Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday November 7 2018 i The Hollywood Reporter

Netflix. That was one of Wall Street’s key takeaways from the Daniel Ek-led music streaming giant’s latest financial results. The company reported its first-ever profit on Nov. 1 and a gain of 4 million paying subscribers, but its stock dropped that same day. Why? Observers say it’s partly due to the fact that the music streamer has grown steadily, not explosively, the way Netflix has often done. “Spotify has pretty much had this problem all year, delivering good, steady growth that is good enough for the music industry but isn’t good enough for investors,” says analyst Mark Mulligan. It didn’t help that Spotify also lowered the top end of its subscriber growth guidance for the fourth quarter. (Spotify now has 87 million paid subs, Apple Music 50 million and Pandora…

Long Road to Mercy (GRAND CENTRAL, NOV. 13) BY David Baldacci AGENCIES APA, Aaron M. Priest Lit Continuing the tradition of female-fronted murder mysteries (a la The Girl on the Train, Sharp Objects, Top of the Lake), Baldacci’s latest centers on an FBI agent tasked with solving a mystery that lies at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. What Have You Done? (THOMAS & MERCER, SEPT. 1) BY Matthew Farrell AGENCY Grade A Entertainment Fans of Law & Order: SVU and NCIS will appreciate this crime thriller, which centers on a forensics specialist who investigates a murder scene where he knows the victim. As evidence piles up against him, he starts to suspect his homicide detective brother.…

He told everyone he was the greatest through publicity, and they believed it,” Karina Longworth says. “From the very beginning of his career he disseminated lies, people bought them and he got away with it.” The host of film history podcast You Must Remember This isn’t talking about President Trump. She’s describing 20th century industry power broker Howard Hughes, who’s at the center of her new book, Seduction: Sex, Lies and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood, which profiles 10 women he dated and worked with (decades before #MeToo), from Lana Turner to Katharine Hepburn. The mogul mastered blatant self-promotion, Longworth argues, at a time when “it wasn’t as commonplace or sophisticated” as today. Longworth, 38, who’s the offscreen partner of Star Wars: The Last Jedi helmer Rian Johnson, holds her…

Hollywood Film Awards Beverly Hills, Nov. 4 LACMA’s Art + Film Gala Los Angeles, Nov. 3 THR’s Candidly Costumes Los Angeles, Nov. 2 PEN America’s LitFest Gala Beverly Hills, Nov. 2 Party Crawler Awards Season’s Kickoff Party “I’ve wanted to host these awards since I found out about them two weeks ago,” Awkwafina (7) quipped of getting the opportunity to emcee the Hollywood Film Awards (produced by THR sister company Dick Clark Productions). The success of diversity-rich films that shattered box office records was cited throughout the evening as noncompetitive honors were handed out, with particular attention given to breakthrough ensemble winner Crazy Rich Asians and Black Panther, which received the HFA’s take on a best picture distinction. “I can tell you the honor of receiving this award, and the…

I am not typically up and out of the house before 7 a.m., but a few days ago I happened to be at a break-of-dawn meeting — you know, the kind of meeting where alcoholics and addicts gather to focus on recovery and the 12 steps. And as we all were finding our way to our seats, one woman announced quite passionately to the rest of us early birds, “I saw our movie last night!” This is L.A., so “our movie” could mean ownership in many forms: Was she a director or producer? Maybe an actress? A publicist perhaps? Nope. Anonymous lady was not at all involved in the film she watched the previous evening — Beautiful Boy, starring Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet. But as a person in recovery,…

A decade after L.A.’s cocktail revolution took hold (farmers’ market sourcing, custom ice cubes), spreading from faux speakeasies to LAX terminal bars, comes a new round of fresh innovation. Matthew Biancaniello, who made his name at the Roosevelt Hotel’s Library Bar, has begun operating Mon-Li at Malibu’s Calamigos Guest Ranch and Beach Club (26025 Pacific Coast Highway). It presents a seasonal tasting menu — “I’m using things I forage nearby, like water mint and cactus root,” he says — over 12 liquid courses ($150 per person). Mon-Li inverts the standard dining hierarchy: Food, like a red abalone hand roll, is paired with the cocktails, not vice versa. Meanwhile, at downtown’s Le Neant (519 S. Spring Street), opening Dec. 1, the bartenders determine what they serve — though it won’t be…

Amazing!” Letitia Wright has just found out that she’s been named one of London’s top influencers by the Evening Standard, joining a list of long-standing power brokers (and Meghan Markle). Not that the 25-year-old should be surprised. From her scene-stealing breakout as tech genius Shuri in Marvel’s Black Panther to her Emmy-nominated turn on Netflix’s Black Mirror, to hanging at the Met Gala with Rihanna and Pharrell, Wright has had the sort of year most young actors pray for. And that’s exactly what she did — after a spiritual awakening lifted her from her lowest point, just three years ago. “I was putting so much pressure on myself,” Wright says, speaking at a photo studio beneath a rumbling railway arch in London’s Shoreditch. At one point, she even questioned her…

My one piece of advice for the Next Gen Class of 2018 is… COURTENAY VALENTI, 1994 Studio execs have to say “no” more than they get to say “yes,” so learn to say the former with kindness. DAVID LINDE, 1995 Look around the room, not just at who is speaking. KARL AUSTEN, 1996 Stay hungry. PETER RICE, 1999 Speak up and don’t let anyone convince you your ideas aren’t valuable. SONYA ROSENFELD, 1999 Don’t look over your shoulder at another person’s success. NICOLE CLEMENS, 2001 Read everything. CRAIG ERWICH, 2001 Return your phone calls. SUSAN ROVNER, 2004 Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know.” DAN LIN, 2005 Embrace what makes you different. TERENCE CARTER, 2009 Be nice to your assistants. They will be the Next Gen Class of 2028,…

“Post Malone followed me on Twitter, and I freaked out. He said he watched Blockers like 30 times on tour, and I was like, ‘Well, I just saw your show at the Hollywood Bowl. Can we be friends?’ It didn’t happen, but it’s fine.” KATHRYN NEWTON “I freaked out when Sarah Paulson followed me. My head nearly exploded.” JODIE COMER “Tie between Ava DuVernay and Mahershala Ali.” JOVAN ADEPO “Jenna Fischer. She’s my dream girl. I post less because I’m like, ‘Oh, Jenna’s watching…’” NICHOLAS BRAUN…

TV HBO Standoff What’s at stake in AT&T’s fight with Dish p. 20 Deals Rhapsody Effect More movies based on music in the works p. 28 Jeff Bezos By splitting Amazon’s second headquarters between New York’s Queens and Arlington, Virginia, the savvy CEO aims to score rich tax incentives from both cities. Sophie Turner Laing The Endemol Shine Group chief calls off its planned sale, leaving the TV production powerhouse co-owned by Fox on uncertain terrain. Rami Malek The Bohemian Rhapsody star can exhale thanks to a $51.1 million domestic opening and Oscar buzz for his performance after enduring the chaos and firing of director Bryan Singer. Bob Kushell The co-showrunner of CBS midseason comedy Fam is fired for what an insider calls “inappropriate language,” a sign of zero tolerance…

A mid the rise of streaming, the narrative among TV executives has been, “Viewers are still watching, just on their own time.” Yet over the first month of the 2018-19 season, delayed viewing as measured by Nielsen has fallen off a little compared to the prior season. Last season, as many as 18 shows increased their adults 18-49 rating by at least a point over seven days. But through four weeks of the 2018-19 season, only 11 broadcast series are doing so (along with basic cable’s The Walking Dead, American Horror Story: Apocalypse and Mayans M.C.). This suggests that viewers in the key ad demo are using DVRs and on-demand ever so slightly less than they did last season. The top 50 shows (as measured by seven-day increases) grow by…

ACTRESS Keira Knightley Colette When the British Independent Film Awards were announced Oct. 31, Wash Westmoreland’s biopic scored four noms — including one for supporting actor Dominic West — but its Britain born leading lady failed to make the best actress list. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Amazing Grace Following a years-long standoff over music rights, the estate of Aretha Franklin, who died Aug. 16, and producer Alan Elliott have reached a deal that clears the way for the release of the concert doc — with a Nov. 21 premiere at DOC NYC, followed by an Oscar qualifying run. BEST PICTURE Black Panther Although the honor was announced in advance, its best film recognition at the Nov. 4 Hollywood Film Awards helps put it center stage months after its theatrical debut. Plus, Marvel…

Andrew Lincoln isn’t quite ready to hang up his sheriff’s hat. The actor, 45, exited Walking Dead during its Nov. 4 episode, capping a nine-season run as the zombie drama’s Rick Grimes. But Lincoln (and Grimes) won’t depart the franchise, which despite a string of lows in its current ninth season remains one of TV’s highest-rated shows; AMC has said that it will go into a 10th season and beyond. Lincoln’s departure was years in the making: He decided back in 2014 that he wanted to spend more time with his wife and two children, ages 11 and 8, at home in England; he and chief content officer Scott M. Gimple plotted his exit from there. Now the star — who previously appeared in films like 2003’s Love, Actually but…

Ever since the ultra-secretive augmented reality company Magic Leap burst onto the startup scene in 2014, it has spun a web of lofty promises about an immersive new platform that mixes the real world with the synthetic. Unlike the wholly made-up environments of virtual reality, objects in augmented reality appear to exist alongside and interact with the real world. And so, envisioning a future where consumers walk around with Magic Leap headsets and giddily interact with IP in entirely new and moneymaking ways, Hollywood took the bait hard. Magic Leap secured investment from some of the biggest names in entertainment, including Warner Bros., Management 360 and Legendary, contributing to the $2.4 billion in funding that has boosted its valuation to a sky-high $6 billion. The studios hadn’t gotten this excited…

For the third major retelling of Dr. Seuss’ classic tale How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Illumination Entertainment decided to go back to the mean one’s very roots. Instead of taking their cues from Chuck Jones’ famous 1966 TV version, featuring the voice of Boris Karloff as both the narrator and the Grinch (see page 104), or cribbing from Ron Howard’s 2000 live-action version — in which Jim Carrey starred in green-face — filmmakers picked up Seuss’ original 1957 children’s book. Scott Mosier, who along with Yarrow Cheney directed the new computer-animated The Grinch, which Universal will release Nov. 9 — just in time to try to spoil the holidays — expresses admiration for Jones’ approach, acknowledging that the master animator’s 2-D rendition of the seasonal spoilsport is “incredible.” But for…

FERRARI MONZA SP1 & SP2 Ferrari debuted the Monza one seater SP1 and two-seater SP2 as retro-inspired throwbacks to the marque’s “en plein air” sports cars, selling at a starting price of $1.3 million. The 499-unit edition is sold out, just part of the brand’s onslaught of one-off limited production cars. MCLAREN SPEEDTAIL All 106 units of McLaren’s Speedtails were sold at $2.25 million before the ink on the marketing materials was dry. Tony Joseph, president of McLaren North America, says the Speedtail, along with the Senna, will expand to include 18 new models with hybrid technology by 2025: “The Speedtail is a unique creation, incorporating bespoke customization, a state-of-the-art petrol-electric hybrid powertrain and the world’s first full carbon-fiber and titanium weave bodyshell.” MERCEDES-AMG PROJECT ONE Ron Robertson, of Beverly…

Spend a day with Ezra Miller at his 95-acre Vermont farm and you will surmise that the star with two franchises in motion does not really exist. Instead, “Ezra Miller” is just a glitch in a Mandela Effect-simulated reality that the 26-year-old is happy to explain over a spliff. It’s difficult to square the man who tills the land here (blueberries, turkey tail, something called chaga) with the one pulling down seven-figure paydays as Credence Barebone in Warner Bros.’ Fantastic Beasts franchise and as the titular superhero in DC Comics’ 2020 Flash stand-alone movie. But Miller operates not at all like a typical rising Hollywood star: He has zero personal social media presence and never even flirted with the idea of moving to L.A. (he bought this property in Vermont,…

DEDE GARDNER Beautiful Boy The center hub of the movie, the scene in the diner, has acting at an acrobatic level that I rarely see — there’s so many pivots and turns in it. [Director] Felix [van Groeningen] rehearsed with Timmy [Chalamet] and Steve [Carell] for a couple of weeks — they worked on that scene every day. You’re covering a massive landscape in that scene and there are so many different corridors of manipulation and appeal and then disgust and then anger and then rage and then rejection and then sadness. We had one day to shoot it, and it was the third day of our shoot — which, in hindsight, may be lunacy. We got to this diner in San Pedro and we set up one camera, because…

THE KOMINSKY METHOD Chuck Lorre’s half-hour sitcom, starring Michael Douglas as a washed-up actor and Alan Arkin as his agent, will debut Nov. 10. NICOLE KIDMAN The Big Little Lies star will be honored at a Nov. 13 gala event that features a conversation with the actress, followed by a screening of her latest film, Destroyer. ON THE BASIS OF SEX Mimi Leder’s drama about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s (Felicity Jones) early fights for gender equality will have its world premiere as the opening night film Nov. 8. INDIE CONTENDERS Eight talents, including Kathryn Hahn and Willem Dafoe, will join THR’s Scott Feinberg for a 90-minute panel about the challenges and rewards of working in indie film Nov. 11.…

The Hollywood Reporter was not a grouch when it came to 1966’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. THR said Chuck Jones’ animated short “captured both the spirit and per sonality of Ted Geisel’s whimsical Dr. Seuss fable” and predicted the 26-minute special would “find a perennial berth on the holiday schedule.” That turned out to be true. While it began life on CBS, this year it airs Nov. 23 and Dec. 25 on NBC. The project had its roots in World War II, with Jones and Geisel serving together in the Army’s motion picture unit commanded by Frank Capra. In his autobiography, Jones says Geisel’s book was perfect for animation because “you can say a Grinch wants to steal Christmas and you don’t need to know anything more about him…

PINOCCHIO Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron’s close friend, is set to direct a stop motion adaptation of the classic story as his follow-up to his best-picture winner The Shape of Water. THE IRISHMAN Martin Scorsese’s mob boss drama cost upwards of $150 million to make and features Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Bobby Cannavale and Ray Romano. SIX UNDERGROUND Michael Bay’s high-concept actioner, produced with Skydance Media, will cost between $150 million and $170 million to make and will star Ryan Reynolds. TRIPLE FRONTIER Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac lead the cast of this international thriller that’s executive produced by Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow and directed by J.C. Chandor.…

AFM WRAP: UPHEAVAL IN INDIE FILM LEAVES BUYERS CALM AND CAUTIOUS Deal of the Week Still reeling from The Weinstein Co. and Global Road Entertainment bankruptcies, not to mention Megan Ellison’s apparent retrenching, the indie film industry was hesitant to bet big at the American Film Market, which wrapped Nov. 7 in Santa Monica. International buyers kicked the tires of big titles like George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing and Bryan Singer’s Red Sonja, but most put off buying for now, preferring to bet on smaller films with clear theatrical (and potentially awards) potential. Among them: dark comedy Breaking News in Yuba County, starring Allison Janney and Laura Dern, which all but sold out for Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios, and the Diane Keaton-topped Poms, about women who start a…

“I’m retired.” LESLIE MOONVES The ousted CBS chairman and CEO, shutting down a TMZ question outside Madeo restaurant in Beverly Hills about whether he’d ever return to a TV job. “I’ll change my name to ‘Amazon Cuomo’ if that’s what it takes.” ANDREW CUOMO The New York governor, to The New York Times, joking about how far he’d go to entice the company to open a headquarters in Long Island City. “Of course AT&T didn’t catch on to King’s white nationalism — picking up on clear signals isn’t exactly their forte.” JOHN OLIVER The Last Week Tonight host, on his show, ripping HBO’s new parent company for donating to Steve King, the Iowa congressman accused of being a white nationalist sympathizer. “There was no American actor who would play the…

Larry David had dinner at Felix…. Sue Kroll shared a table at Mr Chow with WME’s Esther Chang. Pam Levine sat nearby…. Justin Bieber stopped by Fat Sal’s Deli in Hollywood…. Alicia Vikander checked out Bacari W 3rd…. Robert Pattinson was at Chateau Marmont…. Emanuel Nunez, Howard Kurtzman and Craig Jacobson shared the room at Toscana…. Paradigm’s Andy Patman broke bread with Brillstein Entertainment Partners’ Marc Gurvitz at The Palm…. Drake, Dave Chappelle and Kate Beckinsale were among the stars at Harriet’s Rooftop…. Maluma enjoyed lunch at Avra Beverly Hills.…

Nick Vallelonga was 5 years old when his father introduced him to the Doctor. It was around 1964, and his dad, Tony Vallelonga, a Bronx bouncer at the famed Copacabana nightclub, had just finished a job as a driver and bodyguard for the great Jamaican jazz and classical pianist Don Shirley (who had so many doctorates, his peers called him “Dr. Shirley”). “Even as a child, it struck me as something you’d see in a movie,” recalls Vallelonga of the unlikely friendship between his goombah dad and the refined, erudite musician. “I guess you could say that’s when I started writing the story.” Fifty-four years later, that story is finally getting screen time. Green Book, directed by Peter Farrelly (of the Farrelly brothers) and starring Viggo Mortensen as Tony and…