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JUST WHEN IT LOOKED AS IF THE MOST wide-open Oscar race in years couldn’t become more unpredictable, J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiered Dec. 14 and was met with enthusiastic reactions from Academy members and early critics (“The Force is back. Big time,” wrote THR’s Todd McCarthy). Many of them grew up on George Lucas’ first trilogy and had braced themselves to be disappointed by the Disney relaunch, as they were with Lucas’ own prequel films. But their reactions suggest Force Awakens could become the franchise’s first installment since the 1977 original to land not only below-the-line nominations but also a nom for best picture. Still, Force Awakens faces awards challenges, even as it likely will break several box-office records. Sequels always face hurdles, and the film didn’t…
WHAT CORD cutting? That was the message from top cable operators at the annual UBS media conference Dec. 7 to 9. But are the new numbers smoke and mirrors, or is the pay TV industry seeing encouraging signs of growth? After years of subscriber losses amid the boom in telecoms and then digital over-the-top competitors like Netflix, the CEOs of Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable, which the former is planning to acquire, predicted they would return to full-year growth in pay TV customers for 2015 based on trends through early December. Comcast, the nation’s largest cable carrier, echoed the sentiment of improving trends. The growth “is a significant milestone, not only for us but for the industry,” Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus told attendees. The last full year…
THE FACT THAT HOT comedians Nick Kroll and John Mulaney immediately sold out a three-week December residency at Greenwich Village’s intimate Cherry Lane Theatre is not shocking. What might prompt curiosity is that the duo is performing the entire 70-minute set dressed as elderly men, characters they’ve played in sketch, in Funny Or Die clips and even on Kroll’s former Comedy Central series for more than a decade. “We saw these two guys buying individual copies of Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, Alan Alda’s autobiography, at the Strand [bookstore] back in 2005,” says Kroll, 37, explaining the origins of wouldbe cosmopolitans George St. Geegland and Gil Faizon — the hosts and stars of Oh, Hello. “We followed them around for a bit and just fell in love. They typify a…
Oprah Winfrey TBD (2015) PUBLISHER Flatiron FIRST BOOK The Life You Want, Winfrey’s memoir, scheduled for January 2017. IN THE PIPELINE Nothing announced, but will focus on nonfiction picked by Winfrey. Johnny Depp Infinitum Nihil (2012) PUBLISHER HarperCollins FIRST BOOK House of Earth by Woody Guthrie, the folk singer’s never-published novel. IN THE PIPELINE A memoir from record producer Jack Douglas. Chelsea Handler Chelsea Handler Books (2010) PUBLISHER Grand Central FIRST BOOK Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, comedic essays about Handler’s life. IN THE PIPELINE Nothing announced since 2014’s Man Up! by Ross Mathews. Viggo Mortensen Perceval Press (2002) PUBLISHER Independent FIRST BOOK Just Another War by singer Exene Cervenka and photographer Kenneth Jarecke. IN THE PIPELINE San Lorenzo de Almagro Gwyneth Paltrow Goop Press (2015) PUBLISHER Grand Central FIRST BOOK It’s All Easy: Delicious Weekday Recipes…
WHEN HAMLET DEBUTED IN MAY 1600, a funny thing happened — no one went home and killed their uncle. Yet with the recent spate of mass shootings in Oregon, Colorado and now San Bernardino, Calif., the debate has begun anew, just as it has since the tragedy at Columbine High School in 1999: Do we need stricter gun laws, and do we need to decrease violence in the movies and on TV as a way to help prevent these tragedies? There is no question that fewer guns will result in fewer gun deaths. This has been proved in every country that has decided to decrease or remove guns from civilian ownership. In the 1980s and ’90s, Australia had a series of mass shootings, and finally there was an awful one…
BEST PICTURE The Big Short No film, with the possible exception of Trumbo, got a bigger boost from the most recent wave of nominations than Paramount’s best hope, which scored noms in all the top SAG, Globe and Critics’ Choice categories. Beasts of No Nation Netflix’s motion picture had a roller-coaster week, landing SAG noms for its ensemble and Idris Elba, then a Globe nom for Elba, before being shut out from the major Critics’ Choice categories, except for young actor, where Abraham Attah appeared. BEST ACTOR MICHAEL CAINE | Youth It’s looking unlikely that the two-time Oscar winner will be returning to the show for his role as an aging maestro, having been left off the SAG, Globe and Critics’ Choice lists. BEST ACTRESS CHARLIZE THERON | Mad Max…
