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Bernstein Family Defend Bradley Cooper; Playwrights Struggle as Screen Work Has Diminished; A Pellicano Target's Second Act; 'Blue Beetle' Review

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August 17, 2023

What's news: Paramount Global has decided against selling a majority stake in BET. Barbie is now WB's biggest movie ever in North America. Iranian filmmaker Saeed Roustayi has been jailed for attending the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The season five premiere of Fargo has been delayed. — Abid Rahman

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Bernstein Family Defend Bradley Cooper Over 'Maestro' Nose

►"Our dad would have been fine with it." The children of composer Leonard Bernstein are defending Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of their late father in the upcoming film Maestro. A day after the first trailer for the Netflix film was released, some commentators felt Cooper's decision to wear a prosthetic nose reinforced antisemitic stereotypes and was an act of "jewface." The film has also reignited the debate about who should be able to play Jewish roles. The story.

—Leonard Bernstein Place. Maestro is set to have its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival. Film at Lincoln Center revealed Wednesday that the film will be the NYFF’s Spotlight Gala this year on Oct. 2. The Netflix project will be the first film to premiere at the newly reopened David Geffen Hall, which has been outfitted with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos for the occasion. The story.

—Pushed back. FX’s latest installment of Fargo is being pushed to Nov. 21 amid Hollywood’s dual strikes. Though the series was never publicly dated, multiple sources tell THR's Lacey Rose that it had been circling a release date in September. But with stars including Jon Hamm and Juno Temple unable to promote the fifth chapter in Noah Hawley’s Fargo universe as long as there’s a work stoppage, FX made the choice to hold the series back. The story.

Playwrights Struggle as Film and TV Work Has Diminished

►"The rug is being pulled out." For many playwrights, film and television work has historically served as a supplement to their income from the theater world. But in recent years, writers tell THR's Caitlin Huston and Abbey White, studios have begun to poke holes in that safety net, leaving some stage scribes as frustrated and angry as their screenwriting colleagues. The story.

—Impasse. Ken Ziffren, a veteran entertainment attorney who’s served as Los Angeles’ film czar since 2014, is casting skepticism as to whether negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP have progressed. Speaking at an event for media and entertainment lawyers, Ziffren said that Tuesday’s meeting between the two sides “did not move the ball forward” in a sign that they remain far apart. The story.

—Not for sale. After at least five months of deliberations, Paramount Global has decided against selling a majority stake in its BET Media Group. The move to take down the “for sale” sign for the unit — which includes the BET channel, streamer BET+ as well as VH1 and BET Studios — follows publicly expressed interest from the likes of moguls Tyler Perry, Byron Allen, Sean “Diddy” Combs and others in acquiring a majority interest. The story.

—Pink supremacy. Box office sensation Barbie notched another major milestone on Tuesday when it passed Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight to become the biggest Warner Bros. movie ever in North America, not adjusted for inflation. Barbie’s Tuesday haul was $6.1m, for a domestic total of $537.4m. In 2008, The Dark Knight topped out at $536m. The story.

A Pellicano Target's Second Act

►"I don’t think a lot of Hollywood knows what I’ve been doing, to be honest." THR's Seth Abramovitch looks into how ex-Hollywood journalist Anita Busch — whose career was derailed by the infamous Hollywood P.I. Anthony Pellicano and who survived a brutal sexual assault — has quietly re-emerged as an advocate for mass shooting victims: "I said, ‘If I get strong again, I will never stop helping.'" The story.

—Jailed. Iranian director and screenwriter Saeed Roustayi has been sentenced to six months in prison for screening his film Leila’s Brothers at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival without necessary authorization, according to local reports. On Tuesday, the filmmaker — alongside his producer Javad Noruzbegi — were found guilty of “contributing to propaganda of the opposition against the Islamic system” by Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court. The story.

—In demand. Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, The Boy and the Heron, has a busy schedule for September. The hand-drawn animated feature, which was released in theaters in Japan on July 14, will open the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 7 and then, just two weeks later, will kick off San Sebastián Festival, opening the 71st edition of the famed Spanish festival Sept. 22. The story.

Study: Women Star in Majority of Most Popular Shows

►Real progress. For the first time since the Hollywood gender parity coalition ReFrame was formed in 2017, the majority of the most popular shows on television and streaming were toplined by women. According to the ReFrame Report on Gender & Hiring in TV, 108 (54 percent) of the top 200 scripted series in the 2022-23 season featured a woman in the lead role, up from 45.5 percent last year. Writers achieved gender parity, with 50.08 percent of episodes penned by women (up from 48.4 percent), while the share of episodes directed by women increased from 36 percent to 40 percent. The study.

—Little change. USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has released its signature comprehensive report on the diversity of movies in front of and behind the camera. Over 16 years, the researchers found little change in the percentage of characters from non-white groups of every race and ethnicity except one: Asians represented 15.9 percent of characters in 2022’s top movies – up from 3.4 percent in 2007 (over a decade before Crazy Rich Asians ushered in an unprecedented era of visibility). The story.

'Last of Us' Showrunner on S2 Plan

►"We’ve laid out our vision to HBO for how this series should lay out across not one season, but multiple seasons." THR's James Hibberd spoke to The Last of Us co-creator and showrunner Craig Mazin about the plans for season two of the hit HBO drama. Mazin discusses the casting of Abby, his favorite scene and some of the most challenging and emotional moments of the show's first season. The interview.

—"I’d love to make more." THR's Lacey Rose spoke to Beef creator Lee Sung Jin on his original ending for the hit Netflix series. The triple Emmy nominee also discusses the "life-affirming" feedback he has received, the season two plan, and he explains why the limited series became his most personal work to date. The interview.

—"It’s like no other franchise." THR's Brian Davids spoke to Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow on reaching all generations of Star Wars fans with the Disney+ show. Chow discussed bringing Hayden Christensen back into the franchise fold, the global search for the show’s young Leia and the surprising challenge of directing Darth Vader. The interview.

—"People took such a chance on my weird book and me." For THR, Esther Zuckerman Fleishman Is in Trouble creator and showrunner Taffy Brodesser-Akner on getting the support to adapt her novel for television. Brodesser-Akner discusses tackling her own work and getting her dream actors to star in the FX/Hulu miniseries. The interview.

Film Review: 'Blue Beetle'

►"A bug worth catching." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Ángel Manuel Soto's Blue Beetle. Xolo Maridueña stars in the first live-action superhero movie built around a Latino protagonist, with Susan Sarandon as the icy military-grade arms developer set on harnessing his powers. The review.

—"These canines are not for kids." THR film critic Frank Scheck reviews Josh Greenbaum's Strays. Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, Randall Park and Josh Gad are among the other voice performers in this raunchy canine comedy from Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar director. The review.

—"Funny and sincere." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Oz Rodriguez's Miguel Wants to Fight. Tyler Dean Flores stars in Jason Concepcion and Shea Serrano's Hulu feature about a high-school student trying to get into his first fight. The review.

—"A subversive trip." THR's Jordan Mintzer reviews Ali Ahmadzadeh's Critical Zone. Taxi Driver meets Taste of Cherry in this provocative Iranian road movie from the writer-director who was banned by his homeland from attending Locarno for the premiere, which won the festival's top prize. The review.

In other news...

—Scott Pilgrim gets animated in trailer for Netflix series

—Sinclair Daniel gets paranoid in sinister The Other Black Girl trailer

—Prince Harry praises veterans in trailer for Heart of Invictus Netflix docuseries

—Shawn Levy to receive Toronto Film Festival Tribute Award

—Adobe, Flanders Scientific and Kino Flo to receive HPA Engineering Excellence Awards

—WME hires Josh Javor as partner, co-head of London music department

—How striking writers and actors can secure free pet food

—Inside Rome’s new Bulgari Hotel

—Michael Parkinson, legendary British talk show host, dies at 88

What else we're reading...

—Nicholas Quah goes inside the making of the History Channel's survival competition series Alone, the most genuinely perilous show on television [Vulture]

—Sarah Parvini talks to video game voice actors who say the "soul of the industry is on trial" with unregulated AI [LAT]

—Heather Schwedel caved and started watching Amazon's The Summer I Turned Pretty, the teen show that a growing number of adults can't resist [Slate]

—Andrew Lawrence writes that The Blind Side’s white savior tale was always built on shaky ground [Guardian]

—With “girl dinners” and “hot girl walks” becoming a thing online, Rebecca Jennings looks into what's behind these “girl” trends and how they repackage womanhood [Vox]

Today...

...in 1979, the Monty Python team brought religious satire Life of Brian to theaters. The original review.

Today's birthdays: Robert De Niro (80), Austin Butler (32), Sean Penn (63), Phoebe Bridgers (29), Julian Fellowes (74), Belinda Carlisle (65), Martha Coolidge (77), Raphael Bob-Waksberg (39), Taissa Farmiga (29), Donnie Wahlberg (54), Rachel Hurd-Wood (33), Natalie Gold (47), Tim Bagley (66), Tammy Townsend (53), David Conrad (56), Brady Corbet (35), Robert Joy (72), Chipo Chung (46), Larry B. Scott (62), John Marshall Jones (61), Farah Zeynep Abdullah (34), Tara Macken (33), Alex Honnold (38)

Jerry Moss, who co-founded A&M Records with Herb Alpert and released top-selling albums by The Carpenters, The Police, Alpert and others, has died. He was 88. The obituary.

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Written by José Vizcarra
on Thursday, August 17, 2023 at 7:01 AM.

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