Michelle Yeoh Finally Loses Her Cool; Study: Women, POC Still Underrepresented as Movie Leads; Darth Maul Scenes Cut From 'Obi-Wan Kenobi'; 'Halo' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( March 15, 2022 What's news: There's an excellent Michelle Yeoh profile to kick things off. Jane Campion has apologized for that odd comment at the CCA's. David Zaslav's Discovery compensation for 2021 hit $246m. Top Gun 2 is heading to Cannes. Paramount+ unveils its first U.K. slate. Marlee Matlin is trying her hand at directing. Plus: Nicolas Cage's latest film has a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes and long may it continue to do so — [Abid Rahman]( Michelle Yeoh Finally Loses Her Cool ►"This is just too much. What have I gotten myself into?" THR's [Rebecca Sun]( was lucky enough to profile living legend Michelle Yeoh, who finally gets the Hollywood top billing she’s long deserved in A24's madcap metaphysical romp Everything Everywhere All at Once. The ballerina who became a beauty queen who became a Hong Kong martial arts star lets loose onscreen has been a huge star in Asia since the 1990s but on the verge of turning 60 has a fuller slate than ever with appearances in both Avatar sequels and The Witcher prequel series Blood Origin among a slew of other projects. [The profile.]( —"I did not intend to devalue these two legendary Black women and world-class athletes." Jane Campion has apologized for a “thoughtless comment” she made toward Serena and Venus Williams at Sunday's Critics Choice Awards that stirred up backlash online. While accepting the award for best director, the Power of the Dog filmmaker took note of other women who have broken down barriers, including the Williams sisters, but noted that she still had another obstacle that even they didn’t face, namely competing against men. [The story.]( —Mind-boggling. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s 2021 compensation package soared to $246 million, an enormous jump compared with $37.7 million in 2020 and $45.8 million in 2019. The company disclosed the latest annual compensation details for its top executives, with the calculation for Zaslav getting a huge boost from stock options he received as part of a contract extension. [The story.]( —Stellar grades. ABC has renewed freshman comedy Abbott Elementary for a second season after the series became a breakout for network. The series, a co-production between Warner Bros. Television and Disney’s 20th TV, is tied with CBS’ already-renewed Ghosts as broadcast’s No. 1 comedy among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. [The story.]( —Out with the new. NBC's medical drama New Amsterdam will end with its previously announced fifth season during the 2022-23 broadcast season. The Ryan Eggold-led series, despite being owned in-house by Universal Television, has continued to see its ratings slip. [The story.]( —Classy addition. Dianne Wiest has joined Julia Garner in Apartment 7A, a supernatural thriller set up at Paramount via its label, Paramount Players. John Krasinski, Allyson Seeger, Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller are producing. The team produced Paramount’s A Quiet Place franchise. [The story.]( —Overall deal news. History-making producer Stephanie Allain is expanding her relationship with Warner Media. Allain, who in 2020 became the first Black woman to produce the Oscars, has renewed her first-look deal with Warner Bros. TV and added HBO to the pact. [The story.]( Darth Maul Scenes Cut From 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' ►Mauled. THR's gruesome twosome [Borys Kit]( and [Aaron Couch]( report that Star Wars fan favorite baddie Darth Maul (you know the double ended light sabre guy) has been jettisoned from the upcoming Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, despite strong indications previously that the character would make an appearance and original star Ray Park would reprise the role. Now it appears there's been a total creative overhaul of the series, with Maul out. [The story.]( —Perfect score for a perfect performance. Nicolas Cage is getting some of the best reviews of his career … for playing Nicolas Cage. The actor’s new comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent currently has a rare 100 percent critics‘ score on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. #BestActorOscars2023. [The story.]( —Je ressens le besoin – le besoin de vitesse. Top Gun: Maverick is heading to the Cannes Film Festival. Paramount and Skydance’s high-profile sequel will screen at Cannes in advance of its Memorial Day premiere in theaters. Cannes has long been a platform to launch a big Memorial Day tentople (most play out of competition.) The film's official world premiere will likely take place in the U.S. sometime before the glam screening on the Croisette. [The story.]( —Heading to Blighty. Paramount+ has unveiled its first slate of unscripted original U.K. series ahead of the launch of the streamer in Britain this summer. Among them are shows about paranormal cases, the rise of technology giants and the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines flight in 2014. [The story.]( —"This is obviously a sign of the apocalypse." Paramount+ took to scaring the bejesus out of the inhabitants of Austin in promoting its big expensive new show Halo on Sunday. An "alien drone swarm" took the night sky to form a forbidding 300 foot tall x 600 feet wide display of a QR code linked to the show. [The story.]( —Stepping behind the camera. Oscar winner Marlee Matlin will make her directorial debut with Fox’s upcoming anthology crime drama Accused. The CODA actress will helm an episode about a deaf woman who becomes a surrogate and commits a crime of advocacy and protection. [The story.]( Study Finds Women, People of Color Still Underrepresented as Movie Leads ►"People of color deserve to be at the heart of storytelling." In its latest study, USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which has annually tracked gender and race/ethnicity of lead characters for the 100 highest-grossing films each year since 2007, reports that 41 percent of leads or co-leads in 2021 were women, and 32 percent were from a historically excluded race or ethnicity. (Nearly 40 percent — 39.9 percent — of the U.S. population is not white.) [The study.]( —It's still a man's world. Another grim study is out, this time San Diego State’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film's latest It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World report has found that men outnumbered women onscreen by a factor of 2 to 1 in 2021. This proportion held steady across the shares of lone protagonists (31 percent), major characters (35 percent) and all speaking characters (34 percent), with less than 3 points of deviation from the year before. [The study.]( —The lost years. Global box office revenue was down a hefty 50 percent from pre-pandemic times as the movie business struggled to emerge from the COVID-19 era and grapple with a new landscape dominated by streaming. According to the MPA’s annual THEME report, combined ticket sales worldwide reached $21.3 billion in 2021, an 81 percent jump over 2020 ($11.8 billion). However, they were 50 percent behind 2019’s $42.3 billion. [The story.]( TV review: 'Halo' ►"A less entertaining version of The Mandalorian." THR's chief TV critic [Dan Fienberg]( reviews Paramount+'s Halo. Boasting Steven Spielberg among its executive producers, the popular Bungie game franchise finally makes it to the small screen in a new series featuring Pablo Schreiber. [The review.]( —"Always fun, occasionally twisted." THR critic [Lovia Gyarkye]( reviews Halina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies. In the filmmaker's second feature, starring Pete Davidson and Amandla Stenberg, a group of wealthy friends throw a party with fatal consequences. [The review.]( —"Twisty and touching." THR's [Angie Han]( reviews Colin West's Linoleum. The sci-fi dramedy stars Jim Gaffigan as a man who tries to build a rocket ship from the mysterious satellite that's crashed in his backyard, as strange events start to cast doubt on his reality. [The review.]( —"A gory retro-thriller with an unusually engaging cast." THR's John DeFore reviews Ti West's X. A troupe of would-be pornographers make a poor location choice in the director's '70s-set slasher film starring Jenna Ortega, Mia Goth and Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi. [The review.]( In other news... —Barack Obama [to narrate Netflix National Parks docuseries]( —Kardashians [return in Hulu reality series trailer]( —Stacey Abrams, Iman to receive honors at [inaugural Fifteen Percent Pledge gala]( —Gaming and lifestyle brand 100 Thieves [adds Barstool Sports exec in content expansion]( —AMC Theatres [buying $27.9m stake in gold and silver mining company Hycroft]( —Judge [makes permanent ban on Bob Saget autopsy records release]( —Producers Guild [reveals sports, children’s and short-form TV awards winners]( —Fox News [correspondent Benjamin Hall injured in Ukraine]( What else we're reading... —Amazing Bilge Ebiri profile of Everything Everywhere All at Once star Ke Huy Quan, the child star who played Short Round and Data in Goonies [[Vulture]( —Incredible story on Marina Ovsyannikova who ran on to a Russian TV news set brandishing antiwar poster [[WSJ]( —After a Disney employee revolt, Ryan Faughnder asks what’s next in the Chapek drama? [[LAT]( —Adam Gopnik on Ukrainian leader, and former comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky’s use of wit and mockery can undermine brutal authority [[New Yorker]( —China's worst Covid outbreak for two years should be a cause for concern for everyone [[Guardian]( Today... ...in 1985, Albert Brooks unveiled his R-rated, dark road-trip comedy Lost in America in theaters. The film, which stars Brooks and Julie Hagerty, earned rave reviews and made $10 million at the box office. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Pollyanna McIntosh (43), Tom Bateman (33), Kellan Lutz (37), David Cronenberg (79), Jai Courtney (36), Anna Shaffer (30), Sosie Bacon (30), Eva Longoria (47), Frances Conroy (69), Alia Bhatt (29), Brian Tee (45), Judd Hirsch (87), Joaquim de Almeida (65), Renny Harlin (63), Robyn Malcolm (57), Mark McGrath (54), [Fabio]( (63), Pierre Coffin (55), Will.i.am (47), Bret Michaels (59), Dee Snider (67) Scott Hall, the two-time WWE Hall of Famer who famously ignited pro wrestling’s “Monday Night Wars” in the 1990s by walking in unannounced during a rival organization’s marquee TV show, has died. He was 63. [The obituary.]( 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. Visit the [Preferences Center]( to update your profile and customize what email alerts and newsletters you receive. 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