Wanted: big-name star – JJ Hollywood

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HOLLYWOOD — Wanted: big-name star, must be funny and able to move the highest-rated award show on television at a fast pace and grab enormous ratings. ABC sent the word to the Academy Award producers that they want a big-name host this year. ABC’s own Jimmy Kimmel (not a movie star like Bob Hope, Billy Crystal or many of the previous hosts), did the honors in 2018 and 2019. There was no host in 2020 or 2021, and the ratings dipped substantially. When Crystal hosted several very successful ceremonies, he began eight months early, preparing sight gags and jokes based on films of that year. The Oscars air March 27 and a host, as of this column, hasn’t been announced. It doesn’t leave much time to prepare. Moviegoers braved movie theaters during this pandemic to watch “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “The Power of the Dog” and “Belfast,” to name a few.
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Maybe they should name Gal Gadot to host the awards, she seems to be getting all the plum jobs. She’s already been announced as the wicked queen that gives “Snow White” (Rachel Zegler, wonderful in “West Side Story” as Maria) the poison apple, while Andrew Burnap, who won a Tony Award last year for “Inheritance,” has also been signed — not to play the Prince or The Huntsman, but a newly created character. In addition to another “Wonder Woman,” Gadot’s set to play the Grace Kelly role in Paramount Pictures’ remake of “To Catch a Thief,” the 1955 classic Alfred Hitchcock romantic thriller that starred Cary Grant. Gadot also will serve as a co-producer.
Andrew Burnap is destined for stardom if his roles in Hulu’s “Under the Banner of Heaven,” with Andrew Garfield (who’s currently running the award season with “Tick, Tick … Boom”), and his role opposite Oscar winners Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway in Apple TV+’s “WeCrashed” impress.
Wes Anderson is following “The French Dispatch” with a film based on Roald Dahl’s book “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.” It’ll be starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Rupert Friend (“Homeland”), Ralph Fiennes and Sir Ben Kingsley.
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Paramount Picture is planning a third installment of “A Quiet Place,” without John Krasinski, who wrote and directed the first two films, and his wife, Emily Blunt, who starred in them. They have stated it’s not a threequel, and it will be helmed by Michael Sarnoski, director of “Pig,” which starred Nicolas Cage and Adam Arkin. It was about a truffle forager whose truffle-finding pig is stolen (it only grossed $3.8 million). On the plus side, director Michael Bay remains as one of the producers. The first two films grossed a combined whopping $600 million, and it is going to take a lot more than a truffle pig to top that!

(c) 2022 King Features Synd., Inc.

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Photo Cutline: Billy Crystal