Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday, July 1, 2020 i The Hollywood Reporter

In mid-June, unions representing an estimated 17,000 Disneyland Resort employees banded together to delay Disney’s plan to reopen its theme park July 17. In a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom dated June 17, the Coalition of Resort Labor Unions, which reps Anaheim workers, expressed concern about “Disney’s rapid timetable” for reopening, claiming “there are numerous questions about safety which Disney has not yet answered,” including the logistics of routine virus testing for employees. On June 24, the state suffered its highest single-day virus spike with 7,149 confirmed cases of COVID-19. That day, the Burbankbased conglomerate delayed its restart of Disneyland, noting that the state of California wouldn’t issue guidelines on a reopening timetable until after July 4. “We can’t afford to get this wrong: Once the theme parks open,…

Ontario film studios were allowed to be back in business on June 12, yet the reopening has been tentative since film and TV sets shut down in mid-March. “We’ve got a greenlight. We’re issuing permits for small productions,” Toronto film commissioner Marguerite Pigott says. But the major studios and streamers must figure out new COVID-19 safety protocols and strict travel and quarantine orders before Toronto can return to pre-pandemic production levels. While entertainment work is considered $735M Estimated loss in Ontario from March to June caused by the absence of Hollywood productions in the Canadian province. Source: Canadian Media Producers Association (April 2020) nonessential, American actors, directors, producers and crew can secure temporary work visas to get across the closed U.S.-Canadian border. “But the big barrier is the mandatory 14-day…

Deal of the Week The global film industry is betting that eventually there’ll be a box office rebound. Studios and streamers, international distributors and global sales agents were doing business at the Virtual Cannes Market, the two parallel online film markets held June 22 to 28 in lieu of the canceled physical festival, as if the future were bright. Warner Bros. and Apple got into a bidding war over the Antoine Fuqua-directed actioner Emancipation, starring Will Smith, with the winner expected to shell out up to $110 million for global rights to the feature, which CAA and FilmNation presented at Virtual Cannes. Other big-ticket titles included Rocket Science’s Brit drama Mothering Sunday, starring Colin Firth and Olivia Colman; Hanway’s The Card Counter with Oscar Isaac; and James Gray’s Armageddon Time,…

As COVID-19 rates rise and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti puts a pause on some reopenings (like movie theaters), a number of L.A. social clubs have welcomed members back (with mask and social distancing requirements in place), including the 2-year-old Metaphor Club, which resumed service June 15. Founders Lawrence Gilliam, Gerald Rawles, Lawrence Ross and Jimar Wilson, who are Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brothers, chose its Crenshaw Boulevard building for its location in the Leimert Park Pan African Arts District. With $99-a-month memberships, the club has become a creative hub with readings and screenings. Its Hollywood contingent includes story editor Sa’Rah Jones (Netflix’s Family Reunion); Kemp Powers, writer and co-director of the upcoming Disney movie Soul; and writer Jeanine Daniels (FX’s Snowfall, Apple’s Truth Be Told). “It’s a place of connectivity,…

On June 2, amid global protests, Insecure’s Issa Rae shared with her 2.7 million Instagram followers the groups she recommended supporting: BLM, Regional Bail Funds, Defund the LAPD, BLD PWR, National Police Accountability Project, ACLU and Black Table Arts. “I recognized that so many people felt anxious,” she tells THR. “While I saw anti-racism lists circulating, they had 30 to 50 broadly Black organizations, which is great, but a lot. So, I wanted to consolidate my call to action and [keep] the mission clear, to end police brutality and killings.” How did you settle on those groups? My staff and I discussed extensively and did the research. Some organizations we were already supporting and knew they did the work, like the ACLU, BLD PWR and Black Lives Matter. Within those,…

When former soap opera producer Colleen Bell stepped into the role of California film commissioner slightly more than a year ago, she never could have predicted the challenges she’d soon face. But with production in her state and elsewhere grinding to a screeching halt in March, Bell found herself drawing on her crisis management training from her time as U.S. ambassador to Hungary under former President Obama. “As soon as the COVID crisis hit, I just hunkered down and really focused,” says the Chicago native, who was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to replace 15-year veteran Amy Lemisch in May 2019. The threetime Daytime Emmy nominee, who has four children with The Bold and the Beautiful head writer Bradley Bell, oversees California’s film tax credit program, one of the state’s…

Big Deal The U.S. government is buying millions of dollars in corporate bonds issued by Fox Corp., Comcast, AT&T and others as part of a debt liquidity program spurred by the novel coronavirus pandemic. The Federal Reserve’s Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility is designed to provide liquidity to the corporate debt market, with the central bank set to purchase billions of dollars’ worth of investment-grade debt from companies on the secondary market over the coming months. According to data released June 28 by the central bank, the Fed bought more than $16 million in debt from WarnerMedia owner AT&T, more than $13 million in debt from NBCUniversal owner Comcast, $4.5 million in debt from Fox Corp. and $5.7 million in debt from Microsoft. The Fed began buying electronically traded funds…

When we set out to adapt Little Fires Everywhere, we had some creative hurdles to overcome. The show embodies a multitude of themes and explores several disparate points of view. Finding a director who could help tie it all together and communicate it — visually, emotionally and cinematically — posed a genuine challenge. Then we met Lynn Shelton. When Lynn took her seat at the table to pitch her vision of the show, she came armed with a gorgeous lookbook. In it, she’d pulled pictures from films she loved, works from visual artists and images from popular culture. She’d assembled an aesthetic language for the entire series. As Lynn walked us through it, she generously told us intimate stories about her journey through life and how each of these adventures…

Weddings Dennis Quaid married Laura Savoie, a doctoral student, in a secret elopement in Santa Barbara on June 2 after canceling their planned Hawaii wedding in April because of the pandemic. Engagements James Longman, a foreign correspondent at ABC News and Good Morning America, got engaged to Alex Brannan, marketing manager at HDI global, on June 26 at the Brannan family home in the U.K. Longman proposed with gold bracelets, a sign of loyalty, for each of them to wear, and they will choose rings together. Births Matthew Beans, executive producer of Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, and wife Kristen Beans welcomed second son Jack Everett Beans on March 31. Johnny Pariseau, a senior vp at MGM, and Ashley Fox, a senior vp at FilmNation, welcomed son William Henry Pariseau on…

The news that Warner Bros. and Disney have again delayed the releases of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and the live-action remake of Mulan, respectively, amid the coronavirus pandemic was a blow to hopes that the movie business could soon return to normal — and a surge in on-demand and streaming viewership has experts questioning whether short-term solutions could lead to lasting changes in distribution models. Nolan’s $200 million drama was set to bow July 17, then July 31 and now is eyeing an Aug. 12 opening. Niki Caro’s take on the China-set fantasy tale was originally planned for March 27 before being pushed to July 24 and, now, to Aug. 21. Distributors and cinema owners are counting on the studio tentpoles to kick-start the summer box office after it was put…

How Black and POC Cops Give ‘Implicit Endorsement’ to Abuse Depictions of crime or unethical behavior by POC criminal justice professionals (CJP) can insidiously normalize wrongful actions for the viewer Consultants Help Shape Content Police, FBI or military personnel — both current and former — consult regularly on network crime shows Representation in the Room Writers rooms on cop shows are predominantly white and male…

The spectacle and safety of bodies are seldom taken for granted in Starz’s new Mississippi strip club-set drama P-Valley. In the pilot, Mercedes (Brandee Evans) climbs a pole in front of a voracious crowd. Once her red stiletto boots are planted on the ceiling, she clings to the pole head-down. The patrons’ screams and the DJ’s rumbling hip-hop fade away. All we hear for a few seconds are her efforts to catch her breath before she slides down in a cascade of sweat and pleather, halting just a foot or two above the stage floor. Her acrobatics are exertion; they’re also art. Her colleagues are less lucky. The cuts and bruises all over Keyshawn (Shannon Thornton), courtesy of an abusive boyfriend, make it occasionally too painful to even be Mercedes’…

As the film and TV industry attempts to restart after a COVID-19 shutdown, some states like Georgia hope to be trailblazers. Home to Tyler Perry’s sprawling film studio, Pinewood’s Atlanta outpost and other production facilities, the Peach State is establishing itself as a pioneer in the industry’s quest to get back to work. While studios are wary of naming specific projects and target shoot dates due to the volatile nature of the pandemic, sources say that some of the major projects expected to start or restart production in the state in the coming months include the Disney+ series Loki and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; Universal’s feature adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen; MGM’s Sylvester Stallone action pic Samaritan; and the Netflix thriller Red Notice, with Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson…

This Is My America (RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING, JULY 28) BY Kim Johnson AGENCY UTA Described as The Hate U Give meets Just Mercy, the story follows a 17-year-old in Texas as she seeks help for her dad, an innocent Black man on death row, while also investigating the death of a white girl whom her brother has been accused of killing. Hush-a-Bye (VIKING, 2021) BY Jody Lee Mott AGENCY WME Like the R.L. Stine classics, this story from a middle school teacher turned author is kid-friendly horror with a message. It follows bullied sisters who find a broken doll, after which sinister things start happening to the classmates who pick on them.…

Grey’s Anatomy Showrunner Gets Personal About Her Privilege On June 15, Krista Vernoff posted on Twitter about her history with the police. Her 11-part thread included references to not being handcuffed after being booked for stealing “thousands of dollars” worth of merch at 15; being sent home by police after punching a guy in the face; and getting let off with warnings for drinking and doing drugs between the ages of 11 and 22. “I’m asking the white people reading this to think about the crimes you’ve committed,” Vernoff tweeted. “You don’t call them crimes. You and your parents call them mistakes. Think of all the mistakes you’ve made that you were allowed to survive.” Ava DuVernay called it “one of the best threads on the criminalization of Black people…

The business aspect of show business he was less interested in, but what really Stuart Cornfeld (right) with Ben turned him on was working with writers and directors and to try to make something that was really good. We made [2001’s] Zoolander, and from then on, he was running the company and finding material. On Tropic Thunder, he was the sounding board. It didn’t have a small budget, and we had to navigate a lot with the studio and the big cast. He was there making sure that everyone felt supported. But at the monitor, he had this incredible laugh, this cackle. And if he was laughing, then you knew, “OK, it was all right.” Because he wasn’t going to bullshit you. He wasn’t going to laugh if it wasn’t…

The dual engines powering the true-crime genre are empathy and mystery: We’re meant to feel for the victims while also investing in the solving of a complicated case. Showtime’s provocative five-hour docuseries Outcry is a strange example because it isn’t very mysterious and the victim is not necessarily whom you assume. Directed by Pat Kondelis (Showtime’s Disgraced), Outcry tells the story of Greg Kelley, a Texas high school football star jailed in 2014 for sexual assault of a 4-year-old boy. It’s an ugly allegation, which Kelley denies. Over five years, Kelley and his defenders, including girlfriend Gaebri Anderson, inexplicably devoted advocate Jake Brydon and attorney Keith Hampton, fight to get the conviction overturned. The case is messy and infuriating. A second accuser, also younger than 5 years old, emerges. Kondelis…

After 20 years and 40 seasons of hosting the CBS hit Survivor, Jeff Probst is being honored by the Critics’ Choice Real TV Awards with its Impact Award. He didn’t get his award in person; the 2020 event was canceled in favor of a June 29 press release. But that’s fine with Probst. He explained why in an interview with THR, where he also discussed the future of Survivor amid the coronavirus pandemic and how the Black Lives Matter movement will affect casting. How do you feel about receiving an award this way rather than at an in-person show? I’m actually much more comfortable receiving an award virtually than I would be in person. As much as I love the recognition, I don’t like being the center of attention. This…