Apple Facing Tricky Decisions About Taron Egerton, Matthew McConaughey Projects in Wake of L.A. Wildfires

It’s Wednesday, and as the industry continues to grapple with what has been lost, the Palisades and Eaton fires are slowly getting under control, to everyone’s great relief. We’re not out of the woods yet, but the smoky haze is beginning to dissipate here in Los Angeles. And props to State Farm for canceling its planned Super Bowl commercial to focus on more important things, like taking care of their customers in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades.

Over the weekend, I watched the 1970 German TV movie Das Millionenspiel [h/t ScreenSlate], which is based on Robert Sheckley’s The Prize of Peril, a prescient 1958 short story that more or less predicted the rise of reality television and shows like Squid Game that feature competitions with deadly stakes.

The movie wasn’t great or anything, but I could see how it might’ve been hugely influential to a range of movies and books, including The Hunger Games. Frankly, I’d be shocked if author Suzanne Collins had never seen it before.

Meanwhile, once the dust settled on the box office performance of Paramount’s Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, there was plenty of Monday morning quarterbacking from all corners of the industry, though, in true Occam’s Razor fashion, the simplest answer is likely to be the truest — American moviegoers simply don’t know who Robbie Williams is, nor do they care enough to watch a CG monkey sing his greatest hits.

Again, whether this was developed by Paramount or merely acquired for a fraction of its $110 million budget, it was an obvious non-starter that the studio never should’ve associated itself with, even if it was, as I’ve previously written, a great movie. I’m glad that it was made, but to me, it also made no sense that it was made, if you understand what I’m saying.

I haven’t seen the new Saturday Night Live documentary that everyone is raving about, but I really enjoyed this excerpt from Susan Morrison’s forthcoming book about SNL boss Lorne Michaels, courtesy of the New Yorker.

I also liked THR’s Karla Sofia Gascon profile from writer Julian Sancton, who does a great job of capturing her alluring mystique.

Tonight’s newsletter includes a piece on Apple and the tough programming decisions it will have to face later this year between the Matthew McConaughey movie The Lost Bus and the Taron Egerton series Firebug in the wake of L.A.’s devastating wildfires.

Plus, there are items about Sebastian Stan’s new movie based on a true story, Shrek 5’s new release date, Jesse Armstrong’s follow-up to Succession, the latest chapter in the battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, and a full review of Leigh Whannell’s new Blumhouse movie Wolf Man starring Christopher Abbott.

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