Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday, February 27, 2019 i The Hollywood Reporter

The champagne bottles at Netflix’s afterparty were still corked Feb. 24 when the streaming company offered Oscar viewers the first peek at next year’s awards season. A teaser for Martin Scorsese’s upcoming gangster drama The Irishman aired midway through the Academy Awards telecast, with a simple phrase appended: “In Theaters Next Fall.” That’s a slight tweak from the language Netflix used in its teaser for Roma, “In Select Theaters,” and the word choice indicates how the company that once eschewed theatrical windows plans to evolve for its biggest film yet. Scorsese wants a wide theatrical release for his more than $125 million gangster movie, and two industry sources with knowledge of talks between Netflix and theater owners tell THR that the streaming company is working to get him one. To…

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The red carpet has long been a minefield, even more so in the era of #MeToo, Time’s Up and Donald Trump. But heading into this year’s Oscar celebrations, it quickly became clear that the case of Jussie Smollett, the 36-year-old actor accused of faking his own hate crime, was both the No. 1 issue people were buzzing about — and the one that publicists wanted their clients to stay far away from. The intense media scrutiny of the alleged crime, the ever-changing details and the political and racial implications simply made the case so radioactive, it was deemed off-limits at many events. The Hollywood Reporter was warned by handfuls of reps — both on the red carpet and off — not to ask questions about Smollett. At Alfre Woodard’s 10th…

Quitting a job is always a big decision, but few resignations have the potential to impact an entire industry as deeply as the one handed in by Tara Flynn on Aug. 17, 2016. In the six years leading up to that day, Flynn worked at Fox 21, a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, where she ran point as a creative executive on some of the studio’s most lauded television shows, including Showtime’s Homeland and FX’s The Americans. Although she achieved great successes during her tenure, a few things irked her. For instance, back in 2012, she was offered her first promotion, but Fox proposed only a $75,000 annual salary, which she knew to be lower than what was paid to the two men who had previously occupied the position. Later,…

When the cast and creators of Netflix’s The Kissing Booth went in to negotiate a sequel to the summer rom-com smash, they came armed with some cold, hard stats, a rare luxury for a project at a service that’s long been shrouded in secrecy. Not only had Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos called the teen flick “one of the most watched movies in the world” weeks after its release, the company later said the film was its most replayed movie of 2018, with two of every five viewers repeat watching. Those metrics, per sources close to the dealmaking process, became a key bargaining tool during the negotiation. Says one rep, “It helped give leverage to push the numbers up.” The steps Netflix has taken in recent months to loosen…

A persuasive argument for a shifting of authorship and a change of medium, Amy Berg’s four-part HBO docuseries The Case Against Adnan Syed functions as a complement to the first season of Sarah Koenig’s Serial podcast. It might not generate its own obsession, but it’s distinctive and satisfying nonetheless. To recap: In 1999, high school senior Hae Min Lee disappeared from her Baltimore County hometown. Her body was found in Baltimore’s Leakin Park and Lee’s ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was convicted of her murder. The 2014 release of Serial brought Syed’s case to a wider audience and, over the course of 12 episodes, built a word-of-mouth fascination around defense attorney Cristina Gutierrez and a cast of colorful characters including Syed’s pothead friend Jay and Koenig herself. Serial spawned several additional podcasts,…

↑ Film Oscars Outrage Behind the Green Book backlash p. 24 Labor Writers vs. Agents A war over packaging fees goes nuclear p. 26 Randall Stephenson The AT&T chief’s mega-merger with Time Warner will stand as the government fails to convince the DC Circuit that the $85 billion deal would violate antitrust law. Heather Parry The Live Nation production chief exits following a two-month investigation of a work environment that found the exec didn’t meet the “expectation of leadership.” Dream Hampton Less than two months after the producer’s Surviving R. Kelly docuseries premiered on Lifetime, prosecutors charge Kelly with aggravated criminal sexual abuse. David Zaslav The Discovery Inc. CEO concedes an “increasingly cluttered” environment for the flagship channel when reporting results Feb. 26 that missed expectations in the fourth quarter…

Weddings Darren Criss married producer/director/musician Mia Swier on Feb. 16 in the sculpture garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art in front of guests including Lea Michele and John Stamos. Engagements Katy Perry became engaged to Orlando Bloom on Valentine’s Day. The couple has been dating on and off since 2016. Producer Nathan Ross (Big Little Lies, Sharp Objects, Dallas Buyers Club) and Elizabeth Chavez announced their engagement Feb. 7. Births Tracy St. Pierre, senior vp communications at USA Network, Syfy, Universal Content Productions and Wilshire Studios, and her husband, actor Charlie Farrell, welcomed son Jonathan Sarge Farrell on Feb. 13 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. Congrats NBC Entertainment promoted Deepak Jesrani to senior vp drama development and Mike Nunes to senior vp current programming, and…

It’s one of those situations that you see on television that you think, ‘It doesn’t happen here,’ and it did,” says WME head of television, broadcast and sports Rick Rosen, referring to the one-two punch of the Thomas Fire and heavy rainfall that, just over a year ago, turned Montecito, about 80 miles north of Los Angeles, into a disaster zone. Says Rosen, whose weekend home and family were spared, “We were very lucky.” Producer Steve Waterman (Stuart Little, the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies) recalls seeing “cars in trees and pieces that you knew were houses,” as well as the explosion of a gas pipe, which turned the sky pink. The devastation was massive. Four of the city’s creeks overflowed, pushing torrents of mud down the hillside, with 23…

When Douglas Fairbanks first pitched his idea for a film school, everybody thought he was crazy — movies back then weren’t considered an art form, let alone a proper subject for academic study. But he did pique the interest of his fencing partner, Rufus B. von KleinSmid, who also happened to be president of the then-49-year-old University of Southern California. And that’s how, in 1929, USC came to offer its first film course, Introduction to Photoplay, taught by Fairbanks’ pals Irving Thalberg, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith. Ninety years later, THR reunites some of the School of Cinematic Arts’ most influential alumni (and interviews three-decade dean Elizabeth Daley) for a photo shoot and some school-days memories, with reminiscences going all the way back to a time when classes were held…

The British writing duo of brothers Harry and Jack Williams have some interesting credits — none more so than the compelling 2014 series The Missing (Starz) — but their latest, an eye-rolling mystery headlined by Kate Beckinsale and called The Widow, is a nonstarter. An Amazon and ITV co-production, the show looks like something viewers might be tricked into watching after they’ve binged Jack Ryan, a better and more entertaining option from the streamer, starring John Krasinski. Of course, that show is meant to be all action, and anything like solid writing or emotional nuance, both of which it actually has, is a bonus. The Widow, conversely, wastes nearly all its effort and energy trying to make its ludicrous story — a woman who loses her husband to a plane…

On Monday Feb. 4th, The Hollywood Reporter invited the film industry’s elite to raise a glass in celebration of this year’s Academy Awards contenders at its annual Nominees Night event. Presented by Mercedes-Benz, Century Plaza Residences, and Heineken, the gathering was held at Wolfgang Puck’s celebrated Beverly Hills restaurant, CUT. Throughout the evening, guests sipped cocktails and sampled Puck’s signature dishes while enjoying the music of DJ Kiss and a custom video booth presented by Mercedes-Benz. The Hollywood Reporter thanks its partners for another memorable evening celebrating this year’s Oscar nominees.…

AUG. 1997 Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph found Netflix in Scotts Valley, California, opening the online DVD rental store with 925 titles the following April. MARCH 2000 Ted Sarandos, who had been running merchandising for a video store chain, joins Netflix as its chief content officer. MAY 2002 Netflix initiates an IPO at $15 a share. FEB. 2007 Netflix begins offering streaming content to subscribers; initially it has about 1,000 movies and TV shows. FEB. 2013 House of Cards debuts on the service, marking the company’s entry into premium original content and the advent of the “binge-watching” era. FEB. 2017 Netflix wins its first Oscar, for the documentary short The White Helmets. MARCH 2017 Netflix hires ex-Universal executive Scott Stuber to run its movie arm. AUG. 2017 Showrunner Shonda Rhimes…

OSCAR CAMPAIGN DEBRIEF How did Green Book win? I have to assume the preferential balloting [which in a close race can elevate films ranked second or lower by many voters] helped because people clearly had a lot of regard for Roma, based on Alfonso Cuarón’s directing win. Regardless, many Academy members, sad to say, aren’t very rigorous and don’t hold their choices to a high standard; the award is for excellence and artistry, not whether a movie made you feel good. Green Book is a fine enough film, but it’s not an Oscar film — period — and I’m very disappointed that so many members thought it is. What’s rather remarkable is that the Green Book “controversies” seemed to disappear — and, for many members, never even existed. Not all…

Oscar’s 2020 Move: ‘There Goes Summer Break’ Amid the outrage about the Academy’s announcement of a “popular film” Oscar for 2019 (a plan since scotched), another change revealed that same day largely escaped notice — the ceremony’s move up to Feb. 9 for 2020. Now, with this year’s trophies all handed out, people are noticing. “You’re going to have no room to breathe,” says one veteran strategist of the shortened awards season. While the earlier date won’t impact all festivals — Sundance is sticking to its late-January timetable — it will wreak havoc on a slew of smaller events that find their relevance as campaign stops, like the Santa Barbara Film Festival, which is now moving up to Jan. 15 from Jan. 30. “It’s going to affect every airline ticket,…

I wasn’t too keen on doing the film. When I got the call, they said, “Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are doing a movie about the seven deadly sins and they want you to play Lilian Lust.” And I was like, “Ugh, I don’t need to wear something skimpy again.” I was about to turn it down and then they said, “And Stanley Donen is directing.” I was like, “Are you kidding? He’s legendary!” I met him on the set in London right before we started shooting. I didn’t have many lines; all I did was saunter up in a red lace bikini and say, “Hot buttered buns?” I did it in a Southern accent because I figured Lust came from a hot [climate]. We shot it from different angles…

Over the summer, Instagram invited tech press to San Francisco to unveil a product it had been developing furtively for the better part of the year. The last time the Facebook-owned app had released a major update was the August 2016 debut of Stories. The addictive feed featuring Snapchat-like short video missives and unpolished photos caught on overnight and racked up 100 million daily active users in just two months. This time, the company would be showing off IGTV — its longform, vertical video platform — and the June 20 event had all the hallmarks of another massive launch. A dance number featuring some of the biggest creators on Instagram, including Manny Mua (4.6 million followers) and LaurDIY (4.9 million), was followed by a speech in which co-founder and then-CEO…

On Dec. 30, 2018, two women joined 70,000 other Seattle Seahawks fans to cheer their home team to victory. According to court documents, what transpired on that otherwise ordinary night should disgust us all. O From the start of the game, a man seated nearby began badgering the two openly gay women. He taunted them in front of the crowd. He asked them if they “needed a man in their lives.” He called them “fucking dykes.” He asked them if they “wanted some dick.” They tried their best to ignore him and watch the game as he left to buy beer. The relief was short-lived. He returned to his seat, walked up to one of the women, unzipped her jacket and grabbed her breast — refusing to let go. As…

Spending has swelled at Netflix as the streaming giant stocks up on originals and licensed fare, pushing its free cash flow deficit to $3 billion in 2018. Though the company expects that number to start improving in 2020, the pressure is still on. “The valuation is absurd,” says David Trainer, CEO of investment research firm New Constructs, who figures Netflix can reach positive free cash flow by next year. Per his calculations, Netflix would need 3.4 billion subscribers (it currently has 139 million) paying $20 per month (its most popular U.S. plan was recently upped to $13 per month) to justify its current stock price, which hovers around $350 per share. The easiest way for Netflix to dig itself out of its cash hole would be to cut its content…

While the annual New Orleans Mardi Gras, held this year on March 5, has served as a backdrop for films as varied as 1953’s Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and the 1999 Ashley Judd vehicle Double Jeopardy, its use in 1969’s Easy Rider has become the stuff of legend. The Dennis Hopper-directed film — which turns 50 this year — has a plot centering on two hippies with a tendency toward metaphysical musings. (The Hollywood Reporter loved Rider but called producer-star Peter Fonda’s performance “a bit too Jesus-y here and there.”) The duo use the profits from a successful cocaine deal (the dealer was played by record producer Phil Spector, who was convicted of murder in 2009) to finance a motorcycle ride toward New Orleans. Fonda, now 78, tells…