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    With ‘Challengers’ and ‘Saltburn,’ Hollywood Movies Embrace Sex Again

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    Studios obsessively focused on PG-13 franchises and animation in recent years, but movies like “Challengers” and “Saltburn” show eroticism has returned.Zendaya, clad in a skintight dress, gyrates on a dance floor in “Challengers,” a $56 million sports drama that arrived in multiplexes on Friday. “It’s getting hot in here,” the hip-hop soundtrack intones, as she closes her eyes and runs her hands through her hair, lost in fantasy. “So take off all your clothes.”The story continues at a motel, where Zendaya, playing a tennis prodigy, begins a ménage à trois with two guys; it fizzles after they become more interested in each other. The plot moves on — to sultry interplay on the hood of a car, in a dorm room, in the back seat of a car, on the wooden slats of a sauna. There is erotic churro eating.“Sex is back!” shouted an apparently elated man at the conclusion of a prerelease “Challengers” screening in West Hollywood, Calif., this month.Trend spotting in cinema is a hazardous pursuit. Think about how many times the rom-com has been declared dead — and alive — and dead. (No, wait, alive.) But this much can be said with surety: Hollywood is hornier than it has been in years.“It absolutely feels like the pendulum has swung back toward filmmakers exploring adult relationships and sexuality in their projects,” said Amy Pascal, the former chairwoman of Sony Pictures and producing force behind “Challengers.”“I welcome that,” she added.Eroticism was common in studio hits like “Basic Instinct,” starring Sharon Stone, in the 1980s and ’90s.Rialto PicturesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Video Shows Crash That Injured Crew Members of ‘The Pickup’

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      The collision on the set of “The Pickup” is under investigation. Video shows an armored truck and an S.U.V. veering off a road before the truck flips onto the smaller vehicle.A two-vehicle crash that injured several crew members on the set of the movie “The Pickup” is being investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency said on Wednesday.Amazon MGM Studios said the crash occurred on Saturday but did not provide any details about the injuries. According to two people with direct knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly about it, at least a half-dozen people who were inside the vehicles sustained injuries and were transported to a hospital. One person remained hospitalized on Wednesday with a back injury, those people said.They said that none of the actors in the film, which features Eddie Murphy, Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson, were involved in the crash. An OSHA inspection report said it occurred at a small airport outside Atlanta.Video of the crash that was obtained by The New York Times shows an armored truck pulling up alongside an S.U.V. before swerving into it. After the collision, both vehicles veer off the road in tandem and drive onto grass, where the armored truck flips on top of the S.U.V.Both vehicles completely roll over and end up upright but mangled. As a back door of the armored truck swings open, one person inside can be seen lying limp.The video is a cellphone recording of a monitor playing back the footage of the crash.Several crew members of the movie “The Pickup” were injured when two vehicles collided during filming. The crash is under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Hoping to Draw Moviegoers and Filmmakers, Amazon Heads to Theaters

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      The streaming company released Ben Affleck’s “Air” on 3,500 movie screens this week, and it plans to open 10 to 12 films theatrically every year.It was a full house at the AMC Town Center in Las Vegas in September when Ben Affleck slipped into the darkened theater. He wanted to see how his new film, “Air,” would play with a test audience, some members of which might have shown up just to escape the scorching heat outside.To his amazement, the crowd went nuts for the movie, about Nike’s efforts in the 1980s to lure a young Michael Jordan to its struggling basketball brand. The viewers clapped when Chris Tucker appeared onscreen, and they hooted for Viola Davis.“People were cheering before they said a line,” Mr. Affleck said in an interview.And that left him feeling rather deflated. He exited the theater and called Matt Damon, his longtime collaborator and new business partner.“God, man, this is tragic,” Mr. Affleck recalled telling Mr. Damon. “I haven’t had a movie play in a theater like this in years. And it’s going on a streamer.”He added, “I felt like Charlie Brown with the football.”But a funny thing happened on the way to Amazon’s Prime Video service, which bankrolled the $130 million film. After similar raucous screenings in Los Angeles, Amazon decided the film would go to theaters first — opening on 3,500 screens in the United States this week, and more than 70 other markets worldwide. It will play for at least a month and is the company’s largest theatrical release since it began making movies in 2015.“Originally we thought, well, our customers are on Prime, so that’s where we need to deliver our movies, but we’re now thinking of the bigger audience and assuming that most of the United States are Prime members anyway,” Jennifer Salke, the head of Amazon and MGM Studios, said in an interview. “So why wouldn’t you offer these movies theatrically and allow people to come back to that experience and then move directly to Prime afterwards?”She added, “It’s only the beginning for us.”Jennifer Salke, the head of Amazon Studios, is a veteran TV executive and was initially wary of releasing films theatrically.Danny Moloshok/ReutersAmazon now says its ultimate goal is to release 10 to 12 movies a year in theaters. Not all will be on as many screens as “Air” or play as long. Rather, each theatrical strategy will be based on the perceived box office potential. And other films will still debut on Prime Video.The news is a huge victory for the beleaguered theatrical exhibition business, with year-to-date ticket sales down 25 percent from before the pandemic.“It’s not really about just playing ‘Air,’” said Greg Marcus, chief executive of the Marcus Corporation, a movie entertainment and lodging business in Milwaukee. “The bigger, more important story is its commitment to doing a theatrical slate so that some of it’s going to work and some of it won’t. Success should be judged over an entire slate and include all revenue generated throughout the life of the slate.”Between the advent of streaming and consumer habit changes brought on by the pandemic, Hollywood has been constantly re-evaluating how it thinks about movie theaters. The common wisdom over the past year is that superhero movies still draw crowds (even if the numbers are waning), as do films with wild spectacle (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) or established characters (“Creed III”).Less certain are the films that Mr. Affleck prefers to traffic in, especially when he’s behind the camera: adult dramas with touches of comedy and an earnest feel-good bent, like his Oscar-winning “Argo.” Recent Oscar contenders, like Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” disappointed at the box office.But a strong performance for “Air” could indicate to the industry that movies for adults are still viable in theaters. Apple, which previously eschewed theaters, already has plans to release both Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” theatrically this year.That could encourage other distributors to release more films in theaters, and filmmakers eager for streaming money but still yearning for their work to be seen on the big screen may look to Amazon. (“Air” brought in $3.2 million at the box office on Wednesday, and Amazon is expecting it to gross a modest $16 million through the weekend.)“I think there is a legitimate case to be made that some movies are better experienced in the theater with a group of people,” Mr. Affleck said. “If they can provide robust theatrical releases where the movies are well supported, then it will move Amazon to the front of the pack.”When Ms. Salke, a veteran television executive, took over Amazon’s studio in 2018, her knowledge of the movie business was cursory at best. She had spent years overseeing television at NBC, shepherding hits like “This Is Us.” At the beginning of her tenure, she plunked down close to $50 million for five movies at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The films, including “Late Night,” and “Brittany Runs a Marathon,” underperformed.Suddenly, Amazon, which had been a friend to the theater business with its films “Manchester by the Sea” and “The Big Sick,” was no longer interested in the cutthroat world of box office receipts, where the entire industry knows if a movie is a success or a failure by Saturday morning of opening weekend.“It was like, why would we put ourselves through that step if it’s going to tear down the film and require us to double our investment in marketing to get to Prime to kind of turn that story around?” she said.When Amazon bought Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 2021, there was trepidation that the historic label would be reduced to a tile on the Prime website. MGM had recently been resurrected by Michael DeLuca and Pamela Abdy and had made theatrical commitments to filmmakers like Mr. Scott, Paul Thomas Anderson and Sarah Polley.Instead, Ms. Salke seems to have been influenced by the executives at MGM. She also saw how films Amazon acquired during the pandemic — like “Coming 2 America” and “The Tomorrow War” — did as streaming-first movies.“The performance of those films on the service already made us feel like we want to go bigger on the movie side,” she said. “Then we’re buying MGM and closing that deal. We have more movies.”While Mr. DeLuca and Ms. Abdy decamped for a job running Warner Bros., the MGM executives who remained had shown Amazon what a successful theatrical strategy could look like. It culminated in the early-March release of “Creed III,” which has grossed close to $150 million in North America, outperforming its predecessors.In the meantime, Ms. Salke has consolidated her power. The company’s new head of film, Courtenay Valenti, who will oversee both Amazon and MGM after a long career at Warner Bros., will report to her instead of to Mike Hopkins, Ms. Salke’s boss and the senior vice president of Prime Video, Amazon Studios and MGM. And Ms. Salke said she would not waver from her theatrical strategy no matter how “Air” performed.“We are committed,” she said.Matt Damon and Viola Davis star in “Air,” which tells the story of Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan.Amazon StudiosThere is no guarantee that Amazon’s strategy for “Air” will succeed. With many moviegoers requiring a spectacle before buying a ticket, a film that is shot primarily in office buildings and never actually shows the face of the actor playing Michael Jordan could be a difficult sell.Sue Kroll, the studio’s new head of marketing, argues that despite the setting and the talky nature of the film, “Air” has the makings of a crowd pleaser.“It really does take you to another place,” she said of the movie, which stars Mr. Damon as Sonny Vaccaro, a sad-sack basketball scout asked to find up-and-coming basketball stars to endorse Nike shoes.“It’s emotional. It’s funny. And it has a lot of heart,” Ms. Kroll added. “I think it can pave the way for a lot of other great movies out there that should be seen theatrically.”The company hopes so. At the end of April, it will release Guy Ritchie’s “The Covenant,” an MGM film that stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an Army sergeant ambushed in Afghanistan. On Sept. 15, it will release “Challengers,” an MGM movie that stars Zendaya as a tennis player turned coach. “Saltburn,” a film from the “Promising Young Woman” director Emerald Fennell, which Amazon acquired out of Cannes last year, will open sometime in the fall.Ms. Valenti, who started last month, is still putting her full schedule together. “There is fantastic development here, but movies don’t grow on trees,” she said, before adding that she thinks her job will be made easier because of Amazon’s commitment to marketing its films, wherever they land.“The only way you attract the best talent, the best filmmakers, the best storytellers to make their larger-than-life films here,” Ms. Valenti continued, “is because they have to know that their movies aren’t going to die in the quicksands of the service.” More

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      Alan Ladd Jr., Hitmaking Film Executive, Dies at 84

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      When other studios didn’t want it, he took on the project that became “Star Wars.” He later guided “Chariots of Fire,” “Young Frankenstein” and numerous other movies.Alan Ladd Jr., who as a producer and studio executive was a guiding hand behind scores of successful films, none bigger than “Star Wars,” which he championed when its young director, George Lucas, was having trouble getting it made, died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84.Kathie Berlin, who worked with him for years at his production company and at MGM, said the cause was kidney failure.Mr. Ladd was vice president for creative affairs at 20th Century Fox in 1973 when Mr. Lucas’s agent, Jeff Berg, began talking with him about Mr. Lucas’s still-evolving concept for what became “Star Wars.” Mr. Lucas had just made “American Graffiti,” but it had yet to be released (once it was, it would become one of 1973’s biggest movies), and so Mr. Lucas’s idea for a space movie wasn’t getting much respect; United Artists and Universal weren’t interested.Mr. Ladd, though, was. He knew movies and audiences — his father was an actor who had been in more than 100 films and TV shows — and he understood the appeal of Mr. Lucas’s vision.“It took me back to the old Saturday matinees,” he told The New York Times in 1977 as “Star Wars,” released a few months earlier, was smashing box-office records. “I used to go crazy over Superman and Flash Gordon. When I heard Universal had passed on it, I thought, ‘They’re crazy!’ So I took an option on it.”From left, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in George Lucas’s “Star Wars” (1977), which Mr. Ladd agreed to make when other studios weren’t interested.Lucas FilmsIt wasn’t the first time Mr. Ladd had seen potential where others did not. A few years earlier Mel Brooks was shopping his idea for “Young Frankenstein,” but Columbia balked when he insisted on shooting the movie in black and white. Mr. Brooks then sat down with Mr. Ladd.“We all hit it off at our first meeting because the first thing Laddie” — Mr. Ladd’s nickname — “said was, ‘You’re absolutely right. It should be made in black and white,’” Mr. Brooks wrote in his book “All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business” (2021).“I knew right then and there,” Mr. Brooks added, “that I had finally met a studio chief that I could really trust.”Mr. Brooks went on to make several other movies with Mr. Ladd, including the “Star Wars” parody “Spaceballs” in 1987, when Mr. Ladd was chairman of MGM. By then Mr. Brooks was box-office gold, thanks in part to “Young Frankenstein,” which had earned more than $100 million, and, as he told The Los Angeles Times in 1987, he could have taken “Spaceballs” to just about any major studio.“But I’ve known Laddie for years,” he said. “And I’m not so wise, so old or so powerful that I can resist a lot of gut-level help all the way down the line — and especially emotional support — which is something Laddie has always provided.”Gene Wilder, left, and Peter Boyle in Mel Brooks’s “Young Frankenstein” (1974). Mr. Ladd supported Mr. Brooks’s insistence on making the film in black and white.20th Century FoxMr. Ladd, who at various times held top positions at 20th Century Fox and MGM/UA as well as running the Ladd Company, which he founded in 1979, was known for a relatively laid-back style in a business full of intrusive executives. In a 1999 interview with The New York Times, the director Norman Jewison recalled his experience working with Mr. Ladd on the 1987 hit “Moonstruck,” which won three Oscars.“I gave him a price of what I thought I could do the film for,” Mr. Jewison said, “and told him I was going to go after Cher to play the lead. No other major stars. And he called me up and said, ‘OK.’ And I never saw him again, until I told him that the film was finished and I wanted him to see it. That doesn’t happen anymore.”Ms. Berlin said that while Mr. Ladd’s championing of “Star Wars” may be his calling card, he also deserved credit for backing films like “Moonstruck,” “Julia” (1977) and “Thelma and Louise” (1991) that had strong female characters. He is generally credited with suggesting that the lead character in Ridley Scott’s “Alien” (1979), originally written as a man, be changed, giving Sigourney Weaver a chance to create a memorable sci-fi heroine.“I am always asking, ‘Can this role be more interesting if it’s played by a woman rather than a man?’” he told The Los Angeles Times in 1988.Mr. Ladd in 2007. He was known for a relatively laid-back style in a business full of intrusive executives.Misha Erwitt for The New York TimesAlan Walbridge Ladd Jr. was born on Oct. 22, 1937, in Los Angeles to Alan Ladd, best known as the star of the 1953 western “Shane,” and his first wife, Marjorie Jane Harrold.Alan Jr. studied at the University of Southern California, was called up as an Air Force reservist during the Berlin crisis of the early 1960s and, once released, went to work in the mailroom of the talent agency Creative Management Associates. He soon became an agent, representing, among others, Judy Garland.In the early 1970s he formed a producing partnership in London with several others and produced his first movies, including “The Nightcomers” (1971), which starred Marlon Brando.Returning to the United States, he became a vice president at Fox in 1973. In 1976 he became the company’s president. Three years later he announced that he was leaving to form his own company.Mr. Ladd was a top executive at MGM twice. In 1985 he was brought in to run one of its movie divisions; soon after that he was named president and chief operating officer, and then chairman. He left in 1988 with the company undergoing ownership and organizational changes. He was leading the movie division of Pathé Communications when that company acquired MGM, and in 1991 he became chief executive. He was forced out in 1993 in another ownership change.Among the movies the Ladd Company had a hand in was “Chariots of Fire” (1981), which won the best-picture Oscar. “Braveheart” (1995), another Ladd Company project, won the same award.But “Star Wars” was almost certainly Mr. Ladd’s biggest triumph. He was still unsure about whether the film would work when he attended the premiere in San Francisco — until he heard the tidal wave of applause at the end.“It kept going on; it wasn’t stopping,” he recalled later. “And I just never had experienced that kind of reaction to any movie ever. Finally, when it was over, I had to get up and walk outside because of the tears.”Mr. Ladd’s marriage to Patricia Beazley ended in divorce, as did his second marriage, to Cindra Pincock. He is survived by three children from his first marriage, Kelliann Ladd, Tracy Ladd and Amanda Ladd Jones; a brother, David; a sister, Carol Lee Veitch; and six grandchildren. A daughter from his second marriage, Chelsea Ladd, died in 2021. More

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      James Bond Returns and Theaters See Reason for Hope

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      “No Time to Die” has taken in more than $300 million worldwide. The overall box office remains fragile, however, and the future for films that aren’t part of big-budget franchises is unsure.LOS ANGELES — Movie theaters are finally bouncing back from the pandemic, with solid turnout over the weekend for the latest James Bond spectacle, “No Time to Die,” giving Hollywood its third box office success in the span of a month. For coronavirus-battered multiplex chains, it’s reason for a celebratory martini.But the box office is still extremely fragile, analysts say, and one of the doomsday scenarios about the pandemic’s lasting impact on theatergoing has been coming true: The only movies attracting sizable attention in cinemas are big-budget franchise films. The audience for smaller dramas and comedies seems — at least for now — to be satisfied with home viewing, either buying films through video on demand or watching them on streaming services.“Superhero, action and horror movies are performing well in theaters, particularly when they are offered exclusively and not simultaneously available to stream,” said David A. Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a film consultancy. “But parts of the business remain down. Dramas, character-driven and art-house movies were under pressure before the pandemic, and the bar is going to be even higher now.”“No Time to Die,” billed as the 25th installment in the Bond franchise and with Daniel Craig in his fifth and final turn as 007, took in an estimated $56 million from 4,407 theaters in the United States and Canada, according to Comscore. In partial release overseas, “No Time to Die” collected an additional $257 million, according to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and its overseas distribution partner, Universal Pictures International. (Amazon bought MGM for $8.5 billion this year.)“No Time to Die,” featuring Daniel Craig’s final turn as James Bond, was originally scheduled to come out in April 2020.Philip Cheung for The New York TimesBecause of the pandemic, more moviegoers have been holding off on ticket-buying decisions until the last minute, analysts say, making it difficult for studios to predict how a movie will perform. Going into the weekend, domestic estimates for “No Time to Die” ranged from $36 million to more than $70 million, depending on what research firm was doing the prognosticating. The film’s franchise predecessor, “Spectre,” took in $70.4 million in North America over its first three days in 2015.“No Time to Die,” which received strong reviews and an A-minus grade from ticket buyers in CinemaScore exit polls, was the first major movie to be affected by the pandemic. It was originally scheduled to roll out in theaters in April 2020. MGM and the London-based producers who control the franchise, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, pushed back the release to November 2020 and then again to this month.Theaters keep roughly 50 percent of total ticket sales, which means the expensive “No Time to Die” is unlikely to turn a profit for MGM. The film cost an estimated $250 million to make and a further $150 million to market worldwide. But the film sold enough tickets over its first three days in theaters to qualify as a success, in part because of interest from older ticket buyers, who have been avoiding theaters over coronavirus concerns.About 36 percent of the weekend audience in North America was over the age of 45 and roughly 57 percent was over 35, according to Erik Lomis, president of distribution at United Artists Releasing, an MGM affiliate. Mr. Lomis said that exit polls indicated that 25 percent of ticket buyers had not been to a theater in 18 months.“That is a very big deal that shows the power of Bond,” Mr. Lomis said. “This movie is going to remind a lot of people how fun it is to go to the movies, and that will hopefully help the whole industry. We need a more mature audience to return.”Greg Durkin, the founder of Guts and Data, a film research firm, said that “No Time to Die” had a “fantastic” opening weekend, “especially given the audience composition and how older moviegoers have been more hesitant to return to theaters.” Mr. Durkin estimated that, without the pandemic, “No Time to Die” would have opened to about $62 million in domestic ticket sales.“No Time to Die” arrived after the superhero sequel “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” (Sony) generated $90 million at North American theaters between Oct. 1 and 3 — the highest opening weekend of the pandemic era. The global total for “Let There Be Carnage” now stands at $186 million. Another superhero movie, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings” (Disney-Marvel) sold about $75 million in tickets over its first three days in theaters in early September, setting a Labor Day weekend record (pandemic or otherwise). It has since collected $400 million worldwide.“Venom: Let There Be Carnage” also had big ticket sales in its opening weekend this month.Sony Pictures Entertainment, via Associated PressBut films that are not fantasies or part of existing franchises have been struggling, adding to worries that cinemas in the post-pandemic era will offer much less variety. The concern is that old-line studios will reroute most dramas, comedies, documentaries and foreign films to streaming services, as they have been doing during the pandemic, leaving cinemas to become even more of a movie-as-theme-park-ride business.Recent theatrical disappointments have included “Dear Evan Hansen,” a big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical; “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” about the overly emotive televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker; “Respect,” an Aretha Franklin bio-musical starring Jennifer Hudson; and the art-house drama “Blue Bayou.” Clint Eastwood’s latest film, “Cry Macho,” and the period mob drama “The Many Saints of Newark” both arrived to muted ticket sales, in part because Warner Bros. released them simultaneously in theaters and on the HBO Max streaming service.So far this year, the art film distributor Magnolia Pictures has released 17 films that have collected roughly $1 million at the North American box office combined, according to the database IMDb Pro. In 2019, Magnolia released 16 films that generated about $6 million.The next weeks and months will either add to worries or ease them, as studios begin to release a more steady stream of non-franchise films, including sophisticated offerings with Oscar aspirations. “The Last Duel,” a historical drama directed by Ridley Scott and starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jodie Comer and Adam Driver, will roll out exclusively in theaters on Friday. “The French Dispatch,” directed by Wes Anderson and featuring an all-star cast, is scheduled for exclusive theatrical release on Oct. 22.“We need studios to release a wider range of movies,” said Patrick Corcoran, a spokesman for the National Association of Theater Owners, which represents 35,000 movie screens in the United States. “Right now, theaters are like grocery stores where you can only buy steak,” he continued, referring to effects-driven spectacles. “People also want cereal. They also want fresh fruit and vegetables.” More

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      Daniel Craig après 007

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      The New York Times traduit en français une sélection de ses meilleurs articles. Retrouvez-les ici.Il y a environ un an et demi, j’avais rendez-vous avec Daniel Craig au Musée d’Art Moderne de New York pour discuter de son dernier James Bond “No Time to Die” (“Mourir peut attendre”) et dire adieu à l’espion séducteur qu’il incarne depuis 2006.Avant de s’assoir à table, dans une salon privé du restaurant du musée, Craig m’a tendu le flacon de gel hydroalcoolique qu’il avait sur lui. “C’est de l’or en barre, ce truc”, m’a-t-il lancé avec désinvolture. “C’est un truc de dingue — les gens vendent ça quelque chose comme 25 dollars la dose.”Ce moment s’avèrera sans doute le plus marquant de l’interview. La suite, qui a duré une heure, s’est passée à converser poliment du tournage de “Mourir peut attendre” (dont la sortie était prévue le mois suivant) et de sa satisfaction à la fois de son travail et du fait d’avoir terminé sa mission.Nous nous sommes quittés et, deux jours plus tard, la MGM et les producteurs de la franchise James Bond annonçaient qu’ils reportaient à novembre la sortie de “Mourir peut attendre”, citant leurs “appréciation attentive et examen approfondi du marché global du cinéma”. (“C’est une décision purement économique que nous pouvons comprendre et qui n’est pas liée à la montée des craintes suscitées par le coronavirus,” écrivait à l’époque, peu convaincante, la revue spécialisée Deadline.)Sans film à promouvoir, Craig a tout de même participé ce week-end-là au show télévisé “Saturday Night Live”. Au programme, un sketch joyeusement loufoque sur l’effet du coronavirus sur les feuilletons, et la présentation par Craig de l’invité musical, le chanteur canadien the Weeknd, sur un ton d’une délectation inattendue. Le lendemain, il quittait New York en famille avec sa femme, la comédienne Rachel Weisz — et le pays plongeait tête la première dans la pandémie.Les frivolités sans lendemain se sont faites rare dans les mois qui ont suivi. Mais en dépit des incertitudes quant au devenir de la pandémie et du caractère imprévisible du box-office d’une semaine à l’autre, la MGM — après deux reports supplémentaires de la sortie du film — a finalement résolu de sortir “No Time to Die” le 8 octobre aux USA (le 6 octobre en France).Une scène de “Mourir peut attendre”, dont la sortie a été retardée plusieurs fois en raison de la pandémie. “J’ai tellement hâte que les gens puissent voir ce film, et j’espère qu’il leur plaira,” dit l’acteur. Nicola Dove/MGMDes adieux pénibles et interminables, en fin de compte, pour Craig, qui a 53 ans. Dès le moment où il a été choisi pour succéder à Pierce Brosnan dans le rôle de 007, il n’était pas une incarnation évidente ou élégante du personnage. Son allure, trop fruste; son CV cinématographique, trop mince ; ses cheveux, trop blonds.Craig m’a raconté lors de cette première rencontre qu’il était persuadé qu’on l’avait invité à auditionner comme chair à canon, pour faciliter le choix d’un autre acteur pour le rôle. “J’étais un acteur parmi beaucoup d’autres — quelqu’un à éliminer,” estimait-il alors. Il pensait, au mieux, décrocher un rôle secondaire de vilain: “Tiens, joue le méchant”.Au lieu de cela, après ses débuts dans “Casino Royale”, Craig a continué en 2008 avec “Quantum of Solace” avant d’enchaîner les suites épiques de “Skyfall » (2012) et de “Spectre” (2015). Ses James Bond ont engrangé plus de 3 milliards de dollars au niveau mondial, de plus en plus ambitieux en termes d’échelle et vertigineux en termes de durée de vie à l’écran.Malgré quelques signes de lassitude — lorsque Time Out lui a demandé s’il s’imaginait continuer, il a répondu : “je préférerais casser ce verre et m’ouvrir le poignet” — et pas mal de blessures, Craig convient qu’il avait envie de jouer une dernière fois ce Bond morose et impassible, histoire de terminer l’histoire commencée avec “Casino Royale”.“Je voulais y mettre de la cohérence”, me dit-il, avant d’ajoutant en riant : “Peut-être qu’on se souviendra de moi comme du Bond Bougon. Je n’en sais rien. C’est mon Bond à moi et je dois l’assumer, ça a été mon Bond. Mais ça me convient tout à fait.””Je ne me dévoile peut-être pas autant que les gens le souhaiteraient, mais c’est mon choix,” dit Daniel Craig. “Ça m’a sans doute valu des ennuis.”Devin Oktar Yalkin pour The New York TimesLe tournage de “Mourir peut attendre”, même en 2018 et 2019, les années insouciantes d’‘avant’, n’a pas été simple pour Craig, qui en était coproducteur comme pour “Spectre”. Danny Boyle a accepté le poste de réalisateur avant de se rétracter, citant des différends sur la création. C’est finalement Cary Joji Fukunaga qui réalisera le film. Craig s’est blessé à la cheville pendant le tournage, nécessitant une petite opération.L’acteur qui, la pandémie aidant, aura incarné Bond plus longtemps qu’aucun de ses prédecesseurs , a dû ensuite patienter 18 mois avant de pouvoir dévoiler le film de 2 heures et 43 minutes qui le libère enfin de ses obligations envers les Services Secrets de Sa Majesté. Dans l’intérim, il a déjà tourné une suite à “Knives Out” (“À couteaux tirés”), le thriller de Rian Johnson de 2019. Il y retrouve son rôle de Benoit Blanc, le détective-gentleman dont la fantaisie cultivée en dit peut-être beaucoup sur tout ce que Craig ne pouvait se permettre en tant que James Bond.Quand nous nous sommes reparlé au téléphone en septembre, Craig était à la fois aussi réservé qu’à l’accoutumée et un peu plus détendu. Le fait de savoir que “Mourir peut attendre” se concrétisait enfin lui donnait la liberté de réfléchir à ce que son expérience de James Bond signifiait pour lui — toutes proportions gardées. Sur la question de l’évolution possible de la franchise James Bond— comme par exemple du plan d’Amazon d’acheter MGM — son laconisme en disait long.Et bien sûr, la star peu loquace avait un autre secret dans sa manche : on a appris ce mercredi que Craig est à l’affiche d’une nouvelle production de “Macbeth” à Broadway, dans le rôle-titre du noble écossais assoiffé de pouvoir. Ruth Negga sera Lady Macbeth à ses côtés. (Cette production mise en scène par Sam Gold débutera en avant-première au Lyceum Theater à Broadway le 29 mars, avant une sortie le 28 avril.)Craig l’a dit plus d’une fois au cours de nos conversations: il n’est qu’un comédien à ne pas confondre avec son futur ex-alter ego.“Tout ce que je souhaitais au fond, c’était d’en vivre,” dit-il de la profession d’acteur. “Je voulais ne pas avoir à servir les tables, ce que je faisais depuis l’âge de 16 ans. Je me suis dit que si je pouvais faire ça et qua payait mon loyer, alors j’aurais réussi.”“Croyez-moi, je ne suis qu’un simple mortel,” conclut-il.Craig a également évoqué la longue attente de la sortie de “Mourir peut attendre” et partagé — pour l’heure — ses dernières pensées sur James Bond. Voici les extraits édités de deux conversations ultérieures.Comment avez-vous vécu l’année et demi écoulée ? Comment ça va, d’une façon générale ?Ça va, autant que faire se peut. J’ai la chance incroyable d’avoir une famille merveilleuse et d’avoir un lieu en dehors de la ville où on a pu s’installer loin de cette espèce de folie. On a quitté la ville le 8 mars. La veille au soir, j’avais fait le “Saturday Night Live”, c’était vraiment surréaliste. Ça a été une année difficile pour tout le monde, et il s’est passé des choses pas très agréables, mais c’est comme ça.Il n’est pas impliqué dans la recherche du prochain 007. “Quelle que soit la personne choisie, je lui souhaite bonne chance.” Devin Oktar Yalkin pour The New York TimesEst-ce que c’est une leçon d’humilité, de jouer des personnages définis par leur aptitude et leur ingéniosité, puis de vivre une expérience dans la vraie vie qui vous rappelle que nous sommes tous à la merci de forces supérieures ?Bon, de toute façon c’est pas comme ça que je me sens. Je me sens comme un être humain normal la plupart du temps. J’ai aucune connexion avec les personnages que je joue. Je veux dire, vraiment aucune. C’est tout ce qu’ils sont. Tellement de choses ont été relativisées. C’est difficile de ne pas simplement voir le monde d’une manière différente. Je suis sûr que c’est pareil pour tout le monde.Il y a une vidéo qui circule d’un discours à vos collègues et votre équipe à la fin du tournage de “Mourir peut attendre”. Vous avez terminé les larmes aux yeux, et ça m’a rassuré que vous montriez vos émotions — que vous puissiez être vulnérable comme ça.Je ne me dévoile peut-être pas autant que les gens le souhaiteraient, mais c’est mon choix. Ça m’a sans doute valu des ennuis et les gens se sont fait leur propre opinion sur moi. Mais je suis un être humain incroyablement émotif. Je suis un acteur. Enfin, c’est mon métier. Et la vidéo dont vous parlez, c’est le point final de 15 années de ma vie dans lesquelles j’ai mis tout ce que je pouvais mettre. Je serais une espèce de sociopathe si je n’avais pas un peu la gorge nouée après tout ça. Heureusement, je ne suis pas un sociopathe.Si tout s’était passé comme prévu il y a un an et demi, vous auriez eu droit à un tour de piste un peu plus flamboyant. Tout ceci vous semble-t-il assez discret, au final ?Rajoutez Covid à la fin de chaque phrase. Je suis optimiste sur tout ça. Je suis simplement heureux qu’on ait pu en arriver là parce que Dieu sait qu’il y a un an et demi, rien de tout ça n’avait de sens ou ne semblait même dans le domaine du possible. Je suis incroyablement heureux qu’on soit au point de permettre au public d’aller le voir. J’ai tellement hâte que les gens puissent voire ce film, et j’espère qu’il leur plaira.Combien de projets prennent 15 ans dans une vie ? C’est le temps qu’il faut normalement pour obtenir un doctorat ou une chaire d’université à son nom.C’est vrai. [Rire] Je n’ai ni l’un ni l’autre, loin de là. Mais c’est très gentil à vous de le poser en ces termes.Qu’est-ce qui va vous manquer de James Bond ?Ce qui va me manquer, c’est l’immense effort d’équipe que ça demande. On a commencé le projet il y a presque cinq ans, aussi frustrant et anxiogène que ça puisse être. Parfois, j’ai l’impression que ça ne va pas se faire, mais c’est un processus incroyablement créatif, et ça va me manquer. J’ai d’autres projets en cours, et ils seront valorisants, mais rien ne vaut un film de James Bond.Quelque chose de spécifique à propos du personnage lui-même ?Je l’ai joué. Je lui ai donné tout ce que je pouvais. Il est aussi accompli pour moi que j’ai pu y arriver. Enfin, qui sait ? Je n’ai pas de réponse claire à cela.Daniel Craig dans son premier James Bond, “Casino Royale” (2006).Jay Maidment/MGM and Columbia PicturesEn 2008 dans “Quantum of Solace”, son deuxième Bond, avec Olga Kurylenko.Karen Ballard/MGM and Columbia PicturesWe haven’t seen Craig as Bond since “Spectre” (2015).Jonathan Olley/MGM and Columbia PicturesLa franchise est devenue de plus en plus ambitieuse, comme le montre “Skyfall” (2012).Francois Duhamel/MGM and Columbia PicturesVous êtes parent. Pensez-vous que James Bond signifiera quelque chose pour vos enfants et leur génération ?Si vous comprenez aussi bien les enfants, je dirais que c’est vous qui méritez une chaire. Je ne les comprends pas très bien. Ils sont une énigme pour moi, et si ces films leur apportent quelque chose plus tard, ce sera leur voyage, pas le mien.Êtes-vous impliqué d’une quelconque manière dans la recherche de votre successeur, quel qu’il soit ?Daniel Craig’s History as James BondCard 1 of 715 years of Bond: More

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      Jane Powell, Hollywood’s Girl Next Door, Is Dead at 92

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      Typecast from the outset, she was a star of movie musicals before she was out of her teens. But her big-screen career peaked when she was in her 20s.Jane Powell, whose pert good looks and lyrical soprano voice brought her Hollywood stardom before she was out of her teens — but whose movie career peaked when she was still in her 20s with a starring role in one of the last great MGM musicals, the 1954 extravaganza “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” — died on Thursday at her home in Wilton, Conn. She was 92. Susan Granger, her friend, confirmed the death.Ms. Powell, who was just over five feet tall and retained the guileless features of an innocent teenager well past adolescence, found herself typecast from the outset.Ms. Powell in Los Angeles, in 1944, the year her first film, “Song of the Open Road,” was released. “I should have been the happiest girl in the world,” she said of becoming a movie star in her teens. “Well, I wasn’t.”Associated PressShe was only 15 when her first film, “Song of the Open Road” (1944), was released. She played a disenchanted young film star who finds happiness when she runs away from home and joins a group of young people picking crops while adult farmworkers are at war. The film is noteworthy mostly because the name of the character she played, Jane Powell, became hers as well when the movie was released. She was born Suzanne Lorraine Burce. Ms. Powell had already been signed by MGM, but the studio lent her to United Artists for “Song of the Open Road.” Her first several MGM movies were mostly forgettable musicals, with slender story lines that were little more than frameworks for the songs.In “Holiday in Mexico” (1946), she played the daughter of the American ambassador to that country (Walter Pidgeon), while the piano virtuoso José Iturbi, the bandleader Xavier Cugat and Ms. Powell provided the music. In “Luxury Liner” (1948), she was a stowaway on a cruise ship captained by her father (George Brent), with Mr. Cugat and the opera singer Lauritz Melchior among the passengers.Her breakthrough was “Royal Wedding” (1951), the first movie in which she played an adult. This time Ms. Powell had an outstanding director, Stanley Donen; an outstanding score, by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner; and, most important, an outstanding co-star: Fred Astaire.Set just before the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, “Royal Wedding” centers on an American brother-sister song-and-dance act (Astaire and Ms. Powell) on tour in London. Cast at the last minute to replace Judy Garland, who had been fired (and who herself had replaced a pregnant June Allyson), Ms. Powell had almost no time to learn her dance routines. But she acquitted herself well, notably in a knockabout vaudeville-style number with Astaire, “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life?”Her movie career appeared to be gaining steam. In fact, it was halfway over.After “Royal Wedding,” Ms. Powell, to her frustration, found herself once again cast as the girl next door in lightweight musicals like “Rich, Young and Pretty” (1951) and “Three Sailors and a Girl” (1953). It would be three years before she had another role of substance — but it was a memorable one.Set in a pioneer community in 19th-century Oregon, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” told the story of newlyweds (Ms. Powell and Howard Keel) whose first order of business as a married couple is to find wives for the groom’s six rowdy brothers. Directed by Mr. Donen, with a lively score by Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer and acrobatic choreography by Michael Kidd, it earned a place on many lists of the greatest film musicals of all time. It was, Ms. Powell later said, “my last really wonderful role in a film.”Suzanne Burce was born on April 1, 1929, in Portland, Ore. An only child, she was still a toddler when her parents — Paul Burce, who worked for a bread company, and Eileen (Baker) Burce — began grooming her as a potential successor to Shirley Temple.By the time she was 5 she was taking singing and dancing lessons and appearing on the radio. When she was 14 her parents took her to Hollywood, where her performance on a popular radio talent show led to an audition for Louis B. Mayer of MGM and, in short order, a seven-year contract.Looking back on that time in her 1988 autobiography, “The Girl Next Door and How She Grew,” Ms. Powell wrote: “I should have been the happiest girl in the world. Well, I wasn’t.” All she wanted to do, she said, was return home, go to high school and make friends. Her parents’ relentless efforts to make her a star had made for a lonely, artificial childhood. Despite her almost immediate success, she wrote, “Sometimes I just wanted to run away from it all.”Ms. Powell in performance at a nightclub in Las Vegas in 1957.David Smith/Associated PressWith musicals beginning to fall out of fashion, she had few film roles after “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” (“I didn’t quit movies,” she once said. “They quit me.”) Two middling musicals followed: “Hit the Deck” (1955), her last film for MGM, and “The Girl Most Likely” (1958), in which she was courted by Cliff Robertson and two other men.Her big-screen career came to an anticlimactic end in 1958 with the dramas “The Female Animal,” in which she played the alcoholic daughter of a fading movie star (Hedy Lamarr), and “Enchanted Island,” in which she was improbably cast as a Polynesian islander. (“It was a terrible movie,” she said. “The best thing about it was that it gave the family a great vacation in Acapulco.”)Ms. Powell found a new home on television. A 1961 pilot for a sitcom, “The Jane Powell Show,” was not picked up, but she appeared regularly on dramatic anthology series, variety shows and musical specials, as well as in a recurring role as Alan Thicke’s mother on the sitcom “Growing Pains” in the late 1980s and in a long-running ad campaign for denture products. Her last TV appearance was on an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” in 2002.She also performed in touring productions of musicals, including “My Fair Lady,” “The Sound of Music” and “Carousel.” She made her Broadway debut in 1974, when she replaced her friend and frequent MGM co-star Debbie Reynolds as the title character in the hit revival of the 1919 musical “Irene.”Ms. Powell in 1984 with Dick Moore, who, like her, had been a child star, and whom she would marry four years later.G. Paul Burnett/Associated PressShe never returned to Broadway, although she played the queen in a 1995 New York City Opera production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” and occasionally appeared Off Broadway. She seemed headed back to Broadway in 2003, when she played the mother of the entrepreneurial Mizner brothers in the Stephen Sondheim musical “Bounce” in Chicago and Washington. But the show was poorly received and never made it to New York. (It was later reworked, retitled “Road Show” and staged at the Public Theater in New York in 2008, without Ms. Powell in the cast.)Ms. Powell’s first four marriages ended in divorce. In 1988 she married Dick Moore, whom she met when he was writing a book about child actors. Although, as Dickie Moore, he had once been a child actor himself, their paths had never crossed until he interviewed her for his book.Ms. Powell at her apartment in New York in 1996. She appeared frequently on television until 2002.Jack Manning/The New York TimesMr. Moore died in 2015, and Ms. Powell died in the home they had shared. She is survived by a son, Geary Anthony Steffen III; two daughters, Suzanne Steffen and Lindsay Cavalli; and two granddaughters.Looking back in 1988 on her youthful stardom and her place in the Hollywood studio system, Ms. Powell was philosophical.“I get angry when I hear other actors blame the studios for all their problems,” she wrote in her autobiography. “It really bothered me when Judy Garland used to say, ‘The studio made me do this, the studio made me do that.’“Nobody makes you do anything. You make your own choices.”Alyssa Lukpat More

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      They Resurrected MGM. Amazon Bought the Studio. Now What?

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      Paul Thomas Anderson and Michael De Luca are film geeks with a shared history. As a studio executive, Mr. De Luca championed Mr. Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” and “Magnolia,” films that established the director’s reputation as a creative force. So when Focus Features said it would postpone the production of Mr. Anderson’s new film because of the pandemic, it was Mr. De Luca, in his new role as chairman of MGM’s Motion Picture Group, who swooped in and pledged to get the movie into production in Los Angeles when Mr. Anderson wanted to shoot.And being that the two men can’t resist the pull of old Hollywood, Mr. De Luca made sure to amp up the nostalgia associated with his efforts to reinvigorate MGM, the once mighty studio that in recent decades has been reduced to a financial Ping-Pong ball, volleyed back and forth by various investors eager to turn the company’s 4,000-film library into a cash cow.“I said, ‘This will be fun. Come make your movie at Metro,’” Mr. De Luca recalled with a laugh, referring to the studio’s former moniker of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.Mr. Anderson was game.“If Mike says something will happen, it happens,” he said. “It’s hard not to stress how rare of a quality that is.”The question now is, in light of Amazon’s decision last month to acquire MGM in an $8.45 billion deal, will Mr. De Luca still be able to keep his promises? Or will he simply be part of a corporate hierarchy less prone to taking chances on films and filmmakers?In the past 15 months, MGM has experienced a resurgence, led by Mr. De Luca, a one-time brash and reckless young executive who introduced filmmakers like Mr. Anderson and David Fincher to the culture when he was president of production at New Line Cinema, and now, after 36 years in the business, is seen as one of its most reliable statesmen. His deputy, Pamela Abdy, produced “Garden State” when she was at Jersey Films and amplified the career of Alejandro González Iñárritu, among others, during her time as a Paramount executive and later at New Regency.At MGM, the two have compiled a heady mix of A-list directors and compelling material they hope hearkens back to the days when Fred Astaire and Judy Garland roamed the once-hallowed studio’s hallways. The next six months will show if their strategy pays off. Mr. Anderson’s movie will debut on Nov. 26. It will follow Ridley Scott’s pulpy drama “House of Gucci,” starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver. In December, Joe Wright’s musical adaptation of “Cyrano,” with Peter Dinklage and featuring music from The National, will be released.Daniel Craig as James Bond in “No Time to Die,” which is scheduled to be released Oct. 8.Nicola Dove/MGMAnd then there is “No Time to Die,” the long-awaited 25th installment of the James Bond franchise and Daniel Craig’s swan song in the role, which is scheduled for theatrical release on Oct. 8.“Mike and Pam understand that we are at a critical juncture and that the continuing success of the James Bond series is dependent on us getting the next iteration right and will give us the support we need to do this,” Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the sibling producing team who have long overseen the Bond franchise, said in a statement.They added that “Amazon has assured us that Bond will continue to debut” in movie theaters. “Our hope is that they will empower Mike and Pam to continue to run MGM unencumbered,” they said.Still, Amazon’s priorities are inherently different from a traditional studio’s.In 2019, Amazon Studios, under the leadership of Jennifer Salke, shifted away from exclusive theatrical windows, opting instead to make movies available in theaters and on Amazon Prime the same day, the strategy preferred by the prominent streaming platforms. The pandemic turbocharged that approach. Ms. Salke was able to buy films like “Coming 2 America” and the recently released “The Tomorrow War” from studios looking to offload their movies because theaters were largely closed. Viewership on Amazon Prime skyrocketed and movies, which had previously taken a back seat to television shows, suddenly became a much more attractive opportunity. Anemic overall film output would no longer do.Mr. De Luca and Ms. Abdy stress that even in light of the pending acquisition, which still needs government approval, their philosophy of movie theaters first will remain.“There is theatrical in our near future, there will be theatrical after the deal closes,” Mr. De Luca said. “There will always be theatrical at MGM.”It’s not clear how the management of MGM will be handled once the acquisition is complete. Amazon declined to comment on the record for this article. There are some in Hollywood’s film community who are hopeful that Mr. De Luca and Ms. Abdy will oversee Amazon’s movie business once the merger is complete.“Flag Day,” directed by Sean Penn, will mark MGM’s first release under its new executive leadership.Allen Fraser/MGMMs. Salke has led both divisions for the past three years, managing an $8 billion annual content budget, and Amazon has made no indication that will change. Before joining Amazon, Ms. Salke spent seven years as president of entertainment at NBC. (In an interesting twist, Ms. Salke’s biggest bet is a $450 million television adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” which Peter Jackson previously adapted into a series of blockbuster films at New Line when Mr. De Luca was an executive there.) Her upcoming films include the Cannes Film Festival opener “Annette”; Aaron Sorkin’s “Being the Ricardos,” about Lucy and Desi Arnaz; and George Clooney’s “The Tender Bar,” starring Ben Affleck.The producer Matt Tolmach, who has two projects in the works at MGM, including the horror film “Dark Harvest,” set for release on Sept. 23, said Mr. De Luca’s passion for good stories is infectious. “He read the script and he called me, and we had an hourlong conversation just about the possibilities and how amazing it would be and how we can push the boundaries,” he said of “Dark Harvest.” “That’s what he does. He makes your movie better.”As Mr. De Luca sees it, the new MGM is about “treating the filmmakers like the franchise,” he said. When he and Ms. Abdy first joined forces, the duo compiled a list of 36 directors they were hoping to lure to the studio. In 15 months, they’ve nabbed 20 percent of them, including Darren Aronofsky, Sarah Polley, Melina Matsoukas and George Miller.“We don’t mind taking big swings and gambling because I think it’s either go big or go home,” he added. “I think the audience rewards you if you are really original, innovative, bold and creative.”In a shareholder meeting last month Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and executive chairman, called the reason behind the acquisition “very simple.” He said MGM had a “vast, deep catalog of much beloved” movies and shows. “We can reimagine and redevelop that I.P. for the 21st century.”That runs counter to the approach Mr. De Luca and Ms. Abdy have primarily taken.“Mike and I did not sit down and say let’s raid the library and remake everything,” Ms. Abdy said. “Our focus is original ideas with original authorship and real filmmakers, but you know every once in a while something will come up that’s fun and we’ll pursue it if we think it makes sense.”Those ideas include a hybrid live action/animated remake of “Pink Panther”; Michael B. Jordan directing the third installment of the “Rocky” spinoff “Creed”; and “Legally Blonde 3” with Reese Witherspoon and a script co-written by Mindy Kaling.“Our focus is original ideas,” Ms. Abdy said of the approach she and Mr. De Luca have taken.Maggie Shannon for The New York TimesOf course, all of MGM’s success is hypothetical, as none of the projects initiated by Mr. De Luca and Ms. Abdy have been seen yet. The company’s recent acquisition of Sean Penn’s directorial effort “Flag Day,” which is set to debut at the Cannes Film Festival before opening on Aug. 20, will mark the regime’s first release. The studio also has high hopes for “Respect,” an Aretha Franklin biopic starring Jennifer Hudson, which comes out in August (and was in motion when Mr. De Luca and Ms. Abdy came to MGM).But they said their efforts to reinvigorate the studio were more than just an attempt to make the company attractive to buyers. Anchorage Capital, the majority owners of MGM, put the studio up for sale in December and the speed with which a deal was made surprised Mr. De Luca and Ms. Abdy.Both said they were in for the long haul. “If it works, I feel like it could go on forever,” Mr. De Luca said. Ms. Abdy added, “Until they carry us out.”As part of their efforts, Mr. De Luca and Mrs. Abdy even had MGM’s logo reworked: Leo the lion is now digital and the gold film ribbons that encircle him have been sharpened “to own gold the way Netflix owns red,” Mr. De Luca said. The three Latin words encircling the lion — “Ars Gratia Artis” — are first spelled out in English: “Art for Art’s Sake.”That’s music to Mr. Anderson’s ears.“Long live the lion!” he said. “Whether it’s ‘The Wizard of Oz’ or ‘Tom & Jerry’ cartoons, the lion is a symbol of our business. The healthier, the better.”And how does he feel about MGM being sold to Amazon?“Who?” he responded. More

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      MGM Looks to Amazon as the Hollywood Studio Tries to Find a Buyer

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      A deal would add Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 4,000 films to Amazon’s streaming library, including the James Bond, Rocky and “Legally Blonde” franchises.LOS ANGELES — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has been in talks to sell itself to Amazon, according to three people briefed on the matter. If completed, a deal would turbocharge Amazon’s streaming ambitions by bringing James Bond, Rocky, RoboCop and other film and television properties into the e-commerce giant’s fold. More