Today In Entertainment APRIL 20, 2021
What's news: Endeavor valued at $10 billion in new IPO, Oscar voters turn to outsiders in an unprecedented year, are FYC billboards DOA? HFPA apologizes after former president calls BLM a "racist hate movement," a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robots movie, James Murdoch talks theatrical windows and streaming, more TV shows move to California, Olivia Colman joins the MCU. Plus: Netflix wants more Ginny & Georgia, and Andra Day and Roxane Gay in conversation for the inaugural THR Talks. --Alex Weprin THR Talks ►THR Talks: Andra Day and Roxane Gay in conversation about suffering in art and racism in addiction. The United States vs. Billie Holiday best actress nominee and the Bad Feminist author and cultural critic engage in a deep, intense discussion that included the Derek Chauvin trial and why faith precludes competitiveness: "It just thrashes this idea that you and I are in competition, especially when it comes to Black women." --Roxane Gay: "I was watching the movie and thinking about how oftentimes it seems like suffering brings a dimension to art that we don't seem to find in other ways. Do you think that Billie Holiday's suffering is what made her such an amazing artist?" --Andra Day: "I'd like to be like, 'No, she could have done it without suffering,' because I love her. But of course it's a part of art. It's reflective of the times and our experiences. It's healing, also. I think that music's design is healing at its core. I'll never forget about the scripture I read about waters [that] could only be healed with someone playing the lyre. So yeah, [suffering] was a part of her music, because it was a part of her story and what was challenging for her but also strengthened her. But I don't think it's a darkness. I think it's a healing from that pain that really makes art birthed from pain so potent and so powerful." --Gay: "Do you think it's possible for us to get to this place where we rethink justice and really unravel a lot of the foundations of this country?" --Day: "I have to believe it's possible. That comes from my faith perspective. We have to hold out hope for those triumphs and victories. I see a lot of hope in the younger generation. I think truth is going to be a huge, huge part of that. The reason this Billie Holiday story is resonating with people so much is that she represented truth. 'Strange Fruit,' the song, represented truth in a system that is built on deception and suppressing the narrative. If it's built on lies, truth [is] probably the only thing that can dismantle it." The full conversation. Oscars Outsiders ►Oscar voters recognize first-timers and Hollywood outsiders in unprecedented year. The Academy usually loves to welcome back past nominees and prestige actors, but this year's acting class is chock-full of new faces whose performances could not be denied, Scott Feinberg writes. --"Without the ability to hobnob during a pandemic, Hollywood publicists apparently had less industry sway these past few months than film critics. In any other year, we might have seen Ammonite's Kate Winslet or Hillbilly Elegy's Amy Adams ignite awards season on the power of celebrity alone, but middling reviews for both films kept voters at bay. While these types of splashier productions faded from memory, smaller but more acclaimed films rose in their place." The story. +Are FYC billboards DOA? Studios pull back on outdoor marketing amid pandemic. Unable to rely on Oscar voters seeing billboards on their commutes, the industry took initially a hit, but experts say the business is "glacially" coming back, Katie Kilkenny reports. The story. +Meanwhile: Attendees at the primary venue for Sunday's 93rd Academy Awards, Los Angeles' Union Station, will not be required to wear face masks while they are seated in the main show room and on camera. They will, however, be asked to don them during commercial breaks and when they are cycled out of the main show room and into one of two adjacent courtyards, where two-thirds of them will be at any given time. More. ►Golden Globes: HFPA apologizes for ex-president's email calling BLM a "racist hate movement." Philip Berk, an 88-year-old member and eight-term past president who has previously brought disrepute on the organization via a controversial memoir and when actor Brendan Fraser accused Berk of groping Fraser's buttocks, sent an email on Sunday to his fellow members, as well as the HFPA's staff and COO, forwarding an article from a right-wing website that slammed Black Lives Matter as a "racist hate movement" and its co-founder, Patrisse Cullors, for purchasing a home in Topango Canyon. --"The house is down the road from one of the homes involved in the Manson murders, which seems only appropriate since Manson wanted to start a race war," the missive says in part. "And Black Lives Matter is carrying on Manson's work." --In a Monday evening statement, the HFPA said: "Since its inception, the HFPA has dedicated itself to bridging cultural connections and creating further understanding of different backgrounds through film and TV. The views expressed in the article circulated by Mr. Berk are those of the author of the article and do not — in any way shape or form – reflect the views and values of the HFPA. The HFPA condemns all forms of racism, discrimination and hate speech and finds such language and content unacceptable." The story. ►MTV Movie & TV Awards: WandaVision leads the nominees for the MTV Movie & TV Awards with a total of five noms. Close behind in the TV categories are Emily in Paris and The Boys, with four noms apiece, and Bridgerton and The Mandalorian, with three noms each. On the film side, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was tops with three nominations, followed by Judas and the Black Messiah with two. The full list of nominees. +The Webby Awards: Trevor Noah, Megan Thee Stallion, and Jennifer Garner are among the notable figures nominated for the 2021 Webby Awards. Other stars receiving nominations, recognizing the best of the internet, include Billie Eilish, Cardi B, Kevin Bacon, Shaquille O'Neal, Rob Gronkowski, Ryan Reynolds, Martin Lawrence, James Corden, LeBron James, Stephen Colbert, Chris Evans, John Mayer and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The nominees. Endeavor's IPO Rolls Forward ►Just in: Endeavor is valued at $10 billion in new IPO. Endeavor is looking to raise as much as $588 million in its new IPO, moving the ball forward in its renewed effort to take the company public. The company officially unveiled plans for its new public offering March 31. Endeavor is valued at more than $10 billion at its current valuation range of $23-$24 per share, when factoring in RSUs for top executives, according to its revised S-1 filing, which was submitted to the SEC Tuesday morning. --Endeavor had previously sought to raise $600 million in its first IPO effort in 2019 at a valuation of about $6.5 billion, before ultimately calling off the offering after a lukewarm response from Wall Street. This time around, things are different. The story. ►From Fast & Furious to Rock 'Em & Sock 'Em: Vin Diesel is set to star in and produce a live-action feature version of the tabletop boxing game Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Mattel Films is behind the project and is partnering with Universal, the studio behind Diesel's beloved Fast & Furious franchise. Ryan Engle, the writer behind Dwayne Johnson starrer Rampage, penned the screenplay for the action-adventure, which follows a father and son who form an unlikely bond with an advanced war machine. The story. +In other film news: The sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has caught three filmmakers in its web. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson are directing the sequel to the 2018 Oscar-winning film. More. ►Oscar nominee Olivia Colman is heading into the Marvel Universe. Colman, who is nominated for the best supporting actress Academy Award for her role in the British drama The Father, is in negotiations to join Secret Invasion, Marvel Studios' next series. The story. Casting roundup: John Cameron Mitchell, who won Tonys for writing and starring in Broadway's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, will take on the role of Joe "Exotic" Schreibvogel in the scripted Joe Exotic limited series that is set to air across NBCUniversal's linear and streaming platforms... ►James Murdoch says theatrical window "gone for good," but creators gaining greater power amid streaming wars. The former 21st Century Fox CEO and media scion spoke Tuesday at APOS, Asia's leading industry summit, where he shared some of the strategic thinking behind his private holding company Lupa Systems. --"This downstream competition will be incredibly intense for a long period of time," he said, "whether you're Amazon Prime, Netflix, Apple or Disney+ — or, god forbid, Paramount+, Peacock or whatever else." The story. ►More television shows are relocating their production to California thanks to the state's film incentives program. The HBO Max dramedy The Flight Attendant will relocate from New York while the TBS comedy Chad will move from British Columbia, assuming it gets renewed. Both shows would be filming their second seasons in the Golden State. The story. +Netflix has handed out a speedy season two renewal for mother-daughter coming of age series Ginny & Georgia after the streamer says more than 52 million member households watched at least two minutes of the show starring Brianne Howey and Antonia Gentry. (Netflix, like other streamers, does not release traditional viewership data.) The second season order, which will again consist of 10 hourlong episodes, comes less than two months after the dramedy debuted on the streamer. More. +Edgar Ramirez is back for a new day at Netflix. The Yes Day star will topline an eight-episode, straight-to-series drama called Florida Man. More. ►Scott Stuber, Netflix’s head of global film, has joined the board of directors of the National Film Preservation Foundation. The NFPF is the nonprofit organization created by Congress dedicated to saving America's film heritage. Stuber’s posting is a four-year appointment, made by the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden. More. +Revolving door: Lawyer, chef and digital creator Joanne Molinaro has signed with UTA in all areas... Fox News has signed KTTV reporter Bill Melugin as a national correspondent... Jane Gould has been promoted to exec vp content research, insights and scheduling at Disney General Entertainment... Composer Benjamin Wallfisch will score Warner Bros. and DC Films' upcoming The Flash movie... Obituaries... +Anthony Powell, the extraordinary British costume designer whose résumé included a pair of Indiana Jones films for Steven Spielberg, Tess and three other features for Roman Polanski and a trio of Academy Awards, has died. He was 85. Powell died Friday, veteran Broadway costume designer Scott Traugott reported on Facebook. "We have lost a brilliant designer, a true gentleman. I was so honored to follow in his shadow on many productions. A light has dimmed in our universe," he wrote. The obituary. +Black Rob, the rapper closely associated with Bad Boy Records and behind the hit single "Whoa!," has died. He was 52. He died of cardiac arrest on Saturday in Atlanta, his friend and former Bad Boy labelmate Mark Curry said on social media. Curry said the hip-hop star had been suffering from a series of health problems for a number of years including lupus, kidney failure, diabetes, and multiple strokes. The obituary. ►TV reviews: Daniel Fienberg reviews the Apple TV+ drama The Mosquito Coast, writing that "In the hands of Luther creator Neil Cross, The Mosquito Coast has indeed become an entertaining but utterly derivative successor to Breaking Bad and Ozark. It’s also a show whose very existence is itself a cautionary tale — mirroring the themes the story tackles — about how the American marketplace reshapes anything with a maverick spirit into a more commercially recognizable form." The review. +Fienberg also reviews Hulu's Sasquatch, writing: "A three-episode "series," with two episodes running under 45 minutes, Sasquatch is three or four different stories told half-way and then a rushed, over-explained attempt to unify them. The stories are all interesting and several have the potential for real gravity, leaving me wanting more in the end — which I guess is better than wanting less?" The review. In other news... --AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron has defended the exhibition giant's heavy stock dilution as necessary to save the company from going to the wall amid pandemic-era theater closures. --James Corden made an angry and impassioned plea against plans for a European soccer Super League on Monday's episode The Late Late Show, repeatedly describing the controversial scheme as "disgusting" and saying that he was "heartbroken." --"It never went away": If Anything Happens I Love You helmers on gun violence. --Premium home cinema provider Kaleidescape is kicking off an Oscar-related promotion of discounted titles, launching on Tuesday. --Angry Byron Bay locals are protesting the filming of a reality television series that some fear will damage the reputation of their trendy Australian tourist town. --The Kobe Bryant estate has decided to not renew their partnership with Nike, the late NBA star's widow Vanessa confirmed on Monday night. --With the third and final season prepped to air on FX this summer, Human Rights Campaign has selected the groundbreaking Pose to receive a National Visibility and Impact Award at the org's “Time for Equality Live" fundraiser. What else we're reading... --"What entertainment does Gen Z prefer? The answer isn’t good for Hollywood" [LA Times] --"Sports site Action Network looks for buyer as online betting grows" [The Information] --"Is Facebook buying off The New York Times?" [Washington Monthly] --"Apple to reinstate Parler, the app at center of online-speech debate" [WSJ] Today's birthdays: Shemar Moore, 51, George Takei, 84, Joey Lawrence, 45, Jessica Lange, 72, Andy Serkis, 57.
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