Innholdsfortegnelse for August 9, 2023 i The Hollywood Reporter

We’re not allowed to talk about Scrubs.” That was the consensus that co-stars Zach Braff and Donald Faison reached almost immediately during the Aug. 1 episode of their Scrubs rewatch podcast, Fake Doctors, Real Friends. The pair, like many actors with thriving audio platforms, had been unsure of how to approach their side gig during the SAG-AFTRA strike and initially segued into repeats. Not only is there the obvious fear of speaking out of turn during Hollywood’s labor crisis — see recent foot-in-mouth comments from Stephen Amell, Jamie Lee Curtis and Zachary Levi, each of whom immediately backpedaled — podcasting is proving to be a strike gray area despite the union clearing up guidelines. Mostly. “Rewatch, recap and companion shows are promotional, and they can drive viewers to struck companies’…

Duck Dynasty and the Metropolitan Opera are two very different cultural phenomena, but they have at least one thing in common: Fathom Events, the unique and prolific theatrical distributor based in Denver. Over the past 20 years, Fathom has mastered the art of finding audiences for one-off cinematic events, from live broadcasts of opera, stage plays and live concert pics to anniversary rereleases of classic Hollywood films. A groundbreaking partnership with The Metropolitan Opera put Fathom on the map. Launched in 2006, The Met: Live in HD program, which sees about 10 operas a year beamed into theaters on Saturdays and Wednesdays, has generated more than $205 million in box office sales and consistently lands on a weekend’s top 10 list. The company has also made a big impression in…

Standing on the ledge of a broken window next to a Beverly Hills esthetician with mascara running from the tear gas, a bearded man with wild blue eyes made an appeal to the crowd surrounding the U.S. Capitol. “Last chance, who wants to make history with me? Who’s a man? Who’s a patriot? I’m going into Capitol Hill by myself — who wants to man the fuck up? Patriots, let’s do this right fucking now!” he shouted into a megaphone. Returning the bullhorn to the esthetician, he entered the Capitol through the broken window. Inside, in an upturned conference room, he led a group of rioters out of the room and into an adjoining hallway, where he kicked the door of another conference room several times to help open it.…

When the companies behind Ira Sachs’ new drama about the shifting currents of intimacy in a troubled love triangle submitted Passages to the Motion Picture Association ratings board, they probably anticipated an R. But the MPA came back with an NC-17 rating, forcing the distributor to release the film (which premiered at Sundance earlier this year) unrated rather than risk commercial marginalization or impose cuts that would diminish its intensity. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sachs painted the MPA as an outmoded relic of the 1950s, detecting a whiff of dangerous cultural censorship and possible homophobia behind the seldom issued NC-17. Let’s be clear: Passages — which Mubi opened Aug. 4 in L.A. and New York before expanding to other cities in the weeks to come —…

NEW YORK City College New York Undergraduate students can enter a fiction or documentary filmmaking track at CCNY, where tuition for in-state students now runs less than $4,000 a semester. The curriculum includes classes in journalism and film studies. Purchase College, State University of New York The BFA program has three focuses: narrative, doc or experimental, with students choosing a path by the end of their second year after the basics of filmmaking are covered. Courses include Business of Film and Director’s Scene Workshop, with the goal that students graduate with a body of amateur work. Rutgers University The New Jersey school’s film program, which offers a BFA in filmmaking, is known for its Documentary Film Lab, headed by Oscar winner Thomas Lennon. The program works to produce broadcast-ready documentaries…

A few weeks before Bob Iger sat down for that CNBC interview in which he said Disney’s linear TV networks, like ABC and FX, “may not be core” to the company’s business, a veteran Hollywood executive mused to THR on the possibility of a deal that would rock the industry: Apple buying Disney. It’s an idea that keeps being discussed, even though many top executives have scoffed at it and many still do. Apple doesn’t want to buy a studio, they say, and there’s no way the feds would allow a huge deal like that to go through. But this observer wasn’t so quick to rule it out. “I don’t think [Apple] would buy the company as it presently exists,” he said. “But if you see Bob start to divest…

Conventional wisdom says: If you want to win a big Hollywood award, release your project as late as possible. That would explain the glut of Oscar bait dumped in the final months of the calendar year, as studios and streamers hope their fall releases will be fresh on Academy voters’ minds when they receive their ballots in January. There are, of course, always outliers; Everything Everywhere All at Once, this year’s Oscar winner for best picture, hit theaters in March 2022 and still managed to maintain momentum throughout awards season to claim Oscar victory. Similar unwritten rules apply to the Emmys. The Television Academy’s eligibility window runs from June 1 to May 31 — which is why many of this year’s Emmy-nominated series saw their seasons premiere in spring 2023.…

Irish Pub Owner Re-creates Banshees Bar Using Film’s Set Pieces The Banshees of Inisherin is the unlikely inspiration for the latest immersive fan experience. Luke Mee, a pub owner in Kilkerrin, Ireland, has rebuilt the film’s fictional JJ Devine’s pub behind his own establishment using the original set. Mee didn’t have to look far to track down the pieces; his wife’s sister casually told him “over a cup of tea” they’d been sitting for 18 months in her backyard thanks to her husband, who had worked as security on the film and saved them from the landfill. “We didn’t really know what was what, so we just had to watch the film, screenshot scenes and copy it,” says Mee. Unlike the original, Mee’s version has electricity as well as functioning…

Weddings Blair Underwood married Josie Hart, with whom the actor has been friends since he was 16, on June 24 at Casa de Campo Resort and Villas in the Dominican Republic. Guests included Kim Fields and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. Births WME head of communications Marie Sheehy and Palmer Brown welcomed Cocobelle Jones Helene Brown on April 30 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Congrats Former Disney execs Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs were tapped as consultants to advise on the future of Disney’s TV business July 31. Jordanna Guarino was promoted to senior vp development and programming at Blumhouse Television on July 26. Sony Pictures TV co-president Jason Clodfelter was named president of television at Legendary Entertainment on Aug. 2. Lauren Tempest was appointed GM of Hulu on July 27. Former Discovery executive…

For the lucky few who caught Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy during its original, limited U.S. theatrical release in 2005, the film landed with the full force of the Korean cultural wave that was yet to come. Here, seemingly out of nowhere, was a viscerally disturbing cinematic vision — live octopus-eating, hand-to-hand combat via claw-tooth hammer and a climax involving double incest and the severing of a human tongue — but one delivered in a style as baroquely accomplished as anything Hollywood or American indie cinema had ever produced. The experience was that rarest of aesthetic shocks to the system, like stumbling onto a landmark work from a true master artist — who, somehow, you hadn’t even known existed. To celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary, Neon is rereleasing Oldboy in U.S. cinemas…

When choreographer Jamal Sims was working on two of the projects for which he now has Emmy nominations, he was experiencing a bit of whiplash. After all, he was planning ABC’s Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration and Disney+’s Encanto at the Hollywood Bowl at the same time. “I would leave rehearsal from Beauty and the Beast and go down the street not even a mile and go into the rehearsal for Encanto right after,” he says. “Usually you can decompress after. I didn’t have that.” The music at least helped him get into the right headspace. “They are such different sounding shows,” he says, noting of the latter, “The minute those songs come on, you are in Encanto.” With Beauty and the Beast, Sims — who also received…

Australian Film, TV and Radio School Australia’s leading screen arts and broadcast school benefits from a beautiful Sydney campus and a deep pool of industry lecturers and close ties with the Australian film community. Notable alumni include multi-Oscar nominee Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Phillip Noyce (The Quiet American) and Black Widow filmmaker Cate Shortland, plus a slew of esteemed craftspeople like Margaret Sixel (editing on Mad Max: Fury Road), David White (sound editing for Mad Max: Fury Road), Andrew Lesnie (cinematography for The Lord of the Rings) and Tony McNamara (best original screenplay Oscar nominee for The Favourite). Beijing Film Academy The USC of the world’s second-largest film industry, China’s most prestigious film school offers its graduates a wealth of industry ties to some of the country’s…

Striking actors and the media companies they work for remain far apart on negotiations for a new contract, with no talks taking place since SAGAFTRA members took to the picket lines July 14. Both the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, representing studios, seem dug in to their respective positions. One of the union’s proposals in particular — for a small cut of streaming service revenue from successful shows and movies — has generated a lot of pushback from the management side, with the AMPTP saying it has “fundamental objections” to the idea. SAG-AFTRA contends that it’s a necessary (if novel) step given the industry-altering changes in the streaming era. SAG-AFTRA’S PROPOSAL The union’s contract offer includes setting aside 2 percent of revenue generated by a…

The entertainment industry’s most vulnerable workers are increasingly unable to feed themselves amid a historic double strike with no clear end in sight, according to nonprofits tasked with addressing the food insecurity crisis. They describe Hollywood’s ongoing work stoppage — the result of contractual disagreements between studios and unions — as a humanitarian emergency broadly affecting the community, not just striking union members. The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, which runs pantries for those in need throughout the county, attributes a meaningful portion of its 9 percent uptick in year-over-year distribution to the strikes’ impact. “When income stops immediately, the demand rises very rapidly,” explains chief development officer Roger Castle. “This is happening right after the pandemic, which drained a lot of people’s savings,” observes Keith McNutt, executive director at…

Project Angel Food broke ground on its new Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Campus on Aug. 3 in star-studded style, with supporters Jamie Lee Curtis, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Chuck Lorre himself present at the L.A. ceremony. The organization — which strives to end food insecurity for critically ill Angelenos — announced the launch of a multiyear campaign that includes a $51 million expansion and renovation of its Vine Street building and construction of a new facility next door. Lorre revealed his own connection to the group’s mission, after he became severely ill with ulcerative colitis in his early 20s and a nutrition program helped send him into remission. “I want to be part of this because this is personal,” Lorre said. “I want to be part of something that provides…

When John Mulaney was touring the material that would become the Emmy-nominated John Mulaney: Baby J, he was playing massive arenas like Madison Square Garden. But for the filmed version, Mulaney wanted the show to be intimate, according to director and executive producer Alex Timbers. It was fitting for what Mulaney was tackling: Baby J delves, hilariously, into the circumstances surrounding Mulaney’s drug addiction and time in rehab. “There’s a sense of vulnerability and intimacy inherent in this material that’s more so than his previous stand-up specials,” explains Timbers. “How do you support that?” For the Tony-winning director, the answer to that question is itself a question of design, thinking deeply about lighting and color palette and how that could enhance what Mulaney is trying to say. “It was about…

As financial barriers to filmmaking tech lower — while barriers to higher education continue to rise and student loans remain a legislative flashpoint — film programs nationwide have had to consider how to adapt to stand out. Many programs have added LED walls (UNCSA, DePaul) and are building backlots that rival Warner Bros. (SCAD). Some upstarts are successfully climbing the ranks of a crowded field — Brooklyn College’s Feirstein is only 8 years old — while others are doubling down on long-established reputations: Think Wesleyan (a liberal arts school committed to celluloid) or USC (a big program with an even bigger alumni network). All the while scholarships, financial aid, tuition expenses and postgraduate grants are becoming more paramount to would-be student decision-making. With all this in mind, THR has compiled…