| | | | What's news: Actress Allison Mack has been released from prison. Nicolas Cage is set for a career tribute at Fantasia Film Fest. Karen Allen has revealed she initially expected to have a bigger part in Indiana Jones 5. Ron DeSantis has been slammed by the producers of Peaky Blinders. — Abid Rahman |
David Nevins' Next Act ►Studio boss. After six months on the sidelines, David Nevins has found his next gig. THR's Lacey Rose reports that the former Showtime boss will become CEO of North Road Company, Peter Chernin’s global content studio that houses his Chernin Entertainment as well as the U.S. assets of Red Arrow Studios and Words + Pictures. The independent outfit includes unscripted content from Kinetic Content, Left Right Productions and 44 Blue, along with an international division focused on global acquisitions and co-productions. The story.
—Free. Allison Mack has been released from prison early after serving out two years of a three-year sentence related to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges in the NXIVM sex trafficking case. The 40-year-old Smallville actress and subject of HBO’s The Vow was released on July 3 from the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, where she began her three-year sentence in September 2021. The story.
—"Trying not to die." Tyler Labine says he’s recovering and doing OK after a multi-day hospital stay for a “potentially fatal blood clot.” The New Amsterdam star posted about his medical emergency on Instagram, with a video capturing him at various stages of his treatment, including being admitted to a California hospital. Labine shared that the incident took place recently and over a series of days after he initially believed he had a simple stomach ache. The story. |
Luca Guadagnino's 'Challengers' to Open Venice ►New balls, please. Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, a ménage à trois tennis drama starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist will open the 80th Venice Film Festival. Challengers will premiere on August 30, and screen out of competition. The Call Me By Your Name director is a regular in Venice, appearing in competition last year with his cannibal love story Bones and All. The festival will unveil its full 2023 line-up on July 25. The story.
—"We are very grateful and honored to have such an excellent and outstanding sister." Hong Kong-born singer-songwriter Coco Lee, who sang the theme song “A Love Before Time” for the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon movie, which she performed at the 2001 Academy Awards, has died. She was 48. The Asian pop diva’s family said Lee, who had been battling depression, died in a hospital Wednesday after a failed suicide attempt three days earlier. The obituary.
—"They got theirs." Rebecca Romijn says she didn’t speak out about the misconduct allegations against her two former X-Men directors, Bryan Singer and Brett Ratner, because others had already done so. In a new interview, the actress who played Mystique in the original X-Men trilogy said she didn’t feel like she needed "to say anything" as other members of the cast have spoken more explicitly about the chaotic and on-set behavior they witnessed. The story. |
As Twitter Falters, Meta Unravels Threads ►Surprise! THR's Alex Weprin writes that in a flurry of unexpected strategic decisions, holiday news dumps and pure opportunism, the social landscape suddenly looks up for grabs. Twitter’s surprise move over the holiday weekend to rate limit the viewing of tweets caused chaos on the platform. Into that chaos, Meta rolled out its text-focused app Threads earlier than expected. The story.
—Well deserved. Nicolas Cage is set to receive a career tribute award at the 2023 Fantasia Film Festival. North America's biggest genre fest earlier revealed that it will give a world premiere to Cage's latest film, the Yuval Adler-directed Sympathy for the Devil. The story.
—"I got basically let go... because of the weight that I had lost." Pretty Little Liars star Lindsey Shaw is getting candid about why she was let go from the hit teen drama. On a recent podcast appearance, the actress explained that the show’s creative team made the decision to fire her due to her drug use and “relationship with food.” The story.
—Expanding podcast offering. CBS News has greenlit a new podcast series exploring the story of Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent who infamously leaked sensitive information to Russia for more than two decades. The still-untitled eight episode series from CBS and Paramount Audio will debut in the fall, and is led by CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett, who also hosts the weekly podcast The Takeout. The story. |
Karen Allen on Bittersweet End of Indy and Marion's Love Story ►"I know that Marion was much more involved in the story at that juncture." THR's Brian Davids spoke to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star Karen Allen about her feelings about the conclusion of Indy and her character Marion's long-running relationship. The actress also reveals she expected to be a bigger part of the fifth film — back when Steven Spielberg planned on directing. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—"It was this very cool project of figuring out, ‘Who speaks for Chicago?’" For THR, Josh Wigler spoke to filmmaker Joanna Calo, who directed The Bear's Ayo Edebiri-centered episode "Sundae." Calo discusses how they crafted the episode, building on the Hulu drama’s hard-earned authentic portrayal of life as a food professional, while also honoring the city of Chicago. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—Cease and desist, by order of the Peaky Blinders! The team behind the hit BBC gangster series Peaky Blinders has slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for using their show’s footage in a heavily criticized anti-LGBTQ campaign ad. Star Cillian Murphy, creator Steven Knight and the producers put their name to a statement posted to social media decrying the video and confirming they did not give permission for the footage to be used. The story. |
Film Review: 'Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One' ►"Breathless, in every sense." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. Hayley Atwell joins returning cast Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby in the high-octane opening salvo of the two-part Ethan Hunt thriller. The review.
—"Casts a satirical spell." THR film critic Frank Scheck reviews Ernst De Geer's The Hypnosis. A woman loses her social inhibitions after being hypnotized to quit smoking in the debuting Swedish director's dark comedy. The review.
—"Will revive your childhood nightmares." Frank reviews Michèle Jacob's Lost Children. Four young siblings find themselves abandoned in a house in the woods in the Belgian writer-director's creepily atmospheric suspenser. The review. |
TV Review: 'Full Circle' ►"Not aw-'Full' but uneven." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews Max's Full Circle. An upper-crust Manhattan kidnapping with ties to the Guyanese community is the basis of the story of Steven Soderbergh's new six-part drama, written by Ed Solomon and starring Claire Danes, Zazie Beetz, Timothy Olyphant, Dennis Quaid and Jim Gaffigan. The review.
In other news...
—Apple Studios reveals first-look image from Brad Pitt’s Formula One film
—Stranger Things stage play trailer promises to deliver answers in return to the Upside Down
—Kino Lorber takes Cannes winner Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell for North America
—Hollywood litigation firm drops Late Howard Weitzman’s name in rebrand
What else we're reading...
—Will Sommer reports that GQ pulled an article slamming David Zaslav after a complaint from the WBD CEO's camp [WaPo]
—In an excoriating piece, Drew Magary writes that Zaslav kills everything he touches [SF Gate]
—Lucas Shaw reports that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is calling on the film and TV studio to explain the massive spending behind productions that have failed to hit with audiences [Bloomberg]
—After a series of corruption scandals and incredibly unpopular decisions, Molly Jong-Fast opines that America has a Supreme Court problem [VF]
—Lyvie Scott believes the Disney+ series Secret Invasion proves that Marvel doesn't know how to use female characters [Inverse]
Today...
...in 1994, Paramount unveiled Robert Zemeckis‘ Forrest Gump in theaters. The Tom Hanks satire would go on to win six Oscars at the 67th Academy Awards, including best picture. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Kevin Hart (44), 50 Cent (48), Sylvester Stallone (77), Eva Green (43), Jennifer Saunders (65), Audrey Fleurot (46), Ranveer Singh (38), Kate Nash (36), Jee-woon Kim (59), Geraldine James (73), Gregory Smith (40), Mark Mitchinson (57), Grant Goodeve (71), Brian Posehn (57), Fred Dryer (77), Cody Fern (35), William Lee Scott (50), Camille Sullivan (48), Dylan Kingwell (19), Allyce Beasley (69), Tia Mowry-Hardrict (45), Tamera Mowry-Housley (45), Matt O'Leary (36), Nathalie Baye (75), Nnamdi Asomugha (42), Moshe Kasher (44), J. Alphonse Nicholson (38) |
| Eva Maria Daniels, the Icelandic producer and film festival favorite behind such recent indie dramas as What Maisie Knew, Hold the Dark and Joe Bell, has died. She was 43. The obituary. |
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