Innholdsfortegnelse for May 10, 2022 i The Hollywood Reporter

When the pandemic began in early 2020 and sweeping lockdowns went into effect, insurance firms were facing a catastrophe. Billions of dollars’ worth of claims — many from Hollywood companies, including those involved with the live-event business — were pouring in across the country. But instead of paying out, insurance companies looked to the fine print and started to deny claims en masse. Most insurers found that policies for lost revenue because of business interruptions excluded coverage for closures forced by the pandemic and required physical loss or damage to property. A legal war erupted over COVID-related insurance claims, and more than 2,300 lawsuits challenging coverage decisions have been filed, according to a COVID-19 insurance litigation tracker created by Penn Law professor Tom Baker. After two years and 1 million…

Leaping into the driver’s seat of Universal’s Fast and Furious franchise is no easy task. It’s even more difficult when the car is already moving. Louis Leterrier, who is in final talks to take over the chair left vacant by helmer Justin Lin, will be showing up to the London set of Fast X in mid-production for a film dated for May 2023. The tentpole has a budget creeping upward of the $300million mark — and that is without any marketing spend — with more than $100million of that for above-the-line talent costs. Lin’s exit initially rocked the cast and crew. The director announced April 26 that he was stepping away from the movie — which would have been his sixth entry in the franchise — after a series of…

Remarkably Bright Creatures (ECCO, MAY 3) BY Shelby Van Pelt AGENCY Nelson An otherwise cantankerous captive octopus forms a connection with an aquarium employee and helps solve the mystery of her missing son in this wonderfully weird tearjerker that’s part My Octopus Teacher and part Marcel the Shell With Shoes On. It’s Alive! (GREENLEAF, MAY 17) BY Julian David Stone AGENCY Weintraub-Tobin The making-of story behind The Godfather is now series fodder with The Offer, and Stone’s historical fiction novel offers the behind-the-scenes look at the production of Frankenstein during 1930s Hollywood.…

Empriyal x Gemfields Ethically mined Zambian emeralds (24.4 carats) are set in diamond-embellished, leaf-inspired gold earrings in a Gemfields collaboration with Jaipur-based Empriyal; price upon request, gemfields.com Tiffany & Co. Responsibly sourced diamonds (more than 14 carats) decorate a dandelion-inspired platinum bracelet from the 2022 “Botanica” Blue Book collection; price upon request, at Tiffany & Co., Beverly Hills Emily P. Wheeler The L.A.-based designer crafted her one-of-a-kind rose and black gold Namya ring featuring an oval-cut vintage Burmese spinel, surrounded by ethically sourced diamonds and spinels; $64,000, emilypwheeler.com Vrai More than 50 lab-created diamonds are highlighted in six different cuts and set in 14-karat gold on Vrai’s made-to-order Illuminate Choker; $58,500, vrai.com Pomellato A Japanese mending technique known as kintsugi was used to repair this oneof-a-kind Venus cameo set in…

JÉRÔME PAILLARD IS THE consummate film industry insider. As head of Cannes’ Marché du Film, the world’s largest film market, the jovial 66-year-old Parisian has seen the rise and fall of every major player in the indie biz over the past three decades. Since taking over the Marché in 1995, Paillard has steered the Cannes market through industry booms — the Miramax-led indie wave of the 1990s, Netflix’s streaming revolution of the mid-2010s — and busts, from the dot-com crash of 2002 to the 2008-09 recession to the (still ongoing) COVID-19 pandemic. But Paillard, who is retiring from the Marché after this year’s market, says music, not cinema, was his first love. “I come from a musical family. My father was the famous conductor Jean-François Paillard; my mother was a…

FREEVEE Bosch: Legacy Judy Justice America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation Hollywood Houselift PEACOCK (free tier) NBC News Yellowstone NBC shows (The Office, Parks and Recreation) Bel-Air PLUTO TV Professional Bull Riders CBS shows (Survivor, NCIS, The Late Show) Classic TV (Sanford & Son, Three’s Company, Perry Mason) Paramount content (Star Trek, Degrassi, Hot in Cleveland) ROKU CHANNEL This Old House Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse programming Kevin Hart’s Die Hart Most Dangerous Game TUBI The Freak Brothers TMZ Gordon Ramsay programming Fox shows (Lego Masters, The Masked Singer)…

Former This American Life editor Ben Calhoun is joining The New York Times’ The Daily as an executive producer, the latest sign of the newspaper giant’s growing audio priorities. Radio giant Cumulus Media rejected a $1.2 billion takeover offer from a consortium reportedly led by Connoisseur Media CEO Jeff Warshaw, saying the offer “undervalues” its business. While Mark Zuckerberg builds his metaverse, Facebook podcasts are getting the boot. The company is shuttering its podcast platform June 3 and moving audio under Facebook Live.…

Big Number Rep Sheet CODA actor Troy Kotsur has inked with Verve. Guy Ritchie has signed with WME. Broadway director Rebecca Taichman has signed with CAA. The Curse and The Rig actor Abraham Popoola has signed with APA. Stand-up comic and actor John Heffron has inked with Innovative Artists. TikTok star Chris Olsen has signed with CAA. THR, Esq. CASE Sage Steele vs. ESPN WHY IT MATTERS The SportsCenter host is suing her employer for violating her free speech rights in alleged retaliation for comments she made about the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, among other topics. She argues ESPN selectively enforces a policy barring staff from commenting on political matters. ESPN denied the claims, saying, “Sage remains a valued contributor.”…

“Was that Will Smith?” CHRIS ROCKThe comic, at The Hollywood Bowl on May 3, joining Dave Chappelle moments after Chappelle was attacked by an armed man who rushed the stage. “The ignorance is other-worldly disgusting.” LILI REINHARTThe actress, on Instagram, taking issue with Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala announcement that she’d lost 16 pounds in three weeks to fit into a dress famously worn by Marilyn Monroe. “Idiots can get away with a little bit more than the more intelligent.” LARRY DAVIDThe actor, at the Netflix Is a Joke festival, answering a question as to why he’s yet to be canceled for his boundary-pushing sense of humor. “Everybody sort of woke up and smelled the coffee during the pandemic and recognized that not all movies are created equal.” DONNA LANGLEYThe Universal…

Courteney Cox and fiance Johnny McDaid had a date night at Nobu Malibu. … Lizzo celebrated her birthday at Craig’s. … Chris Pine had a meal at Blair’s Restaurant. … Jessica Alba threw a birthday party at Delilah, alongside friends Michael B. Jordan, Tiffany Haddish, Jessica Simpson and Rosario Dawson. … In Las Vegas, before stopping by Top Gun songstress Lady Gaga’s residency show, Tom Cruise broke bread at Carbone. … In New York, Cardi B hosted a Met Gala afterparty at the Boom Boom Room with guests Billie Eilish, Awkwafina, Jared Leto and Sebastian Stan. Asterid The Quick Pitch After a two-decade run, Patina, Walt Disney Concert Hall’s revered citadel of fine dining, has been replaced by Asterid, from veteran local chef Ray Garcia (FIG, Broken Spanish), who does…

For Mayor Max, serving a lifetime appointment as the leader of Idyllwild is a full-time job. “The mayor’s out in the public every day and on weekends,” says his chief of staff, Phyllis Mueller. “We just do kind and loving things for people. But we do it all day long.” That’s a lot of work for a 9-year-old golden retriever. Yes, the official mayor of the quirky mountain community of Idyllwild — nestled in the San Jacinto Mountains towering over Palm Springs — is a dog, the perfect mascot for an unincorporated town that prides itself on creativity and community. “We don’t have local politicians except for Mayor Max,” Mueller says. “If we need something done, we create a group and get it done.” This creative, community spirit is increasingly…

“DO YOU DRINK?” ASKS LÉA SEYDOUX, FIVE minutes into a conversation, upon learning that her interviewer is about to attend her first Cannes Film Festival. The risk, explains the French actress, is that at Cannes you drink, and then the rush of people, fashion and films is a stimulant in itself, keeping you awake longer and leaving you with more time on your hands. That time and those hands can be — and often are — filled with more drinks. On top of that, there’s the ostensible reason for the partying: the films. Sitting in a dark and crowded theater, watching something that has yet to be seen by an audience, in a venue that is meant to celebrate the best of what the medium has to offer, is also,…

IT WAS ACTUALLY PAUL MESCAL’S mother who reminded the Irish actor that April 26 marked a fairly significant anniversary. “She texted me and was like, ‘Two years ago!’ And I thought, ‘What? What happened two years ago?’” he says, speaking with The Hollywood Reporter that day. As the 26-year-old quickly recalled, exactly two years earlier, on April 26, 2020, the limited series Normal People landed on the BBC (and three days later on Hulu) and — for Mescal — everything changed. It’s perhaps understandable that the date slipped his mind, given the 24 months he’s had since. There’s little left to be said about Lenny Abrahamson’s widely adored adaptation of Sally Rooney’s hit novel, a show that, thanks to his phenomenal debut role as the emotionally fraught and lovelorn Connell…

Emilia Jedamska’s phone rang on Feb. 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine. It was a long-standing client of the Côte d’Azur-based real estate agent. “He’s rented with us for years, and always wanted to buy,” she says. “He asked, ‘Are there any flash sales?’” The war, he figured, might turn wealthy Muscovites into motivated sellers. Russians, of course, have been a fixture of the Riviera since Imperial days, but have flooded back in the past two decades as the oligarch era unspooled. Their impact is everywhere in the region, even as the fabric of the area retains a Frenchified feel. “In Cap Ferrat, Russian is the language of the joggers on the street,” Jedamska says. No wonder, then, that the threat of potential sanctions in the war’s wake prompted her…

EMMY ROSSUM WAS A NO-SHOW FOR A rather important meeting. This was to be the final hurdle before filming Angelyne, her miniseries based on Los Angeles’ billboard queen of the same name, yet its star and champion had informed collaborators at the eleventh hour that she simply could not make it. Executives were seated around a Universal City conference table when their PowerPoint about production design was interrupted by a busty blonde wearing leopard-print arm warmers and not much else. She passed out rose quartz crystals, tickled faces and necks with a peacock feather (a nod to the streaming platform footing the bill) and cooed a breathy incantation to bless their endeavor with good juju. For a moment, at least, a few folks in the room thought it was the…

ABC Is it still safe to describe ABC as female-skewing? The Craig Erwich-led network will usher Monday Night Football into its schedule in the fall, with four NFL games set to displace the female-leaning Dancing With the Stars (heading to Disney+) after a 16-year run. How will the network fill the remaining Monday-night block without the reality staple? Grey’s Anatomy continues to be ABC’s crown jewel, and The Rookie is poised to get the franchise treatment after strong ratings for its not-yet-titled Niecy Nash-led spinoff. And while Abbott Elementary and The Wonder Years were clear breakouts, the rest of ABC’s freshman crop is on the bubble. CBS Inasmuch as broadcast TV works in 2022, CBS has its formula figured out: episodic dramas where the good guys prevail and broad-based comedies,…

Blake Lively (WME) is set to make her feature directorial debut with Seconds, an adaptation of the graphic novel by Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley that is set up at Searchlight. Edgar Wright (CAA) wrote the script. Meg Ryan (Gersh) is set to direct and star in the rom-com What Happens Later alongside David Duchovny (Mosaic) and based on the play Shooting Star by Steven Dietz. Bleecker Street has acquired U.S. rights. Juliette Binoche (CAA) and Ralph Fiennes (CAA) will co-star in The Return, the upcoming feature from director Uberto Pasolini. HanWay Films will be selling the project at the Cannes Film Market. Odeya Rush (CAA), Eric Dane (CAA), Saffron Burrows (ICM) and Ray Liotta (Gersh) will star in Dangerous Waters, a thriller from director John Barr. Capstone Global…

I was worried about getting typecast as this young prince with floppy hair,” says Louis Partridge, who earned his first breakout playing a British nobleman in 2020’s Enola Holmes (and its upcoming sequel). But with a starring turn as late rocker Sid Vicious in FX’s Sex Pistols series Pistol, “I don’t think that’s so much a worry anymore.” To land the role in the Danny Boyle-helmed show, the London native, 18, put himself on tape as the punk rock icon, with his mother playing Vicious’ famed girlfriend, Nancy Spungen (whom Vicious was accused of killing). Cut to two meetings and one call later with Boyle (who also is executive producing), and Partridge was on his way to a 2-month-long band camp where he and his co-stars would be trained to…

Weddings Producer Mark Stewart married sports psychologist Camilla Henderson on Feb. 4 at St. Mary The Boltons Church in London in front of 50 guests. Births Aaron Couch, film editor at THR, and wife Anna Brungardt, a Ph.D. student at UCLA’s European Languages and Transcultural Studies department, welcomed Clifford Keith Couch on April 22. Congrats Disney’s streaming division hired Devika Chawla as senior vp lifecycle engineering and Arun Chandra as senior vp viewer experience on May 3. Kristina Schake was tapped to replace Geoff Morrell as chief corporate affairs officer of The Walt Disney Co. on April 29. Amazon veteran Toni Reid joined YouTube as vp product management, leading its Emerging Experiences and Community team, on April 25. Josh Meyer was promoted to executive vp, head of business affairs at…

What is the biggest hurdle coming out of the pandemic? It was important for us to realize, “OK, how do we really make noise in a world where it’s even more cluttered than ever?” During the last four to six weeks of the campaign — I call it the funnel — I want audiences thinking about our movies every day. And I think post-pandemic, it’s even more important. There’s just too much content out there. Top Gun: Maverick, which finally hits theaters May 27, was set to open in summer 2020. What was it like starting and stopping the campaign so many times? It’s been difficult to navigate. We had to hold off and hold off. Now that we feel comfortable, the beats [of the campaign] are starting to come…

IN APRIL, WHEN CANNES leaders announced the lineup for this year’s festival, Cannes general delegate/artistic director Thierry Frémaux acknowledged the uncertainty of hosting a global cinema event in the third year of a pandemic that just doesn’t seem to end. “It was said last year it was the first festival post-crisis,” Frémaux said. “While we shall not say it this year, we hope it dearly.” Lots of people are saying as much this year, albeit with their fingers crossed behind their backs. Buyers and sellers of films, critics and cinephiles alike hope that 2022 is the year that Cannes bounces back as a place for art, business and a desperately needed sense of community in a film world that has just lived through an existential crisis. Cannes has changed in…

THE CANNES FILM MARKET, or Marché du Film, has long been the place where deals for the biggest independent movies come together. In 2018, FilmNation and CAA Media Finance sold their sexy spy thriller The 355 (at the time just a scriptless concept) on the back of a dramatic photo op on the Carlton Beach featuring the film’s A-list cast of Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o and Fan Bingbing. The next year saw the launch of $150 million Moonfall by AGC Studios and CAA, which also presold worldwide in Cannes before a second’s worth of footage had been shot. But the lackluster performance of those two would-be tentpoles (The 355 has grossed $28 million worldwide to date, Moonfall some $43 million) and shifts in the international marketplace — including…

IN APRIL, ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST FAMOUS DIREC TORS, RON HOWARD, CALLED THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER TO FOLLOW UP. HE SAID HE WANTED TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL COLOR TO AN ANSWER THAT HE GAVE ABOUT HIS RECENT FILM, HILLBILLY ELEGY, DURING AN HOURLONG INTERVIEW THE DAY BEFORE. “You were asking a couple of questions about J.D. Vance and how I felt about it, and, you know, I hadn’t actually addressed it or talked to anybody about it very much,” says Howard about the conservative best-selling author whose memoir his 2020 film is based on — and who just won the Ohio Senate Republican primary. “It took me a minute to go back and put it all in context.” Phoning again from his full-time home in Connecticut to delve into a tough question…