The Biggest Movie & TV News Stories Of 2018 - Page 3 of 4

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Lucasfilm Takes Its First Major Defeat & Switches Gears
2018 was a rough year for the galaxy far, far away. Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm was all set to set up another Marvel Cinematic Universe and for a minute—three billion dollar grossers in a row—the studio looked unstoppable. That winning streak came to a screeching halt this summer with “Solo: A Star Wars Story” that could only be chalked up to Lucasfilm’s first loss since 1977 (the theatrical release of 2008’s “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” doesn’t really count). ‘Solo’ had gone through much production woes, the firing of its directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (“The Lego Movie”) and the hiring of Ron Howard in their place. Released just a few short months after “The Last Jedi,” too soon for most audiences in retrospect, ‘Solo’ was by no means a disaster of a movie, but it was rote, a Wikipedia-style origin story of Han Solo with all the familiar beats you’d heard about through “Star Wars” lore told in a semi-entertaining adventure. It wasn’t enough. Viewers weren’t very interested, and more crucially, international audiences rejected the movie wholesale—at $392 million worldwide, ‘Solo’ is Disney/Lucasfilm’s lowest-grossing “Star Wars” movie ever (2nd lowest ever domestically, not adjusting for inflation). To put that in perspective, it’s a 62% drop from the lowest grossing billion-dollar Disney-era “Star Wars” movie (‘Rogue One’). Han Solo was supposed to be “Star Wars” biggest character, but this spin-off movie took it in the teeth (worse, because of extensive reshoots, the movie cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 million minus promotion and advertising). Meanwhile, as ‘Solo’ was receiving its pummeling from critics and audiences (perhaps a mixed response at best), the company was still suffering a backlash from disgruntled fans mad about “The Last Jedi”—a narrative the company battled all year long despite the fact ‘Jedi’ was a massive financial success both theatrically and on home video (it’s the #1 Blu-Ray release of 2018). Extremely rattled by the thumping they received Lucasfilm reportedly put all their solo spin-offs on hold. While the company immediately refuted these reports, the proof is kind of in the pudding already: The ‘Boba Fett’ spin-off is apparently dead and has morphed into the upcoming “The Mandalorian” series on Disney+. There’s also a Cassian Andor series coming (the Diego Luna character from ‘Rogue One’), but that’s also been relegated to Disney+ which means currently, there’s no 2020 “Star Wars” film on the books and there likely won’t be one unless the studio gets a movie into production into the next few months (very unlikely). At one point, a solo ‘Obi-Wan’ movie was rumored for a 2019 shoot and a 2020 release, but it’s basically 2019, we haven’t heard a word, and the chances of it suddenly materializing seem slim. The final verdict? Lucasfilm took a surprising TKO in 2018, and it seems the company will be focusing on TV series until Rian Johnson and the “Game Of Thrones” dudes get their gestating “Star Wars” movies up and running. -Rodrigo Perez

#MeToo: Asia Argento Accused of Sexual Assault
The ramifications of the 2017 #MeToo movement still bled overly heavily into 2018, perhaps most felt—at least early in the year— in the late December recasting of Kevin Spacey (accused of sexual assault) in Ridley Scott’s “All The Money In The World.” But there were new #MeToo stories all year: the ongoing Harvey Weinstein saga, Les Moonves (see above), Bill Cosby finally went down, the heartbreaking ugliness of the Christine Blasey Ford story, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Piven, Stan Lee, James Franco and many more were accused and at least blemished in the public eye. Uma Thurman finally told her Weinstein story, dragging Tarantino in the process, Louie C.K. mounted an unfortunate, way-too-premature comeback (which Norm MacDonald was dragged into while defending him), but 2018 was also the year #MeToo faced its internal dramas as it were. In late 2018, Lena Dunham, a sexual assault survivor and vocal #MeToo advocate, admitted to lying to discredit a woman who had accused one of her “Girls” writers of sexual assault; She apologized at the end of this year, but the damage was done. A huge blow to the movement was the story of Italian actress Asia Argento. One of the most prominent activists of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, it was revealed she settled a complaint filed against her by a young actor and musician who said she sexually assaulted him when he was 17. Meanwhile, men continued to cry witch hunt, but Idris Elba, ever the debonair cat wrapped up the year by saying it best: “It’s only difficult if you’re a man with something to hide.” -RP

Annapurna Takes A Hit, Including The Leadership of Megan Ellison
Much like A24, in the indie world, Annapurna has had the kind of cool cache companies pay millions to cultivate; something they’ve done on their own with great taste and instincts. Founded by billionaire heir tastemaker Megan Ellison in 2011, Annapurna became the instant cool home for cinephiles and auteurs (Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master,” Kathryn Bigelow‘s “Zero Dark Thirty,” Spike Jonze‘s “Her,” Andrew Dominik‘s “Killing Them Softly” and dozens of celebrated films by Harmony Korine, David O Russell, Wong Kar-Wai, Richard Linklater and more), but in 2017, the company struck out on their own, producing and crucially, now distributing its own movies. And its been bumpy sailing ever since. The relatively expensive (for a drama) “Detroit” failed to turn a box office profit and lost money, this year’s ambitious Western “The Sisters Brothers” reportedly cost close to $40 million and tapped out at $3 million domestically, a huge flop. Then there’s Adam McKay’s Oscar hopeful “Vice.” It just released on Christmas day, and the verdict is far from in, but as a $60 million-budgeted drama about former Vice President Dick Cheney, this bloated budget made Annapurna brass and investors extremely nervous this year. It all came to a head in October once the reality of “The Sisters Brothers” flop had set in. In just a matter of weeks in the early fall, the company pulled plug on a Jay Roach-directed Fox News biopic with an A-list cast just two weeks before production was set to begin (the movie lives on, but Annapurna is no longer involved), and fired the company’s film production president Chelsea Barnard. This huge one-two blow, followed by an exodus of top executives who were forced out or who left on their own, prompted many a “What The Hell Is Going On At Annapurna?” article and questions about their financial health from trade insiders. Variety reported in October that the company was hemorrhaging money and Oracle founder Larry Ellison (her father) engineered a major reorganization of Annapurna following all the drama. While Ellison is still in charge and Annapurna downplayed Larry’s involvement, Variety said there was anxiety in the air “his oversight has alarmed top filmmakers and left Hollywood panicked that yet another backer is on the verge of collapse.” In an in-depth report, Vulture was less charitable, painting a portrait of Ellison as mercurial, either extremely hands-on or totally awol for major decisions. “She doesn’t like adults telling her what to do,” a source told NY magazine. “They’re in a little financial trouble. And her dad is like, ‘I gotta rein you in.’” Annapurna has categorically denied on all fronts, but given all the myriad reports of upheaval at the company, it doesn’t take much of a genius to see something is going on. Keep an eye on this story in 2019, especially if “Vice” isn’t a blockbuster moneymaker and recoups that expensive spend. -RP

Woody Allen Has Been Canceled… Forever?
The reckoning of #MeToo is a black hole that sucks in any major Hollywood players, and never forget the Elephant in the room that stomps out those that have remained unscathed from public-court-of-opinion punishment (very different from legal recourse, but perhaps just a damaging). Woody Allen’s scandals were from the ‘90s—his ex- Mia Farrow accusing him of molesting one of his adopted children, Dylan Farrow—but never proven legally. The stain of the saga, plus the fact that Allen would date and then marry one of Farrow’s adopted children Soon-Yi Previn, caused a dark cloud around the filmmaker during the day, but his once-a-year-movie career was never really significantly damaged. In the #MeToo climate, however, the story is drastically different. As Dylan Farrow has retold her story and her brother, journalist Ronan Farrow has become a major player in the #MeToo reporting; the sexual misconduct allegations have resurfaced and been relitigated to the point that Allen is persona non grata again. In late 2017, Amazon started abandoning Allen’s “Wonder Wheel” movie, sending out Oscar For Your Consideration screeners of the movie without even mention of his name. By early 2018, they had all but dropped his already finished follow-up movie “A Rainy Day in New York” starring the A-list cast of Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Rebecca Hall, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna and more (many of whom have already distanced themselves from the film and Allen and or vowed to give their salaries to related charities). That drama was put to bed early in the year, and it seems at best, Amazon will quietly release ‘Rainy Day’ onto its streaming platform without promotion one day. But Allen’s career, and next film, is very much up in the air. Allen grinds out film after film, one always in production, by the time another one is about to see release. Now, he’s untouchable, and there’s no movement on a new picture while Allen lays low and presumably hopes he can restart his career in a few years. This would be sufficient enough to lay out Allen for some time, but then another finishing, final blow landed just earlier this month: the former model and reported inspiration for the teenage character in “Manhattan” that Allen’s character dates in the movie, has come out to allege that the film is essentially based on real life. Allen dated her when she was all of 16-years-old, the woman says and says their affair lasted for many years (unsavory details included). If Allen wasn’t done before, perhaps we may never hear from him again? Time will tell, but presumably, he’s not as foolish as Louie C.K., and it’s a good bet, you won’t hear a word for many years. – RP