Innholdsfortegnelse for 5/18/2022 i Variety

I felt ill when the news broke May 11 that my go-to cinema, Landmark Theatres’ flagship Westside location on Pico Boulevard, was shutting down at the end of the month. I have been going to this complex religiously — call it my house of movie worship — ever since its founding 15 years ago. For at least the past decade, my partner and I would have date night there nearly every Saturday night after enjoying dinner downstairs from the theater at the now defunct Westside Tavern. It was a weekly ritual I always looked forward to, until the COVID pandemic kept us from going these past two years. There is just so much I cherished about the theater. You could always catch the latest and greatest firstrun indie and foreign…

George Carlin’s enduring comedic legacy inspired Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio to make HBO’s upcoming documentary about the counterculture icon, whose observations remain eerily topical nearly 14 years after his death. Carlin, who appeared on “The Tonight Show” more than 130 times during his lengthy career, riffed about abortion, the planet, police brutality and organized religion in his stand-up sets and also appeared in movies such as “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” His legendary 1972 routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” is still regularly invoked in media circles. “We were always so surprised that anytime something happened in the news, George would start trending,” says Apatow, who co-directed “George Carlin’s American Dream” with Bonfiglio, a frequent collaborator. “Most comedians’ material ages really badly, but his work was…

AWARDS CIRCUIT It’s easy to mock Peak TV for just the sheer amount of content out there these days. And for those of us who cover the business, it sometimes feels like we’re drowning in it. (No, this isn’t a cry for help. But help.) There are benefits to this content surge, though: Creators can finally tell so many stories from so many different communities, and also tell them accurately. I recently wrote a column, timed to Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, about “Fresh off the Boat” executive producers Melvin Mar and Jake Kasdan’s projects spotlighting different elements of the vast AAPI experience for multiple networks and streamers. That’s a positive development in this expansive world of limitless distribution. May also happens to be Mental Health Awareness Month,…

One Chicago Stack (NBC, Wednesday, 8-11 p.m.) “Chicago Fire” (Season 10) PREMIERE DATE: Oct. 10, 2012 SHOWRUNNERS: Derek Haas, Andrea Newman STARS: Taylor Kinney, David Eigenberg, Miranda Rae Mayo, Eamonn Walker, Kara Killmer “Chicago P.D.” (Season 9) PREMIERE DATE: Jan. 8, 2014 SHOWRUNNER: Gwen Sigan STARS: Jason Beghe, Jesse Lee Soffer, Patrick John Flueger, Marina Squerciati, LaRoyce Hawkins, Tracy Spiridakos “Chicago Med” (Season 7) PREMIERE DATE: Nov. 17, 2015 SHOWRUNNERS: Diane Frolov, Andrew Schneider STARS: Nick Gehlfuss, Oliver Platt, S. Epatha Merkerson, Brian Tee, Steven Weber Law & Order Stack (NBC, Thursday, 8-11 p.m.) “Law & Order” (Season 21) PREMIERE DATE: Sept. 13, 1990 SHOWRUNNER: Rick Eid STARS: Sam Waterston, Anthony Anderson, Jeffrey Donovan, Camryn Manheim, Hugh Dancy, Odelya Halevi “Law & Order: SVU” (Season 23) PREMIERE DATE: Sept. 20,…

The honorees for Variety Marketing Visionary Awards Presented by Spotify are inundated nonstop with consumer-focused analytics data that sometimes signal advisability of tweaking or overhauling campaigns on the run. Those data pointers can be consumer search revealing which characters and plot lines resonate (and which that don’t); consumer engagement with early promotions; linger time on creative materials; signup rates; and big data collected from every nook and cranny of cyberspace. Besides the unexpected, Hollywood marketing campaigns usually sequence some plannedall-along, late-stage surprises too to keep the audience engaged. Digital media provide barrels of information from assorted platforms that are meshed with intelligence from traditional media, which are still a marketing bedrock given their wide reach. They are combined for multi-layered and complex campaigns. • Asad Ayaz, president of marketing at…

The L.A. Screenings were one of many entertainment industry traditions that were put on hold by the pandemic. After all, an event that brings a few hundred international TV buyers to Los Angeles to huddle for a week in small screening rooms is pretty much the opposite of social distancing. This year, a smaller contingent of buyers is expected to make like swallows to Capistrano and return to Hollywood during the week of May 23. Day by day, most of the major studios will take turns hosting L.A. Screenings events, giving buyers the opportunity to sample new properties on the heels of the network upfront presentations, held the week of May 16 in New York. But the first L.A. Screenings week held since 2019 will look and feel different for…

The 2022 Sundance Film Festival featured a Regina Hall double bill: “Master,” a thriller following three Black women at a predominantly white college; and “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul,” a mockumentary exploring the inner workings of a Southern Baptist megachurch. Hall was pumped to take Park City by storm this year — at least, before the COVID surge derailed the festival. “I was so looking forward to it being in person,” Hall says. “When they said virtual I was like, ‘Damn you Omicron!’” Hall is receiving the second annual Voice of Inspiration Award from Variety on May 25 at the annual Reel Works Change-Makers Gala. Also being honored is Macro founder and CEO Charles D. King with the Reel Works ChangeMaker Award. Established in 2001, Reel Works provides more…

1 ‘The Late Late Show’ to Head to London in June James Corden is going home — to visit, as part of a weeklong trip to Blighty for “The Late Late Show” on CBS. This will mark the fourth time “The Late Late Show With James Corden” has filmed from the U.K., but it’s the first major initiative for the show since Corden announced he would depart the franchise next year. The show will broadcast four episodes from Freemasons’ Hall in Central London, its first time in that venue. The episodes will air June 27-30. — Michael Schneider 2 Hallmark Sets London-Based Christmas Movie The Hallmark Channel will be in Britain this Christmas. The network has cast Will Kemp (“The Christmas Waltz”) and Reshma Shetty (“Blind Spot”) in its upcoming…

Is “Bridgerton” star Nicola Coughlan (1) going to be in the Margot Robbie-led “Barbie” movie? Sure sounds like it. It all begins with the speculation that Coughlan would be on the next season of “Doctor Who” after she was photographed at the BAFTA TV Awards with Ncuti Gatwa (2). Just minutes before, it was announced that the “Sex Education” actor would be the new Doctor. Gatwa posted a pic of himself and Coughlan on his Instagram with a caption reading, “A pair of dolls.” He also included a boy and girl emoji and a pair of eyes next to Coughlan’s name. However, Coughlan insists there’s no “Doctor” in her future. “I am not going to be on ‘Doctor Who,’” she told me Sunday at Netflix’s “Bridgerton” FYC event at Raleigh…

The post-Academy Award box office bump has now shifted to streaming. Search data from Roku — America’s number one streaming platform by hours streamed — offers a look at how deeply the movie industry’s biggest night can impact viewers’ interest in a film. The Audience Insights team within Roku Advertising collects a suite of data, which looks at how users search for titles, genres and actor names to see what or who is hot in the moment, as well as if interest has changed over time. For example, during the first quarter of 2022, most active Roku households used the search function, racking up a total of 233.5 million searches — nearly half of which resulted in a selected title being launched on a streaming channel. Now, the Audience Insights…

From “The King of Kings” to “The Northman,” hundreds of films have premiered within the storied walls of the TCL Chinese Theatre, which celebrates its 95th anniversary May 18. Indeed, as early as 1933, the famed movie house appeared in other media as a boilerplate for how a premiere should, and often does, look like. Since then, the theater played itself in dozens of television shows and movies, some of which went on to debut on its iconic screen. The forecourt holds the signatures and imprints of concrete immortalization. The former Grauman’s Chinese Theatre will fete its 95 years by launching a full year of programming, while also navigating premieres for first-run films and special events including the annual TCM Film Festival. It repertory programming was scheduled both in the…

“The Essex Serpent” production designer Alice Normington and costume designer Jane Petrie centered their work on the journey of the show’s protagonist Cora Seaborn, played by Claire Danes. Based on the Sarah Perry novel, the six-part series, now streaming on Apple TV+, takes place in Victorian London and in a seaside village plagued by rumors of a mythical beast. Newly widowed Cora has just moved to the Essex village, intrigued by the story of the serpent and ready to follow her passion to look for fossils. Normington’s designs touched on the idea of Heaven, Hell and Earth to portray Cora’s turmoil. When the character is at her London house, red tones are a reflection of her past as viewers learn about the abuse she suffered there. “That home is her…

The erosion of subscriber numbers for MVPDs isn’t letting up in 2022. The five major traditional multichannel providers reporting subscriptions — Altice USA, Charter, Comcast, Dish and Verizon — lost a combined 3.1 million subs, with numbers falling to 46.2 million versus a year ago. When compared with levels for the same period in 2018, it’s a total decline of 10.1 million subs, or 18%. Still, there’s some good news for the TV industry. The three streaming providers that consistently report paying customers — Hulu, Sling TV and FuboTV — have seen subs climb to 3.97 million cumulatively, showing that not everyone who cancels traditional TV walks away for good. Until all the majors (think DirecTV, YouTube TV) report, we won’t have the full picture of pay TV, but it’s…

May 18 Wednesday • Danny Boyle, Jacob Slater, Anson Boon, Christian Lees, Louis Partridge and Sydney Chandler attend a tastemaker screening of FX’s “Pistol.” Metrograph, New York • Diane von Furstenberg and Logan Paul speak during the second day of The Wall Street Journal’s The Future of Everything Festival. Spring Studios, New York May 19 Thursday • Yolanda Adams, Serayah, Chaundre A. Hall-Broomfield, Michael Beach, Michael Jai White, DeVon Franklin, Kirk Franklin and Dr. Holly Carter walk the carpet at the premiere of BET+’s “Kingdom Business.” NeueHouse, Hollywood May 20 Friday • Hugh Jackman, Billy Crystal, Jesse Williams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Patti LuPone, Uzo Aduba, Sutton Foster, Rachel Dratch and Ben Vereen attend the Drama League Awards. The Ziegfeld Ballroom, New York • Anna Ouyang Moench’s play “Man of God,”…

It’s a house that “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” could only dream of. Visitors to Amazon’s Prime Experience event space this year have encountered something that’s definitely unlike any other FYC pop-up in Emmy history: A 24,628-sq.-ft. mansion with nine bedrooms and nine bathrooms, on a 12.2-acre estate high above Beverly Hills. Emmy FYC events are back — and boy, are they ever back. After two years of mostly virtual panels — with some drive-in events in the mix — networks and studios were once again given permission by the Television Academy this year to swing the doors open and hold in-person panels, screenings and experiences. And perhaps tired of watching panels at home while eating food delivery meals, TV Academy members also appear ready to hop in their cars and…

Northwestern University is playing a key role in bringing mental health stories to the world of film and TV. Its School of Communication features an innovative program that aims to shine a light on mental health and its role in filmed entertainment. Made possible by a gift from the Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts creates, supports, and examines original narrative screenwriting, television writing and media making centered on mental health. “Jessy Pucker is a graduate from Northwestern and she wanted to do something important with psychology and film, and I pitched this program for student filmmakers and screenwriters to think more deeply on how mental illness was being represented in film and television,” says David E. Tolchinsky,…

The last time audiences saw the Byers family on Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” they were leaving town. After a lengthy hiatus, the highly anticipated fourth season returns on May 27. This time, the family has been relocated for their safety to Southern California, where they moved from fictional Hawkins, Ind. (actually filmed in Georgia). The family has expanded, with Eleven (Millie Bobbie Brown) joining Joyce (Winona Ryder), Will (Noah Schnapp) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton). “Jonathan has gotten deeper into this hippie, outsider situation. Will is in his room struggling with post-adolescence, and Eleven is trying to be a normal kid, with a bedroom in suburbia.”—Chris Trujillo, production designer In finding the new home, production designer Chris Trujillo thought about building from the ground up, but there was something more special in…

FILM REVIEW Director: Joseph Kosinski Starring: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly The world is not the same place it was in 1986, when “Top Gun” ruled the box office. In Ronald Reagan, America had a movie star for a president, and producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson as its honorary ministers of propaganda. The same year that “Platoon” challenged the United States’ militaristic track record, “Top Gun” sold a thrilling if narrow-minded fantasy of American exceptionalism — of boys and their toys, of macho-man bromance and what it means to be the best. Three years after Tom Cruise flipped the bird to a Russian MiG fighter plane, the Berlin Wall fell. Two years later, the Soviet Union collapsed. One could argue that our new, post-Cold War world didn’t need…