Innholdsfortegnelse for January 11, 2023 i The Hollywood Reporter

Former WWE CEO Vince McMahon’s stunning return to the company he founded has upended the wrestling giant’s fortunes. At McMahon’s prodding, the company is now leading “a review of its strategic alternatives” as WWE finds itself grappling with uncertainty. The question facing WWE shareholders is not only whether McMahon and the company can execute a sale, or who the buyer might be, but also whether McMahon will emerge (to use some wrestling terms) as a “face,” generating outsize value for shareholders and retiring gracefully, or as a “heel,” throwing a wrench into what could otherwise be a smooth process by inserting himself back on top of his empire. Using his controlling stake in the company, McMahon on Jan. 5 installed himself and two former executives on the WWE board of…

Warner Bros. Discovery took a lot of flak in 2022 for axing finished movies and series — most infamously, the Batgirl film from directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah — and removing some legacy titles from its HBO Max streaming platform. As it turns out, the company might have been ahead of the curve. A fresh wave of cost-cutting moves at other companies, ranging from Disney to AMC Networks, has made WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels seem prophetic. “We got a lot of public noise about some of the content write-offs that we took, which is a reflection of an industry that went overboard and that went on a spending frenzy,” Wiedenfels said Jan. 5 at a Citibank conference. “We shaved off a lot of the excess last year, and…

Not another one! Through most of its history, that’s been the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ kneejerk reaction to any movie sequel seeking Oscar recognition. Only two sequels have ever won the best picture prize. Only a handful of others have been nominated in that category. But this season, all that could change, because there are at least four sequels knocking at the best picture door. Sure, most sequels are brand extensions and cash grabs. No one was ever going to make a best picture argument for a movie like 1989’s Police Academy 6: City Under Siege. But, occasionally, there have been sequels that aspire to the achievement of their predecessor. In 1990, for example, Jack Nicholson, screenwriter Robert Towne and producer Robert Evans reteamed for The Two…

HBO’s The Last of Us is by far the best video game adaptation ever made for the big or small screen. Still, that statement undersells just how good this postapocalyptic tale of desperation, perseverance and zombies is as a TV show — albeit one that existing fans will recognize as closely, at times shot-for-shot and line-for-line, linked to its Naughty Dog source material. The best thing I can say about The Last of Us is that as often as it made me think of The Walking Dead, it more frequently reminded me of the weary humanism of Station Eleven, and even of the central relationship in Charlotte Wells’ acclaimed 2022 feature Aftersun, an otherwise very different story of a father and daughter learning to communicate in an alien world. Adapted…

Critics Choice Awards Jan. 15 Los Angeles For Chelsea Handler, the invitation to host the 2023 Critics Choice Awards came right on time. “I haven’t done something like this in a long time,” the comedian says of the event, which was anchored by Taye Diggs for the past four years. “My new attitude is to say yes to more things. It’s a nice change of pace.” Ahead of the event, which is set for Jan. 15 at the Fairmont Century Plaza and will air on The CW, Handler spoke to THR about her preparations and what is and isn’t off-limits. You’ve hosted your own talk shows and stand-up specials. How does an awards show feel different? I perform stand-up live all the time, but those are people who are paying…

Is Chat GPT a sign that automation is coming to film and TV writing? As far-fetched as it sounds, the arrival in November 2022 of a free prototype of the AI-powered chatbot — which has jolted observers with the sophisticated, fluid writing it can produce when prompted, even in the form of poems, essays and, yes, short scripts — has set off alarm bells about the disruption that the chatbot could wreak on the work of entertainment scribes. Still, top film and TV writers are skeptical that the technology in its current state imperils their livelihoods in any way, even as they remain cautious about the potential for future advancements. “Do I see this in the near term replacing the kind of writing that we’re doing in writers rooms every…

Moving into her mom’s basement was the best thing that’s ever happened to Heather McMahan. The comedian, who can be described as an auditory David Sedaris for the millennial set — she hosts the Absolutely Not podcast, where she works out emotional kinks on topics like friend breakups and traumatic celery juice regimens — recently started her second stand-up tour in as many years (she’ll do nearly 50 stops at major theaters by June). She’s also working on a pilot for NBC and putting the finishing touches on an hourlong special she produced herself. And, if you ask her, all of this came precisely because she left town. McMahan had been living in L.A. and New York but returned to her native Atlanta with her husband to keep her mother…

Sarah Paulson on Why She’s Supporting To Leslie The stars are coming out for Andrea Riseborough’s turn in Michael Morris’ indie drama To Leslie. Jennifer Aniston, Charlize Theron, Sarah Paulson and Edward Norton have hosted screenings, with upcoming showings booked by Gwyneth Paltrow and Courteney Cox. Frances Fisher, Rosanna Arquette, Debra Winger, Patricia Clarkson and Howard Stern have joined the chorus of fans of the film, which centers on a West Texas single mother who wins a modest $190,000 lottery sum only to squander it in short order. Years later, she fights to rebuild a life. Making a splash with low-budget indie features, especially during a crowded awards season, has always been a challenge, which is why the support from boldfaced names means so much, says Morris. “We can’t even…

Weddings Production designer Jason Kisvarday and set decorator Kelsi Ephraim, who both worked on Everything Everywhere All at Once, married Oct. 22 in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The small ceremony was held at roadside attraction House on the Rock in front of the self-titled “world’s largest carousel.” Births Courtney Ross, creative executive at Rachel Zoe Inc., and Carey Schwartz, managing partner at Sunset Blvd., welcomed Dylan Ivy Schwartz on Oct. 31 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Congrats Jason Armstrong was promoted to CFO of Comcast, succeeding Mike Cavanagh, on Jan. 6. Christian Vesper was upped to CEO of global drama at Fremantle on Jan 5. Alexis Booth joined Kapital Entertainment as head of casting Jan. 3. Jacki St. Thomas was upped to account director at MPRM Communications in December. Former Warner Bros.…

Miami evokes images of glitz and bacchanalian behavior, with champagne sprayed rather than sipped, but the newest enclave to gain of-the-moment buzz — Coconut Grove — is far less flashy than South Beach, more lush and scenic than Wynwood, and very much in demand. “My friends said, ‘This is the area you’ve got to be in; it’s not all bottle-popping,’ ” recalls L.A. native Phillip Frankland Lee, who just opened an outpost of L.A. and Montecito raw fish mecca Sushi by Scratch in the village. Coconut Grove had a prior moment in the ’90s, but the crowds that came to its central area, Coco Walk, were dining at chain restaurants like Fat Tuesday and The Cheesecake Factory. Now it has undergone a $150 million redevelopment with office space, boutiques, movie…

It was in the small courtyard of a house in Galway on the west coast of Ireland that arguably the most important audition for The Banshees of Inisherin took place. After a casting call had been put out across the country, on one grayish morning in late 2020 — a full year before shooting started — a trailer pulled up with four aspiring young hopefuls in the back. Writer-director Martin McDonagh, director of photography Ben Davis and production designer Mark Tildesley — who had been living together under lockdown while prepping for Searchlight’s period tragicomedy about a friendship gone awry on the fictional island of Inisherin in 1923 — went outside to inspect. As the four budding screen performers were paraded around, McDonagh spotted his star instantly. “She just stood…

Here is what HBO Max’s Velma is not: the Scooby-Doo you remember from your childhood, or that your parents do from theirs. (The Great Dane doesn’t even appear, in fact.) It’s neither a faithful update of those wholesome old cartoons, nor an attempt to reboot them with more dramatic heft. It’s too smart for all of that, or so it believes. From its first minutes, Velma is a thoroughly meta affair, winking at the sillier staples of the Scooby-Doo universe and at the absurdity of TV screenwriting conventions more generally. But if Velma delights in sending up all the usual tropes, it seems somewhat less sure of what it has to offer in their stead. Created by Charlie Grandy (The Mindy Project), the adult-oriented animated offering is positioned as a…

The Chevrolet Corvette, which turns 70 this week, was unveiled on Jan. 17, 1953, at the General Motors Motorama, held at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The sleek two-seater, named after a small warship, was a concept car, but interest was so high that it went into production later that year, with 300 hand-built models in Polo White. The Corvette would star in CBS’ Route 66 from 1960 to 1964, turning it into an emblem of American freedom. But its first major screen appearance was in 1955’s Kiss Me Deadly, a subversive film noir from director Robert Aldrich, who went on to direct What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and The Dirty Dozen (1967). Based on the 1952 Mickey Spillane novel Kiss Me, Deadly, the film, adapted by screenwriter A.I.…

JOHN AUGUST’S TAKEAWAY “These read like the summaries on the top sheet of script coverage. That’s not a knock; I used to be a reader at TriStar, and they’re not always easy to write. As far as the ideas themselves, they’re all taking ‘X meets Y’ far too literally. Screenwriters don’t start with this shorthand; they find their way to it to explain their take.” Source line: OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which was asked to “write a script proposal in 40 words for a feature film” for each example.…

Anew Federal Trade Commission rule that would ban noncompetes nationwide could complicate Hollywood hiring, even though California already prohibits the clauses in most contracts. On Jan. 5, the FTC released a proposed rule that would bar employers from making workers agree to noncompetes, which generally prevent them from taking jobs with competitors for a certain period of time after they leave the company. The agency says the clauses are a form of unfair competition in the labor market, lowering wages and stifling innovation, among other issues. The rule, as written, would apply to independent contractors and unpaid interns as well as employees, and it would make companies rescind noncompetes they’ve already secured. “An overused term is actually appropriate here — it would be truly a sweeping sea change,” says Molly…

Francis Ford Coppola’s latest movie, the sci-fi-tinged Megalopolis, has descended into chaos, multiple sources tell THR. The film, halfway through shooting in Atlanta, has lost its entire visual effects team and other key talent including its production designer and supervising art director. To many insiders, it’s reminiscent of the infamous troubles that beset Apocalypse Now, and it’s one on which the iconoclastic director is breaking a cardinal Hollywood rule: Never spend your own money. Megalopolis has been a passion project for the filmmaker, who turned heads in fall 2021 when news broke that he would be self-financing the $120 million feature, partially with the tens of millions he made selling his popular Northern California wineries. The budget has since expanded, and the film is about halfway through its 80- to…

NETFLIX 1.27B minutes viewed 3 episodes The Netflix docuseries about the estranged royals racked up impressive viewing totals when it debuted on the streamer (and unofficially kicked off an all-points media tour for Prince Harry’s memoir launch). The first half of the six-episode series had 1.27 billion minutes of viewing time in its debut week, among the highest tallies Nielsen has recorded for a streaming docuseries (Netflix previously said it had the best launch ever for a documentary title, based on the streamer’s internal numbers). The show was also a big draw in the U.K., with 2.4 million people watching episode one on its first day, according to the country’s Barb ratings service.…

As Hollywood slowly comes back to life after the holidays, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, Rita Moreno and Harry Hamlin kicked off 2023’s red carpets with the Jan. 6 premiere of their road-trip comedy 80 for Brady, which debuted at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The movie follows four best friends on a wild adventure to the 2017 Super Bowl to watch their hero Tom Brady and his then-New England Patriots play, and even Fonda said she was “completely starstruck” working with the veteran quarterback. “My knees actually got weak when he walked into my trailer,” she told THR. “I’m in awe of that kind of skill. When somebody is the best in the world at what they do, you have to honor that and respect it.” Got…

An Oscar-winning actress with a perennially full plate, Octavia Spencer has earned the right to be jaded. But after more than two decades in the business, Spencer remains unabashedly enthusiastic about her job and, more telling, the work of her peers. “This is not something to be taken for granted,” she says in late December, reflecting on the Hollywood Walk of Fame star she received just days earlier. “There are things that you dream for yourself and things that you can’t even imagine.” Her production company, Orit Entertainment, has nine scripted projects in various stages of development and, come Jan. 20, a third season for her Apple TV+ true-crime drama Truth Be Told, in which she also stars. The prolific shingle recently inked a first-look deal with Skydance TV for…

The hurricane of cash that flooded South Florida during the pandemic may have slowed, but the real estate brokers who rule its pimped-out properties say the market is still flying high. Miami-Dade County brokers had a record year in 2021 and already had posted their fourth-best year ever by November 2021, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. Better still, South Florida had three out of the nation’s top 10 most expensive home sales of 2022, while stars who have bought homes in the area include Sylvester Stallone, Cindy Crawford, and musicians Swae Lee and Future. “In the past year and a half, people started moving not only their families down, they started moving their companies down,” says Joseph Liguori of Premier Estate Properties. As cheap debt dries up and…

THE SIX PARTICIPANTS ON THIS OSCAR SEASON’S EDITION OF THR’S ACTOR ROUNDTABLE CAN SPEAK TO A WIDE VARIETY OF SHOWBIZ EXPERIENCES. Ranging in age from 30 to 56, some started out as child actors (Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Key Huy Quan and Elvis’ Austin Butler), others have anchored big studio blockbusters (Hustle’s Adam Sandler and The Whale’s Brendan Fraser) and still others are longtime critics’ darlings (The Banshees of Inisherin’s Colin Farrell and The Inspection’s Jeremy Pope). But there is one thing that none of them has ever experienced: an Oscar nomination. That will almost certainly change for most — if not all — on Jan. 24, especially given that their 2022 performances already have been recognized with major nominations. Farrell, Fraser, Quan and Butler received both Critics Choice and Golden…

In Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Kate Hudson plays the eccentric, over-the-top fashion entrepreneur Birdie Jay, who, at the beginning of the film, seems supremely flawed in every way possible. But just like a true whodunit murder mystery, there is more to Birdie than meets the eye — she’s just someone who has “a desperate need to be loved,” Hudson tells THR. The second installment in the Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) murder mystery series, Glass Onion also stars Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista, Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn and Edward Norton, with the latter playing tech billionaire Miles Bron. Set in the early months of the pandemic, the film begins when Bron invites a group of friends (whom he calls “the disrupters”) to his private island for a…