Box Office: ‘LEGO Batman’ Wins Weekend, ‘Great Wall’ Crashes, ‘Fifty Shades’ And ‘John Wick 2′ Shine
The Presidents Day weekend was not a happy one for new releases, as you had two mild underperformers and one outright flop. For the second weekend in a row, the top movie is The Lego Batman Movie. The Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. release earned $33 million in weekend two. (FOR)
Make-Up And Hair Stylists Guild Awards: ‘La La Land’ Continues Winning Streak
The Oscar frontrunner for Best Make-Up and Hair Styling, Star Trek Beyond, took home the prize for special effects makeup at the guild awards on Sunday. (GD)
Donald Glover & James Earl Jones Set As Leads In Jon Favreau’s Live-Action ‘The Lion King’
Donald Glover and James Earl Jones have been cast in the crucial roles of Simba and Mufasa, the lion father-and-son pair at the center of the film. (COLL)
Keith Cox To Be Promoted To President Of Development For The Paramount Network & TV Land
The recently rebranded Paramount network has zeroed in on Keith Cox to lead development and production for the revamped channel. (DH)
‘This Is Us’ Star Sterling K. Brown Officially Joins Shane Black’s ‘Predator’ Reboot
Sterling K. Brown is officially on board 20th Century Fox’s The Predator. The news that Brown was in talks for the role broke last month. However, the deal has now closed. (VAR)
Tom Hanks To Publish Debut Story Collection, ‘Uncommon Type’
Tom Hanks will publish his debut collection of short stories with Alfred A. Knopf. The collection comprises 17 stories, each having something to do with a different typewriter. (EW)
Liv Tyler, Sherlock Vet Join Kit Harington In Guy Fawkes Miniseries ‘Gunpowder’
Tyler is one of three actors joining the Game of Thrones star in the three-part BBC One drama. Sherlock‘s Mark Gatiss and Top of the Lake‘s Peter Mullan have also signed on to appear in supporting roles. (TVL)
Brad Grey’s Paramount Exit And Studios In Turmoil
Paramount’s Brad Grey is merely collateral damage in an industry that’s figuring out how to survive. (THR)
Is There Another Writers’ Strike On The Horizon?
The contract is up between the Writers Guild and the producers, and the guild leadership is letting it be known that a strike is a very real possibility, like the one that sent things off the rails for four months in the fall of 2007 and the winter of ’08. (TB)