Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday August 1 2018 i The Hollywood Reporter

Brace yourselves, Hollywood. The Shari Redstone versus Leslie Moonves cage match is officially on, and some oddsmakers are predicting a dramatic outcome that will transform the industry landscape — both financially and culturally. Redstone — the 64-year-old controlling shareholder in both CBS and Viacom via her family’s National Amusements — was handed a potent weapon July 27 in the form of Ronan Farrow’s exposé on the CBS chairman and CEO in The New Yorker. It was always likely that Redstone, as a controlling shareholder, would prevail in the fight with Moonves. Now, with public allegations of sexual-misconduct and professional retaliation, victory could well be in sight. It’s true that the CBS board did not fire Moonves at its July 30 meeting or even put him on leave while an outside…

In October 2015, Beasts of No Nation, directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Idris Elba, perished in its box-office debut after most theaters, including major circuits, boycotted the film because the title premiered day-and-date on Netflix. Beasts played for two weeks in 31 cinemas, earning just $90,777 on its way to being snubbed by Academy Award voters. Nearly three years later, Netflix is looking to up its Oscar game after edging out HBO for the most nominations at this year’s Emmys. Insiders tell THR that the streamer, which recently hired top awards strategist Lisa Taback, is eyeing more than just an awards-qualifying release for upcoming films, including Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma and Paul Greengrass’ 22 July. Cuaron shot his film — an ode to his childhood in Mexico City — with…

One of the great things about these days, everybody gets to comment,” says Matt Groening, the usually press-shy animation pioneer who’s made a few headlines recently — some for his departure from Fox with animated series Disenchantment (set to launch on Netflix with 10 episodes Aug. 17), some for his responses to criticism of the Indian immigrant shopkeeper Apu (voiced by Hank Azaria) from his long-running hit The Simpsons. Speaking with THR on July 26, at the midpoint between his appearances at Comic-Con and the TCA press tour, Groening, 64, seems conflicted about the criticism. Is it fair to ask a creator to change a long-standing character he loves because the cultural context has shifted? “No,” he replies. Then, a moment later, “It’s a free country. Everybody gets to pipe…

Brooklyn, July 30 TV for Grownups Honors Los Angeles, July 24 Party Crawler Stars and Spike John David Washington (1), Topher Grace (3) and others from the BlacKkKlansman cast couldn’t help but comment on the political resonance of Spike Lee’s (2) latest work at the film’s premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. “The movie shows that racism was alive and well 40 years ago and that it’s still a problem now,” said Washington, who plays Ron Stallworth, the real-life police officer who skillfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in 1979. “The film starts with a shot of the Civil War and it ends with Charlottesville,” added Grace, who plays KKK leader David Duke, of director Lee’s decision to include footage of 2017’s Virginia riots. Tiffany Haddish (4), Danielle Brooks…

5% of characters in 2017’s 100 top-grossing films are of Asian descent, and only four of those — The Big Sick’s Kumail Nanjiani, The Foreigner’s Jackie Chan, Victoria and Abdul’s Ali Fazal and Steven Yeun of animated The Star — are leads. 37 of those top 100 films have no Asian characters — Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a high-profile exception with the casting of Kelly Marie Tran. But trolling reportedly drove her to abandon social media in June (though she hasn’t commented on why). 4 of the 109 directors of those 100 films (some were helmed by duos) are of Asian descent, and they are all men — Split’s M. Night Shyamalan, Despicable Me 3’s Pierre Coffin, The Great Wall’s Zhang Yimou and Geostorm’s Dean Devlin.…

Even in this age of megamergers and acquisitions, one has to marvel at the “origin story” of 20th Century Pictures. For one thing, it was financed, in 1933, by the top brass of MGM — president Nicholas Schenck and studio chief Louis B. Mayer (who was looking for a studio job for his aspiring producer son-in-law, William Goetz, just not at MGM) — with no idea how their little side project would soon grow into a formidable rival. To head the fledgling studio, they raided Warner Bros. and hired firebrand Darryl F. Zanuck as their head of production. Within a year, 20th Century earned its first Oscar nomination, for best picture for The House of Rothschild, headlined by former Warners star George Arliss. Within two, it was merging with the…

“The theater was going to pay me $250 a week, and Fox was going to pay me $1,000 a week. What would you do? Go with the money! Everybody was scared to death of Mr. Zanuck. I wasn’t because I didn’t know him — and I thought he was a Hungarian, which I am. It was a family. I love family. I got paid. I went to work. It was fun. One time I was doing three pictures at once — I was the happiest girl in the world! I never said, ‘They can’t make me!’ Make me? ‘Gee, I’m gonna be in that one too?!’ Everybody was good to me and sweet to me and kind and fun. Listen, I had Betty Grable’s makeup man, so what can I…

OZARK MISSING: LAURA LINNEY Jason Bateman earned a lead actor nomination (plus a directing nom) for playing the money-laundering dad in the new Netflix drama, but four-time Emmy winner Linney, who plays his wife, was skipped in the supporting category. GRACE AND FRANKIE MISSING: JANE FONDA They play septuagenarian roommates, but Lily Tomlin, who portrays Frankie, has been nominated for all four seasons of the Netflix comedy, while Fonda (who plays Grace) didn’t nab her first nom until 2017. She was snubbed again this year. MOM MISSING: ANNA FARIS Newly minted Oscar winner Allison Janney earned her fifth nom for her performance on the veteran CBS comedy (she won in 2015), but her co-star Faris has yet to be nominated. GLOW MISSING: ALISON BRIE Brie seemed like a shoo-in for…

When she was asked to host the 34th annual Television Critics Association Awards, Robin Thede (rhymes with speedy) hoped she would be heading into the second season of BET’s The Rundown. But on July 25, the Viacom-owned net announced it would not renew her weekly program. “I’m the fourth black woman to host a late-night show. Mo’Nique, Whoopi [Goldberg] and Wanda [Sykes] were the only other ones who did it,” says Thede. “I will always be super proud of that because it’s not easy.” The 38-year-old is taking the news in stride. After all, she’s used to coping. Growing up in a trailer in Davenport, Iowa, where her family was on welfare, Thede, whose dad is white and mom is African-American, was among the few people of color in their…

Tom Cruise The star’s sixth turn in the Mission: Impossible series, at 56, earns raves from critics and marks a franchise-high both stateside and globally with a $153.5 million launch. Mitch Lowe As the MoviePass parent company’s stock craters and cash dwindles, the CEO launches a Hail Mary effort to keep the ticket subscription service alive: raise prices and limit first-run movies. Kenya Barris The Black-ish creator is freed from his ABC Studios contract after clashing for months (including over a shelved episode on race issues), allowing him to pursue a nine-figure Netflix deal. Jason Ropell The Amazon Studios film chief exits the same day his awards-season hopefuls Beautiful Boy and Life Itself land plum Toronto Film Festival premieres. Showbiz Stocks $5.45 (+17%) SALEM MEDIA (SALM) The leader in talk…

WHEN THE DIGITAL BUBBLE POPS: BEHIND AWESOMENESS’ VALUATION DROP Everything isn’t so awesome for youth-media company Awesomeness. On July 27, Viacom revealed it is purchasing the digital-centric production house behind such projects as YouTube original series Foursome and Netflix film You Get Me for a price tag that sources peg at about $25 million plus debt. Factoring in all of Awesomeness’ debt and assets — a complicated calculation because the company is jointly owned by Comcast (via DreamWorks Animation), Verizon and Hearst — insiders value the transaction at between $50 million and $100 million, still a significant discount from its 2016 valuation of $650 million. Awesomeness’ sale, which will see the departure of CEO Jordan Levin, is the latest splash of ice water in the cooling of the formerly red-hot…

Director Jon Turteltaub knew he was gonna need a bigger shark. After all, if you’re going to tackle the genre these days, you’d better bring something new to the table, since the undersea apex predator has been reimagined in countless forms, from flying sharks to robot sharks and, yes, even zombie sharks. So, for his waterborne action thriller The Meg, the 54-year-old director, whose career has bounced between smaller fare like 1993’s Cool Runnings and big-budget studio spectacles like the National Treasure franchise, decided the best course of action was to go big — really big. Arriving in theaters Aug. 10 from Warner Bros., The Meg pits action star Jason Statham against a giant prehistoric shark called a megalodon. Lured to the project by producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Turteltaub finished…

Jon M. Chu was 13 when his parents took him and his siblings to a Sunday matinee of The Joy Luck Club, the first time the Bay Area family had seen households like theirs in American cinema. “We went to dim sum afterwards and sat for three or four hours talking about the story and learning about our own parents’ journey,” says the son of Chinese immigrants, who now is at the helm of Hollywood’s second attempt at putting Asian Americans on the big screen. Adds the 1993 film’s executive producer Janet Yang, “It felt like an anomaly, not the beginning of a trend.” Only Jeffrey Katzenberg, then chairman of Walt Disney Studios, she notes, was willing to take a flier on the Amy Tan adaptation — and still, skepticism…

I was running Samuel Goldwyn Films at the time — it was the heyday of true indies like Goldwyn, Avenue, Island and Miramax — and we woke up one day in 1993, and The Walt Disney Co. had just paid $60 million for Miramax. We had competed very successfully head-to-head with them, but in an instant, I knew that the playing field had tilted. I went to Sam Goldwyn and said, “Here’s the good news. You’re worth $300 million.” But he said: “I’ll never sell. It’s my father’s name [on the company].” So I had to think of something else, and I wrote up on a typewriter — that’s how long ago it was — a four-page business plan about what a true independent integrated into a major studio would…

THE BIGGEST HITS The Sound of Music 1965 With $1.32B after adjusting for inflation, the iconic musical is the No. 3 film domestically. Unadjusted, it collected a still formidable $158.7M in North America and $286M globally. And it played in theaters for more than four years in its original run. Star Wars 1977 George Lucas’ seminal film has grossed $775.4M at the worldwide box office, including rereleases. Adjusting for inflation, its domestic total is $1.65B, making it the No. 2 film of all time behind Selznick/MGM’s Gone With the Wind at $1.87B. Titanic 1997 Fox partnered with Paramount on James Cameron’s watery epic, which is the No. 2 film in history at the global box office, unadjusted for inflation. It has earned a total of $2.18B, including $659.4M domestically. →…

TEAM SHARI Robert N. Klieger, 46 Partner at law firm Hueston Hennigan LLP David R. Andelman, 78 Senior partner at law firm Lourie & Cutler, PC TEAM LES Joseph A. Califano Jr., 87 Founder of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse William S. Cohen, 77 CEO of consulting firm The Cohen Group Gary L. Countryman, 78 Chairman emeritus of the Liberty Mutual Group Charles K. Gifford, 75 Chairman emeritus of Bank of America Leonard Goldberg, 84 Exec producer of CBS’ Blue Bloods Bruce S. Gordon, 72 Former CEO of the NAACP Linda M. Griego, 70 CEO of Griego Enterprises Inc. Arnold Kopelson, 83 Co-chairman of Kopelson Entertainment Martha L. Minow, 63 Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence at Harvard Law School Doug Morris, 79 Former CEO of Sony Music…

What’s John Malone up to? Speculation has been rampant since the Liberty Global dealmaker — who built cable empire TCI before selling it to AT&T in 1999 for about $50 billion — left the boards of Lionsgate and Charter Communications in July. While veteran analyst Hal Vogel suggests the moves could “possibly be a prelude to more M&A activity involving both companies,” others aren’t so sure. Malone, 77, could be reducing his famously busy schedule (he wasn’t seen at July’s Allen & Co. executive gathering in Sun Valley). “He is on quite a few boards,” says Pivotal Research Group analyst Jeff Wlodarczak. “I think he is just paring back.” Malone, who in 2011 overtook CNN founder Ted Turner as the largest individual private landowner in the U.S., signaled as much…

The Last Best Story (BALZER + BRAY/HARPERCOLLINS, AUG. 7) BY Maggie Lehrman AGENCY ICM Partners With high-concept YA hot thanks to films like Love, Simon and the upcoming The Hate U Give, Lehrman’s modern His Girl Friday spin, about high school journalists who fall in love during a prom lockdown scare, should find a big- or small-screen home quickly. Bad Girls (GALLERY 13, JULY 17) BY Alex de Campi and Victor Santos AGENCY APA This graphic novel thriller, written by the Eisner-nominated de Campi, follows three women — a gangster’s girl, a mambo dancer and a jazz singer — trying to flee Cuba with $6 million in mob money as Castro takes over Havana on New Year’s Eve 1958.…

“Wear the same shoes please. Or you’re fired.”LINDSAY LOHAN The actress turned Greek beach club owner, in an Instagram comment snapping at two employees who posed for a publicity photo wearing different styles of high-heeled shoes. Only one style was Lohan-approved. “No one is asking us to take pitches for a Love Boat reboot.”CASEY BLOYS HBO’s president of programming, clarifying at TCA that the network’s new top boss, WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey, is not seeking to “dilute the HBO brand.” “If trolls scrutinizing it for ammunition is the new normal, this seems like a ‘why not?’ move.”RIAN JOHNSON The Last Jedi director, explaining his reasoning for deleting 20,000 tweets in the wake of James Gunn’s firing over offensive old tweets. “I vowed never to make a joke like that again.…

LeBron James and Drake dined together at TAO Los Angeles. … Jeff Bezos held court at Craig’s. … Over at The Palm Beverly Hills, Gal Gadot and Patrick Whitesell shared a table. … Colin Farrell checked out Viviane. … RuPaul stopped by Fig & Olive. … Dana Walden sat with Sean “Diddy” Combs at Avra Beverly Hills. Larry King was also there. … Eric Dane popped by Cal Mare. … Michael B. Jordan was at Crustacean Beverly Hills. … Billy Bush lunched at Viale dei Romani. CAA’s Sonya Rosenfeld sat nearby. Netflix’s Ori Marmur and Paradigm’s Adam Kanter rubbed elbows. Janet Jackson was also in. Eve American Bistro The Quick Pitch Adding to downtown’s booming dining scene is Eve, a stylish den housed in the recently renovated Mayfair Hotel. Executive…

I knew it was going to be big right off the bat,” Alan Ladd Jr., the former Fox studio head, says of Star Wars’ blockbuster 1977 debut. But not everyone shared his confidence. In fact, most of Hollywood was downright skeptical, and as Ladd looks back at his history-making tenure at the studio, he recalls: “We couldn’t get any dates for the picture. It had no stars. You’d try to explain the story, and they didn’t know what you were talking about. The only way we were able to book it is because the theaters all wanted The Other Side of Midnight, so we said, ‘If you want that one, you have to take this one.’ And we managed to get it into the Avco in Westwood.” While The Other…

CLAIRE FOY + MATT SMITH → The Crown Foy, who portrays Queen Elizabeth on Netflix’s royal hit, received her second nomination for lead actress but faces stiff competition in her category, which includes last year’s winner, Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale), and newcomer Sandra Oh (Killing Eve). Her onscreen husband, Smith, nabbed his first nom, for supporting actor, for playing Prince Philip. For both, it’s the last chance to win for the show; their characters have been recast for season three. MATTHEW RHYS + KERI RUSSELL The Americans Elizabeth and Philip Jennings — together until the bittersweet end. Russell and Rhys each have nabbed a nomination for the sixth and final season of FX’s Russian spy drama. The real-life couple has been nominated twice before, though neither has received a…