"Only in L.A." moments we talk about tend to be Hollywood-coded, getting us through the day even if the reality is lurching through stop-and-start traffic on the 405. But cracks are showing in the facade. Does David Ellison want to lean in to the fantasy, or rip the Band-Aid off and pack a U-Haul in the name of efficiency (and spite)? — Erik Hayden
Ticker: Verve loses two stars; Paramount Primal stocks up on specs; Marvel convinces Adam Driver to take the paycheck; Sony sees next Spider-Verse leak; Warner Bros. has a solid base hit with End of Oak Street. Did they realize it?
|
“Paramount has deep roots in Southern California. My vision is to stay true to our roots,” wrote David Ellison in a letter to lawmakers representing the state in February.
"What a difference a few months makes," as Katie Kilkenny notes. "The notion that Ellison would abandon Paramount’s historic place in Hollywood (literally: Paramount’s 65-acre lot, parts of it a century old, is the only big studio in the neighborhood, after all) to finalize his megamerger isn’t a new one. But this narrative also represents a notable change in tune from Ellison, a California native himself and the product of two California universities, who not long ago was courting state politicians to win their approval for his mega-transaction" for Warner Bros. The report.
+ A story to watch: California pledged $750 million a year to Hollywood. But there's a big catch. A new bill, signed into law on June 29, could persuade film and TV projects to take their business elsewhere. Legislators are scrambling for a solution.
|
California attorney general Rob Bonta and Paramount mogul David Ellison are dividing Hollywood's solidarity-obsessed unions as the legal battle over the Warner Bros. merger heats up. The Writers Guild is wary of the studios buying fewer ideas, the Directors Guild prides itself on pragmatism, IATSE and the Teamsters fear a production downturn while SAG-AFTRA is trying to split the difference. Katie Kilkenny looks at the guilds' diverging interests.
|
Glendale’s historic Alex theater is back in the picture business. For 35 years, the venue hadn’t screened first-run films, Gary Baum observes. "Then the Alex’s artistic director, Miles Williams, invested $500,000 in time for its centennial last year so that it could host state-of-the-art screenings. Now, the 900-seat house has been holding three screenings a day of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on 70mm, becoming the epic’s highest-grossing venue in the country on the film format." What’s happening at the Alex is part of a broader revival of L.A.’s cinema landscape. The report.
|
In late September of last year, Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood told his board of directors that he wanted to discuss the tricky topic of succession. At the company’s quarterly board meeting, Wood recommended someone who could serve as co-CEO alongside him. That process ended with a $22 billion offer from Lachlan Murdoch's Fox Corp. Alex Weprin on how the sale happened.
|
"I wanted to test the boundaries of what was possible," says Coyote vs. Acme director Dave Green, photographed this month in Los Angeles. Shelved as a tax writeoff by Warner Bros. Discovery, the ambitious Looney Tunes courtroom comedy was brought back to life — and director Green is having the last laugh as it blew up in David Zaslav’s face. David Canfield's report.
|
Aka, why Hollywood is drunk on "White Wine Thrillers." Mikey O'Connell calls it on the deluge of shows in the genre: "A white wine thriller can get dark but not too dark. The body count is kept low. A few murders, nothing too graphic. There must be aspirational elements, typically wealthy characters wearing Brunello Cucinelli while emotionally unraveling in Nancy Meyers-worthy kitchens." The column.
|
"Never again. I'm never going to do this again." — Bret Easton Ellis, in 2024, after The Shards blew up at HBO, before it found new life at FX.
"Was he really given a fair shot or was he set up to fail? What drove his ousting and Bob Iger’s return?" — ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek's publisher, hyping his tell-all memoir out in September.
"We’re scaling on all fronts." — Alex Cooper, after raising cash from Patrick Whitesell's firm and setting up her Unwell brand at a $500 million valuation.
"They’re tired of looking at the small screen." — Cineplex CEO Ellis Jacob, musing about the rush of Gen Z to movie theaters.
"This is a long-term bet on where live goes next." — Ari Emanuel, after his firm Mari bought Broadway and West End theater giant ATG in a deal valued at $6 billion.
"It still pays the best ‘mailbox money’ of any film I’ve ever done." — Matthew McConaughey, naming How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days as his top film, by residuals.
Next Big Thing
The 28-year-old Noah LaLonde might have grown up on the ice, but he later found his footing in front of the screen, notably with his breakout role in Netflix's My Life With the Walter Boys, which just dropped its third season.
Logline of the Week
[Sid & Zoey]
"Sid, a seductive, sophisticated, and amoral teenager from New York, is sent to live with a police chief and his family in the idyllic Mississippi town where his mother grew up." Plus, "a supernatural mystery." -> The Netflix show comes from creator Jon Kasdan and co-showrunner John Shiban.
By the Numbers
(Most-read stories on THR.com this week)
1) "Brad Pitt Says He’s Drinking Again After 7 Years of Sobriety"
2) "The 7 Most Boring Movies This Century as Voted by Film Fans"
|
The Boys EP Rebecca Sonnenshine has scored a hit in an entirely different genre with Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie. The adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books claimed the top spot in Nielsen’s streaming ratings in its latest snapshot. The series drew 1.18 billion minutes of viewing for the week, up about 27 percent from its premiere.
|
Oh, the Places He'll Grow |
Above is mega-hyphenate Eric Wareheim — actor, writer, director, producer, author, winemaker and, now, horticulturist — at his East L.A. rare-plant shop, Serpentine, where he was photographed Aug. 5 by Daniel Prakopcyk. Wareheim changed the face of comedy with his absurdist sensibility (e.g., 'Tim and Eric'), but his emporium of strange and wonderful flora is perhaps his most surreal creation yet. Gary Baum's profile.
*These features are fun to read in print. As in, an actual magazine to flip through. Subscribe!
|
Reports of an unpublished manuscript from the late Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke spread fear and loathing. The truth turns out to be far less terrifying — and, perhaps, far less publishable. But, as Benjamin Svetkey reports, "buried somewhere in a file cabinet or packing crate along with the rest of her effects, there likely is an outline and maybe even some pages for the one memoir she actually did contemplate writing." The story.
|
A new status quo has emerged: Advertising is entertainment, Brands like Toyota, Gap, General Mills and Kraft are responding by launching in-house studios, while many small- and midsize film and TV production companies are leaning into branded entertainment to keep business going — even as Hollywood is in something of a lull.
In short: "Even as recently as four or five years ago, you could spend $20 million on TV and have a brand campaign have tremendous impact. Now, the only place where we’re all watching something live together at the same time and having that collective experience is sports, and it’s getting so expensive — $20 million doesn’t go as far as it used to." Alex Weprin's cover story.
|
Late night has been torching MAGA. Which show lights the Academy’s fire? At the Emmys, that'll be in the variety category. Steven Zeitchik observes, "Variety is more than just a hot category because of the quality of the shows. It’s a hot category because the top late night Emmy has become a vehicle — perhaps the vehicle — for Hollywood to register its opposition to President Trump. And the voters’ pick will tell us a lot about whom they favor to lead that opposition." The column.
|
Here's a strange, but telling, story of an AI Billy Joel project. A filmmaker secured a long lost radio interview with the artist. He decided to recreate the singer in AI to make a documentary about it. "Artistically, the film provides a head-spinning portrayal of what an artist we don’t have much candid early video of might have looked like. Culturally, it raises, in a surprisingly visceral way, that decidedly 2020s-era question of who controls an artist’s legacy when anyone with an idea and access to some tools can have a say in it," Zeitchik writes. What happened.
|
Kiernan Shipka, Mason Thames, Dave Franco and O'Shea Jackson Jr. celebrated the premiere of Idiots in L.A. Jenna Fischer, Mike Dirnt, Billie Joe Armstrong, Lee Kirk and Tré Cool toasted Green Day comedy Nimrods in L.A. Widow's Bay took over Hollywood Forever Cemetery for a screening and Q&A on Thursday with Hamish Linklater, Dale Dickey, Kate O'Flynn, Matthew Rhys, Stephen Root, K Callan, Kingston Rumi Southwick, Jeff Hiller and Neil Casey. To kick off D23 weekend, Jodi Benson and Halle Bailey performed at Disney's California Adventure. Jackie, Adam and Sadie Sandler supported Sunny Sandler at the NYC premiere of her Netflix dramedy Don't Say Good Luck. All 39 photos from the week in premieres and events.
|
Upcoming Releases
Notable movies heading to theaters
|
One-liners from THR's team of critics
Anne Hathaway dinosaur feature The End of Oak Street is more like "Barney with roid rage." Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat's The Wrong Girls is "a loving ode to the power of friendship and THC." Nearly shelved Looney Tunes film Coyote vs. Acme is "one of the best live-action/animated hybrids ever." Sunny Sandler and Melanie Lynskey "shine in Netflix’s tenderly observed cancer drama" Don’t Say Good Luck. Jeff Daniels "makes an unpersuasive Ronald Reagan" in Brink of War. Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre’s "chemistry helps HBO’s clever action-comedy Lanterns transcend lackluster superhero backdrop." PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie is "exactly what you'd expect." Plus, here's all of our reviewers' summer TV picks.
And finally:
Hollywood Flashback...
"Steve Martin keeps telling himself to stop fiddling with the same material, but he can't help it."
|
|
|
|
