Thursday, October 10, 2024
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Netflix Sets “Knives Out: Glass Onion” for Only Thanksgiving Week in Theaters

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I told you, the walrus was Paul.

Netflix is giving “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Spectacle” just one week in theaters at Thanksgiving. And only 600 theaters, really nothing.

The streamer figures of all their fall releases, “Glass Onion” — which takes its name from the Beatles song — will be the biggest inducement for Netflix subscribers.

The Rian Johnson film, starring Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, and a scene stealing Janelle Monae, runs two and a half hours. It takes place on a private island in Greece. There are more red herrings than you’d find in a fish store. Netflix has spent, spent, spent on this one. It makes the original “Knives Out” look like it was made in a basement.

The one actor you’ll want to watch in “Glass Onion” is Yuri Togkces. He plays the elusive Bob. I don’t want to give away his plot line. But I guarantee you everyone will be talking about him!

Justin Bieber’s Song Catalog For Sale: What Is It Actually Worth With So Many Co-Writers?

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There’s news today that Justin Bieber and manager Scooter Braun are jumping on the catalog bandwagon. They’re trying to get a piece of the billion dollar pie in music publishing.

Bieber, they envision, would join everyone from Bob Dylan to Sting to Fleetwood Mac, and so on. Bruce Springsteen got $500 million for his songs, so why not Justin Bieber?

Ok, when the laughing stops, let’s talk. Most Bieber hits have six to twelve co-writers. If they weren’t bought out in perpetuity at the start, then Bieber’s piece might be 50%. Take “Peaches,” a dozen credited collaborators. Some of these songs would require a conference room for a meeting of the writers, or a Zoom call that would fall off the screen. Even the ones with one or two people– the people are Benny Bianco and or Ed Sheeran.

So good luck with this plan. Bieber, of course, is in a financial bind (don’t worry, he’s rich) because he keeps cancelling tour dates. Selling his part of the catalog would be a backstop. Expect a crazy and unverified announcement of a sale — “biggest in history for a performer under 30 and five foot 8” — but take it with a grain of salt. Or a shaker.

Box Office: Harry Styles Can’t Lift “Don’t Worry Darling” Crawls Through a Week of Declines, Disappointments

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I’ve waited to see if “Don’t Worry Darling” would pick up at all or develop “legs” at the box office. Unfortunately, it hasn’t.

Even Harry Styles’s fans have stayed away. The total box office is just over $34 million Every day this week has been one of declines. Wednesday, typically a good day for adult movie going, was down another 52% from Tuesday, and so on and so forth.

The saving grace is that “Don’t Worry Darling” cost between $35 and $40 million. The bad news is that even coming close to that doesn’t help. The movie has to make around twice its cost, and that’s not going to happen.

The bad publicity subverted the old adage that “all press is good press.” On set affairs, rumored spitting at press conferences, Harry’s and Chris Pine’s lack of interest at press conferences, Florence Pugh’s feuding with director Olivia Wilde, it was all too much.

The only winner here is Styles, who returns to his massive pop career, and is next up in “My Policeman,” although after “Bros” tanking who knows how that one will be received?

White Lotus Is Back! Here’s the Trailer for the Sumptuous New Season Set in Sicily

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“White Lotus” is back! The HBO series returns with its first trailer, and it looks great set in sumptuous Sicily.

Jennifer Coolidge is back, and it looks like her boyfriend, played by Jon Gries, is also returning. Other stars include Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli, and Theo James. It also looks like there’s a lot of sex, and that HBO really went for it with the budget. Can’t wait.

Diddy Takes on Kanye’s White Lives Matter Shirt: “Don’t Wear the Shirt, Don’t Buy the Shirt, It’s Not a Joke”

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Sean Combs aka P Diddy, to me, does not look well. He looks, well, puffy. He’s also been saying strange things about his former recording artists.

But right now Combs has taken to Instagram to criticize Kanye West over his White Lives Matter t shirt. Combs joins dozens of other celebrities, black and white, in denouncing Kanye’s latest offensive public move.

Watch this video. Combs says: “Don’t wear the shirt, don’t but the shirt, it’s not a joke.” He says all lives matter, but Black lives matter because — “all they [white people] have planned for us is poverty, incarceration, and death.”

If you hear that and you’re white, you say, Oh that’s ridiculous. But is it? I’m not so sure.

Jamie Lee Curtis: In 2019 She Had a Great Time Making “Knives Out,” Now She “Was Sad and Isolated”– Which Was It?

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Sometimes I read these press junket interviews with actors and wonder what the heck is going on.

The big headline from “Halloween Ends’ is Jamie Lee Curtis saying that when she made “Knives Out” she says she felt “sad and isolated.” This is to Entertainment Weekly.

Well, in 2019, when the cast was promoting “Knives Out,” Jamie Lee and the whole cast talked about how they all lived in the same house and Jamie cooked meals for everyone night and day.

Remember? Back in 2019 I wrote:

During the Q&A, everyone discussed the house “Knives Out” was shot in. It’s a real house in Massachusetts, and the cast set up shop there. Craig said, “Even though everyone had mobile homes of their own to retire to, everyone kept coming up to the house and hanging out.”

Shannon added: “Jamie Lee Curtis set up shop there.” Jamie Lee plays Harlan’s eldest child, a hard-edged successful businesswoman in her own right. “She was making soup, and cooking, all the time in the kitchen. It was funny to see her going back and forth from her character to Jamie Lee, the mother hen.”

Now Jamie says to EW:

I was actually quite isolated,” Curtis told Entertainment Weekly. “I was living in this weird hotel by myself, and a lot of the movie, I’m not in. I was alone for a lot and it was a very tough time.”

So what is it? Was she the Rachael Ray of “Knives Out”? Or sad and lonely? Listen, Constance Wu told me she Tweeted those angry Tweets about the renewal of her TV show because she had a play to do in London and a boyfriend there, and the renewal ruined all that. Now she’s telling an entirely different story.

Talk about Gaslighting!

Ratings: NBC News Daily About to Overtake CBS’s “The Talk,” Still Behind “Days of Our Lives”

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NBC may have lost of viewers when they sent “Days of our Lives” to Peacock.

But they’re happy with this news: the replacement show, “NBC News Daily,” is about to overtake CBS’s “The Talk.”

The two shows don’t run against each other. “NND” runs at noon. “The Talk” is on at 2pm. But among talk/news shows, and altogether for daytime, “NND” is about 45,000 viewers away from pushing “The Talk” to the bottom of the daytime list.

“NND” had 1,312,000 viewers last week. “The View” had 1,358,000.

“Days of our Lives” was usually up around 1.6 million viewers on a daily basis. No one has any idea who’s watching it still on Peacock.

“The Talk” has always been an also-ran. It’s never really gotten a loyal audience, and never equaled the numbers of “As the World Turns,” which it replaced. But it’s cheap to produce! And that’s all the network cares about.

Review: Zac Efron Delivers the Goods in “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” With a 90 Audience Score

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In 1967, Chickie Donohue was already out of the Marines and his pals, a couple of years younger, were sent to Vietnam. Chickie was for the war, naively, and wanted to help his buddies. So he boarded a merchant marine ship to Saigon to deliver beers to a bunch of friends. He just ignored the dangers. He was a happy go lucky guy.

Chickie’s adventure became a book, “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” written with Joanna Molloy. Now it’s a movie directed by Peter Farrelly — who won the Oscar for “Green Book.” Zac Efron, looking to do more mature films, plays Chickie with all he’s got, and he delivers the goods, not just the beer.

The movie is in theaters now and headed to Apple TV Plus shortly. By all means, go see it in a theater. It’s an actual fun night out at the movies. On Rotten Tomatoes, “Beer Run” has a 90 Audience Score. Critics didn’t like it much, but they refused to take it seriously or enjoy it. They also made a mistake to question its veracity. Molloy is a top notch reporter, did incredibly homework interviewing Chickie and all his friends, a gang that is still alive, have great memories, and are incredibly endearing.

When Chickie returned from Vietnam unscathed he’d seen a lot. He became anti-war and wound up going to the prestigious JFK School of Government at Harvard. No kidding. But he’s still a neighborhood guy, just more enlightened.

The only part of “Beer Run” made up for the movie is a war photographer played by Russell Crowe. For drama’s sake, Chickie needed a guide and a friend he could rely on. The Crowe character is the only invention, and he doesn’t change the truth of the story.

Farrelly gets a bad rap from the snobs in moviedom because he made so many crazy comedies before “Green Book.” I totally agree with that movie getting its Oscar. It was full of heart. So is “Beer Run.” Efron is incredibly ingratiating. All the guys who play the Vietnam soldiers he found are authentic and genuine. Efron’s interaction with the whole cast works, down to the Brooklyn accents.

And the movie has a happy ending. Last week I insisted on going to a screening with Chickie and his real life pals because I liked them so much in the movie. They did not disappoint. Once you’ve seen the movie, you’ll want go on a beer run with them, too!

Prosecutor Says Settlement in Alec Baldwin “Rust” Case Has No Bearing on Possible Criminal Charges

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Alec Baldwin may have settled his civil case with the family of Halyna Hutchins but that doesn’t necessarily get him off the hook.

The Santa Fe District Attorney’s office is not letting down. Today they said in a statement: “The proposed settlement announced today in Matthew Hutchins’ wrongful death case against Rust movie producers, including Alec Baldwin, in the death of Halyna Hutchins will have no impact on District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altweis’ ongoing investigation or her ultimate decision whether to file criminal charges in the case. While civil suits are settled privately and often involve financial awards, criminal cases deal only in facts. If the facts and evidence warrant criminal charges under New Mexico law then charges will be brought. No one is above the law.” 

It was only last week that Carmack-Altweis secured $315,000 to begin her prosecution in the “Rust” case. She didn’t name Baldwin specifically, but told the Santa Fe budget office she needed funds to go after between 1 and 4 people in the case, and that one of them had lawyers in New York and Los Angeles.

Hutchins’ husband, meantime, has seemingly agreed as part of his financial settlement with Baldwin to become an executive producer on the movie, “Rust,” even though his wife died on the set. It does appear that he’s sold out, quite thoroughly, with the rationale that he’s finishing Halyna Hutchin’s work. The price was right!

“Rust” Never Sleeps: Alec Baldwin Settles with Halyna Hutchins’ Husband, Deal for Him to Exec Produce and Finish Unwanted Film

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Here’s a Hollywood ending you didn’t expect.

Alec Baldwin has announced that the producers of “Rust” — meaning including him — have settled financially with the husband of the woman who was killed on the set a year ago. Baldwin accidentally shot to death cinematographer Halyna Hutchins with a gun he didn’t know was loaded.

According to reports, the settlement includes resumption of filming “Rust” with Hutchins’ husband, Matthew, as executive producer. So he will share in the profits of the finished movie that claimed his wife’s life.

This is so tasteless and absurd, I’m actually flummoxed. In the post-Trump world, there is no bottom that can be reached.

Baldwin writes on Instagram: “We are pleased to announce today the settlement of the civil case filed on behalf of the family of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Throughout this difficult process, everyone has maintained the specific desire to do what is best for Halyna’s son.  We are grateful to everyone who contributed to the resolution of this tragic and painful situation.”

“We have reached a settlement, subject to court approval, for our wrongful death case against the producers of Rust, including Alec Baldwin and Rust Movie Productions, LLC. As part of that settlement, our case will be dismissed,” said Matthew Hutchins, husband of the late Halyna Hutchins said this morning.

“The filming of Rust, which I will now executive produce, will resume with all the original principal players on board in January 2023,” says Matthew Hutchins..

“I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr. Baldwin),” he added, “All of us believe Halyna’s death was a terrible accident. I am grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work.”   

These people are rationalizing a financial arrangement. It’s not like they’re making “The Godfather.” “Rust” is a low budget, forgettable film that no one wants to see except as a morbid curiosity. But it seems that even Hutchins had his price. Sold!