Innholdsfortegnelse for March 23, 2022 i The Hollywood Reporter

JESSICA CHASTAIN • The Eyes of Tammy Faye The actress will swap one Tammy for another, playing Tammy Wynette in Paramount+ series George and Tammy. OLIVIA COLMAN • The Lost Daughter She’ll star in Marvel series Secret Invasion, Warner Bros.’ Wonka and Sam Mendes’ Searchlight film Empire of Light. PENÉLOPE CRUZ • Parallel Mothers The star will topline Spanish-language film On the Fringe for Amazon, the Italian-language drama L’immensità and Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari passion project. NICOLE KIDMAN • Being the Ricardos She’s got Robert Eggers and Focus’ The Northman in April, Amazon series Expats and the Aquaman sequel in 2023. KRISTEN STEWART • Spencer The star will direct drama The Chronology of Water, from Ridley Scott’s Scott Free, and will be seen in David Cronenberg’s thriller Crimes of the Future. JESSIE BUCKLEY • The…

Deal of the Week In the history of the NFL, there has never been more action in the broadcast booth than there is right now. A confluence of factors has led to boom times for top-tier play-by-play announcers and analysts. ESPN’s move March 16 to poach the team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman from Fox Sports rocked the sports media world, while Al Michaels, after 16 years with NBC, opted to exit when his contract expired. He was closing in on a rich deal with Amazon to call games on Thursday nights. It all leaves Fox looking for a new NFL A-team, NBC deciding on Michaels’ successor and Amazon apparently betting on Michaels to bring gravitas to its telecasts (the streamer had simulcast Fox, CBS and NBC broadcasts in…

For decades, a Hollywood star’s autograph has been a coveted piece in fandom collections, whether gathered on the street, at a premiere or after hours waiting in line at a meet-and-greet. After two years in a pandemic, though, the autograph industry has been upended by the cancellation of red carpets and conventions. As a result, a new autograph-seeking avenue has blossomed: private signings. In the past year alone, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Margot Robbie, Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt, Gal Gadot, John Boyega and Jeremy Renner were among the many A-listers who have taken part in private autograph events, raking in up to seven figures in the process. Private signings — where stars are sequestered with a handful of team members in a hotel or meeting room and spend hours…

As Hollywood counts down to its biggest red carpet of the year, there may be more than a few actresses at the Oscars who have undergone the latest in lip lifts, in search of the natural-looking pout. “Beautiful, welcoming lips help you look younger [and] healthier,” says Beverly Hills-based plastic surgeon Dr. Ben Talei, who has made an advancement to the procedure with his pioneering CUPID Deep Plane technique, which allows for faster healing minus the nostril widening often seen with other lifts. “The CUPID Lift delivers a more natural-looking, fuller lip, with enhanced symmetry, definition and balance of the vermillion border, the red line along the edges of the lips,” he says, adding that the one-hour procedure is “virtually painless and scar-free.” According to the American Academy of Facial…

Long considered the Westside’s lesser sibling, the San Fernando Valley’s unique residential architecture and family-friendly neighborhoods increasingly are a draw. According to The Agency’s Red Paper, 2021 saw single-family home sales rise 16 percent year-over-year and the median sales price was up 15 percent. “There’s been a huge exodus of people from other higher-density population areas right into the San Fernando Valley,” says Alessandro Corona of Douglas Elliman. Adds Carrie Berkman Lewis of Douglas Elliman, “Ten years ago, the Valley might have been a concession for people who couldn’t afford to be on the Westside. Now, I feel like it’s a destination.” For many in early Hollywood, the San Fernando Valley was an escape — a rural wonderland where stars like Clark Gable, Lucille Ball and Barbara Stanwyck could cosplay…

One year after its lowest-rated telecast ever, the Academy is looking for ways to bring viewers back — and entice younger audiences to watch. A THR/Morning Consult poll of adults 18-34 is shedding light on what that age group really wants. The Academy’s choice to pretape eight categories sparked controversy but may prove popular among younger viewers, with 66 percent reporting that the top awards — best actor, actress, director and picture — are a major reason to tune in. Watching an artist they like perform was another major reason for 46 percent, while 39 percent listed red carpet fashion as a major reason. There’s also support for debuting movie trailers during the telecast, with 57 percent strongly or somewhat supporting the idea. This year’s broadcast will recognize a film…

INVESTORS WHO HEARD Tom Cruise speak via video at Paramount’s Feb. 15 investors’ event must have come away thinking his relationship with the company was all harmony. Calling Shari Redstone his “dear friend,” he lavished praise on the studio and noted his “over 37-year relationship with Paramount that I’m very proud of and very grateful for.” The audience would never suspect that the infuriated star had lawyered up a year earlier when the studio notified him that Mission: Impossible 7 would have a 45-day theatrical window — far shorter than his usual three-month run — before streaming on Paramount+. It’s a fight that remains unresolved as the parties agreed to postpone the battle until the film is finished, which it isn’t. Cruise has balked at getting it done until he’s…

In the summer of 1981, MGM coveted Rocky and James Bond. The studio, formed in 1924, had an eye for expansion. And it liked what it saw in the intellectual property of United Artists. UA, a Hollywood icon itself, was behind films like Some Like It Hot, Raging Bull, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and, yes, the Rocky movies and the Bond franchise. So MGM acquired UA, and its films, for some $380 million ($1.2 billion adjusted for inflation), with Frank Rosenfelt, MGM’s chairman, telling The Washington Post at the time that UA’s library would be critical as Hollywood transitioned “from the movie business to the entertainment software business.” Forty years later, those same titles are still being coveted to entertain through new technology. Except this time, the buyer…

A Thousand Steps Into Night (CLARION BOOKS, MARCH 1) BY Traci Chee AGENCY Grandview This Japanese-influenced fantasy adventure novel from the author of the Sea of Ink and Gold YA book series follows an innkeeper’s daughter who begins to transform into a demon and embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her previous life. The Spanish Love Deception (ATRIA BOOKS, FEB. 2021) BY Elena Armas AGENCY APA This New York Times best-seller recently went viral on book TikTok. The globe-trotting romance follows a woman desperate for a date who takes a condescending work colleague to her sister’s wedding — only to develop feelings for him.…

Questlove: I Thought President Obama Was My Postmates Guy Since its triumph at Sundance in 2021, Questlove’s documentary Summer of Soul (… or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) has enjoyed success after success. The film was picked up by Searchlight and has gone on to snag wins at the PGAs, BAFTAs and Spirit Awards, among other encomiums. But when asked by THR to pinpoint his most meaningful moment thus far, Questlove didn’t hesitate. After his Sundance win, his phone was lighting up and he barely checked the number before answering. “The phone rings and I’m wondering where my Postmates guy is with my food. So [the caller] is like, ‘Hello?’ And I was like, ‘Yo, come [to this] floor, I’ve been waiting for you.’ He’s like, ‘Huh? Wait.’…

To celebrate the latest Miss Dior fragrance, the MISS DIOR MILLEFIORI GARDEN pop-up will feature celebrity makeup artist Ricky Wilson and a skin-care master class ($94); 8442 Melrose Ave., dior.com, through March 27.… London-based facialist Adeela Crown (clients have included Gal Gadot) will be treating A-listers by invite to her famed CROWNING GLORY FACIAL ($600) at the spa at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The spa is also partnering with Natura Bissé to offer a menu of facials ($250-$275); 310-887-2006, through March 27.… Skin Design London founder Fatma Shaheen is partnering with The Wall Group for a residency at the Spa at Maybourne Beverly Hills Hotel, offering her signature 60-minute FACE TIGHT INFUSION FACIAL ($550); 310-860-7840, through March 27.… British skin-care pro Dr. Rita Rakus has launched a clinic inside the…

Two decades ago, the Oscars returned to Hollywood for the first time since the Academy Awards took place at the Pantages Theatre in 1960. The 74th Awards, held March 24, 2002, introduced the event’s new, permanent home, the anticipated and freshly constructed Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland. It was the first Oscar ceremony since the 9/11 attacks. Tom Cruise opened the evening and Whoopi Goldberg hosted, as Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind became the first film to receive a best picture Oscar from its stage. The new 180,000-square-foot theater boasted an 86-foot ceiling and seating for 3,400. Ten years later, the home of the Oscars got a new name and major upgrade when iconic sound company Dolby Laboratories took over naming rights from film company Kodak, which gave up…

Fourteen years after Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh had embarked on an adulterous affair — leading them to abandon their spouses and children, unable to tear themselves apart, finally marrying in 1940 — their all-consuming love had begun to fray. The pressure of living under a glare of publicity, the microscopic attention paid to their every move after 1939’s Wuthering Heights and Gone With the Wind, and Olivier’s lightning-fast rise from matinee idol to titan of the stage (a rise his wife couldn’t match) had all taken a terrible toll. And so had Leigh’s increasingly erratic behavior. Her moods would swing from vertiginous highs to debilitating lows. During the highs, she never seemed to sleep and would indulge in extraordinary excesses, sexual and material; during the lows, she could barely…

When Michelle Carter (Elle Fanning) learns that involuntary manslaughter charges are about to be brought against her in Hulu’s The Girl From Plainville, she pleads with her lawyer (Michael Mosley): “Just let me tell my side.” Eventually, the lawyer talks her out of taking the stand, and Michelle spends most of her own trial sitting silently by while others speak for or about her. But The Girl From Plainville feels like a solemn attempt to honor that first request, digging beyond the most salacious details to unearth a compassionate and devastating portrait of two teens in trouble. Creators Liz Hannah and Patrick Macmanus have based their miniseries on the 2017 Esquire piece of the same title by Jesse Barron, and odds are good much of the audience will be familiar…

Hailed as the greatest film ever made, The Godfather was also one of the hardest to get made. The story of the Corleone family, as patriarch and mafia boss Vito (Marlon Brando) passes the baton to his son Michael (Al Pacino), was the brainchild of Mario Puzo: His unfinished manuscript was so intriguing, Paramount chief Robert Evans secured film rights to it before it was published. The book debuted in 1969 and sold 9 million-plus copies in two years. But for all the book’s success, finding a director for the film proved difficult: At least eight directors, including Sergio Leone and Peter Bogdanovich, passed on the project before Francis Ford Coppola, then 32, signed on. Coppola and producer Albert S. Ruddy launched production in New York in March 1971 and…

OSCARS’ TV VIEWERSHIP COMPARED TO AVERAGE BOX OFFICE OF A BEST PICTURE NOMINEE Source: Nielsen, Box Office Mojo. Average domestic box office grosses are adjusted for inflation. While the pandemic didn’t help, viewership for the Oscars telecast, as well as the average box office returns of the films nominated for best picture, have been on a downward trend for years. Six of the past seven years of the telecasts on ABC saw a smaller audience than the year before. As for the box office, only the Academy Awards anchored by Avatar (2010) and Black Panther (2019) averaged $170 million or more per film in the post-Lord of the Rings era (2002-04), a figure achieved nine times in the preceding 14 years. Since 1986, there has been a strong positive correlation…

I think failure is more interesting than success,” Charles Elton says of his decision to investigate and reappraise the life and work of director Michael Cimino in the biography Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate and the Price of a Vision (Abrams Press, $28). “Success is kind of inspirational, but failure is instructive.” Cimino’s success — best director and best picture Oscar wins for 1978’s Vietnam War drama The Deer Hunter — was short-lived when the disastrous release of his 1980 Western Heaven’s Gate turned him into a poster boy for directorial excess. Although he went on to shoot four more (now largely forgotten) films, he spent the last 20 years of his life in self-imposed isolation at his home in the Hollywood Hills, emerging only to attend European film…

Adding to TV’s current tech scammer trend, Jared Leto, Anne Hathaway, Kyle Marvin, O-T Fagbenle and co-creators Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevello premiered their Apple TV+ series WeCrashed, based on the rise and fall of WeWork and its founding couple, Adam and Rebekah Neumann, on March 17 at the Academy Museum. Crevello recounted Leto’s immersive acting as the now-disgraced CEO, telling THR, “In the middle of a shoot day, Jared — as Adam, with the accent and this fully formed character — just walked onto the set and it was electric. Adam Neumann showed up one day and it was pretty crazy.” Got tips? Email rambling@thr.com…

Oh, this old thing?” Robin Thede rebuffs a compliment about her semi-sheer ball gown that’s fanned out to fill her office on the Warner Bros. lot, where she spends most days thinking about what makes her laugh. And the chosen formalwear on this March morning, like her HBO vehicle A Black Lady Sketch Show, is as much for her own amusement as it is for her audience’s. An ascendant comic voice who first gained notoriety when she was tapped as head writer on Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore in 2015, Thede is now wrapping up edits on the third season of her variety program. One need only google the magnetic 42-year-old for plentiful reminders that both gigs were firsts for a Black woman. But her recurring status…

First-time Academy Award nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee, 25, has a style that is difficult to neatly distill, and that’s by design. This awards season, the Power of the Dog actor has been a standout on red carpets, wearing whimsical suits and subtly surprising accents, which wink at the philosophical dreamer that exists within the equally complex actor seen onscreen. Smit-McPhee’s looks — like the slouchy Louis Vuitton suit he wore at the BAFTAs with a Cartier Panthère brooch and the moody, cloud-print Alexander McQueen suit seen at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon — are grounded, yet playful, occupying space somewhere in the gulf between professional seriousness and the enchanting curiosity of youth. This paradoxical image-making is thanks, in part, to his stylist, Jared Eng, whose experience as the founder of the celebrity…

THIRTY YEARS AGO, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to be nominated for the best picture Oscar. Only two others, 2009’s Up and 2010’s Toy Story 3, would accomplish such a feat, but they did so only after the best picture category was expanded beyond five slots in 2010. Disney had produced such animated classics as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Dumbo, Pinocchio and Cinderella, but none of them was ever recognized by the Academy in its top category. What set Beauty and the Beast apart? On the occasion of this milestone anniversary, The Hollywood Reporter tracked down dozens of people involved with the film — from executives to animators to voice actors to PR and marketing specialists — to recount how they made…

PRODUCER JOHN Goldwyn turned down his invite to the September 2021 opening gala for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The grandson of Samuel Goldwyn — an industry founding father whose executive endeavors a century ago led to the formation of both Paramount and MGM — had been astonished to learn, before the institution’s debut, that the immigrant pioneers who invented Hollywood weren’t addressed in the decadein-the-making, $500 million, 300,000-square-foot citadel to moviedom. “If you’re going to have a museum in Los Angeles tied to the Academy that celebrates arguably the most significant art form of the 20th century, how is it possible not to acknowledge the Jewish men who started it all?” asks Goldwyn, ticking off names like Universal’s Carl Laemmle, Columbia’s Harry Cohn, Paramount’s Adolph Zukor and the…

Audiences exhausted by the meta touches and stylistic flourishes in HBO Max’s Winning Time may feel more at home with HBO Max’s Julia, a resolutely old-fashioned, middlebrow bio-dramedy series about Julia Child, public television and the healing power of marriage. Julia mostly doesn’t wink or nudge (and the moments it does are easily the show’s worst), though its conventionality doesn’t preclude occasional fun bits of media-savvy insight, an abundance of well-photographed food and a towering — in every sense — central performance from Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley). Created by Daniel Goldfarb (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Julia begins in 1961 with Julia (Lancashire) and husband Paul (David Hyde Pierce) enjoying a dinner to celebrate her cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, getting published. Promoting the book on Boston public TV,…