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.
IN LATE JANUARY, GERIATRIC psychiatrist Stephen Read is expected to spend up to an hour evaluating the mental fitness of Viacom executive chairman Sumner Redstone at the frail 92-year-old’s Beverly Park home. Only Redstone’s nurses and speech therapists may be present for the exam ordered by Los Angeles Judge David Cowan. Read has been hired by former Redstone companion Manuela Herzer, 51, who alleges the aged billionaire did not have the mental capacity in October to drop her as his health-care agent and install Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman in her place. Redstone also altered his will in a manner unfavorable to Herzer, as her detractors note, though she insists she has only his welfare at heart. Whatever Herzer’s motive, her lawsuit has unsettled a growing chorus of Viacom shareholders concerned…
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG The media titan and former New York mayor shakes up the presidential race by floating an independent bid, lighting a fire under Hillary Clinton to solidify her support and possibly offering conservatives an alternative to Donald Trump. JACK DORSEY The Twitter CEO loses five high-level executives, sparking concerns about his leadership as shares have plunged about 67 percent since April. DAVID NEVINS The Showtime CEO scores a major Europe deal with Sky Atlantic as his drama Billions opens to 3 million viewers and a quick second-season renewal. JONATHAN NOLAN & LISA JOY HBO’s Westworld EPs hit another delay on the highly anticipated (and pricey) sci-fi project, whose pilot was greenlighted in 2013 but won’t debut until late 2016 at the earliest. SHOWBIZ STOCKS $17.29 (+2.9%) WORLD WRESTLING ENT.…
JUST AS THE WORLD PREMIERE of The Birth of a Nation was about to end Jan. 25, filmmaker and star Nate Parker snuck out of Park City’s Eccles Theater and into a side room to gather his thoughts. When he emerged, the frenzy began. The Sundance Film Festival audience gave the slave-rebellion drama an extended standing ovation, and by the next morning, Fox Searchlight had plunked down a jaw-dropping $17.5 million for the film, the biggest sale in the festival’s history. It also marks the largest sum ever paid for a finished movie at any festival, including Cannes, Berlin and Toronto. But it’s actually less than the $20 million Netflix is said to have offered for the film. Why would Parker turn down a bigger deal? “My responsibility to the…
IF THERE’S ONE WORD TO describe veteran producer Scott Steindorff’s feelings about Jane Got a Gun, it’s humility. The indie Western, starring Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton and Ewan McGregor, opens Jan. 29 after a journey to the big screen that was more fraught than a cattle drive caught in a rising river. Nearly everything that could go wrong did, beginning when original director Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin) no-showed the first day of production in New Mexico in March 2013. She later quit amid a showdown with producers, followed quickly by the exit of star Jude Law, who had specifically signed on to work with the Scottish filmmaker. (Producers sued Ramsay, but the case settled.) “I met with Natalie and said I wanted to keep going,” recalls…
THE JAN. 28 REPUBLICAN PRIMARY DEBATE ON FOX NEWS CHANNEL IS notable for two reasons: It’s four days before the Iowa caucuses, and it is the first time Donald Trump will face Megyn Kelly since the Republican frontrunner attacked her when she questioned his misogynist statements during the first debate as 24 million viewers watched. Asked whether she regrets the question that spurred the Trump back-and-forth that has continued throughout the campaign, Kelly tells THR: “Hell no. It was a great question, and I’d ask it again in a heartbeat.” And on Jan. 23, when Trump demanded Kelly recuse her self because she is “biased,” Fox News fired back: “Sooner or later Donald Trump, even if he’s president, is going to have to learn that he doesn’t get to pick…
Female Filmmaker Scorecard January studio movies directed and written by women* Kung Fu Panda 3 Jennifer Yuh Nelson (with Alessandro Carloni) DreamWorks/Fox 1 DIRECTOR 3 WRITERS *8 releases; 6 major studios and Liongate THE PERFECT RELEASE date is perhaps the most precious commodity in Hollywood, with studios now forced to schedule big movies three to four years out. So when the largest player in the movie gal axy shifts its opening by six months, the fallout touches nearly everyone. On Jan. 20, a flurry of changes hit the 2017 movie calendar after Disney pushed back the release of Star Wars: Episode VIII from Memorial Day weekend to Dec. 15 of that year. “It all but settled the argument that there was no way Avatar 2 was going to make 2017,”…
