Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday September 12 2018 i The Hollywood Reporter

Candace Beinecke The Hughes Hubbard & Reed senior partner specializes in M&A, which could prove useful if Redstone wins her battle to merge CBS with Viacom. Beinecke was the first woman to chair a major New York law firm. Barbara Byrne She’s another director with experience working in a male-dominated field, having been the first female vice chairman at Lehman Brothers. The former Barclays vice chairman offers three decades of strategic dealmaking experience. Brian Goldner During his 10-year run as Hasbro chairman and CEO, Goldner has overseen several deals between the toymaker and major studios to turn its franchises into films. The PGA member’s producing credits include Transformers spinoff Bumblebee. Richard Parsons The former Time Warner executive helped negotiate the company’s AOL merger. He also brings crisis expertise, having led…

FILM Alexandra Daddario (UTA, Untitled, Jackoway Austen) and Nashville’s Keean Johnson (CAA, Management 360, Sloane Offer) will star in horror thriller We Summon the Darkness. Odessa Young (CAA, Australia’s Shanahan, Echo Lake, Sloane Offer) will join Elisabeth Moss in indie period thriller Shirley. Rebecca Ferguson (ICM, the U.K.’s Tavistock Wood) is in talks to join Timothee Chalamet in Dune. Columbia Pictures is developing a biopic about late Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard, with RZA producing. Charlie Day (WME, 3 Arts, Sloane Offer) will direct Armory Films and Wrigley Pictures’ El Tonto. Gemma Arterton (CAA, the U.K.’s Independent, Stone Genow) will star as Dusty Springfield in So Much Love from Carol screenwriter Phyllis Nagy. Aleshea Harris (ICM) will adapt her Obie-winning play Is God Is for Scott Rudin and A24.…

Death Notice (JUNE 5) BY Zhou Haohui AGENCY UTA The Chinese mystery thriller is reminiscent of Se7en, centering on the hunt for a serial killer publicly executing the city’s top criminals — those who have evaded justice and are now being nominated for punishment by the public they have wronged. Christodora (AUGUST 2016) BY Tim Murphy AGENCY ICM The interweaving narrative follows residents of an iconic East Village building on a decades-spanning journey that tracks the city’s gradual change, from the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s to a fictive New York of the 2020s.…

Social Action Eight months after he was traded to the Detroit Pistons, Blake Griffin, 29, is coming back to L.A. But the former Clippers star won’t take the court at Staples. Instead, he’ll take the mic Sept. 13 at NeueHouse to host his second stand-up show for an invite-only crowd of 600. The first event, at Avalon Hollywood in December, raised $135,000 for Team Griffin Foundation with sets by John Mulaney, Whitney Cummings and more. “In basketball you are surrounded by your teammates helping support you, but with stand-up, the pressure is just on you,” says Griffin, who writes his own material and curates the acts, which this year include emerging comic Ron Taylor and a couple of top-secret headliners. “It’s something I really enjoy and am passionate about — even…

Toronto Film Festival Toronto, Sept. 6-16 Creative Arts Emmys Los Angeles, Sept. 8-9 Northern Charm Heavy rain didn’t dampen TIFF festivities, but it may have slowed Michael Moore down a bit. The doc maker arrived unfashionably late to his opening-night Fahrenheit 11/9 screening at Ryerson Theatre but nevertheless received a standing ovation for his film and his special guests — survivors of the Parkland and Flint tragedies. On Sept. 7, Amazon Studios’ Beautiful Boy party at Soho House saw Timothee Chalamet (2) climb atop a banquette to sing along to The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face.” Around the corner, co-stars Maria Bello and Kyle MacLachlan played ping-pong at the Giant Little Ones reception at Mongrel House. Following the Sept. 8 bow of Wild Rose, the film’s star, Jessie Buckley, performed…

If I could change jobs with anyone for a day, I’d choose… AVA DUVERNAY Cindy Holland of Netflix. DAMON LINDELOF Megan Amram, because she’s amazing and she’s about to win an Emmy. ISSA RAE Diddy. CARLTON CUSE Greg Berlanti. I’d love to know how he manages 15 shows simultaneously. MICHAEL WRIGHT (EPIX) Jake Tapper. I know it’s news, but, honestly, it sure seems like surreal narrative fiction these days, and nobody does it better. I’d love the chance to ask his guests some questions… COURTNEY KEMP J.J. Abrams. GREG BERLANTI Any of the many talented folks I work with who can sing and dance — I wouldn’t stop doing either for the entire day. DAN FOGELMAN [David] Benioff and [D.B.] Weiss on Game of Thrones — but only for a…

It was a tantalizing scoop that justly pinballed around L.A.’s top luxury real estate offices: The author of Yolanda’s Little Black Book revealed! The article, published July 13 by the Los Angeles Times, uncorked years of speculation about who pens the anonymous blog that frequently exposes the inner details of high-profile, multimillion-dollar deals, often before ink has dried. Yolanda, according to the Times, was 28-year-old Glendora resident James McClain, who previously worked in the finance department at Compass. But that story doesn’t square with a number of THR’s top agents. “I don’t think that’s the person,” says WEA’s Stephen Shapiro. “Everybody I talked to feels the same way.” Pacific Union’s Aaron Kirman agrees. Why? “Compass wasn’t attached to every deal,” Kirman says. “He could’ve been part of it but there…

When Michael Che and Colin Jost take the Microsoft Theater stage Sept. 17, their Emmy hosting gig will come with the usual pressures — for viewers, social media metrics and cool points. But their ratings on NBC won’t affect the latest rights agreement between the TV Academy and the Big Four networks, an eight-year deal that kicks off with the 2019 show and is seen by many as make-or-break for the awards’ broadcast future. The count of U.S. scripted series will top 500 in 2018. But interest in TV’s top honors, as with many awards shows, is slipping. The past three Emmy telecasts averaged 11.5 million viewers, easily ranking as the least watched of TV’s big awards shows. “Everyone was really motivated to get this deal done,” says one Big…

How many late-night show staffers does it take to accept — or, more likely, lose — an Emmy Award? If the swarms of New York based writers, producers and crewmembers who descend on L.A. each year for the telecast are any indication, the answer — no joke — is in the double or triple digits. Four of this year’s six nominated variety talk series — Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show, John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, Samantha Bee’s Full Frontal and Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show all broadcast from Manhattan — will fly their entire teams, anywhere from 60 to 120-plus, out West for the awards. It’s an invitation few decline. “I think the last time only eight people couldn’t go — and one of them was having a baby, so…”…

When Beau Willimon was looking for one last investor to come on board his new Sean Penn Hulu space drama The First, he wanted a company willing to provide cash and help handle sales without stepping on his creative control. It might sound as idealistic as actually inhabiting Mars. And yet, when such a deal materialized, there was something unusual and, to some, even a bit controversial about the investor: Endeavor Content, a sister company of talent agency WME. As the industry moves from star-driven vehicles toward an IP-dominated marketplace, it’s likely that the winners and losers of the Peak TV era will largely be determined by who owns what. It’s thus little wonder that broadcast networks are increasingly linking up with their sister studios to own everything that airs…

Author Peter Biskind ponders how pop culture played into Donald Trump’s election victory in his new book, The Sky Is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids, and Superheroes Made America Great for Extremism, excerpted on page 82. Author of the best-selling memoir Primates of Park Avenue, Wednesday Martin writes about how outdated views on female sexuality have been corrected by shows like HBO’s Insecure (page 42). Her new book, Untrue, looks at myths of lust and infidelity. Showbiz power lawyer Ken Ziffren pens an analysis of Disney’s much-anticipated “Netflix killer” (page 67). He calls the streaming service, set to debut in late 2019, a “radical change” from wholesale production and distribution to a direct-to-consumer system.…

Film Superman Flies Is Henry Cavill leaving the DC Universe? p. 32 Deals Toronto Tunes Music films dominate the TIFF sales market p. 36 Daniel Zhang Alibaba founder Jack Ma picks the CEO of the tech giant to succeed him as executive chairman when the billionaire steps aside next year. Tim Armstrong The media mogul, who helped Verizon acquire Yahoo and AOL for nearly $9 billion combined, will leave the telecom amid languishing content plans. Robbie Brenner Mattel taps the Oscar nominated producer to lead its new film division and adapt such properties as Hot Wheels and Thomas & Friends for the big screen. Adam Venit Ten months after Terry Crews made his sexual assault claims public, the WME agent is exiting as the agency settles a lawsuit with the actor.…

Deal of the Week The deals were alive with the sound of music. As the Toronto International Film Festival market hit the midway point, movies about singers dominated sales. First was Max Minghella’s feature directorial debut, Teen Spirit, which fetched $8 million ($3 million upfront and a $5 million prints-and-advertising commitment, a whopping figure for a first-time helmer). Mickey Liddell’s LD Entertainment bought the film, which features Elle Fanning doing her own singing, and will partner with a distributor at a later date — an increasingly common scenario at markets (MRC also didn’t have a distributor in place when it made a $40 million commitment for worldwide rights to the Daniel Craig-Rian Johnson package Knives Out). Also in tune was Neon, which nabbed Tom Harper’s Wild Rose for mid-seven figures…

Norm Macdonald is giving TV another shot. After being famously fired from Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” desk in 1998 and failing to launch two early 2000s sitcoms (Norm, A Minute With Stan Hooper), the Canadian stand-up’s career has taken some detours. He’s popped up as judge on NBC’s Last Comic Standing; as Colonel Sanders in KFC ads; and on talk shows plugging his (semifictionalized) memoir, Based on a True Story. It’s been a tumultuous year for Macdonald, 58, since that book came out: The close friend who penned its forward, Louis C.K., saw his career derailed by #MeToo, while the woman who gave Macdonald his first break in Hollywood — Roseanne Barr, who hired him to write for the original Roseanne — squandered her comeback with a tweet, costing…

Guest Column There is something big happening right now, an earthquake of sorts, that will shake up our world and our beliefs about men, women and sex. I describe it in my new book, Untrue: Why Nearly Everything We Believe About Women, Lust and Infidelity Is Wrong…, and call it The Great Correction. Ideas about female sexual autonomy, promiscuity and fidelity are being revisited, revised and overturned based on several decades’ worth of studies gathered by mostly female primatologists, anthropologists and other social scientists. University of British Columbia clinical sex researcher Rosemary Basson and Queens University sexologist Meredith Chivers have toppled the long-standing myth that men’s sex drives are stronger than women’s by measuring triggered versus spontaneous desire. University of Nevada psychologist Marta Meana and her colleagues have discovered that…

Before 2012, Pittsburgh native Mac Miller (real name Malcolm McCormick) had been known as a “frat rapper,” a term wielded derogatorily by critics to describe the wave of mostly white, mostly privileged, mostly terrible rappers to whom Asher Roth’s “I Love College” was a profound thesis statement. Yet it was clear he was devoting the vast majority of his waking life to improving his craft — to stepping up his bars, to becoming a beat wizard, to mastering multiple instruments, to writing increasingly complex music. His palpable drive adds another sad layer to his death: He seemed to be just getting started.…

The studio was very unenthusiastic about casting Burt in Deliverance. They wanted a big star. I had gone to Jack Nicholson, but he wanted a half-million dollars, which was outrageous in 1972, and then I went to Marlon Brando, and he told me he’d do it for whatever Jack was asking for, so in the end the studio told me to go ahead and make it with nobodies for no money. They had very little confidence in the material. I went out and got Burt — I paid him $50,000 — and then Jon Voight. The two of them were total opposites. Voight analyzed everything to death, while Burt’s approach was to look at a scene and say, “How do I get through this without making a fool of myself?”…

DRAMA SERIES There’s a part of me that would like to see a broadcast network show win, but This Is Us was significantly better during its first season than its second. I can’t vote for Westworld — I don’t know what’s going on half the time. I respect The Crown, but not my cup of tea — sorry. I love Handmaid’s Tale and Stranger Things — I can’t remember which I voted for last year, but both were better during their first season. It’s hard not to vote for Game of Thrones — they reportedly spend $17 million an episode, so they might as well be competing for the best picture Oscar — but, at the end of the day, I’m a bit of a sentimentalist, so I’m voting for…

ENDEAVOR Endeavor Content, which has a joint venture with Chernin Entertainment for TV dramas, focuses on scripted fare, while IMG Original Content continues to produce nonscripted projects. (The company, formerly known as WME-IMG, was the first into the space; only a selection of its projects are included here.) CAA The agency backs former ABC chief Paul Lee’s new TV studio, wiip, which has announced four shows: Apple’s straight-to-series comedy Dickinson, an adaptation of Gimlet podcast Sandra, and Queen America and an untitled Cristiano Ronaldo drama, both of which Facebook has ordered straight to series. UTA It has an equity stake in American Idol producer Industrial Media, which has UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer and chief strategy officer David Spingarn on its board. UTA’s Aug. 7 private equity infusion of about $200…

A strong contender for the least wellreviewed Emmys would be 1965’s. For The Hollywood Reporter to call it a “deplorable bust” in a headline says something about how unloved the show was. The review went on to say that it was “the worst mishmash in TV Academy history” and if the organization did “another show like this one, no network will want to carry it.” THR wasn’t alone in this opinion. “Instead of bubbling like champagne, it was like molasses from the deep freeze,” wrote Los Angeles Times columnist Hedda Hopper. The problem lay with the new format devised by TV Academy president Rod Serling. Instead of presenting drama, comedy or acting awards, these categories were lumped into Individual Achievement in Entertainment. The choices made by a committee seemed arbitrary:…

The Hollywood Reporter and SAG-AFTRA will kick off the 70th annual Emmy Awards weekend with a Sept. 14 party at Avra Beverly Hills. Emmy Nominees Night will toast the top contenders, as guests enjoy beats by DJ Myles Hendrik, a photo booth and Greek delicacies including a raw bar. Last year’s soiree at Jean-Georges Beverly Hills broke out into a full-on dance party, with nominees Sterling K. Brown, Allison Janney, Alec Baldwin and Bob Odenkirk among the stars in attendance. Janney, nominated again this year, praised the “unbelievable category of women” at last year’s bash. Showrunners like Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd (Modern Family) mingled with AMC/SundanceTV president Charlie Collier and NBC Entertainment’s then-president Jennifer Salke, now head of Amazon Studios. This year’s event is sponsored by Heineken and hosted…

If you were to ask a Wall Street analyst a year ago what would happen to shares of CBS Corp. if suddenly Leslie Moonves were to leave, you’d likely hear that the stock would tank because of his value as the CEO who took a slow-growth, old-media TV company and turned it into a cool investment again — one that has returned 1,200 percent since bottoming out nine years ago. But Sept. 10, the first trading day after Moonves was officially ousted after a second group of women accused him of sexual abuse, the stock fell just 21 cents to $54.99, raising the question: What are investors thinking? Mostly they’re convinced CBS will merge with a larger company that will pay a premium to the current price, though that may…

1 Samira Wiley proved that The Handmaid’s Tale was not a one-trick pony with the Hulu hit’s first key win (guest actress in a drama) after its breakout 2017 — evidence that actors are still watching. 2 There’s one reality category in the primetime telecast: outstanding competition. And while The Voice and The Amazing Race have always dominated, RuPaul Charles’ third host victory could signal a shift in tide for Drag Race. 3 Crafts voters really went for FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, giving it four total wins and the most momentum of any limited series. 4 Are voters over Game of Thrones? Decidedly not. The leader in nominations heads into the heated best drama race as the leader in wins, seven total across crafts categories.…

Big Deal What’s behind Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn’s auf Wiedersehen? After 16 seasons together on Project Runway, Klum and Gunn announced Sept. 7 that they would be leaving the Bravo-turned-Lifetime hit in favor of a yet-to-be determined fashion show for Amazon. Sources tell THR that Bravo, which recently brought Project Runway back from its Weinstein Co.-fueled purgatory, couldn’t compete with the salaries Lifetime was paying Klum and Gunn, and the NBCUniversal-owned cable network was unable to work out a deal with the Emmy-winning duo. As salary negotiations were ongoing with Bravo, Klum and Gunn began shopping another concept. Amazon Studios, whose head of film and TV, Jennifer Salke, is in the midst of a search for a new unscripted topper, quickly stepped up and offered the pair what sources…

Friday, Sept. 14 THR and SAG-AFTRA’s Nominees Night Avra Beverly Hills The annual soiree kicks off the weekend (see page 24). WME Rooftop by JG at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills Nominated clients include Jessica Biel, Millie Bobby Brown and Donald Glover. Saturday, Sept. 15 BAFTA L.A. and BBC America TV Tea The Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills Making the rounds will be Lakeith Stanfield, Sandra Oh and Henry Winkler. CAA Rose Cafe, Venice Clients Rachel Brosnahan, Peter Dinklage and more are expected to attend. UTA Clients from Michael Che to Constance Wu will party at the Brentwood spread of UTA co-president Jay Sures. Sunday, Sept. 16 ICM Partners The agency’s Chris Silbermann hosts brunch for such clients as Betty Gilpin and Michael Stuhlbarg at his home in Santa Monica. MPTF’s Evening…

“As an employee of CBS, I would just like to say that Les Moonves should be fired without getting a fucking dollar.” RACHEL BLOOM The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend actress and co-creator, tweeting her reaction to the latest sexual assault allegations against the now-former CBS chairman and CEO. “It’s legal, right?” ELON MUSK The SpaceX CEO, appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast and smoking marijuana with the host. “You owe me an apology. You’re a thief.” SERENA WILLIAMS The tennis star, yelling at the chair umpire during her U.S. Open final loss to Naomi Osaka on Sept. 8 after he penalized her a point for the second of three rules violations. “I complained plenty about Fox News, but you never heard me threaten to shut them down, or call them ‘enemies of the…

Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger checked out Beauty & Essex LA. … Channing Dungey, Damon Lindelof, Kevin Nealon and Drew Carey were at the Ojai Valley Inn separately. … John Mayer and producer Stanley Brooks lunched at The Polo Lounge. … Ron Meyer was at Viale dei Romani. … Sarah Paulson and Ryan Murphy shared a table at the Sunset Tower’s Tower Bar. … Elijah Wood popped by Bavel. … Shakira had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory in Beverly Hills. … Leonardo DiCaprio was at the h.wood Group’s Delilah NYFW pop-up. HOT NEW RESTAURANT Rappahannock Oyster Bar The Quick Pitch A Chesapeake Bay oyster company has opened this downtown outpost. Nick Erven, last seen at his since shuttered eponymous vegan spot in SaMo, here does haute seafood shack: crispy fingerlings,…

1936-2018 He went from being the biggest, richest star of the late 1970s and early 1980s to bankruptcy and foreclosure in the 1990s and 2000s. But Reynolds, who died Sept. 6, never stopped trying to climb back on top: ‘His greatest asset was charm. He always seemed to be having so much fun’…

There’s a lot of mystery and speculation about the new direction of the filmed entertainment unit of The Walt Disney Co. The largest of the traditional Hollywood studios is in the process of switching from a wholesale producer and distributor of content to a direct-to-consumer (call it “DTC,” or “Disney Play”) model. Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, revealed certain changes publicly in an earnings call in August. For example, numerous original projects currently in production — including the first live-action Star Wars series and, on the film side, a live-action version of the classic Lady and the Tramp — will be accessible via a new over-the-top streaming service, scheduled to launch late next year. By the end of 2019, all of the Disney features, TV and new-media programs that are not…

“I am not good at, like, sitting on a beach,” admits Anderson Cooper. “I’m not good at decompressing.” Lucky for Cooper, he seldom has time to. The 51-year-old news anchor spends nearly every day, including weekends (and especially New Year’s Eve) working. There’s Anderson Cooper 360, his five-nights-a-week newscast on CNN, which enters its 15th year this September; his gig as a 60 Minutes correspondent (he’ll shoot 10 pieces for the CBS newsmagazine this season); and his new Facebook news series, Full Circle; not to mention the live road show he does with pal Andy Cohen, AC²: Deep Talk and Shallow Tales. It’s not like he needs the money: The son of heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, Cooper grew up in the rarified world of Manhattan society. But he’s experienced terrible losses…

Roma Cuaron hit THR’s lounge shortly after returning from Venice, where his Spanishlanguage movie starring Aparicio and Tavira won the fest’s Golden Lion. 2 Nicole Kidman Destroyer Kidman was touting two films, Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased and Karyn Kusama’s Destroyer — in which she’s almost unrecognizable as gritty LAPD detective Erin Bell. “There’s incredible anger and rage [in her],” says Kidman of Bell. 3 First Man Chazelle’s La La Land follow-up centers on the years leading up to Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon, with Gosling as the late astronaut and Foy as his wife. “The most difficult part about the whole film was that Neil and Janet’s sons were going to see it,” says Gosling. 4 Kelly Marie Tran Sorry for Your Loss In her first role since Star…