Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday, October 21, 2020 i The Hollywood Reporter

One-year-old streamer Disney+ has been a public success story for Disney, surpassing its five-year goal of attracting more than 60 million subscribers in just nine months. But the service has been a structural challenge for the legacy studio and the center of a power struggle over who has final say in the streamer’s programming lineup, multiple sources tell THR. Disney could put an end to that tussling with its Oct. 12 restructuring, which hands its studio leaders greater control over the content they create for outlets like Disney+ while consolidating all budget and distribution decisions under the new Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution group led by former consumer products executive Kareem Daniel. But it’s unclear how this new arrangement will play out in practice. “There was so much missing in…

In the late 1980s, Hollywood marketers tossed aside a legacy of secrecy and turned box office grosses into public sport. Entertainment Tonight began doing spots on the weekend’s top-grossing films. TV newscasts soon followed. By 1991, all major studios agreed to make numbers available after decades of revealing only the positive — even though this era of transparency exposed them to headlines about box office bombs. These days, Hollywood returns to original form when it comes to grosses for premium video on demand, a platform that came into its own when the coronavirus pandemic resulted in cinema closures. Studios so far are declining to reveal their PVOD earnings, save for the lone case of Universal and Trolls World Tour. Trolls cost $19.99 for a 48-hour rental, which has quickly become…

Kendrick Sampson, the actor and activist co-founder of the social justice group BLD PWR, has been an active voice this year in local L.A. politics, including co-leading a weekly protest at the offices of Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey over her handling of police killings of civilians. “There have been over 620 murders at the hands of law enforcement in L.A. County under her watch and no accountability, and she takes a large amount of money from police associations,” says Sampson. While he hasn’t endorsed Lacey’s opponent, George Gascón — “I formally endorsed a hell no to Jackie Lacey,” he says — Sampson’s group BLD PWR is one of the steering committee members (along with BLM Los Angeles) behind Measure J. The proposal would have L.A. County set…

On Oct. 9, the Broadway League declared that the COVID-19 shutdown will continue through May 30 in yet another blow to Great White Way performers. On the same day, sibling theater-district staples Bouillon Marseille and Nizza announced an Actors’ Equity house account program called “Eat Now and Pay Later,” allowing Equity cardholders to dine after 9 p.m. (drinks and tips not included) and not pay their tabs until they are able to. The eateries reserve the right to cancel at any time “if we realize it is bankrupting us,” says managing partner Robert Guarino, who adds that response has been overwhelmingly positive, with donors offering to pay off house accounts. “That would be a huge win, but we’re prepared to go it alone if need be,” he says. “We’re confident…

Two big Hollywood brands announced a collaboration Sept. 9. The Muscular Dystrophy Association, whose star-studded signature telethon went dark six years ago, not long after a sour split with longtime host Jerry Lewis, found a new emcee in top-grossing comedian Kevin Hart — his first major hosting turn since he resigned amid controversy as host of the 2018 Oscars. The team-up offers potential upsides for both. The telethon, which the charity touts as having netted more than $2 billion to benefit its missions of research and care, is a signature franchise and pop culture phenomenon that was hosted by Lewis for 44 years and saw stars like Jennifer Aniston, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Betty White, Jerry Seinfeld and many more beamed across hundreds of local TV affiliates. Now it’s reinventing…

After months of stay-at-home orders in Los Angeles, writer Patrik-Ian Polk’s partner was itching for a change of scenery. “The boyfriend said, ‘Let’s take a trip,’ ” says Polk, co-executive producer of Starz’s P-Valley. “I wasn’t at all keen on the idea of being around strangers in the middle of a pandemic. So we chose a motel instead of a traditional hotel, which provided very limited contact with staff and other guests. We settled on The M Malibu because it wasn’t too far, but far enough, from home. There’s a marijuana dispensary practically next door, and the beach is right at your footsteps. What more could you ask for?” Such staycations may be the saving grace for the lodging industry in L.A., which saw occupancy rates plummet at the start…

“I WAS DYING. LIKE, I’D BEEN PUSHING THE SAME BALL UP THE SAME HILL IN THE EXACT SAME WAY FOR A REALLY LONG TIME.” Shonda Rhimes was tired of the battles. She was producing some 70 hours of annual television in 256 territories; she was making tens of millions of dollars for herself and more than $2 billion for Disney, and still there were battles with ABC. They’d push, she’d push back. Over budget. Over content. Over an ad she and the stars of her series — Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder — made for then-presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. But by early 2017, her reps were back in discussions with the company about a new multiyear deal. They’d already made a hefty ask of her…

Not even a year ago, it seemed as though almost anybody could sell a TV series in the free-spending Peak TV economy. Now, just to get a project up and running, one must possess the acumen of a surgeon general. “My line producer has become a semiexpert in medical tech as he deals with setting up our mobile lab for testing,” says The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang, whose AMC drama resumed filming at the top of October. “Everything is almost unrecognizably different.” TV’s most powerful producers aren’t just responding to the COVID-19 pandemic with script overhauls, frequent nose-swabs and meticulous scene blocking. They’re adapting to new normals that shatter and reset on a nearly daily basis. And as some go back to set — most of them after the…

“Kissing the ground — or applying for a Canadian visa.” Alex Kurtzman “Smoking a lot of weed.”Lena Waithe “Doing none of the things I did in 2016 (apart from voting). Too superstitious.” Greg Berlanti “Hoping for a Biden/Harris landslide, furiously doom-scrolling Twitter and trying and failing to wait until dark to drink.” Liz Feldman “I applied to be a poll worker, so I’m excited to be part of this year’s crazy. No hanging chads on my watch. Get your booties to the poll, y’all!” Katori Hall “Rewriting the only world I actually have any control over.” Tim Minear “Still obsessively refreshing Twitter despite all the lies I told myself that, immediately after the election, I would delete Twitter.” Josh Schwartz AND … … Damon Lindelof analyzes his personal best-and worst-case…

On Oct. 15, about 25 protesters gathered in front of Los Angeles County Superior Court, brandishing signs that read “Hold Hollywood Accountable” and “Let Charlotte Speak.” Inside, Judge Christopher Lui was hearing arguments from lawyers for Charlotte Kirk as well as an attorney for embattled industry power brokers Kevin Tsujihara, James Packer, Brett Ratner and Avi Lerner. At stake was the enforceability of confidentiality agreements in the #MeToo era. The protesters, who are members of Stand With Survivors — a group that includes figures like former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson and accusers of Harvey Weinstein — were looking to sway Judge Lui as he weighed Kirk’s petition to vacate a gag order issued by an arbitration judge in June. The petition — which details a 2013 incident at the…

BETTE MIDLER “Our in-person event was impossible, so we pivoted to virtual. It’s not easy, but so many great people agreed to be in it. I have no idea what’s going to happen!” Midler has hosted a Halloween costume ball to benefit her environmental organization, New York Restoration Project, for the past 20 years. This year, the actress’ virtual gala, Hocus Pocus Hulaween, is set for Oct. 30 and features her reuniting with her co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy from the 1993 Halloween classic film. Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Sarah Silverman, John Stamos, Elvira, Martin Short and Billy Crystal also are slated to appear. ZOE LISTER-JONES “2020 has been a living hellscape, so this Halloween will feel consistently terrifying, except there aren’t any parties to drink the terror…

No sex. No drugs. No violence. Now, streaming. “We call some of our films ‘clean teen,’ ” says Naketha Mattocks, the director of family features at Netflix. “The ones that feature teens that will speak to younger audiences, as well. They are so clean that tweens can watch them too.” Even before COVID-19 caused theaters to shut down, televisions, tablets and phones had become the destination for original movies aimed at teens but designed for family viewing thanks in large part to Disney Channel. Now such titles have become a priority for streamers including Netflix, which is exploring more varied themes in its programming, including LBGTQ+ issues. While family films have remained top box office draws for decades, original features — those that aren’t animated, live-action versions of animated classics…

PALO ALTO The 73-room Nobu Hotel Palo Alto, co-owned by Robert De Niro, features a number of ryokan-inspired accommodations. Rooms from $350 a night, nobuhotels.com. CAMBRIA At the 25-room White Water lodge, which sits on Moonstone Beach, most rooms have full or partial ocean views and fireplaces. Rooms from $299, whitewatercambria.com. SAN FRANCISCO The 155-room Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco at Embarcadero sits on the top 11 floors of a 48-story tower, offering panoramic city views. Rooms from $455, fourseasons.com. OJAI Renovations are near completion at the Capri Hotel (currently open), a 30-room retro property built in 1963, where furnishings marry California midcentury and Italian ’60s and ’70s vibes. Rooms from $199, hotelojai.com.…

Worlds that are new to us,” is how Shonda Rhimes’ producing partner Betsy Beers describes their focus in the streaming era. And while Beers makes clear the company is aiming for “intentionality over sheer volume,” there are at least 12 projects in various stages of development, including an adaptation of The Warmth of Other Suns, which they’ll shepherd. Rhimes herself is set to write a film and series version of Recursion, an adaptation of the popular book series, which is equal parts sci-fi, romance and police procedural. She had also hoped she’d be the one to pen the adaptation of Ellen Pao’s memoir, Reset, which chronicles her gender discrimination lawsuit, but now fears she has too much on her plate. “I’m not Superman,” she jokes. Maybe not, but Netflix chief…

The macabre humor of Roald Dahl survived even a sweetened ending that irked the famed British children’s author (who had other problems as well, see page 64) in Nicolas Roeg’s delectable 1990 film The Witches, thanks in large part to the glorious villainy of Anjelica Huston. Anne Hathaway fills the shoes of the Grand High Witch with her own flamboyant wickedness in Robert Zemeckis’ mostly captivating remake, which sticks closer to the source material even while shifting the story from 1980s England to ’60s Alabama. The director rekindles some of the arch campiness that gave his Death Becomes Her such afterlife adoration. But he’s primarily in kids adventure mode, working closer to the whimsical vein of some of his earlier hits than his erratic, more serious recent entries. The energy…

Call it a strange coda of the Trial of the Century. An uncompleted mystery film that purports to exonerate O.J. Simpson in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman has played a central role in the legal saga involving Charlotte Kirk and a group of Hollywood power players dating back to 2017. Joshua Newton’s Nicole & O.J. has been referenced in scores of legal documents beginning with a settlement agreement that Kirk and Newton reached with Kevin Tsujihara, James Packer, Brett Ratner and Avi Lerner in August 2017. Newton received $3.5 million toward the budget of the film, which stars Kirk as the ill-fated titular victim, and Ratner initially was poised to produce. Behind the scenes, former NBCUniversal vice chairman Ron Meyer set up footage screenings with potential…

Big Deal On Oct. 17, seven unions representing more than 10,000 Disneyland Resort employees sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom asking him to issue guidelines to allow the Anaheim theme park to reopen. The note marks a change in tone from the Coalition of Resort Labor Unions, which told Newsom June 18 that they were not satisfied with the safety measures that Disney had taken since shuttering the park in mid-March. “[O]ur original position has changed,” the unions’ new missive read. “The company has provided detail on serious measures to protect workers via social distancing, providing PPE, addressing ventilation” and, notably, “unveiled a testing program” for workers. While Florida theme parks, including Disney World, have been back in business since July, California parks have stayed shuttered. In September,…

Trumpers, Rappers, Brett Ratner: Who Spoke in New Doc? International print/TV journalist Daphne Barak’s documentary Trump vs. Hollywood features some of President Trump’s most ardent conservative supporters, including Scott Baio, Dean Cain, Kevin Sorbo, Isaiah Washington, Kid Rock and Kristy Swanson, as they share how backing the polarizing leader has affected their careers. (Baio’s comments are already catching fire: “If you’re not hiring me because I’m a conservative, shame on you, and if there’s a civil war, don’t forget who has all the guns.”) Barak, a Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention, says her film, out Dec. 14 on Amazon and elsewhere, is not exclusively pro-Trump (she cites wide-ranging chats with Sylvester Stallone, Avi Lerner and Brett Ratner, marking his first sit-down since sexual misconduct allegations surfaced). But Trump,…

Darren Star was in New York, readying production on the seventh (and what he envisions as final) season of TV Land favorite Younger when, like many, the pandemic stopped him in his tracks. Instead of another location shoot, the months that followed saw the prolific creator of Sex and the City, Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place and, more recently, Emily in Paris spending his surplus of free time with 9-year-old son Evan. “Being able to slow down was a silver lining,” he says over Google Hangout in early October. “I haven’t had that much free time in my entire career. It gave me a hunger to get back to work.” Riding out the bulk of 2020 between his homes in Bel Air and East Hampton, Star did not rest for…

With most public and private school campuses in L.A. County closed for in-person instruction and nary a hint of when they will reopen, many luxury hotels are offering learning-focused packages geared toward families longing for a change of scenery. These programs offer everything from staff to supervise kids during virtual school hours to supplemental courses. “Many of our clients are seizing this opportunity to explore a new destination, and these customized hotel offerings, including personalized instruction coupled with adventure programming, are designed to revitalize everyone in the family,” says Jack Ezon, founder of luxury travel agency Embark Beyond. Montage Hotels and Resorts launched Montage Academy (starting at $175 a day) at some of its properties, including Deer Valley and Laguna Beach, where students may enroll in full learning days with…

Anya Taylor-Joy dominates Scott Frank’s excellent new Netflix limited series The Queen’s Gambit. Building thriller-like intensity around an intellectual pursuit — in this case, chess — the series features many scenes of Taylor-Joy simply peering at a chessboard. Her eyes capture exhilaration and devastation, wisdom and confusion. The actress’ tour de force performance is integral to the success of the show, but it’s far from the seven-episode saga’s only asset. The Queen’s Gambit works for many of the same reasons Netflix’s The Crown works: It’s smart, lavishly produced TV for grown-ups — something to relish. Frank (Netflix’s Godless) wrote and directed the whole series (based on Walter Tevis’ novel), which opens on the cusp of the 1960s with Isla Johnston as Beth Harmon, a girl placed in a Kentucky orphanage…

Roald Dahl’s 1983 children’s novel The Witches, the sinister tale of a coven of toeless conjurers who despise youngsters (to them, kids smell like dog poo) and plot to turn them into mice, twice has been made into a movie. The latest, from director Robert Zemeckis and starring Anne Hathaway as the Grand High Witch (see THR’s review, page 58), will stream Oct. 22 on HBO Max. (It was pulled from Warner Bros.’ theatrical release calendar due to COVID-19.) But the original, which starred Anjelica Huston as the sorceress in chief, came out 30 years ago and still manages to induce nightmares. Jim Henson, who despite rising to fame with The Muppets always harbored a taste for the macabre, bought the film rights to the book shortly after publication, convinced…