Entertainment News Recap | Thomas's Top 5 News Stories Of The Week, From Nov 2 to Nov 8
1. Johnny Deep loses court battle, resigns from Fantastic Beasts franchise.
In a tumultuous week for the superstar actor, Johnny Depp has officially left the Fantastic Beasts franchise. He made his first appearance as the franchise villain Gellert Grindelwald at the end of the 2016 first installment, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and continued as the character in the sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald. But his casting as the character has always been controversial as Depp fights domestic violence accusations in his personal life.
On November 2nd, however, Depp lost his libel case against the British tabloid, The Sun. Subsequently, Warner Bros. asked Depp to resign from his role as Grindlewald, which Depp says he has agreed to. Depp released a letter via Instagram explaining his situation to fans:
SOURCE: Variety
In my opinion, there is a major conversation that should be had about how much an issue in a celebrity’s personal life should affect their career. While Depp deserves the right to due process (as he’s filing for an appeal on the libel suit), I can understand WB’s interest in disassociating with negative press. However, I don’t think the two existing Fantastic Beasts films have lived up to the storytelling caliber that Harry Potter achieved. Recasting Grindlewald seems to just be another unfortunate bump in the road for the middling franchise.
2. Tenet reaches home screens in December.
Cinemablend repots that Tenet will release on BluRay, DVD, and digital on December 15, just in time for the holidays. Preorders will begin as early as November 10.
Christopher Nolan took a big gamble on releasing the film in theaters. While it garnered mostly favorable reviews, including my own positive review, the release was still hampered domestically by skepticism of theater safety and the ongoing lockdown of major markets. The film ended up making approximately $350 million worldwide; a respectable haul considering the state of the pandemic, but hundreds of millions short of what it could’ve made otherwise.
SOURCE: Cinemablend
In my opinion, the timing for home release of Tenet is perfect. The film has had months to earn as much money as it could in open theater markets, so the next logical move is to release it for everyone who couldn’t or didn’t want to go to the theaters for Christmas. We learned a lot about the theatrical release of Tenet - like international markets were far more profitable than the more hesitant domestic audience. Now when Tenet releases at home, we’ll learn a lot about how eager consumers are to watch major blockbusters on their own entertainment systems.
3. Free Guy and Death On The Nile are removed from Disney’s release calendar.
The trend of pulling films from 2020 release continues as Disney pulls the Ryan Reynolds comedy Free Guy and the big screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile from their release calendar indefinitely.
This comes as studios continue to push blockbuster films out of 2020 and into safer 2021 territory. It’s another blow to the industry and indicates major studios aren’t ready to take chances on their big budget movies in limited and restricted release due to the pandemic.
SOURCE: Screen Rant
In my opinion, removing these movies from the release schedule completely rather than reassigning their release is concerning. It’s possible Disney is just trying to find a better slot for this films. After all, 2021 is getting very crowded with 2020 films trying to find new release dates. However, no new release date could be an indicator that Disney is interested in moving them to a Disney+ release. I cannot think of examples this year of good movies moving from theatrical release to streaming. Mulan is probably the best example, but I wasn’t a fan of it. It is possible, however, that Disney wants to see how Soul performs on Disney+ for Christmas. Holding a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes right now, that release could cause Disney to rethink their entire release strategy.
4. Anne Hathaway and Warner Bros. apologize for insensitive character design in The Witches
After debuting on HBO Max, The Witches received backlash for it’s portrayal of the witch in this adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1983 book. People in and associated with the limb difference community took issue with the fact that the character is depicted with three long fingers on each hand, giving off the impression to many that people with limb differences should be people to fear.
Both Anne Hathaway and the film’s studio Warner Bros. have issued apologies for the situation.
SOURCE: BBC
In my opinion, this is an important conversation to be having. Representation has been a longstanding struggle for the entertainment industry, and it’s important that when a group of people feel misrepresented that they speak out. In the case of The Witches, it is unfortunate that the design team strayed so far from the original description of this character’s claws. But it seems pretty clear the design wasn’t an intentional effort to villainize people with limb difference. It’s a valuable lesson for the industry, and hopefully something that they can add into their considerations for future projects.
5. Alex Trebek passes away at 80.
Entertainment loses another icon this week as long running Jeopardy! gameshow host Alex Trebek passes away at 80 after fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer, for the past year and a half.
The cause of death has not yet been officially tied to the pancreatic cancer. The show released a statement on Twitter, expressing their sorrow for the passing of their iconic host.
Jeopardy! is saddened to share that Alex Trebek passed away peacefully at home early this morning, surrounded by family and friends. Thank you, Alex. pic.twitter.com/Yk2a90CHIM
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) November 8, 2020
SOURCE: CNN
In my opinion, this is a sad day. I’ve watched Alex Trebek on Jeopardy! enough to know that no one else will ever host the show as brilliantly as he did. He will be deeply missed.