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The Golden Globes returned to live TV on Jan. 10 after spending 2022 banished from the realm of broadcast awards shows. The Globes, which is widely seen as the show that kicks off awards season in Hollywood and is a reliably star-studded affair to boot, was effectively boycotted by networks, stars and studios due to what many saw as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s lack of diversity and its insufficient response to those who urged the organization, which conducts the Globes, to make meaningful internal changes.
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As the evening’s host, Jerrod Carmichael tackled the elephant in the room with unblinking candor. “I’ll tell you what – I’m here ‘cause I’m Black,” he said, noting that the HFPA had “no Black members until George Floyd died.”
Of receiving the call to host the 2023 broadcast, Carmichael said producer Stephen Hill rang him while he was making herbal tea. “One minute you’re making mint tea at home. The next you’re invited to be the Black face of an embattled white organization,” he deadpanned. “Life really comes at you fast.”
Seeking guidance before agreeing to host, Carmichael said he consulted with “the home girl Avery, [who] for the sake of this monologue represents every Black person in America.” Her response was simple: it’s about the money. When the comedian told her the HFPA was doling out $500,000 for him to do the gig, she replied, “put on a good suit and take that white people money.” Seems like the beginning of salary transparency for Globes hosts, at the very least.
Plus, as he put it, the gig came with strong job security. Describing his refusal to have a one-on-one meeting with the president of the org, Helen Hoehne, despite her insistence, he joked, “They haven’t had a Black host in 79 years, and they’re gonna fire the first one? I’m unfire-able.”
Concluding his monologue, Carmichael said the real reason he took the gig was to host a show full of artists he admired. And when he wrapped, it appeared as if the entire room shared a long, slow exhale.
Who’s ready for The Weeknd? In a recent interview, the 32-year-old hitmaker revealed that he has new music in the works.
“I’ve definitely been inspired,” he said when asked if he was working on new material, right at the very end of an interview with Hollywood Reporter posted Monday (Jan. 9). “I’ve been in the studio.”
The star, born Abel Tesfaye, just celebrated the one-year anniversary of his most recent album, 2022’s Dawn FM. To mark the occasion, he dropped a new music video for one of the album’s tracks, “Is There Someone Else?” Saturday (Jan. 7).
Tesfaye didn’t share any further details about his next project, and instead spent most of the interview talking about “Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength),” the Oscar-shortlisted theme song that he wrote for James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water. The Idol creator opened up about how the Avatar franchise has served as an inspiration for him ever since he saw the first film in 2009 when he was “homeless,” a period he calls “the darkest time of my life.”
“The best part about writing the song was getting notes from James and making sure that all the lyrics and the tones fit the themes of the film,” he told the publication. “I think I rewrote the song maybe six times to make sure it was perfect.”
The “Blinding Lights” singer also briefly spoke about the song’s potential Academy Award nomination, saying he feels “honored” by the recognition. Tesfaye has previously spoken out about another prominent awards show, the Grammys, which he’s boycotted since his blockbuster 2020 album After Hours was snubbed.
But, according to the musician, the Oscars “definitely feel different” from the Recording Academy. “I’m just grateful,” he continued after it was pointed out that he did win a Grammy for his assistance on Kanye West’s “Hurricane” in 2022, post boycott. “Any kind of recognition, I’m grateful for it. I’m just happy to be in the conversation.”
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The critically acclaimed sequel film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, will soon arrive on Disney’s streaming service.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will make its debut on Disney Plus Feb. 1. The move was announced by Disney through their social media platforms, which brings the blockbuster film to homes three months after its release in November 2022.
The sequel to Marvel Studios’ 2020 hit finds Queen Ramonda (Bassett), Princess Shuri (Wright), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and M’Baku (Winston Duke) all dealing with the aftermath of the death of the Black Panther, King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman). As they mourn, they are faced with a new threat to the kingdom of Wakanda – and the rest of the planet – in Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejia) and the kingdom of Talokan.
Despite mishaps that included Wright missing time due to injury and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, audiences responded emphatically to the film which includes a tribute to Boseman, who tragically passed away from colon cancer in August 2020.
Domestic box office reports showed the film earned $181 million on its opening, placing it just second behind Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness which was released earlier in the year. It would go on to be the sixth highest-grossing film released in 2022, with box office earnings listed at $821 million dollars.
The loss of Boseman was a shock to the cast as well as director Ryan Coogler, who admittedly had reservations about making Wakanda Forever or even directing at all as he was close to Boseman. “I didn’t know if I could make another movie period, [let alone] another Black Panther movie, because it hurt a lot. I was like, ‘Man, how could I open myself up to feeling like this again?’” Coogler said in an interview with GQ.
Wright also spoke of the emotional challenges in making the film and being present for the press runs afterward. “I’m bracing. I’ve seen some members of Chad’s team. When we lock eyes, we know how this feels. We have to take a step away,” she said in an interview. She continued: “I see my aunt locking my eyes with me, she’s very proud. I have to take a step away … It’s emotional. We’re trying to hold it together.”
Avatar: The Way of Water will ring in 2023 in style.
James Cameron’s tentpole is expected to finish the long New Year’s weekend with an estimated $440 million-plus domestically, well ahead of the first Avatar, which came out of the year-end holidays with $352 million on its way to earning north of $750 million domestically (that includes rereleases). The 2009 film still ranks as the top-grossing movie of all time globally with $2.92 billion in ticket sales.
Avatar: The Way of Water will cross $1.4 billion in worldwide ticket sales sometime on Monday after sprinting past the $1.37 billion mark on Sunday (Imax accounts for a huge $152.2 million, the fourth-best showing of all time.) That puts it among the 15 biggest films of all time.
Overseas, the sequel grossed a sizeable $186.7 million for the three-day weekend for a foreign tally of $956.9 million. That includes $152.8 million from China, where the movie has gained strength, $95.1 million from France, $74.9 million from South Korea, $67.2 million from Germany and $54.2 million from the U.K.
In North America, The Way of Water is on course to gross $82.4 million for the four-day holiday weekend. The 20th Century and Disney film is doing far more business than any other year-end release in what’s been a bummer for other Hollywood studios.
This puts overall domestic revenue for 2022 at roughly $7.4 billion, 68 percent ahead of 2021 but 38 percent down from 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Comscore.
The next closest New Year’s performer is DreamWorks Animation and Universal’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which is looking at a four-day gross of $22.2 million for a muted domestic tally of $65.6 million or more. At the foreign box office, the family pic earned another $22.5 million for an international tally of $68.8 million and $134.9 million globally.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has remained a major force and will come in at No. 3 over the long New Year’s weekend with an estimated $6.5 million. That will push the Marvel pic’s global cume to nearly $820 million.
Whitney: Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody is expected to follow with a muted $5.4 million for the extended weekend. The biopic, alongside Babylon, opened Dec. 23, two days after Puss in Boots 2 launched (Avatar 2 began its run on Dec. 16).
TriStar’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody, which cost $45 million to make before marketing, should finish Monday with a tepid domestic total of $16 million. The movie is faring better overseas, grossing $8.3 million from 44 markets for a foreign tally of $13.1 million and $29.1 million globally.
From Paramount, Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is an even bigger disappointment, having cost $78 million to produce before marketing. The movie, which will no doubt lose tens of millions, is looking at a four-day gross of just $3.6 million for a domestic total of $11 million through Monday (it isn’t launching overseas until January).
There are no new wide releases over New Year’s weekend.
At the specialty box office, Tom Hanks-starred A Man Called Otto is opening in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The Sony movie should post a pleasing location average of $18,750 for the holiday weekend.
Among other specialty releases, The Whale expanded into more than 600 theaters. The movie should place No. 7 this weekend with an estimated $1.8 million for a domestic total of $6.2 million through Monday.
MGM and UAR’s Women Talking, opening over Christmas in eight locations, grossed an estimated $53,000 this weekend for a location average of $6,625.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
It sounds like Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again director Ol Parker might be ready to take a chance on pursuing another film in the musical franchise.
Parker, who helmed Universal Pictures’ 2018 follow-up to director Phyllida Lloyd’s 2008 hit Mamma Mia!, told Screen Rant in an interview published online Saturday (Dec. 17) that producer Judy Craymer has always intended to make a film trilogy. Craymer has credits on both films and also the ABBA-centric jukebox musical of the same name, which was the basis for the first movie and has had runs on the West End and Broadway.
“Judy Craymer, the genius producer behind the musical and the first two films, always plans for it to be a trilogy,” Parker teased. “That’s all I can say. The first one made an enormous amount of money, and I think we made a fair amount too.”
The Ticket to Paradise filmmaker continued, “I know that there is a hunger for a third, and I know that she has a plan. Wouldn’t it be lovely?”
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again brought back such castmembers from the first film as Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Dominic Cooper and Christine Baranski, along with adding new players including Lily James and Cher.
In her review for The Hollywood Reporter, film critic Leslie Felperin noted that the sequel’s selection of ABBA tunes was less notable than that of the first: “Indeed, the movie’s biggest failing is that so much of its soundtrack, the very engine that propels it, is made up of far too many actual B-sides, or at least lesser-known tunes from the back catalogue of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, the two Swedish singer-songwriters who made up half of the 1970s pop quartet ABBA.”
Here We Go Again collected $395 million worldwide, which was well below the 2008 film’s $609 million global take.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
Will Smith took over Red Table Talk Wednesday (Dec. 14) to talk about his new Apple TV+ film Emancipation, and things got pretty heavy when he opened up about the almost traumatic effects of portraying Peter, a character based on a real life man who escaped slavery in the 1860s and later posed for a now infamous photo of the whip scars on his back.
“I was getting called the N word a hundred times a day by very good actors,” he said on the latest episode of RTT, also hosted by his three children, Trey, Jaden and Willow. “It’s rough, it twists your mind up.”
The King Richard star went on to recall a moment onset that helped him fully transform into Peter: When he was trying on neck chains, used by slaveowners to control enslaved people’s movements, and a crew member suddenly discovered that he was unable to get the chains off of Smith.
“He goes to take it off, and it doesn’t work,” Smith said. “It’s locked on and my heart jumps. He’s running around looking for the keys, and for 15 minutes I’m stuck there in the chains. I’m like ‘Will, do not freak.’”
“I’m sitting there and I got it,” he continued. “I’m Will Smith with people running around looking for keys, and my heart is still pounding and I’m still scared. Imagine what it was like for Peter to have that stuff on, barefoot, and nobody cares. It was like, yeah, I got it. I haven’t been able to articulate why, but I felt embarrassed. It was emasculating, dehumanizing, all of that.”
Smith also confessed to his children that he almost went too far during his mental preparations to play Peter, nearly losing himself in the process. This is because the brain stores memories of his time acting as a character as if they were real memories, meaning they still have a real-life effect on Smith even though filming for the movie is long over, he said.
“I wouldn’t say I went too far with Peter, I’d just say I lost track of how far I went,” he said, explaining that he has nightmares from his time on the Emancipation set. “When you go that one click too far, Will Smith disappears. Psychologically, you go farther and farther into Peter and you don’t realize that you are slipping away.”
Emancipation was released on Apple TV+ on Dec. 9.
Kate Hudson has learned a lot about herself thanks to her relationships with others. That especially goes for her difficult breakup from Muse frontman Matt Bellamy, which the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery actress opened up about in a recent appearance on Josh Smith’s Reign podcast.
Things got deep when Smith asked Hudson about the ways she is similar to an onion, a funny reference to the title of her newest film, which arrives on Netflix Dec. 23 following a one-week theatrical release in November. “I’m still peeling back those layers,” she laughed.
“I think we all are,” continued the actress, who landed a spot on Billboard‘s Digital Song Sales chart in September 2012 when her feature on the Glee cast’s song “Americano/Dance Again” peaked at No. 61. “We all have to figure out what’s at the core of our own little onion. I think that’s when things started changing for me — when I started taking far more accountability for my own s–t.”
When Smith pressed the Almost Famous star for a life moment that prompted her to start taking accountability — something she said is “liberating” — Hudson brought up her split from Bellamy, with whom she shares 11-year-old son Bing.
“After my second failed baby-daddy relationship,” she said. “That moment for me was like, ‘Now I have to figure this out.’”
Hudson welcomed her first child, now 18-year-old son Ryder, in 2004 with The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, to whom she was married from 2000 to 2007. She was engaged to Bellamy from 2011 to 2014.
“That was really hard for me because I didn’t want that to end,” she said of her relationship with the Muse singer. “I need to figure out what this is in my life, this pattern I keep repeating, and take accountability for it. I think the issue is when people blame everybody else for any challenges or hardships. I don’t want to be friends with that person.”
The Bride Wars star is now engaged to Danny Fujikawa, and the two share 4-year-old daughter Rani.
Julie Andrews is sharing her thoughts on a potential role in the third Princess Diaries.
In an interview with Access Hollywood on Tuesday (Dec. 6), The Sound of Music actress addressed if she would appear in a chapter in one of her first public comments since the project was announced as being in development. In the first two films, Andrews played Queen Clarisse Renaldi, the grandmother of Anne Hathaway’s character, Mia Thermopolis.
“I think we know that it’s probably not going to be possible. It was talked about very shortly after two [The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement] came out, but it’s now how many years since then? And I am that much older and Annie the princess, or queen, is so much older. And I am not sure where it would float or run,” Andrews said. “In terms of us doing it, I doubt that now.”
In November, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Aadrita Mukerji is writing a script for a new installment of Princess Diaries for Disney. According to sources, the movie is a continuation of the series of films that Anne Hathaway starred in rather than a reboot.
THR reported that sources say Hathaway does not have a deal to return to the franchise but hope she would return if the film moves forward. In the past, the Les Misérables actress has shared her support publicly for a third film.
This isn’t the first time Andrews has expressed her thoughts about returning to the Princess Diaries franchise. In 2019, during a visit to Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the Mary Poppins star responded to rumors surrounding the potential film, saying, “The truth is I haven’t heard. There’s been talk about it for quite awhile.”
More recently, in June 2022, Andrews spoke to THR ahead of receiving the AFI Life Achievement Award, calling her return a “lovely thought.”
But when asked if she would want to revisit the franchise, she said, “I think it would be too late to do it now. There was talk of a sequel many, many years ago. But I don’t think it ever came to pass. And Garry then did leave us. [Marshall died in 2016.] [For] especially me, it’s too far down the line now to go back to it.”
For the new film, Debra Martin Chase is returning to produce after working on the first two Princess Diaries. Melissa Stack, the screenwriter for The Other Woman and Godmothered, is executive producing.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
The Weeknd has something in the works with Avatar: The Way of Water, the upcoming long-awaited sequel to 2009’s Avatar.
“12.16.22,” The Weeknd wrote on Sunday (Dec. 4) on Twitter, along with a 12-second music clip featuring the blue Avatar logo. Dec. 16 is the day the James Cameron-directed film is set to be released by Disney.
“#AvatarTheWayOfWater x @theweeknd,” the official Avatar account tweeted soon after.
Film producer Jon Landau also shared a snapshot with The Weeknd and wrote, “As the Na’vi say, ‘Zola’u nìprrte’ soaiane Avatar’… Welcome to the Avatar family.”
The original Avatar became the highest-grossing movie of all time ($2.92 billion worldwide) and received nine Oscar nominations, winning three of those awards: best art direction, best cinematography, and best visual effects.
The Weeknd last released new music with Dawn FM, his fifth studio album, which peaked at No. 2 on the Bllboard 200 albums chart in January 2022.
See the teaser tweets about The Weeknd’s involvement in the new Avatar film below.
George Jones and Tammy Wynette were both long gone by the time Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain began filming George & Tammy, a six-episode series that premieres on Showtime Dec. 4. However, the actors still found a way to commune with the legendary country artists.
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“We came to Nashville and did some recording,” Shannon tells Billboard. “The studio that we recorded at was adjacent to the cemetery where George is buried and Tammy’s remains are. So, we would sing their songs and then go and visit them.” Wynette died in 1998 and Jones in 2013.
Playing the country icons was daunting, the actors admit, especially when it came to doing their own singing. “I had so much anxiety and stress about trying to sound like her, but that’s an impossible thing to do,” Chastain says. “She had a once-in-a-lifetime gift.”
Taking on the emotional weight of the troubled couple, who were married from 1969-1975, could also be taxing, so Shannon would try to lighten the mood “if you think fart noises are funny,” he says, cracking Chastain up. “We did actually do something that probably no one would ever expect,” she adds. “We had a bouncy castle day because it was someone’s birthday and I got Mike into the bouncy castle, which is a sight I thought I’d never see.”
The pair, who have been friends since they appeared together in 2011’s Take Shelter, sat down with Billboard recently in Nashville to discuss how they prepared for their roles, why they did their own singing and reveal their favorite Jones and Wynette songs.
Billboard: Jessica, Abe Sylvia, whom you worked with on The Eyes of Tammy Faye, is writer and co-executive producer of George & Tammy. Is that how you got involved?
Chastain: No, someone approached me in 2011 at the Golden Globes, and said, “Hey, do you want to play Tammy Wynette?” It was like my first awards show and I was like, “Yeah, that sounds great. I love that song.” (laughs) There were many, many iterations of it, different directors. And budget wise, it was so expensive with all the music and all the stories we wanted to tell in two hours, it just felt like it wasn’t going to happen. At one point, it just kind of disappeared because it was so expensive. And then, in the beginning of the pandemic, Abe called me and said, “What if we make it a mini-series?” And that sounded very exciting. I’ve been reading about Tammy Wynette for 11 years.
Michael, you’ve said you didn’t know that much about George and that you’re more into jazz. What was your interest in playing him?
Shannon: Jessica asked me about it. I read his autobiography. I was really seduced by his voice, by his singing and his songs. I felt a little self-conscious about it because I don’t think I really resemble George Jones much, but I was excited to have an opportunity to sing and tell a story through singing because I do like to sing.
You used to have your own band. How did that help you since you’ve been in front of an audience performing?
Shannon: I don’t get super nervous about being up in front of a bunch of people, but to try and sing like George is no small feat. I don’t really think anybody can sing like George. But I sure worked hard on it, and we had a vocal coach, Ron Browning, who helped us train for a few months before we even started shooting.
What was your approach in terms of capturing their vocal styles?
Shannon: We wanted to tell the story through singing. The part that really intrigued me is how George and Tammy would tell the story of their life every time they sang together or alone. Even though the songs oftentimes weren’t written by them, they were still communicating by singing them. You can pick the same song and watch 10 different performances of it and get 10 completely different stories just based on the way they’re looking at each other. We could have just lip-synced everything, but I think in order for us to inhabit the people, we had to perform.
When you were doing your research, was there one thing that you clued in on that helped you find the character?
Chastain: I don’t know that this is right at all–I never had the opportunity to meet her–but I felt like she was an incredibly sensuous person, watching her sing, watching her interviews. Everything about her, I think she loved being a woman. She loved cooking. She loved makeup and hair. I found that to be a way in. She loved men at a time where you get married and stay married forever, she married five times. I think a lot of that also has to do with the fact that she loved being around men. Again, my interpretation, but it was kind of my way into playing her.
What about for you, Michael?
Shannon: I don’t know. It’s such a complex journey, George’s life. Every day when I got to work, there was an interview I’d listen to. It was an interview that George and Tammy did together. It coincided with the release of record that they made together for Epic and George talks about finally getting to Epic 17 years (in). It was kind of my morning ritual, put that on and listen to his voice. Listen to him and Tammy together.
There’s a scene in Ken Burns Country Music documentary where record producer Billy Sherrill calls them wounded animals. These are really talented, but tragic people.
Chastain: I think what’s so interesting sometimes about people is when they’re not afraid of their darkness and they’re willing to live in it and willing to explore it and try to move through it. And I think a lot of times we live our lives trying to hide it from others, try to appear to be perfect and hide anything that feels ugly or might upset someone away. The thing about George and Tammy that you see when they sing together is they were just so open. She was in another time period, so she had to hide a lot about who she was, but I don’t think she had to hide from George. I don’t know how I would have been able to even approach playing this character without coming to set knowing that Mike was going to be there playing George because when you’re telling those kinds of stories, you need open people willing to go to dark places to do it.
Do you think they were the love of each other’s lives?
Chastain: We gotta be careful because there’s some people still alive. Do you know what I mean? Oof.
Shannon: I’ll put it this way, I don’t really see the point in making this show if the basic premise of the show isn’t that George and Tammy were the love of each other’s [lives]. That’s kind of the Christmas tree that all the ornaments are hanging on, at least in this particular show. Now, there’s 555 million versions of the story and everybody’s got a different one. Neither one of us would say this is the absolute, irrefutable God’s honest truth of every single moment of George and Tammy’s life, but it’s the story that we signed on to tell.
Chastain: And sometimes being with a love of your life isn’t a healthy thing…It’s not written in any of the books, but people who were there said that they were still romantic later in life. So that’s in our show so I’m not speaking out of turn. So, there were a lot of surprises.
Whether musically or otherwise, after they split, they always found their way back to each other.
Chastain: And when she died, George wrote letters to DJs talking about the circumstances of her death. They were always connected.
What’s your favorite George song and favorite Tammy song?
Chastain: I love “The Race Is On.” I think that’s one of the best songs ever written. I love the lyrics. I love the music. And for her, “Apartment No. 9.” That’s pretty great.
Shannon: “Help Me Make It Through the Night” for Tammy. With George, “Bartender’s Blues.”
Lasting impressions of Nashville?
Chastain: I just loved the people that we got to work with. The guys in the band, a lot of them are session players here in Nashville. There were times I would come on to set and, Mike, I think you were getting ready to do “Beneath Still Waters” and in the breaks all the guys would just start playing and Michael started singing a different song and they would just be jamming. That was incredibly inspiring to be around that all the time. I loved the people here in Nashville and the kind of music history that I got to learn.