| | | | | | What's news: Mel Gibson's attempt to restore his gun rights has allegedly led to the firing of a DOJ lawyer. Amazon has canceled its Cruel Intentions series. Season one of Disney's Andor is available on Hulu and partially available on YouTube. Netflix has ordered multiple projects from Tony Hinchcliffe. — Abid Rahman
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The Cannes Contenders ►60 movies that could make the 2025 lineup. The 78th annual Cannes Film Festival is just two months away, and speculation is building that new features from Paul Thomas Anderson, Park Chan-wook, Wes Anderson, Kristen Stewart, Richard Linklater, Nicolas Winding Refn, Spike Lee and Scarlett Johansson could be among the titles competing for this year's Palme d'Or. THR has picked out worthy 60 projects that could make the final selection. The predictions. |
DOJ Lawyer Claims She Was Fired for Not Approving Mel Gibson's Gun Rights ►"This is dangerous. This isn’t political — this is a safety issue." A pardon attorney at the Justice Department claims she was fired after refusing to restore Mel Gibson's gun rights. In a story published on Monday, former U.S. pardon attorney Elizabeth G. Oyer told The New York Times that she was fired on Friday for refusing to recommend Gibson be allowed to carry a handgun again, after the actor and filmmaker lost his rights following a 2011 domestic violence misdemeanor conviction. The story.
—No dice. A Los Angeles jury has found that Disney didn’t steal the idea for Moana from an animator’s story about the adventures of a young surfer in Hawaii. After deliberating for just over two hours, the jury on Monday sided with a Disney unit that it didn’t infringe on Buck Woodall’s copyright to Bucky and the Surfer Boy because none of its employees ever saw works related to his screenplay. He alleged that he had shared materials for Bucky more than a decade earlier with his brother’s sister-in-law, who worked for Mandeville Films on the Disney lot at the time and allegedly shared it with an individual at Disney Animation TV, prior to the beginning of development for Moana. The story.
—"The artist Wheesung has left us." Popular K-pop singer and songwriter Choi Whee-sung, better known by his stage name Wheesung, was found dead in his home in Seoul, South Korea Monday night, according to local police. He was 43. The cause of death has not yet been determined. Seoul police said a substantial amount of time had passed before his body was discovered, and there were no signs of foul play at the scene. The obituary. |
L.A. DA Withdraws Support for Menendez Resentencing ►Pulled. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has pulled its support for resentencing Lyle and Erik Menendez. After his predecessor opened the door to making the brothers, who are serving life sentences, eligible for parole, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman reversed the office’s position and said they still pose an “unreasonable risk of danger to the community” because they haven’t fully accepted responsibility for killing their parents. He pointed to “deliberate and meditative” actions they took immediately following the crime, in which they looked to cover it up. Last year, former Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced a review of the brothers’ convictions. The story.
—Statewide push. As hope for a prison release for Erik and Lyle Menendez slimmed on Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to take the playbook he conceived for the brothers and apply it to potential clemency cases statewide. Newsom's office hopes that California permanently moves to the streamlined process of assessing an inmate's risk to society. The story.
—Family affair. Higher Ground is launching a new podcast series with Michelle Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson. The series, IMO With Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson, will see the former first lady and her sibling, who is the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and discuss thought-provoking questions about daily life with experts and well-known guests, including Issa Rae, Keke Palmer and Dr. Orna Guralnik. The first two episodes of IMO, with the first as an intro episode and the second featuring Rae, will premiere on March 12. The story.
—Geeks abroad. The excitement and cosplay fun of San Diego Comic-Con is coming to Europe. Under an agreement managed by IMG Licensing, SDCC will make its European debut in Málaga, a city in the Andalucía region of Spain, this September. For four days from Sept. 25-28, 2025, the city will host the first official San Diego Comic Convention-licensed event outside the U.S. The story. |
Jean Smart Returns to Broadway This Summer ►🎭 One-woman show 🎭 Jean Smart will return to Broadway this summer in a one-woman show. The six-time Emmy Award-winner will star in the world premiere of the dark comedy Call Me Izzy, written by Jamie Wax and directed by Sarna Lapine. The play will run at Studio 54 starting May 24, with an opening night June 12. Call Me Izzy is scheduled for a 12-week run ending Aug. 17. The play, written by Wax, who is a contributing correspondent to CBS News in addition to his playwriting work, is described as following “one woman in rural Louisiana who has a secret that is both her greatest gift and her only way out.” The story.
—Venue set. The Queen of Versailles musical, starring Kristin Chenoweth, will play the St. James Theatre this fall. The show, based on TV personality Jacqueline “Jackie” Siegel, also stars F. Murray Abraham and features a score by Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz. The musical will start performances at the St. James on Oct. 8, with a red carpet event Nov. 9 and a press opening Nov. 10. The story.
—🤝 Tentative deal 🤝 Atlantic Theater Company and IATSE have reached a tentative agreement that would cover all production workers employed by the Off-Broadway theater company. The agreement comes after workers at the Atlantic Theater went on strike in January after negotiations for the first union contract covering behind-the-scenes workers, including theatrical electricians and carpenters, painters, wardrobe and costume dressers, fell apart. The story.
—📅 On the move 📅 The journey for the Sony feature A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, will start later than initially expected. Director Kogonada‘s film is now set for theatrical release on Sept. 19 after previously having been dated for May 9. Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Hamish Linklater round out the cast for the movie that boasts a script from Seth Reiss. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey will hit theaters on the same day as Universal’s horror flick Him that stars Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers, along with 20th Century Studios’ James L. Brooks-helmed Ella McCay, featuring Emma Mackey, Woody Harrelson and Ayo Edebiri. The story. |
CBS Renews 'Neighborhood' for Final Season ►The end is nigh. CBS has renewed The Neighborhood, the comedy led by Cedric the Entertainer, for an eighth season in 2025-26. That will also be the show’s final season. The series is CBS’ longest-running current comedy, with 128 episodes to its credit. The Neighborhood draws 6.4m viewers across all platforms this season (inclusive of five weeks of viewing). While The Neighborhood is ending, the show’s world is set to live on. A spinoff starring Tracy Morgan, titled Crutch, is set to stream on Paramount+, and a potential CBS spinoff focused on Sheaun McKinney’s and Marcel Spears’ characters will air as a back-door pilot at the end of the current season. The story.
—🤝 First-look deal 🤝 Emmy winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is setting up shop at Sony Pictures Television. The Watchmen and Trial of the Chicago 7 actor and his production company, House Eleven10, have signed a first-look deal with the studio, under which Abdul-Mateen will produce scripted drama series for streaming and cable. The first project under the deal is an adaptation of Roger Hobbs’ best-selling novel Ghostman. The story.
—Upped. Warner Bros. TV is promoting two veteran executives. Clancy Collins White has been named president creative affairs, a new position at the studio that will add casting and research to her purview. Casting chief Mele Nagler, meanwhile, has been upped to executive vp, reporting to Collins White. The story.
—Get on it. Disney+ and Lucasfilm are making the debut season of its acclaimed Star Wars drama Andor more widely — and freely — available ahead of the highly anticipated release of season two. Right now, the entire first season of the series — which consists of 12 episodes — is available on Hulu. In addition, the first three episodes are now available for free on the Disney+ YouTube channel. The company also released a released 14-minute season one recap, offering viewers a somewhat quick refresher before the new season begins. The new season continues premieres April 22 exclusively on Disney+ (after which the first season will be pulled from Hulu). The story. |
Amazon Cancels 'Cruel Intentions' ►One and done. Cruel Intentions will not return for a second season. The 2024 followup to the 1999 movie of the same name released its first (and now, only) installment last November. The show endured a long road to release, starting first at Amazon's Freevee in 2021 before moving to Prime Video in 2023. Before that, NBC had ordered and cancelled a different pilot inspired by the 1999 movie in 2016, and an attempted prequel series from Fox also never made it to air. The story.
—"No one can make locals feel as deeply uncomfortable in their own country as Conan can." Max has ordered a third season of Conan O’Brien’s travelogue series Conan O’Brien Must Go. The pickup comes ahead of the season two premiere in May (with a specific date still to be determined). Season two of the series will feature three episodes with O’Brien visiting New Zealand, Austria and Spain. In the first season — which featured episodes filmed in Norway, Argentina, Thailand and Ireland — he met up with fans whom he initially connected with via his podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend and put himself in fish-out-of-water situations. The story.
—There's no such thing as cancel culture. Netflix is expanding its relationship with comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, ordering three Kill Tony comedy specials, as well as a new stand-up comedy special. Hinchcliffe is no stranger to Netflix viewers, he had a previous stand-up special for the streamer and has participated in some of its roast content, perhaps most notably last year’s roast of Tom Brady, where his set was among the most shared on social media. He also infamously performed a set at then-candidate Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden last year, where a joke about Puerto Rico angered some viewers. The story. |
Film Review: 'Hallow Road' ►"Never takes its foot off the accelerator." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Babak Anvari's Hallow Road. Rosamund Pike and Welsh national treasure Matthew Rhys star in this psychological thriller (with a hint of dark fairy-tale horror) that follows a husband and wife driving through the night to get to their traumatized daughter. The review.
—"Lots of style, put to inconsistent use." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Mimi Cave's Holland. In Cave's sophomore feature, a Michigan homemaker's idyllic life comes undone upon learning her husband's secrets. Starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Macfadyen, Jude Hill and Gael García Bernal. The review.
—"Solid popcorn fare." Lovia reviews Christopher Landon's Drop. The White Lotus star Meghann Fahy plays a single mother whose attempt to get back into dating goes awry in this Blumhouse horror feature, which also stars Brandon Sklenar. The review.
—"Well-played but predictable." For THR, Caryn James reviews Katie Aselton's Magic Hour. Written by Aselton and her husband, Mark Duplass, the small-scale drama about loss bowed at SXSW. Starring Daveed Diggs, Katie Aselton, Brad Garrett, Susan Sullivan and D.J. Shangela Pierce. The review.
—"Enough eccentric characters and creepy-crawly moments for a TV series." THR's Daniel Fienberg reviews Xander Robin's The Python Hunt. Robin's SXSW-premiering documentary is like a real-life version of Peacock's Killing It, which makes more sense if you've seen Peacock's Killing It. The review.
In other news...
—Ariana Grande announces Eternal Sunshine deluxe album
—Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan to receive Canneseries honor
—Tribeca Festival sets dates for second Portugal edition
—Milk & Serial filmmaker Curry Barker signs with UTA
—Athol Fugard, South Africa’s giant playwright, dies at 92
What else we're reading...
—Thomas Buckley profiles Disney parks chief Josh D’Amaro, who is among the leading candidates to succeed Bob Iger [Bloomberg]
—Before Trump took office for the second time, Hollywood execs were licking their lips at the deal potential. With nothing much happening and all the general chaos, Lucas Shaw wonders if those execs are still excited [Bloomberg]
—Bryce Elder documents Tesla's $800b crash on Monday in several charts [FT]
—Katie Razzall and Sarah Bell report that a former Facebook exec claims the social media giant worked "hand in glove" with the Chinese government [BBC]
—Chad de Guzman reflects on the shock arrest of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, and what it means for the country [Time]
Today...
...in 2011, Disney released Simon Wells' animated feature Mars Needs Moms in theaters. The $150m budgeted sci-fi comedy made only $39m, and became one of the biggest box flops of all time. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Jodie Comer (32), Peter Berg (61), Thora Birch (43), Christophe Gans (65), Jerry Zucker (75), Lisa Loeb (57), Bobby McFerrin (75), Sam Donaldson (91), Alex Kingston (62), Elias Koteas (64), Rainey Qualley (36), Mircea Monroe (43), Terrence Howard (56), Robert Glenister (65), Johnny Knoxville (54), Matthias Schweighöfer (44), David Anders (44), Robbie Daymond (43), Jeffrey Nordling (63), Valentina Herszage (27), Rob Paulsen (69), Brent Huff (64), Mark Metcalf (79), Barbara Alyn Woods (63), Wallace Langham (60), Daniella Kertesz (36), Lucy DeVito (42), Benji Madden (46), Rob Brown (41), Zahan Kapoor (33) |
| Stanley R. Jaffe, the producer and studio executive who won an Oscar in 1980 for Kramer vs. Kramer and shepherded other acclaimed films like Fatal Attraction, Goodbye, Columbus and The Bad News Bears, died Monday. He was 84. The obituary. |
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