Evangeline Lilly Protests Vaccine Mandates; Ezra Miller Threatens KKK; Why the Oscars Have Become Harder to Predict; Latest THR Podcasts

View on web New reader? Subscribe January 28, 2022 What's news: Evangeline Lilly and Ezra Miller will be trending today. The Oscar race got a little clearer as the PGA, WGA and DGA all revealed their film nominations. Showtime canceled two comedies. Spotify's loss is SiriusXM's gain as the company picked up Neil Young's music. Plus: Chinese nationalists really dislike Keanu Reeves — Abid Rahman  Marvel Star Evangeline Lilly Protests Vaccine Mandates ►Errrr...part 1. Ant-Man star ​Evangeline Lilly took to social media to slam vaccine mandates. The actress posted on Instagram that she attended a rally in Washington, D.C., this weekend to support “bodily sovereignty” and protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates. It was seemingly the same rally where committed anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made headlines by comparing vaccine mandates to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The story. —Errrr...part 2. The Flash star Ezra Miller posted a cryptic video to social media on Thursday in which the actor appears to threaten members of a Ku Klux Klan chapter in North Carolina. The story.  —Chasing Amy. THR's Mia Galuppo has the scoop on record-breaking Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider signing with CAA. The agency has bagged the most successful woman ever to compete on the show who ranks as No. 2 on Jeopardy!’s all-time consecutive wins list. The story.  —Producers' picks. Dune, West Side Story, and Netflix's Squid Game are among the nominations in the motion picture and television categories for the 2022 Producers Guild Awards. The nominations.  —We few. The Directors Guild of America has revealed the nominees for its 2022 awards in the theatrical feature film and first-time feature film categories, and the nom lists are, well, largely uncontroversial. The nominations.  —We happy few. The Writers Guild of America also announced the nominees in its film categories, including the best original, adapted and documentary screenplays on Thursday, and King Richard, CODA and Dune are in the mix. The nominations.  —We broadband of brothers. Ignore the terrible segue, but Charter Communications lost more pay TV subscribers in Q4 than in the year-ago period, to end 2021 with 15.83 million total video subscribers. The cable giant’s broadband business was once again a growth area, recording 190,000 net additions. The story.  —Losses increase, revenue up. Peacock reached 24.5 million monthly active accounts in the U.S. as of the end of 2021. In its quarterly earnings reveal, Comcast disclosed that Peacock's Q4 adjusted loss amounted to $559 million, compared with a year-ago loss of $254 million. Peacock-related revenue grew to $335 million from $71 million in Q4 2020. The full results. Sam Richardson Has Always Been Ready for Primetime ►"He's his generation's Tom Hanks." With a hot new series in Apple's The Afterparty, memorable cameos in Ted Lasso and I Think You Should Leave and a burgeoning film career, TV's resident nice guy Sam Richardson is having a moment. THR's Mikey O'Connell spoke to the actor about his move into leading man status and his aspirations beyond comedy. The profile.  —Blow out. Apple services reported $19.5 billion in revenue as the tech giant reported a massive $123.9 billion in sales in fiscal Q1 2022. The services category, includes Apple TV+, Apple Music, the App Store and iCloud. As per usual, the company did not detail the distribution of revenue or the number of subscribers each service acquired during the quarter. The story. —A merry Skydance. Staying with Apple, THR's Pamela McClintock has more details on the tech giant's first-look film deal with Skydance Media, a pact that seems to favor David Ellison's company by allowing it to retain the rights to any IP it develops, including TV and games. The story.   —Real talk with Uncle Bob. In his first interview since stepping away as exec chairman of Disney, Bob Iger got frank about the future of streaming, the metaverse and movie theaters. Speaking to the NYT, Iger felt that the "severe injury" to theatrical caused by the pandemic will see fewer films released in the future. Bummer. The story.  —"Major bummer." More sad news, Showtime has canceled comedies Work in Progress and Black Monday. Work in Progress showrunner Lilly Wachowski tweeted that contracts for the cast were up after season two, which would have meant negotiating new and higher deals for the actors. The story.  —Yay! Some good news, Ye (aka Kanye West) says his 11th album, Donda 2, will release Feb. 22, 2022. The album, which marks Ye's first sequel album in his career, is executive produced by Future. The story.  —Can't come soon enough. The Japanese theme park based on the films of Hayao Miyazaki’s legendary Studio Ghibli will open its door on Nov. 1. The $295 million Ghibli Park will be located on 494 acres of natural parkland in Nagakute in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, 150 miles west of Tokyo. The story. —Hollywood stars caring less about China? Keanu Reeves has incurred the wrath of nationalists in China after it emerged that he will perform at a benefit concert for Tibet. Jingoistic Chinese social media users, known locally as “little pinks,” have called for a boycott Reeve’s recently released (and heavily pirated) The Matrix: Resurrections. The story.  Why the Oscars Have Become Harder Than Ever to Predict ►Guessing game. The Academy's drive to become more diverse has seen a huge increase in new members, with 4,421 of the approximately 9,400 current active members — or 47 percent — joining in the last six years. THR's awards analyst Scott Feinberg takes a look at how the explosion of international members has made the Oscars harder to predict, and how non-English-language films are more viable than ever before. The analysis. —Having said all that! Despite the increasing prognostic difficulty as mentioned in the story above, Scott tries to make sense of the Oscar race now that the directors, producers, writers and editors guilds have all weighed in with their nominations. The analysis.   —After the bum rush. SiriusXM has returned Neil Young Radio to its lineup and brought the artist’s catalog of music to the satellite and streaming music channel after Neil Young pulled his music from Spotify over objections to Joe Rogan. The story.  —Playing pundit. Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green has inked a multiyear deal with Turner Sports to contribute to TNT’s Inside the NBA studio show, schedule permitting, and other properties across Turner Sports, including Bleacher Report. The deal with Green is a first for an active player. The story.  —Close but no cigar. Disney+'s Star Wars series The Book of Boba Fett debuted in the top 10 of Nielsen’s streaming rankings, but it came up well short of the No. 1 spot — which was claimed by Cobra Kai as the calendar switched to 2022. The streaming television rankings.  —We like to watch Bruno. Walt Disney Animation’s Encanto and Netflix's Don’t Look Up each attracted massive viewership on streaming over the Christmas holiday. Encanto was viewed a total of 2.2 million billion minutes for the week of Dec. 27-Jan. 2 to top Nielsen’s movie chart. The streaming movie rankings. Thank Pod It's Friday ►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio. —TV's Top 5. Lesley Goldberg and Dan Fienberg break down the latest TV news. This week the guys discuss the week's TV headlines and how Paramount+ is missing out on the success of Yellowstone and Yellowjackets. There's a preview of February TV. Bridget Everett joins the show to discuss HBO's Somebody Somewhere. And Dan reviews of Apple’s The Afterparty, Netflix’s The Woman in the House… , Showtime’s We Need to Talk About Cosby and Hulu’s Pam & Tommy. Listen here. —Awards Chatter. Awards analyst Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this episode, Scott speaks to Nicolas Cage (!!!!). In a rare interview, the enigmatic Oscar winner reflects on growing up Coppola, following Leaving Las Vegas by going full Bruckheimer, why he now works constantly and what it's like being "rediscovered" at 58. Listen here.  —Behind the Screen. Tech editor Carolyn Giardina's podcast focuses on the filmmaking crafts. In this episode, Carolyn speaks to Belfast director Kenneth Branagh and the film's editor Úna Ní Dhonghaíle. Listen here.  In other news... —Feinberg Forecast: Oscar landscape as last guilds weigh in and nomination voting begins —Sundance review: Joe Hunting's We Met in Virtual Reality  —Sundance review: Jamie Dack's Palm Trees and Power Lines —Sundance review: Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes' The Janes —Sundance review: Jono McLeod's My Old School —First trailer for Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber shows toxic rideshare culture —Space Force season 2 trailer released by Netflix —Nick Stahl signs with APA —WarnerMedia makes key content, production hires in Asia ahead of HBO Max launch —Billboard’s Women in Music Awards to feature host Ciara, honorees Bonnie Raitt, Doja Cat and Phoebe Bridgers —Justin Bieber, Olivia Rodrigo lead nominees for iHeartRadio Music Awards —Retta inks holding deal at NBCUniversal —Apple sets premiere date and shares first look images of international series Pachinko —Heath Ledger Scholarship given to Mr Inbetween actor Rahel Romahn —Grammy collecting hitmaker Philip Lawrence lists snazzy Lincoln Square aerie  What else we're reading... —Cath Clarke looks at how, in an increasingly diverse world, Disney's Encanto has become such a huge success [Guardian] —Adele’s worst selling-album is still the year’s biggest record [Bloomberg]  —How Joel Coen came to make The Tragedy of Macbeth [NYT] —Why Spotify picked Joe Rogan over Neil Young in its misinformation fight [LAT] —Amazingly it took until the final few episodes for And Just Like That's non-white characters to meet each other [Vulture] Today...  Today's birthdays: Ariel Winter (24), Will Poulter (29), Elijah Wood (41), Tom Hopper (37), Alan Alda (86), Alexandra Krosney (34), Frank Darabont (63), Barbi Benton (72), Lynda Boyd (57), Lee Ingleby (46), Camila Alves McConaughey (40), Henry Mortensen (34), Joey Fatone (45) Orven Schanzer, a frequently uncredited first assistant film editor who worked on the Elizabeth Taylor-starring Cleopatra and several Marilyn Monroe movies at 20th Century Fox, has died. He was 97. The obituary.  This email was sent to facestuffs.aaaaa@blogger.com by Penske Media Corporation. Please add email@email.hollywoodreporter.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. Visit the Preferences Center to update your profile and customize what email alerts and newsletters you receive. Copyright © 2022 The Hollywood Reporter, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved. 11175 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90025 View in Browser | Privacy Policy | Your Privacy Rights | Ad Choices | Terms of Use | Unsubscribe