Today In Entertainment

SEPTEMBER 26, 2020

What's news: Netflix responds to GOP concerns over The Three Body Problem, a Mixed-ish lawsuit, Netflix and Apple make major festival deals, APA co-founder Robert Lasky dies at 91. Plus: Black Adam finds its Hawkman, Peter Pan finds its Tinkerbell, Family Guy finds its new Cleveland Brown. --Alex Weprin

 Netflix Defends 'Three Body Problem' Adaptation

➤Netflix responds to GOP senators critique of The Three Body Problem adaptation. The senators had accused the streamer of "normalizing" China's extra-judicial detention of over one million Muslims in Xinjiang, referencing past comments from the books' author Liu Cixin supporting the program.

--Netflix’s vp of global public policy Dean Garfield began his response by informing the legislators that "Netflix does not operate a service in China." The response by Garfield continued in a Q&A format to address concerns, overall noting that while the author of The Three-Body Problem supports the Chinese government'ss inhumane policy, EPs David Benioff and D.B. Weiss as well as Netflix do not share those views. The story.

➤Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam has found its Hawkman. Aldis Hodge, who starred in City on the Hill and appeared in this year’s remake of The Invisible Man, has nabbed the high-flying role of Hawkman in Black Adam and is now in final negotiations to join New Line's action-adventure thriller featuring the DC Comics antihero starring Johnson. The story.

+Warner Bros. is revving Hot Wheels once again. The studio has hired rising screenwriting duo Neil Widener and Gavin James to pen the script for the live-action feature take of the Mattel racing toy brand. More.

+Yara Shahidi will be sprinkling some fairy dust for Disney. Shahidi is set to play Tinkerbell in Disney's live-action Peter Pan redo. She will join Jude Law, who is set to play Captain Hook, and Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson, who will play Peter and Wendy. More.

 In Legal News...

➤A Mixed-ish lawsuit. Actress Hayley Marie Norman is suing ABC, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kenya Barris and others claiming they appropriated a show she'd been pitching and turned it into Black-ish spinoff Mixed-ish.

--Norman says in Oct. 2017 she signed a deal with Big Breakfast to write, executive produce and star in the series. That company shares a parent with Artists First, a production and management company that counts Ross and Barris among its clients. She alleges both Ross and her manager Brian Dobbins were involved in the development of her series and claims Dobbins pitched it to Barris but he wasn't interested. The story.

In other legal news...

+Craig Gore isn't ready to walk away from the controversy that got him fired as a co-executive producer on Law & Order: Organized Crime Bureau, the latest spin-off from NBCUniversal and Dick Wolf. On Friday, Gore filed papers in Los Angeles Superior Court aimed at compelling arbitration with Universal Television. More.

+Comedian Bryan Callen is suing a man who emailed CAA and Innovative Artists urging them to drop him as a client and alleging that he's a serial sexual predator. More.

 'Family Guy' Finds A New Cleveland

➤Fox's Family Guy has found its new Cleveland Brown. YouTuber and voice actor Arif Zahir will take over the role for the Fox animated show's 19th season, which is set to air in the 2021-22 season. Series creator Seth MacFarlane and showrunners Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin announced the casting Friday. More.

Obituary: Robert Lasky, the motion picture attorney and co-founder of the Agency of the Performing Arts who represented such clients as Liberace, Johnny Cash, Brigitte Bardot and Harry Belafonte during his long career, has died. He was 91. Lasky died Sept. 16 of complications from sepsis at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, his family announced.

➤Netflix's festival dealmaking: Netflix had no film titles at the Toronto Film Festival this year but set the tone at the virtual sales market by buying the Zendaya starrer Malcolm & Marie for $30 million, paying $20 million for Halle Berry’s directorial debut, Bruised, and an undisclosed sum for Pieces of a Woman, which stars Shia LaBeouf and The Crown star Vanessa Kirby, after its Venice debut. The story.

+Apple is making deals too: Apple Original Films has picked up Anthony and Joe Russo’s latest movie, Cherry, an addiction and crime drama to star Tom Holland and Ciara Bravo. And early 2021 debut on Apple TV+ is planned. Based on Nico Walker’s debut novel, Cherry portrays a former Army medic who returns from Iraq with extreme undiagnosed PTSD, falls into opioid addiction and begins robbing banks. More.

+Netflix has snatched up another hot French film, acquiring English-language rights in North America, the U.K., Australia/New Zealand, South Africa and the Middle East for DNA, the latest drama by and starring multitalent Maïwenn (Polisse). More.

➤Film review: David Rooney reviews Steve McQueen's Mangrove, writing that "the scene-setting and the vibrant sense of time and place make for an absorbing watch, with indispensable contributions from production designer Helen Scott and costumer Lisa Duncan, their work captured by Kirchner in grainy textures that evoke the era." The review.

In other news...

--The success of Netflix's AOC documentary Knock Down the House has indie distributors looking for other political campaign films with progressive candidates facing insurmountable odds against them. So Gravitas Ventures has picked up the North American rights to Brittany Huckabee’s documentary feature How To Fix A Primary, about a young doctor, Abdul El-Sayed, challenging to become the country's first Muslim governor in Michigan.

--Fans of the Steve Martin comedy Father of the Bride were treated on Friday to "Part 3(ish)," written and directed by Nancy Meyers.

--Nomadland, the Chloe Zhao-directed frontrunner for the best picture Oscar after winning the top prizes at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, will open the eighth annual Middleburg Film Festival on Oct. 15, the northern Virginia-based fest announced Friday.

--Tehran executive producer Dana Eden says on-going U.S.-Iranian diplomatic tensions bode well for global audiences embracing the Israeli, but Iran-set espionage TV thriller from Netflix's Fauda writer Moshe Zonder as it premieres today on AppleTV+.

--A lackluster Thursday Night Football matchup led to the smallest audience for the midweek game in four years. ABC's Celebrity Family Feud and TNT's NBA playoff game were close on the NFL Network's heels.

--Discovery has extended the tenure of Gunnar Wiedenfels as CFO through April 1, 2024. 

--As Vin Diesel navigates 2020 away from the Fast and Furious set, he video chatted Kelly Clarkson on her show Thursday from a recording studio to premiere his debut single "Feel Like I Do" in collaboration with Kygo.

--Disney+ on Friday revealed that a drive-in film festival will open in Santa Monica next month.

--Fortnite maker Epic Games on Friday revealed the acquisition of SuperAwesome, a technology platform that allows developers to create safer digital experiences for children on the internet.

What else we're reading...

--"‘It’s like every red flag’: Trump-ordered HHS ad blitz raises alarms" [Politico]

--"Lorne Michaels isn't sure SNL can pull this off" [NY Times]

--Zooming in: How the COVID-19 pandemic has changed Hollywood’s audition process [LA Times]

--"Can media and tech avoid the Russia trap?" [Vanity Fair]

Today's birthdays: Serena Williams, 39, Bryan Ferry, 75, Nev Schulman, 36, Linda Hamilton, 64, Beto O'Rourke, 48.

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2020

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