Innholdsfortegnelse for August 21, 2024 i The Hollywood Reporter

Paramount Global’s decision to shutter its namesake TV studio means the loss of dozens of jobs, the shifting of several series to another banner and a consolidation of power within the company’s two remaining TV studios — at least until a potential Skydance-Paramount merger is complete. Paramount TV Studios ceased operations Aug. 16 as part of heavy layoffs at the parent company. Paramount is cutting 15 percent of its U.S.-based employees in an effort to lop $500 million off its balance sheet. The studio’s current productions, including the Prime Video hit Reacher and Apple TV+’s Time Bandits, along with upcoming shows Cross (Prime Video), Before and Murderbot (both at Apple TV+) and any projects in development, will move to corporate sibling CBS Studios. What the shutdown won’t affect, at least…

The Coin (CATAPULT, JULY 9) BY Yasmin Zaher AGENCY Grandview The Coin, a debut novel as intoxicating as it is wry, offers a wholly unique entry into the beloved woman-navigating-NYC-life genre. Its heroine is a young Palestinian immigrant who teaches at a school for underprivileged kids and launches a scheme reselling Birkin bags. Unable to find fulfillment, she descends into an obsession with her self-image, and we follow as she grapples with her spiral.…

Perhaps the biggest change to Vice President Kamala Harris’ wardrobe since she announced her presidential run July 21 is her shoes. Onceomnipresent, her Converse Chuck Taylors have taken a back seat to chic Manolo Blahnik pumps as she strides across an airport tarmac or steps onto a rally stage. Harris’ Chucks undeniably exude a cool-girl vibe, but a polished pump is decidedly more presidential. The same can be said for the tailored suits that have long been her signature, according to L.A.-based designer Sergio Hudson. “As a lawyer and later an attorney general, that was her look,” says Hudson. “It’s crisp, it’s professional, and she’s comfortable in something that has to work for her all day. Ultimately, she makes fashion work for her position, she doesn’t make her position work…

Emily in L.A. The City of Light came to the City of Angels on Aug. 14, as the stars of Emily in Paris — including Lily Collins, Ashley Park and Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu — debuted part one of their fourth season. The new batch of episodes sees the titular American journey beyond Paris to Italy for a Roman holiday. Creator Darren Star told THR that after filming during a cold winter in France, “It’s like the sun came out in Rome when we got there. It was just a whole different experience, it was like starting something fresh. It kind of reinvigorated all of us.” Added Collins of the change of scenery, “You’re still feeling that romance and passion of Europe, but you’re getting to experience a different part of history.”…

On May 26, 2023, nearly a year after winning the 2022 national election to become Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni addressed a political rally in Catania, Sicily. The first woman to govern Italy, and the most far-right politician to do so since fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, Meloni told her cheering supporters that despite her electoral success, victory was not yet complete. There was one last left-wing holdout in Italian society, she said: the cultural sector. “I want to liberate Italian culture from a system that you can only work in if you are from a certain political camp,” she said. It was a clear signal of intent, a threatening shot in the country’s culture wars, and the promise of a right-wing counteroffensive to the supposed left-wing hegemony over Italy’s film,…

Drama Series You couldn’t pay me to watch The Gilded Age. I watched the first two episodes of Fallout and had no idea what was going on, so I bailed. I’m not a fan of The Morning Show — I was frankly shocked that it got nominated. The Crown was well done, and Elizabeth Debicki was amazing, but it’s just not my thing. I really liked 3 Body Problem — you could see how it’s from the same guys that did Game of Thrones, and it even has a “Red Wedding” kind of moment that’s absolutely stunning. I didn’t think I was going to like Mr. & Mrs. Smith — I wasn’t sure why you’d redo something so recent — but I loved it; both stars [Donald Glover and Maya…

Kamala Harris has arrived at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago as the party’s official nominee for president. Things, however, weren’t as smooth in The Best Man: A political endorsement was a chief concern when it hit cinemas 60 years ago. Written by Gore Vidal and based on his play of the same name, The Best Man follows two candidates — ethical former Secretary of State William Russell (played by Henry Fonda) and the more conniving Sen. Joe Cantwell (Cliff Robertson) — campaigning to become their unnamed political party’s presidential nominee. There’s no love lost between the candidates, who each vie for the backing of the ailing former president, Art Hockstader (Lee Tracy, reprising his role from the Tony-winning production). Franklin J. Schaffner, who would win the best director Oscar…

The campaign did not specify how much it’s spending by battleground state. But, as far as relative size of spending compared with Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, the Harris team wrote, “We are investing twice as much in TV in Pennsylvania, more than twice as much in Wisconsin, four times as much in Georgia and nearly six times as much in Nevada.” Source: Harris-Walz campaign strategy memo (Aug. 17).…

With 11 Emmy nominations, including one for outstanding limited or anthology series, and viewership in the all-time U.S. top 10, Baby Reindeer has proved a massive success for Netflix. Richard Gadd’s dramatic thriller — about a woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning) who stalks Gadd’s bartender character, Donny — claims in a title card to be “a true story” based on Gadd’s experience. But a defamation lawsuit filed in June by the real-life Martha, Fiona Harvey, alleges that Baby Reindeer is not as true as it claims. Unlike Martha, Harvey never went to jail for stalking Gadd and has never been convicted of a crime. “[Gadd is] making money out of my misery,” she told Piers Morgan. “He’s the ultimate misogynist.” The case has led to a splashy legal back-and-forth in…

AUG. 23 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Immersive Experience Ahead of the film’s Sept. 6 opening, Ovation Hollywood opens its themed “Afterlife Experience”; beetlejuiceexperience.com AUG. 23-25 Studio Ghibli Residency at The Ford The L.A. venue will screen Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away (pictured) and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind; theford.com AUG. 24 This Is About Humanity Soiree The nonprofit, which supports separated and reunited families at the border, hosts its annual charity event; thisisabouthumanity.com AUG. 24 AAFCA TV Honors The African American Film Critics Association will host its annual TV Honors at the Hollywood Roosevelt, with special honors for Glynn Turman and Michelle Buteau. AUG. 27 1992 Premiere Actor Tyrese Gibson will debut his Ariel Vromen directed film, set amid the Rodney King riots, at the Regal L.A. Live. The…

In December 2021, Jon Watts found himself standing in the back of the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on the opening night of his last film, Spider-Man: No Way Home. The entry was one of the first major studio theatrical releases following the pandemic shutdown, and the audience was standing, screaming, crying and generally carrying on in a way that, even for the first showing of a fan-favorite superhero movie, was a spectacle all to itself. “That was such a specific moment in time, and the reaction to that movie was just so unbelievable,” remembers Watts. It was at this point that the director came to the realization: “It’s never going to be like this, ever again.” No Way Home went on to gross nearly $2 billion at the global…

The fall film festival circuit is forever a magnet for A-list talent, as it signals the start of awards season by delivering first looks at a crush of prestige bigscreen content. But when Italy’s Venice Film Festival unveiled the lineup for its 81st edition, it telegraphed something else: Movie stars are back, baby. The Lido will be packed with big names, many with “Oscar winner” in front of their monikers, making it one of the most anticipated fests of the season. Leading the pack are Wolfs stars Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the action drama from Jon Watts. Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix will sing and slither their way back to Venice as DC villains in Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux. Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore will return…

DANIEL FIENBERG How the blazes have we reached the end of the summer already? Sorry, Matthew McConaughey in True Detective. Time isn’t a flat circle. It’s a vortex, and the summer of 2024 got sucked right in. Since June, politics has given us The Worst Debate in History, an assassination attempt, a new Republican vice presidential candidate (and attendant memes), a sitting president dropping out of the race, a new Democratic presidential nominee, and the meteoric rise of her avuncular running mate (whom 95 percent of Americans couldn’t have picked out of a lineup in May). Smack in the middle of two political conventions, our attentions shifted to Paris for the Olympics, where we marveled at the mostly E. coli and entirely shark-free beauty of the Seine, celebrated Simone Biles,…

Under ordinary circumstances, a sequel to the female-focused drama It Ends With Us would be a no-brainer. The $25 million-budgeted Sony Pictures film has collected more than $180 million globally since opening Aug. 9, and author Colleen Hoover already published a best-selling sequel, the 2022 novel It Starts With Us. But the well-publicized rift between star-producer Blake Lively and director-star Justin Baldoni has observers now wondering whether a sequel is viable, at least with both of them involved. Both Lively’s flower shop owner Lily and Baldoni’s abusive neurosurgeon Ryle are in the book sequel. Further complicating matters: Baldoni developed It Ends With Us from the ground up after acquiring the rights from Hoover five years ago via Wayfarer Studios, which he co-founded with billionaire Steve Sarowitz and runs with Jamey…

The Rotten Tomatoes “Certified Fresh” badge has become online shorthand for checking the quality of films, a sign that professional critics — or at least a large percentage of them — think that a movie is worth watching. Now, the Comcast-owned digital movie site is making a significant addition to its film rankings, unveiling a new “Verified Hot” badge on Aug. 21 meant to reflect the views of average moviegoers. In order for a film to receive the Verified Hot designation, it needs to have a Verified Audience Score of 90 percent or higher on its Popcornmeter, among other eligibility requirements. Rotten Tomatoes will only use audience reviews from people whom it has verified as having purchased a ticket to that film via sister company Fandango, the ticketing firm also…

On a recent Saturday afternoon, some 400 tan and toned Hollywood types trekked out to Jamie Foxx’s L.A. estate to attend a pickleball party. The gathering came complete with influencer-led cardio classes, swimming, a taco truck, a full bar and a DJ. As pickleball has matured during the past few years from a craze to an entrenched pastime, various games around Los Angeles jockey for top honors as the favored spot to play and be seen. And Foxx’s game is serving up both great play and the Hollywood sport of great networking. “If you get good at pickleball, you never know who you might meet,” explains Taylor Chien, a producer who has partnered with Foxx in the gear company The Best Paddle. “I tell young people it’s the greatest…

The Telluride Film Festival returns for its 51st year, once again running over Labor Day weekend (Aug. 30 to Sept. 2). Taking place alongside Venice and on the eve of Toronto, it always screens awards contenders; last year, its lineup featured All of Us Strangers, The Holdovers, Anatomy of a Fall, Nyad, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest. Telluride famously keeps its lineup under wraps until attendees have arrived, but one can be sure an assortment of features, short films and revival programs, plus filmmaker tributes and conversations, will be on display. To submit, send an email to hhh@thr.com…

There’s a moment from the filming of Blink Twice that Zoë Kravitz can’t get out of her head. It was the middle of the night, during a scene that called for her star Naomi Ackie to lie on the ground in the dirt, restrained while another character holds a gun to her head. They were trying to line up the shot just right, and it had been hours since Ackie had eaten; Kravitz, the movie’s director, wanted to break to let her rest and have a snack. “But she was like, ‘It’s all right, babe, just hand me the sandwich,’ ” she recalls. “I took a picture of it because it was so incredible. She’s got one hand behind her back, there’s the gun to her head, and she’s just…

↑ THE BRUTALIST Co-written with Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet’s buzzed-about third feature as director (following The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux) stars Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn and Alessandro Nivola in an immigrant drama about Hungarian Jewish architect László Tóth, who survives the Holocaust and sets out in 1947 with his wife to pursue the American dream, toiling in poverty until a lucrative contract changes the course of his future. CLOUD One of the more distinctive voices to emerge from the new wave of J-horror, Kiyoshi Kurosawa first turned heads internationally in 1997 with Cure, a hallucinatory detective story steeped in dread. Since then, he has experimented freely with different genres, moving from psychological crime thrillers to ghost tales, ruminative sci-fi, historical mysteries and family drama, invariably…

Last year, New York dispersed about $124 million in tax credits to various entities belonging to Paramount Global as a reward for 10 projects that were shot in the state. Those productions — which encompassed an array of feature films, TV series and even a talk show, including Clifford the Big Red Dog, Blue Bloods and The Drew Barrymore Show — invested nearly $425 million in the region through labor and other costs. California, meanwhile, saw just $71 million in spending from Paramount Global for titles that were granted credits in 2023 to film in the area. The figure was a far cry from the $295 million the company spent for projects that were awarded incentives just three years earlier. It’s the latest in a trend of productions turning…