Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday May 23 2018 i The Hollywood Reporter

Digital YouTube Pivot A tech giant moves into Spotify territory. p. 20 Television Fox TV’s Rival Sinclair plans to challenge Murdoch’s empire. p. 22 Showbiz Stocks $57.86 (+33%) WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT (WWE) THR reported the wrestling firm is negotiating a 5-year TV deal with Fox for $205 million annually, three times more than NBCUniversal pays. $35.34 (-3%) CINEMARK HLD. (CNK) Rising salaries and slower growth in the price of tickets cause the movie theater chain to post softer quarterly financials than expected.…

Call Me by Your Name may have been celebrated at this year’s Oscars, but studio movies actually turned away from depicting LGBTQ characters last year. Surveying 109 films released in 2017 by the major studios for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer characters, only 14 films (12.8 percent) were found to be inclusive, down from the 23 out of 125 films (18.4 percent) in 2016 and the lowest percentage since GLAAD began tracking LGBTQ characters in 2012. Adding in judgments about how those characters were treated, the study found no studio deserved an “excellent” or even a “good” ranking. Fox, with a gay couple amid the crew in Alien: Covenant, and Universal — although the lesbian character Cynthia Rose (Ester Dean) is relegated to the sidelines in Pitch Perfect 3…

FILM Charlize Theron (WME, Hansen Jacobson) will play Megyn Kelly in an upcoming Roger Ailes drama from Annapurna. Jake Gyllenhaal (WME, Bloom Hergott) is in talks to play Marvel villain Mysterio in the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel. Bradley Cooper (CAA) will star opposite Clint Eastwood in Warner Bros.’ crime drama The Mule. Vin Diesel (CAA, Brillstein, Felker Toczek) will star in and produce STX’s action comedy Muscle. Naomi Watts (CAA, Australia’s Linsten, the U.K.’s Markham Froggatt, Untitled, Hansen Jacobson), Frank Grillo (WME, Management 360, Loeb & Loeb) and Bobby Cannavale (WME, Framework, Schreck Rose) will star in Once Upon a Time in Staten Island for Blumhouse. Warner Bros. has picked up film rights to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights. Wrath of the Titans helmer Dan Mazeau (CAA, Circle of Confusion, Katz Golden)…

Confessions of the Fox (ONE WORLD, JUNE 26) BY Jordy Rosenberg AGENCY UTA Touted as a big summer debut, the UMass trans professor offers a gender-bending spin on 18th century thief Jack Sheppard and his prostitute girlfriend, told through the story of a trans scholar investigating if Sheppard’s just-discovered memoir is real or fake. Home Baked (HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT, 2020) BY Alia Volz AGENCY Paradigm Multiple publishers bid on the book subtitled “My Mom, Marijuana and the Stoning of San Francisco.” Volz’s mother ran the city’s famed Sticky Fingers underground pot bakery in the ’70s and returned in the ’80s to offer the brownies to help AIDS patients.…

“We know who you are.” ASIA ARGENTO The actress, speaking about her alleged 1997 rape by Harvey Weinstein at the Cannes Film Festival, which she called his “hunting ground.” She added, “Even tonight, sitting among you, there are those that need to be held accountable.” “You look at their track record and it was one woman directing one film in 25 years, and she was fired.” RASHIDA JONES The actress, explaining to Net-A-Porter what led to her walking away from the writing team for Pixar’s Toy Story 4. “So now I bet Whitney Cummings will finally show up for my podcast.” TOM ARNOLD The comedian and ex-husband of Roseanne Barr, tweeting his reaction to the Roseanne co-showrunner not returning. He added: “Well the jokes on you girlfriend because my podcast…

Weddings Amy McGee, video marketing at Apple, married Fernando Loureiro, film producer and co-owner of Exhibit, on May 5 in front of 40 guests at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. The couple became engaged in November. Births John Legend and Chrissy Teigen welcomed their second child, son Miles Theodore Stephens, on May 16. April Tombs, a licensing, branding and endorsement agent at UTA, and her husband, Ian Weintraub, vp at Limelight Media, welcomed daughter Max Weintraub at the Saint Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey on May 7. Congrats Nathan Kahane was named president of the motion picture group at Lionsgate on May 17. Lachlan Murdoch will be chairman and CEO and his father, Rupert Murdoch, will be co-chairman of “New Fox” — the company that will consist of the…

I’ll never forget the first time I went to Cannes. It was 1995, and the electricity was palpable. Stars, critics and directors intermingled up and down the Croisette, all waiting in breathless anticipation — as I did — for whatever movie happened to screen that night at the Palais. It was a heady experience for a reporter who’d grown up loving film. And if one or two movies were letdowns, so what? Others were sure to follow that would sweep us up even more. Much of that excitement has fizzled in recent years. The truth is, filmmaking is in decline as a cultural force — at least the kind of filmmaking Cannes celebrates, meaning art house and auteur driven pictures. The rise of television and rival forms of narrative has…

As awards editor, Rebecca Ford oversees THR’s Emmy coverage, kicking off this week. The Bay Area native spent six years as a film reporter. In her first year covering TV, she notes “there is so much more content — hundreds of shows.” This week’s Emmy Playbook (page 70), by Michael O’Connell, looks at the Trump effect on episodic TV. The man best known as “The Fonz” — Henry Winkler — contributes “How Not to Jump the Shark” (page 26), about auditioning for the HBO series Barry. Winkler says making a TV show hasn’t changed from the era of Happy Days: “I’m still knocking on wood. Every time I show up on set in the morning, I am as excited as I was the very first time.” Illustrator Lucy Engelman created…

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki confused attendees at the Code Media Conference in February when she said that she considered YouTube Red, the subscription video service behind originals like Cobra Kai and Step Up: High Water, “really a music service.” Her comment took on new meaning when, on May 16, Google-owned YouTube said that it was overhauling its subscription business, doing away with YouTube Red and in its place introducing two new offerings: the $10-per-month YouTube Music Premium for ad-free music streaming and the $12-per-month YouTube Premium, which combines the music subscription with ad-free video viewing and access to original programming. The rebrand puts music at the center of YouTube’s push to sign up subscribers, a move that YouTube global head of music Lyor Cohen says was driven by the “enormous…

While the Palme d’Or eluded Spike Lee at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, his BlacKkKlansman, which both satirizes and protests racism, nabbed the next best thing, the Grand Prix, for what jury president Cate Blanchett called “a film about a quintessentially American crisis.” And that suggests the Focus release also should find a receptive audience among Oscar voters — and maybe even an eventual best picture nom. If so, it may be the only major awards contender to emerge from this year’s fest, since Netflix held back eagerly awaited films like Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma — and the major studios, save for a Solo: A Star Wars Story red carpet stroll, avoided the costs and press scrutiny of the Croisette. Wildlife, Paul Dano’s period family drama starring Carey Mulligan, which kicked…

Deal of the Week With its May 12 farewell party for Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chair Patrick Wachsberger in Cannes, a changing of the guard at the film studio is more or less complete, and the second Joe Drake era has begun. That leaves industry observers wondering what Drake’s vision for the studio will be. The only project greenlighted in the past six months, say sources, is the third installment in Keanu Reeves’ John Wick series, announced May 21 with the cast additions of Halle Berry, Anjelica Huston and Asia Kate Dillon. Drake had served as Lionsgate COO and Motion Picture Group president before the company acquired Summit Pictures in 2012. At that point, Drake departed to co-found financing, production and sales company Good Universe. He returned to his executive…

I am a black woman raising a biracial girl in California. I work in entertainment. Immaculate Heart is on our list of prospective high schools. I went to Northwestern. In Meghan Markle’s life story, I see glimpses of my own. And even I was like, “There’s no way I’m getting up at 4:30 in the morning to watch that wedding.” I had to do that for Diana and Charles. We all did. There was no such thing as a DVR when I watched that wedding from my grandmother’s living room in Lufkin, Texas, at age 7. I thought the Harry and Meghan nuptials would be the same royal schtick, just, you know, caramel-dipped. So I recorded it, planning to watch it at a sensible hour. Still, I could feel the…

Leonardo DiCaprio lunched at Salt’s Cure. … Peter Chernin, Irving Azoff and producer Dan Mintz shared the room at The Grill. On a different day, attorney Nina Shaw sat with producer Jordan Horowitz and director Julia Hart. … Jude Law, Giada De Laurentiis, Christian Slater and Phil Rosenthal were at Jaffa, separately. … Mark Wahlberg was at Ocean Prime Beverly Hills. … Chris Martin checked out Belwood Bakery. … Sandra Bernhard had lunch at The Standard Hotel’s Croft Alley. … Jamie Foxx stopped by Casa Vega. … Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Jeffrey Katzenberg held court at The Palm.…

As Madison Avenue buyers head into a $9 billion battle over 30-second spots on the 2018-19 schedule, Hollywood’s studios are just now coming up for air. After another dizzying broadcast pilot season, they landed 37 series on the air (down from 39 in 2017), a mix heavy on multicams and procedurals. But before any of those new series go back into production, THR spoke exclusively with nine studio chiefs for a candid if still raw assessment of the 2018 upfronts — the good, the bad and the truly shocking. The buzzword of upfront week was … PEARLENA IGBOKWE “Brand safety.” DAVID STAPF “New data.” PETER ROTH “Change.” JEFF FROST “Reboots.” JONNIE DAVIS “Roseanne.” We’re thrilled it’s still possible to gather 27 million viewers, but lightning in a bottle is still…

Source: Data provided by the networks. Perhaps the biggest sign of broadcast’s improved race and gender inclusivity is the changing face of CBS, which took the upfront stage with a ready response to long-standing complaints about its lack of diversity. “We said that we were going to [improve representation],” said entertainment president Kelly Kahl. “If you look at the schedule, we did what we said we were going to do.” Indeed, CBS made the biggest gains to reach more than 50 percent actors of color in new orders — second only to The CW. Growth behind the camera, among showrunners and pilot directors, remains slow.…

During the April 29 episode of The Good Fight, CBS All Access’ operatic legal drama, Emmy-and Tony-winning lead Christine Baranski spends the better part of the 52-minute runtime debating the legitimacy of “the pee-pee tape” — the alleged video of Donald Trump watching Russian prostitutes urinate on each other, as detailed in the Steele dossier. When two characters finally watch the presidential pornography, all viewers see are their beaming faces illuminated by a glowing computer screen. “Writers have to write what they live, and the time we’re living in is stranger than fiction,” says Baranski, who’s amused by her new material after seven seasons on The Good Wife. “Our capacity for outrage and shock has gone to where we’re almost maxed out.” Directly or obliquely, dozens of scripted series are…

First place PALME D’THR Burning Lee Chang-dong’s latest is a stunning thriller of obsession in which two very different men pursue the same magnetic woman. Second place GRAND PRIZE Shoplifters Hirokazu Kore-eda’s achingly tender drama centers on a ragtag family of petty thieves and the abused little girl it takes in. Third place JURY PRIZE Cold War Tracing the affair between two Polish musicians from the 1940s to the 1960s, this is a piercing ode to romantic disappointment. BEST DIRECTOR Pawel Pawlikowski With astonishing style and rigor, the Cold War helmer pares down an epic love story into an exquisite, melancholy miniature. BEST ACTOR Vincent Lacoste As a college student in love with a man who has AIDS in Sorry Angel, the young French actor is goofy, sexy and, finally,…

In an era when Disney is aiming to acquire most of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion and AT&T is attempting to merge with Time Warner in an $85 billion deal, scale has become the priority for media titans. Yet, presented with the opportunity to lead a combined CBS-Viacom, Leslie Moonves didn’t simply rally the CBS board of directors to support his “no merger” view — he went “nuclear” on National Amusements Inc., the entity run by Sumner and Shari Redstone that holds an 80 percent voting stake in both companies. On May 17, the CBS board voted 11-3 to issue a dividend of shares that would dilute NAI’s control to 17 percent — the three “no” votes coming from Shari Redstone and Robert Klieger and David Andelman, two board…

It may be just a matter of time before Fox News gets a real challenger from the right. Conservative media giant Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has long quieted speculation about plans to create a rival to Rupert Murdoch’s cable news empire, is making new moves to lay the groundwork for the plan. Sinclair is speaking with both current and former Fox News personalities about joining the would-be network, which a knowledgeable source says could be led by Tribune Media executive Sean Compton. The company also recently made an overture to conservative radio host Michael Savage, THR has learned. Savage did not respond to a request for comment. (One name not in the mix: Ousted Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, whom Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley has said the company isn’t looking…

After “The Fonz,” I didn’t act for about eight years. People said, “Oh, my God, we love him! He is such a good actor … but, you know, he’s The Fonz.” When I did a small role in Scream, in 1996, they wouldn’t give me a credit. The production company felt that I would knock the balance of the movie off. Then my character got applause during test screenings, so they asked me to come back and do press. That is a Hollywood story. They don’t need you until they need you. But the fact of the matter is that I just love this work. I love going in every day. And while there are a lot of people who at my age don’t audition, they also don’t get the…

Big Deal In the latest examples of TV’s changing economic models, two basic cable shows are near deals to move from their original homes to their streaming partners. Syfy canceled The Expanse on May 11 after three seasons when it no longer could justify what sources say was a sizable price tag. The NBCU-owned cable network had sold SVOD rights to Amazon, with Netflix distributing the series internationally. That left Syfy with only the rights to the space drama’s small yet loyal linear audience, which wasn’t enough to keep the show going. Now, Amazon is reviving the series — a personal favorite of CEO Jeff Bezos — for a fourth season (and it likely will take international rights back from Netflix). UnREAL, meanwhile, will see SVOD partner Hulu have first-run…

Meghan Markle affirmed her status as an icon of modern minimalist style with her gown on May 19. Defying all fashion detectives, she chose a look by British designer Clare Waight Keller of the French fashion house Givenchy, which has deep roots in Hollywood. Her gown looked deceptively simple, sculpted waist and relatively straight skirt that released into a train with soft folds. But its strength and gorgeousness were revealed as Markle, 36, gracefully walked — on her own at first — down the aisle. The bateau, or boat neck, recalled such 1950s Hollywood gamines as Audrey Hepburn, Hubert de Givenchy’s muse. At the same time, the silhouette was a vision of no-nonsense ease and about as far away from Princess Diana’s 1981 frou-frou as you could get. Surely, Markle…

The trend of outsider companies customizing luxury-brand watches has come a long way from the days when messing with an iconic timepiece felt almost like sacrilege. In the past two years alone, aftermarket modification — or watch modding — has gained A-list steam, with director Spike Lee and musician Lenny Kravitz each collaborating with Swiss customization company Artisans de Geneve on limited-edition Rolexes. Lee’s co-design, dubbed Cool Hand Brooklyn ($39,800, in a limited edition of 40), debuted in November, featuring orange and blue details on a Rolex Daytona. While stars have had jewelers remake watches for decades — Elvis Presley added diamonds to his in the ’60s, and hip-hop artists long have worn iced-out timepieces — a new look kicked off in the mid-2000s when George Bamford of Bamford Watch…

Hot! THE PASSAGE (Fox) Justin Cronin’s novel reached No. 3 on The New York Times best-seller list in 2010, interest that helped drive online chatter and 10.2 million YouTube views for the trailer of the Fox adaptation. NEW AMSTERDAM (NBC) The trailer’s 6.5 million views on YouTube shed light on why NBC is giving this medical drama the slot following This Is Us — even if Twitter buzz is more muted with 3,100 hashtag engagements. LAST MAN STANDING (Fox) The big-league ratings for ABC’s Roseanne aren’t the only reason Fox is reviving the Tim Allen comedy after its ABC cancellation. It is also the second most engaging “new” show on Twitter. LEGACIES (The CW) Though not as popular as the network’s Charmed reboot, the spinoff of The Originals pops with…

American Vandal (Netflix) A mockumentary about a high school student (Jimmy Tatro) accused of defacing cars in his school’s faculty parking lot with giant pink phallic symbols is pretty much as far away from the political turmoil of today as it gets. Barry (HBO) In need of some laughs that aren’t politically tinged? Barry is a dark and quirky comedy starring Bill Hader as a hitman who is also an aspiring actor. Plus, the Fonz (Henry Winkler) is excellent as his acting coach. Mindhunter (Netflix) David Fincher’s dark, slow-burn saga follows a 1970s-era FBI agent (Jonathan Groff) chasing serial killers. Standout performances from several talents playing real-life serial killers help make it a binge-worthy escape. Ozark (Netflix) This dramedy focuses on the issues facing Jason Bateman’s bumbling money launderer, who…

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 May 15. Rankings are based on a formula blending weekly additions of fans as well as cumulative weekly reactions and conversations, as tracked by MVP Index.…