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.
On Feb. 4, a group of WME staffers convened in a conference online to discuss the escalating Armie Hammer situation. For the past three years, the agency’s client advisory committee has been tasked with determining the fate of those who are accused of misconduct. The group — evenly split along gender lines — has made difficult calls in the past, voting to drop high earners like X-Men director Bryan Singer and Arrow creator Andrew Kreisberg following claims of sexual misconduct and harassment. Hammer was facing a tsunami of critical and embarrassing press after an Instagram account dubbed House of Effie posted a series of direct messages and videos purported to be from Hammer that detailed cannibalistic and rape fantasies as well as drug use. Hammer already had been asked to…
Tabitha Jackson At her first Sundance as festival director, the mostly virtual proceedings reached 500,000 film program views, doubling the audience for a typical in-person event. Roger Goodell The NFL commissioner’s CBS Super Bowl broadcast lands 96.4 million viewers, a 5.5 percent drop from 2020 and the smallest audience for the game since 2007. Lachlan Murdoch Driven by the 2020 election-related TV advertising surge, the Fox Corp. chief sees quarterly revenue rise 8 percent from a year earlier to $4.09 billion. Andrew Millstein, Rob Baird The Blue Sky Studios co-presidents are exiting as Disney shutters the animation label behind the Ice Age franchise and Spies in Disguise. Showbiz Stocks $14.00 (+0.6%) LIONSGATE (LGF.A) Despite COVID-19 slowing production, the Starz owner topped earnings expectations with 14.6 million streaming subscribers. $5.50 (–38%)…
Brett Ratner and Steven Mnuchin are inextricably linked thanks to their RatPac-Dune Entertainment film financing vehicle, which backed such Warner Bros. films as Wonder Woman and Dunkirk. After a four-year public absence from the film world, both are poised to tap industry contacts, even if they will likely receive a cold shoulder from Hollywood. On Feb. 4, Ratner announced that he has acquired Jaime Rogozinski’s life rights and is developing a film and podcast about the founder of Reddit’s WallStreetBets. The move raised eyebrows around town given that in November 2017, Ratner was accused of sexual misconduct by six women in a Los Angeles Times story, prompting Warners to sever its relationship with him and WME to drop him as a client. Separately, a woman accused Ratner of rape in…
Ending speculation about his future leading the news network, CNN president Jeff Zucker signed on to the daily editorial call Feb. 4 and made his intentions clear. “The truth is, back in November and December I had basically decided that it was time to move on,” Zucker said, sources tell THR, adding that he’d since “had a change of heart.” He told his employees he would remain at the helm of CNN through the end of 2021, at which point he expects to depart. Zucker’s decision gives CNN some stability, but it comes at what may be a tipping point for the global news brand. CNN has had blockbuster ratings the past few months, culminating in January, which was the most-watched month in the channel’s 40-year history, topping both Fox…
You’ll have to forgive anyone in Hollywood who responsded to the Feb. 2 news that Andy Jassy will replace Jeff Bezos as Amazon CEO with “Who?” An Amazon lifer, Jassy has spent nearly two decades running the e-commerce giant’s highly profitable cloud computing division, a role that hardly put him in a position to rub elbows with the creatives making films and TV shows for Amazon Studios. But Jassy’s appointment to the CEO role, which becomes effective during the third quarter, when Bezos becomes executive chairman, should have little impact on the company’s entertainment business, Amazon insiders say. “One of the big hallmarks of Hollywood is when you have a new leader come in, there’s a whole changing of the guard. That’s not the Amazon way,” says former Amazon vp…
Picture Minari After a lackluster showing at the Golden Globe noms (only a foreign-language mention), it roared back with three SAG Award noms and 10 Critics Choice noms. It also had a Feb. 4 Ramy Youssef-moderated virtual Q&A introduced by California’s new U.S. senator, Alex Padilla. News of the World Apart from noms for 12-year-old Helena Zengel, Paul Greengrass’ latest film was MIA from major categories at the Globe and SAG noms — but bounced back with Critics Choice noms for best picture, actor (Tom Hanks), adapted screenplay and young actor/actress (Zengel). Actress Sophia Loren The Life Ahead The Italian legend has now missed with Globe, SAG and CC noms — though her film, directed by son Edoardo Ponti and appearing on Netflix, received foreign-language Globe and CC noms even…
