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.
WHEN SUMNER REDSTONE’S FORMER companion Manuela Herzer marched into Los Angeles Superior Court on Thanksgiving eve with a lawsuit detailing his allegedly floundering mental state, representatives for the Viacom and CBS Corp. executive chairman quickly fired back that the gambit amounted to nothing more than a “preposterous” money grab from a jilted lover. And even if Herzer’s intentions are pure, and she simply wants to remain his caretaker, those representing Redstone insisted that the fight over who makes health-care decisions for the ailing 92-year-old billionaire would have no impact on the media empire he controls. While it’s true Herzer, 46, has scant hope of gaining any stake in Viacom or CBS through her efforts to have Redstone declared incompetent, her swift expulsion from his life — after nearly two decades,…
WITH AN SEC FILING NOV. 25, THE WALT DISNEY CO. MADE CLEAR WHAT CEO Robert Iger meant when he warned in August of “pressure on the multichannel ecosystem,” a remark about cord-cutting that sent Disney’s stock plunging 17 percent during the next two weeks and dragged down the entire media sector. According to Disney’s 10-K filing — released the evening before Thanksgiving — among the conglomerate’s primary cable channels, only Disney Junior and international versions of Disney Channel and Disney XD have logged subscriber growth the past two years. ESPN, the jewel of the cable world, lost nearly 7 million subscribers in two years.…
IT’S A HUNT THAT WOULD make Jabba the Hutt proud. Disney and Lucasfilm are scouring the galaxy in what some are calling the widest casting search ever for the actor who will play a young Han Solo in the planned Star Wars spinoff movie. According to sources, more than 2,500 actors have met on the project or put themselves on tape, with casting director Jeanne McCarthy running point on finding the man to fill the vest made famous by Harrison Ford in the first Star Wars trilogy and The Force Awakens (Dec. 18). The contenders are being whittled down before directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who worked with McCarthy on the Jump Street films, hone in on their Han. The movie isn’t due to shoot until January 2017 for…
ARECORD 3.38 million albums aren’t sold in a week without shrewd promotion. But Adele, 27, attained ubiquity with relatively few U.S. media commitments, each of them on NBC. It’s a coup for the network thanks in part to Saturday Night Live impresario Lorne Michaels. “Adele credits her first appearance on SNL [in 2008] as helping launch her in the States,” says one insider. So she repaid the favor Nov. 21 — giving SNL its highest ratings (Donald Trump excluded) in nearly a year — and then some. The singer performed on Today and The Tonight Show and will finish her NBC tour Dec. 14 with the primetime special Adele Live in New York City. Michaels and Adele’s camp (including longtime flack Benny Tarantini) began speaking in June once Columbia Records…
RI.P. NETWORK TELEVISION: 1948-2015.” So said writer-producer Chuck Lorre on a Nov. 19 vanity card at the end of his CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. “CBS recently announced that it was bringing back the series Star Trek, but not for the CBS network, for a streaming on-demand system called CBS All Access,” the card read. “In lieu of flowers, CBS has requested that mourners send them six bucks a month.” Lorre was joking (presumably), but he’s joined by a growing number of executives who worry that too much great content already has been licensed to Netflix, Amazon Prime and their ilk. The solution, some analysts argue: Cut ’em off. Now. Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes hinted at such a strategy Nov. 4 when he said he was “evaluating whether…
KA-CHING! WHO’S INKING ON THE DOTTED LINE THIS WEEK A YEAR AFTER selling a majority stake in Fullscreen to Otter Media — a joint venture of the Chernin Group and AT&T — CEO George Strompolos’ long-term vision for his digital media business is beginning to take shape. Strompolos revealed Nov. 30 that he had appointed former Hulu executive Andy Forssell as COO. (Former COO Ezra Cooperstein remains Fullscreen’s president.) The move gives the architect of Hulu’s original programming push jurisdiction over day-to-day operations at Fullscreen, which began as a multichannel network for YouTube stars but recently has expanded into production with original films including the coming-of-age story The Outfield and such upcoming serialized projects as a remake of Sid and Marty Krofft’s Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Forssell’s biggest priority…
