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.
FAILURE IS A BLOOD SPORT IN Hollywood, consumed publicly and voraciously. Movies bomb, shows are canceled, executives are fired. The schadenfreude runs as thick as the rush hour traffic on the 405. And in 2010, along with the Nic Cage-starring The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Fox’s Lone Star, The Hollywood Reporter was among the town’s spectacular stories of failure. I moved here in July of that year to try to restart this place, newly acquired along with sister publications by deep-pocketed investors bullish on their potential. Me? I was tired and somewhat bored of living in NYC, where I’d moved when I was 17, as was my husband. For years, I’d had a nagging persistent fear of one day, as an elderly woman, regretting having never left Manhattan. I needed a…
OPENING NIGHT FOR THE FINAL HUNGER Games movie, Mockingjay — Part 2, was expected to be a major event in France, where the franchise has a rabid fan base. But after the terror attacks that rocked the city Nov. 13 and left 130 dead and hundreds injured, neither the sneak preview Nov. 17 nor opening-night screenings the following day sold out. “[The attacks] are in the back of my mind,” a patron purchasing three tickets at the Gaumont Opera theater told THR on Nov. 17. The man, who declined to give his name, says he debated walking the streets to the cinema before deciding that seeing the film would be a show of strength. “Call me crazy, I have to see it with friends,” he says. “If something were to…
NICHOLAS ALEXANDER, 36 Merchandise manager for bands including Sum 31 and The Black Keys. THOMAS AYAD, 34 International product manager at Mercury Records. MAXIME BOUFFARD, 26 Filmmaker and postproduction specialist. GUILLAUME DECHERF, 43 A music journalist for the magazine Les Inrocks, Decherf had written about Eagles of Death Metal in its Oct. 28 issue and first revealed the band’s November concert at the Bataclan. ROMAIN DUNAY, 28 Dunay was a professional musician. “You are immortal,” a friend wrote on Twitter, while another mourned the “loss of a kind, dear soul, a musician, teacher, and friend.” THOMAS DUPERRON, 30 Communications director at Paris’ Maroquinerie theater and music venue. GREGORY FOSSE, 28 Music programmer at D17 television station. MATHIEU HOCHE, 38 Normandy-born Hoche was a camera technician for the France 24 news…
ON NOV. 16, THE WEINSTEIN Co. revealed it will slash nearly one-fifth of its staff, mostly from the film division. But are Harvey and Bob Weinstein looking to unload more? Sources say TWC is considering selling part or all of the company the brothers founded in 2005. Among the intriguing scenarios: Billionaire Ron Burkle is said to have expressed interest in purchasing TWC and merging it with Independent Talent Group, a U.K. agency in which he has a big interest. A Burkle rep declined comment, but a source close to him says, “Ron thinks very highly of Harvey.” TWC also declined comment. TWC, which was close to a deal to sell its TV division to ITV in April for as much as $950 million, has been plagued by executive defections.…
AYEAR AFTER ALIBABA Group failed to acquire a 37 percent chunk of Lionsgate, the studio that opens The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2 on Nov. 20 again finds itself the subject of rampant speculation that it will merge. This time, blame John Malone for getting Wall Street tongues wagging. The billionaire said Nov. 10 that Discovery Communications and Liberty Global, in which he owns stakes of 29 percent and 25 percent, respectively, each had purchased a 3.4 percent share of Lionsgate. Since Malone has a track record for incrementally building positions in companies until he controls them (recent example: Sirius XM Radio), it stands to reason he has his sights set on somehow acquiring Lionsgate, where he has been a board member since February. He signaled as much Nov.…
THE AUDIENCE OF THE BASTARD EXECUTIONER HAS SPOKEN, AND unfortunately, the word is, “Meh.” So reads the ad creator Kurt Sutter took out in this magazine (see page 61) and others to announce the cancellation of his FX series. The unorthodox move, made with FX Networks CEO John Landgraf, comes as the ambitious 14th century period drama lost more than half of its audience through its first six weeks, falling from 4 million weekly viewers for its Sept. 15 premiere to just 1.9 million for episode six. The series wrapped its season Nov. 17. “It’s not like it had a chance, and I said, ‘Let’s not take it,’ ” says Sutter, 55, whose previous show, Sons of Anarchy, ended its run in December as FX’s most watched series. The timing…
