The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020How Streaming’s New Entrants Stack UpMajor entertainment companies are finally taking on Netflix in the world of streaming video, but the strategies, investments and goals vary. While NBCUniversal’s Peaco*ck is leaning on a low price, large library and advanced advertising to bolster its business, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max is betting on a massive content library and slate of originals, with a higher monthly price tag. Disney+, meanwhile, is focusing on a smaller slate of programming, but with a tight focus on family-friendly fare built around its well-established IP.…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020CBS’ Post-merger Executive HousecleaningWhen ViacomCBS was formed Dec. 4, some insiders predicted that Joe Ianniello, the CBS chief executive who was suddenly second fiddle to CEO Bob Bakish, wouldn’t be long for the gig. On Jan. 14, those prognostications became more real when it leaked that George Cheeks, the 55-year-old co-chairman at NBC Entertainment, would jump ship to CBS and likely be groomed as Ianniello’s successor.That Ianniello is on his way out shouldn’t be surprising given Bakish’s desire to form his own leadership team — not to mention that Ianniello was a longtime ally of former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, who departed in September 2018 amid a sexual misconduct scandal after going to war with Shari Redstone, who controls ViacomCBS via her National Amusem*nts. But Cheeks’ move is a bit of a head-scratcher…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020Parasite Pleases, Pitt Charms and Star Wars SlumpsBEST PICTUREParasiteBong Joon Ho’s South Korean genre-bending thriller made history by becoming the first non-English-language film to win the best ensemble SAG award, which has predicted best picture Oscar shockers like Shakespeare in Love, Crash and Spotlight. It also took ACE’s prize for best-edited drama.1917Sam Mendes’ World War I saga won the top PGA prize — determined by preferential ballot, like the best pic Oscar — over its eight best pic Oscar rivals plus Knives Out. The same film won top honors from the PGA and the Academy in 21 of the past 30 years. 1917 also won MPSE’s award for best dialogue/ADR.Once Upon a Time In HollywoodThere was once a school of thought that believed Quentin Tarantino’s nostalgic Hollywood period piece would win both the top PGA and SAG…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020Rights Available!Seven Deadly Shadows (HARPERTEEN, JAN. 28)BY Courtney Alameda and Valynne E. Maetani AGENCY UTAThe retelling of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai follows outcast Kira, who can see the demons that haunt the streets of Kyoto. The anime-tinged story could fit well at a streamer like Netflix, which already produces Japanese-inspired content for global audiences.A Witch in Time (REDHOOK, FEB. 11)BY Constance Sayers AGENCY The Dijkstra AgencyCursed to relive the same tragic love affair and early death over centuries, Juliet must find a way to break her life-and-death pattern. The fantastical love story is reminiscent of early aughts installments like The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Lake House.…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020Elle LorraineWith only a handful of Hollywood credits, Elle Lorraine has already worked with some of the industry’s top talent. From Issa Rae (“When I go to work, I am just like, ‘I am enamored by you’”) to Lena Waithe (“She’s her own planet”) to Regina King (“What is my life?”), Lorraine, 34, runs through the list over a plate of buffalo cauliflower at a restaurant in her Echo Park neighborhood.A grad of Houston’s rigorous High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, the Texas native never considered a career outside of performance. “Starting at 14, you are treated like an adult,” she says of her schooling. “You are given the freedom, but you are also given the criticism.” Beyoncé was a student before she left to become, well, Beyoncé. Writer-director…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020Sting Onstage: A Tale Based on His HometownDon’t expect Sting to be next in line for a big-screen biopic. “Absolutely not,” the 68-year-old rocker says of getting a Rocketman-style treatment. “I’m telling my story in an artistic way.” That way is with the musical The Last Ship, which runs at the Ahmanson Theatre until Feb. 16. (It’s an updated version of the Tony-nominated production that ran on Broadway in 2014.) Sting wrote the music and lyrics and plays the foreman of a Newcastle shipyard in the show, which draws from his years growing up in a grim ship-building town in Northern England. It’s a period tale with “contemporary resonance,” he says. “What happened to my town has happened all over Rust Belt America.” One of his formative life moments came at age 8 or 9, when the…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020Rambling ReporterCritics’ Choice Selfie Problem Goes From Bad to WorseThe Critics’ Choice Awards has been struggling for years with a selfie problem — with attendees bum-rushing stars for photographs — but this year one group of critics took it to a whole new level. Members of the Houston Film Critics Society spent much of the Jan. 12 ceremony — broadcast live on The CW — unpacking and distributing their own framed award certificates during commercial breaks, then capturing photos of themselves with such recipients as Renée Zellweger, Quentin Tarantino, Jessie Buckley and Zhao Shuzhen. “They were basically piggybacking on an awards show to put on their own awards show,” gripes a source at the event. “They looked really stressed, running around, and they seemed especially frustrated that they couldn’t get to…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020Michelle JubelirerOn Michelle Jubelirer’s desk sits a nameplate that says “f*ck You.” On a coffee table in the Capitol Music Group chief operating officer’s pop-artfilled office is a gold statue of a hand, middle finger extended skyward, as well as a sign that reads “Suck less. Thanks.”These serve as reminders that even though the Pittsburgh native has ascended to the C-suite of Hollywood’s Capitol Tower, she still knows it’s only rock ’n’ roll: “No matter how serious I am in business, there will always be a little punk inside me.”Though music was always her passion, Jubelirer, 45, initially chose to go into law. “Because I had a father die when I was 3, I was cognizant that I needed to always have a way to support myself financially,” she says of…6 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020Decoding the Best Picture Race Using Just MathThe Academy this year must choose among heartless hitmen and sprinting soldiers, supportive sisters and depressed divorcees, action actors and comic book killers. Which of these will win best picture?Data suggests there are many possible answers.After all, this is the first year in Oscar history with four films receiving 10 or more nominations each. The previous record was three, shared by 1964 (Mary Poppins, Becket, My Fair Lady) and 1977 (Julia, The Turning Point, Star Wars). Each of this year’s 10-plus-nominee contenders – Joker, 1917, The Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — can make a compelling case for frontrunner status.With 11 nominations, the comic-book-movie-slash-social-commentary Joker leads the pack (the other three have 10 apiece). Historically, films with the most nominations in their year (or tied for the…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020Planting a Flag in a Hollywood ‘Community of Color’When Dan Lin and Ava DuVernay each opened production campuses in Historic Filipinotown in 2019, both producers were concerned about the impact their projects might have on a Los Angeles community already at risk of displacement.“We wanted to be in a community of color. We didn’t want to be in Beverly Hills or Pacific Palisades. I wanted a place where we could take part in the culture,” DuVernay tells THR. “But gentrification is a real thing.”DuVernay, creator of 2019’s When They See Us, is discussing her Array Creative Campus, a 14,000-square-foot, three-building compound on Glendale Boulevard. Just a few blocks away is Lin’s Rideback Ranch, a 35,000-square-foot mixeduse facility that transformed an abandoned post office into a sprawling Western-themed office and co-working space.Array and Rideback have a common goal: to…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020Hillary’s 5 Big RevealsMONICA REVISITEDIn a first, both Hillary and Bill talk in detail about his affair as president with then-intern Monica Lewinsky, including the lies, heartache, counseling and fallout. Holding back tears, Bill opens up about the pain he caused his wife and daughter as well as Lewinsky: “I feel terrible about the fact that Monica Lewinsky’s life was defined by it,” he says. “Over the years, I’ve watched her try to get a normal life back.”WELLESLEY MOMENTNanette Burstein pairs a Clinton classmate’s rarely seen video footage with audio from her famed 1969 Wellesley commencement speech, marking the first time people can see and hear a speech that landed Clinton in Life magazine as a voice of her generation.HEALTH CARE DOUBTSAsked if there were any mistakes she’d love to revisit, Clinton reveals…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020‘One of the Saddest Moments for the #MeToo Movement’After removing her name from the Sundance documentary On the Record, Oprah Winfrey appears to be straddling #MeToo fault lines. On the one hand, the 65-year-old media mogul has said she believes the women featured in the film who accuse Russell Simmons of sexual assault. On the other hand, she now has said that there are inconsistencies in the account told by Drew Dixon, the film’s main accuser, that “gave me pause.” Her withdrawal came as a shock to the accusers who, according to sources, were never contacted by Winfrey right before or after dropping the film. Hanging in the balance is Dixon herself, whose harrowing claims of being sexually attacked by Simmons in 1994 lie at the heart of Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s doc, set to debut Jan.…9 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020JLD, Movie Producer: ‘You Can Fire Everybody’In October 2017, Julia Louis-Dreyfus strode into the Luxe Hotel on Sunset Boulevard for a morning meeting with fellow comedic A-lister Will Ferrell. Somehow, the two had never collaborated. In fact, they had never even met despite both working at the highest stratum of the comedy world for more than two decades.“She was wearing this black leather jacket and jeans, like Pinky Tuscadero. Like, ‘All right. Hey. How ya doing?’” Ferrell recalls. “But we immediately started kind of bantering, very much at ease, had a fun kind of comedy short-hand with each other.”Louis-Dreyfus was simply stuck on the fact that they managed to never intersect. After all, both became house-hold names during the ’90s thanks to NBC comedies — she as Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes and he as a Saturday Night…5 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020Sundance Has Gone Mainstream — But Does Anyone Care?Who says Sundance caters only to the undiscovered and obscure?This year’s festival will feature a bevy of names and companies not typically associated with indie cinema, from Disney+ to Will Smith, Angelina Jolie and Ben Affleck. In fact, the art house mecca launched 42 years ago as a tonic to the corporatization of cinema will feel more mainstream than in past years thanks to the growing importance of the Kids sidebar as well as a few tentpole stars making an unlikely detour into art house fare.Tom McCarthy, director of Disney+’s Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made, which debuts Jan. 25 at Sundance, says there’s no better place to introduce a film that “breaks some Disney rules” than in Park City. “Look, it’s a changing world,” says the Spotlight helmer who is…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020‘FOREVER A STUDENT OF THE ART’“Marty is very open to trying things, not just with me but with every person he works with. That’s just the way he is. He’s very receptive, and that creates a kind of confidence in people, so they know that even if they come up with a bad idea or not a great one, it’s OK. It’s all about trying things.”ROBERT DE NIRO, ACTORMean Streets, Taxi Driver, New York, New York, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino, The Irishman“Marty is gifted with a bold imagination and always open to breaking the rules. But this originates with a phenomenal knowledge and memory of movies — forever a student of the art. Working on the soundtrack for Casino, there were a couple of scenes where the music just…6 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020‘It Goes to Work With Me Every Day, Years After Graduation’While some designers forgo school in favor of on-the-job training, a costume degree is still a major plus. Intangible factors such as alumni groups and networking coupled with specialized courses, résumé-boosting experience on school theatrical productions, internships and post-grad job preparation are invaluable.“I still use all I learned at Tisch,” says three-time Oscar-winning costume designer Mark Bridges (Joker, Marriage Story), a Tisch School of the Arts graduate. “The way to work with a director and an actor and create character, color and line, all of it still goes to work with me every day, some 30 years after graduation.” For this list, THR consulted with costume designers and professors to choose 10 top schools based on curriculum, reputation, alumni success and networking opportunities.California Institute of the ArtsVALENCIA, CALIFORNIAFounded in 1961,…7 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020BAFTA Salutes Casting Directors — Will the Oscars Follow?BAFTA AwardsFeb. 2 Royal Albert HallThe Academy may be under pressure to shorten the length of the Oscars ceremony, but across the pond things appear to be going in the opposite direction. This year will actually see the BAFTAs extend its show with the addition of a new award: best casting, the first new film honor introduced in 21 years by the British Academy.Up for the inaugural honor are Joker, Marriage Story, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Two Popes and — offering a distinctly British addition to the mix — Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield.The move, which was widely applauded across the industry when it was first revealed in the summer of 2019 (Richard E. Grant was among the actors to hail the announcement), sees…5 min
The Hollywood Reporter|Wednesday, January 22, 2020A Thumbs-Up From Martin Scorsese56th CAS AwardsJan. 25, InterContinental Los Angeles DowntownAs he reflects on his four decades working with Martin Scorsese, rerecording mixer Tom Fleischman smiles, recalling the roughly 25 feature and documentary productions on which they collaborated, from 1980’s Raging Bull to the director’s most recent mob epic, The Irishman.His favorite part of the collaboration? “When we’ve been working for hours on a difficult sequence or a tricky musical transition and I turn around and we both smile and nod and he shouts, ‘Great!’ And gives me a thumbs-up.”Born and raised in New York, Fleischman is the son of legendary film editor Dede Allen and television documentary writer-producer-director Stephen Fleischman.Tom Fleischman first worked for Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker doing temp dubs on Raging Bull, starring Robert De Niro, and was recruited…1 min
