'Sound of Freedom' Filmmakers Hit Back at Critics; 'Barbenheimer' Stays Strong, 'Demeter' Bombs; 'Ted Lasso' Director on That S3 Finale; 'Animal' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( August 14, 2023 What's news: Music industry legend Clarence Avant has died. CNN has shaken up its lineup, with key time slots for Abby Philip and Lauren Coates. Mark Zuckerberg is moving on from his proposed fight with Elon Musk. Barbie zoomed past the $500m mark at the domestic box office. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem opened to less than $1m in China. — [Abid Rahman]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](. 'Freedom' Filmmakers Tout Bipartisan Merits of Controversial Film ►"No single interest group owns the issue of trafficking." In a guest column for THR, Sound of Freedom director Alejandro Monteverde and co-writer Rod Barr say they wanted their film — which has been associated with QAnon and become highly polarized even as it’s grossed $172.8m — to bring an apolitical awareness to an important matter, which "is not a conservative or a liberal issue." [The column.]( —Dramatic overhaul. CNN has announced new programs and anchors spanning weekday mornings, dayside and primetime, as well as new weekend programs led by veterans of the channel. The new lineup will see CNN hand the 10 p.m. hour over to Abby Phillip, with 11 p.m. being hosted by Laura Coates. Christiane Amanpour, Chris Wallace, Pamela Brown, Victor Blackwell and Manu Raju will launch new shows in the programming shakeup, with Phil Mattingly and Kasie Hunt moving to the mornings. [The story.]( —"I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious." Mark Zuckerberg is ready to move on from his impending fight with Elon Musk. The Meta CEO took to Threads and then his Instagram Story to share a note that he doesn’t believe Musk is taking the fight seriously. For his part, Musk posted that “Zuck is a chicken.” He also made this attempted jab: “He can’t eat at chic fil a because that would be cannibalism.” [The story.]( 'Barbenheimer' Stays Strong, 'Demeter' Bombs ►Unstoppable. Barbie continues to bedazzle at the domestic box office. The Warner Bros. blockbuster grossed an estimated $33.7m, the ninth-biggest fourth weekend of all time, ahead of Spider-Man: No Way Home ($32.6m) and not far behind The Avengers ($36.7m), not adjusted for inflation. The film easily stayed No. 1 as it zoomed past the $500m mark domestically and $657m overseas for an astounding global total of $1.18b, good enough to pass up Aquaman and rank as the No. 2 WB film of all time behind the final Harry Potter pic. THR's [Pamela McClintock]( writes that Barbie will soon pass The Dark Knight‘s $534m to become the top-grossing WB release of all time in North America after finishing Sunday with a domestic haul of $526.3m. Universal’s Oppenheimer likewise continues to impress in its fourth weekend, earning $18.8m for a domestic cume north of $264m. Overseas, it earned another $31.9m for a huge worldwide total of $649m, making it Christopher Nolan’s fifth-biggest film. Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem overtook Meg 2: The Trench to come in No. 3 in its second weekend with an estimated $15.8m for a domestic total of $72.8m through Sunday. The film fell only 44 percent. Mutant Mayhem's early global total is $94.7m. The big downer of the weekend was The Last Voyage of Demeter from Amblin and Universal, which made $6.5m, although the film’s budget was reportedly capped at around $45m. [The box office report.]( —Slump continues. Mutant Mayhem, meanwhile, bombed in China with a three-day start of just under $1m — despite the presence of Chinese action icon Jackie Chan in the starring voice cast. The flop continues a trend a Hollywood titles struggling to break through at China’s box office. Local ticketing service Maoyan projects Mutant Mayhem to top out in China with just $1.5m. [The China box office report.]( 'Tyrone' Filmmaker Talks Epilogue, Guillermo del Toro's Surprise Help ►"We did always know that the main character’s name would not be Tyrone." THR's [Brian Davids]( spoke to director Juel Taylor about his critically acclaimed Netflix sci-fi comedy They Cloned Tyrone. Taylor addresses his reasoning behind saving the title character of Tyrone for the film’s epilogue and the help he got editing the film from Guillermo del Toro. [The interview.]( —🏆 Glory in absentia 🏆 Critical Zone, an Iranian drama shot in secret by dissident director Ali Ahmadzadeh, has won the Golden Leopard honor for best film at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival. Ahmadzadeh, who has been banned from leaving Iran, was unable to attend the awards ceremony, held at the Swiss city Saturday night. [The winners.]( —"He happens to be white and cute." Billy Porter is opening up about why Harry Styles’ historic Vogue cover still doesn’t sit well with him. In a new interview, the Pose star took issue with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who made Styles the first man to cover the magazine. He shared that a few months before the cover came out, he had a Q&A with Wintour in front of the Condé Nast staff that gave him hope of genuine change before the eventual cover came out. [The story.]( 'Ted Lasso' Director on That S3 Finale ►"Everyone knew it was the end, but it’s also the end for now." The most recent and probably final season of Apple TV+’s Emmy-winning comedy Ted Lasso was a bittersweet endeavor for director Declan Lowney, who had worked on the series since season one as both a director and as a supervising producer. THR's [Tyler Coates]( spoke to Lowney about directing the last episodes of the football comedy and the heartbreaking nature of saying goodbye to the cast and crew. [The interview.]( —"Ronald Gladden restored my faith in humanity." Tyler also spoke to Jury Duty showrunner Cody Heller about the Amazon Freevee comedy show's true star, juror #6 Ronald Gladden. Heller recalls the stress, nightmares and ultimate rewards of the Emmy-nominated series centering on one man unaware his surroundings were entirely fake. [The interview.]( —"There’s a lot of trust, and that’s what you want out of the best collaborations." For THR, Esther Zuckerman spoke to Alex Timbers about his work on the Emmy-nominated special John Mulaney: Baby J. The Tony-winning director, a frequent collaborator of John Mulaney, details the "big theatrical ideas" that went into the comedian’s latest special. [The interview.]( —"I struggled for a while with how to translate the ‘I’ve been in London’ part of it." For THR, Hilton Dresden spoke to costume designer Laura Montgomery about her work on the FX/Hulu comedy What We Do in the Shadows. The Emmy-nominated Montgomery discusses the two killer dresses she created for Nadja and her doll, and how she crafted looks with impeccable detail for the vampire and the miniature who shares her likeness. [The interview.]( Clarence Avant 1931 - 2023 ►"The joy of his legacy eases the sorrow of our loss." Clarence Avant, the beloved music industry insider whose work as an executive, label owner, dealmaker and mentor earned him the nickname the “Godfather of Black Music,” has died. He was 92. Avant died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced in a statement. In a storied career, he managed the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Jimmy Smith, Lalo Schifrin and Freddie Hubbard and discovered Bill Withers. [The obituary.]( —Game show mainstay. Shelley Smith, the statuesque supermodel who starred alongside Martin Short on a sitcom and was a regular on game shows like The $10,000 Pyramid before she launched an egg-donor program to assist infertile couples, has died. She was 70. Smith died Tuesday at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, her husband of 18 years, actor Michael Maguire, announced on social media. [The obituary.]( Film Review: 'Animal' ►"Permanent vacation." THR film critic Jordan Mintzer reviews Sofia Exarchou's Animal. The Greek writer-director's second feature, which premiered in competition at Locarno, focuses on a team of dancers entertaining guests at an all-inclusive hotel. [The review.]( In other news... —Netflix’s [new releases coming in August 2023]( —Joey King [on joining Taylor Swift onstage during Eras Tour]( —Jimmy Fallon [surprises fans at Jonas Brothers concert]( —Working Title chiefs, [Hans Zimmer acquire London’s historic Maida Vale Studios]( What else we're reading... —Naomi Fry talks to Bottoms filmmaker Emma Seligman about why she decided to make a movie about a queer fight club [[New Yorker]( —John Jurgensen talks to Spanish actor, and star of The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Javier Botet about carving out an acting specialty for himself in playing monsters [[WSJ]( —With hosts struggling, Natalie Lung and Jesse Levine look into whether the Airbnb dream is dead [[Bloomberg]( —After BBC reporter Ellie House came out as gay, she realized that Netflix already seemed to know. House looks into how the streamer's algorithm figured out her sexuality [[BBC]( —It is 50 years since DJ Kool Herc's 'back to school jam' in New York's West Bronx. Rebecca Laurence recounts the party that kick-started a movement and birthed a whole culture [[BBC]( Today... ...in 1998, 20th Century Fox unveiled the Angela Bassett and Whoopi Goldberg starrer How Stella Got Her Groove Back in theaters. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Halle Berry (57), [Steve Martin]( (78), Mila Kunis (40), Marcia Gay Harden (64), Wim Wenders (78), Lamorne Morris (40), Jackée Harry (67), Antonio Fargas (77), Joseph Marcell (75), Emmanuelle Béart (60), Charlotte Nicdao (32), Marsai Martin (19), John Hillcoat (63), Adrian Lester (55), Andrew Kevin Walker (59), Christopher Gorham (49), Catherine Bell (55), Brianna Hildebrand (27), Susan Saint James (77), Olli Haaskivi (37), James Buckley (36), Jamie Sives (50), Miranda Rae Mayo (33), Tomer Sisley (49), Terry Notary (55), Jennifer Flavin (55), Cassi Thomson (30), Raoul Bova (52), Peter Franzén (52) Tom Jones, who wrote the book and lyrics for the musical The Fantasticks, which eventually became the longest-running musical in theater history, has died. He was 95. [The obituary.]( This email was sent to {EMAIL} by The Hollywood Reporter. Please add email@email.hollywoodreporter.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. 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