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.
FOR THR’S SIXTH ANNUAL STYLIST issue, THR’s style team focused, as always, on the breakouts who were the talk of awards season and the red carpet. The result is the 25 Most Powerful Stylists in Hollywood portfolio, in which stars including Saoirse Ronan, Brie Larson and Amy Schumer pose alongside their go-to sartorial pros. Scheduling six separate fashion shoots within a matter of weeks is no easy feat: “One came together the day before pages started to close,” says THR photo editor Michelle Stark, who adds that Michael B. Jordan and stylist Jeff K. Kim were a particularly fun pair to shoot. (“Jeff knows how to move in front of the camera.”) The list ranks the town’s top stylists based on the impact of the looks they created in the…
NATALIE JARVEY COVERING THE FEBRUARY PREMIERE of A Trip to Unicorn Island — the new doc about Canadian vlogger Lilly Singh — is an event the THR staff writer won’t soon forget (page 54). “Some young girls waited hours to meet Lilly and were crying with excitement when she walked the red carpet,” says the Seattle native, 27, who has interviewed everyone from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to Grumpy Cat in her two years covering digital media for the magazine. “It showcased the power of the relationship between social media stars and their fans.” ZOEY GROSSMAN THE PHOTOGRAPHER SHOT BRIE LARSON with her stylist Cristina Ehrlich (page 68) just days before Larson won an Oscar. Greeted by the Room star with a warm hug, Grossman says she was “blown away”…
WITH THE hiring of Mary Parent as vice chair of worldwide production at Legendary Entertainment, China’s Dalian Wanda Group has added some steak to the sizzle of the company it acquired in January for $3.5 billion. Or at least that’s the number widely reported. Like much about the deal, the reality of that figure is far from clear. What does seem clear is that Wanda bought out such other Legendary investors as Japan’s SoftBank for a big number, but many Hollywood insiders with ties to China believe it doesn’t matter if the price was high because Wanda expects to make an even bigger amount when it sells a company revolving around Legendary to the public. Wanda revealed March 14 that it will fold Thomas Tull’s U.S. productionfinance outfit and Wanda…
HOLLYWOOD HAS REDISCOVERED religion. While movies long have trafficked in biblical epics — Paramount is readying the third big-screen Ben-Hur for August — a new wave of inspirational movies is hitting theaters. Some offer new takes on the gospels, while others serve up contemporary tales in which God intervenes in human events. And many are attracting stars and filmmakers who in the past wouldn’t have given such projects so much as a prayer. Producer Joe Roth recalls how, in 2013, when he was assembling Heaven Is for Real, he met resistance. “At that time, if the casting agent says, ‘I want Brad Pitt,’ his agent says, ‘No, no. He’d never do a faith-based movie.’ There was definitely some of that,” says Roth. Nonetheless, the filmmakers and Sony Pictures enticed Greg…
WITH 87 PILOTS IN the works, the broadcast networks have had their work cut out for them as they try to lure top talent in a landscape where scripted originals have topped 400 and stars continue to find shortorder cable and straight-to-series streaming shows more appealing. As the casting portion of pilot season winds down, six casting directors open up about the big diversity push, growing competition and discovering new talent. What’s been the most glaring new trend in casting this pilot season? B. KLEIN Rather than the normal casting and testing process, a lot of actors are getting test offers converted to straight offers. So we’re skipping the audition process altogether. S. KLEIN Dealing with exclusivity. Everyone has a gazillion pre-existing recurring roles. The competition, too. If I hear…
ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE Cinema, the Texasbased theater chain founded in 1997 by mechanical engineer Tim League and his wife, Karrie, was a pioneer in creating the upscale moviegoing experience with in-theater dining and beer on tap. Now it’s at the forefront of a trend that quietly has been adopted by a majority of theaters nationwide: barring children under age 6 from seeing R-rated films after 6 p.m. so as to provide a better experience for adults. Exhibitors say they enacted the policy based on a cascade of complaints from customers bothered by noisy and restless tots, or by the idea of seeing a kid watching violent or sexual content. In the latest twist, some circuits are enforcing the rule 24/7. That group includes Regal Entertainment, the largest U.S. chain. The two…
