Innholdsfortegnelse for April 12, 2023 i The Hollywood Reporter

In the early days of streaming, Netflix seemed to exemplify the Silicon Valley credo: “Move fast and break things.” Now, it seems, lawmakers have had enough of all the disruption. Around the world, governments are rushing to try to impose new rules and new taxes on digital players. For the streamers, dealing with slowing subscriber growth and rising production costs, these regulators could become a headache. In Canada, Bill C-11 will compel foreign streamers and social media platforms to subsidize and promote local Canadian content. The CRTC, Canada’s TV and telecom watchdog, is set to begin a new round of hearings and lobbying to determine how deep non-national streamers will need to dip into their pockets to support local film, TV and music content production. The process is tricky, especially…

Eighteen years after Ray Romano’s final curtain call on his loosely autobiographical sitcom, the comedian still dutifully works from an office on the Burbank lot where he filmed eight of Everybody Loves Raymond’s nine seasons. “When the show ended, Warner Bros. gave me this nice little office,” he says. “Not gave. I do pay rent.” It’s not beyond the pale to assume these digs might be free. In addition to making an impressive bit of change for himself — Romano ranks among the highest-paid TV stars of all time — he gave the studio one of the last bona fide broadcast hits, one that endures in lucrative syndication and streaming deals. But such matters, says Romano, are no longer his concern. He’s spent the two decades since Raymond distancing himself…

TALENT James Adams SCHRECK ROSE Cornell Law School Adams says the launch of his client Natasha Lyonne’s Peacock series Poker Face put the streaming service “on a different level” of original programming. Meanwhile, John Krasinski produced, wrote and stars in If for Paramount, Joy Bryant stars in the Spiderwick Chronicles reboot and Annaleigh Ashford returns to Broadway in Sweeney Todd. Adams’ roster also includes Kathryn Hahn and Kevin Hart. An industry rule made to be broken “Precedent. Let the creatives be creatives.” TALENT Michael Auerbach JACKOWAY AUSTEN NYU School of Law Several of Auerbach’s clients had scary good years: Actor turned filmmaker Zach Cregger found himself in multiple bidding wars after Barbarian; Mia Goth’s work in X and Pearl made her a horror queen, signing a third entry in Ti…

Type in any celebrity’s name on Instagram or Twitter and you’re bound to find at least a handful of accounts — if not more — posing as the celebrity, using the same profile picture and sharing photos and videos taken from their real accounts. Some of them are innocuous fan accounts dedicated to sharing the latest updates on their favorite stars with other stans. But others — the true impostors — can cause much more harm, DMing unsuspecting fans to scam users out of money, solicit nude photos or otherwise exploit a celebrity’s star status. Though social media platforms now have sophisticated AI-powered technology that can help weed out possible fraudsters among their millions of users, public figures still must contend with the potential for their likeness to be ripped…

Donald Trump may have stumbled onto a novel copyright issue. On Jan. 30, the ever-litigious Trump sued Bob Woodward and his publisher Simon & Schuster over the public release of audio recordings from their interviews for Woodward’s book, aptly titled The Trump Tapes. More than eight hours of excerpts from the interviews were published in October as an audiobook, and Trump says he’s entitled to all or most of those profits because he only granted Woodward permission to use his responses in a book. The former president asked for a court order declaring that he owns the copyright to the recordings or, at least, to his responses to the questions in the back-and-forth. Woodward, in his motion for dismissal, argues that Trump’s claim fails because he hasn’t obtained the requisite…

Early in their courtship, Hannah (Jennifer Garner) shows Owen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) around her wood-turning shop. “Your first lesson is that a good piece of wood always has one thing, one quality, that defines it,” she says. He takes it a step further. “You could probably say the same thing about most people,” he muses. “At the end of the day, one thing defines them.” Whether that’s true of actual people, it’s certainly true of these two, and of nearly everyone else in Apple TV+’s The Last Thing He Told Me. In certain lights, their singleness of purpose is endearing; it turns what could have been a straightforward tale of suspense into an unexpectedly tender celebration of love. But it also flattens the story until all that’s left is a shiny,…

Warner Bros. has already celebrated its centennial with a segment during the Academy Awards, the publication of a studio-supported book (Warner Bros.: 100 Years of Storytelling) and, most recently, a barrage of festivities emanating from Turner Classic Movies. TCM’s programming for all of April is being devoted to Warners films, and at the 14th annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, running April 13-16, many studio masterpieces, some recently restored and remastered, will be shown on big screens around town. Here are 10 that this THR Hollywood history buff highly recommends. FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933) Ninety years ago, during the depths of the Great Depression, Americans sought escape from their troubles with light movies like this backstage musical. Directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell and Ruby…

NATO Spirit of the Industry Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas, his producing partner and wife, are fierce champions of the theatrical experience. Oppenheimer, Nolan’s next film, opens exclusively in cinemas this July. CinemaCon Cinema Vérité Award Melissa McCarthy will receive the prestigious award for her lifelong contributions to the art form. This summer, McCarthy will star as Ursula in Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid. CinemaCon Star of the Year Zendaya has two major studio films this year: Luca Guadagnino’s tennis drama Challengers and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part 2; HBO’s Euphoria is also rumored to be returning for season three. CinemaCon Comedy Ensemble of the Year The cast of summer pic Joy Ride is led by Stephanie Hsu, Sabrina Wu, Ashley Park and Sherry Cola, who star as four friends embarking…

Ashlyn Ni Fhearghail, an Irish transplant living in the Middle East, was standing on the convention floor at London’s Star Wars Celebration, dressed like one of her favorite characters, Rey, when she heard the news. In another part of the ExCeL center, Lucasfilm had just revealed that it was finally moving forward on new Star Wars movies and that one of them was going to center on Rey, the character made famous by Daisy Ridley in Disney’s sequel trilogy. To Ni Fhearghail, who had been comparing costume notes with another fan dressed as Rey, it was a sign. “We’re excited to see more movies with her and more movies in general,” she said. To mangle a Star Wars analogy, these are the fans Lucasfilm is looking for, at least as…

Samsung and LG are among a number of tech companies that are quietly making a new push to Hollywood on the potential of LED display tech to replace theater projection systems that have been used since the birth of cinema. It would be a radical change. A projection system, true to its name, projects images onto the big screen. An LED wall is akin to a sophisticated, massive TV screen, and its use would render the projection booth a thing of the past. At this early stage, major U.S. theater chains are not using the tech. The companies are hesitant to share many details on their plans — Samsung’s Onyx LED displays for cinema are installed in roughly 100 cinema auditoriums worldwide, including at The Culver Theater in Culver City…

Inside View As Warner Bros. Discovery prepared to merge the content of HBOMax and Discovery+ into a single platform on April 12, the limited viewing data for the former indicates that library titles and shows made for the HBO channel are by far the biggest draws and that series made exclusively for HBO Max have yet to break into the club. HBO Max paid one fortune to grab exclusive streaming rights to put Friends on its service and another one to lock up exclusive rights to The Big Bang Theory. The streamer seems to be getting a decent return on the investments, but the same isn’t necessarily true for its original content. The service, like most other streamers, doesn’t release detailed audience data on its programming. It has been included…

Ariana DeBose Revives, Capitalizes on Infamous BAFTA Rap When Ariana DeBose hosted February’s BAFTAs, she opened with a meme-generating performance that conquered the internet, with reactions ranging from cringe to double cringe. DeBose — who cowrote the lyrics, “Angela Bassett did the thing, Viola Davis my Woman King, Blanchett Cate you’re a genius, Jamie Lee you are all of us” — is having the last laugh … all the way to the bank. The 32-year-old Oscar winner hit the London Palladium stage April 1 for a one-night engagement that saw her perform the ditty once again for a sold-out crowd along with covers of “Vogue,” “Ray of Light,” “Hand in My Pocket” and a mashup of “The Ladies Who Lunch” with “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” A THR spy attended the show…

Weddings Jamie Gruttemeyer, founder of management and production company The Hollywood Alternative, married Steven Symonds, founder of creative digital agency NE6, on March 18 at the Hotel de la Ville in Rome. Births Alissa Goodman, talent manager at Authentic Talent and Literary Management, and Kenny Goodman, manager and producer at Goodmanagement, welcomed Dylan Howard Goodman on Nov. 14 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Abid Rahman, international editor of digital at The Hollywood Reporter, and Louise Greer welcomed Nicolas Ashiqur Rahman-Greer on Feb. 24 at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Hong Kong. Congrats Asad Ayaz was named Disney’s first-ever chief brand officer April 6. Thomas Barry was upped to CFO of Sirius XM, effective April 28. Ashley Franklin was promoted to partner at Thruline Entertainment on March 27. Joe Earley was upped to…

Can you ID the celebrity by their teeth? Answers below. A major director had scheduled a quick lunch just before leaving for an out-of-town shoot, but when he bit down on something hard and cracked a back tooth, his plans were suddenly in limbo. He raced to the Brentwood office of Dr. Jon Marashi, explaining the urgency. The aesthetic dentist skipped the usual goopy impressions and instead captured details of the director’s bite with a 3D scanner in less than a minute. The digital file was immediately input into a 3D printer, which created a replica of the broken tooth. Using a Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) dental milling machine, a new porcelain crown was quickly fabricated, verified on the printed model, and within hours bonded…

LEIGH BRECHEEN“Be prepared for a long shutdown. Given the current demands by the WGA, which will almost certainly be mirrored by the DGA and SAG, it’s highly unlikely that the studios will reach an agreement rapidly.” JAMIE MANDELBAUM“GET YOUR DEALS CLOSED. AND, IF POSSIBLE, MAKE THEM STRIKE-PROOF. THERE’S A LOT YOU CAN DO IN FIVE OR SIX WEEKS.” JEFF HYNICK“ONLY FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL.” RICK GENOW“DO NOT SPEND IT DAY TRADING CRYPTO.” STEPHEN CLARK“BE SMART ABOUT PROJECT TIMING, BUT DON’T OVERCOMPENSATE OR MAKE DECISIONS BASED PURELY ON A WORST-CASE SCENARIO LABOR STOPPAGE.” ANDRÉ DES ROCHERS“Focus on the spec script that you’ve been putting off because you’ve been seduced by doing a TV job you don’t love but pays well. Now’s the time.”…

RETURN TO OFFICE IS THE SMARTEST EXECUTIVE IN HOLLYWOOD IS … Bob Iger. The Disney CEO was the top choice with a third of the votes. Bryan Lourd and Gary Barber (the only others with more than one vote) were a distant second and third. WHICH ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY IS GOING TO HAVE THE BEST 2023? 36% Unsurprisingly, Disney is the clear No. 1, followed by Netflix then Amazon (again, the only others who received more than one vote). THE NEXT MAJOR ACQUISITION WILL BE … Apple is the most likely to acquire “anything it wants to buy” (Sony, Netflix, Skydance and Disney were suggested). “Comcast will buy Warner Bros. Discovery” was the most popular prediction. Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery and Lionsgate are the most likely targets for prospective buyers.…

The long-foretold end of Peak TV may be upon us, as studios and streamers — adjusting to a new world of inflation, higher interest rates, and a slowdown in stock prices and subscriber figures — slash costs and reevaluate strategy. The result, whether at Warner Bros. Discovery (which has already taken $3.5 billion in content write-downs and canceled several planned or in-production series) or at the BBC (which needs to chop more than $120 million from its originals budget if it is to meet savings targets) will mean less money for producers and, one assumes, fewer shows getting commissioned. Nonscripted content, which is cheaper and easier to ramp up to fill programming slots, will be the most obvious beneficiary of this belt-tightening, with much of the focus of the upcoming…

Nicolas Cage’s turn as Count Dracula in Renfield, flying into theaters April 14 from Universal, isn’t the first time the actor has sunk his teeth into exploring the undead. Thirty-four years ago, he starred in the indie flick Vampire’s Kiss as Peter Loew, a New York literary agent convinced that his lover Rachel (Jennifer Beals) has transformed him into a vampire. Director Robert Bierman’s feature initially had Dennis Quaid attached as the lead until he dropped out to shoot Innerspace. The film’s team remembers Cage calling repeatedly to pitch himself. “We just didn’t see Nicolas in the part,” producer Barbara Zitwer admits to THR. Ultimately, Cage landed the gig and continued to surprise with his acting choices, including his insistence that Peter eat a live cockroach instead of a raw…

The April box office is in full bloom thanks to the astounding performance of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which served up the biggest global opening of all time for an animated film, with $375.6 million over the long Easter holiday. Its massive five-day domestic opening of $204.6 million included $146.4 million for the three-day weekend. And Amazon kicked off a new era for streamers in giving Ben Affleck’s adult-skewing drama Air a proper theatrical release in thousands of theaters instead of sending it straight to Amazon Prime Video. Three years after COVID-19 first destabilized the theatrical sector, a breadth and depth of product is returning to the marquee, providing a glimmer of hope for fretful Hollywood studios and exhibitors. Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and DC’s Shazam! Fury…

UFC president Dana White celebrated the landmark $21 billion deal to merge his mixed martial arts promotion with the WWE by sitting ringside (Octagonside?) with a trio of WWE Hall of Famers at UFC 287, which was held at the Kaseya Center in Miami on April 8. White was the center of attention, thanks in no small part to who was sitting with him: On one side, former President Donald Trump, now facing criminal charges in New York. On the other, the boxer Mike Tyson, no stranger to legal troubles of his own, and the controversial musician Kid Rock. In a corporate world where caution can be king, the UFC, which is owned by Endeavor, throws it to the wind. In combat sports, controversy is good TV (the polarizing podcaster…

Svetlana! Svetlana! (IHEARTMEDIA, THE DOCUMENTARY GROUP) WRITTEN/HOSTED BY Dan Kitrosser AGENCY WME This Cold War nonfiction series tells the story of Joseph Stalin’s only daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, who defected to the U.S. in 1967 and became entangled with a cult-like commune in Arizona run by Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife. Eliza: A Robot Story (CROWD NETWORK) WRITTEN BY Emma Hickman AGENCY CAA Starring Sex Education’s Tanya Reynolds, this scripted series is about a robot, Eliza, who falls in love with her owner (played by Doctor Who star Arthur Darvill). But a romance this is not, as Eliza’s sentience leads to realizations about abuse and coercion.…

Since Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill that would ban drag performers from staging “adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors,” at least 14 states have proposed similar laws. Such legislation, separate but related to a broader skepticism among Republican lawmakers toward trans-affirming care, taps into a centuries-long history in the U.S. — and in Los Angeles in particular — of government action against gender nonconformity. By the end of the 19th century, laws prohibiting cross-dressing had emerged throughout the country. Ordinance 5022 in 1898 brought these explicit restrictions to Los Angeles. Lillian Faderman, a premier scholar of the city’s queer history and author of Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians, traces the legislation to an annual bacchanal staged in L.A. in the…

Voice cast stars Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy, Seth Rogen and Sebastian Maniscalco premiered The Super Mario Bros. Movie in Los Angeles on April 1, where Pratt weighed in on the response to him voicing the iconic Mario character. “I was pretty nervous when they offered it to me. I thought, ‘Wow, let’s not screw this up.’ That’s where it all comes from, I think. People are passionate about this character and they’ve probably seen some of their favorite IP getting screwed up,” he told THR, adding, “The pressure was on to not do that and, thankfully, we didn’t. I think the movie is fantastic and I think your childhood is firmly intact.”…

When Bob Dowling began his 17-year run as publisher and editor-in-chief of The Hollywood Reporter in 1988, he saw “overwhelming talent and untapped potential,” his son Michael Dowling noted at the March 26 celebration of his father’s life. “He was so excited because he felt everything had prepared him for this moment. He could unleash that talent and not only make [THR] a huge success, but change lives in the process.” Speakers at the rooftop Jonathan Club event included Dowling’s other sons, Jobi and Matthew; his seven grandchildren; and Dowling himself. In a recording made two weeks before his Dec. 30 death, the Long Island native said he always sought to “find out from you what you want and then do the best I can [to get it].” He loved…

Everybody looks so great. When I look around this room, I can’t help but wonder, ‘Is Ozempic right for me?’ ” joked Jimmy Kimmel while hosting the 95th Academy Awards. Of course, Kimmel was referencing Hollywood’s sweeping off-label use of the injectable diabetes drug — as well as similar drugs Mounjaro and Wegovy — to rapidly shed pounds by suppressing appetite and slowing digestion. One unintended side effect of the drug (which can also cause gastrointestinal issues such as vomiting and diarrhea) is “Ozempic face” — a term coined by cosmetic dermatologist Paul Jarrod Frank to describe the gaunt look resulting from sudden volume loss, which some plastic surgeons are combatting with fat transfers (often taken from the hips or abdomen). And now doctors are seeing “Ozempic body,” where quick…

Michael Gendler GENDLER & KELLY Early on, Gendler stopped having to chase business when he was hired by the likes of David E. Kelley and Meryl Streep, who were referred by none other than Carrie Fisher. A seminal moment came in 1998 with an extremely lucrative overall deal between Kelley and 20th Century Fox TV (Ally McBeal, The Practice, Boston Legal). Now, he advises the prolific Shonda Rhimes as well as Steve Martin, Rob Marshall and Chris Pine. Ivy Kagan Bierman LOEB & LOEB With a passion for entertainment and labor, Kagan Bierman has carved out a rare niche as one of the industry’s few legal experts representing major companies — the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Discovery and Lionsgate, to name a few — in dealings with…

For aspiring entertainment lawyers, there’s no foolproof way to break into Hollywood — but studying at a school with a specialized program and well-connected alumni certainly doesn’t hurt. Each year, The Hollywood Reporter spotlights the top programs — factoring in their alumni on the Power Lawyers list as well as new and novel courses, externship programs and other offerings — that could give students an edge in the industry. 1. UCLA Nestled in the heart of Westwood, UCLA returns to the top of the list with a splashy offering through the Ziffren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology and Sports Law that includes two seminars taught by Ken Ziffren himself and a TV law course taught by Lionsgate’s Sandra Stern. There’s also a program that guarantees internships at CAA, WME and…

Playing Beau Wassermann, the character who gives Ari Aster’s third feature its name, Joaquin Phoenix goes balls to the wall in a performance that holds nothing back. Beau lives next door to a peep show emporium called Ejectus Erectus and is informed by a medic that his abnormally distended testicles are cause for concern, which is just one of many indications that this guy needs to — how to put it delicately? — oh heck, shoot a load. Three hours that definitely put the odd in odyssey, Beau Is Afraid could be said to suffer from the same bloat, wandering through bizarre detours of varying effectiveness before arriving at a wonderfully overripe operatic climax elevated by Patti LuPone as the Lydia Tár of single mothers. But even if its pacing…