Coen brothers’ 1996 movie. “So often producers wait until halfway through their first episode before they start looking for someone. Then you get maybe a week and a half to figure…

DEAL OF THE WEEK ON JUNE 2, CHINESE investment group Tang Media Partners revealed it had acquired majority ownership of IM Global, the Los Angeles film financing, production and foreign sales outfit led by former Miramax exec Stuart Ford. The deal marks the first time a Chinese entity has come to control a major foreign sales and film finance company. Since launching a Beijing office in 2013, IM Global has handled international sales on such recent local Chinese blockbusters as The Mermaid and Breakup Buddies. The company also has actively cultivated a reputation as a go-to foreign distribution partner for Chinese studios — an area of vital importance to China’s entertainment industry leadership, which craves a stronger international profile to go with its booming domestic market. “Our willingness to really…

FILM John Boyega (WME, the U.K.’s Identity, Hansen Jacobson) will star in Legendary’s Pacific Rim sequel. Brie Larson (WME, Authentic, Sloane Offer) is in talks to star in Marvel’s Captain Marvel. Dope director Rick Famuyiwa (WME, Oasis, Del Shaw) will helm Warner Bros.’ The Flash. Stunt coordinator and secondunit director Simon Crane (ICM) joins writer Tony Gilroy in working on reshoots for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Silicon Valley’s T.J. Miller (CAA, 3 Arts, Jackoway Tyerman) has joined Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One. Anthony Hopkins (UTA, Stone Genow) has joined Transformers: The Last Knight. Bill Skarsgard (WME, Magnolia, Hirsch Wallerstein) will play Pennywise in New Line’s It. Stella Meghie (CAA, Metamorphic, Del Shaw) will helm MGM and Alloy’s YA film Everything, Everything. Queen Latifah (CAA, Principato Young, Eisenberg Tanchum)…

Why Top Amazon Execs Slum It in Coach Board a plane in L.A. bound for the Cannes Film Festival, and business class will brim with Hollywood executives (fly in steerage? never!). Except for Amazon Studios. In keeping with the policies of Amazon and many other Silicon Valley and digital companies, the film team — Ted Hope, Bob Berney and Amazon Studios head Roy Price — fly coach, even internationally, just like their team. One veteran insider did a double take upon seeing Hope in the back of a plane bound for Europe. And in early April, Price, on his way to a festival in Perugia, Italy, took a selfie of himself jammed into a coach seat captioned: “Well, it’s only 10 hours.” Why Today’s Savannah Says No to Rio Today…

1997 After a frustrating stint at the Boston Herald, Simmons comes across The Boston Movie Guy, a movie reviewer for AOL’s Digital City Boston. They should have a Boston Sports Guy, he thinks, and begins badgering the site’s editors. For $50 a week, the job is his. In time, his Sports Guy columns earn him a cultlike following and, years later, a national gig writing columns for ESPN’s sports and pop culture site Page 2. 2003 A loyal reader, Kimmel recruits Simmons to write on season one of Jimmy Kimmel Live! 2005 Simmons turns his popular columns into a best-selling memoir on Red Sox fandom. In 2008, he publishes his second book, a tome on the history of the NBA that shoots to the top of the New York Times…

THE ICONIC GAY HOTSPOT LOCATED NEAR THE CORNER OF Robertson and Santa Monica boulevards in West Hollywood has hosted Oscar winners (Elizabeth Taylor watched from her wheelchair as trans star Candis Cayne high-kicked during her weekly one-woman show), pop superstars (Lady Gaga showed up in a bra and panties to give fans an exclusive listen to her third album, Artpop, before its official release) and gay glitterati (Elton John! Bryan Singer! CAA power agent Kevin Huvane!). But the Abbey story is bigger than its big-name clientele. Owner David Cooley has seamlessly mixed nightlife innovations — the appletini was invented there; male and female go-go dancers perform side by side — with social activism during its 25-year run, a milestone toasted in May. Opened in 1991 as a cozy coffee shop…

SWEETBITTER by STEPHANIE DANLER (Alfred A. Knopf, May 24) Elevator pitch Midwestern ingenue Tess moves to New York, gets a job in a trendy restaurant (a lightly fictionalized Union Square Cafe) and finds herself in a love triangle with the sensitive senior waiter and the mysterious hunk of a bartender. Buzz Strong reviews and an avalanche of publicity suggest this Kitchen Confidential-meets-Bridget Jones debut (with lots of sex) could be the hit of the summer among young women. BEFORE THE FALL by NOAH HAWLEY (Grand Central, May 31) Elevator pitch An alcoholic artist becomes a reluctant media hero when he saves the life of a 4-year-old boy in a mysterious plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard. Buzz Hawley, who has won an Emmy, Peabody and Golden Globe as the creator of…

THE 44TH RECIPIENT OF THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE’S LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, John Williams, 84, is the first composer ever to be so honored. With 50 Oscar nominations and five wins, Williams — who began as a session musician (working for such composers as Henry Mancini) before moving into TV and then film composing himself — has provided musical signatures for everyone from Luke Skywalker and E.T. to Indiana Jones and Harry Potter. No slacker, he also served as principal conductor for the Boston Pops from 1980 to 1993, and his most recent work, for Steven Spielberg’s The BFG, his theaters July 1. CHRIS COLUMBUS “I was shooting a film in Chicago, and I couldn’t leave the set to go to the scoring session for Home Alone. So we got the…

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…

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…

A Hero of France BY Alan Furst (Random House) AGENCY ICM Partners The prolific spy novelist’s latest, a World War II thriller about a charming Frenchman building a Resistance cell in Nazi-occupied Paris, offers a mix of tense, action-filled scenes and quieter suspense (plus a little bit of sex). Furst’s The Spies of Warsaw was adapted as a BBC miniseries starring David Tennant in 2013. The Immortalists BY Chloe Benjamin (Putnam) AGENCY WME The author’s forthcoming follow-up to her 2014 debut, The Anatomy of Dreams, traces the paths of four siblings over five decades after they learn the days each will die.…

“I put on a few pounds. No male actor would get scrutiny if he did the same thing for a role.” RENEE ZELLWEGER The Bridget Jones’s Baby actress, revealing that she gained weight for the film because “Bridget is a perfectly normal weight.” “Sexist? Yeah, but I’m not misogynistic.” MORGAN FREEMAN The 79-year-old actor, apologizing (sort of) after expressing his approval of producing partner Lori McCreary’s “short dresses.” “You boys are being such crybabies. Someone took away your female punching bag. Waaaah.” ROSE MCGOWAN The actress, tweeting at fanboys upset over the removal of X-Men: Apocalypse billboards featuring Jennifer Lawrence’s character being strangled. Fox apologized for the image, which McGowan and others viewed as misogynistic. “You really want to watch it when you say there’s ‘my’ African-American.” WHOOPI GOLDBERG The…

Sharing the room at The Brentwood: Jeffrey Katzenberg, Michael Bay and Cuba Gooding Jr. … Craig Piligian and Mark Burnett rendezvoused at The Grill on the Alley. … Attorneys Carlos Goodman and Greg Slewett lunched at the bar at South Beverly Grill. … Bernie Sanders took a seat at the communal table at Broken Spanish while Veep’s Reid Scott ate at the bar. … Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone ordered at Pizzeria Mozza. Bette Midler and Adam Scott each were in at other times. … Steve McQueen ate at Cavatina at the Sunset Marquis. … Of late at Hinoki & the Bird: Jane Seymour and Geraldo Rivera. … Annette Bening shared the room at Fig & Olive with Universal’s Cindy Gardner. … Casting director Sharon Klein stopped in to Mr.…

Box Office: China vs. U.S. China’s box office barely will eclipse the U.S. in 2017, but at 19 percent annual growth compared with 2 percent, it is poised to dominate every year thereafter. Worldwide Box Office Global grosses will rise at a 6 percent annual clip, fueled by a 12 percent growth rate for the Asia Pacific region. Electronic Home Video Globally, movie VOD and subscription services are growing by 13 percent annually, and in 2017 they will surpass physical home video (sell-through and rentals combined). Television Industry The sector, which includes home video and subscription fees but not advertising, will grow by only 0.4 percent annually in the U.S. In 2020, the U.S. TV industry actually could shrink. Television Advertising Mirroring the overall TV industry, worldwide annual growth in…

THE BUSINESS Eric Weinberger, President, Bill Simmons Media Group Simmons recruited him from the NFL Network to build his business with COO Geoff Chow. It’s key that all parts work in unison, says Weinberger: “We have a few creative meetings a week where if you were a martian who landed on the planet, you wouldn’t know who works for the show, the site or the podcast.” THE SHOW Stuart Miller, EP, HBO’s Any Given Wednesday After spending more than a decade at The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Miller relocated to L.A. in early 2016 to run Simmons’ talk show. “I’m a huge sports fan,” he says of taking the new gig, “and a huge Bill Simmons fan.” The first Any Given Wednesday test show took place May 31, with…

Aearly a century ago, long before The Abbey established itself as the sexually jumbled center of L.A. nightlife, another WeHo hotspot with an “anything goes” attitude was blurring lines amid flowing booze. In 1917, Alla Nazimova was a Broadway star — and an unapologetic lesbian — who successfully made the leap to Hollywood, signing a $14,000-a-week contract with Metro Pictures, a precursor to MGM. She grew confident enough to produce her own vehicles, adaptations of works by such playwrights as Oscar Wilde and Henrik Ibsen. But those films bombed. Facing bankruptcy in 1926, she decided to transform her 2.5-acre estate at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights into an Ace Hotelstyle party destination, featuring 25 villas surrounding an always-hopping swimming pool. The Garden of Allah Hotel opened its…

1. THE OTHERS (2001) “Alejandro Amenabar’s movie with Nicole Kidman is exquisitely photographed, crafted and oldschool. It’s truly one of the finest ‘bump in the night’ Victorian ghost stories ever committed to film.” 2. POLTERGEIST (1982) “It’s the movie that scarred me as a child and sent me down my obsessive path toward all things evil-doll/puppet-related. It has terrific sound design, too.” 3. LOST HIGHWAY (1997) “This is the scariest nonhorror film: fragmented narrative, noirish atmosphere, insidious soundscape, moody photography. It all adds up to a classic David Lynch experience.” 4. JAWS (1975) “It’s the movie that made me terrified of the great, watery unknown. It educated me on the power of suspense filmmaking (along with every other movie by Steven Spielberg) through camerawork, editing, music and mise en scene.”…

1958 DADDY-O Drag racing and drug dealing figured in this B-movie on which he earned his first big-screen credit. 1973 THE LONG GOODBYE He wrote the title tune with Johnny Mercer, and it repeats throughout Robert Altman’s detective tale in various orchestrations. 1971 FIDDLER ON THE ROOF He won his first Oscar for best music, scoring adaptation and original song score for adapting this Broadway musical. 1974 THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS ▲ This chase movie, starring Goldie Hawn, became the first of 28 movies that he has scored for Steven Spielberg. 1975 JAWS The ominous theme that signals each scary shark attack contributed to his second Oscar victory. 1981 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK With a flourish, he summoned up the spirit of Saturday matinee serials in the first of the…

FOR SOMEONE DEAD 90 YEARS, Harry Houdini maintains a remarkable show-business presence. “If you ask people to name a magician, they’ll name Houdini first,” says Penn & Teller’s Penn Jillette of the illusionist, whose life served as an inspiration for 2013’s Now You See Me and its sequel, out June 10. Born Erik Weisz in 1874 in Hungary, Houdini came to America when his parents immigrated four years later. By 18, he was doing a magic act; at 20, he’d joined the circus, where he perfected his escapes. Almost immediately, he was a star — and was drawn to Hollywood. In 1919, Adolph Zukor signed him to a contract at Paramount, where he made silent action films like The Grim Game and Terror Island. (The former, which featured a death-defying…