Innholdsfortegnelse for 10/11/2023 i Variety

News correspondents are trained to keep their emotions in check, but sometimes a story comes along that makes such a feat all but impossible. Anderson Cooper, Richard Engel, Trey Yingst, Matt Gutman and Clarissa Ward have been seen on camera in recent days trying to report on a horrific event that is emotionally draining: the invasion of Israel by Hamas militants, replete with violence, hostage-taking and explosive force. “I’ve seen many challenging things so far,” says Yingst, the Fox News correspondent who has been in Israel since Oct. 8, the day after the surprise attack, and responded to questions via email. “We arrived in the south as Palestinian militants were still killing and kidnapping Israelis. One of the first things I saw was an Israeli soldier die in front of…

During its first 100 years, the Walt Disney Co. has brought to life many of cinema’s iconic and revered fantasy figures — from a plucky mouse with a signature chuckle to princesses, rakish pirates and even walking-and-talking skeletons — and birthed a host of stars through its small-screen programming. ¶ In choosing Disney’s most iconic characters, we considered — and debated — which among the studio’s many concoctions had the greatest lasting impact. There are no “Star Wars” figures or Marvel superheroes, as those were developed well before Disney bought the respective companies behind them, but Woody and Buzz from “Toy Story” are, as that Pixar movie was made under a co-production deal prior to the company being acquired by the Mouse House. ¶ The list, presented chronologically, incorporates animated…

Disney’s advance into the Asian theme park D market, starting with the opening of Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, has not been without stumbles and controversies, but the Disney parks in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai are now recording higher numbers across the board. In the third quarter of fiscal 2023, ending on July 1, Disney’s international parks and resorts segment, which includes parks in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Paris, but not Tokyo, notched a 94% rise in revenue year-on-year, to $1.53 billion. The Shanghai park was a major contributor to growth, one big reason being its ability to keep its gates open for the entire quarter. In the previous third quarter the park was in operation for only three days due to COVID closures. Tokyo Disney Resort, which includes the…

As if there wasn’t already enough drama and confusion around AI and the music industry, the shadowy musician Ghostwriter’s song “Heart on My Sleeve” — which used generative AI to create fake verses that sound uncannily like Drake and the Weeknd — has spawned no small amount of confusion regarding the Grammys. First, it seemed that the song wouldn’t qualify, then it apparently did, then it didn’t — which is as clear an indication as any of the ball of confusion that AI, in all of its forms, has thrown into the music business. The situation got even more confusing in June when Paul McCartney unexpectedly announced, in rather confusing terms, that AI had been used to improve the sound quality of a John Lennon demo built into “the last…

Co-founder and CEO of the Newport Beach Film Festival Gregg Schwenk muses that there are several reasons the fest, which will run Oct. 12-19 this year, has grown in popularity over the last 24 years. There are, of course, the movies: over 300 films this year, including about 100 features and over 200 shorts from countries all over the world. Some of the buzzy titles include Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” and Todd Haynes’ “May December,” both looking to impact on the upcoming awards season. In addition, honors will be presented to several artists throughout the festival, including Artist of Distinction Patricia Clarkson, Legend Award recipient William Shatner and Icon Award honoree Eugenio Derbez. And then there’s the location. “It’s hard to beat Newport Beach,” says Schwenk of the city south…

TV REVIEW Drama: Apple TV+ (8 episodes; all reviewed); Oct. 13 Cast: Brie Larson, Lewis Pullman, Aja Naomi King In the seven years since she won an Oscar for “Room,” Brie Larson has become a kind of cautionary tale for how little Hollywood has to offer its rising stars. After achieving the industry’s highest honor, Larson has largely cycled between blockbuster franchises and car commercials, slotting into various corporate entities after a pair of intimate indie dramas put her on the map. Nor has Larson substantially filled the downtime between these money jobs with “one for me” projects; “Unicorn Store,” her 2019 directorial debut, was a candy-colored ode to juvenilia at odds with the adult fare one would hope a performer of Larson’s stature would spend cultural and literal capital…

Joe Cristalli and Chris Harris, the showrunners behind Paramount+’s “Frasier” revival, have been bracing for how audiences react to the return of the beloved sitcom character. But they weren’t expecting the buzz to be about Frasier Crane’s wardrobe. When Paramount+ revealed the key art for the new “Frasier,” which premieres Oct. 12, fans were up in arms … because the character was wearing jeans and Allbirds sneakers. Sure, the dressed-down look might be out of step for the Frasier Crane we knew on “Cheers” or the original “Frasier.” But this is “Frasier” 3.0. “He’s not going to wear Armani suits anymore,” Cristalli says. “It’s 2023. This is what fancy rich guys wear now — they wear comfortable clothes!” Adds Harris: “It is also a little bit about how the character…

Disney’s purchase of Marvel opened the door to live-action blockbusters including 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” the second-highest grossing film ever. And while some may bemoan superhero saturation, it’s important to remember what a risk it was to build a cinematic universe around comic book characters when “Iron Man,” the first film from Marvel Studios, premiered. Fifteen years, 31 movies, 25 TV shows and nearly $30 billion later, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been often imitated yet none have proven as successful. “I feel so lucky that I get to do this job,” Kevin Feige, CCO of Marvel Entertainment and president of Marvel Studios, told Variety. “Every costume fitting, when we see the actors transform for the first time, there’s always this moment of awe.” With “The Marvels” (left) soon in theaters…

The “Star Wars” franchise was 35 years old when Disney CEO Bob Iger brokered a deal to bring the production company owned by George Lucas in-house in 2012, and it has since found new life with streaming hits such as “The Mandalorian,” “Andor” and “Ahsoka,” not to mention more movies with Han Solo, R2D2 and CP3O. “Our characters embody hope, adventure, family, friendship and the universal struggle between light and dark,” says Lynwen Brennan, exec VP and general manager of Lucasfilm. The company’s storytelling approach is simple. “It is always about the characters and the journey of discovery that they are on,” says Brennan. “The story that needs to be told is what drives the choices that we make: sometimes it is a character best-realized practically as a puppet, sometimes…

When directors Dan Abraham and Trent W Corey were preparing “Once Upon a Studio,” their animated tribute to 100 years of Disney animation, they knew they wanted two musical elements: Cliff Edwards, as Jiminy Cricket, singing “When You Wish Upon a Star,” and songwriter Richard Sherman playing piano for “Feed the Birds.” Those two songs are emblematic of Walt Disney’s commitment to memorable, meaningful tunes as part of every Disney project dating back to the early Mickey Mouse days and the “Silly Symphonies” cartoon series. “When You Wish Upon a Star,” the Oscar-winning song from 1940’s “Pinocchio,” has become the studio’s unofficial musical signature, and “Feed the Birds,” from 1964’s “Mary Poppins,” was Disney’s personal favorite. Over the years, Disney tunes have become an indelible part of popular culture. “Who’s…

Who will be the anti-hero of the 2024 Grammys? Well, if that question sounds slightly rigged, it’s not far from the truth: Taylor Swift enjoys a level of cultural dominance that few other performers have ever approached (she’s even monopolized National Football League coverage in recent weeks). Regardless of whether her fall 2022 album, “Midnights,” is Grammy voters’ favorite Swift record or not, a vast swath of its decision-makers may have been swayed by seeing the star devote the last half-hour of her blockbuster “Eras” tour set to this after-hours-feeling album. Yet the Academy has been fickle about Swift before, so there’s no doubt we still have a contest on our hands. Yes, she’s won album of the year a historic three times (most recently with “Folklore” in 2021), so…

The “Barbie” film and soundtrack are such an embarrassment of riches that an equally massive bounty of Grammy and Academy Awards seems like a foregone conclusion. But such awards don’t just happen — it’s an intricate, laborious, precisely timed dance of official submissions, lobbying, advertising campaigns and (so we’ve heard) insider machinations that is less-than-lovingly known as “FYC,” i.e. For Your Consideration. So Atlantic Records, which released the Mark Ronson-helmed “Barbie the Album” soundtrack, and Warner Bros. Pictures have a challenge on their hands: Which songs to push for which awards, and which categories? Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” may be the most musically memorable song on the album, but it’s a melancholy one; conversely, Dua Lipa’s disco-fied “Dance the Night” is lighthearted fun personified and lights up…

Barbie, Spider-Man, Black Panther — visions of dolls and comic book characters inevitably will be dancing in the heads of Grammy voters when they sit down to nominate movie music for this year’s golden gramophones. “Barbie: The Album” seems a shoo-in to compete for best compilation soundtrack, the category for movies dominated by songs. But the Metro Boomin-curated album for the animated “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” also topped Billboard’s soundtrack chart this year and seems likely to swing into competition. On a similar note, the third edition of “Guardians of the Galaxy” inspired another “Awesome Mix” that was hugely popular and seems poised to join its two predecessors as a Grammy nominee. The “Fast X” album and Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid,” with its new songs by Alan Menken and…

This year’s edition of the View Conference, an English-speaking event taking place between Oct. 15-20 in the Italian city of Turin, has been greatly influenced by some of the most urgent questions permeating the entertainment industry today. A world-class event on animation, VFX, games, AR, VR, XR, MR, virtual production, Metaverse and immersive media, the 24th edition of the conference has a heavy focus on animation and artificial intelligence, with a key desire to investigate the future of storytelling. “The conference is a stage to talk about the impact of innovative technologies on the creative industries, so obviously AI is a big theme,” CEO and executive director of the View conference Maria Elena Gutierrez tells Variety. Panels such as “AI and Education,” “Out of Distribution: Thriving Creatively in the Age…

These waters are getting choppy. On the same day in mid-September that Warner Bros. dropped the trailer for its $215 million “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” embarrassing documents from the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial surfaced on Reddit, creating a new headache for the studio behind the film. Depp fans paid the court fees for the release of documents from Heard’s therapist. The raw notes, scribbled on a legal pad, were part of last year’s high-profile trial in which Depp prevailed. They describe a hostile “Aquaman” set in which an allegedly intoxicated Jason Momoa dressed like Depp and pushed to have Heard booted from the role of superhero Mera. “Jason said he wanted me fired,” the notes say. “Jason drunk — late on set. Dressing like Johnny. Has all the…

AWARDS CIRCUIT Guess how many times cinema legends Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg have gone head-to-head at the Oscars? With 37 nominations between them and five decades of indelible classics, such as the gangster epic “Casino” (1995) and the shark thriller “Jaws” (1975), you might assume at least half a dozen ceremonies have seen both auteurs prominently recognized. Well, guess again. There’s been only one face-off, and it wasn’t even in the best director category. It was in the 2012 race for best picture between two of their arguably less-talked-about features — Scorsese’s Parisian adventure epic “Hugo” and Spielberg’s World War I drama “War Horse.” They lost to Michel Hazanavicius’ silent-era drama “The Artist” (although “Hugo” was the year’s most nominated and awarded film with 11 and five, respectively). Now,…

When Disney closed its $71 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019, the conglom brought franchises including “The Simpsons,” the “Alien” films and “Titanic” under its ever-expanding umbrella. The eye-popping deal was at least partially vindicated by James Cameron’s megahit “Avatar” sequel. Released last December, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is now the third-highest-grossing film ever at $2.3 billion, ahead of “Titanic” and behind only “Avengers: Endgame” and the original “Avatar.” The sequel required innovative cinematic technology to tell the story of Pandora and its indigenous citizens called the Na’Vi. “When we were done with the first ‘Avatar’ and I got to travel the world promoting it, almost everywhere I went, the local people identified somehow with the Na’Vi,” says co-producer Jon Landau. In the first movie, Jake Sully…

From hip-hop’s earliest days, female rappers have had to fight for attention, let alone respect. Since the rap song category debuted in 2004, the award has been given to precisely one female rapper: Megan Thee Stallion, for her “Savage” remix, which got an assist (and some vital Grammy familiarity) from featured artist Beyoncé in 2021. Although nine female-led albums have been nominated for that rap category since it was launched in 1996, Cardi B became the first solo female artist to win, with “Invasion of Privacy,” in 2018. Elsewhere, Eve became the first — and only — one to take best melodic rap performance when that category was introduced in 2002; same goes for Megan Thee Stallion with the “Savage” remix in the best rap performance category in 2021. While…

“It’s about going after your dreams and to be able to speak your dream out loud.”—Fawn Veerasunthorn The “Wish” directing team of Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn symbolize a lot: Buck started his career under the tutelage of Eric Larson, one of the Nine Old Men, the venerable animators who drove Disney films to greatness; Veerasunthorn began at the Mouse House in 2011, and was head of story on “Raya and the Dragon.” Together, they embody the spirit and legacy of 100 years of Disney animation. “Wish,” written by Disney Animation chief creative officer Jennifer Lee, tells the story of Asha (Ariana DeBose) and her wish for something more. In Rojas, where she lives, the king (Chris Pine) really can make wishes come true — but Asha finds out the…