The all-new Hollywood Reporter offers unprecedented access to the people, studios, networks and agencies that create the magic in Hollywood. Published weekly, the oversized format includes exceptional photography and rich features.
It didn’t take long to see the problem after Marvel Studios’ Daredevil: Born Again paused production mid-June during the writers strike. Fewer than half of the series’ 18 episodes had been shot, but it was enough for Marvel executives, including chief Kevin Feige, to review the footage and come away with a clear-eyed assessment. The show wasn’t working. So, in late September, Marvel quietly let go of head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman and also released the directors for the remainder of the season as part of a significant creative reboot of the series, THR has learned. The studio is now on the hunt for new writers and directors for the project, which stars Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer turned superhero. The Daredevil revamp is the…
Amy Reinhard As the dust settles on Netflix’s C-suite shake-up, the company veteran will be tasked with growing the platform’s closely watched advertising business. Bob Iger The Disney chief thought he’d solved his activist investor problem this year, but Nelson Peltz is once again buying up company shares and aiming for board seats. Carletta Higginson Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl hires a fellow YouTube veteran as chief digital officer as the company navigates the rise of AI-generated songs. Jenny Bicks/Paul Feig Fox pulls the plug on Welcome to Flatch, the small-town comedy from the duo, after two seasons as one of the least watched shows on the broadcaster. Showbiz Stocks $9.92 (+25.4%) AMC ENTERTAINMENT (AMC) As presales for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie soar, the movie theater giant received…
Taylor Swift’s team and AMC Theatres caught fans — and studios — by surprise in unveiling that a secret movie chronicling her Eras Tour would arrive in cinemas. That project, which bypassed distributors, blasts off Oct. 13 with an expected bow of $100 million to $125 million in North America. Next, on Dec. 1, Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour doc will roll out, also in a pact with AMC. While these stars are global icons and able to secure favorable terms for box office receipts, there are a few others who might have the leverage to run the playbook — if they choose to. BTS The K-pop supergroup has done it before WHY IT COULD WORK The Korean group already has released five documentaries in theaters, and each has been a box…
Universal found itself in purgatory over the Oct. 6-8 weekend with the release of The Exorcist: Believer, which is envisioned as a trilogy kickoff reboot of the iconic horror title. While Believer performed solidly at the box office, recouping its production cost, the title drew critical hellfire from reviewers and fans, putting the franchise’s creative plan into a tailspin. The Blumhouse-produced Believer is the first offspring from the studio’s 2021 purchase of the iconic horror franchise’s rights. The theatrical rights (for which Universal beat out rival bids) for three movies came with the heaven-high price tag of $400 million, but also included the films’ streaming rights for Peacock, and theme park extensions like this month’s Exorcist: Believer maze at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. (Look out, it’s a demonic movie critic!)…
TV’s IP fetish is no coincidence. Recognizable titles and stars can guarantee strong initial tune-in off of modest marketing. But long-term results are lackluster. Just look at the past decade’s worth of revivals. Different from reboots or remakes, risky ventures in their own right, a revival features original castmembers of long-departed series revisiting characters for whom there’s an assumed appetite. Viewers aren’t often as hungry as studio brass would like. The average life span of recent revivals is three seasons, while their originals averaged eight-year runs. So as Paramount+ kicks off October by nixing one revived comedy (iCarly, starring Miranda Cosgrove, above) and attempting to mount another (Frasier with Kelsey Grammer, out Oct. 12), THR examines 10 case studies from this revivals wave and where they went right … or…
Kevin Costner’s Horizon is finally, well, on the horizon. On Oct. 5, Warner Bros. put the actor-director’s Western epic on its schedule, announcing the first film in the planned four-part project — Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 — will arrive in theaters June 28, with the second coming out two months later, on Aug. 16. The third film, currently undated, is expected to start production after the SAG-AFTRA strike is resolved. The decision comes as Costner exits his other Western, Paramount’s Yellowstone, amid some O.K. Corral-level hostilities among him, the studio and showrunner Taylor Sheridan. The back-to-back Horizon release strategy is bold, and virtually unprecedented, for a major Hollywood title. Warner Bros. sources point to Clint Eastwood’s 2006 World War II films, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From…
