| | | | What's news: It's magazine day! This week's cover stars are Oprah Winfrey and the cast of The Color Purple. Showtime will rebrand as Paramount+ with Showtime next month. Tricia Tuttle is the new sole director of the Berlin Film Festival. Lionsgate has set a date for Saw XI. Spotify and WBD have signed a podcast distribution and monetization partnership. — Abid Rahman
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Oprah and 'Color Purple' Stars on New Musical Remake ►On the cover. The Color Purple stars Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks and producer Oprah Winfrey spoke to THR's co-editor-in-chief Nekesa Mumbi Moody and unpacked the "cinematic heirloom," why they were never going to land Beyoncé and why so much is still riding on its success: "It's bright. It's vibrant. It's us." The cover story. |
Broadway Grosses Were Down, But Audience Was Younger ►Mixed bag. In the 2022-2023 Broadway season, the first full season since theaters were closed due to the pandemic, audience numbers were down by 17 percent from 2018-2019, according to a study released Monday by the Broadway League. This came as the season included high-grossing shows, such as Sweeney Todd and Funny Girl. That said, 2018-2019 was a record year for Broadway attendance and grosses. And the audience that returned after the theatrical shutdown was younger and more diverse. The story.
—🤝 Podcast deal 🤝 Spotify has teamed with Warner Bros. Discovery on a podcast distribution and monetization partnership. The deal will see Spotify’s enterprise podcast platform, Megaphone, host and distribute select podcasts from Warner Bros. Discovery, including CNN’s All There Is with Anderson Cooper, The Assignment with Audie Cornish and HBO’s The Official Game of Thrones Podcast: House of the Dragon. Spotify will also be one of WBD’s podcast monetization partners through its Spotify Audience Network. The story.
—Lawsuit gains steam. In the months after negotiating a buyout of Twitter but before being forced to consummate the deal in October 2022, Elon Musk deployed scorched-earth tactics in an attempt to lower the price of the $44b acquisition. On Monday, a federal judge advanced a lawsuit from investors who say they suffered losses when they sold their shares in Twitter because of posts from Musk claiming the platform has a major issue with fake accounts and that he could wiggle out of the deal. The story.
—Director search over. Tricia Tuttle is the new sole director of the Berlin Film Festival, taking over the role formally after next year’s event. Tuttle, formerly director of the BFI London Film Festival, will take over from co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek. The Berlinale announced the replacement on Tuesday, following months of speculation and media chatter surrounding Germany’s number-one film festival. The story.
—All change. Just hours after the Tuttle news, Dennis Ruh, director of Berlin’s European Film Market, was out. Ruh on Tuesday confirmed he will be leaving the EFM after next year’s market, saying the Berlinale has decided not to extend his contract when it expires in March 2024. Tuttle will appoint a new head of EFM for 2025. The story. |
'Blue Eye Samurai' Renewed for S2 at Netflix ►No-brainer. Netflix has handed out a second-season renewal for its recently released animated drama series Blue Eye Samurai. The series debuted Nov. 3 with its eight-episode first season series notching a rare 100 percent rating among critics (and 96 percent score among viewers) on Rotten Tomatoes as the drama has already started making critics’ best of 2023 year-end lists. The creators have publicly said they envisioned a four-season run for Samurai. The story.
—Serving up more live sports. Netflix revealed on Monday a live exhibition tennis match between two of the sport’s biggest stars: 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal facing off against world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz. The match is being branded as The Netflix Slam, and will be held on March 3, 2024 at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The event will feature other tennis matchups as well, with players TBD. It will stream in both English and Spanish for global markets. The story.
—🎭 New face 🎭 The HBO limited series from Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby is adding to its cast. Tom Pelphrey will join Mark Ruffalo in the drama, which will follow members of an FBI task force and the criminals they’re trying to catch. The untitled series stems from Ingelsby’s overall deal at HBO, which he signed in the wake of Mare of Easttown’s breakout success. The story.
—🎭 Lead in place 🎭 True Detective actress Anya Adams has nabbed the lead role in an untitled Arctic-set comedy for Netflix and the CBC and APTN in Canada. Lambe will play a young Inuk mother Siaja, with Keira Cooper, a 7-year-old actress from Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada’s north playing her daughter Bun. The Arctic-set comedy is created and written by Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, with Miranda de Pencier executive producing. The story. |
2023 Black List Includes Patsy Cline, FTX Scripts ►Some real gems. The Black List has revealed its 2023 list of best unproduced screenplays, with scripts that include a biopic of country singer Patsy Cline, the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried crypto empire FTX, and an action-comedy about Tom Hanks and his doppelgänger. The 19th edition of the list features 76 feature screenplays that were selected by more than 375 film executives. Topping this year’s list is a feature script from Travis Braun titled Bad Boy, with a logline that reads: "A rescue dog suspects his loving new owner is a serial killer." The story.
—📅 On we go 📅 Lionsgate has set a date for Saw XI, with the franchise’s Instagram account announcing a Sept. 27, 2024 for the series. The last installment, Saw X, was a surprise critical hit for the franchise, becoming the first in the series to win over critics and earn a fresh Rotten Tomatoes score. It was a commercial hit as well, earning more than $107.6m globally on a $13m budget. Saw veteran Kevin Greutert was behind Saw X, which turned a more empathetic eye toward antagonist John “Jigsaw” Kramer (Tobin Bell). The story.
—"It’s a privilege to be trusted by the ingenious Catherine Ryan Howard." Amazon Prime Video has given the green light to a thriller series that counts James Wan as one of its executive producers. The streamer has ordered Obsession, which follows two people who fall fast and hard for one another — only for the relationship to end in murder. The series is based on Catherine Ryan Howard’s best-selling novel 56 Days. Lisa Zwerling and Karyn Usher are adapting the novel and will executive produce along with Wan’s Atomic Monster banner. The story.
—🤝 Film and TV partnership 🤝 Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's Artists Equity banner has formed a partnership with Chris Hemsworth's Wild State, which will see Artists Equity producing film and television projects from the Thor actor’s banner. Wild State, which Hemsworth heads with partner Ben Grayson, was founded in 2022 and has credits that include the Hemsworth-fronted Extraction 2. A third installment of the Netflix franchise is on the way. Outside narrative projects, Wild State will continue its pact with National Geographic for unscripted projects. The story.
—Rebrand is on. Paramount Global says that it will officially rebrand Showtime's linear channel next month as Paramount+ with Showtime. The rebrand is slated to take place on Jan. 8 and the move will see a number of Paramount+ shows added to the linear channel, sitting alongside upcoming Showtime originals like A Gentleman in Moscow and The Department. Among the Paramount+ shows being added to the linear channel are Halo, Sexy Beasts, Mayor of Kingstown and Star Trek: Discovery. The story. |
Rob Reiner Remembers Norman Lear ►"My second father." In a guest column for THR, Rob Reiner, the man who played "Meathead" on All in the Family, recalls his lifelong friendship with legendary producer Norman Lear, who died at the age of 101 on Dec. 5: "Norman was incredible to work with because he allowed everybody to contribute." The story.
—Advertising headwinds. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is cutting around 600 jobs as it deals with lower advertising revenue and competition from U.S. digital giants. Canada’s pubcaster said it faces a $125m budgetary shortfall likely to be offset with programming cuts and layoffs. On the programming side, the pubcaster expects to cut its English and French language content spend over the next year, which will include around $40m less for series commissioned or acquired from indie producers. The story.
—More cuts. Hasbro plans to eliminate approximately 1,100 positions amid continued challenges in the toy business. In a memo to employees, CEO Chris Cocks said while the toymaker has seen some improvements due to a retooled supply chain and improved inventory, the market headwinds “have proven to be stronger and more persistent than planned.” The company had already laid off about 800 employees earlier this year. The company sold eOne’s film and TV assets to Lionsgate for $500m in order to focus more on its core business. The story.
—AI deal. As Microsoft’s first U.S. union and the tech giant continue to negotiate over a first labor contract, the parties have reached a tentative agreement on one of the agreement’s most important articles, covering the use of artificial intelligence. The union at video game developer ZeniMax Studios (The Elder Scrolls Online, DOOM: Eternal) has cinched a promise that Microsoft will notify the labor group when the use of AI could affect members’ work and will “bargain those impacts upon request,” the group announced Monday. The story. |
The Making of 'Killers of the Flower Moon' ►"I felt an atonement." The Killers of the Flower Moon director Martin Scorsese and stars Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro talk to THR's Rebecca Keegan about the making of the awards contender. The trio get deep about all that went into the Osage-murders movie — and the emotional aftermath: "You’re humanizing these characters more, and in doing that, the history hits you harder." The story.
—"I’m a big believer in things happening when they should." THR's Brian Davids spoke to actress Jodie Comer about her new film, Mahalia Belo's eco-drama The End We Start From. The Brit star, who plays a mother trying to keep her new baby safe amid an environmental crisis in the new feature, also talks bowing out of Napoleon over Covid scheduling issues and the release drama surrounding Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders. The interview.
—"The universe I create for these movies is slightly off from our reality." Brian also spoke to Leave the World Behind filmmaker Sam Esmail. The writer and director explains how a Friends-obsessed character in his Netflix movie doesn't recognize that her mother (played by Julia Roberts) looks like an actor who once guest starred on Friends (the real-life Julia Roberts), also Mr. Robot connections and using the Ocean’s Twelve playbook. The interview. |
Film Review: 'The Iron Claw' ►"No smackdown but ekes out a win on points." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Sean Durkin's The Iron Claw. Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Holt McCallany and Lily James star in the elegiac salute to the Von Erichs, a Texas sports dynasty walloped by a string of tragedies. The review. In other news...
—Vanderpump Rules S11 trailer reveals Scandoval fallout and secret hookup
—Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen to return as CNN New Year’s Eve hosts
—Google leans on pop culture as it looks back on 25 years of search
—SiriusXM to combine with Liberty Media tracking stock group
—Malibu home where Dolly Parton, Steve McQueen and Stephen Dorff once lived hits market for $9.8m
What else we're reading...
—Charlie Warzel pleads with everyone to stop paying George Santos for clout [Atlantic]
—With The Boy and the Heron topping the box office, Daniel Chin reflects on why it took so long for Hayao Miyazaki's works and Studio Ghibli to break through to mainstream America [Ringer]
—With acts like Mother Mother, Keane, Miguel and Ladytron finding a second life on TikTok, Dorian Lynskey looks at the trend of long-forgotten acts becoming viral with Gen Z on the social media app [Guardian]
—As Netflix's The Crown comes to a close, Roslyn Sulcas talks to creator and writer Peter Morgan as he bids farewell to one of TV's greatest undertakings [NYT]
—Mark Joseph Stern writes that Panera’s “lemonade that kills you” is really a story about a broken country [Slate]
Today...
...in 2008, John Patrick Shanley's Doubt was released in theaters. Based on Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-winning stage play, the film starred Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams and was scored five Academy Award nominations. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Jennifer Connelly (53), Bill Nighy (74), Regina Hall (53), Lucas Hedges (27), Dionne Warwick (83), Maren Ade (47), Sheila E. (66), Paula Wagner (77), Mädchen Amick (53), Mayim Bialik (48), Wings Hauser (76), Sheree J. Wilson (65), Lucas Jade Zumann (23), Sky Katz (19), Gbenga Akinnagbe (45), Delaney Williams (61), Rajinikanth (73), Wallis Currie-Wood (32), Josh Heald (46), Holly Gagnier (65), Chris Perfetti (35), Devyn Nekoda (23), Gabrielle Ruiz (39), Jaime Lorente (32), Don Gummer (77), Ana Alicia (67), Sarah Sutton (62), Morgan Eastwood (27), Félix Maritaud (31), Rory Kennedy (55) |
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