August 14, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Kevin Winter/Getty Images(LONDON) — When Jurassic World: Dominion became the first major studio film resume production last month following the COVID-19 shutdown, it came at a price: upwards of $9 million, according to The New York Times.

According to the paper, cast and crew in England have to follow a 107-page safety manual, and added expenses include renting out an entire hotel for the shoot’s participants for 20 weeks, as well as conducting some 18,000 COVID-19 tests. 

Star Bryce Dallas Howard tells the paper, “Until now, actors were not really included in prep. But in order to get any of us on a plane, we had to thoroughly understand the protocols, who was involved and hear second and third opinions. We are the guinea pigs who are going to take the leap.”

Among those protocols is dividing the Universal Pictures film’s 750-person crew in half, with those essential to shooting being dubbed the “Green Zone” and the rest performing their duties off-set.

Sets are fumigated every day prior to shooting, and the actors’ chairs are spaced out with orange cones to enforce social distancing. Some 150 hand sanitizing stations were also installed, the paper details.

Howard wasn’t incorrect with her “guinea pig” analogyL the Times notes that as production ramps up on the Avatar sequels in New Zealand and the Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in Australia, other studios are looking to Jurassic World: Dominion as a pandemic safety production model going forward.

Jurassic World: Dominion, also starring Chris Pratt, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neill, is set for a June 11, 2021 opening.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 14, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Araya Diaz/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts and Morgan Freeman will lead a star-studded charity table reading of the classic 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

The fundraiser, called Feelin’ Alive, put together by comic Dane Cook, also stars Shia LaBeouf, Matthew McConaughey, Sean Penn and Henry Golding, and will benefit Penn’s nonprofit CORE, as well as REFORM Alliance — which was launched last year by a group including Jay-Z, Meek Mill, Robert Kraft and Michael Rubin.

Exactly which roles the actors will play remains a mystery, although Penn, 59, says he won’t be reprising his memorable role as surfer dude Jeff Spicoli, only hinting, “I’m very confident in the new guy.”

The actors’ parts will be revealed at the online event, taking place next Thursday.

Original Fast Times director Amy Heckerling and screenwriter Cameron Crowe will make a special introduction at the event. Crowe, referencing one of Spicoli’s famous line from the movie, says in a statement obtained by Deadline, “It is, as a great man once said, ‘totally awesome.’”

The original film also starred Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold and Forest Whitaker.

Dane Cook Presents Feelin’ A-Live, will be available to view via Facebook Live and TikTok through CORE’s Facebook page, and will also stream on Live X Live.

By George Costantino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 14, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Bryan Lourd with daughter Billie Lourd — Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic(LOS ANGELES) — With theater chains just starting to re-open after months of the COVID-19 pandemic, many inside and outside of Hollywood are wondering what comes next. 

For one, super-agent Bryan Lourd, who represents A-list clients like Brad Pitt and George Clooney, and is the co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency, said the industry will get back on its feet.

“I believe it will come back,” Lourd said during the 44th Annual UCLA Entertainment Symposium, according to Deadline.

“…I think there will be a certain type of event movie with big global themes and dazzling, either movie stars or directors, who are the best of their day…and that will be reserved for four or five times a year for people.”

Obviously, that’s far fewer times than people used to go to the theater — and streaming is behind the change.

“I think behavioral patterns are permanently changed as a result of what we’ve all just been through and what we are going through now,” Lourd explained. “The ability to see almost anything you want in a quality way in your home, in a safe environment, when you want to, is unbeatable in so many ways.”

He believes that it will cause movie studios to “evolve” in regards to what they bring to theaters and when, still insisting, “I don’t think it is dead or gone.”

Despite the ease of streaming, Lourd insists moviegoers still miss the shared experience of the theater. “I think the first Friday night in the next six months or year, or three months, whenever it is [safe], will maybe be one of the biggest nights in movies, in the history of the business,” Lourd said. “I think that the audience is dormant and waiting, same thing with concerts, same thing with sports.”

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.