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.
I trust myself as a writer, I trust my process,” Quentin Tarantino declared onstage at the Adobe Max creative conference in 2016. “I never try to take anything out too soon. If I do, I realize it, and I put it back.” The acclaimed filmmaker added: “Not every film needs to be made. Not every movie should be made.” And one of those movies that will not be made — as the world learned April 17 — is The Movie Critic. What was billed as Tarantino’s 10th and final film initially focused on a writer working for a fictional porn magazine in the late 1970s then quietly evolved, amid a flurry of rewrites, into something potentially resembling a spinoff of his ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The…
Sabrina Impacciatore The White Lotus breakout follows up the HBO hit by landing a coveted role alongside Domhnall Gleeson in Universal Television’s The Office follow-up series. Scott Prendergast The creator’s So Help Me Todd is axed by CBS but may be one of the most watched shows — with 6.3 million viewers per episode — to get canceled this year. Daniel Ek The Spotify chief beats Wall Street expectations as the audio giant hits 239 million paying premium subscribers and notches revenue and profit wins in the quarter. Adam Fogelson After unveiling a new Blair Witch movie, the Lionsgate film chair is criticized by the original team over getting cut from sequels. Now they want retroactive residuals, too. Showbiz Stocks $12.74 (+21.3%) PARAMOUNT (PARA) With Sony joining Apollo in a…
Real Americans (KNOPF, APRIL 30) BY Rachel Khong AGENCY UTA The author (and former Lucky Peach editor) — whose debut novel, Goodbye, Vitamin, was a swift and devastating glimpse into a daughter’s experience watching her father succumb to memory loss — pivots into a more sweeping landscape for her sophomore follow-up. It opens with Lily, a 22-year-old second-generation Chinese immigrant navigating the particular hell that is a postgrad unpaid New York intern-ship, before jumping forward into the world of her teenage son and eventually her mother, who still grapples with the fallout of the way she fled Mao’s cultural revolution. The story, hefty enough for a series, grips that increasingly elusive balance of plot and heart.…
I have no illusions,” Oscar winning-director Damien Chazelle said on a podcast in March. “I won’t get a budget of Babylon size any time soon, or at least not on this next one.” Chazelle was reflective about his 2022 Paramount Pictures epic that starred Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, received mixed reviews and grossed $63 million globally against a reported budget of $80 million. “Certainly, in financial terms, Babylon didn’t work at all,” Chazelle said. “Maybe I won’t be able to get [the next] one made. I have no idea. We’ll have to wait and see.” That ambivalent sentiment isn’t an outlier. Directors — from Oscar winners like Chazelle to up-and-comers — are in a precarious position when it comes to major studio projects. Not that this is new. Stripped…
It has been a year since Fox News fired Tucker Carlson in the wake of the network’s $787 million settlement with Dominion over false election claims. In June, the channel installed The Five co-host Jesse Watters, who got his start on Fox as part of Bill O’Reilly’s show, into the prized 8 p.m. slot. The host, whose book Get It Together is a best-seller, has managed to maintain Fox’s ratings lead while making headlines — including from a post by Donald Trump on April 17 quoting Watters casting doubt on the jury selection process for his criminal trial in New York. “As to whether Trump technically violated a gag order, that’s not for me to judge,” Watters tells THR. His conversation below has been edited for length and clarity. How…
Caitlin Clark took the media world by storm during her record-breaking final college season, and after she was No. 1 in the WNBA Draft, ticket sales for her new team, the Indiana Fever, spiked. Despite all the interest the Iowa star and her highly touted draft class generated, they won’t be signing huge contracts with WNBA clubs. The league’s rookie wage scale pays the top four picks a salary of just $76,535 for their first year — a tiny fraction of the lowest-paid NBA rookie’s $1.12 million, or $44,782.52 per week of the regular season. The WNBA figure works out to a weekly pay of $4,502.06 for the 17-week season. To put it in Hollywood industry terms, Clark’s weekly pay falls between that of a rerecording mixer on a major…
