film and tv
Well, that was fast. Wicked has been making box-office history since it opened on Nov. 22. The long-awaited film adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical has already grossed $372.9 million worldwide, a total topped by only three other films that were based on Broadway musicals.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo star in the film, which was directed by Jon M. Chu, whose hit-studded résumé includes a previous film adaptation of a Broadway musical, the 2021 movie version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s breakout hit In the Heights.
Seven film adaptations of Broadway musicals appear on Box Office Mojo’s list of the top 1,000 films in terms of lifetime worldwide grosses. That counts Mamma Mia!, a film adaptation of the 2001 stage musical built around ABBA music, but not its Cher-featuring sequel Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, on the grounds that the latter was really just a sequel to a hit movie, not a Broadway musical. (The sequel did astonishingly well, with a worldwide gross of $395.6 million.) Of course, not all sequels are guaranteed to become box-office successes. Grease is here, but its 1982 sequel, Grease 2, which grossed just $15 million worldwide, didn’t come close. (Michelle Pfeiffer, the star of Grease 2, is represented on this list with Hairspray.)
Wicked Part Two is due for release on Nov. 21, 2025. Will it follow its predecessor to box-office glory? If it does, Chu will join Rob Marshall as the only director with two films on this list; Marshall directed both Chicago and Into the Woods.
One disclaimer about this list right at the top: You can’t really compare box-office grosses of films from different eras. The biggest blockbusters of earlier eras simply can’t match the grosses of today’s hits. (It’s not just your imagination that ticket prices are much higher than they used to be.) The Sound of Music has grossed $159.5 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo – not enough to make their list of 1,000 top-grossing films. But that 1965 adaptation of the 1959 Broadway musical is one of the biggest hits in film history.
Other film adaptations of Broadway musicals that have grossed more than $50 million worldwide, but not enough to make the list, include Dreamgirls ($155.5 million), the 2021 version of West Side Story ($76 million), My Fair Lady ($72.7 million) and Funny Girl ($52.2 million).
Here are the seven top-grossing film adaptations of Broadway musicals. All appear Box Office Mojo’s list of the top 1,000 films in terms of lifetime worldwide grosses.
Hairspray
Image Credit: ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
Netflix’s Emilia Pérez and composer Hans Zimmer each received three awards at the 15th annual Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA), which were held on Wednesday (Nov. 20) at The Avalon in Hollywood, CA. The HMMA honors composers, songwriters and music supervisors for their contributions over the previous year in music for film, TV, video games and more.
Emilia Pérez won for music-themed film, biopic or musical and also song – onscreen performance (film) by Zoe Saldana, who performed “El Mal.” The film’s French composers and songwriters Clément Ducol & Camille also won for score – feature film.
Zimmer received three HMMAs, the most awarded this year to any one individual. He won for score – sci-fi/fantasy film for Dune: Part Two; for his score to the documentary TV series Planet Earth III, which he composed with Jacob Shea and Sara Barone; and for song – TV show/limited series for “Love Will Survive” from The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which he cowrote with Kara Talve, Walter Afanasieff and Charlie Midnight. Barbra Streisand performed the song.
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Universal Pictures’ animated film, The Wild Robot, and legendary lyricist Bernie Taupin each received two awards.
The Wild Robot received top accolades in two animated film categories, for its score composed by Kris Bowers and its original song “Kiss the Sky,” performed by Maren Morris, who co-wrote it with Ali Tamposi, Michael Pollack, Delacey, Jordan Johnson, and Stefan Johnson.
Taupin received the HMMA Outstanding Career Achievement Award. In addition, he shared the award for song – documentary film for “Never Too Late” from the Disney+ documentary Elton John: Never Too Late. John and Brandi Carlile both co-wrote and performed the song, and collaborated with additional co-writers Taupin and Andrew Watt.
Diane Warren won this year’s HMMA for song – feature film for “The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight, which was performed by H.E.R. If the song is nominated for an Oscar, it will be Warren’s 16thnomination for best original song, and her eighth year in a row with a nomination.
Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li, and Andrew Wyatt won for song – independent film for “Beautiful That Way from The Last Showgirl. Cyrus also performed the track.
The HMMA Awards were held nearly a month before the Oscars are set to announce their shortlists of 15 original songs and 20 original scores on Dec. 17. Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 17. The annual HMMA nominations and awards are our real first peek inside what may be vying for music awards at other awards shows in coming weeks.
Here are the 2024 HMMA nominations in film categories, with winners marked, followed by a listing of other award winners.
Song – feature film
“Winter Coat” from Blitz – Written by Nicholas Britell, Taura Stinson, and Steve McQueen. Performed by Saoirse Ronan.
“Compress/Repress” from Challengers – Written by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Luca Guadagnino. Performed by Mariqueen Maandig Reznor.
“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez – Written by Clément Ducol, Camille, and Jacques Audiard. Performed by Zoe Saldana.
“Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez – Written by Clément Ducol and Camille. Performed by Selena Gomez and Édgar Ramírez.
“Forbidden Road” from Better Man – Written and performed by Robbie Williams.
“Periyone” from The Goat Life – Written by A.R. Rahman and Rafiq Ahamed. Performed by Jithin Raj.
“The Idea of You” from The Idea of You – Written by Savan Kotecha, Albin Nedler and Carl Falk. Performed by Galitzine and Anne-Marie.
WINNER: “The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight – Written by Diane Warren. Performed by H.E.R.
“Out of Oklahoma” from Twisters – Written by Luke Dick, Shane McAnally, and Lainey Wilson. Performed by Lainey Wilson.
Song – animated film
“Double Life” from Despicable Me 4 – Written and performed by Pharrell Williams.
“Beyond” from Moana 2 – Written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear. Performed by Auli’i Cravalho.
“Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” from Moana 2 – Written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear. Performed by Dwayne Johnson.
WINNER: “Kiss the Sky” from The Wild Robot – Written by Maren Morris, Ali Tamposi, Michael Pollack, Delacey, Jordan Johnson, and Stefan Johnson. Performed by Maren Morris.
“Just as You Are” from Thelma the Unicorn – Written by Taura Stinson, Darien Dorsey, and Brittany Howard. Performed by Brittany Howard.
Song – documentary film
“Pain Has a Purpose” from Americans With No Address – Written by Cindy Morgan and Jonathan Kingham. Performed by Rachael Lampa.
WINNER: “Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late – Written by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Bernie Taupin and Andrew Watt. Performed by Elton John and Brandi Carlile.
“Mis Cuatro Letras” from Night Is Not Eternal – Written and performed by San Miguel Pérez and Chad Cannon.
“Piece by Piece” from Piece by Piece – Written by Pharrell Williams. Performed by Pharrell Williams, and Princess Anne High School Fabulous Marching Cavaliers.
“Growing Up Is for Losers” from Red Herring – Written and performed by Xav Clarke.
“Harper and Will Go West” from Will & Harper – Written by Sean Douglas, Kristen Wiig, and Josh Greenbaum. Performed by Kristen Wiig.
Song – independent film
“Wi Sabi Wi” from African Giants – Written by Justin Schornstein. Performed by Malik Mayne, Patrick Dillon Curry, and Justin Schornstein.
“City of Dreams” from City of Dreams – Written by Linda Perry. Performed by Luis Fonsi.
“Hold on to the Dream” from Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End. Written by Arli Liberman and Tiki Taane. Performed by Arli Liberman, Tiki Taane, and Louis Baker.
“Right Where He Ought To Be” from Kim Kahana: The Man Who Changed Hollywood – Written by Richard Lynch and Kenny Day. Performed by Richard Lynch.
“The Creatures of Nature” from Sasquatch Sunset – Written by Toto Miranda, Yvonne Lambert and Josh Lambert. Performed by Riley Keough.
WINNER: “Beautiful That Way” from The Last Showgirl – Written by Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li, and Andrew Wyatt. Performed by Miley Cyrus.
Song – onscreen performance
Cynthia Erivo – “Defying Gravity” from Wicked
Nicholas Galitzine and Anne-Marie – “The Idea of You” from The Idea of You
Saoirse Ronan – “Winter Coat” from Blitz
Timothée Chalamet – “Blowin’ in the Wind” from A Complete Unknown
WINNER: Zoe Saldana – “El Mal” from Emilia Pérez
Score – feature film
Blitz – Hans Zimmer
Challengers – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Conclave – Volker Bertelmann
WINNER: Emilia Pérez – Clément Ducol and Camille
Gladiator II – Harry Gregson-Williams
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 – John Debney
Saturday Night – Jon Batiste
The Six Triple Eight – Aaron Zigman
Score – sci-fi/fantasy
Deadpool & Wolverine – Rob Simonsen
WINNER: Dune: Part Two – Hans Zimmer
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – Tom Holkenborg
If – Michael Giacchino
Red One – Henry Jackman
Score – independent film (foreign language)
Girl You Know It’s True – Segun Akinola
Ka Whawhai Tonu- Struggle Without End – Arli Liberman, Tiki Taane
Mongrels – Hao-Ting Shih, Tae-Young Yu
The Seed of the Sacred Fig – Karzan Mahmood
The Shadow of the Sun – Sandro Morales-Santoro
WINNER: The Goat Life – A.R. Rahman
Score – independent film
African Giants – Justin Schornstein
In the Land of Saints and Sinners – Diego Baldenweg
Sasquatch Sunset – The Octopus Project
September 5 – Lorenz Dangel
WINNER: The Room Next Door – Alberto Iglesias
Thelma – Nick Chuba
Score – horror/thriller film
A Quiet Place: Day One – Alexis Grapsas
Here After – Fabrizio Mancinelli
Longlegs – Zilgi
WINNER: Nosferatu – Robin Carolan
Speak No Evil – Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans
The Substance – Raffertie
Score – animated film
Dragonkeeper – Arturo Cardelús
Out 2 – Andrea Datzman
That Christmas – John Powell
WINNER: The Wild Robot – Kris Bowers
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – Lorne Balfe and Julian Nott
Score – documentary
Diane Von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge – Allyson Newman
Endurance – Daniel Pemberton
Frida – Víctor Hernández Stumpfhauser
Jim Henson Idea Man – David Fleming
October H8te – Sharon Farber
WINNER: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story – Ilan Eshkeri
The Donn of Tiki – Holly Amber Church
WILL & HARPER – Nathan Halpern
Music-themed film, biopic or musical
A Complete Unknown
Back to Black
Better Man
Bob Marley: One Love
WINNER: Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard. Prodcued by Jacques Audiard, Pascal Caucheteux, Valerie Schermann, Anthony Vaccarello
Wicked
Music documentary / special program
Elton John: Never Too Late
I Am: Celine Dion
Music by John Williams
One to One: John and Yoko
WINNER: Piece By Piece, directed by Morgan Neville. Produced by Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers, Mimi Valdes, Joshua R. Wexler, Pharrell Williams.
The Greatest Night in Pop
Music supervision – film
WINNER: Dave Jordan – Deadpool & Wolverine
Frankie Pine – The Idea of You
LaMarcus Miller and Livy Rodriguez-Behar – Jim Henson Idea Man
Steven Gizicki – A Complete Unknown
Rachel Levy – Twisters
Susan Jacobs and Jackie Mulhearn – Out of My Mind
Here are more winners from the evening:
Song – TV show/limited series: “Love Will Survive” from The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Written by Hans Zimmer, Kara Talve, Walter Afanasieff, and Charlie Midnight. Performed by Barbra Streisand.
Score – TV show/limited series: Shōgun – Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross, and Nick Chuba
Song – onscreen performance (TV): Ashley Park – “Ruins” from Emily in Paris
Main title – TV show/limited series: Masters of the Air – Blake Neely
Score – short film (live action): Spaceman – Spencer Creaghan & Chris Reineck
Score – short film (animated): Fly Hard – Daniel Rojas
Score – short film (documentary): Motorcycle Mary – Katya Richardson
Score – documentary series -TV/ digital: Planet Earth III – Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea and Sara Barone
Score – TV show/limited series (foreign language): Women in Blue (Las Azules) – Lucas Vidal
Score – video game (console & PC): Delta Force – Johan Söderqvist and Zio
Song – video game (console & PC): “The People’s Cry (Main Theme)” from Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Written by Pinar Toprak and Paul R Frommer.
Song/score – mobile video game: Honor of Kings – Volker Bertelmann, Matthew Carl Earl, Laurent Courbier, Robbie Say, 2WEI, Zeneth, Henrik Lindström, Martin Landström and Rasmus Faber
Music supervision – TV show/limited series: Fallout – Trygge Toven
Music supervision – video game: Honor Of Kings – Jing Zhang, Shuqin Xiao, Corey Huang, Peiyue Lu and Samuel Siu
Song/score – commercial advertisement: Ram “The Convoy” – Emily Bjorke / In The Groove Music
Soundtrack album: Deadpool & Wolverine – Hollywood Records
Song – short film: “No Wahala” from Alkebulan II. Written by Matt B, Buguma Mark, Performed by Matt B and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Score – TV/streamed movie: The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat – Kathryn Bostic
Music design – trailer: American Horror Story – Delicate Part 2 – Fjøra X Nocturn
Main title – tv show (foreign language): Hotel Beyrouth – Suad Bushnaq
Music video: Lainey Wilson – “Out of Oklahoma”
Live concert for visual media: Olivia Rodrigo: Guts World Tour – Olivia Rodrigo
Exhibitions, theme parks, special projects: Braveship: The Live Symphonic Spectacular – Matt Cook (Composer, Producer), Dan Merceruio (Producer), Leslie Ann Jones (Recording Engineer, Mixing Engineer), Mirusia (Soprano).
Special recognition – New Media
Special recognition: Bullet Symphony – Live Coding for Everyone – Yang Zhang
For the complete list, visit: https://www.hmmawards.com/2024-hmma-nominations/
Fifteen years after being unceremoniously replaced as host of The Tonight Show after a brief, seven-month run, Conan O’Brien has been selected to host the 2025 Oscars. It will be O’Brien’s first time hosting the broadcast. He’ll become the second host of The Tonight Show to do the honors on the Oscars, following Johnny Carson, who hosted the Oscars five times between 1979-84.
The Academy Awards will air live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on March 2 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
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“America demanded it and now it’s happening: Taco Bell’s new Cheesy Chalupa Supreme. In other news, I’m hosting the Oscars,” said a wisecracking O’Brien in a statement.
“Conan has all the qualities of a great Oscars host — he is incredibly witty, charismatic and funny and has proven himself to be a master of live event television,” said Oscars executive producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan. “We are so looking forward to working with him to deliver a fresh, exciting and celebratory show for Hollywood’s biggest night.”
“We are thrilled and honored to have the incomparable Conan O’Brien host the Oscars this year,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang said in a joint statement. “He is the perfect person to help lead our global celebration of film with his brilliant humor, his love of movies, and his live TV expertise. His remarkable ability to connect with audiences will bring viewers together to do what the Oscars do best — honor the spectacular films and filmmakers of this year.”
O’Brien, 61, follows Jimmy Kimmel, host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, who hosted the Oscars the last two years (and also in 2017-18).
O’Brien is best known for hosting the late-night talk shows Late Night with Conan O’Brien and TBS’ Conan. Before his more than two-decade hosting career, he served as a writer for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons. O’Brien currently hosts the podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” and recently starred in the 2024 travel show Conan O’Brien Must Go. He has won five Primetime Emmys and received 31 nominations for his work.
The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide. The official live red-carpet show will air at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.
Emilia Pérez leads the 2024 Hollywood Music in Media Awards nominations with five nods. The HMMA honors composers, songwriters and music supervisors for their contributions over the previous year in music for film, TV, video games and more.
The 15th annual Hollywood Music in Media Awards will be presented Nov. 20 at The Avalon in Hollywood. That’s nearly a month before the Oscars announce their shortlists of 15 original songs and 20 original scores on Dec. 17. Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 17. The annual HMMA nominations are our real first peek inside what may be vying for music awards at other awards shows in coming weeks.
Two songs from Emilia Pérez (“El Mal” and “Mi Camino”) are nominated for song – feature film. That boldly imaginative French film is this year’s only film with two song nominees. The film is also nominated for score – feature film. Clément Ducol and Camille, a French couple, are nominated in both categories. They co-wrote one of their nominated songs, “El Mal,” with Jacques Audiard, the director of Emilia Pérez.
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Blitz, Challengers and The Six Triple Eight were also nominated in both the top song and top score categories. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were nominated for their score for the boxoffice hit Challengers. They were also nominated for co-writing “Compress/Repress” with Luca Guadagnino, the director of Challengers.
A third of this year’s nominated songs was co-written by the director of the film that contained the song. “Winter Coat” from Blitz was co-written by that film’s director, Steve McQueen, along with Nicholas Britell and Taura Stinson. Hans Zimmer was nominated for scoring the film.
Perennial Oscar hopeful Diane Warren is nominated for song – feature film for writing “”The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight. Aaron Zigman is nominated for scoring the film.
The HMMAs have five song categories and seven score categories. Their main song category lists nine nominees. Their main score category lists eight nominees.
One of the HMMA’s most compelling categories (which the Oscars don’t present) is song – onscreen performance. This year’s nominees are Cynthia Erivo for singing “Defying Gravity” in the film adaptation of the Broadway smash Wicked; Nicholas Galitzine and Anne-Marie for singing “The Idea of You” in the rom-com of the same name; Saoirse Ronan for singing “Winter Coat” in Blitz; Timothée Chalamet for singing “Blowin’ in the Wind” in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown; and Zoe Saldana for singing “El Mal” in Emilia Pérez.
As previously announced, legendary lyricist Bernie Taupin will receive the Outstanding Career Achievement Award. Taupin is also nominated for co-writing “Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late, which is vying for song – documentary film. He cowrote the song with John, Brandi Carlile and Andrew Watt.
Several of the nominated songs will be performed live during the HMMA awards ceremonies on Nov. 20. Tickets are available now at: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/2024hmmawards/1419072
Here are the 2024 HMMA nominations in film categories.
Song – feature film
“Winter Coat” from Blitz – Written by Nicholas Britell, Taura Stinson, and Steve McQueen. Performed by Saoirse Ronan.
“Compress/Repress” from Challengers – Written by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Luca Guadagnino. Performed by Mariqueen Maandig Reznor.
“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez – Written by Clément Ducol, Camille, and Jacques Audiard. Performed by Zoe Saldana.
“Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez – Written by Clément Ducol and Camille. Performed by Selena Gomez and Édgar Ramírez.
“Forbidden Road” from Better Man – Written and performed by Robbie Williams.
“Periyone” from The Goat Life – Written by A.R. Rahman and Rafiq Ahamed. Performed by Jithin Raj.
“The Idea of You” from The Idea of You – Written by Savan Kotecha, Albin Nedler and Carl Falk. Performed by Galitzine and Anne-Marie.
“The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight – Written by Diane Warren. Performed by H.E.R.
“Out of Oklahoma” from Twisters – Written by Luke Dick, Shane McAnally, and Lainey Wilson. Performed by Lainey Wilson.
Song – animated film
“Double Life” from Despicable Me 4 – Written and performed by Pharrell Williams.
“Beyond” from Moana 2 – Written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear. Performed by Auli’i Cravalho.
“Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” from Moana 2 – Written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear. Performed by Dwayne Johnson.
“Kiss the Sky” from The Wild Robot – Written by Maren Morris, Ali Tamposi, Michael Pollack, Delacey, Jordan Johnson, and Stefan Johnson. Performed by Maren Morris.
“Just as You Are” from Thelma the Unicorn – Written by Taura Stinson, Darien Dorsey, and Brittany Howard. Performed by Brittany Howard.
Song – documentary film
“Pain Has a Purpose” from Americans With No Address – Written by Cindy Morgan and Jonathan Kingham. Performed by Rachael Lampa.
“Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late – Written by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Bernie Taupin and Andrew Watt. Performed by Elton John and Brandi Carlile.
“Mis Cuatro Letras” from Night Is Not Eternal – Written and performed by San Miguel Pérez and Chad Cannon.
“Piece by Piece” from Piece by Piece – Written by Pharrell Williams. Performed by Pharrell Williams, and Princess Anne High School Fabulous Marching Cavaliers.
“Growing Up Is for Losers” from Red Herring – Written and performed by Xav Clarke.
“Harper and Will Go West” from Will & Harper – Written by Sean Douglas, Kristen Wiig, and Josh Greenbaum. Performed by Kristen Wiig.
Song – independent film
“Wi Sabi Wi” from African Giants – Written by Justin Schornstein. Performed by Malik Mayne, Patrick Dillon Curry, and Justin Schornstein.
“City of Dreams” from City of Dreams – Written by Linda Perry. Performed by Luis Fonsi.
“Hold on to the Dream” from Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End. Written by Arli Liberman and Tiki Taane. Performed by Arli Liberman, Tiki Taane, and Louis Baker.
“Right Where He Ought To Be” from Kim Kahana: The Man Who Changed Hollywood – Written by Richard Lynch and Kenny Day. Performed by Richard Lynch.
“The Creatures of Nature” from Sasquatch Sunset – Written by Toto Miranda, Yvonne Lambert and Josh Lambert. Performed by Riley Keough.
“Beautiful That Way” from The Last Showgirl – Written by Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li, and Andrew Wyatt. Performed by Miley Cyrus.
Song – onscreen performance
Cynthia Erivo – “Defying Gravity” from Wicked
Nicholas Galitzine and Anne-Marie – “The Idea of You” from The Idea of You
Saoirse Ronan – “Winter Coat” from Blitz
Timothée Chalamet – “Blowin’ in the Wind” from A Complete Unknown
Zoe Saldana – “El Mal” from Emilia Pérez
Score – feature film
Blitz – Hans Zimmer
Challengers – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Conclave – Volker Bertelmann
Emilia Pérez – Clément Ducol and Camille
Gladiator II – Harry Gregson-Williams
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 – John Debney
Saturday Night – Jon Batiste
The Six Triple Eight – Aaron Zigman
Score – sci-fi/fantasy
Deadpool & Wolverine – Rob Simonsen
Dune: Part Two – Hans Zimmer
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – Tom Holkenborg
If – Michael Giacchino
Red One – Henry Jackman
Score – independent film (foreign language)
Girl You Know It’s True – Segun Akinola
Ka Whawhai Tonu- Struggle Without End – Arli Liberman, Tiki Taane
Mongrels – Hao-Ting Shih, Tae-Young Yu
The Seed of the Sacred Fig – Karzan Mahmood
The Shadow of the Sun – Sandro Morales-Santoro
The Goat Life – A.R. Rahman
Score – independent film
African Giants – Justin Schornstein
In the Land of Saints and Sinners – Diego Baldenweg
Sasquatch Sunset – The Octopus Project
September 5 – Lorenz Dangel
The Room Next Door – Alberto Iglesias
Thelma – Nick Chuba
Score – horror film
A Quiet Place: Day One – Alexis Grapsas
Here After – Fabrizio Mancinelli
Longlegs – Zilgi
Nosferatu – Robin Carolan
Speak No Evil – Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans
The Substance – Raffertie
Score – animated film
Dragonkeeper – Arturo Cardelús
Out 2 – Andrea Datzman
That Christmas – John Powell
The Wild Robot – Kris Bowers
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – Lorne Balfe and Julian Nott
Score – documentary
Diane Von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge – Allyson Newman
Endurance – Daniel Pemberton
Frida – Víctor Hernández Stumpfhauser
Jim Henson Idea Man – David Fleming
October H8te – Sharon Farber
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story – Ilan Eshkeri
The Donn of Tiki – Holly Amber Church
WILL & HARPER – Nathan Halpern
Music-themed film, biopic or musical
A Complete Unknown
Back to Black
Better Man
Bob Marley: One Love
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
Music documentary / special program
Elton John: Never Too Late
I Am: Celine Dion
Music by John Williams
One to One: John and Yoko
Piece By Piece
The Greatest Night in Pop
Music supervision – film
Dave Jordan – Deadpool & Wolverine
Frankie Pine – The Idea of You
LaMarcus Miller and Livy Rodriguez-Behar – Jim Henson Idea Man
Steven Gizicki – A Complete Unknown
Rachel Levy – Twisters
Susan Jacobs and Jackie Mulhearn – Out of My Mind
For the complete list, visit: https://www.hmmawards.com/2024-hmma-nominations/
Bernie Taupin is slated to receive the Outstanding Career Achievement Award during the Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA) to be held on Nov. 20 at The Avalon in Hollywood, Calif. The show, now in its 15th year, honors composers, songwriters and music supervisors for their contributions in music for film, TV, video games and more.
Submissions for all HMMA categories are open through Oct. 31. The complete list of final nominations will be announced on Nov. 4.
Taupin, of course, is best-known for his long, hit-studded and award-winning collaboration with Elton John. The pair were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992 and received that organization’s top honor, the Johnny Mercer Award, in 2013. In 2020, they received both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for best original song for co-writing “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from the hit biopic Rocketman. Earlier this year, they received the Library of Congress’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, as well as an Ivor Novello for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. Most recently, Taupin cowrote (with John, Brandi Carlile, and Andrew Watt) the original song “Never Too Late” for the Disney+ documentary Elton John: Never Too Late. The song is performed by John and Carlile.
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Remarkably, their only songwriting collaboration to receive a Grammy nomination was the soundtrack to the 1971 teen romance film Friends (no relation to the later TV megahit), which won best original score written for a motion picture or a television special. Go figure.
Taupin has also had some notable successes independent of John. He co-wrote Heart’s “These Dreams” and Starship’s “We Built This City,” both of which topped the Billboard Hot 100. He received a Grammy nod for best country song for cowriting “Mendocino County Line,” which was recorded by Willie Nelson & Lee Ann Womack. His song “A Love That Will Never Grow Old,” sung by Emmylou Harris for the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack, won a Golden Globe for best original song. Taupin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical excellence award category in 2023. Fittingly, John did the honors in inducing him.
Past HMMA Career Achievement Award recipients include Marc Shaiman, Kenny Loggins, Smokey Robinson, Diane Warren, Earth Wind & Fire, Glen Campbell, Dave Mason, John Debney, and Christopher Young.
Tickets are available now at: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/2024hmmawards/1419072. For more information, visit hmmawards.com.
“The setlist is how you communicate your story to your audience,” says Bruce Springsteen near the start of Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the new Thom Zimny-directed documentary on the Boss’s life as touring musician that debuts on Hulu on Friday (Oct. 25).
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The movie had its Los Angeles premiere Monday night (Oct. 21) before a star-filled audience at the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum’s David Geffen Theater, which included Catherine O’Hara, Danny DeVito, Judd Apatow, John Densmore, Jackson Browne, Richie Sambora and Brandi Carlile.
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As anyone who has seen Springsteen’s current tour knows, this outing’s setlist is relatively static for a Springsteen show, with the themes of mortality and loss interspersed with the joy of being alive running throughout. What it lacks in the spontaneity of past Springsteen tours, it more than makes up for in the emotional resonance Springsteen and the expanded E Street Band bring to the often transcendent material.
The documentary, which is a must-see for any Springsteen fan, pulls back the curtain on how the tour came together. By the time the first show was played in Tampa in February 2023, Springsteen had released three new albums and it had been six years since the E Street Band had toured due, in part, to the pandemic. The film takes fans behind the scenes from the first day of rehearsals in a small, black box theater in New Jersey to stages across the world and, in the process, tells the story of the band’s 50 year friendship.
In one of the film’s more poignant passages, musician and Springsteen’s wife Patti Scialfa reveals she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2018 and how that has affected her ability to tour with the band. The deaths of longtime band members Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons are also discussed in loving detail.
As to why now was the right time to reveal the behind-the-scenes machinations, at a Q&A following the screening, Springsteen, 75, kept with the mortality theme and half quipped, “Well, if we didn’t make it now, I’d be dead pretty soon so we got to make these while we can. That’s all there is to it.”
The tour, which picks up again in Europe next Spring, has as its tentpoles four songs from Letter to You, Springsteen’s 2020 album inspired by the death of George Theiss. His passing left Springsteen the only living member of his first band, The Castiles, which he joined as teenagers.
“I was with him the last few days before he passed away,” Springsteen said during the Q&A, moderated by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation chairman and iHeart president of entertainment enterprises John Sykes. “I came back from George’s, and I think he filled me with something where I think all of Letter to You was written in about two weeks and recorded in four days. It’s just, hey, you get up around our age and those are the things you’re thinking about, and Patti and I have had to deal with her illness and you’re worried about…it’s just part of your life now, questions and mortality. Like I say in the film, there’s a lot more yesterdays and goodbyes once you get up around where we are then there was 30 or 40 years ago.”
Zimny, who has worked with Springsteen on projects for 24 years, said during the Q&A that the project unfolded as shooting progressed. “I think it evolves every day that I was experiencing the band, filming and seeing what was going on. I think it’s a conversation that happens with Jon [Landau, Springsteen’s manager] and Bruce from day one and I just stay really open to what I’m experiencing. The first day of rehearsals. I was just so blown away by that sense of everyone’s happiness and I knew that I wanted that to come across, that sense of gratitude that they can perform again. But by time I reached the American concerts and Europe, the film evolved. I think a big thing is to be open, not have a set POV. I go for the adventure.”
The movie, which is narrated by Springsteen, ends with his citing a quote from The Doors’ Jim Morrison. In the Q&A, which also featured Landau and Springsteen’s longtime right-hand man Steven Van Zandt, Springsteen revealed the origin of its usage. He and Scalfia were at the same Doors show at the Asbury Park (N.J.) Convention Center in 1968, though they hadn’t met yet. Then, he told an endearing story that showed that, ultimately, the pair are music nerds just like his fans. Decades later, he and Scalfia were talking about the Doors show and found the setlist online. “We got in bed and we said, ‘OK, we’re going to recreate the entire show,’” he recalled. “I found live Doors cuts and we recreated the entire show from 1968 and listened to it before we went to sleep…Suddenly, I sort of went on a bit of a Doors binge and I started reading several book and I came across the quote and it just seemed like the perfect way to sum up what the band is about, what our relationship to our fans means, what our mission statement has been for the past 50 years. It just seemed to sum it up in those four very brief lines.”
Rebel Wilson is countersuing The Deb producers Amanda Ghost, Cameron Gregor and Vince Holden, accusing them of a “troubling pattern” of “theft, bullying and sexual misconduct.”
The cross-complaint comes months after Ghost, Gregor and Holden sued Wilson for defamation in July after she initially accused them of sexual harassment and embezzlement in an Instagram video. The producing trio alleged in their lawsuit that Wilson lied in an attempt to release her movie The Deb — which Wilson directors, produced and starred in — at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, as well as secure a writing credit on the film.
Wilson’s new suit alleges that Ghost was sexually harassing the film’s lead actress, Charlotte MacInnes, and “forced MacInnes to live in her Bondi Beach penthouse apartment with her,” where “Ghost took a shower and a bath with MacInnes.” It also claimed that “Ghost was overheard making overtly sexual remarks to MacInnes on set.”
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, MacInnes said, “There is no truth to the allegations made involving me. I made a statement to the film team when this was first said in September 2023, and I am saying this again now to draw a line under it. Making false accusations undermines real victims, and I won’t be the subject of a fabricated narrative.”
In Wilson’s suit, Ghost, Gregor and Holden are also accused of scheming to inflate the film’s budget and pocket the excess funds, according to the complaint. The suit said they “embezzled AU $900,000 from the film’s budget to be split between them.”
When Wilson reported the allegations to executive producer Danny Cohen, which he allegedly ignored, according to the suit, that’s when the producing trio “orchestrated a malicious and unyielding retaliatory campaign directed at her.”
Wilson claimed that the ongoing threats and intimidation tactics led her to hire “personal security on the set of The Deb,” so she could finish filming. The complaint also alleged that Gregor threatened to “terminate” the project and “fire its approximately 300 cast and crew members,” unless she signed a document “stating she withdrew her complaint about Ghost’s sexual misconduct” allegations.
Wilson’s attorney Bryan Freedman wrote in a statement, “Amanda Ghost, Cameron Gregor, and Vince Holden attempted to manipulate the narrative by recklessly filing an outlandish lawsuit. Their real problem? Only a fraction of their outrageous conduct has been revealed thus far. In their desperation to shift the story, they neglected to consider that this strategy would only lead to RW’s filing of a cross-complaint which exhibits a plethora of their shocking misconduct which there are many witnesses to. Many brave people have come forward who have had similar dealings with Amanda Ghost. While unfortunate, this was not a surprise. Stay tuned, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is much more to come.”
THR has reached out to reps for Cohen, Ghost, Gregor, and Holden for comment.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
As a country artist, Cody Johnson has topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart twice, has won CMA Awards, and has been headlining shows for years. He’s also a longtime cowboy, who recently won a top spot in the World Series of Team Roping Qualifier. But could Johnson have his sights set on the big screen?
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With his riding and roping skills, it would seem that Texas native Johnson would be a natural on Taylor Sheridan’s hit television series Yellowstone — in fact, Johnson had to turn down a role on the show due to scheduling conflicts. But he told Audacy‘s Rob + Holly that he’s been in discussions with Sheridan and his team about some future acting possibilities.
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“We’ve tried a couple of times [to appear on Yellowstone] and my schedule is too busy to put aside the time,” Johnson said. “We’re looking ahead to the future. There’s a few movie things were I’m like, ‘Look, if you guys give me the notice I can make this happen.”
Meanwhile the “Dirt Cheap” hitmaker recently extended his headlining Leather Tour, adding 10 shows to the trek, including a show at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas on Nov. 9. Whether he’s on stage or (presumably at some point) on the big screen, Johnson knows the impact he’s having on younger generations and it’s a role he takes seriously.
“It’s not lost on me that these kids, these young men will come to the shows… eight- and nine-year-old kids and say ‘Mr. Cody, when I grow up I want to be just like you’ and I’m like, ‘Alright, Johnson, you better make sure you’re putting forth a good example… don’t screw this up, because then you’re letting that kid down.’”
Johnson says he wants to be a good role model not only due to his influence on younger generations, but because he’s thankful for the career he’s forged and the family he’s been blessed with.
“In my younger years I was pretty wild,” he added. “I’ve been blessed with an opportunity to have a career that I never thought was possible, to have a marriage that I never thought was possible, and to have two little kids that I couldn’t have dreamed of in my wildest dreams. I think you either screw it up or you man up.”
Of course, Johnson wouldn’t be the first singer to appear on one of Sheridan’s projects. Reigning CMA and ACM entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson has had a recurring role on Yellowstone, while Ryan Bingham has portrayed the role of Walker. And don’t forget, actor-musician Luke Grimes was already a Yellowstone star when he decided to make his foray into country music.
The entertainment giant Paramount will merge with Skydance, closing out a decades long run by the Redstone family in Hollywood and injecting desperately needed cash into a legacy studio that has struggled to adapt to a shifting entertainment landscape.
It also signals rise of a new power player, David Ellison, the founder of Skydance and son of billionaire Larry Ellison, the founder of the software company Oracle.
Shari Redstone’s National Amusements has owned more than three-quarters of Paramount’s Class A voting shares though the estate of her late father, Sumner Redstone. She had battled to maintain control of the company that owns CBS, which is behind blockbuster films such as “Top Gun” and “The Godfather.”
Just weeks after turning down a similar agreement with Skydance, however, Redstone agreed to a deal on terms that had not changed much.
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“Given the changes in the industry, we want to fortify Paramount for the future while ensuring that content remains king,” said Redstone, who is chair of Paramount Global.
The new combined company is valued at around $28 billion.
Skydance, based in Santa Monica, California, has helped produce some major Paramount hits in recent years, including Tom Cruise films like “Top Gun: Maverick” and installments of the “Mission Impossible” series.
Skydance was founded in 2010 by David Ellison and it quickly formed a production partnership with Paramount that same year. Ellison, if the deal is approved by U.S. regulators, will become chairman and chief executive officer of what’s being called New Paramount.
The on-again, off-again merger arrives at tumultuous time for Paramount, which in an annual shareholder meeting in early June laid out a restructuring plan that includes major cost cuts.
Leadership at Paramount has been volatile this year after its CEO Bob Bakish, following a number of disputes with Redstone, was replaced with an “office of the C.E.O,” run by three executives. Four company directors were also replaced.
Paramount, however, has struggled to find its footing for years and its cable business has been hemorrhaging. To capture today’s growing streaming audience, the company launched Paramount+ back in 2021, but losses and debts have continued to grow.
Sumner Redstone used National Amusements, his family’s movie theater chain, to build a vast media empire that included CBS and Viacom, which have merged and separated a number of times over the years. Most recently, the companies re-joined forces in 2019, undoing the split consummated in 2006. The company, ViacomCBS, changed its name to Paramount Global in 2022.
Under Sumner Redstone’s leadership, Viacom became one of the nation’s media titans, home to pay TV channels MTV and Comedy Central and movie studio Paramount Pictures.
It is a company with a rich history, as well as a deep bank of media assets, ankd Skydance wasn’t the only one to gun for Paramount in recent months — Apollo Global Management and Sony Pictures also made competing offers.
Late last year, Warner Bros. Discovery also made headlines for exploring a potential merger with Paramount. But by February, Warner had reportedly halted those talks.
Ron Chapman thought making a documentary about the 1969 Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in 1969 would be “a no-brainer.”
It certainly had the provocative goods to make for a great movie, from a stellar lineup of rock legends to John Lennon’s first full-blown concert appearance outside of The Beatles to Alice Cooper‘s infamous chicken-killing incident. And there was footage of it all, shot by no less than the legendary D.A. Pennebaker, then of Monterey Pop and Bob Dylan’s Don’t Look Back fame. It seemed like a slam dunk.
But “it was much harder than I thought it would be,” Toronto-based Chapman tells Billboard. Financing took a good six years, during which Pennebaker as well as performers such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis passed away. “This festival had been passed over by time and history,” explains Chapman (Who the F**k is Arthur Fogel?, The Poet of Havana, The Forbidden Shore). “One, because it happened in Canada and nobody paid much attention to Canada. Secondly, because Woodstock had just happened and everybody was festivaled out. It got bookended between that and Altamont and was somewhat forgotten.”
The Revival has been revived, however.
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Chapman’s Revival69: The Concert That Rocked the World — which was shown at this year’s South By Southwest Film Festival and won the audience award for best international feature at the Florida Film Festival — comes out Friday (June 28) via Apple TV, on DVD and in theaters. That night, music critic Robert Christgau — who covered the concert and appears in the film — will moderate a Q&A with Chapman at New Plaza Cinema in New York City.
It will, Chapman and others associated with the project hope, give the festival the prominent place in rock n’ roll history they feel it’s been denied. “You were always playing this festival or that festival back then…but this one had John Lennon. That’s kind of a big deal, right?” says Cooper, whose band performed on its own — between Lennon and the Doors, in fact — and also backed up Gene Vincent. “If that doesn’t make it historic, what does?”
“If it had happened in Buffalo, it would’ve been a movie in the ‘70s,” adds John Brower, who co-promoted the Sept. 13, 1969, event with partner Ken Walker. “Up here in Canada things take a long time to get figured out or acknowledged. No U.S. media was here (except Christgau). And it was such a desperate struggle to put it on. How could we imagine it being historical at the time? But it’s very powerful for me to remember Jim (Morrison) and John (Lennon).”
The Toronto festival’s story was as epic and epochal as any of the others that dotted the rock landscape at the time. Brower and Walker originally planned to celebrate rock n’ roll OGs like Berry, Little Richard, Lewis, Vincent, Bo Diddley and others. They were also partly financed by a local motorcycle club, the Vagabonds, and alarm bells sounded when ticket sales were slow. The Doors, in need of shows after Morrison’s arrest in Miami six and a half months prior, were added to the bill but didn’t provide the expected boost. Brower and Walker planned to cancel, but when they told Kim Fowley and Rodney Bingenheimer, who’d been flown in from Los Angeles to emcee, the former had a different idea.
“(Fowley) went into hyper overdrive bordering on rage that we would even considering canceling the show,” Brower recalls. “His brilliance was to realize John Lennon lived and breathed Chuck Berry and Little Richard and the Beatles had opened for Gene Vincent at the Star Club (in Hamburg, Germany). He just said, ‘You need to call John Lennon and tell him you’ve got all these bands.’ He was smart enough to say, ‘Don’t tell him about Chicago, the Doors, Alice Cooper. Tell him about the old rock n’ rollers.’”
So on the Tuesday before the concert, Brower put in a call to Apple Corps in London and managed to not only get a hold of Lennon but convince him to come. Lennon put together an ad hoc Plastic Ono Band last minute, with his wife Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton on guitar, future Yes drummer Alan White and longtime friend Klaus Voormann on bass. They rehearsed on the plane ride over and later in the dressing room before going on stage for a performance preserved on the album Live Peace in Toronto 1969, released three months later.
“It was a joke,” Voorman remembers. “How dare somebody like John Lennon get out there with a band that had never played together, didn’t know the songs, didn’t know what microphone or what amplifier or drum kit would be there. That was real, how can I say…scary in a way for John to do this. It was fun to play, yes, but we played the wrong notes and played the wrong things. It was…crazy.”
The Lennon booking did succeed in selling out the concert’s 20,000 tickets. Brower calls it “the Hail Mary pass we threw because nothing else would win the game.” He ultimately let in another 1,500 fans who were pushing at the gates as the show went on.
Revival69 documents the myriad machinations that went into the concert, even beyond luring Lennon and company — and including the Cooper chicken incident, when he hurled a live chicken his manager Shep Gordon had let loose on stage into the crowd, which promptly tore it to pieces. “I’m from the Midwest; I didn’t know chickens don’t fly,” says Cooper, whose unwitting stunt ironically made more international news than Lennon’s performance.
“John and Yoko loved what we were doing,” recalls Cooper, who didn’t become friendly with Lennon until some years later in Los Angeles. “We were doing street art with the pillows and the CO2 and the chicken and the whole thing. Yoko and John Loved all that. It was primitive, sort of guerilla theater that we were doing, and that’s what they liked about it so much.”
Chapman “wanted to take the viewer back and feel like they were there at the festival. So much of this was the essence of rock n’ roll and everything that was so great and so wonderful about it. I think a lot of that has been lost — and that’s okay, because progress is progress. But the music industry and the culture in that moment in time was so special and so different in so many ways.”
Revival69 includes interviews with Brower, Cooper, Gordon (who helped the organizers put things together), Voormann, Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger and other participants, as well as members of Pennenbaker’s film crew and even Rush’s Geddy Lee, a friend and tennis partner of Chapman’s who attended the festival. Ono and Clapton were on Chapman’s wish list but were unavailable.
The linchpin for the film, of course, is Pennebaker’s footage, which surfaced briefly in 1971 as Sweet Toronto and has been used for subsequent video releases of the Berry, Lewis and Little Richard performances. “He barely got the financing to do it,” Chapman says, “but his instincts to go and shoot the festival and that it would be worth documenting were good.” That Pennebaker was not able to release a successful film, according to Chapman, “was his greatest disappointment. After Don’t Look Back and Monterey Pop he was riding a wave. He really thought this film was going to be his greatest success; it was, in fact, his greatest failure. D.A. spoke very rarely about this film. I really was looking forward to interviewing him. I was really looking forward to being able to stand with D.A. when we launched it.”
Filmmaker Chris Hegedus, Pennebaker’s widow, says he “loved the film” footage that he shot. “The performers were legends, and they gave amazing performances in it, so that aspect of having it as history is really precious.” She and their son, Frazer Pennebaker, worked with Chapman in reviewing the footage, using an old Steenbeck editing table. In the boxes of the film reels they also found some of the Super 8 cameras that Pennebaker had given to crew members and performers to shoot whatever they wished.
“That was a huge find,” Chapman says. “I was so excited. Here was great backstage footage that had never been seen, and all kinds of audio I was able to use. It was fantastic.”
Hegedus considers Revival69 to be “Ron’s version of what happened, which is a fantastic concert story.” But she makes clear that it’s different than what Pennebaker would likely have done if he’d had the opportunity. “Really what Penny was trying to do was memorialize the performances of this particular time in history and what happened there,” she explains. “You can see this festival fell between Woodstock and Altamont in a certain way. it starts out as this kind of, ‘Let’s have a good time rock n’ roll,’ and ends with this (Lennon) performance that’s really about revolution and what’s happening in the world. I don’t think those concertgoers were really ready for that kind of end statement that happened because of John and Yoko’s political beliefs,” Hegedus notes. “(Chapman) started wanting to make the film when Penny was alive, so he would have had a lot to contribute about that aspect of the film, and his point of view. Sadly he died (in 2019) before Ron got the money, so it proceeded as it is — a riveting film and a real tribute to somebody like Penny who really had documented so many cultural and political moments that were incredibly important.”
“I think (Lennon) would’ve loved this movie,” Brower says. “I think (Morrison) would’ve loved this movie, even though he chose not to be on film. In the movie you see people having the greatest time — not of their lives, maybe, but a great time. They’re screaming, they’re laughing, having a fabulous time watching all the rock n’ rollers. Bo Diddley said, ‘I’ve never heard an audience scream or cheer for me like that, ever.’ It almost brought me to tears.”
Revival69