GLOBAL FILM INDUSTRY FACING $5B LOSS: The coronavirus outbreak is causing losses for the film industry of up to $ billion, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Many health experts are calling the virus a global pandemic that could keep people away from public places, including theaters, for weeks or months. Chinese theaters are currently closed and box office revenues in South Korea and Italy have dipped significantly. “The situation now is much worse than what we’ve seen during the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus MERS in 2015,” said an official at the Korea Film Commission. “The audience dropped to more than 40 percent then, but there was no such thing as theater closures and the market revived after about a month. That’s not going to be the case with coronavirus. It’s very unusual to see a daily admission fall below 100,000. But that is happening now, and the outlook is unpredictable.”
JAMES MCAVOY, PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE AMONG OLIVIER AWARDS NOMS: James McAvoy, Andrew Scott, Wendell Pierce and Toby Jones are competing for Best Actor at this year’s Olivier Awards, while Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Hayley Atwell, Juliet Stevenson and Sharon D Clarke are competing for Best Actress. The U.K. awards, which celebrate theater, will take place at the Royal Albert Hall on April 5.
CONNECTED TRAILER DROPS: A family road trip goes terribly wrong in our first glimpse of Sony Animation‘s Connected. Mike Rianda is directing, with Spider-Man alums Phil Lord and Chris Miller producing the film, which follows the story of the Mitchell family, who end up fighting a global robot apocalypse. Abbie Jacobson, Danny McBride and Maya Rudolph are voicing characters. Connected will hit theaters September 18.
BRETT GELMAN NOW SERIES REGULAR ON STRANGER THINGS: Brett Gelman has been promoted to series regular on Netflix‘s Stranger Things, Season 4. Gelman plays the journalist-turned-conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman. He won acclaim in Amazon‘s Fleabag as it swept the awards season.
