| | | | What's news: HBO Max cancels Minx. NBC renews Quantum Leap. Paramount has acquired horror romance My Animal. Netflix is producing a live-action adaptation of My Hero Academia. Samantha Bee is set to embark on her first national tour. — Abid Rahman |
THR's Documentary Roundtable ►"Trust is crucial to everything that we do." The filmmakers behind this season’s buzziest docs — a group that also includes Laura Poitras, David Siev, Ryan White, Margaret Brown, Matthew Heineman and Ondi Timoner — talk candidly to THR's Scott Feinberg about directorial blind spots, putting their loved ones on camera, establishing a rapport with their subjects and bringing new techniques to their storytelling: “As documentary broadens, why can’t that toolkit broaden as well?” The roundtable.
—🏆 Best doc nods 🏆 The Producers Guild of America has announced its 2023 Documentary Motion Picture nominees for the 34th annual Producers Guild Awards. Among the seven docs, the list includes Sara Dosa's Fire of Love, Shaunak Sen's All That Breathes and Kathryn Ferguson's Nothing Compares. Last year, Questlove's Summer of Soul won in the category. The nominees.
—Getting in there early. THR's Mia Galuppo has the scoop on Paramount Worldwide Acquisition Group picking up horror romance My Animal before its Sundance Film Festival debut. Amandla Stenberg stars in the film, the feature directorial debut from Jacqueline Castel. The story.
—U-turn! HBO Max has reversed course on its comedy series Minx — canceling the show despite an earlier renewal. The streamer renewed Minx, from Lionsgate Television and creator and showrunner Ellen Rapoport, in May, a few weeks after its 10-episode first season concluded. Season two had largely finished production before HBO Max scuttled it in the latest of a string of cost-cutting moves. Lionsgate says it will shop the series to other outlets. The story.
—Leaping back. NBC has renewed its first-year drama Quantum Leap for a second season. The pickup comes as the series, a reboot/sequel of the 1989-93 sci-fi drama, is midway through its first season. Quantum Leap was the first rookie series of the fall to have its run extended when the network ordered six additional episodes in early October. The extension brings its first-season total to 18 episodes. The story. |
Power List of Women at 30: How Much Has Changed? ►"The industry still isn’t a gender meritocracy." In honor of the 30th anniversary of the annual Women in Entertainment issue, THR spoke with some of the powerhouse women that were featured in the very first list. Kathleen Kennedy, Debbie Allen, Sherry Lansing and six other powerhouses share what they’ve learned since 1992. The story.
—"I suddenly found myself cornered." Scarlett Johansson has opened up about how she navigated being pegged as an ingénue and bombshell early in her career. During a rare podcast appearance on Bruce Bozzi's new iHeart series Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi, the actress reveals that with the help of her rep Bryan Lourd she transitioned "to carve a place in different projects and work in great ensembles" that eventually led to joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The story.
—Big pick up. Netflix has nabbed the live-action film adaptation of the manga sensation My Hero Academia from Legendary Entertainment. Joby Harold (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Army of the Dead) is penning the screenplay for the feature, which will be director and executive producer Shinsuke Sato’s English-language debut. First published in 2014, My Hero Academia has also been adapted into a phenomenally popular anime series. The story.
—"It makes no sense to me." Darren Aronofsky says the criticisms of The Whale's representation of bigger-bodied people and the use of a fat suit for star Brendan Fraser caught him off-guard. In a new interview, the director responded to critical backlash about how the film represents and explores the story of Charlie, a middle-aged man who after the death of his boyfriend, experiences significant weight gain. Aronofsky defended his casting of Fraser and called the film "an exercise in empathy." The story.
—"It’s been a tough slog." Al Roker says the latest hospitalization over blood clots has “been the hardest” of his health concerns, but he feels strong amid his recovery efforts. Roker appeared on the Today show on Monday to give an update from his own home following a stay at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. While sharing that he has been surrounded by his family, the weather anchor noted that being in the hospital for four weeks has been rough. The story. |
Jennifer Coolidge on the Real Tragedy of 'White Lotus' Finale ►"Tanya was so close to having a victory." THR's Jackie Strause spoke to The White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge about the season two finale of the hit HBO drama. Coolidge discusses Tanya's journey, her potential future with the series, winning an Emmy and the wild last two years of her career: "My mind is blown every day." Warning spoilers. The interview.
—Hitting the road. Samantha Bee is set to embark on her first national tour. Kicking off April 7, the former host of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee will visit at least 15 cities, including Newark, NJ, where she’ll begin. The stage show, which a press release describes as an “obscene vanity project,” is titled, Your Favorite Woman. The story.
—ICYMI. Elon Musk did not get a hero’s welcome when he joined Dave Chappelle on a San Francisco arena stage on Sunday night. The billionaire businessman and controversial Twitter owner received more jeers than cheers, later tweeting that the hostile reception was "a first for me in real life." The story.
—Dropped. A copyright suit against Taylor Swift from two songwriters accusing her of lifting the lyrics to her 2014 hit single “Shake It Off” has been dropped a month before trial. A federal judge dismissed the case after the two sides agreed to resolve the suit in a settlement, according to court documents filed on Monday in California federal court. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The story. |
Making of 'Women Talking' ►"It wasn’t a movie just about women sitting around talking in a hayloft — it was about their entire world." THR's Rebecca Keegan spoke to Women Talking writer-director Sarah Polley about why she originally resisted taking on the awards contender. The filmmaker reveals she didn’t think she was up for tackling Miriam Toews’ novel about a group of Mennonite women dealing with the trauma of sexual assault until she could figure out how to make a film that was intimate, epic — and funny. The interview.
—"The three leads alone will be cause for rejoicing among the Sondheim faithful." THR's David Rooney reviews Maria Friedman’s revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Tony winner Lindsay Mendez star as the central trio in this heartfelt production, which is strongly tipped to move to Broadway. The review.
—"I also think it’s my love and loathe letter to the American theater." Just one week after its opening, new Broadway play Ain’t No Mo’ announced it would soon be ending its run. THR's Caitlin Huston spoke to writer and star Jordan E. Cooper about the challenges of bringing Black audiences to the theater, how marketing and ticket prices fit into that and the prospects for his show and other original works on Broadway. The interview.
—Rescue act. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have bought out a performance of Ain’t No Mo‘ this week, in an effort to help the show stave off its closing notice. The story.
—Buzzy projects. Scripts about Dolly Parton’s rise to fame (Todd Bartels & Lou Howe’s Dumb Blonde) and a musical drama about the life of Britney Spears (Cerina Aragones’ It’s Britney, Bitch) are among the 2022 Black List of Hollywood’s most liked unproduced screenplays. The most voted-for script is Pure from The Bear writer Catherine Schetina, with other top-voted scripts including Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier. The story. |
Feinberg's Golden Globe Noms Analysis ►Finally, some Yellowstone love. The allegedly new-and-improved Hollywood Foreign Press Association revealed its nominations for the 80th Golden Globe Awards on Monday morning. THR's executive editor of awards Scott Feinberg dissects the film and TV nominations. The analysis.
—"We now go into overdrive with presenter bookings to really create the night." Following the Golden Globe nominations announcement, THR's nicest man Chris Gardner spoke to Jesse Collins about the upcoming show. The showrunner offered an update on talent participation, potential for a musical performance and how he feels about ratings being the barometer for the show's success. The interview. |
'Scream 2' at 25 ►"There was such an interest in what was going on with Scream 2 that we wrote a dummy script and leaked it." When Scream became a smash hit at the end of 1996 and beginning of 1997, screenwriter Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven were asked to rush a sequel for release less than a year later. Scream 2 opened Dec. 12, 1997, and to mark the 25th anniversary THR's Brian Davids spoke to Williamson about the chaos and crazy levels of interest around the sequel. The interview.
In other news...
—TV ratings: White Lotus scores series high with season 2 finale
—Motion Picture & Television Fund raises over $800k during telethon
—Loni Love signs with APA
—Stuart Margolin, Emmy-winning actor on The Rockford Files, dies at 82
—Albert Brenner, acclaimed Hollywood production designer, dies at 96
What else we're reading...
—Kevin Fallon opines that the Golden Globe nominations are too boring to care about [Daily Beast]
—Michelle Goldberg writes that The White Lotus didn’t care about toxic masculinity after all [NYT]
—Thor Benson believes an era of uncertainty mixed with social media is leading people in the U.S. to gravitate toward extremist views [Wired]
—Joseph Pisani reports that retail workers are sick to death of Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" [WSJ]
—With flaccid penises so commonplace on prestige TV these days, Magdalene Taylor wonders why butts and vaginas are nowhere to be found [Slate]
Today...
...in 1996, Cameron Crowe rolled out the 135-minute Tom Cruise-starrer Jerry Maguire, a commercial hit and enduring pop culture staple that grossed more than $270m in its theatrical run. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Taylor Swift (33), Jamie Foxx (55), Dick Van Dyke (97), Emma Corrin (27), Steve Buscemi (65), Sunita Mani (36), Wendie Malick (72), Jeffrey Pierce (51), Tony Curran (53), Laurence Leboeuf (37), Katherine Schwarzenegger (33), Michael Socha (35), Robert Lindsay (73), Kathy Garver (77), Bart Johnson (52), Cameron Douglas (44), Marcel Spears (34), Harry Gregson-Williams (61), James Kyson (47), Peter Deming (65) |
| Angelo Badalamenti, the acclaimed David Lynch composer who went from teaching in junior high school in Brooklyn to creating haunting, ethereal music for the filmmaker’s Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive, has died. He was 85. The obituary. |
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