Today In Entertainment FEBRUARY 10, 2021
What's news: Oscars shortlists and analysis, what will AT&T do about CNN? Disney shutters Ice Age studio Blue Sky, Shia LaBeouf dropped by CAA, Best Man rebooted at Peacock, The 4400 rebooted at The CW, Ron Moore inks deal with 20th TV. Plus: A big day for Wizard of Oz adaptations, and the THR Actress Roundtable. --Alex Weprin THR Actress Roundtable ►On the cover: The THR Actress Roundtable: Zendaya, Kate Winslet, Carey Mulligan, Vanessa Kirby, Andra Day and Glenn Close candidly discuss what outsiders get wrong about acting, juggling work and family, "supporting other women without judgment" and how #MeToo has changed the culture for the next generation: "We're getting all the bad stuff out of the way." --Kate Winslet: "The thing that is shifting in ways that will absolutely be long lasting is how women's voices are being received. There is a space that has been created for a younger generation that is going to be safe. My daughter is 20, and she just came into the industry about a year and a half ago. And what's wonderful for me, as her mum, is just watching her have a courage of conviction and self-belief that is just unwavering, because she's entering a time when we're clearing the shit away from them, these girls. These girls are going to change the world, and they're going to be strong, and they're going to be powerful, and they're going to be fucking amazing. And that is because we're getting all the bad stuff out of the way for them and all they will know is to use their voice in positive, powerful ways, to lead with compassion, to be strong role models and friends. And that, to me, is the biggest thing that has shifted." --Andra Day: "As Kate talked about, with the younger generation, I think they have such a need for transparency that will actually be very helpful. Part of doing the movie, the Billie Holiday story, was that the truth of her story had never been told, because the truth of her story was intentionally kept from the public. The respinning of narratives for people of color, or for marginalized people, or for women, has been a constant technique of oppression. And I think that's going to be hugely important moving forward: We have to pop the top off of these things. And we have to tell the truth about them, and understand the scope of certain groups of people, people of color, why the scope of their pain has been minimized or retold." --Glenn Close: "A lot of people think that anyone can do it. And of course, there have been documentaries and even some movies of people who are not trained as actors — I think that can happen in movies. I really take my craft seriously, and I think people don't know what they're talking about when they think that anyone could do it. I once had a brain surgeon who was the father of one of my daughter's middle school friends … He asked if he could come over and pick my brain about something. And so I said, "Sure," and he came over and he said, 'I find being a brain surgeon depressing, I really want to be an actor.'" The THR Actress Roundtable. Oscars Shortlists ►The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unwrapped its shortlists for the 2021 Oscars in nine categories, including documentary and international features. Also released are the shortlists for original score, original song, makeup and hairstyling, visual effects, and documentary, live-action and animated short. The shortlists. +Analysis: THR's awards columnist Scott Feinberg parses through the documentary feature, international feature, makeup and hairstyling, original score, original score, visual effects, documentary short, animated short and live-action short finalists. The analysis. +VFX analysis: THR's tech editor Carolyn Giardina writes: "With the releases of Black Widow and Eternals moved to 2021 due to the pandemic, this will be the first year since 2009 that at least one Marvel movie didn't make the shortlist." More. +Meanwhile, in France: The Cesar Awards, France's top film honors, unveiled nominations on Wednesday, with Emmanuel Mouret's Love Affairs (The Things We Say, The Things We Do) leading the pack with 13 nominations. The nominees. ►Disney is shutting down Blue Sky Studios, the Greenwich, Conn.-based animation studio best known for the Ice Age franchise. The studio was owned by Fox until 2019 when the Walt Disney Co. acquired 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets in a deal valued at $71.3 billion. At the time, Walt Disney Animation Studios president Andrew Millstein joined Blue Sky as co-president alongside co-president Robert Baird; both will be leaving the company with the shutting of the studio. The story. +Elsewhere: Entertainment One is set to cut its film and TV workforce by 10 percent. The budget chop follows the studio, which employs around 1200 employees, being acquired by Hasbro and integrated into the U.S. toy maker. More. +Animation continues to boom at Netflix, however: Netflix and Penguin Random House Children's UK have inked a rights deal for Brian Jacques' Redwall books, with the streaming service revealing plans to develop an animated feature based on the first book in the series with writer Patrick McHale (Over the Garden Wall, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio). The streamer is additionally planning an event series based on the character of Martin the Warrior. More. ►Embattled actor Shia LaBeouf will no longer be repped by talent agency CAA. This comes months after claims of sexual abuse and battery have been surfaced by LaBeouf's former partners, including a lawsuit filed by former girlfriend FKA twigs. Sources say LaBeouf checked into inpatient treatment over a month ago and that the decision to step away from acting and the entertainment business was made then. He remains in treatment, according to sources, although it is unclear what he is being treated for. The story. What Next For CNN? ►CNN at a crossroads: What will AT&T do next? News chief Jeff Zucker is sticking around for 10 months following a ratings boom, but as parent WarnerMedia embraces a streaming future, is a sale or spinoff in the works? --“CNN is more likely to be sold than to be spun,” Bernstein analyst Peter Supino says. “We think a sale would be a valuable deleveraging event for AT&T, albeit just one step on a long journey, and controlling CNN would be of strategic or political interest to a number of potential buyers who would pay a higher multiple than the public markets are likely to.” At least one potential buyer has thrown his hat in the ring. “We will make a bid if CNN becomes available,” Byron Allen, whose Entertainment Studios owns The Weather Channel and a number of local TV stations across the country, tells THR. The story. ►The cast and director of the Best Man movies is reuniting at Peacock. The NBCUniversal streaming platform has ordered a 10-episode limited series titled The Best Man: Final Chapters that will continue the story from The Best Man and The Best Man Holiday. The principal cast of the two films — Morris Chestnut, Melissa De Sousa, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long and Harold Perrineau — are all set to reprise their roles. The story. +The CW is planning for the return of The 4400. The broadcast network has handed out a straight to series order for a remake of the sci-fi series that aired on USA from 2004-07. Additionally, The CW has ordered pilots for a live-action, grown-up Powerpuff Girls from Diablo Cody and for projects from Ava DuVernay and Jane the Virgin showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman. The story. +Spectrum Originals is hitting the court with Rose Rollins. The Charter Communications-backed cable operator has handed out a straight-to-series order for Long Slow Exhale, a women's basketball drama starring The L Word alum. The series, from Paramount Television Studios, will launch first on Spectrum and, after a nine-month exclusive window, air on BET's linear network. More. +Ron Moore is the latest showrunner on the move. The Outlander and For All Mankind exec producer has inked a rich, multiple-year overall deal with Disney-owned 20th Television. Sources tell Lesley Goldberg that Moore, who had spent the past decade under an overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, quietly inked his new Disney deal last summer. The details. +HBO Max is forging stronger ties with Search Party. The WarnerMedia streaming platform has renewed the dark comedy for a fifth season and also signed creators Charles Rogers and Sarah-Violet Bliss to an overall deal. More. ►Big day for Wizard of Oz adaptations. The Woodsman director Nicole Kassell is set to helm the movie adaptation of L. Frank Baum's kids novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for New Line. New Line's parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, owns the rights to the 1939 film that starred Judy Garland and is now a Hollywood classic. The new feature will be a fresh take on Baum children’s novel and, unlike other adaptations, can draw on elements like the ruby slippers from the 1939 Oscar-winning film. The story. +And: Visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic confirmed that Warner Bros.' animated musical adaptation of Toto: The Dog-Gone Amazing Story of the Wizard of Oz will be the next project out of its Vancouver studio. More. +In other film news: Veteran producers Bruce Hendricks and Galen Walker have optioned the rights to the late Stanley Kubrick’s unmade film Lunatic At Large, and have plans to bring the film-noir storyline to the big screen. Production is slated to begin in fall 2021. “The opportunity to bring a Stanley Kubrick project to the screen after so many years is a dream come true. We look forward to making a film in keeping with his unique style and vision," Walker said in a statement. The story. ►Balthazar Getty on growing up Getty and movies about his father's kidnapping: "I don't watch that crap." The actor, 46, was born just one year after the tragedy — dramatized in the 2017 Christopher Plummer movie All the Money in the World — that left his father, J. Paul Getty III, without an ear. The interview. ►Dwight Yoakam has become the latest musician — perhaps the biggest name yet — to go to court with the claim that his record label refuses to accept how copyright law allows him to reclaim rights to his work. On Monday, the country music star filed suit against Warner Music Group in California federal court. The story. +In other legal news: While Sacha Baron Cohen is racking up award nominations for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, his lawyers are using its predecessor as an example of why a New York federal judge should end the $95 million defamation suit Roy Moore filed against him over a 2018 appearance on Who Is America? — arguing that not only does the suit implicate his free speech rights, but also he's already shown his contracts are airtight when it comes to claims arising from his satire. Casting roundup: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm breakout Maria Bakalova, Guardian of the Galaxy's Karen Gillan, and The Mandalorian headliner Pedro Pascal have joined Judd Apatow’s latest comedy, The Bubble... Sandra Bullock is joining Brad Pitt in his Sony assassin film Bullet Train... J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda are in negotiations to join Aaron Sorkin’s drama centered on television icons Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz of I Love Lucy fame... ►SPAC of the day: On the heels of a first-look deal with Disney and ultra successful Nike campaign, Colin Kaepernick is forming a special purpose acquisition company that's raising $250 million in its initial public offering, according to a Tuesday SEC filing. The company, Mission Advancement Corp., is co-founded by Jahm Najafi and plans to acquire an approximately $1 billion company that has the potential to create a positive social and cultural impact. Ava DuVernay is among the board members. More. +Meanwhile, remember Forest Road Acquisition Corp.? The SPAC that counted former Disney COO Tom Staggs, direct-to-consumer chief Kevin Mayer, and NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal among its executives and advisers? It announced Wednesday morning that it has found a company to merge with and take public: The Beachbody COmpany, known for P90X and Insanity. Mayer will join the public company's board. ►TV review: Inkoo Kang reviews HBO Max's It's a Sin, writing that "Series writer and creator Russell T. Davies accomplishes the quasi-miraculous feat of keeping much of his five-part, decade-spanning series (which debuted on the U.K.’s Channel 4 last month) fizzy and effervescent without ever diminishing the devastation of the AIDS crisis." The review. In other news... --Atlanta investment firm Bay Point Advisors has launched Bay Point Media as a film financing subsidiary, with its first project backed being the indie noir crime thriller One Way, starring Kevin Bacon, Travis Fimmel, Colson Baker (also known as Machine Gun Kelly) and Storm Reid. --The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2021 nominees on Wednesday (Feb. 10) morning, revealing the most gender-inclusive ballot in the Rock Hall's history. -- National Geographic will mark the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre with a feature documentary. --Twitter grew its monetizable daily user base by 5 million in the three-month period that marked the bitter final days of the Donald Trump presidency. The social media network, which would permanently suspend superuser Trump from its platform on Jan. 8, said that the fourth quarter was a "strong finish" to the year, as current events like the U.S. Presidential Election helped drive its audience up 27 percent to 192 million monetizable daily active users. Revenue was up 28 percent to $1.29 billion. --Chris Wagner, best known for producing reality hit shows like Fox's The Masked Singer and Rihanna's Savage x Fenty Show, has signed with A3 Artists Agency. --Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other passengers were killed in a helicopter accident caused after the pilot flew through the clouds and became disoriented, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled. --Amanda Seyfried, the young actress who has earned career-best reviews — as well as Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations — for her portrayal of Marion Davies in David Fincher's Mank, will be the recipient of the Montecito Award at the 36th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival. --Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red revealed late Monday evening that it was the victim of a cyber attack in which some internal data was compromised. What else we're reading... --"Mistakes and memes" [Stratechery] --"Rush Limbaugh is ailing. And so is the conservative talk radio industry" [Washington Post] --"TikTok sale to Oracle, Walmart is shelved as Biden reviews security" [WSJ] --"YouTube earns accreditation for protecting advertisers from unsuitable videos" [Reuters] Today's birthdays: Uzo Adub, 40, Yara Shahidi, 21, Bob Iger, 70, Roberta Flack, 84, Mark Spitz, 71.
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