Home//Variety/1/26/2022/In This Issue
Variety|1/26/2022Film Studio in Space Sounds Far-fetchedCall me skeptical but are we really to take seriously last week’s pronouncement that a full-blown movie production studio and sports arena are going to be built in space? Seems so ludicrous and way too sci-fi to me, but then maybe I’m just not space-wok enough to buy it. We ran a story on Jan. 19 that Space Entertainment Enterprise, a company that said it was co-producing Tom Cruise’s planned space movie, was aiming to build a space station module by December 2024 that would host films, television, music and sports events, and enable artists, producers and other creatives to make content in the “low-orbit, microgravity environment.” Axiom Space, which received NASA’s approval in January 2020 to build a commercial component of the International Space Station, is supposed to undertake…2 min
Variety|1/26/2022‘None of Us Guessed How Good He Was Actually Going to Be’Jonathan Krisel was executive producer of “Baskets,” starring Louie Anderson, which aired on FX from 2016-19. Anderson, who died at age 68 on Jan. 21, won an Emmy for his performance as Christine on the show, which also starred Zach Galifianakis. Louie bought the entire crew Arby’s one night. He had already filmed his scenes for the day, but he wanted to spoil us. He even brought the manager from the Arby’s to help pass out all the food. He was just like that. He knew everyone on the crew so well. When we’d be setting up a shot and the cinematographer and I would be discussing if we wanted the shot “dirty” — meaning in a close-up you see a piece of the off-camera actor — if Louie heard…3 min
Variety|1/26/2022CHECK, PLEASE!The Dutchess Reigns Over Ojai If getting out of town sounds like a good idea, Ojai’s restaurant scene is looking bright with the opening of The Dutchess, an all-day spot from the Rustic Canyon family of restaurants. With a bakery, bar and full-service restaurant, it combines the talents of chef Saw Naing, formerly of Bouchon and Tallula’s, and baker Kelsey Brito, formerly of Huckleberry and Milo + Olive. In the daytime, there are Brito’s pastries and coffee, while Naing’s dinner menu focuses on the specialties of his native Myanmar. Full lunch and brunch menus are due in the next few weeks. After Rustic Canyon owners Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan started a little farm in Ojai, launching The Dutchess was a natural addition to the laid-back community. “What I really…2 min
Variety|1/26/2022My LonelyHeart CallsFeb. 11 marks 10 yearssince Whitney Houston died, her accidental drowning in a Beverly Hilton hotel bathtub especially tragic as it occurred just hours before the annual Clive Davis pre-Grammy gala was due to start in a ballroom on the ground floor. Davis discovered Houston when she was barely 20 years old and would mentor her through the decades, but behind the scenes, one of Houston’s longest and closest relationships was with childhood friend-turned-lover Robyn Crawford, as journalist Gerrick Kennedy describes in his forthcoming book, “Didn’t We Almost Have It All: In Defense of Whitney Houston” (out Feb. 1). In an exclusive excerpt, the author explores the singer’s sexuality. In the 1980s, if you were queer and navigating Hollywood or the music industry, a shot at mainstream success often came…10 min
Variety|1/26/2022Variety ’s 10 to Watch Series Celebrates 25 Years of Highlighting TalentFor the past 25 years,Variety editors and staff have compiled annual lists of industry talent to look out for, stretching over various disciplines, including directors, writers, producers, cinematographers and comics. When looking back on the lists from each year, it’s striking to see how many impactful names have blossomed with hugely successful careers within Hollywood, and with some of the individuals taking a surprising route to stardom. It also underscores the innate ability of the Variety team to discover and take early note of the many talented people who have become entertainment icons. The first 10 Actors to Watch list was released in 1998, with Luke Wilson (“Rushmore”), Sarah Polley (“Go!”), Adrien Brody (“The Thin Red Line”), Patricia Clarkson (“High Art”), Larenz Tate (“Why Do Fools Fall in Love?”) and…3 min
Variety|1/26/2022Designer Duds for an Animated Lion in ‘Sing 2’Animated films including Netflix’s “Over the Moon” have gone high fashion in the past few years, with computer-generated costumes created by notable fashion designers. “Sing 2,” now available on demand, is the latest to recruit high-fashion names to outfit the CGI characters. Rodarte sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy brought their designs to the film, the sequel to the 2016 animated jukebox musical. An addition to the cast of anthropomorphic animals is Clay Calloway, a lion voiced by U2’s Bono. Clay is a reclusive rock legend who is persuaded by koala Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) and porcupine Ash (Scarlett Johansson) to come out of retirement and perform onstage one more time. Clay’s musical past is only alluded to in the film, so the design for his costumes needed to fill out…1 min
Variety|1/26/2022The AfterpartyTV REVIEW Limited Series: Apple TV Plus (8 episodes; 7 reviewed); Jan. 28 Starring: Sam Richardson, Tiffany Haddish, Ben Schwartz, Zoë Chao “The Afterparty” isn’t subtle about its conceit. The new Apple TV Plus comedy opens with Detective Donner (Tiffany Haddish) telling a room of suspects that “we’re all stars of our own movie — the same thing could happen, but you see it in a different way.” To solve the murder of their obnoxious classmate Xavier (Dave Franco), she says, each will have to tell her their version of how their ill-fated high school reunion went down — or, as she says in an even more blunt line, she wants to hear their “mind-movie.” Each subsequent episode of “The Afterparty” features a new character retelling the same night in…2 min
Variety|1/26/2022Renate ReinsveNorwegian actor Renate Reinsve made her film debut with one line (“Let’s go to the party!”) in Joachim Trier’s “Oslo, August 31st.” Though the role was brief, she spent nine days on set, and Trier mentioned wanting to write a bigger part for her. Twenty years later, he made good on that promise by casting her in “The Worst Person in the World.” Reinsve plays Julie, a young woman who abruptly quits medical school and goes on a journey of selfdiscovery. For her performance, Reinsve has earned raves and was named best actress at the Cannes Film Festival. • Many directors say they want to write parts for people, but Trier actually came through for you. Were you surprised? Absolutely! We got to know each other on the first film,…3 min
Variety|1/26/2022NBCU Faces Another Olympic Challenge — and OpportunityNBCUniversal is about to begin broadcasting the second half of a rare Olympics doubleheader — and fatigue has set in. The Winter Games in Beijing begin Feb. 4, just six months after the close of the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games that were postponed from 2020 because of the pandemic. The Winter Games also overlap with the Super Bowl, which airs on NBC Feb. 13. In an era of waning live viewership for the Olympics, NBCU is facing a huge challenge of attracting eyeballs to an event taking place amid a diplomatic boycott of the host country over human-rights violations. Mix in Beijing’s very limited group of spectators due to the omicron surge and the fact that the primetime TV audience for the Tokyo games dropped more than 40% compared with…4 min
Variety|1/26/2022Master of the UniversesThe 2014 film “John Wick” has spawned several sequels, the upcoming TV series “The Continental,” the spin-off film “Ballerina,” and even video games, theme park rides and comic books. It’s now a full-fledged universe, even though it didn’t start out that way. “It was kind of accidental,” says Tim Heindl, senior VP of global marketing research at Lionsgate. “But the way the film was constructed, it was built to be expanded upon.” The tremendous success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and others like “Star Trek” and “Star Wars”) has made it a benchmark for studios and networks eager to take popular intellectual property and expand it. Universes are popping up everywhere, including in TV: the DC Universe inhabits much of The CW’s real estate, “The Walking Dead” has been a…3 min
Variety|1/26/2022‘He Knew He Was Going to Be It’Singer Ellen Foley, Meat Loaf and writer-producer Jim Steinman first worked together on a National Lampoon tour in the mid-’70s, then on the making of 1977’s “Bat Out of Hell,” one of the most popular albums of all time. Foley and Meat Loaf sang a memorable duet on “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” but she declined to go on tour with him for the album, pursuing her own music projects before reuniting with him on what would be his final album, “Braver Than We Are,” in 2016. Foley spoke with Variety about Meat Loaf, born Marvin Lee Aday, after he died Jan. 20 at age 74. When I think of him, I think of myself as this girl who did her first Actors’ Equity show with him in this National…3 min
Variety|1/26/2022If I Had an Oscar Ballot…AWARDS CIRCUIT A shortened eligibility year, multiple monochrome films and an underappreciation of animation sum up 2021 at the movies. Academy members will begin voting for their favorites on Jan. 27, with nomination voting concluding Feb. 1. Once again, streamers and VOD platforms provided an avenue for many films to be seen by audiences during the pandemic. We should be grateful for their inclusion in this new world order but must never forget the magic and the power of the movie theater. I can’t recall being more emotional than I was stepping into the TCL Chinese Theatre in June to watch Jon M. Chu’s “In the Heights.” It was my first time back in a cinema in more than a year, and I cried for more than two hours —…3 min
Variety|1/26/2022The Go-To Fashion Brands of ‘Euphoria’ Season 2The second episode of “Euphoria” Season 2 begins in a luxe walk-in closet as Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie) playsdress-up with a wealthy mom’s clothes while babysitting. She slinks into designer dresses and lavish jewels, all while staring at her richer, more sophisticated reflection in the mirror. The fantasy comes to a halt when the mom comes home earlier than expected, forcing her to hastily change back into her miniskirt and halter top. The act of dressing up and sartorial reinvention is a pronounced theme throughout the season. While Zendaya’s Rue remains at the center, the surrounding characters’ outfits became a talking point online after the second season premiered. Below, series costume designer Heidi Bivens talks about finding the right looks for Maddy, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), Kat Hernandez (Barbie Ferreira) and…3 min
Variety|1/26/2022Manhattan Transfer Harmonizes for Five DecadesLooking back at the last 50 years, you’d be hard-pressed to say the world has gotten a lot more harmonious since then — not figuratively, in the geopolitical sphere, and certainly not literally, in a popular music world that’s become a slave to the rhythm, and to singers’ disinterest in sharing a mic, much less a spotlight. But you can’t fault the Manhattan Transfer for not doing their part — and just about everyone else’s, too — to keep the spirit of harmony alive ever since the group formed in 1972. At their modern-day shows, attendees may not know whether to weep or to literally get a buzz on from the actual physiological oscillation produced by four master voices meticulously coming together. (A combination of both responses is, of course,…7 min
Variety|1/26/2022Writing a Love Song About Doom — and ScienceHow do you write a love song that’s also a lament for the impending end of the world? That was the challenge for “Don’t Look Up” composer Nicholas Britell, lyricist Taura Stinson and their co-writers and performers, Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi, as they collaborated on “Just Look Up.” The song is performed in the film and is on the Oscar shortlist for nomination in February. The idea came from writerdirector Adam McKay, Britell reports. Grande had already been cast as Riley Bina, a pop star who reconciles with her rapper boyfriend (Cudi as DJ Chello) on the same morning talk show where astronomers (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) reveal that a comet is on a collision course with Earth. “I was imagining it as a power ballad…2 min
Variety|1/26/2022Five Sundance TakeawaysThe Sundance Film Festival kicked off its second virtual edition last weekend, a concession to the highly contagious nature of COVID’s latest variant. While the movies received a more muted reception than in past years, when a standing ovation at Park City’s Eccles Theater was enough to trigger an all-night bidding war, there’s been no shortage of headline-making moments. Here are five takeaways from a festival at midpoint. ‘Sharp Stick’ Stumbles More than a decade after “Tiny Furniture” made Lena Dunham a voice of a generation (to quote “Girls”), she returned with “Sharp Stick,” the story of a young woman’s sexual awakening that was expected to be one of the hotter titles at the fest. Unfortunately, critics were mostly cold to Dunham’s vision, faulting her for creating a central character…3 min
Variety|1/26/2022‘Gomorrah’ Goes Out With a Bang on HBO MaxWhen HBO Max drops the fifth and final season of Neapolitan gangster saga “Gomorrah” on Jan. 27, it will also mark the end of a convoluted seven-year journey for Italy’s most widely exported TV show. “In Italian TV, there is a before and after ‘Gomorrah,’” says Nils Hartmann, senior VP of Germany and Italy for Sky Studios, the production arm of the pay TV operator that originated the gritty, hyperrealistic crime skein. Besides attaining megahit status in Italy, the show has traveled to 190 countries, including the U.S., where it ran into snags due to the misdeeds of Harvey Weinstein and The Weinstein Co.’s 2018 bankruptcy. “It was a big mess,” says Oliver Bachert, sales chief at Germany’s Beta, which was selling the show. He notes that on top of…3 min
Variety|1/26/2022Variety Ups Dea LawrenceVariety has promoted Dea Lawrence to chief operating and marketing officer. Lawrence has dramatically expanded the brand’s business operations since she rejoined in 2015 as CMO. She led the reimagining of Variety’s thriving roster of annual events and summits by pivoting at the start of the pandemic to the creation of the Variety Streaming Room virtual franchise. Along with Steven Gaydos, Variety’s executive VP of global content, Lawrence created the Variety Content Studio, which includes brand storytelling and sponsored video series. Through savvy technology vendor alliances, she has improved the infrastructure and productivity across creative, event production, ticket sales and social media. “Dea is an innovative and exceptional executive with a varied and deep digital skill set which has been invaluable to Variety as the worlds of technology and media…1 min
Variety|1/26/2022OUR TOWNAddison Rae (1) has a very personal reason for inviting fans to help her raise money for the American Cancer Society. Her maternal grandfather is a survivor of kidney cancer. “A lot of my memories of him from when I was young was in the hospital,” the TikTok star tells me. “It was rough for my family to go through that. But luckily, my pawpaw is a very strong man who still to this day tries to do everything he did when he was 20 years old. He’s very inspiring.” For $10, Rae’s fans can enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to the Super Bowl in Los Angeles next month and attend the game with Rae. “I grew up in Louisiana, so football is pretty big…3 min
Variety|1/26/2022ACTORS ON ACTORSEven in the midst of the grimness of life in a pandemic, 2021 gave us a year’s worth of movies that helped us escape our surroundings, the news and — perhaps most urgently needed — our homes. Jamie Dornan took us deep inside the childhood memories of director Kenneth Branagh, illuminating family love and tension in 1960s Ireland in the film “Belfast.” Regina King helped reimagine the Western, and the contours of American life in the late 19th century, in “The Harder They Fall.” Kristen Stewart made Princess Diana’s pain somehow both specific and universal in “Spencer.” And Nicole Kidman brought us onto the backlot, and into the fiery comic intellect, of Lucille Ball in “Being the Ricardos.” Our Actors on Actors movie issue pairs off the year’s biggest performers,…1 min
Variety|1/26/2022Marilyn Bergman Left Behind Great Lyrics“Misty watercolor memories of the way we were…” “Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind…” “I could sell my soul for just a little light in the heat of the night…” Those lyrics, just three of the hundreds written by Marilyn Bergman, along with her husband, Alan, resonate with millions of moviegoers and record-buyers. Marilyn, who died on Jan. 8, was a three-time Oscar winner, fourtime Emmy winner and two-time Grammy winner for her accomplishments across six decades. The Bergmans were poets, although she denied it (“they’re totally different disciplines,” she said in 2015), who found their calling in lyric writing, mostly for movies. For “The Happy Ending,” director Richard Brooks asked them for a song that would work for both the beginning of a…3 min
Variety|1/26/2022Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye TrilogyTV REVIEW Directors: Coodie Simmons, Chike Ozah With: Kanye West, Coodie Simmons, Donda West, Kid Cudi, Jay-Z Netflix’s epic Kanye West documentary, “Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy,” will unfold in three feature-length parts, as the subtitle promises. But however the filmmakers carve up the 277-minute running time, the way they’ve encapsulated West’s story really boils down to a two-act narrative: rags to riches followed by, of course, riches to rumpuses. Is your preferred archetype of Kanye the hungry, deeply focused, self-made scrapper who showed everybody? Or the openly bipolar billionaire whose run for president felt more like a box to check on a list of Ultimate Hubris moments than anything even half-seriously intended? Both Kanyes are on view in “Jeen-yuhs,” with a story that necessarily comes off deeply bifurcated, given that…4 min
