For much of the past year, movie theatres were closed nationwide; now they’re open again in most states, and films are being shown in them, but studios are keeping their biggest releases on hold for now, and audiences are staying away. The Regal Cinemas chain closed its doors altogether, nationwide (but reopened a handful of theatres in New York State last week); AMC is threatened with bankruptcy. With American movie theatres teetering on the edge of extinction and, in any case, shunted into irrelevance, a strange and tragicomic side effect is afflicting the art of film: the end of buzz. It’s odd to think that it matters. As buzz proliferated in recent decades, it seemed like mere noise—the distracting clamor of advertising and its amplification, publicity and its reprocessing, the substitution of celebrity adulation for critical perspective, the prioritizing of commercial success over artistic achievement. I’ve complained often of such things. But, with the disappearance of massive blockbuster publicity campaigns, the cutting off of star-studded film festivals, and the near-total shutdown of the production of new movies, the absence of buzz is eerie. The movie world now reminds me of New York City in the early days of the pandemic, when the traffic was nearly stilled and the sidewalks nearly empty and one set of footsteps echoed with a disturbing prominence. The world of movies, more than any time in recent memory, is a ghost town.

This current crisis isn’t a crisis of the art of movies—it has been a superb year for new releases, despite, or quite possibly because of, the lack of major studio fare. With the reduced impact of theatrical releases, many movies have been rushed into online distribution—whether on major streaming platforms, “virtual cinemas” on the Web sites of art-house theatres, or on less prominent, independent sites. What’s more, many of these movies came along during the summer, when in ordinary times they’d have been competing with studio behemoths and Hollywood-adjacent releases. Yet, far from benefitting from the otherwise bare cinemascape, these virtual art-house releases have been delivered into what seems like a void.

Article by: Richard Brody for the New Yorker.

The amateur paleontologist Mary Anning, barred from the academy because of her class and gender, is reimagined as a sexual rebel rebuking the code of her time.

There are certain fields of human activity to which the keen amateur can make a notable contribution. These fields include archeology, astronomy, and, to a laughable extent, politics. One influential example is that of Mary Anning (1799-1847), an Englishwoman who lived in Lyme Regis, on the Dorset coast—or, as it is occasionally and inadequately known, the Jurassic Coast. The crumbling cliffs along it, dating from the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, are a happy hunting ground for anyone seeking the fossilized remains of ancient creatures. The nearest American equivalent would be the Academy Awards.

Mary, the daughter of a cabinetmaker, was one of ten children, and a fossil-finder extraordinaire, who excavated the skeleton of an ichthyosaur before she reached her teens. According to an article in All the Year Round, a journal edited by Charles Dickens, she became “lively and intelligent” after surviving a lightning strike in infancy. The article commends her “to those who like to study character, and are fond of seeing good stubborn English perseverance make way even where there is nothing in its favour.” No surprise, therefore, that the role of Mary, in “Ammonite,” a new movie written and directed by Francis Lee, should go to Kate Winslet. In any survey of her films, it’s hard to find an instance in which she has not given stubbornness a good name. The set of her jaw and the blaze of her glance suggest a self-freeing spirit who knows the path ahead and is determined to take it. With a shyer or more rarefied actress on deck, “Titanic” (1997) might have sunk.

Here she is, then, as the adult Mary, stomping along the beach outside Lyme. It’s shingle all the way; none of that balmy nonsense about golden sands. Gazing cliffward, and spying something of interest, she hikes up her skirts, clambers, tugs at a rock, then loses her footing and slithers down. She is unbroken, but the rock, falling past her, is split in two, revealing the cracked spiral of an ammonite. What matters here is the physicality—how close we are to Mary as she labors, tumbles, and gasps for breath. Later, back at the small house that she shares with her mother, Molly (Gemma Jones), Mary’s hands, even after she’s washed them, look red and raw, with dirt under the nails. The house confronts the sea, and the windows are speckled with grime and salt. Nothing in this film seems easy; living humans, no less than extinct species, get embedded and stuck, and need to be prized out with care.

The prizing takes different forms. Mary attracts the attention of a Dr. Lieberson (Alec Secareanu)—“Foreign?” Molly asks, as if the word were a curse. Suaver by far is a gentleman named Roderick Murchison (James McArdle), who has an interest in fossils, and has come to pay homage to “the presiding deity of Lyme,” as he calls Mary. (It’s true; her expertise, accrued through years of patient observation, was well known to her fellow-paleontologists.) If she will conduct him along the shore, and school him in her wisdom, he will reward her. They agree to a deal, and shake on it, though she can’t bring herself to look at him as they touch; it’s as if her very nature, acclimatized to being alone, recoils at any pact of understanding. Oh, and Murchison has one other request: he has brought his youthful wife, Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan), who is spectre-pale. Her health is impaired, and we gather that she has recently lost a child. While he travels for a month or so, could she not stay on in Lyme, “walk out” with Mary, and take the revivifying air? 

You can tell what’s coming. Two unhappy souls, having had the misfortune to be born in an unenlightened age, will take comfort in each other’s arms, in a rousing rebuke to the social code of their times. That’s what happened in “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019), and it happens here, too, though it’s surely a sign of our times that we can conceive of such protest only in sexual terms. To Mary’s contemporaries, what would have set her apart, and barred her from the institutions of learning and research where she doubtless belonged, was not just her gender, and her lowly class, but the fact that she was a Dissenter—that is, she was raised in a strain of Protestantism outside the Church of England. As you’d expect, faith goes unremarked in “Ammonite,” which prefers to show Murchison rolling away from his wife, in bed, and saying, “It’s not the right time to make another baby.” Hark to the horrid man!

Yet the movie persuades you, and bears you along. It may lack historical grounding—though Mary and Charlotte were certainly friends, the existence of any further intensity is pure, indeed wild, supposition—but it feels emotionally earthed, and, far from rising above the spartan brutishness of the early scenes, Lee digs deeper still. Watch Mary, back at the beach, squatting down to pee. (Didn’t Winslet resort to alfresco urination in “Holy Smoke,” back in 1999? Does her contract forbid her to use an inside lavatory, or something?) She stands up, wipes her hands, unwraps a pastry, tears it in two, and offers half to Charlotte, who, for some reason, declines it. As the weeks pass, however, the younger woman is pulled downward, away from the ladylike and into the rough stuff of life; there’s an amazing moment, wonderfully played by Ronan, when she enters the house with a bucket of coal, laughs, begins to weep, and slips to the floor, lost in confusion at her own feelings, with her fine dress covered in smuts.

And so to bed. Nothing is solved or soothed, in Lee’s film, by the making of love. Ravenous and frantic, it serves only to remind both Mary and Charlotte of their hopeless predicament, and there are half-comic echoes of their regular toil, with Mary, on her knees, lifting Charlotte’s skirts in a fast fumble, just as she raised her own at the base of a cliff; going down looks like climbing up. Lee’s boldest move is to cut straight from the final night of carnality to the demise of a loved one, and thus to the sight of Mary laying out the body, as custom demands—dutifully clothing the corpse, with its cold stiff feet, only hours after shedding her own nightgown in Charlotte’s heated embrace. Here, I think, is the heart of this yarn: not what it has to say about the overtight lacing of society, but the alarming clarity with which it addresses the elemental. As the land meets the ocean, so death meets desire, and “Ammonite” makes no bones about them.

It is nine years since “Martha Marcy May Marlene” came out. My nervous system has recovered in the interim, but only just. That film, whose heroine was drawn into the coils of a cult, was written and directed by Sean Durkin—his full-length début, would you believe. Only now has he returned to the fray; his latest movie, “The Nest,” is no less serpentine, but what encircles the characters, squeezing the joy out of them, is money.

Ronald Reagan is in the White House, deregulation is the rage, and Rory O’Hara (Jude Law), a commodities broker, decides to move from America to England. He’s on a treasure hunt, as it were, and he’s confident that his family—his wife, Allison (Carrie Coon); their daughter, Samantha (Oona Roche); and her brother, Ben (Charlie Shotwell)—will benefit from the chase. He rents an old mansion in the countryside, gets the kids into new schools, commutes to his office in London, and, to prove how much he cares, arranges for Allison’s beloved horse Richmond (played with great sensitivity by Tornado) to be shipped over. In one ominous shot, we see the O’Hara residence from Richmond’s point of view, through the door of his stall, as he neighs and stamps with disquiet. Horse sense tells us of trouble ahead.

Such images abound in the film; Durkin has lost none of his compositional precision. The family home is ill-lit, ill-omened, and panelled in dark wood, with shadows deep enough to harbor the eavesdropper or to shield the fearful. No one seeks refuge more than Ben, who wets the bed and listens in sorrow to parental rants. Shotwell is the most affecting presence here, and you could argue that Ben should have been the hub of the narrative, like the small boy in “The Fallen Idol” (1948), seeing plenty and understanding only scraps.

Instead, we get the grownups. Coon is as convincing as ever; observe the speed with which, on waking in the morning, Allison greets her frustrations by reaching for a cigarette. As for Rory, it’s not long before his professional schemings falter, his funds run dry, and he winds up pleading for petty cash. All of which is quite predictable, but does it make him a self-deluding, semi-tragic figure, as the movie’s gloom portends? (He may, in truth, be little more than a standard-issue dickhead.) And is Law the right fit for such a role? Whereas Hugh Grant, another fine young dandy of yore, has been rejuvenated by the creases of middle age, Law, I regret to say, looks glum and soured. The problem, for “The Nest,” is that the sourness is present from the start; he never gives off the bounce and the thrust that Rory is rumored to possess. “So, what happened to America?” somebody asks him. What indeed?

Article by: Anthony Lanefor the New Yorker.

Netflix’s arsenal of content this year could give the streamer the most best picture nominations from any studio in history, a record held by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which scored five nods at the ninth Academy Awards in 1937. It may even net the streaming giant its first best picture win after falling short with the likes of Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma.”

MGM achieved the feat when the Academy was nominating 10 films in the best picture category. “The Great Ziegfeld” was the big winner, taking home three statues. It was joined by other films released in 1936: “Libeled Lady,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “San Francisco” and “A Tale of Two Cities.” At the time, MGM was the undisputed heavyweight in Hollywood as the home to top talents such as Shirley Temple, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn and many more. So expansive was the A-list roster that the studio once boasted it “had more stars than the heavens.”

Netflix also boasts one of the deepest arsenals in town. It has been building, buying, and releasing quality content for years. In this extended eligibility season with the COVID-19 pandemic preventing studios from releasing their movies widely in theaters, the streamer has many top contenders for Oscar nominations. With five months still left in the awards season, it’s still early to call if the distributor will be successful in breaking the record. So how does the streaming giant theoretically get there?

It needs to be noted that this is the final year of the “sliding scale” voting for the best picture. Since this rule was adopted in 2011, the lineup has resulted in either eight or nine nominees. With Oscars 2022, the Academy will move back to a “straight 10” selection for their most coveted category, allowing AMPAS voters to select 10 films on their ballots. Under the current system, they vote for five, and a film must receive 5% of the number one votes to be nominated for best picture.

David Fincher’s “Mank” and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” are in the safest position to make the cut. Both have received strong reviews from critics and boast many of the elements that typically get recognized by the Academy. About 63% of Academy voters are in the technical branches, and that’s where “Mank” will do well in categories like cinematography and sound. With “Chicago 7,” editing, writing and the actors branches will help propel it over the line.

George C. Wolfe’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is next on the list and aside from quality and film reviews, math and precedence are in its favor. The late Chadwick Boseman has received the kind of notices actors dream of, with some identifying him as one of the top two contenders in best actor (the other is Anthony Hopkins in “The Father”). Assuming Boseman is “the one” to join Peter Finch (“Network”) as the only previous posthumous best actor winner, the film would almost certainly bring in a best picture nomination. In the last 50 years, there have only been 10 lead actor winners whose films did not receive a best picture nomination. In the last 20, there have been only three: Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart,” Forest Whitaker in “The Last King of Scotland” and Denzel Washington in “Training Day.” With “Ma Rainey” also likely to nab a best actress nomination for Viola Davis, the movie seems likely to join the club of best picture contenders.

After those three, the picture is more blurry.

By nature, musicals are divisive with general audiences and critics, which is why despite “The Prom” embracing inclusiveness, the film will be on the bubble until the major guilds like PGA and SAG name their nominations. There’s also been plenty of snarking on Twitter about star Meryl Streep’s rapping talents.

Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” seems like a strong vehicle to get star Delroy Lindo his first nomination and perhaps snag a supporting actor nomination for Boseman, who co-stars. But time is never an ally when it comes to keeping voters’ attention. “Da 5 Bloods” opened in June, and in the subsequent four months, there have been many newer, shinier objects dominating the headlines, some even courtesy of Netflix.

George Clooney’s “The Midnight Sky” is the biggest film he’s ever constructed in both visual scope and narrative heft.  Clooney is an Academy darling, and it would be foolish not to consider it in the mix given Clooney’s eight nominations and double Oscar-topping track record, winning best supporting actor for 2006’s “Syriana” and best picture for co-producing 2012’s “Argo.” He’s also just one of three people who have been nominated in six different categories (with Walt Disney and Alfonso Cuarón). Factoring in likely contention in production design, cinematography, original score and visual effects, “The Midnight Sky” could get a ticket to the big night.

Vanessa Kirby’s brave turn in “Pieces of a Woman” has put her near the forefront of the best actress race, but the impression of it being “very hard to watch” doesn’t make it a principal candidate to be embraced by the Academy at large. In the days of five best picture nominees, director Kornél Mundruczó would mirror a textbook lone director candidate (like Paul Greengrass for “United 93” and Mike Leigh for “Vera Drake”) with all the talk surrounding his virtuoso filmmaking style in a 23-minute one-take sequence that highlights the film’s challenging subject. If the Academy could look beyond those graphic moments, “Pieces of a Woman” could have a fighting chance with an early January drop date.

“The Life Ahead” with Sophia Loren and “The White Tiger” with Priyanka Chopra Jonas likely won’t break into the best picture race. The same goes for Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” and Radha Blank’s “The 40-Year-Old Version,” no matter how amazing some think they are (spoiler alert: me). The Academy doesn’t often choose films and performances that are “cerebral” or just downright “cool,” which the latter two features embody. They may be just too niche for AMPAS’ tastes.

One additional record in Netflix’s sight is one held since the 1974 Oscars. There has only been one time in the Academy’s 92-year history of a category being totally dominated by one studio. Paramount Pictures was able to do this in best costume design where winner “The Great Gatsby” triumphed over “Chinatown,” “Daisy Miller,” “The Godfather Part II” and “Murder on the Orient Express.” Highly unlikely but Netflix could come close in categories like best actress and best editing, pending how much Frances McDormand and “Nomadland” sustain interest.

What’s interesting is that even though many major studio releases such as “Black Widow” and “No Time to Die” were pushed into 2021 due to the pandemic, there are actually a record number of Oscar contenders this year. Much of the credit must be given to the steamers, including Amazon Studios, Apple TV Plus, HBO Max and Hulu. Imagine if none of the streamers existed. All those headlines and quips on Twitter stating “there are no movies this year” would, in fact, be close to the truth.

But Netflix doesn’t just want to get nominated. It’s spending big to produce and market its content because it wants the top prize.  After coming up just short with 2018’s “Roma” and missing out with 2019’s “The Irishman” and “Marriage Story,” this may be the year it finally shatters the glass ceiling at the Dolby Theatre.

Article by: Clayton Davis for Variety.

France, which has been on lockdown since Oct. 30 to curb the second wave of the pandemic, will see its cinemas, theaters and museum reopen on Dec. 15. French president Emmanuel Macron unveiled some gradual measures to ease the lockdown on Tuesday during a televised address.

“The peak of the second wave of the pandemic has passed. Our efforts, your efforts have paid off,” said Macron. So far, 50,000 people have died from COVID-19 in France.

Starting on Nov. 28, small shops and religious sites will be allowed to reopen. On Dec. 15, theaters, cinemas and museums will reopen but a 9 p.m.-7 a.m. curfew will be restored. A 9 p.m. curfew was previously put in place in mid-October, before the country went into lockdown.

The lockdown is expected to be loosened even more around Jan. 20. “If the number of cases remains below 5,000 cases per day, gyms and restaurants will be allowed to reopen and the curfew will be pushed,” said Macron. Universities, meanwhile, will stay closed until at least Feb. 4. Until then, all classes will be held virtually.

A number of big French movie releases were expected to bow in theaters during the last quarter of 2020 and have now been pushed to 2021. One of the anticipated releases is Valerie Lemercier’s “Aline,” which is inspired by the life of Celine Dion. Gaumont has pushed the release to March.

Article by: Elsa Keslassy for Variety.

Another media outlet is getting ready to vie for fans of sentimental stories in the industry’s massive holiday-programming wars.

Fox Nation, the streaming-video hub that is part of Fox News Media, will launch its first holiday movie, “Christmas in the Rockies,” later this week, part of a new holiday salvo that is expected to include two other projects, “Christmas on the Range” and “Christmas on the Coast.” “Rockies” will be available on Fox Nation starting Thursday, November 26 and will be exclusive until November 2021. “Fox & Friends” hosts Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt will make cameos.

“Originally Ainsley and I were supposed to fly to Canada to film our scenes, but then the pandemic hit, nobody was flying anywhere and the producers were in a pickle, they wanted us in the film, but we couldn’t get there,” says Doocy. “When it became clear that traveling to the location was out of the question, they rewrote the movie so we could film our parts in our own studio. It was like Skyping into a movie.”

The original films show Fox Nation making a continued tilt toward lifestyle programming aimed and away from a harder focus on politics. Executives originally envisioned the subscription-based outlet as something of a “Netflix for conservatives,” but in recent months have focused more heavily on documentary programming and lifestyle fare, some of it involving Fox News Media anchors and hosts telling subscribers about hobbies like cooking or books.

“Christmas in the Rockies” follows Katie Jolly, whose dreams of a life in New York City are squelched when her father’s sudden injury leaves her in charge of the family business, Jolly Lumber. She has to solve family and business issues all the while trying to win an annual Lumberjack Competition.

Many big media companies make an effort to woo holiday viewers, including Hallmark Channel, Freeform, Lifetime and AMC. Netflix, meanwhile, is this week launching a sequel to its 2018 movie, “The Christmas Chronicles,” with actors Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.

“Christmas in the Rockies” is produced by Brain Power Studio in association with INSP Films and Fox Nation.

Article by: Brian Steinberg for Variety.

Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino’s intimate TV debut follows the messy lives of a group of teenagers, as they navigate adolescence at a US army base in northern Italy

“Harper? Isn’t that a name for a boy?” An Italian man has sidled up to Harper/Caitlin at the beach. She barely registers him; she’s too busy dancing. “It’s a name for a lot of things,” she replies, dismissively. 

Nothing is black and white in Luca Guadagnino’s potent, poetic coming-of-age series We Are Who We Are. Gender identity, sexuality, politics, morality – all are in constant flux, shifting like the tides of the coastal Italian town where this group of teenagers are living, on a US army base, in the run-up to Donald Trump’s presidential election win. 

This is the Call Me By Your Name director’s first TV series, and the format suits him. He is a master of this sort of lush snapshot of messy youth – and with just shy of 10 hours to play with, he can go at his own languorous pace. Or perhaps more accurately, the pace of his characters; full of turmoil but free of adult responsibilities, teenagers have a habit of meandering. Guadagnino has no interest in hurrying them along. 

Of the two teens at the show’s heart, 14-year-old Fraser (Jack Dylan Grazer) is the harder to like. Giving new meaning to the term military brat, he is a fashion-obsessed, perennially headphone-wearing loner whom we first meet sulking at an airport information desk swearing at his mothers over a missing bag and demanding a glug of vodka. They’re new to the base – Sarah (Chloe Sevigny) is the incoming colonel, her wife Maggie (Alice Braga) a major – so as soon as they arrive, after plunging his hand into the middle of their welcome cake, Fraser takes off to explore. 

The camera bobs along behind Fraser, following his every whim as he wanders through the base. Co-cinematographer Yorick Le Saux – responsible for Little Women, High Life and Guadagnino’s 2015 feature A Bigger Splash – immerses us so fully in the perspective of his subjects that if they plunge into a pool, so too does the camera. Soon, Fraser meets the self-assured Britney (Francesca Scorsese, daughter of Martin), who in turn leads him to her group of rowdy friends – good-natured soldier Craig (Corey Knight); surly, lovelorn Sam (Ben Taylor); pious but aggressive Danny (Spence Moore II), all young and arrogant and lost. “Without friends, you’re nothing,” Britney tells Fraser as they walk to the beach, and never is that more true than when you’re a teenager. The group are sceptical, nicknaming Fraser “T-shirt” with a tone that flits between mockery and affection. Britney’s brought him with her, she tells her best friend in a stage whisper, because she’s convinced by the way he walks that he has “a big one”.

That friend is “Caitlin” Poythress, sister of Danny and girlfriend of Sam, played with deft emotional subtlety by newcomer Jordan Kristine Seamon. It is she who brings out the good in Fraser that might otherwise have laid dormant – and thank goodness, because without her stabilising presence, Fraser would have quickly become unwatchable. He spots what no one else seems to have cottoned on to – that Caitlin is rattling at the gates of her assigned gender. She tucks her hair into a cap and flirts with a local Italian girl; she doesn’t enjoy kissing her boyfriend; she answers to Caitlin but prefers to go by Harper; and she looks at her period blood like it’s an alien invading her own body. Her self-discovery is intoxicating. Fraser, wise through books and the internet rather than lived experience (he hasn’t figured out his own sexuality yet, and has only ever kissed a mirror), introduces Harper to concepts of gender fluidity and transness. He helps her shave her head and glue hair shavings to her upper lip. In one particularly intimate scene, she stands close behind him while he pees, using his body as a surrogate for the one she thinks she might want. “This is wonderful.” 

The friendship is both a haven from and a strain on the pair’s complicated home lives. Harper’s father Richard (Scott Mescudi, aka the rapper Kid Cudi) is a Maga-hat-wearing Republican who seems to both love and fear his daughter. He looks at the bag of discarded hair he finds in the rubbish bin as if it's evidence of a violent crime against him. Her Nigerian mother Jenny (Faith Alabi) is attentive but downtrodden, confused by her growing attraction to Fraser’s mother Maggie. Fraser’s relationship with his mother Sarah, meanwhile, is downright disturbing. Despite being the most senior ranking officer on the base, Sarah has next to no authority when it comes to her son. In their Oedipal dynamic, she seems to be both mother and father – he sucks her finger when she cuts herself and slaps her round the face when she slices his beef too thick. 

It takes a daring director to ask us to not just sympathise but empathise with a boy like Fraser. And Guadagnino is certainly that. He has an almost magical realist take on teenage life. Everything is at once lifelike and heightened, his gritty, gonzo approach punctured by freeze frames and fade-outs and fantasy sequences. Nothing is prescriptive or overtly political – the election is playing out on TVs in the background, but these teens are far too wrapped up in themselves to notice. 

There are no easy answers in We Are Who We Are. Important lines are spoken over or thrown away. Heroes are also villains, and no one ends up neatly defined or labelled. The more you watch, the more that shrug of a title starts to make sense.

Article by Alexandra Pollard for the Independent.

The seven-episode drama has hit No. 1 on the streamer's rankings in more than 60 countries.

Netflix's limited series The Queen's Gambit has set a viewership record for the streamer.

The seven-episode drama about a chess prodigy (Anya Taylor-Joy) who rises to the top of her field while battling addiction and emotional issues, is the top scripted limited series ever for Netflix. The streamer says 62 million member accounts worldwide have watched at least a couple minutes of the show over its first four weeks. (Netflix counts views by measuring whether a member account watches at least two minutes of a series or movie.)

"I am both delighted and dazed by the response. It's just all way beyond what any of us could have imagined," said co-creator, showrunner and director Scott Frank. "But speaking for my fellow producers and the entire cast and crew of the show, every one of whom made me look better than I actually am, we are most grateful that so many took the time to watch our show. And we all look forward to bringing you our Yahtzee limited series next."

Among limited series at Netflix, only the breakout docuseries Tiger King (64 million views in its first 28 days) has drawn more eyeballs than The Queen's Gambit. The latter's popularity has also been widespread: It has made Netflix's top 10 list in 92 different countries since its release, and spent at least one day at No. 1 in 63 of those, including the United States, Argentina, Israel and Russia.

In the United States, the series has also made Nielsen's streaming top 10, with Netflix users watching 551 million minutes of the show over its first three days of release. (Netflix and other streamers take issue with Nielsen's measurement, saying the ratings service doesn't measure viewing across all devices.)

While there's no set pattern for how Netflix viewership is distributed, sources say the global reach for The Queen's Gambit is somewhat unusual. Peter Friedlander, the Netflix executive who shepherded the series, attributes the show's hold on viewers to themes that cut across cultures and languages.

"What Scott executed was phenomenal in terms of the precision of the craft, and yet at the heart of it all is this incredible character, played by the incomparable Anya Taylor-Joy," Friedlander, vp original series at Netflix, told The Hollywood Reporter. "Her underdog journey is what I think people are really connecting with. She had challenges every step of the way, and yet she's this incredibly determined, unique and unapologetic in approaching life and who she is and who she wants to be. I think people responded to rooting for her against all these odds. There were also other elements — the nostalgic feeling of traveling back in time and the escapist quality of that. At the same time it's a real sports story too. You're rooting for someone to win."

Friedlander and Frank also worked together on Godless, which won three Emmys in 2018 and helped establish Netflix as a player in the limited series field. Frank then brought the 1983 novel The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis to the streamer, and as development began, Friedlander said they talked a lot about making a story centering on chess cinematic.

"We had a lot of conversations about the challenges of that, but there was also a lot of trust in him," Friedlander said of Frank. "We also used a lot of the same really talented craftspeople from Godless as well — the same DP [Steven Meizler] and the same editor [Michelle Tesoro], for instance. They all work so well together as a team."

With the breakout performance of The Queen's Gambit, Netflix is likely to give the show a serious awards push in the coming season — and not just for Taylor-Joy's lead performance and Frank's writing and directing.

"We certainly want to celebrate the work of Scott Frank, and Anya Taylor-Joy, and the composer Carlos [Rafael Rivera] and [Uli Hanisch], the production designer, and the costume designer [Gabriele Binder]," said Friedlander. "The production design — people are fascinated by the wallpaper. There's this whole obsession with the wallpaper in the Wheatley household. But I do think it's a pretty stunning achievement in terms of craft, and I hope there's a lot of recognition for that team. They've certainly earned it."

Article by: Rick Porter for the Hollywood Reporter.

The 2020 International Emmy Awards, honoring the best in global television, were handed out in an online ceremony on Monday, Nov. 23. Glenda Jackson won best actress for 'Elizabeth is Missing,' while Netflix's 'Dehli Crime' and 'Nobody's Looking' took the best drama and comedy series honors.

Two-time Oscar-winner Glenda Jackson picked up her first-ever International Emmy for best actress in Elizabeth is Missing, in which she plays an 80-something woman suffering from dementia struggling to solve a murder mystery.

Best actor honors went to 13-year-old Billy Barratt for his performance as a boy tried as an adult for murder in British TV movie Responsible Child, which also picked up an International Emmy for best TV movie or miniseries.

Netflix swept the top two categories, winning the best drama series honors for its Indian series Delhi Crime, about the notorious Nirbhaya gang-rape case, while Brazilian show Nobody's Looking, a satire about red-haired bureaucratic angels, took the best comedy award.

For Sama, the Oscar-nominated documentary about the Syrian war picked up an International Emmy in the best documentary category.

A highlight was the International Emmy Founders Award, which went to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for his daily televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic. The International Academy said they were acknowledging Cuomo for "his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic and his masterful use of television to inform and calm people around the world."

In a series of videos, a who's who of New York talent, including Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, Robert de Niro, Rosie Perez, Billy Crystal and Billy Joel, paid tribute to their governor.

Veteran TV, film, and stage actor Richard Kind (Mad About You, Hereafter) hosted the online event from New York joined by a cast of presenters in the U.S. and around the world.

"Hello and welcome to the first, and hopefully the last virtual International Emmy Awards!" Kind said, raising a glass of champagne to the unseen audience from around the world. 

U.S. presenters included Naturi Naughton (Power), Kelsey Asbille (Fargo), Paul Blackthorne (Arrow), Titus Burgess (The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Tim Daly (Madam Secretary), Nico Tortorella (Younger) and Indira Varna (Game of Thrones), while the gala's international cast included Turkish International Emmy winner Haluk Bilginer from Istanbul, German comedic actor Caroline Peters from Cologne, Brazilian star Caua Reymond from Rio, Spanish actor Miguel Angel Silvestre from Madrid and Chinese news anchor Fu Xiaotian from Hong Kong.

In other awards, Endemol Shine Australia's Old People’s Home for 4-Year-Olds took the International Emmy for best non-scripted entertainment, Globo's Orphans of a Nation—took the best Telenovela award, and Czech short #martyisdead—won best short-form series. In one of the night's big surprises, the International Emmy for best non-English language show on U.S. primetime was a tie between Univision's broadcast of the 20th Annual Latin Grammy Awards and Telemundo's drama series La Reina del Sur.

A list of the winners of the 2020 International Emmy Awards follows.

Drama Series

Delhi Crime—producers: Ivanhoe Pictures/Golden Karavan/Poor Man’s Productions/Netflix, India

Comedy

Nobody’s Looking—producers: Gullane Entertainment/ Netflix, Brazil

TV Movie/ Miniseries

Responsible Child—producers: Kudos/72 films, United Kingdom

Best Performance by an Actor

Billy Barratt in Responsible Child—producers: Kudos/72 films, United Kingdom

Best Performance by an Actress

Glenda Jackson in Elizabeth is Missing—producer: STV Productions, United Kingdom

Documentary

For Sama—producers: Channel 4 News/ITN Productions/PBS Frontline, United Kingdom

Arts Programming                                                                  

Vertige de la Chute (Ressaca)—producers: Babel Doc/France Televisions, France

Non-English Language US primetime

20th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards —producers: Univision /The Latin Recording Academy, USA

La Reina del Sur – Season 2—producers: Telemundo Global Studios/Netflix/AG Studios Colombia/Diagonal TV/Argos, USA (tie)

Telenovela

Orphans of a Nation—producer: Globo, Brazil

Non-Scripted Entertainment

Old People’s Home for 4-Year-Olds—producer: Endemol Shine Australia, Australia

Short-Form Series

#martyisdead—producers: Bionaut/Mall.TV/cz.nic, Czech Republic

International Emmy Founders Award

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for his COVID-19 briefings

Article by: Scott Roxborough for the Hollywood Reporter.

'Home Alone' cinematographer Julio Macat details the creation of the faux gangster movie that gives the holiday classic one of its most iconic lines.

Angels With Filthy Souls may not be an actual flick, but the faux film noir is as iconic as the 1990 movie in which it appears.

Giving Home Alone one of its most popular lines — "Keep the change, you filthy animal" — the gangster picture that helped Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) pull off a few ruses paid homage to an actual film, Angels With Dirty Faces, which was released Nov. 26, 1938.

To celebrate the probable anniversary of the faux classic, Home Alone cinematographer Julio Macat details how Angels With Filthy Souls was created — a job so well done, even stars noted they believed the gangster picture was the real deal ("My entire childhood, I thought the old-timey movie that Kevin watches in Home Alone … was actually an old movie," Seth Rogen previously said via Twitter).

"We really wanted to do an homage to the movie [Angels With Dirty Faces], but we really didn't watch it a lot," Macat explains. "We just wanted the feel of a classic gangster film."

Warner Bros.' Angels With Dirty Faces was packed with legendary star power the likes of James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan and George Bancroft. It was nominated for three Oscars: best actor (Cagney), best director (Michael Curtiz) and the category then known as best story (Rowland Brown).

"What really helped was being in Chicago and having those theater actors," Macat says of re-creating that bygone era. The late Ralph Foody played the hard-nosed Johnny, whose Thompson "Tommy" submachine gun was only overpowered by his maniacal laughter. Michael Guido played Snakes, who while seeking his "dough" met an untimely end via a countdown cut short. Foody died in 1999 at the age of 71.

"I could tell that [Foody] came from the theater because he was larger than life," says Macat, who notes Home Alone was his first feature as a cinematographer and Angels was filmed on the last day of preparation before production. "We shot that whole thing in one day. We did it quickly."

It was Macat's idea to shoot the faux film in the style of the late '30s — which means it fell on him to make it happen. "I got some very slow ASA black-and-white film from Kodak, which means you have strong lights to get exposure. You need three or four times more light than normal to expose the film," he recalls. "Then there was the strong backlighting, smoking up the room and having the shutters with the classic noir style. I used double fog filters, and I tried to match the camera lenses. I used a little netting material in front of the lenses to blow out the highlights even more."

Angels With Filthy Souls was shot inside a little library in Lincoln Park. And Macat says it was a particularly cold day and the building did not have a heater. "I was thinking, 'Thank God for the hot lights,'" he says.

The seasoned cinematographer — who has 40 films to his credit, but Home Alone remains his favorite — recalls the submachine gun being intimidating, at least to everyone but Foody. "The way that he handled the gun, he just went full force with it," Macat says, chuckling. "I don't remember having to add any fire flashes in front of the gun. And it was super loud, which made everything better because it was scary. We were safe, but it was scary."

Macat returned as cinematographer for Home Alone 2, which included another installment of the gangster series: Angels With Even Filthier Souls, again starring Foody. "I once said jokingly to Chris, 'Dude, write the script for Angels With Filthy Souls. I want to shoot that movie!'"

Article by: Ryan Parker for the Hollywood Reporter.

The event offers fans of niche TV a curated list of the world's best, from French apocalyptic miniseries 'The Collapse' to the India-set romantic drama 'Made in Heaven.'

For fans of global TV, the International Emmys are the Burning Man of awards season. For years, the event, held in New York each November, was the only place where the sort of series loved by international TV binge watchers — Scandinavian noir, Asian horror or Israeli spy dramas — got celebrated.

The world, of course, has changed. Such international shows as Dark (Gothic German sci-fi), Borgen (Danish political drama) and Kingdom (Korean period horror) have become global hits. But for the true hipsters of foreign television on the hunt for the next big thing, the International Emmys is still the first port of call.

What else but the International Emmys would nominate cutting- edge French miniseries The Collapse — an apocalyptic horror tale done not in Walking Dead mode but realistically, with each of its five episodes shot in a single take? Who else but the International Television Academy, whose some 600 members come from more than 50 countries, would nominate actor Arjun Mathur for his performance as a gay wedding planner in heavily homophobic India in the romantic drama Made in Heaven, or Singapore actress Yeo Yann Yann for the omnibus series Invisible Stories?

INTERNATIONAL EMMYS

Singaporean anthology series 'Invisible Stories.'

At what other awards ceremony would the 44 nominees come from 20 different countries and include such gems as a Norwegian reality show that debunks fake news (The Public Enlightenment) and a Brazilian satire about a group of bored, bureaucratic guardian angels (Nobody’s Looking)?

"I wouldn’t call us curators of the best in international TV, but I think we’re a barometer of what’s out there," says International Academy CEO Bruce Paisner. "There’s a big world beyond the U.S., and these shows reflect that, the local cultures and concerns."

What’s striking about this year’s International Emmy nominees is how fiercely local they are. Much of the global boom in TV drama is being bankrolled by the big U.S. platforms: Made in Heaven is an Amazon show, Nobody’s Looking is on Netflix and HBO Asia carries Invisible Stories. But all this American capital is driving more global diversity, not less.

"If you want to write a great show that maybe, hopefully, might also travel across the Atlantic, you’re going to have to shut off that nagging voice in your mind: Think Netflix! Think Amazon! Think HBO!" notes Yael Hedaya, creator of Fifty, a show about a widowed mother of three struggling to make it as a TV writer in Israel, and a 2020 nominee for best comedy series. "[You’ve got to] forget about those bagels and stay close to home."

Italian showrunners Ludovica Rampoldi, Stefano Sardo, and Alessandro Fabbri stayed very close to home for 1994. The political drama, which airs on Sky, features best actor nominee Guido Caprino as Pietro Bosco, a real-life populist who played a key role in the turbulent political landscape of 1990s Italy, where a certain  Silvio Berlusconi came to power. In the age of  Donald Trump, this very local series looks both universal and frighteningly prescient.

"A rich entrepreneur with a soft spot for women and orange-hued foundation chooses to enter politics — some say to protect his economic interests and avoid convictions — and obtains a broad consensus due to a populist and strongly divisive approach," they note. "Despite being a billionaire with a large economic empire, he’s able to make the voters believe he’s the exponent of the people against the intellectual and political elites, exploiting the general distrust toward traditional politicians and undermining the rules of democracy. Ring a bell?"

British drama 'Responsible Child.'

Similarly, the themes of Brit drama Responsible Child — based on a true-life story of a 10-year-old boy who was charged as an adult with murder, which picked up nominations in the miniseries and actor categories (for lead Billy Barratt) — will echo with anyone who is concerned with the institutional flaws of an outdated criminal justice system.

"What you can clearly see, over the last number of years, is how the quality of TV series keeps going up," notes Paisner. "We, in some way, have contributed to this explosion of international television. Because many people around the world are making these shows with the idea they could win an International Emmy."

In a normal year, the diverse talents behind all the nominated shows would descend on New York on Nov. 23 for the International Emmy Awards; 2020, of course, is not a normal year. COVID-19 restrictions on travel and public gatherings mean, instead of a Manhattan gala, the academy is planning a live-streamed event, hosted by veteran actor Richard Kind (Mad About You). American presenters including The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Tituss Burgess, Arrow actor Paul Blackthorne, and Fargo actress Kelsey Asbille will announce winners from New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, with the likes of Turkish star (and 2019 International Emmy winner for best actor) Haluk Bilginer, Spain’s Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Brazilian actor Cauã Reymond, Chinese news anchor Fu Xiaotian, and German actress Caroline Peters pitching in from their respective homes in Istanbul, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, and Cologne.

"It won’t be a big party in New York, but it will still be a celebration of global TV," says Paisner. And for those truly hip to the best in international television, it still will be the place to be.

Welcome to the International Emmys, where TV genre conventions are meant to be broken. THR picks a trio of standout contenders for 2020

Best Comedy Series: Fifty

"I pitched the show as Girls — the old-lady version," says Israeli creator and showrunner Yael Hedaya about this fictional but broadly autobiographical look at a 49-year-old widowed mother of three struggling to make her way as a television writer. Explains Hedaya, "I thought I’d have a hard time convincing broadcasters that the show has television sex appeal."

Best Actress: Glenda Jackson (Elizabeth Is Missing)

A British murder mystery that doubles as a study of dementia, Elizabeth Is Missing stars Oscar winner Jackson as an 80-something in the throes of Alzheimer’s and struggling to figure out what happened when her friend Elizabeth vanishes after a day of gardening. Says director Aisling Walsh: "I wanted an actor who is strong and fearless, and Glenda is both."

Best Actor: Guido Caprino (1994)

An Italian drama where politics takes center stage, with Caprino as real-life populist Pietro Bosco, a "man of the people" who played a key role in the rise of Silvio Berlusconi. "He’s an undesirable person … plagued by a constant feeling of being the victim of an injustice. When everything turns for the worst is when he is given the scepter of power," says Caprino.

Article by: Scott Roxborough for the Hollywood Reporter.

Taylor-Joy also revealed what drew her to the role of chess prodigy Beth Harmon.

Netflix's new limited series The Queen's Gambit sees Anya Taylor-Joy (The New Mutants, Emma) star as Beth Harmon, a chess prodigy with a traumatic past, coming of age in the early 1960s. The adaptation of Walter Tevis' 1983 novel explores the true cost of genius, as well as what it means to be lonely.

The cast spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about what drew them to the project, as well as the series' poignant message about family.

"I loved [Beth] immediately," Taylor-Joy told THR. "There was no script when I first heard that [director and writer] Scott Frank wanted to talk to me and I inhaled the book in like an hour and a half. And I'm not a runner, but I ran to that meeting. The excitement level that I had of just how much I connected with this woman, how much I wanted to tell her story and, something that I think is really important is, I did think I could tell it right."

While Taylor-Joy plays a chess phenom in the miniseries, she and her fellow on-screen chess pros revealed that their chess knowledge before working on the project was limited.

"Zero, none," said Taylor-Joy of her previous experience with the game. "I knew there were pieces, I knew there was a board, but that's actually what was kind of awesome about getting to do this was that I got invited into a very secret world that's super cool and really interesting. A lot of the chess, especially the speed chess, was my favorite part of filming."

"I knew how to play the game," revealed Thomas Brodie Sangster, who plays chess champ Benny Watts. "I was aware of what each piece did. I used to play checkers when I was a child. It's a similar board and then my mom bought me chess pieces, but that's about it really. I knew what they all did, but I couldn't formulate a game or think 10, 15 steps ahead of anyone."

"I knew, obviously, the pieces, the board, but apart from that, I didn't know how to play, didn't know any of the different maneuvers you get told to do," added Harry Melling, who portrays fellow chess pro Harry Beltik. "So, I was a real beginner, but that's part of the joy of acting, I think. You know, you get to do things that you just wouldn't usually come across. So, that was definitely part of this journey."

Taylor-Joy's character Beth suffers the loss of her mother at a young age in the story and ends up in an orphanage. Throughout the series, she finds family in Jolene (Moses Ingram) at the orphanage, her adopted mother Alma (Marielle Heller) and friends she meets along the way. The cast opened up about the series' profound message about choosing your own family.

"Family is where you find it," said Heller. "Beth is a very resilient character. She's somebody who really finds connection with people and she sort of adjusts herself in order to meet whoever she's meeting. She's kind of always growing and changing ... she's a resilient character who finds it where she can."

"Family's who you make it, who you invite in, who you allow to share in that space with you and sometimes it's stronger with those people that aren't blood," said Ingram. "And if you allow it, it's something that can bloom into a very beautiful flower, if you will."

"It's a beautiful message about family," said Taylor-Joy. "As you're watching it, something that really struck me, and I think was also a lesson I had to learn for myself, was sometimes when you feel the most alone or the most lonely, it's only because you can't see further than your nose. There are people around you who love you and support you, and you're actually not alone ... I think it's the idea that you don't have to be born into a great family, you can choose your family."

Article by: Tiffany Taylor for the Hollywood Reporter.

The awards show focused on superhero, science fiction fantasy, horror, action and animation is launching at a time when most of the high-profile movies have been pushed into 2021 or beyond.

Hulu's Palm Springs and HBO's Lovecraft Country lead the nominations for the inaugural Critics Choice Super Awards, the more pop culture and genre-oriented version of the Critics Choice Awards.

The awards promise to honor the movies and television shows that power most of the current entertainment industry, the one that fall into the superhero, science fiction/fantasy, horror, action, and animation space.

The Critics Choice Association, the organ behind awards and the more established Critics Choice Awards, certainly picked one heck of a year to kick off its’ genre edition. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, most tentpoles have largely vacated the release calendar, including what one would consider some of the most obvious contenders for this category, the Marvel Studios movies.

Also missing notably is Wonder Woman 1984, the DC Comics-based movie that has had its release pushed several times and on Wednesday was given an industry-shaking HBO Max plus limited theatrical release for Dec. 25.

Palm Springs garnered a total of five nominations, including best science fiction/fantasy movie, best actor in a science fiction/fantasy movie for Andy Samberg, best actor in a science fiction/fantasy movie and best villain in a movie for J.K. Simmons and finally best actress in a science fiction/fantasy movie for Cristin Milioti. Released July 10, the romantic comedy told of two people who become stuck in a time loop and forced to relive the same day over and over.

With Marvel sidelined, the best superhero movie category sees the nominees being Warner Bros.’s Birds of Prey, Netflix’s The Old Guard, Disney+’s Secret Society of Secondborn Royals, Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog, and Warner Bros. Animation’s Superman: Man of  Tomorrow.  The category includes both comic book and video game-inspired works.

Lovecraft Country received the most television nominations, with a total of six, including best horror series, best actor in a horror series for Jonathan Majors, best actor in a horror series for Michael K. Williams, best actress in a horror series for Wunmi Mosaku, best actress in a horror series for Jurnee Smollett, and best villain in a series for Abbey Lee.

Amazon’s The Boys, based on the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, received five nominations including best superhero series, best actor in a superhero series and best villain in a series for Antony Starr, best actor in a superhero series for Karl Urban, and best actress in a superhero series for Aya Cash.

The Critics Choice Association will also present the Legacy Award to the Star Trek franchise, recognizing "the cultural impact it has had across multiple decades while continuing to appeal to and grow its loyal fanbase with new stories and characters," according to the organization. Patrick Stewart, and Star Trek: Discovery actress Sonequa Martin-Green will accept the honor.

The winners will be revealed in a special television presentation, which will be produced remotely following COVID safety protocols, hosted by filmmaker and geek specialist Kevin Smith and actress/writer Dani Fernandez.  The ceremony will air on The CW Network on Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021, at 8 p.m.

The full list of the numerous categories and their nominees can be found below:

BEST ACTION MOVIE

Bad Boys For Life (Sony)

Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)

Extraction (Netflix)

Greyhound (Apple TV+)

The Hunt (Universal)

Mulan (Disney+)

The Outpost (Millennium Media)

Tenet (Warner Bros.)

BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE

Tom Hanks – Greyhound (Apple TV+)

Chris Hemsworth – Extraction (Netflix)

Caleb Landry Jones – The Outpost (Millennium Media)

Delroy Lindo – Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)

Will Smith – Bad Boys For Life (Sony)

John David Washington – Tenet (Warner Bros)

BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE

Betty Gilpin – The Hunt (Universal)

Yifei Liu – Mulan (Disney+)

Blake Lively – The Rhythm Section (Paramount)

Iliza Shlesinger – Spenser Confidential (Netflix)

Hilary Swank – The Hunt (Universal)

BEST ANIMATED MOVIE

Onward (Disney+)

Over the Moon (Netflix)

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Netflix)

Soul (Disney+)

The Willoughbys (Netflix)

Wolfwalkers (Apple/GKIDS)

BEST VOICE ACTOR IN AN ANIMATED MOVIE

Jamie Foxx – Soul (Disney+)

Will Forte – The Willoughbys (Netflix)

Tom Holland – Onward (Disney+)

John Krasinski – Animal Crackers (Netflix)

Chris Pratt – Onward (Disney+)

Sam Rockwell – The One and Only Ivan (Disney+)

BEST VOICE ACTRESS IN AN ANIMATED MOVIE

Tina Fey – Soul (Disney+)

Honor Kneafsey – Wolfwalkers (Apple/GKIDS)

Maya Rudolph – The Willoughbys (Netflix)

Phillipa Soo – Over the Moon (Netflix)

Octavia Spencer – Onward (Disney+)

Eva Whittaker – Wolfwalkers (Apple/GKIDS)

BEST SUPERHERO MOVIE

Birds of Prey (Warner Bros.)

The Old Guard (Netflix)

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals (Disney+)

Sonic The Hedgehog (Paramount)

Superman: Man of Tomorrow (Warner Bros. Animation)

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPERHERO MOVIE

Skylar Astin – Secret Society of Second-Born Royals (Disney+)

Jim Carrey – Sonic The Hedgehog (Paramount)

Chiwetel Ejiofor – The Old Guard (Netflix)

Ewan McGregor – Birds of Prey (Warner Bros.)

Ben Schwartz – Sonic The Hedgehog (Paramount)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPERHERO MOVIE

Kiki Layne – The Old Guard (Netflix)

Peyton Elizabeth Lee – Secret Society of Second-Born Royals (Disney+)

Margot Robbie – Birds of Prey (Warner Bros)

Jurnee Smollett – Birds of Prey (Warner Bros)

Charlize Theron – The Old Guard (Netflix)

BEST HORROR MOVIE

Freaky (Universal)

The Invisible Man (Universal)

Relic (IFC Films)

The Rental (IFC Films)

Sputnik (IFC Films)

BEST ACTOR IN A HORROR MOVIE

Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù – His House (Netflix)

Pyotr Fyodorov – Sputnik (Sony Pictures)

Michiel Huisman – The Other Lamb (IFC Films)

Dan Stevens – The Rental (IFC Films)

Vince Vaughn – Freaky (Universal)

BEST ACTRESS IN A HORROR MOVIE

Haley Bennett – Swallow (IFC Films)

Angela Bettis – 12 Hour Shift (Magnet Releasing)

Elisabeth Moss – The Invisible Man (Universal)

Kathryn Newton – Freaky (Universal)

Sheila Vand – The Rental (IFC Films)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY MOVIE

Love and Monsters (Paramount)

Palm Springs (Hulu and NEON)

Possessor (Neon and Elevation Pictures)

Synchronic (Well Go USA)

The Vast of Night (Amazon Studios)

BEST ACTOR IN A SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY MOVIE

Christopher Abbott – Possessor (Neon and Elevation Pictures)

Jake Horowitz – The Vast of Night (Amazon Studios)

Anthony Mackie – Synchronic (Well Go USA)

Andy Samberg – Palm Springs (Hulu and NEON)

J.K. Simmons – Palm Springs (Hulu and NEON)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY MOVIE

Ally Ioannides – Synchronic (Well Go USA)

Katherine Langford – Spontaneous (Paramount)

Sierra McCormick – The Vast of Night (Amazon Studios)

Cristin Milioti – Palm Springs (Hulu and NEON)

Andrea Riseborough – Possessor (Neon and Elevation Pictures)

BEST VILLAIN IN A MOVIE

Jim Carrey – Sonic The Hedgehog (Paramount)

Katherine Langford – Spontaneous (Paramount)

Kathryn Newton – Freaky (Universal)

Martin Short and Jane Krakowski – The Willoughbys (Netflix)

J.K. Simmons – Palm Springs (Hulu and NEON)

Hilary Swank – The Hunt (Universal)

Still with us? Just making sure. Now the nominations for series.

BEST ACTION SERIES

9-1-1 (Fox)

Hanna (Amazon)

unters (Amazon)

S.W.A.T. (CBS)

Vikings (History)

Warrior (Cinemax)

BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION SERIES

Daveed Diggs – Snowpiercer (TNT)

Andrew Koji – Warrior (Cinemax)

Logan Lerman – Hunters (Amazon)

Alexander Ludwig – Vikings (History)

Shemar Moore – S.W.A.T. (CBS)

Al Pacino – Hunters (Amazon)

BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION SERIES

Angela Bassett – 9-1-1 (Fox)

Jennifer Connelly – Snowpiercer (TNT)

Esme Creed-Miles – Hanna (Amazon)

Mireille Enos – Hanna (Amazon)

Katheryn Winnick – Vikings (History)

Alison Wright – Snowpiercer (TNT)

BEST ANIMATED SERIES

Archer (FXX)

BoJack Horseman (Netflix)

Big Mouth (Netflix)Central Park (Apple TV+)

Harley Quinn (HBO Max)

Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)

Star Trek: Lower Decks (CBS All Access)

BEST VOICE ACTOR IN AN ANIMATED SERIES

Will Arnett – BoJack Horseman (Netflix)

Jon  Benjamin -- Archer (FXX)

Nick Kroll – Big Mouth (Netflix)

John Mulaney – Big Mouth (Netflix)

Jack Quaid – Star Trek: Lower Decks (CBS All Access)

Justin Roiland – Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)

J.B. Smoove – Harley Quinn (HBO Max)

BEST VOICE ACTRESS IN AN ANIMATED SERIES

Kaley Cuoco – Harley Quinn (HBO Max)

Tawny Newsome – Star Trek: Lower Decks (CBS All Access)

Maya Rudolph – Big Mouth (Netflix)

Amy Sedaris – BoJack Horseman (Netflix)

Aisha Tyler – Archer (FXX)

Jessica Walter – Archer (FXX)

BEST SUPERHERO SERIES

The Boys (Amazon)

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (The CW)

Doom Patrol (DC Universe and HBO Max)

The Flash (The CW)

Lucifer (Netflix)

The Umbrella Academy (Netflix)

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPERHERO SERIES

Jon Cryer – Supergirl (The CW)

Tom Ellis – Lucifer (Netflix)

Grant Gustin – The Flash (The CW)

Antony Starr – The Boys (Amazon)

Karl Urban – The Boys (Amazon)

Cress Williams – Black Lightning (The CW)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPERHERO SERIES

Melissa Benoist – Supergirl (The CW)

Aya Cash – The Boys (Amazon)

Diane Guerrero – Doom Patrol (DC Universe and HBO Max)

Elizabeth Marvel – Helstrom (Hulu)

Lili Reinhart – Riverdale (The CW)

Cobie Smulders – Stumptown (ABC)

BEST HORROR SERIES

Evil (CBS)

The Haunting of Bly Manor (Netflix)

Lovecraft Country (HBO)

The Outsider (HBO)Supernatural (The CW)

The Walking Dead (AMC)

BEST ACTOR IN A HORROR SERIES

Jensen Ackles – Supernatural (The CW)

Mike Colter – Evil (CBS)

Michael Emerson – Evil (CBS)

Jonathan Majors – Lovecraft Country (HBO)

Ben Mendelsohn – The Outsider (HBO)

Jared Padalecki – Supernatural (The CW)

Michael K. Williams – Lovecraft Country (HBO)

BEST ACTRESS IN A HORROR SERIES

Natalie Dormer – Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (Showtime)

Cynthia Erivo – The Outsider (HBO)

Katja Herbers – Evil (CBS)

T'Nia Miller – The Haunting of Bly Manor (Netflix)

Wunmi Mosaku – Lovecraft Country (HBO)

Victoria Pedretti – The Haunting of Bly Manor (Netflix)

Jurnee Smollett – Lovecraft Country (HBO)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY SERIES

The Mandalorian (Disney+)

Outlander (Starz)

Raised By Wolves (HBO Max)

Star Trek: Discovery (CBS All Access)

Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access)

Upload (Amazon)

What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

BEST ACTOR IN A SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY SERIES

Robbie Amell – Upload (Amazon)

Travis Fimmel – Raised by Wolves (HBO Max)

Sam Heughan – Outlander (Starz)

Kayvan Novak – What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

Pedro Pascal – The Mandalorian (Disney+)

Nick Offerman – Devs (FX on Hulu)

Sir Patrick Stewart – Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY SERIES

Caitriona Balfe – Outlander (Starz)

Amanda Collin – Raised by Wolves (HBO Max)

Natasia Demetriou – What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

Sonequa Martin-Green – Star Trek: Discovery (CBS All Access)

Thandie Newton – Westworld (HBO)

Hilary Swank – Away (Netflix)

Jodie Whittaker – Doctor Who (BBC America)

BEST VILLAIN IN A SERIES

Tom Ellis – Lucifer (Netflix)

Abbey Lee – Lovecraft Country (HBO)

Samantha Morton – The Walking Dead (AMC)

Sarah Paulson – Ratched (Netflix)

Antony Starr – The Boys (Amazon)

Finn Wittrock – Ratched (Netflix)

Article by: Borys Kit for the Hollywood Reporter.

Jeffrey Roth's feature has now President-elect Biden and five other living U.S. Vice Presidents, including Mike Pence, talking about events that shaped their White House years.

CNN Films has picked up the North American linear TV rights to President in Waiting, a feature documentary from Jeffrey Roth where now President-elect Joe Biden discusses his years as vice president under President Barack Obama.

The film, which interviews five other living American Vice Presidents -- Mike Pence, Dick Cheney, Al Gore, Dan Quayle, and Walter Mondale -- about their White House years, is set for a Dec. 5 premiere on CNN.

"Jeffrey Roth’s storytelling and his ability to bring this incredible cast of subjects together on film, make President in Waiting essential viewing," Courtney Sexton, senior vp of CNN Films, said in a statement.

Biden in President in Waiting discusses accepting his nomination of Vice President, and his later relationship with President Obama, while his fellow VPs discuss their own experiences with war, diplomacy and other national events that shaped their own administrations.

Roth also wrote and produced the film with Paul Basta of Playground Productions. Stephen Beck is executive producer.

The acquisition deal was negotiated by Josh Braun, Matt Burke, and Ben Schwartz of Submarine Entertainment, on behalf of the filmmakers, and by Stacey Wolf, senior vp of business affairs, and Kelly MacLanahan, assistant general counsel, both of CNN Worldwide, on behalf of CNN Films.

Article by: Etan Vlessing for the Hollywood Reporter.

"We see this as a smart, albeit expensive, strategic maneuver," says Credit Suisse's Douglas Mitchelson as industry observers weigh in on the strategy.

Wall Street analysts on Thursday started discussing WarnerMedia's hybrid release strategy for Wonder Woman 1984 amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"This is an unprecedented move for a major Hollywood media company, especially for a $200 million film, and a grand experiment that could have long-lasting implications if successful," Credit Suisse analyst Douglas Mitchelson wrote in a report. "Up to now, speculation had been that Wonder Woman 1984 would either be delayed or be released in theaters and then shift over to HBO Max after a short exclusivity period."

The entertainment arm of telecom giant AT&T said late Wednesday though that the follow-up to the 2017 blockbuster that earned $828.1 million at the worldwide box office, which reunites director Patty Jenkins with star Gal Gadot, would bow in whatever U.S. cinemas remain open Dec. 25, as well as on WarnerMedia's streaming service HBO Max for one month before a month-long theatrical window and then premium VOD release. In international markets where HBO Max is not available, the film will start rolling out on Dec. 16.

"I find it fascinating that we will be measuring the performance of this movie in an entirely new way," WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said about the release strategy in a blog post. Wall Street will look for data and color on the $200 million tentpole's performance after its launch as the financial fallout will be difficult to gauge given the pandemic-limited box office potential.

One part of the success equation will be how many subscribers HBO Max, which ended September with 28.7 million subscribers with access to the service, including 8.6 million actual "activations," can add, observers said. Activations are an important metric, because consumers can not only get HBO Max directly from WarnerMedia, but also from pay TV providers when they subscribe to HBO. But that requires them to download the HBO Max app on their smart TVs or other devices. The same is true for customers on AT&T's Unlimited wireless and fiber broadband plans.

It it "unlikely it gets much theatrical traction" in the U.S., Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter tells THR about the movie. "I can't imagine it will debut on more than a few hundred screens." He explains: "By Christmas, we will be up to 300,000 [COVID-19] cases a day, and the entire country will be forced to close all indoor spaces to crowds." That will mean "widespread closures" of cinemas.

He expects Kilar to "give us a metric like Netflix uses" along the lines of "20 million watched it the first three days." And Pachter adds that it will be key for HBO Max to secure a major distribution holdout by then. "They had better get Roku working by then if they want to work the numbers," he says.

Mitchelson said the release strategy "clearly shows management, including still fairly new CEO John Stankey and WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar, making a greater push towards investing in AT&T’s pivot to streaming, one of the company’s key growth initiatives."

He added: "We see this as a smart, albeit expensive, strategic maneuver aimed to drive very substantial subscriber acquisition for HBO Max given how starved audiences are for film content, both in terms of converting existing HBO subs (HBO Max has been off to a slow start with only 8.6 million of the 28.7 million eligible U.S. HBO subs taking the free conversion over to HBO Max so far) and adding new subscribers to HBO Max (the 38.0 million total HBO/HBO Max subs are just under 30 percent of U.S. households)."

Mitchelson said the goal will also be to "show customers, content partners, employees, and investors how seriously the company is pivoting to streaming," and "take advantage of the seasonally strong selling period for streaming (the last two weeks of the year are Netflix’s biggest sales weeks), especially given the unfortunate re-instatement of social distancing measures associated with rising COVID cases."

Mitchelson called Kilar’s mention of the 4 million people who saw the first Wonder Woman on its first day of theatrical release in 2017 a way “to help set the narrative on what the company might consider a success."

The financial math, however, is “complicated,” acknowledged Mitchelson. “The first Wonder Woman grossed $413 million in theaters the U.S. and $409 million overseas for an $822 million global take. Warners likely collected a net $200 million or so in the U.S. and would have expected at least that level pre-COVID, with tens of millions more from PPV and home video. At the same time, marketing costs might be less than normal for this release, there will still be some level of theatrical revenue for WW84 (perhaps with some offset of direct payments to theaters for day-and-date rights), and it is unclear when these pre-COVID box office levels would again be achievable."

His calculation: “On balance, using pre-COVID box office targets this would suggest an approximately $200 million marketing investment in HBO due to this decision. We would not agree with the simple math of subscribers acquired times average revenue per user times life of subscriber given the importance to jump-start HBO Max and the brand benefit to the service, as well as the potential for customers to resubscribe in the future post the first time they churn (a healthy percentage of Netflix gross additions each qtr are from customers returning to the service) and for AT&T to leverage HBO Max marketing with their wireless and pay TV services.”

The Credit Suisse analyst also listed several interesting questions the release strategy creates. Among them: the amount of advertising support the film will receive relative to a normal theatrical release, especially given the likely free marketing given the unusual circumstances; “whether HBO Max implements ‘watch party’ functionality;” whether HBO Max maintains its free seven-day trial period, which “could lead to excess churn of consumers signing up just to watch the movie for free; and whether consumers consider Wonder Woman 1984 “more of an event film given its also being released in theaters versus just the perceived value of a straight-to -streaming release. and whether this value justifies paying theaters in the future for their part in creating it.”

Article by: George Szalai for the Hollywood Reporter.

It’s almost time to scream again. Production has wrapped on the “Scream” reboot, which is officially, and appropriately, titled “Scream.”

On Wednesday, “Scream” writer Kevin Williamson revealed the title of the horror franchise’s fifth film and announced that production has officially wrapped in North Carolina.

“Nearly 25 years ago, when I wrote ‘Scream’ and Wes Craven brought it to life, I could not have imagined the lasting impact it would have on you, the fans. I’m excited for you to return to Woodsboro and get really scared again,” Williamson wrote on Instagram. “I believe Wes would’ve been so proud of the film that Matt and Tyler are making. I’m thrilled to be reunited with Neve, Courteney, David and Marley, and to be working alongside a new filmmaking team and incredible cast of newcomers that have come together to continue Wes’s legacy with the upcoming relaunch of the franchise that I hold so dear to my heart. See you in theatres January 2022.”

Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Marley Shelton are returning for the new film, which also features Melissa Barrera, Jack Quiad and Dylan Minnette.

“Ready or Not” directors Matthew Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are helming the reboot from a script by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. Spyglass Media Group, Project X Entertainment’s Vanderbilt, Paul Neinstein and William Sherak are producing. Williamson is serving as executive producer, along with Radio Silence’s Chad Villella. Paramount has set a Jan. 14, 2022, release date.

The original “Scream” debuted in 1996 with Campbell starring as Sidney Prescott, the target of the Ghostface killer, with a look inspired by the Edvard Munch painting “The Scream.”  The first film was directed by Wes Craven and written by Williamson. Bob Weinstein’s Dimension Films released all four films, which combined for $608 million in worldwide box office with sequels released in 1997, 2000 and 2011.

Article by: Dave McNary for Variety.

David Fincher’s “Mank” isn’t a work of history. It’s a film first and foremost.

“If you’re talking about the truth, you have to circumnavigate some of the fact,” Fincher tells Variety in this week’s cover story.

And yet, “Mank” sticks much closer to the truth than most fact-based films, if the Variety Archives are any indication.

Variety in the 1930s and ’40s was like a community bulletin board: Aside from covering the business, reporters wrote about daily life in a company town. Reading the archives is like a “Mank Study Guide,” with support for virtually every plot point and detail in the new movie.

For example, the Netflix film features a circus-themed party thrown by Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst, who in fact threw a similar event for 400 guests:

“W.R. Hearst in gold cloth bolero, and big red bow tie, cut a gigantic birthday cake … Bette Davis, a bearded woman in formal brown and white striped gown. Marion Davies in modified clown costume of periwinkle blue. Leslie Howard, with Mrs. Howard wearing a merry-go-round on her head…” (Variety, May 3, 1937)

Variety covered Herman J. Mankiewicz regularly, including New York rehearsals for his 1924 play “Love ’Em and Leave ’Em” and his later play “The Wild Man of Borneo,” which was described as “a floppo.”

In a recap of hot new Hollywood writers of 1927, Variety said: “[Mank] sold himself fast and was made head of Authors’ Council [and] brought out many prominent writers from the east, including Ben Hecht.” (Jan. 4, 1928)

While Hollywood scripters were pushed around, Mankiewicz pushed back. As organizations like the Screen Writers Guild were getting established, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences had a hand in such key battles as script arbitration.

“Academy’s second writers’ bulletin, carrying scribbling credits on pictures produced the previous month, was issued yesterday and carries a letter from Herman Mankiewicz pointing out ‘the extreme absurdity of your publication.’ Mank’s [anger] is over the multiple credits assigned to ‘Stamboul Quest’ in the last bulletin, whereby the screen credit gave Mank 50-50 with another writer.” (Sept. 12, 1934)

Fincher’s film shows MGM topper Louis B. Mayer weeping with fake joy after employees agree to pay cuts. Variety augments that with a report on salaries:

“Louis B. Mayer, Irving Thalberg and [MGM banker] J. Robert Rubin rank among the best-paid Hollywood figures. Their net receipts from MGM in 1932 amounted to $1,333,576.” (Feb. 27, 1934)

That translates to $25 million in today’s dollars, pretty hefty in the Depression.

Variety reported each step of the development and production of “Citizen Kane,” starting with the fact that Orson Welles was under pressure after six months at RKO to pick a film debut. There were also stories about Mankiewicz writing the script, turning it in and petitioning for screen credit.

The Archives covered big and small plot points in the film: the 1934 Sinclair-Merriam governor race, Hearst’s attempts to turn Davies into a “serious” actor, Thalberg’s health problems, Mank’s car accident, even the nickname “Poor Sarah” for Mank’s wife.

On March 4, 1942, there was a post-Oscar analysis of the “Kane” near-shutout, when “How Green Was My Valley” was the big winner. The reporter (with no byline) said the key factor was the 6,000 extras who voted: “The mob prefers a regular guy to a genius.”

After Mankiewicz’s 1953 death, columnist Frank Scully wrote a tribute: “In money, friendship and talent, he threw it away in buckets. He once lost $60,000 on one gambling binge.” (In 2020 dollars, that’s about $1 million.)

“Like most of Hollywood’s top earners, he had no idea of simple accounting. He recently owed Uncle Sam $80,000.”

Scully added, “Many people must have wondered why Mank took on an assignment like ‘Citizen Kane,’ despite the fact that it won him an Academy Award. … He must have known that the whole Hearst chain would give him the finger on ‘Kane.’ But he had amazing spurts of courage and this was by far the bravest of them all.”

Article by: Tim Gray for Variety.

Mank” is the gripping story of the brilliant but troubled artist behind “Citizen Kane,” often considered to be the greatest movie ever made.

No, it’s not about director Orson Welles. Instead, it pushes Herman J. Mankiewicz, the alcoholic writer for hire who is responsible for bringing the film’s revolutionary, non-linear narrative structure and corrosive portrait of wealth and power, to the center of the frame.

“He was one of those voices that charted the way,” says David Fincher, the director who labored for nearly 30 years to bring “Mank” to life. “My hope is that people will be entertained watching a generational wit, who is in some ways forgotten and never got his due.”

“Mank,” which Netflix will debut Dec. 4, is also likely to reignite a fierce debate around the concept of auteurism. If film is truly a director’s medium, then who gets the credit for a masterpiece? It’s an argument about authorship that has swirled around “Citizen Kane” almost from the time it hit theaters in 1941.That’s largely due to the fact that Welles not only starred in the movie: He also directed, produced and co-wrote it while still just a 24-year-old wunderkind.

Others disagree about the extent of Welles’ contributions. As Pauline Kael’s controversial 1971 essay “Raising Kane” and now “Mank” make clear, “Citizen Kane” was greatly informed by Mankiewicz’s friendship with William Randolph Hearst (the newspaper baron who inspired Kane), as well his personal experience with media and politics.

You might think that Fincher, a revered visual stylist, whose perfectionism can drive film crews and actors to the breaking point, would be a subscriber to the Great Man theory at the heart of auteurism — the idea that some talents are so outsize they seep into every shot or beat of a movie. You’d be wrong though.

“I don’t know anyone who makes movies who is concerned with being an auteur,” says the 58-year-old director. “‘There’s plenty of blame to go around’ has always been my philosophy. I believe filmmaking owes a lot more to demolition derby than it does to neurosurgery. It’s a miracle when it goes off the way you had it in your head. For the most part it doesn’t.”

It’s also something of a miracle that a project as idiosyncratic and singular as “Mank” ever got greenlit. Indeed, the movie almost never made it to the screen. The project, which boasts a script by the director’s father, Jack Fincher, was originally supposed to get made in the 1990s by Polygram. At one point, Kevin Spacey, pre-sexual harassment scandal, was discussed for the lead role and Jodie Foster was considered to play Marion Davies, Hearst’s longtime mistress. However, the studio balked over Fincher’s insistence that the story needed to be shot in black and white as a nod to Gregg Toland’s expressionist cinematography in “Citizen Kane.”

“Polygram got cold feet because of all kinds of truly stupid boilerplate stuff involving output deals in Central America,” remembers Fincher. “We would have had to have shot the film in color and then corrected it and do a black-and-white version. It completely fell apart.”

So Fincher moved on to other projects, earning Oscar nominations for “The Social Network” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and adapting best-sellers such as “Gone Girl” into feature films. But “Mank” bubbled back to the surface after he hit a wall while working on “Mindhunter,” the Netflix series about the FBI’s early efforts to understand serial killers. The show was embraced by critics but failed to find popular success. Moreover, creating its second season had been a frustrating experience for Fincher, who had hoped to step back from day-to-day involvement in the program. Instead, after firing the initial showrunner and tossing out all the scripts, the project became all-consuming, forcing him to move to Pittsburgh for the duration of the shoot.

“I needed some time away,” says Fincher, adding that the series is likely to go on an indefinite hiatus. “It was an expensive show. It had a very passionate audience, but we never got the numbers that justified the cost.”

In a meeting with Netflix chief content officer and co-CEO Ted Sarandos and recently departed original content VP Cindy Holland, Fincher admitted that he wasn’t eager to “spend another two years in the crawl space” readying a third season of “Mindhunter.” Sarandos raised the question of what movie projects Fincher was looking to make. To the director’s surprise, Netflix not only signed off on his pitch for “Mank” but agreed to let him shoot in black and white.

“We didn’t have any anxiety about making it,” insists Scott Stuber, vice president of original film at Netflix. “Because it’s David Fincher. He’s one of the best there is, and we knew how long he’d worked on it and thought about it, as well as how personal a project it was to him. That excited us.”

In November 2019, cameras finally rolled on the film, with Gary Oldman portraying Mankiewicz, Amanda Seyfried as Davies, and Charles Dance embodying Hearst. Shooting started without one key creative talent on hand. Jack Fincher died in 2003 at the age of 72, more than a decade before “Mank” began production. The former San Francisco bureau chief of Life Magazine, he was an avid filmgoer who instilled in Fincher an appreciation for cinema, taking him to the many revival houses that bordered their Bay Area home to watch “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Rear Window” and, yes, “Citizen Kane.”

“By the time I was 8 years old I’d decided I wanted to spend my life making movies, so my dad was this font of information, telling me, ‘You have to see this or that film,’” says Fincher. He started his career directing music videos, including Madonna’s “Express Yourself” in 1989 and “Vogue” two years later, before graduating to feature work with 1992’s “Alien 3.”

When the elder Fincher retired from journalism, he began writing scripts. One involved Howard Hughes, another was about artist Margaret Keene and her plagiarist husband, Walter, who inspired Tim Burton’s 2014 film “Big Eyes.” But it was his screenplay about the writing of “Citizen Kane” that piqued his son’s interest, even though he felt the initial efforts missed the mark. It focused on Mankiewicz’s decision to get credit for crafting “Citizen Kane” after he’d delivered his draft and had little to do with the composition of the legendary script.

“He presented me with this posthumous arbitration screed,” says Fincher. “I told him that it seemed like a lot of sour grapes and that I didn’t think people really cared about who got credit for what. The drama didn’t appeal to me.”

But subsequent drafts were more to the director’s liking. They focused on Mankiewicz and his backstory as a member of the prestigious Algonquin Round Table literary circle, as well as his move West in search of easy money as a script doctor for studios. Here was an outsize character that Fincher could sink his teeth into. Gradually, Mankiewicz’s complex relationship with Hearst was also fleshed out, as Jack Fincher added more scenes set amid the lavish parties at the mogul’s San Simeon retreat where the writer was a favored guest, admired for his penetrating insights and ultimately dismissed over his out-of-control drinking. Fincher doesn’t say it, but the core theme of “Mank” must have resonated with him as a filmmaker — the movie is, after all, about the grinding, often frustrating pursuit of an elusive kind of perfection. Fincher, a director who forced Robert Downey Jr. to shoot dozens of takes of one scene in “Zodiac,” prompting the actor to jokingly compare the experience to a gulag, must be intimately familiar with that kind of struggle.

“He’s a difficult taskmaster,” says Peter Mavromates, a co-producer on “Mank,” who has worked with Fincher since 1997’s “The Game.” “He’s very demanding. He pushes and pushes, but once you get to the other end, it’s so much better than it was when you started. That’s why the people who work with him do so again and again.”

Initially, Fincher wasn’t sold on one pivotal subplot in his father’s script. “Mank” dramatizes the 1934 California governor’s race between Frank Merriam and Socialist-Democrat Upton Sinclair, one in which Hollywood producer Irving Thalberg created some of the first negative ads at the behest of Louis B. Mayer. The MGM chief was incensed over Sinclair’s threats to impose taxes on film companies and by his interest in backing a state-run movie studio. So Thalberg tapped MGM talent to craft short films demonizing Sinclair. In the movie, Mankiewicz is horrified to see big business put its thumb on the scale, and it strains his friendships with Hearst and Mayer. In the late 1990s when Fox News was in its infancy and Donald Trump was still a real estate developer, Fincher didn’t see the point.

“I kind of thought, ‘I don’t get it,” says Fincher. “It’s so quaint, this idea of fake news. I was fairly convinced, ‘Who really cares if there were nefarious goings-on in 1934?’”

In 2020, the director admits that part of the film is likely to strike the strongest chord with viewers who have just been through another bruising election.

“When Jack first finished, it was self-righteous — and 25 years later it was incendiary,” says Fincher. “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”

Fincher made “Mank” using digital cameras, but the director and his creative team took pains to make it appear as though it was shot on celluloid by digitally scratching up the images so that they looked like film grade.

“Film is not a particularly good medium to work in if you want a very consistent result,” says Erik Messerschmidt, “Mank” cinematographer. “The decision was quite clear, and that wasn’t even a question in our heads that we were going to shoot digitally.”

Fincher also had the sound designed to include the crackles that appeared in movies of the World War II era.

“He wanted the movie to be like you were in a vault and came across ‘Citizen Kane’ and next to it was ‘Mank,’” says Donald Graham Burt, the film’s production designer. “He wanted it to seem like something made from the period. He didn’t want viewers to have a clear idea of when we shot it.”

Fincher was a stickler about accuracy. If Burt presented him with a typewriter to use in a scene, the director would pepper him with questions about when it was made or whether it was used in an office or a home, all in an effort to be true to the era.

That didn’t extend to Oldman’s characterization of Mankiewicz. The actor, 61 at the time the film was shot, was two decades older than Mankiewicz was when he wrote “Citizen Kane” and looks nothing like the doughy, balding screenwriter. Oldman, who has relied heavily on makeup and costume in the past to embody everyone from Winston Churchill to Count Dracula, wanted to pluck his hairline and have a false nose made.

“I said ‘No. We’ve got to watch you be this guy, and there can be no artifice between us and you,’” says Fincher. “I needed someone who walks into a room and everyone would say, ‘That’s the guy.’ You need an actor’s actor. If you’re casting based on height and hairline, you’re missing the side of the barn.”

“Mank” represents something of a departure for Fincher, best known for plumbing the darkest recesses of the soul in the likes of “Zodiac” and “Seven.” Instead of grisly crime scenes, there are gags about the Marx Brothers grilling hot dogs in Thalberg’s fireplace. Then there’s Mankiewicz, tossing off gilded bons mots while swilling bourbon, looking like a Jazz Age Oscar Wilde gone to seed. There’s a lot of humor to this story, and “funny” isn’t an adjective that necessarily springs to mind when considering Fincher’s pitch-black oeuvre, though the director’s longtime collaborators disagree.

“I think there’s a wit to all of David’s films,” says Kirk Baxter, “Mank’s” editor. “David is a very funny guy.”

Fincher was attracted to Mankiewicz’s truth telling and the way he wielded jokes as a defense mechanism against an unjust world. He was also fascinated by the critical role that Mankiewicz and other early screenwriters like Ben Hecht and Edwin Justus Mayer played in helping the movie business move from the silent era into the talkies. Their urbane wit and sophistication, honed at East Coast publications such as The New Yorker, was deployed to create a new kind of dialogue for the big screen. Movies would never be the same.

A similar, no less important shift is taking place in the entertainment industry, as streaming services such as Netflix have begun to overshadow traditional theatrical distributors. Some directors, who cherish having their movies projected on the widest of screens, bemoan the change. Fincher embraces it.

“Let’s be real: The exhibition experience is not the shining link in the chain right now,” says the director, who notes that home screens have gotten progressively larger in recent years, making the difference in presentation between a cinema and a television less stark.

Moreover, he believes that there’s value in not having to live or die on box office returns alone. Some of his most beloved films, such as “Zodiac” and “Fight Club,” bombed when they hit theaters, only to be rediscovered on cable or home entertainment platforms.

“I’ve never been happier working at a place than I am at Netflix,” Fincher says. “They’re building a repository. It’s a nice thing that movies have a place to exist where you don’t necessarily have to shove them into spandex summer or affliction winter. It’s a platform that takes all kinds. You can be a dark, sinister German movie or a bizarre Israeli spy show. They want them all.”

As Hollywood has become more superhero obsessed, hard-charging directors such as Fincher, Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”) and Spike Lee (“Da Five Bloods”) have migrated to Netflix in search of creative freedom and financial support.

“I know that I’m no picnic,” says Fincher. “They want people who are self-starters; they want people who want to tear it up and try different things and show up for work and tax the system.”

This November, Netflix is releasing “Mank” in the cinemas that remain open during COVID, but the company acknowledges that could be a dwindling number. It’s also planning an extensive Oscar campaign.

“It’s a major achievement in filmmaking,” says Stuber. “We really believe in the movie, and we’re going to push it really hard in every area.”

Even as “Mank” looks at Hollywood’s past, it is helping to usher in a new wave of movies about the making of other classic films. Ben Affleck is set to direct “The Big Goodbye,” a behind-the-scenes look at the production of “Chinatown,” while Barry Levinson and Oscar Isaac are teaming up on a picture about the tumultuous creation of “The Godfather.” Fincher jokes that he’s creating a new genre, one that will soon have its own row on Netflix.

“There are so many amazing stories about the making of movies; there’s a place for that,” says Fincher. “Will there be a rush of these: ‘What about the making of “Stunt Man”?!’ No, but I’m intrigued by the idea of both those. I adore and revere Ben Affleck and Barry, so let’s see what they do with it.”

As for “Mank,” having labored for much of his career to bring the story to life, even an inveterate tinkerer like Fincher feels like it’s time to leave the editing bay.

“I just want to go to sleep for six months,” says Fincher. “My wife said to me the other day, ‘You have thought about this way too long.’”

Article by: Brent Lang for Variety.

Ahead of Friday's SAG Awards submission deadline, a decision has been made to release Sam Levinson's Malcolm & Marie — a two-hander which stars BlacKkKlansman and Tenet actor John David Washington and Euphoria actress Zendaya — into the current awards season, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Netflix, which acquired the black-and-white film for $30 million in September following a screening of select footage which resulted in bidding war between several distributors, will release it worldwide on its streaming platform on Feb. 5, 2021, and plans to wage a full-fledged Oscar campaign on its behalf.

A never-before-seen still of the film appears at the top of this post.

Malcolm & Marie — which Levinson wrote and directed, and which has been likened to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — tells the story of a director (Washington) and his girlfriend (Zendaya) whose relationship is tested after they return home from the premiere of his latest project and await the critical response to it.

The film was shot in 35 mm over the summer at Feldman Architecture’s Caterpillar House in Carmel, Cal., using a bare-bones crew due to the pandemic. The production teamed with doctors and lawyers to make sure that every aspect of their work was fully compliant with WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA approvals and COVID-19 safety protocols.

Levinson is also a producer of the film, while Zendaya (who today appears on the 50th anniversary cover of Essence magazine) and Washington are executive producers, as is rapper Kid Cudi and Yariv Milchan, the son of Oscar-nominated producer Arnon Milchan.

Levinson and Zendaya previously worked together on Euphoria, the HBO program for which the latter won this year's best actress in a drama series Emmy. Levinson and Washington, meanwhile, are members of revered Hollywood families — Levinson is the son of Oscar winner Barry Levinson and Washington is the son of Oscar winner Denzel Washington — as are one of the other producers, Levinson's wife Ashley Levinson, and one of the other executive producers, Washington's sister Katia Washington.

The Levinsons and Kevin Turen produced the film through their production company, which is also behind another 2020-2021 Netflix awards hopeful, Pieces of a Woman.

Article by Scott Feinberg for the Hollywood Reporter.

The feature, from writer Alvaro García Lecuona and producer Christine Vachon, will act as the first project for MGM's relaunched Orion Pictures.

Billy Porter is set to make his feature directorial debut with What If?, the first feature produced under the recently relaunched MGM label Orion Pictures.

Described as being in the vein of Booksmart and Love, Simon, the logline reads: "When high school senior Khal posts on r/relationships about his crush on Kelsa, a trans girl at his school, the internet encourages him to go for it. What follows is a modern coming-of-age story as the two navigate a high school senior year relationship that neither could have expected.”

The high school-set romance was written by Alvaro García Lecuona, and will be produced by Christine Vachon and David Hinojosa under their Killer Films banner, which recently signed a first-look deal with MGM. Andrew Lauren and D.J. Gugenheim will produce on behalf of Andrew Lauren Productions, the banner behind The Spectular Now.

Headed by Alana Mayo, Orion was relaunched with the intent to focus on features from underrepresented voices and authentic storytelling in film that amplifies underserved voices, both on- and offscreen.

Mayo said, “We couldn’t be more excited to work with Billy Porter on his feature directing debut and are privileged that he, Alvaro, and the producing team behind this special film have entrusted us with their vision for this beautiful, contemporary love story. What If? is perfectly emblematic of the ambitions we have for the new Orion Pictures: to tell stories about the totality of the human experience.”

Added Porter: “I’m thrilled to be part of this new space in Hollywood for telling all types of stories from all types of people. I am grateful to be in a position to usher some of these stories into the mainstream and I am humbled that heavy hitters like Christine Vachon and Alana Mayo have entrusted and empowered me in this insane time we all find ourselves in.”

Porter, an award-winning multihyphenate, earned an Emmy nod for his role in Ryan Murphy's Pose and a Tony for Broadway's Kinky Boots. His upcoming onscreen feature film credits include Sony's musical Cinderella, playing the Fairy Godmother, and voicing Audrey II in the Greg Berlanti-directed Little Shop of Horrors. He is represented by CAA and Industry Entertainment.

Garcia Lecuona is represented by APA and Vision Entertainment.

Article by: Mia Galuppo for the Hollywood Reporter.

The stars of Hulu's gay holiday rom-com debuted their film at The Grove with a message of its significance: "You get so used to not seeing yourself represented in films."

Kristen Stewart, Clea DuVall, Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza brought the Christmas spirit to Los Angeles on Tuesday night with the drive-in premiere of their new film Happiest Season.

The Hulu rom-com, co-written and directed by DuVall, follows Harper (played by Mackenzie Davis) who brings her girlfriend (Stewart) home to her family for the holidays without revealing that she has not yet come out to her parents. Mary Steenburgen and Victor Garber play Harper's conservative mother and father, with Brie, Plaza and Dan Levy also co-starring.

At the premiere, held on the rooftop of The Grove's parking structure, a masked DuVall told the crowd of cars, "You get so used to not seeing yourself represented in films, and then realizing that you can just make the movie that you've always wanted to see was incredibly special." Bringing her cast up on stage under the large projection screen, she thanked those from the film not at the event and added, "I'm so excited for everyone to be able to watch this movie safely at home after the year we've all had, it just means a tremendous amount."

Amid a wave of honks (which have replaced applause in the drive-in era), Stewart spoke to the gay love story's significance to her as well, saying, "I wish I had something similar to this movie as I was a younger person watching Christmas movies — I'd love a gay Christmas movie, it's synonymous with fun and happy. Also if I saw this movie and I wasn't in it and I saw Clea doing this with other people, I'd be beside myself, so thank god I'm in it. Thank you for putting me in this movie."

Continuing down the cast line, Brie played hype man, asking the cars to "honk if you can hear me!" and Plaza celebrating that "we're watching this on a big ass screen." Co-writer Mary Holland also joined the cast on stage, noting it was "the most fun production to work on" as Stewart chimed in, "So fun, fucking fun!"

Natasha Lyonne and Abbi Jacobson were also in attendance, showing support for close friend DuVall from the crowd.

Upon arrival at the rooftop, guests were given snack boxes and cups of hot apple cider, and were also asked to bring donations of winter coats, blankets and socks to benefit the Los Angeles LGBT Center's youth. Ahead of the film, the screen also showed a message asking for support of the center to "help us make it the Happiest Season for everyone in need."

Happiest Season starts streaming on Hulu Nov. 25.

Article by: Kristen Chuba for the Hollywood Reporter.