Innholdsfortegnelse for February 3, 2017 i The Hollywood Reporter

↑ Film Passengers Profit? Sony’s sci-fi saga is coming up short p. 16 Books Obama’s Memoir Will the ex-president score a $20 million advance? p. 18 Cheryl Boone Isaacs (left) & Dawn Hudson The Academy leaders can breathe a sigh of relief as a diverse group of Oscar nominees (including seven people of color in the acting categories) puts an end (for now) to #OscarsSoWhite. Sacha Baron Cohen The Borat star’s highly anticipated Amazon series Highston is scrapped abruptly more than a year after it was ordered. M. Night Shyamalan The director’s $10 millionbudgeted Split opens to a huge $40 million weekend in another bid (after 2015’s The Visit) to return to his early career box-office highs. Stacey Dash The Clueless actress and controversial commentator is let go by Fox News…

BEST P ICTURE La La Land It might as well have been just “Another Day of Sun” for the musical, which led all competitors with its 14 noms. Now it has to hold on to the lead, since it’s going to be upstaged at the SAG Awards, where it has no ensemble nom. Deadpool Despite significant love from the guilds, which have rewarded it with noms, it couldn’t translate that into a hug from the Academy, which, even after expanding its field of nominees, never has nominated a comic book movie for best pic. ACTRESS Amy Adams Arrival A five-time Oscar nominee, she anchored the sci-fi movie, which got an impressive eight noms, and yet she was left out in the cold and also had to suffer through ABC’s website…

March (TOP COW, 2016) BY John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell AGENCY Wylie Sales of the civil rights icon and longtime Georgia congressman’s award-winning autobiographical graphic novel trilogy soared 76,000 percent on Amazon (and hit No. 1 on the site’s Best Sellers list) after Donald Trump attacked him on Twitter on Jan. 14. The Line Becomes a River (RIVERHEAD, 2018) BY Francisco Cantu AGENCIES UTA, Fletcher & Co. The third-generation Mexican-American and former Fulbright Fellow left academia to join the Border Patrol, recounting his experiences in this memoir, which is said to evoke both The Things They Carried and No Country for Old Men. AMC Theatres has acquired Nordic Cinema Group for $929 million. Ride Along’s Tim Story (UTA, The Firm, Ziffren Brittenham) will helm New Line’s Shaft. New Line…

Before Twitter, before Tapper, way before Tomi Lahren, the best way to check on all things Trump was to open a New York City newspaper and scan the gossip pages for a juicy item, often placed there by the real estate baron himself. When I was writing the Hot Copy and Downtown columns at the New York Daily News, from 1991 to 1997, I often said that Donald Trump didn’t check his pulse in the morning to see if he was alive — he checked the papers. That’s why it’s odd for me when he rails about his disdain for the press. A call from him always was good for breaking a controversial building proposal or a scandal in the Hamptons or even a ballbreaking divorce settlement. And sometimes those…

The style stakes were high for the new first family at the inauguration, in part due to Michelle Obama’s sartorial legacy. (An NYU study said she generated $2.7 billion in value for brands she wore November 2008 to December 2009.) This Jan. 20, the winner was Ralph Lauren, who made first lady Melania Trump’s Jackie O.-esque cutaway jacket, dress and gloves. The brand’s stock saw three days of gains, a bump from $88.19 to $90.13. “The separation of fashion and state is real,” says David Wolfe of retail forecaster The Doneger Group. “And she looked great.” Another winner: Ivanka Trump. The response to her Carolina Herrera gala gown indicates she may be a bigger boon to the fashion industry than Melania. After Ivanka carried a $1,045 Aspinal of London burgundy…

Depp Thanks Fans for Divorce Support People’s Choice at Microsoft Theater kicked off with jokes by Kevin Hart (1), who won favorite comedic movie actor, and Ellen DeGeneres (1), who was introduced by Justin Timberlake (2) as “Portia’s baby mama” and earned her 20th People’s Choice Award, making her the most decorated in the show’s history. Other winners included Tom Hanks (2) for dramatic movie actor. The night took an emotional turn with speeches by Johnny Depp (6) and Tyler Perry. Depp, winner for favorite movie icon, expressed gratitude toward fans who supported him during his divorce with Amber Heard. And favorite humanitarian winner Perry nearly brought the entire audience to tears just two days before the presidential inauguration, saying, “As I look at the state of the world and…

WME partner David Lubliner lunched with client Kenneth Lonergan at A.O.C. … Bryan Lourd, producer Moritz Borman and Paul Feig were at Mr Chow separately. … Michael K. Williams and Dr. Dre had dinner at Catch LA. Chris Hemsworth, Matt Damon and their wives double dated there. … In Park City, Harvey Weinstein was at Handle. … Drake Doremus and Nicholas Hoult popped into 350 Main. … Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann dined at Zoom. … Kevin Bacon, Matt Bomer, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer and John Cho stopped by the two-day Nobu restaurant. Bottlefish The Quick Pitch This smoothly upmarket Brentwood fish house is all minimalist wood finishes, private-school-parent date nights and brightly eager service. The menu swerves from the trendy (lobster toast with avocado mousse, lemon-chili dressing and toasted Lodge…

I n 2011, Joel Lubin, co-head of CAA’s motion picture talent department, bought his first painting. He hadn’t intended to start collecting art but was introduced to artist Alex Israel by a mutual friend — former actressmodel China Chow — around the time she was hosting Bravo’s artworld reality competition Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. Israel, who has since become one of the L.A. art world’s most in-demand figures, was looking for help booking talent on his own show, the web interview series As It Lays, a sly satire of Hollywood and celebrity. Lubin, who ended up helping to identify some talent for the show, got to know Israel and found his artistic process intriguing. “The art world felt really opaque to me, and I had no idea…

What do you think the media gets wrong about Trump? Pretty much everything. They don’t get him. I’ve said it a lot: Journalism in America is dead. I think a lot of the reporting on Donald Trump has been totally, completely fabricated, dishonest. What has Kellyanne Conway’s impact on him been? I think when she came into the campaign she said, “Things have to change or you’re going to lose.” She told him the truth. And they developed a great relationship. If you look at his career trajectory and his growth curve as a guy that never ran for office, it is an incredible, amazing story that should be studied for hundreds of years. She told NBC’s Chuck Todd that press secretary Sean Spicer presented “alternative facts” about inauguration crowd…

James L. Brooks, 76, grew up in New Jersey watching television at his friends’ homes, because his family didn’t own a TV set. He went on to write and produce such classic series as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi and The Simpsons, as well as write and direct the films Broadcast News, As Good as It Gets and Spanglish. On Jan. 28, the multiple Emmy Award winner and three-time Oscar winner (for Terms of Endearment) will receive the Producers Guild of America’s 2017 Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television. The divorced father of four spoke with THR about his life as a writer, his start in TV news and running into Steven Spielberg at the supermarket. What television shows did you first fall in love with? Your Show of…

Mary Tyler Moore, who died Jan. 25 of complications from pneumonia at age 80, got her big career break in 1961, when she was cast as Dick Van Dyke’s wife, Laura, on The Dick Van Dyke Show. She went on to win seven Emmys and redefine the image of women on television in Mary Tyler Moore. Here, Van Dyke remembers his friend of six decades. She was 23 years old, gorgeous, of course, and had a kind of mid- Atlantic accent. She sounded a little bit like Katharine Hepburn. My first question was, “Can this girl do comedy?” After that I said, “She’s a little young for me.” I got to be on hand and watch her grow into the talent she became. She was just the best. I don’t…

She was a prodigious worker. She never stopped concentrating on the goal at hand, which was making a good scene, a good moment. And she was always generous with everyone around her. She was not a camera hog. All the episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore show were winners, but one of my favorites was “Lou Dates Mary.” I always thought my character, Lou, would finally make Mary his heartthrob. And the producers finally gave us our chance. In the episode, Lou and Mary go on a date and they kiss, but they end up laughing. Close, but no cigar. The characters remain good friends. It was nicely engineered. She was tremendously talented and funny and beautiful. She has no rivals, as far as I’m concerned. She knew how to…

TELECOMS AT&T, Verizon and Comcast could benefit from “net neutrality” being rolled back. The rules require internet service providers to treat all content equally and prohibit unfairly blocking or slowing access. Pai, 44, a former lawyer for Verizon, believes this is over-regulation and may consider allowing telecoms to charge extra for higherbandwidth services such as streaming movies or music. DEALMAKERS Wedbush analyst James Dix predicts the appointment should “make it easier to do M&A, in particular the big deals that have gotten a lot of attention.” That bodes well for AT&T’s planned acquisition of Time Warner and other mergers that might have seen scrutiny. BROADCASTERS With less regulation, broadcast and cable networks can push back against arguments that bundling TV stations with co-owned networks is anticonsumer and a threat to…

SUNDANCE’S STREAMING ARMS RACE: NETFLIX, AMAZON LEAD A SALES SPIKE Deal of the Week Despite frigid temperatures, Sundance’s 2017 market was hotter than an Al Gore weather forecast. Amazon’s $12 million pickup of the Kumail Nanjiani off-kilter rom-com The Big Sick arguably is comparable with Fox Searchlight’s $17.5 million bid for The Birth of a Nation in 2016 because the latter covered worldwide rights while the Big Sick deal (negotiated by UTA’s Rena Ronson) includes just U.S., U.K., Germany and France. That means financier FilmNation can keep adding to the bounty. Big Sick also signaled that buyers now are willing to shell out big money for a comedy, not just for awards-bait dramas. Fox Searchlight plunked down $10.5 million for rap comedy Patti Cake$; negotiated by WME and CAA, it…

Over the past decade, President Trump’s U.S. Treasury Secretary pick Steven Mnuchin helped finance more than 100 films starring Trump detractors via his hedge fund, Dune Entertainment. Hits include Avatar, while Pan and Jupiter Ascending are among the bombs. Mnuchin told Congress he’ll step down as Dune chair upon confirmation and divest any interest, including three of 2017’s most anticipated films.…

“One phrase taken wildly out of context.” MADONNA The pop icon, in an Instagram post defending her speech at the Women’s March in Washington, where she admitted, “I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.” “I said, ‘Don’t tell me these things!’ I talk in my sleep.” MARK HAMILL The actor, revealing his reaction to Star Wars: Episode VIII writer-director Rian Johnson sharing its then-secret title, The Last Jedi. “I don’t.” JON CRYER The former Two and a Half Men star, responding to comedian Billy Eichner’s tweet, “Remember when our biggest problem was CHARLIE SHEEN?! I miss those days.” “I hope I wasn’t nominated because I was black.” MAHERSHALA ALI The actor, reacting to being one of six African-Americans to get an Oscar nomination for acting…

When the Academy announced its nominations for the 89th Oscars, one of the very best performances of 2016 was ignored. And that’s despite the fact that it was given by the clear lead of a film that earned six nominations, including one for best picture. Some might argue the actor was overlooked because he is a person of color. I think it’s even likelier that he was ignored because of his age. And that’s not right. Sunny Pawar was only 6 years old — and never had acted before — when he was chosen from among 2,000 boys in his native India to play young Saroo in Lion, Garth Davis’ film about a child who was separated from his family and adopted by a couple in Australia. Pawar is onscreen…

HAMMER MUSEUM Ann Philbin, director of the 25-year-old UCLA institution, on Jan. 27 will announce a major three-year renovation — led by the Hammer’s longtime architect Michael Maltzan — that will add 60 percent more exhibition space, including two major new galleries, and dramatically remake the building’s Wilshire Boulevard-facing facade (rendering above). MARCIANO ART FOUNDATION Eldest brother Maurice took the lead on transforming Mid- Wilshire’s Millard Sheets-designed Scottish Rite Masonic Temple (Darryl Zanuck was a member of the secret society in the ’60s) into an 110,000-square-foot space — reimagined by Kulapat Yantrasast — that this spring will put the Marcianos’ 1,500-piece collection on public display for the first time. ICA LA The 32-year-old Santa Monica Museum of Art, which shuttered its Bergamot Station space in 2015 (Danny Strong was among…

EASY A (2010) She was intent on landing the lead in Will Gluck’s comedy about a modern-day teenage Hester Prynne. “She made it a point to be the first person to audition,” remembers Gluck. THE HELP (2011) Co-star Viola Davis won an Oscar for her part in this 1960s-era civil rights drama about two maids and their friendship with a white woman, but Stone snagged the People’s Choice. BIRDMAN (2014) Stone got a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her turn as Michael Keaton’s character’s semi-estranged daughter. She lost to Patricia Arquette in Boyhood. SUPERBAD (2007) Stone was 19 when Judd Apatow cast her as Jonah Hill’s love interest in this raunchy teen comedy. When Apatow suggested Stone dye her hair red, a star was born. CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE (2011)…

Donald Trump is no more the master of Twitter than Twitter is the master of him. And while Twitter elevated an upstart, attentionseeking candidate, it may not prove as friendly an environment for a president who may actually want to get stuff done. Twitter may let people do an end run around the media’s traditional gatekeepers, but it does so at a price. Social media platforms make money by tracking the flow of posts and reposts. They are selling the currents of influence and the data that can be gathered about each user. More tweets and retweets mean more data and more money, so the whole platform is optimized to trigger impulsive sharing and resharing. It rewards those who can generate an immediate response. If a tweet doesn’t generate that…

Amazon is the first streamer to score a best picture nom for Manchester by the Sea. Google earned its first Oscar nomination with the animated short Pearl, which also is the first VR film to be nominated in any category. If Manchester wins best pic, Kimberly Steward will become the first African-American female producer Oscar winner. She joins Denzel Washington and Pharrell Williams to mark a record number of black producers nominated in the best picture category in the same year (there have been six others — Quincy Jones, Lee Daniels, Broderick Johnson, Reginald Hudlin, Steve McQueen and Oprah Winfrey — since 1989). Tanna is Australia’s first film nominated in the foreign-language category. Joi McMillon is the first African-American female editor to be nominated (with Nat Sanders for Moonlight). A…

First Look W hen Bryan Cranston stood onstage at the 2014 Emmys to accept the final win for his careerdefining role as Walter White, the Breaking Bad star dedicated his award to “all the Sneaky Petes of the world” — a nickname his family had given to him as a kid, since he always was looking for a shortcut. “[To those] who thought that maybe settling for mediocrity was a good idea because it was safe, don’t do it,” he continued, urging the audience instead to take a chance on their life’s passion, as he did with acting. The following day, Cranston got a call from Sony TV co-president Zack Van Amburg, who suggested there was a show in there: “What if your teenage Sneaky Pete never grew out of…

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 One presidential perk that Donald Trump should really enjoy is Article II of the Constitution, which allows him to “grant reprieves and pardons.” President Obama recently commuted Chelsea Manning’s sentence; Gerald Ford used the power to forgive Richard Nixon (who himself had pardoned Jimmy Hoffa); and in 1893, Benjamin Harrison let loose the Woodstock of all pardons: every Mormon who ever had been in “plural marriages and polygamous cohabitation.” (It was part of the deal that made Utah a state.) Hollywood’s closest brush with a presidential pardon came in January 2001 with commodities trader Marc Rich, who once owned 20th Century Fox with Marvin Davis. In 1981, the pair…

1945 Moves from Boston to Los Angeles at age 8 and scores her first role at 17 as Happy Hotpoint, the Hotpoint Appliance elf, in commercials. 1961-66 Carl Reiner casts Moore in The Dick Van Dyke Show as suburban stay-at-home mom Laura Petrie, for which she won her first of seven Emmys. 1969 Moore and husband Grant Tinker found MTM Enterprises, which would produce The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati and St. Elsewhere. 1970-77 Plays iconic Mary Richards — a hard-luck loser in love who works at a local TV station — on CBS’ Mary Tyler Moore. 1977 Mary Tyler Moore wins its third consecutive Emmy for outstanding comedy series before signing off. 1980 Scores an Oscar nomination for her performance as an icy mother in Robert Redford’s best…

She came to us [on The Dick Van Dyke Show] as a complete novice, but she learned so quickly, and she became one of the best. She used to tell me that she was learning a lot from Morey [Amsterdam] and me about comedy and timing and everything. We would tease her. I remember when she came into rehearsal and said, “I’m gonna have a show of my own one day, and it’s gonna be called Mary Tyler Moore, and I’m gonna have a kitty cat,” and we all laughed and said, “Let’s hope that this show is a success first.” The last time I saw her, I think, was when we did a 2004 reunion, but I kept in touch with her — we talked every once in a…

Big Deal More of Roger Ailes is heading to the big screen. Alex Gibney quietly has been prepping a documentary about the former Fox News chairman, who exited in the summer amid sexual assault claims from women including anchors Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly. Gibney (UTA) confirms the film’s existence but declines to elaborate. “As a matter of course, I don’t talk about what I’m working on,” he tells THR. The move comes just two months after Annapurna Pictures nabbed an untitled pitch from The Big Short’s Charles Randolph about the women who brought down the man once considered the most powerful in media, as well as Ailes’ wife, Elizabeth Tilson. At THR’s Women in Entertainment event in December, Kelly praised the Fox News women “who, with their stilettos and…

Terry Press • President, CBS Films Park City, Utah When Chelsea Handler announced that there would be a protest at Sundance, the idea seemed ripe for the derision often directed at Hollywood. Talk about elitist … marching through a resort town past artisanal leather stores and pop-up branding lounges. But what became clear as the starting time approached was that the marchers weren’t just “in the bubble” Hollywood folks. It was a robust crowd of locals, thousands strong, many of whom had spent hours driving icy roads, couples with children bundled against the cold, multigenerational family groups and lots of dogs. It may not have been Washington, but there was almost a mythic quality to gathering on Main Street, USA. Cristela Alonzo • Comedian Washington, D.C. I took Amtrak from New York…

M y favorite moment with Bonnie was actually being with her in the Bahamas during the [2007] Anna Nicole Smith custody battle. We had to go interview [Smith’s mother] Virgie Arthur and Anna Nicole. But before we went, in the midst of everyone going crazy, Bonnie said we should take a moment on the patio, have a couple of drinks and watch the sunset. Bonnie was there nonstop — she was embedded during that story. When I went to see Bonnie, [Smith’s former partner, attorney] Howard K. Stern was there. And earlier that morning, Larry Birkhead [who ultimately won the custody battle] had called me saying he was going to try to fly to L.A. to see her. They all loved Bonnie. — KEVIN FRAZIER W hen Tom Cruise and…

A lmost every Angeleno female d’un certain age knows that a visit to a dermatologist for laser treatments can run four figures, but crawling through Beverly Hills traffic can feel like no less a sacrifice. Understanding this, the esthetic industry has focused on bringing state-of-the-art technology to high-end home gadgets that do everything from rejuvenate one’s face with light therapy to restore thinning hair. The market for such devices in the U.S. exceeded $23.75 billion in 2015, with annual growth for the next five years projected to be 19 percent, according to a global survey by Research and Markets. In L.A., the response has been particularly enthusiastic, with whole sections of walk-in closets being dedicated to these antiaging machines. THR asked Stacey Sher, co-president of L.A.- based Activision Blizzard Studios,…

Kellyanne Conway says she’s “sorry to offend the black-stretch-pants women of America with a little color.” Conway is referring, of course, to the $3,600 red, white and blue Gucci military-style coat — meant to signify the Donald Trump revolution — that she wore, accompanied by her husband and four children, to the Jan. 20 inaugural ceremonies. The outfit instantly became an internet meme for ludicrousness, provoking a social media pile-on of insults and opprobrium personally directed at her. “Color” also is a useful metaphor for seeing Conway, 50, as something of a bullfighter — with the news media as the bull — and her position on the Trump team as a designated target. “I’m the face of Donald Trump’s movement,” she says, with both pride and acknowledgement of her level…

With a new administration in the White House, Hollywood’s Oscar-contending creators say they’re looking to produce content with a new consciousness. “I had some ideas before the election, but I feel like I have to step up my game now and address social issues more than I ever have,” reveals original screenplay nominee (and director) Mike Mills, whose 20th Century Women nods to 1970s politics via a scene that features Jimmy Carter’s speech about a “crisis of confidence” in America. “My films have an embedded political viewpoint, but it can’t be business as usual anymore,” says Mills. “I’m trying to figure out how to make work for this new, weird world.” It’s a dilemma that many auteurs now are wrestling with. “Everything goes from the top down,” says Moonlight’s Barry…