Innholdsfortegnelse for November 21, 2022 i The Hollywood Reporter

Two and a Half Men ‘Clusterfuck’ Revisited in Wild Chuck Lorre Pilot That Never Was “The following is a true story. Except for cutting the boring shit and making up a bunch of stuff, this really happened.” So opens Sex, Drugs and a Sitcom, a wild TV pilot script written by Chuck Lorre about the tumultuous time he spent steering the ship at Two and a Half Men. The series starred, of course, Charlie Sheen, then one of the highest-paid actors on TV, before he was fired in 2011 after publicly attacking Lorre, whom he called a “turd” and a “clown.” The script, obtained by THR, is dated June 15, 2022. According to a source, Lorre shopped it around town but didn’t set it up — though there’s little doubt…

By the middle of the past decade, Kevin Hart had climbed about as high up the comedy mountaintop as it was possible to go, reliably filling arenas, releasing top-ranked Netflix specials and pumping out No. 1 box office hits like The Upside and Ride Along. But for Hart, getting rich and famous was just the first step to getting even wealthier. Stardom today is a commodity, more monetizable than ever, and few have figured out how to leverage it more effectively than Hart, who in parallel with his comedy career has built a business empire so diversified, it’s nearly impossible to categorize, ranging from film and TV to health and fitness, consumer packaged goods, spirits, sportswear, fintech and biotech. Seemingly every A-lister has a production company, plenty shill for brands…

There is perhaps no universe in which a true story that combines murder, money and scantily clad men is not going to be at least a little bit interesting, so Hulu’s Welcome to Chippendales has that going for it. Also in its favor is an apparently generous budget to re-create the cocaine-fueled 1980s setting via lavish sets, carefully curated costumes and an all-bangers soundtrack (ABBA, Queen, Kiss). Then there’s the talented cast — led by Kumail Nanjiani and The White Lotus Emmy winner Murray Bartlett — each of whom gets the opportunity to show off what they can do with a meaningful gaze, a twitch of the cheek, a trace of hysteria in an otherwise measured voice. What Welcome to Chippendales lacks, however, is a grander vision to hang all…

Anyone in the industry who attended Cannes, Venice or Toronto this year is likely aware of the Red Sea Film Festival. Thanks to a marketing campaign that has included billboards in airports, advertisements across the trades and sponsorship of star-studded events, the event in the coastal Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah has been generating noise for its second edition. Set to launch in March 2020, just two years after cinemas opened in Saudi Arabia after being banned for several decades, the inaugural event was canceled by organizers eight days before it was due to open, making it one of the first festival casualties of COVID-19. The first edition was pushed to late 2021, only to then be hit by the omicron variant of the coronavirus. While concerns about human rights…

On Oct. 31, the Department of Justice antitrust division landed a major victory when a federal judge blocked Penguin Random House’s $2.175 billion bid to buy rival Simon & Schuster from Paramount Global. After legal wrangling in a trial closely monitored by Hollywood, U.S. District Judge Florence Pan found that combining two of the world’s largest book publishers would hurt competition for best-selling books, noting that the “merged entity would have a 49 percent market share, more than twice that of its closest competitor.” The ruling marks a triumph for a rejuvenated DOJ antitrust division after decades of lax enforcement — and a troubling sign for Hollywood moguls contemplating mergers. “Anybody who is looking to do sizable M&As in the media sector where you’re going to lose a player should…

In the end, Nexstar was paid $54 million to take The CW off of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery’s hands. Actually, that’s an oversimplification. In fact, Nexstar, led by CEO Perry Sook, was given its 75 percent stake in the network for free, but after factoring in its cash on hand, accounts receivable and accounts payable (and other liabilities), the local TV giant ended up with its $54 million gain “on bargain purchase,” reflecting just how seriously its former corporate owners were ready to move on. According to a THR analysis of the financial statements that were included in Nexstar’s latest quarterly filing with the SEC on Nov. 9, The CW had revenue of about $100 million per quarter in 2021-22, for an annual run rate of $370 million to…

In December 2019, Hasbro, home to G.I. Joe, Transformers and the Dungeons & Dragons brands, closed a $3.8 billion deal for Entertainment One, a producer with a 6,500-title library and popular cartoons like Peppa Pig and PJ Masks. The toymaker soon regretted the move, and in May — when Hasbro was fending off a proxy battle from activist investor Alta Fox Capital, which tried to get it to spin off its games division — it called the timing on the studio buy “unfortunate,” indicating it overspent. Now Hasbro is unloading eOne, disclosing Nov. 17 that it has hired bankers to explore a sale of the studio but keep IP like Peppa Pig. Wall Street analysts applauded the move. The idea to become a Hollywood producer a la Marvel Studios was spearheaded…

Walton Goggins is having a busy winter. The versatile leading man is filming a live-action adaptation of the hit video game Fallout, set to stream next year on Amazon Prime. Earlier in the year, he worked on the upcoming third season of HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones. And he just announced the launch of an equity crowdfunding round for Mulholland Distilling, the premium line of craft spirits he founded in 2017 with longtime friend and cinematographer  Matthew Alper. In other words, he could really use a drink. Thankfully for him, this season happens to be the actor’s favorite time to grab a cocktail around the city. Holiday drinking in L.A. hits different, contends Goggins, given that even in December, temperatures can spike. “Instead of having to drink warm drinks to shake…

Sony hosted the L.A. premiere of war drama Devotion on Nov. 15 alongside stars Jonathan Majors, Glen Powell, Joe Jonas, Christina Jackson, Thomas Sadoski and director J.D. Dillard. The film follows the true story of a naval aviator duo (Powell and Majors) during the Korean War and marks Powell’s second naval aviation film this year after Top Gun: Maverick. The actor told THR that when he was offered Top Gun, he was already committed to Devotion, which prompted a conversation with Tom Cruise. “Tom said, ‘There’s room for two. You can do Top Gun, you can do Devotion. You don’t have to choose,’” Powell recalled. “These movies could not be more different from each other, they really complement the love of aviation and legacy of our men and women in uniform.”…

Oscar may have lost some of his golden luster — at least judging by the ratings drop-offs of recent years. But the 13 ½-inch statuette remains the biggest validation Hollywood has to offer, surpassing record-setting box office, massive minutes-watched numbers logged by the streamers and even a table in the front dining room at the hot new restaurant Horses. When asked by The Hollywood Reporter in 2015 what words he’d like to hear spoken from the Academy Awards stage, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos replied, “That they want to thank Netflix.” In the years since, he’s heard those words more than once: The dominant streamer has earned 116 Oscar nominations and taken home 16 awards. But the ultimate prize, the Academy Award for best picture, has eluded him. Could that change…

Becoming an entrepreneur is turning into an arms race in Hollywood, as more and more celebrities seek to ascend to the heights of moguldom, following the paths forged by fellow stars like Rihanna, Jay-Z, Jessica Alba, Sean Combs, Gwyneth Paltrow, Dr. Dre, George Clooney and the Kardashians. Investors and industry experts in the ever-growing celebrity brand space weighed in on this list of top talent, who spoke to THR of their inspirations, business lessons and sales. Jennifer Aniston LOLAVIE, VITAL PROTEINS Aniston has long led the entrepreneurial pack in Hollywood, negotiating endorsement deals with Smartwater and Living Proof that included equity stakes. More recently, Aniston joined collagen supplement brand Vital Proteins as chief creative officer in 2020. Last year, the star launched her own hair-care brand, LolaVie, born of her…

The weekend before cameras rolled on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, filmmaker Ryan Coogler led a team of about 30 people to Chadwick Boseman’s resting place in South Carolina, where actors and key crew were joined by members of the late star’s family. It was a solemn and reflective moment. Yes, it was a way to acknowledge the actor’s death, something several of them had done before at Boseman’s memorial service. But it was something deeper — reaffirming a commitment to the great undertaking ahead. “You just felt very blessed and very humbled to be able to stand there,” recalls Angela Bassett, who was reprising the role of Queen Ramonda, the onscreen mother of Boseman’s hero-king, T’Challa. Just a few days later, cameras began rolling in the Egyptian Theatre in Atlanta…

Fifteen years ago, Disney charmed viewers by sending up its own film catalog with Enchanted, but the film’s origins date back to the late 1990s. The initial script, written by Bill Kelly (Blast From the Past), focused on Giselle, an animated woman who enjoys singing with animal friends (much like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty) but longs for a happily-ever-after. After Giselle and the prince of the magical kingdom fall in love, the evil queen banishes Giselle to a live-action New York City. Kelly tells THR of his initial inspiration: “How could you do a modern-day Sound of Music?” Over the years, the script went through rewrites, and such directors as Rob Marshall, Jon Turteltaub and Adam Shankman were in talks to helm the project before Kevin Lima came aboard.…

It’s getting close to the time of year when the executive committee of the Academy’s visual effects branch selects the 10 shortlisted films that will continue in the VFX category race, and among the anticipated contenders, the branch also has some unexpected choices to consider. While the presumed frontrunner, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, won’t be released until Dec. 16, the sequel to the director’s 2009 fantasy film seems a fait accompli for the shortlist. The work was led by Weta FX and four-time Oscar-winning senior VFX supervisor Joe Letteri (who with Weta also led the work on the original Avatar, which won the VFX Oscar). The Way of Water involves new techniques, including those used in performance capture. Also expected are multiple contenders from the long list…

Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans is the early favorite to win the Oscar for best picture. Or maybe it’s Babylon. Or The Banshees of Inisherin, or Everything Everywhere All at Once, or Tár, or Top Gun: Maverick. For now, it depends on which expert you ask. We’re just days away from what some deem the true start of Oscar season, when the critics groups begin to make their voices heard. And with those slates of nominees will come yet another “early favorite” — perhaps one of the films listed above. But how much should we trust that the early favorite is indeed the favorite? To answer this question, I noted the winners from eight major critics groups going back to at least 1990, giving us 32 years of data with…

In Peacock’s A Friend of the Family, Jake Lacy plays Bob “B” Berchtold, a man who befriends a Midwestern Mormon family in the 1970s, only to kidnap their young daughter Jan not just once, but twice. It would be an unbelievable story if it weren’t true: Jan Broberg’s story was previously chronicled in the 2017 documentary Abducted in Plain Sight. For Lacy, playing a kidnapper and pedophile was an emotional challenge for the actor, particularly given the ages of his victim: Jan was 12 and 14 when she was kidnapped. Hendrix Yancey, now 11, and Mckenna Grace, 16, play Jan at the different ages, while the real Jan Broberg and her mother, Mary Ann, were often on set as they served as producers on the limited series. “It’s so selfless…

If the success of Amazon’s The Terminal List proved anything, it’s that there’s an audience out there for fast-moving, militaristic revenge stories and even more interest in a steadily escalating body count than anything deeper. Mark Boal’s new Apple TV+ drama Echo 3 will test whether viewers want to stick with those shows if they come with some nuance. Based on the Israeli series When Heroes Fly, Echo 3 has all the usual fetishistic shots of weapons and arbitrarily featured U.S. flags, and the body count rises steadily. But those things are accompanied by artier touches, whether it’s blades of grass swaying in the wind or action scenes that unfold with a deliberate — right on the edge of slow — pace. Through the first half of the 10-episode first…

As the lives and businesses of entertainment’s elite become increasingly complex, gone are the days of one-note fixers. The Hollywood Reporter’s Troubleshooters — who were identified through public documents, media reports and insider intel, as well as a formal nomination process — have risen to the challenge. From fake sonograms in extortion cases to the tragedy on the Rust set to the chaos at Twitter headquarters, this group of Power Lawyers has seen and handled it all. Blair Berk TARLOW & BERK | CRIMINAL Berk is an elite defense attorney whose recent high-profile clients have included Armie Hammer, Marilyn Manson and Johnny Depp. But she’s also involved in work advocating for victims, especially in harassment and stalking cases for talent like Selma Blair, Alexandra Daddario, Channing Tatum and Leonard DiCaprio.…