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.
2013 2014 TWENTY-THREE YEARS AGO, IN 1992, The Hollywood Reporter created its Women in Entertainment Power 100 list, an annual index of the most powerful women in Hollywood. At the time, Sherry Lansing had just been named chairman of Paramount Pictures in a history-making move, and the mood in town was as optimistic as an earlier era’s Virginia Slims cigarette ad — “You’ve come a long way, baby.” Fast-forward to today. I’m a female editor covering an industry that, in terms of gender, remains persistently stuck, not unlike the frozen-in-amber faces one sees strolling Rodeo Drive. It’s like white noise at this point, all those facts that bubble up with the same redundancy as the remakes and franchise sequels Hollywood now loves. Two decades since Lansing’s news, the executive suites…
ON THE AFTERNOON of Nov. 4, Catherine Hardwicke trekked to the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, laptop in tow, to offer testimony for a federal investigation into the lack of female film and television directors. The Twilight and Thirteen helmer had not received a letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as about 50 women have this year. She appeared voluntarily. “When I read about it, I reached out because I want to be involved in the change,” explains Hardwicke. “This is a historic moment, and we cannot let this slip away. We’ve got to inspire people to be on the right side of history, to make a change.” Despite spending about three hours with federal investigators, during which she described in detail how she lost…
HAS HOLLYWOOD reached peak park? Fox said Nov. 4 that it has partnered with Al Ahli Holding Group for a theme park in Dubai with rides based on the studio’s films and TV shows. Lionsgate has pacted for attractions based on The Hunger Games in Atlanta, Dubai and China, as has Paramount, which has licensed its name and IP for a resort in London. Sources say Paramount and Warner Bros. are considering opening parks in China, where DreamWorks Animation is planning DreamCenter (in addition to three indoor parks in Russia and a Shrek attraction in London). That’s on top of aggressive expansion by Disney and Universal (considered the “big two” of the parks business), including a Harry Potter world at Universal Studios Hollywood and a Jimmy Fallon ride in Orlando;…
CHINA HAS BEEN THE buzzword among film financiers and producers for almost a decade. But a recent shift in strategy by Chinese investors may mean the hype finally could become reality. A series of major deals revealed at AFM, which ran Nov. 4-11 in Santa Monica, show Chinese media companies moving from a Sinofocused approach — buying films for the Chinese market, doing Chinese-U.S. co-productions — to a global one by investing directly in English-language features, both studio-driven and independent. Le Vision Pictures, the L.A.-based offshoot of the Chinese production giant, signed a six-picture development deal with Dark Horse Comics (Sin City, Hellboy) to adapt hit Chinese graphic novels into English books and features. Chinese studio Bona Film Group announced a $235 million investment in film financier The Seelig Group,…
IN A YEAR WITHOUT A CLEAR FRONTRUNNER, the distributors of an unusually big number of films feel that awards recognition is within their reach — and they aren’t leaving anything on the table when it comes to promotional opportunities. Already this season, the pre-Thanksgiving flurry of Q&As, lunches, dinners and cocktail parties has hit a fever pitch. Among the hotter invites: a screening of the doc short The Tuskegee Airmen: Sacrifice and Triumph at the home of Lionel Richie on Oct. 5; a party for Brett Morgen’s doc feature Cobain: Montage of Heck at Robert Evans’ home Nov. 5; and a hangout at Adam Levine’s house for The End of the Tour’s Jason Segel on Nov. 8. The list goes on. But campaigning is reaching a crescendo around the Academy’s…
BEST PICTURE Brooklyn This 1950s-set bicontinental tearjerker, starring Saoirse Ronan, got an enthusiastic reaction at its Nov. 8 Academy screening — and it has scored the biggest opening in Ireland for an Irish film in 19 years. By the Sea Angelina Jolie Pitt’s directorial follow-up to Unbroken, starring her and hubby Brad, proved a meandering attempt at a European art film when it opened AFI Fest on Nov. 5 and landed with a thud. BEST DIRECTOR SARAH GAVRON Suffragette The British Independent Film Awards gave her historical drama an impressive four acting noms, including one for Carey Mulligan, but bizarrely snubbed the U.K.-born director. TOM MCCARTHY Spotlight On Nov. 3, he premiered his movie in Hollywood; on Nov. 6, it opened to nearly $300,000 from only five theaters; on Nov.…
