Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday, May 22, 2019 i The Hollywood Reporter

Bob Iger watched Hulu’s 2008 launch from the sidelines, as Disney refused to join the parent companies of NBC and Fox in the streaming service until the following year. But his long game paid off May 14 when Disney gained full operational control over Hulu in a deal that maps out a new future for the long-challenged joint venture once dubbed “Clown Co.” by its digital rivals. Now, for the first time in its 12-year history, Hulu has a single corporate parent. And while top brass is still hammering out details of how it will be integrated with other direct-to-consumer offerings, Disney expects to grow Hulu into at least a $27.5 billion business by 2024. Hulu’s name is often rattled off alongside Netflix and Amazon as one of the dominant…

On May 16, as Ryan Kavanaugh unveiled a new big-dollar fund that would get him back into the film production business, as well as a stake in a Chinese studio, dealmakers in Cannes were abuzz. Had the pitchman behind Relativity Media (which filed for bankruptcy in 2015) managed to pull off the impossible — getting money out of China at the height of a trade war — or was he simply spinning hype again? Kavanaugh’s new company, Proxima Media, announced that it was teaming with National Arts Entertainment and Culture Group Ltd., a tourism and entertainment company based in Hong Kong that operates a film studio and resort destination in southern China. Proxima said the deal would provide $250 million in equity film financing, which could be leveraged to $1…

The time-traveling DeLorean is speeding toward 1950, and when it hits 88 mph, it’s going to suck the whole country back with it. Back to a time when pretty much everyone who wasn’t a straight, white Christian male was considered a second-class citizen whose rights and future depended on the patriarchs’ whims and largesse. It’s hardly surprising that this entitled group would like to return to their rapidly eroding privileged status, which they hope to accomplish through sustained attacks on women, people of color, immigrants, Muslims and the LBGTQ community. By emboldening the right wing through vitriolic rhetoric, the Donald Trump administration has become the UV light in sleazy motel rooms that illuminates these hidden stains on our democracy. Right now the stains include Georgia, Alabama, Missouri and other states…

Weddings WME agent Jordan Cerf married Jordan Moblo, director of creative acquisitions at 20th TV, on April 6 at St. Regis Deer Valley in Utah surrounded by 130 family and friends, who stood in a circle around the couple. The newly-weds, whose first date was on the Fox lot, became engaged last spring and will honeymoon in South Africa this summer. Births Producer Greg Berlanti and husband Robbie Rogers welcomed daughter Mia Barbara Rogers-Berlanti on May 13. Congrats Alkemy X hired Rebecca Manning as compositing supervisor for its visual effects division May 13. DeVon Franklin, Rodrigo García and Janet Yang joined the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on May 13. Kevin Reilly had his WarnerMedia contract extended through 2022 on May 16. The…

As one studio chief jokes, had television upfront attendees taken a swig of booze every time the word “stability” was uttered the week of May 13, all of Madison Avenue would be drunk. The term, employed to signal a collective commitment to nurture returning series, was designed to put media buyers at ease as they prepared to shell out more than $9 billion in primetime ad buys. But those decisions — only 26 cancellations, down from 40 a year ago — are as much necessity as strategy in a marketplace with 500-plus series and shifting viewing habits. Put bluntly by ABC’s new entertainment president, Karey Burke: “The networks just don’t have the marketing budgets to launch [too many new] shows properly.” The buzzwords “scale” and “reach” got similar airtime as…

Could 2020 be the year of the woman? With the exception of NBC, each broadcast network’s batch of new series collectively cast more women than men — not only as series regulars but also as outright leads. Meanwhile, quite a few series next season will feature predominantly nonwhite ensembles, including ABC’s For Life, CBS’ legal drama All Rise and NBC’s Sunnyside. The faces onscreen may be diversifying, but that’s less true for those in charge behind the scenes. Representation of women and people of color as series creators and showrunners remains mostly flat across the board.…

For costume designer Claire Anderson, who created the looks for Amazon’s apocalyptic comedy Good Omens, depicting the forces of good versus evil went beyond using a palette of black and white. The six-part miniseries, out May 31, follows demon Crowley (David Tennant) and angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) as frenemies who team up to avoid the coming of the Antichrist, which would mean the destruction of an Earth whose pleasures they’ve come to enjoy. (Their bosses? Benedict Cumberbatch as Satan and Frances McDormand as God.) With 40-plus periods — including the Crucifixion and World War II — “angelness and demonness” needed to cross all timelines, says Anderson. Sheen’s ethereal waistcoat suited Victorian England and modern London alike, with the British designer taking cues from “Pre-Raphaelite paintings … because religion was so…

It’s going to take I more than some complicated cultural critiques to throw off Game of Thrones’ Emmy odds. Having wrapped a divisive final season, the three-time best drama winner is still the runaway favorite to take top honors yet again at the 2019 awards. With swan-song momentum also in the corner of HBO neighbor Veep and its star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, both favored in comedy races, awards strategists are more focused than ever on securing spots for nominees (not potential winners) ahead of the June 24 voting deadline — while desperately looking to crack the open races that remain. Fortunately for them, the most appealing of those categories also happens to be the one furthest from any kind of consensus. “Limited series is the only open race,” observes one veteran…

In a career that spanned 39 films, Doris Day, who died May 13 at 97, received just one Oscar nomination. It came for the 1959 battle-of-the-sexes comedy Pillow Talk, in which she starred with Rock Hudson. Day, then 37, played a New York interior decorator who shared a telephone party line with a composer (Hudson), who hogs the line flirting with his girlfriends. She’s angry because she needs the phone for work. They meet by accident in a restaurant. He affects an accent to pretend he’s someone else, they date, and complications arise. (The most baroque twist has Hudson, who was gay but not out, pretending to be a straight Texas oilman who might be gay.) Somehow there’s a happy ending. As far as The Hollywood Reporter was concerned, Pillow…

↑ Film Ryan for Real? Kavanaugh attempts a comeback in China p. 18 Television Town Hall Mania CNN goes for broke with Dem contenders p. 18 Keanu Reeves The star’s third John Wick film launches to a $57 million U.S. weekend, nearly doubling the second Lionsgate movie’s opening in 2017. Jason Mitchell In the wake of multiple claims of misconduct, the Straight Outta Compton star loses his agent, manager, and roles in Showtime’s The Chi and the Netflix film Desperados. Lauren Dolgen The MTV alumna leaves BuzzFeed to rejoin Viacom and run unscripted programming at Paramount TV. Steve Harvey Days after his syndicated talk show is formally canceled amid low ratings, the TV host also loses his Little Big Shots gig to Melissa McCarthy. Showbiz Stocks ↑ $18.49 (+9%) CUMULUS…

With a massive field of 23 Democrats running for president, would-be contenders have mostly jumped at the opportunity to appear in town hall-style cable news events — giving Fox News, CNN and MSNBC a large role in shaping the race. Yet the networks have taken disparate approaches — CNN has hosted 21 town halls, ranging from Sen. Kamala Harris’ Jan. 28 event, which nabbed 1.95 million total viewers, to spiritual guru Marianne Williamson’s April 14 hour, which drew just 314,000. “We know that some won’t rate particularly well, and yet we are committed to doing town halls with all of them,” says Washington bureau chief Sam Feist, who also notes, “No candidates have said no to us.” Meanwhile, MSNBC, which caters to left-leaning viewers with its primetime opinion programming, has…

Social Action Vandalena Mahoney and Megan Castillo — both alumnae of THR’s Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program (a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater L.A.) — graduated from Loyola Marymount University this month with a weekend of festivities, starting May 10 at Inglewood’s Faithful Central Bible Church. There they led the Kente Graduation, a rite of passage for LMU’s black community, before proceeding to the next chapter: Mahoney, 21, has a job at ICM Partners, and Castillo, 21, will begin postgrad studies at USC. They’re two among 200 young women who’ve taken part in the program, including the 20 members of the class of 2018 who’ll start college in the fall. “You must not only foster relationships but uphold those relationships through your work ethic,” says Mahoney of…

BH90210 Fox’s nostalgia play paid off. The trailer for the reunion of Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty and the 90210 gang leads all new shows with 26.7 million views — the majority of which come from the Facebook set. PERFECT HARMONY The NBC church choir comedy scored big with Instagram’s youthful audience, drawing 5.2 million views on the Facebook-owned app and ranking No. 3 among trailers released during upfronts week. ↓BATWOMAN YouTube trolls are bombarding the comments for The CW’s LGBTQ superhero show, but it still eked out 8.9 million cross-platform views in its first four days and was No. 1 in organic interest. STUMPTOWN Cobie Smulders’ private eye drama was the lowest performing of the ABC trailers behind drama Emergence and Black-ish spinoff Mixed-ish with 10.8 million cross-platform views. BOB…

Ava DuVernay is speed-walking through her offices at 5 p.m. on Good Friday, wearing a construction hat and sweatpants and pointing out a loose board to a staffer. “I worked so hard on this,” she says, gesturing to a once-leafy courtyard taken over by construction detritus. “Now it’s got port-a-potties on it. But anyway, you come back one day and it’ll be great.” At 3 this morning, DuVernay turned in the final cut of her latest project as a director, the Netflix miniseries When They See Us, about the Central Park Five case that divided New York City in 1989 and sparked one of the first moments of racially charged political grand-standing by one Donald Trump. Now she’s turning her attention to construction on a 50-seat movie theater at her…

VARIETY TALK SERIES Last Week Tonight With John Oliver has won this category for the past three years (and has been nominated the past four — as long as it’s been eligible). It could very well continue its hot streak. But it’s a crowded field, with several shows earning back-to-back noms like Jimmy Kimmel Live! (four years in a row), The Late, Late Show With James Corden (three years) and Full Frontal With Samantha Bee (two years). Last year’s newcomer nominee, The Daily Show With Trevor Noah (pictured), will attempt to build its own streak, while another newcomer — Showtime’s Desus & Mero — hopes to edge in. This would leave little room for veterans hoping for a return, like Jimmy Fallon and Bill Maher. VARIETY SPECIAL (PRE-RECORDED) It’s a…

Taylor Mac wants to make Broadway great again. The playwright is one of several who have made a splash downtown and are premiering work on Broadway — to Tony-nominated acclaim — for the first time this season. And along with their fresh energy and outsider eye, these creators are ushering more inclusion onto the Great White Way. “Broadway has been political and queer from the very beginning,” says Mac, who identifies as queer and whose play, Gary, is up for seven Tonys. “It’s just in the past 20 years it’s been pretty base, if I can be as judgy as that. It has become Disney in a lot of ways. Now we’re starting to see that shift back a bit to what it was before.” The statistics remain stark: Heidi…

Hulu’s miniseries Catch-22, all six episodes of which premiered on the streamer May 17, is not Hollywood’s first swing at adapting Joseph Heller’s satirical and confounding 1961 novel. The late film director Mike Nichols first brought it to the screen in a 1970 feature — but the movie was eclipsed by another wartime black comedy, Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H. Nichols knew he had a miss, admitting in one interview that during production he felt like he was pregnant with a dead child. “Such a lovely way of putting it,” jokes George Clooney, who didn’t let the title’s checkered screen history stop him from stepping in as executive producer, director and actor on this TV adaptation — which THR’s reviewer called “surprisingly good.” Clooney — together with stars Christopher Abbott and Kyle…

Since April 26, Avengers: Endgame has barreled through every record in its path, save Avatar’s box office of $2.78 billion. It faces an uphill climb. “It’s slowed down more than we all expected,” says Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice Media, who initially had forecast Endgame to cross the record in mid-June but moved that to Labor Day. “Avatar was all about the marathon, and now it’s about the sprint,” adds Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “If it performs like it has been up to this point, there is about a $10 million to $20 million margin that falls half north and half south of Avatar,” says Robbins, adding, “But it would be surprising if Disney didn’t get it there somehow.” Source: Box Office Mojo; not adjusted for…

Jake Bloom was a movie star lawyer for the movie star era. Yes, he negotiated deals, some of the biggest Hollywood has ever seen. Bloom made Johnny Depp very rich thanks to the profit definition he crafted for the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. He helped Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone become global action stars. For George Lucas, Bloom, with his partners, carved out the Star Wars merchandise rights that turned an indie film-maker into a billionaire. But when word spread May 15 that Bloom, 77, is retiring along with longtime partner Alan Hergott after a five-decade career, some entertainment law insiders noted the moment as a key industry transition. Bloom was a swashbuckling negotiator with a larger-than-life persona and jet-set relationships whose appearance (part disheveled rabbi, part classic movie…

You, Me and the Sea (WILLIAM MORROW, MAY 7) BY Meg Donohue AGENCY The Book Group Inspired by Wuthering Heights, the book is a genre mashup of suspense, romance and coming-of-age. Like Apple’s upcoming Dickinson and Netflix’s Rebecca adaptation, the narrative takes a strong female point of view and mines classic literature for story. The Darwin Affair (ALGONQUIN, JUNE 11) BY Tim Mason AGENCY APA The Victorian Era-thriller, set during the publishing of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, centers on a detective who investigates murders associated with the research. It lends itself to an adaptation in the vein of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes.…

As Madison Avenue buyers prepare to pony up more than $9 billion across the 2019-20 primetime schedule, Hollywood’s studios have turned their attention to staffing writers rooms — without the help of agents. Collectively, they’ve landed 36 series on the air, 22 of them dramas, despite a marketplace that’s still reeling from major mergers (see a bulked-up Disney thanks to more than $71.3 billion in Fox assets) and a growing cadre of streaming services. As the frenzied week of pitches and parties wrapped in New York, THR caught up with nine studio chiefs for their candid assessment, from the projects they covet to the calls they’d rather not have made. The buzzword of upfront week PETER ROTH “Change.” PATRICK MORAN “Stability.” JONNIE DAVIS “Spinoffs” and “stability.” PEARLENA IGBOKWE “Reach” and…

Peter Lenkov enjoys the psychology of cars. “If you pay attention to the details, cars can represent their characters,” says the Canada-born showrunner, whose lineup of CBS hits — Magnum P.I., MacGyver and Hawaii Five-0 — encompassed 67 hours of the network’s schedule this season. “For a Navy SEAL like [Five-0’s] Steve McGarrett, it makes sense for him to drive a big pickup, where he can load his gear and go. It’s in his personality.” Lenkov, whose personal car collection took about 20 years to amass, owns a dozen-plus classic motorcycles — from a 1922 Indian to a 2017 Zero Engineering — in addition to his rare and vintage vehicles, such as a 1958 Porsche 356A Speedster, a 1961 Alfa Romeo Autotutto Romeo 2 Minibus, a 1972 Series IIA Land…

Danai Gurira is being deluged with congratulatory messages when she arrives on a Saturday in late April for The Hollywood Reporter’s annual TV Drama Actress Roundtable. Two nights prior, her latest Marvel film, Avengers: Endgame, rolled into theaters to thunderous results. By Monday, the 41-year-old actress, known to TV fans as Michonne of AMC’s The Walking Dead, will be basking in an opening-weekend haul that exceeds $350 million. Gurira is hardly the only one with something to celebrate, of course. Christine Baranski, 67, is hot off a fourth-season renewal for her CBS All Access series, The Good Fight, and Emilia Clarke, 32, is watching her HBO series, Game of Thrones, unspool its eighth and final season to record ratings. Meanwhile, Patricia Arquette, 51, has just put in her second award-worthy…

It took To Kill a Mockingbird just six months to cross the $40 million mark and become the top-grossing American play in Broadway history. And it took Jeff Daniels the same amount of time to finally settle into his role as Atticus Finch. “You get smarter about it,” the 64-year-old actor says of his ever-evolving performance in the Aaron Sorkin adaptation of Harper Lee’s classic novel. “You get to opening night, you can juggle three balls. You get to six months, you can juggle 15.” Most movie stars who perform on Broadway are loath to put their screen careers on hold for any longer than a 12-week run, but Daniels signed up for a full 12 months despite never having read Lee’s novel before Sorkin, his Newsroom and Steve Jobs…

A change in the Tony Awards rules has led to a surprise nomination (for best revival of a play) for Mart Crowley, the 83-year-old writer of The Boys in the Band. The 1968 off-Broadway game-changer — about a group of openly gay men who gather for a friend’s birthday — earned a 50th anniversary staging on Broadway produced by Ryan Murphy (who’s developing a film) and featuring an all-star roster of gay actors including Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer and Andrew Rannells. (Robin de Jesús is the cast’s sole nominee.) Crowley spoke with THR about Boys’ half-century journey from taboo to toast of the Tonys and his surprising plus-one for the show. It’s pleasure to speak with you, Mart. Well, that’s very kind of you to say. Have you…

Antron McCray. Kevin Richardson. Yusef Salaam. Raymond Santana. Korey Wise. Those are the five Harlem teens who were arrested, convicted and imprisoned for the 1989 rape of an NYC jogger, only to have those convictions vacated in 2002. They’re more commonly known as the Central Park Five — a pejorative that creator Ava DuVernay eschews in her compelling Netflix miniseries When They See Us. Chronicling an epic legal failure in ways that avoid typical triumph-over-adversity narrative tropes, the drama is a rigorous attempt to restore the young men’s identities as individuals. One set of actors plays the teen defendants, and another portrays them as young adult prisoners, with a single exception: Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight, Mr. Mercedes) is Wise in both time periods, delivering a breakout turn as someone whose incarceration…

presented by WME On April 30, The Hollywood Reporter held its inaugural Empowerment in Entertainment Gala in Los Angeles. The event honored global media leader Oprah Winfrey with the first-ever Empowerment in Entertainment Award, presented by Alicia Keys, for Winfrey’s decades-long work as a champion and fierce advocate for inclusion in entertainment. In addition, the event recognized 50 Agents of Change, individuals who are leading the entertainment industry’s efforts to create opportunities for people of color, women, members of the LGBTQ community and other emerging voices. The gala also celebrated the formal launch of the Young Executives Fellowship program, a joint venture from WME; Amazon Studios; the Compton, Inglewood and L.A. Unified School Districts; Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater L.A.; USC School of Cinematic Arts; Howard University; and Emerson…