‘Spider-Man’ Blame Game; 'Dancing' Drama; Eminem Spotify Suit; Gary Busey Plays God

What's news: What's next for Spider-Man? Nate Parker's producers believe he deserves a second chance, Ready or Not is ready to open, Sean Spicer's casting on Dancing with the Stars faces internal pushback. Plus: Gary Busey plays God in his return to live theater. --Alex Weprin [The Hollywood Reporter]( [The Hollywood Reporter]( Today In Entertainment AUGUST 22, 2019 What's news: What's next for Spider-Man? Nate Parker's producers believe he deserves a second chance, Ready or Not is ready to open, Sean Spicer's casting on Dancing with the Stars faces internal pushback. Plus: Gary Busey plays God in his return to live theater. --Alex Weprin What's news: What's next for Spider-Man? Nate Parker's producers believe he deserves a second chance, Ready or Not is ready to open, Sean Spicer's casting on Dancing with the Stars faces internal pushback. Plus: Gary Busey plays God in his return to live theater. --Alex Weprin [What's Next For Spider-Man?] What's Next For Spider-Man? Spider-Man standoff: Why Sony thinks it doesn't need "Kevin's playbook" anymore. Borys Kit digs into the origins of Sony's Spider-Man deal with Marvel Studios, and why the studio believes it can go its own way without tying into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. "The feeling from Sony was that it bounced back to a place where it could strike on its own. 'Tom [Rothman] is thinking ‘Okay, we’ve learned everything we need to from [Kevin Feige's] playbook. We did Venom on our own and we did Spider-Verse,'' comments a Sony insider." [The story](. +What hero could Marvel draft to replace Spider-Man as the young heart and soul of the MCU? Graeme McMillan [lays out five options](. +What will Marvel unveil at D23? Sequels like Black Panther 2 or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are possibilities, as are reboots of former Fox properties like the X-Men or Fantastic Four. [The list](. ►The producers of American Skin believe Nate Parker deserves a second chance. The backers of the controversial director’s follow-up to Birth of a Nation break their silence to explain why they have no reservations about working with him despite resurfaced rape claims: "We have to assume facts: One, he was acquitted and is innocent." [The story](. ^Box office: The semi-comic horror film Ready or Not is getting the widest release in the history of Fox Searchlight, playing in 2,818 starting Friday. "The stylized genre pic — about a bride who, on her wedding night, is hunted down by her new family — decided to open Wednesday in order to grab older teens and college students before they go back to school," Pamela McClintock writes. It drew an opening day gross of roughly $1.5 million, "possibly good enough to come in No. 2 behind Good Boys, according to early Wednesday returns." [More.]( +Fandango says the Downton Abbey movie sold more tickets than Once Upon a Time in Hollywood did in terms of first-day advance sales (Wednesday). Put another way, it outranks any 2019 drama. [More](. +China Box Office: Hobbs and Shaw is revving up for a $75M-$100M debut. [More](. The day in deals: A year after splitting with former producing partner Jenni Konner, Lena Dunham [has launched]( Good Thing Going, her new production company... UCP [is developing]( an anthology series based on Ann Shen's book Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women who Changed the World. Liz Hannah (The Post, Mindhunter) is adapting the nonfiction book, and Ry Russo-Young (The Sun Is Also a Star) is set to direct... ►Stephen King’s novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is heading to the screen. Chris Romero, the former wife of late horror filmmaker George A. Romero, is teaming up with It producer Roy Lee and Jon Berg of Vertigo Films as well as Ryan Silbert of Origin Story to produce a film adaptation of the 1999 novel. [More](. Elsewhere in film... --Cinematographer John Bailey [will receive]( a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 27th Camerimage cinematography festival, Nov. 9-16 in Torun, Poland. --Woody Allen's A Rainy Day in New York is [set to open]( the Deauville Film Festival. --The Obamas [discuss]( their first movie release as producers: "It's not an editorial." --Richard Newby [writes about]( "the risk and reward of The Matrix 4." --The first trailer for Bombshell, which centers on the former Fox News sex scandal, [was released]( Wednesday. --20th Century Fox [released]( the third trailer for the Brad Pitt-starring film Ad Astra. What's Next For Spider-Man? Spider-Man standoff: Why Sony thinks it doesn't need "Kevin's playbook" anymore. Borys Kit digs into the origins of Sony's Spider-Man deal with Marvel Studios, and why the studio believes it can go its own way without tying into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. "The feeling from Sony was that it bounced back to a place where it could strike on its own. 'Tom [Rothman] is thinking ‘Okay, we’ve learned everything we need to from [Kevin Feige's] playbook. We did Venom on our own and we did Spider-Verse,'' comments a Sony insider." [The story](. +What hero could Marvel draft to replace Spider-Man as the young heart and soul of the MCU? Graeme McMillan [lays out five options](. +What will Marvel unveil at D23? Sequels like Black Panther 2 or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are possibilities, as are reboots of former Fox properties like the X-Men or Fantastic Four. [The list](. ►The producers of American Skin believe Nate Parker deserves a second chance. The backers of the controversial director’s follow-up to Birth of a Nation break their silence to explain why they have no reservations about working with him despite resurfaced rape claims: "We have to assume facts: One, he was acquitted and is innocent." [The story](. ^Box office: The semi-comic horror film Ready or Not is getting the widest release in the history of Fox Searchlight, playing in 2,818 starting Friday. "The stylized genre pic — about a bride who, on her wedding night, is hunted down by her new family — decided to open Wednesday in order to grab older teens and college students before they go back to school," Pamela McClintock writes. It drew an opening day gross of roughly $1.5 million, "possibly good enough to come in No. 2 behind Good Boys, according to early Wednesday returns." [More.]( +Fandango says the Downton Abbey movie sold more tickets than Once Upon a Time in Hollywood did in terms of first-day advance sales (Wednesday). Put another way, it outranks any 2019 drama. [More](. +China Box Office: Hobbs and Shaw is revving up for a $75M-$100M debut. [More](. The day in deals: A year after splitting with former producing partner Jenni Konner, Lena Dunham [has launched]( Good Thing Going, her new production company... UCP [is developing]( an anthology series based on Ann Shen's book Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women who Changed the World. Liz Hannah (The Post, Mindhunter) is adapting the nonfiction book, and Ry Russo-Young (The Sun Is Also a Star) is set to direct... ►Stephen King’s novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is heading to the screen. Chris Romero, the former wife of late horror filmmaker George A. Romero, is teaming up with It producer Roy Lee and Jon Berg of Vertigo Films as well as Ryan Silbert of Origin Story to produce a film adaptation of the 1999 novel. [More](. Elsewhere in film... --Cinematographer John Bailey [will receive]( a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 27th Camerimage cinematography festival, Nov. 9-16 in Torun, Poland. --Woody Allen's A Rainy Day in New York is [set to open]( the Deauville Film Festival. --The Obamas [discuss]( their first movie release as producers: "It's not an editorial." --Richard Newby [writes about]( "the risk and reward of The Matrix 4." --The first trailer for Bombshell, which centers on the former Fox News sex scandal, [was released]( Wednesday. --20th Century Fox [released]( the third trailer for the Brad Pitt-starring film Ad Astra. [Taylor Swift's 'Masters' Plan] Taylor Swift's 'Masters' Plan ►Taylor Swift plans to re-record her masters. The musician makes the bombshell announcement in an interview that will air on CBS Sunday Morning this weekend, though the clip in question was released Wednesday. Swift tells Tracy Smith that she intends to rerecord her songbook to offset the controversial $300 million deal between Scooter Braun and Big Machine Label Group founder Scott Borchetta that put earlier versions of her masters in the hands of Braun. [More](. ►Dancing drama: The inclusion of former White House press secretary Sean Spicer on the coming season of Dancing With the Stars isn't sitting well with the show's longtime host. In a Twitter post Wednesday morning, Tom Bergeron — without naming Spicer — criticized the casting of President Trump's first press secretary and said he had advocated for the show to be a politics-free zone in its 28th season. [More](. +Spicer responded to Bergeron this morning on Fox & Friends. "He is entitled to his opinion, he’s been doing this for 28 seasons, I have always thought that he has done a great job as host, and I share his sentiment that this should be two-hours that is politics-free," Spicer said. "My hope and goal is that by the end of the season, Tom looks back and says, you know what, we need more of this, not less of it. We need more bringing people together from different backgrounds and saying hey, come together, show how much you can enjoy each other’s company." [Watch](. +Of course, it isn't just Bergeron that's upset with the casting. CNN's Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy [report that]( some ABC News staffers are "up in arms" over Spicer joining the show. At issue is the way Spicer treated reporters from ABC while working for the White House, and the fact that the news division, most notably Good Morning America, is used to promote Dancing. New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik also [wrote a column]( that was critical of Spicer's casting. Casting roundup: Priyanka Chopra and director Robert Rodriguez are [teaming up]( for a kids superhero movie at Netflix called We Can Be Heroes... Bethenny Frankel announced [her departure](from Bravo's Real Housewives of New York... Hugh Laurie [will star]( in the BBC political thriller Roadkill... ►TV ratings nerds, here's a story you'll want to follow. Sports Business Daily's John Ourand reports that Nielsen [has told networks](that it will begin including out-of-home viewing in its overnight numbers, starting in October. This is something many networks — particularly those that carry live sports — have been pushing for. However: The new numbers will come in significantly later than the 8:30 a.m. they currently do. Ourand also reports that network and league executives are talking to each other about how to handle the new numbers. "The goal is to get all the networks and leagues to agree to not release overnight ratings this fall. The reason: comparisons to last year will be like comparing apples to oranges given all the changes." Elsewhere in TV... --NBC will help launch A Little Late with Lilly Singh with a [primetime special](following the season finale of America's Got Talent. --ABC News [says that]( anchors George Stephanopoulos and David Muir, correspondent Linsey Davis and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos will moderate the network's Democratic candidate debate next month. --Bill and Hillary Clinton [are not]( "significant" characters in its next American Crime Story miniseries, FX chief John Landgraf says. --7 number ones on the 90210 Call Sheet?! How alphabetical credits [kept the stars]( happy. --Why 13 Reasons Why [pivots to tell](a complicated whodunit for season three. Taylor Swift's 'Masters' Plan ►Taylor Swift plans to re-record her masters. The musician makes the bombshell announcement in an interview that will air on CBS Sunday Morning this weekend, though the clip in question was released Wednesday. Swift tells Tracy Smith that she intends to rerecord her songbook to offset the controversial $300 million deal between Scooter Braun and Big Machine Label Group founder Scott Borchetta that put earlier versions of her masters in the hands of Braun. [More](. ►Dancing drama: The inclusion of former White House press secretary Sean Spicer on the coming season of Dancing With the Stars isn't sitting well with the show's longtime host. In a Twitter post Wednesday morning, Tom Bergeron — without naming Spicer — criticized the casting of President Trump's first press secretary and said he had advocated for the show to be a politics-free zone in its 28th season. [More](. +Spicer responded to Bergeron this morning on Fox & Friends. "He is entitled to his opinion, he’s been doing this for 28 seasons, I have always thought that he has done a great job as host, and I share his sentiment that this should be two-hours that is politics-free," Spicer said. "My hope and goal is that by the end of the season, Tom looks back and says, you know what, we need more of this, not less of it. We need more bringing people together from different backgrounds and saying hey, come together, show how much you can enjoy each other’s company." [Watch](. +Of course, it isn't just Bergeron that's upset with the casting. CNN's Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy [report that]( some ABC News staffers are "up in arms" over Spicer joining the show. At issue is the way Spicer treated reporters from ABC while working for the White House, and the fact that the news division, most notably Good Morning America, is used to promote Dancing. New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik also [wrote a column]( that was critical of Spicer's casting. Casting roundup: Priyanka Chopra and director Robert Rodriguez are [teaming up]( for a kids superhero movie at Netflix called We Can Be Heroes... Bethenny Frankel announced [her departure](from Bravo's Real Housewives of New York... Hugh Laurie [will star]( in the BBC political thriller Roadkill... ►TV ratings nerds, here's a story you'll want to follow. Sports Business Daily's John Ourand reports that Nielsen [has told networks](that it will begin including out-of-home viewing in its overnight numbers, starting in October. This is something many networks — particularly those that carry live sports — have been pushing for. However: The new numbers will come in significantly later than the 8:30 a.m. they currently do. Ourand also reports that network and league executives are talking to each other about how to handle the new numbers. "The goal is to get all the networks and leagues to agree to not release overnight ratings this fall. The reason: comparisons to last year will be like comparing apples to oranges given all the changes." Elsewhere in TV... --NBC will help launch A Little Late with Lilly Singh with a [primetime special](following the season finale of America's Got Talent. --ABC News [says that]( anchors George Stephanopoulos and David Muir, correspondent Linsey Davis and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos will moderate the network's Democratic candidate debate next month. --Bill and Hillary Clinton [are not]( "significant" characters in its next American Crime Story miniseries, FX chief John Landgraf says. --7 number ones on the 90210 Call Sheet?! How alphabetical credits [kept the stars]( happy. --Why 13 Reasons Why [pivots to tell](a complicated whodunit for season three. [Busey Goes Off-Broadway] Busey Goes Off-Broadway Two decades after a motorcycle crash that "turned his personality up to 11," the Oscar nominee and icon of unhinged aggression (in film and on YouTube) has become a foulmouthed Malibu mystic about to star in a new off-Broadway musical, 'Only Human,' playing "The Boss" in a corporatized version of heaven. Quote: "When Busey speaks of his life now, you're never quite sure which one he's referring to — or how many there are. 'I've been a Native American in my past lifetimes,' he notes. 'I was on Atlantis, connecting people to stars with crystals to heal them. I've been a pirate.' If [son] Jake [Busey] could put a number on it, it would be nine, 'like a cat. He may be on the ninth one now.'" +Jake Busey, an actor himself, tells Seth Abramovitch that he has a hard time with what's become of his father and his father's career. "The fact that there's an entire generation of people who don't know the man he was before the accident — this incredibly talented actor, this force of nature — it's just hard," he says. Busey's erratic reputation has even impacted his son's work prospects: "The same Busey name that helped me 30 years ago has become a scorpion's tail because it's associated with insanity." [The story](. Here's a lawsuit with the potential to dramatically impact the streaming music business. Eminem's publisher Eight Mile Style has filed a major new lawsuit claiming Spotify has infringed hundreds of song copyrights and challenging the constitutionality of a recently passed music licensing law. [The story](. In other legal news... +Movie ticket subscription service MoviePass confirmed that [a data breach]( may have exposed tens of thousands of customer card numbers and personal credit cards. +Larry King is [seeking a divorce]( from his seventh wife, Shawn King, after 22 years. The 85-year-old talk show host filed a petition to end the marriage Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The couple married in 1997 and have two adult sons, Chance and Cannon. +Legendary composer Ennio Morricone [was handed]( a major legal win Wednesday when an appellate court held he can reclaim rights for six Italian films he scored about four decades ago. +A federal jury [sided Wednesday](with novelist Nicholas Sparks and the private Christian school he founded in his North Carolina hometown, dismissing claims by the school's former headmaster that he was unjustly fired and then slandered by the writer. From the magazine: Remembering Peter Fonda: [In a critic's appreciation](, Stephen Dalton examines the career of Fonda, "a master of keeping a cool head when all around were losing theirs."... Director Roger Corman [remembers Fonda](: "There was a bit of his father in him, but he was also determined to take a different path. He didn't want to be a clone of his father." Plus remembrances from [Easy Rider actress Toni Basil](, and the director of [Ulee's Gold Victor Nuñez](. Revolving door: Staffing changes at CBS This Morning: Shanta Fripp will be the show's director, Claudia Milne will be managing editor, and Jon Tower will be senior broadcast producer... Jennifer Fox, a producer of Oscar and Emmy nominated films, [will return]( as the producer of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Governors Awards... Frank Miller[has named]( longtime executive Silenn Thomas as CEO of his production company, Frank Miller Ink... What else we're reading... --"Buying HBO was the easy part for AT&T" [[Bloomberg](] --"Trump’s ‘chopper talk’ puts media on the defensive" [[Politico](] --"New cable network for ACC heightens arms race in college sports" [[NY Times](] --"Trump’s Jewish comments play on anti-Semitism in culture, film and art" [[LA Times](] Today's birthdays: David Chase, 74, Dua Lipa, 24, Giada De Laurentiis, 49, James Corden, 41, Kristen Wiig, 46, Tori Amos, 56, Ty Burrell, 52. Busey Goes Off-Broadway Two decades after a motorcycle crash that "turned his personality up to 11," the Oscar nominee and icon of unhinged aggression (in film and on YouTube) has become a foulmouthed Malibu mystic about to star in a new off-Broadway musical, 'Only Human,' playing "The Boss" in a corporatized version of heaven. Quote: "When Busey speaks of his life now, you're never quite sure which one he's referring to — or how many there are. 'I've been a Native American in my past lifetimes,' he notes. 'I was on Atlantis, connecting people to stars with crystals to heal them. I've been a pirate.' If [son] Jake [Busey] could put a number on it, it would be nine, 'like a cat. He may be on the ninth one now.'" +Jake Busey, an actor himself, tells Seth Abramovitch that he has a hard time with what's become of his father and his father's career. "The fact that there's an entire generation of people who don't know the man he was before the accident — this incredibly talented actor, this force of nature — it's just hard," he says. Busey's erratic reputation has even impacted his son's work prospects: "The same Busey name that helped me 30 years ago has become a scorpion's tail because it's associated with insanity." [The story](. Here's a lawsuit with the potential to dramatically impact the streaming music business. Eminem's publisher Eight Mile Style has filed a major new lawsuit claiming Spotify has infringed hundreds of song copyrights and challenging the constitutionality of a recently passed music licensing law. [The story](. In other legal news... +Movie ticket subscription service MoviePass confirmed that [a data breach]( may have exposed tens of thousands of customer card numbers and personal credit cards. +Larry King is [seeking a divorce]( from his seventh wife, Shawn King, after 22 years. The 85-year-old talk show host filed a petition to end the marriage Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The couple married in 1997 and have two adult sons, Chance and Cannon. +Legendary composer Ennio Morricone [was handed]( a major legal win Wednesday when an appellate court held he can reclaim rights for six Italian films he scored about four decades ago. +A federal jury [sided Wednesday](with novelist Nicholas Sparks and the private Christian school he founded in his North Carolina hometown, dismissing claims by the school's former headmaster that he was unjustly fired and then slandered by the writer. From the magazine: Remembering Peter Fonda: [In a critic's appreciation](, Stephen Dalton examines the career of Fonda, "a master of keeping a cool head when all around were losing theirs."... Director Roger Corman [remembers Fonda](: "There was a bit of his father in him, but he was also determined to take a different path. He didn't want to be a clone of his father." Plus remembrances from [Easy Rider actress Toni Basil](, and the director of [Ulee's Gold Victor Nuñez](. Revolving door: Staffing changes at CBS This Morning: Shanta Fripp will be the show's director, Claudia Milne will be managing editor, and Jon Tower will be senior broadcast producer... Jennifer Fox, a producer of Oscar and Emmy nominated films, [will return]( as the producer of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Governors Awards... Frank Miller[has named]( longtime executive Silenn Thomas as CEO of his production company, Frank Miller Ink... What else we're reading... --"Buying HBO was the easy part for AT&T" [[Bloomberg](] --"Trump’s ‘chopper talk’ puts media on the defensive" [[Politico](] --"New cable network for ACC heightens arms race in college sports" [[NY Times](] --"Trump’s Jewish comments play on anti-Semitism in culture, film and art" [[LA Times](] Today's birthdays: David Chase, 74, Dua Lipa, 24, Giada De Laurentiis, 49, James Corden, 41, Kristen Wiig, 46, Tori Amos, 56, Ty Burrell, 52. 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