Home//The Hollywood Reporter/January 20, 2021/In This Issue
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Heat IndexReed Hastings/Ted SarandosThe Netflix co-CEOs beat expectations for growth, with 8.5 million additions during Q4 of 2020 for a total of nearly 204 million global subscribers.Bill HornbuckleThe CEO of MGM Resorts International drops a multibillion-dollar takeover attempt for digital gaming firm Entain after the U.K. company rebuffed a bid in early January.Rob MillsABC’s unscripted chief steers Celebrity Wheel of Fortune to lead all broadcast entertainment shows, averaging 8 million viewers since its Jan. 7 launch.Pat EsserA federal judge upholds a $1 billion ruling against the Cox Communications CEO’s firm, confirming that it is liable for infringement of thousands of songs.Showbiz Stocks$3.06 (+36.6%) AMC ENT. (AMC)With liquidity concerns eased for now, the exhibitor has seen its stock rise as the market hopes for a return closer to normal this year.$50.39 (-8.7%)…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Out of Time, Trump’s DOJ Loses Its TuneOf the 158 million Americans who voted in the recent presidential election, likely zero did so with music licensing rules in mind. Nevertheless, the election has already proved consequential for the song industry. When Donald Trump leaves office Jan. 20, it’ll be a mild surprise that key restrictions on ASCAP and BMI — the two largest performance rights organizations — will survive his administration.Those restrictions date to the early 1940s, when the Department of Justice settled an antitrust investigation into how a group of composers and publishers had gained enormous power by pooling rights. Since then, thanks to the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees, anytime a TV or radio broadcaster, sports stadium, restaurant, etc., wants to play a song to the public, they can get immediate access to a repertory…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021What’s James Murdoch Planning Next?After mid-2000s success building the Star TV empire into one of India’s top broadcasters and the dominant local streaming service, James Murdoch and Uday Shankar are back with a new project. Murdoch and Shankar, Disney’s former president in Asia Pacific, unveiled an ambitious new partnership Jan. 14 targeting digital business opportunities in India and Southeast Asia. But details of the venture, including its name and exact strategy, are scarce.Murdoch told the Financial Times that the venture with Shankar will be a “major priority” and a “center of gravity” for Lupa Systems, the holding firm he launched in March 2019 with his $2 billion share of the Murdoch family’s windfall from the $71.3 billion sale of 21st Century Fox to the Walt Disney Co.The “crowded” Indian streaming space will not be…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Netflix Adapts Anti-Racist Scholar’s Work for All AgesBig DealStudents of all ages assigned to read Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s books will soon have the option to watch the movie instead.The historian and anti-racist scholar, whose work rose to mainstream prominence last summer amid a nationwide reawakening about racial injustice, is teaming with Netflix to adapt three of his best-selling books. Kendi will serve as an executive producer on all of the projects, which will target different age groups.Stamped From the Beginning will be a hybrid documentary/scripted feature based on Kendi’s 2016 National Book Award-winning nonfiction tome that provides a definitive account of the history of racist ideas in America. The project traces the roots and evolution of racist concepts in the U.S. in order to better understand today’s society, which isn’t as post-racial as some may believe.…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Fisher StevensIf it’s difficult to pigeonhole Fisher Stevens, that’s by design. At various points in his career, the 57-year-old Chicago native has been an actor (he’s starred in everything from the Short Circuit movies to CBS’ Early Edition and is currently on HBO’s Succession); producer (of environmental docs like the Oscar-winning The Cove, plus the Netflix sensation Tiger King); and director.Palmer — his third narrative feature as a helmer — is a story set in the rural South about an unlikely relationship that forms between a onetime high school football star (Justin Timberlake), recently released from jail, and a boy named Sam (Ryder Allen) who likes to play with dolls. Ahead of the film’s Jan. 29 release on Apple TV+, Stevens — who is married to producer Alexis Bloom, with whom…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Social ActionThe filmmakers behind Netflix’s animated short Cops and Robbers — a spoken-word response to police brutality and racial injustice produced by Lawrence Bender and executive produced by Jada Pinkett Smith — have committed to making an impact beyond the screen. Co-directors Arnon Manor and Timothy Ware-Hill will use profits from the film to initiate scholarships at historically Black universities Alabama State and Morgan State. Says Ware-Hill, “The film had a zero-dollar budget, and everyone who contributed and collaborated on it did so for the important message and the cause, with no compensation. We made a promise from the start that if any monies come in, we will donate all of that to organizations that empower and help Black lives.” They add that the goal of the scholarships is to help…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Yes, I Did Say That!“I can stay up as late as I want.”BETTY WHITE The actress, to The Associated Press, joking about not needing permission to set her own bedtime after turning 99 on Jan. 17.“A brilliant producer, but a lousy husband.”RONNIE SPECTOR The Ronettes singer, on Facebook, remembering her ex-husband, music producer Phil Spector. The disgraced legend died Jan. 16 in prison, where he spent the past 12 years for the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson.“Characters persuade each other all the time.”NEAL BAER The pediatrician turned writer and producer, during a WGA workshop, insisting that addressing COVID-19 onscreen could persuade viewers to mask up and get vaccinated.“You owe me a couple cats.”JAMIE LYNN SPEARS The actress, on Instagram, blaming Tesla CEO Elon Musk for the death of her felines, who were run…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Women of a Certain AestheticThis season’s many awards possibilities directed by women are as different as Nomadland, Chloé Zhao’s expansive view of itinerant Americans today, and One Night in Miami, Regina King’s tightly focused drama about soon-to-be Black icons in the 1960s. But within that range, one especially eye-opening trend has emerged. Several women writer-directors have used bold aesthetics to reveal heroines grappling with the life-altering issues of abortion and sexual abuse. Eliza Hittman’s subtle, eloquent Never Rarely Sometime Always, Kitty Green’s taut The Assistant and Emerald Fennell’s mordant dark comedy Promising Young Woman use sophisticated points of view and unusual, revealing camera choices to show us their heroines from the outside and also give us moving firsthand access to their experiences. These timely films, among the season’s best, never clobber us with clumsy…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Riz, All InBack in summer 2018, Riz Ahmed was preparing for a classroom scene for his latest film, Sound of Metal, and his American Sign Language coach, Jeremy Lee Stone, was becoming increasingly annoyed. Stone had worked with the actor for the better part of a year, teaching him ASL for the role of Ruben, a rock drummer whose life begins to spiral out of control when he loses his hearing. This, however, was his first day on the Massachusetts set, and he hadn’t seen his star pupil in months. Stone made a “voices off” sign, and Ahmed was expected to reciprocate with an identical sign. But Ahmed sat defiantly, refusing to sign, and “it boiled my blood,” Stone recalls. After all, the actor was well beyond fluent in ASL by that…14 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021‘When I’m Writing a Script, I’m Editing It in My Head’Multihyphenate Chloé Zhao wrote, directed, edited and produced Nomadland, but she notes, “I’m happier in the editing room than I’m anywhere else in the process.“I grew up with manga. I wanted to be a manga artist. So before I knew I could tell stories in words, I was telling stories in pictures, in edited pictures,” she says, explaining her process. “When I’m writing a script, I’m editing it in my head. On set I will be thinking about how I’m going to edit it.” During a shoot, she watches dailies every night and continues to write. “The script doesn’t finish until the morning of the last day [of the shoot],” she says.Searchlight’s Nomadland, which has collected a string of honors including the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion, is set in…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021THE MAKING OFNews of the WorldAfter he finished his most recent film, 22 July, about a family caught up in right-wing extremism and the domestic terrorist attacks in 2011 in Norway, Paul Greengrass was plagued by a question. “The world is so bitterly divided,” Greengrass says he asked himself. “What is the road out of this going to look like for our children?”To find the answer, Greengrass ended up looking backward, to a story set in post-Civil War Texas, the backdrop of his latest film, News of the World. The British director, best known for the visceral action of his Jason Bourne movies and the tension of his fact-based thrillers like United 93 and Bloody Sunday, didn’t want to make another movie exploring the darkness like 2018’s 22 July. “I wanted to make a film…8 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Dealmakers of the Year: The Pandemic PlayersThe entertainment landscape continues to evolve at a breakneck pace thanks to developments in technology and an increasing consumer appetite for content — but this year, change happened at warp speed as companies across Hollywood looked for ways to stay afloat amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. From shattering theatrical windows to dealing with shuttered cinemas to playing professional sports in a bubble, in 2020, there was no such thing as business as usual. THR’s fifth annual dealmakers list spotlights the people who stayed on their toes to keep the entertainment industry on its feet.ERICH ANDERSENGeneral Counsel, TikTokThe veteran Microsoft lawyer joined ByteDance-owned TikTok in January 2020, just in time for the social video app’s pandemic-fueled rise to around 100 million active U.S. users. Andersen oversees the company’s compliance and data…12 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Welcome to the Multiverse: Studios Lean Into Fan DemandOn Jan. 15, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige expanded the Marvel Cinematic Universe into streaming with WandaVision, a nine-part TV series that marks the studio’s first original for its parent company’s prioritized Disney+ service. With five more shows and four movies slated for release in 2021, the goal is for Marvel to always have something new for MCU fans, enticing audiences to join Disney+’s 86 million global subscribers and keep them paying monthly.Feige tells THR that every project he’s developing fits in one of two categories: Marvel theatrical films and then “everything else,” which encompasses live-action and animated series as well as one-offs that include an upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special. Disney+ shows are key to setting up characters and plotlines, he says: “It really does come down…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Reality TV’s Overburdened (and Underrepresented) WorkforceIt’s 5 a.m., and my whole body is shaking. Not because I’m cold or having a caffeine or drug withdrawal, but because I have been up for 18 hours straight, six days a week, for the past three months, working on an unscripted TV show. I am not a “veteran producer” yet, but with a decade of experience under my belt on projects for major networks and streamers, I’ve seen enough to know that behind the scenes, the postproduction world in unscripted TV has changed.Story producers, most of whom are freelancers, are traditionally leaned on in reality formats to go through hours of footage and create a rough “string out,” a sequence of clips strung together in the order that an editor will later cut. But that job description has…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Rambling ReporterHunt for COVID-19 Vaccines Is On: Allen Shapiro Jets to FloridaTHR has learned from multiple sources that veteran entertainment executive Allen Shapiro, former chairman of Dick Clark Productions, and a small group traveled by private jet from California to Florida to take advantage of the Sunshine State’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout that allows anyone 65 and older to receive a shot, residents and nonresidents alike. Shapiro, though, is not alone. Former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons told CNBC that he traveled from New York to get his, too: “I don’t know how Florida got the march on everyone else. But you go online. You make an appointment,” he said. While the practice has been referred to as vaccine tourism, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis disputes that characterization. “It’s not like they’re just…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021What’s in Store for Hollywood With BidenIf all goes as planned, policymaking in the nation’s capital will become a sleepy affair when Joe Biden takes office as the 46th president of the United States on Jan. 20. Whereas Donald Trump’s erratic and impulsive behavior made looking away nearly impossible these past four years, the new administration will require a higher degree of studiousness for those wishing to appreciate the changes. It will mean looking beyond one man’s Twitter account and countless cable news pundits in thrall, as the real work — and good fights — happen away from the spotlight.For show business, which knows a thing or two about attention-seeking, the moment is consequential. Under the weight of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the industry is grappling with the realities of its digital future way ahead of…6 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021New Star-Studded Content Studios Selling MeditationAfriendly suggestion for the anxious and heavyhearted (and, these days, who isn’t?): a bedtime story read by Harry Styles.“Tonight I’m going to help you drift off to sleep with some soothing words and calming music,” the rakish British musician will purr into a listener’s ear with his lilting baritone. “A sleep story … just for you.” Mmmm …Sadly, he’s not curled up next to the beholder in bed but merely an audio apparition, introducing a 40-minute guided bedtime tale from Calm, a meditation and relaxation app.If Morgan Freeman can be the de facto voice of God, why can’t Styles be the voice of a good night’s sleep? Or, for that matter, Lakers star LeBron James as the aural manifestation of a winning mind-set? Those are exactly the bets being placed…7 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021‘WE STARTED RETHINKING EVERYTHING’Shepherding a film from a nebulous idea to a locked print is fraught with interruptions and surprises. As such, no profession in Hollywood requires greater dexterity than that of a producer. And unlike any other time in cinematic history, 2020 was a year of overnight transformation amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, leaving producers with no choice but to adapt fast. Two producers from this year’s roundtable — Judas and the Black Messiah’s Charles D. King and The Trial of the Chicago 7’s Marc Platt — saw their theater-bound films take a detour to a streaming platform (HBO Max and Netflix, respectively). Although Eric Roth, who produced David Fincher’s Mank, was always poised for a streamer release via Netflix for that film, he also experienced the great sweep to HBO Max…17 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Movie Magic in War and ImmortalityMulanEverything in this shot is CG except Yifei Liu as Mulan, who was photographed on a tuning-fork rig at Kumeu Film Studios in Auckland to swing her in front of the camera. “We reanimated her element and the camera to create a more natural pendulum motion, adding a digital rope for her to swing on,” says VFX supervisor Anders Langlands of lead VFX house Weta Digital who worked closely with overall VFX supervisor Sean Faden. They then created and added a digital double of the evil Bori Kahn falling off the beam below her, and the background is a digital watchtower and construction site. “We replaced the watchtower in a lot of these shots,” says Langlands. “It’s easier to do that than to try to line up all the pieces…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021WandaVisionViewers who have spent the past 10 months at home revisiting their favorite sitcoms will get a particular kick out of Disney+’s WandaVision, which, through its first three episodes, is one of Marvel’s oddest properties yet.OK, the show may not be weirder than Guardians of the Galaxy, with its talking raccoon and adolescent sapling. But there’s something courageous about handing a postmodern exploration of sitcom conventions to an audience anticipating snazzy suits and explosions.The series takes place sometime after the events of Avengers: Endgame and — mysteriously — finds Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) living in domestic bliss like something out of a sitcom. Exactly like something out of a sitcom. They’re in black-and-white and framed in the 4:3 aspect ratio, and when they flirt or bicker,…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Gabriel Spoofed a Corrupt Outgoing President in 1933When Joe Biden takes the oath of office Jan. 20, amid a pandemic and shortly after a Capitol riot, it will be one of the more unusual inaugurations. But a 1933 movie offers eerie echoes of this strange moment in U.S. history. MGM’s Gabriel Over the White House was a political allegory rushed into production to coincide with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s March 4 inauguration, his first. (It was made in two months and released March 31.) In fact, the film opens with an inauguration: that of newly elected Judson Hammond (Walter Huston, the lead in D.W. Griffith’s 1930 biopic Abraham Lincoln), who was a proxy for then-president Herbert Hoover. The fictional new president is a corrupt political hack with a hands-off approach to the Great Depression and a hands-on approach…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Release Date Deja Vu: Theatrical Films Are on the Move AgainHollywood executives in charge of the release calendar couldn’t have imagined they’d be facing another great migration in 2021 as the COVID-19 crisis keeps up. The feeling of deja vu is demoralizing as they look to rearrange their spring and early summer slates.Almost a year ago, MGM surprised its rivals when pushing James Bond pic No Time to Die from April to November. Soon, though, all the studios followed suit before most cinemas shut down March 20 in the U.S. Hollywood and cinema owners assumed moviegoing would resume in fall 2020. That wasn’t to be. In the case of No Time to Die, it was subsequently pushed to April 2, but not even that date will hold, sources tell THR. The only question left is whether MGM will relocate the…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Apple Mulls Podcast Push as Spotify Makes GainsIn the past decade and a half, Apple has built influence in the podcasting industry by letting creators reach its large audience of device owners without charging them a dime. But the company’s talks with creative partners about introducing a subscription product to its podcasting business signal that its reign as a benevolent distributor might be coming to an end.The negotiations, first reported by The Information, have been ongoing since at least last fall, sources tell THR, and ultimately could end up taking several different forms. Regardless, it’s clear that Apple — after spending the past two years watching rivalin-music-streaming Spotify invest hundreds of millions of dollars to align itself with some of the most prolific producers and most popular personalities in podcasting — is no longer content sitting on…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021END OF AN ERA FOR TECHNICOLOR AS IT SELLS POSTPRODUCTION BUSINESSDeal of the WeekThe global postproduction landscape is going through a dramatic change with a deal involving one of Hollywood’s largest (and oldest) players. Two months after post giant Company 3 was sold to VFX house Framestore, holding company Streamland Media — the parent of leading audio post facility Formosa Group as well as such companies as Picture Shop and Picture Head — revealed its intent Jan. 14 to acquire Technicolor’s post business for $36.5 million. Expected to close in the first half of the year, the deal is backed by investment firms Trive Capital and Five Crowns Capital.As part of the buy, Streamland CEO Bill Romeo plans to expand its talent pool and global reach by merging the Technicolor Post business into Streamland’s post businesses, which also include Ghost…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Rights Available!Girls With Bright Futures (SOURCEBOOKS, FEBRUARY 2021)BY Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman AGENCY UTABig Little Lies meets “Operation Varsity Blues” in this book set in a Seattle enclave that follows three girls and their mothers all vying for a Stanford admission, a fight that includes the flaunting of wealth and a near-fatal questionable accident.Escapes (UNNAMED PRESS, OCTOBER 2020)BY Daniel Tunnard AGENCY WMEThe ’90s-set comedy takes place in an alternative reality where the board game Scrabble is one of the biggest sports in the world. It follows former world champs who meet for a final game in defiance of the Scrabble mafia, which makes problematic players disappear.…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Hitched, Hatched, HiredWeddingsMelissa Orton, a TV agent at ICM Partners, married Brian Cortez on Oct. 24 at Greengate Ranch in San Luis Obispo, California.BirthsSimon Heuer, director of comedy development at NBC, and wife Kate Heuer welcomed daughter Winnie Kate Heuer on Nov. 20 in Burbank.Emma Roberts and Garrett Hedlund announced the arrival of son Rhodes Robert Hedlund via Instagram on Jan. 12.CongratsJason Richman was upped to co-head of UTA’s media rights group on Jan. 12.John Agbaje was hired as senior vp animation for Bad Robot on Jan. 14.Former WME agent Tanya Cohen joined management firm Range Media Partners on Jan. 13.Former Paramount executive Elizabeth Raposo was named head of Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society banner Jan. 13.Tom MacDougall was promoted to president of Walt Disney Music on Jan. 15.Christina Spade was hired…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Staging a Return to SaigonWidely recognized as the first Black production designer in motion pictures, Wynn Thomas has enjoyed a professional relationship with Spike Lee that goes back nearly 35 years — amassing credits including Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues and Malcolm X — which has created a trust and shorthand that Thomas says was an advantage in designing Lee’s Da 5 Bloods.“He needed to be in the United States for much of the preparation, so I essentially did all the prep work,” says Thomas of their collaboration on the Netflix title, filmed in Vietnam and Thailand, which follows four Black Vietnam vets who return to Saigon decades after the war. “I scouted and chose all the locations and designed the film and was communicating with [Lee] through the phone or through…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Remaking a Neglected Slope for Actor Charlie CarverThe night Charlie Carver envisioned a meandering outdoor oasis behind his Silver Lake bungalow took place well before lockdown. Two years ago, on an evening when the actor gave a moonlit mandolin recital at his house — “I’d ordered a nonrefundable mandolin, and it turned into an excuse to have a really sweet garden party,” he says — Carver and landscape designer John Sharp found themselves wandering through the property’s long-neglected tumble of pepper trees, ficus and weeds. Sloping steeply toward the 1903 home located on a double lot, much of the garden was cast in shade thanks to a sprawling 100-year-old fig tree.Nonetheless, Carver (Ratched, The Boys in the Band) could see beyond the overgrown shrubs. “I wanted to bring some of Northern California into Southern California,” says the…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Malcolm & Marie’s Stylish ‘Dance’When cinematographer Marcell Rév started planning to shoot the intimate drama Malcolm & Marie with his Euphoria director Sam Levinson, black-and-white seemed to be the right approach. “I think he had only 10 pages when we decided to make it black and white; it was just a feeling,” he says.The Netflix film, which opens in theaters Jan. 29 and begins streaming Feb. 5, unfolds during the course of a single night. In it, Euphoria’s Zendaya (a producer on the movie) and John David Washington portray a couple who face a relationship reckoning when they return home from a premiere.“The nature of the two actors, one location, that kind of genre evokes a lot of classics, and it was made consciously with a respect to those classics or like a classical…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021Making Each Environment Sound TrueThis season’s contenders for the Oscar for best sound — renamed this year to combine sound editing and sound mixing into a single category — include a pair of dramas, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The United States vs. Billie Holiday, that rely heavily on music but faced their own unique challenges to maintaining the authenticity of the narratives.Based on August Wilson’s play, Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom follows blues singer Rainey (Viola Davis) during a recording session in Chicago during 1927; it also stars Chadwick Boseman, in his final screen performance, as her band’s trumpeter. The songs were recorded in a studio, with Davis singing “Those Dogs of Mine” and the rest of the tracks recorded by vocalist Maxayn Lewis, who was recruited by the film’s composer, Branford Marsalis.Much…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|January 20, 2021The SisterIt’s easy to imagine Hulu’s new maybe-supernatural thriller The Sister reconfigured into a compact B-movie. With a shorter runtime, writer Neil Cross’ protagonist (played by Russell Tovey of HBO’s Looking and Years and Years), director Niall MacCormick’s more-generic-than-aspirin atmospherics and their indifference-inducing twists might have seemed less glaring. But stretched over four hourlong episodes, the tale feels droopy and drab.Aired in October on the U.K.’s ITV, The Sister begins with Tovey’s Nathan, a well-to-do, 30-something married man, reeling after a visit by an old acquaintance. A professor of the paranormal whom Nathan had met years earlier, Bob (Bertie Carvel) demands that his onetime associate join him in the exhumation of a body they’d interred together — that of Nathan’s wife’s sister Elise (Simone Ashley), a party girl who’d gone missing…2 min
