Puerto Rican Stars Back Kamala After Trump's Racist Rally; Why Hollywood Is Terrified of Horror Fatigue; 'Venom 3' Opens to Solid $175M Globally; 'Wallace & Gromit 6' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( October 28, 2024 What's news: Netflix has responded to backlash over removing 19 films by or about Palestinians. Edward Berger’s Conclave opened strongly at the box office. Netflix has renewed Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Spider-Man 4 has a release date. Apple is developing a feature based on Oregon Trail. Gavin Newsom's new budget proposal looks to vastly increase California’s current cap for a program that provides tax relief on productions. Rapper Lil Durk was arrested in Florida on federal charges. — [Abid Rahman]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](. PR Stars Show Support for Kamala After Trump's Racism-filled MSG Rally ►"I will never forget what Donald Trump did, and what he did not do, when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader." Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin were among those showing support for Kamala Harris after a comedian made racist jokes about Puerto Rico at Donald Trump’s rally on Sunday. At the rally, which was held at New York’s Madison Square Garden, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jews and Black people, all of whom are key constituencies in the election, which is just nine days away. "I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico," Hinchcliffe said during the rally. [The story.]( —The fightback begins. As runaway production and Hollywood cost-cutting threatens California's hold on the film and television business, Gov. Gavin Newsom is stepping in. An early budget proposal looks to vastly increase California’s current cap for a program that provides tax relief to producers across the business from $330m to $750m a year, Newsom revealed on Sunday. The expansion would shower as much as $3.75b in tax credits to the industry over five years starting in 2025. [The story.]( —Talks to continue. SAG-AFTRA and a coalition of video game companies have extended negotiations after returning to talks for three days but failing to reach a deal. The union announced the decision on Saturday, adding that dates were not yet set and would later be announced. Meanwhile, the union’s strike against employers signed to its Interactive Media Agreement — which is nearing its 100-day mark — continues. “With tentative agreements on 24 out of 25 proposals, we are optimistic about reaching a final agreement soon as negotiations continue,” a rep for the companies told THR. [The story.]( —Arrested. Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk was arrested in Florida on federal charges that he paid for the attempted 2022 revenge killing of rapper Quando Rondo at a L.A. gas station, a shooting that resulted in the death of Rondo’s cousin. Durk, 32, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in the slaying of Saviay’a Robinson, 24, who was gunned down on Aug. 19, 2022. Five other members of Durk’s Chicago-based rap collective, “Only the Family” or “OTF,” have also been arrested and at least two more arrests may be forthcoming, according to court documents that have been filed. Durk was arrested Thursday night in South Florida as he attempted to flee the country, the FBI says. [The story.]( —A chance to do the funniest thing ever. Timothée Chalamet surprised fans at his own look-alike contest in New York City on Sunday, where the rowdy event resulted in at least one arrest. Chalamet posed for photos with several of his doppelgängers present at the event — many of whom were dressed as the actor’s most famous characters, including Willy Wonka and Dune's Paul Atreides. Chalamet was flanked by bodyguards and some fans seemed to mistake look-alikes for the real actor. The contest had been previously advertised on flyers around New York and was one of several doppelgängers events hosted by YouTuber Anthony Po, with a $50 prize for the winner. [The story.]( Endorsement Crisis Deepens at WaPo and LAT ►Why I resigned from Los Angeles Times over the endorsement call. In a guest column for THR, LAT editorial writer Karin Klein explains her reasons for quitting the newspaper over owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocking the editorial board from endorsing a presidential candidate. "I respect owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s right to interfere with editorials; that is one place where he ethically can do so," writes Klein. "But an 11th hour decision to pull an endorsement of Kamala Harris is, whether he realizes it or not, practicing the opposite of the neutrality he professes to seek." [The column.]( —"Genocide is a line in the sand." The daughter of LAT owner Patrick Soon-Shiong weighed in on the controversy around the paper’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate. In a thread of social media posts, Nika Soon-Shiong attributed the decision to an opposition to Kamala Harris’ position on the war on Gaza. In his own statement on Saturday, Patrick Soon-Shiong said via a spokeswoman, “Nika speaks in her own personal capacity regarding her opinion, as every community member has the right to do. She does not have any role at the L.A. Times, nor does she participate in any decision or discussion with the editorial board, as has been made clear many times.” [The story.]( —ICYMI. The Washington Post decided it will not endorse a candidate for president, the first time it is making that decision since 1988. The outlet instead will let readers decide whether they support Trump or Harris, and will do the same for all future elections. The criticism came quickly, with former Post editor Marty Baron writing that the decision was “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty.” [The story.]( —"Surprising and disappointing." Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein spoke out following the Washington Post‘s decision to stop endorsing presidential candidates. The legendary journalists shared a joint statement on X on Saturday, addressing the decision to revert to an old policy the publication had in which it remained impartial. “We respect the traditional independence of the editorial page, but this decision 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores The Washington Post‘s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy,” the statement read. [The story.]( —"It's fear." Liz Cheney said she was one amongst thousands who canceled their subscription to the Washington Post over the endorsement scandal. The former Republican Rep. from Wyoming spoke to The New Yorker editor David Remnick at the 25th annual New Yorker Festival on Saturday. Cheney addressed the Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, announcing in a statement Friday that the outlet is “returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” marking the first time since 1988 that it has not endorsed one. [The story.]( Why Hollywood Is Terrified of Horror Fatigue in 2025 ►"You don’t want audiences to be satiated by the time you come along." In 2022, Parker Finn’s Smile became one of the most profitable movies of the year, bringing in more than $217 m on a $17 m production budget. Paramount quickly greenlit a sequel, a no-brainer in an era in which horror is one of the few sure bets left at the box office. Studios embarked on a horror arms race, locking up talent in first-look deals, hiring execs to focus on the genre and figuring out how to get more product into theaters. THR's [Pamela McClintock]( writes that with dozens of scary titles headed to theaters next year, execs worry it will be harder than ever for a hit to break out. [The analysis.]( —Heading west. THR's [Mia Galuppo]( has the scoop on Apple developing a movie adaptation of the popular grade school computer game Oregon Trail. The studio landed the film pitch, still in early development, that has Will Speck and Josh Gordon attached to direct and produce. EGOT winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul will provide original music and produce via their Ampersand production banner. Sources say that the movie will feature a couple of original musical numbers in the vein of Barbie. Judas and the Black Messiah 's Lucas Bros. and Max Reisman are set to pen the screenplay about the game that is meant to mimic 19th-century pioneer times, following a covered wagon train heading west. [The story.]( —"This is a critical story that needs to be told." THR's [Katie Kilkenny]( has the scoop on a doc in the works about the evolution of the performers’ union SAG-AFTRA. Director-producer Tom Donahue and producer Ilan Arboleda are working on a film about the transformation of the labor organization union between 2008, when the WGA struck film and television studios and the SAG considered (but ultimately did not realize) their own work stoppage, and 2024, in the aftermath of the union’s landmark 118-day actors’ strike. The film will represent the culmination of interviews that have spanned a decade conducted by the filmmakers, whose project will additionally cover the union’s history and its longtime fight to create a middle class of actors. [The story.]( —📅 Dated! 📅 Sony have announced that Spider-Man will be swinging back into theaters on July 24, 2026. Tom Holland returns for the currently untitled Spider-Man 4, which has Destin Daniel Cretton set as director. Holland last starred as Spider-Man in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, the multi-verse spanning film that generated $1.916b at the global box office despite challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. The actor is expected to shoot the new Spider-Man next year, which will be a busy one for him. He also will film Christopher Nolan’s next movie, and may film a role in Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday. [The story.]( —🎭 Two more 🎭 THR's [Borys Kit]( has the scoop on Michael Cera and Emilia Jones joining The Running Man. Both actors have closed deals to join Glen Powell in Paramount’s adaptation of the Stephen King story that is being directed by Edgar Wright. For Cera, the move reunites him with the filmmaker behind one of his beloved roles, that of romantic slacker Scott Pilgrim from 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Josh Brolin, Katy O’Brian and Lee Pace are already on the call sheet for the feature that is due to shoot in London at the top of next year. [The story.]( —"Those licenses have now expired." Netflix has responded to backlash over it removing 19 films by or about Palestinians from the platform in mid-October. In a statement, the streamer said the Palestinian Stories collection with 32 films was launched in Oct. 2021 as part of a three-year licensing deal and that the agreement has now expired. The decision to not renew the Palestinian stories slate as part of a content licensing deal led a coalition of human rights groups led by Freedom Forward to write an open letter to Netflix’s executive team to explain why it removed 19 films by or about Palestinians. [The story.]( 'Venom 3' Opens to Solid $175M Globally ►Party Hardy. Sony's Venom: The Last Dance had a hard time hitting a home run at the domestic box office, but more than made up for the deficit overseas to boast a worldwide opening on par with the last installment. Nor did it have any trouble coming in No. 1 both domestically and globally. THR's Pamela McClintock reports that the final title in the Venom franchise opened to $51m from 4,131 theaters in North America, well behind an expected $65m, or the $90m domestic launch of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The opposite was true overseas, where Last Dance debuted in line with expectations with $124m for a global start of $175m against a relatively modest budget of $120m. It slithered to $46m in China, the best showing for a superhero movie since 2019 and the best showing of the year to date for a Hollywood title. Paramount and Temple Hill’s Smile 2 placed second in its sophomore outing, falling 59 percent to $9.4m for a 10-day domestic cume of $40.7m Coming in third was Edward Berger’s Oscar contender Conclave, the weekend’s other new nationwide opener. The acclaimed Vatican-set thriller about the election of a new pope opened to an estimated $6.5m from 1,753 cinemas, the best wide opening to date for a specialty film vying in this year’s awards race. [The box office report.]( Micaela Diamond Teases Twisty 'Grotesquerie' Season Finale ►"Our own theories were wrong." For THR, Brande Victorian spoke to actress Micaela Diamond about the season finale of FX's Grotesquerie. The actress shares her take on who (or what) Grotesquerie is, the true nature of the relationship between her and Niecy Nash-Betts' characters and what the horror series is communicating to audiences. Warning: Spoilers! [The interview.]( —Quick as you like. Netflix has renewed its animated series Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft for a second season. The pickup was a relatively quick one, coming just two weeks after the eight-episode first season premiered. Based on the long-running Tomb Raider video game franchise, The Legend of Lara Croft follows the adventurer (voiced by Hayley Atwell) after the events of Square Enix’s video game reboot trilogy. The show aims to fill in a gap in Croft’s story between the reboot trilogy (which served as something of an origin story for the character) and the original games. [The story.]( —Going big. A World Series involving marquee teams from the country’s two largest markets will likely mean a sizable increase in TV ratings for the fall classic. If that comes to pass, the World Series will follow a pattern set by the earlier rounds of Major League Baseball's postseason. All three rounds of the playoffs posted double-digit gains in total viewers and key ad demographics compared to 2023, according to Nielsen. The ratings service also says that Americans watched 29.5b minutes’ worth of playoff baseball from Oct. 1-20. That’s more than the combined total of 28.3b minutes for the top 10 streaming titles in Nielsen’s three most recent weekly rankings, covering Sept. 9-29. [The ratings.]( —Zeitgeist. Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story led Nielsen’s streaming charts for a second straight week — and grew substantially from its debut. The Ryan Murphy-produced series was the top title for the week of Sept. 23-29 with just under 2.4b minutes of viewing time. That’s a 40 percent improvement on the drama’s opening week (it premiered Sept. 19), which had 1.72b minutes of watch time, and the highest total for any streaming series in Nielsen’s rankings since Bridgerton hit 2.47b minutes in June. [The ratings.]( 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' Turns 50 ►Talk about a buzz kill. Made for a pittance, with no stars and the flimsiest of plots, Tobe Hooper’s extra-crunchy splatter flick The Texas Chain Saw Massacre went on to become one of the most successful indie films today, an accidental masterpiece that’s now part of MOMA’s permanent collection. For THR, Chris Nashawaty considers the impact and legacy of one of the greatest horror movies of all time. [The story.]( —Anatomy of a killer clown. THR's [Seth Abramovitch]( spoke to Terrifier creator Damien Leone, who disassembles Art the Clown’s killer outfit with a little help from the actor behind the makeup, David Howard Thornton. [The story.]( 'Snakes on a Plane' Changed His Life. Then It All Fell Apart. ►"He had always courted danger, taken risks, played a game of chicken with life." John Connery Heffernan III, the gonzo screenwriter behind the 2006 cult hit Snakes on a Plane, was never suited for the country club life into which he was born. In Hollywood, he found his people, his purpose and ultimately his undoing. For THR, Mark Oppenheimer, a long-lost friend of Heffernan, uncovers how it all went so wrong. [The story.]( —"I took it all very seriously." THR's Seth Abramovitch spoke to legendary PR man Elliot Mintz. The former music publicist, friend of John Lennon and indefatigable celebrity confidant — and now, with We All Shine On, memoirist — recalls his long and winding life with the Beatle, Bob Dylan and Paris Hilton. [The interview.]( —"She’s totally turned the tables." For THR, Demetrius Patterson spoke to Jeff Bridges about the season two finale of his FX show, The Old Man. Bridges explains his character's muted reaction to the shocking reveal, while talking about the physical demands of the spy series and hopes for season three. Warning: Spoilers! [The interview.]( —"I knew that this was going to be a hot story, so it was one of those situations where I felt like I needed to report this very quickly." THR's queen of chat [Jackie Strause]( spoke to Anatomy of Lies directors Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall who unpack the Peacock docuseries about former Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch. The duo share their thoughts on Finch’s impact on future writers rooms and why they hope the docuseries centered on Jennifer Beyer helps others "feel like they’re not alone." [The interview.]( —"I’m always looking for a visceral reaction in a script rather than a genre choice." THR's [Brian Davids]( spoke to filmmaker John Crowley about his new feature, We Live in Time. The Irish director discusses the making of the film, star Florence Pugh prioritizing the feature over Marvel and also adds context to star Andrew Garfield’s recent account of a sex scene that went on for far longer than it should have. [The interview.]( —"I’m a little more Kamala than Trump." THR's Seija Rankin spoke to Richard Linklater. Ahead of his SCAD Film Festival lifetime achievement award, the eternally optimistic Oscar-nominated filmmaker talks business as well as politics, and whose opinion of his work means the most to him. [The interview.]( Film Review: 'Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl' ►"More polished, but just as fun as ever." THR's [Lovia Gyarkye]( reviews Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham's Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. The misadventure-prone inventor (now voiced by Ben Whitehead) creates a "smart" gnome that develops a mind of its own, leaving his clever pooch to save the day. [The review.]( —"A sobering doc about a courageous act." Lovia reviews Shiori Ito's Black Box Diaries. In her debut documentary feature, which premiered at Sundance, the journalist Shiori Ito, the face of Japan's #metoo movement, chronicles her journey for legal recourse in a case against the high-profile reporter she accused of rape. [The review.]( —"Bristling with centuries of life, and yet mostly inert." THR's chief film critic [David Rooney]( reviews Robert Zemeckis' Here. Premiering at AFI Fest, the director's reunion with his Forrest Gump stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright and screenwriter Eric Roth also features Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly and Michelle Dockery. [The review.]( In other news... —Lindsay Lohan [strikes a holiday deal with her ex in Netflix’s Our Little Secret trailer]( —[DJ Clark Kent]( hip-hop record producer, dies at 58 —[David Harris]( The Warriors actor, dies at 75 —[Laurie Don]( former Jim Henson Co. executive, dies at 69 —[Phil Lesh]( Grateful Dead bassist, dies at 84 ​​​What else we're reading... —Shane Goldmacher, Maggie Haberman and Michael Gold report from MSG, where Trump's MAGA rally reveled in open racism, misogyny and grievance [[NYT]( —Ellen Cushing tells people angry with Jeff Bezos to cancel Amazon Prime rather than the Washington Post [[Atlantic]( —Max Tani reports on how WaPo's competition like the Guardian have scrambled to pick up audience/subscribers/funding since the newspaper beclowned itself over its non-endorsement [[Semafor]( —Gina Cherelus looks at what Amelia Dimoldenberg's Chicken Shop Date reminds us about dating [[NYT]( —Julia Boorstin and Andrew Evers look at why Meta and Snap are spending billions on AR glasses [[CNBC]( Today... ...in 1994, MGM unveiled sci-fi actioner Stargate in theaters, where it would go on to gross $196m globally and later launch a TV franchise. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Joaquin Phoenix (50), Julia Roberts (57), Matt Smith (42), Wes Ball (44), Kevin Macdonald (57), Annie Potts (72), Lauren Holly (61), Jami Gertz (59), Gwendoline Christie (46), [Chris Bauer]( (58), Dennis Franz (80), Troian Bellisario (39), Andy Richter (58), Sierra McCormick (27), Finn Wittrock (40), Daphne Zuniga (62), Nolan Gould (26), Ben Harper (55), Jason Watkins (62), Eliana Jones (27), May Calamawy (38), Nicholas Podany (28), Romy Rosemont (60), Zoie Palmer (47), Michael Dougherty (50), Devon Murray (36), Lola Tung (22), Jane Alexander (85), Joe Thomas (41), Jake Kasdan (50), Lexi Ainsworth (32), Telma Hopkins (76), Michael Stahl-David (42), Luka Peros (48), Phoenix Raei (34) Jeri Taylor, the Emmy-nominated producer, writer, director and showrunner who spent more than a decade working on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager, which she co-created, has died. She was 86. [The obituary.]( ADVERTISEMENT This email was sent to {EMAIL} by The Hollywood Reporter. Please add email@email.hollywoodreporter.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. Visit the [Preferences Center]( to update your profile and customize what email alerts and newsletters you receive. The Hollywood Reporter is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 11355 W Olympic Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90064 [View in Browser]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Your Privacy Rights]( | [Ad Choices]( | [Terms of Use]( | [Unsubscribe](