Innholdsfortegnelse for September 19, 2024 i The Hollywood Reporter

The deal that is expected to install Skydance chief David Ellison as chairman, CEO and hopefully savior of Paramount Global is a labyrinth of entities, trusts and transactions. Also potentially complicated, assuming the deal closes sometime next year, is the question of control. Skydance sources say 41-year-old David will select the board and run things entirely independent of his father, Larry Ellison, also known as the world’s fifth-richest man, worth an estimated $178 billion, per Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. But Larry, 80, will own the controlling shares. Having previously bestowed billions on David and his sister, Megan, Larry has now backed his son to the tune of $6 billion as David pursued his dream of running a legacy studio. What role, if any, Larry will play at the new Paramount is…

Many in the business have lamented the slow death of the pay TV bundle for years. Ever since cord-cutting really began to eat at television’s subscriber base around 2015 (Disney CEO Bob Iger seemed to call the peak during an infamous August 2015 earnings call), executives have wondered how quickly it would collapse. No one thinks pay TV will ever return to its heyday, but recent carriage deals and some intriguing streaming bets (many of which seem to involve Disney) do present some hope that maybe — just maybe — there could be a way to rebundle those offerings to slow or stem those declines … or perhaps even start building them back again. The Cablepocalypse in a Chart…

At the 2024 Grammys, best new artist winner Victoria Monét’s nomination for record of the year made her the only breakthrough contender to compete in a Big 3 category (song, record and album of the year). This year, Chappell Roan, Shaboozey and Benson Boone also will comfortably stand proudly alongside veterans who’ve come before. Not only are they poised to earn noms for best new artist, they’re in contention for major awards — where nominees likely will include Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. Roan and Carpenter are even on track to score bids for the top prize: album of the year. It’s reminiscent of 2020, when new artist contenders included Lizzo, Lil Nas X and winner Eilish, who also won album, song and record of the year. Could Chappell…

SEPT. 19 ↑ BMAC Gala The Black Music Action Coalition will honor Usher, LL Cool J (pictured), Ivy McGregor of BeyGOOD, Live Nation and BET at the annual bash, held at the Beverly Hilton, for their commitment to championing racial justice and social equality in the Black community. SEPT. 21 L.A. Opera Opening Night Gala Its 39th season kicks off with a black-tie gala and performance of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. SEPT. 21, 22, 24, 25 Usher at the Intuit Dome The superstar will play four sold-out nights at the new arena in Inglewood as part of his Past Present Future tour. SEPT. 25 ↑ Will Rogers Pioneer Dinner Greta Gerwig will be honored at the Beverly Hilton, becoming only the second female director to receive the annual event’s prestigious Pioneer…

It’s hard to say exactly how Amazon’s A Very Royal Scandal fits with 2018’s A Very English Scandal or 2021’s A Very British Scandal. They share no characters, cast, writers or directors and are united only by producer Blueprint Pictures, threehour run times and a well-executed embrace of U.K.-based tawdriness. Connecting A Very Royal Scandal with those earlier titles is at least a better lure than, “Hey, remember Netflix’s Scoop, the movie from April about the notorious Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew? This is that.” The extra running time here (Scoop was a tight 103 minutes) lets writer Jeremy Brock and director Julian Jarrold flesh out some of the main characters before the event, for better, and after, for worse. We meet Prince Andrew (Michael Sheen), the beloved second-born of…

An abortion documentary backed by Hillary Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence is taking an unusual route to audiences courtesy of Bumble Inc., the Austin-based dating app. Zurawski v Texas, which screened to critical raves and sold out crowds at the Telluride Film Festival, will premiere Sept. 24 in Austin as part of a theatrical rollout financed by Bumble. The dating app, which supplied part of the movie’s budget, also will fund a series of free screenings at Alamo Drafthouse theaters nationwide on Sept. 25. The Zurawski v Texas filmmakers are still looking for a traditional distributor for their doc, one of several political nonfiction films seeking a buyer this election year, including Errol Morris’ Separated, on Donald Trump’s border policy, and Apocalypse in the Tropics, Petra Costa’s look at far-right politics…

Austin Abrams and Myha’la are both having a banner year. Abrams is starring alongside George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the buzzy buddy comedy Wolfs, out Sept. 20, and Myha’la continues her reign over Industry, HBO’s sleek and sexy finance drama that recently was promoted to the network’s coveted Sunday 9 p.m. slot. The only thing hotter than their careers was the weather on the day of the shoot. Temps were topping 100 degrees when Myha’la and Abrams met at the 1 Hotel West Hollywood, but the two were completely unfazed. They’re used to an on-set challenge. In Wolfs, Abrams (who broke big on season one of Euphoria) plays a hapless guy caught up in a wild night in a hotel penthouse; when rival fixers (George Clooney and Brad Pitt)…

The start of the broadcast television season also marks the return of my favorite broadcast television archetype, the antisocial genius who solves crimes/medical mysteries/legal quandaries by squinting or staring off into the middle distance. We know the best shows in this genre when we see them, and the worst tend to be so instantly interchangeable that even the people who watch them dutifully might not be able to distinguish them. Formerly titled Dr. Wolf, NBC’s new procedural Brilliant Minds is far from that bottom tier, generic name aside. Based to a nebulous degree on the work of neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, the drama focuses on Dr. Oliver Wolf (Zachary Quinto), who is not in fact a wolf, regardless of moon phase, but is absolutely a quintessential TV genius. Brilliant…

The entertainment industry in New York City, just like Los Angeles, has been adjusting to the effects of the post-strike contraction on top of a struggling economy. Still, the 25 attorneys on THR’s New York Power Lawyers list have been kept busy helping their clients with negotiating sports rights, inking deals for theater, film and TV, launching clothing lines, taking on behemoths like Google and navigating the legalities of AI. Robert Auritt CDAS Brooklyn Law School CORPORATE Auritt worked as outside general counsel on the U.S. portion of the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup, which was held in Long Island. “It was a real thrill to be involved with bringing this global event to the U.S. for the first time as I believe that it represents the beginning…

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow took visual effects to new heights 20 years ago. Starring Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, writer-director Kerry Conran’s sci-fi feature is set in 1939 and focuses on a pilot (Law) and a reporter (Paltrow) teaming up to save the world amid attacks from flying robots. First-time filmmaker Conran had a fascination with stories from the ’30s and ’40s and spent four years working on a sixminute proof of concept that he filmed on a makeshift bluescreen. “We put aluminum foil on [Conran’s] living room walls, and the bluescreen is made of PVC pipe and blue fabric,” cinematographer Eric Adkins, who worked on the demo, tells THR. Producer Marsha Oglesby, who went to college with Conran’s wife, remembers watching the teaser in…

There’s a scenario discussed in HBO’s upcoming series The Franchise — a comedy about the behind-the-scenes struggle to make a superhero movie — that sounds rather absurd: A director labored away on a fictional Marvel-like film and gradually realized the studio brass had changed their minds about the project’s creative direction and started secretly shooting the “real” movie somewhere else while he filmed scenes destined to be scrapped. Yet this has happened to at least one filmmaker working on a franchise movie that you have probably seen, according to the show’s producers. “All the research we did — and we did tons, we spoke to so many people — the actual chaos [on superhero films] was really surprising,” says The Franchise creator Jon Brown (Succession), who made the series along…

It’s autumn in New York. Saturday Night Live is broadcasting its 50th season (see page 38). Film studios are cropping up all over town (see page 60). The Knicks actually look good. Assuming you’ll have a reason to head to Hollywood on the Hudson soon enough, we’ve tapped a network of the city’s most fabulous to share insider dish on all the places you need to know, from dog runs to hotel bars to parking garages for the .01 percent. 1 DOG PARK While walkers are the ones who squire most pooches, you’ll spy the owners occasionally on quick jaunts near home, says dog trainer Bash Dibra, who has worked with Jennifer Lopez and Sarah Jessica Parker, among others. “The real power hang is Central Park. It’s not an official…

Was RIIFF ‘The Fyre Festival of Film Festivals’? Every film festival has an occasional hiccup — remember the infamous screening of Reservoir Dogs at Sundance in 1992 when the lights came up before the movie ended? That said, according to one group of filmmakers, there was something going on at the Rhode Island International Film Festival this year that’s potentially more serious than the occasional slip-up. A slew of moviemakers has been telling Rambling Reporter that the six-day August event in Providence — which serves as a qualifying event for a bunch of Academy Awards short categories — was an unmitigated mess this year. “The Fyre Festival of film festivals” is how one of them describes it. According to on-the-ground reports, there were a bunch of technical snafus including films…

Gabriel LaBelle broke out playing another entertainment impresario, Steven Spielberg, in The Fabelmans. The fact that Michaels was 30 when SNL started and LaBelle is now 21 was a concern, but not for long: “I met Gabe standing next to Spielberg, and he held his own standing next to the greatest director alive,” says Reitman. “I went, ‘Wow, this kid has presence.’ Papsidera started auditioning actors using old skits, until he “came to the conclusion we’re not looking for the end product. We want the essence.” Chase’s essence? “The ego that needs to be humbled,” says Reitman. “Cory did an amazing fall right at the beginning of his audition where Chase stumbles into a trash can and says, ‘Sorry, think I tripped over my penis.’” Morris, the only Black member…

The exclusive event, held at an expansive private residence in the Hollywood Hills, was a memorable one for the award win-ners and major contenders in attendance, of-fering industry VIPs an elegant space and fes-tive atmosphere to mingle as they were served Glenfiddich cocktails, gifted custom-engraved Glenfiddich glassware and had their photos captured in THR’s photo studio presented by Glenfiddich. The festive and friendly vibes were a high-light. In addition to mingling with VIPs and cur-rent and future Emmy winners, guests enjoyed a selection of elevated passed apps and three celebratory Glenfiddich cocktails: The “City of Stars” included Glenfiddich Sherry Cask 12 Year with St. Germain, soda water and cher-ry bitters; The “Red Carpet Cocktail” featured Glenfiddich 12 with red wine syrup, fresh lem-on juice, mole bitters and sparkling wine; and…

Alex Coco and Samantha Quan knew they had something special in Anora from the very beginning. As Sean Baker’s longtime producers, they’re used to collaborating with the filmmaker from the second an idea begins to form. The concept of Anora, which follows the short and intense courtship in Brooklyn between a young Brighton Beach sex worker and the son of a Russian oligarch, first came from the stories that Baker collected during his work on such projects as Tangerine and Red Rocket. “Way back when we were working on the script, I felt like this was by far Sean’s funniest film,” says Coco. “And then one day on set Sean turned to me and said, ‘I think I’m making my best movie.’ But what we didn’t know is that it…