Joel Schumacher, who directed some two dozen films including Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Brat Pack pics St. Elmo’s Fire and The Lost Boys along with Falling Down and John Grisham adaptations The Client and A Time to Kill, died today. He was 80. His publicists at ID PR said he had a yearlong battle with cancer. Schumacher was revered as one of Hollywood’s great storytellers. He […]
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The 2021 Golden Globes will take place on Feb. 28 — about eight weeks before the 93rd Academy Awards. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the announcement Monday morning. Just a week earlier, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that the 93rd Academy Awards telecast has been postponed by two months to April 25, 2021. Variety was the first to […]
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Like a plethora of other awards shows, the Critics’ Choice Awards is following the Academy Awards in pushing back its 2021 ceremony as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The 26th annual Critics’ Choice Awards will air live on Sunday, March 7, the Critics’ Choice Association announced Thursday. It will again take place at […]
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Film and TV production will be allowed to resume in California as early as June 12, according to guidelines issued by the state Friday. Like rules for other industries, the OK for work to resume will be given on a county-by-county basis using benchmarks like COVID-19 infection rate. The guidelines give great leeway for the industry […]
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With the aim of getting the entertainment industry back to work safely amid the threat of COVID-19, the Industry-Wide Labor-Management Safety Committee Task Force — whose members include AMPTP, SAG-AFTRA, the Directors Guild, IATSE and the Teamsters — submitted on Monday a white paper to California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, as well as […]
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The 93rd Oscars aren’t until February, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is considering postponing the big night, according to multiple sources. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, say definitive plans are far from being concrete at this juncture. The telecast is currently set for Feb. 28, 2021, on ABC. “It’s likely they’ll be […]
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Harvey Weinstein will not be coming to Los Angeles anytime soon. The incarcerated producer is awaiting extradition to face five charges of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said on March 11 that it was beginning the extradition process. But as of Monday, it had yet to file […]
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Under Los Angeles County’s Safer-at-Home directives aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus, red carpet events have been shut down since mid-March. The ban has been a huge blow to the events industry, and insiders have floated several proposals to get Hollywood’s once-booming red carpets back on track, everything from interview pods and […]
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Flamboyant singer-instrumentalist Little Richard, whose high-voltage, keyboard-shattering R&B singles supplied lift-off for the ’50s rock ‘n’ roll revolution, has died. The musician, whose birth name was Richard Penniman, was 87, although some sources say he was older. His death was confirmed by his son, Danny Jones Penniman, who told the New York Times the cause was cancer. Richard’s […]
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NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell is reorganizing his senior leadership team at the company, marking the first major executive restructuring since succeeding Steve Burke at the beginning of the year. Mark Lazarus, who currently oversees NBC Sports Group and the company’s local stations, will now oversee the company’s entertainment businesses as well, including Peacock. The new streaming service, which […]
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Gil Schwartz, former chief communications officer for CBS and a longtime executive for the company, has died. He was 68. The network on Sunday announced that Schwartz died Saturday morning of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica. “For the better part of three decades, Gil Schwartz led CBS Communications with creative flare, craftsman-like […]
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has tweaked its Oscar eligibility rules in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. During a meeting on Tuesday, the board of governors approved a temporary hold on the requirement that a film needs a seven-day theatrical run in a commercial theater in Los Angeles County to qualify for the Oscars. Instead, films […]
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AMC Theatres on Tuesday delivered a blistering message to Universal Pictures, saying the world’s largest cinema chain will no longer play any of the studio’s films in the wake of comments made by NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell regarding the on-demand success of Trolls World Tour and what it means for the future of moviegoing post-coronavirus pandemic. Earlier […]
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Tyler Perry has always been a maverick, rising from a struggling writer-performer to a film and TV mogul and studio owner. Speaking with Deadline over the weekend, Perry shared a plan to get production on his multiple TV series up and running in June at his Atlanta-based Tyler Perry Studios with a strict protocol that involves testing and […]
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With COVID-19 shuttering film fests worldwide, YouTube has stepped in to launch a 10-day digital film festival this spring with 20 partners — streaming free to cinema fans everywhere. We Are One: A Global Film Festival is being produced and organized by New York’s Tribeca Enterprises. The YouTube-hosted event will feature programming from 20 top film festivals […]
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SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers said on Friday that they will start negotiations on Monday for successor agreements to the SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical contracts. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and state government stay-at-home orders, both sides said that talks will be conducted via video teleconference. SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris will […]
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Warner Bros. is shifting a number of its release dates — including Matt Reeves’ The Batman — due to the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader, had been set to hit the big screen June 25, 2021. It will now ride into theaters Oct. 1, 2021. Like numerous […]
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San Diego Comic-Con has been canceled as the coronavirus pandemic continues to reshape how the world views large public gatherings. The annual entertainment and comic book convention was scheduled to take place from July 23-26 in San Diego, California. It will next occur July 22-25, 2021. This is the first time in the event’s 50-year history […]
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Less than two months after stepping down as CEO, Bob Iger has reasserted control at Disney as the company navigates the impact caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a New York Times report published Sunday. In an email to Times reporter Ben Smith, Iger explained, “a crisis of this magnitude, and its impact on Disney, […]
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Contrary to popular opinion, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives out more than just Oscars. On Friday, Hollywood’s most elite organization announced that it will be donating $6 million to “help support motion picture employees and their families facing severe financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with institutions […]
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The Walt Disney Co. said on Thursday that it will begin furloughing certain employees whose jobs aren’t deemed necessary beginning on April 19. The company did not give a specific number for the amount of people who it expects to impacted by the furloughs, but did say that all of those affected will remain Disney […]
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SXSW may have been cancelled due to coronavirus, but the filmmakers who were traveling to Austin to share their films with audiences will still get a chance to lift the curtain on their work. That’s because Amazon Prime Video is joining forces with the festival to launch “Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection.” The tech company […]
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Legendary delicatessen Nate’n Al’s — a Cheers for Hollywood’s power players — has shuttered. Opened in 1945, the Beverly Hills institution was known as much for its beloved longtime staff as its high-priced pastrami and lox. On Saturday, the restaurant published a note to its Instagram account which made clear that the COVID-19 epidemic’s economic shockwave was responsible for […]
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A New York federal judge on Tuesday ruled that PEN America may proceed on some of its claims against Donald Trump. Specifically, the U.S. president must continue to face allegations of violating the First Amendment by revoking press badges and security clearances. Pen America is a literary organization that fights to protect free speech. The […]
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Two weeks ago, the biggest concern facing the industry was the threat of a strike as writers and studios prepared to enter heated contract negotiations. But, in recent days, that great unknown has been displaced by a global pandemic that’s brought Hollywood — and society at large — to a screeching halt. Says lawyer Jamie […]
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