John Murdy, creative director for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, remembers when he realized how popular the annual after-hours event had gotten. When my first daughter was born, I was going to get diapers and had somebody come up to me and go, Can I take a picture? Im like, Can I put the diapers down? Murdy says,...

Theres a sequence fromOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodthat comes to mind everything that unfolds on Spahn Ranch. Its a ghost town percolating with bizarre menace; a town thats only pretending to be a town in the first place. The facades arent aged with an artistic patina theyre falling apart because of neglect. Its keeper has gone blind and has...

DirecTV is getting into the FAST channel business no satellite dish necessary. The satellite-TV service is launching a free, ad-supported streaming platform called MyFree DirecTV. Its slated to go live on Nov. 15 with programming that includes a host unscripted shows from A+E Networks Pawn Stars, American Pickers, Ice Road Truckers and The First 48 among them and other titles....

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For WME chief operating officer Dan Limerick, consolidation in Hollywood gave way to the tech giants that have encroached upon the territory historically held by legacy media. Limerick, who joined The Hollywood Reporter co-editor-in-chief Maer Roshan on Wednesday in a keynote conversation at THRs annual Power Business Managers event, presented by City National Bank, likened the current state of the...

The Writers Guild of America West has ordered its members to cease working with The Expendables producer Millennium Pictures, citing that the company is not a signatory to its current union agreement. We are writing to alert you that WGA members are prohibited under Working Rule 8 from performing writing services for, or optioning or selling literary material to, Millennium...

Paramount Co-CEO George Cheeks said the company needs to have substantive dialogue about perceptions of bias and inconsistent treatment, following the CBS Mornings interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates. In the interview about Coates new book, The Message, which argues that Israels treatment of Palestinians is immoral, hostTony Dokoupil drew criticism from some for his pointed questioning around Coates views. In statement,...

The chair of Paramount Global, Shari Redstone, is backing CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil after a contentious interview last week with author Ta-Nehisi Coates. I frankly think Tony did a great job with that interview, Redstone said on Wednesday. I was very proud of the work that he did. Yes, as hard as it was for me to go against...

Disneys decision to shut down its ABC Signature TV studio marks the second such move by a media conglomerate in the past two months. Its another sign of the contraction-minded times but also an echo of a move Disney made four years ago in the wake of its purchase of 21st Century Foxs entertainment assets for $71.3billion. ABC Signature (formerly...

New York Yankees legend and Fox Sports analyst Derek Jeter is trading in his cleats for a clapboard. The baseball hall of famer has quietly launched a production company, Cap 2 Productions (a reference to his number with the Yankees, and his role as captain of the team), which he hopes will take full advantage of the burgeoning interest in...

Brand marketers are a conservative bunch. Relentlessly on message, and careful when it comes to dispensing brand equity, CMOs and marketing executives like to have a say on the final cut, to use Hollywood parlance, when it comes to their advertising messages. For Saturday Night Lives 50th season, however, a handful were willing to put their brands in Lorne Michaels...

In a rare occurrence, Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Orlando will shut down this week in response to Hurricane Milton, a major hurricane set to impact Florida beginning late on Wednesday. In a statement on its website, Disney said that it would close its parks in phases, with Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom closing at 1 p.m. Wednesday, and...

Romeo + Juliet, starring Rachel Zegler and Kit Connor, and Sunset Boulevard continued to be some of the hot tickets on Broadway last week as the two shows entered their second week of previews. Sunset Boulevard, starring Nicole Scherzinger, brought $1.08 million across its first week of six previews, in the St. James Theater, and playing to a capacity of...