Events of the Week: ‘The Dropout,’ ‘The Godfather’ 50th Anniversary and More

As Hollywood events return to full force in New York and Los Angeles amid the coronavirus pandemic, here’s a look at the week’s biggest premieres, parties and openings, including red carpets for The Dropout, The Godfather‘s 50th anniversary and season five of Better Things.

The Godfather 50th Anniversary 

“A couple of times I thought I was finished,” Francis Ford Coppola told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday night of the ongoing fear he was about to be fired while filming an adaptation of Mario Puzo’s Mafia novel The Godfather. Needless to say, he kept the gig, won three Oscars including best picture and launched a franchise that has become one of the most iconic in history. Coppola returned to the Paramount lot this week to honor the 1972 film’s milestone 50th anniversary, a celebration that included a dedication of Francis Ford Coppola Avenue on the studio lot and a special screening and red carpet event. The latter hosted Coppola and the film’s stars Talia Shire and James Caan along with guests Alden Ehrenreich and Jon Voight and studio brass Brian Robbins, among others. Looking back on how he was able to keep the job, Coppola joked that he pulled some tricks out of his sleeve that had been up there since college. “I was a theater major and I learned how to handle the faculty that was always trying to tell you what to do,” he explained. “When I came out here, I treated executives the same way by bluffing them, basically, and using what little power I had to trick them into getting my way.” — Chris Gardner

Tick, Tick… Boom! 92Y Screening

Andrew Garfield stopped by 92Y on Tuesday for a screening of Tick, Tick … Boom! and a conversation about his career with moderator Annette Insdorf.

Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming premiere

Tyler Perry was joined by costars Brendan O’Carroll, Brandon Black and Isha Blaaker at Tuesday night’s downtown Los Angeles premiere of his latest Madea film, which is streaming on Netflix.

Cyrano special screening 

NYC’s SVA Theatre hosted a special screening of Cyrano on Wednesday night, where stars Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett and Kelvin Harrison Jr. and director Joe Wright were joined by MGM chairman of the board Kevin Ulrich, MGM Motion Picture Group chairman Michael De Luca and MGM Motion Picture Group president Pamela Abdy.

Better Things season five premiere

Pamela Adlon unveiled the fifth and final season of her show Better Things at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Wednesday, alongside onscreen daughters Mikey Madison, Hannah Riley and Olivia Edward and costars Kevin Pollak, Alysia Reiner and Greg Cromer.

The Dropout Los Angeles premiere

Hulu’s Elizabeth Holmes series The Dropout debuted at the DGA Theatre in L.A. on Thursday, with stars Amanda Seyfried, Naveen Andrews, Alan Ruck, Dylan Minnette, Utkarsh Ambudkar and Elizabeth Marvel, along with showrunner Liz Meriwether and executive producers Michael Showalter and Rebecca Jarvis.

Succession star Ruck, who plays a Walgreens exec partnering with Holmes in the series, said he knew little about the woman before the show: “I had seen Elizabeth’s giant face on a billboard when [Alex Gibney’s The Inventor] documentary came out, I was like, ‘Oh bad lady did something bad in Silicon Valley, that’s bad’ and I didn’t think too much about it,” he told THR. After getting deep into the story, “you realize there’s a human being involved and she’s not a vicious, malicious, deceitful person, she’s misguided I think and she so desperately wanted to believe it was going to happen that she just stopped being able to hear the truth. And the amazing thing is she convinced a lot of other people that she was right.”

And of course, a major element in the portrayal of Holmes is the voice, which the team said Seyfried mastered in her performance. “To see someone bring someone to life so effortlessly and just embody this character so well, it was really inspiring,” said Minnette, as exec producer and ABC News correspondent Jarvis added that she “was blown away” by the actress.

“Not just the voice, which she absolutely nailed, but the mannerisms,” she said. “There’s so many layers to this person and I think Amanda just spent so time researching and digging deep and watching those deposition tapes which we’ve spent so much time with, and I just admire the amount of energy and attention to detail she and the whole team put into this project.”