THR's 2022 Yearbook; 'Puss in Boots 2' Posts $3.2M Opening Day; 'Wednesday' Creators Talk Finale, S2 Ideas; 'The Witcher: Blood Origin' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( December 23, 2022 What's news: Avatar 2 global box office total ticked past $600m. Charlbi Dean’s cause of death has been revealed. Château Marmont workers have ratified their first contract after unionizing. The jury has begun deliberations in rapper Tory Lanez's shooting trial. — [Abid Rahman]( THR's 2022 Yearbook ►Who was the industry’s homecoming queen? Class clown? Cutest couple? If Hollywood is like high school with money, as they say, THR singles out the varsity execs that made the year's biggest plays and recounts the feuds and scandals that had the lunchrooms buzzing. [The yearbook.]( —Cause revealed. Charlbi Dean’s cause of death has been revealed months after the Triangle of Sadness actress died at 32. Her rep previously told THR that Dean died in August at a New York City hospital following an unexpected sudden illness. On Thursday, a spokesperson for the NYC chief medical examiner confirmed that Dean died of bacterial sepsis. The sepsis was “complicating asplenia,” which is the absence of a spleen, due to “remote blunt force trauma to [her] torso,” according to the spokesperson. [The story.]( —Decision pending. Jurors began deliberations Thursday at the trial of rapper Tory Lanez, who is charged with shooting and wounding hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in the feet. The jury of seven women and five men received the case late Thursday morning after Lanez’s defense completed a closing argument from a day earlier and Los Angeles County prosecutors gave a brief rebuttal. [The story.]( Hollywood's Biggest Business Trends of 2022 ►Good year for A-lister side hustles. This year was marked by media layoffs, ad-tier launches and private equity money fueling celebrity brands. In his review, THR's [Alex Weprin]( looks at how Hollywood fell in love with advertising again, and fell out of love with expanding budgets and headcount. [The review.]( —Feinberg Forecast. Following The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Wednesday announcement of shortlists for 10 Oscar categories, THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg updates his picks, now assessing 16 categories. [The forecast.]( —🏆 RiRi v Tay Tay v Gaga 🏆 Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga’s film songs shortlisted for the Oscars will compete at the upcoming Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards. Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Swift’s “Carolina” from Where The Crawdads Sing and Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick are nominated for outstanding song for a drama/documentary. [The nominees.]( 'Puss in Boots 2' Posts $3.2M Opening Day ►Finally, some product. DreamWorks/Universal's Puss in Boots: The Last Wish took its seat at the Christmas table on Wednesday with an opening-day gross of $3.2m at the domestic box office, which is being impacted by bad weather across the country. The sequel to the 2011 film Puss in Boots, a spin-off of the Shrek franchise, came in No. 2 as Avatar: The Way of Water easily held at No. 1 with $14.3m Tuesday. Avatar 2 has now crossed $609.7m globally. [The box office report.]( —"You’re now in a situation where literally every single one of these [non-franchise] movies is not doing well." James Gray remains proud of Armageddon Time but admits that the film was not a box office success. In a new interview, the filmmaker reflected on the commercial run for the Focus Features drama, which opened in October after its Cannes premiere. The film, which stars Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong in a story loosely inspired by Gray’s upbringing, has grossed $5.6m worldwide to date. [The story.]( —"It probably won’t be as gory." Daredevil is back thanks to a Disney+ revival, but don’t expect masked Matt Murdock to pack the same (bloody) punch he did during the superhero's Netflix run. In a new interview, star Charlie Cox clarified that fans of the original series should expect some similarities within the Disney+ show Daredevil: Born Again when it comes to its tone, but he cautioned that other things, such as the level of violence, will definitely be different. [The story.]( 'Wednesday' Creators Talk Surprising Finale, S2 Ideas ►"Her sort of fearlessness and her ability to always be herself with something, that was interesting." THR's [Christy Piña]( spoke to Wednesday creators Al Gough and Miles Millar about what pushed them to make a spinoff of the Addams Family character. The duo discuss their plans for a potential season two of the Netflix breakoutt series and also reflect on their time on Smallville, 21 years after it premiered. Warning spoilers. [The interview.]( —Mission aborted. THR's Patrick Brzeski has the incredible story of Born to Fly, which was supposed to be China's answer to Tom Cruise’s blockbuster sequel Top Gun: Maverick — until the producers saw the American hit and grounded it. [The story.]( —Insatiable demand. THR's [Alex Weprin]( writes that with the YouTube deal, the NFL cements itself as the most powerful force in entertainment. Alex writes the league chose Alphabet's video streaming platform as its Sunday Ticket partner in part because the service aims to be “much more broadly available." [The analysis.]( Lovia's 10 Arts and Culture Favorites From 2022 ►"The art that seized my attention this year celebrated community." In a year marked by lethargy, THR’s arts and culture critic [Lovia Gyarkye]( was drawn to energizing work, including a poignant voting rights documentary, an introspective comedy special and a legendary Broadway revival. [The selection.]( —It's over. Four months after unionizing — and three years since a nascent organizing drive quietly began before the pandemic hit — workers at the Château Marmont have ratified their first contract following negotiations with owner André Balazs. The deal follows years of protests, lawsuits and a celebrity-fueled boycott. [The story.]( —"A welcome and long-overdue first step." In a guest column for THR, Douglas E. Mirell, a partner at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP, goes behind SAG-AFTRA’s more than a decade long, and ultimately victorious, battle with industry database IMDb to keep actors' ages and other personal information private. [The column.]( TV Review: 'The Witcher: Blood Origin' ►"To quote one of the characters, 'it's been done to death.'" THR's [Angie Han]( reviews Netflix's The Witcher: Blood Origin. Michelle Yeoh, Sophia Brown and Laurence O'Fuarain star in the series set 1,200 years before The Witcher, about the events that introduced monsters and men into the Continent. [The review.]( —"Watchable but dull." THR's chief film critic [David Rooney]( reviews Scott Cooper’s The Pale Blue Eye. Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson and Lucy Boynton star in Netflix’s adaptation of the Louis Bayard novel about an 1830 case at West Point military academy, where the young Edgar Allan Poe was a cadet. [The review.]( Thank Pod It's Friday ► All the latest content from THR's podcast studio. —Awards Chatter. THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this episode, Scott spoke to James Gray. The Armageddon Time director reflects on how his family and upbringing shaped him and his films, the pros and cons of being a darling of Cannes and the increasingly uphill climb of making the sorts of indie, personal films he prefers to make. [Listen here.]( In other news... —That ’90s Show [trailer heads back to the Forman basement]( —Hollywood holiday: [15 actors who have played Santa Claus]( —12 [international holiday movies to counterprogram this festive season]( —Jeanie Buss [and Jay Mohr are engaged]( —Mark Hansson, Valdez Flagg [to receive special honors at DGA Awards]( —Jaclyn Philpott [hired as AFCI executive director]( —Production exec [Bill Ireton departs Sony Pictures to launch indie banner in Japan]( —[Thom Bell]( Philadelphia soul icon, dies at 79 What else we're reading... —Savannah Walsh writes that 2022 was the year Gen Z f--kboys infiltrated pop culture [[VF]( —Kevin Fallon writes that Whitney Houston deserves so much better than I Wanna Dance With Somebody [[Daily Beast]( —Catherine Shoard interviews Top Gun 2 director Joseph Kosinski, who reveals that Maverick is the character closest to Tom Cruise's real personality [[Guardian]( —Emily Kirkpatrick writes that in 2022, Julia Fox became an all-time pop-culture great [[The Cut]( —Here's your Friday list: "The worst tweets of 2022" [[Gawker]( Today... ...in 1952, John Huston’s Moulin Rouge was unveiled at the Fox Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills, where it was described at the time as “one of the most dazzling world premieres ever staged in Hollywood.” The film went on to earn seven Oscar nominations at the 25th Academy Awards, winning for costume design and art direction. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Harry Shearer (79), Finn Wolfhard (20), [Peter Ramsey]( (60), Estella Warren (44), Alison Sudol (38), Joan Severance (64), Cheryl Howard (69), Nick Moran (53), Spencer Daniels (30), Susan Lucci (76), Daryl Wein (39), Holly Madison (43), Reg Rogers (58), Summer Altice (43), Peter Medak (85), Eddie Vedder (58), Carla Bruni (55), Reed Alexander (28), Josh Cowdery (44) James J. Murakami, the admired art director, production designer and set designer who earned an Emmy for Deadwood and an Oscar nomination for Changeling, one of the dozen films he worked on for director Clint Eastwood, has died. He was 91. [The obituary.]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](mailto:tips@thr.com?subject=). 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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