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 June 16, casual TV surfers (and AT&T executives) might be surprised if they check out what’s on the company’s HBO channel: an erect penis. It’s just one of many jarring elements of Euphoria, the new teen drama that offers perhaps the most unflinching, not to mention explicit, take on modern adolescence ever to hit U.S. television. The male genitalia in the pilot is not attached to any of the largely 20-something cast. Instead, it’s care of actor Eric Dane, who commits statutory rape with a 17-year-old trans girl (newcomer Hunter Schafer, 20). Though the sequence uses a prosthetic, it’s still likely to shock most audiences — as will a handful of other graphic scenes in the pilot, from a gut-wrenching drug overdose by star Zendaya, 22, to a sex…
Ali Stroker The Oklahoma! actress makes history as the first wheelchair-bound Tony Award winner on a night dominated by original productions (best play: The Ferryman; best musical: Hadestown) and veteran stars (Bryan Cranston, Elaine May). Simon Kinberg The X-Men architect stumbles in his directorial debut with Dark Phoenix, panned by critics and opening to a franchise-low $32.8 million stateside. Daniel Ek The Spotify CEO joins Netflix in inking a multiyear agreement with the Obamas, this one to create original podcasts for the streaming platform. Mark Gordon The veteran producer is parting ways with Entertainment One over creative differences just 18 months after his namesake company was acquired by the indie studio. Showbiz Stocks $5.43 (+3%) SIRIUS XM RADIO (SIRI) Credit Suisse upgrades to “outperform” as the satellite-media firm buys back…
As Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame ends its run just shy of James Cameron’s all-time earner, Avatar, the Avengers themselves are starting to move on at the box office. MCU stalwarts Chris Hemsworth and Samuel L. Jackson will go toe-to-toe June 14 with Sony’s Men in Black: International and Warner Bros.’ Shaft. Marvel’s major players have had varying degrees of box office success outside the franchise. Thanks to Mission: Impossible and Sherlock Holmes, Jeremy Renner and Robert Downey Jr. have buoyed their extra-Marvel earnings, while Chris Evans has appeared in only two movies with nationwide releases since picking up his vibranium shield. Notes Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice Media, “Marvel is its own star, at a certain point.”…
On June 10, Paradigm chairman and CEO Sam Gores was greeted with a standing ovation when he walked into the talent agency’s Monday morning staff meeting. It was a day after he announced that he was not selling the company to UTA, and the relief was in marked contrast to the mood of uncertainty and confusion in the offices three days earlier, after THR reported that the firms were in talks. “There are reasons why a combination like this would have made sense for both agencies, but in the end, what is more compelling for us is how unique the culture at Paradigm is and how powerful our independent path can be,” Gores wrote to staff. Meanwhile, UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer said in a statement, “We are disappointed we didn’t…
After its June 6 cancellation, Swamp Thing has become a case study in how a series gets axed in the Peak TV landscape. The drama, from Warner Bros. TV, was canceled a mere five days after its first episode debuted on the studio-backed DC Universe streaming platform. The remaining nine episodes of the drama will air weekly as the series, from exec producer James Wan, now becomes part of the upstart streamer’s programming library. The timing of the cancellation — days after it launched to warm reviews (92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) — raised eyebrows. Trouble began April 17 when Warners trimmed Swamp Thing’s order from 13 to 10 based on the creative output. Despite promising reviews, insiders thought that they had a dud on their hands and, rather than…
With some limited success, the Writers Guild of America tackled broadcast TV staffing season with online resources. Now it aims to do the same with TV development season through August, when agents typically pitch show ideas to producers, studios and networks. The 7,000-plus writers who fired their agents under orders from the WGA will have two new guild tools at their disposal. The first, the Weekly TV Development Memo, connects writers with producers, development executives and showrunners who have overall deals. The goal for all is to source the 300 comedy and drama scripts each of the Big Four broadcast networks are looking to buy. Writers can submit loglines for pitches and spec scripts or describe the type of shows they are interested in developing. To note: The memo format…
