How 13 Tony Nominations Ignited Struggling ‘Some Like It Hot’ at the Box Office

Brent Lang Executive Editor Christopher Storer is no slouch when it comes to orchestrating kitchen chaos, having created the hit Hulu comedy-drama “The Bear.” Now, he’ll turn his camera on “The Winter of Frankie Machine” and trade trades the tense world of short-order cooking for a mob story about a hitman who is lured out of retirement to set up a meeting between waring crime families only to turn into a target himself. It’s a mean streets saga that previously attracted attention from the likes of Martin Scorsese, who was set to make it at Paramount Pictures with Robert De Niro, only to abandon it in favor of “The Irishman”; as well as Michael Mann and William Friedkin.

Brent Lang Executive Editor MTV Documentary Films has released a first look teaser for “The Eternal Memory,” a look at love and Alzheimer’s disease that won the grand jury prize for world documentary at this year’s Sundance. A U.S. theatrical release kicks off on Aug. 11 in New York. It will be followed by engagements in Los Angeles and San Francisco on Aug. 18, with a limited national roll out to follow. Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi directed the movie, which could be a contender for the documentary Oscar. Alberdi is the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker behind “The Mole Agent.” To that end, “The Eternal Memory” played at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was the runner up for the audience award. A robust international festival campaign is already in the works, including stops at CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, and DocAviv, Hamptons Summer Docs and DC DOX.

Brent Lang Executive Editor XYZ Films has acquired domestic rights to “The Deep Web: Murdershow,” a new horror-thriller with a bloody bitcoin twist. The deal arrives on the heels of the Cannes Film Market. The film is written and directed by Dan Zachary, and according to the official description, it “takes viewers on a dark ride when a journalist’s search for clues to his sister’s murder leads him to a disturbing crypto currency torture website inside the deep web called The Murdershow. As those close to him disappear, he must find and stop this reign of terror.” Josh Blacker (“Elysium”, “See”) leads the cast, playing a detective trying to unravel the mystery. He’s joined by Aiden Howard (“Riverdale”, “Firefly Lane”) as a hard-charging reporter, as well as Kimi Alexander (“A Million Little Things”, “Tribal”), playing a woman ensnared by the murderous group behind the shadowy site.

As the summer season shines onto the box office, movie grosses don’t match what they used to be in seasons past.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The Jennifer Lawrence-led flick centers around a 32-year-old bartender and Uber driver who accepts a job to date a 19-year-old from a Craigslist ad created by his parents.Rolling Stone said the A-List actress is “easily the best thing in this comedy about a woman hired to ‘date’ a shy high school senior — yet not even foul-mouthed, no-filter J-Law can save this mess.”“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” crawled up to second place after being in third last week, earning 5.7 million. There was buzz from fans that a sequel to the flick would be released in March, but that rumor was dispelled from an anonymous artist who worked on the movie.“There’s no way that movie’s coming out then,” the employee dished to Vulture.“Everyone’s been fully focused on Across the Spider-Verse and barely crossing the finish line.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Samuel Goldwyn Films announced today that the company has acquired U.S. rights to the “The Three Musketeers,” a two-part adaptation of the swashbuckling French adventure story by Alexandre Dumas. The two films were shot back-to-back, with the first film “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan” released in France this past April, earning $35 million at the international box office. The sequel “The Three Musketeers: Milady” will open in the country on Dec. 13. The period epic boasts a top-shelf ensemble of European stars such as Francois Civil (“Call My Agent!”), Vincent Cassel (“Black Swan”), Romain Duris (“Eiffel”), Pio Marmaï ((“Happening”), Eva Green (“Casino Royale”), Vicky Krieps (“Phantom Thread”) and Louis Garrel (“The Dreamers”). Both films were directed by Martin Bourboulon, with screenplay by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière.

Recording artist Deborah Cox and Chicago-based actress and singer Melody A. Betts have joined the Broadway-bound cast of The Wiz, with Cox taking the role of Glinda and Betts cast as Aunt Em and Evillene.

Seth Meyers’ upcoming tour.The “Late Night With Seth Meyers” host and former ‘Saturday Night Live’ Weekend Update anchor is leaving his trademark desk behind and traveling all over North America performing stand-up live at venues from June through August.Of course, there will be a handful of NYC gigs along the way for the NYC-based performer.Over, the course of the summer run, Meyers will stop in at New York City’s City Winery on June 20, July 18 and July 24.He’ll also host the launch of the new book “Boom Chicago Presents the 30 Most Important Years in Dutch History” along with Amber Ruffin, Tarik Davis and more at Le Poisson Rouge on June 21.Finally, he’ll conclude his brief trek with back-to-back co-headlining shows with John Oliver at the Beacon Theatre on Thursday, Aug. 17 and Friday, Aug.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Steven Soderbergh starts things off with an apology. His assistant is on vacation, and he was certain that our interview was scheduled to start a full 15 minutes after it was supposed to commence. That resulted in a mad scramble of calls text messages to track down the filmmaker. “I was just sitting here staring off into space,” he says. It must have been a rare moment of calm for the always-on-the-move director, who a has averaged at least one movie or series a year since reemerging from a short-lived retirement in 2017. And he’s back again this summer with “Full Circle,” a six-part miniseries that premieres at the Tribeca Festival before launching on Max on July 13. It’s a morally complex story about a botched kidnapping that causes several characters’ lives to intersect in surprising ways. It’s also a fascinating portrait of modern-day New York City, one that showcases a privileged Manhattan family (Claire Danes and Timothy Olyphant play the guardians of a business that revolves around Dennis Quaid’s celebrity chef), as well as a pair of Guyanese kidnappers who are deployed by CCH Pounder’s shadowy business woman to exact revenge. “Full Circle” is the kind of knotty thriller that Soderbergh, a master of the genre, does such a great job of setting and then unwinding. To say more would be to spoil its pleasures.

J. Harrison Ghee has arrived at the 2023 Tony Awards and is ready to make history!

“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” stormed into theatres worldwide this weekend, amassing a staggering $110 million at the international box office. 

History in the making! J. Harrison Ghee received their first Tony Award nomination in May 2023, marking the first time a nonbinary actor earned such an honor.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The flick, which The Post called “another annoying robo-flop,” is expected to see an over $100 million international debut, according to Deadline.It dethroned “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” which brought in $16.6 million, after holding the No. 1 spot on its opener last weekend.Eagle-eared fans reported sound problems with the computer-animated movie, and Sony promptly sent a new version to theaters, according to Variety.“The Little Mermaid” swam down a notch to third place, raking in just over $6.8 million in sales.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Rosario Dawson and Sam Adegoke have joined the cast of “Dark Days & the Dawn,” the latest film from “This Is Not a War Story” director Talia Lugacy. “Dark Days & the Dawn” unfolds over the course of one night and into daybreak, as Maria Del Sol (Dawson) and Samuel (Adegoke), a couple who have been together for four hundred and sixty years, hit their breaking point. Lugacy and Kamau Ware collaborated on the genre bending script for “Dark Days & the Dawn,” penning characters written specifically for Dawson and Adegoke to portray. Lugacy produces under her Acoustic Pictures banner, alongside Noah Lang for Witchcraft Motion Picture Company, and Ware for Kamau Studios. Cassian Elwes and Tom Culliver executive produce for Elevated Films. The film will shoot in Savanah, Georgia later this year.

Thanks to Netflix, Arnold Schwarzenegger is having a career resurgence now thanks to “FUBAR,” his new TV series, and “Arnold,” a three-part doc about the actor’s career. And “Arnold” is flush with all sorts of stories about Schwarzenegger’s life as a body-builder, movie star, and politician.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker are checking in across the pond. The two actors (a real-life married couple) are bringing their relationship comedy “Plaza Suite” to London following a sold-out Broadway run. The West End transfer of Neil Simon’s play is directed by Tony Awardwinner John Benjamin Hickey. It will play a strictly limited season at the Savoy Theatre from Jan. 15 to March 31 with tickets on sale in September. In an interesting twist, the play, which unfolds in one of the most famous hotels in the world, will be remounted in a theater that is part of an equally iconic hotel. The production marks Broderick’s return to the West End stage following his run in 2019’s “The Starry Messenger.” “Plaza Suite” is Parker’s West End debut. Both stars are known for their film and television work — he for “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Glory,” she for “Sex and the City.” However, they also frequently appear on stage. Broderick won a Tony for “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “How to Succeed in Business…” and appeared in “The Producers.” Parker made herBroadway debut in 1976 in “The Innocents”directed by Harold Pinter, and appeared in “Annie,” “How to Succeed in Business…” and“Once Upon a Mattress.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to Megan Griffiths’” I’ll Show You Mine,” a Duplass Brothers Productions film, starring Poorna Jagannathan and Casey Thomas Brown. The drama will be released in theaters and on demand on June 23, 2023. “I’ll Show You Mine” follows an author who has made a career by examining her own trauma as she sits down to interview her beguiling pansexual nephew Nick for a new book about his history as a model. Over the course of a weekend, the two challenge each other to confront and reveal their buried secrets.   “‘I’ll Show You Mine’ was made to engage in an entertaining way with universal themes–sexuality, the effects of trauma, and the need to release the shame that holds us back. It’s a deeply hopeful film that I think will really resonate with audiences and I just couldn’t be more excited to partner with Gravitas to get it out into the world,” stated director Megan Griffiths.  

The box office for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” just keeps on growing, and the film has just hit another major milestone.

Brent Lang Executive Editor As Matthew López prepared for the London debut of “The Inheritance,” his epic drama about the AIDS epidemic and its painful aftershocks, he was simultaneously outlining a first draft of “Some Like It Hot,” an effervescent re-imagining of the classic Billy Wilder film. The two shows could not have been more radically different. But López enjoyed toggling between comedy and tragedy. “I like working in extremes,” he says. “I like working in different modes.” Plus, he thinks that both productions benefitted from their author’s double act. “I got to live in both worlds at once,” López argues. “One helped the other. Doing the shows at the same time kept both projects in check. It prevented ‘The Inheritance’ from getting too dour and kept ‘Some Like It Hot’ from getting too lightweight. It brought some gravity to ‘Some Like It Hot’ and some levity to ‘The Inheritance.'”

Brent Lang Executive Editor When I reach Jeremy O. Harris, he’s about to be whisked upstate to celebrate his birthday. And this one is hitting a little harder than others, and not just because, like all birthdays, it’s a blaring reminder of all the mileage that’s been accumulated. No, it’s because Harris is turning 34, the same age that Lorraine Hansberry, the brilliant, barrier-atomizing playwright behind “A Raisin in the Sun, was when she died in 1965. “I feel aligned with her spiritually,” Harris, who took the theater world by storm with his 2019 Broadway debut, “Slave Play.” “We both went to Broadway for the first time when we were 29 years old. And right now, I’m thinking that my life has been so short, but it’s so much richer because of what she has done for the theater.”