Ari's Trump Talk; Inside Breitbart's L.A. War Room; MSNBC's Moment; Actress Roundtable Arrives

It's magazine Monday at THR, two days early due to Thanksgiving. The annual Actress Roundtable headlines the issue. Plus: Ari Emanuel meets with Trump, Fantastic Beasts relaunches the J.K. Rowling franchise, Brad Pitt's new movie is a snoozer and how Hollywood execs get paid to do nothing. — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman. [The Hollywood Reporter - Today In Entertainment] November 21, 2016 It's magazine Monday at THR, two days early due to Thanksgiving. The annual Actress Roundtable headlines the issue. Plus: Ari Emanuel meets with Trump, Fantastic Beasts relaunches the J.K. Rowling franchise, Brad Pitt's new movie is a snoozer and how Hollywood execs get paid to do nothing. — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman. Seven A-list Oscar contenders — Amy Adams, Natalie Portman, Taraji P. Henson, Emma Stone, Annette Bening, Naomie Harris and Isabelle Huppert sit down for the annual THR Actress Roundtable in this week's issue. [Stephen Galloway's intro:] After a recent drought, 2016 has been an especially strong year for women's roles, though some of the panelists made it clear they disliked being questioned about such things. "Ask the Producer Roundtable," said Adams when queried about gender-based pay equality. But that was just one subject in a freewheeling conversation ranging from the personal (Bening said she used her role as a 1970s mother to reevaluate how she relates to her own children) to the spiritual. Said Henson, who stars as a math whiz in the upcoming NASA film Hidden Figures, "I think God is very funny by giving me this role." ► [Full Actress Roundtable] I [Video highlights] I [Top 25 beauty moments of the year.] Ari Emanuel's Trump Sitdown No, he wasn't lobbying to become Secretary of Screaming Into Phones. Matt emails: WME-IMG's famously fiery co-CEO Ari Emanuel met yesterday in New Jersey with his former client, who now happens to be the President-elect. Emanuel, a prominent Democrat and brother of Chicago mayor and former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, is said to have wanted the audience with Trump to voice concerns about Trump's hard-right first moves. [Did Trump listen?]No comment from WME, but Trump has referred to Emanuel as his "good friend" and the "king of Hollywood," so the superagent may end up being one of the most prominent contrarian voices in the president's ear. Fun fact: WME represents Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, probably not Trump's favorite person [right now]. Elsewhere in real life.... ► Inside Breitbart's L.A. headquarters. Paul Bond visits [the home base] of the hard-right outlet favored by Trump, whose former leader is now the top strategist for the President-elect. Key quote from Breitbart CEO Larry Solov: "It's a complete smear campaign from the mainstream media to undermine our influence and undermine the power Bannon has now. " ► ICYMI: The Steve Bannon conversation. Michael Wolff got the [first interview] with the media-shy Steve Bannon, who delivers the most quotable line all year from anyone not named Trump: "Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That's power. It only helps us when they get it wrong. When they're blind to who we are and what we're doing." MSNBC's Trump Bump MSNBC once again is the opposition voice as Republicans take control, which could help the left-leaning network despite a recent shift to more news and less opinion, Michael O'Connell [writes:] Although the network trails Fox News and CNN, MSNBC this year has grown its primetime average an [unrivaled 142 percent] among adults 25-to-54, as the above chart shows. Much credit there goes to lauded liberal Rachel Maddow, whose show remains the network's top-rated. Another bankable success is the equally politicized Morning Joe, where host Joe Scarborough gives MSNBC its most consistent victories over CNN. Analysts say MSNBC might evolve into a hybrid — sandwiching broader news coverage and primetime commentary. "We made a conscious decision to not be just politics and point-of-view during the day," says MSNBC managing editor Rashida Jones. "Politics will be a big part of our coverage through the inauguration. But it really is a daily assessment of what's important." Elsewhere in TV... ► Why ABC is bringing Marvel's The Inhumans to Imax. Disney-ABC Television Group president Ben Sherwood believes [everybody wins]as the network launches an innovative programming alternative for its Marvel drama, which will first hit large-screen theaters before airing on TV. ► Behind Mark Burnett, Roma Downey's plans for Light TV. The 24/7 network, which will broadcast via Fox affiliates in select cities beginning this December, offers the couple [a new way] to tackle more religious projects following the success of miniseries The Bible. ► Alec {NAME} returns as Trump on SNL. The actor reprised his role along with Kate McKinnon (who transitioned from playing Hillary Clinton to Kellyanne Conway), as the President-elect haplessly tries to pick cabinet members. There's even a Jason Sudeikis cameo as Mitt Romney. [Watch here.] ↱ [TBS' Search Party, reviewed.] The ambitious, simultaneously off-putting and addictive comedy, premiering tonight, stars Alia Shawkat as a hipster investigating the disappearance of an old friend. The takeaway from Daniel Fienberg: "L'Avventura as a sitcom." ↲ ► Stranger Things enlists Brett Gelman for season two. Actor-comedian Brett Gelman [has joined] the cast of the 1980s-set sci-fi drama. Gelman joins Sean Astin, Paul Reiser, Linnea Berthelsen, Sadie Sink and Dacre Montgomery. ► Justin Bartha joins Good Wife spinoff. The Good Fight [has added] Bartha to the cast as Colin, a rising star in the State's Attorney's office. The actor will play a potential love interest for Cush Jumbo's Lucca Quinn. On ABC last night: "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA." The American Music Awards served as an unlikely platform for political protest by veteran punk band Green Day to lead the audience in a chant against the President-elect. [Video] I [Full winners list.] Box Office: Holiday Season Kicks Off J.K. Rowling can still cast a magic spell at the box office — although not as powerful sans the Boy Who Lived, at least in North America, Pamela McClintock writes in the [weekend wrap:] Warner Bros.' Fantastic Beasts nabbed $75M from 4,144 theaters, behind the openings of all eight Harry Potter movies but in line with other high-profile spinoffs, such as the Hobbit trilogy. STX's edgy, R-rated coming-of-age drama The Edge of Seventeen debuted to $4.8M. The film, which cost $9M to make, had hoped to launch in the $10M range. Open Road's Miles Teller boxing biopic Bleed for This fared even worse with $2.5M from 1,459 theaters. *[And, bomb watch:] Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk earned an estimated $1M from 1,176 theaters for Sony/TriStar. That's even worse than last year's The Walk, which opened to $1.5M from 448 theaters. **[Holiday box office preview:] Moana and Rogue One will be huge for Disney, but which other movies will break through? So far this year, 36 percent of domestic box-office revenue is concentrated among the top 10 films, the highest percentage in recent memory, furthering a divide that opened up last year: Elsewhere in film... ► Will Anti-Trump tweets hurt Rogue One? Writers Chris Weitz and Gary Whitta have compared the Donald to the Empire as a new culture of online backlash puts studio tentpoles in the crosshairs: "You want to be [as agnostic] as possible." ↱ [Allied, reviewed.] Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard play WWII operatives who fall in love in Robert Zemeckis' romantic espionage thriller. The takeaway from critic David Rooney: "Plodding and pedestrian." ↲ ► Matthew McConaughey in talks for White Boy Rick. Yann Demange is directing from a script by Logan Miller and Noah Miller. The film is based on the true story of Richard Wershe Jr., who became a drug kingpin in the '80s. Production should [begin] in March. ► Emilia Clarke joins Han Solo movie. The Games of Thrones actress joins Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover in the Star Wars spinoff and "will round out a dynamic cast of characters that Han and Chewie will encounter on their adventures," per the cast [reveal.] ► John Wick director to helm Deadpool 2. David Leitch, one half of the directing and stunt team behind the John Wick movies, has [closed a deal]to direct Fox’s sequel just weeks after Fox lost Tim Miller as the director. ↱[Fifty Shades producer wins PGA mark on appeal.] Despite the victory on the sequel, Dana Brunetti vows he will continue his battle with the guild: "This was never about me, but about an unfair system." ↲ ► Marc Forster to direct live-action Christopher Robin. Brigham Taylor is producing Robin, which has [a script] by Alex Ross Perry. Disney’s live-action fantasy project centers on the human character in Winnie the Pooh. ► Mortal Kombat reboot finds its director. Simon McQuoid is in talks [to direct] the big screen reboot of the videogame franchise. James Wan is producing the reboot for New Line, the studio behind both the 1995 film that became a surprise hit. ► Chloe Grace Moretz, Sasha Lane to star in gay conversion drama. Directed by Desiree Akhavan, The Miseducation of Cameron Post [is set] in 1993 and follows a girl forced to endure the controversial therapy after getting caught with the prom queen. Why Moonlight matters. Stephen Galloway writes: Barry Jenkins’ daring film has none of that obvious anti-racist message (white) voters tend to feel good about. What it does have is a moving artistry few movies could dare match. Whether the movie will be praised by the Academy remains [an open question.] How Hollywood Execs Get Fired Now The tsunami of recent Hollywood firings has led to lucrative deals for top execs to peacefully give up power. Pamela McClintock talks to several, who outline the new golden parachute [process:] Exit packages have been standard practice for decades in Hollywood as well as in corporate America. The major difference now is that not all studio execs who are pushed out are inclined to accept a producing deal — historically the most popular brand of golden handcuffs in the film industry — or some sort of consulting role. Rather, they want a golden handshake that sets them free, even to take another job without giving up any of their severance. "It's very difficult emotionally for the fired person to stay and be reminded of that experience day in and day out, and it's awkward for people who once reported to you switching power positions," [says one fired executive.] "There's no real incentive to make a person you fired look good, so the studio doesn't help much." "Companies will defend these payments as part of a bargain to leave on good terms," says Kevin Murphy, a leading compensation expert and professor at USC's Marshall School of Business. "It used to be, 'You can't fire me because I quit ... Now, it's, 'I won't quit, but you can fire me.'" Today's Birthdays: Jena Malone, 32, Michael Strahan, 45, Björk, 51, Tom Rothman, 62, Goldie Hawn, 71. Follow The News Is this e-mail not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.] ©2016 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. [Unsubscribe] | [Manage Preferences] | [Privacy Policy] | [Terms of Use] November 21, 2016