What's news: Filmmakers of color struggle despite Sundance success, Sonic booming to $45 million at the box office, what's next for Parasite ep Miky Lee, China's film industry hopes for coronavirus bailout, a new E3 takes shape, Colin Kaepernick strikes an Audible deal, Aladdin 2 is in the works, TV pilot season by the numbers. Plus: Hollywood's "heiress" hoaxer, and Jeff Bezos buys the most expensive home in L.A. --Alex Weprin

 Sundance Inclusion Gap

►Filmmakers of color struggle despite Sundance success: "A white guy would always land the job." Even amid an industry push for inclusion, capitalizing on festival notoriety can be a steep climb for underrepresented directors, Piya Sinha-Roy reports.

Quote: "In 2014, two young filmmakers garnered buzz at Sundance, thanks to award-winning first features. One was Damien Chazelle, who stormed the fest with his tense drama Whiplash, which won the audience and jury awards; the other was Justin Simien, whose searing satire Dear White People nabbed the special jury award for breakthrough talent. Their post-Sundance trajectories are emblematic of Hollywood’s struggle to be inclusive."

"Chazelle went on to direct two big-budget features, La La Land and First Man, and win an Oscar; numerous film and TV projects are in the works. Meanwhile, Simien waited six years for his big-screen follow-up. 'It seems to happen to white guys a little more, where you have a moment at Sundance and then immediately get that directing gig on a big TV show or big Hollywood movie,' says Simien. 'That was not an option on the table at the meetings I was taking, but I can’t say I was surprised.'" The story.

►Box office: Filmmaker Jeff Fowler's Sonic the Hedgehog hopes to boom loudly over Presidents Day weekend with a four-day debut in the $45 million to $50 million range. The adventure pic, based on Sega's video game about the world's speediest hedgehog, is easily expected to race ahead of a crowded pack of films and top the long four-day holiday frame. The preview.



+Review: Sonic The Hedgehog. John DeFore reviews the live-action animation hybrid, writing that "Sonic offers Jim Carrey in a performance almost as full-tilt as those of his mid-'90s heyday."

Quote: "The production may have riled the internet months ago, with furor over the look of its first trailer sending FX crews back to work on a character redesign; but what's made it to the screen is light-hearted fun unlikely to offend anyone." The review.

►Parasite exec producer Miky Lee's post-Oscars strategy: More "edgy, diversified content." The CJ Group vice chair and godmother of Korean entertainment reflects on a historic night, and what comes next, in an interview with Rebecca Sun.

Quote: "This Academy moment is getting people really interested in Korean content. People say, 'My friends always talk about this Korean TV drama on Netflix or somewhere. This is why he or she was talking about it so passionately.' Now they're gonna look into all this content that they've been hearing about. This is a really good opportunity right now. We have to strategize and prioritize." The interview.

►Academy Museum "will not shy" from Hollywood's messy history, new director says. On the eve of a new, $100 million bond offering and 11 months from the institution's opening day, Bill Kramer tells Rebecca Keegan that he expects the institution to be financially independent within three to five years. The interview.

►China's film industry hopes for bailouts as coronavirus crisis worsens. Total ticket revenue in China over the past 20 days has totaled just $3.9 million, compared to $1.52 billion during the same stretch last year. Local film players now believe drastic government action could be necessary to save many companies, Patrick Brzeski reports. The story.

 A New E3

►ESA president talks E3 absences, tech giants entering gaming and unionization. In an interview with Patrick Shanley, Stanley Pierre-Louis offered his thoughts on various issues facing gaming — and his organization — including advocating for the industry in Washington, how Apple and Google affect video game studios and what the future of E3 may look like. The interview.

►Former Myspace mogul Chris DeWolfe reflects on mobile gaming's future. In a Creative Space interview, Jam City's co-founder and CEO weighs in on his company's collaboration with Disney and why social media companies are his biggest competition. The interview.

In other gaming news...

--Disney is opening its vault to leading video game creatives. Onstage at the 2020 DICE Summit at the Aria Convention Center in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sean Shoptaw, senior vp, games and interactive experiences at Disney, gave an update on the studio's new approach to video game licensing.

--Tim Sweeney, CEO and co-founder of Fortnite maker Epic Games, took the stage at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas where he gave his thoughts on the future of the games industry and warned against "customer adversarial" business practices.

--Geoff Keighley, the creator and host of The Game Awards, will skip this year's E3 convention in Los Angeles.



^Colin Kaepernick strikes deal with Audible for upcoming memoir. Through his Kaepernick Publishing, the activist and former NFL player will create original audio projects for Audible that focus on amplifying the voices of authors, creators and other public figures. Kaepernick's upcoming memoir, which he will self-publish through Kaepernick Publishing in partnership with Melcher Media and with distribution by Two Rivers Distribution, will take readers through the life experiences that led him to risk his career as a quarterback in the NFL by kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality against black people. The story.

►TV pilot season by the numbers: Total volume plunges (again). Overall pilot orders at the five broadcast networks is down sharply for the second year in a row as volume dipped to its lowest mark since at least 2012, Lesley Goldberg reports. Collectively, ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW ordered 54 new dramas and comedies as three of the five broadcast networks have reduced the number of formal pilot orders. The story.

+The Goonies re-enactment drama nabs Fox pilot pickup. Fox has handed out a pilot order to an untitled drama about a substitute teacher who, with three students, attempts to re-enact The Goonies. The Bold Type and Parenthood alum Sarah Watson will pen the script for the project, which hails from Warner Bros. TV, Fox's content accelerator SideCar and Amblin TV. More.

+Broadcast TV scorecard 2020: What's new, renewed and canceled (so far). Keep up with which scripted dramas and comedies are returning (or ending) with THR's handy guide to the 2020-21 TV season. Bookmark it here.

 Aladdin is getting ready for another magic carpet ride. A sequel to the 2019 blockbuster is in the the works at Disney, with the studio hiring scribes John Gatins (Flight, Real Steel) and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton, The Kitchen) to plot the new course. Guy Ritchie is set to return to the director's chair, while Will Smith, Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott are expected to reprise their roles as Genie, Aladdin and Jasmine, respectively. The story.

Elsewhere in film...

--Awkwafina is set to star in SK Global’s The Baccarat Machine, which follows the most successful female gambler in modern history, Cheung Yin “Kelly” Sun, and her unlikely partnership with legendary poker player Phil Ivey.

--Saban Films has picked up the North American rights to Calm With Horses, executive produced by Michael Fassbender.

--Parkland shootings spark four new feature-length documentaries.

--Canadian exhibition giant Cineplex on Wednesday posted lower fourth-quarter earnings as deal costs associated with its pending merger with Regal owner Cineworld weighed on its bottom line.

--Visual effects pioneer Digital Domain has opened its ninth worldwide studio in Montreal, lured to the Canadian province by local talent, generous tax breaks and other incentives.

--The Athena Film Festival has revealed more of its lineup — including screenings of Frozen 2 and Little Women and a panel with the Silence Breakers who've accused Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men in the entertainment industry of sexual misconduct — and its plans to honor Beanie Feldstein, Effie T. Brown and others at its 10th annual festival.

 Hollywood's 'Heiress' Hoaxer

►The Hollywood producer, the "heiress" and a very personal quest for justice. When American Ninja Warrior producer Johnathan  Walton began to suspect his best friend — whom he'd loaned nearly $70,000 — was not the royal she claimed, he launched an investigation that uncovered dozens of alleged victims, Katie Kilkenny reports.

Quote: "Like many creators and wannabes in entertainment, 'Mair' was boastful and prone to exaggeration, while her marks were too accustomed to white lies to suspect hers might be insidious. Smyth's run in L.A. demonstrates the strange parallels between con artist and Hollywood creator, performer and professional liar. Her underestimation of the storytellers who became her marks, however, also proved to be her downfall." The story.

►Sky U.K. content chief on how Comcast is fueling its TV ambitions. Zai Bennett, managing director, content at Sky U.K., is overseeing the programming strategy that has focused on providing something to watch for different kinds of Sky users and on expanding commissions to double Sky's investment in originals by 2024.

--In a conversation with THR ahead of the slate unveiling at a Wednesday evening event at London's Tate Modern, Bennett discussed how Comcast's $40 billion acquisition of Sky in late 2018 and Brexit have affected his team's content strategy, why Sky U.K. is boosting its U.S. programming volume by 40 percent while betting on Britishness, his take on the Peak TV debate and why big Hollywood and British stars remain important for Sky. The interview.

+Sky U.K. unveiled its 2020 programming slate, saying it was its largest ever, including 80 originals, up 25 percent from 2018, and a 40 percent increase in U.S. content. More.

+Study reveals "mental health crisis" in U.K. film, TV industries. According to research commissioned by the Film and TV Charity, 87 percent of people working in British cinema and television have experienced a mental health problem, which has prompted an urgent action plan and industry-led task force. More.

Elsewhere in TV...

--Inkoo Kang reviews the Netflix comedy Gentefied.

--Epix has handed out a second-season renewal to its Forest Whitaker-led crime drama Godfather of Harlem. The news arrives two months after the series wrapped its freshman run.

--After days of blistering criticism, Snoop Dogg has finally apologized to Gayle King for attacking her over her interview with former basketball star Lisa Leslie about the late Kobe Bryant.

--"It's time for a female voice": Meet the new host of The Soup.

--Ratings: A live episode of The Conners delivered the show's biggest same-day audience of the season Tuesday. ABC also got decent ratings from the premiere of For Life, which topped the 10 p.m. hour in adults 18-49. Also: Here's Robyn Bahr's review of the live Conners episode.



^Jeff Bezos buys Warner estate from David Geffen for record $165 million. The reported figure would eclipse the $150 million that Lachlan Murdoch paid in December for the Bel Air estate known as Chartwell as the largest sale in Los Angeles County history. More.

►Two months after Recording Academy released its diversity and inclusion task force report, top officials measure progress. Billboard checked in with Harvey Mason Jr., chair of the board of trustees and interim CEO of the Academy, and Laura Segura Mueller, vp membership and industry relations, for an update on progress that has been made in the two months since the summary was posted. More.

 Fox News is suing anonymous individuals behind two website domains for cybersquatting — and using its famous brand to hawk dietary supplements. The network alleges those sites — xofnews.com and foxnews-entertainment.com — violate federal laws prohibiting cybersquatting, trademark counterfeiting, trademark infringement and copyright infringement. The story.

►Spotify to pay as much as $195 million for Bill Simmons' The Ringer. The company previously paid nearly $400 million to purchase a trio of podcasting companies. More.

►Bernie's Hollywood endorsement. Bernie Sanders, fresh off an energizing victory in the New Hampshire primary, was endorsed Wednesday by Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians, the union’s Los Angeles local representing over 7,000 musicians who work in film, television and other sectors. It is the only Hollywood labor endorsement of a 2020 presidential candidate so far. The story.

►Two years after THR first revealed plans for a Mighty Ducks TV series, the news is official. Disney+ has tapped Gilmore Girls favorite Lauren Graham and Good Boys breakout Brady Noon to star in a new, 10-episode half-hour comedy take on The Mighty Ducks. The story.

+Casting roundup: Rick Moranis will appear in Disney's upcoming reboot of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids... John Carroll Lynch has joined the cast of ABC's David E. Kelley drama The Big Sky... Oscar-winner Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson and Peter Sarsgaard are toplining The Lost Daughter, a psychological drama written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal... Michael B. Jordan is the latest A-lister to join David O. Russell's new drama... Martin Freeman and Alex Karpovsky will recur in Peacock's Angelyne limited series...

Revolving door: John Cameron has signed an overall deal with Endeavor Content and Chernin Entertainment... Tracy Underwood has been promoted to a newly created position of exec vp creative affairs at ABC Studios... Scenario Communications has hired senior public relations strategists Jennifer Reed and Molly Kukla to launch and oversee a TV and entertainment division at the company...

Awards Chatter podcast: In this episode, Neon's Tom Quinn, the U.S. distributor of this year's best picture Oscar winner Parasite reflects on morphing from an actor into a publicist into an executive, his 14-year relationship with Bong Joon Ho and making history together. Listen.

What else we're reading...

--"Coming soon to a screen near you: Shows inspired by a magazine story" [WSJ]

--"A thorn in YouTube's side digs in even deeper" [NY Times]

--"Sanders joins Trump in telling the media to go to hell" [Politico]

--"Juul bought ads appearing on Cartoon Network and other youth sites, suit claims" [NY Times]

--"Roku tries brinkmanship in the streaming wars" [The Information]

Today's birthdays: Peter Gabriel, 70, Maud Adams, 75, Stockard Channing, 76, Jerry Springer, 76, Kim Novak, 87.