Latest news with #ElizabethMeriwether
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Limited Series Writers on the Impact of Casting, Writing Emotional Journeys, and Finding a Tonal Balance
'Dying for Sex' co-creators, executive producers and writers Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock knew that establishing the tone of the show was always going to be hard. The limited series starring Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate is based on the true story of Molly Kochan, a young woman who is diagnosed with stage IV cancer. Together with her best friend Nikki Boyer, the two start a podcast about her journey. More from Variety David E. Kelley on Shaping 'Presumed Innocent' With Ruth Negga's Barbara as the Killer - Then Changing the Ending After Filming Began 'Nobody Wants This' Creator Erin Foster Says Kristen Bell Kept the Show's Production in L.A.: 'She Wants to Be Home With Her Kids' All About the Mother: Cristin Milioti Looks Back, From 'The Sopranos' to 'Black Mirror' and 'The Penguin' Molly, played by Williams in the show, doesn't plan on having a sexual awakening, but she does. And as she battles her illness, she explores her sexual desires and fetishes, empowering herself. Speaking during Variety's A Night in the Writers' Room Limited Series panel, Meriweather said, 'We decided to focus on the humanity of the characters and really not try to think about genre that much.' While the earlier episodes were structured around a comedic tone, Meriweather explained that over the course of the show, the tone got darker. 'The most important thing was honesty and allowing space for that,' Meriweather said. Speaking about the sex scenes, Rosenstock explained that the sex was never gratuitous. 'The sex was always doing something for the character. It was always helping her heal.' And while the showrunners wanted it to be hot and sexy, the North Star was that it was always doing something for Molly. The two revealed how they had discussed the idea of musical theater and how each song is used to move a character along. Said Merriweather, 'Every sexual experience she has is like a musical number. The song is supposed to take the character to a different place by the end.' Rosenstock went on to explain how Molly's bravery needed to be reflected in their writing. 'Part of what this character is doing is that she has this radical acceptance of, 'Yes, all these different ways that sex can look like and feel like, and ways that you can experience pleasure.' So, we needed to have that bravery in our writing and in the filming of it.' She went on to explain that if they cut away in the way that shows have that tendency to, 'We are also having shame around what we are talking about and what we are showing. And we wanted to make something that reflected the character's outlook on that.' Meriwether and Rosenstock were two of the writer-producers who spoke about their creative process on Thursday night at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. The limited series panel included Lauren LeFranc ('The Penguin'), Ian Brennan ('Monsters – The Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story'), Olivia Milch ('The Better Sister') and Nikki Toscano ('Long Bright River'). LeFranc spoke about 'The Penguin' and Cristin Milioti, who plays Sofia Falcone. LeFranc revealed writing the character meant a lot to her, but she hadn't pictured an actor. 'I just knew this voice and I knew what I was looking for and needed.' When Milioti was cast, LeFranc knew she had her Sofia Falcone, and she could hold her own against Colin Farrell, who plays Oswald Cobb. LeFranc said, 'She's his antagonist in a lot of ways. And that this very complicated relationship and the character itself is very complicated. She has to be able to pull off something deeply emotional and you need to empathize with her, but she also needs a wit.' Milch talked about adapting 'The Better Sister.' The series is based on Alafair Burke's novel and stars Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel. Before taking the show out, Milch revealed that all eight scripts for the series had been written. It was a rare occasion, but it helped when bringing together the casting. 'There's a real gift in seeing the completion of that vision. But then that's where the collaboration starts with your actors, right?' She added, 'When you start understanding who your cast is, then you build a relationship with them in terms of the act of creation of who the character is. So your ideas about it start to be infused with who they are, with their ideas about it, with what you're finding together. And that evolution and that living, breathing reality of the creative process, that's where the good stuff happens.' In 'Long Bright River,' Amanda Seyfried plays a jaded Philadelphia patrolwoman Mickey Fitzpatrick in the Peacock limited series who searches for her younger sister, Kacey (Ashleigh Cummings), amid the opioid crisis in Philadelphia and sex workers being murdered. In casting Seyfried, Toscano said the actress 'undeniably transformed into this.' When looking for someone to play Mickey, she was looking for someone who could be undeniably raw, and Seyfried checked all the boxes. 'She's really willing to strip down and strip away from everything else. And we needed somebody that could have that snf was bringing this weird sort of guarded cop to life.' Toscano also made her directorial debut with the series, stepping behind the camera for episode 6. In discussing that experience, Toscano said she had been surrounded by an incredible group of women or men 'whose primary focus was to uplift women.' She also praised her all-female department head, explaining that it was never the intention to hire an all-female crew. 'The women just won the fucking job.' Brennan revealed how the labor strikes of 2023 impacted writing 'Monsters.' Netflix's nine-part series follows the real-life events of the Menendez brothers, Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik Menendez (Cooper Koch), who were convicted of murdering their parents in 1989. 'The Hurt Man' episode was written by Brennan and focuses on Erik as he opens up to his defense attorney about the sexual abuse he experienced. Brennan had noticed when watching the real-life court testimony on Court TV and the brothers were talking about sexual abuse, 'you literally can't look away 'cause it doesn't cut away…you can't break the tension.' And so he was inspired to do the same. He had the idea that the episode would be a single shot. Ryan Murphy, the show's creator, loved the idea. Except he had to write it before the strike. 'It was the most challenging artistic thing.' Brennan couldn't sleep and revealed, 'I went downstairs and then like poured a very large glass of wine and wrote the episode in one sitting.' Watch the full panel above. 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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Decades After Its Joint-Venture Journey Began, Hulu's Sole Ownership By Disney 'Finally Resolved' With $439M Payment To NBCU, Bob Iger Exults
The long and winding road of Hulu, which started in the pre-smartphone era as a streaming joint venture involving NBC and Fox, has concluded with the finalizing of Disney's buy-out of Comcast. Disney is paying an extra $438.7 million to Comcast's NBCUniversal, on top of the $8.6 billion it committed in 2023 under the terms established in a put/call arrangement unveiled in 2019. That deal, which was accompanied by Disney's $71.3 billion acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox, fueled Disney's streaming ambitions as it prepared to launch Disney+. More from Deadline It Starts On The Page (Limited): Read 'Dying For Sex' Episode 1 Script "Good Value Diet Soda" By Kim Rosenstock & Elizabeth Meriwether Iris Apatow Joins Season 3 Of Hulu's 'Tell Me Lies' As Recurring 2025 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming While Disney gained full operational control of Hulu, the agreement preserved Comcast's one-third financial position pending the outcome of negotiations over the final price. A $27.5 billion floor value was set, with multiple third-party appraisals then entering the discussions. Disney's appraisal, not surprisingly, came in below the $27.5 billion level, while NBCU rendered an estimate that was 'substantially' higher, Disney said in an SEC filing. Disney CEO Bob Iger and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts publicly jockeyed over the value of the service in a sector increasingly defined by streaming. The transaction, completed Monday, 'takes into account the valuation of a third appraiser,' the filing explained. Had the NBCU appraiser prevailed, the result would have been a payment to Comcast/NBCU of about $5 billion, Disney said. The buyout is slated to close on or before July 24. 'We are pleased this is finally resolved,' Iger said in a statement. 'We have had a productive partnership with NBCUniversal, and we wish them the best of luck. Completing the Hulu acquisition paves the way for a deeper and more seamless integration of Hulu's general entertainment content with Disney+ and, soon, with ESPN's direct-to-consumer product, providing an unrivaled value proposition for consumers.' Comcast said in a statement provided to Deadline, 'Hulu was a great start for us in streaming that generated nearly $10 billion in proceeds for Comcast and created an important audience for NBCUniversal's world-class content. We wish Disney well with Hulu and appreciate the cooperative way our teams managed the partnership.' Disney has been more closely integrating Hulu with its Disney+ flagship and its linear networks in recent years. Hulu remains a key participant in Disney's vertical bundles as well as a successful one involving a third-party, HBO Max. After NBC and Fox hopped onboard the streaming pioneer ahead of its official founding in 2007, Disney soon followed and Time Warner would go on to take a 10% stake. In-fighting often hindered the progress of Hulu as its strategy continuously shifted. While each participant in the JV fell away as companies pursued their own independent strategies, the irony is that a Hulu-style coming together of legacy players is now coalescing as media giants grapple with the costs and murky financials of streaming compared with the lucrative pay-TV business. Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media Where To Watch All The 'John Wick' Movies: Streamers That Have All Four Films Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Washington Post
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate kill in FX's ‘Dying for Sex'
It's hard to make cancer funny. It's almost as tricky, for different reasons, to make someone's search for sexual fulfillment narratively compelling. FX's 'Dying for Sex' manages to do both. The limited series, co-created by Kim Rosenstock and Elizabeth Meriwether, stars Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate as real-life friends Molly Kochan, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in 2015, and Nikki Boyer, who supports her right up till the end in her twin quests to explore her sexual needs and die on her own terms. Based on the popular 2020 podcast of the same name, in which the two women discussed Kochan's sexual escapades (and leaving her 13-year marriage), the show juggles health, humor and horniness with brilliant assists from guest stars Rob Delaney, Jay Duplass, Esco Jouléy, Robby Hoffman and Sissy Spacek. It's a weirdly good time.
