| | | | | | What's news: Netflix has been sued over its portrayal of a woman depicted as a stalker in Baby Reindeer. The Dolly Parton musical will hit Broadway in 2026. A new Wallace & Gromit film is coming this Christmas. Grant Sputore will direct the next MonsterVerse film. Apple has renewed Palm Royale. — Abid Rahman
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The 9/11 Doc You'll Never See ►"We shared our hearts only to be let down." Announced to a rash of publicity in 2017, Sara Hirsh Bordo and Michael Campo's documentary We Go Higher was supposed to give a much-needed voice to the children of 9/11 victims. Yet, seven years after it was announced, no film has been released. Now, its high-profile producer is dealing with claims of financial fraud and emotional manipulation, and the much-anticipated film will likely never come out. For THR, Allen Salkin digs into what went wrong with the project. The story.
—"I am so proud of the richly immersive experiences we’ve created together." After $2b spent and a lengthy construction process complicated by the pandemic, Disney threw open the doors Thursday to its sprawling Fantasy Springs addition to the Tokyo Disney Resort. Signaling the significance of the unveiling, THR's Patrick Brzeski reports that Disney CEO Bob Iger and Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, were both on hand to celebrate the moment alongside executives from Oriental Land, Disney’s Japanese partner and the park’s operator. The story.
—"I lived my whole life to see this show on stage." Dolly Parton will bring a musical about her life and career to Broadway in 2026. The musical, entitled Hello, I’m Dolly, will feature a score of Parton’s well-known songs as well as new songs she has written for the musical and a book by Parton and Maria S. Schlatter, who wrote Parton’s Christmas on the Square film. Additional creative team members and cast will be announced at a later date. Alas, Parton will not be appearing in the show. The story.
—"I live in an industry in which there is a tremendous amount of conversation about redemption." Facing 10 new sexual misconduct allegations stemming from a recent documentary, Kevin Spacey says that he does not believe Hollywood offers forgiveness, but does believe there is hope that the fear spread by cancel culture will fade and “common sense will get back to the table.” In a lengthy new interview, Spacey discussed acting, working alongside some of the greatest talents of his lifetime, mortality and the assault accusations that have dogged him in recent years. The story. |
Big Tech Launches Campaign to Defend AI Use ►"Gen AI is a net plus for creativity overall." With a slew of negative press coverage over the last year, THR's Winston Cho reports that Chamber of Progress, a tech industry coalition whose members include Amazon, Apple and Meta, is launching a campaign to defend the legality of using copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence systems. The story.
—More talks. IATSE and studios and streamers are set to add new negotiations dates to their Basic Agreement bargaining schedule once more. The top Hollywood crew union and the AMPTP did not reach a deal over a new Basic Agreement within the three-day stretch of additional negotiations that ended around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. The crew union is saying for the second time that it needs more time to reach a West Coast deal with studios and streamers prior to the contract's July 31 expiration date. The story.
—Behind the scenes. After Joe Biden publicly criticized the International Criminal Court for requesting warrants for the arrest of Israel's Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant on war crime charges, a process that Amal Clooney was deeply involved in, George Clooney reportedly reached out to a top White House aide. The Washington Post reports that the actor is concerned Amal Clooney may be impacted by potential sanctions the U.S. has threatened against the ICC. The story.
—"An affront to our dignity and an insult to Atlanta’s history." Tyler Perry penned an op-ed on Wednesday, speaking out against alleged racial discrimination experienced by his friends, comedians Eric André and Clayton English. In his column, published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Perry addresses a lawsuit filed earlier this year alleging that both André and English were unlawfully stopped by authorities at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. The story. |
'Hunger Games' Movie Based on New Novel in the Works ►That was quick! Lionsgate has unveiled plans for a new Hunger Games movie, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. The studio wasted no time in confirming the feature, after Hunger Games writer Suzanne Collins announced a new novel in the franchise on Thursday. Francis Lawrence is in talks to direct the adaptation. Lawrence, screenwriter Michael Arndt and producer Nina Jacobson earlier teamed with Lionsgate on four film adaptations of earlier Collins books — The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay — that took in $3.3b in box office. The story.
—"They had no guardrails, no limitations." Netflix held an animation event Thursday that had a raft of new announcements, ranging from shows for pre-schoolers, teens and adults. The slate includes the love and revenge tale Twilight of the Gods from Zack Snyder, Timothy Olyphant voicing a killer Terminator robot in Terminator Zero, and Natalie Portman, Emilia Clarke, Margot Martindale and Johnny Vegas lending their voices to The Twits, an adaptation of the Roald Dahl story being directed Phil Johnston. The story.
—Good grief, he's back! The BBC has officially unveiled the return of one of the U.K.’s favorite duos, Wallace and Gromit, but also the comeback of iconic supervillain Feathers McGraw! The new film, titled Vengeance Most Fowl, comes from independent studio Aardman Animations, and will premiere on the BBC and BBC iPlayer this Christmas, as well as heading to Netflix worldwide this winter. The story.
—New master of disaster. Legendary has tapped Grant Sputore to direct the next theatrical outing in the MonsterVerse franchise, the followup to March’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Sputore came up from the world of commercials, and as a features director helmed the sci-fi movie I Am Mother, starring Hilary Swank. The new MonsterVerse feature has a script from prolific genre scribe Dave Callaham, known for Shang-Chi and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The story. |
$100M 'Horizon' Tracking for Worrisome $12M Opening ►Uh-oh. THR's Pamela McClintock reports that Kevin Costner's big-budget Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter One hit tracking on Tuesday, with one major service putting its domestic opening at $12m, give or take. That’s not great news for Costner and those backing the independently financed Western, considering it cost $100m to make before marketing and is being followed quickly by Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2 on Aug 6. The box office report.
—A much-needed jump-start? Sony’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die couldn’t be a more apt title for Will Smith, for whom much is riding on the film doing decent business. Pamela McClintock writes that the star has been quietly putting out feelers for new roles in recent weeks as the film prepares to open — and provide the fuel to relaunch his movie career, or so he hopes. The story.
—🎭 Rising star 🎭 David Iacono is joining Scarlett Johansson in Universal‘s new Jurassic World movie. Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Rupert Friend and Luna Blaise round out the ensemble cast for the project set for production in mid-June in London, with Gareth Edwards in the director’s chair. Iacono will appear in Jennifer Esposito’s upcoming directorial debut, Fresh Kills, is coming fresh off his appearance in Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives and season two of Amazon Prime Video’s YA series The Summer I Turned Pretty. The story. |
Spring TV's Left-Field Standouts and Shiny Letdowns ►"Disappointments really did abound this spring — not crushing failures, just things that looked like Emmy contenders until you watched." From Baby Reindeer to Fallout, THR's television critics Dan Fienberg and Angie Han dissect a busy small-screen season that included some unexpected blowout hits and a string of prestige projects with lots of stars but little spark. The critics' conversation.
—More Baby Reindeer fallout. Netflix has been sued over its portrayal of a woman depicted as a stalker in Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer. In a $120m lawsuit filed on Thursday, Fiona Harvey, who claims to be the inspiration behind Jessica Gunning’s Martha, accuses Netflix of defaming her through statements in the show that she’s a twice-convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison for sexual assault. The streamer and showrunners “told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money,” the complaint states. The story.
—Royale return. Apple TV+ has renewed Palm Royale for a second season. The pickup for the Kristen Wiig-led comedy comes about a month after the 10-episode first season concluded. Palm Royale comes from Apple Studios and creator Abe Sylvia. Wiig stars as Maxine Simmons, a woman determined to join Palm Beach’s high society set in 1969, going to great lengths (and costs) to achieve her goal. The story.
—Billions for Brady. Netflix’s live roast of NFL great Tom Brady made it into the Nielsen streaming rankings for its premiere, despite only being available for a few hours of that week. After its first full week on the streamer, it rocketed to the top of the charts. The Roast of Tom Brady gathered 1.67b minutes of viewing for the week of May 6-12, leading all streaming titles by a wide margin. The roast also had by far the biggest weekly viewing tally ever for a Netflix special; the previous high was 798m minutes for Chris Rock’s special Selective Outrage in March 2023. The streaming rankings. |
Film Review: 'The Watchers' ►"Irish folklore has an awful lot to answer for." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Ishana Night Shyamalan's The Watchers. Dakota Fanning plays a haunted woman who gets trapped in an Irish forest with three strangers and a parrot. The review.
—"A missed opportunity." For THR, Caryn James reviews Dominic Sivyer's Rebel Nun. Sister Helen Prejean, the anti-death-penalty activist behind Susan Sarandon's Oscar-winning role in Dead Man Walking, is the subject of this documentary. The review.
—"Delivers laughs and big ideas." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews HBO's Fantasmas. Los Espookys writer-director-star Julio Torres returns with a six-episode series that's half futuristic quest and half outlandish sketch show. The review.
—"An indecisive shrug of a biography." THR's Angie Han reviews Hulu's Becoming Karl Lagerfeld. The French-language bio-drama miniseries, starring Daniel Brühl, charts fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld's rising career and tumultuous personal relationships through the 1970s and into the early 1980s. The review.
—"An endearing, messy portrait of an endearing, messy heroine." Angie reviews Hulu's Queenie. A 25-year-old British Jamaican journalist navigates the wilds of work, love, sex and family in Candice Carty-Williams' series. The review. |
Thank Pod It's Friday ►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.
—TV's Top 5. THR's Lesley Goldberg and Dan Fienberg break down the latest TV news. This week's episode begins with the headlines, including news on Marion Cotillard, Charlie Hunnam, Sarah Snook, All American , Adam Levine and Paul Giamatti. There's a segment on TLC's upcoming reality show starring Alec Baldwin and his family, and another wrapping up the ATX TV Festival. The episode also features the monthly mailbag and Dan reviews Disney+'s The Acolyte, Hulu's Clipped and Queenie and HBO's Fantasmas. Listen here.
—Awards Chatter. THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this episode, Scott spoke to Sofía Vergara. The Colombian actress best known for Modern Family reflects on her accidental entry in showbiz at 17, her rollercoaster journey through the TV business en route to landing the role of Gloria Delgado-Pritchett and the very personal reason she fought for years to play the 'Godmother of Cocaine' in Netflix's Griselda. Listen here.
In other news...
—Johnny Depp, Iggy Pop celebrate legendary tattoo artist in Scab Vendor trailer
—Sabrina Carpenter releases “Please Please Please” music video featuring boyfriend Barry Keoghan
—Bentonville Film Festival sets lineup for Geena & Friends event, unveils additional programming
—CAA names new global touring co-heads
—Michelle Obama, Regina King among speakers at 2024 CAA Amplify
—All the best new hotels and restaurants to visit in Cabo right now
—Alan Scarfe, Double Impact and Seven Days actor, dies at 77
—Tom Bower, actor in The Waltons and Die Hard 2, dies at 86
What else we're reading...
—Josef Adalian believes Paramount’s new streaming strategy makes a Peacock merger more likely [Vulture]
—In a thought-provoking piece, Matt Brennan writes that we’ve been telling the wrong story about queer people in Hollywood [LAT]
—Jennifer Wilson profiles ESPN star Malika Andrews, who discusses her commitment to report on divisive subjects, including allegations of violence against women, that has led to a lot of unfair backlash [New Yorker]
—Jason Schreier has the inside story on the epic failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the video game that lost Warner Bros. $200m [Bloomberg]
—Here's your Friday list: "Every Apple sci-fi TV show, ranked" [Screen Rant]
Today...
...in 1985, Richard Donner's The Goonies hit the big screen. The film, featuring a story by Steven Spielberg and exec produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, made a spectacular $125m at the box office and has become an enduring classic. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Tom Jones (🏴84), Liam Neeson (72), James Ivory (96), Daniel Scheinert (37), Karl Urban (52), Bill Hader (46), Emily Ratajkowski (33), Michael Cera (36), Dave Filoni (50), Tom McCarthy (58), Bear Grylls (50), Iggy Azalea (34), Anna Torv (45), Larisa Oleynik (43), Colleen Camp (71), Sarah Parish (56), Francis Magee (65), William Forsythe (69), Mini Anden (46), Kim Rhodes (55), Adam Nagaitis (39), Helen Baxendale (54), Poppy Drayton (33), Judie Aronson (60), Ellen Wroe (36), Amanda Leighton (31), Amy Nuttall (42), Gia Carides (60), Lyndon Smith (35), Aaron Pierre (30), Andi Matichak (30), Dave Navarro (57), Anthony Simcoe (55), Alex McGregor (31), Gavin Leatherwood (30) |
| Lee Gabler, the powerful Hollywood agent who orchestrated landmark television deals during a four-decade career that included 25 years as a stalwart at CAA and a long relationship with David Letterman, has died. He was 84. The obituary. |
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