Innholdsfortegnelse for 8/17/2022 i Variety

Anne Heche was a showrunner’s dream. She was a strong and empathetic leader who always showed up ready to do the work. She knew what her job was as No. 1 on the call sheet. She knew how important it was to set the right tone of inclusion and happiness on the set. She was able to give generously and voluminously to her fellow actors. This is the Anne Heche that I will remember when I think of my friend and collaborator on the dramedy series “Men in Trees,” which ran on ABC from 2006-08. It is hard for me to reconcile the Anne that I knew with the circumstances of her death, which came Aug. 14, nine days after a fiery car crash in West Los Angeles that made…

AWARDS CIRCUIT Hosting an awards show is considered a pretty thankless job with little upside, in an era of dwindling ratings for kudocasts and snarky social media posts. And yet, it’s still a bucket-list item for many performers. Which is why I totally get it that Kenan Thompson would say yes to this year’s Emmys, even after TV Academy voters snubbed him and NBC canceled his namesake primetime sitcom. “They asked, and it’s an honor,” Thompson tells me on a sweltering August afternoon in Hollywood, where he’s receiving his star on the Walk of Fame. “It’s a giant career milestone to host an Emmys, an Oscars, a Tonys, whatever. So you get that phone call, you should take it!” His NBC colleague Seth Meyers, who hosted in 2014, had no…

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is celebrating 73 years of Black film artistry with the new exhibit “Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971.” Curated by the Academy Museum’s Doris Berger and Rhea Combs of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the first-of-its-kind exhibition features seven galleries exploring Black representation in film, from portraits of icons like Ruby Dee and Nina Mae McKinney to home videos of the Nicholas Brothers and Cab Calloway. “It’s really exciting for us to be able to help expand the conversation around American cinema, essentially, by bringing forward these important contributions by Black filmmakers as well as performers and other artisans and technicians,” Combs tells Variety. Since 2017, Berger and Combs have been acquiring a vast collection of costumes, scripts, drawings and other historical materials for “Regeneration” by…

With voting underway, Variety’s experts take a look at A-list documentaries, the can’t-miss scores and this season’s lively races for variety, talk series and host The Emmys are right around the corner, so it’s the perfect time to book that vacation to kick back, relax and unwind. With the Creative Arts Emmys falling on Labor Day weekend and the Telluride, Venice and Toronto film festivals bunching up in early September, it’s time to focus on you. Whether looking for a fun family getaway, a quiet romantic trip or maybe a solo adventure on a budget, here are some suggestions for seamless booking in the U.S. and abroad. Alkera SHOAL BAY, ANGUILLA Want to splurge on an exotic group getaway? While the flight is only seven hours from New York, Shoal…

In July, “We Feed People,” Ron Howard’s National Geographic documentary about celebrity chef José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen, received two Emmy nominations. That same month, World Central Kitchen, which cooks and delivers food to people in need following social and environmental disasters, continued its humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine. The org has set up more than 5,000 distribution points and has served more than 100 million meals since entering the country in February. The Emmy nominations offer Howard and Andrés another opportunity to discuss the docu — but also the global efforts of World Health Kitchen that they hope will serve as a call to action, big or small. “I’m not a warrior out there in the field, but I’m doing the thing I can…

When W. Kamau Bell got started, he just wanted to make people laugh. At 21, he began with a goal of being a stand-up comedian. Then everything changed. “We had a Black president, then we had an orange president,” he says. “I got motivated in different directions. It would be hard to explain to the young me what this is.” Bell always knew he wanted to be in showbiz and even took a class in filmmaking at Columbia — but at that point, it wasn’t for him. “It was back in the days when you had to cut film with razor blades and tape it together and I was like, ‘I don’t want to do any of this!’ I definitely had ideas,” he says, noting that eventually, he knew he…

Fantasy films and television have been the basis for some of the most memorable scores in history, and more are on the horizon with the debuts of “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” (Aug. 18), “House of the Dragon” (Aug. 21) and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (Sept. 2). Disney+, HBO and Amazon Prime are, for the most part, keeping a lid on music until the shows premiere, but Variety got a preview of all three from the composers themselves. “I feel like every composer wants to, at some stage, write that big action-adventure score and get to work with an orchestra,” says Amie Doherty, composer of “She-Hulk,” the Marvel series with Tatiana Maslany as a lawyer who can also turn into a giant green-skinned super-being. The challenge,…

TV REVIEW Comedy: Disney+ (9 episodes; 4 reviewed); Aug. 18 Starring: Tatiana Maslany, Ginger Gonzaga, Mark Ruffalo No one’s more annoyed by the derivative moniker “She-Hulk” than Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk herself (played by “Orphan Black” star Tatiana Maslany). Calling her “She-Hulk,” as if she’s nothing more than the lady half of the first Hulk, is definitely an insult — but not one that Jen, a lawyer practiced in the art of grinning and bearing constant frustration, can’t brush off. And so begins “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.” Marvel’s latest swing at adapting a beloved character into a show tries both to stand apart from the studio’s formidable film franchise and to incorporate enough of its hallmarks to keep fans invested. From head writer Jessica Gao and director Kat Coiro, and…

At the beginning of the third season of “Succession,” Kendall Roy, played by Emmy winner Jeremy Strong, was on a high, and for once, the reason was virtuous, not chemical. His attempt to overthrow his father, Logan (Brian Cox), from his perch atop Waystar Royco, the family business that happens to be a multinational conglomerate, appeared to be going well. But for Kendall, peaks quickly become valleys. As Strong puts it during a conversation with “Succession” executive producer Adam McKay moderated by Variety, during those early episodes, “I thought a lot about Uncle Albert from ‘Mary Poppins’ — the laughing, floating guy, trying to keep up this positivity that is really a desperate dance over an abyss.” By “Too Much Birthday” — the season’s seventh episode, set at Kendall’s 40th…

Idris Elba is undeniably the star of Will Packer’s latest movie, “Beast,” but the family story at the heart of the Universal release was a big draw for the producer, who previously shepherded “Girls Trip.” In the film, debuting in theaters Aug. 19, Elba plays Nate Samuels, a recently widowed doctor who returns to South Africa with his teenage daughters (Iyana Halley and Leah Sava Jeffries) and must fight to survive the pursuit of a manhunting lion. “I loved the idea that it just happens to be a Black family in peril,” Packer says. “It’s not just about man versus beast — it’s a man protecting his daughters. It’s universal in those themes.” The sisters are stricken by paralyzing fear of the carnivore’s relentless chase. Halley portrays Meredith, a college-bound…

If you haven’t taken a look at Diane Keaton’s Instagram feed, you really should. The 76-year-old Oscar winner entertains her 2.1 million followers with a range of video posts. Some of my favorites include a photomontage of famous men — Justin Bieber, Lil Baby, Oscar Isaac and Kodi Smit-McPhee, to name a few — set to “It’s Raining Men” and another explaining why she prefers almonds to walnuts while she shows off her snack closet. In April, Keaton’s “Spring Cleaning” video featured her in one of her signature black-and-white ensembles, a hat and studded black leather gloves as she picked through a closet for items to donate to Goodwill. “There’s something wrong about that, but really I’m glad that I’m part of it,” Keaton says of her Instagram popularity. “I…

According to Netflix, the Skip Intro button is pressed 136 million times in a typical day. Moreover, the feature has been adopted by streamers industry-wide. So what does it mean for a potentially iconic title theme? While approaches vary, the composers nominated for outstanding original main title theme music at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards are united in confronting the slight with good humor and unbridled creativity. “It makes people want to up their game and to do something so catchy that people want to hear it,” says Natalie Holt, nominated for Disney+’s “Loki.” She compares it to writing a pop song: “Things that don’t get stuck in your head go in the bin.” Siddhartha Khosla, a nominee for Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” also uses a songwriting metaphor,…

Only 19 out of 70 nominees in this year’s lead, supporting and guest actor and actress categories across dramas, comedies and limited series are people of color. But when it comes to unseen performers — including those in the narration category — there are actually more nominees of color than white ones. “I’m reluctant to jump to conclusions,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar says about the diversity discrepancy. For narrating “Black Patriots: Heroes of the Civil War,” the NBA legend-turned-historian is one of four Black nominees — he’s joined by W. Kamau Bell, Lupita Nyong’o and Barack Obama for “Our Great National Parks.” This year, David Attenborough was the only white person to make the category. In 2021, Sterling K. Brown was the only nominated person of color but went on to win…

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah (COMEDY CENTRAL) Nabbing its fifth consecutive nomination in this category, the show continues to highlight bewildering topics of the day with a biting edge. Not sure it looks like this is the year the show can finally unseat John Oliver or best any of the other contenders. Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO) John Oliver’s weekly series has won this category every year since 2016. With five noms overall this year, the stage is set for TV Academy voters to say “welcome, welcome, welcome” to the show as a winner once again. Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC) Nominated each year since 2012, ABC’s staple of late-night still manages to have some of the best opening monologues on television. This category marks its sole nom…

Ten years ago, organizers of the first KCON fan gathering had plenty of faith in the appeal of K-pop and South Korean pop culture, but there was nervousness about how many people would show up to celebrate it in Southern California. In October 2012, executives at CJ ENM were pleasantly surprised when about 10,000 aficionados turned out for a daylong conference and evening concert at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in Orange County. At the time, KCON was the biggest real-world expression of CJ ENM vice chair Miky Lee’s determination to promote Korean content and culture on the world stage. A decade later, the seeds Lee and her team planted with KCON and other events are delivering a bountiful harvest. KCON 2022 is expected to draw about 100,000 fans to the Los…

A new awards season is just around the corner, with the Venice Film Festival beginning Aug. 31, followed by Telluride on Sept. 2 and Toronto on Sept. 8. In many cases those fests will offer the first chance for audiences to get a peek at some early contenders. Costume designer Arianne Phillips (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), a three-time Oscar nominee, is dressing Florence Pugh and Harry Styles in Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling.” Think “Mad Men”-meets-“The Stepford Wives” for this ostensibly ’50s-set dystopian drama where the women are dressed in full skirts and floral dresses accompanied by pearl earrings while the dapper men are in pristine suits. Cinematographer Matthew Libatique (“A Star Is Born”), a two-time Oscar nominee, lenses a pair of offerings this season — “Don’t Worry…

Aug 17 Wednesday • Soho House founder-CEO Nick Jones and president Andrew Carnie, along with Soho Home managing director Aalish Yorke-Long, host a VIP preview of the new Soho.Home.Studio on Melrose Avenue. Soho.Home.Studio Melrose, West Hollywood • Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Molly Shannon, Ayden Mayeri, Debby Ryan, Dave Franco, Clea DuVall, Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass attend the premiere of “Spin Me Round.” The London West Hollywood Aug 21 Sunday • City of Hope hosts the All In for Hope Poker Tournament, featuring bites from Elephante, Beyond Burger, Pinches Tacos and Imperia Caviar; Gourmeletas ice cream; and Bacardi cocktails. Presented by the Natalie Cole Foundation, with music by DJ Dojah. The Wiltern, Los Angeles Aug 22 Monday • Regina Hall, Sterling K. Brown, Austin Crute, Conphidance, Devere Rogers, Avis-Marie Barnes,…

Stoner Cats, CryptoPunks and Bored Apes. Blockchains and metaverses. Cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. Over the past 12 months, as the world has eased out of pandemic crisis mode, the pop culture-verse and the Wall Street-verse have been rife with discourse and deal-making around a belief in the revolutionary potential of mind-bendingly complicated, internet-enabled new systems of communication, content creation, supply-chain management, legal documentation and banking. This emerging world has a nomenclature all its own — the digital version of a velvet rope — but in general it refers to technologies and wildly complex computer processing applications (also referred to as data mining) that fall under the broad heading of “Web3.” Yet — simply put — what is Web3? And perhaps just as important, why did seemingly everyone in entertainment, finance,…

Global Venture Capital Investment in Crypto & Blockchain Firms Source: CB Insights Venture Capital Funding for Blockchain Startups Source: Crunchbase Note: Includes pre-seed, seed and all venture rounds Top 2021 NFT Sales Top 2021 NFT Sales Source: DappRadar Source: DappRadar Number of Venture Funding Deals for Blockchain Startups Source: Crunchbase Daily Market Value of Bitcoi Measured at market close from Jan. 1, 2020, to Aug. 10, 2022 Source: Coin MarketCap For more on Web3, check out Variety Intelligence Platform’s special report at variety.com/web3…

Interior designer Melanie Rose specializes in something very intimate and unique in the home renovation space: She designs sex rooms. Remember Tommy Lee’s dream of a boudoir playground in “Pam & Tommy,” and how the racy redesign led to his sex tape being stolen? That’s what Rose does for a living — well, except she doesn’t steal her clients’ personal belongings. When she’s not planning other folks’ bedrooms, Rose is in her own home writing a series of erotic novels based on that career. It was under the guise of pitching those books as a scripted series that her manager approached Adam Sher, president of ITV America. But Sher had another idea: Why not turn her life and work into a TV-MA-rated reality show? And so Netflix’s “How to Build…

A year ago, as Emmy voters were considering potential contenders for outstanding music supervision, would any of them have guessed that Kate Bush would enter the top 10 of U.S. song consumption? Or that Metallica would see a resurgence based on a key synch? But such is the power of the soundtrack to Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” which can catapult a song from a few thousand streams to hundreds of millions. Credit music supervisor Nora Felder for identifying and clearing the placements for use in season 4. Bush’s story is particularly impressive. The reclusive singer saw her 1985 song “Running Up That Hill” receive a 153 percent surge the week the series dropped and has since gone on to become one of 30 most-streamed songs of 2022. Emmy-nominated Felder says the…

This year’s documentary directing race is celebrity-heavy. Not only are four of the seven directors nominated public figures, but the five docus featured include marquee names. Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio’s “George Carlin’s American Dream,” Amy Poehler’s “Lucy and Desi” and Andrew Rossi’s “The Andy Warhol Diaries” each explore the lives of the titular characters. W. Kamau Bell’s “We Need to Talk About Cosby” examines the thorny cultural legacy of Bill Cosby, while Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back” is a portrait of the band’s final chapter. Finally, Ian Denyer’s Venice episode of the series “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” follows the actor as he visits the seaside city. Denyer spent 2 1/2 weeks prepping in Venice before Tucci arrived for a one-week, meticulously mapped-out shoot. “The show is the…

Live The 64th Annual Grammy Awards (CBS) The top awards body that rewards music had a solid year with great performances and winners. But with a quieter year for the kudos ceremony, the nom is the reward. Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff’rent Strokes (ABC) Producer Norman Lear just turned 100, and how could anyone pass on the opportunity to give him another prize? He would be the oldest winner of any competitive award, in any of the major awards bodies, in history. The Oscars (ABC) Will Smith slap aside, the Oscars ceremony had an elevated feel, although it did run long and missed out on eight artisan categories. Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show Starring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige,…

The rising worldwide popularity of K-pop and the dawn of the global streaming era has become a business duet that is expanding the boundaries of both sectors. The exploding interest in South Korean pop culture is fueling the growth of niche streaming services that deliver Korean and pan-Asian movies, TV shows and music to far-flung markets including Brazil, Colombia, Turkey and the U.S. Platforms such as Rakuten Viki, Cinedigm’s Asian-Crush and the Kocowa venture among major Korean broadcasters are generating viewership and creating a big secondary market for scripted series known as K-dramas — a movement that will only accelerate South Korea’s maturation into a major player in media and entertainment. For evidence, look no further than the 14 groundbreaking Emmy nominations racked up last month by Netflix’s “Squid Game.”…

Everyone knows the names BTS and Blackpink, and that’s thanks to the proliferation of K-pop, which has grown far beyond its origins in South Korea to become a true global phenomenon. What is it about the pop-leaning genre that attracts so many fans of all stripes? Catchy hooks, earwormy melodies, synchronized choreography and impeccable production value all lend to the formula. But as much training as some of these future idols do, the X-factor these artists possess is something that can’t be fabricated. The numbers don’t lie: BTS has racked up 1.5 billion views on YouTube for its 2020 hit “Dynamite,” while the band’s 2021 smash, “Butter,” smoothly glided its way to No. 1, where it parked for eight weeks. In all, K-pop acts helped generate a whopping $5 billion…

Technology built into the theater aboard Disney cruise ship the Wish has given creative teams the ability to produce three Broadway-caliber shows on the ocean. Rui Rita, lighting designer for the productions “Disney Seas the Adventure,” “Disney the Little Mermaid” and “Disney’s Aladdin — A Musical Spectacular,” says the theater’s advanced LED system helped the crew maximize design potential. “This affords us the highest degree of variety [of] looks possible, allowing deep, lush colors as well as light tints,” notes Rita. “It also allows us to dial in the exact color of light that complements each fabric choice, paint color and makeup tint.” In a process that Kelly Benton, who produces the three shows, calls “painting with light,” the designs draw attention to specific areas within a production. Citing “The…

Ask Fabien Frankel about his favorite “Game of Thrones” character, and the actor drops his head seemingly in agony. “Where to begin?” he says with a groan. “Oberyn Martell. Tormund. Jon Snow. Mance Rayder. Brienne of Tarth. Arya Stark. Oh mate, I love them all.” Soon enough, Frankel could join their ranks, as Ser Criston Cole, the dashing Dornish hottie who turns multiple heads in HBO’s impending “Thrones” prequel series, “House of the Dragon.” But his first challenge was getting over being in Westeros at all. You were in “Last Christmas” with “Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke, so did you call her up when you were looking at the prospect of starring in “House of the Dragon”? It’s very kind of you to bring that up, but unfortunately, I…