Today In Entertainment

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

What's news: The backstory behind The Comey Rule, the 20-year journey of Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of The Chicago 7, why the pandemic is giving some filmmakers pause about theatrical releases, the perils of shooting amid a pandemic, a nw Ruth Bader Ginsberg documentary is being shopped. Plus: ViacomCBS rebrands Paramount Network, and Disney's parks chief asks California to "help us reopen." --Alex Weprin

 'The Trial of the Chicago 7'

➤On the cover: The long journey and intense urgency of Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7. The director of the Netflix film, which stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Redmayne and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, reveals why it took nearly 20 years to get the project about the politically motivated prosecution of protestors made and why it couldn't be more timely: "I never imagined today would go so much like 1968."

--"The film hit multiple roadblocks, beginning with the 2007-08 writers strike and continuing as financing faltered repeatedly, a fate illustrated by the more than 30 producers who can claim some sort of credit on Chicago 7. It took another unscheduled detour this summer after Sorkin finished it as the pandemic worsened, and the odds of original distributor Paramount mounting a successful theatrical release before the Nov. 3 election seemed increasingly slim.

For some involved with the film, there is a question about the ethics of Hollywood inviting audiences to return to theaters before a COVID-19 vaccine is widely available. "There’s a moral quandary, that we, the motion picture business, have to be careful that we don’t become the tobacco industry, where we’re encouraging people to do something we know is potentially lethal," says Cohen.

--"[Steven] Spielberg has remained involved in the film 'in an emeritus role,' Sorkin says, 'from giving me good script notes to casting to notes on early cuts of the film.' He also showed up to the New Jersey courtroom set. 'When you have to direct a scene in front of Steven Spielberg, you’re not at your most relaxed necessarily,' Sorkin says. Spielberg did not, however, take an executive producing credit on the film and declined to be interviewed about it." The cover story.

+Awards analysis: "From Aaron Sorkin's direction and script to performances by Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Rylance, this timely drama seems likely to connect with a wide variety of Academy members," writes THR awards analyst Scott Feinberg, who says the film "has major Oscar potential." The analysis.

➤Filmmakers: Maybe don't see my movie in theaters right now. Even as U.S. exhibitors are hurting, some directors are saying quietly that they can't encourage audiences to return to cinemas despite safety protocols added during the pandemic, Pamela McClintock reports.

--"More and more filmmakers are having these conversations," says one top studio executive. "There's just so much confusion. And there's a spectrum in terms of comfort level." Adds a counterpart at another major: "I'm hoping we'll be in a better place in November and December." (A mid-September National Research Group poll showed that roughly half of moviegoers remained nervous about sitting in a theater.) The story.

 What It Took To Get 'The Comey Rule' On-Air

➤Inside the dramatic showdown to get Showtime's politically explosive The Comey Rule on the air. Why the James Comey miniseries both wowed and terrified buyers, wooed and then infuriated star Jeff Daniels, and now has its showrunner bracing for big blowback from Trump: "I'm almost certainly going to get audited, and that's the best-case scenario," Billy Ray tells Lacey Rose.

--"The thing I was concerned about is [whether this is] just going to be a diatribe, an apology, a love letter to James Comey," says CBS chief creative officer David Nevins, a political junkie who was running only Showtime back then. And while it was Ray who drove the pitch — a masterful 43 minutes, according to several who heard it — he’d cede the floor to Comey at the end of every presentation to field questions like Nevins'.

--"Listen, if Billy had sat in my dressing room that day and said, 'You get to play Jim Comey and, good news, we’re going to release it after the election, when it’s irrelevant,' I would’ve passed. Everyone I worked with would’ve passed," says Daniels. "And it’s not like, 'Let’s get Trump.' It’s, 'Let’s be part of the conversation, let’s matter,' so that people who are out there voting — in particular, the ones in the middle, if they still exist — might see this and go, 'Now wait a minute.' " The story.

➤A new Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary from Hollywood heavyweights is screening for buyers. The film, Ruth, was cowritten (with Mike Aguilar) and directed by 1995 Oscar winner Freida Lee Mock, and counts a variety of industry heavyweights among its executive producers — among them 2020 Primetime Emmy nominee Geralyn Dreyfous; 2012 Daytime Emmy winner Sandra Lee; philanthropist and two-time Primetime Emmy nominee Regina K. Scully; activist and philanthropist Barbara Dobkin; and Cara Kennedy Cuomo, one of New York governor Andrew Cuomo's daughters. The story.

+Also: In tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg's life, Focus Features and Magnolia Pictures are teaming to rerelease On the Basis of Sex and the Oscar-nominated documentary RBG in theaters. More.

➤Disney Parks chief to California Governor: "Help us reopen." Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences & Products, did not mince words during his time as he closed out an investor presentation. "Help us reopen," he said, addressing the state. "We need guidelines that are fair and equitable." He went on to say that the "longer we wait" the more "damage" would be done economically to the local economy and furloughed employees. The story. 

 Pandemic Productions

➤Lights, camera … COVID! The perils of shooting amid a pandemic. As film and TV production resumes after the novel coronavirus lockdown, uncertainty about industrywide safety protocols has led to chaos, but insiders say Hollywood is quickly adapting to the new normal, Bryn Elise Sandberg reports: "Everyone's trying to figure it out at the same time."

--"[Jurassic World: Dominion's] cast and crew are not only staying in a nearby hotel bought out by the studio in an effort to maintain a quarantine bubble, they're also tested three times a week. To date, the production has processed a whopping 27,000 COVID-19 tests over the course of the shoot (the hotel staff is tested, too). At roughly $100 a pop, that's close to $3 million on testing alone. 'Universal never blinked,' says [producer Patrick] Crowley. 'They said, 'You've got to do what you've got to do.'" The story.

➤Farewell, Paramount Network. The ViacomCBS cable channel will change its name to Paramount Movie Network in 2021 — and as a result, transition away from most of its ongoing series (other than flagship Yellowstone) in favor of original movies and a handful of short-run scripted shows per year.

--The new name will roll out worldwide early next year. The network will aim to have one original movie per week, plus quarterly limited series or series on the scale of Yellowstone. That show's recently wrapped third season became the most watched show on ad-supported cable in 2019-20, passing AMC's The Walking Dead. The story.

In other TV news...

+Supergirl is taking one last flight. The CW announced Tuesday that its Melissa Benoist-led Arrow spinoff Supergirl will conclude with its upcoming sixth season. The final season, which is slated to return to production later this month in Vancouver, will consist of 20 episodes and premiere in 2021. The new season of Supergirl is not part of The CW's "fall" schedule in January; it will arrive whenever midseason 2021 is for the network. The move was designed to allow production to resume after leading lady Benoist returned from maternity leave. The story.

+Patricia Arquette and Ben Stiller are continuing their creative partnership. Arquette will star in a comedy series called High Desert for Apple TV+, with Stiller set to direct the first episode. Both will be executive producers of the show, which the tech giant has ordered to series. More.

+Liv Tyler has opted out of season two of Fox's 911: Lone Star. The actress, who had a multiple-year deal for the Fox procedural, will not return to the Tim Minear drama amid issues related to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Tyler had previously commuted from London to Los Angeles, where the Austin-set series is filmed. The story.

+Starz is locking in the first spinoff of its signature franchise. The premium cable outlet has renewed Power Book II: Ghost for a second season. The pickup comes three weeks after the spinoff premiered and following a strong performance across Starz platforms. More.

+The Voice judge Blake Shelton is branching out into scripted programming at NBC. The country music star is teaming with The Fast and the Furious writer Gary Scott Thompson for a drama based on his song "God's Country." The Universal TV project has a script commitment at the network. More.

➤A new report examining the portrayal of immigrant characters and storylines on television has found that the industry still has a long way to go. In partnership with the Norman Lear Center at USC Annenberg, leading non-profit media advocacy organization Define American released its second-annual “Change the Narrative, Change the World” report. This year’s study found that while immigrant portrayals on TV have improved marginally since 2018, there’s still significant work to be done to achieve more accurate onscreen representation. More.

➤Some news about The Hollywood Reporter: THR parent company MRC and Penske Media are forming a pair of new joint ventures. One new venture, called PMRC, will house THR, Variety, Billboard, Vibe and Rolling Stone. The second joint venture will be content-focused, and will see MRC adapting the IP of the brands for TV, film and other mediums. More here.

➤The Time 100: This year's list includes Jimmy Kimmel writing about Dr. Anthony Fauci, John Legend writing about Dwyane Wade, Oprah Winfrey writing about Tyler Perry, Kim Kardashian-West writing about JoJo Siwa, Chrissy Teigen writing about Ali Wong, and many, many more. The list.

➤TV reviews: Inkoo Kang reviews Apple TV+'s Tehran... Daniel Fienberg reviews Showtime's The Good Lord Bird...

➤A TikTok update: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison was supposed to be interviewed by Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business this morning. He canceled, but not before telling Bartiromo that in the proposed deal Americans will make up four out of five board members for TikTok, with Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son being the fifth.

Revolving door: Derek Hough has signed an overall deal with ABC Entertainment, under which he will host and develop specials and entertainment programming for the broadcast network... Toby Haynes, the television director known for the celebrated space-themed Black Mirror episode "USS Callister," will direct on Disney+'s Rogue One spinoff... WME has signed Eva Longoria away from CAA for representation... Rain Management announced that it has recruited veteran manager Andrea Simon as the firm's newest partner... NBCUniversal has upped longtime diversity and inclusion executive Janine Jones-Clark to evp of inclusion, across talent content, film, television and streaming...

In other news...

--Bradley Cooper has tapped Carey Mulligan to play Felicia, the wife of legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, in his upcoming Netflix musical drama Maestro.

--Monday Night Football celebrated its 50th anniversary on the network where it began, ABC — and got a big ratings bump in the process. A trio of drama premieres on other networks, however, turned in soft showings on the opening night of the 2020-21 TV season.

--The best-selling memoir Not Without Hope is set to be adapted into a documentary feature via Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions.

--Michael Maxxis' Puppy Love was the big winner at the 27th Oldenburg International Film Festival, scooping both the German Independence — Spirit of Cinema honor for best film and the best actress honor for star Paz de la Huerta. 

--Cinemas will not be forced to close early as part of new COVID-19 restrictions in the U.K., where the government has enforced a new series of measures in an effort to contain a second spike of infections.

--Oprah Winfrey has interviewed Mariah Carey many times over the years and they’re set to deliver another installment this week, now for Apple TV+ courtesy of Winfrey’s new streamer series, The Oprah Conversation. 

--Fox Nation has acquired the rights to the documentary Right Makes Might: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates and will debut it on Thursday, September 24th ahead of the first presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle.

--Independent game company Manticore Games has raised $15 million in funding led by Fortnite developer Epic Games.

What else we're reading...

--"NBCUniversal’s cable channels were a crown jewel. Now they’re an ‘albatross.’" [WSJ]

--"2020 bundles" [Stratechery]

--"Billionaires Haim and Cheryl Saban ramp up support for Biden and Democrats in Senate races" [CNBC]

--"Streaming TV is surging, but ads remain on repeat" [WSJ]

--"Despte Dak Prescott backlash, Skip Bayless poised for new TV deal" [Front Office Sports]

Today's birthdays: Bruce Springsteen, 71, Julio Iglesias, 77, Jermaine Dupri, 48, Anthony Mackie, 42, Sean Spicer, 49.

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SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

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