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Following the Jan. 20 premiere of the Sundance sex abuse drama The Tale, Amazon motion picture head Ted Hope expressed serious interest, dubbing it his favorite film of the festival. The Jennifer Fox-helmed film, seen as an awards-season vehicle for star Laura Dern, also dovetailed with the zeitgeist #MeToo movement, with its narrative centered on how a rape survivor copes. But 24 hours after the film’s debut, Amazon backed off, leaving HBO with one less competitor as it made a $7 million offer and an Emmy campaign pitch for Dern. Likewise, Netflix was one of the finalists for the festival’s biggest catch, Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation, making an eight-figure offer and hanging in until the final hours of dealmaking. Still, the streaming giant was beaten by upstart Neon and Joe…
Bruno Mars The pop star sweeps the album, song and record of the year Grammys (and wins six total), besting favorites Jay Z (no wins) and Kendrick Lamar (four) in the major categories. Neil Portnow The Recording Academy CEO’s Grammy show sees a demo low and just 19.8 million viewers, then he’s forced to walk back comments telling underrepresented female artists to “step up.” Desiree Akhaven The filmmaker lands Sundance’s top grand jury prize for her gay conversion drama The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which is seeking a distributor. Casey Affleck The Oscar winner, bowing to renewed scrutiny of sexual harassment claims in a settled 2010 lawsuit, breaks tradition and won’t present the best actress honor this year. Showbiz Stocks $44.34 (+6%) THE LIBERTY SIRIUSXM GROUP (LSXMA) Citigroup upgraded the…
To use her own words, 20th Century Fox film chairman-CEO Stacey Snider felt “gut punched” when The Greatest Showman, starring Hugh Jackman as circus impresario P.T. Barnum, limped to an opening $8.8 million during the Dec. 22 to 24 weekend after getting ravaged by many top critics. Despite that, the movie and its soundtrack have become so successful, there are now talks to adapt The Greatest Showmanfor Broadway, says Snider. No other details were forthcoming about a possible stage version, including whether Jackman would be involved. (He’s no stranger to Broadway, having won a Tony in 2004 for The Boy From Oz.) Showman is headed for a $150 million domestic total, on par with La La Land and a multiple of 17. (Titanic’s multiple was 21; a typical multiple for…
Listened to a podcast in the past year? There’s a good chance it’ll be a TV show soon as ABC, Amazon, FX, HBO and more are readying audioinspired projects. On Jan. 28, Bravo joined the club with a two-season, straight-to-series order for the Los Angeles Times’ true-crime breakout, Dirty John. The interest has proved a boon to the fledgling companies that are fueling the explosion. Podcast network Gimlet Media, led by CEO Alex Blumberg and president Matt Lieber, is creating a film and television arm called Gimlet Pictures to capitalize on the momentum. “It’s a signal to the market that we’re here,” says Gimlet Pictures head Chris Giliberti, who will split his time between New York and Los Angeles. The company already has sold three projects: business podcast StartUp is…
How long will Nate Silver stay at ESPN? When news broke Jan. 25 that the Disney-owned network was exploring options to sell off the political stats guru’s FiveThirtyEight vertical, the first reaction from many analysts was: Why was it bought in the first place? Within Disney, the acquisition has long been viewed as a “misstep,” an insider tells THR. At a time when analytics are driving much of the conversation around sports, little has been done to incorporate Silver or the site’s 40-plus-person staff into the company’s vast sports assets. “There was zero integration,” says another ESPN insider. “They stayed on their island and slowly became less and less relevant.” After a three-year contract at The New York Times expired, ESPN bought Silver’s site in 2013 with the goal of…
BEST PICTURE Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Martin McDonagh’s quirky pic had seven noms entering the Jan. 29 London Critics’ Circle Film Awards and wound up winning a pace-setting three trophies: picture, actress (Frances McDormand) and screenplay (McDonagh). ANIMATED FEATURE Coco The Pixar hit continued its awardsseason sweep with wins at the American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Awards and, in the first year in which it recognized animation, the Art Directors Guild Awards. It also received two noms from the Motion Picture Sound Editors. FILM EDITING I, Tonya Tatiana Riegel bagged the American Cinema Editors’ best edited comedy prize over fellow Oscar nominees Baby Driver and Three Billboards, suggesting her darkly funny film has a shot as it goes up against ACE Eddie drama winner Dunkirk. SOUND EDITING Star Wars: The…
