Exclusive: Tony Gilroy Shopping New Film 'Behemoth!' Starring Oscar Isaac

Happy Friday, folks!

A quick “thank you” to Puck’s Matt Belloni — sarcasm alert! — for crediting me in his Thursday night story about the new James Bond producers.

Loyal readers of this newsletter will recall an issue from two weeks ago that said David Heyman was getting the Bond franchise. I had to couch it as a “Hot Rumor” since the Lord knows I didn’t trust Amazon enough to run it by them first. Sure enough, Heyman is now negotiating to produce alongside Amy Pascal, per Belloni — more on that pairing below.

I’ve always respected Belloni, and I enjoy the hell out of his newsletter. I told him so on Tuesday night after reading his column about UTA’s Jeremy Zimmer.

Unfortunately, that respect is not mutual.

I can’t recall Belloni even once mentioning me in his newsletter, which is full of links to financial snoozefests like Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. I guess this little newsletter doesn’t crack his esteemed reading list.

It’s one thing for me to quietly stand by and watch Belloni make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year while studio heads kiss his ass at the Polo Lounge, The Ringer host his podcast, and Seth Rogen cast him in a full-on supporting role in his new Apple TV+ series The Studio (I expect a cameo in Season 2). However, I will not be quiet when he refuses to credit my work, especially given how frequently I credit him.

I also sniffed out the drama at Warner Bros. ahead of his newsletter, but again, no mention. Like I’m an invisible peon to be ignored like the rest of the godforsaken internet.

I realize that I’ve never served as the Editor in Chief of the Hollywood Reporter and that Belloni has a solid decade on me, not to mention an impressive background that includes a fancy-shmancy law degree.

But this guy doesn’t even like movies!

If Matt Belloni never saw another movie for the rest of his life, he wouldn’t give a shit, whereas I’d be inconsolable. I genuinely care about the work, whereas Belloni cares about and caters to the top 1 percent of Hollywood. He’s interested in moguls, and power, and that’s perfectly fine, but I man this beat better than him, and I do it with half the access, for a fraction of the money and accolades, while working another job so that I can continue to afford sending this absolutely vital industry newsletter.

Remember that the next time you have a hot tip to share…

Speaking of hot tips and sarcastic thank you’s, allow me to thank Rob Keyes, the Editorial Director at Valnet who oversees its sweatshops — excuse me, websites — Collider and ScreenRant.

Let me be frank. I am the best reporter that Valnet has ever and will ever employ. I worked my ass off for Valnet for a meager salary until I was shown the door along with the rest of the Collider staff who dared to draw health benefits. We were summarily replaced by independent contractors, i.e. freelancers, who churned out inferior content.

But it wasn’t enough for Keyes and his Canadian cronies to just let me go. No, I was added to a 400-person blacklist that Valnet stupidly kept, all because I had the temerity to block Keyes on Twitter. As if he should be entitled to my Twitter for life.

Rob Keyes is the worst kind of person in this business — someone with no discernible talent of his own who nonetheless draws a significantly higher salary than the people who do the actual work. He’s a douchebag in a tight t-shirt, and I hope he knows that he has been added to The InSneider’s blacklist of one. Er, two. Sorry, Patrick Graham!

Kudos to TheWrap and its intrepid reporter, Umberto Gonzalez, for shining a light on Valnet’s shitty practices. It is one of the most despicable employers in Hollywood and I urge the town to stop doing business with Valnet. This has nothing to do with the fine folks at Collider, who work as hard as anyone. This has to do with Valnet taking advantage of writers and exploiting them for clicks while turning one of the best movie websites in the world into a content mill featuring a revolving door of contributors.

Shame on Rob Keyes and Valnet. I wouldn’t sell them this newsletter for all the money in the world.

And now, before we move on to more positive developments, a quick correction from my Wednesday night newsletter!

The Bride! is not a musical. I’m told there is one dance number, but nobody sings. I was just going off of old quotes from the director’s husband, Peter Sarsgaard, who co-stars in the movie, but clearly, I was confused. Apologies to Warner Bros. and director Maggie Gyllenhaal.

However, as far as disputed Warner Bros. budgets go, well, I’m just never going to trust a studio when it comes to budgets. That was a Day 1 lesson for me at Variety. Sorry!

Anyway, today, you’ll read about Tony Gilroy teaming up with Oscar Isaac on a new movie, plus, a bit more on Bond, and who you probably won’t be seeing as 007.

There are also items about Sydney Sweeney joining forces with a high school English teacher, a new Power Rangers series, and the young actor being eyed to star in Sony’s Resident Evil movie. Plus, a look at the trailer for Celine Song’s new A24 movie Materialists starring Marvel alums Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal.

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