IATSE Ratifies New Three-Year Contract With Studios; Mel Gibson to Direct 'Lethal Weapon 5'; Lena Waithe Moves Overall Deal to Warner Bros.

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( November 16, 2021 What's news: IATSE ratifies both the Basic Agreement and Area Standards Agreement made with the studios, but it was close. Endeavor's Q3 results beats estimates. George Clooney speaks out on the Rust tragedy. Netflix is expanding its production hub in the U.K. Plus: Succession star Brian Cox is set to direct a whisky drama and Danish hit Riders of Justice is getting an English-language remake — [Abid Rahman]( IATSE Ratifies 3-Year Contract With Studios ►Close finish. IATSE has ratified a new three-year Basic Agreement and Area Standards Agreement, which both narrowly passed with a majority “yes” vote. The results, which saw members vote down the Basic Agreement in a popular vote but delegates pass it, bring to a conclusion a particularly lengthy and contentious negotiation period that began in May and narrowly avoided a threatened strike. [The story.]( —Credit where credit is due. Members of the Writers Guild of America East and West have voted to institute an “Additional Literary Material” credit for feature films. The credit will offer recognition to writers previously unable to receive feature film screen credits who are working under a Guild contract, have been employed in helping to craft the script or sold or licensed work for it and have submitted “literary material” to a script, though they cannot claim authorship of the script. [The story.]( —He's not too old for this s***. Mel Gibson will direct the fifth, and likely final, installment of Lethal Weapon. The Warner Bros. project was put in limbo when director Richard Donner, who’d helmed all the Weapon movies since their inception in 1987, died in July. This changing of the guard had been in the works for months and was blessed, if not instigated, by Lauren Shuler Donner. [The story.]( —"We have room for more optimism." Endeavor handily beat Wall Street forecasts in its Q3 earnings, delivering revenue of $1.39 billion and net income of $63.6 million, swinging the company back to profitability. Endeavor’s quarter was led by its representation division, which includes the agency WME, as well as its Endeavor Content production studio. [The results.]( —Big move. Emmy winner Lena Waithe has moved her overall deal from Amazon to Warner Bros. Television Group. As part of the multiple-year deal, Waithe and her Hillman Grad Productions banner are developing a scripted adaptation of the landmark doc Hoop Dreams. Waithe had been based at Amazon since 2019, when she inked a first-look pact with the retail giant/streamer. [The story.]( —Wee dram-a. Succession star Brian Cox is set to make his directorial debut with Scottish whisky drama Glenrothan for Lionsgate. Set at a distillery in the Scottish Highlands, the film is described as a "story of family, forgiveness and the bonding alchemy of whisky." [The story.]( The Making of 'Spencer' ►Modern-day fairy tale. Pablo Larraín's Spencer is something more than a traditional biopic of Princess Diana, rather, the filmmaker says, he wanted to make an abstract fairy tale about of one of the most enigmatic people of the 20th century. THR's [Pamela McClintock]( spoke to the director, writer Steven Knight and star Kristen Stewart, on how they wanted to move beyond the decorous historical re-creations of The Crown and the soapy melodrama of 2013's Diana, to get to the core of who the late princess was. [The story.]( —"It’s a series of tragedies. But also, a lot of stupid mistakes." George Clooney is speaking out about gun safety on set following the Oct. 21 fatal shooting on the set of Rust. During a visit to Marc Maron's WTF podcast, the actor-director reflected on losing friend Brandon Lee to an improperly prepared weapon. [The story.]( —Milde Moses, hvorfor?! Lionsgate has picked up the English-language adaptation rights to Riders of Justice, the Danish action-comedy hit directed by Anders Thomas Jensen and starring the Norse god of cool Mads Mikkelsen. 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy, Dan Levine and Dan Cohen, who are coming off the successful release of the Levy-directed Free Guy, will produce the adaptation. [The story.]( —Galloping home. Clint Bentley’s Jockey, a film starring Clifton Collins Jr. as an aging competitor hoping to win one last championship horse race, picked up the audience award for best narrative feature at AFI Fest. The audience prize on the doc side went to Tommy Oliver’s look at the life and death of hip hop star Juice WRLD in the film of the same name. [The story.]( —TV pilots 2022. Broadcast Pilot Season continues to evolve, with total volume set to decrease as ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and The CW shift to year-round development. THR's [Lesley Goldberg]( takes a look at the pilots in contention for the 2022-23 broadcast season as the five networks sift through scripts and march forward in a bid to find the next breakout hits. [The complete broadcast guide.]( Review: 'Licorice Pizza' ►"A star is born." THR's chief film critic [David Rooney]( reviews Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza. Alana Haim is the elusive goddess and Cooper Hoffman the teenager crushing on her in this coming-of-age comedy set in the San Fernando Valley in 1973, which also features Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn and Benny Safdie. [The review.]( —"An absolute charmer." David also runs the rule over Disney's latest animated film Encanto. A Colombian teenager has to save her extended family’s magic although she has no special gift of her own in Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith's animated musical adventure with original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. [The review.]( —"It’s a really big show." THR critic Justin Lowe reviews Garth Jennings' animated film Sing 2. Matthew McConaughey again leads the voice cast of performing animals for Universal and Illumination's sequel to 2016’s Sing, which also includes returning castmembers Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton and Nick Kroll. [The review.]( Why Streamers Are Stalling on Sharing Data ►Smoke and mirrors. Streaming platforms like HBO Max, Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon’s Prime Video, Hulu and Paramount+ continue to keep a vice-like grip on their viewership data, and, nearly a decade into the streaming era, the lack of transparency is making it nearly impossible for dealmakers, and even viewers, to define what is a hit and what is a bomb. THR's [Rick Porter]( and [Tatiana Siegel]( look into veiled world of viewing data at the streamers and why the companies remained wedded to a lack of openness. [The story.]( —Overall deal news. Gentefied co-creator Linda Yvette Chavéz has signed a multiyear overall deal with 20th Television under which she’ll develop new projects of her own and supervise other writers in shepherding both drama and comedy material. [The story.]( —Increasing presence. Following on from financing Gerard Butler action-thriller Kandahar, Saudi Arabia's MBC Studios, the production arm of the Saudi government-controlled regional broadcasting giant MBC, is now set to produce Rupert Wyatt's historical epic Desert Warrior, marking its biggest production to date. The movie stars Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Sharlto Copley and Ben Kingsley. [The story.]( —Backing Blighty. Netflix has reaffirmed its commitment to the U.K. as one of its key production hubs, renewing a contract with the Pinewood Group for the use of Shepperton Studios that will double the size of its production space at the production facility. [The story.]( —Deal news. German media giant ProSiebensat 1 is selling the independent film distributor Gravitas Ventures to Anthem Sports & Entertainment, a holding company that owns AXS TV, HDNet Movies, Impact Wrestling, Fight Network and Game TV. The deal is valued at $73 million. [The story.]( In other news... —Halo: [First teaser]( for long-awaited Paramount+ series debuts —Britney Spears says she’s on "cloud 9" after [first weekend free of conservatorship]( —Taylor Swift releases “I Bet You Think About Me” [music video directed by Blake Lively]( —TV ratings: Adele One Night Only [scores for CBS]( —[Power Lawyers 2022]( Nominations are open for THR’s top attorneys list —Oscars: Encanto, The Mitchells vs. The Machines and Flee among [top animation contenders]( —Oscars: True Stories of Trials, Triumph and Trailblazers [lead the best documentary race]( —Tapas Media [signs with CAA]( —Paramount elevates [marketing chief Marc Weinstock]( —[PBS taps Maribel Lopez]( to lead digital studios —[New film festival]( set for New Zealand in early 2022 —Exclusive: Irish Actor [Donall O Healai to be honored at the Oscar Wilde Awards]( —Salma Hayek, Tessa Thompson and Rosie Perez set for [Impact Awards honors]( What else we're reading... —Inside Felicia Sonmez’s War Against the Washington Post [[New York Magazine]( —When Amazon Buys MGM, Hollywood Fears the Loss of Another Studio [[Bloomberg]( —More Is Less? What It’s Like To Watch An Imax Movie At Home [[The Guardian]( —Taylor Swift’s "All Too Well" and the Weaponization of Memory [[New York Times]( —Jeff Goldblum Is on the Brink of Doing His Best Work [[Vulture]( Today... ...in 2001, Warner Bros. launched J.K. Rowling’s wizarding universe in wide release with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which grossed more than $970 million worldwide. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Pete Davidson (28), Missi Pyle (49), [Maggie Gyllenhaal]( (44), Wai Ching Ho (78), Lisa Bonet (54), Marg Helgenberger (63), Martha Plimpton (51), Harry Lennix (57), Gigi Edgley (44), Miguel Sandoval (70), Tammy Lauren (53), Michael Irby (49), Jun Kunimura (66), Jamie Babbit (51), Danny Wallace (45), Ry Russo-Young (40) This email was sent to {EMAIL} by Penske Media Corporation. Please add email@email.hollywoodreporter.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. 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