Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein on Why Hollywood is a ‘Uniquely American’ Invention

You are reading an exclusive WrapPRO article for free. Want to level up your entertainment career? Subscribe to WrapPRO.David Mandel isn’t one to sugarcoat. It’s a trait that appears in his work, from the vicious insults of “Veep” to the intentionally reprehensible characters at the center of HBO’s “White House Plumbers.” It also emerged when TheWrap asked the longtime series creator his thoughts on the currently unfolding WGA strike.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor It’s deja vu all over again for Patric Verrone, the former WGA West president who led the guild during the 2007-08 writers strike. Verrone, who spoke to Variety while picketing outside Fox Studios in West Los Angeles, sees a number of parallels to the dynamic that led to the work stoppage in November 2007 but also a number of important differences. He is a member of the negotiating committee that has been wrangling this latest three-year contract with executives at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. “I would say the chief similarity is that in 2007, and in 2023, the management didn’t believe us, when we said we were going to strike and that our demands were genuine, and that we had the full support of our membership,” Verrone said. “There was skepticism on the part of the companies that this would actually happen.”

Bupkis can be loosely translated into English as “nothing” — which is the comedic point of Pete Davidson’s eponymous, semi-autobiographical series premiering May 4 on Peacock.Think of “Bupkis” as a “Seinfeld”-type “show about nothing” … but writ large.“I think our goal was to capture the relentless and absurd reality that is Pete’s world,” said showrunner Judah Miller, who co-created and co-wrote “Bupkis” with Davidson and Dave Sirus. (Stacy Keach delivers the opening, jokey “legal announcement” in his unmistakable baritone.)“When we were coming up with ideas, there were no fictitious concepts or situations that were going to rival the opportunities for comedy and satire that Pete’s actual life provides,” Miller said.

Alison Herman TV Critic “Your life is fascinating,” a friend tells comedian Pete Davidson, in character as comedian Pete Davidson. “I don’t know what it’s like to live it, but goddamn, do we have fun watching it.” It’s never a good sign when we have to be told, rather than shown, how interesting a person or project is meant to be. Yet that’s precisely the position in which “Bupkis” decides to put itself. The Peacock comedy is the second Davidson vehicle to draw heavily from the “Saturday Night Live” alum’s autobiography, after “The King of Staten Island” in 2020. In the style of director Judd Apatow, that feature film was already bloated; “Bupkis” takes the movie’s two-and-a-half-hour tale and stretches it out for another four, to diminishing returns.

David A. Goodman and Michele Mulroney marched alongside approximately 200 strikers at Paramount Studios in Hollywood on Tuesday in support of the WGA which is battling the AMTPT for better wages, among other things, on the first official day of the strike.

by 97% of guild members, began Tuesday at Midnight (Eastern) after contract negotiations with Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) broke down. At issue, the guild is trying to stop the development of what it describes as “a gig economy inside a union workforce,” particularly at streaming services.

In a new interview with Esquire, Justin Theroux reveals why he doesn’t talk about his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston.

BreAnna Bell Popular and pre-existing IP has reigned supreme in Hollywood as most studios and streamers look to continue the success of former franchises for an easy win. But that’s not a trend Nicole Dow is aiming to pursue.  As the head of TV for Marsai Martin’s Genius Entertainment, her formula isn’t overly complicated. Dow breaks down their development slate into three specific categories: kids and family, young adult, and new adult.  The latter of which is a less explored territory. The genre first came about within the last 15 year — and  only recently gained steam online with authors like Colleen Hoover (“It Ends With Us”) and Casey McQuiston (“Red, White, & Royal Blue”) leading the charge. As the name explains, new adult covers the emerging adult generation between the ages of 18-29. 

BreAnna Bell Popular and pre-existing IP has reigned supreme in Hollywood as most studios and streamers look to continue the success of former franchises for an easy win. But that’s not a trend Nicole Dow is aiming to pursue.  As the head of TV for Marsai Martin’s Genius Productions, her formula isn’t overly complicated. Dow breaks down their development slate into three specific categories: kids and family, young adult, and new adult.  The latter of which is a less explored territory. The genre first came about within the last 15 year — and  only recently gained steam online with authors like Colleen Hoover (“It Ends With Us”) and Casey McQuiston (“Red, White, & Royal Blue”) leading the charge. As the name explains, new adult covers the emerging adult generation between the ages of 18-29. 

At a time when theatrical is looking to distinguish itself with more prolific fare than the factory conveyor belt of humdrum product coming from streaming, it’s with great upset to hear that Lionsgate’s feature adaptation of Judy Blume’s pinnacle 1970 novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret fell greatly short at the box office with a $6.8M opening; below both the $7M-$9M that the studio was seeing, and the more bullish $10M+ that rivals spotted.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The New York Dolls’ wildly original debut album got Martin Scorsese through the making of “Mean Streets” in 1973. Years later, Dolls frontman David Johansen enlivened the soundtrack of Scorsese’s HBO series productions “Boardwalk Empire” and “Vinyl.” Scorsese is also a regular listener of Johansen’s Sirius XM series “Mansion of Fun.” Finally, after Scorsese caught Johansen’s career-spanning cabaret set at the Café Carlyle, the director-producer – a storied teller of New York stories – decided that the time was ripe for a documentary on the proto-punk scion of Staten Island. “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” which debuted April 14 on Showtime, chronicles Johansen’s evolution from the Dolls to the lounge-y pop of his Buster Poindexter period through his present day life as a husband, stepfather and eminence grise of New York’s music scene.

ruff about this breakup.Leonardo DiCaprio, 48, and his ex-girlfriend Camila Morrone, 25, are reportedly still friendly, as they share doggy duties.“They are on great terms; they see each other all the time because they share custody of their dog,” an unidentified source close to Morrone told the Daily Mail on Thursday. The Post has contacted reps for DiCaprio and Morrone for comment.

Priyanka Chopra is telling-all in her new interview in promotion of her upcoming Prime Video series Citadel.

David Lynch has opened up about the state of cinema in a new interview.Speaking to Cahiers du Cinema, Lynch said a number of factors have caused cinema to struggle – including the coronavirus pandemic, changes in the way people access films now (via streaming, for example) and the increase in the number of television series.Last November, Britain’s second largest cinema operator, Cineworld, forecasted that admissions would remain below pre-pandemic levels for the next two years. While UK and Ireland box office sales hit £690m in ticket sales last year, that was still 30 per cent below for the same period, pre-pandemic in 2019 (via The Guardian).Lynch said “coronavirus has put a stop” to watching films in cinemas, adding: “Feature films are in a bad place, series have taken their place…You could sit down and actually have the experience of stepping into a whole new world.

Rachel Weisz is singing Brendan Fraser's praises and calling his Oscar-winning performance in «staggering good.»During the New York City premiere of her new Prime Video series, , the Oscar-winning actress glowingly spoke to ET about her former co-star. Fraser and Weisz starred in the 1999 adventure/horror film. And, ahead of the film's 25th anniversary next year, Weisz is ecstatic to talk all things Fraser, especially after such a remarkable year in Hollywood.«It's the renaissance right now isn't it, yeah,» she said.

Since returning to the iconic soap last year, Coronation Street’s killer Stephen Reed has rocked the cobbles, and put viewers at home on the edge of their seats numerous times, with some of them branding the plots he's involved in as "ridiculous". The 61 year old, who first joined the cast back in 1996 as Audrey Roberts’ illegitimate son, has been an on-again off-again recurring character over the years.

"Godfather" star Al Pacino revealed that Hollywood history could have been very different had he just said yes.. The actor was asked if there were any roles he regretted turning down in his career during an interview with David Rubenstein at the 92NY in New York as part of their "People Who Inspire Us" series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pacino revealed, "I turned down ‘Star Wars.’"  "So I was there and all of a sudden they gave me a script that was called ‘Star Wars,’" he continued.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Producer Steven Paul has optioned the rights to “Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy,” with plans to develop the nonfiction bestseller by James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams as a TV series. The book, published by Penguin Random House in February, tells the sordid, behind-the-scenes story of the battle for control of Sumner Redstone’s media empire. The book has been the talk of the town in Hollywood as industry insiders learn the unvarnished details behind the recent history of Sumner and Shari Redstone, Viacom, CBS Corp., Leslie Moonves and a host of other prominent figures. Paul is in the process of recruiting a writer to develop the property as a limited series through his SP Media Group. The deal was brokered for Stewart and Abrams by CAA’s Ron Bernstein and SP Media president Scott Karol.

Ana de Armas celebrated a huge milestone this weekend. The Cuban actress hosted Saturday Night Live and was accompanied by musical guest Karol G, resulting in SNL’s first Latina-fronted show.

Diari ARA this week.He continued, “And the truth is that, in real life, it’s a pain to shoot sex scenes, everyone is very tense. And if it was already a bit problematic to do it before, now it is even more so.”However, the director did note that if there was ever an intimate scene that was “essential” to the story of the film, he would go for it, but it “hasn’t been necessary.”His 1997 film, “Jackie Brown,” is the only movie that features a racy scene between Bridget Fonda and Robert De Niro. The movie followed a flight attendant, who was played by Pam Grier, showing her journey as she navigates getting busted for smuggling money.