by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:
BOX OFFICE - From Variety: The Quorum, a film tracking service, surveyed 1800 "Barbie" ticket buyers over the past three weeks and found that 22 percent of them had likely not been to a movie theatre since before the pandemic.
ANIMATION/TRAILER - From Deadline: In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of the Bruce Lee classic, "Enter the Dragon," Bruce Lee Entertainment has released a teaser trailer for the anime series, "House of Lee."
CELEBRITY - From Deadline: The site's Mike Fleming, Jr. unveils the unpublished interview he conducted with the late actor, Ray Liotta, shortly before he died in May 2022.
FESTIVALS - From Deadline: Film at Lincoln Center has set the 32 features from 18 countries that will make up the Main Slate of the New York Film Festival.
MOVIES/TRAILER - From THR: The first trailer for "Golda" has debuted. It is a thriller and biopic of the late Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir, and is directed by Guy Nattiv and stars Helen Mirren as Meir.
BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro: The winner of the 8/4 to 8/6/2023 weekend box office is Warner Bros.'s "Barbie" with an estimated take of 53 million dollars.
From Variety: After 17 days in release, "Barbie" has surpassed one billion dollars in global box office.
MOVIES - From Deadline: Prince Harry and Princess Meghan have bought the films rights to the bestselling Canadian romance novel, "Meet Me at the Lake," from author Carley Fortune.
ELVIS PRESLEY - From Deadline: Riley Keough, the grandchild of Elvis Presley, has been named the sole trustee of the estate of her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley, the only child resulting from the marriage of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. The appointment was approved during a hearing Friday, Aug. 4th before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lynn Healey Scaduto.
OBITS:
From Variety: American voice actor, comedian, writer, and producer, Johnny Hardwick, has died at the age of 64, Tuesday, August 8, 2023. Hardwick is best known for his voice role of "Dale Gribble" on Fox's late animated sitcom, "King of the Hill" for all of its 13 seasons. He was also a producer, writer, and story editor during the series' first six seasons. He won a "Outstanding Animated Program" Primetime Emmy in 1999 for his work as a producer on "King of the Hill" and was nominated twice more in that category.
From Deadline: The American singer-songwriter and musician, Sixto Diaz Rodriquez, has died at the age of 91, Tuesday, August 8, 2023. Known professionally as "Rodriguez," he was the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary, "Search for Sugar Man" (2012). The documentary told the story of how fans in South Africa doggedly search for Rodriguez who was wildly popular in South Africa and other southern African countries and also Australia and New Zealand while being most forgotten in the United States. Rodriguez initially released two rock and folk albums that did not sell well in the U.S.
From Variety: American film and television director, William Friedkin, has died at the age of 87, Monday, August 7, 2023. Part of the "New Hollywood" movement, Friedkin was best known for two films, "The French Connection" (1971) and "The Exorcist" (1973). For "The French Connection," he won the Academy Award for "Best Director," as well as the best director awards from the Directors Guild of America and the Golden Globes. For "The Exorcist," he received an Academy Award nomination for "Best Director" and won the Golden Globe for "Best Director." His other notable films include "Sorcerer" (1977), "To Live and Die in L.A." (1985), and "Killer Joe" (2011), to name a few.
From Deadline: William Friedkin: a career in photographs
From Deadline: American film editor, Arthur Schmidt, has died at the age of 86, Saturday, August 5, 2023. Schmidt was best known for his collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis, and it earned him to two Oscar wins. for "Best Film Editing" for the films, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988) and "Forrest Gump" (1994). Schmidt also edited Zemeckis' "Back to the Future" trilogy, "Contact" (1997), and "Cast Away" to name a few. Schmidt also received a "Best Film Editing" Academy Award nomination for editing Michael Apted's "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1980).
WRITERS/ACTORS STRIKE:
From Deadline: Writers Guild (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) will resume strike talks today, Fri., Aug. 11th.
From Deadline: Meeting for the first time in more than three months, the Writers Guild and the AMPTP on Friday failed to reach an agreement to resume contract negotiations. The Writers Strike will go on indefinitely.
From Deadline: Hollywood’s superstars are answering the call from the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, donating $1 million or more each to help their fellow performers during the ongoing actors and writers strikes. Among the big donors are Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, and Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
From Deadline: If you are interested, here is a list of the film and TV productions SAG-AFTRA has granted waivers to continue filming.
From Variety: International superstar, Dwayne Johnson, makes a seven-figure contribution to the "SAG-AFTRA Foundation Relief Fund." Foundation president, actor Courtney B. Vance, says the amount will remain confidential.
From Variety: Why haven't A-list stars joined the SAG-AFTRA picket line?, asks "Variety."
From Deadline: Author George R.R. Martin, whose works were the basis for HBO's "Game of Thrones," says the strikes will be long and bitter.
From THR: Production works at Warner Bros. Animation (66) and at Cartoon Network (22) have gone public with their attempt to unionize via The Animation Guild.
From Variety: Halted film productions due to the writers and actors strikes are costing each Hollywood studio at least 600,000 dollars per week.
From Variety: Said at a strike meeting: “Without a transformative change in SAG-AFTRA’s current contract with the AMPTP, the acting profession will no longer be an option for future generations of performers, and actors already working in the industry will need to pursue other careers in order to survive.”
From Deadline: If you are a "social media influencer" who is NOT a member of SAG-AFTRA, you can be barred from future membership for promoting a film or television series during the actors' strike.
From Variety: The SAG/AFTRA strike begins in New York and Los Angeles. Hollywood actors began striking today, Fri., July 14th.
From Deadline: The site has the video of the powerful strike speech given by SAG-AFTRA president, Fran Drescher, the actress best known for CBS' former sitcom, "The Nanny."
From Deadline: Concerning the Hollywood writers strike (via the WGA), the Hollywood Studios (as represented by the AMPTP) is to let the writers go broke before resuming talks deep into the Fall.
From Deadline: SAG-AFTRA is already preparing strike picket signs in case the actors' strike begins next week.
From Deadline: WGA is picketing the New York City filming location of the 12th series of FX's "American Horror Story" (entitled "Delicate") after series co-creator Ryan Murphy threaten litigation against an east coast strike captain.
From THR: TV super-producer, Ryan Murphy, in a letter from his attorney to the leadership of the Writers Guild of America, threatened litigation against Warren Leight, an East Coast strike captain and Strike Rules Compliance Committee member who has subsequently forfeited those positions.
From Deadline: The Hollywood studios via the AMPTP has given Canadian actors a new contract, including a 5 percent raise.
From Deadline: Writers Strike puts the spotlight back on the challenge from writers for animation productions to be covered by the WGA.
From THR: Studios won't give writers better pay, and now, are laying off janitors.
From Deadline: The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has reached a tentative new three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). So what does the Writers Guild (WGA), currently on strike and negotiating with the AMPTP, think of that deal.
From Deadline: Netflix shareholders declined to support the 2023 pay packages of top executives during a non-binding vote at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday. The vote won't prevent these execs from getting their loot (an total of $166 million), but this is a rare public rebuke. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has urged shareholders to vote "No" because the pay was "inappropriate" at this time.
From Deadline: Warner Bros Discovery chief David Zaslav gave the commencement address at Boston University. There he was met with jeers and also chants of "pay your writers" from picketers and from some in the audience.
From Deadline: President Joe Biden speaks on the Writers Guild of America strike.
From Deadline: Retaliation! The studios have starting informing writer-producers who have "overall" and "first-look" deals that such deals are being suspended.
From Deadline: Retaliation! Prolific HBO creator, David Simon, who is best known for "The Wire," is one of the many writers who have had their overall deals suspended the studios due to the WGA strike. Simon has been with HBO for 25 years.
From Deadline: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is on strike.
From Deadline: Disney, HBO/HBO Max, and CBS have sent letters to showrunners (the TV equivalent of film directors) instructing them to return to work, inspite of the writer's strike.
From Deadline: The WGA's chief negotiator, Ellen Stutzman, talks about the state of the writers' strike, including the lack of engagement on the part of the strike's other party, AMPTP.
From Deadline: What went wrong between the WGA and AMPTP? What could they not agree on that led to a strike?
From Deadline: The site explains the WGA strike: the issues, the stakes, movies and TV shows affected, and how long it might last.
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