| | | | What's news: A big, newsy day for Paramount yesterday with announcements on Ray Donovan and NCIS spinoffs, a new Naked Gun installment and more. Rings of Power showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne sign a new three-year overall deal with Amazon MGM Studios. Apple TV+ will make a series based on William Gibson's Neuromancer. Hunter Schafer was taken into police custody at a pro-Palestine protest. Electronic Arts is shedding about 5 percent of its workforce. — Abid Rahman
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Richard Lewis 1947 - 2024 ►Man in black. Richard Lewis, the master of self-deprecating comedy who whined his way to stardom with stand-up TV specials, a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall and turns on Anything but Love and Curb Your Enthusiasm, has died. He was 76. Lewis died peacefully Tuesday night at his home in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack, his publicist told THR. The actor and comic revealed in April that he had been living with Parkinson’s disease and was retiring from stand-up. The obituary.
—"Funniest person and also the sweetest." Richard Lewis’ friends and co-stars, including Larry David, Jamie Lee Curtis and Cheryl Hines, took to social media to pay tribute to the late actor and comedian. David, the star and creator of Curb Your Enthusiasm, shared in a statement: "Richard and I were born three days apart in the same hospital and for most of my life he’s been like a brother to me. He had that rare combination of being the funniest person and also the sweetest. But today he made me sob and for that I’ll never forgive him." The reaction. |
Dan Lin to Replace Scott Stuber as Netflix Film Boss ►Dan the man. THR's Kim Masters and Borys Kit have the big scoop on Dan Lin, the producer behind the Lego movies and the new live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender , being tapped as the new head of film for Netflix. Lin steps into the role vacated by Scott Stuber, who announced in January he would step down in March. Lin’s name had been in the mix since the early days of the headhunting, along with former Disney executive Sean Bailey and Twilight producer Wyck Godfrey, among a handful of others. The story.
—More than just Ken. Jon Batiste, Becky G, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, Scott George and the Osage Singers, and Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson will perform this year’s nominated songs on the 96th Academy Awards, executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor and executive producers Molly McNearney and Katy Mullan announced on Wednesday. This will be Eilish and O’Connell’s second Oscar performance, having performed the James Bond theme "No Time to Die" in 2022. The story.
—"We are streamlining our company operations." Electronic Arts is the latest gaming company to slash its workforce. The company announced the restructuring plan Wednesday, telling employees that it would be shedding about 5 percent of its workforce, or more than 650 jobs, as well as the cancelation of a high-profile upcoming Star Wars first-person shooter game. EA said that would incur approximately $125m to $165m in total charges related to the restructuring plan. The story.
—More Kidman! AMC Theatres beat Wall Street expectations, reporting fourth-quarter revenue of $1.10b, up from $990.9m in 2022 and a net loss of $182m, compared to a net loss of $287.7m in 2022. CEO Adam Aron said that “literally all” of the increase in revenue in the fourth quarter was driven by concert films from Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Total attendance in the fourth-quarter grew to 51.9m, up 4.7% from a year ago. Aron said the company will have more concert movies "later in 2024 and/or 2025" and will feature new Nicole Kidman ad spots starting March 1. The results. |
Paramount to Slash Content Spend ►Lessons from the strikes. Reducing programming spend has now become a top corporate priority at Paramount Global, CEO Bob Bakish and CFO Naveen Chopra said on the company’s earnings call Wednesday. The company is pursuing cost savings across film, TV and streaming, with slightly different strategies for each category. In film, "we’re improving ROI by lowering the average cost per title," Bakish said. And in the linear TV and streaming side of the business, Bakish said Paramount will prioritize "lower cost formats, like unscripted and those shot abroad." The story.
—"We continue to be focused on maximizing the return on our content investments and scaling streaming." On Wednesday morning, Paramount Global revealed that it posted Q1 net earnings of $514m on overall revenue down 12 percent to $7.63b. The studio posted a smaller streaming loss of $490m for the quarter and Paramount+ hit 67.5m subscribers worldwide at the end of Q4. Paramount's traditional TV revenue, comprising assets like CBS and its MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon cable networks, dropped by 12 percent to $5.16b in the latest quarter. The results.
—📅 Dated 📅 Paramount Pictures announced release dates Wednesday for a number of upcoming films. This includes director Akiva Schaffer’s new untitled installment in the Naked Gun comedy franchise hitting theaters July 28, 2025. The movie, first announced back in 2022, stars Liam Neeson and includes Seth MacFarlane as a producer. The studio also announced that Paw Patrol 3 will launch July 31, 2026 and the followup to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem hitting theaters on Oct. 9, 2026. The story.
—Broadcast king. Paramount is bringing more of its Taylor Sheridan universe to CBS. After the network previously aired the first two seasons of Yellowstone as part of its strike-impacted schedule, CBS will use the same strategy to bolster awareness of another Sheridan-produced show: Tulsa King. Season one of the Paramount+ drama starring Sylvester Stallone will make its broadcast debut at a date to be determined on CBS in the summer, ahead of the sophomore run of the series returning in the fall to the streamer. The story.
—Get Statham in there! Paramount+ has ordered a spinoff of its crime drama Ray Donovan that will be directed and executive produced by Guy Ritchie. Titled The Donovans, the new series is “loosely based” on the successful series that ran for seven seasons on Showtime and starred Liev Schreiber as a professional “fixer” in Los Angeles. The story. —They're back! The NCIS franchise is expanding again — with a pair of very familiar faces from its past. Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly are set to star in an untitled, Paris-set spinoff of the series for Paramount+, reprising their roles as, respectively, Ziva David and Tony DiNozzo. The series order comes on the heels of Weatherly returning to the flagship CBS series last week as NCIS paid tribute to the late David McCallum. The story. |
'Rings of Power' Showrunners Sign New Amazon Deal ►🤝 Looking good for season three 🤝 THR's James Hibberd and Borys Kit have the scoop on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne signing a new three-year overall deal with Amazon MGM Studios. The duo wrote and executive produced season one of the Prime Video Tolkien series which debuted in the fall of 2022. The show’s second season has wrapped filming and will be released later this year. While a third season hasn’t officially been ordered and a writers room has not yet opened, the showrunners have started to break the initial story outline. The story.
—It's happening! Following a years-long development process, Apple TV+ will officially make a series based on William Gibson’s acclaimed sci-fi novel Neuromancer. The streamer has handed out a 10-episode series order to the drama based on the 1984 cyberpunk novel that launched Gibson’s career and the so-called Sprawl trilogy that also includes novels Count Zero (1986) and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988). Dark Winds creator Graham Roland and J.D. Dillard (The Twilight Zone) created the series for television. The story.
—Was it worth it. Lifetime's controversial Where Is Wendy Williams? doc proved to be a big draw for the cable network. The 4 1/2-hour doc, which aired over two nights on Feb. 24 and 25, averaged 1.04m same-day viewers, according to Nielsen. That’s more than triple the average primetime audience for Lifetime in the previous three weeks, which hovered a little above 300,000 viewers. Where Is Wendy Williams? also brought in more viewers than Lifetime’s January docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. The ratings.
—🎭 Two more 🎭 Nick Offerman and Betty Gilpin are joining the cast of Death by Lightning, the Netflix historical drama from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Ordered straight to series earlier this month and based on the novel Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard, the series explores the “stranger-than-fiction true story” of James Garfield, the 20th president of the U.S., and “his greatest admirer” Charles Guiteau — the man who would eventually kill him. Matthew Macfadyen stars as Guiteau, with Michael Shannon set as Garfield. The story.
—🎭 Guest who 🎭 Max has revealed the guest cast for the upcoming season of Hacks, the Jean Smart-Hannah Einbinder comedy. Set to appear in the upcoming season are Helen Hunt, Christina Hendricks, Christopher Lloyd, George Wallace, Tony Goldwyn and Dan Bucatinsky. Details on the characters they’re each playing are being kept under wraps. The story. |
Behind Sony's Four-Movie Beatles Bet ►"You have to match the boldness of the idea with a bold release strategy." THR examinant Ryan Gajewski spoke to Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman about the studio's bold plan to make four biopics about each member of The Beatles. Rothman discusses working with Oscar-winning filmmaker Sam Mendes on the project and concedes that his plan to release the titles all in one year is a massive roll of the dice. The interview.
—"The biggest names and freshest voices in Indian entertainment." Netflix unveiled its 2024 content slate targeting India’s expanding streaming market at a talent-packed gala event Tuesday in Mumbai. The company’s latest India lineup is notably diverse, spanning an array of genres across eight feature films and 14 series, but it’s also a slight step down in terms of volume compared to recent years — Netflix released as many as 40 original Indian titles in 2021. The lineup is headlined by Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, the streaming series debut of Bollywood filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The story.
—First 2024-25 broadcast season pickup. NBC has handed out a series order for the high-concept procedural The Hunting Party, from creator JJ Bailey. The pickup for the drama comes more than a year after NBC opened up a writers room for the project that it describes as revolving around "a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist." The story.
—🎭 Next up 🎭 The Handmaid’s Tale star Yvonne Strahovsk will lead the cast for Teacup, a horror thriller series at Peacock that counts James Wan among its executive producers. Strahovski will also be a producer on the project, which is inspired by author Robert McCammon’s 1988 novel Stinger. Teacup will center on a group of people in rural Georgia who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat in order to survive. The story. |
Hunter Schafer Arrested at Pro-Palestine Protest ►Calls for ceasefire. Euphoria star Hunter Schafer was among a group of protestors who were taken into police custody on Monday during a demonstration planned to disrupt Joe Biden's appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. The protest organized by the activist organization Jewish Voices for Peace took place at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the famed HQ of NBC television in New York City. The NYPD confirmed to THR that a total of 30 individuals were taken into custody and issued two summonses for trespass and disorderly conduct before they were released. The story.
—Another suit. The legal complaints targeting Andy Cohen and the Real Housewives franchise are mounting, with former cast member Leah McSweeney’s lawsuit alleging drug-related favoritism and a conspiracy to prey on her alcoholism to boost the show’s ratings. McSweeney filed the suit on Tuesday naming the Cohen, Bravo, NBC/Universal, production house Shed Media US, and producers John Paparazzo, Lisa Shannon and Darren Ward. The story.
—Tooling up. As battle lines are being drawn between AI companies and news publishers, a trio of media companies have taken a legal shot at OpenAI and Microsoft. Two lawsuits — one filed by The Intercept and another by Raw Story and Alternet in New York federal court on Wednesday — accuse the firms of taking steps to conceal copyright infringement by intentionally removing certain information, including the author and title of articles. The story.
—Going independent. Mehdi Hasan, the former MSNBC host, will launch a new publication called Zeteo, combining video, podcasts and text journalism that Hasan says in a video introduction “will bring you hard-hitting interviews and unsparing analysis that you won’t find elsewhere.” Hasan is working with Substack on the launch, with subscription prices set at $8 per month or $72 per year. There’s also a $500 per year “founding member” option that includes a signed copy of his book and exclusive Zoom calls with the host. The story. |
Lynda Obst on Her Trailblazing Career and Devastating Diagnosis ►"I'm bloody tired of hiding." Six years after a life-altering health crisis, megaproducer (and onetime "devoted pothead") Lynda Obst spoke to THR's nicest man Chris Gardner about Barbie snubgate and why she's suddenly lost her filter: "I kind of don’t give a shit what people think of me." The interview.
—Undercover probe. THR's Gary Baum reports that PETA ran an undercover sting on a Georgia-based animal training firm that services the major studios and networks. The firm's credits have included Netflix’s Dog Gone, Max’s Moonshot and CBS' True Lies. PETA filed a Feb. 21 complaint with the Department of Agriculture alleging violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service tells THR that it’s reviewing the matter. The story.
—"It’s still sad." Filmmaker Stephen Gaghan has revealed new details about the death of Heath Ledger. During an appearance on Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast, Gaghan, for the first time, spoke about what happened the day Ledger was found dead and the emotional phone call he received from the actor’s father Kim once he arrived on the scene. "They were there with the body and our script was in bed with him... I think my number was on the script, like written. These guys, as you can imagine, they are in shock and they dialed that number and I don’t know why." The story.
—"No one had my back." Rebecca Ferguson has revealed a former co-star screamed at her during production that made her "cry walking off set." In a new interview, the Dune: Part Two star recalled the unnamed co-star growing upset on set, which resulted in them screaming at her. Ferguson did not name the film set this happened on, though she confirmed it was not Hugh Jackman or Tom Cruise. The story.
—"It can be soul-destroying." Ray Winstone has spoken about his rather tortured time working on a Marvel film and recalls a not-so-great experience during production for Black Widow. In a new interview, the actor, who played the villain in the Scarlett Johansson-led 2021 action-packed spy thriller, admitted that he took the role for financial reasons and filming "was fine until you have to do the reshoots." The Brit actor said he concluded that he wanted to give up on the project altogether, but realized he couldn’t. The story. |
Film Review: 'Outlaw Posse' ►"Home on the multicultural range." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Mario Van Peebles' Outlaw Posse. Whoopi Goldberg, Edward James Olmos, Cedric the Entertainer and M. Emmet Walsh are among the veteran actors popping up in this tale of a badass cowboy looking to retrieve a stash of Confederate gold. The review. In other news...
—Sydney Sweeney doesn’t quite have a meet-cute in SNL promo
—I Saw the TV Glow trailer: Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine’s reality blurs in enthralling preview
—Amy Poehler set for CinemaCon Vanguard Award
—Spike Lee and Gersh’s HBCU program partners with Ralph Lauren to dress students for success
—Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre held an art auction on a private roller rink
What else we're reading...
—Rebecca Liu makes a compelling case for why Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall should win the best picture Oscar [Guardian]
—Gearoid Reidy writes that FX's big-budget Shōgun will hopefully spark a new wave of interest in Japan's complex history [Bloomberg]
—A.A. Dowd looks at how Dune: Part Two became the movie event of 2024 [Ringer]
—With the release of Lisa Frankenstein, Kellina Moore makes the case for more PG-13 horror films [NYT]
—With Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Andrew Scott, and Cillian Murphy being praised and swooned over in equal measure at the moment, Kyndall Cunningham looks at why all the internet’s boyfriends are Irish [Vox]
Today...
...in 2008, Sony released The Other Boleyn Girl in theaters. Justin Chadwick's period drama, adapted from Philippa Gregory’s 2001 novel of the same name, starred Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana and was a moderate box office success despite mixed reviews. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Ja Rule (48), Joel Kim Booster (36), Ken Foree (76), Arnaud Valois (40), Shane Johnson (48), Rakhee Thakrar (40), Peter Scanavino (44), Jessie T. Usher (32), Antonio Sabato Jr. (52), Steven Cree (44), Harvey Jason (84), James Cullen Bressack (32), Gérard Darmon (76), Langston Fishburne (36), Anika Poitier (52), Kerry Walker (76), Caitlin E.J. Meyer (32) |
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