Peter Bart: Last News

“Why is this like a dark secret? It’s just a movie.”

When Barbra Streisand delivered her 992-page memoir to her editor at Viking earlier this year, did anyone urge her to cut? Even gently?

Having won an Oscar for her gritty first film about a revenge murder, Emerald Fennell’s second movie, out this week, reminds us that she doesn’t believe in happy endings. Saltburn is about a vengeful college student who aspires to an even wider death toll.

The consensus is clear: Hollywood feels it must pursue what Bob Iger tactfully (or ominously) calls “some fixes.”

The Israeli-Gaza morass this week seemed to defy coherent media coverage, reminding me of critic David Thomson’s conclusion about Hollywood war movies and how they “used to celebrate courage, not confusion.”

The angriest filmmaking fights that I’ve witnessed over the years have not been about cost or cast; they were about length. The movies were too long but so were the fights.

I think Walt would be grumpy.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor With both Disney and Warner Bros. turning 100 this year, it’s a great time to remember the Golden Age of moviemaking. The business is changing at a precipitous rate, and recent studio mergers have forever altered the longtime map of Hollywood production.

“Politics is poisonous – even in making movies.”

With guild agreements being signed and production ramping up, Hollywood hopefully awaits a moment of youthful innovation.

To state the obvious, this is a dicey moment in the job market. Amid cutbacks and strikes, even headhunters are job hunting. Those hot USC graduates who once lined up for CAA internships are now foraging for a TikTok moment. YouTube is swamped by a confluence of influencers.

Will the Hollywood studio become extinct?

The film festivals can always be counted on to deliver surprise hits at this time of year, but meanwhile Hollywood must deal with another issue: Its Barbitude hangover.

With festivals beckoning and box office wobbling, this obnoxious question looms ever larger: What’s next?

“I know how to change bad news into good news,” Edward L. Bernays, the father of public relations, used to boast. Since he was a nephew of Sigmund Freud, I wonder how he’d find a positive mind-set among today’s practitioners of his craft.

“How did I become Tom Joad? I used to write for a living.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: William Friedkin’s passing is a gutting experience for anyone lucky enough to have sat as he reminisced over his classic movies, with measures of regret for the recklessness, humor, and keen observations of why Hollywood’s Auteur Era gave way to the global blockbuster, and whatever it is we have today as two guilds strike seeking transparency, and residuals for writers and actors. This interview was originally published August 6, 2015 under the title ’70s Maverick Revisits A Golden Era With Tales Of Glory And Reckless Abandon. I am feeling a bit gutted by Friedkin’s passing. I looked forward to a long interview with him for his Venice-bound Showtime remake of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. After spending time with Billy and his elegant wife Sherry Lansing at Peter Bart’s 90th birthday where the back and forth between them proved the highlight of the evening, I wanted them to write a column for Deadline. On anything. None of that can happen now, and Deadline can only offer condolences to Sherry. And to Deadline readers who are Friedkin fans, a replay of this bracingly honest look at his career, done as he got a reissue of Sorcerer, the adaptation of the Georges Arnaud novel that first was filmed as 1953’s The Wages of Fear. The whole interview is presented as originally published nearly a decade ago. 

Back To The Future: The Musical made me very nostalgic for that great time-traveling ’80s movie, but Peggy Sue Got Married isn’t available on any of my streaming services.

Barbie is confounding: In addition to setting box office records, the movie has also inspired a flood of commentaries about its presumed “message.”

The mysterious sanctuary hidden away in the Jemez mountains was known only as Box 1663 in the mid 1950s. The mission of its 13,000 residents was to create “the gadget.” Living there was a challenge. “It’s a prison camp for eggheads,” whispered one scientist.

“To survive in Hollywood, all you need is an occasional miracle.”