Is Eric Weinberg Hollywood's Most Prolific Predator?; 'House of the Dragon' Co-Showrunner Exits; Latest THR Venice Coverage; 'White Noise' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( September 01, 2022 What's news: Shocker as Miguel Sapochnik quits as co-showrunner of HBO's monster hit House of the Dragon. SAG-AFTRA members have ratified their deal with Netflix. Shia LaBeouf has joined the cast of Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis. Showtime programs now feature in the Paramount+ app. HBO Max renews Harley Quinn for S4 — [Abid Rahman]( Is Eric Weinberg Hollywood's Most Prolific Predator? ►"He’s taken everything he’s allowed to take from me." Last month, the LAPD arrested Eric Weinberg, the Scrubs and Californication writer-producer, on 20 charges of sexual assault, including rape. Speaking publicly for the first time, his alleged victims share their stories and reveal how they came together to seek justice. [The story.]( —Ratified. SAG-AFTRA members have voted to ratify the union’s latest standalone contract deal with Netflix. After the voting period ended on Aug. 31, the vote was 89.03 percent in favor of the new contract, the union announced on Wednesday. SAG-AFTRA and the streamer first reached the tentative deal in early August. [The story.]( —🎭 Casting news 🎭 Francis Ford Coppola is rounding out the cast to his self-financed $100m indie film Megalopolis. The call sheet is now a family affair, with Coppola’s sister Talia Shire and nephew Jason Schwartzman joining the project. Also joining the cast are Shia LaBeouf, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter and James Remar. They all join Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight and Aubrey Plaza in the mysterious project. [The story.]( —Synergy innit. Paramount is revamping its streaming bundle in a major way, centering it around the flagship Paramount+ app. For the first time, Showtime's programming is coming to Paramount+, and will see hit shows like Yellowjackets, Billions, and Dexter: New Blood available within the same app as programs like Star Trek: Discovery, Halo, and 1883. The bundle will debut with a $7.99 per month promo price point. [The story.]( —Not out of the woods. A slow August at the domestic box office wasn’t an ideal way to end a summer that was otherwise a huge boon for theater owners and Hollywood studios. Revenue for August 2022 looks to clock in at an estimated $475m to $477m, which — outside the past two years, when the pandemic kept many consumers at home — is one of the lowest rankings in several decades and down more than 43 percent from August 2019, according to Comscore. [The story.]( 'HOTD' Co-Showrunner Miguel Sapochnik Exits Hit Series ►Big shake-up. THR's [James Hibberd]( and [Borys Kit]( have the huge scoop that House of the Dragon co-showrunner and director Miguel Sapochnik is stepping down from the freshly launched hit series. Sources say Sapochnik is exiting the show after pouring an exhausting three years of effort into the Game of Thrones prequel. HOTD co-creator Ryan Condal will now serve as the show’s sole showrunner and continue to work closely with co-creator George R.R. Martin. [The story.]( —"So astounding it makes House of the Dragon look amateur." The initial reactions to the first two episodes of the Amazon Prime Video's epic $1b The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series have been positive (with a rave from THR, too). See what the critics are saying. [The review roundup.]( —It's not all about the axe. HBO Max has renewed the (very) adult animated DC series Harley Quinn for a fourth season, a few weeks ahead of the Sept. 15 finale for season three. The series will also have a new showrunner in season four: Sarah Peters, who has written for Harley Quinn throughout its run and is currently a consulting producer, will serve as executive producer and showrunner, taking over for Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker. [The story.]( —"I didn’t understand why that happened." Blonde star Ana de Armas is speaking out against her Marilyn Monroe bio-drama getting an NC-17 rating. In a new interview, Armas was asked about the rating, and replied, "I can tell you a number of shows or movies that are way more explicit with a lot more sexual content than Blonde." [The story.]( —🎭 Casting news 🎭 Amazon Prime Video's The Summer I Turned Pretty is adding to its cast for season two. The YA dramedy, based on a novel by Jenny Han, has cast Kyra Sedgwick and Elsie Fisher. They’ll both recur in season two, which the streamer ordered ahead of its debut in June. Details on their characters are being kept quiet for the time being. [The story.]( —"I think everyone’s going to see this as a response to what happened to me" J.K. Rowling, writing under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith, has a new crime novel out this week, The Ink Black Heart. And while there are obvious parallels between her experiences and the book’s plot about a creator who faces backlash over controversial subject matter, the author claims it’s merely coincidental. [The story.]( THR at Venice 2022 ►Ciao...again! All the latest from THR's intrepid team of reporters and critics on the ground at the Venice Film Festival. [The Day 2 digital daily.]( —"Talk about this war with the most clear language possible." The 79th Venice Film Festival kicked off Wednesday night with the world premiere of White Noise, Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don Delillo’s “unfilmable” 1985 novel and a video cameo by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. [The story.]( —👀 Could be one for the ages 👀 Following a flurry of headlines over the past week, the hottest ticket at Venice this year is the press conference for Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling. Assuming Wilde shows up alongside her lead Florence Pugh and co-star Harry Styles (who THR has confirmed will attend), it’s likely to be more intensely scrutinized than anything else happening on the Lido. [The story.]( —"No change. Streaming is the priority." Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos was in Venice for the world premier of White Noise, reaffirming the streamer's commitment to a festival dedicated to theatrical films. With four movies in competition in Venice, Netflix has a decent shot at claiming its second Golden Lion after Roma in 2018. Despite the focus on Venice, and also Toronto, THR's [Scott Roxborough]( writes that we shouldn't expect those festival films to be given wide theatrical releases. [The story.]( More from the Venice Film Festival... —What is [Hillary Clinton doing at the Venice Film Festival?]( —Alejandro G. Inarritu on [how returning to Mexico for Bardo was like “meeting an old friend”]( —Japan’s [Koji Fukuda on creating existential drama Love Life]( —Venice hidden gem: [When punk meets provincial in Margins]( —Venice flashback: [Cate Blanchett danced her way to the Lido 22 years ago]( Film Review: 'White Noise' ►"Equal parts clear signal and wearying static." THR's chief film critic [David Rooney]( reviews Noah Baumbach's White Noise. Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig and Don Cheadle star in Netflix's Venice Film Festival opener, an absurdist apocalyptic vision of one family grappling with the specter of disaster and death in a world spinning off its axis. [The review.]( —"Structurally inconsistent, but consistently potent." THR's [Dan Fienberg]( reviews Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo's Bobi Wine: Ghetto President. Premiering out of competition in Venice, Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo's documentary looks at Ugandan musician and politician Bobi Wine as he faces off with the country's entrenched ruling class. [The review.]( In other news... —Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey [trailer sees Pooh and Piglet go feral]( —Milli Vanilli biopic [actors revealed in Girl You Know It’s True first look]( —Netflix reveals [cast and first look of Australian original series Boy Swallows Universe]( —Luca Guadagnino [to receive tribute award at 2022 Zurich Film Festival]( —BMF actor [Eric Kofi-Abrefa signs with APA]( —Governors Awards: [Jennifer Fox will return as producer]( What else we're reading... —Mary Mcnamara takes on the racists who seem to care so much about Black characters in fantasy shows like House of the Dragon and Rings of Power [[LAT]( —Adam Nayman interviews master filmmaker John Carpenter on a range of topics including the Golden State Warriors and the reboot of Halloween [[New Yorker]( —Laurence Fox plays Hunter Biden in a new Breitbart biopic and Emma Brockes helpfully explains what a plonker the Brit actor is in real life to Americans who are unfamiliar [[Guardian]( —Max Chafkin writes that Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse pitch is falling flat [[Bloomberg]( —The average U.S. household has 2.3 TVs, so Kris Frieswick posits the question to us: 'do you own too many TV sets?' [[WSJ]( Today... Today's birthdays: Lily Tomlin (83), Zendaya (26), Padma Lakshmi (52), Barry Gibb (76), Gloria Estefan (65), Boyd Holbrook (41), [Craig Gillespie]( (55), Scott Speedman (47), Burn Gorman (48), Lara Pulver (42), Zoe Lister-Jones (40), Morven Christie (41), Steve Pemberton (55), Ludwig Göransson (38), Camille Chen (43), Taylor Blackwell (24) Phil McGraw (72) Amanda Mackey, the busy casting director who worked on The Fugitive and four other films for director Andrew Davis and shared an Emmy nomination for populating Larry Kramer‘s The Normal Heart, has died. She was 70. [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. Copyright © 2022 The Hollywood Reporter, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. 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