Hong Kong Disney Boycott; YouTube Clean-Up; Obi-Wan Series; Kimmel FCC Fine; Young Hollywood List

What's news: YouTube creators get left in the dark, Disney gets dragged into the Hong Kong protests, Jimmy Kimmel Live! gets fined by the FCC, Ewan McGregor in talks to reprise Obi Wan role, $1 billion for Toy Story 4. Plus: THR's Young Hollywood list. --Alex Weprin [The Hollywood Reporter]( [The Hollywood Reporter]( Today In Entertainment AUGUST 16, 2019 What's news: YouTube creators get left in the dark, Disney gets dragged into the Hong Kong protests, Jimmy Kimmel Live! gets fined by the FCC, Ewan McGregor in talks to reprise Obi Wan role, $1 billion for Toy Story 4. Plus: THR's Young Hollywood list. --Alex Weprin What's news: YouTube creators get left in the dark, Disney gets dragged into the Hong Kong protests, Jimmy Kimmel Live! gets fined by the FCC, Ewan McGregor in talks to reprise Obi Wan role, $1 billion for Toy Story 4. Plus: THR's Young Hollywood list. --Alex Weprin [YouTube's Clean-Up Act] YouTube's Clean-Up Act YouTube is trying to clean up its act. The Google-owned video platform has been in the spotlight over brand safety concerns, and has reportedly agreed to a settlement with the FTC over children's data issues. Natalie Jarvey writes that as the company seeks to get back on track, some creators are the ones feeling the pain. Quote: "'This change, in the short term, it hurts,' says Arik Kerman of BabyFirst, which already has seen its traffic start to recover from the July algorithm change. 'But in the long term, I completely understand what YouTube is doing. At the end of the day, content creators, YouTube and parents will benefit.'" [The story](. ►Disney dragged into Hong Kong protests. The studio's live-action Mulan remake has a become a surprise flashpoint in the ongoing pro-democracy, anti-police brutality protests, after the film's star, Chinese-American actress Crystal Liu, took to social media to voice her support for the Hong Kong police force. [The story](. ►To $1 billion, and beyond. Disney's Toy Story 4 has crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office, becoming the fifth Disney release of the year to do so and the sixth title of 2019 so far. Both are records. Disney beat its own previous best of four. Overall, there have never been more than five films in one year to join the elite club. [The story](. +Democrats go to the movies twice as much as Republicans, a new study from PostTrak finds. [More](. ^Ewan McGregor in talks for Obi Wan Kenobi series. The Star Wars spinoff would stream on Disney+, and would see McGregor returning to the role he first played in 1999's The Phantom Menace. The series would be the third standalone Star Wars project for the streaming service, which will launch in November. [The story](. +Casting roundup: Stand-up comedian, actor and activist Russell Brand[is in talks]( to star in Death on the Nile for 20th Century Fox... Kevin Hart [will star]( in the superhero comedy Night Wolf at STX... HBO continues to fill out the cast for Joss Whedon's HBO drama The Nevers: Six more actors [have joined]( the sci-fi show... Gabrielle Union is [set to star](in and produce an untitled romantic comedy at Screen Gems... Love, Simon, the Disney+ series based on the beloved 2018 movie, [has found]( its lead actor in Michael Cimino... The Mad About You reboot [has cast]( Abby Quinn... Elsewhere in film... --China's hit of the summer, animated blockbuster Ne Zha, [is heading]( to North America. --Amazon Studios has [nabbed worldwide rights]( to seaside-set noir Blow the Man Down prior to its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. --CAA has [made a donation]( to the Motion Picture & Television Fund. The announcement of the gift was made in conjunction with the agency's confirmation that it is forgoing a pre-Emmy party this year --The Visual Effects Society [announced that]( Walt Disney, Stanley Kubrick and Stan Lee will be posthumously inducted into its VES Hall of Fame. --Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame [helped revive](, somewhat, a sickly German box office. YouTube's Clean-Up Act YouTube is trying to clean up its act. The Google-owned video platform has been in the spotlight over brand safety concerns, and has reportedly agreed to a settlement with the FTC over children's data issues. Natalie Jarvey writes that as the company seeks to get back on track, some creators are the ones feeling the pain. Quote: "'This change, in the short term, it hurts,' says Arik Kerman of BabyFirst, which already has seen its traffic start to recover from the July algorithm change. 'But in the long term, I completely understand what YouTube is doing. At the end of the day, content creators, YouTube and parents will benefit.'" [The story](. ►Disney dragged into Hong Kong protests. The studio's live-action Mulan remake has a become a surprise flashpoint in the ongoing pro-democracy, anti-police brutality protests, after the film's star, Chinese-American actress Crystal Liu, took to social media to voice her support for the Hong Kong police force. [The story](. ►To $1 billion, and beyond. Disney's Toy Story 4 has crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office, becoming the fifth Disney release of the year to do so and the sixth title of 2019 so far. Both are records. Disney beat its own previous best of four. Overall, there have never been more than five films in one year to join the elite club. [The story](. +Democrats go to the movies twice as much as Republicans, a new study from PostTrak finds. [More](. ^Ewan McGregor in talks for Obi Wan Kenobi series. The Star Wars spinoff would stream on Disney+, and would see McGregor returning to the role he first played in 1999's The Phantom Menace. The series would be the third standalone Star Wars project for the streaming service, which will launch in November. [The story](. +Casting roundup: Stand-up comedian, actor and activist Russell Brand[is in talks]( to star in Death on the Nile for 20th Century Fox... Kevin Hart [will star]( in the superhero comedy Night Wolf at STX... HBO continues to fill out the cast for Joss Whedon's HBO drama The Nevers: Six more actors [have joined]( the sci-fi show... Gabrielle Union is [set to star](in and produce an untitled romantic comedy at Screen Gems... Love, Simon, the Disney+ series based on the beloved 2018 movie, [has found]( its lead actor in Michael Cimino... The Mad About You reboot [has cast]( Abby Quinn... Elsewhere in film... --China's hit of the summer, animated blockbuster Ne Zha, [is heading]( to North America. --Amazon Studios has [nabbed worldwide rights]( to seaside-set noir Blow the Man Down prior to its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. --CAA has [made a donation]( to the Motion Picture & Television Fund. The announcement of the gift was made in conjunction with the agency's confirmation that it is forgoing a pre-Emmy party this year --The Visual Effects Society [announced that]( Walt Disney, Stanley Kubrick and Stan Lee will be posthumously inducted into its VES Hall of Fame. --Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame [helped revive](, somewhat, a sickly German box office. [Young Hollywood] Young Hollywood ►THR's top 30 stars under age 18: How do you steal a scene from Leonardo DiCaprio? Just ask Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actress Julia Butters, who joins Emmy nominees, pint-sized producers and, of course, those Stranger Things kids on The Hollywood Reporter's second annual list. [The full list](. +The video: Some of the honorees, including Jacob Tremblay, Ariana Greenblatt and Peyton Elizabeth Lee go "Fishing For Answers" in this Hollywood Reporter video. [Watch](. ►Drew Barrymore is developing a daytime talk show concept. The actress is filming a pilot this week for CBS Television Distribution, likely for the 2020-2021 broadcast season. Barrymore had previously talked to Warner Bros. about hosting a daytime show in 2016, but that deal never came together. [More](. Emmys: Where's the variety in the variety talk race? With more networks, personalities, formats and new shows coming and going in the late night TV space than ever before, it might come as a surprise that when the Emmy nominees were announced in July, the variety talk category looked exactly as it did last year, Jennifer Konerman writes. [The story](. +THR awards columnist Scott Feinberg [handicaps the field]( in the lead actor and actress in a limited series or TV movie categories. A Jimmy Kimmel Live! bit making fun of President Donald Trump is going to cost ABC $395,000, as the FCC is cracking down on use of the emergency alert tone in entertainment. At issue is an Oct. 2018 sketch making fun of the FCC's nationwide emergency alert test that included the tone. AMC and Discovery are also receiving fines for airing the tone in episodes of The Walking Dead and Lone Star Law. [The story](. +Former Los Angeles Laker Rick Fox is in a heated dispute with the other partners in his esports venture, Echo Fox, over the sale of its slot in a major gaming competition — with Fox claiming there's an effort to smear him and the others preparing to sue. [More.]( +Michael Gargiulo, aka the "Hollywood Ripper," was found guilty on all counts Thursday morning in a Los Angeles court. [More](. In development: BET+ [has greenlit]( Sacrifice, a two-hour movie starring Paul Patton that will double as a backdoor pilot... Showtime [is developing]( a series based on author Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels, with Neil Gaiman and Akiva Goldsman among the executive producers... Bravo's Queer as Folk and E!'s take on One of Us Is Lying [are both moving]( to NBCUniversal's forthcoming streaming service... Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Sheen, Helen McCrory and Sian Clifford [have been cast]( in Quiz, a three-part drama from Stephen Frears for ITV and AMC... Elsewhere in TV... --Robyn Bahr [reviews]( CBS All Access' Why Women Kill. --Daniel Fienberg [reviews]( season two of Netflix's Mindhunter. --The Jonas Brothers are [set to perform]( at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, their first performance on the awards show in 10 years. --The police [had to get involved]( on Thursday when a Marvelous Mrs. Maisel FYC promotion caused a traffic jam in Santa Monica. --Fox's BH90210 took a sizable [ratings hit](in its second week, where it fell to third overall among adults 18-49 in primetime behind America's Got Talent and Big Brother. Young Hollywood ►THR's top 30 stars under age 18: How do you steal a scene from Leonardo DiCaprio? Just ask Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actress Julia Butters, who joins Emmy nominees, pint-sized producers and, of course, those Stranger Things kids on The Hollywood Reporter's second annual list. [The full list](. +The video: Some of the honorees, including Jacob Tremblay, Ariana Greenblatt and Peyton Elizabeth Lee go "Fishing For Answers" in this Hollywood Reporter video. [Watch](. ►Drew Barrymore is developing a daytime talk show concept. The actress is filming a pilot this week for CBS Television Distribution, likely for the 2020-2021 broadcast season. Barrymore had previously talked to Warner Bros. about hosting a daytime show in 2016, but that deal never came together. [More](. Emmys: Where's the variety in the variety talk race? With more networks, personalities, formats and new shows coming and going in the late night TV space than ever before, it might come as a surprise that when the Emmy nominees were announced in July, the variety talk category looked exactly as it did last year, Jennifer Konerman writes. [The story](. +THR awards columnist Scott Feinberg [handicaps the field]( in the lead actor and actress in a limited series or TV movie categories. A Jimmy Kimmel Live! bit making fun of President Donald Trump is going to cost ABC $395,000, as the FCC is cracking down on use of the emergency alert tone in entertainment. At issue is an Oct. 2018 sketch making fun of the FCC's nationwide emergency alert test that included the tone. AMC and Discovery are also receiving fines for airing the tone in episodes of The Walking Dead and Lone Star Law. [The story](. +Former Los Angeles Laker Rick Fox is in a heated dispute with the other partners in his esports venture, Echo Fox, over the sale of its slot in a major gaming competition — with Fox claiming there's an effort to smear him and the others preparing to sue. [More.]( +Michael Gargiulo, aka the "Hollywood Ripper," was found guilty on all counts Thursday morning in a Los Angeles court. [More](. In development: BET+ [has greenlit]( Sacrifice, a two-hour movie starring Paul Patton that will double as a backdoor pilot... Showtime [is developing]( a series based on author Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels, with Neil Gaiman and Akiva Goldsman among the executive producers... Bravo's Queer as Folk and E!'s take on One of Us Is Lying [are both moving]( to NBCUniversal's forthcoming streaming service... Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Sheen, Helen McCrory and Sian Clifford [have been cast]( in Quiz, a three-part drama from Stephen Frears for ITV and AMC... Elsewhere in TV... --Robyn Bahr [reviews]( CBS All Access' Why Women Kill. --Daniel Fienberg [reviews]( season two of Netflix's Mindhunter. --The Jonas Brothers are [set to perform]( at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, their first performance on the awards show in 10 years. --The police [had to get involved]( on Thursday when a Marvelous Mrs. Maisel FYC promotion caused a traffic jam in Santa Monica. --Fox's BH90210 took a sizable [ratings hit](in its second week, where it fell to third overall among adults 18-49 in primetime behind America's Got Talent and Big Brother. [Fox News And The Treasury Dept.] Fox News And The Treasury Dept. ►Treasury Department emails reveal coziness with Fox News. A trove of Treasury Department emails released to the non-profit organization Democracy Forward and provided to Jeremy Barr this week paint a picture of a close, friendly bond between the Trump administration agency and two news organizations, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. [The story](. +CNN appears to have benched two pro-Trump contributors. "Steve Cortes, a prominent surrogate for the Trump campaign in 2016 and 'happy warrior' for President Trump, has not appeared on CNN in the U.S. in more than a month. Ben Ferguson, a veteran Republican commentator, has not been on in more than four months, since Apr. 13," Barr writes. Both are still paid contributors to the channel. [More](. +Servers at last week's Trump 2020 fundraiser in the Hamptons "were asked in advance by the caterer if they had a moral issue with working the president's function: 'Many of the other waiters chose not to work, but even though I'm liberal, I thought it would be interesting.'" [More](. ►Former Time Warner CEO expresses doubts about vertical integration. CNBC interviewed Jeff Bewkes, who led the company's sale to AT&T. In the interview, Bewkes expresses some doubts about a key benefit of vertical integration: restricting the distribution of owned content: "[N]arrowing either the distribution for your content or narrowing the source of content for your distribution platform is a fairly suspect premise," [Bewkes told]( CNBC's Alex Sherman. +The interview made the rounds on Twitter Thursday because, while Bewkes was not speaking specifically about AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner, he had previously touted the benefits of vertical integration while pushing for the merger. Last night in late night... --John Travolta and Jimmy Fallon had a "Travolt-off." [[Tonight Show](] --Jimmy Kimmel scared his Aunt Chippy for her 80th birthday. [[Jimmy Kimmel Live!](] --James Corden recaps summer 2019. [[Late Late Show](] --Trevor Noah tackles the Chris Cuomo video [[The Daily Show](] Behind the Screen podcast: Icelandic composer Hildur Guonadottir discusses her haunting, Emmy-nominated score on Chernobyl in a new episode of The Hollywood Reporter's Behind the Screen. [Listen](. TV's Top 5 podcast: This week Lesley Goldberg and Daniel Fienberg break down the CBS-Viacom merger, and speak to Pop TV president Brad Schwartz. [Listen](. Series Regular podcast: In this week's episode, Josh Wigler talks to The Handmaid's Tale creator, executive producer and showrunner Bruce Miller about the ending of season three. [Listen](. Revolving door: Authentic Talent & Literary Management [is boosting]( its manager ranks from coast to coast, promoting Jane Berliner to head of the New York office, while in Culver City, Brie Larson's manager Anne Woodward has been elevated to lead the L.A. office alongside Sean Elliott... Activision Blizzard [has appointed]( David Messinger as its CMO... Time's Up Entertainment executive director Nithya Raman is [stepping down]( in order to focus on a run for Los Angeles City Council... Justin Kurzel is [set to direct]( Apple's Shantaram series... What else we're reading... --"How an online mob created a playbook for a culture war" [[NY Times](] --"Why the Obamas became producers of the Netflix documentary American Factory" [[LA Times](] --How Desus and Mero make their late-night show feel off the cuff—and why Twitter should be shut down. [[Fast Company](] --"‘Shooting,’ ‘Bomb,’ ‘Trump’: Advertisers blacklist news stories online" [[WSJ](] --"Column One: One of Hollywood's last scenic painters can't quite put down his brush" [[LA Times](] --"Why Viacom fell (And why it can come back)" [[MediaRedef](] Today's birthdays: Blake Griffin, 31, Alan Tudyk, 49, Brooke Burns, 42, Chuck Woolery, 79, Flavor Flav, 61, Judah Friedlander, 51, Lauren Graham, 53, Victor Garber, 71. Fox News And The Treasury Dept. ►Treasury Department emails reveal coziness with Fox News. A trove of Treasury Department emails released to the non-profit organization Democracy Forward and provided to Jeremy Barr this week paint a picture of a close, friendly bond between the Trump administration agency and two news organizations, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. [The story](. +CNN appears to have benched two pro-Trump contributors. "Steve Cortes, a prominent surrogate for the Trump campaign in 2016 and 'happy warrior' for President Trump, has not appeared on CNN in the U.S. in more than a month. Ben Ferguson, a veteran Republican commentator, has not been on in more than four months, since Apr. 13," Barr writes. Both are still paid contributors to the channel. [More](. +Servers at last week's Trump 2020 fundraiser in the Hamptons "were asked in advance by the caterer if they had a moral issue with working the president's function: 'Many of the other waiters chose not to work, but even though I'm liberal, I thought it would be interesting.'" [More](. ►Former Time Warner CEO expresses doubts about vertical integration. CNBC interviewed Jeff Bewkes, who led the company's sale to AT&T. In the interview, Bewkes expresses some doubts about a key benefit of vertical integration: restricting the distribution of owned content: "[N]arrowing either the distribution for your content or narrowing the source of content for your distribution platform is a fairly suspect premise," [Bewkes told]( CNBC's Alex Sherman. +The interview made the rounds on Twitter Thursday because, while Bewkes was not speaking specifically about AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner, he had previously touted the benefits of vertical integration while pushing for the merger. Last night in late night... --John Travolta and Jimmy Fallon had a "Travolt-off." [[Tonight Show](] --Jimmy Kimmel scared his Aunt Chippy for her 80th birthday. [[Jimmy Kimmel Live!](] --James Corden recaps summer 2019. [[Late Late Show](] --Trevor Noah tackles the Chris Cuomo video [[The Daily Show](] Behind the Screen podcast: Icelandic composer Hildur Guonadottir discusses her haunting, Emmy-nominated score on Chernobyl in a new episode of The Hollywood Reporter's Behind the Screen. [Listen](. TV's Top 5 podcast: This week Lesley Goldberg and Daniel Fienberg break down the CBS-Viacom merger, and speak to Pop TV president Brad Schwartz. [Listen](. Series Regular podcast: In this week's episode, Josh Wigler talks to The Handmaid's Tale creator, executive producer and showrunner Bruce Miller about the ending of season three. [Listen](. Revolving door: Authentic Talent & Literary Management [is boosting]( its manager ranks from coast to coast, promoting Jane Berliner to head of the New York office, while in Culver City, Brie Larson's manager Anne Woodward has been elevated to lead the L.A. office alongside Sean Elliott... Activision Blizzard [has appointed]( David Messinger as its CMO... Time's Up Entertainment executive director Nithya Raman is [stepping down]( in order to focus on a run for Los Angeles City Council... Justin Kurzel is [set to direct]( Apple's Shantaram series... What else we're reading... --"How an online mob created a playbook for a culture war" [[NY Times](] --"Why the Obamas became producers of the Netflix documentary American Factory" [[LA Times](] --How Desus and Mero make their late-night show feel off the cuff—and why Twitter should be shut down. [[Fast Company](] --"‘Shooting,’ ‘Bomb,’ ‘Trump’: Advertisers blacklist news stories online" [[WSJ](] --"Column One: One of Hollywood's last scenic painters can't quite put down his brush" [[LA Times](] --"Why Viacom fell (And why it can come back)" [[MediaRedef](] Today's birthdays: Blake Griffin, 31, Alan Tudyk, 49, Brooke Burns, 42, Chuck Woolery, 79, Flavor Flav, 61, Judah Friedlander, 51, Lauren Graham, 53, Victor Garber, 71. [Image] [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( Is this e-mail not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( ©2019 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. AUGUST 16, 2019 [UNSUBSCRIBE]( [MANAGE PREFERENCES]( [PRIVACY POLICY]( [TERMS OF USE](