| | | | | | What's news: Vince McMahon has sold another $300m+ of stock in WWE-owner TKO. Beau Willimon will co-write Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi. NBC has canceled Quantum Leap. The WNBA has inked a multi-year rights extension with Amazon Prime Video. 151 Jewish creatives have signed a letter in support of Jonathan Glazer. Dwayne Johnson will not endorse a candidate for the 2024 presidential election. — Abid Rahman
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'Quiet on Set': "A #MeToo Movement for Kids" ►"We wanted to give that platform back to the very people whose story it really is." The Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV directors plan to continue to investigate kids entertainment in Hollywood, even after dropping their latest bonus episode on Sunday with Quiet on Set: Breaking The Silence. "We’re hearing calls for federal legislation," series co-director Mary Robertson told THR's Etan Vlessing in an interview. "At the moment, there is no federal legislation that governs children who work in entertainment, or that regulates children working in entertainment." The interview.
—"The zeitgeist has changed and people are ready to believe the survivors." THR's Mesfin Fekadu spoke to #MeToo founder Tarana Burke in the wake of several allegations of sexual misconduct surrounding music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs. Burke discusses Combs, the homophobia in the Black community around his allegations, and "why the movement has to be bigger than Diddy." The interview.
—Arrested. Country singer Morgan Wallen was arrested and jailed Sunday night in Nashville, according to multiple reports. Billboard confirmed the arrest on Monday morning via a statement from Wallen’s attorney. Local news station WSMV-TV reported that Wallen’s arrest came after he allegedly threw a chair from the top of Chief’s Bar, which is owned by fellow country music star Eric Church and was celebrating its opening weekend. The story.
—Found dead. Cole Brings Plenty, an actor in Paramount+’s Yellowstone prequel series 1923, who was reported missing earlier this week, has died. He was 27. The sheriff’s office in Johnson County, Kansas, shared in a news release that deputies were called to Homestead Lane at approximately 11:45 a.m. Friday in reference to an unoccupied vehicle. Authorities said they were searching the area when they “discovered a deceased male in a wooded area away from the vehicle,” who was later identified as Cole. A cause of death was not immediately available. The obituary.
—"New era." This weekend's WrestleMania was the first to be held under the ownership of TKO Group Holdings, formed when Endeavor spun out its UFC business and merged it with the WWE last year. It was also the first WrestleMania without Vince McMahon behind the curtain, with the executive exiting the company in January after being hit with a lawsuit alleging battery and sex trafficking. On Monday, McMahon took another step toward a more complete break from the sports entertainment firm by selling some $311.2m worth of stock in the company. The story. |
'Curb' Series Finale Puts Larry on Trial ►Seinfeld twist. And, that’s a wrap on Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm. The series finale of the Emmy-winning HBO improv comedy kicked off with a big circle back to how the final season began, with the ensemble heading to Atlanta to support Larry in his trial. THR's resident Curb expert Jackie Strause recaps the finale and how the ghosts from Larry's past come out to paint a picture of a "petty, conniving and frankly spiteful man." Warning: Spoilers! The recap.
—🎭 Dunk and Egg have been found! 🎭HBO has cast actors for the lead roles of its Game of Thrones prequel series Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell will lead the project that represents a different kind of Westeros tale than GOT or House of the Dragon. The other shows are sweeping war epics with sprawling ensemble casts that take place in multiple locations. The Dunk and Egg stories are more intimate two-handers with a bit of a lighter tone. The story.
—"Relentless dissection of modern times." Chernobyl director Johan Renck and production partner Michael Parets will adapt Andrew O’Hagan’s new epic novel Caledonian Road for TV. Recently published by Faber to rave reviews, Caledonian Road is a Dickensian tale of the rise and fall of Campbell Flynn, an art historian and celebrity intellectual, told against the backdrop of modern-day Britain and the deep-set corruption at the heart of the ruling class. Parets and Renck will produce through their Fremantle-backed production company Sinestra. The story.
—Seizing the moment. The WNBA has inked a multi-year rights extension with Amazon Prime Video. The streamer will televise 21 games for the upcoming 28th season, including the Championship Game of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup. The deal runs through the 2025 season, and financial terms were not disclosed. The deal comes at a big moment for college basketball, with two of the biggest college stars — Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese — declaring for this year’s WNBA Draft. The story.
—Oh boy. NBC has canceled Quantum Leap, the reboot of the 1989 series, after a two-season run. The show, starring Raymond Lee, wrapped its sophomore season in February and ranked as one of the broadcast network’s lowest-rated scripted originals. Quantum Leap, which was produced in-house at Universal Television, earned a speedy season two renewal as NBC kept production going in a bid to have scripted originals during the writers and actors strikes. The story. |
Willimon to Co-Write Mangold's 'Star Wars' Movie ►House of Jedi. THR's Borys Kit had the big scoop that screenwriter Beau Willimon has been tapped to work the script for Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Lucasfilm’s feature that is to be directed by James Mangold. The House of Cards writer will co-pen the script for the project that will trace the origins of the Force and be set 25,000 years before any of the timelines and stories told by the movies and shows so far. Dawn of the Jedi is not Willimon’s first time in the Star Wars universe, he wrote three episodes of the Disney+ series Andor , including the excellent prison breakout installment titled "One Way Out." The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 Disney revealed the release dates of several upcoming films on Friday. Among the biggest titles, Pixar’s Toy Story 5 hits theaters on June 19, 2026 and the Star Wars feature The Mandalorian & Grogu will bow May 22, 2026. The studio also pushing the live-action remake of Moana by a year to July 10, 2026, in a move that gives the film space from the animated Moana 2, which opens this November. Elsewhere, Tron: Ares opens Oct. 10, 2025 and 20th Century’s The Amateur has been pushed from Nov. 8, 2024, to April 11, 2025. The story.
—"I want it. I need it." Drew Barrymore says she got Adam Sandler to confirm that he’s in the process of writing Happy Gilmore 2. Following comments that Christopher McDonald, who played Shooter McGavin, shared in March that Sandler showed him a first draft of the sequel, Barrymore says she went straight to the source and texted her longtime friend and 50 First Dates co-star to ask if it was true. In a preview from the latest episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, she dropped news of their conversation, generating more buzz about a followup feature. The story.
—"The whole business has changed, and not in an appealing way." Woody Allen isn’t exactly sure what he wants to do next in the movie industry, as he feels “all the romance of filmmaking is gone.” In a new interview, the scandal-plagued director was asked about his latest film Coup de Chance, his 50th feature, and the delay it faced for release in North American markets. In February, THR exclusively reported that MPI Media Group would release the picture in the U.S. on April 5 and digital/VOD on April 12 following its debut at the Venice Film Festival in September 2023. The story. |
'Kong' Squashes 'Monkey Man' ►Simulacra and simian. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire toppped the box office this weekend, as Dev Patel's much buzzed-about feature directorial debut Monkey Man and supernatural franchise installment The First Omen both opened behind expectations. Godzilla x Kong led the chart with $31.7m in its sophomore outing for a domestic cume of $135m. It fell 60 percent, a relatively good hold for a title opening to $80m. Overseas, it fell only 53 percent to $59.3m from 69 markets for a foreign total of $226m and $361.1m globally.
THR's Pamela McClintock writes that Monkey Man placed second with an estimated $10.1m. Heading into the weekend, tracking suggested that both Monkey Man and The First Omen would find themselves in a close race with $12m to $14m each. Universal and the filmmakers are hoping for a long run for Monkey Man, but word-of-mouth shifted as the film entered the marketplace. It earned a lukewarm B+ CinemaScore from audiences and divided exits on PostTrak surveys. Its Rotten Tomatoes score initially hovered around 94 percent but then dropped to 87 percent. The box office report.
—Things are looking up. Timed to this year’s CinemaCon, analytics firm Gower Street released an updated forecast for the global box office that predicts revenues will be stronger than originally expected for 2024. Gower Street is projecting theatrical revenues this year will hit $32.3b, up from the $31.5b they originally forecast. That is still below the $33.9b earned worldwide last year and $10b below the box office peak of $42.3b hit pre-pandemic. The forecast.
—Top market. Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron opened last Wednesday in China to take advantage of the country’s Qingming public holiday and by Sunday it had earned a massive $73m — more than its totals in both Japan ($61m) and North America ($46.6m). The Studio Ghibli hit has continued a trend in China of filmgoers favoring Japanese animation over Hollywood imports. The China box office report. |
Glazer Backed by Group of Jewish Creatives ►"Their attacks on Glazer are a dangerous distraction." Nearly a month after Jonathan Glazer's Oscars speech reverberated across Hollywood and caused a wave of controversy, 151 Jewish creatives have signed a letter in a show of support. The letter is signed by a mix of actors, writers, producers, filmmakers and other creatives. Among those backing Glazer are Joaquin Phoenix, Pamela Koffler, Chloe Fineman, Ilana Glazer, Abbi Jacobson, Joel Coen, Todd Haynes, Miranda July, Mike Leigh, Boots Riley, Amy Berg, Janicza Bravo, Nicole Holofcener, James Schamus, Lenny Abrahamson, David Cross and Elliott Gould. The story.
—"At this level of influence, I will keep my politics to myself." Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is expressing some regret about his 2020 endorsement for Joe Biden for president, and says he won’t endorse any candidate this year. The actor revealed his decision in an interview with Will Cain on Fox News posted online Friday. In 2020, Johnson made headlines by sitting down with Biden and Kamala Harris and announcing his endorsement, a message promoted by the Biden campaign. The story.
—"We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment." Jamie Lloyd, director of the Tom Holland-led West End revival of Romeo & Juliet, released a statement Friday condemning an incident of “deplorable racial abuse” against an unnamed castmember. The show is set to open at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre on May 23, and run through August. Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, known for her onscreen role in Bad Education, will play Juliet. The story.
—ICYMI. IATSE Local 871 — the Hollywood crew union that bargains of behalf of script supervisors, art department coordinators and accountants, among others — has reached a tentative deal with studios and streamers on its craft-specific issues.The Local reached a provisional agreement with the AMPTP on Wednesday night after three days of bargaining. IATSE confirmed the news in an update to members on Friday. The story. |
'Regime' Creator on Crafting an Ending to Winslet's Reign ►"I was quite nervous people would watch the show and think, “Oh, this is a thinly veiled allegory or analog of [name a regime]." THR's Jackie Strause spoke to The Regime writer-showrunner Will Tracy about the series finale of HBO's dark political satire. With Kate Winslet now installed as an authoritarian leader of a fictional country, Tracy says they leaned into how "she would use her status [as a woman] as a weapon." Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—Where will TWD go? For THR, Josh Wigler writes that following the conclusion of limited series The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, the AMC zombie franchise is well positioned for its eventual Avengers: Endgame moment. The analysis.
—"It’s fair to say, at the beginning of the process, nobody wanted to make this show." For THR, Max Gao spoke to D.C. Moore and Liza Marshall, executive producers of Starz's new historical drama Mary & George. The EPs break down the real-life history behind their sumptuous limited series, which stars Julianne Moore and Nicholas Galitzine and tells the story of a scheming, 17th-century aristocrat whose son catches the eye of the King of England. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—"He’s coming to America for the first time." THR's Hilary Lewis spoke to The New Look creator Todd A. Kessler and star Ben Mendelsohn about the season finale of the Apple TV+ show. Kessler discusses where the show could go next, and Mendelsohn reflects on Christian Dior's shifting survival instincts and the extent to which his sister's capture and return affected the designer's career. Warning: Spoilers! The interview. In other news...
—Mia Goth heads to Hollywood in A24’s Maxxxine trailer
—Author Jennifer Weiner signs with Verve
—Best hotels in Palm Beach for enjoying the resort city Palm Royale-style
—Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher announce they’re divorcing
—100 Years of MGM Studios and the Golden Age of Hollywood exhibit opens at Hollywood Heritage Museum
—Wicked director Jon M. Chu to be honored at CinemaCon luncheon with Cultural Impact Award
—Longtime ESPN executive Norby Williamson to exit
—FireHouse frontman C.J. Snare, who had hits in the ’90s including “Love of a Lifetime,” dies at 64
—David Barrington Holt, former head of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in L.A., dies at 78
—William Kidston, three-time Emmy-winning photographer, dies at 68
What else we're reading...
—Without revealing too much, Barry Levitt writes that the brilliance of Netflix's Ripley hinges on a gorgeously brutal scene from the third episode [Daily Beast]
—Matt Stevens reports from Oklahoma, where the state's booming film and TV industry (Killers of the Flower Moon, Tulsa King and Reservation Dogs were all shot there) has it competing with the likes of Texas [NYT]
—Ali Swenson And Melissa Goldin report of the further deterioration of X/Twitter, with anonymous right-wing accounts rising to prominence, shaping conversations and spreading disinfo [AP]
—Devin Leonard talks to Bluey creator Joe Brumm about the future of the Aussie kids TV phenomenon that has proved incredibly lucrative for both BBC Studios and Disney+ [Bloomberg]
—Robin McKie sounds the alarm as a world record temperature jump in the Antarctic raises fears of a climate catastrophe [Guardian]
Today...
...in 1964, Paramount unveiled Audrey Hepburn and William Holden starrer Paris When It Sizzles in theaters. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Patricia Arquette (56), Robin Wright (58), Katee Sackhoff (44), Taylor Kitsch (43), Dean Norris (61), Sung Kang (52), Craig Mazin (53), John Madden (75), Hsiao-Hsien Hou (77), Paola Núñez (46), Ana de la Reguera (47), Levy Tran (41), Emma Caulfield Ford (51), John Schneider (64), Taran Noah Smith (40), Gabriella Wilde (35), Anna Osceola (36), Sadie Calvano (27), Shelby Young (32), Kirsten Storms (40), JR Bourne (54), Ella Beatty (24), Skai Jackson (22), Stephanie Cayo (36), Gerardo Celasco (42), Dorian Brown Pham (45), Arienne Mandi (30), Jacqueline Pinol (45), Sophie Grace (18), Alexis Krause (43), Jim Piddock (68) |
| Bruce Kessler, who directed episodes of shows including The Monkees, It Takes a Thief, The Rockford Files, McCloud and The Commish when he wasn’t driving race cars, designing boats or circling the globe in a yacht, has died. He was 88. The obituary. |
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