Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday, October 16, 2019 i The Hollywood Reporter

Two days after South Park was banned in China, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone served up Hollywood’s most defiant rebuke of the communist government in decades with their Oct. 9 episode. When the Comedy Central series’ geologist turned pot dealer Randy Marsh — voiced by Parker — shouted, “Fuck the Chinese government!” it marked the most incendiary words from an actor since Richard Gere dubbed China’s occupation of Tibet “horrendous” at the 1993 Oscars. While South Park’s “Shots!!!” episode provided fodder for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters, who are battling mainland backed police forces, don’t expect many other high-profile entertainment figures to follow suit. When it comes to China and its vast moneymaking potential, the prevailing wisdom is: Get woke, go broke. The practice of self-censorship is common now, say…

Like a quarterback shrugging off a sack, the NFL is brushing off doubts about its ratings supremacy among U.S. TV viewers. Linear ratings for the league hit a multiyear bottom in 2017, prompting a rash of speculation about whether pro football’s stranglehold atop the Nielsen charts was coming to an end. But now, as ratings for other programming keep declining, the audience for the NFL is rising. Through six weeks of the season, NFL games across all its television partners are averaging about 16.3 million viewers, up 3 percent from last season’s average of 15.8 million. Since hitting a low for this decade of 15 million viewers in 2017, viewership has climbed 9 percent and is on par with the 2016 season (16.5 million). What happened? Explanations for the rebound…

The Education of Brett Kavanaugh (PORTFOLIO, SEPT. 17) BY Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly AGENCY UTA Art imitates politics, with Bombshell out Dec. 20 and Michael Lewis’ Trump cabinet book The Fifth Risk being optioned for TV. The controversial Supreme Court justice’s story could be next. The Divines (WILLIAM MORROW, 2021) BY Ellie Eaton AGENCIES Dunow, Carlson & Lerner, UTA Described as being in the vein of Sally Rooney (whose Normal People is being adapted by Hulu), Eaton’s novel dissects teenage female relationships during the last days of a disgraced all-girls boarding school in the 1990s, and again in the present day.…

Even with an Oscar, nine Grammys and a reported net worth of $320 million, Lady Gaga still knows how to hustle. In late May, realizing that the shooting of a video for her beauty startup Haus Laboratories was about to run over schedule, the 33-year-old started to clean up around the models, film crew and makeup artist. “Everybody go home so I don’t have to pay you overtime,” she told the group of 20 people. “I’m going to pack up.” Says Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Nicole Quinn, whose firm invests in Haus: “We want that [kind of] involvement.” Following the success of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop and Fenty Beauty by Rihanna, more and more stars have been developing, launching and marketing their own beauty brands. They’re finding it hard to resist the…

When Candy Spelling dropped $35 million on a Century Tower condominium in 2008, she ushered in a new era, proving that condos could rival Bel Air mansions in price and prestige. Eleven years later, the ante on super luxury vertical living is about to be upped at 8899 Beverly Blvd. Opening next year, the 10-story development will offer two penthouses expected to shatter sales records. On the unfinished building’s top floor, a private elevator will open onto a sprawling open-floor plan with 14-foot ceilings and, most notably, the 550 feet of specialized retractable glass for a wraparound deck with 180-degree views of the Hollywood Hills. While the plan is to split the floor into two massive units, the developers — Townscape Partners — have fielded inquiries about combining them into…

ORIGINALS SLATE 10 series, movies and documentaries at launch (with plans for 35 total projects in the first year) including: The Mandalorian, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Lady and the Tramp, ↑ Noelle COMING LATER: Diary of a Female President, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, a Lizzie McGuire reboot FILM LIBRARY Nearly 500 films — new releases and classic Disney Animation, Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel titles — at launch, including: ↑ Captain Marvel, Frozen, Sleeping Beauty, Star Wars (Episodes I-VII), Free Solo, Iron Man The Sound of Music COMING LATER: Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, The Lion King (2019), Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker TV LIBRARY More than 7,500 episodes at launch including: ↓ The Simpsons (all 30 seasons), Boy Meets World,…

When Evan Spiegel first visited the 1,700-square-foot ocean-view cottage in Malibu where supermodel Miranda Kerr lived alone with her son Flynn in 2015, it was an aesthetic match. The Snapchat co-founder “loved it and thought it was welcoming, open and light, yet cozy,” says Kerr, adding that the couple’s favorite part of the four-bedroom cottage became “the kitchen, as it’s the heart of our home.” Kerr, 36, and Spiegel, 29, since have increased their properties to include a $12 million, 7,200-square-foot Brentwood estate, where they married in 2017. They’ve also grown the family: Flynn, Kerr’s son with ex-husband Orlando Bloom, and their 2-year-old son, Hart, were just joined by another son in early October. As Spiegel dukes it out in the digital wars (inxcluding defending his wife’s phone radiation fears…

Long before Katy Perry set her sights on owning a Los Feliz convent, the property on Waverly Drive was a canvas for a Hollywood set designer turned interior decorator named Harold Grieve. The year was 1927, and local radio station owner Earle C. Anthony hired Grieve to decorate his recently built Bernard Maybeck-designed estate. “I think Grieve’s work on the Anthony house was some of his best,” says L.A. House Histories founder David Silverman, a former Sony Pictures attorney who writes custom books about pedigreed houses for such clients as art-book publisher Benedikt Taschen. “It was definitely the most unique and distinctive work I saw of his.” Silverman’s curiosity yielded these never before-seen photos of the house, which he came into while researching a book about a Holmby Hills property…

The Hollywood Reporter described 1985’s Ladyhawke as “a mythopoetic fairy tale.” With Maleficent: Mistress of Evil out Oct. 19, Michelle Pfeiffer makes her second visit to that Euro-medieval-ish landscape. In Ladyhawke, Pfeiffer plays a beauty who’s been cursed into separation from her shining knight (Rutger Hauer). A priest character explains the lovers’ situation this way: “She was to be a hawk by day and he a wolf at night. Only for a split-second at sunrise and sunset could they almost touch.” Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro says the film is about “the liberation of two beings, forced by an obligatory destiny to separation. They live in the same world but in two different time slots of the Earth’s revolutions.” The plot centers on resolving these relationship issues, mostly with sword fights. But…

With Noah Oppenheim on the hot seat as Ronan Farrow’s bombshell book Catch and Kill (out Oct. 15) dominates the news cycle, a closer look is being paid to the NBC News president’s gig as a screenwriter. In light of claims that Oppenheim and NBC News/MSNBC chairman Andy Lack squashed reporting carried out by Farrow and his NBC News producer, Rich McHugh, about Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual predation, one question being asked around town is whether former scribe Oppenheim, 41, whose credits include the indie hit Jackie as well as several unproduced screenplays, was influenced by Weinstein’s presence in the prestige film space. Back in 2016, Weinstein expressed interest in acquiring Jackie (starring Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy) when distribution rights were available, according to sources vying for the film…

How Star Wars Co-Stars Found a Lost Dog (in Brussels) Adam Driver deserves a big lick across his face. The Star Wars actor was in Belgium shooting a musical with Marion Cotillard — Annette, about a stand-up comic and his opera singer wife — when director Leos Carax’s 9-year-old black-and-white dog, Javelot, went missing. “Everyone was distraught,” Driver, 35, says. So he snapped into action, shooting a video in Brussels’ Parc Royal next to a lost dog poster, begging the public to search for the pooch. “We will put you in the movie,” Driver promised on the clip. “We’ll give you chocolate. We’ll christen your child. We’ll do anything.” Then he sent it to his more social-media-savvy Star Wars co-star Mark Hamill and asked him to tweet it to his…

When Charlize Theron phoned Aaron L. Gilbert earlier this year, she was understandably distraught. Just two weeks before shooting was to begin, Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures was pulling out of Bombshell, the Fox News/Roger Ailes movie she’s producing and starring in alongside Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie. Would Gilbert’s Canadian company Bron Media Corp., which had helped Theron’s 2019 pic Tully get made, take over as lead producer and backer? Within four or five days, Theron got her wish. Bombshell (opening Dec. 20 via Lionsgate) is among a number of upcoming titles signaling Bron’s growing profile as a go-to financing and production company. Gilbert and his wife, Brenda, founded Bron in 2010 and have since partnered with Jason Cloth’s Toronto-based Creative Wealth Media, which is backed by Canadian pension plans,…

Director Martin Scorsese’s recent claim to Empire magazine that Marvel films aren’t “cinema” is like saying the novel Fifty Shades of Grey isn’t “literature.” He’s technically wrong, but he’s culturally right. And all the outraged defenders of Marvel films know he’s right. I include myself among Marvel’s defenders as both an enthusiastic fan and recent Marvel comics author. I’ve seen the entire Marvel Comic Universe pantheon multiple times. Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok are two of the most addictive movies ever made. If I’m channel surfing and even catch a glimpse of them, I’m riveted. At the same time, several of Scorsese’s films (Taxi Driver, Goodfellas) are among my all-time favorites for their emotional power and thematic depth. I’m aware that the international popularity of Marvel films makes…

During the first weekend of October, Bob Iger took a break from his book tour and fired up an episode of a television series about two years in the making. The Mandalorian won’t be released until November, but Iger had just received the finished first episode of the Jon Favreau space Western, which follows Pedro Pascal’s bounty hunter on a new adventure through the Star Wars universe. No surprise, he loved it. “[There’s] nothing like it on the air,” Iger tells THR a few days later. “If you’re going to do a liveaction Star Wars series, this is the way to do it.” With Mandalorian, Iger is setting course for a destination even more distant than a galaxy far, far away. The series’ Nov. 12 premiere marks liftoff for Disney+,…

In residential I design, where sprawling gyms and cryochambers once lured health-obsessed homebuyers, a new amenity list includes escape tunnels, biometric access and museum-grade laser systems that promise safety. “The world has changed, particularly in California, where there has been a huge increase in robberies and burglaries,” says Mauricio Umansky, founder and CEO of luxury real estate brokerage The Agency, who sees those changes reflected in every aspect of the high-end real estate market in L.A. “Fingerprints and retinas now open doors instead of keys, safes are bullet-proof, as are entire rooms. We just sold a home with a bulletproof master bedroom.” (Umansky himself upgraded to two full-time armed guards after thieves stole more than $1 million in hand-bags, jewelry and watches from his 10,000-square-foot Colonial in Encino, formerly owned by…

It’s difficult to describe the visual and narrative audacity behind HBO’s new series Watchmen, based on the 1980s cult comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Given a wholly different, and very timely, spin by creator-writer Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers), a superfan of the source material, this version (there also was a Zack Snyder movie in 2009) is simultaneously unique and faithful to the spirit of the original text — and should prove a powerful draw for Lindelof fans and admirers of prestigious HBO programming. That’s not to say the show won’t face obstacles. It likely will be utterly confusing to viewers who don’t have at least some passing knowledge of the origin story; this is a series that begs for context no matter how compelling and…

SCAD Savannah Film Festival Oct. 26-Nov. 2 Savannah College of Art and Design Aldis Hodge’s latest projects in film and television take on opposite ends of American justice. In the prison drama Clemency (which won the top prize at Sundance in January), Hodge’s Anthony Woods maintains his innocence while facing the death penalty after being convicted of shooting a police officer during a convenience store robbery. On Showtime’s City on a Hill, Hodge plays a district attorney who comes to Boston in the ’90s during the “Boston Miracle,” an initiative between cops and community leaders to lower the youth homicide rate. For his work, the versatile 33-year-old actor, who will next be seen in the Disney+ film Magic Camp and Universal’s thriller The Invisible Man, will be honored at the…

In the midst of closing a merger between CBS and Viacom, Shari Redstone is quietly exploring a plan to launch a conservative TV outlet meant to square off with Fox News Channel, sources tell THR. The mogul has approached current and former Fox News personalities about such a plan, sources say, and has spoken with former NBC News host Megyn Kelly. A rep for Kelly declined comment. This Redstone plan for a new TV service also would have a streaming component. Sources say that streaming service Pluto, which Viacom acquired in March for $340 million, is about to launch an as-yet-unannounced conservative news and opinion channel. A former CBS-Viacom exec says Redstone has sat in on “multiple meetings” about the potential venture, though this person doesn’t think Redstone’s idea arises…

Big Deal When Netflix took its streaming service global in 2016, traditional networks worried that Reed Hastings’ binge machine would cannibalize audiences and draw away talent to produce online originals. Three years on, those networks are much more relaxed as they wait for the next wave of online streamers. The upcoming launches of Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max and NBCUniversal’s Peacock — and their impact on the global TV business — dominated conversations at MIPCOM, which kicked off Oct. 14 in Cannes. For one, the hope is that Apple, Disney and company will end Netflix’s dominance. “Growth for the new services will come from the audiences of mature businesses” like Netflix, posits Tim Mulligan of MIDiA Research. International producers also see opportunity if, as many expect, the studios start reserving…

It was only a matter of time before someone mashed up the L.A. trends of holistic health and membership clubs. Enter Parsley Health, opening Oct. 17 in West Hollywood. For $150 a month, members meet with doctors for up to five visits a year, with a personalized plan, biomarker testing and unlimited messaging access to coaches. Parsley launches in L.A. with support from a Hollywood heavyweight: UTA, whose employee initiative United Wellness hosted a panel featuring Parsley’s founder, physician Robin Berzin, on Oct. 14. “The agency Escudero lifestyle comes with a unique schedule,” says agent Katrina Escudero, who co-chairs United Wellness. Adds Berzin, “Parsley is perfect for people in [entertainment] because we offer convenient online access 365 days a year, and you can have any visit via video.” And UTA…

Weddings Danielle Giserman, vp digital marketing at Focus Features, married Michael Nicoll, founder of augmented reality agency Blnk Digital, on Aug. 31 at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut. The couple honeymooned in Mo’orea and Bora Bora. Alexis March, junior talent publicist at Anderson Group Public Relations, married Zack Kurzbard on Sept. 7 at Leoness Cellars in Temecula, California, in front of 120 guests. They couple honeymooned in Greece. Walking Dead actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan married former One Tree Hill star Hilarie Burton on Oct. 5. The couple began dating in 2009 and have two children. Births Jonathan Levy, a television literary agent at UTA, and wife Jamie Levy, director of brand partnerships at Daily Harvest, welcomed son Cy Sullivan Levy on Sept. 17 at NYU Langone Hospital. Ness Saban, vp…

Well before AT&T cemented its acquisition of Time Warner in June 2018 to form WarnerMedia, the decision to combine all divisions under a single roof already had been made. The strategy to execute a decidedly egalitarian approach soon followed. “This was a very different process than most companies use, where a small cadre of people make decisions behind closed doors,” says Thomas Santiago, senior vp global real estate at WarnerMedia. “What we did was consensus-driven and we cast a wide net,” he says of the midtown design lab set up to allow staffers to provide feedback on every element of furniture and design in the new offices that landed at New York’s minicity Hudson Yards. “We paraded hundreds of employees through to see and touch and cycled through different finishes,…

The clearest difference between Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and its progenitor is that Angelina Jolie’s cheekbones now appear even more razor-sharp than they did five years ago. In most respects, though, this follow-up to the eighth-biggest box office attraction of 2014 feels just as predictably programmed, with a new evil queen to make the title character seem benevolent by comparison, a textbook romance and enough computer-generated “camera” moves to make this come close to qualifying as an animated film. It would be difficult to find a contemporary film more overstocked with time-tested commercial “elements”: a princess, her dashing beau, the silly elves who flit about and look after them, the aforementioned calculating queen and peons ready at the snap of a finger to cater to the betters or carouse in…

Britannia Awards Oct. 25 Beverly Hilton A comedy hero in the U.K. for more than two decades thanks largely to his long-running comic creation Alan Partridge, Steve Coogan joined Hollywood’s prestige ranks with 2013’s Philomena and 2018’s Stan & Ollie. Once again blending comedy and what he likes to call “meat on the bones,” Coogan’s latest feature, Greed, which had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, is a satirical attack on capitalism and sees him playing a character heavily based on “king of the high street” and Top Shop owner Philip Green. Ahead of receiving BAFTA’s Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy on Oct. 25 in Beverly Hills, Coogan, 53, discussed using humor as a Trojan horse, why being associated with Charlie Chaplin is particularly sweet…

On Friday, Sept. 20, The Hollywood Reporter and SAG-AFTRA invited the television industry’s elite to raise a glass in celebration of this year’s contenders at the third annual Emmy Nominees Night event. Presented by Heineken and Anastasia Beverly Hills, the gathering returned to the prolific AVRA Beverly Hills and brought together television’s biggest talent and executives. Throughout the evening, guests enjoyed custom cocktails and sampled signature dishes while enjoying music provided by DJ Daisy O’Dell. The Hollywood Reporter and SAG-AFTRA would like to thank our partners and guests for another unforgettable event.…