Innholdsfortegnelse for Thursday, December 19, 2019 i The Hollywood Reporter

If NBC is looking for a silver lining to the messy fallout from Gabrielle Union’s America’s Got Talent dismissal, at least time is on the network’s side. The network’s investigation into Union’s accusations of racial insensitivity and toxic culture at AGT comes three months before production on the top-rated competition’s next cycle is scheduled to begin — and no one familiar with the situation predicts a swift completion to the investigator’s scheduled interviews. “It’s not a shortlist of people,” one insider tells THR. Spinoff AGT: Champions, which does not feature Union, returns Jan. 6, and all seven episodes already are in the can. A March start of production for the flagship series’ 15th season means breathing room for some resolution to the inquiry and, key to the network, time to…

DOCUMENTARY FE ATURE Knock Down the House Rachel Lears’ portrait of four Democratic congressional campaigns in 2018 — including that of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — seemed to have faded from the conversation but wound up as one of Netflix’s field-leading four of the 15 shortlisted doc features. INTERNATIONAL FEATURE Honeyland Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov’s portrait of one of Europe’s last female bee hunters made this shortlist (positioning it to become North Macedonia’s first Oscar nominee in 25 years) and the doc feature shortlist too. (That’s happened only once before.) ORIGINAL SCORE Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker John Williams received a standing ovation at the Hollywood premiere of the ninth Star Wars film Dec. 16, shortly after his score (and the film’s VFX work) was shortlisted, setting him up for…

Barneys’ Final Days: ‘It Feels Like Our Parents Got Divorced’ When Barneys says everything must go, it isn’t just talking about the merchandise. The staff of the soon-shuttering high-end department store chain’s Beverly Hills branch — where Beyoncé, David Beckham, Madonna and many more shopped — are scattering to the winds. Michelle Goodman, personal shopper to the A-list, has moved to Neiman Marcus, where she’s joined by Barneys jewelry associate Lisa Lenhoff. Saks Fifth Avenue has poached Barneys’ shoe department of Jonathan Pascual and Richard Valenciano, while other salespeople have decamped for Rodeo Drive: Nick LaSure is working at Bottega Veneta, Chelle Kearney is at Gucci and Kevin Harris is at Saint Laurent. Says Barney’s studio services manager Sharon Taylor — who’ll be staying till the bitter end, “At Barneys,…

Tucked in the top drawer of Robert Greenblatt’s desk at HBO Max’s Burbank headquarters is a years-old pitch that never got much traction. Dated August 2015, the multipage deck outlines the former NBC Entertainment chairman’s vision for an over-the-top streaming service at NBCUniversal. Per Greenblatt, his bosses weren’t remotely interested at the time. They had a stake in Hulu, they reasoned, to say nothing of a cable company in parent Comcast to protect. So Greenblatt carried on at the network, which he’d taken from last place to first in his seven-year tenure on the back of such hits as The Voice, This Is Us and a collection of live musicals. Four and a half years later, Greenblatt, 59, has moved from NBC to WarnerMedia, where he now oversees a 3,000-person…

Fred Raskin had a big challenge on his hands. The first cut of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was more than four and a half hours long, and he had to cut it down to almost half that length. Luckily for the film editor, Tarantino joined him in the editing room after principal photography, already knowing what half of the cuts should be. The rest, Raskin says, “came from watching the movie over and over again [while considering] that if we lose something, do we upset the balance of how much time we are spending with each character and do we need to move things around?” In the end, Raskin — who also edited Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and Django Unchained — managed to hone down Once Upon…

Buying a new smart TV can be like spooning through a bowl of alphabet soup. Sets now come with specs like UHD, HDR, QLED and OLED. And then there’s the question of whether to add components such as Roku’s built-in software, Dolby Atmos immersive sound and Alexa compatibility. “I love to watch movies, TV shows and sports, especially my Chicago Bulls, at home in the best possible way,” says Black and Blue director Deon Taylor, a fan of LG Signature’s new Z9 88-inch Class 8K Smart OLED TV ($30,000) with AI ThinQ, the brand’s artificial-intelligence technology. “It’s got Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and has Air Play compatibility for my iPhone and iPad, plus Google Assistant and Alexa. This TV is dope.” THR sifts through the jargon to help make finding…

Quick, define this decade of Hollywood history in one word: Disruption? Diversity? Disney? The Donald? THR looks back (and forward) by surveying 3,500 industry pros for their favorite movies and shows of the 2010s, highlighting the business moments that will influence the 2020s and beyond, examining the inclusion movement and showcasing the talents that have become industry forces (all captured on the rise by THR’s cameras). We have come to the end of another exhausting year and the end of another transformative decade. These are traditional milestones for self-reflection, just like on Real Housewives reunion shows. And, like Real Housewives, we are both self-congratulatory and accusatory. We praise ourselves for our perceived personal growth and demand apologies from those who have not lived up to our expectations. This kind of…

1 Game of Thrones (2011-19) HBO Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss 2 Breaking Bad (2008-13) AMC Created by Vince Gilligan “‘Breaking Bad’ is an old Southern expression that I thought was more widely known than it is, apparently,” Gilligan told THR in 2011. “I always thought everybody knew what it meant because I grew up hearing it all the time.” 3 Mad Men (2007-15) AMC Created by Matthew Weiner 4 Downton Abbey (2010-15) PBS/ITV Created by Julian Fellowes 5 Stranger Things (2016-present) Netflix Created by the Duffer brothers 6 The Crown (2016-present) Netflix Created by Peter Morgan 7 Fleabag (2016-19) Amazon Created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge “People get over shit,” Waller-Bridge told THR of the end of her Emmy-winning dark comedy.“If something doesn’t go well, you’ll get over it.…

Anyone interested in playing six degrees of separation would have had a field day at this year’s Director Roundtable — and not just because half of the helmers made their films for Netflix. Martin Scorsese (The Irishman), 77, came this close to producing Joker from Todd Phillips, 48, only to pull out and leave it in the hands of his producing partner, Emma Tillinger Koskoff. His last movie, Silence, screened for Pope Francis I, the subject of The Two Popes by Fernando Meirelles, 64. And he’s been longtime friends with Steven Spielberg, who gave Greta Gerwig, 36, notes on her new drama, Little Women. Gerwig, of course, is life partners with Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story), 50, and in case you’re thinking Lulu Wang (The Farewell), 36, may have felt left…

Back when Sam Mendes was a boy in the U.K., he would sometimes visit his grandfather at his home in Trinidad. Sitting on a porch with some of his cousins, Mendes would listen as the old man spun harrowing tales of his time in the trenches during World War I. “His stories were pretty anti-romantic and unsentimental,” recalls Mendes, now 54. “There was no heroism or bravery. They were all stories about luck and chance.” After marinating in the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s imagination for 40-some years, those stories are now the basis of Mendes’ latest film, 1917, a $90 million World War I movie that Universal opens on Christmas Day. Its plot is simplicity itself: Two British soldiers — played by relative newcomers George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman — are sent…

1. FLEABAG From the perfectly awful dinner party in the premiere to the awfully perfect wedding in the finale, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Amazon comedy was, well, pretty perfect. Boosted by the addition of Andrew “Hot Priest” Scott and expanded roles for Sian Clifford, Olivia Colman and Brett Gelman, Fleabag ended its run with an uncomfortable, provocative, crazily romantic reflection on faith, sex, love and trauma. 2. SUCCESSION In its second season, Jesse Armstrong’s dark HBO comedy made its core family even more insufferably privileged and corrupt. Somehow, though, as much as we wanted to hate the Roys, we became more deeply invested in Shiv’s ambition (and haircut), Connor’s presidential aspirations and Roman’s relationship with Gerri. And though awards groups won’t, I’ll single out the Shakespearean depth and pathos in Jeremy Strong’s…

MSNBC is used to taking shots from Republicans and conservative media competitors. But, in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, the network is facing consistent criticism from some of the people most likely to champion it: progressive Democrats. “Some members of the public are under the mistaken impression that MSNBC is the progressive counter to Fox News, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” says Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “It’s not a progressive perspective. It’s an establishment perspective.” Cenk Uygur, who spent six months as an MSNBC host in 2011 before founding the brand The Young Turks and recently embarking on a run to replace Rep. Katie Hill in Congress, has also emerged as a critic. “The problem is having everybody think you’re the…

Lots of 67-year-old men have back issues — about 80 percent of them, say experts — but when Harvey Weinstein used a walker to enter a Manhattan courtroom for his bail hearing Dec. 11, it sparked pervasive speculation that he was faking it. But multiple attorneys and legal observers consulted by THR say exaggerating an ailment would be a risky move, especially in a high-profile criminal trial (beginning in January) that already lends itself to cynicism. “This shows everything is going to be under a microscope,” former prosecutor Laurie Levenson says of Weinstein’s upcoming sexual assault trial. “The very nature of this crime raises questions about whether anything he says or does will be believed.” Weinstein’s lawyer Donna Rotunno claims that his health has been deteriorating since an August car…

Recipe for a Perfect Wife (DUTTON, DEC. 31) BY Karma Brown AGENCY Intellectual Property Group & Transatlantic Those who can’t get enough of Mrs. Maisel will marvel at this novel about a reluctant suburbanite who cooks her way through a 1950s cookbook, uncovering secrets of its previous owner along the way. Infinity Son (HARPERTEEN, JAN. 14) BY Adam Silvera AGENCY UTA Tapping into a YA genre fan base that flocks to Netflix’s Sabrina and The CW’s Riverdale, the story follows two New York brothers who are part of a supernatural vigilante group gifted with magical powers and tasked with ridding the world of specters.…

It’s been a tough year for viral cats. Grumpy Cat passed away May 14 at age 7 following a urinary tract infection, and, on Dec. 1, Lil Bub, a special needs perma-kitten with an ever-dangling tongue, died in her sleep at age 8. Going strong is Nala Cat, a Siamese-tabby mix with 4.3 million Instagram followers, who is CAA’s sole feline client. At age 9, she has launched food line Love, Nala; has shilled for companies such as Bissell vacuums; and donates cat food to needy pets while supporting pet-adoption efforts. Her first book, Living Your Best Life According to Nala Cat (Penguin), bows in April. It’s nothing to meow about: Multiple parties confirm the enterprise is a seven-figure-a-year operation. “The pet industry is such a booming market and we…

My bold prediction for 2020 is… JON JASHNI, investor Apple+, Quibi and Peacock admit (by their actions) that they cannot truly and effectively compete in the streaming wars. FRANKLIN LEONARD, The Black List founder An unfortunate percentage of the industry will continue to underestimate the improvement that real inclusion could make to their bottom lines. AMY BAER, Women in Film president A studio will buy a theater chain and the shrinking of windows will finally begin. LINDA LICHTER, attorney Sony and Netflix will be bought by Amazon or Apple. STACY L. SMITH, Annenberg Inclusion Initiative founder Five of the top 15 films of 2020 will have a female director attached. RICK GENOW, attorney Short strikes by the guilds, tech dominance, agency spinoffs and, sadly, fewer major studios. CINDY HOLLAND, Netflix…

After moving to Los Angeles in 2018, Raquel Dominguez bounced around various ZIP codes before stumbling upon the co-living startup Eddy. During a tour of its two buildings in Hollywood, she was struck by its central location, the value and the opportunity to simplify her life. “I remember feeling so much peace,” says the 26-year-old actress (CBS’ All Rise, NBC’s New Amsterdam), who signed a six-month lease for $800 a month to rent a private pod — a bunk-like enclosed sleeping space — along with access to facilities including offices, a gym and community spaces. The lease will get her through pilot season. “For those of us pursuing this dream, we’re kind of nomads, and carrying around a bunch of things can be stressful,” she says. Dominguez’s experience is reflective…

1 Get Out (2017) Universal Directed by Jordan Peele 2 12 Years a Slave (2013) Fox Searchlight Directed by Steve McQueen 3 Black Panther (2018) Disney/Marvel Directed by Ryan Coogler “I never thought I would see a studio say, ‘Yeah, we are going to put the money behind this movie with a mostly black cast,’” star Chadwick Boseman told THR in 2018 of the $200 million superhero movie. “As African Americans, we have the ‘black version,’ and it’s never as good. They never put as much into it.” 4 Inception (2010) Warner Bros. Directed by Christopher Nolan 5 Avengers: Endgame (2019) Disney/Marvel Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo 6 La La Land (2016) Lionsgate Directed by Damien Chazelle “I’d been bedridden with a 104-degree fever that whole week,” Chazelle told THR…

In the summer of 2018, actress Ruth Wilson stunned fans and the television industry at large when she abruptly left The Affair, the Emmy-nominated Showtime drama in which she starred, with no explanation. Days after her departure, the actress embarked on an awkward press tour for an upcoming film. Asked repeatedly about her mysterious exit from the show, she would only drop baiting hints. “It isn’t about pay parity, and it wasn’t about other jobs, [but] I’m not really allowed to talk about it,” she told The New York Times in August 2018, urging the reporter to contact showrunner Sarah Treem: “There is a much bigger story.” That bigger story, it turns out, is much like the Rashomon-style narrative of the show itself, which explored different character perspectives on the…

A “I’m up to be the king, it’s gotten clear. The voice inside my head is the one I hear” B “You’re not a voice, you’re just a ringing in my ear And if I heard you, which I don’t, I’m spoken for, I fear” C “Don’t you wanna see that little girl who loves you so? Her heart would break if you should go” D “Here comes a wave meant to wash me away A tide that is taking me under” E “Had to find my own way, make my own mistakes But you know that I had to go” 1 “Speechless” ALADDIN ↑ 2 “Glasgow” WILD ROSE 3 “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” TOY STORY 4 4 “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” ROCKETMAN 5 “Into the…

1. ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD Although it does have one conspicuous flaw — Sharon Tate should have been made into a real person, not just a one-dimensional starlet — Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to Hollywood is as rich, flavorful and deep-dish an immersion in revisionist Tinseltown lore as anyone could ever want or imagine. It’s a film unlike any other, one that provides both repeated and increased pleasure on multiple viewings. Whereas most previous works about the movie capital have taken a jaundiced view, Tarantino goes the opposite way, to glorious effect. 2. UNCUT GEMS Josh and Benny Safdie conclusively show that they’re the real deal, and so, once and for all, does Adam Sandler, who is spectacular as a New York jewelry merchant for whom risk is…

1. OKLAHOMA! Director Daniel Fish’s audacious revisionist take on the corn-fed 1943 Rodgers & Hammerstein classic exposes the disturbing subterranean violence in the soil of the American heartland, its radically altered dramatic perspective matched by transformative reshaping of the melodic score to enhance its accents of country, folk and bluegrass. A haunting rethink that was impossible to shake. 2. DAVID BYRNE’S ‘AMERICAN UTOPIA’ A year after Bruce Springsteen used the intimacy of a Broadway house to personalize the rockgod concert experience, former Talking Heads frontman Byrne breaks the mold again with this career-spanning show, a jolt of pure, brainy bliss that gives you new appreciation for the way music is made and its therapeutic properties in troubled times. Can someone please bring in Kate Bush’s 2014 Before the Dawn London…

Screen Gem After the Cinefamily ceased operations at L.A.’s Silent Movie Theatre in 2017 amid sexual misconduct allegations, the venue’s landlords, Dan and Sammy Harkham, decided to reopen it themselves. On Christmas Day, after a yearlong full renovation, the rechristened 163-seat Fairfax Cinema debuts with a showing, exclusively in 35mm, of Uncut Gems. The film’s directors, Josh and Benny Safdie, will guest program eight other films during the run. “I’m excited to be making a theater that can create a context for films of various decades,” says Sammy, a cartoonist and graphic novelist and the for-profit theater’s creative director. The two-story building, opened in 1942, will include an outdoor patio, bookstore, cafe and art space. Harkham says additional filmmakers, plus film experts, will program the theater. Says Josh Safdie, “We…

When you’re raised in South Central, you get used to witnessing components of death and violence early on,” wrote Trinity (39) in an essay that helped land her a $100,000 scholarship, awarded Dec. 11 at THR’s annual Women in Entertainment gala, presented by Lifetime. “I’m accustomed to the deafening sound of bullets ripping through the air and going straight into my home,” continued the high school senior, who’s been mentored by HBO’s Chika Chukudebelu. “I’m accustomed to having my long-awaited slumber abruptly disturbed by helicopters hovering above my backyard. But I’ve never assimilated to these conditions; instead, I’ve always been driven by my intellectual curiosity.” Trinity received the first Spotify scholarship, presented by music stars John Legend and Maggie Rogers. She was joined by six other scholarship winners, all hailing…

Weddings Jeffrey Consoletti, founder of entertainment event production firm JJ|LA, married Robert Czechowicz, digital marketing director at Sony Pictures Entertainment, on Nov. 23 in front of 280 guests at The Bougainvillea Estate in Indio, California. The three-day event included a performance by Betty Who. Births Julie Feingold, a stylist whose clients have included Harry Styles, and husband Stas Lipovetskiy, a TV editor, welcomed son Levi Alexander Lipovetskiy on Oct. 31 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. CAA agents Ida Ziniti and John Garvey welcomed son Luca James Garvey on Nov. 6 in Santa Monica. Congrats Joseph Marchese and Joe Hodorowicz were upped to coheads of talent at Studio71 on Dec. 16. Mark Mulcahy was hired as senior vp in-theater marketing and Tom Sweetser as vp operations at Solstice Studios…

Early in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, Amy March, played by Florence Pugh, is putting on jewels and rouge as she gets ready for a party she’s too young to attend. Ever the pesky little sibling, Amy can hardly believe her tomboyish older sister Jo (Saoirse Ronan) is squandering the chance to primp for the event. “You could be pretty if you tried,” Amy tells Jo. “Don’t want to,” Jo responds. “Won’t do it.” An aspiring author from a poor family, Jo is the heroine of the Sony Pictures movie and of the beloved Louisa May Alcott book on which the film is based. She’s a trailblazing character who normalized professional ambition for generations of girls during the past 150 years. Amy, a painter who seeks a husband as a path…

Audio Sunglasses “I can walk my dog and be on the phone, without having anything in my ears,” says Exile production company founder Isaac Lee of his pair of Bose Frames with Bluetooth-enabled speakers; $200, bose.com Charging Hub “Nothing is worse than checking in to a hotel and finding only one outlet near your bed,” says director Barry Sonnenfeld, who likes the EUASOO 10-in-1 for its long cord and multiple ports; $90, amazon.com Portable Speaker Watchmen actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II finds JBL’s Charge 4 Bluetooth speaker “loud, durable, waterproof and easy to carry around. Plus, it doubles as a phone charger. It’s basically my party on the go.” $130, jbl.com Sleep Mask With Speakers Sonnenfeld (whose memoir Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother is due in March) uses Fenvella’s Sleep Mask…

The Academy branches for documentary, visual effects, international feature, makeup and hairstyling, song and score have narrowed their picks ahead of the Jan. 13 nominations as THR takes a look at some of the standouts Their stories may seem quite dissimilar, set in different nations and representing different countries in Oscar’s international feature category, but Ladj Ly’s and Mati Diop’s projects have plenty in common when one scratches below the surface. Both were inspired by their own lives, both were short films first and both were breakout award winners at Cannes. Now, they’re both on the shortlist of 10 contenders. FRANCE LES MISÉRABLES There’s a photo of Ladj Ly, taken by French photographer JR, back in 2004. It shows the French director in a white T-shirt and tightly shorn hair.…

HONEYLAND A remote village in the mountains of Macedonia is the setting for Honeyland, a documentary by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov that follows Hatidze Muratova as she maneuvers through the wild and treacherous landscape to collect honey using primitive beekeeping techniques. What begins as an intimate nature doc and character study soon turns into an emotional thriller: When a nomadic family moves in next door to the home Hatidze shares with her mother, their attempts to collect honey threaten the bees’ ecosystem and Hatidze’s livelihood. Kotevska and Stefanov described, in an email exchange with THR, what drew them to Honeyland’s setting and how Hatidze’s story slowly unfolded in front of their cameras over a four year shoot. How were you introduced to Hatidze, and what made you interested in…

Zack Gottsagen was just 4 years old when he saw a television show that would set him on his acting journey. “I learned a lot from the character Corky from Life Goes On as he was an actor with Down syndrome,” Gottsagen tells THR of the groundbreaking ABC family series that starred Chris Burke as the lead, Charles “Corky” Thatcher, from 1989 to 1993. Fast forward 30 years and Florida native Gottsagen, who has Down syndrome, is set to receive the Rising Star Award at the 31st annual Palm Springs International Film Festival for his lead role in this year’s heartwarming indie tale The Peanut Butter Falcon. The film follows a man with Down syndrome who escapes from a retirement home, where he has been placed for safety, and embarks…

It’s definitely possible to be ostracized from the Star Wars universe. David Prowse, who played but didn’t voice Darth Vader, spilled some plot points in the 1980s that put him on creator George Lucas’ dark side. And Jar Jar Binks, the goofy Gungan from the planet Naboo, got the cold shoulder from fans after his much-maligned debut in 1999’s The Phantom Menace. But neither suffered the complete ex-communication bestowed on CBS’ 1978 The Star Wars Holiday Special. At an Australian sci-fi convention a few years after it aired, Lucas said, “If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every bootlegged copy of the program and smash it.” The mostly live-action, two-hour show aired the week before Thanksgiving and starred the original Star Wars cast plus TV…