Today In Entertainment

OCTOBER 23, 2020

What's news: The final presidential debate, how Hollywood agents are balancing diverse voices and artistic freedom in new projects, streamers redefine family movies, Simon Kinberg signs on to Battlestar Galactica feature, Scarlett Johansson's Bride, Quibi has an end date. Plus: Behind the slump in TV sports ratings, and Darren Star responds to French critics of Emily In Paris. --Alex Weprin

 The Final Debate

➤Thursday's debate between President Trump and former Vice President Biden marked a stark contrast to the first debate earlier this month, and the dueling town halls that NBC and ABC hosted last week. To quote Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, who moderated the first debate: "I'm jealous. I would have liked to have been able to moderate that debate and to get a real exchange of views instead of hundreds of interruptions."

--Some of that may have had to do with the tweaked format and muted microphones, which discouraged interruptions, but a lot of that had to do with the moderator, NBC News anchor and White House correspondent Kristen Welker, who drew bipartisan praise for keeping the candidates on track. "Every single person at NBC News is bursting with pride. Kristen is beloved and admired by all of us and tonight the whole country knows why," NBC News president Noah Oppenheim told Brian Stelter.

--Welker had been the source of attacks by media outlets like the New York Post, which criticized her for attending an Obama White House Christmas party (ignoring that she attended Trump's first party too), and political donations made by her parents. She was also attacked by Trump and his campaign. "She's owed an apology by the president, who attacked her over and over and over again heading into this event tonight," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said.

+Critic's notebook: "One of Trump's most recent favorite stump speech mantras has been that if we elect Biden president, politics will suddenly become boring, and I guess that some generous observers of this debate will interpret it as a preview of that somewhat more boring political future. Why? Because two 70-something white men stood on a stage in Tennessee and neither set themselves on fire... Mazel tovs all around." The notebook.

+On late night: Stephen Colbert was live after the debate, and featured guest Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York...

+Earlier in the day, President Trump released footage from a 60 Minutes interview that he walked out of and has said was "FAKE and BIASED." The president released 37 minutes of the interview on his Facebook page on Thursday, mere hours after CBS released its own clips of the 60 Minutes interviews with Trump and Biden. The full interview is slated for Sunday, after NFL football More.

 A Complex Balancing Act

➤Hollywood agents navigate new complexities of balancing the demand for diverse voices and artistic freedom. As studios seek creators who can tell tales from a personal perspective, unintended consequences can arise, Rebecca Keegan reports: "Some people feel rooted in telling stories about their identity, and some people want to be seen as a filmmaker regardless of their gender and race." The story.

➤Streamers redefine family movies: "We call our films clean teen." Original titles geared toward younger audiences haven't been a theatrical draw for decades, but Disney and Netflix are devoting more resources to a category that still attracts tens of millions of viewers, Mia Galuppo reports. The story.

➤Simon Kinberg has signed on to write and produce a big-screen take of Battlestar Galactica, Universal’s long-gestating feature adaptation of its sci-fi franchise. Kinberg, who was the overarching architect for almost a decade’s worth of X-Men movies, now has a new franchise universe to work with and will be starting from the ground up in telling the tale of humans on faraway planets on the run from a race of intelligent machines bent on wiping them out. The story.

+Scarlett Johansson is set to star in genre-bending feature Bride, a riff on the classic character the Bride of Frankenstein and the latest feature partnership for Apple and A24.

--The logline for Bride reads: a woman created to be an ideal wife— the singular obsession of a brilliant entrepreneur— rejects her creator, and is forced to flee her confined existence, confronting a world that sees her as a monster. It is on the run that she finds her true identity, her surprising power, and the strength to remake herself as her own creation. More.

+Haley Lu Richardson and the filmmakers behind the To All the Boys franchise are teaming for a feature adaptation of The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight. Matt Kaplan and his ACE Entertainment banner will produce the feature, which is set to shoot in London. Along with starring, Richardson is set to executive produce.

--The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight, from author Jennifer E. Smith, is set over a 24-hour period and follows Hadley and Oliver, who begin to fall for each other on their flight from New York to London. More.

 Quibi's Ticking Clock

➤Quibi has an end date: Quibi expects to shut down "on or about Dec. 1," according to a new post on the mobile video startup's customer service page. The message gives subscribers an update on the future of the app following the Wednesday announcement that it would be ceasing operations after failing to gain traction with users. More.

➤TBS has renewed its comedy Miracle Workers, but it's doing so without creator Simon Rich, who is stepping away from the series. The WarnerMedia cable network has picked up a third season of the anthology series, which stars Daniel Radcliffe, Steve Buscemi, Geraldine Viswanathan and Karan Soni. Dan Mirk and Robert Padnick, who worked on the first two seasons of the show, have been upped to showrunners for the coming season. More.

+Behind the slump in TV sports ratings. A crowded menu, cord cutting and other factors have driven individual sports' numbers down, even as overall viewing is fairly stable, Rick Porter writes. The story.

+Just in: A+E Networks will hold a "content showcase" to preview its upcoming programming for media buyers and brands. The 30 minute presentation will be available Oct. 27-30, with multiple viewing options. Talent making appearances will include Tim Allen, Laurence Fishburne, Morgan Freeman, Salt-N-Pepa, Wendy Williams and Robin Roberts. A+E is one of the TV companies that canceled its upfront presentation in the early days of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

➤Emily in Paris creator Darren Star responds to French critics and gives update on Younger spinoff. With his newcomer show in Netflix's top 10, the man behind Sex and the  City and Younger talks about writing for women, ditching broadcast and why he's "not sorry for looking at Paris through a glamorous lens." The interview.

➤Five Feet Apart filmmaker Justin Baldoni sets his own course in Hollywood. The Jane the Virgin actor, who co-founded Wayfarer Studios discusses his new film's journey to Disney+ and his push to have more creative control: "To have a real say is to have ownership." The story.

➤As the American Film Market shifts to an online format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a coalition of top agencies, film sales agents, production companies, and financiers are following the virtual lead.

--A coalition of more than 30 companies have confirmed participation for an online market timed to coincide with AFM from Nov. 9-13. The five-day market is designed to provide buyers access to screenings, footage, filmmaker presentations and other features of a typical market. Sellers and financiers are said to be currently assembling a slate of sales packages and completed films with a calendar being sorted out to accommodate a mix of time zones for those participating in other territories. The story.

➤AFI Fest: 8 contenders on 2020 Indies' challenges and rewards. Riz Ahmed, Rachel Brosnahan, Winston Duke, Julia Garner, Vanessa Kirby, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan and Andy Samberg met virtually with THR's awards analyst Scott Feinberg to talk making low-budget films — and, this year, life, work and film-consumption during a pandemic. More.

➤TV's Top 5 podcast: During this week's podcast, hosts Daniel Fienberg and Lesley Goldberg talk to This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman about how the show will tackle the pandemic, explore Quibi's implosion and are joined by Lacey Rose to discuss the state of Shondaland. Listen.

➤"Who can tell whose stories?" Is the wrong question Hollywood should be asking. In a guest column, deaf filmmaker Delbert Whetter details why the entertainment industry is looking at inclusion the wrong way. "We should be asking not who gets to tell whose stories, but whose voices are going unheard, and what can we do to elevate and amplify those voices. The unfortunate consequence of leaving so little space for authentic voices means that the demand for them is crushed as well, with disastrous results on the talent pipeline in our industry." The column.

Revolving door: BritBox, the U.K. content-focused streaming service launched by BBC Studios and ITV, has promoted Emily Powers to executive vp and head of Britbox North America... Eli Goree, the Riverdale actor who is generating awards heat for his performance in Regina King’s One Night in Miami, has signed with WME for representation in all areas... Paris Hilton has signed with UTA in all areas...

Casting roundup: Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the latest star to join the assassin action thriller Bullet Train... Rosario Dawson has joined the A-list cast of Dopesick, Hulu's limited series about the opioid crisis... Apple has set the cast and directors for its multilingual international drama Pachinko, based on the novel by Min Jin Lee...

➤News on the home front: MRC and Penske Media Corporation on Thursday unveiled a new joint venture to bring together their respective data businesses. The newly formed company combines MRC Data (formerly Nielsen Music), Alpha Data and Variety Business Intelligence, with MRC and PMC sharing equal ownership and control. More.

➤TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews the HBO docuseries How To with John Wilson, writing that the show ultimately occupies a strange space between the partially scripted oddness of Nathan For You and the wholly scripted experimentation of Andy Daly's Review. That's a good place to occupy." The review.

In other news...

--The American Cinematheque will honor Spike Lee with its 34th American Cinematheque Award, which will be presented Jan. 14, 2021 as part of a pandemic-era virtual tribute.

--Julia Louis-Dreyfus talks Seinfeld reunion fundraiser, flipping the Senate and turning Texas blue.

--Powderkeg: Fuse — the female director incubator run through Paul Feig and Laura Fischer's digital content company — has announced the directors that will take place in its sophomore season.

--Billy Crystal is about to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award treatment from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

--The Hollywood Professional Association has announced the nominations for its 15th annual HPA Awards, which recognizes achievement in color grading, editing, sound and visual effects.

--They're not lawyers, they just played one on TV. And now they are asking for help from real lawyers. A slew of stars — including Viola Davis (How to Get Away With Murder) and Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife) — appear in a PSA that debuted Thursday to ask lawyers to help "protect the election."

--Torontonians walking along their city's waterfront were greeted with a giant inflatable Borat statue atop a 110 ft. long barge to promote the launch of Amazon Prime Video's Borat Subsequent Moviefilm on Friday.

What else we're reading...

--"Ted Sarandos and Nicole Avant are redefining power for the 21st century" [Town and Country]

--"YouTube is so flooded with political ads it can't place them all" [Bloomberg]

--"An investor who backed Quibi, a startup that raised $1.75 billion and failed 6 months after launch, explains why he bet on its leaders and wishes they tried to 'fight more'" [Business Insider]

--"What was Trump talking about? How the language of Fox News invaded the final debate" [Washington Post]

Today's birthdays: Ryan Reynolds, 44, Emilia Clarke, 34, Amandla Stenberg, 22, 'Weird Al' Yankovic, 61, Duckie Thot, 25.

Is this e-mail not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser. 

©2020 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved.

OCTOBER 23, 2020

UNSUBSCRIBE 

MANAGE PREFERENCES

PRIVACY POLICY

TERMS OF USE