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. 7, with Tennessee voters a month away from electing a senator, Taylor Swift threw a much-needed lifeline to Democrat Phil Bredesen, who trails Republican Marsha Blackburn by eight points in the polls. “I cannot support Marsha Blackburn,” Swift wrote on Instagram, breaking her much-scrutinized silence on politics and endorsing Bredesen and another Democrat running for the House. On social media, she immediately received both cheers and jeers. “Let’s say I like Taylor’s music about 25 percent less now, OK?” Donald Trump told White House reporters a day later. Will the star’s endorsement make a difference in the race? And after the president has effectively demonized Hollywood’s liberal wing, do voters even want A-listers to wade into the midterms? It depends. A new THR/Morning Consult poll of 2,192 adults…
Digital Snapchat Shows The struggling app launches original programs p. 22 ↑ Television Netflix Quota Europe requires streamers to make local content p. 24 Hope Hicks The Murdochs tap the former Trump White House aide as executive vp and chief communications officer for “new Fox,” guiding messaging for the company. Angela Kang The Walking Dead’s new showrunner can’t stop the AMC flagship from dipping to a premiere low with 6 million same-day viewers in its Oct. 7 return for season nine. James Gunn Disney’s loss is apparently Warner Bros.’ gain: The Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker, fired over offensive tweets, lands as director of a Suicide Squad reboot. Megan Ellison The Annapurna founder mysteriously drops two A-List movie projects on the verge of shooting as her president of film abruptly…
Agree or Disagree? “Sometimes I learn about news and current events through celebrities.” 50% don’t really know the political views of the celebrities they follow MEANWHILE … 29% Think that celebrities should not express their opinions about political and social issues to the public When celebrities express their opinions about political or social issues they care about, their influence, in general, is … Very effective 7% Somewhat effective 17% Not very effective 20% Not at all effective 40% Don’t know/No opinion 14% The THR/Morning Consult poll was conducted Sept. 27-Oct. 1 from a national sample of 2,192 adults with a margin of error of 2 percent. Some percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding. Have you ever … Donated to or volunteered for a cause because a celebrity you like…
It’s a sweltering mid-September afternoon in Altadena, California, but the Mountain View Mortuary has come alive with actors dressed in period garb. Director Suzi Yoonessi is about to yell “cut” on a pivotal scene for the new dark comedy The Dead Girls Detective Agency, but first she tells the cast to give her a version in “Snapchat speed.” If the vertical framing on the monitors didn’t give it away, Yoonessi’s direction for the snappy take does: The series is one of more than a dozen serialized shortform shows that Snapchat is rolling out under its new Originals banner. Like YouTube and Facebook before it, Snapchat is pushing head-first into original entertainment programming as a way to drive up engagement among its predominantly young audience and capture lucrative video advertising dollars.…
$814 Life Itself’s per-screen average on its debut weekend Not everyone can be a J.J. Abrams. The former TV wunderkind may have turned his Felicity and Lost cred into impressive box office returns on Star Wars and Star Trek, but other small-screen hitmakers — including, most recently, This Is Us’ Dan Fogelman — are flaming out at the multiplex. Amazon had hoped that fans of Fogelman’s NBC drama would show up for the director’s Sept. 21 release Life Itself — a tearjerker that also features interconnected storylines and tragic events. But the film took in just $2.1 million in its opening weekend despite playing in 2,609 theaters. It has earned a paltry $4 million. Fogelman joins a list of such luminaries as The Sopranos’ David Chase and Mad Men’s Matthew Weiner,…
Employees at Netflix and Amazon Prime better get used to reading subtitles. Because the U.S. streaming giants may be about to get a lot more European. The new directive, passed by the European Parliament on Oct. 2 and set to be formally adopted in December, will require that 30 percent of content on all VOD platforms in 28 countries be of local origin. The regulation is likely to spur Netflix and Amazon to boost their investment in Europe by increasing both original productions and local acquisitions. Netflix plans to spend about $1 billion on original and co-produced content in Europe this year, according to a Financial Times report. This summer, the Reed Hastings-led company rolled out plans for its first European production hub, in Spain, and unveiled a trio of…
