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Lynda Obst, who had producing credits on high-profile films including “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Flashdance” and “Adventures in Babysitting,” died Tuesday in Los Angeles. She was 74.

“I was immensely proud of her. She was a trailblazer for women in the industry at a time when it was very difficult for women to have prominent roles. She was passionate about her work but even more passionate about her family,” her brother, WME’s Rick Rosen, said to Variety.

Obst told the Hollywood Reporter earlier this year that she had been battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Most recently, she served as producer or executive producer on TV series including “The Hot Zone,” “Good Girls Revolt,” “Hot in Cleveland” and “Helix.” Obst’s final feature producing credit was Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” in 2014. Among her other credits were “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “Hope Floats,” “Bad Girls” and “The Fisher King.

Lynda Obst, the pioneering producer who put her mark on beloved films like Sleepless in Seattle, Contact, Flashdance, The Fisher King, Adventures in Babysitting, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Interstellar, died Tuesday. She was 74.

Obst died at her Los Angeles home surrounded by loved ones, her son, manager-producer Oly Obst, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“My mom was a trailblazer and a fierce advocate for women. Also, she was an amazing mother, sister and best friend,” he said in a statement. “[My wife] Julie and I are incredibly grateful that she was my mom and that my daughters got to have her as a grandmother. We will miss her.”

Obst’s brother Rick Rosen, the longtime and respected partner of TV at WME, said: “Our family is immensely proud of the career that she had and the role model she was for women in the industry, but beyond that,...

Tom Hanks has expertly re-invented himself over the years, moving from rom-com star (Big) to war hero (Saving Private Ryan) to character actor (Elvis), and as a writer-director with That Thing You Do! and Larry Crowne. His newest chapter: novelist.

He’s pretty damn good at this, too. In fact, his first novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, is helpful to anyone trying to understand that species of humanity known as “the star.” Or to master “Star-Speak,” their arcane lexicon.

At one point in Hanks’ novel, which hits shelves May 9, a director describes his star as “the latest hunk of forbidden fruit who, with patience, can be flattered, cajoled, babysat and made ‘camera ready’ for his leading role.” He adds: “I’m not saying you have to respect the man but you do have to respect the process.”

Hanks himself is a thoughtful, well-read man, not a predictable “hunk.

CNN has set a May premiere date for the final installment of its “Decades Series,” TheWrap can reveal exclusively.

“The 2010s,” which will premiere Sunday, May 7 at 9 p.m. Et., explores the decade that gave us Instagram, most of President Barack Obama’s administration, marriage equality, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo and Trumpism, per the official logline.

The seven part series will feature archival footage and interviews with cultural staples during the decade, including EP Tom Hanks, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Benny Blanco, Bill Kristol, David Remnick, Este Haim, Finneas, Fiona Hill, Jemele Hill, Lena Waithe, Maggie Haberman, Rami Malek, Reince Priebu, Vince Gilligan and Ted Sarandos.

Also Read:

Fox News-Dominion Trial: Courthouse Installs VIP-Style Tent to Potentially Shield Arriving Witnesses From Prying Eyes (Video)

Drawing from the CNN family, network anchors and correspondents will be featured in the series, including anchor Chris Wallace, anchor and Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash,...

Elvis

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital HD

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

2022 / 2.39 : 1 / 159 Min.

Starring Austin Butler, Tom Hanks

Written by Baz Luhrmann, Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, Jeremy Doner

Directed by Baz Luhrmann

In 1960’s Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock dramatized a murder using 78 camera setups and 52 cuts. 62 years later the Australian director Baz Luhrmann employed the same techniques to tell the story of Elvis. Hitchcock’s harrowing shower scene lasts all of 45 seconds yet it still resonates—Luhrmann’s movie runs 159 minutes and for some in the audience, it may begin to fade before they hit the exit.

For better and for worse, Elvis moves like a bullet train. Thanks to the convulsive editing of Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond, the movie’s imagery—an onslaught of high energy jolts delivered in bite sized pieces—can dazzle the senses. And at nearly three hours it can dull them too. Still, the breakneck...

The last four years of President Donald Trump’s tenure has been defined by endless lies, a revolving door of senior White House staffers, name-calling, and all-around hostility, making for a chaotic state of affairs before even diving into his policy record. As such, the inner workings of the president’s mind has sparked troubled curiosity from both sides of the aisle. Speaking during the opening night of the Democratic National Convention this week, former first lady Michelle Obama cited the “chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy” under Trump as among the chief reasons why he’s unfit to serve.

Now, an upcoming documentary seeks to make sense of it all. Below, check out an exclusive clip from “#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump.” With interviews from doctors and mental health professionals, the film offers an analysis of the behavior, psyche, condition, and stability of Trump,...

We’re two paltry weeks away from the Oscars and while the race for Best Picture continues to narrow, the Emmy race couldn’t be more wide open. That’s not to say that there aren’t a few conclusions to be drawn from TV’s winter awards cycle, but their significance remains to be seen.

Saturday night saw the Directors Guild of America step into the spotlight and celebrate the artists in their midst. Hosted by fellow director Judd Apatow, it was a ceremony even Jimmy Hoffa could love, with many winners touting the benefit of working within a strong union.

“I’m very moved by this,” “Chernobyl” director Johan Renck said of his award. “As a Swede I really believe in the power of unions and organized labor for justice and solidarity.”

HBO came out on top, winning Dramatic Series (Nicole Kassell for “Watchmen”), Comedy Series (Bill Hader...

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Watchmen,” and “Game of Thrones” lead the Directors Guild of America nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television Dramatic Series; Comedy Series; and Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials for 2019. Winners will be announced at the 72nd Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, January 25, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

The nominees span comedy and drama categories for the year’s best television, and also include “Veep,” and “Barry.” Other nominated programs include the 91st annual Academy Awards, as well as Norman Lear’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” ABC specials, plus comedy specials directed by Spike Jonze, Stan Lathan, and Linda Mendoza

See the full list of Directors Guild of America Award television nominees below, and stay tuned for DGA Awards analysis from IndieWire. This year’s DGA Award nominations for film, announced earlier this week, are here. They’re led by Bong Joon Ho,...

WarnerMedia has named three senior executives to its original non-fiction team at streaming service HBO Max ahead of the platform’s 2020 debut, tapping Brett Boydstun, Lizzie Fox, and Rebecca Quinn to shape the division’s programming.

“Non-fiction storytelling will be a crucial component to HBO Max and we now have the leadership and team in place to bring the best this genre has to offer to our offering,” said HBO Max chief content officer Kevin Reilly in a release.

Fox will serve as senior vice president of non-fiction programming, and Quinn has been named vice president of non-fiction original programming, with both execs reporting to HBO Max executive VP of original non-fiction and kids Jennifer O’Connell. Boydstun will serve as senior VP of non-fiction production and will report to HBO Max production senior VP Mark Weissman. Together they will be responsible for creating non-fiction original programming for the streamer.

After the success of CNN’s continuing miniseries chronicling the decades — beginning with The Sixties in 2014 — all the way up to The 2000s last year, it seemed natural to do a follow-up on the movies of those years. And thus we have the new six-part limited series, The Movies. Each weekly installment is two hours and focuses, like the previous series, on a particular decade from the Golden Age onward, opening with the 80’s this Sunday July 7 and continuing every Sunday through August 11. There is no rhyme or reason to the order of the shows. The producers tell me they did it chronologically, but CNN made the decision on how it would be aired initially.

Coming from Executive Producers Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Mark Herzog, the same team that brought you The Decades, it is another ambitious project for the cable network and described as one that “explores American...

In today’s film news roundup, “Kung Fu Girl” gets directors, a documentary on President Donald Trump’s mental health starts production and blockchain platform TaTaTu reports early success.

China Project

China’s SinoLicensing Media has signed the directing team of Kenny Gage and Devon Downs to direct their upcoming feature, “Kung Fu Girl,” Variety has learned exclusively.

The film will be shot on location in China later this year. Gage/Downs’ credits include the recent Bet Digital series “The Last One” and the indie feature “Cynthia.” This is their eighth feature film.

Set for Chinese theatrical release in 2019, “Kung Fu girl” centers around a 12-year-old female martial artist and includes a strong anti-bullying message. Hongbin Liao wrote the script.

The producer is Chuan “Melody” Bi and Michael Fang is the executive producer. Gage/Downs are represented by manager/producer Judy Fox.

Anti-trump Documentary

Director/producer Dan Partland and producer...

Phil Rosenthal and David Wild have partnered with Cadence13 on a new podcast titled “Naked Lunch,” Variety has learned exclusively.

The new weekly podcast will see the two long-time friends inviting some of the biggest names in television, film, theater, music and more to join them revealing conversations and an actual free lunch. One of their first guests will be comedy legend Carl Reiner, pictured above with the two hosts. The series, launching this summer, will be available across multiple platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, iHeart, Stitcher, TuneIn and more.

“The show is called ‘Naked Lunch’ because we will all be completely naked,” Rosenthal and Wild say. “Luckily for the audience, this is only a podcast.”

Rosenthal is best known for creating the hit CBS comedy series “Everybody Loves Raymond”. He was the showrunner for all nine years of the show’s run, which ended in 2005. It was nominated for over 70 Emmy awards,...

Documentary director Evgeny Afineevsky earned an Oscar nomination for his 2015 film Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom. He returns two years later with Cries from Syria, which premiered this week at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The film’s editor, Aaron I. Butler, spoke with Filmmaker before the festival about how he and Afineevsky sought to tell this difficult story. Among many issues, Butler discusses the fine line between crafting an honest portrayal of Syria and showing images too brutal for audiences to handle. Butler’s previous editing credits include The Sixties, I Am Michael and In Dubious Battle. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]...

Quick Hits

Last Year’s Winner: “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst” Was It an Upset? Nope. Still Eligible? Nope. Hot Streak: “American Masters” has been nominated three years in a row – every year the category has existed. Fun Fact: Though only around for the past three years, four trophies have been handed out in this category. In 2014, “American Masters” and “Years of Living Dangerously” tied.

Read More: ‘Making a Murderer’ Wins Emmy For Outstanding Documentary Series

Last year, HBO walked away with this category because “The Jinx” became such a dominant cultural presence everyone and their brother was talking about it. The same could be said for “Making a Murderer, ” Netflix’s original docu-series that swept the nation upon its release and remains a talking point to this day.

That being said, “Chef’s Table” is nothing to sneeze at. If viewers check it out, they...

“The Contender” director Rod Lurie has landed a pilot order at TNT for “Monsters of God,” a drama that chronicles Colonel “Terrible” Bill Lancaster’s holy war against the Comanche in post-Civil War Texas.

“Monsters of God” was previously developed at Starz. The project has been a long-gestating passion project for Lurie, a former U.S. Army artillery officer who has spent a great deal of time researching the Comanche Wars.

TNT confirmed the greenlight Sunday during its portion of the TV Critics Association press tour, where it also announced that it had ordered new Charles Barkey series “The Race Card,” and renewed “The Last Ship” for a fourth season.

Read More: Lawrence Kasdan to Explore the Mystery of Chandra Levy’s Death in TNT Drama

Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment is producing “Monsters of God” along with Turner’s in-house Studio T. TNT original programming executive vice president...

CBS News and Twitter will partner for the second Democratic presidential debate on Nov. 14, the companies announced on Monday. Twitter will offer live reactions and questions from users that will be asked during the debate. CBS News’ streaming platform, Cbsn, will weave Twitter data into its coverage. The partnership continues a trend of TV news networks partnering with social media giants for debates: CNN and Facebook joined forces for the Oct. 13 Democratic debate as anchor Don Lemon delivered Facebook users’ questions to the candidates. Also Read: CNN, Facebook Come Together for Tom Hanks' 'The Sixties' (Exclusive) “As the 2016 presidential election.

The Creative Arts Emmy Awards were handed out in Los Angeles last night (September 12), just a week ahead of the Andy Samberg-hosted Primetime Emmy Awards event.

HBO scooped the highest number of awards, with Game of Thrones and Queen Latifah's Bessie among the major winners.

Digital Spy presents a full list of all the winners and nominees below:

Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series

American Masters

Cancer: The Emperor Of All Maladies

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst - Winner

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

The Sixties

Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special

The Case Against 8

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief - Winner

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck

Sinatra: All or Nothing At All

Virunga

Outstanding Variety Special

Bill Maher: Live From D.C.

The Kennedy Centre Honors

Mel Brooks Live At The Geffen

The Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special...

HBO’s controversial The Jinx: The Life And Deaths of Robert Durst just won a big show of support from the TV Academy, nabbing the Emmy for best documentary or nonfiction series tonight. It beat out PBS’ three much less radioactive American Masters, Cancer: The Emperor Of All Maladies and The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, as well as CNN’s The Sixties.

Accepting the award, Jinx director Andrew Jarecki read an email sent by Durst in which he said, ‘I’m going to watch Episode 6 and then decide if I’m going to Cuba.’ “He didn’t go because he was arrested and that’s testament to the power of television,” Jarecki said. He gave thanks to his wife for overcoming her better judgment to allow him to “intentionally antagonize a triple homicide suspect.”

The Jinx gained widespread exposure when subject Robert Durst was arrested on first-degree murder charges the...

The opening episode of CNN Original Series “The Seventies” topped Fox News Channel’s “The Kelly File” in the key 25-54 demographic — as well as all of its other cable news competition at 9 p.m. Episode 1 of the Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman production, “Television Gets Real,” also notched 7,000 more demo viewers than the May 2014 premiere of CNN’s “The Sixties,” 291,000 viewers versus 284,000 (up two percent). Fox News had 278,000 demo viewers in the hour last night, while MSNBC had 94,000. Also Read: Fox News' Megyn Kelly Teases Duggar Interview, Talks Big 'Gets' and Bigger Ratings In total viewers, however, Fnc still.

A year after winning solid ratings and good reviews for a multipart exploration of The Sixties, CNN and executive producer Tom Hanks are turning back the clock for a sequel — titled, of course, The Seventies, premiering tonight at 9 p.m. Est on the news network. The eight-part documentary look at the Me Decade will explore the usual touchstones: Watergate, the end of the Vietnam War, the rise and fall of disco. And kicking things off tonight is “Television Gets Real,” an hour-long primer on how the medium derided decades before as a “vast wasteland” began to grow up and tackle serious themes as never before. One of the key players in that evolutio n— and a frequent presence on tonight’s episode of The Seventies — was a then-unknown actor named LeVar Burton, who starred as the slave Kunta Kinte in ABC’s landmark 1977 mini-series Roots. (And, in case you’ve...

The International Documentary Association (Ida) announced nominations for the 2014 Ida Documentary Awards today, with awards being bestowed December 5th at the Paramount Theatre on the studio lot. The top films nominated in the best feature category include the critically-acclaimed Citizenfour from filmmaker Laura Poitras about Edward Snowden and the state of surveillance of civilians post 9/11 which has been enjoying a theatrical run and Nick Broomfield’s Tales Of The Grim Sleeper about the serial killer who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over 25 years. In the limited series category is Playtone’s CNN doc The Sixties, among others. Best episodic include Oprah Winfrey’s Master Class and HBO’s Vice exec produced by Bill Maher (and others). In addition, Robert Redford will receive the Career Achievement award from the Ida.

Winners in the Best Feature and Best Short categories are selected by Ida’s international membership. Screening committees of industry professionals based in New York City,...

Andy Samberg is setting aside his badge and picking up a racket. The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star is set to play a "superstar tennis bad boy" in a new HBO comedy event focused on a seven-day Wimbledon showdown. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the one-off mockumentary, titled 7 Days in Hell, will find Samberg's character, Aaron Williams, squaring off with rival prodigy/"certified truck driver" Charles Lloyd Poole (Game of Thrones' Kit Harington) at Wimbledon 2004.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Rob Sheffield's Favorite 2013 TV

Rounding out the all-star cast will be Lena Dunham (Girls), Fred Armisen (Portlandia,...

While all the focus has been on the Emmy battles between A-listers like Bryan Cranston vs. Matthew McConaughey and Julia Roberts vs. Kathy Bates, a slew of other stars picked up nominations. However, these came in categories that receive less fanfare, most of which will be presented at the Creative Arts Emmys nine days before the primetime telecast on August 25. -Break- Top 10 biggest Emmy nominations jaw-droppers: Ricky Gervais, Lena Headey ... Best Documentary/Nonfiction Special, for instance, boasts a stellar line-up of nominated producers, including Oprah Winfrey and Mariel Hemingway (Own's "Running from Crazy"), Maria Shriver (HBO's "Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert"), Tom Hanks (CNN's "The Sixties: The Assassination of President Kennedy"), and Whoopi Goldberg (HBO's "Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley"). Apart from first-time nominee Hemingway, they're all previo...'...

The 2014 Emmy Nominations were announced today, with Game of Thrones and American Horror Story picking up quite a few nominations in top categories. The Walking Dead also picked up nominations for visual effects and sound editing. The official list is below and the winners will be announced live during the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards on August 25th.

Drama series

“Breaking Bad” (AMC)

“Downton Abbey” (PBS)

“Game of Thrones” (HBO)

“House of Cards” (Netflix)

“Mad Men” (AMC)

“True Detective” (HBO)

Comedy series

“The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)

“Louie” (FX)

“Modern Family” (ABC)

“Orange is the New Black” (Netflix)

“Silicon Valley” (HBO)

“Veep” (HBO)

Miniseries

“American Horror Story: Coven” (FX)

“Bonnie and Clyde” (A&E)

“Fargo” (FX)

“Luther” (BBC America)

“Treme” (HBO)

“The White Queen” (BBC America)

TV Movie

“Killing Kennedy” (National Geographic)

“Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight” (HBO)

“The Normal Heart” (HBO)

“Sherlock: His Last Vow” (BBC America)

“The Trip to Bountiful...

CNN's 9 p.m. hour, in a sort of limbo post-Piers Morgan, got a shot in the arm on Thursday night. The premiere episode of Playtone (Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman) and Mark Herzog's The Sixties won the news demo, besting Fox News Channel and MSNBC, nearly tripling its average showing in the time slot over the past month. A 10 p.m. encore lost little steam -- the two showings averaged a respective 284,000 and 243,000 viewers -- again topping its two most relevant rivals among adults 25-54. Network president Jeff Zucker took the good news, as well

read more...

Mark Zuckerberg apparently likes the idea of helping out troubled schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Facebook founder and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged $120 million to Bay Area schools, Reuters reports. Also read: CNN, Facebook Come Together for Tom Hanks’ ‘The Sixties’ (Exclusive) While a sizable sum of money, the couple characterized the donation as “a drop in the bucket.” “The investments we've made are a drop in the bucket compared to the challenges schools face. But we've seen that targeted investments can be catalysts for much bigger changes in communities, and give vital support to leaders and organizations,...

In the new 10-part docuseries The Sixties, CNN quite literally isn’t sparing any color commentary.

The debut installment, “Television Comes of Age,” examines the origins of the small screen — including the transition from black-and-white to color TV – through the eyes of the era’s biggest stars: Dick Cavett, Diahann Caroll, The Smothers Brothers, and Carol Burnett, among others.

The Sixties also calls on today’s luminaries to discuss how the era’s advances influenced their lives and changed the world. In an exclusive sneak peek of tonight’s opener, the series’ executive producer Tom Hanks (who also played a...

CNN and Facebook are teaming up to extend “The Sixties” beyond TV. CNN's 10-part series, executive produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, and Mark Herzog, looks at the changes in pop culture, civil rights, politics, and technology during the decade. Facebook will offer a second-screen experience that will include exclusive video, talks with producers and historic figures, and exclusive video from CNN Digital Studios about the decade. Also read: CNN Is No. 1 Cable News Network – You Just Have to Know Where to Look “We are delighted to collaborate with Facebook to offer such a rich multimedia experience for viewers of.

There’s more than a month to go before Mip-tv kicks off in Cannes, but folks are already getting into full market swing. To wit: FremantleMedia International says today that it has acquired global distribution rights (ex-u.S.) to CNN‘s 10-part docu-series The Sixties. The CNN Originals series explores the transformative decade, from Kennedy’s assassination, the Cold War and civil rights, to social change and the British invasion. It’s executive produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman (Playtone) and by Mark Herzog (Herzog & Company). The first episode debuted in the U.S. in November to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK and was No. 1 among cable news programs in its slot. A second episode, The Sixties: The British Invasion, aired on CNN/U.S. in January. Those installments and the remaining episodes are due to pick up again Stateside in May.

The Sixties, Tom Hanks' ten-part documentary series on CNN, is slated to start this May. But last night saw the debut of "The British Invasion" episode, presumably to capitalize on the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles' appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The hour kicked off with the Beatles arriving in the States, and as familiar as that story is, we'd pay to see a documentary just on that week: every moment is golden, from the interviews with hysterical fans to the Elvis impersonation by Ringo Starr. Then, armed...

CNN spun ratings gold out of national tragedy on Thursday night with its special about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. “The Sixties: The Assassination of President Kennedy” took the top ratings spot in cable news in its timeslot Thursday night in the demo, according to preliminary Nielsen numbers, and bested the news network’s successful recent documentary “Blackfish.” Also read: JFK Author Picks 7 Essential Assassination Books and Movies The special, which is part of the Tom Hanks/Gary Goetzman-produced docu-series “The Sixties” and aired from 9 to 11 p.m., averaged 508,000 viewers in the key demo, besting Fox News,...