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.
Behind the Headlines British actor Ed Skrein’s Aug. 28 decision to quit Lionsgate and Millennium’s Hellboy reboot — after criticism over a white actor playing a character who is Japanese-American in the comics — has many in the industry wondering whether the unprecedented move is a tipping point for Hollywood’s practice of “whitewashing” roles. Some see Skrein, 34, as caving to pressure from a social mediafueled mob of PC police. “No one knows where the line is,” says a studio publicity head, “and every movie now is controversial for any reason.” In addition, there are concerns that an overcorrective backlash against whitewashing will cause filmmakers to decide against making movies about diverse characters altogether. Already, Sony’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’ 2014 best-seller Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt is effectively…
Film Think Bond Apple joins the auction for 007 movie rights. p. 10 ↑Box Office Summer Shrapnel Inside the worst season in a decade p. 12 David Madden The Fox entertainment chief lands the programmer job at AMC and SundanceTV, putting him in charge of Walking Dead and the home of 10 straight years of drama series Emmy noms. Colin Trevorrow The Star Wars: Episode IX filmmaker exits amid rumors of dysfunction (Lucasfilm says, “Our visions for the project differ”). Taylor Swift The pop star’s edgier “Look What You Made Me Do” leaps to the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with the highest weekly sales and stream numbers of the year. Pete Rose The Fox Sports baseball analyst won’t appear on playoff broadcasts in the wake of a claim…
The James Bond sweepstakes has taken an unexpected turn. While Warner Bros. remains in the lead to land the coveted film distribution rights to the megafranchise — whose deal with Sony expired after 2015’s Spectre — a couple of unlikely suitors have emerged that also are in hot pursuit: Apple and Amazon Studios. The streaming giants are willing to spend in the same ballpark as Warners, if not much more, for the rights, sources tell THR. MGM, which controls film rights, has been looking for a distribution deal for more than two years, and Sony, Universal and Fox also have been pursuing the property, with Warners and Sony the most aggressive. But the emergence of Apple — which has a war chest so deep that Warners is now pressing MGM…
Summer Box Office Here we go again! If this summer — the worst since 2006 at the domestic box office — has left Hollywood studios worried about their reliance on relentless sequels and revivals of long-dormant properties, it’s too late to change course. The calendar for the next 12 months is packed with more of the same: Blade Runner 2049, Daddy’s Home 2 (which opens opposite a return to Murder on the Orient Express), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Pitch Perfect 3, Tomb Raider, Pacific Rim: Uprising, etc., etc. Given that the North American box office between May 5 and Sept. 4 amounted to an estimated $3.83 billion — down a steep 14.7 percent from summer 2016 as attendance tumbled 17.3 percent — that should be a disquieting roster. Year-to-date,…
MILLENNIUM’S CHINA DEBACLE: DOWN BUT MAYBE NOT OUT Deal of the Week Don’t cry for Avi Lerner just yet. Although Chinese conglomerate Recon Group announced Aug. 30 that it was aborting its $100 million plan to acquire 51 percent of his Millennium Films, Lerner isn’t fazed. “The company’s richer by $20 million,” he tells THR, suggesting that Recon’s only installment payment — received in May and followed by repeated delays — now becomes a breakup fee. Because of the difficulty of closing deals in China’s increasingly strict regulatory climate, U.S. negotiators have sought hefty breakup fees when engaging in M&A activity with Chinese firms. But even by current standards, Lerner’s return is steep. Dalian Wanda Group, for example, paid out $50 million when its $1 billion buyout of Dick Clark…
People, Places, Preoccupations VITAL STATS AGE 38 HOMETOWN New Orleans BIG BREAK HBO’s Treme REPS Silver Lining Entertainment and Stone Genow W hen Hong Chau learned that Alexander Payne had been working on a sci-fi script, she figured there might be a role for her. “I thought, ‘Oh, maybe there’s a lab tech with a line or two,’ because I had been trained to think so small in regards to how I look and what I can play — or what people will allow me to play,” says the Asian-American actress. But there was a much meatier opportunity in Downsizing, Payne’s social satire (a Dec. 22 Paramount release) starring Matt Damon as a lower-middle-class man who chooses to be shrunk in order to live a more affluent life in a…
