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WGA and AMPTP Sets New Talks; Why the 'Barbie' Magic Won’t Be Easy to Recapture; Park Chan-wook's 'Oldboy' at 20; 'Heart of Stone' Review

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August 11, 2023

What's news: CAA is laying off 60 staffers. SAG-AFTRA is stepping up to help reality TV workers. NFL+ will now include NFL Network and RedZone. News Corp is in active talks with AI companies. — Abid Rahman

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WGA Sets New Negotiations Session With Studios

►It's happening. The WGA and Hollywood’s top studios and streamers have set a date to return to the negotiating table: Friday, Aug. 11. The return to formal negotiations was announced Aug. 10, nearly a week after both sides met in an exploratory meeting about the talks between the two parties on Aug 4. It marks the first step in what may be a long road to the parties reaching a resolution and ending the writers strike. The story.

—No holding back. Laura Blum-Smith, the WGA West’s director of research and public policy, said the strike is a result of a tsunami of Hollywood mergers that has handed studios and streamers the power to its exploit workers. Speaking at an event with the FTC and DOJ over new merger guidelines, Blum-Smith pointed to Disney, Amazon and Netflix as companies that “gained power through anticompetitive consolidation and vertical integration,” which allowed them to impose precarious working conditions, short term employment and lower pay. The story.

—"We stand ready to assist." After Real Housewives star Bethenny Frankel called for reality performers to also stop working amid the writers and actors strikes to protest their own treatment and lack of residuals, SAG-AFTRA is stepping up to offer its help. The union has been in touch with Frankel’s legal team about the treatment of reality performers and notes that, depending on the production and the talent involved, it can cover reality stars under its Network Code Agreement. The story.

—Tough climate. Amid a production halt during a double strike, talent agency CAA is undergoing a round of layoffs. About sixty employees are set to be impacted — including agents, executives and support staff — within the next week, a source tells THR's Erik Hayden. The figure is a relatively small percentage of the thousands of staffers that work at the Century City-based representation giant. Multiple departments had been evaluating staffing levels even prior to when the WGA strike began on May 2. The story.

—"We want our members to continue to hone their skills." The board of the Motion Picture Sound Editors — the organization that produces the annual Golden Reel Awards — has voted unanimously to waive dues payments for its members for the current year amid the ongoing strikes that have left many of its members of out of work. MPSE is not union-affiliated and has no position on the strike but looks forward to a quick and amicable resolution so that all parties can return to work. The story.

Why the 'Barbie' Magic Won’t Be Easy to Recapture

►"If anyone is watching Barbie and saying, ‘You know why this movie worked? It’s because of a toy’ you are taking away the wrong lesson." THR's Mia Galuppo writes that with a sequel to Barbie a long way off (if a possibility at all), Warner Bros. is keeping the Mattel momentum going by trying to push forward Hot Wheels while Hollywood questions which toys can realistically become hits. The analysis.

—"We are devastated and heartbroken." Native Hawaiian Jason Momoa took to social media to drew attention to the ongoing deadly wildfires on the island of Maui. On his Instagram, the Aquaman star posted shared photos and videos from the nonprofit ‘Āina Momona, showing the devastation, including neighborhoods in historic Lahaina Town completely scorched and brought to ash. The story.

—Draft in Steph Curry. Paramore has had to cancel the remaining dates for the pop-punk band’s This Is Why tour after frontwoman Hayley Williams contracted a lung infection. Williams shared the news on the band’s Instagram account Thursday, writing, “After my lung infection forced us to postpone four shows, I was hoping a week off of performing and a strict medicine routine would allow my body to heal enough to finish off this tour strong.” The story.

—More bang for your buck. The NFL is significantly expanding its direct-to-consumer footprint, adding NFL Network and the NFL RedZone channels to its NFL+ subscription offering. NFL Network will be added to the base tier of NFL+, which will see its monthly price rise from $4.99 per month to $6.99 per month. RedZone, meanwhile, will be available on a premium tier that also includes full and condensed game replays and other content for $14.99 per month. The story.

'Narcos' Showrunner is Ready to Tackle a New Drug War

►"This is a story that needs to be told as many times as possible, as loudly as possible. [The opioid crisis] is not over." THR's Lacey Rose spoke to producer Eric Newman about his new Netflix drama series Painkiller. The prolific producer, who previously tackled the drug trade and its consequences in Narcos, discusses why he gravitates to “aspirational crime” and how he went from "pissed off" to "nervous" to embracing strike uncertainty. The interview.

—"We definitely learned how fascinating the true stories from chefs are." Lacey also spoke to Joanna Calo, co-showrunner on FX/Hulu's The Bear. Calo discusses The Bear's huge critical success, how she resisted the temptation to see Carmy and Sydney hook up and how she’ll return to plotting a third season whenever the WGA strike concludes. The interview.

—"To know that I’ve grown as a filmmaker is really rewarding." THR's Tyler Coates spoke to Bill Hader about the final season of his Emmy-nominated HBO hitman drama, Barry. The actor, writer, director and producer reflects on his chief influences in making the Barry and how, despite the dark subject matter, the series still makes him laugh. This interview was conducted before the July 14 launch of the SAG-AFTRA strike. The interview. The interview.

—"Janelle makes everything better. Janelle is super smart, really clever." For THR, Cori Murray spoke to Randall Einhorn, executive producer on ABC's perennial awards contender Abbott Elementary. Einhorn discusses camaraderie amongst the cast and crew on the show, the important work of world-building in the pilot, the incredible talent of Janelle James and the absolute joy of breaking rules on television. The interview.

'Oldboy' at 20: The Masterpiece That Kickstarted the Korean Wave

►"I wanted the film to be felt physically, not just emotionally." As Neon re-releases Park Chan-wook’s incredibly influential Oldboy in U.S. theaters this week, THR's Patrick Brzeski spoke to the filmmaker and other key players about the lurid, blood-soaked, octopus-eating revenge saga that smashed barriers (with a claw-tooth hammer). The story.

—"Negotiations are well underway." News Corp CEO Robert Thomson revealed the company is in active discussions with AI and tech companies “to establish a value for our unique content sets and IP that will play a crucial role in the future of AI.” On the company’s fiscal Q4 earnings call Thursday, Thomson said News Corp would look to secure payments from AI companies in the same way it ultimately received payment from Google, Meta and other tech giants in exchange for access to their journalism. The story.

—Suits supremacy. The final episodes of Amazon's Jack Ryan lifted the show to its highest spot on the Nielsen streaming chart since the debut of its third season in late 2022. Suits, meanwhile, continued its record-setting run atop the acquired series charts, breaking the single-week record for a library show on the chart for the third time in a row. Bluey also recorded its first billion-minute week with the release of more episodes on Disney+. The streaming rankings.

Film Review: 'Heart of Stone'

►"Efficiently entertaining if you don’t take it too seriously." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Tom Harper's Heart of Stone. Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan, Sophie Okonedo, Matthias Schweighöfer and Alia Bhatt star in this Netflix thriller about the race to save the crucial asset of a secret global peacekeeping agency. The review.

—"You'll be longing for a lifeboat." THR film critic Frank Scheck reviews André Ovredal's The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Corey Hawkins and Aisling Franciosi star in this horror film based on a single chapter of Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula. The review.

—"A well-meaning but wobbly adaptation." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Matthew López's Red, White & Royal Blue. The U.S. president's son falls in love with an heir to the British throne in Amazon's adaptation of Casey McQuiston's novel, starring Taylor Zakhar Perez, Nicholas Galitzine and Uma Thurman. The review.

—"Mesmerizing, even though it doesn't stick the landing." Lovia reviews Thomas Hardiman's Medusa Deluxe. The A24 release plunges viewers into a competitive hairstyling community shaken by the murder of one of their own. The review.

Thank Pod It's Friday

► All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.

—TV's Top 5. THR's Lesley Goldberg and Dan Fienberg break down the latest TV news. This week's episode is another strike special to coincide with the 100 days of the WGA stoppage. The full 45-minute interview with Chris Keyser, the co-chair of the WGA's negotiating committee, is featured and well worth a listen. There's a section on Disney's quarterly results and all the takeaways from Bob Iger's newsy earnings call and a discussion on the TCA Awards. And Dan reviews HBO’s Telemarketers and Netflix’s Painkiller. Listen here.

In other news...

—Netflix releases trailer for new Adam Sandler movie You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah

—Netflix's Fall of the House of Usher releases first photos, premiere date

—Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour: All the stars who have attended

—Rachel Sennott-starrer I Used to Be Funny lands at Utopia

—Verve to relocate Los Angeles headquarters

What else we're reading...

—Critic Roxana Hadadi writes that HBO's And Just Like That can’t stop failing its new characters [Vulture]

—With record numbers of people going to see Barbie, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, Sarah Krouse and Anne Steele write that 2023 was the summer women flexed their spending power [WSJ]

—Leah Carroll reflects on what the Lizzo allegations show about harassment in entertainment [BBC]

—Helen Holmes investigates whether Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift are BFFs again [Daily Beast]

—Here's your Friday list: "20 greatest Venice Film Festival Golden Lion winners – ranked!" [Guardian]

Today...

Today's birthdays: Viola Davis (58), Chris Hemsworth (40), Anna Gunn (55), Sophie Okonedo (55), Rob Minkoff (61), Embeth Davidtz (58), Chris Messina (49), Merritt Wever (43), Alyson Stoner (30), Ashley Jensen (54), Priscilla Quintana (31), Úrsula Corberó (34), Ian McDiarmid (79), Henry Lloyd-Hughes (38), Elya Baskin (73), Emily Bevan (41), Jacqueline Fernandez (38), Layla Alizada (46), Duane Martin (58), Sylvia De Fanti (46), Suniel Shetty (62), Lynn Adrianna Freedman (44), Savannah Chrisley (26)

Johnny Hardwick, who voiced the chain-smoking exterminator Dale Gribble for the entire 13-season run of the Fox animated hit King of the Hill, has died. He was 64. The obituary.

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Written by José Vizcarra
on Friday, August 11, 2023 at 7:02 AM.

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