Trump vs. 'Apprentice'; Is #OscarsSoMale Next? Movie Booze Is the New Popcorn

What's news: Is #OscarsSoMale next? This year, attention is focused on the lack of gender parity in the Academy's nominations. Plus: The man in charge of the Super Bowl's halftime show dishes on Lady Gaga, Tamron Hall parts ways with NBC and the President prays for The Apprentice's ratings. — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman. [The Hollywood Reporter - Today In Entertainment] February 02, 2017 What's news: Is #OscarsSoMale next? This year, attention is focused on the lack of gender parity in the Academy's nominations. Plus: The man in charge of the Super Bowl's halftime show dishes on Lady Gaga, Tamron Hall parts ways with NBC and the President prays for The Apprentice's ratings. — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman. Box Office: Horror Showdown Super Bowl showdown: Paramount's threequel Rings takes on M. Night Shayamalan's holdover hit, Split. Pamela McClintock's [forecast:] Projections show both films grossing as much as $13M-$14M. Paramount is being more conservative, suggesting $10M-$12M for Rings, which cost $25M to make. The only other film opening nationwide this weekend is director Peter Chelsom's The Space Between Us, tracking to debut in the $8M-$10M range. STX Entertainment is behind the $30M film. Elsewhere in film... ► Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn reteam for thriller. The Hacksaw Ridge duo are [pairing] again for Dragged Across Concrete, a crime thriller from Bone Tomahawk filmmaker S. Craig Zahler that'll be introduced in Berlin. The script centers on two policemen. ► Keanu Reeves to star in romantic thriller. Frank & Lola director Matthew Ross will helm Siberia, being intro'd in Berlin. The story centers on an American diamond trader who goes to Russia. Scott B. Smith (A Simple Plan) penned [the script.] ► John Lennon, Yoko Ono love story in the works. Producer Michael De Luca is [working] with Ono on a feature that would track her relationship with the Beatle, as well as their antiwar efforts. Theory of Everything scribe Anthony McCarten will pen the feature. ► Frank Langella to star in Hamptons-skewering satire. The actor is joining Charlie Kessler's adaptation of novel Lapham Rising, about a man (with [a talking dog]) who tries to stop an ostentatious mansion from being built. [A Fifty Shades cocktail?] The fun trend story of the day: How booze is becoming the new popcorn at movie theaters. ↱ [New study:] 80 percent of female directors were "one and done" — that is, they made just one movie from 2007 to 2016. USC research also reports that just 8.1 percent of Hollywood's helmers over the past decade were black or Asian. ↲ ► France's Gaumont to open U.S. film division. Following the successful launch of its TV division, Gaumont's [feature film division], geared toward producing English language films, will be overseen by former Working Title exec Johanna Byer. ► Animated global warming film nabbed by Open Road. Jeremy Renner and Alec {NAME} lead the voice cast of Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad, centered on heroes who stop [a plot] to accelerate melting of the arctic circle. The CG-title will hit theaters in 2018. ► Universal promotes PR vet Cindy Gardner, Teri Everett exits. The film group [is shuffling] its communications team, naming Gardner to a new strategic joint role. Everett, who currently heads up communications for the film group, will exit the company later this month. ↱ R.I.P., David Shepard. The film preservationist and archivist, who restored most of the silent films in today's DVD and video collections, died Tuesday in Oregon. He was 76. [Full obit.] ↲ Dana Brunetti vs. Producers Guild. The Fifty Shades producer, who criticized the guild after being denied a Producers Mark on the film's sequel, attended the recent awards show but left after an hour: "[The politics were absurd.]" About Tamron Hall's NBC Exit Even though NBC's Today faced major upheaval making room for Megyn Kelly, it wasn't a forgone conclusion that Tamron Hall would be exiting, Matt emails: NBC News is said to have made a big financial offer to keep Hall, who has become a fixture on all hours of the morning show. But negotiations broke down with her WME agents. The network, no doubt wary of repeating the infamous Ann Curry tearful goodbye, isn't allowing Hall back on the air. Al Roker will stay on at 9 am until the Kelly show debuts, probably this summer. [Hall's farewell statement]: "To all my great colleagues, I will miss you." Elsewhere in TV... — [Watch: Trump vs. Apprentice, continued.] At the National Prayer breakfast today, the President said: "I want to just pray for Arnold if we can, for those ratings." — [Watch: Samantha Bee on the "Not A Muslim Ban."] Bee last night: “I won’t mention that this refugee ban is immoral, embarrassing and inhuman, I’ll just point out that it is the act of a giant pussy." ► CBS orders pilot from How I Met Your Mother creators. Real Life, a [hybrid comedy] written by Hilary Winston and was picked up to pilot last season as My Time/Your Time, chronicles the relationship of two 20-somethings. ► ABC picks up detective drama pilot. The network handed out a pilot [order] to Las Reinas, from exec producer Mark Gordon and writer Dean Georgaris. The show revolves around a detective whose case compels her to reconnect with her estranged family. ► Oxygen officially rebranding as crime-focused network. The new iteration will be relaunched as a crime destination geared toward women. Shows planned include a revival of Law & Order mastermind Dick Wolf's Cold Justice. [Q&A on the changes.] ↱ [Exec suite: Jordan Levin.] The NFL's content chief spoke with Marisa Guthrie in his Manhattan headquarters about why he isn't worried about Lady Gaga (a "consummate professional") stirring controversy on game day and post-election TV rating woes. ↲ ► Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett honor Leslie Moonves. At the Lincoln Center Gala, Hollywood greats [paid tribute] to CBS' Moonves for his dedication to the arts. “I owe everything to Les Moonves. He changed my life," James Corden said. ► CBS' Training Day, reviewed. Created by Will Beall, the series is set 15 years after the events of the movie. [The takeaway:] "pointless and probably doomed brand-mongering." ► Assault charge may have cost Emile Hirsch TV role. The actor served jail time 2015 for assaulting a vp at Paramount — which produces TNT's upcoming The Alienist and was [close to hiring]the actor until some spoke out. In THR, Esq: [Facebook's Oculus] hit with $500M jury verdict, which finds it liable for copyright infringement ... Lawsuit claims profit rights to [Martin Scorsese's Silence] were fraudulently transferred ... [Charter] accuses Univision of lawsuit "hijack" by pulling programming. Is #OscarsSoMale Next? What's the next battleground in the Academy's diversity effort? Stephen Galloway's latest [column:] A year after catching flak for a glaring absence of racial diversity, where were the behind-the-scenes women in the Oscar noms this year? There wasn't a single female director nominee, and only one woman got nominated for writing — Hidden Figures' Allison Schroeder. And in the cinematography category, all the nominees were men, just as they have been every year since DPs started collecting Oscars. I wish I could say this imbalance comes as a surprise. But it was obvious as early as September that awards season wasn't looking good for women. [Here's why.] What else we're reading... — "The Films Our Critics Walked Out On." Gwilym Mumford, Andrew Pulver, Benjamin Lee and Lanre Bakare recount the specific titles over the years "that made them head for the exit." [[The Guardian]] — "The Best Takedown of Hollywood Comes From James {NAME}." Elahe Izadi on I Am Not Your Negro: "a major theme: the representation of black and white people in Hollywood, and the ways entertainment and pop culture reflect a warped story of America." [[The Washington Post]] — "Book Publishers Are Printing More #@$% Than Ever." Brenda Cronin's A-Hed column: "Expletive-laden book titles, some with strategically placed asterisks, are proliferating." [[The Wall Street Journal]] — "Trump Era Invites a Bolder Hollywood Red Carpet." Cara Buckley writes: "On the one hand, against a backdrop of geopolitical unrest, the monthslong circuit has felt, to whiskered campaigners, especially frivolous. On the other hand..." [[The New York Times]] Today's Birthdays: Zosia Mamet, 29, Gemma Arterton, 31, Adam Ferrara, 51, Laura Poitras, 53, Brent Spiner, 68. Follow The News Is this e-mail 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] February 2, 2017