Innholdsfortegnelse for Monday, November 25, 2019 i The Hollywood Reporter

In 2013, Nickelodeon pulled its library from Netflix in an attempt to stem its free-falling linear ratings. Now, Viacom’s kid-focused cable network has pivoted in the opposite direction: supplying the streaming giant with new film and TV series, including a SpongeBob SquarePants spinoff, in a Nov. 13 deal valued at north of $200 million. And on Nov. 14, Viacom’s Paramount unit licensed its long-gestating Beverly Hills Cop 4 to Netflix rather than risk distributing the Eddie Murphy vehicle itself theatrically. The deals reflect the new reality for legacy media companies that aren’t quite big enough to challenge Netflix or Disney with their own direct-to-consumer platforms. Hence, Viacom’s so-called “arms dealer” strategy, which paid off when it sold domestic rights to Comedy Central’s South Park to WarnerMedia’s HBO Max on Oct.…

You can tell a lot about a person from his or her Netflix queue, and whether the streamer recommends romantic comedies with quirky female leads or historical dramas or British comedies is determined by a viewer’s data — a lot of it. While the streamers and the rest of Hollywood have been writing nine-figure checks to top talent to attract viewers, a California privacy law going into effect Jan. 1 is shifting their focus to how much information they’ve collected from their users — and who they’re sharing it with. Everything from Warner Bros.’ online Harry Potter shop to ABC’s Freeform app will need to be in compliance. $55B Estimated cost of initial compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act across all industries The law, dubbed the California Consumer Privacy…

BEST PICTURE Richard Jewell Clint Eastwood’s drama was warmly received at its Nov. 20 AFI Fest premiere, thanks in part to Paul Walter Hauser’s performance. But it was also criticized for its depiction of a female reporter. The Aeronauts Amazon may want to offer this epic — reuniting Theory of Everything’s Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones — more than a brief theatrical release after its Nov. 19 AFI Fest Imax screening wowed. The Banker Apple canceled the Nov. 21 AFI Fest gala premiere and delayed the release of the film amid allegations that its heroic subject’s son, a co-producer of the film, sexually assaulted relatives. Waves A24 dominated Nov. 21’s Spirit noms, but its drama by Trey Edward Shults — about a black family thrust into chaos — was largely…

Over the past five months, Facebook, Google and Apple have collectively pledged $4.5 billion to help address California’s affordable housing crisis, a primary cause of the state’s homeless epidemic. So, how does the entertainment world stack up to Silicon Valley in combating the issue? For a town that prides itself on philanthropy, the answer is startling: Hollywood recently has ponied up an estimated less than 1 percent of the tech-industry pledges. In March, Disney donated $5 million to help fund housing for the homeless in Orange County. A month later, the annual awards gala for L.A. Family Housing, which focuses on permanent housing and support services, raised $2 million; the event marked the 10th year it was chaired by Warner Bros. marketing chief Blair Rich. But some showbiz players active…

Saban Community Clinic Gala Beverly Hills, Nov. 18 AFI Fest Hollywood, Nov. 14–21 Party Crawler Festival Frenzy AFI’s eight-day fest featured premieres at the TCL Chinese of The Two Popes on Nov. 18 — when Jonathan Pryce (13) spoke of how the sitting pope informed his High Sparrow role in Game of Thrones — and Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell on Nov. 20. The festival wrapped with a screening of Marriage Story, replacing The Banker, which Apple pulled amid sexual abuse claims against the son of the real-life subject. AFI also hosted the Nov. 17 Indie Contenders panel at the Hollywood Roosevelt in partnership with THR. Moderated by Scott Feinberg (12), the talk presented eight standout performers from 2019 indie films and covered the challenges and rewards of making movies for…

When Disney+ users logged in to the service for the first time Nov. 12, they found thousands of classic movies and television shows. But there was only one, 40-minute episode of the service’s most high-profile original series, Jon Favreau’s Star Wars-adjacent The Mandalorian. For now, Disney plans to roll out all of the streamer’s originals on a weekly basis, showing its commitment to a legacy TV release strategy in an era when, thanks to Netflix, audiences are accustomed to having all the programming they can devour at their fingertips. “We’re just getting started, so it made sense to build our fan base with episodic content coming out once a week in a more traditional model,” Ricky Strauss, president of content and marketing for Disney+, told THR ahead of the service’s launch.…

To breathe new life into Lake Tahoe’s Cal Neva Lodge and Casino — the famed Alpine stomping ground of the Rat Pack — Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison has tapped the trio of Robert De Niro, chef Nobu Matsuhisa and former film producer turned hotelier Meir Teper, who together run the Nobu Hospitality Group, to redo the property, THR has learned. In 2018, the Oracle founder acquired Cal Neva through bankruptcy proceedings for $35.8 million from a Napa Valley-based developer. Since then, locals in this world-class skiing area have been abuzz over what comes next for a property that lays claim to one of the most colorful histories of any lodge in the country. “We’re now designing and developing [it] to make it into a Nobu Hotel and, of course, a…

Because of my work as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme, I traveled in September to the Peruvian part of the Amazon to try to understand the subtext to the story of the fires in the rainforest that had caught the attention of the world. Climate change is an overwhelming issue, and I am one of 7 billion people — what difference can I make? I don’t want to walk around in a constant cloud of guilt because I live in this world we created. And though it feels good, I have a feeling that liking and sharing Greta Thunberg’s tweets won’t do the trick. The future we all want to preserve, is that a future full of restrictions and legislation? A world where the only way…

ANGRY EMPLOYEES The multiple lawsuits filed by current and past Sony employees in late 2014 and early 2015 were consolidated into a class action led by Michael Corona, who worked for the company from 2004 to 2007. The employees claimed the studio’s negligence compromised their private information, including Social Security numbers, account routing information and medical records, leaving them vulnerable. Sony settled after losing a bid to get it tossed. As part of the deal, Sony created a $2 million fund to reimburse employees (up to $1,000 each) for preventative measures they took to protect against identity theft. The company also agreed to provide identity protection services for two years and to reimburse another $2.5 million (a max of $10,000 per person) for those who could show unreimbursed loss as…

In 2013, in a banquet room over the Tribeca Grill in New York, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and a handful of other actors gathered for an intimate reading of the Irishman script in front of potential backers. At the time, De Niro and Scorsese had been trying to get the movie made for four years, and it would be another six before the mobster film finally made it to theaters. “We wanted to generate interest, possible financiers and to keep the energy alive,” says Scorsese, 77. “We felt it was a very special culmination of a lot of the work we’d done over the years. And I felt very specific about how I could put in the proper place the milieu of the gangster. And…

While the streaming era is a boon for video consumption, some on Wall Street are worried that distributors won’t be the biggest beneficiaries, with money flowing primarily to content creators. This might spell trouble for new platforms that are already bracing for losses for up to five years. “Disney+, CBS All Access, Showtime OTT, HBO Max, Starz OTT and Peacock will all likely be among the survivors based on their positioning,” says Cowen media analyst Doug Creutz. “However, we also think that current financial forecasts — where they exist — for those networks probably lean toward the aggressive side.” Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei put a more dire spin on the situation while speaking at his company’s investor day Nov. 21. “OTT will drain each other in a circular firing…

Art Basel Miami Beach, which runs Dec. 5-8 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, is one of the most dizzying art confabs to navigate, with dozens of satellite fairs, fashion events, private dinners and museum soirees happening around it. This year’s must-score off-site tickets include the Dior Men’s pre-fall 2020 fashion show Dec. 3; the grand opening of LeBron James’ retail flagship Unknwn on Dec. 4 with art installations and a photo studio; and The Surf Lodge pop-up at the W South Beach, which includes a Dec. 5 dinner with ARTnews, hosted by Swizz Beatz and art adviser Lisa Schiff, who counts Leonardo DiCaprio as a client. Here’s how UTA Fine Arts creative director Arthur Lewis plans to navigate this year’s fair, which includes 269 galleries and a new Meridians…

In 1938, World War I drama The Grand Illusion became the first foreign-language film ever nominated for best picture. Jean Renoir’s movie, which follows a blue-collar French soldier imprisoned by the Germans, is widely considered a masterpiece — but that was only one factor in its selection: The story tapped into a raging anti-war spirit then rampant in America, amid fears the country would be sucked into World War II. In the end, however, this wasn’t enough to land it the top prize, and it lost to the now-forgotten Life of Emile Zola. Decades later, only nine foreign films (as the Academy defines them) have been nominated for best picture, three directed by Hollywood veterans — Clint Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima, Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Alfonso…

For many city slickers, the headaches start hours after arriving in a ski town, followed by nausea, dizziness and poor sleep. Acute mountain sickness, occurring at oxygen-depleted altitudes above 8,000 feet, affects half the population that lives at or near sea level. But there’s hope: oxygen enrichment systems, such as the one Haim Saban had installed at his home in Aspen. “We try to trick the body into thinking it’s at altitude but still giving it oxygen so the acclimatizing doesn’t stop,” says H.P. Reilly, CEO of the Colorado-based Oxygen Company. A flip of a switch allows vents to provide oxygen to a residence, especially bedrooms. Reilly says demand for his OxySpace product has skyrocketed due to the development boom in ski-resort towns. The cost can run $6,000 to $500,000.…

Land Rover Defender 110 Among the most talked-about models showcased at the L.A. Auto Show (through Dec. 1 at the Los Angeles Convention Center) is Land Rover’s boxy yet sexy, utilitarian yet luxurious Defender 110. It’s finally coming back to the U.S. in 2020 with pricing a steal: from $49,900. Guaranteed to have a long wait list. Audi RS6 Avant In addition to its electric e-tron Sportback, Audi is spotlighting the RS6 Avant (above), a sleek, souped-up wagon with a 4.0 liter twin-turbocharged V8. Pricing for both models due in early 2020. Lexus LC500 Convertible Lexus took its top-range LC 500 coupe and made it into a stunning convertible, on sale next summer as a 2021 model. With 5.0 V8 and 472 horsepower, it’s a droptop with speed and looks.…

UTA On April 11, 2017, UTA’s IT department discovered that a cyber intruder had hacked the voicemail system and computer network, and the agency quickly shut down its systems, sending agents to conduct business on their iPads. Soon a demand from a hacker arrived: Pay a ransom or watch the agency’s most confidential data be posted online. It was said to be one of at least a half-dozen extortion attempts against Hollywood firms around that time. UTA says no personal data of its clients or employees had been compromised. NETFLIX Sometime in late 2016, a hacker collective known as TheDarkOverlord breached the network of postproduction facility Larson Studios and stole unaired episodes of Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles, Fox’s New Girl and IFC’s Portlandia. In…

Clint Eastwood is partial to accidental real-life heroes in recent years, and he’s found a good, if unprepossessing one, in Richard Jewell, a lively, none-too-flattering look at the “media lynching” of a security guard the press decided was responsible for a bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. It’s similar to his 2016 Sully, which also centered on a guy who became a hero by doing his job but whose actions were picked apart. The new film’s concern with the vindication of an innocent man provides a comparably satisfying dramatic trajectory. Most films about journalism since All the President’s Men 43 years ago have taken the media’s side, portraying it as a scruffy, if noble, institution that’s essential to the well-being of democracy. Eastwood and screenwriter Billy Ray (Captain Phillips)…

It wasn’t too long ago that Hollywood’s industry-shifting megadeals were almost exclusively mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. But the rise of global streaming services has spawned a new era. Deals like this year’s recombination of Viacom and CBS are still a big part of the landscape, but Netflix, HBO Max and their rivals doling out eight- and nine-figure talent overalls and spending hundreds of millions on exclusive rights to library content are becoming the norm. THR’s fourth annual dealmakers list spotlights the men and women behind some of the most headling-grabbing transactions of 2019 — most of whom subscribe to “literally all” the streamers. James Adams SCHRECK ROSE Adams negotiated John Krasinski’s “groundbreaking” three-year deal to develop projects for Prime Video. “It’s not only his first-look deal with Amazon,” he…

What’s Driving Streaming Service Signups? U.S. adults across all age groups place the most value on a ‘wide selection’ of content Source: Comscore Custom Survey, U.S. 18+, “State of Digital Services,” March-April 2019 ‘Big Four’ Dominate Digital Video Time Amazon, Hulu, Netflix and YouTube consume the biggest share of viewers’ attention Source: Comscore OTT Intelligence, powered by the Total Home Panel, 2019 For more research from this exclusive THR subscriber-only report, visit THR.COM/BUSINESS…

On Nov. 19, GOP Rep. Devin Nunes claimed ratings for the President Trump impeachment hearings were “way down” from their high of 13.8 million on opening day. But, while on a downward trend, the hearings have averaged 12 million viewers, slightly below the July 24 Robert Mueller hearing (13 million). Fox News was the most viewed outlet, closely followed by MSNBC in the daytime audience race and ahead of CNN and broadcasters ABC, CBS and NBC. Source: Nielsen combined averages…

Deal of the Week With several Hollywood studios now hoarding their most bankable IP for their own direct-to-consumer efforts, Netflix is partnering with the rare international content producer that commands a truly global fan base. The streamer has inked a three-year production and distribution pact with Studio Dragon, one of South Korea’s top producers of high-end drama. The deal gives Netflix a content pipeline to build on its budding reputation as a go-to destination for K-drama, which has a devoted and growing fan base in many of the developing markets where the streamer is desperate to expand, such as Southeast Asia, India and Latin America. “Over the last four years, the market scalability of premium Korean content online has grown dramatically throughout Asia and other parts of the world,” says…

Stop the Presses! A Drama About The National Enquirer Enquiring minds want to know: Is Roger Birnbaum developing a TV series about the father-and-son team that invented the supermarket tabloid? Sure as Elvis is living on the moon, the veteran producer, along with Arts District Entertainment partner Eli Roth, has optioned The Deeds of My Fathers, a 2010 family history by Paul David Pope, grandson of Gene Pope Sr. and son of Jr., who in 1952 purchased a failing paper and renamed it The National Enquirer, turning it into the most successful — and continually controversial, including under new owner and Donald Trump pal David Pecker — gossip rag ever published. “It’s an epic story. Everyone thinks they know what it’s about, but they don’t,” says Pope, 52, who (perhaps…

Whether you’re a C-suiter or slugging it out in an agency mailroom, Lake Tahoe’s rental market has you covered. Below are three rentals for the super-baller, the baller and, well, the merely gainfully employed. Prices reflect the holiday high season. Assistants’ Group Share $320/night or $2,700/week Listed with Airbnb — as “Cozy Carnelian Bay Family Friendly Cabin” — this four-bedroom cabin can accommodate up to eight guests. It features a granite fireplace, large windows and a mudroom. Producer’s Getaway $3,000/night or $21,000/week A Craftsman-inspired, 5,700-square-foot home in Squaw Valley offers five bedrooms, multiple decks, a hot tub, a fire pit and a great room with cathedral ceilings, listed by Tahoe Luxury Properties. Chairman’s Lair $7,500/night or $52,500/week The two-story, 3,400-square-foot penthouse of The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe at Northstar has four…

“Maybe it’s a form of self-hatred, but I prefer to write people I don’t agree with.” “It feels like I am going to die. I tell my wife, ‘Don’t ever let me do this again. ’ ” “Once you’re in a position of power, you’re facing different people who are treating you differently.” Roger Ailes. Harriet Tubman. Hitler. These are three of the real-life characters who feature conspicuously in the current awards-season movies, a thicker slice of historical fiction than at any time in the recent past. What’s striking about these men and women is how differently they’ve been treated — from the meticulous re-creation of the former slave’s life in Harriet, by Kasi Lemmons, 58; to the blend of fact and fiction in the living pontiffs’ meetings from Anthony…

RENÉE ZELLWEGER JUDY GARLAND JUDY • ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS Zellweger portrays the iconic singer in the late 1960s, when she moves to London as her career and personal life are in decline. The actress did a deep dive into much of the photo and video content available. “We were always digging and looking for things. The materials of her legacy were surrounding us —there was her music and her voice, the audio recordings,” says Zellweger. “We were looking at videos all the time, and reading the books.” Zellweger says that even while they were shooting, new inspirational material would surface. “Someone would find a recording or we’d read something in a book, and we were always sharing and adjusting according to what came along,” she says. “Her presence felt very much…

Apple TV+’s Servant knows what makes you squirm. Over 10 episodes, the M. Night Shyamalan-produced series gets under your skin, poking at phobias tied to childbirth and parenting. What the show doesn’t do as well is find that next level, narratively or psychologically, that would allow it to become something more than efficient and stylish. Though Shyamalan directed two episodes, Servant was created and written by Tony Basgallop (Hotel Babylon). It’s the story of the Turners, an affluent Philadelphia couple. Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) is a beloved TV reporter. Sean (Toby Kebbell) is a revered food consultant. Their house is an astonishing-if-creaky brownstone. Their marriage is also showing cracks after the death of their infant son, and Dorothy in particular is barely holding on with the assistance of a “reborn doll,”…

In 1976, The Hollywood Reporter said Columbia’s Murder by Death was part of a film genre offering “a stellar cast of familiar faces; a light, whimsical script and competent, unelaborated direction, all backed up by thoroughly professional production craftsmanship.” THR went on to note that in the 1930s this would have been considered “routine,” and it was a sign of Hollywood’s decay that anything so run-of-the-mill as Murder by Death would be considered one of the year’s best films. When Knives Out opens Nov. 27, critics might be saying the same about the Lionsgate/MRC release. Both are comic murder whodunits with an odd crew of suspects — played by a roster of big-name movie stars — who have been drawn to a mansion where the host is found murdered and…