Innholdsfortegnelse for 7/13/2023 i Variety

Forget summer light: These past few weeks have been extremely challenging for the entertainment industry. At this writing, we still don’t know if Hollywood’s performers union will join the WGA on strike against the studios and streamers. We do have answers about this year’s Emmy race. HBO’s “Succession” and “The Last of Us” led the nominations field, as was expected. But there were some fun surprises, such as Freevee’s “Jury Duty” breaking in for comedy series and Disney+’s “Andor” representing the Lucasfilm gang in drama series. But it’s unclear if the Emmy Awards will stick with the plan to broadcast the ceremony live on Fox on Sept. 18. If SAG-AFTRA is on strike by the time you read this, actors won’t appear on the kudocast, which means that the Emmys…

DRAMA SERIES “Andor” “Better Call Saul” “The Crown” “House of the Dragon” “The Last of Us” “Succession” “The White Lotus” “Yellowjackets” COMEDY SERIES “Abbott Elementary” “Barry” “The Bear” “Jury Duty” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” “Only Murders in the Building” “Ted Lasso” “Wednesday” LIMITED SERIES “Beef” “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” “Daisy Jones & the Six” “Fleishman Is in Trouble” “Obi-Wan Kenobi” REALITY COMPETITION PROGRAM “The Amazing Race” “RuPaul’s Drag Race” “Survivor” “Top Chef” “The Voice” LEAD DRAMA ACTOR Jeff Bridges (“The Old Man”) Brian Cox (“Succession”) Kieran Culkin (“Succession”) Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”) Pedro Pascal (“The Last of Us”) Jeremy Strong (“Succession”) LEAD DRAMA ACTRESS Sharon Horgan (“Bad Sisters”) Melanie Lynskey (“Yellowjackets”) Elisabeth Moss (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) Bella Ramsey (“The Last of Us”) Keri Russell (“The Diplomat”) Sarah…

APPLE Market cap $3 trillion Stock average 1/3-5/1: Up 31% 5/2-6/30: Up 14% Most recent quarter Free cash flow: $55.9 billion Revenue: $94.8 billion 2022 CEO compensation (Tim Cook) $99.4 million NETFLIX Market cap $195.8 billion Stock average 1/3-5/1: Up 10% 5/2-6/30: Up 36% Most recent quarter Free cash flow: $2.1 billion Revenue: $8.2 billion 2022 CEO compensation (Reed Hastings) $51.1 million DISNEY Market cap $163.1 billion Stock average 1/3-5/1: Up 17% 5/2-6/30: Down 11% Most recent quarter Free cash flow: $2 billion Revenue: $21.8 billion  2022 CEO compensation (Bob Chapek) $24.2 million WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY Market cap $30.5 billion Stock average 1/3-5/1: Up 40% 5/2-6/30: Down 6% Most recent quarter Free cash flow: -$930 million Revenue: $10.7 billion 2022 CEO compensation (David Zaslav) $39.3 million AMC NETWORKS Market cap $519.9 million…

TV REVIEW Drama: Max (6 episodes; all reviewed); July 13 Starring: Zazie Beetz, CCH Pounder, Claire Danes Since his “retirement” from film-making in 2013, director Steven Soderbergh has never fully backed away from the world of features: He has eight movies to his name in the past decade — more than some of his peers have produced in their entire careers. But Soderbergh did subsequently branch out into the world of TV, a medium he’s approached with the same enterprising, experimental spirit as he does his latter-period films. First came 2014’s “The Knick,” the Cinemax period medical drama helmed entirely by Soderbergh at a time when marquee directors were just starting to dabble in TV; then “Mosaic,” a project released in 2017 as both an interactive app and an HBO…

For her cover story, TV business writer Jennifer Maas asked experts to predict the long-term consequences of the WGA strike. Their answers aren’t going to make media companies happy. Senior TV writer Joe Otterson spoke with industry sources to forecast how the writers strike will affect the future of scripted programming. Sadly, none of the sources predicted a revival of “The Tick” starring Patrick Warburton. London-based illustrator Andrew Rae says of this week’s cover, “I had an idea about dominoes and it all came together very naturally. The better ones often work like that.” Brian Stauffer, who illustrated our “Bare Market” feature, says, “I enjoyed the process of coming up with an image for the strike. It’s much too easy for bean counters to minimize any individual portion of the…

THOSE ABOUT TO DIE Director: Roland Emmerich The gladiator epic from Peacock stars Anthony Hopkins as the Emperor Vespasian, under whose watch construction of the Colosseum begins. THE DECAMERON Showrunner: Kathleen Jordan In this Netflix period soap starring Tony Hale and Zosia Mamet, a handful of nobles retreat to a grand villa in the Italian countryside to wait out the Black Death pandemic with a lavish holiday. CONCLAVE Director: Edward Berger Ralph Fiennes stars in this conspiracy thriller produced by House Prods. and FilmNation Entertainment and centering on the political machinations that grip the Vatican after the death of the pope.…

July 10 ‘Mission Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One’ Premiere Rose Theater, New York Tom Cruise revealed that the morning he arrived on set to shoot his much-talked-about motorcycle jump off a mountain for director Christopher McQuarrie, the ramp was dangerously covered in ice. Even so, he insists he didn’t worry. “I keep things pretty calm,” the actor told Variety. “Nothing unusual. I remember McQuarrie and I came to set. We’re talking about story, we’re talking about characters. We just keep it really casual. We know what’s happening.” Cruise also said he doesn’t have a start date on the Doug Liman-directed movie that they’re planning to film in outer space: “We’ve been working on it diligently, and we’ll see where we go.” July 9 ‘Barbie’ Premiere Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles…

When the clever signs are put away and the days of themed pickets are over, Hollywood’s writers will go back to work. But to what kind of job market will they return? Based on conversations with a dozen sources across different segments of the industry, the prediction is that writers outside of A-level showrunner status will find a tighter employment picture as content spending slows at top networks and platforms. And even A-level showrunners will return to a markedly changed environment from recent years when Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes, Greg Berlanti and a handful of others made headlines by signing nine-figure contracts. At a moment when cost-conscious studios are about to swing the ax to eliminate expensive production deals and save on overhead, the question of Return on Investment —…

“I’m dying to do more action, but it has to be the right project and the right director.” Named after a word that sounds similar in Korean to both “spring” and “tiger,” Pom Klementieff has appropriately showcased ebullience and viciousness throughout her career — and especially in the past few months. In May, she reprised her role as Mantis in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” empathetically shepherding her fellow outcasts through an adventure to save Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) from unapologetic MCU villain the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). She also appears in “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” as Paris, a ruthless assassin who will stop at nothing to kill Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and anyone else who gets in her way. Ahead of “Dead Reckoning Part One,”…

It’s good to be HBO — er, “HBO Max” — er, “HBO/Max.” How big was the pay cabler-slash-streamer when it comes to this year’s Emmy nominations? In the supporting actor in a drama category, the outlet held all eight slots (on the backs of just two programs: “Succession” and “The White Lotus”), and in supporting actress, it was six of eight. In a nominations announcement filled with surprises, one was absolutely a given: “Succession” would dominate, and, Roy, did it ever: The outgoing HBO drama scored 27 nominations — including best drama, lead actress (Sarah Snook) and a record three lead actor noms (Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong). Even a good chunk of the show’s supporting cast managed nods, including J. Smith-Cameron, Nicholas Braun, Matthew Macfadyen, Alexander Skarsgård…

It’s 10 a.m. in Sydney, where Hayley Atwell is preparing to walk the red carpet as the “Mission: Impossible” crew’s newest member, joining producer and star Tom Cruise and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s ensemble of battle-hardened actors. “This is a pure cinematic experience. It’s unadulterated entertainment, and of a huge scale,” Atwell says to Variety about the film, which finally hit theaters on July 12 following a twoy-ear delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Flashy events like the Australia premiere mark the end of a four-year odyssey that pushed Atwell’s limits physically — leaving her hanging inside a train car that’s gone from horizontal to vertical, gripping anything nailed to the floor/wall/ceiling lest she fall to her death (or at least the safety rigging below) — and saw her creating a…

Watch out, agents: Your assistants might be making memes about you. In the spring of 2018, four assistants at WME kicked around an idea. Given their stressful environment — one that routinely saw them juggling phone lines, handling guest lists and working long hours for little pay — they thought: Why not work through their frustrations in a healthy way? Thus the Instagram meme page Assistants vs. Agents (@assistantsvsagents) was born. Since its inception, the account has gained nearly 100,000 followers, cultivating a network of assistants who commiserate over the indignities, headaches and fleeting moments of hilarity from life in the Hollywood trenches. Former WME assistant Warner Bailey, a founding member of the page and currently its sole operator, says the account’s audience includes assistants from other agencies, aspiring assistants,…

The tipping point has finally arrived. After years of heady growth, heightened demands and unpredictable development and production schedules, seasoned TV writers are yearning for the structure of simpler times, before streaming changed everything. As striking Writers Guild of America members gather daily on picket lines in Los Angeles and New York, the realization of how much has been lost amid the unprecedented spike in episodic production has come into sharp focus. “I miss the predictability of pilot season,” says Cindy Chupack, a two-time Emmy winner for her work on “Modern Family” and “Sex and the City.” Chupack adds that these are words she never thought she’d say — or think. And she’s not alone. Since the writers strike began on May 2, the unintended consequences of the ramp-up in…

Ryan Murphy NETFLIX Signed: February 2018 Term: Five years Value: $200 million to $250 million Content released to date: ▸ “The Politician” (two seasons) 2019-20 ▸ “Ratched” (one season) 2020 ▸ “Hollywood” (limited series) 2020 ▸ “The Boys in the Band” (film) 2020 ▸ “The Prom” (film) 2020 ▸ “Pray Away” (documentary) 2021 ▸ “The Andy Warhol Diaries” (docuseries) 2022 ▸ “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” (anthology series) 2022 ▸ “The Watcher” (renewed for Season 2) 2022 ▸ “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” (film) 2022 Seth MacFarlane NBCUNIVERSAL Signed: January 2020 Term: Five years Value: $200 million Content released to date: ▸ “The At-Home Variety Show Featuring Seth MacFarlane” (one season) 2020 ▸ “The End Is Nye” (docuseries, one season) 2022 J.J. Abrams WARNER BROS. Signed: September 2019 Term: Five years Value: $250 million Content released…

OLUFIKAYO ZIKI ADEOLA Writer-director, “Iwájú”; co-founder, Kugali Media “The acceleration of our success was quite quick,” says Adeola, writer-director of Disney+’s upcoming sci-fi series “Iwájú” and co-founder of Kugali Media. Kugali made the Afrocentric series in collaboration with Disney Animation, the first outside company to do so, and the experience was instructive for Adeola and his young company. “Disney Animation has been making amazing movies for decades on end, so they have a process and a way of doing things,” says Adeola, CEO of London-based Kugali from its 2017 inception until 2021, when he stepped down to focus on creative endeavors including “Iwájú.” “We were able to learn a lot from that.” Our company is “run by really creative, ambitious, and audacious people,” Adeola says. “I think we brought a…