| | | | What's news: Marie Kreutzer's Corsage won the top prize at the London Film Festival. Vice Media has reaffirmed its top executive team amid sale talk. David O. Russell’s Amsterdam continues to bomb at the box office. Freaky director Christopher Landon has slammed studios for pushing day-and-date streaming releases for feature films. PBS has snapped up the rights to French period drama Marie Antoinette. — Abid Rahman |
'HOTD' Writer, Director Break Down Rhaenys' Epic Scene ►"You more and more are attached to them and start to understand them." THR's James Hibberd spoke to House of the Dragon episode nine writer and exec producer Sara Hess and director Clare Kilner about Sunday's penultimate episode of the HBO fantasy series. The duo discuss Rhaenys' surprising final scene and share some thoughts about the much-debated volume LED video wall used during the production. Warning spoilers. The interview.
—"He is not an out-and-out psychopath. He’s much more complex." James also spoke to Tom Glynn-Carney, who plays Aegon in House of the Dragon. The Brit actor discusses Aegon's major turn in episode nine and those Joffrey comparisons, and shares the helpful advice he got from Game of Thrones veterans Kit Harington and Alfie Allen. Warning spoilers. The interview. |
'Halloween Ends' Opens to $41M, Lowest of Trilogy ►Diminishing returns. David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends opened to $41.2m from 3,901 theaters, the lowest of his three Halloween films. Heading into the weekend, Halloween Ends was expected to open in the same range as Halloween Kills, around the $50m mark. Overseas, the film made $17.2m for a global start of $58.4m against a modest $30m budget.
THR's Pamela McClintock writes that both Ends and Kills launched simultaneously on Peacock, so the day-and-date issue doesn’t entirely explain the difference at the box office. Universal and Peacock didn’t provide numbers but said the movie has become the most-watched series or film of all time over a 2-day period on the platform.
Elsewhere, Paramount’s sleeper horror hit Smile cleared $12.3m in its third weekend to come in No. 2 and finish Sunday with a domestic total of $71.2m and foreign tally of $66.4m. David O. Russell’s troubled Amsterdam fell to $2.9m in its second weekend for a domestic total of $12m and a global total of $18.6m. The star-packed film stands to lose New Regency $80m to $100m. The box office report.
—"Stop gambling with filmmakers and their movies to try and prop up your fledgling streaming services." Filmmaker Christopher Landon voiced his frustrations about the theatrical window disappearing for some releases amid Halloween Ends’ subdued opening weekend at the box office. Landon took to Twitter to lament day-and-date releases for films, admitting he was still sore over his horror-comedy movie Freaky being available on-demand less than a month after releasing theatrically on Nov. 13, 2020. The story. |
Inside the Star-Studded Academy Museum Gala ►Glitz and glamour. The Academy Museum Gala returned in star-studded style on Saturday night for its second annual celebration, feting this year’s honorees Julia Roberts, Tilda Swinton, Steve McQueen and Miky Lee. THR's Kirsten Chuba has the lowdown of the event that raised $10m during the night. The story.
—🤝 Agreement in principle 🤝 Kanye “Ye” West has agreed to buy conservative social media platform Parler, according to the app's parent company Parlement Technologies. The move comes amid the rapper-turned-fashion mogul's restricted access to rival social media sites over his recent posts that have been widely condemned as racist. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The story.
—"It’s so dark it is genuinely hard to watch." John Oliver continued to bite the hand that feeds him, making two jokes at HBO’s expense on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, which airs on, of course, HBO. The host made a joke about the brutal nature of House of the Dragon as well as the continued issues with the HBO Max streaming app. The recap.
—"I’m Mr. Kinzinger, and he will respect my authority." Saturday Night Live's cold open addressed the Jan 6. Committee hearings, with castmembers playing Bennie Thompson, Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, Jamie Raskin, Adam Kinzinger and more. The opening sketch featured conversation excerpts between Donald Trump and several people (and a dog), and special appearances from Chloe Fineman’s Nancy Pelosi and Sarah Sherman’s Chuck Schumer. The recap.
—Looking good. Corsage, Marie Kreutzer’s period drama starring Vicky Krieps, has won the top honor at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival. The film, which first bowed in Cannes’s Un Certain Regard sidebar (where Krieps won for best performance), is also Austria’s entry to the Academy Awards in the best international feature film category. The story.
—Sticking around. Vice Media Group is holding on to its team of top executives amid sale speculation. The company announced Monday that Jesse Angelo will continue as president of global news and entertainment, while Cory Haik has been promoted to chief operating officer for news and entertainment. Morgan Hertzan has been promoted to president of global TV. The story. |
'She Said' Premiere Honors Women Who Exposed Weinstein's Crimes ►"The biggest challenge was to honor all those who were involved in speaking out and in the investigation." THR's Hilary Lewis was in attendance at the world premiere of She Said at the New York Film Festival, along with stars Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan and the NYT journalists, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, they portray in the film. Despite the subject of the film, the focus at the premiere was on women, with the red-carpet event playing host not only to the many female figures behind the film, but also to the women who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct. The story.
—"It’ll be interesting to see if an equal number of times a woman wins as a man." Geena Davis was asked to share her thoughts on the Independent Spirit Awards going gender-neutral for acting categories. In a new interview, Davis said the move by the Spirit Awards might be "a little too soon." The story.
—"It was bizarre." Rachel Zegler is addressing the scrutiny she’s faced doing press for two high-profile movies, Disney’s upcoming live-action Snow White and last year’s West Side Story. In a recent interview, Zegler opened up about the pressures she felt over pointed questions about diversity and representation in both films. The story.
—Fashionable choice. Former J.Crew president and executive creative director Jenna Lyons is among the all-new cast of The Real Housewives of New York City. Bravo made the announcement about the reality show’s 14th season Sunday at BravoCon 2022 in New York during a live taping of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. The lineup. |
MIPCOM 2022 ►Let them see the cake. PBS has picked up U.S. rights to Marie Antoinette, a new historic epic from Canal+ based on the life of the iconic French queen. Banijay Rights, which is handling international sales for the series, announced the deal ahead of the international TV market MIPCOM Cannes, which kicks off today. The story.
—"I opened the script and couldn’t stop." The upcoming Amazon/BBC Western drama The English debuted at MIPCOM on Sunday evening, and star Emily Blunt spoke about what drew her to the series at a Q&A. The actress, who also serves as executive producer of the drama, describes The English as a “heart-stopping chase thriller with the most tender of love stories at its heart.” The story.
—🤝 Done deal 🤝 BBC Studios revealed at MIPCOM that it has taken full ownership of Killing Eve producer Sid Gentle Films, adding another major U.K. production company to the growing stable now entirely under the control of the BBC’s commercial production-distribution arm. Financial details weren’t disclosed. The story.
—Next up. Emmy-award winning producer Frank Doelger (Game of Thrones, Rome) is set to produce the surveillance sci-fi thriller Concordia, a six-part drama set in an utopian community and produced by Doelger’s Intaglio Films. The English-language series, which has begun production, is backed by German and French public broadcasters ZDF and France Télévisions, Hulu Japan and MBC. The story.
—Hot pickup. Disney+ picked up rights across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, excluding the U.K., for Ralph & Katie, the BBC One dramatic comedy about a newlywed couple with Down Syndrome. The six-part half-hour series, a spin-off of the BBC’s hit Autism drama The A Word, premiered in the U.K. on Oct. 5 to rave reviews. The story.
—Fess up. Vivica A. Fox has signed up to host The Interrogation Room, a new true-crime show from the UK’s Zig Zag Productions (The World’s Deadliest Gangs, The Real Football Factories) and New York-based streaming group FilmRise. Fox will take viewers behind the scenes of criminal interrogations, speaking to real-life homicide detectives who break down how they interview suspects trying to get confessions. The story.
—Snapped up. Nordic streamer Viaplay and Amazon’s Freevee have scored online rights to the Australian crime drama Troppo from German group Leonine Studios. Viaplay picked up SVOD rights to the series, based on Candice Fox’s best-selling Crimson Lake novels, for the Nordics, the Netherlands, Poland and the Baltic region. Amazon Freevee scored AVOD rights for Germany and the U.K. The story. |
Film Review: 'Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio' ►"It's got no strings to tie it down." THR film critic Leslie Felperin reviews Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson's Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. The voice cast of the director's Netflix-produced stop-motion take on the classic tale includes Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton and Cate Blanchett, the last impersonating a monkey. The review. In other news... —Italian star Matilda De Angelis on Netflix’s Robbing Mussolini —Essie Davis joins Netflix adaptation of David Nicholls’ One Day —Jim Packer reups as Lionsgate worldwide TV distribution chief —Visual Effects Society honors: A celebration of community and call for diversity and inclusion, work-life balance —Two shot, others hurt at Asian Doll College concert in North Carolina —Rapper Tsu Surf facing federal racketeering charges What else we're reading... —Laura Bradley looks at the way Warner Bros. Discovery is screwing over Latinos, and writes that it's not just bad marketing or a lack of internal support [ Daily Beast] —Amazon's pricey Rings of Power is a bona fide hit, but Tracy Brown wonders why it doesn't "feel" like one [ LAT] —Critic Jen Chaney writes that we should all surrender to the "batshittery" that is Netflix's new Ryan Murphy series The Watcher [ Vulture] —Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" was released 25 years ago this week, and Dan Moore has the story behind the iconic song [ Ringer] —Todd Plummer on why Ted Lasso’s bushy and dependable mustache is trending [ WSJ] Today... ...in 1968, Steve McQueen roared into theaters with Bullitt, a car-chase-filled actioner that nabbed two Oscar nominations at the 41st Academy Awards. The original review. Today's birthdays: Felicity Jones (39), Matthew Macfadyen (48), Eminem (50), Mike Judge (60), Wood Harris (53), Erin Kellyman (24), Mark Gatiss (56), Dora Madison (32), Christopher Lowell (38), Michael McKean (75), Max Irons (37), Erin Karpluk (44), George Wendt (74), Sharon Leal (50), Alimi Ballard (45), Guy Henry (62), Michelle Ang (39), Laura Regan (45), Nicholas Britell (42), Rob Marshall (62), J.C. MacKenzie (52), Harriet Dyer (34), Sarah Minnich (35), Nikesh Patel (37) |
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