Today In Entertainment

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

What's news: Layoffs hit WarnerMedia, The story behind Warners' move to oust Johnny Depp from the Fantastic Beasts franchise, COVID vaccine news gives theaters a shot in the arm, A Quiet Place cinematic universe? Jordan Peele's next film gets dated, Gerard Butler and Bruce Willis line up fresh action fare at AFM. Plus: ABC sets Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, and the predator impersonating an Oscar-winning director. --Alex Weprin

 WarnerMedia Layoffs

➤Just in: Layoffs are hitting WarnerMedia today. CEO Jason Kilar sent a memo to staff Tuesday morning, informing them that "Today, we have arrived at a number of difficult decisions that are resulting in a smaller WarnerMedia team." The story and memo.

➤Behind Warner Bros.' decision to sever ties with Johnny Depp. Sources tell THR's Tatiana Siegel that Warners wanted to allow due process to take its course before making a decision on the embattled star’s future in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Once Judge Andrew Nicol ruled that he accepted Heard's testimony, which was detailed and painted a picture of Depp as an abuser, Emmerich’s decision was a fait accompli, with the studio opting to recast the role less than midway through the franchise.

--Still, Warner Bros. will be on the hook for Depp’s full salary, even though he only had shot one scene since production began on September 20 in London. Like many A-list stars, Depp had a so-called pay-or-play contract, which requires that he be fully compensated whether or not the film is made and even if it is recast. As is common with stars of his level, there was no morality clause in his contract, even though it was amended with each new installment. Technically, Depp was not fired by Warner Bros. but asked to resign. It is unclear what recourse it would have had if the star refused. The story.

 Vaccine News Gives Cinemas a Shot in the Arm

➤Imax CEO: COVID-19 vaccine a "game changer" for movie theater revival. "Pfizer said it is a game changer in terms of public health issues. And I think the vaccine is a game changer in terms of the movie industry. No one had a time frame before. The announcement puts bookends on in," Imax CEO Richard Gelfond told THR's Pamela McClintock.

--"Exhibition has been so beaten down," adds Wall Street analyst Eric Handler. "Now, there is at least hope that we can get back to normal next year. There are a lot of people who won't go back to theaters until there is a vaccine." The story.

+Theater owners call on lame-duck Congress to provide immediate relief to cinemas. “American movie theaters need help now,” NATO president-CEO John Fithian said in a statement issued two days after Democratic candidate Joe Biden was declared the victor in the 2020 presidential race, beating Donald Trump. President-elect Biden won't take office until January.

--"Soon, a vaccine will allow our industry to return to normal, but without bipartisan action now in the lame duck session of Congress, hundreds of movie theaters will not make it. Local communities across the nation are and will be permanently damaged. This Congress and Administration still have a job to do," Fithian stated. The story.

+AMC Entertainment, looking to stay in business amid the coronavirus pandemic, has officially launched private theater rentals after a pilot program. Private hires of movie screens for up to 20 friends and family members will be available through an automated booking and purchase system on the AMC website and mobile app. Guests will select their preferred movie and showtime, with screen rentals starting at $99.00 each. More.

➤The silent world of A Quiet Place is getting a little noisier. Jeff Nichols, the filmmaker behind such dramas as Mud and Loving, will write and direct an untitled spinoff connected to the events in the hit Paramount horror movie. John Krasinski, who directed and co-wrote the original 2018 movie as well as its still-unreleased sequel, came up with the idea for the new story. He will also produce via his Sunday Night banner along with Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller. The story.

+Jordan Peele's next horror film has gotten a release date. The latest from the Oscar-winner will hit theaters on July 22, 2022 via Universal. There are no details about the project other than it is one of two titles that was mentioned when Peele signed his rich five-year overall feature deal with the studio. He will write, direct and produce both, according to the Oct 2019 announcement. More.

+Chris Pratt and Wu Jing, the star of the massive Chinese box office hit Wolf Warrior, will star in an English language remake of action-comedy Saigon Bodyguards for Universal. Anthony and Joe Russo, who worked with Pratt on Avengers: End Game and Wu on Wolf Warrior 2, will produce the movie that is based on a 2016 Vietnamese feature, which follows two bodyguards that must locate a high profile heir that was kidnapped on their watch. Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck are set to write the script. More. 

➤AFM hot list: Overall, AFM 2020 looks to be a sellers' market, with distributors big and small, domestic and international, hungry for new films, Scott Roxborough writes. THR's 2020 hot list includes projects wih Dave Bautista, Emma Thompson, and Armie Hammer. The list.

More from AFM...

+Bruce Willis has added another action title to his arsenal. The 65-year-old star of the Die Hard franchise, alongside The Fifth Element, Pulp Fiction, Unbreakable and Looper has wrapped production on Apex, from director Ed John Drakes and writer Corey Large. More.

+Gerard Butler will be back for a fourth installment of the Olympus Has Fallen action franchise. Ric Roman Waugh will direct Night Has Fallen, which Millennium Media is introducing at American Film Market, being held virtually this year. More.

+AFM roundup: Oscar-winner Olivia Colman is set to play the lead role in Irish feel-good film Joyride, marking the first dramatic feature from Emmy winner Emer Reynolds... Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson and Italian actress Sabrina Impacciatore have joined Liev Schreiber in the feature movie adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s final novel, Across the River and Into the Trees, now in pre-production in Italy... Ethan Hawke will star in war thriller Zeros and Ones from writer-director Abel Ferrara....

 Hollywood's New Con Artist

➤A predator is impersonating an Oscar-winning director: "He's the perfect conman."  For months, someone has been cold-calling actresses in the U.S. pretending to be British filmmaker Hugh Welchman. The calls begin with promising job offers, but quickly descend into coercion and sexual harassment.

--"One of the more peculiar aspects of each conversation is a backstory he insists on providing. The real Hugh Welchman is from the south-east English county of Berkshire. Not only does the imposter regularly claim to have been born and raised in India, but he says his first language is Sanskrit, which hasn’t been considered a living language for well over a millennium. One actress thought this was perhaps part of the manipulation, to 'make him sound smarter than you.'” The story.

➤ABC is putting a celebrity spin on Wheel of Fortune. The Disney-owned network on Monday announced a straight-to-series order for Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. In the new take, which will air in primetime at a date to be determined, Pat Sajak and Vanna White will return to host the series that sees celebrity contestants vying for a $1 million cash prize that will then be donated to charity. The story.

+Kaley Cuoco on her pivot to darker material in HBO Max thriller The Flight Attendant. The Big Bang Theory star rolls out her young production shingle with a series about an alcoholic stewardess who blacks out in Bangkok before waking up next to a dead body and post-sitcom expectations: "You're easily forgotten." The interview.

+CBS is putting one of the last big pieces of its 2020-21 schedule into place. The network has set premiere dates for its Friday dramas MacGyver, Magnum P.I. and Blue Bloods. All three shows are set to debut on Dec. 4, giving the network a nearly full series lineup and at least one hour of originals on every night of the week. With the Friday shows in place, CBS will have nearly all of its "fall" schedule up and running by the first week of December. More.

+CBS continues to make inclusion a top priority under CBS Entertainment Group CEO George Cheeks. The network on Monday announced that it is targeting 50 percent of its unscripted casts to being comprised of Black, Indigenous and People of Color beginning in the 2021-22 broadcast season. Additionally, the ViacomCBS-owned broadcaster has also pledged to allocate a quarter of its unscripted development budget to projects from BIPOC producers for next season. CBS also plans to create other similar endeavors to expand diversity within the creative and production teams on its unscripted shows. More.

+NBC affiliate wants judge to rule on Trump's election loss. Northland Television tells a judge that Donald J. Trump for President has now lost standing to pursue its libel suit over a "hoax." More.

➤Spotify continues to expand its podcast businesses. The audio company has agreed to acquire podcast advertising and publishing platform Megaphone in a deal that could significantly significantly expand its targeted ad business. The music streaming giant is paying $235 million for Megaphone, according to a source familiar with the terms, making this one of its largest acquisitions in the podcast space to date. More.

➤California ballot measures: The results and what they mean for Hollywood. While the presidential and congressional elections are understandably getting most of Hollywood's attention, along with the world's, there were a few other items put to voters that could affect the entertainment industry. THR's Ashley Cullins talked with industry experts about three California propositions — those involving affirmative action, app-based drivers and consumer privacy — and what their likely results mean for Hollywood. More.

➤How a female president in Scandal "let our country practice seeing something new." In a guest column for THR, Bellamy Young, who played the commander in chief on the ABC drama, writes about how creator Shonda Rhimes helped to acclimate viewers to female power. The column.

➤Disneyland on Monday instituted more furloughs as the Southern California theme park resort remains shuttered. According to a memo from Disneyland President Ken Potrock obtained by THR's Ryan Parker, the additional furloughs impact an unknown number of executive, salaried and hourly employees. More.

Revolving door: Lisa Gregorian will step down as president and chief marketing officer at Warner Bros. TV Group at year's end. Karen Miller, exec vp creative services, will absorb some of Gregorian's responsibilities in 2021... Chris McCumber has lined up his next act. The former USA Network and Syfy topper has been tapped to serve as president of Blumhouse Television, overseeing all aspects of the division and reporting to founder and CEO Jason Blum... Following a period as acting editor-in-chief of DC Comics, Marie Javins has been named to the role permanently... Former ABC drama head and creative lead at CAA-backed wiip Nne Ebong has joined the streamer as vp overall deals, original series...

➤Film review: Sheri Linden reviews Hillbilly Elegy, writing that "in many ways it's an American-dream saga we've seen countless times before, for good and for bad: a paean to personal grit and stick-to-itiveness. What sets it apart are the take-no-prisoners performances of Amy Adams and Glenn Close, tearing it up with full-throttled cursing and maternal freak-outs by the bushel." The review.

➤TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews the HBO docuseries The Cost of Winning, calling it "a slight but generally satisfying sports doc. It's an entertaining placeholder for those who like this sort of thing and maybe a gateway amuse-bouche for those still skeptical about the bellowing coach/inspirational prospect/die-hard community genre." The review.

Casting roundup: Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott will star in an HBO movie that counts Steven Spielberg among its executive producers. The two actors head the cast for Oslo, based on the Tony Award-winning play by J.T. Rogers... American Housewife regular Carly Hughes has left the ABC comedy, citing a "toxic environment" on the show's set... Apple is adding to the cast of its limited series The Shrink Next Door. Kathryn Hahn will star with Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd in the eight-episode series, based on the popular Wondery podcast of the same title... Netflix's Narcos: Mexico has added nine series regulars to the returning cast for the recently announced season three...

In other news...

--Jeopardy! is paying tribute to Alex Trebek. After the longtime game show host passed away Sunday morning at the age 80, Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards took a moment during the beginning of Monday night's episode to honor Trebek in a touching tribute.

--Gravitas Ventures has picked up the horror thriller Bad Impulse, directed by Hollywood acting coach and helmer Michelle Danner for a Christmas season launch.

--The Rotterdam Film Festival has come up with a unique way of celebrating its 50th anniversary.  The acclaimed Dutch art-house fest, which will have its golden jubilee next year, has decided to hold two separate events —one in early February, the other in early June. 

--The original gun used by James Bond in Dr. No is going up for auction. The late Sean Connery's 007 (reluctantly) carried a Walther PP for the first time in the 1962 film.

--Annual computer graphics confab Siggraph announced that its 2021 conference, which was scheduled to be held Aug. 1-5 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, will instead be a virtual event on the same dates, due to uncertainly surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

--The "Con Queen of Hollywood" is getting the book treatment. HarperCollins has secured the rights for The Con Queen of Hollywood: The Epic Hunt for the Impersonator Who Stole Identities, Money, and Desires from Hollywood Royalty and Dreamers Alike, written by former Hollywood Reporter staffer Scott Johnson and based on his July 2018 investigative feature cover story. 

--Bert Belasco, who starred as the contractor Charles Whitmore and love interest of Nadine Ellis' character on the BET sitcom Let's Stay Together, has died. He was 38.

--Ken Spears, the animation veteran who co-created the character of Scooby-Doo and oversaw Saturday morning kids programming at CBS and ABC, all with his longtime creative partner, Joe Ruby, has died. He was 82.

What else we're reading...

--"Targeted ads headed soon to network TV" [WSJ]

--"Suddenly, a profitable year for local TV" [Next TV]

--"Helping to shape the words of the President-elect: a presidential historian" [NY Times]

--"With Trump done, is Saturday Night Live actually funny again?" [Vanity Fair]

Today's birthdays: Ellen Pompeo, 51, Sinbad, 64, Warren G, 50, Eve, 42, Diplo, 42.

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NOVEMBER 10, 2020

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