Today In Entertainment APRIL 14, 2021
What's news: A Spanish-language media mega-merger, Tom Cruise plans global press tour as part of Top Gun sequel release strategy, the backstory to the Sony-Netflix library deal, sports TV is ready for its comeback, Serena Williams inks an Amazon deal. Plus: Entertainment heavyweights sign open letter opposing restrictive voting laws, and why the themes of Minari "are broader than the Asian American experience." --Alex Weprin 'Minari's' Meaning ►On the cover: Minari broke new ground for storytellers of color, but creatives don't want to be pigeonholed. The Oscar-nominated film navigates the immigrant American journey, but writer-director Lee Isaac Chung, producer Christina Oh and Steven Yeun tell Inkoo Kang its themes are broader than the Asian American experience: "We were just trying to tell something honest." --"Yeun, Chung and Oh take care to note in conversations with THR that their film — which has garnered six Oscar nominations (including for best picture), SAG and BAFTA victories for scene-stealing supporting actress Youn and a controversial Golden Globe win for best foreign-language film — deserves to be considered as more than an Asian American movie. They seemed caught in an age-old Hollywood trap that's persisted during the current 'diversity boom,' one that filmmakers of color who have mined their personal histories and proudly showcased cultural authenticity are penned into when their work finds success in the mainstream: how to speak to the specificity of their experience while not having their movies reduced solely to it. Minari tried to see the humanity in everyone. Could the world see the humanity in Minari?" --"Yeun doesn't seem particularly thrilled about his status as the first Asian American nominee for the best actor Oscar. 'If I step out of myself and see what that moment might mean beyond just me,' he remarks, 'it's cool that we get to establish new ground and that young Asian American kids can feel like this is possible for them, too.' But personally, he confesses, 'I'm just not reactive to it in any direction.' He's leery that such a high-profile achievement might end up a kind of burden, in which people view him as an 'Asian American actor' first and 'actor' second. 'Sometimes a narrative around [identity] ensnares [you] and places [you] in a weird box that we have to then crawl back out of,' he sighs. He feels similarly about Minari, which he calls "one facet of Asian America.' 'It doesn't speak for all of it,' he says. 'It might even just speak for this one family, you know?'" --"For Chung, the personal trumps every other way of seeing the film, including race. 'There was never a point,' he says, 'where I thought, 'I'm going to do something Asian American.' ' He likens the film's racial and immigrant themes to the role that Christianity plays in the script — sincere and exploratory but hardly all-encompassing. 'The film wrestles with faith, and I'm a person of faith, but I never set out thinking, 'I'm going to make a film about faith.' ' In the same way, he says, 'It's more like, 'I'm going to do something personal and I am Asian American, so that's going to come about.''' The cover story. Spanish-Language Media Mega-Merger ►Should've been called "Tele-Vision": Two of the biggest Spanish-language media companies in the world are planning to merge. Mexico's Televisa and Univision are set to combine media, production and content into a new company to be called Televisa-Univision, the two announced Tuesday. Univision will pay about $4.8 billion for Televisa's content assets. --Univision CEO Wade Davis will hold the same title at the combined company, with Televisa co-CEO Alfonso de Angoitia serving as executive chairman of the board. Televisa will have the largest stake in the new venture, holding 45 percent equity. --The merger would create the largest Spanish-language media company in the world with bases in the two biggest Spanish-speaking markets: Mexico and the United States. Televisa is a production powerhouse, producing some 86,000 hours of content in 2020, and both companies hold big sports rights packages. The story. ►Behind the Top Gun sequel delay: Tom Cruise plans global press tour. Studios aren’t panicking over the Paramount tentpole’s move from July to November as encouraging data shows more U.S. adults will return to theaters, Pamela McClintock reports. --"Sources close to the film tell The Hollywood Reporter that Cruise wants to embark on a world tour in advance of the opening, something that would now be impossible in much of Europe, where there are once again lockdowns, and possibly Japan. 'Tom Cruise is one of the few stars who can move the needle by doing late night shows and premieres across the world,' says a veteran studio executive." The story. ►Behind Sony's studio-to-streamer deal with Netflix. "Although the agreement may be a win-win for both Sony, which doesn’t have an owned-and-operated streaming service, and Netflix, there is one studio taking a hit. 'Starz is going to have more trouble,' says Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter of the Lionsgate-owned premium cable network, which has been Sony’s pay TV partner since 2006." The story. Sports TV Is Ready For Its Comeback ►Live sports' TV ratings gamble: Will there be a comeback? Even as the Super Bowl, World Series and NBA Finals took hits amid the pandemic, network executives and insiders predict a steady (but slow) recovery in viewership. --“Our concern, if we have one, it’s more about the general trend of TV use than it is about interest in sports rebounding,” says Fox Sports executive vp Michael Mulvihill. “I think the share of viewing taken up by sports is probably going to increase this year. We just don’t know what the trend in that total pie of viewership is going to be.” The story. +Will sports TV advertising return to pre-pandemic form? Media spending with the NFL has buoyed the marketplace, but buying has slowed at the beginning of 2021. --“This to me is the real test coming right now. Does [the second quarter] of 2021 look like 2018 and 2019?” MediaRadar CEO Todd Krizelman says. “If it does, I think we can say, ‘All right, there’s a clean bill of health that we can issue from the marketplace.’” The story. ►Serena Williams will star in a new docuseries for Amazon Studios that chronicles the 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion in her personal and professional life. The as-yet-untitled series, currently filming, is just the start of a new first-look deal for Williams to create scripted and unscripted projects for the studio. The story. +Demi Lovato's comedy series about a group of people with eating disorders is getting a pilot order at NBC. Titled Hungry, the singer-actress is set to star and executive produce the project, which follows "friends who belong to a food issues group and help each other as they look for love, success and the perfect thing in the fridge that’s going to make it all better." The story. +Colton Underwood returned to TV on Wednesday morning for a revealing interview. The former Bachelor star, who led the 2019 season of the ABC reality dating franchise, said on Good Morning America that he is gay. More. +And finally: THR's Ryan Parker has an oral history of one of the most iconic scenes in Simpsons history... the "Steamed Hams" scene. More. ►Entertainment heavyweights sign open letter opposing restrictive voting laws. Netflix, ViacomCBS and Amazon are among the corporations signing the letter titled "We Stand For Democracy,' with individual signees including JJ Abrams, Shonda Rhimes, George Clooney and Warren Buffett. The story. ►Costume Designers Guild Awards: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Mulan and Promising Young Woman were the film winners at the 2021 Costume Designers Guild Awards on Tuesday night. The event — recognizing excellence in film, TV and short-form costume design — was hosted by To All the Boys star Lana Condor and streamed live on Twitter. The winners. The day in deals: Brian Oliver and Bradley Fischer's New Republic Pictures has signed a first-look deal with the Jude Law and Ben Jackson-run banner Riff Raff Entertainment. The deal encompasses both film and television... ShivHans Pictures has signed a first-look film deal with Hotel Mumbai star Dev Patel... NBCUniversal is staying in business with Lauren Ash. Less than a month after Superstore signed off of NBC following a six-season run, Ash has inked an overall talent and development deal with the company... Revolving door: Sharon Klein continues her Disney dominance. The former Fox and 20th Television exec will now oversee casting for Disney's entire television portfolio, adding to a purview that already included Disney TV Studios and FX... Bloomberg Media has signed on NBA all star Chris Paul, The Business of Fashion founder and CEO Imran Amed and NYU professor, author and podcaster Scott Galloway to host shows for its Quicktake streaming service... Jessica Neal, Netflix's chief talent officer, is leaving the company... Nonprofit organization American Documentary, which supports the acclaimed PBS series POV, has hired Erika Dilday as its first Black executive director... UTA has hired veteran investment executive Clinton Foy as general partner, Venture Capital at UTA Ventures... Casting roundup: Natalie Portman is extending her reach into TV, signing on to star in and executive produce an HBO film... Mark Hamill is helping bring a viral hit to the screen. The Star Wars actor will star opposite comedian Bert Kreischer in The Machine... ►TV review: Inkoo Kang reviews the Netflix sitcom Dad Stop Embarassing Me!, writing that "[Jamie] Foxx’s chameleonic turns are finely detailed and go-for-broke physical, but they’re not charming or fresh enough for DSEM! to feel like anything more than a wan throwback. The star and his daughter, Corinne Foxx (an executive producer here), reportedly mined their intergenerational conflicts for the series, but nary a scene feels true-to-life, let alone resonant." The review. In other news... --Chris McKay, who is prepping his sci-fi pic The Tomorrow War for a July release, has sunk his teeth into his next project. The filmmaker is in negotiations to direct and produce Renfield, a monster movie focused on Dracula’s infamous unhinged acolyte. --Sony Group has made another $200 million investment in Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite and the Unreal Engine used increasingly in Hollywood production, as part of a $1 billion round of funding for the company. --Apple Original Films has ordered Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong, a documentary about the life and pioneering career of the jazz legend Louis Armstrong from Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Documentaries. --Lee Aaker, a child actor in the 1950s who starred as the orphan Rusty alongside a German shepherd on ABC's The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin and in films including Hondo and The Atomic City, has died. He was 77. --Sports drama Like It's the Last from Queen Sugar writer Felicia Pride is in development with mega-producer Will Packer. --The looming trial between Frank Darabont and AMC over his share of profits from The Walking Dead has been narrowed by a New York appeals court. --Soccer star David Beckham spoke of his legacy as a professional athlete and his future as a television producer in a free-ranging and highly personal keynote address for digital MIPTV. --Edwin Aguilar, who spent more than two decades serving as an animator and assistant director on The Simpsons, has died. He was 46. What else we're reading... --"Awards shows are struggling to draw TV audiences. Should the Oscars be worried?" [LA Times] --"Lachlan Murdoch to end Australia stay and return for Fox U.S. reopening" [Reuters] --"Mike Rowe, oilsplainer" [Heated] --"Jon Stewart goes to Washington to fight for vets" [Rolling Stone] Today's birthdays: Peter Capaldi, 63, Anthony Michael Hall, 53, Sarah Michelle Gellar, 44, Josephine Skriver, 28, Abigail Breslin, 25.
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