James Marsh directed “The theory of Everything,” with Eddie Redmayne as scientist Stephen Hawking. Watch this trailer. Unless something is very wrong, this is an Oscar nomination and maybe a win. The movie is certainly going to cause a sensation. Bravo, Eddie! Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!
My original story: http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/05/23/who-will-play-stephen-hawking-movie-of-life-underway
Tony winner James Corden has thrown a major monkey wrench into the planned spring Broadway revival of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” Corden was set to play Pseudolus in the musical comedy that last saw Nathan Lane in the main role. Nothing had been signed, but that was the understanding. Corden himself told me so in July at the “Begin Again” premiere in New York.
But now it looks certain that Corden is abandoning his theater career to host “Late Night” aka the Craig Ferguson show on CBS following what will be “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” What a shame. Corden is just brilliant on stage. But it’s money and security, isn’t it? The CBS gig will set him up for life.
So now what? “Forum” producers are set to announce a new star, a theater and an opening night. The news., I am told, will be imparted in the next two weeks. Corden’s news leak (a scoop for indefatigable Jeff Sneider over at The Wrap) definitely threw them off kilter. But I am assured many people have been met and looked at, and a new star is minutes away.
Who could follow Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, and Nathan Lane? Frankly, I’d poach James Iglehart Monroe, the Tony winning genie from “Aladdin.” Or how about Bobby Moynihan from “Saturday Night Live”?
If you want to find out more about Corden, go see him “Begin Again,” currently in theaters. He steals every scene he’s in.
Tell the truth: you kind of missed Taylor Swift a little, didn’t you? Well, she’s back. Dear Taylor has sent out a “clue” about the release date of her new single– August 18th. Sources say a new album will follow on October 13th. She’ll miss the Grammy deadline of September 30th, which is too bad since she could probably win at this point given this year’s poor field. Will Taylor be singing about another breakup? Or a whole new subject? Maybe land ownership. More clues suggest the single reveal on the 18th will take place on Yahoo! and at 5pm.
Keep checking back, we’ll see if there are any updates…
So, here's your first clue… http://t.co/ZrcpfNtgwl
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) August 4, 2014
This time last year, Warner Music lost $62 million for the quarter ending June 30, 2013. Today they announced a whopping loss of $184 million for the quarter ending June 30, 2014.
Yikes.
Edgar Bronfman and Lyor Cohen left a shell of a company behind for Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik. But under new management, Warner has really struggled. True, this week they have the number 1 album in Tom Petty’s latest release. But nothing else is happening. Even Atlantic, which was a leader for years within the company, has slacked off.
Biggest problem is that Warner lacks signature acts and new acts. It’s not for lack of trying. I get press releases constantly from their PR office. But the hits aren’t there. And radio isn’t playing their records. Eric Clapton is gone. Groups like Linkin Park and Red Hot Chili Peppers are worn out.
So what to do? Warner Music needs either to pony up and either build up some new artists, or buy a couple of players. Otherwise, they’re going to be in big trouble. Maybe some recent changes at Rhino-Atlantic will energize the catalog department.
There’s good news and bad news for Halle Berry’s series “Extant.”
The good news is that last night, “Extant” had the exact same number of viewers from the previous week: 5.91 million. And that’s very good, since two weeks ago the number was 6.43 million. So whoever watched the show last week came back last night.
The bad news is that 100,000 of those people got older and aged out of the key demo. Last week “Extant” had 1.1 in the demo 18-49. Last night, they were down to 1.0.
Explanation: this is what I would tell the network — people were a week older! Happens every week. What can you do?
Seriously, it was nice weather last night. Younger people went outside. Older people cuddled up with “Extant” and a warm glass of milk.
TV is brutal. But look. More people watched “Extant” than watched “So You Think You Can Dance.” That’s something!
Holy overkill, Batman! By the time Disney-Marvel and Warner Bros are done with us, there will be no room for Sony “Spider Man” movies or the Fantastic Four. How many of these things can we take? I never would have guessed that the comic books we bought and traded for 12 cents from Dubrow’s in Woodmere village would someday occupy the bulk of the movie biz.
Warner Bros.:
March 25, 2016 – Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice
August 5, 2016 – Untitled DC Film
June 23, 2017 – Untitled DC Film
November 17, 2017 – Untitled DC Film
March 23, 2018 – Untitled DC Film
May 25, 2018 – Untitled Lego Movie
July 27, 2018 – Untitled DC Film
November 16, 2018 – Untitled WB Event Film
April 5, 2019 – Untitled DC Film
May 24, 2019 – Untitled Lego film
June 14, 2019 – Untitled DC Film
April 3, 2020 – Untitled DC Film
June 19, 2020 – Untitled DC Film
November 20, 2020 – Untitled WB Event Film
Disney-Marvel:
May 1, 2015 – The Avengers: Age of Ultron
July 17, 2015 – Ant-Man
May 6, 2016 – Captain America 3
July 8, 2016 – Doctor Strange
May 5, 2017 – Untitled Marvel film
July 28, 2017 – Guardians Of The Galaxy 2
November 3, 2017 – Untitled Marvel film
May 4, 2018 – Untitled Marvel film
July 6, 2018 – Untitled Marvel film
November 2, 2018 – Untitled Marvel film
May 3, 2019 – Untitled Marvel film
What year is it? After a summer of disposable music, the real guys have grabbed hold of the top 3 on the album charts. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have their first number 1 album ever with “Hypnotic Eye”– 126K copies sold. Eric Clapton’s tribute to JJ Cale is number 2, with 58.5K copies. And the soundtrack to “Guardians of the Galaxy”– all hits from the early 70s called “Amazing Mixtape, Vol. 1” is number 3 with 57,000 copies. No, none of these numbers are high, but they’re the best of the week. And it’s all real musicianship, nothing faked. Download ’em, stream ’em, whatever.
Meantime, some nice news from RCA-Sony-whatever it’s called: all the hard working PR people have been promoted. Mika el-Baz is headed to L.A. as Executive Vice President, West Coast, of RCA and still head of national publicity. In New York, Sarah Weinstein Dennison and Theola Borden have been promoted to Senior Vice President of publicity, each. Jamie Abzug is now vice president of publicity. They all came from Clive Davis’s Arista, they’ve all been there a long time worked danged hard to make me like Hot Chelle Rae and Gavin DeGraw. Bravo!
More RCA news: Tom Corson, who was also from the School of Clive and now runs RCA, will be honored by the TJ Martell Foundation on September 28th at the Hammerstein Ballroom. The post-Arista RCA group (counting Peter Edge of course) is still the best in the biz!
Dame Helen Mirren– so good in “The One Hundred Foot Journey”– comes to Broadway this spring 2015. Helen is bringing Peter Morgan’s “The Audience” in for a Tony run after its hit stay in the West End. In this play, Mirren once again plays Queen Elizabeth II– the current queen– as she has weekly audiences with all the prime ministers during her long reign as monarch. Helen tells me some of the actors who were with her in the West End will come here, but American actors will also be cast. (This should be interesting.)
Between now and rehearsals in February, Helen will fit in one more movie, “Eye in the Sky,” with Colin Firth, directed by Gavin Hood.
Now: bigger question– Stephen Daldry directs “The Audience.” He also directs “Skylight” with Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy, a huge hit in London which everyone expects on Broadway next spring as well. What happens now? Will “Skylight” wait a year? Will Daldry just sleep on West 45th St. and be carried back and forth among theaters?
The plot thickens!
My favorite part of tonight’s Robert Altman documentary on Epix TV is this revelation: early on, Altman– maybe the greatest American filmmaker– was fired by movie exec Richard Zanuck because he had overlapping dialogue in a TV show. Of course, Altman a few years later became famous for that style which turned up in his now classic movies like “MASH” and “Nashville” and “Gosford Park,” among others.
Ron Mann’s excellent doc contains lots of unseen footage from behind the scenes of shooting Altman films, plenty of interviews with the director himself, and lots of home movies courtesy of Altman’s wife, Kathryn Reed, a gorgeous spitfire who signed on in 1957 and ran the Altman family like a Navy admiral. The Altmans were one of the great couples of Hollywood lore, and Kathryn continues to be a guiding light several years after Bob’s death.
The “Altman” doc will be on Epix tonight (check cable schedules) and will have a theatrical run this fall.
Keep refreshing…
EXCLUSIVE “Glee,” apparently, is still on TV. The effervescent singalong show has final season coming up of just 13 episodes. I’m told some of it will be played in a nursing home. No, just kidding! Sources say the show is adding “five or six” new characters for half of those shows to augment who ever remains after all this time. I guess that latter group includes Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele, Darren Cris and Chris Colfer.
Anyway, among the newbies will be a pair of twins, brother and sister; a gay high school jock; a fat kid who sings like a dream; and a pretty girl who’s a really good singer. Beyond that, who knows? It’s more interesting that the final season was pared down from 20 episodes to 13, and that the locale is set for New York (even though it will be filmed in L.A.).
But the show is over. Ratings are way down. Only the faithful still watch it. Remember when “Glee” soundtracks were zipping up the charts? Hopefully Jane Lynch will make another Christopher Guest movie. Hold on until the 2018 “Glee” reunion series or reboot. (I’m just making that up, but you know it will happen.)