| | | | | | What's news: Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis will compete for the Palme d'Or. The 97th Academy Awards will take place on March 2, 2025. A new Blair Witch Project film is in the works from Blumhouse and Lionsgate. A sequel to Five Nights at Freddy's has been confirmed. Nia DaCosta is in talks to direct a part of the 28 Years Later trilogy. Ice Spice will make her acting debut in Spike Lee's High and Low. — Abid Rahman
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Cannes 2024 Lineup ►Mon dieu! New films from Francis Ford Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Paul Schrader, Sean Baker, Andrea Arnold, David Cronenberg, Paolo Sorrentino, Jacques Audiard and Jia Zhang-Ke are all in the running for the Palme d'Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. The festival revealed its full lineup on Thursday morning, and it includes out of competition premieres for Kevin Costner's Horizon, An American Saga and George Miller's Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and a midnight screening for Nicolas Cage's The Surfer. The lineup.
—Trump heads to the Croisette. Also included in the main competition is Ali Abbasi's Donald Trump drama The Apprentice. The film stars Sebastian Stan as a young Trump and Succession's Jeremy Strong as mentor Roy Cohn. The biographical drama explores Trump's career as an aspiring real estate tycoon in the New York City of the 1970s and 1980s. The story. |
How MAGA Took Back Murdochland ►Volte-face. As Rupert Murdoch appears to be once again amplifying Donald Trump via Fox News, THR's Lachlan Cartwright writes that the media mogul's heir and number one boy Lachlan Murdoch is being courted by the Republican ex-president. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 The 97th Academy Awards in 2025 will take place a week earlier than the 2024 ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday. Oscar statuettes will be handed out Sunday, March 2, 2025 — although, for the second year in a row, the festivities will begin at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST, an hour earlier than other recent ceremonies. ABC will broadcast the ceremony, as it has for every year since 1976. The full schedule.
—"There is no room on any set for disparaging comments." SAG-AFTRA is weighing in on the allegations that Tulsa King star Sylvester Stallone allegedly mocked the appearance of background actors on set in Atlanta. The actors' union does represent background performers in some cases, though in Atlanta "the Union’s TV/Theatrical agreements do not cover background actors," the spokesperson stated. "We are here to support with guidance if requested." The story. |
CinemaCon: Langley Talks Up Universal's Big Year ►"Movies that are varied — but success that is not." Universal Pictures chief Donna Langley became the first studio mogul to address CinemaCon this year, taking the stage on Wednesday. Understandably, Langley took the chance to crow about Universal's No. 1 in market share in 2023 and Oppenheimer winning big at the Oscars. But the exec was keen for everyone to know Universal wasn't resting on its laurels: "We believe our best year should always be in front of us and our best projects always in the pipeline." The story.
—"The wizard will see you now." One year after debuting the first look of Wicked at CinemaCon, Universal brought filmmaker Jon M. Chu and stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande to Vegas on Wednesday to light up the festivities once again with exclusive footage for theater owners. It was an emotional presentation for the Wicked team as Chu was moved to tears as he recounted finding the two performers to topline the film, and later Grande also got choked up as well. The story.
—🎭 The real GOAT 🎭 Peter Dinklage is set to voice the character Dr. Dillamond in Universal's Wicked. In the feature film adaptation, Dr. Dillamond, a goat, is a professor of history at Shiz University who warns Elphaba about rising dark forces that threaten the speaking animals of Oz, including himself. The story.
—"I’ve been fascinated by tornadoes all my life." Universal's Twisters got a spotlight during the studio's CinemaCon presentation at Caesars Palace with some interactive elements and extended intro from its principal cast. The studio debuted never-before-seen scenes of the summer release courtesy of director Lee Isaac Chung and his castmembers Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos, who turned up for an extended introduction. The story.
—It's official. A sequel to horror hit Five Nights at Freddy's is in the works, Universal revealed at CinemaCon. The first film was a surprise sensation that weathered poor reviews and a day-and-date release on Peacock to land Blumhouse's top opening of all time with $78m. The story.
—Howling good time! Blumhouse revealed a first look at Wolf Man at CinemanCon, its reimagining of the classic Universal monsters property. Directed by Leigh Wannell, the filmmaker behind Invisible Man, the film stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner. Blumhouse also revealed the creepy, intense trailer for Speak No Evil, a remake of a Danish film that stars James McAvoy. The story. |
New 'Blair Witch' Movie in the Works ►"A truly special opportunity." Blumhouse was busy at CinemaCon on Wednesday, with the production company revealing that it is working on a new Blair Witch Project film with Lionsgate. The film is part of a multi-picture deal between the studios that will see Blumhouse reimagine horror classics from Lionsgate. The deal follows the duo collaborating on Imaginary, which has earned $38.2m since release last month. The story.
—Game on. Barbie producer LuckyChap, the banner run by Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara, has joined Hasbro Entertainment and Lionsgate’s Monopoly movie as producers. Lionsgate announced the news at CinemaCon. Hollywood has tried to crack a Monopoly adaptation for more than a decade, with Kevin Hart and filmmaker Tim Story among those who have come and gone. Lionsgate extended its rights to Monopoly when it completed its purchase of Hasbro’s film and TV arm eOne in December. The story.
—"A man who lived a very complicated life." A surprise look at the Michael Jackson biopic Michael closed out Lionsgate’s panel at CinemaCon and gave a jolt to theaters owners, who gave a warm reception. Producer Graham King revealed the project will include more than 30 songs and teased it would be "long" in order to do the music star’s story justice. The story.
—It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Sound of Freedom producers Angel Studios made the bold prediction at CinemaCon that its upcoming film David will be the top-grossing animated film of all time. The Utah-based company took cinema operators through its upcoming slate, which also includes Bonhoeffer and Possum Trot. The story. |
Sebastián Lelio Unveils New Film ►"Explores the collision between the urgency for change and the status quo." Sebastián Lelio, the Chilean director of The Wonder and Oscar-winner A Fantastic Woman, has revealed details of his new film, The Wave. A musical, the feature was inspired by the mass demonstrations protesting violence against women that swept Chile in 2018, galvanizing the feminist movement in the country and leading to constitutional reform on the rights of women. The story.
—Next up. The Marvels filmmaker Nia DaCosta is in talks to direct the second film in Sony’s upcoming horror trilogy, 28 Years Later. Danny Boyle, the director behind the 2002 original movie 28 Days Later, is returning to helm the first sequel film from writer Alex Garland, who penned the first feature. THR previously reported exclusively that the long-gestating feature follow-up, in addition to a second film, had landed at Sony Pictures, with Garland penning both scripts. The story.
—🎭 Acting debut 🎭 Rapper Ice Spice is branching out into acting with a part in Spike Lee's forthcoming feature High and Low, which will reunite the filmmaker with Denzel Washington. The Grammy-nominee is set to appear in a cameo role that she has begun shooting for the project that is an English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller of the same name. Apple Original Films and A24 are behind Lee’s High and Low, which also stars Jeffrey Wright and Ilfenesh Hadera. The story. |
ESPN Inks 9-Year Deal With Omaha Productions ►🤝 Long-term pact 🤝 ESPN has inked what it is calling an "unprecedented" nine-year deal with Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, which will produce programming for the sports network into 2034. The deal includes the "Manningcast" alternate telecast for Monday Night Football, technically called Monday Night Football With Peyton and Eli, in which the brothers banter and speak to guests during the game of the week. It also includes other Omaha programming, like Peyton’s Places and Eli’s Places, as well as other shows. The story.
—Going out on a high. The series finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm earned ratings that were pretty, pretty good for the show. The April 7 finale had a first-night audience of 1.1m viewers on HBO and Max (including replays), which was the best performance for Curb since the season 10 finale drew 1.4m cross-platform viewers in March 2020. The initial airing on HBO drew 530,000 viewers with streaming on Max and replays contributing the remaining 570,000 viewers. The ratings.
—Sisterhood. Jane Wiseman is reuniting with former Netflix content chief Cindy Holland at Sister. Wiseman, who departed as head of comedy at the streaming giant in 2020, will serve as head of U.S. television and report directly to Holland. At Sister — which is led by CEO Holland, CCO Jane Featherstone and executive chair Elisabeth Murdoch — Wiseman will specifically focus on developing and producing premium scripted programming. The story.
—"I’d like to be able to do it, but we haven’t been able to." Kevin Costner says he would "love" to return for the final episodes of Yellowstone to finish off his character John Dutton. The actor was at CinemaCon promoting his upcoming film Horizon: An American Saga, when he was asked about whether he’d return to the hit Paramount Network drama after his turbulent apparent departure from the project (and even threatening a lawsuit last year). The story. |
How 'Sympathizer' Star Transformed Himself to Play a Double Agent ►"Are they really letting me do this?" THR's Rebecca Sun spoke to Hoa Xuande, the up-and-coming Aussie actor who is the star of HBO and A24's limited series adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Sympathizer. Xuande, who had simply hoped to be "the token Asian on TV" someday, reveals he prevailed through eight months of auditions to win the lead. The interview.
—"It’s really sad to see things get worse." THR's Julian Sancton spoke to authors Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser about Food, Inc. 2, the followup to the seminal 2008 documentary that raised alarms about the food industry. Pollan and Schlosser discuss why a sequel was necessary and how the problems caused by corporate consolidation have only gotten worse. The interview.
—"I think that democracy is taken for granted, and that’s dangerous." THR's Brian Davids spoke to Kirsten Dunst about her new movie, Civil War. Dunst discusses the much-talked about politics of Alex Garland's film and how her husband, Jesse Plemons, was cast at the last minute. Dunst also addresses whether the Jumanji franchise has ever asked her to reprise the role of Judy Shepherd, her beloved character from the original 1995 film. The interview.
—"The hopefulness of the film is that it gets into you, that it sits there and gets under your skin, and hopefully, the reaction to that is to have meaningful conversations." Brian also spoke to Civil War star Cailee Spaeny. Spaeny discusses the film's most terrifying scene involving Plemons and how an intimidating moment of improvisation caused her to overlook a key piece of information about the “Show-Me State” of Missouri. The interview. |
TV Review: 'Franklin' ►"Franklin, my dear, I rarely gave a damn." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews Apple TV+'s Franklin. Michael Douglas stars as Benjamin Franklin who struggles to get French support for the American Revolution in this new eight-episode period drama co-starring Noah Jupe and Eddie Marsan. The review.
—"Cooked with tender loving care." THR's Jordan Mintzer reviews Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach's Chicken for Linda! The touching coming-of-age cartoon caper won the top prize at Annecy and the César award for best animated feature. The review.
In other news...
—Bridgerton S3 trailer teases a Polin's friends-to-lovers storyline
—Harvey Keitel relives Holocaust horror in new Tattooist of Auschwitz trailer
—Ryan Gosling is Chris Stapleton’s No. 1 fan in SNL promo
—BravoCon to sit out 2024, returning to Las Vegas next year
—Jane Fonda teams with gallerist Larry Gagosian for art sale that takes on Big Oil
—Karate Kid writer Rob Lieber signs with UTA
What else we're reading...
—With YouTube watched more frequently on U.S. TVs than Netflix, Dave Lee argues Google should be looking to spinoff the unit so it can become a $400b media company [Bloomberg]
—Eric Vilas-Boas rather helpfully explains why the 1980 adaptation of Shōgun starring Toshirō Mifune and Richard Chamberlain isn't officially streaming [Vulture]
—With all the uproar over WBD vaulting Coyote vs. Acme, T.M. Brown writes that sometimes an entertainment company sees more value in not selling you its products [NYT]
—Mark Stenberg reports on the troubles at niche media company Hodinkee that bet big on pushing watch sales on its loyal audience but only ended up eroding trust [Adweek]
—Eric Lutz considers Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign and looks into what he is really after [VF]
Today...
...in 2003, Columbia Pictures unveiled the Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson comedy Anger Management in theaters nationwide. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Milly Alcock (24), Tricia Helfer (50), Jennifer Esposito (51), Dakota Blue Richards (30), Kelli Garner (40), Bill Irwin (74), Teo Yoo (43), Morgan Lily (24), Peter Riegert (77), Joel Grey (92), Johnny Messner (54), Lee Do-hyun (29), Alessandra Ambrosio (43), Josh Server (45), Matt Ryan (🏴43), Louise Lasser (85), Reina King (49), John Milius (80), Joss Stone (37), Carl Franklin (75), Will Tudor (37), Yoo Yeon-Seok (40), Damien Thomas (82), Eka Darville (35), Linda Caridi (36), Weruche Opia (37), April Hong (46), Uli Edel (77), Dustin Rhodes (55), Gloria Calderón Kellett (49), Liz Garbus (54), Lisa Stansfield (58), Mike Ostroski (49) |
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