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    Star Directors Buy Historic Village Theater in Los Angeles

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    Concerned about the future of moviegoing in the filmmaking capital, Jason Reitman and a group of distinguished directors purchased the historic Village Theater in Westwood.With the moviegoing experience under threat from streaming services and ever-improving home entertainment options, a group with a passionate interest in its preservation — three dozen filmmakers who create their works for the big screen, to be enjoyed in the company of large audiences — has decided to do something about it.The group of directors, led by Jason Reitman — whose films include “Juno,” “Up in the Air” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” — announced Wednesday that it had bought the Village Theater in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, which was put up for sale last summer to the concern of film buffs. The group, which also includes Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Lulu Wang and Alfonso Cuarón, among others, plans to restore the 93-year-old movie palace, which features one of the largest screens in Los Angeles.“I think every director dreams of owning a movie theater,” Reitman said in an interview. “And in this case, I saw an opportunity to not only save one of the greatest movie palaces in the world, but also assembled some of my favorite directors to join in on the coolest AV club of all time.”The announcement of the directors group buying the Village Theater, which has long been a favorite venue for premieres, follows on the heels of Quentin Tarantino’s recent purchase of the Vista Theater in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz.Once renovated, the Village Theater will showcase a mixture of first-run films and repertory programming curated by the group. The collective also intends to keep the theater open while plans for a restaurant, bar and gallery are finalized. Reitman said that the group was in talks with existing exhibitors about management of the day-to-day operations of the theater, but did not reveal who.The Village Theater was put up for sale last summer for $12 million, and the filmmakers — many of whom are alumni of nearby U.C.L.A. — were fearful it would be torn down and turned into condominiums or a space for retail. The existential threat about the future of theatrical moviegoing also loomed over this endeavor.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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      With ‘Masters of the Air,’ a 10-Year Dream of Spielberg and Hanks Lifts Off

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      The Apple TV+ series is an heir to their World War II epic “Band of Brothers,” set this time among the bomber pilots known as the Bloody Hundredth.After Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks spearheaded the epic 2001 World War II series “Band of Brothers,” Spielberg got some feedback from one of his most important critics.His father, Arnold, a World War II veteran who served in what was then called the United States Army Air Forces, liked the series. But he wanted more aerial action. Then Spielberg and Hanks returned as executive producers in 2010 with “The Pacific.” Again, the elder Spielberg approved — with the same caveat.“‘Well, that’s a great series,’” Spielberg, in an interview this week, recalled his father saying. “‘But where’s the Air Force?’”Arnold Spielberg, who died at age 103 in 2020, would most likely be pleased with Spielberg and Hanks’s third World War II series (following the 1998 movie “Saving Private Ryan,” in which Spielberg directed Hanks). “Masters of the Air,” a nine-part Apple TV+ series starring Austin Butler and Callum Turner, premieres on Friday and chronicles the dangerous feats of the 100th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, known as the Bloody Hundredth. The unit flew daytime bombing missions 25,000 feet over German targets knowing that the odds suggested they might not survive.With 10-man crews packed into B-17 bombers so big they were called Flying Fortresses, the 100th faced not only a constant barrage of enemy fire, but also thin air, subzero temperatures and the psychological strain of what often played out as suicide missions. An estimated 77 percent of the Eighth Air Force was killed, injured or captured; the number of fatalities, more than 26,000, was higher than that of the entire U.S. Marine Corps during World War II.B-17 bombers, packed with 10-man crews, were so big they were called Flying Fortresses. The Bloody Hundredth flew missions in them knowing that the odds suggested they might not survive. National ArchivesFor Spielberg, “Masters of the Air,” adapted from Donald L. Miller’s more expansive nonfiction book about the Eighth Air Force, is part of a continuing effort to keep World War II in sight as the years claim the lives of more and more veterans.“I see it as a consistent recognition of the courage and sacrifice of the greatest generation, in keeping their memories alive today in a society that looks ahead more than they look back,” he said. “Through these dramas, we can tell these stories and get people to not only watch our series, but to go online and start to explore and navigate the history of World War II. That’s a big win for us.”“Masters of the Air” was conceived a little more than 10 years ago, when Hanks called the screenwriter John Orloff, one of many writers who had worked on “Band of Brothers.” As Orloff recalled in a video interview, Hanks’s question was simple: “You want to write another one?”Hanks and Spielberg had a specific story line in mind, to be chiseled from Miller’s mammoth book. They wanted to zero in on the friendship between Maj. John Egan (Turner) and Maj. Gale Cleven (Butler). A study in contrasts — Egan, known as Bucky, was a hard-drinking raconteur; Cleven, known as Buck, was a stoic with swagger — the two men flew mission after mission, building a reputation for leadership under heavy fire.Austin Butler, left, as Maj. Gale Cleven, a stoic with swagger. And Callum Turner as Maj. John Egan, a hard-drinking raconteur. Cleven and Egan built a reputation for leadership under heavy fire.Apple TV+After writing the first episodes and the show bible (a comprehensive guide to a TV series being pitched), Orloff was tasked with writing the entire series. Even with the names attached, it was not a sure thing to get picked up; in 2016 the “Masters” team submitted scripts for the first three episodes to HBO, which had broadcast “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific,” but the company passed on “Masters” “because of the price tag,” Spielberg said. That’s when Apple stepped in, ready to foot the bill. (HBO declined to comment; Apple would not disclose the budget.)“We were really fortunate to have Apple jump in and become our home,” Spielberg said.With intricate aerial sequences, massive sets, armies of extras and extensive research undertaken beyond the source book, the series “was a monumental undertaking,” Orloff said.“None of us thought it would take 10 years,” Orloff added. “I thought it would be a three- or four-year project, which is what ‘Band’ was and ‘The Pacific’ was, from inception to production. But this one was a bit tougher — the ambition of it, the scale of it. It was very intimidating to get this made.”For Butler, 32, and Turner, 33, the series was a chance to immerse themselves in the war’s history and the sacrifices made by the men they play. Specifically, “Masters” confronts what it meant to go “flak happy,” a phrase of the time that describes what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder.“It’s atrocious what they had to face, the most violent space a human could have ever put themselves in,” Turner said in a video interview. “What our show does is explore that trauma, what that did to their mind and their body and their spirit and their soul.”Butler, in a separate video interview, recalled speaking with a 102-year-old veteran of the Bloody Hundredth who said that the air would get so cold up there that his feet would freeze to the bomber pedals and have to be chipped out. The physiological hardships only aggravated the mental strain of seeing friends blown out of the sky and never knowing if your turn might come the very next day.“One of the elements that you see in the show is them dealing with the psychological toll,” Butler added. “It was just unfathomable.”There is an aspect of World War II storytelling “that can be absolutely lost in fanciful nostalgia, which bores me to tears and, I think, also misses the point,” Tom Hanks said. Apple TV+One movie that inspired Spielberg and Hanks was “Twelve O’Clock High,” the 1949 World War II drama about a B-17 bomber unit suffering heavy losses and low morale. “That was actually one of the first films made after World War II that embraced PTSD,” Spielberg said. He added: “Even though a Flying Fortress is a heavily armed heavy bomber with 50-caliber guns all over it, it is a very thinly constructed airplane with not a lot of steel, except sometimes in the floor. Just watching the series, I had a problem with my own claustrophobia.”Dee Rees, one of the series’s five directors, was drawn largely by a story line featuring the Tuskegee Airmen, the Black pilots and airmen who formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the U.S.A.A.F. The Tuskegee men are mentioned only once in Miller’s book, but Orloff felt it was important to give them airtime, especially since they wound up in the same German prisoner camp as some of the prisoners from the Eighth Air Force. President Harry Truman didn’t desegregate the Armed Services until 1948, but the Airmen earned high marks for their combat duty in World War II.“That was a big part of me wanting to do it, to tell that part of the story and do them some justice and show their bravery,” Rees said in a telephone interview. “The very thing they’re fighting for abroad is what they’re going to be denied on their home soil. These men are more American when they’re overseas than they are at home, even though they are risking their lives and doing things that are just as difficult as their white counterparts.”Stories about World War II can veer into hazy reverence for a bygone era, more fodder for the nostalgia machine. World War II, after all, has become something of a cultural industry, leaving a mountain of books, television and film. But for Hanks, this interpretation doesn’t apply here. He thinks the specific themes of “Masters of the Air” are not only resonant but also applicable to the present day.There is an aspect of World War II storytelling “that can be absolutely lost in fanciful nostalgia, which bores me to tears and, I think, also misses the point,” Hanks said by phone on Wednesday.“Here was a time in which there was just no question that a division was going to take place in the human condition,” he said. “You had truly evil empires that were murdering people and enslaving them in order to hold sway over their part of the world.” But even if today’s conflicts feel more complicated, he added, the things that matter most remain the same, like good citizenship, like civic duty and responsibility.“Of course the world is completely different now,” he said. “But you still come down to the core issue of what is the truth, and what is justice, and what is my part to play in that? Isn’t that what all literature is kind of based on one way or another? Isn’t that what all storytelling comes down to?” More

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      First Look: ‘The Color Purple’ Movie Musical

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      The director Blitz Bazawule added magical realist elements to his adaptation. But convincing Fantasia Barrino to return after Broadway took some work.“The Color Purple” is a monumental, and monumentally successful, work that has taken many forms: Alice Walker’s original 1982 novel, a Pulitzer Prize winner; Steven Spielberg’s 1985 movie, an Oscar nominee many times over that launched the screen career of Whoopi Goldberg and introduced Oprah Winfrey in her first movie role; and two Tony-winning Broadway musical productions, the box-office smash original in 2005 and the revival in 2015.Now there is a film version of the musical, directed — as no other adaptation has been — by a Black filmmaker, Blitz Bazawule, from a script by a Black screenwriter, Marcus Gardley. And the 2023 movie, due Dec. 25, manages to bring something new to its sweeping story, adding elaborate fantasy sequences that redefine the characters and the feel. It’s now a period drama with a magical realist twist.From left, Henson, Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks lead a musical number. Warner Bros. Pictures“It was very important that the grand multiverse that is ‘The Color Purple’ is represented in this film,” Bazawule said.This multiverse encompasses the storied history of productions of “The Color Purple,” with celebrity producers from earlier iterations like Spielberg, Winfrey and Quincy Jones (who was responsible for the music in the original film), as well as Scott Sanders, who put the show on Broadway. And it builds on its past with performers including Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks, who reprise their Broadway roles. Rounding out the cast are Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo, Halle Bailey and a few surprise cameos.The film’s biggest introduction just might be Bazawule, a 41-year-old Ghanaian filmmaker, visual artist, author and musician whose résumé ranges from his self-financed indie debut to Beyoncé’s visual album “Black Is King.”Blitz Bazawule, pointing, on set with his cast, including, from left clockwise, Louis Gossett Jr., H.E.R., Jon Batiste, Henson, Colman Domingo, Barrino, Brooks and Corey Hawkins. Eli Ade“We were all blown away by Blitz and his vision,” Spielberg said in a statement made before the Hollywood strikes. He also admitted that, while he was thrilled with the stage musical, he initially wanted his take “to be the only film version of the story.”Conversations with Winfrey and Sanders — who had been campaigning for the movie musical for a while — helped change his mind. “It’s a reimagining and so different than the movie that I had made,” he said. “It really does stand apart.”“The Color Purple” starts in rural Georgia in the early 1900s and winds through the life and family of Celie (Barrino), an impoverished Black woman who suffers tremendous abuse at the hands of nearly every man in her life — most notably Mister, her husband (Domingo) — and a socioeconomic system built to grind her down. Her evolution toward independence in the mid-20th century mirrors the hard-won march toward liberty of women, queer people and colonized nations, all of which figure into the story.The fantasy sequences put the audience in Celie’s imagination. It’s a counterweight, Bazawule said, to the notion that abused people are docile.“I find that to be completely wrong,” he said in a video interview last week from Burbank, Calif., where he was finishing the film. “The abused are constantly working their way out of it. And if we were just in their heads, we will know that they are not just sitting and waiting for a savior. Celie was actively saving herself.”Those sequences, written into the screenplay and envisioned by Bazawule as glorious song-and-dance numbers, gave Celie more agency. “In previous iterations, quite frankly including the stage musical, she’s a passive protagonist for a good part of the storytelling,” said Sanders. Now, audiences can see “what her inner voice was telling her, as she was moving through her self-discovery and triumph over adversity.”Barrino, the “American Idol” alumna, played Celie in the first Broadway production and on tour, and needed to be convinced to revisit the role. “She was very, very hesitant to do it,” Bazawule said, “because it’s heavy work — it weighs down on the artists. And she was dealing with her own personal healing.”He won her over by showing her a rough clip of a dream sequence between Celie and Shug Avery, the sultry chanteuse played by Henson; it promised character development on a big scale. “I said, ‘We’re going to go there — you know, we’ll have a 50-piece orchestra. It’s going to be wild,’” Bazawule said. (Barrino and the rest of the cast were unavailable for interviews because of the actors’ strike.)Bazawule working with Henson and Barrino on set. He had to convince Barrino to reprise her Broadway role. Eli AdeBazawule’s first hire was actually the choreographer Fatima Robinson, a veteran who has worked with everyone from Michael Jackson to Mary J. Blige, and who choreographed the 2006 movie musical “Dreamgirls.” Bazawule recalled watching her videos for Aaliyah, his friends stopping the tape over and over to copy the moves, when he was a teenager in Accra. “She’s always had such a regal reverence and a curiosity about dance from all over the world,” he said.Her hip-hop and R&B pedigree is evident in neck swivels and shoulder shimmies that connect TikTok dances to their 20th-century lineage. Some of the songs were sped up to match her moves, Sanders said. Bazawule also had her choreograph narrative scenes and help with the way the camera moves around the actors. “It’s always in a ballet with the narrative,” he said.Bazawule is a multihyphenate who started as a painter, then became a hip-hop performer; he records as Blitz the Ambassador. (His given name is Samuel; his stage name, he said, had a lot to do with his production style: “very fast and very glitzy.”) But even he had trouble with the basic structure of a movie musical, incorporating songs into the action. “The biggest challenge was to figure out, how do you take this very sprawling music and turn it cinematic?” he said.He separated the score into its three root genres — gospel, blues and jazz. And he brought in new arrangers for each: Ricky Dillard, Keb’ Mo’ and Christian McBride. (The original Broadway numbers are by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, pop and R&B songwriters.) He also wrote songs for the movie, including a beat-driven work anthem for Harpo, Mister’s son (Corey Hawkins). “The goal was to make sure that the music was always talking to each other,” he said, and to have it be in tune with a contemporary soundtrack.His ambitions were evident from his first pitch to the producers, when he showed them a full storyboard he had pencil-drawn himself. During Bazawule’s presentation — via video during the height of covid — “I literally texted Oprah,” Sanders recalled. “I went, ‘Oh, my God, this is the guy.’ And she wrote back, ‘Yes, he is!’”“It was a slam-dunk 100 percent” Oprah said in a video interview recorded before the strike and shown at Essence Fest. “I loved being on set to witness how he brought this new vision to the screen.”For all its popularity, “The Color Purple” is not without its critics, especially when it comes to its depiction of gender dynamics. Some view it “as anti-Black male,” Bazawule said. “We were very conscious of that.” The filmmakers aimed to depict a masculine “evolution,” from the entrenched sexist beliefs of Mister’s father (Louis Gossett Jr.) to Mister, capable of redemption, to his son Harpo, loyal to the feisty and feminist Sofia (Brooks) — a male character Bazawule called “aspirational.”From Mister (above, played by Domingo) to his son Harpo (Hawkins, with Brooks), the film aims to show a masculine evolution.Ser BaffoEli AdeSpielberg’s 1985 adaptation was also dinged for downplaying a lesbian story line, which is more foregrounded in this version. “Times have changed in the way we relate to sexual orientation, to race, to abuse — you can show and talk about certain things that may have been challenging back then,” Bazawule said. “Our job was just to make sure that we’re meeting our audience where they are.” His hope was to appeal to younger moviegoers, and mint a new generation of “Color Purple” fans.“We all knew that we had to do our absolute best,” he said, “because the bar is high, and we couldn’t be the ones to come in below it.” More

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      With Indiana Jones’s Return, Looking Back at the Opening Scene of ‘Raiders’

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      A shot-by-shot breakdown of the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” sequence that became a defining one in adventure movies.“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (now in theaters) is the first film in that franchise not directed by Steven Spielberg, who developed the character all those years ago with George Lucas and Philip Kaufman, as well as the screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. Yet the handoff of directorial duties to James Mangold doesn’t feel like a strain, because Spielberg established the character of the globe-trotting archaeologist and the style of his cinematic escapades so adroitly over the first four films.In fact, he set them in stone in the very first sequence of the very first movie — as we can see in a shot-by-shot look that classic sequence today.We first see Indiana Jones less than 30 seconds into 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark” — but it’s a carefully prepared hero entrance, holding back Harrison Ford’s distinctive visage as long as possible. Instead, we first see him from the back, in a frame that nevertheless introduces the character and his distinctive iconography (his hat, bullwhip and jacket).Paramount PicturesThis continues for a few minutes; we only see Indiana Jones from behind, in shadow or in disembodied close-ups, like when he uses his bullwhip to snatch a pistol from the local who is about to betray him. “That’s when you first see him with the bullwhip,” Lucas explained in a 1978 story conference that was tape-recorded, transcribed and made available a few years ago. “That’s where the plot comes alive.” After that move, we finally see his face as he steps into the light.By Paramount PicturesOur first look inside the cave is creepily atmospheric — dark and torchlit, with our view of our hero initially blocked by cobwebs. “This is the first scene in the movie,” Spielberg, at the time still best known as the director of “Jaws,” strategized. “This scene should get at least four major screams.”Paramount PicturesPart of the M.O. of the Jones movies is how sequences constantly top themselves. We get a prime early example of that here, when Satipo (future “Doc Ock” Alfred Molina) is alarmed by a sprinkling of spiders on Indy’s back — only to turn and reveal his own back covered in spiders.Paramount PicturesFew filmmakers are as aware of their audience as Spielberg, and he uses Satipo as an audience surrogate; he reacts as we do, registering shock and fear at the various dangers, booby traps, and skeletons they encounter along their way.Paramount PicturesYet the director always plays fair. We see all of the dangers of the cave, at normal speed, on their way in — so we’re prepared for Indy and Satipo to face them, at top speed, on the way out.Paramount PicturesWith both his good looks and lightning-fast reflexes established, we also quickly get a sense of Dr. Jones’s intelligence. He sees every potential trap and carefully sidesteps it: where he walks, the light his body crosses, the careful replacement of the idol with the sand bag.Paramount PicturesSpielberg cuts tautly, back and forth, between Indy attempting the switch and Satipo watching in fear (again, the audience surrogate), building tension that seems to deflate when he successfully manipulates the swap.By Paramount PicturesAnd then all bets are off.In their breakdown of the sequence, Spielberg voiced three different variations of one idea: “What we’re just doing here, really, is designing a ride at Disneyland.” (There would, subsequently, be an immensely popular Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.) And that’s what they do, creating a lightning-fast, whiplash-inducing series of ascents and dips, traps and saves, fake-outs and tight squeezes. Indy finally seems home free … and then comes the topper.Paramount PicturesThe most memorable image in a scene full of them plays out just as Lucas described it in 1978. “There is a 65-foot boulder that’s form- fitted to only roll down the corridor coming right at him,” he explained. “And it’s a race. He gets to outrun the boulder. “Paramount PicturesAnd shockingly, he does. He ends up covered in cobwebs and escaping empty-handed, but at least he escapes …Paramount Pictures… using a conveniently-placed vine to make a skin-of-his-teeth getaway, accompanied by, for the first time, John Williams’s unforgettable main theme. And then, once in the plane, we find out that (the previous sequence notwithstanding) there is one thing Indiana Jones is afraid of: snakes.Paramount Pictures“In the end all it is a teaser,“ Lucas said of this opening, as they mapped it out years in advance. And he’s right; it’s a marvelous preview of the thrills, chills and laughs of the film that will follow. But the “Raiders” opening did more than that: it set a template for the “Indiana Jones” series — and for the thrill-ride blockbusters of the 1980s and beyond. More

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      Plot Twist at Turner Classic Movies Upsets Film Fans

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      The network’s owner, Warner Bros. Discovery, promised there would be little to no change for viewers despite budget cuts behind the scenes.For many people in Hollywood, including lions like Steven Spielberg, Turner Classic Movies is not a cable channel. It is an extension of their identity.And it took a beating this week.On Tuesday, the network, known as TCM, jettisoned its five most senior executives through a mix of buyouts and pink slips. The departed were Pola Chagnon, the general manager; Charlie Tabesh, the channel’s lead programmer; Genevieve McGillicuddy, who ran the annual TCM film festival; Anne Wilson, a production executive; and Dexter Fedor, a marketer.Warner Bros. Discovery, the network’s owner, promised that viewers would see little to no change on TCM. The channel will remain free of ads. “We remain fully committed to this business, the TCM brand and its purpose to protect and celebrate culture-defining movies,” Kathleen Finch, chairman and chief content officer for the company’s domestic networks group, wrote in a memo that was shared with news outlets.But the channel’s loyalists responded to the cuts with hellfire, interpreting them as a further marginalization of an art form and a personal attack.Our cinemas have been overrun by superheroes. Our film studios have fallen victim to corporate consolidation. FilmStruck, our streaming service for silent-era gems and noir classics, was shut down. And now you are gutting TCM, our last happy place, where Orson Welles is mercifully alive and well and “Key Largo” (1948) still counts as a summer blockbuster?Using an expletive, Ryan Reynolds sounded an alarm on Twitter, telling his 21 million followers that TCM was a fixture in his life and calling the channel “a holy corner of film history — and a living, breathing library for an entire art form.” Mark Harris, a journalist and film historian, called the cuts “a catastrophic talent purge.” Patton Oswalt, an actor and writer, took direct aim at David Zaslav, the chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, cursing him on Twitter and saying, “You couldn’t just leave this one alone?”Mr. Zaslav routinely describes himself as a colossal fan of classic cinema. He keeps TCM playing in his office, where he proudly works from the same desk used by Jack Warner, one of the studio’s founders. In recent months, Mr. Zaslav, who took over Warner Bros. last year, has been celebrating the studio’s 100th anniversary.Is it just an act?By late Wednesday, three Hollywood titans — Mr. Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson — had issued an unusual joint statement saying they had spoken to Mr. Zaslav and were “heartened and encouraged.”“We are committed to working together to ensure the continuation of this cultural touchstone that we all treasure,” the statement said. “Turner Classic Movies has always been more than just a channel. It is truly a precious resource of cinema, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And while it has never been a financial juggernaut, it has always been a profitable endeavor since its inception.”The directors added, “We have each spent time talking to David, separately and together, and it’s clear that TCM and classic cinema are very important to him.”The filmmakers said Mr. Zaslav, in fact, had privately reached out to them earlier in the week to discuss the restructuring of TCM. “We understand the pressures and realities of a corporation as large as WBD, of which TCM is one moving part,” the directors said. “Our primary aim is to ensure that TCM’s programming is untouched and protected.”Michael Ouweleen, the president of Cartoon Network and Discovery Family, will now oversee TCM.Bryan Bedder/Getty ImagesIn a business sense, TCM is a financial footnote for Warner Bros. Discovery, an entertainment conglomerate with roughly 37,000 employees worldwide and $34 billion in annual revenue. But like every other media mogul, Mr. Zaslav is wrestling with a no-win situation: Cable television, which has long powered media conglomerates, is in terminal decline, meaning that operational costs must also go down. Budget cuts have affected all of the company’s many divisions.Fewer than 50 million homes will pay for cable or satellite service by 2027, down from 64 million today and 100 million seven years ago, according to a recent PwC report.So the belt tightening at TCM was more about preservation than annihilation, at least in Warner Bros. Discovery’s view. Ben Mankiewicz, Jacqueline Stewart and the other TCM hosts will continue in their roles, according to a spokeswoman. TCM will continue to pay for access to classic films from all studios; there is no plan to restrict the channel to Warner Bros. movies. TCM will also continue to be featured as a “brand hub” on Max, the company’s streaming service.Michael Ouweleen, the president of Cartoon Network, among other channels, will oversee TCM going forward. He is based in Atlanta. TCM was previously part of his portfolio on an interim basis.“Michael shares our passion for classic films and believes strongly in TCM’s essential role in preserving and spotlighting iconic movies for the next generation of cinephiles,” Ms. Finch said in her memo.Mr. Ouweleen might be smart to remember that, for TCM’s devotees, the network’s programming is less entertainment and more “the stuff that dreams are made of.” More

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      Bill Butler, Cinematographer Best Known for ‘Jaws,’ Dies at 101

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      He came up with a mechanism that allowed Steven Spielberg to film underwater. His work on “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” earned him an Oscar nomination.Bill Butler, an Oscar-nominated cinematographer who played a prominent role in the American New Wave movement of the 1970s and whose credits included “Jaws,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and three of the “Rocky” sequels, died on Wednesday. He was 101.His death was announced by the American Society of Cinematographers, which did not say where he died.Mr. Butler worked with a number of directors credited with reimagining American filmmaking in the ’70s, including Steven Spielberg, for whom he was the director of photography on “Jaws,” the 1975 blockbuster about a man-eating great white shark that established Mr. Spielberg’s reputation and changed the way Americans looked at both film and the beach.Open-water shooting posed many challenges on what was a notoriously troubled set.The crew faced problems not only with their malfunctioning mechanical shark but also ‌with seasickness, uncooperative tides‌, random boats sailing into the frame and even sets that sank.From left, Mr. Spielberg, the camera operator Michael Chapman and Mr. Butler on the set of “Jaws.” Mr. Butler designed a submersible camera box and a platform that allowed for shooting both below the water and on its surface.Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty ImagesMr. Butler designed a submersible camera box and a platform that allowed for shooting both below the water and on its surface, to convey the viewpoint of a swimmer. The American Society of Cinematographers, which presented Mr. Butler with a lifetime achievement award in 2003, also credited him in 2012 in its magazine, American Cinematographer, with “heroically” saving footage from a camera that went down in the Atlantic Ocean. His calculation: that seawater would be similar to saline-based developing solutions.“We got on an airplane with the film in a bucket of water, took it to New York and developed it,” Mr. Butler recalled in his commentary for a 2012 release of “Jaws” on Blu-ray. “We didn’t lose a foot.”In a statement, Mr. Spielberg praised Mr. Butler’s work on “Jaws.” “Bill’s outlook on life was pragmatic, philosophical and so very patient,” he said, “and I owe him so much for his steadfast and creative contributions to the entire look of ‘Jaws.’”Over his six-decade career, Mr. Butler also shot several noteworthy television dramas, including “Raid on Entebbe” (1976) and “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1984), both of which won him Emmy Awards for outstanding cinematography; “The Thorn Birds” (1983), which earned him an Emmy nomination; and “The Execution of Private Slovik” (1974).For his work on “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975), Mr. Butler received an Oscar nomination that he shared with Haskell Wexler, a colleague with whom he had an unusual association: On two of his more influential and well-regarded films — Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” (1974) was the other — Mr. Butler was brought in as the director of photography only after the mercurial Mr. Wexler had been fired.Mr. Butler with Christopher Walken on the set of the 1988 film “Biloxi Blues.”Universal, via Everett CollectionWilmer Cable Butler was born on April 7, 1921, in Cripple Creek, Colo., and raised in a log cabin. His parents, Wilmer and Verca Butler, were farmers. After graduating from the University of Iowa with a degree in engineering, he started his career in broadcasting at WGN-TV in Chicago, where he was a camera operator for live programs and commercials.His first feature-length film, directed by his WGN colleague William Friedkin, was “The People vs. Paul Crump,” a 1962 documentary about an African American prisoner on death row who claimed his murder confession had been coerced through torture. Though the movie never aired — the contents were deemed too incendiary — it made its way to Otto Kerner, the governor of Illinois, who commuted Mr. Crump’s sentence to life without parole.“When you see the power a little piece of 16-millimeter film will bring to you, you are inspired to go ahead and pursue a career in the field,” Mr. Butler said in 2005 at a career retrospective at the Victoria Film Festival in British Columbia. “And that’s exactly what I did.”He was already 40 by the time he started shooting motion pictures. (“He reinvented himself multiple times,” said Michael G. Moyer, who worked alongside Mr. Butler as chief electrician on “Child’s Play” and other films.) But he immediately went to work for some of the period’s more promising young talents: Mr. Friedkin on “The Bold Men” (1965), Philip Kaufman on “Fearless Frank” (1967), Mr. Coppola on “The Rain People” (1969), and Jack Nicholson on “Drive, He Said” (1971), one of only three films he directed.“I did some work with director Phil Kaufman on the Universal Studios lot as a writer while I was still trying to get into the Los Angeles camera guild,” Mr. Butler said in a 2005 Moviemaker magazine interview. “That’s when I met Steven Spielberg. He had just finished his ‘Night Gallery’ projects. I shot ‘Savage’ and ‘Something Evil,’ a couple of one-hour TV movies, with him.”When work began on “Jaws,” it was Mr. Butler who convinced Mr. Spielberg that he could shoot in the water.“Panavision had just introduced a lightweight, smaller camera,” he recalled. “It was also quiet, so you could use it to cover dialogue. Steven thought it would be too shaky; I didn’t try to press the issue. If he hired me, I could show him when we got to Martha’s Vineyard.”Mr. Butler’s later credits included “The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings” (1976); “The Sting II” (1983);“Graffiti Bridge,” starring and directed by Prince (1990); “Hot Shots!” (1991); and “The Chauffeur” (2008), as well as the TV series “Brooklyn Bridge” (1991). He remained active professionally well into his 80s, working in a variety of genres and often with fledgling directors.“The harder films are usually the big ones that require controlling a lot of people and a lot of cameras, and over a large area or sometimes many locations,” he said at the Victoria Film Festival. “Keeping that organized is something that some cinematographers are not capable of, so they do smaller films.”But smaller films can be just as difficult for them, he added, “because the pressure of a small film means that they may not have the time to properly gather their footage, and that’s another definite pressure that’s equally challenging.”Mr. Butler is survived by his wife, Iris (Schwimmer) Butler, whom he married in 1984, and their daughters, Genevieve and Chelsea Butler, both actresses, as well as three daughters from his marriage to Alma Smith, which ended in divorce: Judy Rawson, Patricia Pekau and Pam Fraser. He is also survived by a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.Mr. Butler never attended film school; when he started shooting movies, he said, he bought the manual of the American Society of Cinematographers (“the bible of filmmaking”) and would refer to it whenever he needed. But really, he said in 2005, the way he learned to shoot pictures “was to go directly to the movies and see what somebody else was doing onscreen, and then going out and trying to do it myself. And that was it.”Kirsten Noyes contributed research. More

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      A Stage Adaptation of ‘Smash’ Is Setting Its Sights on Broadway

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      Producers including Steven Spielberg have been exploring several possible incarnations of the decade-old TV series. Now they have a plan.A long-discussed stage musical version of the television series “Smash” is finally coming to Broadway … but fans are going to have to wait a bit more.The adaptation’s producers, who include Steven Spielberg, announced Wednesday that they expect to bring the show to Broadway during the 2024-25 theater season. They said the musical will be directed by Susan Stroman, a five-time Tony winner whose latest endeavor, “New York, New York,” starts previews on Friday.The “Smash” musical will be based on the two-season series, broadcast on NBC in 2012 and 2013, about a group of New York City theater artists struggling to bring “Bombshell,” a musical about Marilyn Monroe, to the stage. The show, with plenty of soap-style backstage drama and exuberant production numbers, was dreamed up by Spielberg, developed by Robert Greenblatt and created by Theresa Rebeck, and, although its TV run was canceled because of declining ratings, it retains a passionate fan base.“It’s crazy that we’re still talking ‘Smash,’ but not a week has gone by where somebody doesn’t tell me they miss the show, so it’s kind of great to be seeing it in another incarnation,” said Neil Meron, who was an executive producer of the TV series.Meron and Greenblatt, who will produce the adaptation with Spielberg, said the stage version would be funnier than the television show, and that it would include some of the same characters, but also new ones, and would be set in the present day.“It’s a backstage comedy about the putting on of a Marilyn Monroe musical,” Meron said, while Greenblatt’s summation was: “We’ve been calling it a comedy about a musical.”The musical will feature a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, including songs they wrote for the television series as well as new ones; the team is best known for the Tony-winning score of “Hairspray” and is represented on Broadway this season by “Some Like It Hot.” The book will be written by Rick Elice (“Jersey Boys”) and Bob Martin (“The Drowsy Chaperone”). Joshua Bergasse, who choreographed the television series, will do the same for the stage show.The producers oversaw a developmental reading of the script about a year ago, and said they expect more workshops before the move to Broadway. The long lead time was needed to accommodate the schedules of the creative team, they said; casting has not yet been determined.“Every few years the show comes back into our lives, and now we’re excited to go on a new adventure with it,” Greenblatt said.The creative team has always imagined there would be a path from the television show to the stage, but its form has changed over time. In 2013 there was a concert performance of songs from “Hit List,” the musical that was a subject of the second season, and in 2015 an effort to develop a Broadway adaptation of “Bombshell,” the musical that was the subject of the first season, was announced after a concert performance of songs from that show.But then in 2020, the current producers announced that they would develop a loose adaptation of the series itself, rather than working with one of the musicals-within-the-television-show.“What we didn’t want to do was just put the TV series onstage — we wanted our own spin on it,” Meron said. “We are very conscious of our fan base, and very conscious that there’s a new audience that’s never been exposed to ‘Smash’ before. So our take is more comedic and more of a love letter to Broadway.” More

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      Steven Spielberg Gets a Record 13th Directors Guild Award Nomination

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      The all-male list omitted major contenders this season like James Cameron, Baz Luhrmann, Sarah Polley and Gina Prince-Bythewood.The Directors Guild of America announced its feature-film nominees on Wednesday, awarding a record 13th nomination to Steven Spielberg, who also won the best director Golden Globe this week for “The Fabelmans.” The four other directors nominated for the DGA’s top prize were Todd Field (“Tár”), Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”) and Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”).Several big names were shut out, including James Cameron (“Avatar: The Way of Water”) and Baz Luhrmann (“Elvis”), who directed two of the year’s most successful films. And though the last two DGAs for feature-film directing were won by Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”) and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”), representing the first time in the guild’s history that women triumphed in that race in back-to-back years, all five of this year’s nominees were men, as contenders Sarah Polley (“Women Talking”) and Gina Prince-Bythewood (“The Woman King”) failed to make the shortlist.Typically, four of the five DGA nominees are also nominated for the best-director Oscar: Last year, DGA nominee Denis Villeneuve (“Dune”) was the only one to not make the cut, as Oscar voters chose “Drive My Car” director Ryusuke Hamaguchi instead. The year before, DGA pick Aaron Sorkin (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”) fell short and was replaced in the Oscar nominations by Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”).Here is a rundown of the nominees in the major film and television categories. For the complete list, including commercials, reality shows and children’s programming, go to dga.org.FilmFeatureTodd Field, “Tár”Joseph Kosinski, “Top Gun: Maverick”Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Steven Spielberg, “The Fabelmans”First-Time FeatureAlice Diop, “Saint Omer”Audrey Diwan, “Happening”John Patton Ford, “Emily the Criminal”Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovi, “Murina”Charlotte Wells, “Aftersun”DocumentarySara Dosa, “Fire of Love”Matthew Heineman, “Retrograde”Laura Poitras, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”Daniel Roher, “Navalny”Shaunak Sen, “All That Breathes”TelevisionDrama SeriesJason Bateman, “Ozark” (“A Hard Way to Go”)Vince Gilligan, “Better Call Saul” (“Waterworks”)Sam Levinson, “Euphoria” (“Stand Still Like the Hummingbird”)Aoife McArdle, “Severance” (“Hide and Seek”)Ben Stiller, “Severance” (“The We We Are”)Comedy SeriesTim Burton, “Wednesday” (“Wednesday’s Child Is Full of Woe”)Bill Hader, “Barry” (“710N”)Amy Sherman-Palladino, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (“How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?”)Christopher Storer, “The Bear” (“Review”)Mike White, “White Lotus” (“BYG”)Movies for TV and Limited SeriesEric Appel, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”Deborah Chow, “Obi-Wan Kenobi”Jeremy Podeswa, “Station Eleven” (“Unbroken Circle”)Helen Shaver, “Station Eleven” (“Who’s There”)Tom Verica, “Inventing Anna” (“The Devil Wore Anna”) More

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      The Golden Globes Are Back. Will the Celebrities Be?

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      Stars gathered on Sunday night at Cipriani 42nd Street, with its towering marble columns and soaring ceiling, for the National Board of Review’s annual film awards gala, where they were toasted for their work in some of last year’s buzziest films. But it was another awards show later in the week that was on everyone’s mind.The Golden Globes — which NBC refused to air last year after an investigation by The Los Angeles Times documented financial and ethical lapses at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and revealed that it had no Black members — are returning on Tuesday night, after the foreign press association outlined its plans for reform. And the question now is which of the nominees will show up.“I’m intrigued as to how it’s going to go,” said the director Martin McDonagh, whose Irish drama “The Banshees of Inisherin” was nominated for a pack-leading eight Globes, and who said he planned to attend. “I have some thoughts on it that, if I get up there, I might express. I think it’s the start of a process that hopefully is trending in the right direction.”“We’ll be there to support our film,” Joseph Kosinski, the director of “Top Gun: Maverick,” said as he gestured to the film’s cinematographer, Claudio Miranda, who was standing beside him. The film is up for two Globes, including best drama. And, Mr. Kosinski added, “it’ll be nice to see some old friends.”Daniel Craig and Janelle Monáe.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesColin Farrell and Ron Howard.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesDanielle Deadwyler won a Gotham Award for outstanding lead performance for her role as Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, in “Till,” but she wasn’t nominated for a Golden Globe. She said that she didn’t plan to watch the show live — “I don’t have a TV,” she said bluntly — but that she would probably Google the winners afterward.But she does have her eye on another potential nomination this year — an Academy Award for best actress — and she had a suggestion for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes the annual Oscars ceremony.“Mixed-gender categories,” she said. “I’m here for it. Because what does that mean for nonbinary people? Why is there a point to choose?“We should smash them in,” she added.From left: Martin McDonagh, Danielle Deadwyler and Chinonye Chukwu.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesIn an era of declining awards show viewership — just 6.9 million people watched the Globes broadcast in 2021, a record low, compared with the 91.6 million who watched that year’s Super Bowl on CBS — it’s reasonable to question how much the Globes, or any awards, ultimately matter.“It means that more people are seeing the film,” Mr. McDonagh said. “Being in the conversation helps all that.”“I think it’s significant to recognize people,” Ms. Deadwyler said. “But they always make it seem like a race. It would be great if it could just be recognized in the same way that the Nobel Prizes are — just say, ‘Oh, hey, this person has done something significant to society.’”There were plenty of honors handed out at Sunday night’s National Board of Review ceremony — 18 in all, including best actor and actress awards for Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) and Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) — a traditionally boozy and irreverent gathering that is not televised, and for which the winners are announced in advance.Michelle Yeoh and Jenny Slate. Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesThere was also plenty of mingling in the banquet hall and around the three open bars before the dinner portion of the evening — fish and cucumber salad — kicked off. Ms. Deadwyler, the “Till” director Chinonye Chukwu and Janelle Monáe, who won best supporting actress for her role in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” posed for a group photo. Sheila McCarthy threw an arm around a grinning Jessie Buckley, her “Women Talking” co-star. The actress Ariana DeBose, in a black velvet pantsuit, hugged a grinning Steven Spielberg, whom she presented with a best director award for “The Fabelmans” later that evening.And when it was time for the speeches — the “Morning Joe” co-anchor Willie Geist served as host — the stars, freed from the broadcast time constraints of the Oscars or the bleep censors of national television, delivered remarks that often approached the 10-minute mark. The speeches were occasionally sprinkled with profanity but were largely used to thank dozens of members of casts, crews and creative teams.But there were a few notable moments amid the long list of credits.Gabriel LaBelle and Paul Dano.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesDanny Ramirez, Joseph Kosinski, Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesA visibly emotional Gabriel LaBelle was honored for breakthrough performance for his star turn in “The Fabelmans” as a character based on the young Mr. Spielberg. Mr. LaBelle, reading from a folded sheet of paper he pulled from his pocket, spoke for around seven minutes as he thanked Mr. Spielberg for trusting him with “well, your life.”“I feel like I owe you my firstborn child or something,” he said.The wide-eyed 20-year-old actor also thanked his father — who was in attendance — for, among other notable contributions, “tying my tie.”Mr. Farrell, who accepted the best supporting actor award on behalf of his absent “Banshees of Inisherin” co-star, Brendan Gleeson, shared the story of meeting Mr. Gleeson for the first time, in a room at the Chelsea Hotel. Mr. Farrell had been sober for a year and a half, and Mr. Gleeson offered him “a drink” — which turned out to be the choice of a bottle of still or sparkling water from his fridge.“And I thought, ‘Aww, that’s a man that’ll take care of you,’” said Mr. Farrell, who accepted his own award, for best actor, around an hour later.Sheila McCarthy and Jessie Buckley. Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesDaniel Craig also made a surprise appearance to honor Ms. Monáe, his “Glass Onion” co-star, when she accepted her best supporting actress award. He noted that “her commitment to her art, craft and delicious fabulousness is awe-inspiring.”After a standing ovation for Mr. Spielberg — as the evening neared its fifth hour — the event finally wound down shortly after 11 p.m., when the cast and creative team of “Top Gun: Maverick” accepted the award for best film.“It’s honoring the cast and crew who have worked so hard,” Mr. Kosinski, the director, had said on the carpet earlier in the evening. “That’s why awards have value.”Quick Question is a collection of dispatches from red carpets, gala dinners and other events that coax celebrities out of hiding. More