July 01, 2024

What's news: The first chapter of Kevin Costner's Horizon series bombed at the box office. Crunchyroll/Sony will release the last three episodes of the Demon Slayer anime series in theaters. Will Forte has joined the cast of Netflix's The Four Seasons. Mia Hansen-Løve is making a film about feminist icon Mary Wollstonecraft. An average of 51.27m people watched the first presidential debate. — Abid Rahman

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BET Awards 2024

►Packed night. Victoria Monét, Killer Mike and Usher were among the big winners at the 2024 BET Awards, which took place Sunday night. Tyla won the first award of the night, for best international act, and later collected the award for best new artist. Usher, who was honored with a lifetime achievement award during the show, was named best male R&B/pop artist, while SZA won the award for best female R&B/pop artist. Killer Mike won album of the year for Michael. Monét won the BET Her award and video of the year for “On My Mama.” The winners. 

—All is forgiven. In between the explosive performances and touching speeches, the BET Awards were evangelized with an emotional performance by Will Smith, a killer speech by Killer Mike and host Taraji P. Henson reminding viewers to get out and vote in the upcoming presidential election. THR's Mesfin Fekadu recaps the night's biggest moments. The recap. 

—"The comeback is always bigger than the setback." All eyes were on Will Smith, as the Oscar-winner gave a rousing performance of his new inspirational song “You Can Make It” at the BET Awards. He was backed by the Sunday Service Choir, Chandler Moore and Kirk Franklin in his performance of the song, which dropped Friday. The story. 

—"This life achievement award, I don’t know, man, is it too early to receive it?" Usher was honored with the lifetime achievement award at the BET Awards with an all-star tribute performance, followed by a speech heavy on self-reflection that emphasized forgiveness and fatherhood. Legendary producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis came out onstage to present the tribute, and after Usher's speech, the likes of Keke Palmer, Childish Gambino, Summer Walker, Coco Jones, Marsha Ambrosius, Tinashe, Latto, Teyana Taylor and Victoria Monét all took turns to perform some his greatest hits. The story. 

—"I’m back, baby, I’m back." Killer Mike gave a passionate speech at the BET Awards while accepting the award for album of the year, referencing his recent legal issues and encouraging viewers to get politically involved. "Technically, I was not supposed to be here," the rapper said onstage. "I was put in handcuffs, and I was marched out of this building." The story. 

—Wait, what? O.J. Simpson was among those featured in the “In Memoriam” segment at the BET Awards. The audience had been applauding along as photos were shown during the montage, but when Simpson’s image came onscreen, with the identifying description of “Former NFL Player,” a noticeable silence fell over the crowd. A moment later, there was a smattering of applause, but many in the audience were shocked to see his face. The story. 

The Scramble to Keep Health Insurance In Post-Strike Hollywood

►Grim times. THR's Katie Kilkenny writes that after the 2023 Hollywood work stoppages and amid a larger industry contraction, writers, actors and other creatives face difficulties meeting minimums to keep their union health plans: "It doesn't feel good to have to say to your agents, ‘Hey, can you get me a guest-starring gig on whatever happens to have somebody my age because I'm going to lose my health insurance?'" The story. 

—Guilty. Dominique Boutonnat, the president of France's National Film Board, the CNC, has been found guilty on sexual assault charges and received a three-year sentence, two of which will be suspended. Boutonnat was indicted in 2021, accused of sexually assaulting his then-19-year-old godson in August 2020, during a vacation in Greece. Boutonnat has stepped down from the CNC in the wake of Friday’s verdict and will be replaced by Olivier Henrard. He is not expected to serve any jail time but will live under house arrest with an electronic bracelet for a year. The story. 

—Questioning. French police have taken directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon in for questioning on accusations of sexual assault made against them by actress and activist Judith Godrèche. Godrèche filed official complaints against the men in February, accusing them both of sexual assault in alleged incidents decades ago, when she was a teenager. She accused Jacquot of raping her in 1986, when she was 14, and of subsequent offenses in a romantic relationship which lasted into the 1990s. She has accused Doillon of sexually assaulting her during the filming of his 1989 feature The 15-Year-Old Girl. Both men deny the allegations. The story. 

—Diminishing returns. The first debate face-off between Joe Biden and Donald Trump drew a big audience — but not nearly as big as their 2020 debates. The 99-minute debate, produced by CNN but aired on 16 other networks, averaged 51.27m viewers, according to final same-day ratings from Nielsen. That’s down by 30 percent from the candidates’ first debate in 2020, which drew 73.13m viewers. Thursday’s Nielsen-measured audience doesn’t include streaming. The ratings. 

—Are the wheels falling off? Something is rotten in the newsroom of the Daily Mail. THR's Lachlan Cartwright reports that the publication's New York online editor Gerard Greaves is MIA (he was last seen frantically deleting emails), and his self-appointed replacement Sean O’Hare is said to be equally erratic and frustrated staffers are abandoning its newsroom in droves. The story. 

—Back in the arena. TPG is getting back into the talent business. The private equity giant, which sold its stake in CAA last year to French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, is launching a new company that will “acquire, invest behind and build a diversified global business centered on talent management, representation and adjacent verticals.” Michel Pratte, former President of Boat Rocker Media, will be CEO of the new company, while another former Boat Rocker exec Eric Taitz will be COO. The story. 

'Quiet Place' Prequel Scores Record $53M Start

►Loud and clear. Pixar's Inside Out 2 stayed atop the domestic box office chart in its third weekend with a hearty $57.4m, enough to scare off Paramount's prequel A Quiet Place: Day One after a closer-than-expected race. Still, Day One has plenty to celebrate after scoring a franchise-best weekend opening of $53m, well ahead of an expected $40m-plus debut. The prequel’s performance is especially impressive considering franchise creator John Krasinski didn’t direct this time; nor did Emily Blunt star.

THR's Pamela McClintock writes that the $70m budgeted Day One, starring, Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn, boasts generally strong reviews and a B+ CinemaScore, a good grade for a horror pic. The 18-to-34 crowd is fueling the film, along with an ethnically diverse audience. It also took over many Imax and premium large-format screens from Inside Out 2.

Inside Out 2 is making life tough for Illumination and Universal’s Fourth of July tentpole Despicable Me 4, which is rolling out early in select foreign markets ahead of its domestic launch over the Fourth of July corridor. But the film has plenty of time to regroup. Despicable Me 4, now playing in 20 markets, earned $13.9m this weekend for an early total of $25.3m and is expected to set off fireworks when opening across the U.S. on July 3.

Coming in third at the domestic box office over the weekend was Kevin Costner's pricey $100m Western, Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1. The film bit the dust with an estimated opening of $11m (overseas numbers were not immediately available). The big question now is what this means for Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2, which opens in mid-August. The box office report.

—Record-breaker. Inside Out 2 has crossed the $1b mark at the global box office in record time for an animated film after playing a major role in reviving the summer box office. The movie achieved the feat on Sunday, it’s 19th day in release. That’s faster than any animated pic in history. The Pixar film is the first movie since Barbie almost a year ago to join the elite club making more than $1b at the global box office. Among animated movies, it’s the 11th film to achieve the milestone. The story. 

Denis Villeneuve's Next Film Gets 2026 Release From WB

►📅 Get excited! 📅 Denis Villeneuve's next feature is getting a holiday release, though it’s uncertain what that project will ultimately be. Warner Bros. announced Friday that the director’s next “event film” will hit theaters Dec. 18, 2026, and that it hails from Legendary Entertainment, home to his Dune movies. Plot details have not yet been shared, but Villeneuve previously stated that a third Dune movie would likely not be his next film. He does have a nuclear war film set up at Legendary, but sources say that Villeneuve may have had a change of heart and could be turning his attention back to Dune. The story. 

—Grand finish. Crunchyroll and Sony will release Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, the last episodes in the hit anime franchise, as a trio of theatrical films in cinemas worldwide. The three-part installment represents the final arc and culmination of the hugely popular, award-winning anime shonen series. Mugen Train, an earlier film installment in the sprawling Demon Slayer saga, currently holds the record as the highest-grossing anime movie of all time and the highest-grossing Japanese film at the global box office, with over $500m in ticket sales. The story. 

—Hot project. THR's Borys Kit has the scoop on Universal landing the rights to A Vicious Circle, a Boom! Studios graphic novel series created by Terminator Zero showrunner Mattson Tomlin and artist Lee Bermejo. Tomlin will write the screenplay adapting his own work, while Ryan Coogler will produce via his Proximity Media banner. A Vicious Circle is a two-hander action thriller about assassins from the future hunting each other through time. “John Wick meets Looper” is how it is being described. The story. 

—📅 Dated 📅  Focus Features will release thriller Last Breath in theaters on Feb. 28, 2025. The film, from Longshot Films and Dark Castle Entertainment, stars Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole. Based on an inspirational story, the film follows a seasoned deep-sea diver as he battles the raging elements to rescue his crew mate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean’s surface. Universal Pictures International will distribute Last Breath in select international territories. The story. 

—Next up. French director Mia Hansen-Løve has set her next film, a period drama on the life of ground-breaking English writer and activist Mary Wollstonecraft. The Things to Come filmmaker is writing and directing If Love Should Die on the visionary 18th-century writer, considered one of the founder philosophers of feminism. Filming is planned to set to take place in the U.K., France, Scandinavia and Portugal, starting in 2025. The story. 

Netflix, Amazon International Original Content Orders Outpace U.S.

►Dominant. Netflix and Amazon are back on top, again. In the first quarter of 2024, Netflix and Amazon have reasserted their dominance in original content commissioning for streaming platforms, according to a new report by Ampere Analysis. The two streaming giants accounted for more than half (53 percent) of all global SVOD commissions in the first quarter. The analysis. 

—🤝 Making moves 🤝 Sony Pictures Television has taken majority control of Eleventh Hour Films, the U.K.-based TV production company it first invested in back in 2018. The deal, announced Monday, sees Eleventh Hour join SPT’s stable of majority-owned British drama outfits, alongside Left Bank Pictures (The Crown), Bad Wolf (His Dark Materials) and Eleven (Sex Education). Helion Partners advised Eleventh Hour on the transaction. Financial details were not disclosed. The story. 

—🎭 Reunion 🎭 Will Forte is reuniting with his former Saturday Night Live castmate Tina Fey for Netflix's The Four Seasons. The series, based on the 1981 film of the same name, stars and was co-created by Fey. The cast also includes Steve Carell, Colman Domingo, Kerri Kenney-Silver and Erika Henningsen. Forte is coming off the comedic thriller Bodkin at Netflix. The story.

—Back for more. Hit Japanese anime series Kaiju No. 8 is getting a second season. Shortly after the credits rolled on the show’s season-one finale on Saturday, Sony's streamer Crunchyroll revealed that work is already underway at the storied Japanese anime studio Production I.G for a follow-up story arc. Crunchyroll says it will stream the season two return of Kaiji No. 8 in over 200 countries, with the specific release plans to be revealed at a later date. The story. 

—Dropping in 2025. Sherri Papini is set to tell Investigation Discovery her side of the story about a 2016 kidnapping hoax that touched off a media firestorm and landed her in prison. Production is underway for the latest true-crime series unveiled by ID, which doesn’t yet have a title and is scheduled to debut sometime in 2025. The multi-parter is expected to have Papini for the first time explain her sudden vanishing while out for a morning run in her close-knit California community. The story.

'Interview With the Vampire' Boss Talks S2 Finale, S3

►"The joy of this show is that it’s very truthful about humanity." For THR, Max Gao spoke to Interview With a Vampire executive producer and showrunner Rolin Jones and stars Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid about the season two finale of the AMC series. The trio unpack the grief, madness and rage that encompassed the ending to season two. Jones also looks ahead to season three (and a possible season four). Warning: Spoilers! The interview. 
—"I watch these episodes, and I feel all the same feelings as you. I read all the scripts and feel the emotions, and then we’re on set and go through it again." THR's Seija Rankin to The Bear's Lionel Boyce about season three of the award-winning FX/Hulu drama. In a spoiler-filled recap, Boyce discusses Marcus’ eulogy scene, the season three cliffhanger, and whether anyone on the show is O.K. Warning: Spoilers! The interview. 

—"I think what made it fun to work on this season was that I was constantly learning about Iris." For THR, Demetrius Patterson spoke to Mayor of Kingstown star Emma Laird about the latest episode of the Paramount+ crime drama. The fifth episode dropped an unexpected reveal about Laird's character Iris that will change her relationship with Jeremy Renner's Mike McLusky. Warning: Spoilers! The interview. 

Martin Mull 1943 - 2024

►"He was never not funny." Martin Mull, the droll comedian, actor, singer-songwriter and painter who found fame on the soap opera satire Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and its spinoff Fernwood 2 Night, has died. He was 80. Mull also enjoyed lengthy stints in the 1990s as the befuddled principal Willard Kraft on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and as Leon Carp, the gay boss and pal of Roseanne Connor on Roseanne. He played private detective (and master of disguise!) Gene Parmesan on Arrested Development and a pharmacist who wasn’t above sampling his product on Two and a Half Men. The obituary.   

—"She was a highly admired executive, whose creative impact was only matched by the relationships she nurtured both within the company and across the industry." Stephanie Leifer, a longtime executive at ABC and studio ABC Signature, has died. She was 56. Leifer died of cancer on Thursday. She spent a combined 28 years at ABC Signature (and its forerunner, ABC Studios) and ABC, beginning at the network in 1994 as an assistant in the network’s TV movie department. The obituary.