| | | | What's news: Comedian David A. Arnold has died. The cast of Amazon's Rings of Power have released a joint statement condemning the racist threats aimed at some of the actors. Endeavor Content is now named Fifth Season. Eugene Hernandez is Sundance's new chief. Netflix is rebooting Teletubbies. HBO Max has renewed Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin — Abid Rahman |
Emmy Telecast Goes Big — And Nice! ►"It’s not going to be a hatchet job." THR's Mikey O'Connell spoke to Jen Neal, Reggie Hudlin and Ian Stewart, the producing team behind the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards. The trio reveal they would like to avoid a roast at all costs, discuss getting awards telecasts back to some semblance of normal, the perks of an affable emcee and why there’s "room" for the Golden Globes to return. The interview.
—Worrying news. Buckingham Palace said on Thursday that Queen Elizabeth II is under medical supervision as doctors are “concerned for Her Majesty’s health.” The announcement comes a day after the 96-year-old monarch canceled a meeting of her Privy Council and was told to rest. The palace says the queen is “comfortable” and remains at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she has spent the summer. The story.
—"Middle-earth is not all white." The cast of Amazon Prime Video’s The Rings of Power is united in speaking out about racist threats that performers from the show have apparently faced. A message posted to Twitter Wednesday strongly condemned racist reactions to the series’ castmembers of color. The statement emphasized that, despite online criticisms to the contrary, author J.R.R. Tolkien created a “multi-cultural” world in which individuals from different backgrounds and races could join forces for good. The story.
—"I don’t think they’ll all make it." Former Disney CEO Bob Iger believes that only a few streaming services will ultimately survive. Speaking at Vox Media’s Code Conference on Wednesday, Iger was optimistic about the futures of Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon and, naturally, Disney+, but was decidedly less so for competitors like Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max and Discovery+. The story.
—What's in a name? Endeavor Content has been rebranded as Fifth Season, effective Sept. 7, with the independent studio's new name following its previous agreement with the WGA to divest a majority stake of the affiliated studio. Fifth Season is now 80 percent controlled by South Korea’s CJ ENM. Endeavor retains a 20 percent interest in the studio behind shows including Apple’s Severance and AMC’s Killing Eve among others. The story.
—Consolidation continues. Paradigm Entertainment, the owner of Paradigm Talent Agency, is acquiring a trio of representation and management companies and forming a new division to house them: Paradigm Media Entertainment. The acquired companies include Napoli Management Group and 3 Kings Entertainment, which specialize in broadcast news talent, and Two Twelve Management, which specializes in chefs and other culinary talent. The story. |
Brutally Honest Emmy Ballot ►"Pam & Tommy, are you kidding me?" Ahead of next week's Emmy Awards, a TV Academy voter reveals to THR's Scott Feinberg his picks while reveling in the snub of Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon. The story.
—"We are excited to honor Ali’s life and legacy theatrically." The story of boxing legend, philanthropist and civil rights activist Muhammad Ali is being adapted into a new Broadway musical developed in partnership with his wife Lonnie Ali. Ali, announced on Wednesday by lead producer Richard Willis, will be written and helmed by Clint Dyer with the music written by Teddy Abrams. The story.
—Oooops. A VFX flub from the latest episode of House of the Dragon will soon be made right by HBO. In the third episode, which aired Sunday, viewers spotted a gaffe during a scene featuring King Viserys, with his fingers wrapped with a green covering in order to be digitally removed later. The episode will be corrected, with the revised version hitting streaming platforms later in the week. The story.
—"I just popped very quickly to Venice." Harry Styles didn’t waste any time addressing a viral video from Venice Film Festival in which he seems to spit on his Don’t Worry Darling co-star Chris Pine. During his first Madison Square Garden show since Olivia Wilde’s psychological thriller premiered at the Italian festival, Styles took a moment to joke about the situation. The story.
—"He’s been at the forefront of supporting independent artists." Eugene Hernandez has been named director of the Sundance Film Festival and head of public programming, following the departure of Tabitha Jackson in June. Hernandez joins the Sundance Insitute from Film at Lincoln Center, where he has overseen the New York Film Festival for the past three years. The story.
—House of Mouse going hard. Disney is pulling out all the stops to convince consumers to buy-in to its streaming service, using this week’s Disney+ Day as the event to tie its efforts together. On Wednesday, the company announced a wave of Disney+ subscriber perks, spanning its theme parks, merchandise, cruise lines, and even theatrical movies, meant to reinforce the notion that a a subscription gets you more than just movies and TV shows. The story. |
Catherine Reitman On 'Workin' Moms' Final Season ►"It’s a perfect season as far as our show goes." As the popular CBC and Netflix series Workin' Moms shoots its final 13 episodes in Toronto, creator and star Catherine Reitman reveals to THR's Etan Vlessing why American studios rejected the pitch and her notes from late father Ivan Reitman, while teasing the endgame. The interview.
—Stepping behind the camera. Anna Kendrick is set to make her directorial debut with the true-life thriller The Dating Game. The film, from a Black List script by Ian McDonald, is described as the stranger-than-fiction story of Cheryl Bradshaw, a bachelorette candidate on hit ’70s TV matchmaking show The Dating Game. Kendrick will also star as Bradshaw and produce. The story.
—Lord help us. Netflix will debut a Teletubbies reboot in November as part of a slate of shows aimed at young kids debuting in the coming months. The show will feature the four Teletubbies — Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po — interacting and discovering their world and will be narrated by Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Tituss Burgess. The story.
—Branching out. THR's Lesley Goldberg has the scoop on Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff teaming with Octavia Spencer to adapt Ashley Elston’s forthcoming novel First Lie Wins for Hulu. The drama, which landed at Hulu and ABC Signature following a bidding war, is currently in development at the streamer. The story.
—Coming back for more. HBO Max has handed out a second-season renewal to Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, the reboot of the former Freeform hit from co-creators Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Lindsay Calhoon Bring. The renewal comes a few weeks after PLL: OS wrapped its 10-episode freshman season on the streamer. The story. |
Film Review: 'The Son' ►"Stubbornly unemotional." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Florian Zeller’s Venice competition entry The Son. Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath and Anthony Hopkins star in this installment of the playwright-turned-director’s trilogy on mental health and its brutal impact on families. The review.
—"Whodunit? Who cares?" David reviews Tom George's See How They Run. Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, David Oyelowo and Ruth Wilson appear in this 1950s-set ensemble comedy, a whodunit framed against the 100th West End performance of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. The review.
—"Sharp, streamlined and sensuous." THR critic Sheri Linden reviews Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's Lady Chatterley's Lover. Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell star in this adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence novel about an upper-class woman’s affair with a working-class man, scripted by David Magee. The review.
—"An enthralling narrative debut." THR critic Lovia Gyarkye reviews Alice Diop's Venice competition entry Saint Omer. In her narrative feature debut, the director of Nous chronicles the trial of a Franco-Senegalese mother who committed infanticide. The review.
—"A wild and terrifying ride." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Zach Cregger's Barbarian. A young woman gets more than she bargained for when she agrees to share a rental house in this horror film starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgard and Justin Long. The review. |
Film Review: 'Clerks III' ►"If you haven't been on board for decades, steer clear." THR film critic John DeFore reviews Kevin Smith’s Clerks III. Life and art commingle in Smith's third Clerks film, inspired by the heart attack that nearly killed the writer-director in 2018. The review. — "A tale of near-fame that nearly nails it." THR's Leslie Felperin reviews Bill Pohlad's Dreamin' Wild. Casey Affleck, Walton Goggins, Zooey Deschanel and Beau Bridges star in a fact-based drama about two musician brothers. The review. — "A riveting journey into the wild." THR critic Stephen Farber reviews Melissa Lesh and Trevor Beck Frost's Wildcat. In this doc, the filmmakers lived in the Amazon jungle for several months to record the effort by a pair of young people to rescue and raise an ocelot. The review. — "An illuminating look at very dark events." Stephen reviews Dror Moreh's The Corridors of Power. This new documentary relies on impressive interviews with diplomats like Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Wesley Clark, Leon Panetta, and especially former UN Ambassador Samantha Power to fill in the story. The review. — "Say 'I do' for the early twists, but expect some divorces by the end." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews Hulu's Wedding Season. Gavin Drea and Rosa Salazar star in this nuptial-filled eight-part series that toys with romantic comedy conventions. The review. In other news... —Harry Styles is mired in a complicated and steamy love triangle in new My Policeman trailer — Glass Onion trailer: Knives Out sequel promises a puzzling new mystery —Nicolas Cage and Riko Shibata welcome first child together —Bradley Cooper is Louis Vuitton’s first dedicated brand ambassador for watches —Altice USA hires Comcast exec Dennis Mathew As CEO —Apple's head of video marketing Chris Van Amburg exiting — Bernard Shaw, CNN’s first chief news anchor, dies at 82 What else we're reading... —Olivia Wilde adorns the latest Vanity Fair cover and Julie Miller's timely profile covers a lot of ground including all the rumors around Don't Worry Darling [ VF] —Dave Itzkoff interviews Weird Al Yankovic about Daniel Radcliffe playing Weird Al Yankovic and Daniel Radcliffe on playing Weird Al Yankovic [ NYT] —Emine Saner talks to Samantha Morton about her new show The Serpent Queen, sexism and surviving in the industry [ Guardian] —Stacy Perman reports that most Hollywood assistants still make less than $50,000 a year [ LAT] —Marlow Stern interviews Rings of Power star Benjamin Walker about the show and toxic fandom [ Daily Beast] Today... ...in 1997, Fox premiered a new hour-long series, Ally McBeal, which went on to nab 7 Emmy wins and 34 nominations during its five season run. The original review. Today's birthdays: Park So-dam (31), Pink (43), Thomas Kretschmann (60), Gaten Matarazzo (20), Martin Freeman (51), Jonathan Taylor Thomas (41), David Arquette (51), Nate Corddry (45), Larenz Tate (47), Dianne Doan (32), Mitchell Whitfield (58), E.J. Bonilla (34), Brian Huskey (34), Rachel Hunter (53), Brad Silberling (59), Pepi Sonuga (29), Rona Morison (32) |
| David A. Arnold, the much-loved standup comedian who was the creator and showrunner of the Nickelodeon series That Girl Lay Lay, has died. He was 54. The obituary. |
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