'X-Men '97' Creator Fired Weeks Before Premiere; UTA Fires Partner Michael Kassan; 'Shōgun' Bosses On Recreating Feudal Japan; Latest SXSW Reviews

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( March 13, 2024 What's news: Ari Aster has assembled an A-list cast for his next A24 feature. Neve Campbell and Kevin Williamson are returning to the Scream franchise. Max has extended its North America distribution deal with Studio Ghibli. The Batman Part II will now hit theaters in 2026. CBS has renewed Ghosts and Fire Country. Neil Young's music is set to return to Spotify. — [Abid Rahman]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](. 'X-Men '97' Creator Fired Weeks Before Premiere ►Marvel shocker! THR's [Borys Kit]( and [Aaron Couch]( have the big scoop that Marvel Studios has fired X-Men 97 creator Beau DeMayo ahead of the show’s March 20 debut on Disney+. Borys and Aaron report that early last week, Marvel and DeMayo suddenly parted ways. His company email was deactivated and cast and crew were informed he was no longer on the project. DeMayo’s Instagram account, once a source for X-Men updates, was deleted. [The story.]( —Charges. Laurence Andries, a TV writing veteran whose credits include Supernatural, Blue Bloods and How to Get Away with Murder is facing sexual assault charges after a man came forward to accuse Andries of drugging and raping him. The writer faces six felony counts, including sodomy on a victim prevented from resisting by a controlled substance, oral copulation of an intoxicated victim and penetration of an intoxicated person. Andries was arrested by the LAPD in August and is currently free on a $150,000 bond. He pled not guilty in August. [The story.]( —Another suit. Roman Polanski has been sued in a lawsuit accusing him of drugging and raping a minor in 1973. The filing of the complaint comes as a trial in France kicks off over allegations that he defamed actress Charlotte Lewis, who he accused of disseminating a “heinous lie” after she claimed that he sexually assaulted her in the 1980s. The lawsuit was filed by an unidentified plaintiff last year. Gloria Allred, who represents the woman, said that the court recently permitted her to file an amended complaint naming the disgraced director. Polanski has been a fugitive from prosecution in the U.S. since the 1970s. [The story.]( —Breach. The streaming platform Roku has suffered a data breach, with more than 15,000 accounts compromised. The company — which has more than 80m active accounts — revealed the breach in filings with the state attorneys general of Maine and California on Friday. The filings indicate that 15,363 accounts were compromised between Dec. 28, 2023, and Feb. 21, 2024. Rather than a hacker breaking into Roku’s system, the filings indicate that the accounts were compromised by hackers that obtained login data from other sources. [The story.]( —"SXSW does not agree with Governor Abbott." In the lead-up to SXSW, multiple musical acts that were scheduled to perform pulled out, citing the U.S. Army’s sponsorship of the festival, as well as American support for Israel's war in Gaza. In all, 60 artists are skipping the fest. After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told the artists boycotting SXSW to not come back, the festival pushed back on social media. [The story.]( UTA Fires Partner Michael Kassan ►Messy. UTA has axed Michael Kassan, the influential founder of the strategic advisory firm MediaLink, which the talent agency acquired in 2021 for $125m. A UTA spokesperson told THR that the move came "following a thorough and exhaustive third-party investigation into misappropriation of company funds." The agency added that it had filed a lawsuit against Kassan. An attorney for Kassan contended that the executive resigned and was taking legal action against UTA over how MediaLink was run. [The story.]( —"I feel relieved to push the refresh button in signing on with Rob." Gina Carano, who is in the midst of a legal battle with Disney over her firing from The Mandalorian, has signed with a new management firm. The actress had been repped by UTA, but was dropped in 2021 around the time of the Disney firing. Now Carano will be repped by Rob Weston’s Straightwire Entertainment group and the actress adds that she’s working on a new television series. [The story.]( —🤝 Settlement 🤝James Wan's Atomic Monster has settled a copyright and breach of contract lawsuit from a writer who accused the prolific horror movie producer of ripping off his screenplay to make Malignant. Adam Cosco on Sunday moved to dismiss the case after reaching a deal to resolve the lawsuit. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. [The story.]( —🤝 Deal done 🤝 Scholastic Entertainment has unveiled a deal to invest $186m in the Canadian animation studio 9 Story Media Group. A definitive agreement between the two companies would see Scholastic — whose Hollywood projects include Sony’s Goosebumps movies and the live-action/animation hybrid adaptation of Clifford the Big Red Dog for Paramount — acquire 100 percent of the economic interests and a minority of voting rights in Toronto-based 9 Story. [The story.]( Phoenix, Stone, Pascal to Star in A24's 'Eddington' ►🎭 A-list lineup 🎭 Ari Aster has assembled a star-packed cast for his next film Eddington, which begins production this week. Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and Austin Butler are among the performers set to star in the feature that A24 will finance and produce. Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward and Clifton Collins Jr. are also set to appear in the movie that does not yet have a release date. Aster is directing Eddington from his own script that centers on a small-town New Mexico sheriff with lofty aspirations. [The story.]( —Wait, what? In a dramatic turn of events, Neve Campbell is returning to the world of Scream, the latest twist for a franchise that just several months ago appeared to be on the ropes. Campbell’s return is particularly noteworthy, as she sat out Scream 6 over a salary dispute with producer Spyglass. Campbell announced on Instagram that in addition to her return, franchise godfather Kevin Williamson will direct. Williamson is the creator of the franchise, penning the script to Wes Craven’s original, as well as Scream 2 and Scream 4. [The story.]( —🤝 Deal extension 🤝 Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron is heading to Max after the streamer landed the rights to the animated film under an extension of its deal to be the exclusive streaming home of Studio Ghibli. GKIDS, which handles North American distribution for Ghibli, and Max have inked a multi-year extension to keep the studio’s library on the Warner Bros. Discovery platform. [The story.]( —🎭 Jingling all the way 🎭 Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to return to the holiday genre with Amazon MGM Studios' The Man With the Bag. Adam Shankman is directing the family Christmas comedy that will see Schwarzenegger star alongside Reacher's Alan Ritchson. Allan Rice wrote the script for the movie that counts Ritchson, Lawrence Grey, Ben Everard, Reg Tigerman and Dan Spilo as producers. The film centers on Santa learning that his magic bag has been swiped, leading him to team up with Vance, a reformed thief and denizen of the naughty list, to get it back. [The story.]( —📅 All change 📅 Matt Reeves' The Batman Part II will now open Oct. 2, 2026. That’s back a full year from its previous date. Batman 2 wasn’t the only notable change made to Warner Bros. release calendar on Tuesday: The Maggie Gyllenhaal-directed The Bride!, starring Christian Bale, will take Batman 2's old date of Oct. 3, 2025; Barry Levinson’s gangster pic Alto Nights is being delayed from Nov. 24, 2024 to March 21, 2025; and Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled, star-studded event pic has landed an Aug. 8, 2025, release date. [The story.]( —📅 Named and dated 📅 The latest installment in Columbia Pictures' Tom Hardy-led Venom franchise now has an official title and an earlier release date. Director Kelly Marcel's Venom: The Last Dance hits theaters Oct. 25. Starring Hardy, Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film moves up two weeks from its previous release date of Nov. 8. In addition to helming the feature, Marcel also wrote the script, with the story credited to herself and Hardy. [The story.]( —📅 Summer love 📅 Timur Bekmambetov's Mercy is set to hit theaters next summer. Amazon MGM Studios will release the sci-fi action-thriller in theaters nationwide on Aug. 15, 2025. Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson star in the movie, which is expected to get a full global rollout. Mercy, from a script by Marco van Belle, stars Pratt as a detective in the near future who finds himself accused of a violent crime and having to prove his innocence in a society where capital crime is on the rise. [The story.]( 'Shōgun' Bosses On Recreating Feudal Japan, Likelihood of S2 ►"Painstaking process." THR's Patrick Brzeski spoke to Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, the husband and wife duo who co-created and executive produced FX's incredible Shōgun. Marks and Kondo discuss being involved in every aspect of adapting James Clavell's 1,000-page novel into 10 episodes of epic TV — and they also had two babies during the making of the show: "That's why you see these lines on our faces." [The interview.]( —No-brainers. CBS has renewed its comedy Ghosts and drama Fire Country for 2024-25, picking up a fourth season of the former and a third of the latter. The two shows join the previously renewed Tracker on CBS’ roster for next season. Ghosts is the network’s second-most-watched comedy behind Young Sheldon and Fire Country has grown its audience by 7 percent year-to-year, with a multiplatform average of 9.21m viewers. [The story.]( —Unleashed. Warner Bros. TV has lined up a powerhouse creative team for an adaptation of Glennon Doyle’s best-selling book Untamed. Sarah Paulson is set to star in the drama, and former Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19 showrunner Krista Vernoff will adapt Doyle’s memoir. Warners and Bad Robot, which has rights to the book, plan to take the project to potential buyers in the coming weeks. Untamed was an instant hit following its publication in March 2020, spending seven weeks at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and eventually selling more than 2m copies. [The story.]( —Ted Lasso of the fairways. Apple TV+ has placed a series order for a show starring Owen Wilson as a former pro golfer who needs to get his life back in order. The Loki star will also be an executive producer of the untitled series, which comes from Apple Studios and creator Jason Keller. Wilson will play Pryce Cahill, whose golf career ended prematurely 20 years ago. After he gets fired from his job at a sporting goods store in Indiana and his wife leaves him, Pryce sees a troubled 17-year-old golf phenom as his way back. [The story.]( —No more theatrical. The fate of New Line’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot has been sealed. New Line parent company Warner Bros. Discovery will debut the vampire thriller on the streaming service Max later this year, the company said Tuesday. No date was given, but sources believe a fourth quarter release is likely. The fate of the film was left in limbo amid the merger that created WBD in 2022. [The story.]( —"We’ve been holding this forever." Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning are set to join sports commentator Mike Tirico to host NBC's coverage of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. The Grammy-winning singer, the NFL legend and Tirico revealed the news on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Tuesday night. Live coverage of the ceremony kicks off July 26 on NBC and Peacock at noon ET. [The story.]( Stone Names Producer Who Told Her to Sleep With 'Sliver' Co-star ►"Now all of a sudden I’m in the ‘I have to f*** people’ business." Sharon Stone has revealed that Robert Evans was the producer she claims suggested she sleep with her Sliver co-star William {NAME} to have better "onscreen chemistry." The actress previously opened up about the incident in her 2021 memoir, but never divulged Evans' name. In a recent podcast appearance, Stone offered more details on the incident. {NAME} took to X to clap back at Stone’s accusations and threatened to "write a book and tell the many, many disturbing, kinky and unprofessional tales about Sharon." [The story.]( —🏆 Second night champs 🏆 The NAACP Image Awards has announced its second round of winners in non-televised categories such as outstanding variety show, reality program, reality competition or game show and children’s program. Among the Night 2 winners were Issa Rae, Leslie Jones, DC Young Fly, Eboni K. Williams and Kyla Pratt. [The winners.]( —West End darlings. Sarah Snook, Sarah Jessica Parker, Andrew Scott and David Tennant were among the nominees for the 2024 Olivier Awards, which celebrate achievements in London theater. Parker was nominated for best actress for her role in Plaza Suite, opposite her husband, Matthew Broderick, while Snook was nominated in the same category for her one-woman take on The Picture of Dorian Gray. Tennant was nominated for best actor for his role in Macbeth, in the same category as Andrew Scott, in a one-man version of Vanya. [The nominees.]( —Comes a time. Neil Young's music is set to return to Spotify. The rock legend's work was initially pulled from the music streamer in early 2022 after Young published (and later took down) an open letter telling Spotify to address the vaccine misinformation on Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, or lose access to his catalog. The "Harvest Moon" singer’s return to Spotify was not because of a reversal on his original stance, Young clarified in a statement, but because the other major streaming services have now begun presenting Rogan’s podcast. [The story.]( Film Review: 'Monkey Man' ►"Imperfect but impressive." THR's [Lovia Gyarkye]( reviews Dev Patel's Monkey Man. In his directorial feature debut, the Slumdog Millionaire and Lion star plays a young man trying to avenge his mother. [The review.]( —"Squanders its potential." Lovia reviews Kyle Mooney's Y2K. In the Saturday Night Live alum's directorial debut, a group of teens endeavor to save the world from sentient machines, starring Rachel Zegler, Jaeden Martell and Julian Dennison. [The review.]( —"It's a lot of fun, man!" THR's Frank Scheck reviews David Bushell's Cheech & Chong's Last Movie. The documentary provides an exhaustive account of the comic pair's career while doubling as a road-trip comedy. [The review.]( —"Like staring into the face of evil." Frank reviews Dan Reed's The Truth vs. Alex Jones. This documentary chronicles the court cases resulting from defamation lawsuits against Alex Jones filed by Sandy Hook parents. [The review.]( —"Enjoyable but unrevealing." For THR, Caryn James reviews Bess Kargman's Diane Warren: Relentless. This doc zooms in on a prolific songwriter Diane Warren who has been nominated for 15 Oscars, but never won. [The review.]( —"Innovative and touching." THR's Leslie Felperin reviews Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane's Grand Theft Hamlet. This doc follows a pair of out-of-work theater actors who try to stage a production of Hamlet within the video game Grand Theft Auto during the COVID lockdown of 2021. [The review.]( TV Review: 'Manhunt' ►"A thrilling, thoughtful snapshot of a nation in flux." THR's [Angie Han]( reviews Apple TV+'s Manhunt. Tobias Menzies stars as the cabinet member leading the pursuit of John Wilkes Booth in the days after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. [The review.]( —"Smartly concentrates on the man beyond the numbers." THR's [Dan Fienberg]( reviews David Altrogge's Clemente. This documentary looks at Pittsburgh Pirates great Roberto Clemente, with the help of EPs including Richard Linklater and LeBron James. [The review.]( —"The showcase and the style Swamp Dogg deserves." Dan reviews Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson's Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted. Premiering at the SXSW Film Festival, this film chronicles the life of soul singer Swamp Dogg and his eccentric roommates, Guitar Shorty and Moogstar. [The review.]( —"The filmmaking can't live up to the story." Dan reviews Jonathan Ignatius Green's Dickweed. This SXSW doc about Hossein Nayeri is actually the two-part finale of an upcoming SundanceTV anthology true-crime series. [The review.]( —"Succeeds by taking these kids and their fantasy seriously." Dan reviews Carina Mia Wong and Alex Simmons' We Can Be Heroes. This SXSW-premiering documentary follows kids at a live action role-playing summer camp in upstate New York. [The review.]( —"Taut and gripping." THR's [Sheri Linden]( reviews Shannon Triplett's Desert Road. The writer-director's feature debut revolves around a lone traveler caught in a seemingly endless spiral after an accident in the Mojave, starring Kristine Froseth. [The review.]( In other news... —Jennifer Lopez [forced to team with AI after doomed mission in Netflix’s Atlas trailer]( —2024 [Daytime Emmy Awards set for June]( —Jenifer Lewis [reveals she suffered dramatic fall in the Serengeti]( —Agent [Saraphina Monaco joins CAA]( —[Jerry Foley]( Late Show With David Letterman director, dies at 68 —[Coleman Hough]( screenwriter on two Steven Soderbergh films, dies at 62 ​​​What else we're reading... —In an opinion piece, Jay Michaelson writes that Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar speech reflected the best of Jewish values, and his comments were not antisemitic, not anti-Zionist, and not even all that left-wing [[Daily Beast]( —In a bleak but insightful piece, Patricia Hernandez posits we are at the end of the MrBeast era of YouTube and offers a peek at the real Jimmy Donaldson [[Polygon]( —After a stellar 2024 Academy Awards telecast, Daniel Joyaux believes the Oscars are back, and the upturn in quality was not a coincidence [[Ringer]( —David Marchese talks to the always fascinating Jeremy Strong on adjusting to the post-Succession era of his career and his new Broadway play, An Enemy of the People [[NYT]( —Alice Cuddy reports that some Gaza medics claim that Israeli troops beat and humiliated them after a hospital raid [[BBC]( Today... ...in 1992, 20th Century Fox introduced My Cousin Vinny in theaters, featuring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei (who claimed a best supporting actor win at the 65th Academy Awards for her role). [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: William H. Macy (74), [Common]( (52), Jack Harlow (26), Deborah Snyder (55), Kaya Scodelario (32), George MacKay (32), Tim Story (54), Dana Delany (68), Noel Fisher (40), Emile Hirsch (39), Annabeth Gish (53), Emory Cohen (34), Lucy Fry (32), Leigh-Allyn Baker (52), Adina Porter (53), Shane Taylor (50), Pierre Niney (35), Gigi Rice (59), Corinne Massiah (21), Steve Bacic (59), Nimrat Kaur (42), Michael Hogan (75), Kira Miró (44), Rachael Bella (40), Sean Kenney (80), Christopher Collet (56), Molly Stanton (44), Tracy Wells (53), Kim Nam-gil (44), Kathy Hilton (65), Max Jenkins (39) Lichelle Laws, better known as the pioneering gangster rapper BO$$, died Monday from kidney failure. She was 54. [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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