Cinematographers, Art Directors Guilds Reach Tentative Agreement With Studios; 'Furiosa' Heading to Cannes; NBC Renews 'Chicago' Shows, 'Law & Order,' 'SVU'

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( March 22, 2024 What's news: Laurene Powell Jobs has backed Bob Iger in Disney's increasingly fractious proxy fight with activist investors. Josh Peck has broken his silence over the abuse suffered by his former co-star Drake Bell. A24's Civil War is tracking to open above $20m. Cillian Murphy will star in a Peaky Blinders feature film. A second season Peacock's Bupkis isn't happening after Pete Davidson walked away from the project. — [Abid Rahman]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](. Cinematographers, Art Directors Guilds Reach Tentative Agreement With Studios ►🤝"We wish the remainder of the West Coast Studio Locals best of luck as they negotiate their local specific issues" 🤝 IATSE's largest Local, the International Cinematographers Guild, has reached a tentative agreement with studios and streamers on its craft-specific issues, the union told members Wednesday night. The Art Directors Guild (IATSE Local 800) simultaneously negotiated during those same days at the IATSE West Coast headquarters in Burbank, and on Thursday announced that it had also reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. [The story.]( —Bad news. In a move that could shape the high-profile proxy fight between Disney and Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners, the influential advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services is recommending that its clients vote to add Peltz to Disney’s board of directors. ISS ultimately recommended a vote for Peltz, but not Trian’s other nominee, Jay Rasulo, and to withhold a vote for current Disney board member Maria Elena Lagomasino. [The story.]( —Good news. Disney CEO Bob Iger did, however, lock up the support of another high-profile shareholder on Thursday. Laurene Powell Jobs said in a statement Thursday that she is urging shareholders to vote in support of Disney’s board nominees. "There is no one who understands Disney’s important legacy or the responsibility to protect it more than Bob Iger," Jobs said. [The story.]( —"All of these companies are trying to keep you in their ecosystem for as much time as possible." On Thursday, the Justice Department filed a landmark antitrust lawsuit against Apple, targeting, in part, its encroachment into Hollywood. THR's [Winston Cho]( writes that the government's sweeping antitrust lawsuit could impact the tech giant's practice of taking a cut of user payments and processing fees, which rivals such as Spotify and Netflix have complained about for years. [The analysis.]( Murdoch Named in Prince Harry Hacking Lawsuit ►Amended suit. Rupert Murdoch has been named by Prince Harry’s attorney as one of several News Corp. execs who allegedly knew of the company’s use of illegal news-gathering tactics and conspired to destroy evidence as the phone hacking scandal exploded over a decade ago. The allegation came during a hearing in London as the prince, Hugh Grant and others seek to amend their lawsuit against the company to include the charge that top brass were fully aware public statements downplaying the company’s use of illegal tactics at News Group Newspapers were untrue. [The story.]( —"Children should be protected." Josh Peck has broken his silence on Investigation Discovery’s Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV docuseries, which revealed the sexual abuse his Drake & Josh co-star Drake Bell suffered while working on the show. His statement comes a day after Bell asked his fans to "take it a little easy on" Peck. [The story.]( —Cleared. Channel 4, the U.K. network where Russell Brand found early fame, has revealed the findings of an internal investigation into whether its staff knew of the sexual misconduct allegations against the comedian before they were revealed in a Dispatches doc last year. "The investigation found no evidence to suggest that there was knowledge within the channel of the allegations contained in the Dispatches program," Channel 4 said. [The story.]( 'Furiosa' Heading to Cannes ►Witness them! Nine years after George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road tore up Cannes as the festival opener in 2015, the director’s follow-up, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, will also have its world premiere, out of competition, on the Croisette. Miller and stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke are expected to be in France for the event. Warner Bros. is releasing Furiosa in France on May 22. The U.S. release date is set for May 24. [The story.]( —Looking good. Alex Garland's dystopian action movie Civil War came on tracking Thursday morning, three weeks ahead of its debut in theaters across the U.S. One leading service shows the much buzzed-about A24 movie starting off with a strong $21m thanks to interest among younger males, and even among younger females. That's ahead of the $13.6m opening of A24’s horror pic Hereditary in 2018, which to date is the top start for the indie studio and distributor. The tracking service’s full range is $18m to $24m for Civil War. [The box office report.]( —By order of the Peaky Blinders! Oscar-winning actor Cillian Murphy will return to the mean streets of Birmingham to reprise his role in the BBC hit franchise when the Peaky Blinders feature-length movie films later this year, Steven Knight, the creator of the show, has confirmed. The Oppenheimer star starred in the period crime series as Tommy Shelby, leader of the titular street gang. In a recent interview, Murphy spoke of his interest in playing Tommy Shelby once more. [The story.]( —🤝 Global deal 🤝 Rejoice! Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron will stream on Netflix around the world outside the U.S. and Japan as part of a deal unveiled Tuesday. Netflix will also nab an additional 22 Studio Ghibli films as it extends its agreement with the revered animation studio founded by Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki. In the U.S., Max recently landed the streaming rights to the anime master’s semi-autobiographical fantasy film to become the exclusive streaming home for the films of Studio Ghibli. [The story.]( —🎭 Making moves 🎭 Oscar-winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph is in talks to join a musical in development at Universal from director Michel Gondry and producer Pharrell Williams that has Kelvin Harrison Jr. attached to star. The untitled coming-of-age project is said to be inspired by Williams’ formative years growing up in Virginia Beach in the 1970s. Gondry is set to direct from a screenplay by Martin Hynes and Steven Levenson. Williams, Mimi Valdés and Gil Netter will serve as producers. [The story.]( —🎭 Romance from Blighty 🎭 Bridgerton's Simone Ashley and After's Hero Fiennes Tiffin will star in the new U.K. original romantic comedy feature Picture This for Amazon's Prime Video. Directed by Prarthana Mohan and written by Nikita Lalwani, the movie is based on the Australian film Five Blind Dates. The cast also includes Phil Dunster, Nikesh Patel, Adil Ray, Sindhu Vee, Anoushka Chadha, Kulvinder Ghir and Luke Fetherston. Picture This is set to debut on Prime Video, with release date still TBC. [The story.]( —🎭 Teen leads 🎭 Women Talking breakout star Kate Hallett and Ragnarok star Herman Tømmeraas have nabbed lead roles in the teen thriller Sweetness from director Emma Higgins. Hallet will play Rylee Baker, a 16-year-old who has a chance encounter with her idol, pop star Payton Adler (Tømmeraas), whom she soon discovers is a dysfunctional drug addict. Also joining the ensemble cast is Aya Furukawa, Amanda Brugel and Steven Ogg. [The story.]( 'Chicago' Shows, 'Law & Order,' 'SVU' Renewed at NBC ►No-brainers. NBC has renewed most — but not all — of the shows in its two biggest franchises for the 2024-25 season. The network has ordered new seasons of all three of its Chicago dramas — Med, Fire and PD — along with Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU. Notably missing from the list is Law & Order: Organized Crime, whose status is "still under discussion," according to NBC. All six series come from Dick Wolf's Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television. [The story.]( —🎭 New cast of regulars 🎭 Nicole Kidman is returning for the second season of Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers. The sophomore run of the drama will again revolve around the wellness resort headed up by Kidman’s Masha and feature a new cast of series regulars led by Henry Golding, Mark Strong and Lena Olin. Character details — outside their names (Peter, David and Helena, respectively) — are not being released. Nine Perfect Strangers is based on Liane Moriarty’s novel of the same name. [The story.]( —Calling it quits. Pete Davidson has walked away from the planned second season of Bupkis, his semi-autobiographical Peacock comedy. "I’ve always seen Bupkis as a window into my life, since it is so personal and about my struggles and family. After nearly a decade of my personal life being in the media I wanted a chance to tell my story my way," Davidson said in a statement to THR. Peacock picked up Bupkis for a second season in June 2023, nearly two months after the show debuted to strong reviews. [The story.]( —Not happening. Former Netflix series Uncoupled won’t be going forward at Showtime after all. The news comes a year after Showtime revived the comedy — which is produced by Paramount Global sibling MTV Entertainment Studios — following a cancellation at Netflix. The decision to scuttle the show comes after some work to rejigger it to fit the sensibilities of Paramount+ With Showtime. Season two of Uncoupled, which stars Neil Patrick Harris as a man trying to put his life back together after breaking up with his boyfriend, had been slated to film last summer but was delayed due to the Hollywood strikes. [The story.]( —Opening up big. The live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender opened at No. 1 overall on Nielsen’s streaming charts for Feb. 19-25. Avatar had 2.56b minutes of viewing in the U.S. over its first four days, the second-biggest week for any streaming title in 2024 so far. Love Is Blind also had a big week for Netflix. The dating show more than doubled its total viewing time from the previous week, growing to 2.41b minutes as Netflix released the second batch of episodes from season six. [The streaming rankings.]( Thank Pod It's Friday ►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio. —TV's Top 5. THR's [Lesley Goldberg]( and [Dan Fienberg]( break down the latest TV news. In this week's episode, Danai Gurira drops by for a wide-ranging conversation about her return to The Walking Dead in The Ones Who Live, writing and serving as showrunner on an episode, and why telling Rick and Michonne’s love story was important. [Listen here.]( —It Happened in Hollywood. THR senior writer [Seth Abramovitch]( goes behind the scenes of the pop culture moments that shaped Hollywood history. In this episode, Seth spoke to the team behind the Robert Redford and Paul Newman 1973 con pic The Sting, including producers Michael Phillips and Tony Bill and screenwriter David S. Ward. [Listen here.]( In other news... —First Beetlejuice Beetlejuice [trailer brings Jenna Ortega into the ghastly family]( —House of the Dragon [S2 drops dueling trailers]( —Mel Brooks and Vitaphone shorts [heading to the TCM Classic Film Festival]( —WBD [unveils Max launch date in France]( —Audacy [reorganizes podcast division, sunsets Cadence13 brand]( —Guggenheim [says it “did not authorize” Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter promo display on museum]( —Tyler the Creator [hand-drew the Louis Vuitton monogram for new capsule collection]( —Millie Bobby Brown's [Stranger Things co-star Matthew Modine to officiate her wedding]( —Cris Abrego and Eva Longoria’s [Hyphenate Media Group sets leadership team]( —The Hollywood Roosevelt [channels old Hollywood glamour with reimagined suites]( ​​​What else we're reading... —Julian Borger and Peter Beaumont report on U.S. calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a hostage deal as part of a draft UN resolution [[Guardian]( —Mike Digiovanna goes deep on the history of Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter who was fired amid gambling accusations [[LAT]( —With Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter dropping next week, Hank Shteamer offers a brief history of all the Black artists who have dabbled with country music [[NYT]( —Michael Wolff reports on Jeff Zucker's journey to London and his forlorn attempts to buy the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator magazine [[Intelligencer]( —Here's your Friday list: "The songs of Girls5eva, ranked" [[Vulture]( Today... ...in 2013, A24 released Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers in U.S. theaters. The film created a deal of controversy for its objectification of women, but was a box office and critical success. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: William Shatner (93), Reese Witherspoon (48), Keegan-Michael Key (53), Eric Roth (79), Dominique Fishback (33), Nicole Holofcener (64), Cole Hauser (49), Matthew Modine (65), Constance Wu (42), Will Yun Lee (53), Fanny Ardant (75), Iben Hjejle (53), [Nick Robinson]( (29), Lena Olin (69), Anne Dudek (49), Tania Raymonde (36), Noah LaLonde (26), Enzo Vogrincic (31), Tiffany Dupont (43), Daisy Haggard (46), James Wolk (39), Nicole Wallace (22), Zoe Terakes (24), Kandyse McClure (44), Kellie Shanygne Williams (48), Lizzie Brocheré (39), Heather Lind (41), Laurie David (66), Katie Stuart (39), Andreas Pietschmann (55), Steve Toussaint (59), Gavin MacIntosh (25), Kidada Jones (50) Dianne Crittenden, the casting director whose impressive résumé included the first Star Wars film, The In-Laws and the Terrence Malick features Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, has died. She was 82. [The obituary.]( 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. 11175 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90025 [View in Browser]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Your Privacy Rights]( | [Ad Choices]( | [Terms of Use]( | [Unsubscribe](                              Â