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.
IN THE LATE EVENING OF JAN. 25, teams from Fox Searchlight, Netflix, The Weinstein Co. and Sony converged in a lounge off Main Street in Park City to begin their pitches for Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation. Hours earlier, the Nat Turner biopic had premiered to uproarious applause at the Eccles Theater, and WME Global head Graham Taylor was ready to spearhead a monster sale. Parker, who actually had moved from WME to rival CAA only weeks before Sundance (Taylor continued to rep the film), also was busy consulting with his new agents, CAA’s Joel Lubin, Franklin Latt and Scott Greenberg. Searchlight executives made their formal pitch at around 11 p.m. to the film’s producers, including Aaron L. Gilbert, who as the primary financier was responsible for bonding…
TELLING THE STORY OF NAT TURNER’S 1831 slave rebellion seems to have a cursed history. In 1967, William Styron wrote the bestselling novel The Confessions of Nat Turner, which won the Pulitzer Prize. However, despite popularizing an important event in American history, the novel was met with angry criticism from some African-Americans in part because Styron, who told the story from Nat Turner’s point of view, was white. Today, African-American Nate Parker, the co-writer, director, co-producer and star of the Nat Turner biopic The Birth of a Nation, faces an equal level of harsh public scrutiny that threatens to overshadow his impressive, important and flawed film. I want to address the controversy about whether or not people should go see a movie made by a man who 17 years ago…
THE ACADEMY MAY BE HEADED TO COURT over its controversial new policy to strip “inactive” members of Oscar voting privileges. Robert Bassing, 91, a member of the writers branch since 1958, says he plans to take legal action against the organization for age discrimination after receiving a letter this summer from Lorenza Munoz, the Academy’s managing director of membership and awards, informing him that he is one of an unspecified number of members who may lose their ability to vote because of inactivity in the business. “Based on published information researched by the Academy, it appears you may qualify for emeritus status,” Munoz wrote in her letter, a copy of which was obtained by THR. She asks recipients to inform the Academy if it is missing any “important information”…
AMERICAN PROGRAMMERS WHO doubt the ratings prowess of reality shows need only look across the pond for hope. The Great British Bake Off, a modest hit when it premiered in 2010, now ranks among the biggest shows in U.K. history. BBC One’s cooking competition returned for a seventh season Aug. 24 and drew a whopping 10.4 million live viewers for a 47.5 share. That means nearly half of British TVs on during the hour were tuned in — a bigger percentage than the Rio Olympics or Pop Idol in its heyday. Nothing, save the Super Bowl (a 73 share), matches that level of saturation with U.S. audiences. The Oscars and NBC’s most watched night of Olympics coverage couldn’t even muster a 40 share. GBBO’s growth is all the more…
THINK OF IT AS THE Black List, but for upand-coming women directors. On Sept. 7, a group of female film executives launched The Alice Initiative (named after French filmmaker Alice Guy-Blache) to highlight 30 promising untapped talents, as voted on by more than 40 top industry players. The list — which includes 20 women who have directed at least one (nonstudio) feature and 10 who have earned attention for their work in TV or short films, comes after a report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film concluded that female filmmakers directed just 9 percent of the top 250 movies in 2015. The group members had found that when searching for directors for their projects, they ended up calling one another for suggestions of talented…
RON HOWARD AND Ringo Starr met during a chance encounter in the 1970s. “He and Keith Moon wandered onto the Happy Days set,” recalls Howard. Adds Starr with a laugh: “We were lost at the time. It wasn’t on purpose.” Fast-forward to July, and Howard, Starr and Paul McCartney were sitting in a villa at the Mirage in Las Vegas a few hours before the 10th anniversary celebration of The Beatles Love by Cirque du Soleil and talking about their collaboration on the new documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years. Hitting theaters Sept. 16 and debuting on Hulu the following day, Eight Days a Week offers a first-ever look into the period from 1962 to 1966, when the Fab Four lived on the road.…
