| | | | What's news: Alec Baldwin pleads not guilty in the Rust shooting case. Ryan Reynolds sets up Paramount comedy Boy Band. Rihanna will perform at the Oscars. The Shazam! sequel is tracking for a low-key opening weekend. Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson has been arrested on fraud charges. And this week, there is no Saturday edition of Today in Entertainment; it's back Monday. — Ryan Gajewski |
Weinstein's 'Jane Doe #1' Victim Reveals Identity: "I'm Tired of Hiding" ►"I'm Evgeniya, I've been raped. This is my story." On Feb. 23, Harvey Weinstein was sentenced in Los Angeles to 16 additional years for the rape of the woman who testified as Jane Doe #1. Now ready to reveal herself and tell her story, Evgeniya Chernyshova opens up to THR's Rebecca Keegan about the long road to justice and why she no longer chooses anonymity. The story.
—Found guilty of three counts in December. Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Thursday to 16 years in prison for rape, capping off his fall as one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood. The sentence will likely lead to Weinstein, who's already serving 23 years after a conviction in a trial in New York, spending the rest of his life behind bars. He maintained his innocence in a statement to the court before the sentence was delivered. The story.
—Plea entered. Alec Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the Rust shooting case. The actor and his team submitted his plea in a court filing ahead of his first appearance, which was scheduled to take place virtually on Friday but was waived following the filing. He remains free without having to post bond. The story.
—The arrest follows Ozy Media's downfall. Ozy Media founder and CEO Carlos Watson has been arrested on fraud charges. Watson's arrest comes after his former Ozy Media partner, Samir Rao, pleaded guilty to fraud charges and agreed to cooperate with federal officials. In a related but separate move, the SEC charged Watson and Ozy with defrauding investors of $50 million. The story. |
New 'Lord of the Rings' Movies in the Works ►💍 Precious commodity 💍 Warner Bros. and New Line are going back to Middle-earth, with the studio making a deal that will allow it to develop more Lord of the Rings films. The multiyear pact with rights holders Embracer Group AB allows Warners to develop features based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books and The Hobbit. The move, announced during Warner Bros. Discovery's investor call, comes as CEO David Zaslav seeks to assure Wall Street that his company is very much in the franchise game. The story.
—"2023 will be a year of building." Warner Bros. Discovery reported 96.1 million streaming subscribers in its latest quarterly earnings report, up from 94.9 million last quarter. It still took a streaming hit (the division lost $217 million), but its losses in the direct-to-consumer segment were cut by nearly two-thirds compared to its previous fiscal quarter. The company also beat Wall Street expectations on free cash flow. The story.
—Ryan wants it that way. Ryan Reynolds has set up feature comedy Boy Band at Paramount, which reunites him once again with frequent collaborator Shawn Levy. THR's Borys Kit has the scoop on the prolific A-lister being attached to star and produce the project, which Reynolds also co-wrote with Jesse Andrews, the scribe who penned Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. The story.
—Can lightning strike twice? THR's Pamela McClintock reports that New Line Cinema's Shazam! Fury of the Gods is tracking for a low-key domestic debut of $35 million to $40 million, according to first projections. More bullish box office analysts, however, believe that the sequel that returns Zachary Levi as the DC superhero will match the initial 2019 film. The story. |
'Succession' Ending With Season 4 ►"I've never thought this could go on forever." Succession, the Emmy-winning HBO drama that helped redefine the premium cable network following the end of Game of Thrones, is ending. Creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong revealed to The New Yorker that the upcoming fourth season will indeed be its final run on the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed premium cable network. Season four of Succession returns March 26 on HBO. The story.
—The '80s are coming to a close. ABC will say farewell to The Goldbergs at the end of its current 10th season. The network's lack of ownership on the sitcom, paired with declining linear ratings and pricey licensing fees for an aging series, made an 11th season increasingly unlikely. The story.
—Clowning around. HBO Max has given a straight-to-series order to a drama based on Stephen King's beloved horror novel It. Filmmakers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti (who made the successful big-screen adaptations It and It: Chapter Two) and Jason Fuchs (It: Chapter Two) are involved in the prequel project with the working title Welcome to Derry. The story.
—Everyone wins. Hot on the heels of her Super Bowl halftime performance, Rihanna will perform at the 2023 Oscars telecast on March 12, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced. The Barbadian singer-songwriter will presumably perform "Lift Me Up" from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which she co-wrote with Tems, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Göransson, and which is nominated for the best original song Oscar. The story. |
Film Review: 'Cocaine Bear' ►"It's a 'no thoughts, just vibes' kind of production." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews director Elizabeth Banks' creature feature Cocaine Bear. Before the Universal project (probably) sweeps the 2024 Oscars, Lovia offers her take on the film that stars Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Alden Ehrenreich. The review.
—"It’s hard to buy into this fantasy." Lovia reviews Creed III, the third installment of the Rocky spinoff from director and star Michael B. Jordan. Adonis Creed faces an old friend (played by Jonathan Majors) to protect his boxing title and his pride. The review.
—"Smolder is about as far as it gets." THR's Angie Han reviews Apple TV+'s romantic-thriller series Liaison. Eva Green and Vincent Cassel play a pair of estranged ex-lovers who get tangled up in an international cybersecurity conspiracy. The review.
—"Sneaks up on you, leaving a haunting impression." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews cold-case thriller Limbo, screening in Berlin. Simon Baker stars in Ivan Sen's film that's set in an Australian desert mining town. The review.
—"Gives the impression that each of the show's various directors has a different mandate." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews series creator Tony Basgallop's Amazon show The Consultant. Christoph Waltz plays the boss from hell in the horror-satire project. The review.
—"Plays like a series episode on steroids." THR critic Frank Scheck reviews Jamie Payne's Luther: The Fallen Sun. Idris Elba, Cynthia Erivo and Andy Serkis co-star in Netflix's feature-film installment of the hit BBC series. The review. |
Ike Barinholtz on His "7 Side Hustles" and Cancel Culture ►"If you're able to get a movie made in 2023, you're a superhero." THR's Lacey Rose sits down with Ike Barinholtz, whose upcoming projects include Hulu's History of the World: Part II, HBO's White House Plumbers and the indie film Maximum Truth. The recent Celebrity Jeopardy! winner talks candidly about the increasingly "distressing" state of the industry and the challenges of making comedy in the year 2023. The interview.
—"We didn't have the movie together until about 16 days before the release date." THR's Carolyn Giardina reports from the HPA Tech Retreat, where the herculean effort to make James Cameron’s groundbreaking Avatar: The Way of Water and deliver the movie to theaters around the world for its Dec. 16 day-and-date release was the subject of a day-long series of panels and presentations. The film's team revealed that Cameron and producer Jon Landau were bullish about offering the best possible experience to each individual theater, leading to the creation of a whopping 1,065 unique delivery versions of the movie. The story.
—"I felt so inadequate to do this part." THR's Jackie Strause interviews Cherry Jones about starring in Poker Face's eighth episode, which was directed and co-written by star Natasha Lyonne. The performer explains what it was like working on the Peacock project with Lyonne and co-star Nick Nolte, and why she was thrilled when watching her "wackadoodle" character in the final cut. The interview.
—"As a Black person, you just expect it." It seems that every time news broke about Halle Bailey playing Ariel in Disney's remake of The Little Mermaid — whether it was the initial casting news or the teaser debut — it went viral. That hasn't always been a good thing as some of the churn was fueled by racist backlash, and as Bailey explains in an interview with The Face, this was not exactly a surprise. The story. |
Thank Pod It's Friday ► All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.
—TV's Top 5. THR's Lesley Goldberg and Dan Fienberg break down the latest TV news. As always, there's a run-through of the week's TV headlines, including the latest syndication losses and Emmy categories for The White Lotus. This week features a supersized Mailbag segment as the hosts answer listener questions about Paramount+ With Showtime, Arrested Development 's future streaming home, HBO's The Idol and whether anyone will buy AMC or WWE. Plus, Dan reviews Starz's return to Party Down, Amazon's The Consultant and Apple's The Reluctant Traveler. Listen here.
In other news...
—Dish loses 268,000 pay TV subscribers in fourth quarter
—Steven Yeun joins Marvel's Thunderbolts
—Ellen Pompeo's Grey's Anatomy sendoff episode leaves the door open for her return
—Guillermo del Toro developing stop-motion animated The Buried Giant for Netflix
—Addison Rae to star in Eli Roth horror thriller Thanksgiving
—Dorian Awards: Everything Everywhere All at Once sweeps LGBTQ critics' prizes
—NAACP Image Awards: Abbott Elementary, Atlanta, Better Call Saul among night four's non-televised winners
What else we're reading...
—James Poniewozik ponders the sadness of the sitcom revival as Party Down returns [NYT]
—Imogen West-Knights writes that there is a misunderstanding at the heart of the wording changes to Roald Dahl's books [Slate]
—Karen Heller dissects why Nora Ephron's novel Heartburn still scorches 40 years later [WaPo]
—Xuan Thai learns more about the Hobbit-like structure where Aaron Rodgers went for his darkness retreat [ESPN]
—Here's your Friday list: "Meredith's Endless Tragedies on Grey's Anatomy, Ranked" [Vulture]
Today...
Today's birthdays: Daniel Kaluuya (34), Edward James Olmos (76), O'Shea Jackson Jr. (32), Tawny Newsome (40), Benny Safdie (37), Debra Jo Rupp (72), Billy Zane (57), Kasi Lemmons (62), Todd Field (59), Emily Rudd (30), Dominic Chianese (92), Martha Kelly (55), Barry Bostwick (78), Kate Mulvany (46), Fala Chen (41), Beth Broderick (64), Floyd Mayweather Jr. (47) |
| | Tom Whitlock, who wrote the lyrics for the rock anthem “Danger Zone” and the chart-topping love song “Take My Breath Away” for the original Top Gun, winning an Oscar in the process, has died. He was 68. The obituary. |
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