Innholdsfortegnelse for March 3, 2021 i The Hollywood Reporter

Netflix The streamer accelerated its growth in 2020 thanks to stay-at-home orders in many parts of the world, adding a record 36.6 million users and ending the year with 203.6 million global subscribers. Revenue rose sharply and its operating profit overtook all Hollywood giants’ studio units. Importantly, Netflix swung to positive free cash flow for 2020 to the tune of $1.9 billion (after a 2019 loss of $3.3 billion) and forecast it would roughly break even for 2021, followed by free cash flow profits after that. With Hollywood pushing into streaming, Netflix is keeping up its programming spending, unveiling a huge film slate of 71 titles and noting that, as of January, it had 500 film or TV projects in postproduction or prepping to debut. During a Jan. 19 earnings…

FILM Ta-Nehisi Coates (UTA, Del Shaw) will write the script for a new Superman movie, produced by J.J. Abrams, for Warner Bros. George Clooney (CAA, Lichter Grossman) and Julia Roberts (CAA, Hirsch Wallerstein) will star in Universal Pictures’ romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise. Rachel Zegler (ICM) has joined Zachary Levi in New Line’s Shazam: Fury of the Gods. Common (UTA, Grandview, Myman Greenspan) will produce God’s Long Summer, a biopic on civil and voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Keith and Kenny Lucas (UTA, Fourth Wall, Hansen Jacobson) will write and star in a semi-autobiographical Universal comedy, with Judd Apatow producing. Ryan Gosling (CAA, Sloane Offer) will star in and produce The Actor, an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s novel Memory. Rebel Wilson (WME, Sloane Offer) will star in and…

Yolk (SIMON & SCHUSTER, MARCH 2) BY Mary H.K. Choi AGENCY UTA A sibling-centric family melodrama, the book follows estranged sisters Jayne and June, who moved from South Korea to New York together and are forced back into each other’s lives after the elder receives a cancer diagnosis. Bone Rattle (KENSINGTON, APRIL 27) BY Marc Cameron AGENCY Writers House The veteran novelist, known for writing four of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan books, offers franchise potential with the third installment in his own series about Arliss Cutter, a seasoned U.S. marshal who must solve a number of disappearances in the Alaskan bush.…

Preproduction quarantines are the new norm in Hollywood, with cast and crews holed up in hotel rooms around the world for two to three weeks before ever stepping on set. Many of these stays, and the accompanying struggles, are broadcast on social media: Taika Waititi documented 14 days stuck inside a hotel room with his daughters in New Zealand ahead of directing Thor: Love and Thunder in Australia, and Lulu Wang took to Twitter, looking for virtual friends to “get drunk [with] and do an AMA or Clubhouse or dance party” during a 21-day quarantine in Hong Kong for Amazon’s series The Expatriates. Jack Quaid performed nightly lip-sync numbers on his Instagram stories during a 14-day Canadian lockdown. “It started out fairly simple, just me dancing. Then I realized that…

Lauren Conrad and Hannah Skvarla’s The Little Market — a nonprofit fair-trade shop committed to empowering women by featuring ethically sourced, artisan-made products — is mounting a Conversations With Changemakers program on March 8, International Women’s Day, that will feature a slew of stars. Dubbed “panels with a purpose,” the free program presents the co-founders in conversation with Jessica Alba talking about empowering mothers; Charlize Theron in a community leadership dialogue; Kelly Ripa and Sofia Vergara chatting about economic independence; and Amy Schumer, Chelsea Handler and Jameela Jamil sharing takes on social activism, among others. “We asked people to talk about things that they were really passionate about and that they wanted to bring light to,” says Conrad. The duo previously hosted an in-person event, but the move to virtual…

The black comedy of writer-director Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman effortlessly shifts from comedy to thriller to rom-com to horror movie, often within a single scene, as the Focus Features release tells the tale of the clever Cassandra Thomas, played by Carey Mulligan, who was viewed as a promising young woman until mysterious circumstances prompted her to drop out of medical school. “It was set up in the script. We knew how Emerald wanted to play with the different genres and set up those clear moments that are more horror movie, more thriller or rom-com. Her writing is very precise,” says film editor Frédéric Thoraval, who in working with Fennell for the first time took on the challenge of maintaining that delicate tonal balance. “The main thing was to follow…

Tim Story The director’s Tom & Jerry adaptation for Warner Bros. claims $14 million in its debut, a good sign for exhibitors as New York City theaters open March 5. Ali Sar The HFPA president, criticized over lack of diversity among members, presides over a Golden Globes ceremony that averages 6.91 million viewers, a 13-year low. Chuck Lorre The mega-producer’s CBS comedies Young Sheldon and B Positive both hit season highs among the adults 18-to-49 demographic with their Feb. 25 episodes. John Malone The mogul’s Liberty Media sees its operating income swing to a loss of $603 million for the three months ending Dec. 31, compared with a year-earlier profit of $302 million. Showbiz Stocks $68.72 (+7.9%) VIACOMCBS (VIACA) The merged firm’s streaming pitch for Paramount+ made an impact with…

Deal of the Week In the summer of 2015, AT&T closed its acquisition of satellite powerhouse DirecTV, touting its new role as “the largest pay TV provider” in the world. Price tag: $67 billion, including debt. AT&T ended that year with 25.4million U.S. pay TV subscribers. Fast-forward to this Feb. 25, when AT&T sold a 30 percent stake in DirecTV and its other video services, U-verse and AT&T TV, to private equity firm TPG Capital. The deal valued the new entity, titled DirecTV, at $16.25 billion, “down considerably,” as Moody’s analyst Neil Begley noted — 76 percent to be precise. AT&T ended 2020 with 17.2million U.S. video subscribers, a third lower than in 2015. “AT&T’s DirecTV is inarguably one of the worst acquisitions of all time,” MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett…

Rep Sheet Taylor Cassidy, a TikTok star, signed with WME. Melba Wilson, a TV chef and restaurateur, signed with Buchwald. The Weeknd, after his Super Bowl turn, signed with CAA. Callum Woodhouse, who stars on PBS’ All Creatures Great and Small, signed with APA. Jean-Rene Zetrenne, formerly at Ogilvy USA, has been hired as chief people officer at UTA. THR, Esq. CASE James Franco v. former acting students WHY IT MATTERS The actor has reached a settlement with two former students of his acting school who claimed they were sexually exploited. Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal in October 2019 filed a putative class action against Franco and others involved in Studio 4. Full details of the deal have not yet been released, but a motion for preliminary approval is expected…

“My goal is to unify.”EMMANUEL ACHOThe Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man author and host, on Instagram, announcing that he will step in for Chris Harrison on The Bachelor’s post-finale special, After the Final Rose. “We always have an SAT word in the lyrics somewhere because people appreciate learning a word.”ROBERT LOPEZ The Frozen and Coco co-songwriter, to The New York Times, elaborating on the songwriting process behind the hits he has created with his partner and wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez. “We set out to do something [and] we won.”DAVID GOODMAN The WGA West president, to the Los Angeles Times, detailing the guild’s victory in its nearly two-year battle with top talent agencies over conflicts of interest regarding packaging fees. “I have never met Aaron Rodgers.”JODIE FOSTERThe actress, speaking to the…

Engagements Actress-producer Ricki Lake got engaged to attorney Ross Burningham on Feb. 14 at their home in Malibu. He proposed during an evening dip in the jacuzzi. Shailene Woodley confirmed her engagement to NFL star Aaron Rodgers on The Tonight Show on Feb. 22. Births Tom Wellington, head of TV at WME, and wife Ariana Wellington welcomed Olivia Frances Wellington on Jan. 28 at Cedars-Sinai. Mandy Moore and musician husband Taylor Goldsmith announced via Instagram the arrival of August Harrison Goldsmith on Feb. 23. Congrats Mark Cheatham and Joe Hadley were appointed co-heads of CAA’s global Hip-Hop/R&B touring group Feb. 25. Susan Fox was upped to senior vp government relations for the Walt Disney Co. on Feb. 23. Julie Pizzi was named president of Bunim/Murray Productions on Feb. 24. HBO…

EVERY MONTH, DISNEY convenes an eclectic group of advisers via videoconference to tell the media conglomerate what it and the many entertainment companies it has acquired over its nearly 100-year history have gotten wrong. It’s a long list. Song of the South. Jar Jar Binks. That episode of The Muppet Show where Johnny Cash sings a duet with Miss Piggy in front of a Confederate flag. “We’ve had some very raw conversations on those Zooms,” says Gil Robertson, president of the African American Film Critics Association, who sits on Disney’s advisory council, part of its Stories Matter Initiative, alongside representatives from groups like the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media as well as representatives from various departments at Disney, including programming,…

On March 8 — a few days short of the fifth anniversary of a $140 million jury verdict that bankrupted gossip site Gawker and shocked the media establishment — the attorney behind the legal strategy will publish his new book recounting the trial. But Gawker Slayer: The Professional and Personal Adventures of Famed Attorney Charles Harder, by Charles Harder, also features an eyebrow-raising disclosure beyond anything related to his experience working on the Hulk Hogan sex tape case. The Beverly Hills entertainment litigator writes: “In 2018, I was honored to be asked by the Time’s Up Foundation to take a case to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of one of Bill Cosby’s accusers.” That would mean that mere months after representing Harvey Weinstein in an unsuccessful attempt to squelch…

Big Deal Nearly a year after Hollywood shuttered amid the pandemic, the industry is plotting a major return to filming in California. The state’s film commission revealed that 22 features have been selected for the latest round of tax credits under its incentives program. That includes 11 indies and 11 studio films, among them Universal’s Scarface remake, written by the Coen brothers and to be helmed by Luca Guadagnino; Netflix’s Here Comes the Flood, written by Simon Kinberg and to be directed by Jason Bateman; and Steven Soderbergh’s HBO Max film Kimi, starring Zoë Kravitz. Other features qualifying for the tax credits include the Eva Longoria-directed Cheetos origin movie Flamin’ Hot, the Reese Witherspoon-produced adaptation of Ashley’s War and the Jeremy Popeled Sammy Davis Jr. biopic Scandalous! Together, the projects are…

1. ANYA TAYLOR-JOY IN DIOR Stylist Law Roach worked with Dior Haute Couture to create a custom green Lurex gown for the Globes winner. It was paired with an evening coat, matching shoes and Tiffany & Co diamonds. “We really wanted to do something that felt retro to pay homage to her character from The Queen’s Gambit,” Roach tells THR. 2. ANDRA DAY IN CHANEL A winner for The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Day wore a gray silk-tulle couture gown with hand embroidery that required roughly 1,100 hours in the atelier, as well as diamonds from Chanel Fine Jewelry. 3. AMANDA SEYFRIED IN OSCAR DE LA RENTA Seyfried’s stylist Elizabeth Stewart was with her the day the Mank actress got her nomination. “Fernando Garcia from Oscar de la Renta…

Promising Young Woman EMERALD FENNELL Eight pages into the script, Cassandra (Carey Mulligan), seemingly very drunk, is taken home from a club by Jerry (Adam Brody) for “one more drink.” When he tries to have sex with her, his nearly unconscious date suddenly snaps to attention and catches Jerry in his bad behavior, leaving him stunned and embarrassed. Original Screenplay The Forty-Year-Old Version RADHA BLANK After Radha (played by director, writer and producer Radha Blank), a struggling nearly-40-year-old playwright, performs her own raps (as “RadhaMUSprime”) in a makeshift studio for the first time, she meets up with her friend/agent Archie (Peter Kim), who has just made a major sacrifice to help get Radha’s play produced and finds her newfound obsession for rap a bit confusing. Adapted Screenplay News of the…

Renewed criticisms against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and its Golden Globe Awards have many in the industry again rethinking the top of the awards-season almanac — namely, who gets to set the tone in the run-up to the Oscars. The Critics Choice Awards are a natural choice for prognosticator, as the second major kudos on the calendar arriving one week after the Globes, on March 7. And while critics are hardly immune to controversy of their own, they’re surprisingly reliable predictors of who’ll get an Oscar. The roughly 400 movie branch members of the Critics Choice Association have voted in line with The Film Academy 73 percent of the time in the six major categories — best picture, best director and the four acting races — for the past…