Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday May 2 2018 i The Hollywood Reporter

MEGAN ELLISON’S NEW MANTRA: ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO FILM Deal of the Week With 200 stories published daily, The New York Times fields a lot of inquiries from Hollywood producers. But two of its most sensational recent features are both going to Annapurna. The Megan Ellison-led production company has partnered with Plan B to make a movie based on Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s Pulitzer-winning Harvey Weinstein investigation, while its television division has optioned Barry Meier’s Oct. 17 exposé of the alleged sex-trafficking cult Nxivm for a series to be executive produced by Ellison, Annapurna TV president Sue Naegle, senior vp Susan Goldberg and actress Shannon Woodward. A spokesperson for Annapurna tells THR that the deals for the high-profile stories were negotiated separately and did not influence each…

VITAL STATS AGE 19 BORN New York BIG BREAK PBS’ Little Women REPS CAA, Untitled Entertainment She grew up on movie sets and in theaters, but Maya Hawke was never going to act as a kid. “That wasn’t an option for me,” says the eldest daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman (who split when she was 5). “They wanted me to have a childhood, they wanted me to be in school.” She’ll get a close look at the life of a child star over the next six months, though, working with Millie Bobby Brown and crew on the third season of Stranger Things. Hawke claims to know little about her character, an “alternative girl” who’s bored with her job until she stumbles upon one of the town of Hawkins’…

Royal Weddin Did you score an invite to Harry and Meghan’s wedding? While Kensington Palace has kindly asked that attendees stay mum, the core cast and showrunner (Aaron Korsh) of Markle’s seven-season home, USA’s Suits, are believed to have made the cut, along with her agent, Gersh’s Nick Collins, lawyer Rick Genow and business manager Andrew Meyer, and pals Priyanka Chopra and Serena Williams. Collins and NBCU’s Bonnie Hammer will appear on NBC’s May 16 wedding special, hosted by Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie — with Hammer, whom Markle considers a mentor, also expected to attend the May 19 nuptials.…

Jennifer Aniston was at Casa Vega…. Casey Bloys sat with Misha Green at Mr Chow. Tom Hoberman was nearby…. Heather Graham had dinner at Sugarfish in Hollywood…. Eric McCormack stopped by Crustacean Beverly Hills…. Sandra Bernhard lunched at the new Croft Alley at The Standard Hotel in Hollywood…. Jonathan Ames rubbed elbows with Lily-Rose Depp at Night + Market…. Adam Sandler checked out Farmshop…. Nicole Richie popped by Farmhouse…. Sarah Paulson held court at Sunset Tower’s Tower Bar…. Jake Gyllenhaal enjoyed the Dugout Club at Dodger Stadium. Rinjani The Quick Pitch DreamWorks Animation and Disney folks in Glendale now have a local Indonesian option in Mira Setiabudhi’s small-scale showcase. Amid traditional decor from Bali, she’s serving curries, fried flatbreads and oxtail soup. Desserts include fried bananas with ice cream and…

As someone who has been at various times in his life a budding professional soccer player, a top-level film executive and a would-be sports mogul, Stuart Ford is used to reinventing himself. So last summer, when Donald Tang and his Tang Media Partners, the majority shareholders in IM Global, forced Ford out of the company he founded in 2007, the Liverpoolborn scrapper dusted himself off and started over. In February, with backing from Latin America, Silicon Valley and Abu Dhabi, and taking nearly his entire IM Global team with him, Ford, 48, launched a new production, financing and sales group, AGC Studios, which will have its official unveiling in Cannes. Ford fell out with Tang over the latter’s plans to merge IM Global’s highly profitable film production and international sales…

2009 The year a mysterious person (or group of people?) named Satoshi Nakamoto launched the bitcoin network. Blockchain vs. Bitcoin The tech platform known as “blockchain” powers a range of digital cryptocurrencies including bitcoin. What Is a Key? This complex combination of numbers and letters acts as a password that allows people to spend their cryptocurrency. 21 million … bitcoins will be created — or “mined” via complex computing — before new currency is no longer produced. There are currently just under 17 million bitcoins circulating. HODL? This slang term — a misspelling of the word “hold” — is used by members of the bitcoin community to indicate that they are long-term investors: They will hold their bitcoins, not sell.…

Though the French haven’t earned a reputation over the years for being modest, when it comes to plastic surgery, they are positively demure in contrast to Angelenos. “My patients in France live in fear of the Hollywood look,” says Parisian plastic surgeon Olivier Claude. “Sophie Marceau is in her 50s and looks wonderful — nobody knows what she had done. People in the U.S. think Nicole Kidman and Megan Fox look good, but we think they look overdone.” Christophe Lepage, also a plastic surgeon based in Paris, adds, “An actress here [in France] wants to look her age but better: Isabelle Huppert just had a face-lift and looks healthier and more relaxed. In L.A., they want to look younger. We think if a facelift shows, it’s a disaster.” Beverly Hills…

Ash Is Purest White China’s Jia Zhangke serves up an epic love story set in the seedy underworld of the early 2000s about a dancer who falls for a gangster; the latter lands in prison and obsessively searches for her when he gets out. Said to be the director’s most lavish and expensive film, it reportedly features some martial arts. BlacKkKlansman I don’t know why I expect Spike Lee’s return to Cannes to be less uneven than practically everything else the director has made for years. But the true story of a black Colorado cop who infiltrated the KKK in the late 1970s is mightily intriguing — and who knows, maybe Spike can connect with the zeitgeist again. Burning The first feature in a decade from revered South Korean auteur…

The primary selling point of the Netflix show Safe is leading man Michael C. Hall (Six Feet Under, Dexter). The problem is it’s impossible to listen to him say “privacy” or “uni” in a British accent without losing concentration for his next two or three lines of dialogue. Hall’s accent, reasonably consistent and yet rarely believable, is one of many things in the show that are askew and, in some ways, is emblematic of the series as a whole: I can’t tell whether it’s intentional, if not particularly convincing, or merely bad. The eight-episode thriller created by novelist Harlan Coben fits into several tried-and-true TV genres, starting with the story of a suburb in which every manicured hedge or pristine pool hides a festering secret. Hall plays Tom, a pediatric…

THR’s presence on the Croisette will reach far beyond daily magazines and ground coverage, with two exclusive events planned. On May 9, Nadja Swarovski and THR will co-host a screening of Waterschool, followed by a panel discussion moderated by THR’s Tatiana Siegel and reception. The documentary, which examines the global water crisis and a community investment program launched by the Austrian crystal jewelry company, was created by seven UCLA graduate students mentored by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lucy Walker. The week’s festivities also include a reception held by THR and DirecTV, and the two will co-host a lounge on the terrace of the JW Marriott throughout the fest.…

Tina Fey The auteur’s Mean Girls nabs 12 Tony nominations, tying it with SpongeBob SquarePants in a year when all four musical nominees (with Frozen and The Band’s Visit) are based on films or TV shows. Margaret Talev The president of the White House Correspondents’ Association takes fire after criticizing Michelle Wolf’s roast for being “not in the spirit” of its mission. Good luck booking a comic in 2019. Kevin Feige The Marvel Studios maestro’s Avengers: Infinity War topples The Force Awakens with the biggest opening weekend ever ($637.7 million worldwide), and China’s still ahead. R. Kelly The hip-hop artist and his label, RCA Records, are facing a boycott urged by the anti-harassment initiative Time’s Up over the singer’s history of alleged sexual abuse. Showbiz Stocks $99.71 (+2%) TAKE-TWO (TTWO)…

DISNEY Alan Horn’s entire slate impressed theater owners (even Will Smith’s Genie) in Las Vegas. The only question: Which studio will be No. 2 this year? A STAR IS BORN A trailer of Bradley Cooper’s remake (out Oct. 5) starring Lady Gaga was the hit of the Warner Bros. intro. But where was CEO Kevin Tsujihara? CHER The icon’s performance of “Fernando” to plug Universal’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again prompted the only standing ovation of the convention. Universal also drew raves for First Man, starring Ryan Gosling (Oct. 12). BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY Fox’s trailer for the Queen biopic struck just the right note. And blaring “We Are the Champions” served double duty as Fox film chairman Stacey Snider took her second and what could be her last turn on…

Big Deal Hulu is committing to its most acclaimed showrunner. In a pact made in conjunction with MGM Television, Bruce Miller, creator of The Handmaid’s Tale, will develop projects for the companies. Sources say the deal was in the works for some time but accelerated after the strong reception for the Emmy- and Peabody-winning drama’s April 25 second-season premiere. Hulu is joining forces with Miller, 53, after a year in which Netflix, in a push to own more of its shows, began aggressively tying up top talent, starting with a nine-figure multiyear deal with Shonda Rhimes and luring Ryan Murphy from his longtime 20th Century Fox TV home with a five-year, $300 million pact. Netflix also has signed overall deals with Jenji Kohan and Stranger Things’ Shawn Levy. Meanwhile, Amazon…

“She burns facts and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye.” MICHELLE WOLF The comic, on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Correspondents’ Dinner. The joke prompted false claims (and outrage) that Wolf had critiqued Sanders’“appearance.” “I can also go to Goop.com and get you a vibrator.” GWYNETH PALTROW The actress, on her Goop podcast, asking her mother, Blythe Danner, if she wanted a boyfriend. “There’s a lot of other festivals: Venice, Toronto, Berlin …” REED HASTINGS The Netflix CEO, speaking to Business Insider about pulling the streaming giant’s films out of the Cannes Film Festival. “The idea that anybody, young or old, past or present, was bullied … based on … Apu, it just really makes me sad.” HANK AZARIA The Brockmire…

I first heard about Kathy Taylor when I got a call in February from her older sister, Kristen Hiatt. Hiatt’s question: Would I be interested in hearing about Kathy’s experience decades earlier with a famous actor? Of course I said yes. Kathy soon called and started to tell me about a time in 1979 when she, then 17 and working in the teen fashion department of a Denver store, spotted the actor, a household name, then in his late 30s. She had a bit of a crush on him, so she asked for his autograph. And she told him she thought he was cute. What she thought would be the briefest of encounters took a turn when he said, “You’re not bad yourself,” and asked her when she got off…

Cate Blanchett Given Blanchett’s art house bona fides (Thor notwithstanding), the jury president might fall hard for Lazzaro Felice, Alice Rohrwacher’s follow-up to her 2014 Cannes Grand Prix winner, The Wonders. Chang Chen Jia Zhangke’s crime drama Ash Is Purest White sounds like the kind of Asian epic that could appeal to Chen, who’s appeared in the likes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and John Woo’s Red Cliff. Ava DuVernay The socially conscious DuVernay has cited Spike Lee as an early influence, so expect the provocative helmer’s politically charged BlacKkKlansman to be heavily favored going in. Robert Guediguian Stephane Brize’s At War, a social-realist drama about a factory shutdown, seems tailor-made for Guediguian, a director famed for his portraits of ordinary characters from his home city of Marseille. Khadja Nin…

Under an aggressive plan led by Mayor David Lisnard, Cannes is set for a massive face-lift. And that doesn’t mean tasteful touch-ups; it’s a total overhaul. Beach shacks are set to be torn down and replaced with upscale establishments, main thoroughfare rue Felix Faure will be pedestrianized, and the somewhat seedy Liberte square will be transformed into a picture of Provencal perfection. All that in a bid to make Cannes more appealing to the sun-seeking tourists who are the city’s economic lifeline. Right across from the Palais, on what is now a building site, soon will rise a seven-story condo complex, First Croisette, with a penthouse (including prime red carpet views) priced at $35 million. There are even plans to turn the rundown Palm Beach casino into a Monaco-style supper…

In early April, SAG-AFTRA issued a carefully worded guideline titled “No Auditions or Interviews in Private Hotel Rooms or Residences.” The action was months in the making and arrived in a post-Harvey Weinstein era after dozens of women came forward with detailed stories of attacks and unwanted sexual advances made by the mogul in hotel rooms that doubled as office suites. Under the guideline, the union is calling for an end to meetings in “high-risk locations” like hotel rooms because “misconduct … often occurs outside of the formal workplace setting.” The French Riviera is about as atypical a professional environment as one can imagine, but hotel room-set meetings have always been de rigueur at international film festivals and markets. That makes Cannes ground zero for such practices considering that producers,…

Why is the former Baywatch star hanging with Julian Assange, speaking at Putin’s Kremlin and chatting up Sheldon Adelson? Heads, as they always do, turn when Pamela Anderson enters the room. Wearing a flirty Dolce & Gabbana polka dot dress and black Louis Vuitton pumps, the former Baywatch actress looks every inch the Hollywood star on holiday as she strolls into the lounge at the Sofitel in Marseille and settles at a table overlooking the old port city. But Anderson, who turned 50 last summer, actually lives just 15 minutes away, where she shares a home with her new boyfriend, French soccer star Adil Rami, 32. Yes, that’s right, the onetime poster girl for Malibu (and red swimsuits) has decamped to the South of France, where for the past year…

TATIANA SIEGEL THR’s senior film writer sat with Spike Lee for the cover story (page 70) on BlacKkKlansman days after joining Pamela Anderson in Marseille, where the actress says her life is “Under the Tuscan Sun, but in France” (page 90). Siegel also explores the future of amfAR’s Cannes gala post-Weinstein (page 80). DAVID LACHAPELLE The pop-art photographer extraordinaire snapped Anderson, his frequent muse, alongside her WikiLeaks-founder pal Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2017 (page 90). LaChapelle also directed the 2005 dance doc Rize and has shot music videos for Elton John and Mariah Carey. SCOTT ROXBOROUGH Now in his 17th year on THR’s international beat, Roxborough wrote several features for this Cannes issue, including one on a backlash to the #MeToo movement brewing in Europe (page 76).…

It’s an unlikely place to find star power, but a May 8 Delaware Bankruptcy Court hearing will have quite a lot of it when Lantern Capital is likely to be revealed as the winner of an auction for The Weinstein Co. film and TV assets for about $310 million. There are multiple thorny aspects to the proceedings. For one, Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep are among those lodging concerns about what they are owed and how they will be taken care of by whoever wins the auction for the assets. Tarantino, for example, is seeking $1.25 million in royalties for Django Unchained and nearly $2.5 million for The Hateful Eight. The projects included in the sale also carry asterisks. Take Project Runway: The owner of Lifetime…

Hollywood workers and employers quietly are in the midst of a busy season of contract negotiations over wages and workplace issues. The studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers president Carol Lombardini, are aiming for deals with three key unions. In talks now is crew union IATSE, whose 130,000 members usually get the same percentage increases as the above-the-line unions’ pattern. But 2017 was an anomaly: There was no pattern, and annual increases ranged from 1 percent to 3 percent for writers, directors and actors. Adding to the complexity for IATSE international president Matt Loeb is a pay-equity push for female-dominated job categories. Next up is the Teamsters, representing truck drivers, location managers and casting directors. Secretary-treasurer Steve Dayan will be fighting to get whatever wage…

The Hellfire Club (LITTLE, BROWN AND CO., APRIL 24) BY Jake Tapper AGENCY UTA The CNN anchor’s first novel, a 1950s-set political thriller about secret societies, communist witch hunts and how politics compromises the most idealistic in Congress, also features real characters (JFK, LBJ, Roy Cohn) and allusions to the Trump era. The Language of Spells (CHRONICLE BOOKS, JUNE 26) BY Garret Weyr AGENCY WME The daughter of writer Thomas and lit agent Rhoda (and sister of TV director Tara) tells a story about a girl and her dragon looking for a group of dragons that disappeared during World War II. Think a kinder, gentler (and kid-appropriate) Daenerys Targaryen.…

A pair of paintings owned by Brad Grey could fetch $10 million when they’re auctioned by Christie’s in New York on May 17. Among 13 pieces from the late Paramount chief’s collection that will be on display May 1 to May 3 at the Christie’s space in Beverly Hills, Agnes Martin’s Untitled #7 (pictured above) and Love are the “anchors,” says the auction house’s Sonya Roth, who knew Grey personally and was aware of his “impeccable tastes.” In addition to artwork sales May 17 and 18, Roth will manage auctions of more Grey estate lots, including paintings, prints and interior design items. “You don’t want it to be too far away from the memory of the original collector,” says Roth of the sale, which comes almost exactly a year after…

I was 11 when Paul cast me in my first television job, on a 1987 episode of Beauty and the Beast. I’m pretty sure that’s how I got my SAG card. Then, when I was 13, I ended up meeting Paul and [his producing partner] Tony Thomas at the old Renmark Studios. That’s where they proposed this Blossom show to me. Paul was very gracious, with a very warm smile. The word we used was “hamish” — Yiddish for someone who’s familiar and friendly. He was about the age of my father then, and I was just a kid, so it felt like I had extra protection on the set. He always had my back when I was dealing with things. I don’t have memories of him yelling or being…

The view from the rooftop of the Hotel Majestic is, as you’d expect, magnifique. To your right, Cannes’ legendary red carpet in all its splendor. Straight ahead, the Mediterranean. And, just at the horizon, the snow-topped French Alps, suitably spectacular. What you don’t expect at the top of this most glamorous of Cannes hostelries is the sound. The sound of bees. But there they are, buzzing in and out of four squat wooden hives that sit like mini-condos next to the air ventilation shafts; 40,000 to 60,000 per hive producing an estimated 154 pounds of honey a year. The hives are the brainchild of master mixologist Emanuele Balestra, who moved to Cannes in 2014 to become the hotel’s chief bartender and has since turned the Majestic, a luxury hotel about…

▸ LI RUIGANG Chairman, CMC Capital Partners The China-Hollywood dealmaker nonpareil holds sizable stakes in everything from Warner Bros.’ Flagship Entertainment to CAA China to Imagine Entertainment and Pearl Studio (formerly Oriental DreamWorks), even as the venture capital firm’s domestic Chinese production house, Gravity Pictures, has co-financed Jason Statham’s upcoming $150 million giant-shark movie The Meg. With deep government connections and storied local market savvy, Li stands apart in bringing Chinese capital to the table. “It’s not about making quick money,” he says. “We’re looking to create a strategic industrial system with sustainable operation over the long term.” ▸ JAMES WANG CEO, Huayi Brothers Few Chinese studio heads have been in business with Hollywood for quite as long as Wang and his brother Wang Zhongjun, co-heads of Huayi Brothers Media Group,…

Data Compiled By Source: The week’s most active and talked-about entertainers on leading social networking sites Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube for the week ending April 24. Rankings are based on a formula blending weekly additions of fans as well as cumulative weekly reactions and conversations, as tracked by MVP Index.…