The Idol, an HBO present that Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye co-created together with his longtime collaborator Reza Fahim and the Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, is in limbo after abrupt adjustments in employees and artistic route, based on experiences, which embrace a brand new Rolling Stone investigation. Neither Tesfaye, who is ready to star within the present, nor Levinson have formally commented on the present’s alleged mishandling, though Tesfaye has since posted a clip from the collection on his social media accounts with the caption “@RollingStone did we upset you?” Within the scene, Tesfaye’s character is suggesting that Depp’s character flip down a Rolling Stone cowl, calling the publication “irrelevant.”
HBO had billed the present as “the sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood”—Tesfaye forged as a cult chief within the leisure enterprise, and a pop star Lily-Rose Depp amongst his followers. Amy Seimetz had signed on to direct the collection, however left final 12 months with a lot of the present filmed. At the moment, the manufacturing crew anticipated a brand new director to movie the finale and wrap manufacturing. As a substitute, sources informed Rolling Stone, Levinson scrapped the practically full “$54-75 million mission to rewrite and reshoot the whole factor.” The drastic turnaround alienated some members of the manufacturing workforce, based on the report. The rewrites, one member informed Rolling Stone, turned the present from a satire of Twenty first-century fame into “the factor it was satirizing.”
Some scenes amounted to “sexual torture porn,” one Rolling Stone supply claimed. “It was a present a few lady who was discovering herself sexually, became a present a few man who will get to abuse this lady and he or she loves it,” a supply added. Not less than two sources have informed Deadline and Rolling Stone that Tesfaye pushed for script rewrites that will restrict its “feminist lens,” partly by decreasing concentrate on Depp’s character.
In Could 2022, after a break in manufacturing, most crew and a few forged members didn’t return, 5 sources informed Rolling Stone. Levinson changed them with high-profile actors together with Dan Levy and Rachel Sennott, in addition to Moses Sumney and Jennie from Blackpink. However the prohibitively costly overhaul did not heal the rift between Levinson, the crew, and HBO bosses, the sources say. Deadlines got here and went, whereas HBO trickled out teaser trailers with no indication of when the present the would air. For the second taking pictures interval, in what the report cites as cost-cutting measures, Tesfaye turned his personal Bel-Air mansion right into a set, and, throughout a live performance at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium final September, invited Depp onstage to shoot what seemed to be a scene for the present, leaving the gang—repurposed as free extras—bewildered.