Innholdsfortegnelse for September 27, 2023 i The Hollywood Reporter

Digital YouTube + AI The tech giant is giving influencers new ammo p. 18 Moguls Lachlan’s Throne? How Rupert’s retirement impacts Murdochland p. 16 Zahn McClarnon AMC Networks renews the star’s detective series Dark Winds for a third season after its sophomore run averaged 1.7 million viewers in Nielsen’s three-day ratings. Stephen Amell Just after the Writers Guild inked a tentative deal, Starz culled four projects from its slate, including the actor’s wrestling drama Heels, which will end with season two. David Berson & Rick Cordella It’s a new era for CBS’ and NBC’s sports groups as the execs take over following the retirement of Sean McManus and exit of Pete Bevacqua. Sylvester Stallone The action star’s team-up franchise crashes and burns at the box office as its fourth installment,…

As Hollywood sees the light at the end of the tunnel amid the history-making dual strikes, anxieties have begun to set in. “You’ve got the entire industry starting up again. Everybody’s going to be hitting the starting line with the same needs. There will be issues with cast availabilities, crews, getting stages, equipment,” says one studio executive. With the WGA having reached a tentative deal and SAG-AFTRA next up at the bargaining table, reps and execs, while hopeful, have begun fretting about what the post-work-stoppage future holds. The strikes have lasted long enough that entire production schedules on major studio features and series have been blown. “People are already starting to argue about who is in first position,” says one rep. While most back-to-work scenarios are more cut-and-dried — the…

Charlie Puth had a problem: He’d written a lyric, “a little ditty,” but didn’t know what to do with those lines. The “Left and Right” singer-songwriter had joined a Google AI incubator program, so he fed the new lyrics into the artificial intelligence-assisted tool “like I would do if I were collaborating with anybody else,” Puth said, speaking to a room of journalists and YouTube creators at the tech giant’s New York office Sept. 21. “It was really profound,” Puth recalled of what the system spit back, noting that it sang the lyrics back in his own voice, suggested styles and recommended that it be sung in A-flat minor. Generative AI is on the cusp of going mainstream. While systems like DALL-E and GPT may still be used largely by…

Who is your favorite child?” is a question most parents know they can’t, well, shouldn’t, answer. “Which songs from the Barbie soundtrack will you submit to the Academy Awards?” might be a similarly tough question for its producers to respond to. Barbie: The Album has been a triumphant, chart-topping, multi-hit success since the soundtrack was released in July. Several songs have come to life as the film continues to break world records: Dua Lipa’s bop “Dance the Night” and Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s fiery “Barbie World” have both spent multiple weeks in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart; Billie Eilish’s lush and emotional track “What Was I Made For?” is an international hit and has topped the rock and alternative charts; and Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just…

The third annual L.A. Power Broker Awards on Sept. 27 will take place for the first time at a stunning piece of L.A. real estate, Castillo del Lago. The former home of Madonna is listed with Carolwood’s Linda May and Brett Lawyer for $18.9 million. Presented by premier luxury real estate PR company The Society Group, the awards evening will be hosted by The Agency’s Mauricio Umansky: Team of the Year Drew Fenton Philanthropic Impact Chris Cortazzo Stratospheric Sale Aileen Comora & Paul Lester; Jade Mills; Kurt Rappaport Agent of Historic Architecture Josh Flagg, Aaron Kirman, Brett Lawyer Media Maverick Rochelle Atlas Maize, Jade Mills, Mauricio Umansky Condo Sale of the Year James Harris & David Parnes and Cassandra Peterson (Coldwell Banker); Leo Medeiros & Bridget Reeves (The Agency) and…

NEW YORK CITY certainly hasn’t been immune to the effects of the strikes. But while Hollywood has largely been at a standstill, major players in theater, music, sports and tech have been as busy as ever. In The Hollywood Reporter’s NYC spotlight, meet the 25 attorneys handling big-ticket catalog deals, navigating AI copyright fights, buying and selling sports teams, and helping clients chase Broadway dreams. LISA ALTER Alter Kendrick & Baron NYU School of Law CORPORATE Selling off big-deal music catalogs has been a growing phenomenon, and Alter is helping her clients profit. She represented Primary Wave in buying a stake in the catalogs of The Doors and Huey Lewis and the News; BMG Rights Management in the acquisition of rights from Peter Frampton and The Hollies; and Influence Media…

A big, brawny original sci-fi movie is a rare thing in the age of franchise branding, which makes you root for Gareth Edwards’ The Creator, an ambitious endeavor, stuffed with imposing visuals, impressive design and nifty tech hardware. But this future-world thriller about a war between humankind and artificial intelligence feels like a lot of movies scrunched together, most of them familiar. A dull lead, a vein of ersatz spirituality, racial optics by turns uneasy and pandering, and chaotic plotting don’t help. Co-scripting with Chris Weitz, one of the writers on the director’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Edwards repurposes ideas from that movie with elements of others like Blade Runner, Aliens, War of the Worlds and Apocalypse Now. The story depicts America as a military-industrial complex whose interventionist…

Back in the summer of 2000, a small group of diminutive, handcrafted clay chickens broke out of a coop and made cinema history. British stop-motion animation pioneers Aardman were already renowned for their Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit short films, but Chicken Run was their first feature. It was such an ambitious project that it required the construction of an entire studio at Aardman’s base in Bristol to house the sets, while academies were set up to train animators. But it paid off. The film — co-directed by Aardman co-founder Peter Lord and Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park and now considered a beloved classic — earned north of $227 million, becoming the most successful stop-motion animated feature of all time, a record it holds to this day. Almost a quarter…

On Saturday, Sept. 23, Disney CEO Bob Iger was in Beverly Hills, seemingly living his best life. He was at dinner with Paul McCartney and Eagles alum Joe Walsh at La Dolce Vita, an old-world Italian restaurant with long white tablecloths and dark red leather booths. Some people were discreetly snapping photos, as was to be expected with a Beatle in the house. But not everyone was focused only on McCartney. By the time the dinner was over, blurry images of Iger at the table with McCartney had been posted in the WhatsApp group chat that includes nearly 500 showrunners. Then someone posted an image of a “Writers’ Tears” whiskey bottle (yes, a real brand), suggesting that it should be sent to Iger’s table. No one did that, but the…

The Malibu Triathlon Runs Into a Fishy Situation Set for Sept. 30-Oct. 1, the Malibu Triathlon, which has hosted the likes of Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Lopez, is in danger of being called off. Organizers sent an email to competitors alerting them to a change in the bike course to accommodate a new arrival to the area: a translucent 2-inch fish called the tidewater goby. Heavy rains in L.A. flooded the Zuma Underpass, a “key part” of the race, and before the water was cleared, goby took up residence. Event organizers, city of Malibu officials, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the county’s Department of Beaches & Harbors hatched a plan to protect the fish while minimizing “our impact on the local ecosystem.” In doing so, they proposed…

We had a 13-year run of a robust market and are experiencing a necessary cycle change,” says Rayni Williams of The Beverly Hills Estates, reflecting on the 36 percent drop in luxury home sales that hit L.A. in the second quarter. Meanwhile, the median price of a home in Los Angeles hovered at $963,000, down 1 percent from the previous year. The decline can be attributed to a combination of high interest rates, the dual strikes that hit Hollywood (see sidebar on page 39) and the new ULA mansion tax, in which home sellers in the city of Los Angeles must pay at least a 4 percent transfer on any sales above $5 million. “Sellers are hesitant to sell given these barriers,” says AKG’s Aaron Kirman. Despite the challenges, L.A.’s…

There was a time not too long ago, when Dan Harmon shared absolutely everything. His bowel movements inspired tweets and Tumblr entries, his dysfunctional relationship with his then-partner powered hours of podcasts, and his firing from Community, his own cult TV creation, fueled a 21-city bus tour and later a documentary. A life of transparency, he reasoned, was therapeutic, healthy even for a guy who’d routinely describe himself as self-loathing and self-destructive. Then the culture changed. “It stopped being punk rock to just say anything,” says Harmon. And he changed, or at least he tried to change. He embraced actual therapy and largely retreated from the public eye, shuttering both his popular podcast and his prolific Twitter feed. He found love in his personal life and balance in his professional…

Gutenberg! The Musical OCT. 12 — JAN. 28 Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells are back on the same Broadway stage for the first time since The Book of Mormon in this comedic two-hander about the art of making a musical. I Need That NOV. 2 — Dec. 23 Danny DeVito and his daughter Lucy star in the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s play about a reclusive hoarder who is faced with the ultimatum of cleaning up his property or being evicted. Merrily We Roll Along OCT. 10 — MARCH 24 Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez lead the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical about friendship, regret and what happens in the transition from youth to adulthood. Appropriate DEC. 18 — FEB. 11 Sarah Paulson returns to Broadway in…

Opioid epidemic chronicles like Hulu’s Dopesick and Netflix’s Painkiller face a stumbling block when it comes to delivering satisfying resolution: When one side of the ledger has countless deaths and the other only settlements and bankruptcy filings, reality can be a real bummer. No such restrictions confine Mike Flanagan in his latest Netflix limited series. A cross between a creative writing project for a college seminar on Edgar Allan Poe and a horror-filled karmic catharsis, Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher — which borrows from various Poe works — is a bluntly entertaining exercise. It’s the most topical of his Netflix minis, fueled by a palpable anger. But that anger sometimes gets in the way of the thematic richness that gave The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting…

Keen eyes will have spotted a slight tweak to the usual mission championed by the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) when it announced the program for its 28th edition. While there are plenty of opportunities for international visitors to tap into current trends in the Asian cinema scene across the board — the foundation on which this festival is built — this year, those heading to the South Korean seaside city will also be offered a timely dip into what’s happening stateside in terms of Korean creatives and their ever-growing global influence. The six-film Korean Diasporic Cinema program is a distinct highlight of BIFF this year, and it’ll see Korean American filmmakers, including the Oscar-nominated Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) and Justin Chon (Jamojaya), in town with their films. Teo Yoo,…

Revered distribution executive Erik Lomis was consigliere to many: Tom Cruise, Ryan Coogler, Paul Thomas Anderson and Michael B. Jordan, among others. On Oct. 4, he posthumously will receive the Will Rogers Pioneer Award, which honors industry veterans for leadership and service. Lomis, who died suddenly in March at age 64, handled hundreds of films during his career, including a slew of Oscar contenders. He did several stints at MGM, where he became the James Bond whisperer, as well as a long run at The Weinstein Co. “His dedication to our films was limitless,” 007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson note, adding they always showed Lomis an early cut. In advance of the tribute, Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca, who worked with Lomis at MGM before they…

The daytime talk shows sidelined by the WGA strike are making moves to resume production now that a tentative agreement has been reached between the writers and the major studios. Of the enterprises impacted by their WGA ties — The Talk, The Drew Barrymore Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show and The Kelly Clarkson Show — sources indicate that all are looking into October returns. Barrymore being back on air will likely be the most notable. Host and actress Drew Barrymore was the target of unprecedented flak when she announced plans to return to work Sept. 10 and then quickly shifted gears in one of multiple apologies. One benefit to the false starts for these shows — The Talk and The Jennifer Hudson Show had also planned September premieres before nixing…

Rupert Murdoch’s American media empire was forged in dealmaking. The mogul transformed a regional newspaper business into a juggernaut through acquisitions, perhaps most notably the 20th Century Fox Film Corp. in 1985 and Dow Jones (owner of The Wall Street Journal) in 2007. But he also knew when to sell. Murdoch split his companies in two in 2013, separating the film and TV business from his newspaper empire (as well as his Australian telecom holdings), betting that the newspapers were holding down the value of Fox’s TV business. And in a blockbuster $71 billion deal in 2019, Murdoch sold off nearly all of his Hollywood assets to Disney. Rupert Murdoch no longer is a presence on the Fox and News Corp. boards, having shifted to a fuzzier “chairman emeritus” role…

On a plaque at the Watts Towers Art Center, adjacent to the iconic spires built by Simon Rodia, is a quote by the institution’s late co-founder, the renowned artist Noah Purifoy: “Creativity can be an act of living, a way of life, and a formula for doing the right thing.” The phrase, as well as Purifoy himself, has inspired Acts of Living, the sixth iteration of the Hammer Museum’s contemporary art biennial, Made in L.A. — and the first since the UCLA building was expanded this year thanks to a capital campaign that counted Marcy Carsey and Darren Star among its top contributors. Since its inaugural edition in 2012, the show has become a more and more prestigious launching pad for L.A.–based talent. This year’s exhibition comprises 39 artists, selected…

The Black Music Action Coalition held its third annual gala Sept. 21, honoring artists, executives, entrepreneurs and activists who have used their platforms to effect positive change and equity within the community. Keke Palmer, Jermaine Dupri, Sylvia Rhone and Jesse Collins were among the night’s honorees; Lizzo was also in attendance to accept the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award, just hours after she was hit with a second lawsuit claiming she’d created a hostile work environment. After an introduction by a group of her Big Grrrl dancers, Lizzo told the crowd that she “really needed this right now,” adding, “I’m going to continue to put on and represent and create safe spaces for Black fat women because that’s what the fuck I do. It is my purpose and it is an…

There’s an eight-minute window, just after 9 a.m. ET every weekday morning, when Vladimir Duthiers goes AWOL on live TV. Viewers might think he’s just off camera at the CBS News Streaming Network anchor desk that he shares with Anne-Marie Green, but the 53-year-old newsman is frantically covering over a mile of midtown Manhattan that separates his company’s two studios. “I start the day on CBS Mornings in Times Square, do the top of the streaming show remote from there, toss to Anne-Marie and make my way up here during her first interview,” he explains in his 57th Street office during a mid-September meeting after one such sprint. “I run out of the car, throw all my shit in the closet, race onto set, and by 9:15 I’m at the…

After the WGA and then SAG-AFTRA went on strike, Los Angeles real estate agent Michelle Schwartz quickly felt the impact. “I was working with a producer who was relocating from England,” she explains. “It was a good all-cash $6 million purchase. Then the strike happened, and the deal was off. She says, ‘I’ve got to go back to the U.K. until this is over.’ “I’m seeing a lot of that, and it’s more than just the writers and actors,” continues Schwartz, managing partner of Sherman Oaks, Studio City and Calabasas for The Agency. “It’s everyone in production, with the exception of reality TV. We have a massive buyer pool that is not in the market right now.” But attributing the decrease in that pool solely to the strikes is difficult,…

This year, the head of American Legion Post 43, the nearly century-old private club for military veterans in Hollywood, faced a secret probe into his alleged misconduct. An employee at the organization’s theater, which is rented out for events, had accused him of putting his arm around her neck at the end of a night working a Bill Burr comedy show there and repeatedly attempting to kiss her while she said “no.” Post 43’s commander, Jeff Daly, the first African American man to be elected to the top position, denied the claim. He also contended, to the outside law firm that the nonprofit club’s executive committee had hired to run the investigation, that it had been fabricated by a conspiracy of theater staffers because he’d suggested cost-cutting measures that would…

Game of Thrones Robert Auritt “Waiting to Exhale — still my favorite movie of all time.” Marcie Cleary A Confederacy of Dunces Gray Coleman Succession Sandra Crawshaw-Sparks Casablanca Gregory Hessinger The Super Mario Brothers Movie Wook Hwang It’s a Wonderful Life Edward Klaris The Godfather or Sopranos Christine Lepera “The Jerk. But they would need to get Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters to reprise their roles!” Lucy Popkin Die Hard Adrian Perry The Bear Alison Stein Peaky Blinders Michael Williams Only Murders in the Building Nancy Wolff…

Sophie Mas and Natalie Portman met by chance at the Cannes Film Festival 15 years ago. Portman was on the jury, Mas was introduced through a friend, and they developed an instant friendship. A decade and a half later, they found themselves back at the Croisette — this time to premiere the first project out of their newly formed production company, MountainA (named for the Sisyphus myth, their shared affinity for the mountains, and the first letter of all their children’s names). May December, the Todd Haynes directed melodrama about an actress (Portman) studying the real-life subject of her next part, played to rave reviews at the French festival, quickly selling to Netflix for $11 million. Ahead of the movie’s North American premiere, in the opening slot of the New…

The ongoing United Auto Workers strike has placed heightened focus on working conditions at U.S. car companies. Among the narrative films to have previously spotlighted such issues — alongside documentaries like Michael Moore’s 1989 standout, Roger & Me — is Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar, which rolled into theaters 45 years ago and starred Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto. Blue Collar focuses on Zeke, Jerry and Smokey, three Detroit-based automobile workers who aren’t earning enough money to make ends meet, so they devise a plan to steal from their local union, which inadvertently leads them to uncover corruption within the organization. The project marked the directorial debut of Schrader, known for penning the script for Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic, Taxi Driver. But the shoot was marred by tension. On…