Variety 6/1/2022

I originally had intended to write this week’s Editor’s Letter about the controversial trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and how it infuriates me that the case has become a sickening spectacle of memes, audio recordings and video clips that trend on TikTok, and is the butt of mean-spirited jokes largely aimed at Heard. It sickens me that people have lost sight of what is at the heart of this case: potential domestic violence — a dangerous issue that should not be made light of under any circumstances. Violence, of course, is evil in any form, and when the horrific news of the massacre in a Texas elementary school erupted this week, I felt compelled to devote this space to the memory of the 19 children and two teachers…

Don’t call it a comeback. But thanks to sports, ever-expanding drama franchises and a handful of new hits, the Big 4 broadcast networks managed to avoid another year-to-year collapse during the now-concluded TV season. Football once again ruled primetime, led by NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” while “Thursday Night Football” showed up twice on Nielsen’s top-rated series’ chart due to a quirk of some games airing only on NFL Network, and others simulcast on both Fox and NFL. (This won’t be an issue next year, as “Thursday Night Football” moves to Amazon Prime Video — and off this chart.) But beyond that, network TV’s embrace of procedural dramas is giving broadcasters a fighting chance at survival. Dick Wolf is keeping the lights on at NBC and CBS, as the hitmaker’s “Law…

The 75th annual Cannes Film Festival reminded the world just why people love going to the movies. And movie theaters received an important endorsement from a powerful A-list ally. “I make movies for the big screen,” Tom Cruise said on May 18, just hours before “Top Gun: Maverick” premiered to a rapturous standing ovation on its way to a $160.5 million domestic box office opening. Here are the biggest winners and losers from the French Riviera. • Winner: Neon. The indie distributor has a special touch with Palme d’Or winners. Following 2019’s “Parasite” and 2021’s “Titane,” Neon landed North American rights to this year’s big Cannes champ: Ruben Östlund’s black comedy “Triangle of Sadness,” which stars Woody Harrelson as a rabid Marxist who is the captain of a cruise ship…

Amazon Studios and Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment are developing a limited series based on “The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. The United States of America,” historian Eric Cervini’s New York Times bestseller about Frank Kameny, a Department of Defense astronomer in the 1950s who became a leading figure in the fight for LGBTQ civil rights when he sued the federal government after being fired because he was gay. Tony-winning playwright Matthew López (“The Inheritance”) is set to adapt, Variety exclusively learned. “When I first read Eric’s book, I knew I wanted to adapt it for television. And when I first met Eric, I knew I had found the right creative partner to help me bring it to life,” López says. “So much of American queer history is told from…

“IT’S NO SECRET THAT RAY HAD AN EDGE. I USED TO CALL HIM THE HUMAN KNIFE. WHEN YOU WERE IN HIS PRESENCE, HE WAS GOING TO KEEP YOU HONEST.” I had an ambitious movie in my mind that was so sprawling I couldn’t quite get my head around it. So I started interviewing writers to help unlock my ideas. I met a couple of people and then I sat down with Ben Coccio at the Donut Pub in Manhattan. I started with an icebreaker — “What’s your favorite movie?” “GoodFellas,” he said, not missing a beat. “No way!” I exclaimed. “That’s my favorite movie, too.” Instantly, I knew we could work together. After a half-dozen donuts, Ben and I made a pact to write a screenplay together and, in it,…

Eric Kripke would like to make one thing clear: No sea creatures were harmed during the last season of Amazon’s extremely offbeat, Emmy-nominated superhero drama “The Boys.” The show-runner and executive producer is referring to an over-the-top scene that involved key characters smashing a motorboat into a whale. In this case, Moby Dick was actually a 50-foot long, 11-foottall prop built at great expense to ensure it was anatomically correct. Kripke raises this as a point of contrast to build anticipation for what is in store as the series returns for Season 3 on June 3, more than 18 months after the Season 2 finale dropped on Oct. 9, 2020. “There’s something that, conservatively speaking, is a thousand times crazier than the whale. And that’s just science,” Kripke tells Variety.…