Innholdsfortegnelse for November 22, 2021 i The Hollywood Reporter

Produced By Laura Berwick Kenneth Branagh Becca Kovacik Tamar Thomas BEST DIRECTING Kenneth Branagh BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Kenneth Branagh BEST ACTOR Jude Hill BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Caitríona Balfe Judi Dench BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Jamie Dornan Ciarán Hinds BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Haris Zambarloukos, BSC GSC BEST FILM EDITING Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, ACE BFE BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN Jim Clay PRODUCTION DESIGNER Claire Nia Richards SET DECORATOR BEST COSTUME DESIGN Charlotte Walter BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING Wakana Yoshihara HAIR & MAKEUP DESIGNER Sian Wilson HAIR & MAKEUP CO-DESIGNER BEST SOUND Simon Chase SOUND SUPERVISOR James Mather SOUND SUPERVISOR Denise Yarde PRODUCTION SOUND MIXER Niv Adiri RE-RECORDING MIXER BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Matthew Glen VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG “Down to Joy” Van Morrison MUSIC AND LYRICS BY Van Morrison PERFORMED BY “A deeply affecting…

On Nov. 17, Netflix’s climate change dramedy began screening. Dozens of Academy members including Bong Joon Ho, Chloé Zhao and Robert Pattinson turned out for one, followed by a Q&A with writer-director Adam McKay and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep. BEST PICTURE Participant/Neon’s animated non-English-language doc, which some think could become the first doc ever nominated in this category, received IDA Award noms for feature and director on Nov. 15. On Nov. 18, Participant’s David Linde accepted the Power of Cinema Award at the American Cinematheque Awards. The quartet at the center of Jane Campion’s Netflix drama — lead actor Benedict Cumberbatch and supporting performers Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee — wowed SAG Awards nominating committee members at a packed post-screening Q&A on Nov. 17…

Suzanna Son, a 26-year-old from Washington state, has been garnering acclaim — and best supporting actress Oscar buzz — ever since Sean Baker’s Red Rocket premiered in July at Cannes. In the A24 film (out Dec. 10), she plays Strawberry, a high schooler who becomes involved with a has-been porn star (Simon Rex). THR chief film critic David Rooney called her feature debut “incandescent.” That she is, never more so than during a rendition of NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” that will forever change the way one thinks about that tune. Here, Son reflects on her journey to the brink of stardom. When did you move to L.A.? I went to Cornish College of the Arts and first majored in classical music. I didn’t graduate. I hadn’t seen any of the…

As a teenager growing up in New Jersey, Pamela Abdy danced competitively five to six days a week. Her dream of making it a career was shattered, along with her foot, during her sophomore year at Boston’s Emerson College, but a professor made a compelling connection by comparing cinema to choreography. Abdy had found her new calling: producing movies. Many years later, as the pandemic shut down Hollywood in spring 2020, MGM chief Michael De Luca convinced Abdy to come on board as president of the studio’s motion picture group. Within weeks of her arrival there, where Abdy now oversees eight creative executives, she and De Luca closed deals to pick up Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza (out Nov. 26) and Joe Wright’s musical Cyrano (Dec. 17, qualifying run), while…

In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City was hit first — and hardest. With the unfolding tragedy came a flood of residents suddenly looking for properties outside the city as well as anxious whispers that the city might never return to its former glory. The effect on NYC’s real estate market was severe: In the second quarter of 2020, Manhattan sales fell 54.1 percent, their steepest decline in 30 years, while prices dropped 17.7 percent, according to data from Douglas Elliman. But by the last few months of 2020, there was an upsurge in activity, and demand has only grown through 2021. “It’s still the greatest city in the world, and everybody wants to be here,” says Core NYC broker Emily Beare. Homes priced over $10…

Every year, Hollywood gives millions to LGBTQ organizations, partnering with the likes of GLAAD, HRC, The Trevor Project and The Point Foundation for starry galas as A-listers sit on their boards or serve on host committees. But it’s the “T” that seems to have gotten less financial commitment than the rest of the acronym, as transgender organizations report a mixed bag of industry support — even as Dave Chappelle’s transphobic comments in his recent Netflix special brought a renewed spotlight to the issues many trans people still face. “We’re seeing much more thoughtfulness out of Hollywood about trans characters and casting trans actors. We have not yet seen that filter into donations to trans-specific organizations, that we’re aware of,” says National Center for Transgender Equality executive director Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen. He…

A slick, tone-deaf apologia for minor celebrity misbehavior in the era of cancel culture, Netflix’s True Story is the sort of drama that, in a different age, would have been made as a 90-minute movie and given an out-of-competition slot at Sundance just to get star Kevin Hart on the festival red carpet. Instead, True Story is a seven-episode series with not nearly enough twists and turns to justify the cynical, logic-defying finale. What justifies the show’s existence is the reminder of how embarrassingly Hollywood has undervalued Wesley Snipes for nearly two decades. Every time my fatigue with the series’ self-aggrandizement peaked, Snipes’ effortless cool and growing vulnerability kept me going. Hart plays Kid, a rising comic star seemingly at the top of the world. His new superhero movie is…

In April 2018, Hollywood power players gave the royal treatment to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, jockeying for a chance to tap into the country’s $500 billion Public Investment Fund and expanding market share. But in the wake of the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi six months later — a crime attributed to Saudi government agents — the industry publicly eschewed the relationship. Fast-forward three years, and that freezeout appears to be thawing as Saudi Arabia kicks off a big month of showbiz activity that will feature such notables as Justin Bieber, Anthony Mackie and director Joe Wright. On Dec. 5, United Artists and Universal will launch the Wright-directed musical Cyrano as the opening-night film at the Red Sea Film Festival, the country’s first major international…

For the past 35 years, the North County surf town of Oceanside was likely only known in Hollywood circles for being home to the sweet Victorian cottage where Tom Cruise’s Maverick visited his love interest, Charlie (Kelly McGillis), in Top Gun. But, just as the long-awaited film’s sequel is on the horizon in 2022, the small city is making waves as an elevated weekend destination, complete with two new boutique hotels and must-visit culinary sensations. “Oceanside was once known as a sleepy beach town but is quickly becoming a not-so-hidden gem,” says Michael Stephens, managing director of the city’s two new design-forward hotels, The Seabird Resort and Mission Pacific Hotel. Dining highlights include Southeast Asian eatery Dija Mara (232 S. Coast Highway, dijamara.com), which was awarded the Michelin Guide’s Bib…

Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek and director Ridley Scott continued their global House of Gucci tour Nov. 16 with the film’s New York premiere (some of the cast attended an L.A. celebration two days later). “Great scripts attract great actors, and we have a formidable cast,” Scott said, describing his film as “a very posh-world satire.” The Gucci family provides the backdrop, but Gaga’s Patrizia Reggiani takes center stage. As screenwriter Roberto Bentivegna told THR, “It was always going to be her story.” Got tips or submissions? Email rambling@thr.com or hhh@thr.com…

The 94th Academy Awards ceremony is set to take place on March 27, 2022 — a little over two years after stay-at-home orders began sweeping across the U.S. and the coronavirus pandemic became an identifiable threat for most Americans. Its effect on Hollywood was felt almost immediately: Tentpole releases were pushed (and pushed, and pushed) back, leaving few studio films in the 2021 Oscars race, which cleared the way for an indie film like Nomadland to pick up best picture. The Focus Features release felt like a companion of sorts to 2020’s best picture winner, Parasite, Bong Joon Ho’s explosive drama that forced audiences across the globe to think critically about capitalism and its failings. If Parasite seemed like a warning sign for things to come — its four Oscar…

Hollywood and the education system have been intertwined for many years, with celebrities and industry companies long writing checks and forming charitable partnerships to give back to the next generation. As of late, though, Hollywood has taken a big new step in changing the school system: creating its own. The Roybal School of Film and Television Production, with a board featuring George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Don Cheadle, Kerry Washington, Mindy Kaling, Nicole Avant, Eva Longoria, Working Title Films’ Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and CAA’s Bryan Lourd, was announced in June, with plans to welcome high school students starting next fall. And Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre — who unveiled the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation (IYA) in 2013 —…

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization of journalists for international outlets that puts on the annual Golden Globe Awards, is now in talks with several of the constituencies that have boycotted it since a Feb. 21 Los Angeles Times piece called into question the HFPA’s demographics and financial practices, including revealing it had no Black members. The HFPA has since enacted sweeping reforms, but its broadcasting partner NBC announced in May that it had resolved not to air the ceremony in 2022, stating, “Change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right.” Some of the people most concerned about the fate of the Globes telecast may well be the beneficiaries of the HFPA’s philanthropic largesse — the…

Does TV news have a future outside of the existing television ecosystem? The question is top of mind for news executives as the entertainment world dramatically shifts, with linear TV channels facing steady decline and streaming on the rise. In his 1991 book Three Blind Mice, Ken Auletta detailed how the rise of cable TV, and specifically CNN and its coverage of the Gulf War, threw the network news divisions at ABC, NBC and CBS into chaos. “Viewers realized that CNN, not the three networks, was the channel of convenience for live, up-to-the-minute news,” Auletta wrote. “All at once, everyone seemed to be talking about whether network news had a future — indeed, whether the networks had a future.” The networks found their future by becoming tied to the pay…

Netflix no longer is public enemy No. 1 in the eyes of at least one mega-theater circuit — Cinemark. On Nov. 12, without revealing actual numbers, the exhibitor gushed in a press release that Red Notice is the most successful Netflix title it has carried. Before the pandemic, Cinemark, like major theater chain rivals AMC Entertainment and Regal Cinemas, largely snubbed Netflix titles since the streamer wouldn’t abide by a 90-day theatrical window. That meant Netflix had to rely on a patchwork of 150 to 300 indie cinemas to play its films and prove to talent that it cares about the theatrical experience. The extended COVID-19 pandemic has upended traditional windows. On Nov. 5, Netflix was hence able to book Red Notice — an action-comedy starring Dwayne Johnson opposite Ryan…

Deal of the Week Martin Scorsese is strengthening ties with Apple TV+ as he plans his next stard-riven movie. The legendary filmmaker is set to direct a narrative feature centered on the also-legendary counterculture rock band Grateful Dead, with Jonah Hill on board to portray lead singer Jerry Garcia. It marks a rare instance Scorsese won’t be working with his longtime leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio, and reunites him with Hill, whom he directed to an Oscar nomination in 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street. Perhaps more importantly, it reteams Scorsese with Apple TV+, whose screened entertainment division is bankrolling his latest effort, the period crime movie Killers of the Flower Moon. That is no small feat considering Flower Moon, which does star DiCaprio, cost at least $200 million, with some…

To make No Time to Die — the 25th Bond movie and the last one starring Daniel Craig as 007 — two seasoned editors who were both new to (and also longtime fans of) the franchise joined the project: Tom Cross, an Oscar winner for Whiplash, and Elliot Graham, an Academy Award nominee for Milk. The pair knew they would need to deliver the thrilling action and suspense that Bond fans expect while also balancing the action with an emotional story — a “character-driven drama that has action,” in Graham’s words. Cross recalls producer Barbara Broccoli stressing “how important it was to make it emotional, above all else.” As the story gets underway, Bond and Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), his love interest from Spectre, arrive in Italy for a romantic…

“WELCOME TO THE INDUSTRY!” joked Jessica Chastain and Kristen Stewart to their younger cohort Emilia Jones, as the six talents on The Hollywood Reporter’s Actress Roundtable commiserated about overlooked labors of love (“Is anybody ever going to watch it?”), the degree to which fear drives their decisions (Jennifer Hudson and Kirsten Dunst say no, Tessa Thompson and Stewart say no longer) and navigating COVID-19 to give some of the year’s most acclaimed performances. Gathering at THR’s headquarters in late October were: Chastain, star and producer of Michael Showalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye; Dunst, who plays a 1920s remarried mother tormented by her brother-in-law in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog; Hudson, who channels Aretha Franklin in Liesl Tommy’s biopic Respect; Jones, who portrays a hearing child of deaf…

BABY2BABY The nonprofit brought in its highest-ever fundraising total, $8.5 million, at its annual gala Nov. 13. But all that money doesn’t help if Baby2Baby, which provides essential items for families across the U.S., can’t receive or give away products due to supply chain issues. So the nonprofit earlier this year began manufacturing its own diapers to create a supply of 5 million items that will be distributed for free to caregivers. It also found it could make diapers for just 6 cents each, down from the 12 cents it was paying at general wholesale. EBMRF Unable to host its annual Rock4EB event this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, EBMRF — which helps people who have the skin disease epidermolysis bullosa — decided against a virtual event. “People were…

Marisol Nichols’ career has landed her on shows like Riverdale, NCIS and GCB. But perhaps her most powerful roles yet have been performed behind the scenes: Since 2014, the actress has been working undercover to catch human traffickers. “I started learning about human trafficking and hearing these horrific stories about child brothels around 2011, and I couldn’t sleep,” Nichols says. Following meetings with different organizations throughout the world — from Mexico to Uganda and even taking meetings at the White House with members of the Obama administration — Nichols decided to begin using her platform at red carpet events to bring awareness to the horrors of human trafficking and later founded her own nonprofit, Foundation for a Slavery Free World. An estimated 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern…

In each of the past four decades, the number of best picture nominees from outside the U.S. has increased. In the 2010s, the Academy for the first time averaged more than two foreign film nominees in the top category per year. This included the first-ever foreign-language winner (Parasite, from South Korea) as well as fellow winners The King’s Speech (U.K.) and The Artist (France). But this is less a reflection of an increasing openness toward international cinema than it is a consequence of the expanded best picture category. When looking at these counts as a percentage of the total number of nominees (only since 2009 has the number been more than five), the most recent decades no longer look any different than the 1960s, ’80s or ’90s. That said, most…

THE CARD COUNTER Nominated for best screenplay (Paul Schrader) and lead performance (Oscar Isaac), the Focus revenge thriller follows Isaac’s ex-military interrogator turned gambler who’s haunted by his past. THE KILLING OF KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN Frankie Faison earned a Gotham nod for his role as the eponymous elderly Black veteran who was killed by police during a welfare check after an accidental medical alert. MASS Reed Birney is nominated for his supporting role in the Bleecker Street drama in which parents on opposite ends of a school shooting meet in a church. PIG Nominated for best feature, the Neon film sees Nicolas Cage playing an off-the-grid truffle hunter searching for his kidnapped foraging animal. SHIVA BABY In breakthrough director nominee Emma Seligman’s comedy, breakthrough performer nominee Rachel Sennott has awkward encounters…