Variety - 04 11 2020

70 Pages·2020·7.95 MB·English

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NOVEMBER 4, 2020

#SALUTETOSERVICE

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WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 11
10 PM PT & ET / 9 PM CT
ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL

A CELEBRATION SHINING A
LIGHT ON MILITARY SERVICE

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A SPECIAL LOOK INTO THE HISTORY OF
THE USO LED BY BRYAN CRANSTON

TRACE ADKINS
KEVIN BACON
MORGAN FREEMAN
JAKE GYLLENHAAL
TAMRON HALL

KELLIE PICKLER
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SHAGGY
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FEATURING

LEGENDS

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SHIRLEY
MACLAINE’S

DANCING QUEEN

ENDEARING HOLLYWOOD JOURNEY

AFTER A 10-YEAR BREAK

RETURNS TO
MOVIES WITH NETFLIX,S
OSCAR HOPEFUL
THE LIFE AHEAD,
SOPHIA
LOREN

PLUS

,

C O N T E N T S

V A R I E T Y
3

(COVER) EDOARDO PONTI/NETFLIX; (THIS PAGE) EVERETT COLLECTION

SPYING FAME

Sophia Loren as Yazmin Azir
in Stanley Donen’s 1966
comedy thriller “Arabesque”

P.39
Contenders:
Artisans

Costume designers face num-
erous challenges in creating
looks for ensembles, periods.
Plus: A look at key craft races.

P.34
Elvis Costello,
Now & Then

Rock star talks about his current
albums, including a boxed set of 1979
masterpiece “Armed Forces.”

P.30
Licensing
in Limbo

Lucrative deals with Hollywood
blockbusters have been affected
by delays due to the pandemic.

By MATT DONNELLY

P.22
Sophia Loren’s
‘Life’ Lessons

The Italian screen legend reenters
the awards conversation with a film
directed by her son Edoardo Ponti.

By PETER DEBRUGE

C O N T E N T S

4
V A R I E T Y

SINISE: SCOTT SCHAEFER/VETERANS UNITED HOME LOANS; DALE’S HOUSE: SUSAN PICKERING PHOTOGRAPHY; LET HIM GO: KIMBERLEY FRENCH/FOCUS FEATURES; MARTIN: JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION/AP IMAGES

4
V A R I E T Y
4
V A R I E T Y

“I was running the lines in my house,
and my kids would be like, ‘That’s
not evil.’ And I would say, ‘Because
you’re looking at me and I’m still
your father.’ And they were like,
‘Yes, but you need ... to be meaner.’”

Ricky Martin on his children helping him learn
to be a bad guy for his role as a villainous toy in
“Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey” P.18

TOP BILLING

9 CAMERAS KEEP ROLLING
European productions are still
up and running despite a new
round of pandemic lockdowns

14 ELECTION MIGHT
The 2020 race has brought
billions in political advertising to
struggling media companies

16 BATTLE READY
Producers and execs fought
hard to get WWII tale
“The Liberator” to the screen

17 AWARDS CIRCUIT
The Gotham Awards are
set to kick off a kudos
season unlike any other

EXPOSURE

19 DEVOUR
Tasty docs “The Donut King”
and “The Truffle Hunters” may
take your mind off politics

21 DIRT
Eli Roth puts his Hollywood
Hills home on the market

FOCUS

52 ROAD TO AFM
Filmmaker Dan Mirvish shares
how he shot his indie thriller
“18½” during the pandemic

ARTISANS

61 SHE’S GOT THE LOOKS
At 89, Ann Roth is still work-
ing on projects where clothing
helps define characters

62 TUNING UP
Composer and bandleader
Dave Grusin is ready to get
back on the road at 86

63 DESIGNING WOMAN
Modern costume designers
discuss how fashion icon
Edith Head influenced them

REVIEWS

64 MUSIC
“Disco”

65 FILM
“Let Him Go”

P.65

“Let Him Go”
review

P.20

Actor Ian Anthony
Dale buys historic
home in Pasadena

P.45

Gary Sinise is among those
in the showbiz industry who
shine a light on the military
in Variety’s Salute to Service.

Variety, VOL. 350, NO. 1 (USPS 146-
820, ISSN 0011-5509) is published
weekly, except the first week of
September and the last week of
December, with 21 special issues:
Jan (6), Feb (1), June (4), July (5),
and Aug (5) by Variety Media LLC,
11175 Santa Monica Blvd., Los
Angeles, CA 90025, a division of
Penske Business Media. Period-
icals postage paid at Los Angeles,
CA and at other mailing offices.
Post-master send address changes
to: Variety, P.O. Box 15759, North
Hollywood, CA 91615-5759. Canada
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agreement No. 0607525. Variety
©2020 by Variety Media, LLC.
Variety and the Flying V logo are
trademarks of Penske Business
Media. Printed in the U.S.A.

6
V A R I E T Y

F I E L D N O T E S
Election Results
May Trigger a
Media Reckoning

BY THE TIME you read this, we may or
may not know the results of the elec-
tion. I’m hoping the polls are right this
time and Joe Biden will be our next
president. However, I still suffer from
PTSD after Hillary Clinton shockingly
lost to Donald Trump four years ago,
so I’m holding my breath.
If Biden unseats Trump, we can
return to some kind of normalcy, and
chances are we won’t have a presi-
dent who will be engulfed by scandal
after scandal as his predecessor was.
That being the case, Biden will make
for a much less colorful media person-
ality and presumably won’t generate
anywhere near as many clicks and
sensational headlines. What will the
media do, for God’s sake?
Now, if the unthinkable happens
and Trump gets reelected, I for one
will tune out my favorite political pun-
dits and divorce myself from cable
news guru Rachel Maddow, because
I won’t be able to stomach four more
years of nonstop coverage of this pres-
ident. I may be self-destructive
at times, but I’m not that masochistic.
And I would hope that the press,
which has been culpable for help-
ing create the media monster that is
Trump, would seriously consider
curtailing its relentless reporting of
his every vile word and stop feeding
his insatiable appetite for attention,
no matter how negative.
I can’t be the only one who’s beyond
worn out by the constant drip-drip
Claudia Eller

Editor-in-Chief

“Of course, it’s
the job of the
free press to
keep the public
informed, but
surely journalists
can be more
discerning about
what actually
counts as news.”

of Trump dispatches. Ratings be
damned — the news networks need
to give us all a break.
Of course, it’s the job of the free
press to hold the president account-
able and keep the public informed,
but surely journalists can be more
discerning about what actually counts
as news.
In a recent hilarious mock PSA
on “Saturday Night Live,” cast mem-
bers tried to imagine what they
would do without Trump to bash and
ridicule if he loses to Biden. “If Don-
ald Trump isn’t president, then what
are we going to talk about?” won-
dered Bowen Yang and Ego Nwodim.
Another cast member, Kenan
Thompson, echoed the concern for
MSNBC’s star anchor: “I’m really
worried for Rachel Maddow. What is
she even going to talk about?”
A good-humored Maddow
immediately shot back on Twitter:
“I’ll be fine! I swear! #SNL.”
Well, I too will be fine — really,
really, really fine — in a world where
Trump is no longer president. But
even if that’s now the case, he will
likely continue to dominate the
headlines for all the legal hot water
he’s in. Naturally, I’d tune in for that.

Variety Intelligence Platform’s “Guide to the
Viewniverse” study, fielded in collaboration
with content analytics firm Wizer, found that
Netflix is the video brand most likely to be
selected as the most important to viewers,
per 1,857 U.S. respondents aged 18-64. The
top four brands are all streamers, heralding
a changing of the guard for consumers:
Streaming isn’t the future; streaming is now.

Variety Poll

Netflix Is Viewers’
Most Important
Video Source

16.8%

10.8%

4.9%

4.5%

2.9%

2.7%

2.4%

2.2%

2.1%

2.0%

1.7%

1.7%

1.4%

1.3%

1.2%

Data provided by Wizer/Vip Viewniverse Study

for Variety Intelligence Platform Analysis.
For more analysis, please visit variety.com/vip/.

Netflix

YouTube

Hulu

Prime Video

Fox

ABC

CNN

CBS

NBC

HBO

Disney Plus

ESPN

Adult Swim

PBS

Fox News Channel

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