Innholdsfortegnelse for 6/21/2023 i Variety

Variety|6/21/2023

A Hip-Hop Hero and Indy’s Last Ride

When you’ve got DJ Khaled on the cover, you’ve gotta come out swinging. As we pay tribute to Khaled with our “Music Mogul of the Year” issue, we also want to take a moment for a victory lap for Team Variety. May marked our 12th consecutive month atop the leader board of the entertainment business news pack as measured by digital traffic. May is always a busy time for Variety, between the Cannes Film Festival and the New York upfronts and, as of May 2, the first Writers Guild of America strike in 15 years. Our site averaged 27.29 million unique visitors in the U.S. for the month, according to ComScore, with a significant margin against our major competitors. Not bad for a nearly 120-year-old brand, and a testament to…

2 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Red Carpet Redemption

It’s hard to remember a time when fashion and beauty commentary were not ubiquitous. When red carpet pre-shows for the Oscars or the Met Gala were not the norm, or before anyone with a TikTok or Instagram account could be an obsessive pundit on celebrity style. Steven Cojocaru was there, however, at the beginning of this sartorial saturation. The Canadian writer and TV host, now 50, hustled tirelessly in his early career to get legacy media to take style as seriously as he did. He became People magazine’s first West Coast fashion editor in 1997 and was the first out gay fashion correspondent for NBC’s “Today” during the highly watched Matt Lauer and Katie Couric era. His persona was so vivid that Jimmy Fallon parodied him on “SNL” in 2001.…

4 min

Variety|6/21/2023

A Long Way From ‘Joy Luck’

The working title for Adele Lim’s new comedy “Joy Ride” was “Joy Fuck Club.” It’s a profane call-back to “The Joy Luck Club,” a multigenerational family saga that broke ground. But if “Joy Ride” builds on the legacy set by that landmark 1993 film in that nearly all of its cast is Asian, the similarities between the two end there. “Joy Ride,” which was written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, is bawdy and irreverent, more akin to “The Hangover” than to a prestige drama. “I don’t think [the writers] realize how crazy they’ve made their own movie,” says Sabrina Wu, who stars in the film alongside Ashley Park, Sherry Cola and Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu. “Joy Ride” centers on Park’s Audrey, a lawyer who flies to China to close…

3 min

Variety|6/21/2023

JUST FOR VARIETY

Eva Longoria (1) would love to go back to Wisteria Lane. The actor and “Flamin’ Hot” director tells me she’s open to a “Desperate Housewives” reunion. “I’d be the first one to sign up, let me tell ya,” Longoria says. “I’d probably be the only one to sign up, but I miss Gaby.” “Desperate Housewives” ran for eight seasons before ending in 2012. Longoria reunited with Jesse Metcalfe, who played her teenage lover on the primetime soap, at the Los Angeles premiere of “Flamin’ Hot.” If the show gets a reboot, Longoria says she and “Housewives” creator Marc Cherry have agreed she’ll direct the pilot. Longoria directed the Season 2 premiere of “Devious Maids,” the Lifetime series the two exec produced. Exclusive: Melissa McCarthy (2) and Ben Falcone (3) have boarded…

3 min

Variety|6/21/2023

INDY WHISPERER

Before Indiana Jones entered director James Mangold’s life, Harrison Ford told him he was worried Indy was looking too old. It was the fall of 2019, and Mangold had joined the team working on the film adaptation of “The Call of the Wild,” in which Ford plays a rugged frontiersman, to help with reshoots. In their downtime, Ford began confiding in Mangold about the fifth “Indiana Jones” movie, which had been bouncing around in development for the better part of three years. Steven Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp had conceived a roughly five-minute opening sequence set during World War II, in which Ford would be digitally de-aged. Ford wasn’t sure it was a good idea. “Harrison told me he was nervous, because he felt like if people saw him younger,…

12 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Texas Biz Poised for Explosive Growth

Things have always been bigger in Texas. And thanks to some recently passed legislation, Texas film production is finally primed to take on a role befitting the state’s reputation. After years of watching productions opt for more incentive-rich states, Texas has been home to an immense amount of film and TV shooting over the past two years, with HBO’s “Love and Death,” Paramount’s “Yellowstone,” Apple TV+’s “The Last Thing He Told Me,” the CW’s “Walker,” Netflix’s “Hypnotic” and the Houston-set series “Mo” all setting up shop in the Lone Star state. And the floodgates look set to open even further with the recent legislative passage of $200 million in state shooting incentives, a sharp increase from the $45 million the state offered previously. For Nixon Guerrero, manager of Robert Rodriguez’s…

6 min

Variety|6/21/2023

TEXAS TAX INCENTIVES HIT ALL-TIME HIGH

Texas has long been known as a film-friendly state offering a slew of tax incentives, grants and other attractive benefits to productions. The May 29 conclusion of the recent legislative session delivered filmmakers additional commitments for financial support in the coming year. Thanks to two bills, the statewide filming grant was raised to an all-time high of $200 million, a significant jump from the $45 million earmarked in the previous session. The legislature also agreed to conduct a lengthy investigation into the revenue benefits of creating a transferrable tax credit program in the future, similar to those that already exist in Georgia and Oklahoma. Sharpened Iron Studios’ chief executive officer Sean Doherty worked with the governor and legislature on these endeavors. “We’re supremely confident that when the study is complete…

1 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Festival Amplifies New Voices

Spa town Karlovy Vary is known for more than healing waters to emerging filmmakers and producers from Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Those on track to reach global audiences are well acquainted with the festival’s industry section, headlined by the Eastern Promises collection of development and marketing workshops and mentorship programs. Aside from packed panels and talks by international veterans, such as the masterclass by indie mogul Christine Vachon of Killer Films, one of the industry program’s most buzzworthy events is the regionally focused Midpoint Institute Feature Launch. This year-round training platform took off more than a decade ago to support emerging talents by helping them to integrate their projects into the marketplace. It provides them with international collaboration and networking opportunities which, as Sona Morgenthalova, Feature…

3 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Contributors

Senior entertainment writer Adam B. Vary, who profiled “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” director James Mangold, considered becoming an archaeologist as a kid, but was scarred for life by “The Temple of Doom” and that was that on that. Associate art director Tarryn Silver worked on Variety’s Emmy Extra editions. “Planning these issues starts months in advance, so it’s satisfying to see all that hard work in print,” she says. “Big thanks to the #DreamTeam for making the process fun!” Visual director Jennifer Dorn, who wishes she were in Miami rather than gloomy Los Angeles, had the pleasure of working with photographer Devin Christopher for the first time on our cover shoot with DJ Khaled. “Photographing Khaled was a coming-of-age moment for me,” says Devin Christopher, who captured…

1 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Remembered: 1936-2023 Glenda Jackson

“She’s 100% a professional,” said the actor Juliet Mills as she accepted Glenda Jackson’s first best actress Oscar on the winner’s behalf at the 1971 Academy Awards — an apt description of a newcomer who had markedly more interest in being a professional actor than in being a movie star. Jackson opted out of the fuss and frippery associated with A-list status, and when she tired of acting altogether, she quit as unassumingly as she arrived. She entered British politics as a Labour Party MP, with a sense of liberal-minded duty uncommon in the ranks of celebrities-turned-statesmen. Jackson’s ingénue years were spent in repertory theater before the Royal Shakespeare Company took her on. Her intensity onstage in “Marat/Sade,” as revolutionary Charlotte Corday, was repeated in the 1967 film version. She…

2 min

Variety|6/21/2023

VAPOR TRAIL

1 Adele Lim wrote a letter to Cardi B’s team for permission to use her song “WAP”; the cast sings it a cappella while masquerading as a K-pop group. 2 An initial draft of the script contained a since-deleted scene involving a water buffalo. 3 The actors used a process called “alt lines,” which allowed writers to feed them multiple punchlines during the shooting of each scene. 4 Meredith Hagner (“Search Party,” “Palm Springs”) has a small but memorable role as the drug dealer who embroils the main characters in her scheme.…

1 min

Variety|6/21/2023

EXPOSURE

June 13 ‘Secret Invasion’ Premiere El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood It’s not a Marvel show without action, and Kingsley Ben-Adir assures there’s plenty of it in this Disney+ limited series. The actor, who plays the Skrull rebellion leader Gravik, also revealed that he did some of his own stunts. “The first day, I had been abseiling out of a helicopter, which doesn’t look that high when you’re on the ground. But when you’re up there? Shit was high,” he said. “There was a bunch of action. I tried to do it all, and I injured myself a couple of times.” June 14 ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Premiere Dolby Theatre, Hollywood Harrison Ford may be one of Hollywood’s most iconic action stars, but the 80-year-old actor refuses to take…

3 min

Variety|6/21/2023

A Look at the Unknown

New voting methods will likely yield surprise Emmy nomination inclusions (and exclusions) this year. There could also be historic representation in several areas, with ethnicity, age and decade-sold records shattered. HBO is no stranger to setting Emmy records. The fantasy epic “Game of Thrones” currently holds multiple records, including the most overall nominations for a drama series at 161 across its eight seasons. The network is celebrating its 50th anniversary and a new Max branding — so naturally, it wants more. If the early projections are accurate and it lands four drama series noms — “House of the Dragon,” “The Last of Us,” “The White Lotus” and last year’s winner, “Succession,” — HBO would tie the record for most series noms by a network in a single year, held by…

6 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Texas Production Pockets Offer a Range of Filming Homes

Texas offers vast, open spaces and is beefing up its industry infrastructure to attract production not only across the state but in several pockets that have become hubs for all types of media production. From the central regions in and around Austin and Waco to the western panhandle near Amarillo, the Lone Star State is positioning itself for a production boom, aided by the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive program, recently passed by the state legislature. “We were able to receive such great funding and have such support from the legislators across the board on both sides of the aisle, from rural areas to the cities,” says Mindy Raymond, communications director for the Texas Media Production Alliance, noting the leap in funding from the previous legislative session ($45 million) to…

3 min

Variety|6/21/2023

A Life in Rhythm

“I forget about a lot of the things that I’ve done until someone brings it up,” says Sheila E. “I wish I could remember everything, when there’s so much that I’ve done! I look back and reflect a little bit, but I’m always in the moment and I feel that there’s so much more for me to do.” On July 12, Sheila E.’s remarkable career will be recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “It’s something that never even crossed my mind,” she says of the honor. “Well, it probably did when I was younger, because growing up in the Bay Area, we would drive to Los Angeles and go, ‘Wow, look, this is Hollywood!’ So it’s very humbling.” It’s been a long, wild ride for the…

6 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

FILM REVIEW Director: James Mangold Starring: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is a dutifully eager but ultimately rather joyless piece of nostalgic hokum. It’s the fifth installment of the “Indiana Jones” franchise, and though it has its quota of “relentless” action, it rarely tries to match (let alone top) the ingeniously staged kinetic bravura of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” How could it? “Raiders,” whatever one thinks of it as a movie (I always found it a trace impersonal in its ’40s-action-serial-on-steroids excitement), is arguably the most influential blockbuster of the past 45 years, even more so than “Star Wars.” Back in 1977, George Lucas took us through the looking glass of what would become our all-fantasy-all-the-time movie culture. But it was…

5 min

Variety|6/21/2023

I’m a Virgo

TV REVIEW Dramedy: Amazon Prime Video (7 episodes; all reviewed); June 23 Starring: Jharrel Jerome, Walton Goggins, Olivia Washington “Sorry to Bother You,” Boots Riley’s 2018 directorial debut, was a cultural event: It announced Riley, who’d already made a career as a politically minded rapper, as a sharp critic of contemporary capitalism who could pair his ideas with grabby, memorable imagery. The cascade of reveals and visual transformations toward the end of that film, too good to spoil for the uninitiated, worked brilliantly as spectacle and made Riley’s case too: Under our current system, we all end up becoming beasts of burden. Riley returns with a larger canvas and new expressions of familiar concerns with “I’m a Virgo.” Like “Sorry to Bother You,” which addressed the problems of its telemarketer…

3 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Brandy Clark

“I remember thinking, ‘I have dreaded that this is where we’re gonna go in this song.’” Singer-songwriter Brandy Clark has enjoyed triumphs recently on two fronts. Ten years of work on the score for her first Broadway musical, “Shucked,” paid off with a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award for her and score co-writer Shane McAnally. And the Nashville resident’s self-titled fourth album, which found her pal Brandi Carlile moving into the producer’s chair, got the kind of great reviews that could augur Grammy noms. • The “Shucked” music is mostly comedic. Is it challenging or freeing to have to be that funny for the length of a score? Freeing. You know, it’s fun to write a song about corn and say, “It’s the same going in, coming out.”…

4 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Between a ‘Flash’ and a Hard Place

In the climax of “The Flash,” Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) watches helplessly as his timeline-hopping escapades cause several other superhero universes to careen into each other and become obliterated in the process. Ironically, Warner Bros. is facing almost an identical dilemma — and the stakes could be nearly as existential. “The Flash” is the second of four mega-budgeted DC adaptations the studio is set to release this year, starting with “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” in March, and followed by “Blue Beetle” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” in August and December. Yet these movies were conceived and greenlit by an executive team that all have departed the studio; in their place, new DC Studios chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran have announced they will reboot the DC franchise in…

4 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Sign of the Times

At the end of Boots Riley’s 2018 debut feature, “Sorry to Bother You,” Cassius (LaKeith Stanfield) gets stretched and mutilated beyond recognition until he becomes a horse — all in service of the film’s cutting narrative about how capitalism is crushing us all. In “I’m a Virgo,” Riley’s new Amazon Prime Video series, that stretching comes before the story begins: 19-year-old Cootie (Jharrel Jerome) is 13 feet tall, and he ends up under attack when the city of Oakland learns about the giant living in its backyard — again, all in service of a cutting narrative about how capitalism is crushing us all. “I believe that people should democratically control the wealth that we create with our labor,” says Riley, 52. The writer-director has identified as a communist since before…

3 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Make Your Choices but Consider These Too

AWARDS CIRCUIT And away we go! After months of FYC campaigning — robust events before May 1, and then a bit different (with writers obviously absent) after the WGA strike began — now we wait. Television Academy voters hopefully are considering everything they’ve watched over the past few months as they make their selections, and when nominations are announced on July 12, we’ll find out just how successful the Phase 1 barnstorming was. If this year’s Emmy ballots are any indication, the era of Peak TV may truly be over — which FX boss John Landgraf has of course been predicting for some time. There are 163 dramas, 95 comedies and 51 limited/anthology series that have been submitted — down from 171 dramas, 118 comedies and 61 limited/anthology series last…

3 min

Variety|6/21/2023

CAN’T KNOCK THE HUSTLE

DJ KHALED grew up around money. Literally — as a child being raised in New Orleans, the future producer-rapper watched his parents sell clothing out of their car at flea markets and stuff the profits in a pouch wrapped around their young son’s waist. Later, when they got their own store, it was the sound of the cash register that would ring in his ears. ¶ Those early experiences with street-level entrepreneurial activity influenced the rest of his life, most dramatically after all of his family’s hard work to build up retail businesses was done in by what Khaled calls “a bad accountant” when he was 17. ¶ Now 47, Khaled took those hard lessons to heart. Today, he’s an enormously accomplished artist and entrepreneur, known to most as…

12 min

Variety|6/21/2023

From FYC to TBD

The Emmys have been here before. In 1980, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (back then, they were two separate unions negotiating a joint contract with the studios but are now the combined SAG-AFTRA) went on strike for three months. That year’s Emmy telecast happened to fall right in the middle of it. Actors boycotted the ceremony, but for some reason, the TV Academy went ahead with the Emmy telecast anyway. Famously, only one out of 52 nominees attended: Powers Boothe, who said when accepting his trophy for playing cult leader Jim Jones: “This is either the most courageous moment of my career or the stupidest.” Steve Allen and Dick Clark (both of whom donated their hosting fees to the SAG emergency fund)…

3 min

Variety|6/21/2023

State Program Links Communities

When a state’s gross domestic product is the second-largest nationally and ranks within the top 10 worldwide, its government must be innovative when it comes to keeping the population employed. For Texas, this means enticing productions to set up shop not just through the use of tax incentives and grants, but by devising innovative ways to support filmmakers as well. Since Texas communities are spread across a vast landscape, the Film-Friendly Certified Community Program was developed in 2007 to metaphorically connect the state. Its goal was to lock in a blueprint of standardized filming guidelines while providing filmmakers with a contact to pave the way for them locally, thus creating a seamless process for productions. San Antonio Film and Music commissioner Kimberly LeBlanc has worked with the Texas Film…

3 min

Variety|6/21/2023

Politics, Poetry Converge in Bohemia

The Karlovy Vary Film Festival, which takes place in an elegant spa resort in the Bohemian region of the Czech Republic, is set to get political during its 57th edition, but in a subtle way. “I am not sure if you can even use the word ‘subtle’ when talking about politics, but it doesn’t always have to be in your face. You can be political by showing the existential struggles of an elderly lady who gets framed by some crooks,” says artistic director Karel Och, mentioning Stephan Komandarev’s “Blaga’s Lessons,” which will vie for the Crystal Globe. While the main competition features many stories about people trying to return home or simply find their place in the world, he adds, the festival will also celebrate Iran with a separate…

3 min