Maher Fires CAA After Oscar Party Snub; The Crisis of Decaying Digital Movie and TV Files; 'Panda 4' Dethrones 'Dune 2'; 'Palm Royale' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( March 18, 2024 What's news: Pete Distad will lead the upcoming sports streamer from Disney, WBD and Fox. IATSE and the AMPTP resume talks today. Teen Titans is getting a live-action film at DC Studios. Netflix is making a Nordic noir series based on Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole books. Dune 2 nears $500m at the global box office. — [Abid Rahman]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](. Bill Maher Fires CAA After Oscar Party Snub ►ICYMI. THR's [Kim Masters]( and [Lesley Goldberg]( had the scoop on Bill Maher firing CAA, his reps for more than two decades, last Monday after he was not invited to CEO Bryan Lourd’s private Oscar party. The comedian, according to sources, was furious that he was snubbed for the event. Maher had been repped at CAA by Steven Lafferty, who also serves as the agency’s head of television. News of Maher ditching CAA comes after the agency recently negotiated a two-year extension for HBO's Real Time. [The story.]( —Back at it. After nearly a week of internal conversations on both sides, IATSE and Hollywood’s major studios and streamers will be resuming their ongoing negotiations on Monday by covering craft-specific issues. IATSE Local 600 will be discussing its proposals with management at the headquarters of the AMPTP in Sherman Oaks on March 18-20, a tentative schedule for the week provided to THR's [Katie Kilkenny]( from a union source stated. [The story.]( —"This is an incredible opportunity." Pete Distad has been hired to be CEO of the upcoming sports streaming service from Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox. Distad most recently worked at Apple, where he led business, operations and global distribution for Video, Sports and Apple TV+. Before Apple he worked at Hulu, where he worked on the original launch team and eventually rose to senior VP of marketing and distribution. The new sports streamer is set to launch later this year. [The story.]( The Crisis of Decaying Digital Movie and TV Files ►"It’s a silent fire." The greatest fear of the custodians of Hollywood’s digital era is the wholesale decay of feature and episodic files. THR's [Gary Baum]( and Carolyn Giardina spoke to industry pros who are sweating the possibility that many digital files will eventually become unusable — an archival tragedy reminiscent of the celluloid era. [The story.]( —Blimey! The BBC and Amazon Music have struck a deal that will make BBC podcasts available on the streaming service for the first time outside the U.K. Beginning today, subscribers to Amazon’s Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited services can access "a curated suite of over 50 of the BBC’s most popular podcasts ad-free, including notable BBC titles such as Americast, BBC Global News Podcast, Dua Lipa: At Your Service, The Global Story, Infinite Monkey Cage, Planet Premier League, and World of Secrets." [The story.]( —ICYMI. A group of climate change protestors interrupted a Broadway performance of An Enemy of the People, starring Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli, on Thursday night. The Henrik Ibsen revival, which has its own allusions to climate change, was disrupted by three protesters after the brief pause midway through the show, at a time when the house lights were still on and when the characters appear to be addressing the crowd. The show is currently amidst press previews at the Circle in the Square Theatre in midtown Manhattan. [The story.]( Shatner on His Biggest 'Star Trek' Regret ►"I wish that I’d had the backing and the courage to do the things I felt I needed to do." THR's second nicest man [Aaron Couch]( spoke to living legend Willam Shatner about his long and storied career. From Star Trek's Captain Kirk to Boston Legal lawyer Denny Crane, the 92-year-old THR Icon reflects on career reinvention and what could lure him back to the captain’s chair, oh, and he reveals why he cried with Jeff Bezos after returning from his trip to space in 2021. [The interview.]( —"My heart is broken." Cara Delevinge’s multi-million dollar home in L.A.’s Fryman Canyon Park neighborhood went up in flames in the early morning hours on Friday, and aerial footage shows a tragic scene of the aftermath. The fire at the two-story home burned for nearly three hours early and took 94 firefighters more than two hours to put out, according to an alert shared today by the Los Angeles Fire Department. The supermodel-turned-actress, who was in London performing in Cabaret, confirmed the blaze on Instagram. [The story.]( —"I’m hearing the doctors coming in and saying, ‘You don’t know how lucky you are.'” Dr. Dre has revealed he had three strokes while in the hospital for a brain aneurysm in 2021. In a recent interview, the music mogul detailed what happened in the lead up to his brain aneurysm and what caused it to happen. [The story.]( 'Teen Titans' Live-Action Movie In the Works ►It's a GO! Teen Titans, the DC heroes which began as the teenaged sidekicks of their more famous and iconic counterparts, are getting their own live-action feature. DC Studios has tapped Ana Nogueira to pen the screenplay for the project. Nogueira is already writing Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow for the label. Teen Titans became an unexpected hit media franchise thanks to Cartoon Network's Teen Titans Go!, a comedic and frequently meta take on DC. [The story.]( —🎭 Voices in the dark 🎭 An animated series based on Among Us has cast several prominent actors to voice the characters inside the multicolored spacesuits. Randall Park, Ashley Johnson, Yvette Nicole Brown and Elijah Wood will star in the series from CBS Studios and the video game’s developer, Innersloth. The show, which doesn’t have an outlet attached yet, will follow a similar premise as that of the game: The crew of a spaceship tries to find an alien shapeshifter who’s impersonating and killing crew members. [The story.]( —Hello Mister Police. Netflix is teaming up with Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo, whose Harry Hole crime novels have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and, thanks to an awkward English-language adaptation of Nesbo’s The Snowman in 2017, launched endless online memes. On Monday, Netflix unveiled a new Nordic noir series based on Nesbo’s novel The Devil’s Star, the fifth in his Harry Hole series about the obsessive, brilliant but introverted titular homicide detective. Working Title will produce the series, with Oystein Karlsen attached to direct. [The story.]( NAACP Image Awards 2024 ►🏆 Dominance 🏆 The Color Purple topped the 2024 NAACP Image Awards. The Blitz Bazawule-directed remake was named best motion picture and took home three more awards during the televised awards show Saturday night. Going into the telecast, the movie had already won seven awards, presented during non-televised ceremonies last week, from its 16 nominations. So, in total, The Color Purple took home 11 NAACP Image Awards. [The winners.]( —Things you didn’t see on TV. The NAACP’s 55th annual Image Awards marked the end to the months-long awards season and it went out with a bang. THR's Anaja Smith lists the nine things the cameras didn't capture at the event, including Jonathan Majors accompanying girlfriend and nominee Meagan Good in the pair’s first major red carpet event together, and Majors’ most high-profile appearance, since he was found guilty of assault and harassment in December. [The story.]( —"One last score." A second man has been charged in connection with the 2005 theft of a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz. Jerry Hal Saliterman, 76, of Crystal, Minnesota, was charged with theft of a major artwork and witness tampering. The slippers, adorned with sequins and glass beads, were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, nearly 20 years ago and their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018. [The story.]( 'Panda 4' Dethrones 'Dune 2' ►Pandas over spice. DreamWorks Animation and Universal's Kung Fu Panda 4 dethroned Dune: Part Two in its sophomore weekend with an estimated $30m from 4,067 theaters as it leapt past the $100m mark to finish Sunday with a 10-day domestic total of $107.7m. Overseas, KFP4 grossed another $39.6m for a foreign tally of $68.6m and $176.4 million globally. The pic fell a respectable 48 percent domestically. Not far behind is Dune 2, now in its third weekend. THR's [Pamela McClintock]( writes that the Legendary-Warner Bros. tentpole is the first release of 2024 to clear $200m domestically. The pic earned an estimated $29.1m from 3,847 cinemas, putting its North American total at $205.3m. Overseas, the film earned another $51.2m this weekend from 73 markets for a dazzling foreign tally of $289.4m and a global cume of $494.7m. It has already eclipsed the $433m grossed by the first Dune — which was released in 2021, during the pandemic — and should ultimately end up well north of $600m globally. [The box office report.]( —"We wanted to celebrate local communities of horror fans." Halloween is still seven months away, but Blumhouse is hoping to tide horror fans over by putting some of its library titles back into theaters. AMC Theatres will host the five-day event in more than 40 cities and on 100 of its locations, with tickets going for $8. The lineup includes Split (March 29), The Purge (March 30), Ouija: Origin of Evil (March 31), Insidious (April 1 — which is the film’s 13th anniversary) and The Invisible Man (April 2). [The story.]( —The great Fall of China. French legal drama Anatomy of a Fall‘s against-the-odds global box-office run isn’t over just yet. The acclaimed courtroom thriller, which won the Palme d’Or in 2023 and the Oscar for best original screenplay last week, has secured a nationwide theatrical release date in China on March 29. THR's Patrick Brzeski writes that the film is being positioned as a specialty release, but its feminist themes could align well with a recent trend of women-focused stories being a major box-office force in China. [The story.]( TV Review: 'Palm Royale' ►"As Aretha once said, "Great gowns, beautiful gowns."" THR's [Angie Han]( reviews Apple TV+'s Palm Royale. The comedy, starring Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Allison Janney and Ricky Martin, centers on a former pageant queen who tries to break into the upper echelons of high society in late 1960s Florida. [The review.]( —"Clever concept, short on charm." For THR, Caryn James reviews Ned Benson's The Greatest Hits. Lucy Boynton time-travels back to her dead boyfriend in this predictably weepy musical drama that co-stars David Corenswet and Justin H. Min. [The review.]( —"Magnificent minimalism." THR's [Sheri Linden]( reviews Neo Sora's Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus. This documentary captures a valedictory solo performance by the celebrated Japanese musician and film composer, and Sora's father, six months before his death from cancer. [The review.]( Film Review: 'The Idea of You' ►"The movie equivalent of cotton candy." THR's [Lovia Gyarkye]( reviews Michael Showalter's The Idea of You. Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine star in this adaptation of Robinne Lee's novel, about a recently divorced mother who falls in love with an international pop star. [The review.]( —"An overall charmer." Lovia reviews Tommy Dorfman's I Wish You All the Best. Alexandra Daddario and Lena Dunham star alongside Cole Sprouse and Corey Fogelmanis in an adaptation of Mason Deaver's YA novel of the same name. [The review.]( —"A comedic win, if not a perfect strike." Lovia reviews Yassir Lester and Isaiah Lester's The Gutter. Susan Sarandon and Shameik Moore play rivals in this boisterous bowling Comedy that screened at SXSW. [The review.]( In other news... —StudioCanal [partners with Mayhem!, Perpetrator producer WTFilms on genre slate]( —BBC Studios [buys Surviving Summer, The Newsreader producer Werner Film in Australia]( —Usher [says his Las Vegas wedding also surprised his family]( —[Byron Janis]( one of the great pianists of the 20th century, dies at 95 —[David Seidler]( Oscar-winning writer of The King’s Speech, dies at 86 ​​​What else we're reading... —With shows like Hijack, Slow Horses, Masters of the Air and Manhunt, Gabriella Paiella wonders whether Apple TV+ has cornered the market on "Prestige Dad TV" [[GQ]( —A passionate Rachel Handler writes that Lindsay Lohan's new Netflix film Irish Wish is a crypto-fascist, AI-generated harbinger of doom [[Vulture]( —Sean O'Neal profiles the always excellent Jesse Plemons who discusses his rich and varied career and how he's become the go-to character actor in Hollywood [[Texas Monthly]( —With key roles in Apple's Masters of the Air and Manhunt, Irish actor Anthony Boyle talks to Christopher Kuo about his meteoric rise and his penchant for historical dramas [[NYT]( —Peter Nicholas, Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee report that behind the scenes, Joe Biden has grown angry and anxious about his re-election effort [[NBC News]( Today... ...in 1942, Paramount unveiled Cecil B. DeMille’s high seas adventure movie Reap the Wild Wind in Los Angeles. The film went on to earn three nominations at the 15th Academy Awards ceremony, winning in the special effects category — presumably for the giant squid attack prominently featured in the marketing. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Queen Latifah (54), Vanessa Williams (61), [Brad Dourif]( (74), Lily Collins (35), Sophia Myles (44), Danneel Ackles (45), Adam Pally (42), Dane Cook (52), Geoffrey Owens (63), Adam Levine (45), Madeline Carroll (28), Sutton Foster (49), Abigail Cowen (26), Lilli Kay (28), Thomas Ian Griffith (62), Ciara Bravo (27), Cindy Busby (41), Yul Vazquez (59), Julia Goldani Telles (29), David Cubitt (59), Chris Geere (43), Olek Krupa (77), Yoriko Dôguchi (59), Maia Jae Bastidas (26), Jacob Collins-Levy (32), Clayton James (39), Jim Knobeloch (74), Tamer Hassan (56), Duane Henry (39), Mike Rowe (62), Michael Bergin (55), Chiké Okonkwo (42), Raquel Gardner (54), Shay Hatten (30), Steve Kloves (64), Cornelius Smith Jr. (42) Joe Camp, the writer, director and producer who taught that old dog Hollywood new tricks about animal movies as the creative force behind the 1974 franchise-spawning Benji, has died. He was 84. 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