Innholdsfortegnelse for 3/25/2016 i The Hollywood Reporter

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…

WANT TO ADD SOME CACHET TO A MOVIE THAT ISN’T a traditional sequel but could benefit from positive association with a previous hit? Just call it, in the words of J.J. Abrams, a “spiritual successor.” The marketing ploy paid off big time for the Abrams-produced 10 Cloverfield Lane, which opened to a strong $24.7 million domestic during the March 11 weekend after costing Paramount $13 million to produce. The film creates a new franchise as well as a new phrase. Details are murky as to when the decision was made to tie 10 Cloverfield Lane to Cloverfield, a 2008 found-footage monster pic that opened to $40.1 million. The project began as a script titled The Cellar that was picked up by Abrams’ Bad Robot in 2012. Dan Trachtenberg was hired…

ON THE HEELS OF SUCH SERIES as The CW’s Jane the Virgin and NBC’s Telenovela, AMC-owned cable network WEtv has greenlighted eight episodes of My Life Is a Telenovela. The docuseries revolves around actresses who set out to land a role on Telemundo’s real-life telenovela Eva La Trailera. As part of the unique arrangement, cameras for WEtv and Telemundo rolled simultaneously on the soap’s Miami set. Matador Content (Lip Sync Battle) initially approached WEtv president Marc Juris with the concept, but it was he who urged the producers to find a real telenovela to center it on. “We have a brand promise, which is bringing you into these immersive real-life situations,” he says. To avoid spoiling the Telemundo series, which already is airing on the Spanish-language channel, and to accommodate…

Alliance for Children’s Rights Beverly Hills, March 10 TONIGHT’S A GOOD OPPORTUNITY to kiss my bosses’ asses,” joked Grandfathered’s John Stamos, nodding at Fox TV Group’s chairmen and CEOs Dana Walden and Gary Newman, as the actor emceed the 24th annual Alliance for Children’s Rights dinner at The Beverly Hilton. Guests of the event, which raised money for children in foster care, included Seth MacFarlane, Betsy Brandt, Melissa Fumero and Julie Bowen. Walden and Newman, who both received the 2016 National Champions for Children Award for their work with the organization, kept their buttocks away from Stamos but were touched by the honor (“It feels great,” said Walden). Following the ceremony, Grammy winner Ne-Yo performed while attendees participated in an auction. By the end of the evening, the event raised…

HALL & MURDOCH Fox and News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch and model-actress Jerry Hall were married March 5 at St. Bride’s church in London in front of guests including Michael Caine, Bob Geldof, Bill Wyman, Richard E. Grant and Tom Stoppard. Murdoch, who celebrated his bachelor party in Las Vegas, tweeted March 4: “No more tweets for ten days or ever! Feel like the luckiest AND happiest man in world.” BIRTHS The Hollywood Reporter executive editor Matthew Belloni and his wife, Principato Young talent manager Kimberlin Belloni, welcomed son Wyatt Robert on March 1. Jake Avnet, COO at Indigenous Media, and wife Rachel Avnet, a licensing exec at Playboy Enterprises, welcomed daughter Sage Olivia Dorothy on Feb. 29 at Cedars-Sinai. ABC News correspondent Sara Haines and husband Max Shifrin…

MONDAYS TYPICALLY are a quiet day on Stage 20 on the Fox lot, but the set of The Carmichael Show is anything but on this late February afternoon, thanks to the presence of Norman Lear. The writers of the family sitcom form an impromptu receiving line to greet the TV legend; then, Lear and series co-creator, executive producer and star Jerrod Carmichael break into song, belting out a string of duets that include Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight” and Paul McCartney’s “My Valentine.” In between, the pair share stories, laughs and even pose for selfies during their hourlong Hollywood Reporter photo shoot. Though the two — one a 93-year-old married father of six from Connecticut and the other a single 28-year-old from North Carolina — have several decades…

Amid the Republican candidacy circus, the Reagan administration often is referenced with near-reverential nostalgia. It’s not just the former leading man who gave Wall Street one of its biggest booms, but his size 2 first lady who morphed from Hollywood actress to social asset, setting a tone of elegance in the White House. Some critics saw her as extravagant (her $209,508 china plate purchase while the country was still in a recession is notorious), while others noted limited success with advocacy (such as her “Just Say No’’ antidrug campaign). But those who crossed her sartorial path experienced a dedication and taste that helped create the Reagan legacy. “Mrs. Reagan gave glamour to the White House, like Mrs. Kennedy,’’ says Carolina Herrera, who designed dresses for both first ladies. “Her style…

From left Jeff K. Kim and client Michael B. Jordan Photographed by DEWEY NICKS on March 8 at Hollywood Loft in Los Angeles Kim “There aren’t as many options for guys — with suits, you can change the color or underpinnings, but to stay innovative and fresh, you have to step outside of the box.” Jordan “Jeff pushes the boundaries, for sure. There are always a couple of wild-card suits [at fittings], either as a joke or just to see my reaction — he hopes I’ll be into it and push the limits a little.” On Jordan: Hermes suit and tie, Kenzo shirt, The Tie Bar tie bar, Piaget watch, Christian Louboutin shoes. On Kim: Hermes jacket and shirt, Todd Snyder pants, Christian Louboutin shoes, Piaget watch, Hermes bracelet, Established…

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”…

DEAL OF THE WEEK THE REVOLVING door at The Weinstein Co. is back in action. After a five-year stint, distribution president Erik Lomis exited the cost-cutting studio March 10 to join free-spending Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures. Lomis’ hire signals that Annapurna is moving directly into TWC’s space as a distributor and presumably will compete for the same Oscarfriendly projects on which Harvey Weinstein has built his business. Adding to the blow is the fact that Weinstein, 63, is a known adversary of Ellison. The two famously feuded over Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, which Annapurna backed and Weinstein distributed, and TWC came out on the losing end to Annapurna to finance Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. Lomis, whose contract expires ON THE HEELS OF SUCH SERIES as The CW’s Jane…

FILM Jason Bateman (CAA, Lighthouse, Hansen Jacobson) will direct STX’s Significant Other and star with Jennifer Aniston. J.K. Simmons (Gersh) will play Commissioner Gordon in Warner Bros.’ Justice League. Jake Johnson (UTA, 3 Arts, Jackoway Tyerman) has joined Universal’s The Mummy. Zendaya (CAA, Monster Talent, Skrzyniarz Mallean) will join Sony and Marvel’s Spider-Man reboot. The Big Number $ 15 M Annual royalties ESPN should pay for the ambient stadium music heard on its broadcasts, according to a March 8 court filing by BMI. The One Direction singer is in talks to make his acting debut in Christopher Nolan’s ensemble World War II thriller Dunkirk. Randall Park (UTA, Principato Young, Myman Greenspan) is joining Aniston and Bateman in DreamWorks’ Office Christmas Party. Harry Styles (CAA, Full Stop) is in talks…

THERE HAVE BEEN SOME glitzy movie premieres for the YouTube world’s biggest celebrities. Smosh: The Movie fans packed Westwood’s Village Theater, Lilly Singh debuted her documentary A Trip to Unicorn Island at the famed TCL Chinese Theatre, and Kian Lawley’s Shovel Buddies had a prime March 14 premiere scheduled at the South by Southwest Film Festival. But despite all the trappings of traditional Hollywood events, the irony is that these featurelength films rarely find a home in theaters — their largest audiences are online. Yet younger viewers are clamoring to watch their favorite digital stars in something more than short YouTube videos, six-second Vines or Snapchat stories. And studios are taking note. There were about a dozen such “film” projects in 2015 alone, and that number could double this year…

Annabelle Harron Clients Patricia Arquette, Rachel Bloom, Elizabeth Debicki Top looks Harron dressed last year’s Oscar winner Arquette, 47, for her Boyhood run, but a more recent standout was The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’s Debicki, 26, in a white Giambattista Valli Couture with pink flowers at the Macbeth premiere in Cannes. “We had less than an hour to try options and pull her entire look together before she walked the red carpet,” recalls Harron. Fashion bio Born and raised in Australia, Harron got her start working retail: “It was a way to learn about garments, fabrics and how to fit people.” She went on to study fashion at Southern Australia’s TAFE SA before moving to Los Angeles and assisting Cristina Ehrlich (No. 2 on THR’s list). Camille Seydoux Clients Lea Seydoux,…

JAMES MCBRIDE, A 2013 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER (The Good Lord Bird), 58, offers a first-person take on the Godfather of Soul in Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul (out April 5). McBride, who has written two screenplays for Spike Lee, talks to THR about current and upcoming projects — and one, starring Jaden Smith, that got away. Your new book is the fruit of interviews with James Brown’s friends and family, several of whom had not previously spoken publicly about him. What’s the most surprising thing you learned? That James Brown in many ways was more of a Southerner than a black man. Most of his actions were dictated by the nation he came from, which was the American South. There’s so much…

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…

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…

Dark Money (Doubleday) BY Jane Mayer AGENCY ICM Partners Hollywood loves to hate the Koch brothers, the billionaire benefactors of far-right causes. The New Yorker staff writer’s deep dive into their rise to power and nearly unparalleled influence on the political system has stayed on The New York Times’ best-seller list every week since its Jan. 19 publication. Surrender, New York (Random House) BY Caleb Carr AGENCY APA Two present-day investigators try to solve the gruesome ritualistic murders of homeless teens using the theories of their idol Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, the hero of Carr’s 1890sset mega-blockbuster The Alienist.…

“Being in the closet hurt my career way more than being out.” ELLEN PAGE The actress, explaining in a South by Southwest keynote address that coming out as a lesbian has only helped her grow as an artist. “No one is holding me in my house as a hostage.” RICHARD SIMMONS The fitness guru, in a telephone interview with Today dispelling rumors he’s being kept inside his home against his will by a controlling housekeeper. “Dan Quayle misspelled potato & tarnished his legacy. Now we have a GOP frontrunner who misspells tweets to millions & nobody cares.” KUMAIL NANJIANI The Silicon Valley star, tweeting about Donald Trump and the 2016 presidential election. “Was I also too fat in this film? Please let me know ASAP.” MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD The 10…

Showtime CEO Matt Blank and UTA’s Peter Benedek lunched at e.baldi. … Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris rendezvoused at Cut, while Eva Longoria and Jon Feltheimer shared a table nearby. … MGM’s Gary Barber met former Warners distribution chief Dan Fellman at the Grill on the Alley. … Sue Kroll and Jacki Weaver were at Madeo. … Bob Bookman visited Il Fornaio. … At Toscana: Frank Marshall, Steve Levitan, Tom Hanks, Irving Azoff and Rob Reiner. … Jon Jashni ordered at Musso & Frank’s. … Brad Weston took a seat at the Polo Lounge. … Carlton Cuse visited Jon & Vinny’s. … Seth Rogen dropped by Commissary on Fairfax. … Stevie Wonder ate at Hugo’s in West Hollywood. … Matt Bomer and Simon Halls had a date night at Tempura…

AMAJOR MOVIE STUDIO DOES not come up for sale very often. When it does, it means an epochal power shift in Hollywood — or at least it signifies for the buyer epochal ambitions. Rupert Murdoch strode to the head of the media business with his purchase of 20th Century Fox in 1985. Sumner Redstone became Sumner Redstone by winning a battle to buy Paramount Pictures in 1993. There were big, if shattered, studio dreams for the Japanese (Universal Studios and Columbia Pictures, which Sony Corp. still owns), the French (Universal), the Coca-Cola Co. (Columbia) and Ted Turner (MGM). But more recently, the movie studios that launched the modern entertainment business have seemed less central to media fortunes, demanding a substantial commitment of capital and generating low returns and, increasingly, less…

SOME PEOPLE CALL ME perverse,” says Marc Jacobs one recent rainy evening in London. “Yeah, I guess that’s me.” He adds dryly, “But they also say I’m hilarious.” It’s two days after the designer’s gushingly reviewed Fall 2016 show closed out New York Fashion Week — a dark and moody extravaganza of Victoriana meets Goth complete with black feathers, rat prints and spider webs. Since bursting onto the scene with his famed grunge collection for Perry Ellis way back in ’92, Jacobs has managed to remain the cool kid with New York’s fashion elite. He’s picked up dozens of Council of Fashion Designers of America awards, and his hipper-thanthou NYFW spectacle shows always have been the town’s toughest ticket. His unlikely inversion of luxury brand Louis Vuitton (he was creative…