| | | | What's news: Everything, Everywhere All At Once leads the pack with 11 Oscar noms. Sundance hit Fair Play sells to Netflix for $20m. Searchlight snaps up Theater Camp for $8m. CBS renews The Neighborhood. Ben Affleck’s sports drama AIR will get a theatrical release. Viola Davis signs first-look TV deal with eOne. — Abid Rahman |
Oscars 2023 Nominations ►Multiverse FTW. Everything Everywhere All at Once leads the nominees for the 95th Academy Awards with 11 noms. Following EEAAO with the most noms are All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin with nine each, Elvis with eight, The Fabelmans with seven, Tár and Top Gun: Maverick with six each and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with five. The full list of nominees.
—Sequel love. The Academy has historically shied away from honoring sequels, but this year both Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water are in contention for best picture. While other follow-up contenders like Glass Onion and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever were shut out from the top prize, they received support in other categories. The story.
—Well deserved. Just three years after Parasite swept every one of its possible Oscars but received nary a nomination in any of the acting categories, fellow unlikely awards favorite EEAAO is responsible for helping Asian actors achieve a historic high of four nominations in a single year. The story.
—A huge first. Michelle Yeoh, nominated for her star turn in EEAAO, made history by becoming the first Academy Award best actress nominee to identify as Asian. The story.
—Not a great look. Female directors were completely shut out of the best director category after back-to-back winners the last two years in Jane Campion and Chloé Zhao. The story.
—Some progress. Mandy Walker has become the third woman to be nominated for an Oscar in cinematography, making her way into the final five on the strength of her work on Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. The story. |
Riseborough Shocker: Last-Minute Campaign Pays Off ►Famous friends assemble! Andrea Riseborough secured a surprise leading actress nomination for To Leslie. Riseborough's turn in Michael Morris’ small indie drama had gone virtually unnoticed this awards season until late-breaking support from scores of A-list actors propelled the Brit actress over the finish line. Stars like Jennifer Aniston, Charlize Theron, Sarah Paulson and Edward Norton have all hosted screenings, with additional enthusiasm coming from stars like Gwenyth Paltrow and Courteney Cox. The story.
—RRR vs RiRi? First-time Oscar nominee Rihanna is among the musicians in the mix for best original song. Rihanna earned her nod for “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. RRR‘s “Naatu Naatu” also earned a nomination following its win in this category at both the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards. Also nominated were David Byrne, Lady Gaga and Diane Warren. The story.
—🇩🇪 Ich drücke dir die Daumen! 🇩🇪 Germany's All Quiet on the Western Front picked up nine Oscar nominations Tuesday, nearly tying the record for most-ever nominations for a non-English-language film. Only Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma did it one better, with 10 nominations apiece. The story.
—🇮🇪 DEAAADDDDLLLYYY!!! 🇮🇪 Ireland received its first ever Oscar nomination for the best international feature category for The Quiet Girl. The Emerald Isle celebrated 12 nominations in total, more than ever before, with the nine nods for The Banshees of Inisherin now a national record. Kerry Condon, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan, Colin Farrell and Paul Mescal all got noms in performance categories. The story.
—Can't stop, won't stop. Composer John Williams beat his own record of being the most Oscar-nominated person alive for his work on The Fabelmans, garnering his 53rd Academy Award nomination. Williams only trails the late Walt Disney, who holds the records for most wins (22) and most nominations (59). The story.
—Full Nelson. Rerecording mixer Andy Nelson extended his Oscar nominations tally to 24 with a pair of noms Tuesday for his work on Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis and Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Until Tuesday, Nelson was tied with Randy Newman for the third-most noms among living persons, with 22. He now holds that distinction with 24. The story. |
'Rust' Producers Escape Accountability ►Farce on top of tragedy. New Mexico District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, who charged Rust star and producer Alec Baldwin and the film's armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed with two counts each of involuntary manslaughter, maintains that "no one is above the law." THR's Gary Baum writes that those at the top of the production have avoided criminal liability. The analysis.
—🤝 First-look deal 🤝 Viola Davis and her JuVee Productions banner has signed a first-look TV and new-media deal with Entertainment One. The pact comes after JuVee, which Davis runs alongside her husband and producing partner Julius Tennon, previously collaborated with eOne on the feature The Woman King. The story.
—🎭 New faces 🎭 Starz is filling out the cast of its drama series The Venery of Samantha Bird, starring Katherine Langford. Seven actors — Finn Jones, Francesca Reale, Embeth Davidtz, Brenda Strong, Adam Faison, Shalini Bathina and Tyrone Marshall Brown — have joined 13 Reasons Why star Langford in the psychological thriller created by Anna Moriarty. Starz gave the project an eight-episode order in October. The story.
—Swooshing into theaters. Ben Affleck’s upcoming sports drama AIR — starring the filmmaker-actor opposite Matt Damon — will open in theaters across the globe April 5 in advance of its debut on Amazon’s Prime Video. The sports marketing drama about Nike’s game-changing early days is backed by Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports and Mandalay Pictures. The story.
—The title writes itself. Frankie Muniz is going to document his NASCAR aspirations with a docuseries. The former Malcolm in the Middle star has teamed with NEO Studios to produce an all-access doc that will chronicle his lifelong dream of racing in a NASCAR series. Frankie in the Fastlane (working title) will follow the actor-turned-driver as he looks to prove himself against the world’s best stock car racers in the NASCAR-owned ARCA Menards Series. The story. |
Super Bowl Pregame Entertainment Lineup Revealed ►All in place. Chris Stapleton, Babyface and Sheryl Lee Ralph will lead the lineup of the Super Bowl LVII pregame entertainment. Grammy winner Stapleton will sing the national anthem at the mega-event, with Babyface singing "America the Beautiful" and Ralph singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing." Troy Kotsur, who won an Oscar for his performance in CODA, will perform the national anthem in American Sign Language. The lineup.
—🤝 Whopper of a deal! 🤝 Sundance standout Fair Play has sold to Netflix in a massive deal. It’s the first mega deal to come from a sales title and one that ignited a bidding war when it premiered Saturday. Searchlight, Lionsgate and Neon were among those in the running, with the final price tag in the $20m range. The feature debut from Chloe Domont, Fair Play follows Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich), a newly engaged couple who work at a high-powered New York finance company. The story.
—🤝 Snapped up 🤝 Searchlight has acquired Theater Camp, the mockumentary-style comedy from Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, Ben Platt and Noah Galvin. The worldwide deal, pegged in the $8m range, includes theatrical. The ensemble comedy, which screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at Sundance, is set in an upstate New York theater camp where the eccentric staff is trying to keep the camp afloat with the help of the owner’s crypto-bro son. The story.
—"He’s had time to reflect over the pandemic." The filmmakers behind the new docuseries Willie Nelson and Family say the legendary musician is open to the idea of a biopic in the future. Speaking at THR’s Studio at Sundance, Thom Zimny and Oren Moverman said the 89-year-old Nelson has had a change of heart in recent years and is interested in a warts-and-all narrative feature about his incredible life. The story.
—Straight six. CBS has renewed the Cedric the Entertainer-led comedy The Neighborhood for a sixth season in 2023-24. The show is currently filming its 100th episode, which will air later this season. The series is the second longest-running current comedy on CBS, behind Young Sheldon. The story.
—✊ Strike authorized ✊ A recently unionized group of postproduction workers at Saturday Night Live has authorized a strike in an effort to expedite negotiations on their first contract, which they claim have stalled in the early stages of talks. The group, which unionized with the IATSE-affiliated Motion Picture Editors Guild in October, is responsible for postproduction on pretaped sketches, like music videos and commercial parodies, shot before the live show. The story. |
Sundance Review: 'Magazine Dreams' ►"A tour de force in a flawed but impressive vehicle." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Elijah Bynum's Sundance competition entry Magazine Dreams. Jonathan Majors stars in the writer-director's unsparing account of a broken man’s pursuit of the American Dream is a grueling odyssey fueled by equal parts rage and despair. The review.
—"An appealingly acted but watered-down dramedy." THR critic Jordan Mintzer reviews Randall Park's Sundance competition entry Shortcomings. For his first feature behind the camera, the WandaVision star adapted Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel about three Asian Americans navigating questions of love and identity. The review.
—"A wise and unusually wounding work from a beloved indie auteur." THR's Jon Frosch reviews Ira Sachs' Passages. A German film director, his English husband and a Frenchwoman they meet at a club form a distorted love triangle in the indie filmmaker’s Paris-set drama, starring Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw and Adele Exarchopoulos. The review.
—"Small-scale and finely tuned." THR's Sheri Linden reviews Angus MacLachlan's A Little Prayer. The Junebug screenwriter returns to Sundance with his third feature as a director, a drama centering on a North Carolina family and its patriarch’s messy attempts to solve his grown children’s problems, starring David Strathairn and Jane Levy. The review. |
Sundance Review: 'Stephen Curry: Underrated' ►"Refreshingly offbeat, if insufficiently focused." THR's Dan Fienberg reviews Peter Nicks' Stephen Curry: Underrated. The Homeroom filmmaker, with Ryan Coogler as producer, looks at Stephen Curry's journey from scrawny kid to small-college standout to NBA powerhouse in this Apple TV+ doc. The review.
—"Joyfully wholesome, but lacking depth and context." Dan reviews Sam Osborn and Alejandra Vasquez's Sundance competition entry Going Varsity in Mariachi. The documentary takes viewers inside the world of competitive high school mariachi in Texas. The review.
—"Visually spiffy but underwritten." THR's Leslie Felperin reviews Charlotte Regan's Sundance competition entry Scrapper. Triangle of Sadness leading man Harris Dickinson stars as an absentee dad who comes back to help out his plucky daughter in the writer/director's feature debut. The review.
—"Rudely funny." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Nida Manzoor's Polite Society. The We Are Lady Parts creator wrote and directed this raucous movie about a martial arts-obsessed British-Pakistani teenage girl determined to sabotage her older sister's upcoming marriage. The review.
In other news...
—Phenomenal Media, Hachette Book Group announce publishing pact
—Verizon loses 80k TV subs in Q4, adds broadband users
—PR vet Joe Schlosser exits Endemol Shine/Banijay to launch communications firm
—Guillermo del Toro to be honored by Art Directors Guild
—Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann named CEO of Westbrook’s Telepool
—Eiza Gonzalez buys 110-acre Ojai compound for $4m
—Betty Sturm, actress in The World’s Greatest Sinner, dies at 89
What else we're reading...
—Nicole Acheampong writes that Alice Diop's excellent Saint Omer turns a true crime into a complicated elegy [Atlantic]
—August Brown on the widespread hate for Ticketmaster and whether it's warranted [LAT]
—Matthew Jacobs writes that 2023 is the year of Sarah Snook, beginning with Sundance hit Run Rabbit Run [Daily Beast]
—Thomas Floyd and Travis M. Andrews talk to experts who believe Alec Baldwin’s Rust comments may have hurt him [WaPo]
—Whizy Kim writes that Jeff Bezos seems very keen for the world to know he’s a philanthropist [Vox]
Today...
Today's birthdays: Daveed Diggs (41), Carrie Coon (42), Matthew Lillard (53), Mischa Barton (37), Kristen Schaal (45), Ed Helms (49), Nastassja Kinski (62), Tatyana Ali (44), Kenya Moore (52), Julie Dreyfus (57), Adrian Edmondson (66), Michael Des Barres (75), Daniel Auteuil (73), Neil Diamond (82), Karin Viard (57), Christina Moses (45), Fiona Xie (41), Carlos Saldanha (58) |
| | Yoshio Yoda, who portrayed Fuji Kobiaji, the lovable Japanese prisoner of war who becomes a valued member of the PT-73 crew led by Ernest Borgnine on the 1960s ABC comedy McHale’s Navy, died Jan. 13 in Fullerton, California. He was 88. The obituary. |
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