Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday, May 8, 2019 i The Hollywood Reporter

Even as thousands of writers part ways with their agents amid an escalating legal battle over packaging fees, Cynthia Adarkwa is having the most successful staffing season of her career. After serving as writers’ assistant on MTV’s now-defunct Sweet and Vicious three seasons ago, she landed her first writing job with In the Vault, a show on Verizon’s now-shuttered go90 streaming service. Now Adarkwa is joining her first broadcast series, The CW’s vampire drama Legacies, thanks to a new grassroots movement that is helping writers find work since many of them went agentless. “How did we find her, you ask? My office scoured the staffing grid,” tweeted Legacies showrunner Julie Plec in revealing Adarkwa’s hire May 2, referring to a widely shared Google Sheet of writers whose samples have been…

Despite Fox’s expressed hope that the Bones legal dispute will draw to its conclusion, don’t expect that to happen any time soon. Not when there’s $128 million at stake on a single question with a yes-or-no answer. And not when what’s been happening is unprecedented in the annals of the entertainment industry. In February, JAMS arbitrator Peter Lichtman leveled a head-turning $179 million punishment against Fox (led by lawyer Daniel Petrocelli) for what he called cheating, lying and “reprehensible” fraud toward the stars and executive producers of Bones. Lichtman concluded that Fox’s studio division had made sweetheart licensing deals with Hulu (which was part-owned by Fox at the time) and broadcast affiliates to the detriment of profit participants Emily Deschanel, David Boreanaz, Barry Josephson and Kathy Reichs. He awarded $51…

The American Agent (HARPER, MARCH 26) BY Jacqueline Winspear AGENCIES WME, Amy Rennert Maisie Dobbs, a Hercule Poirot-esque figure, is investigating the murder of an American journalist in World War II-era London. The period mystery series could lend itself to feature adaptation, as Kenneth Branagh has done with Agatha Christie. “The Case of the Stolen Ruby Slippers” (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 30) BY Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson AGENCY ICM Partners With ties to old Hollywood, the story details the 2005 theft and recovery of Wizard of Oz memorabilia and how the police in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, handled the press attention.…

‘Darth Vader in a Mosh Pit’ at Richard Weitz’s 50th In a town where excess is routine, Richard Weitz managed to stand out with his 50th birthday on April 29. The WME partner and prolific Instagrammer rented out Quixote Studios and treated such clients as Fred Savage and Rob Lowe and power players Dana Walden of Disney and Amazon’s Jennifer Salke to a lavish celebration of … himself. Weitz curated a performance by childhood idols LL Cool J, Rev Run and Morris Day and the Time, flew in his hometown hero, the Phillie Phanatic mascot, and recruited Darth Vader to photobomb guests. The icing on the cake had to be the detailed re-creation of Weitz’s teenage bedroom, complete with posters of his youthful obsessions (Dr. J, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off).…

The battle between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood talent agencies has captivated the entire industry — but it could turn out to be merely a preliminary skirmish in a larger labor war that may see the guild go on strike next year, and could see SAG-AFTRA walk as well. Both unions have deep grievances as rank-and-file members fight stagnating salaries and declining residuals in an era of peak TV that has meant a bounty for companies, agencies, top showrunners and CEOs but has left middle- and working-class creatives waiting for their share. The two guilds’ contracts expire within two months of each other next year at a time when legacy studios — desperate to compete with digital media companies — are content-hungry and particularly vulnerable to a work…

When Elton John attends the world premiere of Rocketman on May 16, he won’t have to travel far. Cannes is just a 20-mile drive along the A8 from his luxury villa in nearby Nice. John has owned the sunbeam-yellow summer home, a Belle Epoque villa surrounded by the parklands of Mont Boron, since the 1990s. The neighborhood was once part of an artists’ colony but is now one of the toniest on the Côte d’Azur, boasting multimillion-dollar mansions with views stretching across the Bay of Angels (locals call it the “Bel Air of Nice”). And John’s villa is among the largest in the area, so big it can be seen from the waterfront Promenade des Anglais. Nice is a bit of an usual habitat for a star of John’s magnitude.…

On April 17, the WGA filed a lawsuit against WME, CAA, UTA and ICM Partners, claiming that the practice of collecting TV packaging fees represents a breach of fiduciary duty and is an illegal kickback under federal and California statutes. Why would a Hollywood feud over TV fees affect a vaunted film festival on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean? Consider that the Cannes Film Festival runs parallel to one of the industry’s most important markets. And that said market happens to rely heavily on scripts penned by writers repped by the four major agencies. Now that nearly all of those writers — 7,000-plus — have fired their agents in an April 22 show of solidarity with their guild, a ripple effect is expected to ensue. Still, most of…

Last year at Cannes, Thierry Frémaux walked into a tent full of fired-up females and made a series of bold promises. It was two days after 82 women, led by Cate Blanchett and Agnès Varda, had marched up the Palais steps to protest gender inequality in the film industry, and now the demonstration’s organizers — the French group 5050x2020 — had gathered in a rainstorm on the beach to ask Frémaux to make major changes to the festival. One year later, there are signs the 72-year-old event is evolving in some key ways in accordance with Frémaux’s pledge — for the first time in its history, the Cannes selection committee was 50 percent female this year. Four of the 2019 competition films were directed by women, tying a record the…

For anyone putting money into independent film these days, the question is: How do you compete with the Avengers? In a global film landscape dominated by tentpoles, the need for risk takers in the indie space has never been greater. “The risk to us if we miss the mark is higher than ever,” says Glen Basner of FilmNation. “So we spend more and more time nurturing, curating and evaluating projects to decide what is a proper theatrical film for the current market.” The 25 players on THR’s annual list of leading indie film financiers each has his or her own strategy for dealing with such high stakes. A few are copying the studios, backing big-budget features — like Men in Black: International or The Joker — for the majors to…

Film Furious Fight Universal feuds with producer Neal Moritz p. 20 ↑ TV CBS Shake-Up News president swaps out star anchors p. 22 Anais Mitchell The singer-songwriter’s retelling of the Orpheus myth, Hadestown, tops the Tony nominations with a total of 14, including best musical. Busy Philipps E! cancels the actress’ late night show, Busy Tonight, after just seven months as the series managed to reach only the low six figures in total viewers. Sheila Nevins A year after wrapping a four-decade run at HBO, the executive joins Viacom to launch MTV Documentary Films and develop a new slate of programming for the company and third-party outlets. Peter Golden CBS boots its longtime casting chief after his name surfaces in connection with controversies about the network’s culture under ousted CEO…

In December 2017, Dexter Fletcher was immersed in planning Rocketman, a musical about Elton John, when Rami Malek called him from the set of Bohemian Rhapsody, where director Bryan Singer had gone AWOL. “Rami was like, ‘We fucking need you, man. We need somebody,’ ” Fletcher says. “ ‘If you come to set and shit on the floor, you’ll still do a better job than this guy.’ ” Fletcher, 53, had been attached to direct Bohemian Rhapsody up until the first week of preproduction, when it was set up at Sony, before the studio changed its mind about his R-rated treatment of Queen’s story. Now, with the movie at Fox and its $52 million production falling behind schedule and running out of money, Rocketman producer Matthew Vaughn suggested to Fox…

As Cannes kicks off another edition, the independent film business finds itself in a tight spot, squeezed between the majors’ ever-expanding market share (led by the new post-merger Disney-Fox behemoth) and the ever-shrinking number of international buyers willing — or able — to put up real cash for movies. Germany lost two big buyers this year when former giants Tele Munchen Group and Universum Film were gobbled up by a private equity investor, and the once-booming Chinese market has tightened. With demand down, supply also has shrunk. Where once Cannes was a flood of new titles, this year there is a trickle. “Unless a movie is theatrical today, the value of it is nominal,” says Jeffrey Greenstein, president of Millennium Media, explaining why he is bringing just one new title…

In 2014, Kadian Noble met Harvey Weinstein in the lobby of the Majestic Hotel in Cannes. After some small talk, he instructed the aspiring actress to come upstairs so that he could have a look at her reel. Noble, who was 27 and from the U.K., had previously met the since-disgraced mogul in London, where he told her he liked her look and was eager to cast her in one of his movies. To make the whole matter seem legit, he introduced Noble during that London encounter to Oprah Winfrey, an idol of Noble’s. Before Hollywood’s #MeToo awakening in 2017, there was nothing unusual about taking a meeting alone in a hotel room during the Cannes Film Festival. Hundreds of U.S. film companies like The Weinstein Company booked suites at…

Over the past several editions of Cannes, robust market growth and diversifying tastes in China have created a rare bright spot for international sales agents. China was that almost singularly rare territory where both the volume and price of movie rights were rapidly on the rise. Since late 2018, though, market conditions in the Middle Kingdom have turned decidedly unruly, and much of the Beijing industry is now hunkered down and trying to weather the so-called “Cold Winter” that has engulfed the country’s massive film sector. This dour mood will be keenly felt on the Croisette, says Yiran Song, an acquisitions executive for Chinese distributor Times Vision. “For sure, there won’t be as many Chinese buyers in Cannes,” she says. “And most of the people who come will have small…

What would you do if you woke up and realized you were the only one in the world who remembered the songs of The Beatles? If you were screenwriter Richard Curtis, the course would be clear: wrap the rediscovery of those songs in a Hollywood romance with only the most tenuous connection to the phenomenon of love as it is experienced on planet Earth. A puzzling match for the directing talents of Danny Boyle, who generally likes a little more edge, Yesterday (which closed the Tribeca Film Festival on May 4) tells of an unsuccessful singer-songwriter (Himesh Patel’s Jack Malik) who becomes a worldwide star when he “writes” songs like “Let It Be” and “Back in the U.S.S.R.” — only to find that his path to fame leads him far…

Tolkien, a fastidious, keen-minded look at the youth of the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, fits snugly within the conventions of respectable British period drama. Directed by Dome Karukoski (Tom of Finland), the handsome film stresses the trials he endured — losing both parents, a blocked love affair, the trauma of World War I, the deaths of best friends — and his brilliance as a scholar-creator. It’s given a boost by a magnetic lead turn from the dashing, convincingly smart Nicholas Hoult. Tolkien’s younger years were all but Dickensian. Having lost his father in Africa at a wee age, he and his brother were placed in the care of Father Francis Morgan (Colm Meaney). Soon enough, Tolkien blossoms at the King Edward’s School in Birmingham,…

Cannes’ 1994 jury president, Clint Eastwood, remarked that the experience of seeing 23 films in one week made him “want to cut 20 minutes out of all my movies.” Luckily for Quentin Tarantino — whose Once Upon a Time in Hollywood premieres in competition at this year’s fest — one of the films that Eastwood and his jury liked was Pulp Fiction. While many thought the Palme d’Or would go to Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors: Red, it went instead to Pulp Fiction. “It was a democratic decision,” said Eastwood after the choice was announced. “People thought it was original.” The verdict was a surprise for the filmmakers. “We thought maybe we’d get some kind of special award, like for best ensemble acting,” says producer Lawrence Bender. “When it became clear…

On May 6, it was standing room only at CBS News for the division’s 9:30 a.m. meeting as new president Susan Zirinsky remarked about the “worstkept secret” in TV news. Norah O’Donnell was named the new anchor and managing editor of CBS Evening News, displacing Jeff Glor, and the 57-year-old broadcast would be moving to Washington, D.C., in the fall. Meanwhile, Gayle King — who recently finalized a contract extension worth close to $11 million — will be joined at CBS This Morning by Anthony Mason, a 30-year CBS News veteran, and Tony Dokoupil, a rising star at the network who came from MSNBC. That Zirinsky pulled off sweeping changes before her own self-imposed deadline of May 15, when CBS executives address media buyers in New York during their annual…

ART SCENE INSTAGRAM PHENOM Artist Ashley Longshore has long tapped pop culture icons, from Audrey Hepburn to Lady Gaga and Lil Wayne, for her whimsical works. And the self-taught, New Orleans-based painter, whose pop sensibility has inspired comparisons to Andy Warhol, boasts an impressive Hollywood insider klatch — Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, Gigi Pritzker and Coco producer Darla Anderson — amid her 199,000-strong followers on Instagram. “I met Ashley eight years ago when I wandered into her studio in New Orleans,” says Motherless Brooklyn producer Pritzker. “Everything about her, her studio and her work took my breath away. She is refreshingly and consistently herself, and that’s the best compliment I could pay anyone.” Still, as popular as she is with Hollywood collectors, and as frequently as she has tapped…

“This is big!” Oprah Winfrey (10) told 20 high school sophomores — all from diverse backgrounds and underserved communities — who’ve been selected for THR and Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Young Executives Fellowship (a program that blends mentoring and education to develop a new pipeline of industry leaders). Just how big, not even Winfrey realized. At the very moment she and the students were chatting in one room at Hollywood’s Milk Studios (prior to Winfrey receiving THR’s inaugural Empowerment in Entertainment Award), Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel was in another room, conferring with the Fellowship’s advisory board. There, he asked board members (who include Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke, Howard University president Wayne Frederick and Imax Entertainment CEO Megan Colligan) what he could do to help. “Find $250,000 for a scholarship…

John and I met while we were both working on Pee-wee’s Playhouse [Fishburne played Cowboy Curtis]. He was a P.A. on the show. Every day, John would go up to Paul [Reubens] and ask, “Have you read my script yet?” Paul would say, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I haven’t had the time.” It turned out it was the script for Boyz n the Hood. John started talking to me about it. I said, “Look, when it’s ready, send it to me.” About two years later, I got the script. I was really blown away by it. I turned the last page, and I was in tears. Once he got his financing together, there was another actor the studio was interested in playing my role, but John was really committed to…

Joshua Astrachan learned something important from Robert Altman. “Bob’s one piece of advice was, ‘Don’t take any advice,’” quips Astrachan, who, before founding New York indie Animal Kingdom in 2012 — with “my partner in crime and, I hope, in crime-fighting,” David Kaplan, and “our angel investor and true angel,” Frederick W. Green — spent the better part of a decade working with the iconic American filmmaker on such projects as Gosford Park and A Prairie Home Companion. Animal Kingdom was started with capital from former Wall Street broker Green. And in 2018, Bron Ventures, the equity investment division of production and financing group Bron, made a significant, undisclosed equity investment in the company, and it received additional private equity backing. For the past seven years at Animal Kingdom, Astrachan,…

1952-53 ACTORS: 11 WEEKS Nearly 20 years after the Screen Actors Guild is formed, the group has its first strike over television commercials. The result: the creation of SAG’s first residuals contract, giving actors payments for TV reruns for the first time. 1960 ACTORS: 6 WEEKS Under the leadership of SAG president Ronald Reagan, the actors strike over residuals for feature films licensed to TV. The producers pay $2.65 million, which is used to create and fund SAG’s first pension and health plans. 1959-60 WRITERS: 21 WEEKS The Writers Guild of America goes on strike over the same concerns that the actors have — residuals for movies shown on television — and achieves similar gains. 1988 WRITERS: 22 WEEKS The WGA’s longest strike delays the fall broadcast TV schedule as…

Haider Ackermann can’t recall how he met his muse, Tilda Swinton. She can’t either, but they agree that it was “meant to be,” says the Bogota-born fashion designer with ateliers in Paris and Antwerp. “With Ms. Swinton and I, after so many years of friendship, there’s a lot of trust, and not much explanation is needed,” says Ackermann, 48, of working with the star whom he describes as “edgy and advanced — she looks much into the future.” Their red carpet collaboration began at the Cannes Film Festival 15 or 16 years ago, Ackermann estimates, and he confirmed that he is again dressing Swinton, 58, for the May 14 world premiere of Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die. Of her opening-night look on the Palais carpet, the French…

TARON EGERTON WAS shooting a big splashy dance number on a soundstage at Bray Studios outside London in October 2018 — belting out “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” in a 1950s carnival-like setting while a teeming crowd of extras weaved and bopped around him — when a certain pop music legend arrived on the set. “There’s really nothing more intimidating than performing in front of Elton,” recalls the actor who portrays Elton John in Rocketman, Paramount’s $41 million quasi-biopic about the alcohol- and sex-fueled rise of glam rock’s greatest living superstar. “I don’t think I could have done it if he was around a lot. But I think he knew that. He’s very astute in that way.” Elton John just stopping by that day was only one of the many…

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD With its late addition to the competition, Quentin Tarantino’s starry new movie almost automatically becomes the most highly anticipated of this year’s fest. The filmmaker has been a god of the Croisette since his 1992 debut with Reservoir Dogs. A HIDDEN LIFE A three-hour World War II drama from Terrence Malick about a Nazi-era Austrian conscientious objector, it looks to be a real movie and not just a collection of spinning-top visuals like his past three films. The hope is that, at 75, he’ll want to weigh in this time with something substantial. THE TRAITOR This marks the seventh competition appearance by Marco Bellocchio (Vincere, Good Morning, Night), who’s 79. The Italian contrarian’s best films are always hard-hitting, and this true story of a…

“No one prepares you for success,” explained Cuba Gooding Jr. to a crowd in the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture on March 24. Taking part in a lengthy Q&A, the Oscar winner was the star attraction at the Saudi Film Festival, posing for selfies on the red carpet outside the striking 85,000-square-foot structure, built to resemble a small group of rocks jutting spectacularly out of the sand near the country’s oil hub of Dhahran. The Hollywood Reporter was the only Western media in attendance at the fest’s 2019 edition, which had an air of optimism as the first held since a 35-year cinema ban lifted in December 2017, part of a number of reforms ushered in by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). The royal, now 33, was cultivating…

Zhang Yimou, one of the world’s great auteurs, isn’t expected to be in attendance at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival — but not because his latest film was finished too late, or because it wasn’t aesthetically up to snuff to make the cut. Instead, the acclaimed Chinese director has suffered the perverse fate of seeing his new film — the achingly personal period drama One Second — withheld from contention precisely because it is reputed to be so good that it might take home multiple awards, something the Chinese government very much doesn’t want. Details of the film’s production were kept under wraps until it was announced in January that it would premiere in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. Starring Zhang Yi and Fan Wei, it was said…