| | | | What's news: Paramount and Robert Downey Jr. are planning a Vertigo remake. Beyoncé and Adidas have ended their partnership. Fox renews Accused and Alert: Missing Persons Unit. SNL postproduction workers have ratified their first union contract. Actors' Equity is launching a PAC. — Abid Rahman |
Alec Baldwin, 'Rust' Producers Release Earlier Film 'Supercell' ►Quietly distributed. Alec Baldwin’s disaster film Supercell hit video-on-demand and opened in a smattering of independent cinemas with little fanfare over the March 17-19 weekend. The Twister-esque film is noteworthy in that it marks a prior collaboration between Baldwin and several producers that later went on to make Rust, where Baldwin accidentally discharged a prop gun that ultimately killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The story.
—Shocker! THR's Mesfin Fekadu scooped the world with the news that Beyoncé and German lifestyle brand Adidas have mutually agreed to part ways. The Grammy-winning entrepreneur entered a creative partnership with Adidas in 2018, where she relaunched her Ivy Park activewear line and also developed new footwear and apparel for the brand. But there has apparently been major creative differences between Ivy Park and Adidas, and Beyoncé is looking to reclaim her brand and maintain creative freedom. The story.
—"Only one is a wanderer. Two together are always going somewhere." Alfred Hitchcock's classic Vertigo may be getting a remake. Paramount Pictures has acquired the remake rights to the 1958 movie, which starred Jimmy Stewart as an ex-detective hired to follow a friend’s wife (Kim Novak) who has been acting erratically. Robert Downey Jr. is eyeing the Stewart role, with Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight tapped to write the screenplay. Downey and wife Susan Downey are attached to produce via Team Downey, with John Davis and John Fox via Davis Entertainment. The story.
—Skin in the game. THR's Caitlin Huston has the scoop on Actors’ Equity Association forming a political action committee ahead of the 2024 election. The union for more than 51,000 stage managers and actors will be launching the PAC in the first week of April, with the goal of contributing money to federal candidates who support Actors’ Equity priorities, including more arts funding, expanded healthcare coverage and protecting the right to organize. The story. |
'John Wick 4' Hunts Down Huge U.S. Opening ►We're thinking he's back. Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 4 looks set for a hefty $65m to $70m in its domestic box office opening. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that the movie has plenty going in its favor: Reeves is as popular as ever, while critics adore the pic. Its current critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes rests at 95 percent, the best ranking of any John Wick title. To date, 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum boasts the biggest domestic opening of the series at $56.8m. The box office report.
—Positive sign. ABC shared on Thursday that the 95th Oscars telecast reached nearly 20m viewers throughout the week of the ceremony across multiple platforms, an encouraging sign for a show that was coming off its two lowest-rated installments ever. The telecast hit a three-year-high, averaging 18.76m viewers (up 2m from the 94th Oscars, a 13 percent improvement) and a 4.03 rating among adults 18-49 (a seven percent increase), according to final same-day ratings from Nielsen. The story.
—Teens beat fungus. Netflix’s Outer Banks was far and away the most streamed title in Nielsen’s rankings for the week its third season premiered. The Last of Us also had another strong showing on HBO Max in the week of Feb. 20-26, leading the acquired series top 10 by a sizable margin. Viewing of its seventh episode accounting for more than a fifth of its total, despite only being available for a few hours of that week. The streaming rankings.
—Branching out. Robin Thede is developing a half-hour comedy series for HBO. The show is called Disengagement and will track a prominent family’s fall from grace. The project falls under the overall deal the creator and star of A Black Lady Sketch Show signed with HBO in 2022, under which she will develop projects exclusively for HBO, HBO Max and sibling studio Warner Bros. Television. The story.
—Double dip. Fox has renewed first-year dramas Accused and Alert: Missing Persons Unit for second seasons. The two shows, which bowed in January, have found decent-sized audiences and get substantial viewing on streaming platforms. Alert will also have a new showrunner in season two, with Carla Kettner (The Blacklist, Bones) taking over for co-creator John Eisendrath (who will remain an executive producer). The story.
—🤝 Agreement reached 🤝 The strike threat on Saturday Night Live has officially passed. Postproduction workers on the show who are unionized with the Motion Picture Editors Guild have officially ratified their first contract with the NBC live comedy show. The bargaining unit of 12 to 20 staffers (the number of those working on the show fluctuates per episode) unanimously supported the tentative agreement in the vote on Wednesday night. The story. |
'Yellowjackets' Bosses Weigh in on Premiere Shocker ►"We definitely love the fan theories." THR's Jackie Strause spoke to Yellowjackets showrunners Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson and Jonathan Lisco about the return of the hit Showtime series and their long-term plans. The trio look ahead to what they have in store, including discussing their five-season plan, whether they know how the series will end. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—"Everybody who works on the show is obsessed with the book." THR's Lexy Perez spoke to Daisy Jones & The Six showrunners Scott Neustadter and Will Graham about bringing the bestselling novel to life amid high fan expectations. The duo also discuss the Amazon series’ love triangle, a surprise romance and that cliffhanger ending. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—"I was scared of what would happen to me." Brie Larson may have been the first female superhero to lead a Marvel film, but that doesn’t mean she dove into the idea headfirst. In a new interview, the Captain Marvel star revealed that the idea of playing the superhero frightened her originally because of the potential effects of the global superstardom that could come with it. The story.
—"Just f**king do it! Act! Say the f**king lines, and don’t bump into the f**king furniture." Brian Cox leaned into his now well-known views on Method acting during a visit to The Tonight Show to promote the final season of Succession. Explaining his own process to host Jimmy Fallon, Cox played a clip from his spoof episode of the Master Class series of acting, where he gave a forthright, and very Scottish, tutorial on his craft. The story.
—"I think you’re going to enjoy things done by humans more." Aaron Sorkin has offered his thoughts on the negative impacts of artificial intelligence in filmmaking and is adamant it wouldn't be able to write something like The West Wing. During the Adobe Summit 2023 on Wednesday, the writer, producer and TV creator explained that he believes AI technology isn’t as useful when it comes to writing as some make out. The story. |
Eli Roth Wants His Shark Doc to be a "Totally Obsolete Movie" ►"It really helped open people’s eyes to what’s going on and helped change the perception of sharks." Director Eli Roth entered the documentary feature world in 2021 when he helmed and starred in Fin, an advocacy title about the forces driving the global trade in shark fins and other products derived from the increasingly threatened animals. For THR's Sustainability Issue, Katie Kilkenny spoke to Roth about the progress activists have made since the film's release. The interview.
—"The idea was to create a benchmark studio." Just outside of Portugal's capital Lisbon, plans are underway to build Europe’s, and maybe the world’s, first truly green film studio. THR's Scott Roxborough goes inside the $215m Tage Studios project, which would be the first backlot in Europe built top to bottom with environmental sustainability in mind. The story.
—"We are creating a blueprint for the entertainment industry to normalize EVs." For THR's Sustainability Issue, Jon Alain Guzik goes behind Netflix and GM’s plan to give electric vehicles more screen time. As announced in the recent Super Bowl ad featuring Will Ferrell, the streamer and the automaker are joining forces to popularize the adoption of electric vehicles, an effort that supports both companies' ambitious decarbonization goals. The story. |
Film Review: 'Americana' ►"A new take on the troubled legacy of the Old West." THR's Justin Lowe reviews Tony Tost's Americana. Sydney Sweeney, Halsey, Paul Walter Hauser and Simon Rex star in a contemporary western that cleverly subverts expectations in this recent SXSW selection. The review.
—"The leads are great; their show is not." THR's Angie Han review Hulu's Up Here. Mae Whitman and Carlos Valdes star in this musical rom-com series with songs by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (Frozen) and scripts from Danielle Sanchez-Witzel (New Girl) and Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen). The review. |
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. The duo begin by running through the week's headlines, including James Patterson's new TV deal, new shows from Julie Plec and Robin Thede, changes at Bel-Air and Grey’s Anatomy and HBO's planned Heidi Fleiss series. Shawn Ryan, creator of Netflix's The Night Agent, drops by for a chat. And Dan reviews season two of Showtime’s Yellowjackets , the final season of HBO’s Succession, Paramount+'s Rabbit Hole and Netflix’s The Night Agent. Listen here.
—Awards Chatter. THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this live episode, Scott spoke to F. Murray Abraham. The legendary 83-year-old actor reflects on his many years as a struggling actor, his career-making and Oscar-winning turn in Milos Forman’s Amadeus and his recent career resurgence on several hit TV shows. Listen here.
In other news...
—Netflix’s Indian adaptation of Ray Donovan finds global audience
—Amazon sets release date for first African movie Gangs of Lagos
—Comedian Matt Friend signs with UTA
What else we're reading...
—Charles Pulliam-Moore opines that Apple’s Tetris movie has no idea what it wants to be [Verge]
—Alex Welch ponders the reasons why the action in The Mandalorian season 3 feel so lifeless [Inverse]
—Ryan Tracy, John D. McKinnon and Georgia Wells report on how the TikTok fight is damaging already fraught U.S.-China relations [WSJ]
—Nicholas Cannariato writes that the problem with celebrity travel shows is the celebrities [NYT]
—Here's your Friday list: "10 most rewatchable TV dramedies" [Collider]
Today...
...in 2005, America met Michael Scott (and Dwight Schrute). NBC’s The Office, an adaptation of the U.K. series created by Ricky Gervais, grew into a network staple for nine seasons. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Mary Berry (88), Jessica Chastain (46), Keisha Castle-Hughes (33), Tig Notaro (52), Lake Bell (44), Jim Parsons (50), Alyson Hannigan (49), Lara Flynn Boyle (53), Kelly LeBrock (63), Robert Carradine (69), Finn Jones (35), Jack Bannon (32), Amir Arison (45), María Valverde (36), Kim Johnston Ulrich (68), Jason Wong (37), Lisa Arrindell (54), Robbie Gee (53), Hannah Minghella (44), Andrew Jarecki (60), Eddie Peng (41), James Napier Robertson (41), Eduardo Casanova (32), Nena (63) |
| Mahfouz Doss, a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and an award-winning Egyptian journalist, has died. He was 97. The obituary. |
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