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MARCH 21, 2014
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B.O. Preview: Divergent Eyes
Strong $60 Million-Plus Debut
By Pamela McClintock
T
h a nk s to soa r ing inter est
among younger females, Summit
Entertainment’s Divergent could
cross $60 million in its North American
debut. While that opening figure won’t
match Summit’s Twilight or Lionsgate’s
The Hunger Games, it will break the curse
that has plagued nearly every other YA
movie adaptation and provide a strong
launch for what is a planned franchise.
Neil Burger directed the $85 million
sci-fi adventure, which began rolling out
in thousands of theaters Thursday night
before expanding to a total of 3,900 locations today, including nearly 350 Imax
locations. Based on the bestselling book
series by Veronica Roth, the pic stars Shailene Woodley as a young woman who
poses a threat to society after failing to fit
into one of five strictly controlled factions.
Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles
Teller, Tony Goldwyn, Ansel Elgort,
Based on the bestselling young-adult book series by Veronica Roth, Summit’s sci-fi adventure Divergent stars Shailene
Woodley as a young woman who poses a threat to society after failing to fit into one of five strictly controlled factions.
Maggie Q, Mekhi Phifer and Kate Winslet
also star. The film won’t begin rolling out
internationally in earnest until April 4.
In November 2008, the first Twilight
debuted domestically to $69.6 million;
four years later, Hunger Games opened
to a massive $152.5 million, one of the
biggest debuts of all time. While fueled
primarily by younger families, both movies managed to appeal to other demos as
well, especially older females. Divergent,
s e e pa g e 2
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F r o m pa g e 1
however, may not have the same crossover
potential and could be hurt among adults
by poor reviews.
Still, the film has every shot at being
a win overall for Summit and producers
Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher and Pouya
Shahbazian. And it is certain to command the top spot at the domestic box
office this weekend, where its nearest
competition will be Disney’s family sequel
Muppets Most Wanted.
Muppets Most Wanted, launching in
more than 3,100 theaters amid competition from other family films, including
Mr. Peabody & Sherman, is tracking to
open in the $25 million-$30 million range.
2011’s The Muppets grossed $29 million
over its first weekend, but had the advantage of opening over Thanksgiving
(debuting on a Wednesday, it earned just
north of $41 million in its first five days).
James Bobin returns to direct the
$50 million sequel, with Ricky Gervais,
Ty Burrell and Tina Fey replacing Jason
Segel and Amy Adams as the live-action
leads. This time out, Kermit and the gang
find themselves lured into an international
crime caper while on tour in Europe.
Most Wanted has earned lukewarm-tosolid reviews, compared to stellar notices
for the original pic.
Also opening nationwide, though on
a much smaller scale, is Christian drama
God’s Not Dead. From Pure Flix Entertainment, the movie will be playing in
roughly 800 locations and is based on the
book of the same name by Rice Broocks
and Daniel Bashta’s song “Like a Lion.”
Hoping to wow the faith-based crowd,
the film stars Shane Harper as a college
student whose philosophy professor forces
him to sign a declaration that “God is
dead.” When the student refuses, he is
ordered to prove his position that God
exists in a series of debates. Directed by
Harold Cronk, the indie pic also stars
Kevin Sorbo, Jim Gleason, David A.R.
White and Dean Cain.
At the opposite end of the spectrum,
helmer Lars von Trier’s sexually charged
Nymphomaniac: Volume I finally hits
theaters after an exclusive VOD offering.
The movie — which is being released unrated after earning an NC-17 rating —
will bow in 25 theaters in select cities,
including New York and Los Angeles.
The two-part movie stars Charlotte
Gainsbourg, Shia LaBeouf, Stellan
Skarsgard, Stacy Martin, Jamie Bell,
Christian Slater, Uma Thurman and
Willem Defoe. When promoting the pic
in February at the Berlin Film Festival,
LaBeouf made headlines around the
globe when storming out of a press conference, as well as wearing a paper bag
on his head on the red carpet.
Nymphomaniac has been struggling
theatrically in Europe, where the director’s films perform the best. Magnolia is
handling the U.S. release.
Among other new specialty offerings,
Samuel Goldwyn opens Anita, a documentary about Anita Hill, while Roadside Attractions launches thriller Blood
Ties in 28 theaters.
Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest
Hotel expands into a total of 304 theaters
in its third weekend after already earning
nearly $6 million for Fox Searchlight.
Serkis Tapped to Direct
Warners’ Jungle Book
By Borys Kit
A n dy Ser k is, t h e actor be st
known for playing the CG-created character Gollum in the Lord of
the Rings films, is attached
to direct Warner Bros.’ live
action adaptation of The
Jungle Book.
Serkis is stepping into
Serkis
the shoes initially filled by
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel), who
fell off the project due to scheduling conflicts. Ron Howard was briefly in talks to
helm the pic, but they did not get very far.
The move puts Warner Bros. back in
the Jungle Book race as Disney also has
a live-action Jungle Book project, which
is already in the casting stage. Idris Elba
is on board to voice the man-eating tiger
Shere Khan in a version to directed by
Jon Favreau, who previously directed
Elf and Iron Man.
Putting Serkis in the director’s chair
is outside-the-box thinking, yet not farfetched. Jungle Book would be his feature helming debut after directing second unit on Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit
movies, the third of which Warner Bros.
is set to open in December. Some of the
shoots involved the creation of elaborate
and lively action sequences. For example, Serkis directed the widely praised
barrel chase sequence in The Hobbit:
The Desolation of Smaug.
Jackson entrusted Serkis with the job
after he developed a command of CG
technology through his acting work not
only in LOTR but also in Jackson’s King
Kong, Steve Spielberg’s The Adventures
of Tintin and the updated Planet of the
Apes movies.
Serkis will be in prime position to
navigate a project, whose live-action
nature will involve plenty of CG and
motion capture.
Jungle Book is based on the short
stories written by Rudyard Kipling and
centers on Mowgli, an orphaned boy
raised by wolves who befriends Baloo
the bear and Bagheera the black panther as he spars with the ferocious tiger
Shere Khan. Callie Kloves wrote the
script. Her father, Steve Kloves of Harry
Potter fame, is producing.
Warner Bros. is sticking closely to
the source material, which is darker
than the 1967 Disney animated classic.
Warners’ version hopes to explore lifeand-death issues and be true-to-life
in portraying animal behavior. Hiring
Serkis, who has pioneered lifelike animal behavior and characterization with
his performances in such movies as 2011’s
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, is seen as an
important first step.
Jonathan Cavendish, Serkis’ partner
at his London-based digital studio The
Imaginarium, will also be involved as a
producer on Jungle Book.
Serkis is repped by CAA and Gotham/
Principal.
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MARCH 21, 2014
movie news
Disney, Imax announce
new multipicture deal
Carney’s Begin Again
to Close Tribeca Fest
By Etan Vlessing
Chu to Helm hasbro’s
Live-Action Jem Movie
By Borys Kit
Jem and the Holograms, the 1980 s
Hasbro toyline that was also a cartoon,
is getting the big-screen treatment.
Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions,
Scooter Braun Productions and director
Jon M. Chu are teaming up to make the
pic, which has been fast-tracked to start
production this spring.
Chu, Blum and Braun announced
Thursday on YouTube that they are
producing a modern-day live-action
By Tatiana Siegel
T h e T r ibeca F i l m F e st i va l h a s
The cartoon focused on Jerrica Benton and her alter ego,
Jem, a singer who fronted a band called The Holograms.
reinvention of the cartoon. They also
turned to fans of the show and toyline
for help in writing music, designing
costumes and even casting.
The cartoon ran from 1985 to 1988
and chronicled the adventures of Jerrica
Benton and her alter ego, Jem, a singer
who fronted a band called The Holograms.
Ironically, the show was produced with
the involvement of Marvel Productions,
who were hoping to replicate the success
of G.I. Joe.
According to the producers, Jem is
being reimagined “for a whole new generation with themes of being true to who
you are in a multitasking, hyperlinked
social media age.”
Ryan Landels wrote the script, which,
according to the producers, centers on
an orphaned teenage girl who becomes
an online recording sensation. She and
her sisters embark on a music-driven
scavenger hunt — one that sends them
on an adventure across Los Angeles in
an attempt to unlock a final message
left by her father.
The pic is a change of pace for Blum,
who is known for his long line of horror
films including the Paranormal Activity
movies and Insidious, but it is in Chu’s
wheelhouse. Before G.I Joe, he directed
Step Up 2: The Streets and Step Up 3D.
He also directed Justin Bieber concert
movies Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
and Justin Bieber’s Believe. On the latter
two, Chu worked with Braun, who is
Bieber’s manager.
Chu is repped by WME, Principato
Young and Stone Meyer; Landels is
repped by WME, Kersey Management
and Stone Meyer.
slotted music-themed comedy Begin
Again as its closing-night film.
The pic — formerly titled Can a Song
Save Your Life? — stars Keira Knightley,
Mark Ruffalo, Hailee Steinfeld and
Adam Levine and will screen April 26
at BMCC Tribeca PAC. The fest is set to
run April 16-27.
From writer-director John Carney,
a Tribeca alum, Begin Again chronicles
what happens when lost souls meet and
make beautiful music together. Gretta
(Knightley) and her longtime boyfriend
Dave (Levine) are college sweethearts
and songwriting partners who decamp
for New York when he lands a deal with
a major label. But the trappings of his
newfound fame soon tempt Dave to
stray, and a reeling, lovelorn Gretta is
left on her own. Her world takes a turn
for the better when Dan (Ruffalo),
a disgraced record label executive,
stumbles upon her performing on an
East Village stage and is immediately
captivated by her raw talent. From this
chance encounter emerges an enchanting portrait of a mutually transformative
collaboration, set to the soundtrack of a
summer in New York.
The film is slated to be released by
The Weinstein Co. in July.
“This beautiful, music-infused New
York story encompasses the spirit of
Tribeca, where music, film and performance play such a key part of this year’s
program,” said Tribeca Film Festival
co-founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal.
“To be able to work with our neighbor
and dear friend Harvey Weinstein and
The Weinstein Co. to bring this film
to U.S. audiences for the first time is a
bonus for our entire community.”
The film made a splash at the Toronto
Film Festival in September, when it sold
to TWC. Exclusive Media continues to
handle international sales.
Courtesy Everett Collection
TORONTO — With Star Wars: Episode
VII and new Marvel franchise releases in
the wings, Disney has renewed its longrunning deal with Imax to cover several
of its upcoming releases.
Under the latest agreement, several
of Disney’s upcoming tentpole pics, like
Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter
Soldier, Maleficent, Marvel’s Guardians
of the Galaxy and Marvel’s Avengers:
Age of Ultron, will get an Imax release.
“Disney has enjoyed a terrific ongoing
collaboration with Imax, and we are
thrilled to extend this relationship with a
collection of exciting, highly anticipated
cinematic events that are perfect for the
immersive Imax format,” Walt Disney
Studios president Alan Bergman said
Thursday in a statement.
“Disney’s and Marvel’s larger-than-life
characters and dynamic universes clearly
resonate with our core audiences,” said
Greg Foster, senior executive vp of Imax
Corp. and CEO of Imax Entertainment,
in his own statement.
Past Disney movies to do big numbers
on Imax screens include the Pirates of the
Caribbean, Toy Story and Cars franchise.
Imax also has a long-standing deal
with Warner Bros.
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MARCH 21, 2014
tv news
IFC Expands Comedy Slate With
Armisen, Huebel, McHale Projects
By Lacey Rose
I FC is l ook i ng to ex pa n d i ts
comedy foothold.
Ahead of its upfront on Thursday,
the AMC Networks channel announced
that it is adding a new docu-parody, tentatively titled American Documentary,
from Saturday Night Live veterans Seth
Meyers and Bill Hader
and Portlandia’s Fred
Armisen as well as a
scripted half-hour effort,
American Storage, starring
Rob Huebel (Children’s
Armisen
Hospital). And, as IFC
president Jennifer Caserta
hinted in a recent interview with The Hollywood
Reporter, the network is
partnering for a first-ever
Huebel
CollegeHumor Comedy
Music Awards show to air in 2015. The
latter, a bid for event-based water-cooler
programming to cut through a crowded
landscape, is being billed as a satire of
traditional awards shows incorporating
the best of the comedy and music worlds.
The niche cable network, which posted
20 percent gains in viewership this past
year, is set to expand its fourth season of
Comedy Bang! Bang! to 40 episodes and
will add a second season for The Birthday
Boys from Ben Stiller and Breaking Bad’s
Bob Odenkirk. Additionally, IFC is developing comedies Westside from Community’s Joel McHale and The Bank from
former NBC executive Teri Weinberg.
If ordered to series, they will join a schedule that includes critical darlings Maron
and Portlandia, as well as upcoming
summer comedy Garfunkel and Oates.
“IFC began the year with significant
momentum that continues to accelerate.
We’re delivering more original programming that is resonating with viewers, and
key advertisers are seeking us out to reach
consumers through the power and authenticity of our alt comedy voice,” said
Caserta in a statement. “Through our
current slate, IFC is continuing to partner with some of the biggest and most
sought-after comedians in the business,
and we’re so thrilled that our viewers will
be able to enjoy what they do best.”
Here’s a closer look at IFC’s new fare:
American Documentary
The series will bow in 2015 as six halfhour installments produced by SNL
honcho Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video.
Featuring a repertory-like ensemble cast,
the episodes will explore important political figures, influential artists, titans of
industry and iconic cultural movements,
all utterly fictional. Meyers, who tapped
Armisen as his Late Night bandleader
in February, will executive produce the
series along with Armisen and Hader,
who will have recurring roles.
American Storage
When a straitlaced employee at a storage facility befriends a man he discovers
living in one of the units, a friendship
blossoms and mayhem ensues. Huebel
stars as Kurt Jones, a thrill-seeking
bachelor who takes up residence in a
Los Angeles storage facility and shows
Charlie (John Karna) there’s more to life
than a steady job, a hot girlfriend and
suitable housing. The project — which is
based on the short film of the same name
co-written by Andrew Jay Cohen and
Brendan O’Brien (Neighbors) and helmed
by Cohen — will roll out with eight halfhour episodes in 2015. It is produced by
Troy Miller and Dakota Pictures (Arrested
Development, Flight of the Conchords).
Westside (in development)
Created and written by Jordan Okun
and executive produced by McHale,
Jason Burns and Free Period, this halfhour scripted comedy follows a group of
suburban schnooks who are forced into
a life of crime.
The Bank (in development)
A half-hour scripted comedy, executive produced by Weinberg (The Office,
Ugly Betty) and writer Brigitte Bako
(G-Spot), about a dysfunctional family
who runs a sperm bank.
CBS pilot Good Session
taps Ullman to Co-Star
By Lesley Goldberg
T r acey U l l m a n is r et u r n i ng to
primetime.
The State of the Union and Tracey
Ullman Show alum has landed her first
broadcast network series regular gig
with a co-starring role in CBS’ Good
Session, The Hollywood
Reporter has learned.
From Matt Miller (Chuck),
the single-camera comedy
centers on a happy couple
who decides to see a therUllman
apist to help them decide
if they should have a baby but quickly
discover that they have more to discuss.
Ullman will play Ellen, an astute,
straightforward therapist who uses her
own brand of insight and humor to inspire
the couples she helps to tell the truth.
James Roday (Psych) is set as male
lead Joel, a dedicated middle-school
guidance counselor who thinks his
marriage to Lindsay (yet to be cast) —
a jet-setting executive — is a happy one.
But when they disagree about whether
the time is right to start a family, they
begin the painful, funny, embarrassing
and ultimately rewarding process of cous e e pa g e 5
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F r o m pa g e 4
ples counseling. Rich Sommer co-stars.
Miller will write the script and executive produce alongside John Hamburg,
the latter of whom will direct the Warner
Bros. Television pilot, set to shoot in L.A.
For Ullman, Good Session marks her
first scripted broadcast series regular
role. The comedian and sketch-comedy
veteran’s credits also include Three of a
Kind, Tracey Takes On and guest spots
on Ally McBeal, The Simpsons and Will
& Grace, among others. She has been
guest-starring on the final season of
CBS’ How I Met Your Mother, playing
Robin’s mom Genevieve Scherbatsky.
Ullman is repped by WME and Hamilton
Hodell in the U.K.
TV Ratings: The 100
Opens Well on CW
By Michael O’Connell
CBS a n d Fox t i ed i n t h e demo on
Wednesday night, with both networks
averaging a 2.2 rating among adults 18-49.
The Eye network had the viewer advantage with 9.9 million viewers, topping
Fox’s two-hour American Idol. Survivor
(2.4 adults), down a tenth of a point from
last week, still easily topped the 8 p.m.
hour, while Criminal Minds (2.2 adults)
was also off a tenth of a point to tie a
series low. CSI (2.0 adults) held even.
Falling two-tenths of a point in the key
demo, Idol (2.2 adults) clocked another
series low on Fox.
Over on NBC, Revolution (1.2 adults)
was also at a series low, off a tenth of a
point from last week. Law & Order: SVU
(1.5 adults) got no boost from a gueststarring turn by Alec Baldwin. The series
dropped a tenth of a point as well. Chicago
P.D. (1.4 adults), falling two-tenths, was
also at a low. NBC took a 1.4 rating with
adults 18-49 and 5.2 million viewers.
Surrounded by encores, Mixology
(1.2 adults) hit a new low on ABC, down
three-tenths of a point from last week.
The network took a 1.1 rating with adults
18-49 and 3.8 million viewers.
The CW launched new series The 100
after Arrow. The lifted lead-in, up a tenth
of a point to a 0.8 rating with adults 18-49,
saw an even bigger lead-out when The 100
opened to a 0.9 rating in the demo. That’s
more than double the last original Tomorrow People in the hour. The CW took a
0.8 rating in the demo and 2.5 million
viewers for the night.
bested all of cable on Wednesday, with an
average 1.9 rating, it doesn’t even rank as
the top reality show on cable so far this
week. Sunday’s Real Housewives of Atlanta
on Bravo bested it with a 2.0 in the demo.
If history is any guide, Duck Dynasty
should see an uptick with next Wednesday’s ender, but it seems safe to say that
the series’ glory days are now behind it.
TV Ratings: Duck Dynasty 20/20 host Vargas
Drops to 16-Month Low set to Write Memoir
By Michael O’Connell
By Andy Lewis
Duck se a son is w i n di ng dow n.
ABC’s 20/20 host Elizabeth Vargas
With one episode to go in the A&E
series’ current run, Duck Dynasty just
notched its least-watched episode since
November 2012.
Wednesday’s outing averaged 4.7 million viewers, the first time in over a year
that the series has fallen below the fivemillion mark. The new low comes on the
heels of a fatigued season for the onetime ratings juggernaut. It returned to
8.5 million viewers in January — steadily
dropping ever since.
The softer fifth season, the first to air
after star Phil Robertson’s incendiary
remarks about gay people and the Jim
Crow South, is likely as much of a victim
of gravity as it is of negative publicity.
Duck Dynasty has been on a slow but
steady decline since last summer, when
the reality series obliterated ratings
records with 11.7 million viewers.
Back-to-back seasons in quick succession and aggressive repeats may also be
coming into play. “What you’re seeing
is similar to what NBC is doing with
The Voice: ‘We have it. Let’s use it while
we can and get what we can out of it,’ ”
Sam Armando, senior vp and director of
strategic intelligence at media-buying
firm SMGx, told The Hollywood Reporter
at the start of the season. “If the ratings
come down a little, it’s because they’re
ready to — not because of this controversy.”
Duck Dynasty’s drop in the key adults
18-49 demographic might be the most
disappointing. Though the show still
has signed to write a memoir about her
struggle with alcoholism, Grand Central
Publishing announced Thursday.
The untitled book will be
published in spring 2016.
News of Vargas’ disease
went public in late 2013
when it was reported she
was in a rehab facility for
Vargas
treatment. She spoke openly
about her addiction during an appearance
on Good Morning America in January.
Grand Central’s announcement said
Vargas will offer a “no-holds-barred
account” of how she turned to alcohol
to cope with crippling anxiety attacks,
the double life she led as an alcoholic
and her time in rehab. She also hopes to
provide “solace and guidance” to others
suffering from the disease.
“When I first began to worry about
my own drinking, I turned to books
other women had written about their
own alcoholism,” said Vargas. “I learned
I was not alone, and it helped me find
the courage to reach out and get help.
I have spent my entire life telling other
peoples’ stories. This one is my own, and
is incredibly personal: the burden and
the loneliness of the secret drinker. If just
one other person can relate to it, it will
make my own story worth writing, and I
will have paid the gift forward.”
Vargas was repped by CAA on the
book deal; editor-in-chief Deb Futter
repped Grand Central.
Page 6 of 9
MARCH 21, 2014
business news
Sweeney Replacement:
Disney’s Iger Surveys Candidates
By Marisa Guthrie
NEW YORK — Anne Sweeney’s bombshell announcement on March 12 that
she would be stepping down from her
job as head of Disney-ABC Television
Group has set off intense jockeying
among the company’s heirs
apparent to her $12 billion
portfolio, which includes
ABC, the company’s suite
of kids and tween-targeted
channels, as well as DisSweeney
ney’s stakes in Hulu and
A+E Networks.
Disney CEO Bob Iger
told The Hollywood Reporter
last week that he has been
thinking “very specifically”
Iger
about the succession plan
“for the last few months,” adding that
his goal is “to do it fast.”
“Anne and I both feel that getting
someone in the job while pilot season is
in full swing [through May], so that they
can at least have some direct experience
in that process, would be helpful,” he said.
That plan is now moving full speed
ahead, according to sources. In the past
week, as Sweeney traveled to New York
to share details of her departure with
ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters
and Robin Roberts, Iger met with all of
Sweeney’s direct reports. They include
ABC Entertainment chief Paul Lee,
Disney Channels Worldwide president
Gary Marsh, global distribution head
Ben Pyne, ABC News president Ben
Sherwood, ad sales president Geri Wang,
digital media executive vp Albert Cheng
and Rebecca Campbell, president, ABC
Owned Television Stations Group.
It’s unclear if Iger also has reached out
to A+E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc,
but insiders say she also is considered
a contender. However, Dubuc, who has
held the top job at A+E for just seven
months, obviously has not had time to
groom a successor. And multiple sources
suggested that executives at Hearst Corp.
and Disney-ABC, which share equal ownership of A+E, would be loath to make
a change in the A+E executive suite at a
time when the company is surging financially. And several other candidates are
said to be on the succession short list,
including Sherwood and Pyne.
Sherwood is believed to be an especially strong contender. He relocated
to New York in 2010 to take the top
job at ABC News, his third stint at the
news division after penning a couple
of novels, one of which was turned into
2010 film Charlie St. Cloud, starring Zac
Efron. Sherwood is seen as a star at the
company for engineering Good Morning
America’s ascension to first place in the
morning-news wars. The toppling of
the Today show’s unprecedented 16-year
ratings winning streak came with bragging rights and, more importantly, an ad
revenue windfall (about $100 million last
year alone, according to Kantar Media),
as the morning shows are critical revenue generators that keep their news
divisions afloat.
Sherwood travels frequently to Burbank, Calif.; he was raised in Los Angeles,
where his mother still lives. And he has
forged a close relationship with Iger, who
is known to e-mail the ABC News president with comments during breakingnews situations. Sherwood also is an
entrepreneurial thinker, having forged
deals with Yahoo and Univision during
his stint at ABC News. But some insiders
point out that he lacks weighty executive
experience — seen as an important asset
for the top job. Nevertheless, earlier this
year, he signed a new long-term deal with
ABC and many expect him to take on,
at the very least, an expanded portfolio
at Disney-ABC.
Pyne has been at the company since
2000, when he joined as senior vp, affiliate sales and marketing for Disney-ABC
Cable Networks. His current vast portfolio includes international distribution
and sales of entertainment and news
content, including features, TV series,
kids programming and direct-to-video.
Pyne also oversees domestic distribution
of Disney/ABC television content.
Campbell, a Sweeney acolyte, also is
being mentioned as a possible successor,
though her portfolio has been limited
to the company’s owned stations. Based
in Burbank, Campbell is a well-liked
executive who has quickly risen at the
company since she was promoted from
general manager of WABC in New York
in 2010. Prior to that, she ran the ABC
affiliate in Philadelphia.
One possible scenario put forth by
multiple sources would be to split the
job between two executives, perhaps
Sherwood and Pyne, or Sherwood and
Campbell, though others discount this,
citing a hesitancy on the part of Iger to
create a bifurcated structure that would
add to his direct-report count.
Sweeney has been among the industry’s top female executives for more
than a decade, and the significance of
her gender is not lost on Iger. He told
THR he cares “deeply” about diversity.
“As is the case with all these jobs,
we have to put the best person in the job
as possible,” said Iger. “I love diversifying in terms of the senior talent at the
company. I don’t know whether I’m
going to be able to accomplish that here.
I can’t say for sure that I will or won’t.”
Sweeney’s shocking announcement
that she will leave one of the most powerful posts in the industry to attempt
to become a TV director has generated
another kind of jockeying in Hollywood.
s e e pa g e 7
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F r o m pa g e 6
A Disney source told THR that several of
the top talent agencies have reached out
to represent her in her new career path.
Disneyland, the first Disney park on the
Chinese mainland. It is scheduled to
open in the city’s Pudong district at the
end of next year.
DWA, Partners Unveil Discovery Founder
Shanghai Complex Plans Hendricks to Retire
By The Associated Press
By Michael O’Connell
SHANGHAI — DreamWorks Animation
and Chinese partners on Thursday unveiled designs for a ¥15 billion ($2.4 billion)
entertainment complex in Shanghai,
expanding Hollywood’s growing ties
with China.
The “DreamCenter,” due to open in
2017, will have a 500-seat Imax cinema
with international film festivals and
red-carpet events in mind, bars, restaurants and performance venues, said
the companies. It will also showcase a
“Dream Avenue” theater district modeled on London’s West End and New
York’s Broadway.
The project is led by DWA, Chinese
investment fund CMC Capital Partners, whose owners include state-owned
companies, and Hong Kong property
developer Lan Kwai Fong.
“This will become the world’s third
great urban center of entertainment and
arts alongside New York’s Broadway and
London’s West End,” said DWA CEO
Jeffrey Katzenberg at a news conference
in a former cement factory, which will
become one of the performance venues.
The area near the 2010 Shanghai
Expo site on the city’s west side will also
include the headquarters of animation
production company Oriental DreamWorks, a joint venture between DreamWorks and Chinese partners that will
produce Kung Fu Panda 3.
The 15-hectare (40-acre) site includes
eight outdoor event plazas.
The project gives Shanghai an opportunity to diversify beyond its status as a
financial and manufacturing center by
adding media and cultural industries.
Another project highlighting Hollywood’s influence in China is Shanghai
departing Discovery Communications.
The 61-year-old founder
of the massive media company, who stepped down
as CEO in 2004, will retire
from his role as chairman
of the board of directors
Hendricks
and director of the board
this spring. He will remain in the position through the May 16 annual meeting
of shareholders.
“Few words can appropriately convey
what kind of person John is, or what
he has meant to this company and the
cable television industry overall,” said
Discovery president and CEO David
Zaslav. “He is a true visionary, a man
of enormous integrity and one of the
world’s great entrepreneurs. On behalf
of the 5,600 employees of Discovery
Communications, I want to thank John
for all that he has done, and all that he
has stood for, as founder and chairman
of Discovery for more than 30 years, and
believing the world needed a different
kind of media company — a purposedriven media company.”
Hendricks created Discovery Channel
in 1985, paving the way for Discovery
Communications to become the leading
media brand in nonfiction entertainment.
He notified the board of his intentions
on Thursday in a memo titled “My Early
Retirement.”
“Ten years ago in 2004, I decided it
was just the right time for me to step
down as CEO,” wrote Hendricks. “Now,
10 years later, with Discovery on such a
strong growth path under David’s able
leadership and a strong board of directors, I likewise feel this is the perfect time
Joh n H en dr ick s is off ici a l ly
to depart from the board and from my
role as chairman and as an executive of
the company.
“For over three decades now, I have
somewhat envied the legions of documentarians that we have employed who
have traveled the world to bring great
stories and experiences to our viewers.
It is now finally time for me to go exploring! I plan to spend the next few
years traveling the planet and discovering the questions and mysteries that
intrigue us all.”
Discovery Communications’ brand
has grown over the years to include a
host of network, including TLC, Animal
Planet, the Oprah Winfrey Network,
Science, Hub and Velocity.
Hendricks’ many honors include the
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’
Governor’s Award.
Samsung, Fox Expand
Ultra HD Content Deal
By Carolyn Giardina
Sa msu ng a n d Fox h av e ex pa n ded
an agreement to offer more Ultra HD content to consumers via Samsung’s Smart
Hub across the company’s UHD TVs.
Ultra HD offers four times the resolution of today’s HD and was getting a lot
of attention at January’s CES; however,
a limited amount of available 4K content
remains an issue.
Earlier this year at CES, Samsung
announced a partnership with Fox when
it unveiled an UHD Video Pack, a storage
device preloaded with content from multiple studios, including such Fox movies
as Night at the Museum, X-Men Origins:
Wolverine and The Counselor. Samsung
and Fox intend to expand this effort.
“Our partnership with Samsung creates a unique opportunity to introduce
Ultra HD movies to audiences around
the world,” Fox Home Entertainment
president Mike Dunn said Thursday in
a statement.
Industrywide efforts also are aimed
at making 4K possible via Blu-ray.
Page 8 of 9
MARCH 21, 2014
film reviews
divergent
By Sheri Linden
Dystopi a is no picn ic for most
everyone involved, but in the future
world of Divergent, it’s especially hard
on teens. At the heart of Veronica Roth’s
YA bestseller is a provocative existential
dilemma involving adolescence and identity: At age 16, everyone must choose
which of society’s stringently defined
factions they’ll join. That could mean
staying on home turf or leaving family far
behind, and it’s an irreversible decision.
In an era when you’re never too young to
not just choose a career but to launch one,
it’s an idea with particular resonance.
It’s also an idea that loses much of
its potency in the movie adaptation,
as director Neil Burger struggles to
fuse philosophy, awkward romance and
brutal action. Even with star Shailene
Woodley delivering the requisite toughness and magnetism, the clunky result
is almost unrelentingly grim. Dystopia
can be presented in dynamic ways, but
this iteration of it is, above all, no picnic
for the audience.
Lukewarm reviews might squelch
curiosity among those unfamiliar with
the trilogy of books, but the must-see
factor among fans will ensure a robust
opening for Summit, which has two
sequels in the works and the next installment, Insurgent, fast-tracked for an early
2015 release.
Like most social science fiction,
the story, set in a war-ravaged Chicago
in an unspecified future, is propelled by
the friction between freethinkers and
an authoritarian regime. Protagonist
Beatrice Prior (Woodley) faces particular jeopardy because she’s a rare and
dangerous bird: a so-called Divergent,
who doesn’t fit neatly into one of the
prescribed categories that control every
aspect of life.
Like the source material, the pic begins
on the eve of the Choosing Ceremony,
as 16-year-old Beatrice submits to the
aptitude test — a personality quiz via
drug-induced hallucination — that will
Shailene Woodley and Theo James
are drawn together in Divergent.
tell her which faction suits her best.
The inconclusive results alarm her
tester (a well-cast Maggie Q), who warns
her never to tell a soul that she’s Divergent. Being uncategorizable makes
Beatrice a threat to the social order.
Perhaps reaching too quickly for the
epic, the screen adaptation, credited to
Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor,
skimps on setting up the Prior family
dynamics, lessening the emotional impact of the ceremony in which both
Beatrice and her brother, Caleb (Ansel
Elgort), opt to transfer out of Abnegation, the faction of the selfless. Beatrice
has never felt as naturally charitable
as her parents (Ashley Judd and Tony
Goldwyn), and her face lights up whenever she sees the Dauntless, the brave
ones who snarl and rollick like a bunch of
punk rockers; they’re as boisterous and
defiant as the members of Abnegation
are low-key and self-effacing.
Beatrice’s first moments with her
new tribe bear out the sense of thrills
and danger she observed from a distance. Jumping from a moving train —
the Dauntless way of arriving, and one
of the film’s best sequences — she gets
to experience the kinetic physicality
long denied her. (The rusted-out but
still-functioning elevated trains are a
standout component of Andy Nicholson’s production design.)
But soon after Beatrice joins the
Dauntless, and redubs herself Tris,
she finds that train jumping, building
scaling and other wild behavior isn’t the
choice of free spirits but the requirement
of soldiers in training. The subterranean
Pit that serves as Dauntless HQ is a bleak
place, devoid of humor or brightness —
as is the movie.
Tris’ martial indoctrination takes up
much of the first hour, putting her in
a number of punishing mano-a-mano
bouts with other initiates. Those who
don’t prove their mettle will end up
among the “factionless,” outcasts subsisting on the streets of a city where you
can never go home again.
Instructor Four (Theo James) takes
an interest in Tris and her survival, mitigating the merciless demands of leader
Eric (Jai Courtney). Predictably, things
steam up: Four shows Tris his tattoo and,
in an act of real intimacy, invites her
into his chemically produced nightmare,
the better to prepare her for the final
hurdle in her training: a fear test that’s
an obvious variation on Room 101 in
Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
In small roles, some of which will
probably take on greater weight in the
next film, Mekhi Phifer and Ray Stevenson play faction leaders, and Zoe Kravitz
and Miles Teller are two initiates from
Candor (faction of the truth tellers).
Kate Winslet shows up in icy-blonde
mode as Jeanine, a ferocious proponent
of the brave new world’s social engineering and leader of the Erudite, the brainy
faction that’s waging a campaign to diss e e pa g e 9
Page 9 of 9
MARCH 21, 2014
film reviews
F r o m pa g e 8
credit the ruling Abnegation. (The peaceful Amity faction barely registers in the
film.) A conversation between Jeanine
and Tris offers a few moments of refreshingly sublimated hostility. Otherwise,
such high-wire tension is MIA as nearly
every exchange hits the nail squarely
on the head (echoing the plain prose of
the book).
Woodley, a sensitive performer, is hamstrung by the screenplay but lends her
role relatability and a convincing athleticism. Burger and cinematographer
Alwin Kuchler’s unfortunate preference
for mascara-ad close-ups, however,
detracts from the character’s grit.
In the hands of Burger, whose credits
include The Illusionist and Limitless,
the story’s elements of spectacle, decay,
symbolism and struggle only rarely feel
fully alive. Lackluster direction in the
early installments of other YA franchises
hasn’t slowed their momentum, though.
Divergent will be no exception.
Opens: Today (Lionsgate/Summit).
Production: Red Wagon Entertainment.
Cast: Shailene Woodley, Theo James,
Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller, Tony Goldwyn, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, Mekhi Phifer,
Kate Winslet.
Director: Neil Burger.
Rated
PG-13, 139 minutes.
muppets most wanted
Tina Fey keeps Kermit on point
in Muppets Most Wanted.
By Todd McCarthy
“Ev ery body k nows t h at t h e
sequel’s never quite as good,” the Muppets boisterously confess in the selfreferential opening musical number,
and it proves a self-fulfilling prophecy
in Muppets Most Wanted, an oddly offkey follow-up to the generally amusing
2011 feature. The repetitive storyline
about successive heists during a Muppets
European tour grows tiresome, and the
fun is intermittent. This pic might draw
a bit less box office than its first outing,
which pulled in $165 million worldwide,
with slightly more in the U.S. than abroad.
There’s a touch of Mel Brooksian audacity in the conceit of having inmates
in a Russian prison camp suddenly go
Broadway and put on a song-and-dance
show with the approval of the fearsome
commander, played by Tina Fey. But the
entire enterprise will be seen by many
adults, if not their kids, through a somewhat malign filter thanks to the central
presence of a No. 1 Most Wanted criminal frog with a Russian accent named
Constantine. He impersonates Kermit
in order to pull off a series of spectacular robberies with his unctuous but
resentful henchman, Dominic Badguy
(Ricky Gervais), a talent manager who
sells the Muppets on his plans for an
international tour. (Every European
venue at which the Muppets are booked
just happens to be next to a museum
or bank that can be robbed during the
performance.)
The liveliest thing about Muppets
Most Wanted is the score by Christophe
Beck. The songs are not uniformly great,
but they possess energy, some clever lyrics
and an old-school, eager-to-please pizazz
that alleviate the mild tediousness.
If what the Muppets themselves say
is true about sequels, Disney ought to
think twice about what’s usually true of
third installments.
Opens: Today (Disney).
Production: Mandeville Films.
Cast: Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina
Fey, Dave Goelz, Matt Vogel, Peter Linz.
Director: James Bobin.
Rated PG-13, 106 minutes.