Octavia Spencer never believed she would be in front of the camera. Instead, she always saw herself as a producer. Her award-winning performances in movies such as “The Help,” “Hidden Figures” and “The Shape of Water” helped Spencer, recipient of the Visionary Award at the PGA Awards this year, to do both. But getting traction
“For a long time people tried to figure out ‘What is Plan B?’” says Plan B principal Dede Gardner, who along with fellow executives Jeremy Kleiner and Brad Pitt will receive the David O. Selznick Award at the 31st annual Producers Guild Awards on Jan. 18. “I remember Brad came to us the year that
January 17, 2020 10:33AM PT Bert & Bertie’s family crowdpleaser neither reinvents the wheel nor even attempts to redesign it all that much, but at least it gets where it wants to go. You’ve probably seen a version of “Troop Zero” before. Whether that version was called “Troop Beverly Hills,” “The Mighty Ducks,” or an
January 17, 2020 10:30AM PT The 26th annual SAG Awards will be held Jan. 19 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and broadcast live on both TNT and TBS at 8 p.m. EST. The SAG Awards are different from typical awards ceremonies for a number of reasons — beginning with length. The show, which
Ted Sarandos, who has helped to upend the way audiences receive and consume entertainment as Netflix’s chief content officer, will be honored with the Milestone Award at the 31st annual Producers Guild Awards on Jan. 18. Game-changers including Steven Spielberg, Sherry Lansing, Robert Iger, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Ron Meyer have previously received the recognition, and
Robert De Niro is a big winner. It’s the afternoon of the AFI Luncheon, honoring the best in film and television, and De Niro has just left the ceremony with three certificates. “There they are, yeah,” he gestures to a table in his hotel room at the Four Seasons when asked, as if it’s no
In an era when consumers feel more empowered to avoid TV commercials, NBCUniversal is the latest media company to try to get them to bring ads back into their TV lives. One of the key selling points of big streaming-video services like Netflix and Disney Plus is that subscribers don’t have to endure the commercial
Hillary Clinton called for Americans to come to grips with “basic facts” of reality in an appearance at the Television Critics Association winter press tour on Friday. “We’ve got to somehow understand that you can’t make good decisions in a democracy if we can’t even agree on basic facts, if we cant have some understanding
Actors and comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short are coming to Hulu with a true-crime spoof. The streaming service has picked up a straight-to-series comedy starring the pair, announced Hulu senior vice president of originals Craig Erwich at the Television Critics Assn. winter press tour on Friday. The yet-to-be-titled series involves “three strangers who share
Hulu has renewed “Wu Tang: An American Saga” and “Dollface,” each for a second season. The former, created and written by Alex Tse and the RZA, is based on the formation of the Wu-Tang Clan. The first season explored the hip-hop group’s history and daily struggles of balancing its rising music career on the backdrop
Eminem’s new “Music to Be Murdered By” album has an album title and cover that pay comical homage to Alfred Hitchcock, suggesting a collection full of light-hearted mayhem. But a couple of its tracks reference real-life mass murders that occurred at concerts in recent years — the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Music Festival shootings and
Lucian Grainge — chairman/CEO of Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company — will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next Thursday (Jan. 23). Fittingly, the ceremony will take place in front of the historic Capitol Records building; Capitol is one of the several Universal-owned labels under Grainge’s domain. Universal, recently
January 17, 2020 9:00AM PT Julia Louis-Dreyfus, of “Veep” and “Seinfeld” fame, has inked an overall deal with Apple TV Plus to develop new projects exclusively for the platform as executive producer and star. “I am thrilled about this new partnership with my friends at Apple,” said Louis-Dreyfus. “Also, many thanks and kudos to my
At first glance, the CW’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and Disney Plus’s “Diary of a Future President” could not be more different. The former centered on a woman with borderline personality disorder who overturned her life multiple times for a chance at love but who still struggled in relationships because she didn’t fully love herself, while the
January 17, 2020 8:56AM PT “Last Man Standing” helped Fox to a TV ratings win on a relatively quiet Thursday night. The Tim Allen-led comedy scored a 0.8 rating for both episodes, with the first drawing 4.6 million total viewers and the second 4.9 million. Freshman drama “Deputy” followed it up with a 0.6 rating
The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) home-video retailing trade group has changed its name to OTT.X, The Over The Top Exchange. The new name reflects the org’s broader scope and community to adapt to the evolution of the home-entertainment ecosystem, according to Mark Fisher, president and CEO of OTT.X. The group’s new website is at ottx.org.
Meryl Streep is the latest big name heading to Apple. The acclaimed actor is attached to narrate a forthcoming animated short film about Earth Day, which is slated to premiere April 17 on Apple TV Plus. Titled “Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth,” the short will also feature the voices of “State
“Little America” launches on Apple TV Plus at a time when the immigrant experience is a hot topic in the media, but the stories the writers and producers behind the new anthology series wanted to tell were not about race, says co-creator and showrunner Lee Eisenberg. “All of the stories are meant to be slices
The NATPE conference will mark its tenth iteration of dealmaking, networking, brainstorming and ocean-gazing in Miami this year. The move of the association’s annual market and conference to Miami Beach in 2011 was born out of desperate times, but the balmy setting has proven to be a boon for the National Assn. of Television Program
Robert Downey Jr.’s “Dolittle” is headed for a box office flop. Universal’s fantasy-adventure grossed $925,000 from Thursday night previews from 3,050 theaters, with showings beginning at 5 p.m. The film, projected for a four-day opening of $22 million to $25 million, carries a $180 million-plus price tag. “Bad Boys for Life,” meanwhile, launched solidly with
As French outfits move to expand their studio offerings, industry eyes have turned to a 20-hectare stretch of land 20 miles south of Paris. There, in the commune Plessis-Pâté, sits the TSF Backlot 217, a converted air base that has become one the Gallic industry’s banner initiatives. One of France’s leading production suppliers, TSF scoped
For the French industry, the drive to open up additional studio spaces has gone hand-in-hand with the push for green production, because for the most part, they share the same root cause: The international streamers that are causing a surge in audiovisual production tend to have strict criteria when it comes to sustainable development. “Companies
Breaking News TMZ.com Charles Barkley‘s incessant attack on Draymond Green has entered 2020 … with Chuck straight-up roasting the Warriors star for “averaging that triple-single.” A bit of a history lesson — Barkley absolutely LOVES to insult Day Day with a burning passion … it’s so real that he once said he wanted to “punch
Principal photography has wrapped on “Ali & Ava,” the fourth feature from writer-director Clio Barnard (“Dark River,” “The Selfish Giant”), starring Adeel Akhtar (“Four Lions”) and Claire Rushbrook (“Secrets & Lies”). The contemporary British love story follows Ava (Rushbrook), a respected matriarch on a predominantly white Bradford estate masking the scars left by an abusive
Netflix continued to make strides in its European expansion on Thursday, unveiling a swanky multi-floor Paris office and announcing 20 new French shows and movies in the pipeline. Located in the heart of the city and staffed with 40 employees, Netflix’s office launch attracted French industry figures, including producers and filmmakers working with or looking
January 17, 2020 6:27AM PT Less than 12 hours after news broke that Deborah Dugan had been placed on administrative leave from her post as president/CEO of the Recording Academy, her attorney fired back with a statement. “What has been reported is not nearly the story that needs to be told. When our ability to
UFC has upped its investment in original content for Facebook — where it has more than 26 million global followers — to try to convert more mixed martial arts fans into premium pay-per-view buyers. Under the one-year deal between UFC and Facebook, the MMA promoter is producing three original shows for Facebook Watch. All of
Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales company has boarded Finnish-Iranian Hamy Ramezan’s debut feature “Any Day Now,” to be shown as a work in progress at Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market, WHICH RUNS Jan 30.-Feb 2. Ramezan’s drama, produced by Aamu Film Company (“The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki”), already enjoys a strong buzz from
One of the unintended consequences of the boom in global production is a corresponding surge in film and TV tourism. A spate of research in recent years has shown that viewers of popular films and TV shows are increasingly deciding to visit their locations, or to make a trip to the country where they were
As the Nordisk Film & TV Fond prepares to celebrates its 30th anniversary, at this month’s Göteborg Film Festival, CEO Liselott Forsman has outlined her vision for the upcoming yearm which sees the fund boasting a record high budget of NOK 127 million ($12.8 million), up from last year’s total of NOK 97.75 million ($11.4