| | | | What's news: It's magazine day! This week's cover star is the iconic Harrison Ford. Starz has picked up the Shailene Woodley-led drama Three Women. Two more Bosch spinoffs are in the works at Amazon. La La Land is heading to Broadway. John Cleese is reviving Fawlty Towers. — Abid Rahman |
Harrison Ford: "I Know Who the F*** I Am" ►On the cover. Acting icon Harrison Ford is busier than ever with prestige TV shows Shrinking for Apple TV+ and 1923 for Paramount+ as well as the long awaited feature Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. THR's James Hibberd tried to get the delightfully testy 80-year-old legend to open up about his life and latest projects. Here's how that went. The cover story.
—Well deserved. Bad Bunny, Christina Aguilera and Jeremy Pope are set to receive special honors at the GLAAD Media Awards, taking place at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on March 30. Bad Bunny will be feted with a Vanguard Award for championing queer visibility in Latinx culture; Aguilera will take home an Advocate for Change Award for decades-long allyship in promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people; and Pope will receive a Stephen F. Kolzak Award, awarded for "breaking barriers across multiple industries as an out LGBTQ media professional." The story.
—White knighting. THR's Lesley Goldberg has the scoop on Starz rescuing Three Women, the Shailene Woodley-fronted drama that Showtime dropped following Chris McCarthy’s arrival at the network. Sources say the series was shopped to multiple outlets, including HBO and Amazon, before landing at Starz. Showtime originally snagged rights to Lisa Taddeo’s bestseller in 2019 following a fierce bidding war and handed out a straight-to-series order to the drama which was eyed to premiere in 2022. The story.
—Bish, bash, Bosch. Amazon Studios is set to expand the Bosch universe with two more shows in the works. The streamer has put spinoffs revolving around star Jamie Hector’s Detective Jerry Edgar and the yet-to-be cast LAPD Detective Renee Ballard, the latter of whom is a prominent character in exec producer/author Michael Connelly’s novels. The new spinoffs come as Amazon's free streamer Freevee readies the second season of spinoff Bosch: Legacy. The story. |
Big Tech's Cuts Hasn't Come for Content Spending, Yet ►The ever-escalating content scale game. Even while Big Tech executives are conducting mass layoffs and downsizing their firm's physical infrastructure, one area remains largely spared so far: content spending. THR's Caitlin Huston and Georg Szalai write that streaming players like Amazon and Apple are keeping up content spending, so long as it drives customers to their platforms. The analysis.
—As you were. Despite a Florida bill empowering Gov. Ron DeSantis to take control of its special tax district, Disney will get to keep most of the perks that’s allowed the company to self-govern the land on its theme park resort for over 50 years. Legislation introduced on Monday by Republicans in Florida’s Legislature would reshape the leadership structure and change the name of Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District. But under the bill, Disney would retain almost all of its exemptions from a host of regulations, taxes and fees. The story.
—🎭 Caste-ing news 🎭 Tony winners Audra McDonald and Myles Frost have joined Aunjanue Ellis in Ava DuVernay’s next feature. DuVernay is writing and directing the movie based on Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent. King Richard's Ellis was earlier announced for the leading role in the film adaptation now shooting in Georgia. The cast also includes Niecy Nash, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, Connie Nielsen, Jon Bernthal and Jasmine Cephas-Jones. The story. |
'@midnight' Reboot to Replace 'Late Late Show' ►Backwards to go forwards. CBS is set to replace the long-running The Late Late Show franchise with a reboot of comedic panel game show @midnight. Stephen Colbert, who hosts The Late Show for the network, is on board as executive producer of the revived program that aired 600 episodes on Comedy Central before signing off in August 2017. Original @midnight host Chris Hardwick is not expected to have direct involvement in the new iteration. The story.
—Heading to Broadway. La La Land is being developed as a stage musical by producer Marc Platt and Lionsgate. Bartlett Sher, whose credits include To Kill a Mockingbird and the Broadway revival of South Pacific, will direct from a book written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar and Matthew Decker. Composer Justin Hurwitz, who was behind the film’s score, will handle the music for the show with lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. The story.
—"Oh Basil!" John Cleese is set to revive his classic 1970s comedy series Fawlty Towers. In a shock move that will likely divide fans of the original, Cleese will write and star in the show alongside his daughter Camilla Cleese. Matthew George (Wind River, A Private War), Rob Reiner, Michele Reiner and Derrick Rossi are executive producing the series for Castle Rock Television, which is developing the project. The story. |
AMC Theatres' Risky Seat Pricing Bet Comes at a Perilous Time ►"There will be a point where consumers push back." On Feb. 7, AMC Theaters revealed that it would implement variable pricing for seats based on sightlines. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that AMC's ticket pricing experiments come at a time of angst for the theatrical business, which has yet to recover from the COVID-19 crisis and behind the scenes, there’s concern that Sightline seating will create consumer confusion and dampen movie attendance even if revenue is higher. The analysis.
—Age is just a number. THR's Borys Kit has the scoop on Andy Samberg and Jean Smart teaming up for a unique romantic comedy titled 42.6 Years, which is in development at Amazon Studios. The story centers on a man (Samberg) who is cryogenically frozen. When he wakes up 42.6 years later, he finds himself alone with no one to turn to but his ex-girlfriend (Smart). Cruella filmmaker Craig Gillespie will direct, The Menu scribe Seth Reiss wrote the script based on an idea from Samberg. The story.
—New cinematic universe just dropped. Following the ongoing shock success of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, the micro-budget British slasher that went viral last year, writer/director Rhys Frake-Waterfield says he’s planning to create an entire universe filled with bloodied X-rated adaptations of beloved childhood stories including Peter Pan and Bambi. The story. |
Gina Prince-Bythewood on Oscars Shutout of 'Woman King' ►"This awards season was an eye-opener." With Black female-led films including Till and Saint Omer left out of the Oscar nominations, The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood tells THR that "the Academy made a very loud statement, and for me to stay quiet is to accept that statement." The story.
—Chemistry questions, part I. Ashton Kutcher finally addressed all the chatter surrounding his awkward Your Place or Mine red carpet photos with Reese Witherspoon. During a podcast appearance, Kutcher said that regardless of what he does on the carpet, he can’t win: "If I put my arm around her, and was like all friendly with her, I’d be having an affair with her." The story.
—Chemistry questions, part II. Netflix's You People ends with a romantic kiss between leads Jonah Hill and Lauren London, but one member of the film’s team claims it was never actually filmed. In a new interview, actor Andrew Schulz, who plays Ezra’s cousin Avi in You People, revealed that Hill and London never filmed the wedding-altar kiss, claiming their nuptials lip-lock was achieved in post-production via CGI wizardry. The story. |
Film Review: 'Magic Mike's Last Dance' ►"Strays too far from its roots." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike's Last Dance. The auteur returns to helm the third film in the Magic Mike franchise, following Channing Tatum's titular character to London, where he's tasked with revamping a staid production for a wealthy divorcée (Salma Hayek Pinault). The review.
—"Never quite delivers on its promise." Lovia reviews Benjamin Caron's Sharper. Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan star in this tense Apple film about a group of people in New York deceive and connive to gain power, access and money, also starring Justice Smith and Briana Middleton. The review.
—"A brief but vivid encounter." THR's Stephen Farber reviews Goran Stolevski's Of an Age. Elias Anton and Thom Green play two young men nursing an unexpected mutual attraction in this intimate gay Australian feature. The review.
—"Great footage, strong interviews, could have been longer." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews Netflix's Bill Russell: Legend. Director Sam Pollard looks at Bill Russell's career with the Boston Celtics and his off-court dedication to civil rights causes in this two-part documentary. The review.
In other news...
—Broadcast TV pilots 2023: The complete guide
—Barbra Streisand's memoir My Name Is Barbra to release in November
—Matt Levin named Laika’s president, live-action film and series
—Ben Samek named CEO of Banijay Americas, Cris Abrego shifts to chairman role
—Marcus Theatres hires exec to oversee content strategy
—Kathleen Griffith signs with CAA
—Mark Harmon signs with Gersh
What else we're reading...
—Josh Rottenberg looks at the coming ratings battle between the Oscars and the season finale of The Last of Us which both air on March 12, and who will likely win [LAT]
—Sam Adler-Bell looks at the burgeoning "Eat the Rich" movie genre, and argues films like Glass Onion, The Menu and Triangle of Sadness are confused in their politics [Vulture]
—Joanna Stern writes that with added ChatGPT features, Bing is no longer a joke [WSJ]
—Sarah Frier and Kurt Wagner report that Meta is asking many of its managers and directors to transition to individual contributor jobs or leave the company as it tries to become more efficient [Bloomberg]
—Clare Thorp looks at the TV trend of burying hidden messages in opening title sequences as seen in The White Lotus to The Last of Us [BBC]
Today...
...in 1991, Tri-Star unveiled the zany L.A. Story in theaters nationwide, featuring Steve Martin as an existential local weatherman. The original review.
Today's birthdays: John Williams (91), Dawn Olivieri (42), Kathryn Newton (26), Mary McCormack (54), Cecily Strong (39), Mary Steenburgen (70), Seth Green (49), Nick Nolte (82), Quintessa Swindell (26), Brooke Adams (74), William Jackson Harper (40), Jim Parrack (42), Ethan Phillips (68), Liam McIntyre (41), Sharon Duncan-Brewster (47), Josh Keaton (44), Susan May Pratt (49), Brendan Wayne (51), John Grisham (68), Vince Neil (62), Toby Emmerich (60) |
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