The all-new Hollywood Reporter offers unprecedented access to the people, studios, networks and agencies that create the magic in Hollywood. Published weekly, the oversized format includes exceptional photography and rich features.
On Oct. 16, two months before the release of Netflix’s biggest film, the $90 million Will Smith starrer Bright, chief content officer Ted Sarandos outlined the future of the streamer’s movie division as one with potential for the “enormous scale that we have on the television side.” Ten months later, despite plans for 60 individual projects to be released in 2018, the industry is waiting for a breakout hit from Netflix’s film side with the cultural impact of its television series Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why or Orange Is the New Black. Netflix’s influence in TV is undisputed — the free-spending streamer drives the market and recently edged out HBO with 112 Emmy nominations. But its original films have yet to capture the zeitgeist, win Oscars or displace traditional studio…
Digital Ready to Read Stars look to audiobooks as new revenue stream p. 16 ↑ TV Late-Night Chill Can Netflix make topical talker shows work? p. 22 Kevin Kwan and Jon M. Chu The Crazy Rich Asians author and director passed on Netflix riches to gamble with a Warner Bros. theatrical release and are rewarded with a $35.3 million five-day domestic debut. Danny Boyle The Oscar winner drops out of directing the 25th James Bond movie over “creative differences” with producers and star Daniel Craig. Adam Aron The AMC Entertainment CEO may end up the beneficiary of MoviePass’ woes as his subscription ticket service, Stubs A-List, hits 260,000 subscribers in just eight weeks. Donald Tang The Global Road founder scrambles to raise cash as lenders take over his upstart mini-studio,…
Everyone from Netflix to Amazon to Byron Allen has been mentioned as a possible suitor for Landmark Theatres since owners Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner put the country’s premier cinema circuit for independent and foreign films up for sale in April. Insiders tell THR that talks are in advanced stages with a handful of prospective buyers. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter estimates that a chain of Landmark’s size — with 56 theaters in 27 markets, including a posh new cinema near Columbus Circle in New York City and marquee venues in West Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. —could be worth around $100 million. That would be a significant discount for Landmark, which was valued at around $200 million when Cuban and Wagner came close to selling it seven years ago in…
When Claire Danes wrapped filming on the penultimate season of Showtime’s Homeland, she did what many TV actors do during their hiatus and booked a new project. But instead of walking onto another set, Danes narrated a new version of The Odyssey for audiobook giant Audible. The recording of the first English-language version of the Greek epic by a female translator is the second such project the actress has taped in the past year and a half, following her 2017 take on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. “I found that I loved the experience,” she says. “It’s a great exercise.” Danes is one of a small but growing group of actors who have taken to recording audiobooks in between film and TV projects, lured by the flexible schedule and potentially…
About five years ago, Timur Bekmambetov was on a Skype call with a colleague who used the app’s Screen Share feature, allowing the director-producer (Wanted and Ben-Hur) to quickly view a social media post on her desktop. But the colleague forgot to unshare the screen. “I said to her, ‘Sorry, I see your screen,’ ” he recalls. “And we laughed, but then we understood that if I see the screen, I’m kind of inside the character. It’s a very, very powerful storytelling tool.” That moment spawned a cheap film technique — not unlike The Blair Witch Project launched the cost-effective found-footage craze nearly two decades ago — where movies are told entirely from the vantage point of computer and iPhone screens. Since then, Bekmambetov has produced several “screen life” films,…
Never underestimate the allure of Kevin Costner playing cowboys. Three decades after Dances With Wolves, the 63-year-old actor’s onscreen work in the American West is now one of TV’s surest bets — having set records with the 2012 History miniseries Hatfields & McCoys and recently minting a rare cable breakout with Paramount Network’s Yellowstone. Ahead of its Aug. 22 season one finale, Taylor Sheridan’s contemporary rancher drama is averaging 5 million weekly viewers across platforms. That’s the biggest audience for an ad-supported cable freshman since FX’s The People v. O.J. Simpson in 2016 and makes Yellowstone the second-most-watched cable series of 2018. (It trails only AMC behemoth The Walking Dead.) “Kevin has done so much different work over the years,” says Paramount Network president Kevin Kay, “but if you put…
