Variety 12/15/2022

It’s been 25 years since James Cameron directed one of the most epic blockbusters in Hollywood history. On Dec. 19, 1997, he released a little movie called “Titanic” in theaters. OK, it was a really big movie — with a $200 million budget (a record at the time), a blown summer release date and months of bad press. Back then, Leonardo DiCaprio’s most prominent credit was in Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet,” and Kate Winslet wasn’t a household name. But as we all know, Cameron defied the odds and “Titanic” became a $2 billion blockbuster. It sailed on and on in multiplexes (and later on a two-tape VHS set), forever changing the movies. Then, somehow, Cameron managed to top himself — with 2009’s “Avatar,” which surpassed “Titanic” as the biggest…

Executive editor Brent Lang interviewed Sam Worthington in the most New York City way possible: grabbing a booth and several cups of stale coffee in a lower Manhattan diner while a road crew pulverized the sidewalk. We were far from Pandora. Senior entertainment and media writer Matt Donnelly ate popcorn while legendary Francis Ford Coppola and Sarah Polley discussed her masterful “Women Talking.” Senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson enjoyed being a fly on the wall for the conversations between directors Ryan Coogler and Gina Prince-Bythewood and Tyler Perry and Chinonye Chukwu. Photographer Greg Williams captured Sam Worthington on Nov. 18: “Wherever possible, I love to shoot with just me, my camera and my subject — and Sam really embraced this. We went for an early morning walk in a chilly…

Will picket signs emerge in Hollywood next year? Will CAA go public now that it has absorbed ICM Partners? Is profit participation a thing of the past, or is it poised for a reboot? Those were among the burning questions tackled by Bryan Lourd, managing director and co-chairman of CAA, during his Dec. 13 keynote address at Variety’s annual Dealmakers event in Beverly Hills. “There’s one thing we do better than anyone in the world,” Lourd said of CAA’s dedication to representing talent. “There are other companies who call themselves agencies, and many of them have great agents, but none of them aspire to be the company we want to be.” ICM’s similar focus made for a good fit. “In analyzing what we thought the future was going to be,…

When Netflix renewed Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman” last month, the streamer was careful not to call the next chapter of the comic book adaptation a second season — but it did not explain why. The reason: Netflix is considering releasing future installments of the show in batches, à la “Stranger Things” Season 4, rather than all at once or week to week. “Everything is on the table when it comes to ‘Sandman,’” Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s head of U.S. and Canada scripted series, tells Variety exclusively. “It’s an innovative show.” That “everything is on the table” approach seems to be one Netflix, which launched its ad-supported tier last month, is embracing as it heads into 2023 with an eye toward keeping subscribers hooked, month after month. Of all the “how it…

Out of adversity comes opportunity. That’s the view from the top of the Sundance Institute, where CEO Joana Vicente is preparing for her first in-person festival in Park City since she took the reins of its parent non-profit organization in November 2021. “Sundance is so unique in terms of it really is a place of discovery,” Vicente tells Variety. The last-minute cancellation of the in-person festival at the start of this year — due to a COVID surge — was a blow to the institute’s bottom line because so much event expense had already been incurred. And that only added to the financial hole from the 2021 gathering, which also shifted entirely online. But the vast expansion of Sundance’s virtual and streaming capabilities has had a huge silver lining. To…

When it comes to Sundance, it’s always hard to know which films will soar, which ones will remain earthbound, and which misbegotten bids at cinematic immortality will implode in spectacular fashion. The thrill of discovering the next big thing in movies is what keeps studio executives, agents and cinephiles making the trek up the mountain to Park City, Utah, every year (at least until COVID scuttled things in 2021 and 2022). With Sundance returning in-person, here are five movies that could be in for some high-altitude raves. You Hurt My Feelings Ten years after “Enough Said,” Nicole Holofcener and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are back with the story of a memoirist who finds out that her supportive therapist husband doesn’t care for her new book. Eileen A depressed prison secretary befriends a…