Business of Hollywood Ava’s influence The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences held their elections this week, and Ava DuVernay has been elected to the Directors’ Branch, joining Steven Spielberg and Susanne Bier as one of the three “governors” representing directors in AMPAS. This year’s elections make the board of governors the most By Sarah • Jun 11, 2020 03:12 pm
Equality Issues Dick Wolf Fires Writer. This Is News It shouldn’t be news. ‘Man [or woman] behaves abominably, loses job as a result’ is a narrative we know very well – one that’s been playing out in fast-forward over the last few days, a cold comfort relative to the atrocities we’re seeing every single time we open By Duana • Jun 05, 2020 03:23 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Henry Cavill will return as Superman…kinda Here we go. Following the announcement that the “Snyder Cut” of Justice League would be released on HBOMax, there is more Zack Snyder-adjacent DC movie news. No, Ben Affleck is not returning as Batman—let the poor man take endless walks with his girlfriend and eat carbs—but Henry Cavill By Sarah • May 28, 2020 12:29 pm
Business of Hollywood Intro for May 27, 2020 Dear Gossips, What is the future of movie theatres? Bilge Ebiri attempted to answer the question at Vulture yesterday as restrictions begin to lift across North America and authorities are making plans to reopen the economy. Some people think that after all these weeks of being at home and watching By Lainey • May 27, 2020 08:48 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Welp, the Snyder Cut is happening after all I admit it: I was wrong. The fabled “Snyder Cut”, Zack Snyder’s director cut of Justice League is actually being released, expected to drop on HBOMax in 2021 after years of toxic fan bitching. I did not think it would happen for many reasons, but following a regime change By Sarah • May 20, 2020 03:29 pm
Business of Hollywood Intro for May 8, 2020 Dear Gossips, A couple of weeks ago, I posted about Tenet and its status now as the “Last Blockbuster Standing” because, at the time, Warner Bros had yet to push back its release date, July 17, 2020. Tenet’s director, Christopher Nolan, is one of the leading crusaders for the By Lainey • May 08, 2020 08:52 am
Business of Hollywood Hilarie Burton writes about Ben Affleck Hilarie Burton’s book The Rural Diaries: Love, Livestock, and Big Life Lessons Down on the Mischief Farm was released this week. You may recall, a few years ago, a clip surfaced from when Hilarie was working at MTV and Ben Affleck groped her. She then retweeted it with her By Lainey • May 07, 2020 10:23 am
Business of Hollywood The Big Oscar Rule Change Nobody’s going to the movies because the theatres are closed. Which means, up to yesterday, the only films that were eligible for Oscars this year would have been the ones released up to mid-March. So like Bad Boys For Life, Doolittle, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Way Back. Can you By Lainey • Apr 29, 2020 12:54 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Oh sit down, AMC Universal was early to the emergency digital release game, pushing their previously released films, like The Invisible Man and The Hunt, onto premium on demand within the first days of the COVID-19 lockdown. They also were the first studio to decide to bypass a theatrical release for a big-budget film By Sarah • Apr 29, 2020 09:48 am
Business of Hollywood Sam Raimi officially returns to Marvel Marvel director drama has become somewhat commonplace. Marvel does try to satisfy the filmmakers that work with them, but Marvel is also a big corporate machine, and sometimes those interests outweigh the filmmaker’s interests. Most recently, this happened with Scott Derrickson and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. By Sarah • Apr 15, 2020 03:03 pm
Business of Hollywood Bob Iger is back in charge In February, Bob Iger, then-CEO of Disney, dropped a bombshell on the business and entertainment worlds when he announced he was stepping down from his post at Disney. He would be the “Executive Chairman” while Bob Chapek, formerly head of parks—insert Succession joke here—became CEO. Well now, as By Sarah • Apr 14, 2020 10:40 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Black Widow gives up the ghost Of the spring/early summer film release, Black Widow was the last giant standing, but yesterday, Disney pulled the plug, shuffling Black Widow off its May 1 release date and making it, like everything else, TBD. There goes the summer kickoff. Disney has moved BLACK WIDOW from May 1, 2020 By Sarah • Mar 18, 2020 11:22 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Even more coronavirus cancellations At the beginning of the week, I was hopeful that the spreading coronavirus situation would not lead to social meltdown, that the cancellation of SXSW would be the worst side-effect we saw. I was so young then, so naïve. Social meltdown is here, and the parade of coronavirus-related cancellations continues. By Sarah • Mar 13, 2020 09:43 am
Top Reads Rona Cancel Culture Are we going to die? And not because of the stupid virus! It’s the goddamn news ABOUT the virus that’s killing me. It’s SO MUCH. Last night, in the span of like, 15 MINUTES we learned the following: • The US is banning all travel from Europe for By Sarah • Mar 12, 2020 10:05 am
Business of Hollywood Disney’s surprise shake-up Late yesterday afternoon, Disney dropped a bombshell when it was announced that CEO Bob Iger is stepping down immediately and will be replaced by Bob Chapek, chairman of Disney Parks, as the new CEO. First of all, this is real-life Sucession and the HEAD OF PARKS got the CEO gig— By Sarah • Feb 26, 2020 09:44 am
Top Reads Beyoncé: no photos at Kobe and Gianna tribute Back in 2013, when Beyoncé headlined the Super Bowl halftime show (the first time), Buzzfeed heard from her publicist demanding that “unflattering” photos of her be taken down. It was the beginning of Beyoncé’s press shutdown, when she stopped giving interviews, stopped engaging with the media. At the time, By Lainey • Feb 25, 2020 11:50 am
