Spike Lee Opens Up; Jolie vs. Snakes; 'Fashion Police' Signs Off; 'Smothers Brothers' at 50

The Weekender: Director Sofia Coppola on flipping Hollywood's reboot formula and the industry's harassment woes. Plus: Spike Lee opens up about his new projects, Angelina Jolie battles Cambodian snakes, Fashion Police signs off and Smothers Brothers turns 50. — Ray Rahman. [The Hollywood Reporter - Today In Entertainment]( November 25, 2017 The Weekender: Director Sofia Coppola on flipping Hollywood's reboot formula and the industry's harassment woes. Plus: Spike Lee opens up about his new projects, Angelina Jolie battles Cambodian snakes, Fashion Police signs off and Smothers Brothers turns 50. — Ray Rahman. Sofia's Gaze Your weekend read: Sofia Coppola, who'll be honored at the IFP Gotham Awards on Nov. 27, speaks with Ashley Lee about creating the female gaze in The Beguiled, learning from live theater, and weighs in on the recent flood of harassment allegations in Hollywood. Reboots and remakes are trendy in Hollywood, but you managed to retell an old story and highlight new, universal themes in The Beguiled. Most reboots come from a commercial thinking, a businessperson saying, "We need to remake this movie." This was from my creative interest to tell this story, but in my way. I appreciated the original movie, but I tried to forget it — I would never try to replicate someone else's work. It was the challenge of finding a different point of view: taking this genre movie, which is about a group of women in an extreme situation but told from a guy's point of view, and tell it instead from their point of view. These isolated women were raised to depend on men and servants, who were all gone; they were trying to hold on to this lifestyle that's obsolete. It's also taking something that was treated in a campy way and, while still having fun with it, taking the emotions of these characters seriously and treating them like complex humans — full, multidimensional people. It's challenging even today to get a movie made that's a group of women with one guy who is the object. You've been in the industry for many years. How do you feel about the recent flood of sexual harassment allegations? It's good that all these people's stories are coming out, and people are listening. There is an element of this industry that's been tucked away for a while, so it's good that people feel like they can express that. What's your advice for someone entering this industry? Like any world, there are trustworthy people and not. You just have to look for them, and beware that there are other sides to that industry. [Read more.]( Spike Lee Opens Up Director's cut: Spike Lee lets loose on his upcoming Black Klansman movie, why he regrets the rape scene in She's Gotta Have It, white nationalism and his thoughts on Get Out. Craigh Barboza writes: Lee, 60, continues to work 24/7 — he's the only one in the office when I arrive to interview him (it is 8:00 a.m. on a Sunday). Lining the walls of every room and staircase at 40 Acres are rare movie posters (signed by Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Elia Kazan, Francis Coppola), original prints and artwork (James Van Der Zee, Kehinde Wiley, Naturel), and lots of sports memorabilia (game-worn NBA jerseys, and boxing trunks that belonged to Joe Louis). On one floor there is a Confederate flag, standing next to a wood desk and chair. It's set up for a scene he's planning to shoot for Black Klansman, a feature based on the true story of an African-American detective who infiltrated the KKK in 1978. Lee started filming the Jordan Peele-produced thriller, which stars Adam Driver and John David Washington, in October. "It's surreal meeting a guy who has broken so much ground," says Peele. "He's one of the all-time great directors, and when I first talked to him he was about to go see Get Out for the ​second time. I just soak up knowledge every time we talk." [Full story.]( ^Jolie rancher: Angelina Jolie battled snakes, land mines and vomit to depict war-torn Cambodia in First They Killed My Father, now on Netflix. “We needed a therapist on the set," she says. Stephen Galloway writes: In November 2015, a 50-day shoot got underway in Cambodia, with Battambang standing in for Phnom Penh. Jolie was helped by local producer Rithy Panh, whose archive of documents and photographs proved invaluable, as did his memories of being a teenager during the Khmer Rouge years, when it came to providing details of life back then. Details were one thing, logistics another when it came to filming in a country without a cinematic infrastructure. Equipment had to be shipped in from Thailand; extras hired, as many as 3,500 per day for the big scenes; rice fields were planted at different stages to convey time passing; special schools needed to be set up for the children; and some areas had to be swept clear of land mines. Then there were the reptiles and insects. "Tarantulas and snakes," remembers Jolie. "We killed some snakes and ate some. That's part of the culture; there's a really good bug restaurant." She and her family even learned how to cook reptiles. [Full story.]( In other film news... ► Thanksgiving Day box office: Coco narrowly beats Justice League. The animated feature, expected to take home more than $70 million over the long weekend, [boasted]( a Turkey Day haul of $8.9 million, just ahead of Justice League's $8.5 million. ► Universal pull sci-fi thriller Extinction from schedule. The [film](, starring Michael Pena and Lizzy Caplan, had been set to open on Jan. 26, 2018. ► Should Pixar finally make a musical? "They may not have wanted to make a musical before," Josh Spiegel writes, "but Coco makes it clear: Pixar’s ready." [Read more.]( ► How a deadly pier and 600 extras brought Dunkirk's WWII to life. Production designer Nathan Crowley faced a huge logistical challenge in building at the site a 900-foot extension (the white portion, built from wood, one of the original materials and also something the production team could safely blow up), which held as many as 600 extras. "It had to withstand the sea," says Crowley. [Read more.]( 'Smothers Brothers' at 50 Oral history: The antics of boy-next-door brothers Dickie and Tommy Smothers on CBS' The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour turned television upside down, blending slapstick humor with political satire and blazing the trail for satirists such as Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Samantha Bee. The brothers, as well as alums like Steve Martin and Rob Reiner, reminisce to Marc Freeman: Dickie Smothers: CBS was being pushed to get younger. They had Danny Kaye and Red Skelton. The ball team was getting old. We were young and tested well. Tommy Smothers: I had such a terrible time on the sitcom [My Brother the Angel, their first show]. I said if I ever get another show I wanted a real audience and some creative control. So, when we put the show together, CBS said OK. It meant I could hire and fire and argue and discuss material. Rob Reiner, writer: It was probably the most traumatic time in our country in terms of the shift in the social and political landscape. Tommy, with his cunning intellect and strong desire for social justice, wanted to tap into that. Steve Martin, writer: When you have power wrapped up in innocence, it's more palatable. They were like little boys, but you also had Dickie there to reprimand Tommy when he would make an outrageous statement. It's like the naughty ventriloquist dummy who can get away with murder as long as the ventriloquist is there to say, "You can't say that." It's the perfect set-up for getting a message across. [Read more.]( Great news: NBC's renewal of The Good Place was this week's best gift, Dan Fienberg emails: This week, perhaps the thing I was most thankful for was that none of my editors made me write a list of things I'm thankful for, but if I'd had to write such a list, NBC renewing The Good Place for a third season would have ranked high. Critics like to complain about the dearth of quality programming on broadcast TV, but on the comedy side — with Jane the Virgin, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Black-ish, Speechless and more — broadcast does great. In its second season, Mike Schur's NBC afterlife series has taken last spring's audacious twist and added layer upon layer of creative complexity and lunacy. The show can do an episode as loopy and inspired as the constantly resetting "Dance Dance Resolution," written by punning national treasure Megan Amram, and then a few weeks later dedicate a full half-hour to the philosophical quandary known as "The Trolley Problem." Although the comedy still isn't a hit by any means, I've watched word-of-mouth spread as viewers have discovered the amazing ensemble beyond Kristen Bell and Ted Danson and learned the names of William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Jacinto and, especially this season, D'Arcy Carden. And while news of a third season is great, the show deserves an even longer lifespan. So keep watching The Good Place. Five seasons and an afterlife! In other TV news... ► Peter {NAME}, actor and Emmy-winning TV director, dies at 86. {NAME} learned from the legendary Vittorio De Sica and worked on The Mary Tyler Moore, The Partridge Family and The Wonder Years, helming hundreds of episodes in all. [Full obit.]( ► Series finale alert: Here's a list of all the TV shows [ending in 2018](, from The Americans to Veep. + A rundown of the new releases being [added to Netflix]( in December, including all three The Santa Clause movies. ► Thanksgiving NFL ratings see primetime fatigue. Thursday night's game between the New York Giants and Washington Redskins still dominated the ratings but the numbers were [down 10 percent]( from the year before. + Meanwhile, the afternoon Chargers-Cowboys game was [down 21 percent]( from the same window last year — though this time, Dish subscribers weren't able to watch the game due to a carriage dispute. ► Charlie Rose stripped of journalism awards. Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and the University of Kansas both [rescinded]( honors bestowed upon Rose. Viacom removed a photo collage of a topless mermaid from its building after complaints from employees. The work — dubbed an "ink masterpiece" by Inked Magazine — was part of a master collage of winning Ink Master tattoos put on display inside Viacom's newish headquarters in Hollywood. [Full story.]( 'Fashion Police' Stands Down End of an era: After more than 20 years on the air, Fashion Police will officially turn in its gun and badge when E! airs the final edition on Monday — but the show's influence will live on, for better or for worse. Booth Moore emails: E! network’s Fashion Police, the style-centered talk show famously fronted by Joan Rivers until her death in 2014, is coming to an end with a series finale on Monday that will pay tribute to the sharp-tongued comic and some of her memorable fashion zingers. ("The nice thing about this hat is that it covers up the head wound that made her think it was a good idea to wear it in the first place," is but one.) Launched in 1995, Fashion Police was one of the first style shows on television, helping to turn casual fashion observers into arm-chair critics, and Hollywood red-carpet dressing into a high-stakes sport. It brought a ruthless (and at times clueless) tone to celebrity fashion coverage that has not always played well, particularly in 2015 when host Giuiliana Rancic made a culturally insensitive remark about actress Zendaya’s dreadlocks, saying that she must “smell like patchouli oil…or weed.” (Rancic later apologized.) In recent years, Fashion Police has struggled for ratings and relevance as social media opened up the red-carpet conversation in real time, and #AskHerMore culture made fashion criticism more nuanced. The final episode, titled The Farewell, will be hosted by Melissa Rivers and current panelists Rancic, Brad Goreski, NeNe Leakes and Margaret Cho. It will also feature previously unaired footage of Rivers and her co-hosts paying tribute to an easy sartorial punchline: ’80s fashion. ^Letter from Guatemala: The Central American stunner, full of natural beauty and boutique hotels, is worth a visit, writes Kathryn Romeyn: In many parts, like around Lake Atitlan, locals have no clue who’s on the cover of the latest tabloid or fashion magazine. It’s undoubtedly part of the reason the likes of Charlize Theron, Sofia Vergara, Morgan Freeman and Padma Lakshmi have visited — that and the bounty of gorgeous and intimate luxury boutique hotels. There are a few key stops that should be part of any luxe Guatemalan vacation. Lake Atitlan, which landscape-wise resembles a Spanish-speaking version of Lake Como — only with a few less ritzy resorts — is one. It’s where Relais & Chateaux’s Casa Polopó draws the aforementioned celebs for serious R&R with a side of socially-minded tourism. [Read more.]( Inside Tiffany's Blue Box Café. On a recent Sunday, the newly appointed fourth floor was buzzing, with a crowd that ranged from a young woman taking a no-doubt Instagram-bound photo on her iPhone to a grey-haired but bared-legged aristocratic type. [Full story.]( What else we're reading... — "The saga of Yoko Ono, her chauffeur and lost Lennon treasures." Michael Wilson writes: "The story begins 11 years ago with the public unraveling of the relationship between Ms. Ono and her driver of more than a decade, the man who shuttled the rock star’s widow to and from her apartment by day and returned at night to his home in Amityville on the South Shore of Long Island." [[New York Times](] — "What's $800 and already sold out? This lego Star Wars ship." Rebecca Feldhaus Adams writes: "After a September release only to its VIP list, the company promises it's working as fast as it can to 'make more sets available and keep our LEGO builders happy.'" [[NPR](] — "The professional friends of YouTube." Kaila Philo writes: "The platform and its young celebrities have built a self-contained universe of political cluelessness." [[The Baffler](] — "YouTube faces fresh backlash after ads appear near pedophile comments." Stu Woo and Sam Schechner write: "The backlash Friday was the latest over what critics say is the inability of YouTube owner Google, and parent Alphabet Inc., to effectively police the video service and assure advertisers their spots won’t end up accompanying inappropriate or offensive content." [[Wall Street Journal](] — "The many deadly layers of Björk's Utopia." Craig Jenkins writes: "This week’s Utopia arrives two years after the Icelandic singer-producer’s downcast breakup album Vulnicura, and it offers a rejuvenating rush of desire to offset the previous project’s themes of drift and decay." [[Vulture](] — "Lady Bird is the rare coming-of-age movie about the strain of growing up poor." Katherine Kreuger writes: "Lady Bird’s parents aren’t comfortable. They’re barely making ends meet, a harsh reality our heroine is forcibly made aware of as the film progresses." [[Splinter](] — "100 notable books of 2017." The publication's annual books list has arrived. [[New York Times](] What else we're hearing... + "Bruce Springsteen talks with David Remnick." [[The New Yorker Radio Hour](] + "Star Trek with Brandon Adams." [[I Was There Too / Earwolf](] + "Murder at 1600." [[We Hate Movies](] Today's Birthdays: Amy Seimetz, 36, Joel Kinnaman, 38, Christina Applegate, 46, Gregg Turkington, 50, Billy Burke, 51, Mark Frost, 64, John Larroquette, 70. Follow The News Is this email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( ©2017 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Preferences]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Terms of Use]( November 25, 2017