'Schindler's List': An Oral History of a Masterpiece

►On the cover. Thirty years after Schindler's List swept the Oscars, Steven Spielberg, Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Martin Scorsese and others reveal to THR's Scott Feinberg the untold story behind one of the most revered films of all time, including George Lucas' secret behind-the-scenes role and a near-disastrous casting possibility that might have altered the course of cinematic history (Mel Gibson as Oskar Schindler? It almost happened). The cover story.

Jeff Zucker Doesn't Watch Much CNN

►"I’m not going to comment on Chris Cuomo." It has been two years since Jeff Zucker resigned from the top job at CNN over a consensual relationship with a network executive. THR's Lachlan Cartwright spoke to Zucker about his post-CNN venture, the investment firm RedBird IMI, and why he is snapping up media properties at a frantic clip. The interview.

—🤝 The keys to the Disney Vault 🤝 Following Netflix's exit from the DVD business and Best Buy's decision to stop selling them, Disney is turning to Sony to take over its physical media business. The deal will see Sony market, sell and distribute new releases and library titles from Disney. Disney joins Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal in deciding that sharing resources is a better path forward for a physical media business in decline. The story. 

—🤝 Minority stake 🤝 Universal Music Group has paid $240m for a minority stake in Chord Music Partners, the music IP company launched by KKR and Dundee Partners in 2021. The music major has picked up a 25.8 percent interest in a venture that has music catalogs belonging to The Weeknd, John Legend, Ryan Tedder/OneRepublic, David Guetta, Lorde, Kid Cudi, Diplo, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Ellie Goulding, ZZ Top and Twenty One Pilots. The deal values Chord, which has rights to 60,000 songs, at $1.85b. The story.

—Antitrust lawsuit. Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, who plan to team up on a new platform that will pool together sports streaming rights, are facing an antitrust lawsuit from rival sports streamer Fubo, which alleges that it’s being forced to carry dozens of pricey, nonsports channels as a condition of licensing sports rights from the companies in a scheme to stifle competition. The $1b lawsuit filed in New York federal court on Tuesday under seal names the three media giants and seeks to block the joint venture. The story. 

—Leaning into sports. Apple is launching a new app dedicated to real-time sports data. Called Apple Sports, the free app launches today in the U.S., U.K. and Canada and is focused on live scores, as well as other data around the games. Notably, that also includes real-time betting odds, though users will be able to turn those off at any time. At launch Apple Sports will have scores and stats from the NBA, NHL, MLS, NCAA basketball, Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga and LigaMX, with MLB, NFL and NCAA football available when their leagues starts. The story. 

How Marvel Is Retooling Amid Superhero Fatigue

►"They’re not going to give up." Aside from the bright spot of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has struggled for critical love and box office returns. The Marvels, the last film the studio released, became the lowest-grossing in the MCU’s 33-film run, hitting just $206m globally as superhero fatigue became pervasive amongst audiences. Despite the setbacks, THR's Aaron Couch and Borys Kit write that Marvel's chief architect Kevin Feige isn’t scrapping his years-long cinematic universe plan, just refining it. The story.

—New name in the frame. The Creator filmmaker Gareth Edwards is in talks to direct Universal’s latest installment of the Jurassic World franchise and to step into shoes that were worn, if ever so briefly, by David Leitch. Universal and Amblin Partners are moving fast on the project and have set a July 2, 2025, release date for the creature feature. The new Jurassic World film is already several drafts in, with a script written by David Koepp. Leitch was in talks in early February to helm the project, but just days later, the two sides parted ways. The story.  

—📅 Fret not, it's happening 📅  Warner Bros.'s Mickey 17 is back on the theatrical calendar. The sci-fi feature from Parasite director Bong Joon Ho will now open on Jan. 31, 2025. Last month, WB removed the film from its previous date of March 29, 2024, due to delays caused by the 2023 Hollywood strikes. Robert Pattinson stars in the adaptation of the 2022 Edward Ashton novel Mickey7. The story.  

—Life moves pretty fast. Paramount's feature spinoff of 1980s classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off has found its director. David Katzenberg, known for his work as director and executive producer of ABC’s The Goldbergs, will helm the project titled Sam and Victor’s Day Off. Taking place on a single day, the film centers on the two titular valets who borrow the Ferrari belonging to the father of Alan Ruck’s character, Cameron Frye, in John Hughes' original film. The story. 

—🎭 Genius found 🎭 White Lotus actor Will Sharpe is set to play the role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus, a Sky Original limited series. The drama will reunite the team behind the crime series Giri/Haji, with Joe Barton writing the screenplay and Julian Farino directing. The series, to shoot later this year, will be produced by Two Cities Television, in association with Sky Studios. The project is a reimagining of Peter Shaffer’s 1979 stage play, Amadeus, the inspiration for Milos Forman’s 1984 film adaptation, which won eight Oscars, including best picture. The story. 

—They've spared no expense. Colossal Biosciences, a company that aims to bring extinct animals back to life, is set to be the subject of a documentary series. The company has teamed with Oscar-winning My Octopus Teacher James Reed’s Underdog Films and Teton Ridge Entertainment to produce a “multi-year” docuseries about Colossal’s work. The firm bills itself as the world’s first “de-extinction” company and has raised some $225m in funding as it works to resurrect species like the woolly mammoth and the dodo. The story. 

Just 30 Percent of 2023 Movies Had Female Leads

►Not quite year of the woman. Although Barbie won the box office last year, a demographic analysis of the rest of 2023’s releases indicates that Hollywood is still investing primarily in male-centered movies. Just 30 percent of the top 100 films of 2023 featured a female lead or co-lead, the lowest share in a decade, according to the latest research brief from USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. The story. 

—Suit dropped. An unidentified woman who sued Jimmy Iovine for sexual assault and battery has dropped her lawsuit against the Interscope Records cofounder. A lawyer representing the accuser notified the court on Thursday that the case is “discontinued in its entirety with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be refiled. It is unknown if a settlement was reached. The story. 

—"The comparison was inappropriate and ignorant." Vanderpump Rules' Tom Sandoval has apologized for comparing "Scandoval" to O.J. Simpson and George Floyd in a New York Times Magazine interview, quotes that quickly went viral. In the interview, the reality star was asked why he thought Scandoval became such a phenomenon. He responded, “I’m not a pop culture historian really, but I witnessed the O.J. Simpson thing and George Floyd and all these big things, which is really weird to compare this to that, I think, but do you think in a weird way it’s a little bit of the same?” The story.

TV Review: 'Constellation' 

►"Struggles to sustain its initial rush of tension." THR's Angie Han reviews Apple TV+'s Constellation. The sci-fi mystery series centers on an astronaut (Noomi Rapace) who survives a space-station accident, only to discover upon her return to Earth that her life is not as she remembered it. The review.

—"Hard to resist." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Joe Gunn's Ordinary Angels. Hilary Swank and Reacher's Alan Ritchson star in this fact-based film about a hairdresser who makes it her mission to help a family in desperate need. The review. 

—"Not subtle, but gets the job done." Frank reviews Eshom and Ian Nelms' Red Right Hand. Orlando Bloom and Andie MacDowell star in this actioner about a reformed criminal desperately trying to protect his family from a local mob kingpin. The review. 

Film Review: 'No Other Land' 

►"A devastating portrait." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor's No Other Land. A collective of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers helm a project about the Israeli government's attempts to expel Palestinians in the West Bank area of Masafer Yatta. The review.

—"Not horror but still plenty horrific." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's Berlinale competition entry The Devil's Bath. The genre auteurs' third feature explores in unflinching detail a dark footnote in early modern European history. The review.

—"A moving cross-cultural coming-of-ager." THR's Jordan Mintzer reviews Claire Burger's Berlinale competition entry Langue Etrangère. The third feature by the Real Love writer-director, the romance drama stars Nina Hoss and Chiara Mastroianni as mothers of 17-year-olds on opposite sides of the French-German border. The review. 

In other news...

—Irish Wish trailer: Lindsay Lohan swaps lives again in Netflix rom-com

—Sydney Sweeney, Josh Brolin land SNL hosting gigs

—Esports gamer Nadeshot signs with WME, Range Media

—Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat names Jay Levine as CEO

—Courtney Holt joins Candle Media’s Moonbug Entertainment as music exec

—Million Dollar Listing alums James Harris and David Parnes switch agencies, join Carolwood Estates

—Oprah Winfrey and Niecy Nash-Betts to be honored at GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles

—Beyoncé to fund $500k grant for cosmetology schools and salons

—Cynthia Strother, one-half of the singing Bell Sisters, dies at 88

​​​What else we're reading...

—Ben Lindbergh and Rob Arthur reflect on True Detective: Night Country and, using data, consider the curse of the six-episode season [Ringer]

—Joseph Pisani and Sarah E. Needleman talk to fans of the mobile game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, who are crushed the game will be shutdown for good in April [WSJ]

—Chloe Melas and Lindsay Lowe report that a new Oxygen docuseries about the murder of singer Selena Quintanilla Pérez is stirring controversy among fans and her family [NBC News]

—Kang Hyun-kyung reports on the culture war brewing in South Korea over the release of The Birth of Korea, a doc about Syngman Lee, the country's first president [Korea Times]

—With elections due in 2024, Peter Walker writes that the U.K. Conservative Party is fearing an extinction-level election result on a par with Canada's Progressive Conservative Party's infamous performance in 1993 [Guardian]

Today...  

...in 2014, Tristar Pictures and FilmDistrict released Paul W. S. Anderson's Pompeii in theaters. The film, starring Kit Harington and Emily Browning, tackled history's most infamous volcanic disaster but bombed at the box office. The original review. 

Today's birthdays: Jordan Peele (45), Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (55), Elliot Page (37), Joe Alwyn (33), Anthony Daniels (78), William Baldwin (61), William Petersen (71), Christine Ebersole (71), Tituss Burgess (45), Jennifer Love Hewitt (45), Sophie Turner (28), Ashley Greene (37), Mélanie Laurent (41), Kelsey Grammer (69), Tuppence Middleton (37), Ella-Rae Smith (26), Tyne Daly (78), Scout Taylor-Compton (35), Kim Coates (66), Eoin Macken (41), Corbin Bleu (35), Hayley Orrantia (30), Jim Simpson (68), Jack Coleman (66), Brendan Sexton III (44), Christopher Atkins (63), Joel McKinnon Miller (64), Gary Lockwood (87), Adrian Schiller (60), Takayuki Suzuki (34), Kitty Winn (81), Nicole Parker (46)