Home//The Hollywood Reporter/November 16, 2022/In This Issue
The Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Heat IndexTaylor Sheridan The Yellowstone creator’s season five premiere nabbed 12.1 million live-plus-same-day linear viewers, the biggest scripted show bow of 2022. Ed Sheeran While Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar led Grammy nominations with nine and eight, respectively, Sheeran walked away empty-handed for his fifth album, titled =. Jeanette Moreno King In a show of support for the union’s aggressive organizing effort aimed at expanding its member ranks, King was reelected president of the Animation Guild. Jonah Peretti The BuzzFeed CEO sees user engagement drop across the company’s sites by 32 percent during the third quarter as ad revenue stayed flat compared to the previous year. Showbiz Stocks $74.27 (+3.7%) LIVE NATION (LYV) The Ticketmaster owner faced criticism over its handling of ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s new tour, but its lucrative…1 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Roger LynchWhen the Newhouse family tapped veteran media executive Roger Lynch in 2019 to lead the crown jewel of their holdings, Condé Nast, he inherited a company of fiefdoms. Its magazines, infamously, competed with one another for advertisers and cover stars, while Condé’s international business was its own silo. Now three and a half years into the job, Lynch has tried to unify the company into one organization and has shifted investment toward digital and video, turning a storied magazine-company brand into a leading multiplatform player. I know video has been a top priority. You hired Agnes Chu from Disney to lead Condé Nast Entertainment. How are you thinking about investing in that space? You start with the pretty insatiable demand for high-quality content coming from streaming services. But the emphasis…5 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 20227 Days of DEALSFILM Allen Hughes (WME) will direct Universal’s feature biopic of Snoop Dogg, who is producing the film. Joe Robert Cole (Jackoway Austen) will write. Hannah Waddingham (CAA) joined the cast of the Ryan Gosling-starring adventure The Fall Guy from Universal. Liza Chasin and Bruna Papandrea will produce an adaptation of Susanna Hoffs’ (WME) romantic debut novel, This Bird Has Flown, for Universal. Ian McShane (CAA) will star opposite Ana de Armas in Ballerina, Lionsgate’s feature set in the universe of the John Wick action movies. Kari Skogland (WME) will direct sequel Wind River: The Next Chapter for producers that include Castle Rock Entertainment, with Martin Sensmeier (Buchwald) reprising his role from the 2017 film. Morten Tyldum (CAA) will direct Ibelin, based on the story of late gamer Mats Steen. Kyle…3 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Rights Available!Small Game (ECCO, NOV. 1) BY Blair Braverman AGENCY WME The author, who appeared on Naked and Afraid in 2018, channeled her experience on the reality show (and from her competitive dog-sledding past) into this twisty thriller about contestants on a survival series abandoned in the wilderness by a TV crew. The Mountain in the Sea (MCD, OCT. 4) BY Ray Nayler AGENCY WME Octopi are having a moment in pop culture, and in this work of literary fiction with shades of Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, a doctor hired by a tech firm travels to a remote archipelago to investigate a very smart, very dangerous new species of cephalopod.…1 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Power DiningJamie Lee Curtis stopped by The Polo Lounge, where Lionsgate TV chairman Kevin Beggs and former Warner Bros. TV Group chairman Peter Roth also were lunching. … John Mayer and Kiernan Shipka had a night out at Giorgio Baldi. … Jay-Z and Jeff Bezos shared a meal at Horses, which opened just for the power duo. … Jurnee Smollett and Thuso Mbedu attended an event at the San Vicente Bungalows. … Scooter Braun, Usher and L.A. Reid shared dinner at Craig’s.… In New York, Mariah Carey and boyfriend Bryan Tanaka had a date night at Blue Ribbon Sushi. Per L’Ora The Quick Pitch Located in downtown Los Angeles’ Hotel Per La, Per L’Ora is an ornately decorated restaurant staying true to its roots — it’s housed in the former Bank…1 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Will Personal Controversies Impact Oscar Chances?Fairly or not, three of awards season’s acting contenders might be judged on more than just their performances. On March 27, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, refused to leave the ceremony, accepted the award for best actor and then went out partying, sparking a tremendous uproar that led Smith to resign from the Academy and the organization’s board to ban him from its events for a decade (he remains eligible for Oscar recognition). Smith has since apologized to Rock multiple times, and Apple decided to move up from 2023 to December 2022 the release of a movie Smith produced and stars in, Emancipation, clearly hoping for awards recognition. Brad Pitt was accused by ex-wife Angelina Jolie, in legal papers filed Oct. 4 in Los Angeles County Superior…4 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022She SaidThere’s a photo of the moment right before The New York Times published its very first story about Harvey Weinstein’s systemic sexual harassment. Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor are there, along with their editors at the newspaper. They’re gathered around a computer, giving the story one last read and waiting to press the button that would change not just Hollywood, but the world, sparking a movement that would leap from country to country. The second that She Said screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz saw the picture, with a composition that’s sort of Washington Crossing the Delaware meets The Last Supper, she knew it had to be a pivotal moment in the movie. “It became this iconic image to me,” she says. The film that she would go on to write, about the…12 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Discomfort FoodFor Mark Mylod, the director of Searchlight Pictures’ The Menu, the biggest challenge was setting the tone for the darkly comic thriller, in which a group of diners travel to a remote island to eat at Hawthorn, an exclusive restaurant run by Ralph Fiennes’ celebrity chef Julian Slowik — a dining experience that comes with some unexpected surprises (not of the gastronomical variety). “Trying to get the tone right… was really about me and the cast just talking a lot, and then the massive benefit of being able to shoot the film almost chronologically,” says Mylod of the movie, a class satire set primarily in the single setting of the Hawthorn dining room. “Everybody’s on set all the time, and you never know quite when the camera’s on you… That…2 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Family Guy Celebrates 400 Episodes How Fox’s outrageous sitcom survived cancellation (thanks, DVDs!) to become a TV mainstaySeth MacFarlane was a 24-year-old Hanna-Barbera animator when Fox bet big on his pitch for Family Guy. Nearly a quarter-century — and one reversed cancellation (thanks to brisk DVD sales) — later, the uproarious and utterly inappropriate Griffins reach 400 episodes in 21 seasons with the Nov. 20 installment, “Get Stewie.” MacFarlane and co-showrunners Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin sat down with THR to commemorate a major Family Guy milestone. The climate has changed so much regarding this kind of humor, and yet you haven’t dulled your edge. How do you get away with it? ALEC SULKIN A lot of the credit goes to our writers, who come up with funny, edgy stuff all the time. And a lot of credit goes to Rich, who, with his legal background, is…4 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Rom-Coms Turned Cannibalistic in Eating RaoulThe Nov. 18 release of Bones and All — from director Luca Guadagnino and starring Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell — is not Hollywood’s first foray into cannibalistic romance. In 2007, Tim Burton brought Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd to the screen, with Johnny Depp portraying the vengeful titular barber and Helena Bonham Carter playing his love interest Mrs. Lovett, who helps turn his victims into meat pies. Before that, there was Eating Raoul, a sleeper comedy hit from 1982. Raoul was the brainchild of Paul Bartel. After studying film and theater at UCLA, Bartel got his start in Hollywood working for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. Corman paid Bartel $5,000 to direct 1975’s Death Race 2000, which starred David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone and became a cult favorite. “In…2 min
The Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022‘Cauldrons of Insecurity’: TV News Belt-Tightening BeginsThe afternoon email hit some inside CNN like a ton of bricks. The cable news channel, now under Warner Bros. Discovery (its second owner in just a few years) was going to face budget cuts and layoffs. “There is widespread concern over the global economic outlook, and we must factor that risk into our long-term planning,” CNN CEO Chris Licht wrote in a late-October memo. At a network town hall on Nov. 15, Licht confirmed to moderator Alisyn Camerota that layoffs will hit the division in December. Those cuts are part of an industrywide pivot, as media giants prepare for a difficult winter, seeking to reduce costs however they can. And news divisions will not be spared. At Disney, CEO Bob Chapek sent a memo to division leaders Nov. 11…5 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022The PlaylistSeema Kumar, formerly vp advertising tech at WarnerMedia, joins Audacy as senior vp ad platforms days after the publicly traded audio giant missed quarterly revenue expectations, citing ad “headwinds.” Google is allowing Spotify Android users to select whether to use Spotify or Google Play to process subscription payments, allowing Spotify to keep a larger cut of sub revenue. Your move, Apple. Sounds Like a Cult, the podcast from Isa Medina and Amanda Montell, is getting a new home with Exactly Right Media, the network created by hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark.…1 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022BUFFETT DOUBLES DOWN ON PARAMOUNT: IS HE BETTING ON A SALE?Warren Buffett is upping the ante on Paramount. The famed investor’s firm, Berkshire Hathaway, has increased its stake in Paramount Global, led by CEO Bob Bakish, in recent months, according to a filing Berkshire made with the SEC on Nov. 14. Berkshire now owns more than 91 million Class B shares in Paramount, making it the largest outside investor, holding about 15 percent of the company’s Class B stock, worth about $1.7 billion as of market close. Paramount is controlled via its Class A shares by National Amusements, the holding firm run by Shari Redstone. But the significant investment by Buffett is sure to attract further attention. The mogul first revealed that he had bought into Paramount in May, when he disclosed a stake of about 75 million shares, valued…2 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Jesse EisenbergJesse Eisenberg is a bit embarrassed to be here. It’s not because of the quality of the project he’s promoting — his new miniseries, Fleishman Is in Trouble, is based on Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s bestselling 2019 novel, which was longlisted for the National Book Award. Rather, it’s the sheer fact that, as the face of this project, or any project for that matter, he’s the subject of interest from other people. “I’m so embarrassed that I’m a public person in the first place,” he says. The story follows a divorce between Toby (Eisenberg) and Rachel Fleishman (Claire Danes), narrated by Toby’s friend Libby (Lizzy Caplan). Viewers are shown all the ways in which a wealth-obsessed wife has antagonized her altruistic husband, before the other side of the story is revealed. It…3 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Rambling ReporterHow to Play a Cannibal in 100-Plus Questions Michael Stuhlbarg says his first gig working for Luca Guadagnino, on 2017’s Call Me by Your Name, was “so buoyant, magical, fun, moving and really singular” that when the Italian auteur came calling with another part, it was an instant yes. The new film, the cannibalism-themed Bones and All, once again casts him opposite Timothée Chalamet. And, again, Stuhlbarg had lots of questions. Like, a lot. “Michael sent me and [screenwriter David Kajganich] something like a hundred questions, probably more than a hundred, in preparation for the character,” Guadagnino said at the recent AFI Fest premiere. The queries might make more sense after seeing Stuhlbarg’s turn as a mullet-sporting “eater” in a particularly creepy scene set around a campfire and a case…3 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Hitched, Hatched, HiredWeddings Homeland actress Mickey O’Hagan married Randall Rothenberg, a former New York Times columnist and media reporter and current executive chair of global trade association IAB, on Oct. 1 at the Century Association in Manhattan. Births Lauren Roseman Schwartz, senior vp late night and specials communications at NBC, and Michael Schwartz, director of product strategy at Moody’s Corp., welcomed Jesse Elliott Schwartz on Sept. 19. Screenwriter Elyse Hollander and John Zaozirny, a producer and head of management company Bellevue Productions, welcomed Lily Katherine Zaozirny on Aug. 30 at Cedars-Sinai. Congrats Krista Smith was promoted to head of publishing at Netflix on Nov. 7. Jessica Sibley was tapped as CEO of Time magazine, effective Nov. 21. Former Universal and StudioCanal exec Isabelle Stewart was named head of original content for Formula…2 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022How Stylistic Restraint Unleashed Powerful Moments in TárGerman cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister created what he describes as an “authentic, intimate observation” and gave Cate Blanchett “editorial power” in lensing a crucial moment in Todd Field’s contemporary drama Tár, which stars Blanchett as fictional composer, conductor and EGOT winner Lydia Tár. The Focus Features film follows the maestro in a downward spiral, and Hoffmeister’s cinematography — which will be in competition at the Nov. 12-19 EnergaCamerimage cinematography festival in Toru?, Poland — employed a visual style that was a lot about restraint. “If you want to create a world that feels so real that it’s immersive, the visuality has to be authentic,” says the DP. “Todd would emphasize the idea of observation. For example, in the big concert hall for all the rehearsals, he was adamant that it should…3 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022How Being a ‘Combat Filmmaker’ Helped Create The InspectionWhile making The Inspection, Elegance Bratton and his filmmaking team had to contend with shooting during the Mississippi summer in 100-degree-plus heat and a mid-production COVID shutdown that resulted in a four-month hiatus and a loss of a week’s worth of production days, straining an already tight timeline. “Filmmaking requires a lot of focus, but at the end of the day, I’ve been through much worse,” says the director, who previously earned acclaim with Pier Kids, his 2019 documentary. “I just remind myself: Twenty years ago, you were in a homeless shelter; however difficult this may be right now, it’s not as difficult as what you came from to get here.” A24’s The Inspection, partially inspired by Bratton’s experience in the Marine Corps, follows Ellis French (Jeremy Pope), a homeless…6 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Fleishman Is in TroubleThere’s almost a tradition, when approaching divorce in popular fiction, to treat the end of a marriage as a mystery, a whodunit. It’s usually a trick question. Assigning blame in some divorces is a breeze, but in your typical marital-demise mystery, there will ultimately be a parade of shared complicity, Agatha Christie-style. Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s 2019 novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble, is partially a divorce whodunit with a very Jewish, Upper East Side accent. But it’s just as much an exploration of the divorce whodunit genre: a deconstruction of blame and recriminations and unhappiness at a certain age. On the page, while I loved Brodesser-Akner’s prose and her imperfect characters, I found the structure of the whodunit stifling and inevitable. Brodesser-Akner’s new eight-episode Fleishman limited series, produced by FX for Hulu,…5 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022THE GRIFFINS, STILL GOING STRONG: FAMILY GUY MVPs LOOK BACKALEX BORSTEIN Lois How did you get cast as Lois? I was working on MADtv, which was developed by Leslie Kolins Small, who at the same time was shepherding Seth with Family Guy. Originally, they thought Family Guy was going to be interstitials during MADtv. I did the pilot presentation. I met Seth and went in the booth and just started doing this voice. It was inspired by my cousin in Long Island but was slowah… and lowah. What’s your all-time favorite episode? Impossible to answer. I will say one we did recently, [season 21’s] “The Munchurian Candidate,” made me laugh so hard. Lois and Peter’s love life is stalled, and Lois would like him to pleasure her in a certain way. So they go to a therapist, who gives…3 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022‘At a Certain Point, You Cross Over From Cynicism to Appreciation’Ryan Reynolds on his Cinematheque AwardRyan Reynolds recently took an entire year off from acting, but he’s ending 2022 with a bang. On Nov. 18, audiences will be able to see him onscreen opposite Will Ferrell in Spirited, the musical from Apple TV+ that’s loosely based on A Christmas Carol; he’s shooting the John Krasinski-directed comedy If for Paramount; and on Nov. 17, he’ll become the 36th recipient of the prestigious American Cinematheque Award. He’s certainly earned the honor. The actor’s movies have amassed north of $5 billion at the global box office, led by the Deadpool franchise. More recently, Reynolds — who also owns several ventures, including the production and marketing company Maximum Effort — starred in and produced one of the biggest theatrical hits of the pandemic era, 20th Century’s Free Guy, which…4 min
The Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Specialty Films Forced to Take More RisksAfter opening in two theaters in December 2017, Guillermo del Toro’s Searchlight drama The Shape of Water never played in more than 1,000 locations until its ninth weekend, after picking up 13 Academy Award nominations. Searchlight, like other specialty and indie distributors, has for decades relied on what’s known as a platform release to nurture art house titles. Now, the traditional platform model is an endangered species after consumer behavior changed in the pandemic era — particularly among older moviegoers — and two high-profile cinemas catering to indie fare closed in Los Angeles: the ArcLight Hollywood and the Landmark on the Westside. This year’s Oscar contenders are expanding more quickly because limited runs aren’t producing the sorts of grosses they previously did. But if a movie doesn’t capture a broad…2 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Halloween Ends, Debate Doesn’tHalloween Ends put Peacock on Nielsen’s streaming charts for the first time — and those charts shed light on the choice to debut it day-and-date. The movie grossed $41.2 million from theaters during its Oct. 14-16 bow while racking up 717 million minutes of viewing from paying users on the NBCU platform — equal to more than 6.4 million full showings of the film. The streaming figure is a big win for Peacock, which trails its rivals significantly in subscriber count (it has only 15 million paid subs). But opening box office returns were estimated at $50 million, so some viewers seem to have opted for the couch rather than the theater.…1 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Dominique Crenn’s Haute Cuisine for The MenuThey were not prop dishes. They were curated at the level of a three-Michelin-star restaurant,” explains chef Dominique Crenn of the food served onscreen in Searchlight Pictures’ new dark comedy The Menu. The renowned chef behind San Francisco’s Atelier Crenn was sent the screenplay for Mark Mylod’s film when the production was looking for a consultant who could help them nail the creation of Hawthorn, the film’s remote fine-dining restaurant where guests pay $1,250 a head. Crenn, the only female chef in the United States with three Michelin stars, helped the filmmakers bring to life the dishes as described in the script as authentically as possible, while also making tweaks that would be accurate to the story’s setting of an island in the Pacific Northwest. She helped fill the screen…3 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022Red CarpetWill Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, Octavia Spencer, Tracy Morgan, Sunita Mani, Patrick Page, Marlow Barkley, Aimee Carrero, Andrea Anders and Jen Tullock walked the red carpet in NYC on Nov. 7 for the premiere of their Apple original film Spirited, which puts a musical comedy spin on Charles Dickens’ classic story A Christmas Carol. “So much of what I’ve learned as I’ve grown older, and I’m grateful for, is it’s OK to suck at something at first in order to be good at it; if you’re willing to do that, you can do some pretty fun, incredible things. I’m not a natural singer and dancer, by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel like I got as close to a black belt in adequate as I could to get through…1 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022INVENTING KEKELauren Palmer was 15 years old when she set out on a seven-night Nickelodeon cruise of the Mexican Riviera. This was 2009, the apex of popularity for the actress’ teen sitcom True Jackson, VP, and the only condition placed on an all-inclusive vacation for her entire family was that she spend a few hours signing autographs on the lido deck. She’d been looking forward to the break. But as the ship drifted from Los Angeles to Puerto Vallarta, its young passengers mainlining sugar and getting slimed in the branded photo booths, Palmer rarely strayed from her cabin. “I felt like I was walking around in a SpongeBob suit that I couldn’t take off,” she says. “I was trapped. I couldn’t leave my room without someone coming up to me calling…12 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022THE FARTING CORPSE GUYS ARE SO MUCH MOREDaniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert talk a lot about worst-case scenarios. For Everything Everywhere All at Once, the duo’s latest buzzy feature, they considered all contingencies. “Worst-case scenario,” starts Kwan. “If Michelle Yeoh says no, we’re going to cut the budget to a tenth of what it was and we’re going to hire my mom.” Their calculus of self-regulation was present while planning their debut, Swiss Army Man — a bizarro buddy comedy that would star Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano. Kwan figured, “Worst-case scenario, if no one’s going to be in it, we’ll be in it.” And if they couldn’t find any money, says Scheinert, “Worst-case scenario, we were just going to shoot it in the L.A. River.” This personal negotiation tactic marks a career built by troubleshooting, battling…6 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022A New Kind of Stage Presence“Permanence was a new reckoning,” says Lila Neugebauer of directing Apple’s soulful film Causeway. The 37-year-old director had made a name for herself in New York in the past decade for helming acclaimed off-Broadway plays like Annie Baker’s The Antipodes, Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves and Tracy Letts’ Mary Page Marlowe before making her Broadway debut with a 2018 production of Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery — which earned a Tony nomination for best revival of a play and won stage and screen veteran Elaine May her only Tony, for best actress in a play. Neugebauer was comfortable in that medium — she says that theater “is invested in its own fragility and ephemerality. It’s expiring in front of you in real time.” But Hollywood was already calling: In 2018, she…5 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022The Santa ClausesThat the Christmas spirit is no longer what it once was is the discontent at the heart of Disney+’s The Santa Clauses, which sees Tim Allen’s Santa pondering retirement after nearly three decades on the job. But was it ever? This is a franchise that began — in the 1994 film The Santa Clause — with a bitterly divorced salesman killing Santa the night before Christmas. Its spun-sugar holiday magic has always been askew — and with the latest addition from creator Jack Burditt, it’s taken on a distinctly sour taste. Here is a Santa who gripes that “Saying ‘Merry Christmas to all’ has suddenly become problematic” and huffs at the idea that deeming a kid too naughty for presents is “brat-shaming.” He’s taken aback to realize that the adorable…3 minThe Hollywood Reporter|November 16, 2022‘I Paved the Way, but With My Blood’A Dry White Season’s trailblazing director Euzhan Palcy at last gets her due — and an honorary Oscar to go with itI told Ava DuVernay, who is a dear friend,” says Euzhan Palcy, “‘Ava — you call me the goddess. You call me the queen. But you know what? It’s hard to be a pioneer. It’s hard.’” Palcy would know. At 64, the Martinique-born director — a trailblazer who won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival with her first feature, 1983’s Sugar Cane Alley, then directed Marlon Brando to an Oscar nomination in 1989’s A Dry White Season — has spent decades seeing her dream projects fall apart. “The leads were Black,” explains Palcy, sipping on a smoothie on the sunny terrace of a rental home in Culver City. (Her permanent home is in Paris.) “And certain [protagonists] were Black and female, like Bessie Coleman. They didn’t like that.…3 min
