Home//The Hollywood Reporter/March 31, 2021/In This Issue
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021TV’s Big NFL Rights GambleOn March 18, the NFL unveiled massive TV rights deals with Disney, NBCUniversal, Fox, ViacomCBS and Amazon set to pay the league more than $100 billion over the next decade. But there’s a chance it could get even more expensive. An overlooked piece of the deal could force the rights holders to pay the league even more, or allow new bidders — say, tech giants like Google or Facebook — to come in and steal those rights away.It wasn’t in the NFL’s official announcement regarding the TV rights agreements, but the league has an option to opt out of the deals after seven years (the 2029 season). The TV partners don’t have the same ability, a source confirms to THR. In other words, if the NFL thinks it can get…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021MADISON SQUARE GARDEN MERGER WAGERS BIG ON SPORTS BETTINGDeal of the WeekTwo parts of the Madison Square Garden portfolio of assets, controlled by the family of mogul James Dolan, are set to reunite under an all-stock deal unveiled March 26. The near-term goal is to strengthen the company’s financial position as the economy reopens, since pandemic closures have hit the arena business hard. The long-term hope: setting up the merged firm for a sports betting boom.Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which operates the legendary Manhattan arena, Radio City Music Hall and other venues, will acquire MSG Networks — owner of regional sports channels and a streaming service — for about $922million. Not part of the family reunion is the Dolan-controlled Madison Square Garden Sports, which owns such teams as the NBA’s New York Knicks and NHL’s New York Rangers.…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 20217 Days of DEALSFILMPromising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell (UTA, the U.K.’s United, Management 360, Hansen Jacobson) will write an adaptation of DC comic Zatanna for Warner Bros.Seth Rogen (UTA, Principal, Felker Toczek) will play a character inspired by Steven Spielberg’s favorite uncle in an untitled drama based on the filmmaker’s life.Pierce Brosnan (CAA, the U.K.’s Curtis Brown, Hansen Jacobson) will play DC hero Dr. Fate opposite Dwayne Johnson in New Line’s action-adventure film Black Adam.Cary Joji f*ckunaga (WME, Sugar23, Lichter Grossman) will direct a feature adaptation of comic series Tokyo Ghost for Legendary.Helen Mirren (CAA) has joined New Line and Warner Bros.’ Shazam! Fury of the Gods as a villain.Ron Livingston (UTA, Thruline, Hansen Jacobson) has replaced Billy Crudup as Barry Allen’s father in The Flash.Safety’s Randy McKinnon (CAA, Grandview, Jackoway Austen)…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Yes, I Did Say That!“Since I’m the one with the vagin* in question, let me say: the other points of view are bullsh*t.”SHARON STONEThe actress, in her new memoir The Beauty of Living Twice, again insisting that she was tricked into filming the infamous upskirt shot in Basic Instinct by director Paul Verhoeven.“I’m not going to sit around the house binge-watching television shows.”BOB IGERThe Walt Disney Co. executive chairman, on SiriusXM, insisting that he is not retiring when his current role expires at year’s end.“I am horrified.”JEWERL KEATS ROSS The manager, in a leaked email to agent Jay Baker, addressing a text he received from Baker that contained a clip from Menace 2 Society and compared Ross to a crack addict. (CAA fired Baker, who since has apologized.)“I thought y’all didn’t like political correctness.…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Hitched, Hatched, HiredWeddingsFreaky writer Michael Kennedy got engaged to Brian Larson, a UX and visual designer for WarnerMedia, on March 12 in Desert Hot Springs, California. Larson proposed with the help of their dog Scooby, who was dressed as Chucky from Child’s Play with a fake severed finger and faux diamond around her neck.BirthsICM Partners partner and agent Adam Ginivisian and his wife, life coach Karlie Everhart, welcomed Jackson Pierre Ginivisian on Feb. 17 at UCLA Santa Monica. Natalie Jarvey, senior digital media editor at THR, and husband Patrick Crawley, director of digital programming at NFL Media, welcomed son Cole Bernard Crawley on March 22 at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.CongratsNick Pepper joined Amazon Studios as head of studio creative content on March 24.Shola Ajewole was named senior vp creative and cultural diversity…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Fiction? Nonfiction? The Definition’s BlurryThe dividing line between fiction films and nonfiction films has become increasingly porous. And this year’s field of Oscar nominees offers further evidence that it’s not always easy to separate a narrative feature’s dramatic reconstruction of reality from documentary film’s real capture of a genuinely dramatic situation.In Nomadland — the moment’s reigning Oscar frontrunner thanks to its recent Producers Guild of America win — when Frances McDormand’s itinerant Fern attends a meetup of fellow wanderers in Quartzsite, Arizona, presided over by the real-life Bob Wells, a sort of sage of the open road, she’s visiting an actual event where van dwellers gather annually, amping up the film’s verisimilitude. And in the nominated feature-length documentary The Mole Agent, when an elderly man by the name of Sergio Chamy is hired to…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Jeweler Jennifer Fisher Opens a West Coast Flagship in Beverly HillsBack in 2005, Jennifer Fisher, then a film and television wardrobe stylist, stumbled into the jewelry business. While working on set in Los Angeles, gaffers, producers and directors began to comment on a gold-link necklace Fisher had designed bearing a dog tag imprinted with the name of her son, Shane.“They would stop me and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I know someone who would love this!’ ” says Fisher, who was born in San Diego and raised in Montecito. “So I started making them for the wives or significant others of the production people whom I worked with — that’s really how it started.”Fast-forward 15 years, and the California native has opened the doors of her second Jennifer Fisher Jewelry store, a West Coast flagship in Beverly Hills, welcoming shoppers by…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021‘I WAS ALWAYS THE SECRET WEAPON’In the spring of 2015, two years before Krista Vernoff took the reins at Grey’s Anatomy, she was hard at work on a pilot for Fox that veered dangerously close to her own story.Studio City, as the show would be titled, was described in the press as a cross between Shameless and The O.C. A then-little-known British actress, Florence Pugh, signed on to play a younger, slightly fictionalized version of Vernoff, the ambitious daughter of a profoundly alcoholic mom and a cocaine dealer-to-the-stars dad. But mining her own sordid past was agony for its writer. “I had to walk off set every day and cry,” says Vernoff, who found herself back in therapy, unpacking years of trauma just to eke out an hour of television.Then came word from above: The…19 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021The Ensemble Nomination BoostNot only is the SAG Awards best ensemble award worth watching in its own right, but the list of nominated films in that category can help predict who will take home the individual acting awards. Actors in films that are nominated for best cast are nearly twice as likely to win their individual acting nominations.This year, the individual nominees whose films also are nominated are: lead actor contenders Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) and Steven Yeun (Minari); lead actress Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom); supporting actor nominees Sacha Baron Cohen (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Boseman (Da 5 Bloods) and Leslie Odom Jr. (One Night in Miami); and supporting actress Youn Yuh-jung (Minari).BOSEMAN: AMY SUSSMAN/GETTY IMAGES. DAVIS: JEROD HARRIS/FILMMAGIC. YOUN: HAN MYUNG-GU/WIREIMAGE.…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Godzilla vs. KongThe cast of Godzilla vs. Kong shows commendable inclusivity for a major studio movie. But pity the actors who had to spend the majority of their time standing around gawping at greenscreens, mouthing countless variations on “Oh my God” shock and awe. Seldom have the human figures been as peripheral to the headline action in a popcorn blockbuster. The good news is that even if the kaiju mythology tends to trip over itself in a plot that only barely makes sense, the Monsterverse face-off delivers plenty of visceral excitement. Whether genre fans catch this in theaters or on home screens during the monthlong simultaneous HBO Max debut, it’s an enjoyable assault.The predominance of CG spectacle over physical action has even more supremacy here than in the film’s direct predecessors, Kong:…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021The ‘Visual Journeys’ of the ASC Awards NomineesThe American Society of Cinematographers’ five feature nominees — any one of whom will be a first-time winner when the 35th annual ASC Awards are handed out virtually April 18 from the society’s Hollywood Clubhouse — represent very distinct approaches to the medium.MEMORY MASTERTo prepare for Mank — about the writing of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane by Herman Mankiewicz — DP Erik Messerschmidt sent director David Fincher hundreds of images in the form of a look book, “film grabs all through the canon of black-and-white cinema,” which provided a springboard. “David is someone, who, when you communicate with him visually, quickly responds,” adds the cinematographer. After filtering out 70 percent of the images, “I had a better idea of what he envisioned the movie to be.”There are sly references to…6 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021April Fool’s Day Played a Fast One on Audiences in ’86A decade before Scream sent up slasher flicks, another comedy thriller had fun with the genre. 1986’s April Fool’s Day was produced by Frank Mancuso Jr., son of then-Paramount chairman Frank Mancuso Sr. Together, father and son had produced five sequels to 1980’s sleeper hit Friday the 13th. Burned out on Jason, Mancuso Jr. wanted to try something different for his first solo foray. He selected a script by Danilo Bach, who had achieved massive success for Paramount writing 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop. April Fool’s Day’s story brought a group of college spring breakers to the island home of Muffy St. John (played by Valley Girl star Deborah Foreman) for a weekend of fun and practical joking, only to see them turn up as corpses one by one. To direct,…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021AMC’s ‘Boutique’ Streaming Plan: Don’t Try to Compete With NetflixHost, a 56-minute-long horror film about six friends who hold a Zoom seance during lockdown, may not have received the same broad attention as, say, the Disney+ hit The Mandalorian. But it struck a chord with subscribers of AMC Networks’ genre streamer Shudder after its July premiere. “It was lauded in those circles,” AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan told investors in November. And that is all that counts for the company’s streaming strategy, which takes a tack that’s different from those of bigger rivals.Unlike deep-pocketed Netflix and Amazon Prime and Hollywood giants, which have created mega services like Disney+, Paramount+ and HBO Max that vie for big hits and big subscriber numbers, AMC Networks has been betting on its smaller, more focused streamers. Its goal: to differentiate itself and avoid…5 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Game of Thrones Plots New Territory to Conquer: BroadwayWinter is coming — to Broadway.As HBO keeps expanding its Game of Thrones franchise with a greenlit series and five more spinoffs in development, George R.R. Martin’s fantasy world is looking to conquer the stage with a big-budget live play, THR has learned. The project is from producers Simon Painter and Tim Lawson (The Illusionists), in partnership with Kilburn Live, with a story by Martin, who is working alongside playwright Duncan Macmillan and acclaimed U.K. director Dominic Cooke. The team’s goal is to eventually have productions in New York City, London’s West End and Australia. The first show is expected to launch in 2023, long after Broadway’s anticipated recovery.The play includes a unique story element that should be a major draw for fans. While there are many GoT prequels in…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021News Corp Spends $625M+ in Media Buying SpreeBig DealAfter missing out on buying publisher Simon & Schuster, which was snapped up by Penguin Random House for $2.17 billion in November, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has been in acquisition mode. On March 29, it agreed to buy Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Books & Media consumer publishing unit for $349 million in cash. Four days earlier, the company acquired financial title Investor’s Business Daily for $275 million from O’Neil Capital Management, with plans to add the publication to its Dow Jones unit, which includes The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s papers.The Harcourt deal, which is expected to close this year, covers 7,000 book titles, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy and other works from J.R.R. Tolkien; 1984 by George Orwell; All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren; and…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Kwame OnwuachiThe moment has met Kwame Onwuachi, a Bronx-bred culinary sensation who’s emerged as one of the food world’s most essential voices. His kitchen-confidential memoir, Notes From a Young Black Chef, which tells of racism in American fine dining, is being adapted into a feature starring LaKeith Stanfield and begins shooting this summer. Onwuachi, 31, is prepping his own mini-role in the project: “Four lines is going to be a lot to remember,” he says.Starting April 1, the former Top Chef contestant — he competed on season 13 in 2015-16 — will return to the show, but this time as a judge in its pandemic-era Portland season, months after host Padma Lakshmi acknowledged the franchise’s inclusion issues. “America is diverse, and it should be reflected in the panel,” says Onwuachi, who’s…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Social ActionWhen Vanessa Williams heard the demo song “Stand for Change,” she knew it would be a perfect match for the new Black Theatre United, an organization that provides support to Black Broadway artists. The Republic Records single, sales of which will be donated to the group, was penned by NYU professors Dave Schroeder and Phil Galdston, the latter a Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer who collaborated with Williams on the blockbuster “Save the Best for Last.” Williams says, “I thought it would be fantastic for Black Theatre United because our mission is all about change.” The coalition came together in the wake of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd last summer; members include Billy Porter, Phylicia Rashad, Anna Deavere Smith and Audra McDonald (the latter two are…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021How Studying Bugs Inspired Love and MonstersFor director Michael Matthews’ Love and Monsters, an adventure set in a postapocalyptic world where Earth is overrun by animals that have mutated into large monsters, the Oscar-nominated visual effects team was challenged to create a collection of disparate, computer-graphic creatures. But that wasn’t the only challenge facing the $30 million Paramount production: Calling it a “small but very ambitious movie,” VFX supervisor Matt Sloan says the key was producing “high-end visual effects on what wasn’t a high-end visual effects budget.”One way he and his team controlled their budget while meeting their creative goals was to use physical practical effects like creature puppets wherever possible before proceeding to CG approaches. “It was a great collaboration between the filmmakers, practical creatures and visual effects,” says Sloan. “It was the most collaborative…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021THE ‘BITTERSWEET’ FEELING OF MAKING OSCAR HISTORYTHE FIRST TIME RYAN COOGLER, CHARLES KING AND SHAKA KING COLLABORATED, NO ONE WAS PLANNING TO MAKE MOVIE HISTORY. INSTEAD, THEY WERE TRYING TO FACE A CRISIS.It was the fall of 2014, and the fallout from the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner were still reverberating in America. In response, a Black Hollywood brain trust emerged, meeting on Sundays, huddled over their laptops in the dining room of Charles’ Studio City home, convened by a shared sense of frustration and pain. Coogler, Charles and a handful of Black actors and filmmakers, some participating via phone, discussed ways to respond, perhaps by holding a retail boycott.At the time of deep social turmoil, both Charles and Coogler were approaching pivotal professional moments. Charles was three months away from leaving his…16 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021KRISTA VERNOFF’S THURSDAY NIGHTGREY’S ANATOMYVernoff spent seven seasons as Shonda Rhimes’ No. 2 before moving on for the first time. Rhimes had asked whether she wanted to develop another show together, to which Vernoff recalls saying: “No, because if I develop with you, I’ll always be in your shadow, and I want to be you.” She returned to Grey’s as showrunner season 14. “Nobody believed I was going to hand it over,” says Rhimes, who very much did.STATION 19At Rhimes’ urging, Vernoff took over the firefighter spinoff after its second season. And unlike her predecessor, showrunner Stacy McKee, who was drowning in network and studio notes, Vernoff came in with the tacit agreement that she wouldn’t be subjected to such things. Moreover, with Vernoff overseeing Grey’s and Station 19, the potential for meaningful…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021‘A Very Different Awards Show’Over the decades, many have groused about the length of the Oscar ceremony, which often runs longer than its planned three hours. The 2002 telecast ran a whopping four hours and 23 minutes, while the 2020 ceremony — even without a host — ran three hours and 32 minutes. The upcoming 27th SAG Awards is the ultimate antidote to awards ceremony inflation. It will last only one hour, instead of its usual two.After months of pondering different ideas (and pushing the show’s date to April after the Grammys landed on its original March 14 date), SAG Awards executive producers Kathy Connell, Todd Milliner and Sean Hayes decided not to follow in the steps of other ceremonies that have taken place during the pandemic that have adopted a hybrid approach of…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Exterminate All the Brutes“We would prefer for genocide to have begun and ended with Nazism,” muses filmmaker Raoul Peck in the voiceover for his four-part HBO docuseries, Exterminate All the Brutes. “This would indeed be most comforting.” But genocide was a prerequisite for the establishment and expansion of America — a fact as obvious to some as it is unacceptable to others. Drawing on the work of historian Sven Lindqvist (whose 1996 book provides the title here), the I Am Not Your Negro director argues that in the 19th century, the idea that the extinction of “inferior” races was part of the “natural” course of history gave Europeans cover to annihilate the peoples native to Africa and the Americas with newly developed weaponry. The West won, he asserts, because it was willing to…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021American Society of Cinematographers Also Recognizes:SPOTLIGHT• Katelin Arizmendi for Swallow• Aurélien Marra for Two of Us• Andrey Naydenov for Dear Comrades!DOCUMENTARY• Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw for The Truffle Hunters• Victor Kossakovsky and Egil Haskjold Larsen for Gunda• Gianfranco Rosi for NotturnoMOTION PICTURE, LIMITED SERIES, OR PILOT MADE FOR TELEVISION• Martin Ahlgren for The Plot Against America, “Part 6”• Anette Haellmigk for The Great, “The Great”• Pete Konczal for Fargo, “The Birthplace of Civilization”• Steven Meizler for The Queen’s Gambit, “End Game”• Gregory Middleton for Watchmen, “This Extraordinary Being”EPISODE OF A ONE-HOUR TELEVISION SERIES — COMMERCIAL• Marshall Adams for Better Call Saul, “Bagman”• Carlos Catalán for Killing Eve, “Meetings Have Biscuits”• François Dagenais for Project Blue Book, “Area 51”• Jon Joffin for Motherland: Fort Salem, “Up Is Down”• Kim Miles for Project Blue Book, “Operation…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Black News Channel Preps Primetime RebootOn March 24, Kim Janey was sworn in as Boston’s 55th mayor. It was a history-making move, with Janey becoming the first Black person to hold that position in the city. Only one cable news channel carried it live: the Black News Channel. “That is a big deal. It is a big deal to the city of Boston, it is a big deal to the United States, it is a big deal for Black and brown communities,” BNC president and CEO Princell Hair tells THR. “That is what you get on BNC that you won’t get anywhere else.”As a startup television news channel taking on entrenched competition, BNC faces steep challenges. But Hair and the channel’s talent believe that by focusing on communities that are underserved or not served at…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Contenders Hit the Home Stretch, the Finish Line Comes Into ViewPictureNomadlandSearchlight’s presumptive frontrunner sustains its triumphal march with a win of the top Producers Guild Award — which, like the Oscars, uses a preferential ballot — over a field that included six of the seven films it is pitted against at the Academy Awards.ActressAndra DayThe United States vs. Billie HolidayThe late-blooming contender, who landed an unexpected Globe win and was touted by Oprah Winfrey on an episode of Super Soul Sunday, is now being talked up on Twitter by everyone from Chance the Rapper to Hillary Clinton.Adapted ScreenplayBorat Subsequent MoviefilmWriters are enamored of this film, even if portions of it are improvised and it lists eight writers in its credits, given that it landed a far-from-assured Oscar nom — and then won the best adapted screenplay Writers Guild Award (over…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Rights Available!The Final Girl Support Group (BERKLEY, JULY 2021)BY Grady Hendrix AGENCY Aperture EntertainmentThe genre-bending book centers on the group therapy sessions of survivors of the real-life crimes that slasher movies are based on. But when someone begins to kill them, one by one, the most unstable of the group is left to do the saving.The Upstairs House (HARPERCOLLINS, FEB. 23)BY Julia Fine AGENCY WMEMotherhood drama meets ghost story in this book, which follows a postpartum woman whose mental well-being becomes intertwined with the apparition of long dead children’s book writer Margaret Wise Brown.…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Asian Americans’ Plight: ‘Do You Serve COVID?’Shirley Chung, a Top Chef finalist and owner of Culver City’s Ms. Chi Cafe, recalls an incident last year in which a group of diners made her staff sanitize their outdoor table — twice. “It was very passive aggressive racism against us,” says Chung, a Chinese American who says she now goes far above health requirements to overcome the racist connections some people make between COVID-19 and Asian people. “I stepped up service to protect ourselves.”In the past year, Asianowned businesses throughout L.A. have been doubly hit — by the pandemic shutdowns and by a rise in racist hate crimes. On March 2, the LAPD announced 15 anti-Asian hate crimes reported in the city in 2020, compared with seven in 2019. A new report by Stop AAPI Hate documents 3,795…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Rambling ReporterMystery of Takeout ‘Chain’ Boxes RevealedOn March 7, B.J. Novak, with Otium chef Tim Hollingsworth, launched Chain, a WeHo pop-up that serves gourmet takes on dishes from TGI Fridays, Chili’s, California Pizza Kitchen and the like. Chain debuted with a limited-quantities version of Outback Steakhouse’s Bloomin’ Onion (dubbed the Bustin’ Onion), followed by a March 21 drop of “The Sauce Box” with chicken tenders, French fries and a trio of BBQ, sweet truffle honey and black garlic ranch sauces. The goods, which can only be preordered on its private Instagram account (selling out in minutes, with The Sauce Box at $20), have gotten boosts from Mindy Kaling, John Mayer, Kaitlyn Dever, Ike Barinholtz and Kiernan Shipka, despite ownership keeping a low profile. Novak first discussed the idea on Jordan Okun’s…5 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Legal Do’s and Don’ts in Hollywood’s ‘Cancel Culture’For all the recent noise about the rise of “cancel culture,” Hollywood has spent no less than 100 years shoring up its ability to distance itself from the most overt sexists, racists and degenerates among us.After all, the 1921 criminal prosecution of silent movie star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle for allegedly raping a woman prompted studios to begin inserting “morals clauses” into contracts, giving employers the right to terminate talent for any behavior that prompts “public hatred, contempt, scorn or ridicule.” A few decades later, the entertainment industry had to reckon with the Hollywood blacklist, the result of political pressure to do something about supposed communist sympathizers within the creative community’s ranks that left some unable to work for years. And few should miss the late-20th century innovation known as the…5 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Colman Domingo’s Retro-‘Purist’ LifeAfter nearly three decades as a character actor — “You do your work and go home,” he says — Colman Domingo is enjoying a breakout moment. An Independent Spirit Award nominee for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and a series regular on Euphoria and Fear the Walking Dead, Domingo, 51, also is the host of his own interview and co*cktail-making program, AMC’s Bottomless Brunch at Colman’s. The year-old show, whose guests have included directors Radha Blank and Victoria Mahoney, is now in its third season. He films it via video chat from the midcentury modern home he shares in Southeast L.A. with his husband, Raul Domingo, who runs their production company, Edith Productions. The Philadelphia-born actor — who next appears in the Michael B. Jordan-starring thriller Without Remorse — spoke with…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021MACRO’S MAJOR IMPACTFENCESDenzel Washington’s 2016 film earned an Oscar for Viola Davis and $64 million at the box office for Paramount.MUDBOUNDAfter Netflix bought Dee Rees’ 2017 drama for $12.5 million, the film went on to collect four Oscar nominations.SORRY TO BOTHER YOUThe 2018 dark comedy with LaKeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson won director Boots Riley a Spirit Award.JUST MERCYThe 2019 drama with Jamie Foxx became Warner Bros.’ first film made under a new inclusion policy.RAISING DIONJa’Siah Young plays a boy with superpowers in the drama series, which got a second-season pickup from Netflix.GENTEFIEDNetflix has renewed the comedy drama about three Mexican-American cousins chasing the American dream.…1 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021THE PRODUCER, THE Opioid Crisis AND THE ‘IDENTITY MAKEOVER’The film producer turned upstart venture capitalist riffs, at length, on his ethical-investing philosophy for the intersection of tech and media. Curly haired, cherubic faced and with a refined British accent, he speaks earnestly of building an “ESG-type framework,” a reference to the new wave, responsible-finance ethos of environmental, social and corporate governance. “We actually action that,” he assures, explaining that “we will give up investing in potentially massive growth companies if we don’t think they match that criteria around sustainability, diversity and inclusion and business ethics. We are adding strings to the bow as we go.”In an era where a socially conscious business strategy — or at least the appearance of one — is practically a necessity, all of this would be unremarkable. But this is Michael Sackler, the…9 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Are the Odds on the Big Casts?Ayear ago, 1917 seemed poised for Oscar glory. The tracking-shot war film took home top honors from the BAFTAs, the Directors Guild and the Producers Guild. Among the most prominent Oscar precursors, only the Screen Actors Guild went in a different direction, choosing Parasite for best ensemble. Fast-forward three weeks, and Parasite was named best picture at the Academy Awards.Even though the best ensemble category honors just the cast — not every aspect of a film — SAG also nailed tough Oscar best picture wins for Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan, Crash over Brokeback Mountain, and Spotlight over The Revenant. In other words, for Oscar forecasters out there, you’ll want to pay attention to the SAG Awards on April 4.That’s not to say they get every year right…3 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Change in ‘One Fell Swoop’In interviews following the 2021 BAFTA film nominations on March 9, the British Academy’s chief executive Amanda Berry was visibly emotional at the responses to the shortlists. “I think I’m going to cry,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.It was, perhaps, understandable. BAFTA had been through an exceptionally punishing year since its previous film nominations, even without a major industry-crippling pandemic to contend with.In January 2020, thanks to an all-white presence in the performance categories and female-free list for directors, the institution was at the center of yet another diversity controversy, the #BAFTAsSoWhite hashtag making an unwelcome reappearance as all corners of the film world weighed in.Fifteen months on, the list of nominees heading into the dual awards ceremonies on April 10 and 11 (split across two nights due to COVID-19,…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|March 31, 2021Oscar’s Coastal Precursor Carries OnIn 2020, one of the film industry’s last major inperson gatherings before the pandemic struck was the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The annual 10-day event, held two hours north of Los Angeles along the picturesque “American Riviera,” regularly attracts a phalanx of top Oscar contenders. Despite everything that’s happened since, festival executive director Roger Durling promises that the fest’s 36th edition will hold its own in comparison to the previous 17 over which he has presided. The Panama-born film lover, a dynamic character known for his colorful hairstyles and distinctive sartorial flair, is populating the awards-season standard with drive-in screenings and virtual tributes and panels over more than a week.How did you grow SBIFF into an important awards-season stop?When I took over, it was just a small little regional…3 min
