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.
NOTE TO VIACOM EMPLOYEES: THAT SOUND coming from the cubicles and corner suites of Paramount Pictures, MTV and other sister companies likely is a colleague printing out a résumé. As the boardroom drama over Sumner Redstone’s succession plan drags on with little sign of resolution, the Redstone companies are experiencing an executive exodus, low morale and mounting questions about the future of the assets. In the past few months, the $16 billion media giant has seen the exit of several key players — mostly on the television side — amid speculation that more could be on the way. On June 7, Nickelodeon lost Russell Hicks, president of content development and production and an 18-year company veteran. He follows the recent departure of Marjorie Cohn, Nickelodeon’s president of content development, who…
AS VIRTUAL REALITY GOES COMMERCIAL, the latest gadgetry is about to run up against the most mundane of problems: personal hygiene. Beyond home use, VR headsets are being eyed for a growing number of entertainment venues. Imax recently revealed plans to bring location-based VR experiences to multiplexes and malls, and Samsung and Six Flags have opened their first VR roller coasters. But headsets can be costly: At the low end of the VR spectrum, there are devices such as Google Cardboard or the $99 Samsung Gear VR that use a mobile phone for display, but high-end systems for personal use range from $600 to $800 and require desktop computers. So in public settings, patrons will be offered gear that is recycled from user to user. But as those headsets are…
DURING A VISIT TO Los Angeles in early June, Barry Diller addressed UTA agents and talked up the future of his streaming platform Vimeo. Just a few days later, on June 7, Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor stepped down after four years building the service. Trainor’s Vimeo exit, which comes amid general executive turnover at Diller’s IAC, opens the door to bring fresh blood into a business built mostly to serve filmmakers that now wants to lean toward a consumer subscription service. It’s a moment of inflection for 12-yearold Vimeo, considered the No. 2 user-driven streaming service behind YouTube, that observers say is indicative of a larger question about how to compete in the age of Netflix. “IAC is looking at, ultimately, what’s the bigger opportunity,” says Oppenheimer internet analyst Jason…
WITH STUDIOS NOW SPENDING AS MUCH as $200 million to market a tentpole worldwide, one might expect that their posters would offer some hint of innovation. But comfort in familiarity is on display this summer. Poster after poster seems to fall into what insiders call the three main genres: Face-off, Giant Logo and Giant Face. Why isn’t Hollywood following the lead of Madison Avenue, where the mandate is to be nonformulaic? One factor is a star’s contract, which often contains clauses that influence the image used. “If you’ve got four people whose faces have to be the same size on a poster, you’re pretty screwed,” says filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. “You just can’t make a good graphic piece of art with four things that have to be exactly the same size.”…
BEING PAID BY NETFLIX TO WATCH MOVIES and TV series might seem like a dream come true, but not for some folks in a secretive program at the company known as “Project Beetlejuice.” These individuals, known as “juicers,” are paid $10 a film or show to pick the best still images and videos from the thousands of titles in Netflix’s library to help its users figure out what they want to watch. They are paid as independent contractors but now are demanding overtime, paid vacation and holidays, health insurance and a 401(k) plan. Netflix refuses to reveal how many people work in the program, the rationale behind its name or much at all about this line of work. That’s because there are two putative class action lawsuits pending in L.A.…
CAN A PRESS INTERVIEW GONE bad kill a television show? On June 9, Noah Galvin, the openly gay star of ABC’s The Real O’Neals — a coming-of-age sitcom about a gay Chicago teen and his conservative family — gave a brutally frank interview to New York magazine’s Vulture blog about Hollywood’s “glass closet.” In it, Galvin, 22, described another gay actor, Colton Hayes, as “the worst” and Hayes’ recent coming out as “f—ing pussy bullshit”; called Eric Stonestreet’s Emmy-winning performance as a gay dad on Modern Family “a caricature of a caricature”; and, most controversially, targeted Bryan Singer with a comment about underaged boys that later was stricken from the story after the X-Men director’s lawyers intervened. Sources with knowledge of the events say ABC was blindsided by the interview,…
