"Lew Wasserman likely would have relished this Hollywood moment," writes Peter Bart, "because everything in Hollywood seems to be in a state of negotiation with everyone wanting a bigger piece of the pie. Writers and directors feel underpaid, thier backends reduced, and are ready to strike for more. Actors feel marginalized by revised deal structures of the majors. CEOs feel tormented for over-optimistic revenue projections and for misleading Wall Street about the content costs of the streaming revolution." >>>Lessons From Sean Connery & Sandy Koufax |
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Todd McCarthy's Top Films Of 2022 - Deadline Film Critic Todd McCarthy writes that 2022 was a year after which filmgoing will never be the same. "The habit is gone," he writes, "everyone has become accustomed to checking out films at home rather than in theaters." Somewhat surprisingly, McCarthy writes, "some good and interesting films keep getting made that reward one's interest and spark promise that the talent, desire and will is still out there." >>> See His List
Deadline's Best International Film Picks - As 2022 draws to an end, Deadline’s critics have each chosen their top three movies of the year to hail from abroad. Some were festival world premieres, and some have made the International Feature Oscar shortlist. Donkeys certainly made a splash, including in one 2020 French title that only saw U.S. release this year. >>>2022 Selections
Matt Carey's Top Docs Of The Year - "Spectacular," is how Deadline's Matt Carey describes the year in documentary film, a span that witnessed the emergence of fresh talent and the return of seasoned nonfiction filmmakers at the top of their form. It all made for the single best year for feature documentaries that he can remember. >>>10 Worth Watching
'Glass Onion' On The Page - Deadline's "Read the Screenplay" series continues with Rian Johnson's whodunnit in which Benoit Blanc is invited to a murder mystery party in Greece thrown by a tech billionaire. >>>Read It
Appointment Viewing - Our 2023 roster of new and premiering series covers more than 200 broadcast, cable and streaming programs debuting after January 1. It includes series and season debuts, shows returning from hiatus and some one-offs such as live sports and awards specials but not movies. >>>Premiere Dates
Parental Guidance - Former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi will direct comedy-drama pilot They F**k You Up for Sky Studios. >>>Shooting Early Next Year |
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Judy Woodruff will step away from the PBS NewsHour anchor desk today but Woodruff is not exiting. Instead, she’s embarking on a new assignment, traveling across America to try to make sense of the country’s divisions, which have only worsened in the decade that she has served as anchor. It’s perhaps fitting that she will be doing the assignment for NewsHour, which throughout its run has been dedicated to the type of nuance and in-depth reporting that is meant to inform and enlighten rather than ignite. >>>Read The Interview |
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More News
🐐 Pelé, considered by many the greatest soccer player of all time and one of the world’s most popular athletes for decades, died Thursday in his native Brazil after a battle with colon cancer. He was 82.
🧾 Six years of Donald Trump's tax returns were released by the House Ways and Means Committee, capping a years-long quest. The move comes just prior to the Democrats losing control of the House.
🚨 A woman who says she had a sexual relationship with Steven Tyler in 1973 when she was 16 has filed a lawsuit against the Aerosmith frontman, Rolling Stone reports. The suit, filed under the California Child Victims Act, accuses Tyler of sexual assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
🕯 Tyler Sanders, the 18-year-old star of Amazon’s Just Add Magic: Mystery City who was found dead in June at his Los Angeles home, died from the effects of fentanyl, the L.A. County Medical Examiner-Coroner revealed. The coroner said his death was accidental.
🤝 AMC Entertainment has rejiggered its board, announcing the election of two new directors and the exit of another. Former Sundance Institute chief and Miramax production president Keri Putman will start a one-year term on Jan. 1, as will Dee Clark, who has worked in information technology at Hasbro, Mattel, Warner Music and Apple. Lee Wittlinger of private equity firm Silver Lake, on the board since 2018, will resign.
 James Cameron was recently asked if there were films he wishes he could have made during the long Way of Water development process. The director said he had two thoughts. "The first is that the world of Avatar is so sprawling that I can tell most of the stories I want to tell within it and try many of the stylistic techniques that I hope to explore. And secondly, yes...our time as artists is finite. I will always mourn some of the stories that I don’t get to make."
🦠 Covid numbers in L.A. have risen across the board in the days since Christmas, with cases, hospitalizations and deaths all nearing or exceeding recent highs. The county reported 3,968 new cases along with 1,269 virus-related hospitalizations and 25 more Covid-related deaths. Possibly the most concerning metric is Thursday’s seven-day daily average of positive tests at 15.6%. That’s up from under 10% two weeks ago. |
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Obituaries
🕯 British fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, who was a key part of bringing punk fashion into the mainstream, has died at 81. No cause was given, but a tweet from her fashion house said she passed peacefully and surrounded by her family in Clapham, South London. 🕯 Peter Sealey, a former Columbia Pictures president of global marketing during the studio’s release of Ghostbusters, Tootsie, Stand By Me and The Karate Kid , died Dec. 15 in Palm Springs from complications following a fall. He was 82. Before his studio days, Sealey was the global chief marketing officer of The Coca-Cola Company, where he produced the famous “Always Coca-Cola” campaign, the pinnacle of which were the iconic polar bear commercials. He shifted to Columbia when Coca-Cola bought the studio. 🕯 Ruggero Deodato, the Italian filmmaker whose hyper-realistic found-footage horror pic Cannibal Holocaust got him arrested and was banned in more than 50 countries, died today, Italian media reported. He was 83. The film’s intense and authentic-looking gore led many to believe that local actors actually were murdered on screen. The film was seized by Italian authorities, who later arrested Deodato and put him on trial for murder and animal cruelty. 🕯 See the 400-plus influential figures we've lost this year in Deadline's 2022 Hollywood & Media Deaths photo gallery. |
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Trending  Shares in Netflix, Warner Bros Discovery and AMC Networks were among the top gainers in a so-called "Santa Claus rally" today near the conclusion of a rough year for media and tech stocks. Netflix rose more than 5% to $291.44 and got a rare double upgrade by Wall Street research firm CFRA on an upbeat assessment of the company’s new ad-supported streaming tier.
🔻 The wealthiest 500 people on the planet, "a group of billionaires whose fortunes swelled to unfathomable heights in the Covid era of easy money," collectively lost $1.2 trillion this past year, according to Bloomberg. |
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On the Radar
Sat - College Football Playoff Semifinals
Sun - Happy New Year!
Mon - Rose Bowl, Rose Parade, NHL Winter Classic
Wed - New York Film Critics Circle Gala
Thu - CES begins |
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The Year In Photos - It's hard to pick a single image to sum up a year, but Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars did seem to set the tone for a very strange year full of shocking incidents — Kanye West likes Hitler — sudden turnabouts — Bob Iger, anyone? — and unexpected, tragic deaths like that of Anne Heche. There were also wonderful surprises, such as Wednesday, Top Gun: Maverick, the return of Brendan Fraser and the greatest World Cup Final ever played. |
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