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.
Heat Index Showbiz Stocks $57.13 (+7.5%) AMC NETS (AMCX) The parent of TV networks AMC, IFC and SundanceTV adds another $500 million to its stock buyback program. $145.32 (-5.6%) APPLE (AAPL) Two analysts downgrade the maker of iTunes and Apple TV due to the stock’s 45 percent surge in the past year ahead of the launch of the iPhone 8. June 5-12 As the June 2 debut of Wonder Woman approached, the talk at Women in Film, a prominent Hollywood nonprofit that advocates for equal opportunities behind the camera, was that director Patty Jenkins’ picture could be a make-or-break moment. “We needed this movie to do well,” says Kirsten Schaffer, the group’s executive director in Los Angeles. “We wanted to be able to say to the filmmaking community: A superhero…
With a record 309 scripted series on the 2017 ballot, the best way to get Emmy voters’ attention may be to scare the crap out of them. Forty women in red cloaks and white hoods silently marched throughout L.A. on June 12, the day the TV Academy opened nomination voting, as part of an eerie and heavily Instagrammed plug for Hulu’s dystopian hit The Handmaid’s Tale. Just 24 hours earlier, and three days after ousted FBI Director James Comey testified about Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, FX launched its own cryptic pitch for The Americans. Ads in newspapers (The New York Times) and on TV (ABC’s This Week) depict the Washington Monument, shrouded by a Soviet flag, under the words “The Russians Are Here.” “We knew that any news…
Clean Cuts “Holy shit,” tweeted Seth Rogen, “please don’t do this to our movies.” The comedian is one of many artists who have jumped into the fray as studios and streaming services try out “cleaned up” versions of their pictures for consumers. Days after Sony on June 7 announced a plan to offer sanitized editions of its films (the versions shown on airlines and broadcast TV but not otherwise available), the DGA is voicing displeasure. “Taking a director’s edit for one platform and then releasing it on another — without giving the director the opportunity to edit — violates our agreement,” the guild tells THR. “We are committed to vigorously defending against the unauthorized alteration of films.” The union says it’s looking into Sony’s plan, and the studio insists that…
It has been more than a year since Verizon first announced its plan to acquire Yahoo for more than $4 billion, but with the deal finally closed June 13, changes at the telecom giant are expected to come swiftly. First up: layoffs of about 15 percent of staff at both Yahoo and AOL — affecting about 2,100 employees in primarily administration and support positions — as part of the merger of the internet acquisitions into a new division dubbed Oath. Several high-profile Yahoo names are departing, including CEO Marissa Mayer, who announced her resignation. Katie Couric, Mayer’s biggest talent hire, is staying on for now, but her long-term plans are undetermined. Verizon wasn’t known as a buyer of programming until a few years ago, when it struck a deal to…
EMMYS: THE RACE E very year, Emmy season forces Showtime into the uncomfortable position of deciding which of its children we think awards voters will love the most. It’s an annual rite of passage for all of us in television — the process of singling out individual episodes “for your consideration,” as they say, for the Television Academy’s highest honors. In a way, the whole setup is counterintuitive. When we say, “Billions is Emmy-worthy,” or, “Ray Donovan is long overdue for awards recognition,” it’s because of the cumulative power of a seasonlong build. It feels kind of crazy to say that all their good work is exemplified by one episode and they just chilled for the rest of the season — it’s not like anyone ever won the Nobel Prize…
Deal of the Week Facebook has found a new friend: original programming. The social network is nearing a deal to revive former MTV comedy Loosely Exactly Nicole and is working with American Ninja Warrior producers A. Smith & Co. on a competition series called Last State Standing. The shows would be part of a television- quality slate to attract audiences to Facebook’s video tab. Ricky Van Veen and Mina Lefevre, the executives hired to spearhead the development efforts, are said to have zeroed in on shortform and TV-length programs that reach a broad demographic as well as specific audience communities defined by shared interests or cultural affiliations. Nicole, with its small but devoted fan base, falls into that category. It also reunites star Nicole Byer with Lefevre, who left MTV…
