DAILY

JUNE 9, 2014

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Ethel to King and Goffin’s Lucy and Ricky in the bio-musical’s book by Douglas McGrath.

Despite its popularity, Beautiful had to settle for just two Tonys. Best actress

a jukebox selection lifted from the cata-logs of King and her former husband and songwriting partner Gerry Goffin, as well as that of their friendly hitmaker rivals Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who are depicted as a kind of Fred and

JUNE 9, 2014

Neil Patrick Harris performs a song from best musical revival Hedwig and the Angry Inch during Sunday’s Tony Awards.

By David Rooney

NEW YORK — The 68th annual Tony Awards favored killing and comedy, handing top honors for

best new musical to A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder in a nail-biter finish to what was perceived as a tight race against its chief competitor, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

In a ceremony that spread the wealth rather than serving up an awards sweep to any single show, other top prizes went to Robert Schenkkan’s All the Way for best play, to Hedwig and the Angry Inch for best musical revival, and to A Raisin in the Sun for best play revival.

The dueling frontrunners for best musical provided a suspenseful faceoff between a critical favorite admired for its originality, clever craftsmanship and delicious dark humor in one corner and a commercial crowd-pleaser in the other. The song list for Beautiful is assembled out of Baby Boomer nostalgia bait —

Gentleman’s Guide, Hedwig Top 68th Annual Tony Awards

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in a musical went, as expected, to Jessie Mueller for her emotionally resonant turn as the earth-mother singer-songwriter on her journey from Brooklyn to Laurel Canyon and from an unhappy marriage to self-realization as a “natural woman,” to quote one of King’s pop evergreens.

“Carole King, you have taught me so much,” said Mueller to the singer-songwriter who was in the house to cheer her on. “You teach me every night when I go up on stage.” Mueller was pre- viously nominated for a featured actress Tony in 2012 for her Broadway debut in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. Beautiful also won a Tony for Brian Ronan’s sound design.

While that show has steamed ahead to gross $25 million since it opened in January and is shaping up to be the season’s legit- imate sleeper hit, Gentleman’s Guide has been a more modest performer, with earnings to date of around $16.5 million despite opening two months earlier in November. Only in the run-up to the Tonys ceremony and leading the pack with 10 nominations has the production begun playing to capacity houses.

A more eccentric entertainment than Beautiful, Gentleman’s Guide was adapted from the same source material as the classic Alec Guinness comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, with a book by Robert L. Freedman, music by Steven Lutvak and devilishly clever lyrics by both. The British music hall-style operetta follows the mur- derous path of a disinherited commoner methodically eliminating every member of an aristocratic family that separates him from his noble birthright.

Unlike best musical winners of many past seasons that pull off a huge sweep, the show took just three other prizes — including Tonys for Freedman’s book, Broadway first-timer Darko Tresnjak’s direction and costume designer Linda Cho. But Gentleman’s Guide stands to reap the most robust reward financially, getting a push at the box office to sustain

the production and possibly extend its life on Broadway by a year or more.

“Steven Lutvak had an epiphany when he was 18 years old about this show and he has been the singular driving force behind Gentleman’s Guide for years,” said exultant lead producer Joey Parnes. “This award belongs to him and Robert Freedman, who persevered in the face of incredible obstacles, and to Darko Tresnjak, whose vision is on that stage every night.”

Equaling the Gentleman’s Guide haul in terms of numbers was Hedwig, the 1998 musical that navigated the tricky path to the bright lights of Broadway without sacrificing its scrappy downtown punk credibility and take-no-prisoners attitude. John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s concert-styled confessional of a transgender East Berlin rocker won best musical revival, as well as lead actor in a musical for Neil Patrick Harris’ fearless turn in the title role.

“This is crazy-pants,” said Harris, a four-time Tony Awards host and a dar-ling of the theater community, getting a well-earned taste of the experience on the other side of Broadway’s big night. “Playing Hedwig is an absolute joy. It has changed me and challenged me. It’s ex- hausting and I love doing it.”

In a year marked by multiple wide-open races, the Hedwig triumph was viewed as a shoo-in — in gold go-go boots, fishnets and acid-wash denim. Michael Mayer’s electrifying production won four Tonys in all, including one for featured actress for Lena Hall in another gender- bending turn as Hedwig’s husband, whose resplendent drag transformation in the closing number mirrors that of the show’s protagonist. It also landed Kevin Adams his fourth Tony for lighting design, having previously won for The 39 Steps, Spring Awakening and American Idiot, the latter two also helmed by Mayer.

In two other widely expected wins, Schenkkan’s political bio-drama All the Way took trophies for best new play and best lead actor Bryan Cranston in his fer- ocious Broadway debut as U.S. President

Lyndon Johnson. The dense ensemble drama traces LBJ’s ascendancy from Vice President to the Oval Office follow- ing John F. Kennedy’s assassination, and his tenacious efforts to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act as the key to his re-election campaign that year.

“It’s a long time between drinks of water in this town, let me tell you,”

said Schenkkan in his acceptance speech. The playwright was last pro-duced on Broadway in 1993 with his Pulitzer winner The Kentucky Cycle.

In a year marked by several wide-open races with no clear favorite, best revival of a play was among the hardest categories to call. That prize went to director Kenny Leon’s stirring remount of A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry’s modern classic about a Southside Chicago family looking to carve out a better life. The box-office smash stars Denzel Washington, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Anika Noni Rose and British actress Sophie Okonedo, who took home a featured actress Tony for her Broadway debut.

“Blimey,” said Okonedo. “I am loving it here in New York. I am loving it on Broadway. It’s beyond anything I could have imagined.”

The win marked the third time in recent years that a Scott Rudin production has scored play revival honors, following August Wilson’s Fences (2010) and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (2012). Rudin is also repped on Broadway by the Tony-winning blockbuster musical hit The Book of Mormon.

Leon also won best director of a play, pointing up the absence of Washington among the nominees by beginning his acceptance speech saying, “Wow. Denzel, Denzel, Denzel.”

Among the stellar field of contenders for best revival of a play, director John Tiffany’s exquisite reinterpretation of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie scored just two wins out of its seven noms

Mueller

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— for featured actress Celia Keenan- Bolger’s heartbreakingly porcelain per- formance as Laura Wingfield, and for Natasha Katz’s lighting design. Keenan-Bolger had twice been nominated for Tonys in the past, for featured actress in a musical in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in 2005, and fea-tured actress in a play for Peter and the Starcatcher in 2012.

In other acting prizes, Audra McDonald scored a history-making win, taking lead actress in a play for her transformative turn as Billie Holiday in a boozy late-night concert toward the end of the legendary jazz vocalist’s life in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.

The record win is the sixth for the 43-year-old actress, making her the first performer ever to have received Tony honors in all four acting categories, out- ranking such theater royalty as Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris. McDonald previously had won featured actress in a musical in 1994 for Carousel and 1998 for Ragtime; featured actress in a play in 1996 for Master Class and 2004 for A Raisin in the Sun; and lead actress in a musical in 2012 for Porgy and Bess.

“I want to thank my director Lonny Price for chasing me and saying, ‘Yes, you can play Billie Holiday,’ when I thought he was out of his mind,” said a weeping McDonald. She wrapped up her speech with an impassioned shout-out to game-changing African-American women Lena Horne, Maya Angelou, Diahann Carroll, Ruby Dee and Holiday.

While romantic musical drama The Bridges of Madison County was one of the season’s commercial casualties and failed to secure the lifeline of a best musical nomination, the recently closed show did receive two bittersweet conso-lation prizes. It won Tonys for composer Jason Robert Brown’s lush original score and orchestrations.

And while perennial Tony Awards bridesmaid Kelli O’Hara missed out on

a lead-actress win with her fifth nom, the beloved musical-theater star may have another strong shot at the prize next year, if early reports that she is to headline a Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I are confirmed. Brown is also expected to be back in contention for the big prize next season with his musicalization of 1982 screen comedy Honeymoon in Vegas.

While Disney’s Aladdin scored five noms including best musical and is already shaping up to be a long-running family-friendly hit, the stage reincar-nation of the 1992 animated feature walked away with just one Tony. That went to James Monroe Iglehart for his scene-stealing turn as the Genie, a high-energy performance that regularly stops the show with his “Friend Like Me” number, and then repeats the feat after intermission with “Prince Ali.”

Hosting the ceremony for the fourth time, Hugh Jackman showed off his song- and-dance chops multiple times, nota-bly in a hop-along prologue inspired by a Bobby Van number from 1953 musical Small Town Girl. He paused to jump rope with Broadway’s Rocky Balboa, Andy Karl, play piano with Mueller and share an elevator with erstwhile emcee Harris.

While a hip-hop Music Man riff with LL Cool J and T.I. was an eyebrow-raiser, Jackson was on safer ground trading his Wolverine claws for tap shoes, joining the ensemble of the Harlem Jazz Age revue After Midnight on a rousing number that opened the CBS telecast, earning plum exposure for the best musical contender. That show also nabbed a Tony win for choreographer Warren Carlyle.

A performance slot on the Tonys fre-quently leads to a box-office boost even for shows that fail to take home a trophy. Other productions that made strong use of their nationwide advertising push with well-staged numbers included Les Miserables; If/Then, showcasing breakout Frozen star Idina Menzel; Gentleman’s Guide, preceded by an onstage intro in which virtuoso lead Jefferson Mays quick-changed into three of his eight

characters; Nick Cordero in Bullets Over Broadway; Sutton Foster in Violet; and Cabaret, led by Alan Cumming in the role that won him a Tony during the revival’s first time around in 1998.

Among the production numbers that highlighted the achievements of their Tony winners, the Rocky sequence amply illustrated the work of Tony-winning scenic designer Christopher Barreca, while Aladdin showed Iglehart at his best and Mueller was joined onstage by the cast of Beautiful as well as King herself in an upbeat segment that’s bound to sell tickets.

But the indisputable low-life highlight was a wildly insouciant Harris perform-ing Hedwig’s “Sugar Daddy,” a raucous display that included teabagging Orlando Bloom, licking the glasses of Samuel L. Jackson, giving Sting a lap-dance and taking a breather on Kevin Bacon’s knee before the star planted a kiss on the lips of his longtime partner David Burtka.

Sting was one of a handful of perform-ers to sing tunes from upcoming shows, with a lovely ditty from his musical The Last Ship, which opens in the fall.

In one significant achievement that invariably poses a challenge for a tele-cast which tends to be all about the musicals, the awards show came closer than most past editions to finding an effective way to showcase the nominated plays by having the playwrights them-selves introduce well-chosen excerpts.

The 2014 Tony Awards cap off a financially robust season for Broadway. Grosses for May 27, 2013, through May 25, 2014, hit $1.27 billion, representing an increase of 11.4 percent over the previous year, with total admissions of 12.21 million. That news comes on the heels of statistics for the 2012-13 season that show Broad- way contributing nearly $12 billion in related spending to New York City’s econ- omy, including a significant increase in tourist dollars.

McDonald

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Click here for more of THR’s coverage of the 2014 Tony Awards.

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movie news

JUNE 9, 2014

By Pamela McClintockYOungER fEmalEs pROvEd thEiR might at the domestic box office this weekend, delivering a stellar $48.2 mil-lion opening for YA romance The Fault in Our Stars, starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as two young lovers who meet in a cancer support group.

The adaptation of John Green’s wildly popular book saw a steep 52 percent drop from Friday to Saturday, not a surprise considering that many fans turned out early. The movie, earning an A Cinema-Score, is a victory for Fox 2000, with Fault already making back its $12 million bud-get four times over. It also underscores Woodley’s rising-star status.

Fault easily beat Tom Cruise’s male- driven sci-fi epic Edge of Tomorrow, which opened to a problematic $29.1 million despite stellar reviews. The Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow title cost at least $178 million to make, meaning it needed to do bigger business.

Edge is faring better overseas, where Cruise is more popular, earning $82 mil-lion for the weekend from 63 markets to top the foreign chart. First rolling out offshore last weekend, Edge has now earned $111 million abroad for a world-wide cume of $140.1 million. The movie is prospering in Asia and Russia, but is only okay in Europe.

This weekend’s highlights for the pic included China, where Edge placed No. 1 with $25 million, and Russia, where it earned $8.6 million (both are Cruise’s best openings to date).

Fault beat Edge in 16 of the 17 inter-national markets where it launched this weekend, including Australia, Mexico and Brazil, where Green’s book is a phenomenon. Fault grossed $17 million overseas.

Another film making its first inter-national push was Channing Tatum

and Jonah Hill’s sequel 22 Jump Street, which soared to a $8.8 million No. 1 finish in the U.K. a week ahead of its domestic launch. That’s three times the opening of 21 Jump Street, and 50 percent ahead of Neighbors, according to Sony.

In North America, Fault also had

no trouble overtaking Disney holdover Maleficent (heading into the weekend, most thought the race would be closer between Fault and the Angelina Jolie live-action fairy tale).

Still, Maleficent had plenty to boast

Filmgoers Prove Loyal to Fault as Pic Scores $48.2 Million Debut

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The Fault in Our Stars is a victory for Fox 2000, with the pic already making back its $12 million budget four times over.

Weekend Box Office Top 10This

Week MOvie/DisTriBuTOr3-Day grOss

(in mil)

PercenT change

# Of TheaTers

Per-TheaTer average

cuMe TO DaTe

1 The fault in Our stars (fox) $48.2 — 3,173 $15,191 $48.2

2 Maleficent (disney) 33.5 -52 3,948 8,491 127.4

3 edge of Tomorrow (Warner bros.) 29.1 — 3,490 8,340 29.1

4 X-Men: Days of future Past (fox) 14.7 -55 3,639 4,040 189.1

5 a Million Ways to Die in the West (universal) 7.2 -57 3,160 2,275 30.2

6 godzilla (Warner bros.) 6.0 -50 3,110 1,913 185.0

7 neighbors (universal) 5.2 -36 2,674 1,945 137.8

8 Blended (Warner bros.) 4.1 -50 2,928 1,383 36.5

9 chef (oPen road) 2.6 36 1,298 2,003 10.4

10 The amazing spider-Man 2 (sony) 1.9 -50 1,481 1,283 196.3

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movie news

about as its global box-office earnings rose to $335.5 million — the third-best gross for a live-action pic starring Jolie behind Mr. & Mrs. Smith ($478 million) and Wanted ($342 million), which it will pass shortly.

Maleficent placed No. 2 domestically, falling 52 percent in its second weekend (notably less than other recent tentpoles) to $33.5 million for a domestic total of $127.4 million. Overseas, the film took in a $59.7 million from 52 markets for a for-eign cume of $208.1 million. Maleficent has yet to open in China and Japan.

While Maleficent is playing to females of all ages, as well as to families, Fault’s audience was much younger, although it still had to compete with Jolie’s movie. Combined, the two pics took in $81.6 mil- lion, “an extraordinary showing” for two female-oriented properties, said Fox distribution chief Chris Aronson.

Females made up roughly 82 percent of Fault’s audience, an even bigger per- centage than the first Twilight (75 per-cent), and 79 percent of the audience was under the age of 25, an almost unheard of ratio (that compares to 55 percent for the first Twilight).

“We knew we had the John Green fans engaged, and I think the question is how long will it take to cross over to the gen-eral all-audience,” said Aronson. “I think there’s a very good chance.”

Fault’s ardent fan base explains why the movie earned 54 percent of its total gross on Friday to become one of the most front-loaded titles of all time, along with Hannah Montana: The Movie and the Twilight films.

Josh Boone directed Fault from an adapted script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. The movie also stars Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Nat Wolff and Willem Dafoe.

Producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen are certainly no strangers at win-ning over females, having spearheaded the Twilight franchise for Summit.

Edge’s audience was largely male (61 percent). Audiences seemed to like

the film less than critics, giving it a B+ CinemaScore.

Directed by Doug Liman and co- starring Emily Blunt, Edge stars Cruise as a military spin doctor who finds him-self on the battlefield, where he is forced to live the same day over and over again. The pic couldn’t match the $37.1 million debut of Cruise’s last film — sci-fi epic Oblivion — which opened in April 2013.

“We have a movie that has incredible reviews, including an 89 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes,” said Warners executive vp distribution Jeff Goldstein. “We have an audience that likes what it sees, and we believe more moviegoers will embrace it in the weeks to come. It’s tough when you have a new concept.”

Elsewhere in North America, Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past placed No. 4 in its third weekend, falling 55 percent to $14.7 million for a domestic total of $189.1 million. Overseas, it earned another $42 million from 74 markets for a foreign total of $422 million and global cume of $621.1 million. (In China, Days of Future Past crossed the $100 million mark over the weekend).

Seth MacFarlane’s ill-fated A Million Ways to Die in the West dropped to No. 5 domestically in its second weekend, tum- bling 57 percent to $7.2 million for a paltry total of $30.2 million.

Jon Favreau’s indie food-truck comedy Chef expanded nationwide to solid results, grossing $2.6 million for a domestic total of $10.4 million for Open Road Films.

Distributor A24 Films nabbed the top theater average of the weekend with the debut of Gillian Robespierre’s dramedy Obvious Child, starring Jenny Slate as an unwed comedian who contemplates having an abortion. The movie, which made its world premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival, earned $81,000 from three theaters in New York and Los Angeles for a per-theater average of $27,000.

Political documentary Citizen Koch, likewise a 2014 Sundance entry, bowed in one theater in New York, grossing $10,200 for Variance Films.

Reed tapped to helm maRvel pic Ant-MAnBy Rebecca Fordit’s Official: pEYtOn REEd is thE new director of Marvel’s Ant-Man, while Anchorman helmer Adam McKay will work on the script.

The news was unveiled on Marvel’s official website on Saturday.

After Edgar Wright abruptly left the project on May 23, Marvel launched into meetings with several helmers in hopes of quickly finding a replacement in order to get the film made by its July 17, 2015, release date.

Some of the names reportedly in consideration included McKay, Ruben Fleischer (Gangster Squad) and Rawson Marshall Thurber (We’re the Millers). Later on, Reed and David Wain (Wander- lust) became frontrunners.

The film, which will star Paul Rudd in the lead role, also stars Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Corey Stoll and Patrick Wilson. Sources said that the single biggest thing Marvel is looking for is someone who can work with the talent already assembled.

Marvel also released a new synopsis for the film, which will follow con man Scott Lang (Rudd), who has the ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength. He must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas), protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.

Reed has been planted firmly in the comedy world up to this point, helming Bring It On, Down With Love and The Break-Up. His most recent film, 2008’s Yes Man, starred Jim Carrey as a man who decides to say “yes” to everything. It earned $223.2 million worldwide.

Reed

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Reed is no stranger to the Marvel uni-verse, having developed Fantastic Four at Fox for years before Tim Story took over the property, which launched two films under Story’s direction. (Fantastic Four is now being rebooted.) Reed is repped by WME and Sloane Offer.

McKay, best known for directing the two Anchorman films where he worked with Rudd, was initially thought to be a contender for the director position, but it looks like he’ll only work on polishing the script for the project.

McKay just wrapped the Will Ferrell- Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard, which he produced with Ferrell via their Gary Sanchez Productions and the female- centric spinoff banner, Gloria Sanchez Productions. He is repped by WME.

Wright was originally attached to the Marvel project, but exited citing “creative differences.” Wright’s exit is a shock since the filmmaker, who would have been one of the more unique voices in Marvel’s pantheon of movie directors, has been with the project since its incep-tion in 2006 and the split occurred late in preproduction.

Boyhood eaRns 3 nods at seattle Film FestivalBy Gregg KildayhElmER RichaRd linK latER’s Boyhood took home three top awards at the 40th Seattle International Film Festival, including the prizes for best film, best director and best actress for Patricia Arquette. The award for best actor went to Dawid Ogrodnik for Polish film Life Feels Good.

The event’s Golden Space Needle and Competition Awards were presented Sunday during a ceremony and brunch held at the Space Needle.

“This has been an extraordinary 40th anniversary festival,” said Carl Spence, SIFF’s artistic director. “From welcom-ing back Richard Linklater to Seattle with his groundbreaking epic Boyhood,

to honoring Laura Dern, Chiwetel Ejio-for and Quincy Jones for their masterful work, to welcoming Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who has brought Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch to life for years, to the hundreds of first-time directors making their debut, it’s been another year of in- delible cinematic experiences.”

Click here to see a complete list of SIFF award winners.

aFFleck, middletonBanneR hiRes RidleyBy Rebecca FordcasEY afflEcK and pROducER

John Powers Middleton have launched a new production company and have appointed former Appian Way executive John Ridley as president of production.

The Untitled Casey Affleck/John Powers Middleton Project will seek to produce both film and TV projects across various genres.

“I had produced a few things, and I was interested in doing more, in a more focused way,” Affleck told The Hollywood Reporter, adding of Middleton: “He has the sort of drive I’ve been looking for in a part-ner, and we clicked.”

Affleck, whose recent acting credits include Out of the Furnace, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and upcoming Interstellar, will serve as an equal-share

producer. Affleck directed and produced the 2010 Joaquin Phoenix-starring film I’m Still Here and will continue to pursue writing, acting and directing projects.

“We’re looking for all sorts of things — stories that interest us and ideas that grab us,” said Affleck. “I hope that this is going to be fun for us. I’ve acted, directed, produced and told stories that began with somebody else for 20 years, so I want to try to tell some stories that begin with me.”

Middleton, who executive produced Good Universe’s Spike Lee-helmed Oldboy and co-produced the recent hit The Lego Movie, will produce under the new banner while also still exploring opportunities at Vertigo Entertainment and Good Universe.

“We couldn’t be more excited to embark on this new adventure,” said Middleton. “We’ve been discussing this for some time now, recognizing our similar taste in content and company landscape, and I know we’re both thrilled to finally bring it to fruition. We want to bring audiences the films they want to see. Casey has such meticulous, exacting and extraordinary vision. I couldn’t ask for a better partner.”

Ridley is a strong fit for Affleck and Middleton’s new banner, as he previously served as vp development and production at Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way. While there, he oversaw numerous film projects, including Live by Night, Twi-light Zone, Blood on Snow, Devil in the White City and Mean Business on North Ganson Street. Prior to Appian, Ridley served as an executive at Warner Bros., overseeing The Ballad of Richard Jewell at Fox and The Shining Girls at MRC. He also supervised postproduction of Out of the Furnace at Relativity. On the TV side, Ridley managed TNT’s Charles Manson miniseries and The Natural History Specials at Discovery Channel.

Alex Foster of Vertigo will add vp, production to his job title.

Affleck and Middleton are both repped by WME, which helped facili-tate the new partnership.

Affleck

Middleton

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Ellar Coltrane stars in Richard Linklater’s drama Boyhood.

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tv news

By Erik HaydenactOR-cOmEdian tR acY mORgan remains hospitalized after his chauffeured limousine was involved in a multi-vehicle accident early Saturday, where the actor sustained multiple injuries.

“While Tracy remains in critical condition, he has been more responsive today, which is an incredibly en- couraging sign,” rep Lewis Kay said Sunday in a statement. “He sustained a number of injuries including a broken leg, a broken femur, a broken nose and several broken ribs. He had surgery earlier today on his leg. We expect him to remain in the hospital for several weeks. His family is tremendously overwhelmed and appreciative of the outpouring of love and support from his fans.”

After 1 a.m. Saturday, an SUV limou-sine carrying Morgan and comedians Ardie Fuqua and Harris Stanton was involved in a six-vehicle accident. One man, James McNair, died of injuries sustained in the crash.

A tractor-trailer truck driver “failed to observe slow moving traffic ahead of

him” and veered into Morgan’s vehicle, overturning it and creating a “chain re- action” accident, New Jersey state police Sgt. First Class Gregory Williams told The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday.

The driver of the limousine “did not sustain life-threatening injuries,” according to a statement from the limo company, Atlantic Transportation Services. Tyrone Gale, the driver of Morgan’s limousine, said that he heard the comedian call for help after the collision.

“I saw the condition of everybody and I knew it would just make it worse if I tried to pull them up and out of the vehicle,” Gale told ABC News.

The 35-year-old tractor-trailer driver, a Georgia man named Kevin Roper, was charged with one count of death by auto and four counts of assault by auto, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office stated. His bail was set at $50,000.

Morgan had been on his “Turn It Funny” stand-up tour and had per-formed in Delaware on Friday night.

The comedian joined NBC’s Saturday Night Live in 1996 and appeared on the program for seven years before leaving to star in The Tracy Morgan Show in 2003.

That NBC series lasted just one season. In 2006, Morgan landed a role on NBC hit show 30 Rock, which ended in 2013.

tRiple-cRown hopes spuR Belmont RatingsBy Michael O’ConnellsatuRdaY Was a bOOn tO nbc. The network averaged 21.3 million view-ers during the running of the Belmont Stakes, the race’s second-biggest audi-ence on record.

For the third race in the Triple Crown, hopes were high for California Chrome, the horse that won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. He finished in a tie for fourth place.

The last Triple Crown attempt, which aired on ABC in 2008, pulled in 13.1 mil-lion viewers — making this an impressive 57 percent jump.

Among adults 18-49, the race clocked in with an impressive 4.0 rating.

It marked the start of a huge sports day for NBC, which also aired Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final to huge gains over the last two years.

Morgan to Remain Hospitalized for ‘Several Weeks’ Following Crash

Morgan

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pRoduceR news

JUNE 9, 2014

By Alex Ben Blockat thE End Of a pROducEd bY panel on Saturday in Burbank featur-ing four top cable programmers, Starz CEO Chris Albrecht was asked about his recent programming choices involving rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and basketball star LeBron James, which seem different than the fare the pay TV channel has produced since he arrived in 2010.

“One of the biggest challenges to us is break-ing through,” responded Albrecht to what had been questions from the audi-ence. “That’s part of why we’re doing Power.”

Power is an upcoming Starz drama produced by 50 Cent and Courtney Kemp Agboh.

50 Cent, described by The New York Times as the show’s “muse,” also stars in the series, along with Omari Hardwick, who plays a drug dealer looking to go legit. Power promo-tions have included TV musical and guest appear-ances by 50 Cent, who is also doing interviews and press for the show.

“Here’s a first-time show-runner [Agboh] coming off a really good show, The Good Wife,” said Albrecht. She’s never done this before.”

He said he was immediately impressed by her ideas.

“She’s engaged,” continued Albrecht, describing his attraction to the show. “It’s got some classic themes, love triangles ... classic tragedy themes and faces not seen a lot on television. Those voices are not on television a lot. So, for me, trying to

attract attention — all those add up to a reason to take a shot. And then she wrote the first two scripts, and they were really good.”

Survivor’s Remorse, a situation comedy James will executive produce but not appear in, is Starz’s first comedy since Albrecht moved to the net from HBO.

Before he bought Remorse, Albrecht said he was attracted to the pitch from Mike O’Malley, who will executive pro-duce along with James, Boston Red Sox chairman and producer Tom Werner, Maverick Carter and Paul Wachter.

Jessie T. Usher (Cartoon Network’s Level Up) has the lead as a basketball phenom who becomes famous after he signs a multi-million dollar contract.

“I said, ‘Well, I haven’t seen that world before,’ ” said Albrecht. “It has a strong point of view. And if LeBron is going to come to TCA and let us use his name, those are all good things. It ultimately comes down to I think I can make a really good version of this.”

Along with Albrecht, panelists included Sarah Barnett, president and general man- ager, Sundance TV; John Landgraf, CEO, FX Network; and David Nevins, president of entertainment, Showtime Networks. The moderator was Vance Van Petten, national executive director of the Pro-ducers Guild of America.

A lot of the rambling conversation was about the huge changes rocking produc-ers, content creators and distributors. “The notion of broadcasting is in such a state of flux,” said Barnett. “It’s hard for those [broadcast] networks where a one [as a rating for a show] is decent. The overhead those networks have in a mar-ket that can’t really support the amount of product I think is interesting.’

She said the shift to VOD viewing has also hurt cable networks because it takes away the urgency to watch shows in pat-

tern in many cases, takes away the pro- motional opportunities that go with live tune in and doesn’t provide a flow of audi- ence into the next show on the schedule.

However, Barnett said what cable does well is quality programming. She said it is in the DNA of broadcasters to “water down the content.”

“I think theirs is this interesting place where the content is merging into what I would call ‘mainstream edgy,’ ” said Barnett. “Even for a small independent network like Sundance, I don’t ever recall having a conversation with a showrunner where it wasn’t about how to push the edges rather than water it down.”

Landgraf talked about how cable and his network have been changed. He said when there were three networks there were no more than 80 scripted shows a year. This year he estimates there will be 300, including shows just for Netflix, Yahoo and PlayStation.

Landgraf said most people can’t name them and “something like Walking Dead is a one-in-10,000 long shot. You have to be lucky [and] you have to make really good shows and keep them on the air for two, three, four years. People are not find- ing them in one year.”

Nevins said cable has to go in a different direction than broadcast. “It means play- ing different genres,” he said. “Different approaches to characters. … The pressure to be innovative and not copy what other people are doing well makes it hard right now. At one point, HBO was the only game in town. Then FX jumped in and now there are others.”

“I don’t think we ever buy a show where there isn’t somebody also interested,” added Landgraf. “The dynamics of tele-vision are changing … what constitutes a good show now is much better than it was five or 10 years ago. But still nobody can define how you do it.”

Produced By: Starz CEO Albrecht, Other Cable Bosses Talk Change

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pRoduceR news

pRoduced By: panel sees new ‘golden age’ oF tvBy Alex Ben BlockvEtER an pROducER maRshall

Herskovitz said Saturday we are in the midst of a “historic” time in television, citing an explosion of new delivery plat- forms and more TV shows than ever — with no end in sight.

Herskovitz, who produced 2000’s Traffic and 2003’s The Last Samurai, said this has disrupted the ways networks have traditionally been programmed, shifted how viewers consume content and changed the way advertisers allocate their resources to both old and new mediums.

That was the key point of a Saturday afternoon panel at the Produced By Conference in Burbank titled “The Revolution Has Just Been Televised: The Disrupted Landscape of TV.”

Herskovitz said that, for indie produc- ers, now is the greatest time to be a crea- tor since the end of the financial interest and syndication rules in the 1990s, which allowed the broadcasters to take control of the content they put on air and forced a lot of smaller TV distributors out of business. Now indie producers have many other places to sell and get better deals, allowing them greater chances to own back-end on successful shows.

“I think this is the golden age of TV …again,” said CAA TV packaging agent Peter Micelli. ”The amount of shows we’re selling and getting on the air is staggering.”

Added Micelli, who said that he now regularly hears from new distributors coming to the agency looking to get into the business of making scripted program- ming: “It’s an amazing and exciting time as you see these shifts.”

People are consuming TV content in new ways, and when they want it, but all of that doesn’t change the need for com-pelling content, said Jessika Borsiczky, producer of Showtime’s House of Lies. “If you’re a storyteller, you don’t care where it gets on, you just want it to get out there.”

Morgan Wandell, who has been head of drama at Amazon Studios for seven months, said they are no longer in the business of being the favorite show for 20 million viewers.

“This is about being somebody’s favor-ite show,” said Wandell. “You’re doing something that extracts so much passion from the audience members — they’ll pay for it and seek out ways to find it.”

The storytelling is also different, said Wandell: “This is so serially driven. People tend to watch these shows one at a time [and will binge to see them all at once]. It’s much more akin in some ways to read-ing a novel than watching traditional television. That has incredible implica-tions for story telling and these shows.”

Quan Phung has been president, scripted television for Slingshot Global Media — which is described as a new independent TV studio — for two months after a career in more traditional television. He said they are attracting talent by mak-ing shows that are their passion projects.

“We’re almost artisanal in the way we make them,” said Phung.

Wandall said the goal for each show is to break out and “stand apart from the other 60-odd entities looking to do scripted programming.”

He said they are reaching out beyond traditional TV writers by bringing in playwrights, authors and even journal-ists to create “really immersive shows” that make viewers want to gorge on one episode after another.

“I say to everybody,” added Wandall, “this is kind of like the best of the old and new without the horseshit of either. We’re trying to do good stuff and be in business with the best people.”

lucchesi, mccReaRy elected pga pResidentsBy Gregg KildaygaRY lucchEsi and lORi mccREaRY have been elected presidents of the Producers Guild of America. Results of the annual election were announced

Saturday at the guild’s general member-ship meeting on the Warner Bros. lot.

Other newly PGA national officers include: vps of motion pictures David

Friendly and Lydia Dean Pilcher; vps of television Tim Gibbons and Jason Katims; treasurer Christina Lee Storm, and vp PGA East Region Peter Saraf.

Outgoing PGA presi-dents Mark Gordon and Hawk Koch, who served since 2010, received special recognition at the meeting for their service to the PGA over the years, including

their advocacy on behalf of the Guild’s credit certification, the Producers Mark.

“We are extremely honored and ex- cited to begin this new chapter with the Producers Guild,” said McCreary and Lucchesi. “We have seen numerous posi-tive changes over the past four years as a result of the hard work of our presidents, the PGA National Board and its com-mittee members. We hope to continue to build upon the great work of our pre-decessors and to protect the rights of our industry’s hardworking producers.”

Lucchesi has served as the PGA’s vp of motion pictures for the past four years as well as co-chaired the Produced By Conference for the past four years.

McCreary has served as the PGA’s national treasurer for the past two years as well as co-chaired the 2014 PGA Awards with Michael De Luca.

McCreary and Lucchesi’s election marks the second time the Guild’s nom-inating committee has selected a pair of members to stand for election together as presidents, following Gordon and Koch. The only other time the Guild has been governed by a pair of presidents was from 2001-02, following the PGA’s merger with the American Association of Producers, when the Guild was over- seen by Kathleen Kennedy and Tim Gib- bons. The 2014 election represents the first time the PGA has nominated pairs of candidates for its vp offices.

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Film Reviews

I’ll Follow you downBy Frank ScheckNEW YORK — A sci-fi tale about time travel played more for emotional reso-nance than thrills, I’ll Follow You Down takes a lite approach to its mind-bending subject. While a fine cast enlivens this effort by director Richie Mehta (Amal), the film is too undercooked to be suffi-ciently compelling, even if it offers some intriguing ideas along the way. Opening theatrically and on VOD, I’ll Follow You Down will find its larger audience via the latter format thanks to the presence of such familiar thesps as Haley Joel Osment and Gillian Anderson.

Osment, all grown-up some 15 years after his Academy Award-nominated turn in The Sixth Sense, plays Erol, a brilliant 21-year-old budding scientist whose life was forever altered by the mysterious disappearance of his physicist father Gabe (Rufus Sewell) during a business trip to Princeton, New Jersey. Although his mother (Anderson) never recovered emotionally from the event, Erol has at least moved on, enjoying a committed relationship with his childhood sweet-heart Grace (Susanna Fournier).

Twelve years after his father disap-peared, Erol finds himself once again caught up in the mystery when, after a traumatic event involving his mother, his scientist grandfather Sal (Victor Gar- ber) finally reveals his theory as to what happened. He believes that his son-in-law traveled back in time through a wormhole in an effort to make contact with Albert Einstein in 1946, only to be murdered during a mugging. Having access to Gabe’s papers containing his theories, Sal proposes to use the same method to go back in time himself and reverse the tragic course of events. The initially skeptical Erol insists on going on the mission himself, much to the consternation of the now-pregnant Grace, who believes that any efforts to change the course of history will result in prevention of their relationship.

The potentially meaty sci-fi tale is

undercut by director-screenwriter Mehta’s laid-back approach, resulting in many tedious scenes involving Erol and his grandfather engaging in convoluted scientific discussions and tiresome philo-sophical debates about the ramifications of traveling through time. Even the pic’s climactic scenes, involving Erol’s experi- ences when he finally embarks on the fateful journey, lack the intended dra-matic punch.

Missing the imaginative stylistic flour- ishes of such far more ambitious, similarly themed films as Primer and Inception, I’ll Follow You Down seems best suited for undemanding younger audiences for whom the idea of reconnecting with a lost parent will have an undeniable appeal. Despite the fine performances by the lead actors — Anderson is particularly moving as the emotionally devastated mother — the film doesn’t have the cinematic heft to live up to its ambitious premise.

Opened: June 6 (Well Go Entertainment). Production: Resolute Films and Enter- tainment. Cast: Haley Joel Osment, Gillian Ander- son, Rufus Sewell, Victor Garber, Susanna Fournier. Director-screenwriter: Richie Mehta. Not rated, 93 minutes.

thIs Is not A BAllBy Frank Scheck

NEW YORK — Representing the second documentary concerning a massive art- work by Brazilian artist Vic Muniz —

2010’s Waste Land was the first — This Is Not a Ball chronicles his creation of a major new piece composed of 10,000 soccer balls timed to coincide with the imminent opening of the 2014 World Cup games. Co-directed by Muniz and Juan Rendon, the scattershot movie, which would have been far more effective as a short subject, is also a freewheeling examination of the game’s history, global appeal and the various attributes of the soccer ball itself.

We are thus introduced to such digressive subjects as teenagers formerly in- volved in the drug trade who found redemption in the sport; impoverished children who create makeshift balls to play the game; a Pakistani sweatshop (some 40 percent of the world’s soccer balls are created in that country) where we see female workers hand stitching them; other international sports that use similar balls, such as Japan’s Kemari; a Sierra Leone team composed of ampu-tee players; and the history of the sport, which began in England in the 1860s.

Muniz is also seen interviewing various figures, ranging from the pivotal (Brazilian star female player Marta Vieira da Silva) to the tangential (astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, rhapsodizing about the scientific properties of balls as if this was an outtake from his Cosmos TV series).

Ultimately, though, the proceedings are essentially a promotion for Muniz and his ambitious new artwork, with the logistics of its creation depicted in even- tually numbing detail. This is by far the film’s least interesting aspect, with the numerous other topics discussed seem-ingly used to pad out its running time. There’s certainly an interesting doc to be made about soccer, the world’s most popular sport by far, but This Is Not a Ball isn’t it.

Opened: June 6 (Videocine). Production: Videocine. Directors: Vic Muniz, Juan Rendon. Not rated, 90 minutes.

Victor Garber, right, tries to guide Haley Joel Osment in I’ll Follow You Down.

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