THR's Best TV Shows of 2023; Apple Picks Sony to Release New A-Lister Movies; 'Death Stranding' Movie in the Works at A24; Sean Combs Reality Series Dropped at Hulu

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( December 14, 2023 What's news: Barbie leads the Critics Choice film nominations. Greta Gerwig will head the competition jury at Cannes 2024. Trevor Noah will host the Grammys. Anthony Anderson will host the Emmys. Dwayne Johnson will play MMA fighter Mark Kerr in an A24 biopic from Benny Safdie. Peacock orders the series titled Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist starring Kevin Hart. Amazon renews Good Omens for a third and final season. Buffy actor Camden Toy has died. — [Abid Rahman]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](. THR Critics Pick the Best TV Shows of 2023 ►Best of the best. After THR's film critics revealed their top films of 2023 yesterday, it's now the turn of the TV critics to unveil their best of the small screen. An emotional zombie drama, a superior true-crime docuseries, a sidesplitting anti-capitalist satire and two fantastic series finales were among picks from THR's TV critics [Dan Fienberg]( and [Angie Han](. [The list.]( —"I am stunned and thrilled and humbled." Greta Gerwig will be the president of the jury for the 2024 Cannes International Film Festival. The Barbie and Lady Bird filmmaker will be the first American woman director to head up the international jury that picks Cannes' Palme d'Or. Gerwig is only the second female director to take over the post, following Jane Campion in 2014, and the second American woman to do so, following actress Olivia de Haviland, who was Cannes’ first female jury president in 1965. [The story.]( —The latest. New York Criminal Court Judge Michael Gaffey, who is presiding over the Jonathan Majors trial, approved the release of several pieces of evidence to the media Wednesday, and the defense rested its case for the actor after one day of testimony. In the evidence, the actor called 911 after finding his ex-partner unconscious at their shared apartment. When asked on the recording what exactly had happened, he said, “I don’t know.” Closing arguments are expected to begin Thursday, then the jury will begin deliberations. [The story.]( —Fifth time's a charm. Oscar-nominated film producer Jennifer Fox will produce the next Governors Awards ceremony for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It will be Fox’s fifth time overseeing the event, following the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th editions. The 14th Governors Awards will take place on Jan. 9 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood. Honorary awards will be presented to Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks and film editor Carol Littleton, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to the Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter. [The story.]( Apple Picks Sony to Release New A-Lister Movies ►Two more. Apple Original Films has selected Sony Pictures Entertainment to release a pair of star-studded movies internationally following their distribution partnership on Napoleon. Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum's Project Artemis and George Clooney and Brad Pitt's Wolfs will be given an exclusive theatrical run before they hit Apple TV+ no earlier than 45 days later. The two movies are likely to hit the big screen in 2024. [The story.]( —All change. THR's [Borys Kit]( has the scoop on Poor Things actor Christopher Abbott starring in Blumhouse and Universal Pictures’ werewolf thriller Wolf Man that is being directed by Invisible Man filmmaker Leigh Whannell. The companies have set an Oct. 25, 2024 release date for the feature. Abbott replaces Ryan Gosling on the project and Whannell steps in to replace Derek Cianfrance as director. The script was written by Whannell and Corbett Tuck as well as Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo. [The story.]( —The Barbie effect. After the $1.4b success of Barbie, Mattel Films is putting another one of its beloved doll lines on the development track. Paramount Pictures and Maze Runner and Twilight producer Temple Hill are developing a feature project based on the American Girl dolls. Lindsey Anderson Beer, who recently worked with Paramount on Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, is set to write and produce the project. The American Girl doll line started in the late ’80s, and features dolls with historically accurate backgrounds. [The story.]( —The Rock meets The Smashing Machine. Dwayne Johnson will be taking on his most dramatic role to date in a new A24 project from one half of the Uncut Gems team, Benny Safdie. Johnson is set to star in The Smashing Machine as real-life mixed martial arts fighter Mark Kerr, a two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion. Safdie, who wrote and will direct the feature (his first solo directorial effort), has been developing the project with Johnson, who notably started his career as a professional wrestler, since 2019. [The story.]( 'Death Stranding' Movie in the Works at A24 ►Kojima's opus. The best-selling, artistically challenging video game Death Stranding is headed to the big screen, with the help of its auteur creator, Hideo Kojima. A24 is developing a feature based on the 2019 video game, which was hailed as one of the most cinematic games of all time. It was also notable as an example of A-list actors embracing the genre, including Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, Guillermo del Toro and Margaret Qualley. No casting news is known about the film version. [The story.]( —He's back. German director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Cloud Atlas) has announced his return to filmmaking with the drama Das Licht (The Light). The feature is described as a portrait of a family “between collapse and new beginnings” and deals with the major issues of our time “in a world that is reeling.” Das Licht is Tykwer’s first feature film since 2016’s A Hologram for the King starring Tom Hanks. He has spent the past seven years making TV, co-creating and co-directing four seasons of the acclaimed German period series Babylon Berlin. [The story.]( —🎭 It's a caper innit 🎭 Josh Duhamel is re-teaming with Canadian director Allan Ungar for the new action comedy London Calling, joined in the cast by Game of Thrones star Aidan Gillen, It actor Jeremy Ray Taylor and Suits' Rick Hoffman. Duhamel, who starred in Ungar’s 2022 crime thriller Bandit, will play Tommy Ward, a mediocre hitman who accidentally kills a relative of London’s biggest crime boss (Gillen), forcing him to go on the run and landing him in L.A., far away from his son. [The story.]( —🎭 Leads in place 🎭 Emma Jade, Alyssa Nicole and Noor Badash have secured lead roles in the psychosexual thriller Iconic, the feature film debut from writer-director Matthew Freiheit. The indie, which has just wrapped production in Los Angeles ahead of a planned 2024 release, stars Jade as makeup guru Rose, who faces hate mail from a rival artist played by Roxette Arisa, in addition to dealing with a violent stalker. [The story.]( Sean Combs Reality Series Dropped at Hulu ►Scrapped. A reality series featuring Sean “Diddy” Combs that was in early stages at Hulu has been scrapped. Production company Fulwell 73 was behind the project that would have focused on the music mogul’s family life. This news follows four sexual assault suits that have been filed against Combs since November, with three of them coming prior to the deadline to bring a claim under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. Combs has denied the allegations. [The story.]( —Nearing the end. Amazon Prime Video has renewed Good Omens, the fantasy-comedy that started as a limited series, for a third and final season. Production on the show from BBC Studios, and based on the novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, is expected to begin soon in Scotland. Gaiman will continue to serve as showrunner, exec producer and writer. [The story.]( —Grand theft Atalanta. Peacock has ordered a limited series titled Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist that will tell the story of an armed robbery orchestrated around Muhammad Ali’s 1970 comeback fight in Atlanta. Kevin Hart will star in the series and serve as an executive producer. Fight Night is based on an iHeart podcast written by Jeff Keating (who also hosted) and Jim Roberts. Shaye Ogbonna created the series and will serve as showrunner along with Jason Horwitch. [The story.]( —"I enjoy the Grammys because I get to watch the show in person and then just experience and comment on it in person while it is happening." Trevor Noah will return as the Grammy Awards host for the fourth time in a row at the Recording Academy’s annual awards show in February. He will also serve as a producer on the show. The former Daily Show host broke the news on his podcast What Now? With Trevor Noah late Wednesday. The Grammys will be broadcast live on CBS and available to stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ on Feb. 4, 2024. [The story.]( —AA meeting. Anthony Anderson will host the delayed 75th edition of the Emmy Awards, Fox and the Television Academy announced on Wednesday. The Black-ish star will emcee the live telecast from the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 2024 on Fox, with the event available the next day on Hulu. The 2023 Emmys were delayed by the dual Hollywood strikes. [The story.]( Critics Choice 2024 Film Nominations ►🏆 Pink supremacy 🏆 Barbie leads the 2024 Critics Choice film nominations, with 18 nods, it was announced Wednesday. Oppenheimer and Poor Things scored the second most nominations with 13 nods each, followed by Killers of the Flower Moon, which landed 12 nominations. Barbie, Oppenheimer, Poor Things and Killers of the Flower Moon are all up for best picture, alongside American Fiction, Maestro, Past Lives, Saltburn, The Color Purple and The Holdovers. [The nominees.]( —Five-alarm fire for Annette Bening and Penélope Cruz. With the Critics Choice Award nominations unveiled, THR's executive editor of awards coverage Scott Feinberg offers his analysis of the selections (and significan omissions) and finds that the nominations give a shot of momentum to The Color Purple and Saltburn. [The analysis.]( —"I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people, and myself." Oprah Winfrey says that she’s “released my own shame” about using a prescription weight loss drug after years of media scrutiny about her body and guilt about her “yo-yoing” weight. The media mogul revealed she had added a weight loss drug to her existing “holistic approach” to diet and exercise in a new People cover story, published on Wednesday. [The story.]( —Buffy icon. Camden Toy, the versatile character actor famed for playing a succession of demonic monsters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has died. He was 68. Often caked under layers of makeup as well as special prosthetics, Toy would be unrecognizable for many of his most well-known turns on Buffy and later Angel, playing one of The Gentleman, the Prince of Lies and the demon Gnarl among others. [The obituary.]( —First accusers. French actress Emmanuelle Debever, one of the first entertainers to accuse Gérard Depardieu of sexual assault, has died by suicide at 60. Debever died Dec. 7 after jumping into the Seine River in Paris according to local reports. She died on the same day as the broadcast of an investigative documentary into the various sexual assault allegations against Depardieu. [The story.]( Netflix Plans Sonic, 'Squid Game' Video Games ►Expanding slate to familiar IP. Netflix is not slowing down on its video game ambitions, leaning on some key intellectual property to help it grow the business. The company said Wednesday a new Sonic game, called Sonic Mania Plus, is heading to Netflix, which will be exclusive to the platform. The streamer is developing a game based on its own Squid Game franchise and a Rebel Moon game alongside Super Evil Megacorp. Other games coming in 2024 include titles based on Money Heist, Virgin River and Chicken Run. [The story.]( —Upped. Natalie Lehmann is expanding her oversight at New Regency Pictures, with the studio promoting the executive to president of motion pictures and television. Lehmann has been with New Regency since 2017, producing features such as the horror hit Barbarian and Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi drama The Creator. In her new role, she will continue oversight of Blitz, Steve McQueen’s World War II film for Apple. She also has Man on Fire, a Netflix series adaptation of the 2004 Tony Scott/Denzel Washington feature. [The story.]( —Big changes. Fox News is making significant changes to its C-suite, promoting three executives and handing oversight of Fox Nation and Fox Business Network to new leaders. Jason Klarman has been upped to chief digital and marketing officer, reporting to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott. Lauren Petterson, the president of talent development for Fox News, will add oversight of Fox Nation to her portfolio, but will drop oversight of Fox Business Network. Fox News president Jay Wallace will take a more active role in running Fox Business day-to-day following the changes. [The story.]( —🤝 Overall deal 🤝 My Brilliant Friend executive producer Jennifer Schuur is staying at HBO. Schuur has renewed her overall deal with the premium cable outlet, which has been her home since 2019. The renewed deal will run through the end of 2024, during which time she’ll continue to develop and produce projects for HBO. She is currently adapting Valentine, Elizabeth Wetmore’s best-selling novel about a vicious crime and its aftereffects in 1970s Odessa, Texas. [The story.]( Final Episodes Bring 'The Crown' to a Smooth but Savorless Finish ►"[It] was never going to go out in a blaze of burn-it-all-down glory." THR TV critic [Angie Han]( runs the rule over the final six installments of Peter Morgan's acclaimed Netflix drama The Crown that bring the British royal family into the mid-2000s, ending on the wedding of Charles (Dominic West) and Camilla (Olivia Williams). [The critic's notebook.]( In other news... —Jenna Ortega leads Martin Freeman [into complicated relationship in Miller’s Girl trailer]( —Hazbin Hotel [trailer teases peak inside last place for salvation in A24 adult animated musical comedy]( —Kung Fu Panda 4 [trailer unveils Po’s new nemesis: Viola Davis’ villain The Chameleon]( —Chelsey Summey [joins Warner Bros. motion picture group as senior vp of communications]( —CAA [promotes 2 to executive, 14 to agents]( —David Barber [named Motion Picture Sound Editors president]( ​​​What else we're reading... —Must-read piece by August Brown, Stacy Perman, Craig Marks and Kenan Draughorne that goes behind the spectacular downfall of hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs [[LAT]( —Thomas Buckley and Michelle F. Davis crunch the numbers as Shari Redstone weighs the sale of a stake in Paramount Global [[Bloomberg]( —In a loving tribute to Andre Braugher, critic James Poniewozik writes that the resonant-voiced actor had a gift for conveying authority and for subverting it [[NYT]( —David Marchese interviews David Byrne on what has been an incredible year for the musician with the release of a restored Stop Making Sense and his Imelda Marcos Broadway musical [[NYT]( —Citing data, Rachel Wolfe reports that consumers are cutting back on tipping, frustrated by ubiquitous requests for gratuities [[WSJ]( Today... ...in 1984, David Lynch unveiled a divisive 140-minute epic based on Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic, Dune, to mixed results in theaters. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Natascha McElhone (52), Vanessa Hudgens (35), Lucrecia Martel (57), Jackson Rathbone (39), Barbie Ferreira (27), [Dino Stamatopoulos]( (59), Cynthia Gibb (60), Tori Kelly (31), Miranda Hart (51), KaDee Strickland (48), Celia Weston (72), Tammy Blanchard (47), Ted Raimi (58), Sophie Monk (44), Tia Texada (52), Sofya Lebedeva (30), Rebecca Gibney (59), Lynne Marie Stewart (77), Vicki Michelle (73), Eva Ugarte (40), David Norona (51), Don Franklin (63), Héctor Jiménez (50), Jamie Bernadette (36), Jesse Garcia (41), Max Topplin (34) Ken Kelsch, the hard-charging cinematographer and Vietnam War veteran who shot the down-and-dirty classic Bad Lieutenant and 11 other features for iconoclastic director Abel Ferrara, has died. He was 76. [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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