Creative Space
Fran Drescher Weighs In on Bob Iger’s Charm, ‘The Nanny’s Future and Her Own “Take No Sh**” Ethos
“I’m an unlikely labor leader,” Fran Drescher acknowledges on a late November evening. Before this summer, Drescher long had been synonymous in the public imagination with her most iconic role, Fran Fine, in the popular ’90s CBS sitcom The Nanny, which she tailored to her comedic strengths, including her thick Queens accent. The sassy childcare […]
- By
Noah Hawley Has Been Offered the World, But ‘Fargo’ Keeps Calling
For the past 15 years or so, Noah Hawley has called Austin, Texas, home. Sure, he’s spent long stretches elsewhere — Calgary for FX’s Fargo, Bangkok for his forthcoming series Alien — but home, where his wife and two children (ages 16 and 11) reside, is 1,400 miles from Hollywood. And, as Hawley sees it, […]
- By
To Grow More, Chip and Joanna Gaines May Look Beyond Waco
Chip and Joanna Gaines may be approaching a saturation point in Waco. Since the couple first let cameras roll on their home renovation operation with 2013’s Fixer Upper, an unrivaled hit for then-network HGTV, the Gaineses have managed to transform their Central Texas town into the hub for a thriving entertainment and lifestyles brand. There, […]
- By
AFM Creative Space: Ukraine’s Green Light Films Targets Market Leadership Despite Launch in Wartime
Few industry executives would have the moxie to launch a new film company in the middle of a full-scale war. But ahead of AFM, distribution veterans Veronika Yasinska and Nadiia Zaionchkovska unveiled the start of Green Light Films, an all-rights distribution and co-production outfit for Ukraine. Backed by the holding company that owns Ukraine’s Multiplex […]
- By
Larry Charles Released the Movie He Set Out to Make: “That’s a Miracle in Hollywood”
Larry Charles’ résumé is all over the place. As a writer, he penned some of Seinfeld’s most memorable episodes (see: “The Library”). As a TV director, he skewered his industry with Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. As a filmmaker, he embraced mockumentary with Borat and Brüno. But his latest entry, by his own admission, might […]
- By
Vladimir Duthiers Is Making Up for Lost Time
There’s an eight-minute window, just after 9 a.m. ET every weekday morning, when Vladimir Duthiers goes AWOL on live TV. Viewers might think he’s just off camera at the CBS News Streaming Network anchor desk that he shares with Anne-Marie Green, but the 53-year-old newsman is frantically covering over a mile of midtown Manhattan that separates […]
- By
Yvonne Orji on Embracing Her “Endearing” Christianity and “Crazy” Hollywood
Yvonne Orji, like so many of her peers, is eager to get back to work. But as she Zooms from her Los Angeles home office in mid-August, she’s mostly itching to get out of town. “When the strikes end, and I think it’ll be soon, everyone is going to be bat-crap crazy — so get […]
- By
The ‘Narcos’ Showrunner Is Ready to Tackle a New Drug War
Eric Newman didn’t set out to be a writer. In fact, segueing to writing, much less showrunning, wasn’t even his idea. The veteran producer, whose résumé was lined with films like Children of Men and Dawn of the Dead, was down in Colombia making Narcos when, he says, Netflix urged him to take the reins. […]
- By
“To Be in Hollywood Is to Be Gaslit”: Justin Simien Levels Up With Disney’s ‘Haunted Mansion’ at a Fraught Time
Filmmaker Justin Simien was the main attraction at the July 15 red carpet premiere of his latest effort, The Haunted Mansion. But it wasn’t because he arrived in a floor-length cape, his tribute to the movie’s costume designer. It was because the hours-old SAG-AFTRA strike prevented his starry cast — LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish and […]
- By
Hollywood Offered Jake Johnson a Path to Mega-Stardom, He Chose a Regular Life
In the far corner of his backyard in Eastside L.A., Jake Johnson hand-built an 8-by-12-foot studio cabin where he does most of his work. Sure, he needs to duck to pass through the petite doorway — roughly a foot short thanks to a minor snafu in his original flooring plan — but it’s cozy and […]
- By
For ‘Joy Ride’ Director Adele Lim, Raunchy Comedy Is a Palate Cleanser
Adele Lim is anxious to hear my recap of the previous night’s screening of Joy Ride when she pipes in from her home office in early June. Not only is it the screenwriter’s directorial debut, but it’s a bawdy, R-rated buddy comedy — the type of flick that rarely inspires the same reaction in a […]
- By
Lester Holt Suggests You Hold Those Hot Takes, Please
In a TV and media landscape revolutionized by technology, network evening newscasts are somewhat defined by their lack of evolution. The dramas, comedies and variety shows of today look little like those of the 1950s and ’60s, but the nightly news programs still beam their anchors into the living rooms of America each night — […]
- By