It will now cost $14 per month to subscribe to the standard Netflix plan.

It's getting a bit more expensive to subscribe to Netflix in the U.S.

The streaming giant has upped the cost of two of its plans, its first price increase in a year-and-a-half.

The standard plan, which let's people stream on two screens at the same time and features access to Netflix's HD library, will cost $1 more, going from $13 per month to $14 per month. The highest-price premium plan, which allows up to four streams at the same time and also includes access to ultra HD programming, will increase by $2 to $18 per month.

Netflix is keeping its cheapest offering, the basic plan, at $9 per month. That option only allows for one simultaneous stream and does not give the subscriber access to HD programming.

"We understand people have more entertainment choices than ever and we're committed to delivering an even better experience for our members," a company spokeswoman said in a statement. "We're updating our prices so that we can continue to offer more variety of TV shows and films — in addition to our great fall line up. As always we offer a range of plans so that people can pick a price that works best for their budget."

Netflix last raised prices in the U.S. in May 2019. That means that, in less than two years, the price of its standard plan has risen by $3 and the price of its premium plan has risen by $4.

The price increase comes as Netflix has seen significant growth in the U.S. amid the global coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. and Canada accounts for nearly 73.1 million of its 195 million global subscribers. The average revenue per subscriber in the U.S. and Canada during over the summer was $13.40.

The company is making a bet that consumers will continue to shell out for the service even at the slightly higher price point and as they face greater subscription streaming options. In the last year, four new services have entered the market, Disney+, Apple TV+, Peacock and HBO Max. Of those services, only HBO Max charges more for its service than the standard Netflix plan.

Investors were pleased with the news of the price increase, which is likely to drive the company's domestic ARPU up and to help it grow its overall revenue. The stock traded up more than 5 percent midday on the Nasdaq.

Article by: Natalie Jarvey for the Hollywood Reporter.

Before Lena Waithe was an Emmy-winning writer, an actor, a film and television producer with her own Hillman Grad banner or the creator of shows like “The Chi,” “Boomerang” and “Twenties,” she was a production assistant with big dreams.

But what set Waithe on the path to greatness was the fact that she began her career working under legendary Black women creatives like Mara Brock Akil and Gina Prince-Bythewood.

“The fact that I’m on a panel with two people I worked for at some point — I’m trying not to get emotional on here,” Waithe says of appearing with the pair as part of Variety’s Power of Women: Conversations, presented by Lifetime. “But it’s also a testament to them. How often can you say your boss eventually becomes a part of your tribe? … They’re a big reason why I’m sitting here now. So, this is like a full circle moment for me.”

Waithe first worked as a PA on the set of “Girlfriends” in the 2007-2008 season and Brock Akil says she immediately responded to Waithe’s go-getter attitude.

“I used to say, ‘Good ideas are from everyone. So, if you have a great idea, just share it,’” Brock Akil recalls. “Lena’s the PA — she’s supposed to be, like, sharpening the pencils, getting scripts [and instead], she’s like, ‘Uh huh, so what’s your order? But I’ve got this idea, Mara.’ [I’d respond], ‘Okay. Get the lunch then give me the idea.’ Her light shone bright from day one, so you knew she was special.”

So when her longtime friend Prince-Bythewood (the pair first met on the set of 1994’s “South Central”) was looking to fill an assistant position on 2008’s “The Secret Life of Bees,” she was quick to recommend Waithe. “You want to save the good ones, you want to keep elevating them and keep them working and keep them in the flow. And clearly she did a lot with her opportunity.”

Joining the #Represent: Black Female Creators virtual roundtable were Rashida Jones and Yara Shahidi, who share their own connections to the trio, meeting at various points in their careers. But beyond being accomplished actors, writers, directors and producers, the five women share something more important in common — their dedication to forming community and creating opportunities for more Black women to follow them.

In many ways, 2020 has been a banner year for all five women, with Waithe launching “Waithe Wednesdays” with both “Boomerang” and her newest series “Twenties” airing back to back on BET this season; Jones’ latest film “On the Rocks” garnering Oscar buzz; and Shahidi’s new 7th Sun productions signing an overall deal with ABC Studios. After getting her big break on “Black-ish,” Shahidi learned how much more influence she could have once she became a producer on “Grown-ish.”

“I was able to start to help form a writers’ room and help bring people into the door,” Shahidi says. “There’s another level of attentiveness that you can give to the production space, being like, ‘Oh, I get to help choose who goes from head writer to showrunner.’ I get to help form those kind of conversations and those dialogues. I get to talk about back-end points … and really talk about the distribution of ‘How do people benefit from shows such that they have the success to launch their next projects?’ That’s been such an exciting moment and I think it’s reflected in the work that everyone does here.”

Brock Akil and Prince-Bythewood have been putting in the work for decades, but they still created some of biggest headlines to date this year. Brock Akil inked a new overall deal with Netflix to create more content, just as the streamer’s Strong Black Lead division picked up the rights to her iconic shows “Girlfriends” and “The Game,” while Prince-Bythewood’s action film “The Old Guard” launched to the highest numbers of the streamer’s summer quarter, with 78 million people watching in its first four months.

“You can’t really wrap your head around that,” Prince-Bythewood says. “Especially given the journey of my career, and how every time I put a film out, I’ve been told that we’re not doing any promotion overseas or any distribution because people don’t want to see us [Black people] in any other country.”

But because Netflix launched “The Old Guard” in 190 countries, she explains, “Nile [the film’s protagonist, played by KiKi Layne], this young Black female, is out in the world, globally. The world gets to be inspired by her and that means a lot. That’s what I think all of us want, is for the world to see the breadth of our humanity and how dope we are. The more that we can have successes like this, it’s just going to help us as a people.”

Praising Prince-Bythewood for pushing to get out of that box and direct “The Old Guard,” Brock Akil adds, “One of the things our industry likes to do to anybody, but especially Black artists, is to box us into what we ‘can’ do. She made a concerted effort to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to enter into genre [filmmaking].’ I think it’s tied to wanting to tell stories that her sons would want to see. But the point is, she took that leap. And that’s also important, that this was strategic in her career plan.”

It’s certainly not been an easy road for any of the Black women assembled to navigate, with the group difficulties they’ve faced in finding the time and space to use their voice. Prince-Bythewood reflected on her battle to tell Black women’s stories, from her first film, 2000’s “Love & Basketball,” through her work today.

“For me, one of the most damaging things that Hollywood has done is not just the images that it has put out — and it’s been so limiting because so few of us have gotten that opportunity to be in the position to create content and create characters — but it’s absolutely the erasure of Black women,” Prince-Bythewood says, explaining how the famous Malcolm X quote about how “the most disrespected person in America” applies to the industry.

“Our images, and the lack of our images in the world, you see the repercussions of that in the way that Black women are treated in this country, in the world. You would never think that there was a definitive decision to do that. Yet, in our positions [within the industry], and I know I came up against it in such a stark way, and you start to understand how that happens and why it’s so important that we are in the positions that we are in.”

Prince-Bythewood goes on to explain that she ran into roadblocks while making “The Old Guard”: “There was a force that was aggressively trying to diminish Nile’s character, the Black female hero in the film, and it was a constant drum of notes of cutting her moments, cutting her dialogue, cutting her heroism.”

“It got so overwhelming that I finally had to sit down some of my producers and I gave them a speech about everything — how neglected [Black women] are, the invisibility, how damaging it is to Black women, and how offensive these notes are to me,” she continues. “I said, ‘I need you guys to feel that same offense. And I need you guys to stand up and fight for Black women and fight for this character.’ There’s a reason that I’m in this [director’s] chair and there’s a reason why more of us should be in this chair, too. Because when this stuff was happening, if I was not here … Nile would not be the hero that she is. And the fact that we’re in this position and also up for that fight, we have to be up for that fight to protect our women on screen, because it leads to protecting us in the world. And thankfully they heard me and the nonsense stopped.”

But the work goes beyond simply having Black characters on screen. Another fight the creators are facing is the opportunity to share a wider array of Black experiences. Reflecting on the internet debate over Jones and Kenya Barris’ series “#BlackAF,” Waithe says, “I really dug that show and I love the sort of storm it sort of caused in social media and with audiences I think pushed some buttons because it challenged people about what Blackness is, and how do we define it, and us being forced to redefine Blackness for ourselves.”

Jones agrees, saying, “People always use that phrase ‘Representation matters’ and you don’t really talk about what that really means. And representation is not like, ‘Let’s just make sure that Black people look this particular way,’ in an outward-facing way. ‘And let’s not get into all the other stuff, because we want to make sure the representation is really positive or it’s really aspirational or really inspirational.'”

“That is a huge mistake because our growth as a community is so dependent on filling in every single possible degree in the spectrum, so that when you’re talking about a Black experience, you can’t decide that ‘This is the Black experience, that’s the Black experience,'” Jones says, speaking to the power of a show like “#BlackAF.” “Forget about the quality of content, if you have a show on the air that’s about a morally compromised, rich, Black family, that is just as important as somebody who’s fighting for justice and is uplifting her community, because we’re filling in the whole spectrum so that people can’t decide anything about Black people as a whole.”

Shahidi is also embracing her power to inspire the next generation by remaining thoughtful as she makes her next moves, like signing on to play Tinkerbell in Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of “Peter Pan.”

“It’s pretty surreal,” Shahidi says of taking on the role and what it means to have a young Black woman play the part. “It’s not a matter of popping me in as Tinker Bell, but [in making the movie] with a newer diverse cast, it was really a matter of knowing that we’d be aligned, not just in my character, but me asking, ‘Well, what’s the indigenous representation on this? What are the repercussions of that?’ I’m grateful to be a part of a project where it feels like we have aligned on more than just this character, but with the potential of the movie in its entirety.”

Waithe has seen the power of imagery firsthand, with characters like Queen Latifah’s Cleo in “Set It Off” inspiring her as a young person. And now that she has the power, she can make sure intersectionality is also part of the conversation.

“I’m not just Black, but I’m also a gay Black person, and I also happen to be a woman. I want to embrace all those things about who I am, I don’t want to quiet any of it down,” she explains. “It’s important that people see us and they recognize us, because you know us — we’re your cousins, we’re your neighbors, we’re your kids, or your coworkers.”

“I don’t think that’s my only role [as a creator] and I don’t want to be limited to that, because I can write other things and I’m challenging myself right now to write other characters that aren’t just gay and Black and women,” she adds. “But it is important to me to make sure those images exist out in the world.”

Article by: Angelique Jackson for Variety.

Once upon a time, in a bygone era, people felt comfortable leaving the house to watch a movie in theaters without fears of contracting or spreading a deadly virus. There were unexpected hits and some painful misses. But through the highs and lows, there was at least one genre that reliably drew audiences: horror.

For the most part, it didn’t matter if scary movies were good or bad. Something about the communal experience of getting spooked was enough to ensure people would turn out in droves. And studios have long been banking on the business of horror because their relatively low budgets almost guarantee outsized returns. These movies often get away with minuscule price tags because they don’t rely on special effects and actors agree to work for scale with the promise of future profits and back-end deals.

“Horror movies don’t take as much revenue to become profitable,” says Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst with Comscore. And even better for studios, he says, “it doesn’t take a lot of money to convincingly scare people.” Many truly terrifying movies cost under $10 million, chump change compared to budgets for superhero blockbusters or sequels in popular franchises.

With Halloween around the corner, there’s no better time to watch spine-chilling thrillers or gory slasher films. In honor of the spooky holiday season, Variety crunched some numbers to determine the most profitable horror movies based box office returns compared to their budget. The list below assesses films purely as a ratio of worldwide grosses to production budget, but doesn’t include marketing fees, distribution costs or back-end deals for major stars.

Check out the most profitable horror movies below:

Paranormal Activity (2007)

Worldwide box office: $193 million

Budget: $15,000

“Paranormal Activity,” staged to look like a documentary, sees a young couple haunted by the supernatural force lurking in their home. After becoming a breakout hit, five sequels followed.

The Blair Witch Project (1994)

Worldwide box office: $245 million

Budget: $60,000

“The Blair Witch Project” is allegedly based on a true story of three student filmmakers who disappear while making a film about the legend of Blair Witch. The minuscule budget, compared to its massive ticket sales, makes it one of the most profitable movies ever — for any genre.

Halloween (1978)

Worldwide box office: $47 million

Budget: $320,000

Jamie Lee Curtis, in her first movie role, plays Laurie Strode, a babysitter stalked by a mental patient named Michael Myers, who escapes on Halloween 15 years after murdering his sister.

Friday the 13th (1980)

Worldwide box office: $59.8 million

Budget: $550,000

“Friday the 13th” follows teenage summer camp counselors who are murdered one at a time by an unknown killer.

Saw (2004)

Worldwide box office: $103 million

Budget: $1.2 million

 “Saw,” created by James Wan, revolves around a twisted killer who goes by the moniker Jigsaw and forces his victims to solve deranged puzzles to avoid a grizzly fate.

Insidious (2010)

Worldwide box office: $99.5 million

Budget: $1.5 million

Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne and Barbara Hershey star in “Insidious,” about a couple whose son whose body becomes possessed by entities from another dimension.

Get Out (2017)

Worldwide box office: $225 million

Budget: $4.5 million

“Get Out,” the Oscar-winning smash from Jordan Peele, follows a Black man (Daniel Kaluuya) who uncovers a disturbing secret when he goes to meet the family of his white girlfriend (Allison Williams).

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

Worldwide box office: $207 million

Budget: $5 million

The third “Paranormal Activity” entry serves as a prequel and takes place 18 years before the original film. When two sisters start to notice weird things happening in the middle of the night, their father steps up cameras that reveal terrifying occurrences.

The Exorcist (1973)

Worldwide box office: $441 million

Budget: $11 million

Directed by William Friedkin, the supernatural thriller centers on a 12-year-old girl who is mysteriously possessed and her mother, who recruits two priests to perform an exorcism.

Psycho (1960)

Worldwide box office: $32 million

Budget: $800,000

Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal horror film centers on a secretary who gets embroiled in a series of murders after stealing thousands from her employer to run away with her boyfriend.

Annabelle (2014)

Worldwide box office: $257 million

Budget: $6.5 million

Part of the Conjuring Universe, “Annabelle” spotlights the satanic porcelain doll that wrecks havoc on a small town.

Sinister (2012)

Worldwide box office: $82.5 million

Budget: $3 million

The supernatural thriller sees Ethan Hawke as a true-crime writer who discovers Super 8 home movies that reveal brutal murders.

Split (2016)

Worldwide box office: $278 million

Budget: $9 million

The second installment in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable” trilogy features James McAvoy as a man with 24 different personalities who kidnaps three girls and tortures them in a remote facility.

Halloween (2018)

Worldwide box office: $255 million

Budget: $10 million

Curtis returns to the role that made her famous in the 2018 sequel, where the babysitter-turned-grandmother takes on the masked murderer Michael Myers for hopefully the last time.

Annabelle: Creation (2017)

Worldwide box office: $306 million

Budget: $15 million

The prequel to 2014’s “Annabelle” serves as an origin story for the creepy and demonic doll.

It (2017)

Budget: $35 million

Based on the first half of Stephen King’s doorstop of a novel, “It” tells the story of seven children — affectionately known as the Losers’ Club — in Derry, Maine who are terrorized by the shapeshifting demon, Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

A Quiet Place (2018)

Worldwide box office: $340 million

Budget: $17 million

John Krasinski’s mostly silent thriller, co-starring his real-life wife Emily Blunt, revolves around parents forced to raise their kids in a post-apocalyptic world where even the slightest sound can trigger deadly monsters.

The Invisible Man (2019)

Worldwide box office: $130 million

Budget: $7 million

Elisabeth Moss stars in the recent adaptation of H. G. Wells novel about a woman who is stalked by her abusive ex after he apparently commits suicide.

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Worldwide box office: $86 million

Budget: $4.7 million

The original 1979 “The Amityville Horror,” with James Brolin and Margot Kidder, follows a young couple who finds out their new home is haunted by supernatural spirits.

The Grudge (2004)

Worldwide box office: $187 million

Budget: $11 million

“The Grudge,” a remake of a Japanese horror film, centers on Americans who move to Tokyo and discover their house is the site of an evil curse that claims the life of anyone who comes near it.

Article by: Rebecca Rubin for Variety.

Jennifer Lopez’s latest movies have at least one thing in common: They’re all directed by women. The slate includes 2019’s “Hustlers,” directed by Lorene Scafaria, which grossed $157 million worldwide; next year’s “Marry Me” (from Kat Coiro), in which Lopez plays a pop star navigating a bad breakup with her famous fiancé (Maluma); and the upcoming drug-lord drama “The Godmother” (Reed Morano), in which Lopez portrays the title character.

In addition to starring in all these movies, Lopez produced them through her company, Nuyorican Prods., which she runs with Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, her former agent (who famously negotiated Lopez’s then-record-breaking $9 million salary for a Latina actress on 2001’s “The Wedding Planner”).

In a Zoom conversation for Variety’s Power of Women issue, presented by Lifetime, CEO Lopez and company president Goldsmith-Thomas spoke about their work as producers, starting with 2002’s “Maid in Manhattan.”

Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas: I remember you sitting in my living room and me saying, “John Hughes,” rest in peace, “has written this script.” It was called “Chambermaid,” and it was literally Cinderella. What if it’s a woman who’s a maid with her nose pressed to the glass?

Jennifer Lopez: I said, “She’s got to be Puerto Rican from the Bronx,” because I had a boyfriend who worked in the hotel down at the Hilton when we lived in the Bronx. And so we started riffing on the story.

Goldsmith-Thomas: You were hot at the time. I mean, really hot. They were angling for you to do “Gigli” at the same time.

Lopez: I wound up doing both movies — one super successful and one maybe not so much. “Maid in Manhattan” was the first movie we produced together. It was very organic. Even as my new agent, we clicked right away. We make each other better.

Goldsmith-Thomas: What’s interesting about us is we always lean into finding the best people.

Lopez: A lot of times, the best person for the job is a woman. “Hustlers” was a woman director. “Marry Me” was a woman director. “The Godmother” is going to be a woman director. It’s a great time! I think women have found their voice in a way that they haven’t ever before, and that means female storytellers — and telling our stories in our way, from a women’s point of view. I think “Hustlers” would have been a very different movie had it been directed by a man.

Goldsmith-Thomas: Here’s the thing. If we have the ability to hire women and women of color, it’s our obligation to look there — because others haven’t.

Lopez: When I started in the industry, I remember we talked about that I would always go in for what they would call the maid, the dishwasher. I was like, “I don’t want to do that.” I had to kind of break out of that, and convince somebody to put me in the first romantic comedy, which was “The Wedding Planner.

I remember Adam Shankman put me in that movie. You were my agent, and you were asking for a certain price that you thought I merited, and they were buckling back. Then he came to one of my record signings, and he said, “Give her whatever she wants.” The line was around the block.

Goldsmith-Thomas: It was the power of no.

Lopez: It was just the idea that somebody like me, from my background, who was a woman, could garner that type of price in this industry, and it was a big deal. I don’t know if people know this, that you were Julia Roberts’ agent, and you got her the $20 million salary, which broke the glass ceiling for women in the industry to make as much as men did. And for me, because I am the [first] Latin woman who has made the most on a movie, you pushed just as hard.

Goldsmith-Thomas: You know what I found in representing you and in partnering with you? I think that when you do more than one thing in this world, people marginalize you — especially if you’re a woman and especially if you’re a woman of color. And it infuriates me.

Lopez: I thought of something as you’re saying this. I thought about 2015. When “The Boy Next Door” came out, it was our first project together since “Maid in Manhattan.” Nobody would make a movie with me. I was doing “American Idol,” and my records were back on the charts. I was doing really well, many years into my career. I had had a lull, and now I was kind of making a little bit of a splash again. You came into my life, and I asked you to run my production company, and you were like, “I’m going to do it.”

The first thing you said was “Nobody wants to hire you for movies right now.” And then you got this little script, “The Boy Next Door,” and you started working on it with the writer. It was a $4 million budget, and I did it for free because we had to bank on ourselves. We made a back-end deal, and we made this movie in 28 days. It did put us back on the map and set us on a course.

Goldsmith-Thomas: One of the things that bugs me is the way we marginalize and trivialize romantic comedies, calling them “rom-coms” or “chick flicks.” “Marry Me” was such our baby. I won’t wreck the ending, but after we talked about it, you designed the ending. And you dictated many scenes. It wasn’t based on your life; it was based on your insight, as what it would feel like to be one of the most famous people on the planet. You were the one who said, “We should go get Maluma.”

Lopez: Maluma was a big part of this project. That part could have been a lot of different people, and we needed him to be someone who could be believable as a singer and an international star. We thought about tons of different people, from John Mayer to Drake to Adam Levine. We were like, “Wait a minute. Why don’t we get a Latin star?” And I said, “I would love to sing in English and Spanish in this movie.” That’s when I brought up Maluma’s name, and everybody did their investigating, found out he was huge and that he has an incredible star quality.

Goldsmith-Thomas: Can you talk about how you guys did the music, because it was so interesting?

Lopez: I was on the It’s My Party Tour last summer, and I knew we would be filming, and we were looking for the perfect songs. Every night, I would go back to my hotel room in Russia, or wherever I was, and sit there and listen to songs or ideas or tracks. I must’ve gone through about 150 different ideas and narrowed it down to seven or eight songs.

Goldsmith-Thomas: You’re being modest. Jennifer hears something or reads something, and then she begins to Zamboni it. She says, “Maybe we put a chorus in here.” She’s rewriting these things, whether or not you want to say that.

Lopez: Well, no. I just put my own stamp on it. It has to work for me. I have to understand it. If I think the beginnings of an idea are there, I won’t just go, “Oh, this is not good enough.”

I’ll try to get it there if I believe in it enough.

Article by Ramin Setoodeh for Variety.

Sundance Institute has added prominent Civil Rights attorney Kimberlé Crenshaw, Crown Media Family Networks executive Wonya Lucas and Adobe executive Ann Lewnes to its board of trustees.

The institute also announced Monday that Uzodinma Iweala, Amanda Kelso, William Plapinger and Junaid Sarieddeen have joined the board over the last year.

“We are so grateful to welcome the expertise and unique perspectives of Kimberlé, Uzodinma, Amanda, Ann, Bill and Junaid to Sundance as we move forward in this challenging time,” said chair Pat Mitchell. “Our board possesses the right skills, a broad range of talents and a high level of commitment to our founding values and ethics to guide the organization’s mission oriented work in supporting emerging artists around the world and connecting audiences to their stories.”

The trustees announced in August that the 2021 Sundance Film Festival would be shortened from 11 to seven days, running from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3.

Crenshaw is the co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, and popularly known for her development of “intersectionality,” “Critical Race Theory” and the #SayHerName Campaign. She’s the moderator of the webinar series “Under The Blacklight: The Intersectional Vulnerabilities that the Twin Pandemics Lay Bare.” Crenshaw is   featured in the documentary “On the Record,” which covers man of the women who came forward to accuse music mogul Russell Simmons.

In July, Lucas was named president and chief executive officer of Crown Media Family Networks. Lucas oversees the company’s portfolio of entertainment brands, including linear networks Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and Hallmark Drama; and subscription video on demand service Hallmark Movies Now.

Lewnes is executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Adobe, a position she has held for over a decade. Under her leadership, the Adobe brand has focused on creativity, digital marketing and the design and development of transformative digital experiences.

Iweala is writer, filmmaker and medical doctor. As the CEO of The Africa Center, he is dedicated to promoting a new narrative about Africa and its Diaspora. Kelso has spent the last 25 years serving as a creative communications and brand leader for global tech companies and served as the managing director of Google Creative Lab. Plapinger was a partner for almost three decades at the global law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Sarieddeen is a theatre actor, director, dramaturge and a founding member of Beirut-based Zoukak Theatre Company. At Zoukak, Sarieddeen directed “Lucena / Obedience Training” (2013), “Heavens” (2014), “The Jokers” (2017) and “36 Abbas street, Haifa” (2017).

They join current members on the board: Robert Redford, president and founder; Pat Mitchell, vice chair; Jeanne Donovan Fisher, Ebs Burnough, vice chair; Sean Bailey, Ritesh Batra, Jason Blum, Lisa-Michele Church, Kenneth Cole, Pascal Desroches, Fred Dust, Philipp Engelhorn, Caterina Fake, Robert J. Frankenberg, Donna Gruneich, Cindy Harrell Horn, Charles D. King, Lisa Kron, Lyn Davis Lear, Gigi Pritzker, Alejandro Ramírez Magaña, Amy Redford, Geoffrey K. Sands, Nadine Schiff-Rosen and Lynette Wallworth.

Article by: Dave McNary for Variety.

After coronavirus forced the world's leading film festival to cancel its official edition in May, Cannes this week launched a mini version with four films.

The sky is still blue, and the carpet is still red, but nothing else is quite the same.

The Cannes Film Festival, a version of it anyway, kicked off Tuesday night, with a mini-event, called Special Cannes 2020, that will screen four films across three evenings, alongside a competition selection of shorts and film school features.

The official Cannes festival was forced to cancel this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Films that would have graced the Croisette in May were instead given a Cannes "2020 Official Selection" label and screened elsewhere — including at the Toronto and San Sebastian festivals.

But that wasn't enough. At least not for Cannes festival director Thierry Frémaux, festival president Pierre Lescure and David Lisnard, the city's mayor, the trio responsible for this week's mini-Cannes. After seeing Official Selection titles screen elsewhere, Frémaux said at the opening ceremony Tuesday night, they knew they had to find a way to hold a festival in Cannes.

So here we are. Around a thousand of us, all masked and socially distanced, in the spacious Louis Lumière auditorium (built for 2,000 plus) of Cannes' Palais des Festivals, to open Special Cannes 2020 with The Big Hit!, a French comedy from director Emmanuel Courcol.

Like all four films screening here this week, The Big Hit!, was an official Cannes 2020 selection. The others include True Mothers from Cannes regular, Japanese director Naomi Kawase; Beginning from first-time Georgian filmmaker Déa Kulumbegashvili, the big winner at San Sebastian this year; and Bruno Podalydès' The French Tech, another Franco-comedy, which will close Special Cannes on Thursday evening.

Frémaux playfully scolded the audience for their hesitant applause when Courcol and his cast were first introduced — "we are at 50 percent capacity but you have to applaud at 100 percent" he joked — but was otherwise upbeat, obviously pleased to have pulled this thing off.

With COVID-19 numbers rising sharply in France — the country has logged a record 52,010 new coronavirus infections overnight Monday — it looked like this mini-Cannes could be shut down before it even began. France has already extended its 9 p.m. curfew — a measure designed to reduce the virus' spread — to most of its cities, affecting 46 million of the country’s 66 million citizens. That includes Cannes, where the four premiere galas were brought forward an hour — 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. — to ensure guests could get home in time for the enforced shutdown.

Frémaux is obviously ready to do whatever it takes to keep this Cannes show on the road. Safety measures go beyond the expected — masks and social distancing — and nearly enter the realm of science fiction. To access the Cannes red carpet, guests had to pass through a portal — an arch similar to a metal detector — which sprayed the visitor with a disinfectant mist while simultaneously bathing them in purple ultraviolet light. I almost expected to be teleported to the bridge of the USS Enterprise.

Where Cannes has loosened up a bit, is the dress code. It's black-tie of course — classic Cannes — but it isn't being enforced. A French man ahead of me, in jeans and a sports jacket, strolls right past security. You wouldn't get away with that at the "real" Cannes Film Festival.

Fashion, however, isn't the reason we're here. The purpose of Special Cannes 2020 is to keep people talking about cinema, even, or especially, as a possibility of a second lockdown looms large. Cinemas might be mostly empty worldwide, but Cannes doesn't want us to forget about Cinema.

So Frémaux, Lescure and Lisnard are hyping up their mini-festival, which will even have a mini-awards ceremony and a mini-Palme d'Or, in the form of a best short film honor. It might be a pale imitation of the real thing but, at times like these, the film industry needs all the help it can get.

Which is why everyone in the Palais applauded — at 100 percent — when Mayor Lisnard summed up the spirit of the event: "Viva Les Cinemas! Viva Les Cultures! Viva Les Cannes!"

Article by: Scott Roxborough for the Hollywood Reporter.

The film's acclaimed ensemble includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance and Jeremy Strong.

Taking a page out of the playbook that brought the ensemble film Spotlight two supporting acting nominations en route to a best picture Oscar win, the entire cast of The Trial of the Chicago 7 — among them Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance and Jeremy Strong — will be pushed for awards in the supporting actor category, The Hollywood Reporter has learned from sources close to the film.

The period piece drama, which was written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, has generated rave reviews from critics and, since dropping on Netflix on Oct. 16, widespread buzz among the general public, with strong notices spread among its numerous well-known actors — some of whom, such as Cohen, have more screen time than others, like Keaton, who essentially makes a glorified cameo.

Trial of the Chicago 7 is an obvious leading contender for the best ensemble SAG Award. But, in terms of positioning its individual performers, a situation like this can play out in different ways. For instance, Netflix has another 2020 ensemble film, Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods, but the preponderance of reactions to it have hailed Delroy Lindo as the cast's main standout, hence the decision to position him as a lead actor and the rest of the cast as supporting actors. But with Trial of the Chicago 7, there was no clear lead or runaway favorite.

In my unscientific assessment, Baron Cohen, for his portrayal of Abbie Hoffman, probably has slightly more buzz than his castmates (and may have curried additional favor with those who have seen his completely different performance in the new and popular Borat Subsequent Movie). But in this most unusual year, with the pandemic sidelining many would-be contenders, the supporting actor category is relatively thin, which leads me — and apparently those associated with the film — to believe that they might be able to snag multiple noms.

The next best bets, for my money, are probably Rylance, a past winner of the category, for his portrayal of eccentric lawyer William Kunstler, and Abdul-Mateen II, an Emmy winner this year for Watchmen, for his portrayal of Bobby Seale.

Several films have previously landed three noms in a single supporting category, even in a year without a pandemic: 1954's On the Waterfront, 1963's Tom Jones, 1972's The Godfather and 1974's The Godfather, Part II — but none in the past 46 years. No film has ever landed as many as four.

The all-supporting approach was pioneered by the team behind 2005's Crash. (That film ultimately landed a single supporting acting nom, for Matt Dillon, en route to a best picture win.) It was subsequently employed with other major contenders including 2006's Little Miss Sunshine (Alan Arkin and Abigail Breslin landed noms en route to a best picture nom, and Arkin won), Babel (noms went to Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi en route to a best picture nom) and Spotlight (noms went to Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams en route to a best picture win).

Article by: Scott Feinberg for the Hollywood Reporter.

The Hollywood Reporter's awards columnist offers his first assessment of 10 major categories.

PLEASE NOTE: This forecast, assembled by The Hollywood Reporter's awards columnist Scott Feinberg, reflects his best attempt to predict the behavior of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, not his personal preferences. He arrives at these standings by drawing upon consultations with voters and awards strategists, analysis of marketing and awards campaigns, results of awards ceremonies that precede the Oscars and the history of the Oscars ceremony itself. There will be regular updates to reflect new developments.

*BEST PICTURE*

Frontrunners

Mank (Netflix)

Nomadland (Searchlight)

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)

Minari (A24)

Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)

One Night in Miami (Amazon)

The Father (Sony Classics)

Soul (Pixar)

The Invisible Man (Universal)

Promising Young Woman (Focus)

Major Threats

Tenet (Warner Bros.)

On the Rocks (A24/Apple)

Palm Springs (Hulu/Neon)

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Amazon)

Possibilities

The Outpost (Chicken Soup For The Soul)

The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix)

The Personal History of David Copperfield (Searchlight)

Greyhound (Apple TV+)

Long Shots

Sound of Metal (Amazon)

French Exit (Sony Classics)

Ammonite (Neon)

I'm Your Woman (Amazon)

I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix)

Still to See (alphabetically)

Cherry (Apple TV+)

Good Joe Bell (Solstice)

Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix)

Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros.)

The Little Things (Warner Bros.)

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Netflix)

Martin Eden (Kino Lorber)

The Midnight Sky (Netflix)

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus)

News of the World (Universal)

The Prom (Netflix)

Respect (UA)

Supernova (Bleecker Street)

The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Paramount)

The White Tiger (Netflix)

Wild Mountain Thyme (Bleecker Street)

*BEST DIRECTOR*

Frontrunners

David Fincher (Mank)

Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)

Aaron Sorkin (The Trial of the Chicago 7) — podcast

Lee Isaac Chung (Minari)

Spike Lee (Da 5 Bloods) — podcast

Major Threats

Regina King (One Night in Miami)

Christopher Nolan (Tenet)

Florian Zeller (The Father)

Sofia Coppola (On the Rocks)

Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man)

Possibilities

Pete Docter & Kemp Powers (Soul)

Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)

Max Barbakow (Palm Springs)

Radha Blank (The Forty-Year-Old-Version)

Rod Lurie (The Outpost)

Long Shots

Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard)

Armando Iannucci (The Personal History of David Copperfield)

Azazel Jacobs (French Exit)

Francis Lee (Ammonite)

Julia Hart (I'm Your Woman)

Charlie Kaufman (I'm Thinking of Ending Things) — podcast

Still to See (alphabetically)

Ramin Bahrani (The White Tiger) — podcast

George Clooney (The Midnight Sky) — podcast

Lee Daniels (The United States vs. Billie Holiday)

Reinaldo Marcus Green (Good Joe Bell)

Paul Greengrass (News of the World)

John Lee Hancock (The Little Things)

Eliza Hittman (Never Rarely Sometimes Always)

Ron Howard (Hillbilly Elegy) — podcast

Shaka King (Judas and the Black Messiah)

Pietro Marcello (Martin Eden)

Ryan Murphy (The Prom) — podcast

Anthony Russo & Joe Russo (Cherry)

John Patrick Shanley (Wild Mountain Thyme)

Liesl Tommy (Respect)

George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

*BEST ACTOR*

Frontrunners

Anthony Hopkins (The Father)

Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods) — podcast [coming this week]

Gary Oldman (Mank)

Steven Yeun (Minari)

Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) — podcast

Major Threats

Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) — podcast

Ben Affleck (The Way Back)

Possibilities

Andy Samberg (Palm Springs)

John David Washington (Tenet)

Long Shots

Dev Patel (The Personal History of David Copperfield) — podcast

Winston Duke (Nine Days)

Jesse Plemons (I'm Thinking of Ending Things) — podcast

Still to See (alphabetically)

Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) — podcast

George Clooney (The Midnight Sky) — podcast

Jamie Dornan (Wild Mountain Thyme)

Colin Firth (Supernova)

Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger)

Tom Hanks (News of the World) — podcast [one and two]

Tom Holland (Cherry)

Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah)

Jude Law (The Nest)

John Magaro (First Cow)

Luca Marinelli (Martin Eden)

Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (Farewell Amor)

Jim Parsons (The Boys in the Band)

Trevante Rhodes (The United States vs. Billie Holiday)

Lakeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah)

Stanley Tucci (Supernova)

Denzel Washington (The Little Things) — podcast

Forest Whitaker (Respect)

*BEST ACTRESS*

Frontrunners

Frances McDormand (Nomadland)

Michelle Pfeiffer (French Exit)

Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman)

Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman) — podcast

Kate Winslet (Ammonite) — podcast [one and two]

Major Threats

Sophia Loren (The Life Ahead)

Yeri Han (Minari)

Rachel Brosnahan (I'm Your Woman) — podcast

Elisabeth Moss (The Invisible Man) — podcast

Possibilities

Radha Blank (The 40-Year-Old-Version)

Cristin Milioti (Palm Springs)

Rashida Jones (On the Rocks) — podcast

Charlize Theron (The Old Guard)

Long Shots

Rosamund Pike (Radioactive) — podcast

Julia Garner (The Assistant) — podcast

Jessie Buckley (I'm Thinking of Ending Things)

Elisabeth Moss (Shirley) — podcast

Still to See (alphabetically)

Amy Adams (Hillbilly Elegy) — podcast

Nicole Beharie (Miss Juneteenth)

Haley Bennett (Swallow)

Emily Blunt (Wild Mountain Thyme)

Priyanka Chopra (The White Tiger)

Viola Davis (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

Andra Day (The United States vs. Billie Holiday)

Clare Dunne (Herself)

Sidney Flanigan (Never Rarely Sometimes Always)

Jennifer Hudson (Respect)

Sienna Miller (Wander Darkly)

Julianne Moore (The Glorias)

Jo Ellen Pellman (The Prom)

Eliza Scanlen (Babyteeth)

Meryl Streep (The Prom) — podcast

Katherine Waterston (The World to Come)

Evan Rachel Wood (Kajillionaire)

*BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR*

Frontrunners

Chadwick Boseman (Da 5 Bloods) — podcast

Bill Murray (On the Rocks)

David Strathairn (Nomadland)

Sacha Baron Cohen (The Trial of the Chicago 7) — podcast

Mark Rylance (The Trial of the Chicago 7)

Major Threats

Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night in Miami)

Leslie Odom, Jr. (One Night in Miami) — podcast

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (The Trial of the Chicago 7)

Frank Langella (The Trial of the Chicago 7)

Will Patton (Minari)

Shia LaBeouf (Pieces of a Woman) — podcast

Jonathan Majors (Da 5 Bloods)

Possibilities

Charles Dance (Mank)

Eddie Redmayne (The Trial of the Chicago 7) — podcast

J.K. Simmons (Palm Springs)

Aldis Hodge (One Night in Miami)

Eli Goree (One Night in Miami)

Robert Pattinson (Tenet) — podcast

Clarke Peters (Da 5 Bloods)

Long Shots

Brian Dennehy (Driveways)

Bo Burnham (Promising Young Woman) — podcast

Alan Kim (Minari)

Lucas Hedges (French Exit) — podcast

Caleb Landry Jones (The Outpost)

Michael Keaton (The Trial of the Chicago 7) — podcast

Michael Stuhlbarg (Shirley)

Matthew Macfadyen (The Assistant)

Still to See (alphabetically)

James Corden (The Prom) — podcast

Colman Domingo (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

Tom Holland (Cherry)

Jared Leto (The Little Things)

Rami Malek (The Little Things) — podcast

Reid Miller (Good Joe Bell)

Jesse Plemons (The Little Things) — podcast

Gary Sinise (Good Joe Bell)

Mark Wahlberg (Good Joe Bell)

Christopher Walken (Wild Mountain Thyme)

Marlon Wayans (Respect)

*BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS*

Frontrunners

Olivia Colman (The Father) — podcast

Amanda Seyfried (Mank)

Saoirse Ronan (Ammonite) — podcast

Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari)

Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm)

Major Threats

Ellen Burstyn (Pieces of a Woman)

Elizabeth Debicki (Tenet)

Lily Collins (Mank) — podcast

Possibilities

Marisa Tomei (The King of Staten Island)

Marsha Stephanie Blake (I'm Your Woman)

Long Shots

Swankie (Nomadland)

Linda May (Nomadland)

Toni Collette (I'm Thinking of Ending Things)

Olivia Cooke (Sound of Metal)

Still to See (alphabetically)

Mary J. Blige (Respect) — podcast

Ciara Bravo (Cherry)

Connie Britton (Good Joe Bell)

Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy) — podcast

Felicity Jones (The Midnight Sky)

Nicole Kidman (The Prom) — podcast

Vanessa Kirby (The World to Come)

Natasha Lyonne (The United States vs. Billie Holiday)

Audra McDonald (Respect)

Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The United States vs. Billie Holiday)

Alicia Vikander (The Glorias) — podcast

Kerry Washington (The Prom) — podcast

Vanessa Williams (Bad Hair)

Helena Zengel (News of the World)

*BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY*

Frontrunners

Nomadland (Chloe Zhao)

One Night in Miami (Kemp Powers)

The Father (Christopher Hampton & Florian Zeller)

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Peter Baynham, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jena Friedman, Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer, Erica Rivinoja & Dan Swimer) — podcast [Baron Cohen]

I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman) — podcast

Major Threats

The Personal History of David Copperfield (Armando Iannucci)

Emma (Eleanor Catton)

French Exit (Patrick deWitt)

The Life Ahead (Edoardo Ponti)

Possibilities

The Outpost (Eric Johnson & Paul Tamasy)

Shirley (Sarah Gibbons)

Greyhound (Tom Hanks) — podcast [one and two]

The Glorias (Sarah Ruhl & Julie Taymor)

Still to See (alphabetically)

Cherry (Jessica Goldberg & Angela Russo-Ostot)

First Cow (Jonathan Raymond & Kelly Reichardt)

Hillbilly Elegy (Vanessa Taylor)

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Ruben Santiago-Hudson)

Martin Eden (Mauricio Braucci)

The Midnight Sky (Mark L. Smith)

News of the World (Luke Davies & Paul Greengrass)

The Prom (Chad Beguelin & Bob Martin)

The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Suzan-Lori Parks)

The White Tiger (Ramin Bahrani) — podcast

Wild Mountain Thyme (John Patrick Shanley)

*BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY*

Frontrunners

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin) — podcast

Mank (Jack Fincher)

Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)

Da 5 Bloods (Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee) — podcast [Lee]

Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)

Major Threats

Palm Springs (Andy Siara)

On the Rocks (Sofia Coppola)

Soul (Pete Docter, Mike Jones & Kemp Powers)

The Forty-Year-Old Version (Radha Blank)

Tenet (Christopher Nolan)

Possibilities

The King of Staten Island (Judd Apatow) — podcast

I'm Your Woman (Julia Hart & Jordan Horowitz)

Ammonite (Francis Lee)

Sound of Metal (Abraham Marder & Darius Marder)

Kajillionaire (Miranda July)

Still to See (alphabetically)

Bad Hair (Justin Simien)

Good Joe Bell (Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana)

Herself (Malcolm Campbell & Clare Dunne)

Judas and the Black Messiah (Will Berson, Shaka King, Keith Lucas & Kenny Lucas)

The Little Things (John Lee Hancock)

Miss Juneteenth (Channing Godfrey Peoples)

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)

Respect (Callie Khouri & Tracey Scott Wilson)

*BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE*

Frontrunners

The Dissident (Briarcliff) — podcast [Bryan Fogel]

Crip Camp (Netflix)

Time (Amazon)

Collective (Magnolia/Participant)

Welcome to Chechnya (HBO)

Rest of Shortlist

The Truffle Hunters (Sony Classics)

Dick Johnson Is Dead (Netflix)

Totally Under Control (Neon)

Boys State (Apple)

MLK/FBI (IFC)

The Human Factor (Sony Classics)

On the Record (HBO Max)

The Way I See It (Focus)

The Social Dilemma (Netflix)

I Am Greta (Hulu)

Possibilities

Kingdom of Silence (Showtime)

The Fight (Magnolia/Topic Studios)

Athlete A (Netflix)

John Lewis: Good Trouble (Magnolia/Participant)

My Octopus Teacher (Netflix)

Be Water (ESPN)

All In: The Fight for Democracy (Amazon)

Rebuilding Paradise (Nat Geo) — podcast [Ron Howard]

Miss Americana (Netflix)

Long Shots

Francesco (still seeking U.S. distribution)

The Mole Agent (Cinereach)

Dear Mr. Brody (still seeking U.S. distribution)

Oliver Sacks: His Own Life (Zeitgeist)

Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado (Netflix) — podcast [Cristina Costantini]

Red Penguins (Universal) — podcast [Gabe Polsky]

American Selfie (MTV)

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band (Magnolia)

The Mindfulness Movement (Abramorama) — podcast [Jewel]

Still to See (alphabetically)

40 Years a Prisoner (HBO)

76 Days (MTV)

Apocalypse '45 (Discovery)

Assassins (Greenwich)

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (HBO)

Belly of the Beast (PBS)

Belushi (Showtime)

Coded Bias (PBS Independent Lens)

Desert One (Greenwich)

Disclosure (Netflix)

Father Soldier Son (Netflix)

Feels Good Man (Wavelength Productions/PBS Independent Lens)

Finding Yingying (MTV)

Giving Voice (Netflix)

The Go-Go's (Showtime)

Gunda (Neon)

Kiss the Ground (Netflix)

Mr. SOUL! (self-distributed)

My Psychedelic Love Story (Showtime)

Notturno (still seeking U.S. distribution)

Olympia (still seeking U.S. distribution)

Once Upon a Time in Venezuela (still seeking U.S. distribution)

The Painter and the Thief (Neon)

Rising Phoenix (Netflix)

Stray (Magnolia)

A Thousand Cuts (PBS)

Transhood (HBO)

Vivos (still seeking U.S. distribution)

Zappa (Magnolia)

*BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE*

Frontrunners

Collective (Romania)

Still to See

Charlatan (Czech Republic)

My Little Sister (Switzerland)

Beginning (Georgia)

Night of the Kings (Ivory Coast)

Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

A Sun (Taiwan)

Not Yet Official Submissions

The Life Ahead (Italy)

I'm No Longer Here (Mexico)

Hive (Turkey)

The Disciple (India)

Apples (Greece)

Another Round (Denmark)

Article by: Scott Feinberg for the Hollywood Reporter.

Idris Elba’s urban western “Concrete Cowboy” will be riding its way onto Netflix.

The streamer has picked up the cowboy tale after it debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Netflix will release the film in 2021.

“Concrete Cowboy” follows 15-year-old Cole (Caleb McLaughlin), who discovers the world of urban horseback riding when his mother sends him to live with his estranged father, Harp (Elba) in North Philadelphia. Jharrel Jerome, Lorraine Toussaint, Byron Bowers and Clifford “Method Man” Smith also star in the film, which is based on the real-life horsemen of the Pennsylvania area and the novel “Ghetto Cowboy” from G. Neri. Filmmaker Ricky Staub makes his feature-length debut with the project, written with Dan Walser. Elba and Philly native Lee Daniels are among the producers of the film.

“For a long time, there’s been a real sort of mistelling of history around Black people and horses and cowboys and whatnot,” Elba told Variety in an interview during the festival. “It feels really apt to be able to tell a part history that’s been definitely buried, and in the case of ‘Concrete Cowboy,’ that history is right now. Those stables — they face being taken away forever and, part of what Ricky said to me was that, ‘I’m hoping that we made this movie and they keep the stables, based on the fact that people fall in love with the story and history and heritage of the stables.’”

On working with Elba in the movie, McLaughlin said, “It definitely was a dream come true being introduced to the project [and] finding out that Idris was playing my father. Who wouldn’t want Idris to play your father in a movie?”

He continued, “I definitely was intimidated coming onto set because I wanted to be on my A-game. I look up to Idris and all of his work; he’s a seasoned actor and everything. But he made me feel very comfortable being on the set and communicating and the dynamics between the father and son relationship. It was a lot of fun working with him.”

Tucker Tooley Entertainment financed the project; Tooley also produced with Jeff G. Waxman, Jennifer Madeloff and Walser. Exec. producers are Greg Renker, Jason Barhydt, Gregoire Gensollen, Lorraine Burgess, Greg Neri, Sam Mercer, Tegan Jones, Staci Hagenbaugh, Alistair Burlingham, Gary Raskin.

After its TIFF debut, there was chatter that Apple and another streaming service had interest in acquiring the picture, but it is unclear if any other bids aside from Netflix were submitted.

Article by: Anglique Jackson for Variety.

James' SpringHill has started production on 'Dreamland: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street,' with Bad Rap's Salima Koroma directing.

The SpringHill Company and CNN Films have partnered to produce Dreamland: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street, a documentary about the history of Black Wall Street ahead of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.

In June, the NBA star's SpringHill Company unveiled the upcoming project to mark the centennial of the violent events of the summer of 1921 in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. CNN Films will be the linear TV distributor for the feature across North America, with HBO Max acquiring streaming rights to the film.

“CNN Films could not be more proud to partner with The SpringHill Company for this long-overdue recognition of the tragedy of what happened in Greenwood, and to contribute to the reconciliation that comes with the acknowledgement of history,” Amy Entelis, executive vp for talent and content development for CNN Worldwide, said of the partnership with SpringHill.

The documentary about a wealthy section of the Oklahoma city known as Black Wall Street will lead up to the violent events of 1921 that resulted in the murder of hundreds of the city’s African American residents. Dreamland is directed and produced by Bad Rap's Salima Koroma, and executive produced by James, Maverick Carter, Jamal Henderson, and Philip Byron of The SpringHill Company, and Amy Entelis and Courtney Sexton of CNN Films.

The Dreamland documentary will use a mix of archival media, contemporary interviews and original letters and diary entries. The producers added they will use footage of a near-century search for physical evidence of the violent murder of African Americans.

SpringHill and CNN Films expect the documentary to be completed in early 2021. Jamila Jordan-Theus and Patrick Altema of SpringHill are co-executive producers for the film.

"With the lack of historic journalism around ‘Black Wall Street’ and the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, we are honored to be partnered with CNN, which has a long-standing record of credible and groundbreaking journalism," Jamal Henderson, SpringHill's chief content officer, said in a statement.

The Dreamland partnership deal was negotiated by Josh Tarnow, vp for business and legal affairs at SpringHill, and Stacey Wolf, senior vp of business affairs and Kelly MacLanahan, assistant general counsel at CNN Worldwide, for CNN Films.

Article by: Etan Vlessing for the Hollywood Reporter.

Nair revealed she is tracking down the negatives of her film, about an interracial couple, as "an anthem" for the vice presidential candidate, who is the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father.

At the launch of the Tribeca Chanel women filmmaker program, Through Her Lens, Mira Nair delivered a speech reflecting on her journey from India to Hollywood that began with her 1991 film Mississippi Masala.

In it, Sarita Choudhury plays a woman who moves from India to Mississippi, where she falls in love with Denzel Washington's character. Nair revealed she is tracking down the negatives for rerelease as "an anthem for Kamala" Harris — the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father — as she bids to become vp.

"When Mississippi Masala [opened], there were lines around the block of interracial couples from everywhere who wanted to see … people who looked like themselves onscreen," she said during the afternoon tea, which featured remarks from Tribeca's Jane Rosenthal and Paula Weinstein and appearances by the likes of Emilia Clarke, Glenn Close and Angela Bassett. "Three decades later, it continues to speak the truth."

The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Nair for clarification on the release plans but has not heard back as of press time.

Article by: Chris Gardener for the Hollywood Reporter.

It wants key members of the sound department to have the same representation as department heads such as DPs.

The Cinema Audio Society, Motion Picture Sound Editors and Association of Motion Picture Sound have stepped up their combined Sound Credit Initiative, launching a website urging members of the sound community, filmmakers, studio representatives and others to sign up in support of this effort.

Last August, the three organizations teamed up to release an open letter urging Hollywood to allow key members of the sound department the same representation in end credits as it does department heads such as the director of photography and film editor. Specifically, the letter suggested that the production sound mixer, supervising sound editors and rerecording mixers share a single card "and be appropriately positioned within the same proximity of the other key roles, such as director of photography, film editor, production designer, costume designer, unit production manager and 1st assistant director."

"We're building a community," CAS president Karol Urban says of the new initiative, explaining that the group hopes to empower individuals to ask for the credit, while urging filmmakers and studios to help make this happen. "From production through postproduction, sound professionals contribute to creative storytelling and the elevation of the audience's experience. This initiative allows filmmakers and studios to recognize their sound department's importance in a film's overall success."

Supervising sound editors, production sound mixers and rerecording mixers are eligible for Oscars, BAFTAs, Emmys and other major awards. (At the Oscars, these roles were previously recognized in the sound editing and mixing categories;  beginning in 2021 they will be honored in a single category). “Sound teams create 50 percent of a movie and win awards for their creative contribution, but they are positioned far down the list of credits. This initiative is a move towards representative credits," says AMPS chair Rob Walker.

“Sound is visceral," adds MPSE president Mark Lanza. "It tells the audience where we are, focuses the audience on what we want them to feel and leads them through an elaborate illusion. The people creating these works are amazing artists and should be addressed as such.”

Article by: Carolyn Giardina for the Hollywood Reporter.

Watch the video here.

Variety convened the stars behind the iconic films “Halloween” and “Scream” — Jamie Lee Curtis and Neve Campbell — for a legends-only talk about their rare positions in Hollywood as franchise leaders and to compare notes on their decades rebooting and revitalizing their slasher films.
They are, on the whole, thankful for the time they spent smeared with what they call “sticky stage blood,” as the genre kick-started both their careers. “Two really grateful scream queens here,” Curtis says, after previously showing off her Michael Myers coronavirus mask.
However, they’re certainly not afraid to discuss the sexism they endured in terms of compensation in spite of playing the hero for so many years.
Both the “Scream” and “Halloween” franchises generated more than $600 million at the box office, launching multiple sequels and solidifying Ghostface’s and Meyers’ places as top-shelf villains. While that brought in major cash for the local Spirit Halloween store and took over prominent space in pop culture, how did their female leads fare.
“The truth of the matter is, I didn’t really make much money off of the horror movies,” Curtis says. “Look, we’re actors, so we already make more money based on the little work we do. It’s hard to ever say, ‘I didn’t make a lot of money.’ Tell that to a teacher or nurse. But as a young actress, I did not. I did not have ownership in the movies. There was no profit participation. There was no back end. … There was no large amount of money made.”
As such, Curtis saw a disconnect between the films’ success and her own. “Obviously someone was making a lot of money — it was not me,” she says, “and it was only in the latter years — the ‘H2O,’ the 2018 ‘Halloween,’ which, by the way, we made for scale.”
Campbell had the same experience, saying that on “Scream 3” she “did all right but no back end. There’s always the promise of back end. And then, of course, it’s drowned in publicity and costs and all the reasons they say, ‘Oh, actually no, we didn’t make the amount of money that we’re claiming we made in all the press, so that we don’t have to give you that,’ unfortunately. It was the Weinsteins.”
The struggle for equal compensation for starring women, like many battles in Hollywood, is a systemic issue.
“The industry has no problem when a man makes millions of dollars on something that’s a franchise,” says Curtis. “We as a society go, ‘Good on ya!’ But then if a woman says, ‘Well, I would like that same piece of the pie,’ I think people would think you’re being greedy, or you’re not being grateful. As if somehow we as women have to be just grateful for the opportunity. Which we already explained we are!”
Campbell agrees, saying simply, “We would like to make equal.” Adds Curtis: “We have both worked for many, many, many years to continue our careers. At some point it’s OK to say, ‘No, I’m going to get paid this or I’m not going to be able to play in your sandbox.’”
Despite their mutual aversion to the medium (Campbell was scarred by a sleepover screening of “The Changeling,” and Curtis had the same experience watching “The Exorcist” for her 15th birthday), both hold horror in the highest regard. “They did great things for my career, great things for my life. I had fun on them,” says Campbell of her “Scream” films.
Neither actor could foresee the ripple effect these genre-pioneering movies would have on the films that followed. It’s a legacy that has stretched for decades, with both stars recently returning to their characters. Curtis revived Strode for the 2018 Blumhouse “Halloween” sequel (with two more films to follow), and Campbell will return to Woodsboro this year for “Scream 5.”
“[On] the first [film], none of us were anybody,” says Campbell. “Courteney Cox was in the first year of ‘Friends.’ I was in the first year of ‘Party of Five.’ Matthew Lillard, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Rose McGowan. All of us got these careers afterward. We were just young and innocent. I remember sitting around a bonfire and thinking, ‘Do you think if people see this movie that there might be a Halloween costume? Nah!’”
Curtis says her casting in the 1978 “Halloween” was low pressure: “We had nothing to lose; we didn’t know that we had anything to gain. We were just so happy to have this gig. The original ‘Halloween’ was made in 17 days with like 12 people. … Everybody was young. There was magic happening and none of us, not one person — I would dare say even John Carpenter and Debra Hill — I don’t think anybody knew.”

Article and video by: Meredith Woerener for Variety.

Jared Leto is returning to the DC Comics fold, reprising his role as the Joker from 2016’s “Suicide Squad” in Zack Snyder’s new version of “Justice League.”

It’s unclear whether Leto was always meant to appear in “Justice League” before Snyder left the feature in early 2017 in advance of significant reshoots by filmmaker Joss Whedon, or if Leto is a new addition given the four-hour length the upcoming Snyder Cut, which will premiere on HBO Max in 2021.

Regardless, Leto is joining other actors from “Justice League” this week for additional photography on the project.

His involvement further knits together Snyder’s “Justice League” with previous DC Comics film “Suicide Squad,” which featured Ben Affleck’s Batman in a cameo role as he tried to take down Leto’s Joker and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn.

“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” also directed by Snyder, features a shot of the costume for Batman’s sidekick Robin with “Ha Ha Ha Joke’s on you Batman” spray-painted overtop — a reference to the Batman comic storyline in which the Joker kills Robin. Leto’s appearance in “Justice League” could further unpack this storyline within the DC Films universe.

In 2019, Leto told Variety he was still interested in returning to the role of the Joker. “I would definitely play the Joker again,” Leto said. “It all depends on the script and the circumstances, as it always does.”

When “Suicide Squad” opened in 2016, reports circulated that the actor went so deep into the character that he sent castmates disturbing gifts, including a live rat to Robbie and a dead pig to Viola Davis.

Leto did not appear in Robbie’s next outing as Harley Quinn, “Birds of Prey”; and he’s not expected to appear in James Gunn’s follow-up “The Suicide Squad” next year. (Robbie and Davis are reprising their roles in that film.)

Variety has also confirmed that original “Justice League” producers Geoff Johns and Jon Berg will not be credited on the new Zack Snyder version. Sources close to Johns say he was not involved with the Snyder Cut since it was announced in May, and his lack of a credit is not related to subsequent allegations by “Justice League” actor Ray Fisher that Johns and Berg enabled allegedly abusive behavior by Whedon on the set of the reshoots. Fisher, meanwhile, is also expected to participate in the additional photography for Snyder’s new version of “Justice League.”

Article by: Adam B.Vary for Variety.

Get ready to say “Candyman” in 2021. After numerous delays, Universal and MGM’s reboot of the supernatural slasher film is scheduled to hit theaters on Aug. 27, 2021.

Jordan Peele wrote “Candyman,” which was directed by Nia DaCosta. Like many films slated for this year, “Candyman” had to postpone its debut numerous times during the coronavirus pandemic. But while some pics have moved to streaming services or premium video-on-demand, DaCosta has fought for her film to play on the big screen when it’s safe to return to theaters.

“We made ‘Candyman’ to be seen in theaters,” DaCosta wrote on Twitter when the movie was taken off Universal’s release calendar in September. “Not just for the spectacle but because the film is about community and stories — how they shape each other, how they shape us. It’s about the collective experience of trauma and joy, suffering and triumph, and the stories we tell around it.”

“Candyman,” described as a “spiritual sequel” to the 1992 slasher film, stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as a struggling artist who begins to lose his grip on reality after uncovering the story of Candyman. As the ghastly urban legend goes, if someone says his name to a mirror five times, Candyman will appear and kill whoever summoned him. The cast also includes Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, Tony Todd and Vanessa Estelle Williams.

The original “Candyman,” based on Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden,” was directed by Bernard Rose. It spawned two sequels: 1995’s “Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh” and 1999’s “Candyman: Day of the Dead.”

Article by: Rebecca Rubin for Variety.

Before Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, Tyler Perry communicated with fans the old-fashioned way — by chatting with audience members at the end of his plays and collecting their email addresses. It was a way to stay in touch with his fans both personally (sending information about banal activities like going to the store) and professionally (tipping them off to upcoming shows). “It endeared us together,” he explains. And, over time, the growing list has become a powerful tool in his arsenal.

The industry got its first taste of the power of Perry’s audience in 2003, after the playwright booked six shows at the Kodak Theater for his production of “Madea’s Class Reunion.”

“I asked them how many people they had working the box office, and [they said], ‘We have one,’ Perry recalls. “I replied, ‘No, you may want to bring in four or five,’ [and they said], “Oh, no, we don’t need that for this.” I sent the email out, sold out all those shows. The woman [at the theater’s] wig was crooked, she was so shocked at what had happened.”

The same thing happened with Perry’s first foray into Hollywood, “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” Debuting the Friday before the Oscars in February 2005, the comedy earned $21.9 million in its opening weekend, knocking Will Smith’s “Hitch” off the top spot.

“I don’t know if anyone would have predicted it — other than Tyler, who told me we were going to open at No. 1,” remembers Mike Paseornek, the Lionsgate executive who championed the project. “I wasn’t sure that we’d open at No. 1, but I felt pretty confident that we were going to do big business.”

Lionsgate’s marketing team got a big assist from Perry, who would routinely send out email blasts to his fans reminding them that the film was coming out.

“There’s big movie stars out there, and granted, they have audiences that come to see them. But when someone would say to me, ‘Oh, you have to meet so-and-so — he’s the next Tyler Perry,’ I would say, ‘Well, does your artist have a firsthand relationship 300 days a year with his audience?’” Paseornek says.

“Tyler will perform 260-300 days a year. And he’s getting instant feedback every night.” Perry has continued to go onstage after the final curtain up through his most recent outing on “Madea’s Farewell Play,” which wrapped in February.

Though loyal, Perry’s fan base is often underestimated. “That mailing list, that hunger that they have, can’t be tracked; nobody can really reach them. That’s why the tracking for all of my movies was always so far off,” Perry explains, referring back to the box office numbers for “Diary.” “It blew their mind because [Hollywood] didn’t know how to penetrate into the community.”

When Perry sent the email to his fans about the production of “Madea’s Class Reunion,” there were about 170,000 names on the mailing list. That number has since grown to 800,000. But does he still use the list today?

“It’s been quite some time because of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and people are consuming their information that way,” Perry says with a sly smile. “So I use it when I need to.”

Article by: Angelique Jackson for Variety.

Media barons have long acknowledged that the future will be streamed.

Over the coming weeks, as the world’s largest media and tech conglomerates report earnings for the July-September quarter, it will become increasingly clear how well entertainment companies are handling the pivot away from cable bundles and theatrical releases, and toward streaming services. Investors expect to hear entertainment executives finally explain not only how they plan to compete in an ecosystem that’s historically been dominated by Netflix, but also to learn about the ways their companies will do business long after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

“There’s no question shelter-in-place has changed how people consume,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter says. “This earnings season will be the first when we ask: ‘How permanent is this?’”

Put another way: How quickly do entertainment companies have to shift resources to streaming — a business that’s growing, but highly competitive and largely unprofitable — and away from shrinking cash generators led by ad-supported TV networks and tentpole movies?

“You’ve got to be all in — or do you?” MoffettNathanson Research’s Michael Nathanson says. “What is the cost of being all in? They have to provide insight to get us through the uncertainty.”

Wall Street will probably be more interested in CEO commentary than in the Q3 financial numbers. In a quarter deflated by the recession and pandemic, analysts expect to see significant drops in revenues and earnings vs. the period last year at AT&T, Comcast, Discovery, Disney, Fox, Lionsgate and ViacomCBS.

Netflix is the only company in the group analyzed here that’s expected to report strong growth in revenue and earnings.

Comcast’s NBCUniversal, AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Disney will have to explain the thinking behind their recent reorganizations to promote streaming. AT&T and NBCU also are expected to provide updates for fledgling streaming services HBO Max (launched in May) and Peacock (launched in July), respectively.

In addition, investors want to know more about ViacomCBS’ plans to repackage its streaming services as Paramount Plus and Discovery’s proposed app to join the bandwagon of offering an aggregated streaming option for programming from its suite of lifestyle and factual networks. Many also have questions about Disney’s Star-branded product for overseas markets, although they might wait for the company’s Investor Day presentations on Dec. 10.

Stock buyers could warm to digital plans, especially for ad-supported streaming services, if executives make a strong case for the value of their movie and TV libraries.

“New content is what everybody thinks moves the needle,” Pachter says. “But there isn’t going to be that much” following months of pandemic-related production halts.

All eyes will be on cord cutting numbers. Analysts estimate that the most widely distributed TV networks lost a little under 1 million subscribers in the quarter, based on the rate of subscriber losses at the largest MVPDs. One question now is whether the pace of disconnects will slow as the economy improves — or accelerate with the reductions in federal unemployment benefits and pandemic relief efforts, and as cable operators pull back marketing support for TV in favor of selling broadband connections.

The advertising picture will be more complicated. Combined national and local TV ad sales likely fell about 14% in Q3 vs. the period last year, despite the additional spending for political campaigns. Investors want to know if that’s a blip or evidence that advertisers are accelerating the shift in their spending to digital.

Entertainment companies have a lot riding on how well they spin their stories. Investors value companies with promising digital businesses more highly than those without. BMO Capital Markets’ Daniel Salmon, for one, figures Disney’s streaming offerings account for more than half of the company’s total value.

For others to get there, “we’ll have to see that they can get big enough revenues to matter,” Nathanson says. “We’re all waiting to see the evidence of these pivots.”

Netflix
Q3 earnings released: Oct. 20

Investors figure that Netflix had a great Q3, projecting it added 3.6 million global subscribers — ahead of the company forecast for 2.5 million — for a total of almost 197 million. If they’re right, then many will want to know: Was this a pandemic-related blip — possibly leading to unusually high cancellations? One clue will be Netflix’s subscriber projection for Q4. The Street expects an increase of 6.4 million, and might be alarmed if the company lowers the bar. Netflix’s announcements are carefully scrutinized: It has about $15.3 billion in long-term debt — and its fans are betting that it can keep growing and raise prices even as competition intensifies. Its share price is up 64% this year, and analysts believe Q3 revenues rose nearly 22% to $6.4 billion. They’ll want to know whether U.S. consumers might see a price increase following the recent $1 boost to the price of its standard plan in Canada. Another question: How much cash does Netflix expect to burn when the shows it ordered go back into production?

Discovery
Q3 earnings released: Oct. 21

CEO David Zaslav said in August that Discovery would unveil its streaming plans “very soon” — and investors are ready for him to make good on that promise. A new platform could add a lot: The company owns almost all of its content, and licenses little. Discovery also could use encouraging news. Its shares are down 36% so far this year. The drop in Q3 ad sales and in total subscriptions will be offset somewhat by price increases in contract renewals with Comcast, Charter and Cox. Wall Street expects Discovery to report Q3 revenues of $2.5 billion, down more than 7%.

AT&T
Q3 earnings released: Oct. 22

Analysts expect Q3 revenues to dip nearly 7% to $41.6 billion — and CEO John Stankey to renew his commitment to keep paying a dividend. That’s important to shareholders, who have driven AT&T’s stock price down by 30% so far this year. But that promise grows increasingly hard to keep for a company with $152 billion in net debt. WarnerMedia just slashed its workforce costs by 20%. AT&T may have to accept a fire sale price for DirecTV, the satellite giant it bought in 2015 for about $67 billion including debt. Having warned that ad sales will be soft while sports costs rise in Q3, Stankey will want to focus on HBOMax, introduced in May. But it remains dark on Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV, which link streaming services to about 70% of connected TVs.

Comcast
Q3 earnings released: Oct. 29

With ad sales down, and movie theaters and theme parks largely closed, NBCUniversal will lean on the otherwise strong performance of Comcast’s cable systems. The company’s stock is up a little more than 1% in 2020, and analysts expect Q3 revenues to drop nearly 8% to $24.7 billion. CEO Brian Roberts will probably crow about Peacock; Comcast recently disclosed that it has 15 million subscribers — up from 10 million in July. The streaming service was helped last month when Roku agreed to offer it and other NBCU services to smart TV viewers. Comcast also may be quizzed about its deal with AMC Entertainment to share revenues on Universal films shown on premium VOD after just 17 days in theaters. Universal is one of the few studios planning year-end theatrical releases, including “The Croods: A New Age,” “Freaky” and “News of the World.”

Fox
Q3 earnings (fiscal Q1 2021) released: Nov. 3

The slimmed-down Fox Corp. doesn’t have a compelling digital story just yet, but it does have Fox News. The Trump-friendly operation’s strong election year ad sales and steady revenues from pay TV subscribers should offset weakness at the sports and broadcast networks and TV stations. Even so, the stock is down nearly 28% in 2020; analysts expect to see the September quarter revenues fall 4% to $2.6 billion. Investors are eager to hear about Fox’s plans for Tubi, the ad-supported streaming service it bought in April. CEO Lachlan Murdoch told investors in August that it “underscores our long-term strategic initiative to broaden and enhance direct-to-consumer digital reach and engagement, while providing advertising partners with more opportunities to engage audiences at scale.”

Lionsgate
Q3 earnings (fiscal Q2 2021) released: Nov. 5

With the movie business stuck on pause, analysts expect to hear Lionsgate talk up the prospects for Starz. It’s close to having more digital subscribers than cable ones. That’s partly due to a renewed carriage deal with Comcast that enabled the cable giant to offer fewer Starz channels. But digital subscriptions soared in September with the release of the drama “Power Book II: Ghost,” a spinoff of its long-running drama “Power.” Company shares are down about 22% so far this year, and analysts believe that revenues in the September quarter fell near 22% to $768 million.

ViacomCBS
Q3 earnings released: Nov. 6

Is ViacomCBS a combatant in the streaming wars or an arms dealer? The company’s expected to clarify that soon with its plan to introduce Paramount Plus as a brand that will house streaming services, including CBS All Access — but not Showtime. It’s still unclear whether the company will save new productions for that platform, or license to others like it recently did by sharing “Evil” and “The Unicorn” with Netflix. It’s also been busy offloading movies to digital players, selling the likes of “Coming 2 America,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and “Without Remorse” to Netflix and Amazon. The stock price is down about 33% in 2020, and some analysts believe it’s been battered enough. Although the company hasn’t been able to crank out lots of new shows, it also hasn’t had to pay for them. Carriage renewals this year with Comcast, Dish, Fios and YouTube TV should provide a lift to Q3 revenues. Analysts will probably want updates on plans to sell Simon & Schuster and the company’s historic Black Rock headquarters in Manhattan. Its $500 million deal to sell CNET should close by year-end.

Disney
Q3 earnings (fiscal Q4 2020) released: Nov. 12

Tinkerbell’s fairy dust seems to have landed on Disney Plus. The streaming platform’s subscriptions are years ahead of schedule. It was helped in Q3 by expansion to Belgium, Portugal, Indonesia and Nordic countries, as well as by its savvy marketing of “Hamilton” over the July 4 holiday period. That kept the drop in Disney’s stock price this year to 12% even though — with movies and theme parks dormant — analysts anticipate a 25% drop in Q3 revenues to $14.4 billion. Analysts will probably want more insight into the implications of the recent melding of the TV networks, studio and direct-to-consumer businesses into two groups: Content Creation, and Media and Entertainment Distribution. Executives may face tougher questions about Disney’s dividend. Activist investor Daniel Loeb wants to divert the cash to streaming. He may have an unlikely ally in that persuasion campaign. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has been vocal about questioning why the company continues to pay shareholders at a time when it has laid off 28,000 workers.

Article by: David Lieberman for Variety.

Back in June when GLOW was on hiatus while in production on what the cast thought would be the fourth and final season of the Netflix series, six of the show's stars sent a letter to the streaming giant and GLOW's co-creators and executive producers Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch to say, collectively, "we can do better" when it comes to representation and authenticity onscreen.

At the time, Sunita Mani, Sydelle Noel, Britney Young, Kia Stevens, Ellen Wong and Shakira Barrera — all women of color — wrote and signed the letter in hopes of "creating space for change" when the female-powered wrestling comedy would return for its fourth and final season. But now that Netflix has reversed course and canceled GLOW — a decision that was made due to safety and financial concerns created by COVID-19 — the six stars have taken to social media to share both the original letter and updated notes on what happened as result of the cast speaking out, even though viewers will never get to see those results play out on screen.

"Our show creators and producers HEARD US," writes Mani, who played wrestler Arthie Premkumar since season one, in a lengthy post to Instagram (below). "They were in the process of making Season 4 reflect some of the systemic problems we outlined. ... This was a huge deal—creating space for change—and it was a testament to the love and support that was, by no twist of fate, an intentional element seeded by our show's creators and germinated in the entire cast."

She continues, "I can't help but think that a show that tried to tackle themes surrounding women in Hollywood and loaded racial stereotypes — the RELEVANT, precise moment we are in 30+ years later — sought to imbue within each of us as a cast and hopefully as a viewer a sense of pride in who you are, COME AS YOU ARE, ultimately got squashed by...a Netflix corporate algorithm?"

Mani says the cast letter led to a "series of poignant Zoom conversations" about ways to address the concerns that the women raised about their characters — which included being "sidekicks to elevate white leads" — and their issues with the show as a whole, which employed no writers of colors for their large ensemble of diverse cast members. "The meta narrative of our show—actors dealing with the conflict of perpetuating stereotypes in order to have opportunity—is exactly what is happening in our real life," reads the original letter, which asked that the show specifically hire an executive or consulting producer of color and amplify their characters' voices within the final season.

The result of this letter, a source confirms, was that Flahive and Mensch, along with Netflix executives, met with the cast to hear their concerns and make a plan to address them in the final season, and before the cancellation. The source adds that the conversations and proposed changes had no impact on Netflix's decision to cancel — or un-renew — GLOW.

After the cancellation news, the entire 17-person ensemble virtually gathered for a fundraiser that doubled as a reunion, where the cast asked viewers to rally around a growing petition for Netflix to bring the show back for a wrap-up movie. "It would be a very exciting thing and it would seem like Netflix could do it if they wanted to do it," said star Marc Maron, noting that the story has already been written.

Article by: Jackie Strause for the Hollywood Reporter.

[This story contains spoilers for The Haunting of Bly Manor]

Mike Flanagan is haunting us. Don’t worry, the filmmaker is thankfully very much still among the world of the living. But he is haunting us through his cinematic storytelling. Over the past decade, Flanagan has displayed an intrinsic understanding of the link between horror and spirituality, the thrill, the beauty, and the romance, all of which speak to humankind’s ability to believe, to find equal parts comfort and anxiety in the very thing Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) says at the end of the director's Doctor Sleep (2019): “We go on.”

It’s not merely the concepts of Flanagan’s works that are fascinating, or that set him apart from contemporaries also swept up in all things paranormal, after all ghosts and theories of life after death are our most foundational elements of horror. But it’s the way in which Flanagan commits to these elements operating across time and space that make his works feel transcendent within the genre space.

Time and space. Yes, it’s a combination of words typically associated with science fiction, but without attempting (and failing) to pursue the Kip Thorne of it all, there is a thread of an idea there worth following from one genre to the other, from black holes to dark hallways. Flanagan’s paranormal-centric works operate on the notion that what haunts his characters has always haunted them. Whether realized or not, their ghosts are as ingrained within them as their DNA. It’s a personal and physical manifestation of their own life struggles, which may vary in severity, but are something no one can avoid. We all have struggles and thus we all have ghosts. These characters’ arrival in a haunted space awakens what was already there and gives shape to the shapeless, a dark star being born out of life’s unwanted dust and fragments.

Flanagan’s hauntings don’t feel like mere happenstance, but a peek at the organized and deliberate workings of the universe. It’s time, space, and the existential underpinnings of the universe that Flanagan reckons with in Absentia (2011), Oculus (2013), Before I Wake (2016), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), The Haunting of Hill House (2018), Doctor Sleep, and his most recent project which forms the basis of this consideration of his filmography.

Last week, Flangan’s latest project, The Haunting of Bly Manor was released on Netflix. Unlike the aforementioned works, Bly Manor doesn’t solely feature Flanagan as a director. It’s a collaborative effort that includes Ciaran Foy, Liam Gavin, Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke, Axelle Carolyn, and E.L. Katz. Yet, it still feels steered by Flanagan and of a piece with his filmography, continuing to shed light on much of what haunted the halls and echoed though the history of his previous films. If The Haunting of Hill House was about who you live with, the ghosts in your head and the ghosts in your house, and ultimately reminding you to live, and live not alone, then The Haunting of Bly Manor is about memento mori, the ever-present ghost of yourself, remembering to die, and that life is not a possession but a journey that leads into the next.

Based primarily on Henry James’ novella, The Turn of the Screw, and several other of James’ ghost stories, Bly Manor follows a governess, Dani (Victoria Pedretti) who arrives to a storied estate to watch over two children, Flora (Amelie Bea Smith) and Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), odd and driven by stories of their own. Dani’s care of the children, draws her into a larger mystery surrounding the death of her successor Rebecca Jessel (Tahirah Sharif) and her passionate love affair with the charming and dangerous Peter Quint (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). What begins as a modernization of Jack Clayton’s The Innocents (1961), also adapted from James’ novella, becomes something else entirely. It is a love story, a gothic romance taken out of the cobwebs of the past and into the '80s in order to be told with an eye pointed towards the queer, and inter-racial truths of modern(ish) love, without sacrificing any of the emotional complexities or moral quagmires of 19th-century storytelling. The Haunting of Bly Manor isn’t an exploration of what happens after we die, but what happens when we love, and we love so strongly that we are unable to leave, even if that means corrupting the innocence of the emotion.

The miniseries’ mantra, “dead doesn’t mean gone,” is in some ways a perversion of Doctor Sleep’s own mantra, “we go on.” What ties Dani, Miles, Flora, Peter, and Rebecca together, alongside the equally important stories of Hannah (T’Nia Miller), Owen (Rahul Kohli), Jamie (Amelia Eve), and Henry (Henry Thomas), is a refusal to move on, and the inability for death to dissipate strongly held feelings. Even before considering the supernatural elements, these characters are trapped within the space of Bly Manor because of death, both literal and figurative. The death of a fiancé, the death of parents, the death of a marriage, the death of a mother, the death of a family, the death of a lover, and the death of a romance, all of these little deaths culminating in a death of self, again, both literal and figurative. The structure of the episodes, and the concept of being “tucked away,” when the living consciousness is pushed into a memory while the consciousness of the dead take over the body, play with time in such a way that mourning never ends. By looking at these characters in terms of their past and present simultaneously, Flanagan and the filmmakers of Bly, expose the raw and unhealed wounds that exist within each of these individuals, slowly killing them, but killing all the same.

While it would perhaps make sense to say that Bly Manor becomes a place of death for its occupants, it’s more accurate to acknowledge that Bly Manor was always a place of death. Bly Manor was always drawing these characters towards it, even before they experienced their first taste of tragedy. Their mortal wounds were written upon their souls even before they were born because time is no match for death. Bly Manor is a gravity well that devours time. The eighth episode, directed by Axelle Carolyn, is one of the most fascinating of the series. It gives a history and a face, albeit fleeting, to this field of gravity. Based off of James’ “The Romance of Certain Old Clothes,” and taking its title from that story as well, the episode tells a centuries-old tale of a strong-willed woman, Viola (Kate Siegel), whose defiance against death, her insistence to not go on, is so strong that even when her body dies she remains on the grounds of Bly, and entraps all who die on the grounds there along with her.

Viola’s hurt, rage, and loneliness are so powerful that even when her memory of who she is fades, along with her face, that her emotions still drive her, creating a habit, a well-worn path, that could only be stopped by the requited love of a daughter long dead and gone on. Unlike Doctor Sleep’s Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), it’s a love of someone else rather than a love of self that makes the idea of going on so frightening. The key to the eighth episode and Viola’s plight is that it doesn’t stand-alone, despite it introducing new characters and being presented in black and white. Rather it is the reason behind every strange occurrence at Bly Manor, and the episode’s position near the end of the season only serves to showcase how unavoidable the fates of these characters always were because they had been in motion for centuries.

Despite the heaviness of all these themes working in tandem, Flanagan and his team manage to tie them up with a sense of hope rather than despair. That’s not to say there isn’t sadness to be found in The Haunting of Bly Manor’s conclusion. The romances of Dani and Jamie, Owen and Hannah, and Peter and Rebecca are all concluded by the death of one partner, as many romances ultimately are. That is a frightening inevitability along the same line as these characters always destined to arrive at Bly. But, as exemplified by Henry finding a new and different love within the lives of Miles and Flora, love doesn’t dissipate, it doesn’t die, or disappear, it’s only changed and transferred. “Dead doesn’t mean gone” doesn’t have to be perverted in the way that Viola, and later Peter Quint twisted it. People die, and go on, but their love remains, and should they be so lucky, serves as an eternal reminder to others of love’s worth and inability to be erased. To live fully, and to die fully, Flanagan suggests, is to leave behind a ghost of love, a ghost that doesn’t seek to possess, or hold people down like gravity, but to move, unbound by time or space.

The theme parks have been shuttered since mid-March due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood on Tuesday received stringent guidelines from the state for reopening after being shuttered most of the year due to the pandemic.

The industry has been locked in a bitter battle with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, which came to a boiling point weeks ago when The Walt Disney Co. demanded the state allow its theme park to reopen, pointing to its counterpart in Florida, which began its successful phased reopening over the summer.

State Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly introduced the guidelines during an annual weekly press conference on the state's novel coronavirus data and response. Under the issued guidelines Disneyland and Universal Studios (which were labeled higher risk settings than outdoor stadiums) can operate under Tier 4 "Yellow" (minimal) with a limited capacity of 25 percent. Orange County is currently in the "Red" (substantial) tier. Los Angeles County is at Tier 1 "Purple" (widespread). Once open, a reservation system will be required (no day-of ticket sales) and masks will be required at the theme parks. Smaller theme parks will not have as difficult a path to reopen since they are mostly outdoors and draw crowds mainly from nearby, Ghaly noted. Therefore, they can open once the respective county is in the Orange tier. 

Disneyland Resort president Ken Potrock blasted the "arbitrary" state guidelines.

"We have proven that we can responsibly reopen, with science-based health and safety protocols strictly enforced at our theme park properties around the world. Nevertheless, the State of California continues to ignore this fact, instead mandating arbitrary guidelines that it knows are unworkable and that hold us to a standard vastly different from other reopened businesses and state-operated facilities," Potrock said in a statement.

He continued, "Together with our labor unions we want to get people back to work, but these State guidelines will keep us shuttered for the foreseeable future, forcing thousands more people out of work, leading to the inevitable closure of small family-owned businesses, and irreparably devastating the Anaheim/Southern California community."

Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu criticized the guidelines as "failing working families and small business."

Said Sidhu in a statement posted to Twitter, As painful as this is, Disney and the city of Anaheim will survive. But too many Anaheim hotels, stores and restaurants will not survive another year of this." Sidhu added that Disney and the convention center could reopen safely now. "The union and Disneyland agree and support the reopening of theme parks in Tier 3 — not Tier 4, which would wipe out jobs in our city and destroy lives."

A spokeswoman for UFCW 324, one of Disneyland's multiple unions, said in a statement, "We are disappointed that theme parks where unions have negotiated strict safety protocols are not able to open in Orange, while amusement parks where employees have no representation or negotiated protections will be permitted to open in Orange tier."

The statement continued, "We believe that Disney has demonstrated that it is ready to open safely. They have successfully re-opened Downtown Disney with adherence to the negotiated safety standards."

At first, Newsom would not budge on reopening theme parks after the state experienced a huge spike of COVID-19 cases in June, which derailed Disney's July plan. Since that time, Disney has been the most vocal about being provided a path to reopen.

Amid the stalemate with the governor, Disneyland implemented new health and safety recommendations from the Orange County Health Care Agency. Mike Lyster, a spokesman for the city of Anaheim who toured the park following the modifications, told the media what he witnessed. "On the rides, you’ll see much more plastic shielding in place, wherever folks might come into contact with each other in fairly close proximity. There are floor markings everywhere that will keep my party away from another party, basically keeping that six feet of distance between them," he explained. Lyster also noted there will be a "significant amount of open space" between parties while waiting on rides. Much of what he described is how Disney World is currently operating.

Seemingly fed up, Disney last month demanded Newsom and state officials issue guidelines. When Newsom did not budge, Disney announced 28,000 park employees would be laid off. Chairman Bob Iger also resigned from the state's coronavirus economic task force. A seemingly unfazed Newsom said there was still "no hurry" to reopen. However, after being blasted shortly thereafter by Disney and the California Attractions & Parks Association for being "unreasonable," Newsom said he would send a team to visit Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood, as well as Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando, to see firsthand — and report back — how the parks operate with the new health and safety measures in place.

In addition to the rally on Saturday, a group of Disneyland unions which represent more than 10,000 park employees, sent a letter to Newsom requesting he allow the park to reopen. The move was significant in that the same group of unions sent Newsom a letter in June asking him to not allow the theme park to reopen because, at the time, they were unsatisfied with the health and safety measures in place. However, in the Saturday letter, the group said Disney put in additional measures with which they were content to return to work.

Article by Ryan Parker for the Hollywood Reporter.