Innholdsfortegnelse for December 8, 2021 i The Hollywood Reporter

I’ve often marveled at the resilience of Hollywood during this seemingly never-ending pandemic: putting on awards shows, releasing blockbuster movies, entertaining the masses via streaming services and anointing new stars, all while complying with mask mandates and taking PCR tests. As amazing as that is, perhaps what has been more miraculous has been how our youth has adapted, and even at times found a way to thrive despite being deprived of key milestones in their formative years: the camaraderie of schoolmates, proms, connecting with teachers outside of a computer screen. It’s what makes the accomplishments of THR’s Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program, in coordination with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles, so remarkable. Faced with the daunting hurdles of COVID-19, it would have been easy for mentors to…

The 2022 elections are still nearly a year away, but as Dr. Mehmet Oz makes a run for the Senate in Pennsylvania, his old partners in the entertainment space had better be prepared for blowback. Already, Oprah Winfrey is taking fire on social media for helping launch this celebrity. And if Winfrey gets to experience what Mark Burnett perhaps felt back in 2016 — when a certain Apprentice star announced a presidential candidacy and many cried out, “How could you?” — Sony Pictures Television may also grapple with an association that becomes increasingly scrutinized through the political campaign process. Once upon a time, Sony was quite proud of Oz, who made dozens of appearances on Winfrey’s show before commanding his own. When The Dr. Oz Show launched in 2009, the…

For a good portion of 2021, it seemed as if SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, had fallen out of favor. The Biden administration imposed disclosure rules that chilled new entrants to the market, and the glut of new SPACs formed in 2020 and early 2021 gave companies considering a merger the ability to be picky about their partners. “There was record issuance in the first quarter, and then there was a big slowdown, with the SEC taking a closer look at some of the accounting,” Cowen CEO Jeffrey Solomon told CNBC on Dec. 2. But with those disclosure regulations now better understood, SPACs are making something of a comeback. Two finance sources tell THR that they think the SPAC space is about to heat up, driven by the potential…

With many families finally reuniting, it certainly is the most wonderful time of the year. Whether celebrating with loved ones or simply toasting the season, here are some SoCal spots for enjoying special holiday moments. HOTEL HAPPENINGS… Cozy up by the fireplace inside the lavishly decorated Living Room lobby at Shutters on the Beach (1 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica) with nightly live entertainment, while indulging in its Romp on the Beach cocktail, a twist on eggnog, along with holiday fare from 1 Pico executive chef Sean Michael Runyon. “This is the time of the year to spoil yourself,” says Runyon, “and discerning palates will appreciate my unapologetic use of truffles and caviar.”… Plan for merriment at Peninsula Beverly Hills (9882 South Santa Monica Blvd.) with a wreath-making and mixology class…

Musicals have been singing decidedly off-key at the box office, but Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story hopes to reverse that curse. Disney and 20th Century open the big-budget revival in theaters Dec. 10 — 60 years after the first movie adaptation of the Broadway sensation became a box office hit, then scored 10 Oscars, including one for best picture. Disney has thrown its full marketing might behind selling Spielberg’s West Side Story, but despite an iconic property, an A-list helmer and early rave reviews, there are major challenges. In response, the overall campaign has positioned the film as an event pic and love story, instead of a musical, in hopes of attracting younger consumers who are so far fueling the box office recovery. Adults over age 35 in the U.S.,…

The cast of The White Lotus, including Connie Britton and Jennifer Coolidge, were lucky — the fortunate few who spent much of the pandemic in the otherwise off-limits Polynesian archipelago of Hawaii, filming Mike White’s devilish satire at a top resort. Following a monthslong voluntary closure after government officials asked tourists to stay away — a period that locals admittedly enjoyed wholeheartedly — the islands are open again (as of this fall) and more attractive than ever thanks to renovated resorts, new cultural experiences and meaningful opportunities to mālama āina — take care of the land. Hawaii’s pina colada-buzzed tourist scene got a reset during COVID-19 and, silver lining, has emerged better than ever. But these days, anyone traveling to the middle of the Pacific had better come away with…

At the top of a long, winding hill, behind an imposing gate and an anxious dog, stands Jennifer Aniston. “Come on in,” she says, sandaled and smiling as she ushers me into her home. Before I’ve had time to take in the sweeping views of Los Angeles from her entryway, she’s in the kitchen whipping me up the shake that she enjoys most afternoons — with collagen peptides, antioxidants and a slew of other ingredients that she meticulously measures and pours into her blender. This is Aniston, the host, a role that her friends all say she was born to play. “I can’t exaggerate how much she loves it, and how good she is at it,” says one of her longest and closest, Kristin Hahn, with whom Aniston and her…

PAMELA ABDY President, MGM Motion Picture Group On a hot streak with both Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci and Paul Thomas Anderson’s art house hit Licorice Pizza as early awards contenders, Abdy also saw Daniel Craig’s final Bond entry, No Time to Die, roll out (finally!) to solid numbers. More than a year into the job, and ahead of a pending Amazon acquisition, Abdy has helped fortify the studio with a slate featuring top talent and filmmakers like Leonardo DiCaprio, Reese Witherspoon, Darren Aronofsky and Michael B. Jordan. What I missed about my pre-pandemic commute “Listening to the Groove station on Sirius radio in the car, while solving work issues in my head.” VICTORIA ALONSO President of Production, Marvel Studios In September, Alonso expanded her purview to become president of…

Normally a sound sleeper, Adam McKay was restless. It was late October, and he’d just finished his new movie, Don’t Look Up. But that wasn’t the issue. The award-winning writer, comedian, director and producer was worried about the COP26 environmental summit thousands of miles away in Glasgow, Scotland. Leonardo DiCaprio, his ally in the climate change movement and the star of his new film, was attending the conference and would text McKay updates. McKay wished more was happening. McKay may not be able to single-handedly solve the climate crisis, but he’s in firm control of his new film, TV and podcast production company, Hyperobject Industries, headquartered in a small brick building just south of Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. Speaking volumes about who he is, and his obsession with politics,…

The musical chairs of friends and foes is underway again at China’s theatrical box office, with South Korea seemingly back in the game while Hollywood and Bollywood could be out of luck for the foreseeable future. On Dec. 3, South Korean family comedy Oh! My Gran, produced by Seoul-based Big Stone Pictures, opened theatrically in China. The movie is the first Korean title to show on Chinese screens since 2016, when Seoul installed a U.S.-made missile defense system, known as THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense), on the Korean peninsula, infuriating Beijing, which viewed the installation on its doorstep as an affront to its regional sovereignty. Chinese regulators retaliated by blocking their massive market from all Korean film imports — a move meant to hit the country’s surging culture industry…

Sam Elliott is in the midst of working on the largest, possibly most difficult project of his decades-long career with 1883, the prequel to the immensely popular series Yellowstone, out Dec. 19 on Paramount+. And the Hollywood icon, 77, is having the time of his life. The star — who appeared in such classics as Tombstone, The Big Lebowski and Road House and was Oscar-nominated in 2019 for A Star Is Born — uses two words more than any other as he discusses his projects, in that deeply rich and comforting voice: “grateful” and “fortunate.” Anything you can share about the highly anticipated (and secretive) series? SAM ELLIOTT It’s a story about the Oregon Trail in general. We start out in Fort Worth, Texas, and we’re headed to Oregon. Along…

Selfie-Taking Tourists Crowd Gates of Bonanza Creek Ranch The tragedy on the New Mexico set of Rust has inspired a macabre trend: selfie-taking tourists descending upon the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe for photo ops and to peer over the gates at the old Western-style movie ranch where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed Oct. 21. When The Hollywood Reporter surveyed the scene in mid-November, three carloads of tourists stopped at the gate in just a 20-minute period. Another source confirmed there’s been an uptick in visitors at the ranch, which has long been a magnet for tourists thanks to the many Hollywood productions it has hosted since the 1950s. After the shooting, the ranch has been closed to the public and tours are suspended. Security guards are stationed at…

When Reinaldo Marcus Green’s King Richard debuted at the Telluride Film Festival in early September, it was hailed as a major Oscar contender, with pundits proclaiming Will Smith the best actor frontrunner for his portrayal of Richard Williams, the hard-charging father of tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams. But when the uplifting Warner Bros. drama finally arrived in movie theaters Nov. 19, it suddenly hit a speed bump. Booked into 3,032 theaters, it grossed just $5.4 million for the weekend, an unimpressive fourth-place showing. While that was hardly enough to derail King Richard’s Oscar prospects, some handicappers began to apply the brakes. Nate Jones, who writes Vulture.com’s Oscar Futures column, had originally given the movie’s best picture odds an up arrow, then reduced them to even, noting, “It’s not ideal…

DAVID ROONEY Last year when we talked about the best performances of 2020, I seem to recall we were bemoaning watching them at home instead of on the giant screens for which they were intended. Though there’s definitely a case to be made for appreciating finely detailed acting in a more intimate format, I often found myself slipping into Norma Desmond mode, griping about “pictures that got small.” So it was a tonic to get back into theaters this year, even if for me most of them have been press screenings or festival premieres at Cannes and Venice. I relished every chance I got to sit masked in the dark and soak up a dazzling star turn or superlative ensemble. In the latter camp, I’d place Jane Campion’s masterful psychosexual…

Anybody who gets excited about Super Bowl commercials knows that a 30- to 60-second spot stands as its own storytelling work of art. And with some eagerly awaited movie trailers becoming their own form of news, those tantalizing previews can garner more eyeballs than the films they’re promoting. The trailer for the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home, for example, drew 355 million views within 24 hours of its release, according to statista.com. And that level of anticipation isn’t just reserved for franchise properties with fanboy followings. ABC’s Good Morning America rolled out the first official trailer for Steven Spielberg’s long-awaited reimagining of West Side Story as a “world exclusive” in September, with all the urgency of a breaking “this just in” news development. Clio Entertainment 50th Anniversary Celebration Dec. 14…

The European Film Awards aren’t the biggest movie awards show in the world. The European Film Academy’s annual celebration of the best in European cinema doesn’t have a global brand to compete with the Oscars or the BAFTAs. But measured by their political impact, the EFAs just might be the most important awards show around. Just ask Oleg Sentsov. The EFAs were the first to come to Senstov’s aid after the Ukrainian filmmaker was seized by Russian authorities in 2014 and imprisoned on trumped-up charges of “plotting terrorist acts” (he had been demonstrating in Crimea in opposition to Russia’s annexation of the region). Collecting signatures from some of Europe’s most acclaimed directors, including Pedro Almodóvar, Wim Wenders and Agnieszka Holland, the European Film Academy sent a letter to Vladimir Putin,…

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s abrupt termination on Dec. 4 has thrown a wrench into the cable news channel’s 2022 plans. CNN was originally hoping to leverage Cuomo, who hosted its most watched nightly program (Cuomo Prime Time), to help it launch CNN+, its forthcoming streaming service. CNN had already found digital success with Cuomo through a podcast he hosted with Don Lemon called The Handoff, which Apple said in November was the fifth most popular subscription podcast on its platform. The CNN+ launch in turn would lead into parent company WarnerMedia’s merger with Discovery, which staff is hoping will result in renewed investment in news when it closes next year. Instead, CNN now finds itself having to effectively rebuild its primetime lineup and decide whether it wants to lean into…

On Dec. 5, the cast of Netflix’s Don’t Look Up converged on the stage of Jazz at Lincoln Center for the film’s world premiere. With stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep looking on, director Adam McKay recalled the night of March 11, 2020, when everything changed and “our lives were never the same again.” Nearly two years later, Hollywood is still living the surreal life, this time bracing for the latest COVID-19 wave: omicron. Four days earlier, Netflix nixed the premiere’s afterparty “out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of our guests” and quietly canceled the entire international press tour of the awards-season hopeful that would have seen DiCaprio and a pregnant Lawrence promoting the film everywhere from London to Paris. While Don’t Look…

BEST PICTURE Licorice Pizza Paul Thomas Anderson’s film, a smash in limited release, earned best film, director and breakthrough performance (shared by Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman) from the National Board of Review on Dec. 2 and best screenplay from the New York Film Critics Circle on Dec. 3. The Power of the Dog Jane Campion’s Western was snubbed by NBR but a hit with NYFCC, winning best director, actor (Benedict Cumberbatch) and supporting actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee) before dropping on Netflix on Dec. 1. It’s been the service’s most watched film in the U.S. since. DIRECTOR Steven Spielberg West Side Story With buzz for his first musical reaching a fever pitch ahead of its Dec. 10 release, the two-time Oscar winner in this category received a standing ovation after a…

Amid the push to get COVID-19 vaccine boosters, Hollywood dog owners are rushing to protect not only themselves from the threat of pandemic but their furry friends as well. However, the pup vaccine they’re looking to get isn’t made by Pfizer or Moderna — it’s a vaccination to protect against a recent outbreak of leptospirosis among dogs in the Los Angeles and New York City areas. While veterinary hospitals in urban areas usually see around 15 to 20 cases of this bacterial disease a year, a recent uptick has shown more than 100 cases in L.A. and New York, just over the course of the past few months. An infection can cause lack of appetite, fever, vomiting, dehydration and, in more severe cases, kidney and liver failure. The particular strain…

Guillermo del Toro unveiled his noir thriller Nightmare Alley on Dec. 1 at New York’s Alice Tully Hall alongside stars Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, Richard Jenkins and Tim Blake Nelson (Cate Blanchett joined virtually from London for a post-screening Q&A). It’s del Toro’s first return to the director’s chair since the Oscar best picture Shape of Water. “It doesn’t have literal monsters, but he’s examining what is in us that’s monstrous,” producer J. Miles Dale told THR. “It’s really the same kind of parable, just without people with gills and fins.” Got tips? Email rambling@thr.com…

Gloria Calderón Kellett’s ambitions are considerably grander than her condo turned office, which is nestled between a mall and her alma mater in one of those sprawling Playa Vista apartment complexes. Having first come to Los Angeles to study acting at Loyola Marymount University, Calderón Kellett has now parlayed her stint show-running the critically adored remake of Norman Lear’s One Day at a Time into a rich deal with Amazon Studios — where she’s now got four projects (plus one movie at HBO Max). The pact’s first fruit — With Love (out Dec. 17), a serialized rom-com that upends the white, heteronormative genre by centering on POC, queer and trans characters — is as much a mission statement as it is a cozy holiday binge watch. Bubbly and provocative during…

The power of music is central to writer-director Garth Jennings’ Sing 2, particularly through a new character — a reclusive rock star voiced by music icon Bono in his first animated movie. The sequel to Jennings’ 2016 crowd-pleaser, the film features U2 classics like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and a new original song titled “Your Song Saved My Life.” The Universal/Illumination release, which hits theaters Dec. 22, has a voice cast that includes return players Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johansson. Bono plays Clay Calloway, a lion who has stopped singing. Jennings says he already had started writing Sing 2 when he first talked with Bono about the project, but Clay’s character wasn’t fully fleshed out. But what was clear to Jennings was that Clay…

Christina Chou’s days are filled with the usual duties of a Hollywood agent: taking meetings, closing deals and representing an all-star roster of writers, directors (Birds of Prey’s Cathy Yan, Minari’s Lee Isaac Chung) and actors (Steven Yeun, Squid Game’s Jung Ho-yeon). But beyond what’s required of her in the motion picture literary department at CAA, Chou also moonlights as a co-founder and CEO of fashion brand Goodfight. The five-year-old label — which makes everything from high-tech athleisure to bespoke suiting — has had a banner year, dressing Chung at the Oscars in March; selling out of its Sound Room Shirt (a camp-collar top in Japanese velvet) after Justin Bieber wore it in DJ Khaled’s and Drake’s “Popstar” video; and designing a custom black skirt for Billie Eilish to wear…

GLORIA CALDERON KELLETT Showrunner See interview, page 45. JANE CAMPION Filmmaker An entire generation of female directors has grown up with Campion as a possibility model in the nearly 30 years since the New Zealand filmmaker became the first woman to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the second to be nominated for a directing Oscar (1993’s The Piano). With so many more women behind the camera now, Campion finally felt free, in 2021, to make her first film featuring a male protagonist, a cruel cowboy played by Benedict Cumberbatch in Netflix’s The Power of the Dog, which won the Silver Lion at Venice in September and seems poised for Oscar glory. Her next big project: launching a film school in New Zealand. TONIA DAVIS; MICHELLE OBAMA Co-Heads, Higher…

Isha Price was in New York City to urge on her sisters, tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams, at the 2018 U.S. Open when she took a detour on the second day of the Grand Slam tournament to meet with film producer Tim White and screenwriter Zach Baylin. It wasn’t the first time Hollywood had come calling with an idea for a movie about her famous siblings, but every other pitch had landed outside the service line. This time was different. Baylin’s script centered on the family’s early years and, more specifically, Richard Williams, the larger-than-life dad and coach whose ambitious and, some would say, unorthodox plan to transform his daughters into champions succeeded (he wrote a 78-page manifesto before either girl was born). “I really appreciated that the story…