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.
David Greenbaum/Matthew Greenfield As Searchlight Pictures’ leaders Nancy Utley and Steve Gilula retire, the studio’s heads of production have both been promoted to president. Ted Sarandos/Reed Hastings The Netflix co-CEOs can’t sustain the rapid growth of 2020, as the streamer adds only 4 million subscribers in its latest quarter, bringing its global total to 208 million. Malcolm Spellman The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showrunner’s series debuts to 495 million minutes of view time on Nielsen’s streaming chart, above the start for WandaVision. Damon Whiteside The ACM Awards, led by the ACM chief, couldn’t shake awards shows’ ratings woes, as the April 18 ceremony on CBS drew 6.28 million total viewers, an all-time low. Showbiz Stocks $54.13 (+1.2%) COMCAST (CMCSA) Universal Studios Hollywood reopened to sold-out crowds as the NBCUniversal…
Call it soft distancing. In the wake of an April 7 THR exposé on Scott Rudin’s abusive behavior, a number of industry organizations and Rudin himself have begun to address the matter, albeit in vague and toothless ways. On April 17, Rudin announced that he is stepping back from “active participation” in his upcoming Broadway projects, but he gave no indication of what that actually means and which plays will be affected. Three days later, he released a second statement saying he is stepping off of film and streaming projects as well. But to date, no industry player or partner with upcoming Rudin business has spoken out, and most of the industry is keeping mum in the face of on-the-record allegations that included physical violence. Rudin remains a client at…
After THR’s April 7 cover story reported claims of Scott Rudin’s abusive behavior, an agent who represents the sort of high-end talent who would be likely candidates to write, direct or appear in a Rudin production called with a question: How radioactive is he? In other words, will clients suffer reputational damage if they do business with a man who has now been accused, on the record, of tormenting scores of assistants and others who worked with him over the years, including at least one allegation of physical assault? That is the calculation underway for many who have worked with Rudin, 62, and answers are slow in coming. There has been nothing from the biggest stars and talent — Frances McDormand, Hugh Jackman and Aaron Sorkin, among others — who…
After finishing high school in Rhode Island in 2008, Joe Begos drove to Los Angeles, like so many before him, with the dream of making movies. Upon arriving, the first place that Begos raced to was the ArcLight cinema on Sunset Boulevard, where his filmmaking idol, David Cronenberg, was delivering a Q&A at the Cinerama Dome after a 35mm screening of his 1986 horror classic, The Fly. Within five days of being an Angeleno, Begos got a job at the ArcLight in Sherman Oaks, where he worked as an usher, in concessions and delivering prefilm audience greetings for the next year. “That’s how you found your clique, your people,” says Begos, who went on to produce and direct four indie horror features, including the films Bliss and VFW, of joining…
The latter half of September is historically a sleepy corridor at the box office as the summer tentpoles finish their runs and go home. Not this year. The weekend of Sept. 24-26, for example, symbolizes Hollywood’s mad dash to release the films that were waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic. Set to open that weekend are no fewer than four high-profile titles: Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage, the Sopranos origins pic The Many Saints of Newark, the teen musical Dear Evan Hansen, and Antoine Fuqua’s sci-fi adventure Infinite, starring Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Venom 2 and Infinite are part of an action genre glut that lasts all through October. Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic Dune launches a week later, on Oct. 1, followed by the James Bond installment No Time…
FILM Laura Dern (CAA, Untitled) and Hugh Jackman (WME, the U.K.’s Lou Coulson) will star in The Son, Florian Zeller’s follow-up to The Father for See-Saw Films. Mads Mikkelsen (UTA, Art) has joined Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Indiana Jones 5. Vin Diesel (CAA, Linden, Felker Toczek) will star in and produce a live-action feature version of tabletop boxing game Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots. Brad Pitt (CAA, Brillstein) will have a cameo role in Paramount’s romantic action-adventure comedy Lost City of D, starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. Bridesmaids duo Kristen Wiig (CAA, Jackoway Austen) and Annie Mumolo (UTA, Thruline, Jackoway Austen) will write a Disney live-action musical comedy centering on Cinderella’s evil stepsisters. Dev Patel (WME, the U.K.’s Curtis Brown, Magnolia, Lichter Grossman) has signed a first-look film…
