Today In Entertainment

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

What's news: Why Disney is betting on Star, the pandemic brings a brutal hit to the awards season economy, Jon Stewart staffs up at Apple, cinema optimism as New York theaters prepare to reopen, a Frogger TV show, California's Net Neutrality law allowed to take effect, the latest on Tiger Woods. Plus: What can Hollywood do about the violence against Asians in America? A review of Peacock's Punky Brewster, and THR's Actors Roundtable. -Alex Weprin

 THR Actors Roundtable

►On the cover: THR's Actors Roundtable: Ben Affleck, Sacha Baron Cohen, Delroy Lindo, Gary Oldman, John David Washington and Steven Yeun on their liberating roles and the power of performance, from protesting injustices to coping with pressures to stay at the top: "The phone has stopped ringing for more talented people than me."

--Gary Oldman: "So I enjoy the streaming services like everyone else. But I was recently in London and Mank was playing a three-minute walk from my hotel, and I thought, 'I've never seen this on the big screen. I'll go find out what the other customer thought of it.' I went and there were about 11 people in the audience, but there was something to be said for being in this big space in a dark room watching this thing 40 feet across. It played faster. I think the gags worked better. And certainly, the guy behind me was having a good time. So there's advantages and disadvantages."

--John David Washington: "Christopher Nolan has a formula with his rollouts, and I appreciated Warner Bros. honoring those wishes [with Tenet] — the worry for me had been, 'Oh, here I am, getting this huge opportunity, and it's not going to get the same treatment as his films have before.' Then there's Malcolm & Marie, which was self-financed — I mean, I paid to play, you know? I didn't get paid to do that. I believed in it that much. But then it becomes, 'Wait, are we crazy?'"

--Sacha Baron Cohen: "I believe we [Borat Subsequent Moviefilm] were the first movie to shoot during the pandemic. It seemed crazy at the time. We went to Johns Hopkins and found experts on pandemics, and they helped us devise a system that would keep us relatively safe. We spent a million dollars of the budget for testing and PPE. What was tragic was, we had some nurses who'd been working in ICUs in New York, and they said it was the first time they'd been given proper PPE." The THR Actors Rountable.

 Disney's Star Power

►Why Star is Disney’s next big salvo in its streaming war with Netflix. The family-friendly Hollywood giant bets that more adult programming will help boost subscribers — at the risk of brand confusion, Natalie Jarvey and Scott Roxborough write.

--“Like a supercharged Netflix, they are following the same global strategy but are rolling it out at a much faster speed,” says Guy Bisson of U.K.-based Ampere Analysis. “Netflix already has all its subscriber growth — and 62 percent of its commissioned originals — coming from outside the U.S.” The story.

+Disney already has an edge in some regions: Disney+ will dramatically expand its subscriber edge over Netflix in the Asia-Pacific region in 2021, according to a report released Wednesday by research consultancy Media Partners Asia. More.

►Pandemic brings brutal hit to awards-season economy: "I'm basically living off savings right now." The caterers, florists and other vendors that contribute to creating a glamorous round of parties in a typical year are suffering major losses and have laid off staff as events including the Golden Globes continue to be largely virtual, Kirsten Chuba and Chris Gardner write. The story.

►With his new Apple series coming into focus, Jon Stewart is lining up his staff. The former Daily Show host has tapped a longtime newswoman, Brinda Adhikari, rather than a comedy vet, to serve as his executive producer and showrunner. In a sign that there will still be comedy infused in the series, Stewart has tapped Chelsea Devantez, who began her TV writing career on his staff at The Daily Show, as his head head writer. Rounding out the producing trio is Lorrie Baranek, who'll serve as Stewart’s executive in charge of production. The story.

+FX has landed the rights to a New York Times writer's best-selling novel. The network is adapting cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth's book This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race, which chronicles the history of cyberwarfare and how the U.S. became vulnerable to attack. The project is being described as a far-reaching drama series that grapples with the full scope of what the internet has become — a complex matrix within which all of humanity is inextricably interlinked. The story.

+Peacock is taking a leap into competition series with a show based on the classic video game Frogger. The NBCUniversal streaming service has ordered 13 episodes of Frogger, in which contestants will play the role of the frog from the Konami video game and attempt to cross a series of obstacles that includes traffic, snapping alligators and hungry hippos. More.

+Not so secret: Hulu will dig into the history of one of the best-known fashion brands of the past 40 years with a documentary series about Victoria's Secret. The three-part series, The Rise and Fall of Victoria's Secret, comes from director and former Vanity Fair writer Matt Tyrnauer and Peter Berg's Film 45. Production is underway for a planned debut in early 2022. More.

+Easy Rawlins is getting his own TV series. Amblin Television is teaming with author Walter Mosley to bring the beloved character from his best-selling books to the screen. More.

+Taylor Kitsch will star opposite Chris Pratt in Amazon's thriller The Terminal List. The 21 Bridges and Friday Night Lights actor will play a CIA operative in the show, which landed at Amazon last year with a straight-to-series order. More.

 Cinema Optimism

►Hollywood studios are cautiously optimistic as New York City cinemas plan to reopen. “Cuomo’s announcement symbolizes the road to recovery and is emblematic of the things that need to happen,” says Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore. “This paves the way for other major markets to open, and shows to the rest of the world that U.S. movie theaters are on the road to recovery. An actual summer movie season may be in the cards.” Sources tell THR's Pamela McClintock that California Gavin Newsom, in tandem with local authorities, could give the okay for L.A. cinemas to open within several weeks. The story.

+The Blue Beetle movie is heating up. Filmmaker Angel Manuel Soto will direct the DC superhero project for Warner Bros. Soto, who helmed the 2020 Sundance coming-of-age drama Charm City Kings, takes on what will be DC's first film to center on a Latino superhero. The story.

+Stefon Bristol is set to direct the Netflix feature Gordon Hemingway & The Realm of Cthulhu, with Spike Lee attached to produce. Set in East Africa in 1928, Gordon Hemingway follows the titular character, a roguish Black American gunslinger as he teams up with the elite warrior Princess Zenebe of Ethiopia to rescue their kidnapped regent from an ancient evil. The story.

+Netflix and RLJE films have picked up the worldwide rights to The Water Man, Selma star David Oyelowo's directorial debut. RLJE Films has taken the adventure, fantasy pic for North America, while Netflix has the rest of the world rights. More.

+Also: Focus Features has picked up the worldwide rights to The Sparks Brothers, the documentary debut from director Edgar Wright. More.

►California judge allows state's Net Neutrality law to go into effect. Rejecting arguments from the telecom industry, a George W. Bush appointee took time during a hearing to talk about the lesson from Texas’ winter storms this month, Eriq Gardner writes. The story.

+In other legal news: Showtime and the creators of Billions didn't defame the Cayuga Nation by depicting a fictionalized member of the tribe engaged in shady business dealings with the Rhoades family, a New York appellate panel held on Tuesday. The Cayuga Nation and Clint Halftown on in August 2019 sued Showtime, along with co-creators Brian Koppelman and Andrew Ross Sorkin and writer-producer David Levien, alleging Billions portrayed them as participating in an illegal casino land deal and bribing a public official. More.

►TV news roundup: CNN has renewed Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy for a second season, to debut in 2022... CNBC is replacing its 11 A.M. show Squawk Alley with a new show called TechCheck... Fox News has named Mike Emanuel Chief Washington correspondent...

►The latest on Tiger Woods: The golfer is "awake, responsive and recovering" from the serious single-car accident in California he was involved in earlier on Tuesday, though the golfer suffered multiple "open fractures" and had a "long surgical procedure" on his lower right leg and ankle. The story.

►Oscar's old boys club: Are the doors about to open to female directors? The Academy's helming branch has traditionally resisted welcoming women, but with talents like Chloé Zhao, Regina King and Emerald Fennell receiving awards buzz, that could change, Gregg Kilday writes. The story.

►TV reviews: Daniel Fienberg reviews Peacock's Punky Brewster, writing that it "is a pretty safe and average example of a neutral nostalgia reboot. It's not oblivious to the differences between 1984 and 2021 and it's conscious of the new challenges of wearing the sitcom-with-heart moniker today. But in its broad approach to both the 'sitcom' and 'heart,' it's basically just Punky Brewster, with all the inconsistencies that entails." The review.

+Inkoo Kang reviews Netflix's Ginny & Georgia, writing that "Unfortunately, the show’s ambitions for bigger stakes mean trading in some of the character-based intimacy that is the series’ calling card." The review.

►What can Hollywood do about the violence against Asians in America? Amid a spike in racist attacks during the pandemic, storytellers have a responsibility to spotlight claims and support local leaders who can make a difference at the community level, Daily Show correspondent Ronny Chieng writes. The column.

►Roy Thomas, former Marvel editor, pushes back on new Stan Lee biography. In a guest column, the one-time Stan Lee protégé dissects True Believer, which he argues undercuts Lee's recollections in favor of artist Jack Kirby's version of events. The column.

►Obituary: Peter S. Davis, the colorful producer on the Christopher Lambert-starring 1986 film Highlander that launched a bevy of sequels, television offshoots and video games, has died. He was 79. The obituary.

In other news...

--Gérard Depardieu has been charged by French authorities with rape, it was revealed Tuesday.

--More than 100 top executives from the world of entertainment, media, technology, finance, real estate and other industries signed a letter sent to Congressional leaders on Wednesday, urging them to pass a new stimulus plan based on President Biden's "American Rescue Plan."

--The International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600) announced 10 honorees for its annual Emerging Cinematographer Awards, which aim to spotlight promising cinematographers. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 honorees, as well as this year recipients, will be recognized during a virtual presentation this fall.

--Unrealistic Ideas — the production company led by Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Archie Gips — is expanding its interests by aligning with social media phenom Josh Richards and his business partner Michael Gruen to launch CrossCheck Studios.

--Instagram is bringing its portrait studio back to the Golden Globes. Photographer Matt Sayles will be the official portrait photographer and creative director for 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards. This year, Sayles will shoot remote capture images of select nominees, as well as video content for Instagram Reels.

--Hillary Clinton is teaming up with her friend, the novelist Louise Penny, on State of Terror, which has a plot that might occur to someone of Clinton's background: A "novice" secretary of state, working in the administration of a rival politician, tries to solve a wave of terrorist attacks.

--American Cinema Editors announced that its 71st annual ACE Eddie Awards will be held virtually on April 17 at 11 a.m. PT. The date is one day earlier than the previously announced ceremony date.

--The Met Council for Jewish Poverty's Purim: Funny Story table read raised more than $500,000 for COVID-19 relief

What else we're reading...

--"The pandemic is upending how Oscar nominees are chosen" [Washington Post]

--"Black News Channel looks to shake up cable-TV news landscape" [WSJ]

--"When everyone's a celebrity, Cameo wins" [AdWeek]

--"Will conservatives turned off by Fox News find a home at Al Jazeera?" [Forbes]

--"Inside the new $65 million push from progressives to compete with conservative media" [Recode]

Today's birthdays: Daniel Kaluuya, 32, O'Shea Jackson Jr., 30, Billy Zane, 55, Kristin Davis, 56, Floyd Mayweather Jr., 44.

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FEBRUARY 24, 2021

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