Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY March 24, 2022.
Where Chicago’s LOLLAPALOOZA fest announced headliners, incl METALLICA, DUA LIPA, GREEN DAY, GLASS ANIMALS and… BUCKY CHEDS bringing up the rear 🤘. Takes place July 28-31.
AND: Get ready for “Trading Places: The Musical”. It’ll star “Freestyle Love Supreme” member Aneesa Folds in the Eddie role. Written by Thomas Lennon and currently launching in Atlanta… with hopes of Broadway if it’s well received. Can’t wait for the “Is there a Lawyer in the House?” number! 💼
PLUS: Who would DOLLY PARTON want to play her in a biopic? Kristen Chenoweth. As with most things Dolly… that seems pretty spot on.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
Voltron movie with “Red Notice” director Rawson Marshall-Thurber attached out to bidders
Rawson will also co-write, Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman producing, no word on plot for any fans out there… /THR
HOLLYWOOD BUSINESS AFFAIRS
ICM Partner Matt Sorger departs to A3 Agency as a Senior Agent in Alternative & Digital Media, as ICM departures of late continue with the CAA deal-close looming. Matt was at ICM for over a decade, most clients expected to come with. /Deadline
Adam Driver leaves his longtime agency GERSH, looks to be going with just a lawyer for representation. /Deadline
Anthony Mackie is building a soundstage facility East of New Orleans on 20 acres of land. /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
Kevin & Frankie Jonas hosting ABC sorta-celebrity competition show
Wait Frankie? They’re just making up Jonas’s now right? Called ”Claim to Fame”:
12 relatives of famous people will live isolated in a house together (this has to be in the Valley no?), but with last names withheld – so no one knows who is related to whom. Although I’m thinking people still might recognize James Franco.
They’ll compete in challenges, form alliances, yadda yadda and there’s some sort of $100k prize in the finale. Likely presented by Nick Jonas. /Variety
APPLE TV+ sets Gabrielle Union for Season 3 of “Truth Be Told”
She’ll join Octavia Spencer in the mystery anthology series, with each season featuring a new main guest star (Kate Hudson did Season 2, Aaron Paul & Lizzy Caplan were in Season 1).
Gabrielle will play an outspoken high school principal involved in a “problematic incident.” /Deadline
HULU sets Mae Whitman (“Good Girls”) as the lead for new musical series “Up Here”
It’s from Steven Levitan (“Tick, Tick… Boom!” and “Dear Evan Hansen” movie writer) and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel (“The Carmichael Show”), directed by the “Hamilton” guy (Thomas Kail), and has music from the “Frozen” team (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez). So… kind of a big deal.
About a couple falling in love in late 90’s NYC. Ah back when I had long hair 💇♂️. More specific plot & character deets in the link for anyone inclined. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
F1 drivers aren’t crazy about the drama that’s been uh ‘amplified’ by NETFLIX’s “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” producers to “up the stakes”. Future participation questionable. /Motorsport
“RHONY” getting a reboot at BRAVO. 🥂 /Variety
MARCH MADNESS had most-watched opening weekend in 5 years, averaging 9.1 Million viewers. Granted there was no 2020 tourney and last year was not the usual version, but still a good sign. Women’s tourney +25% from last year. /AP
HBO’s “The Guilded Age” finishes up with audience of 1.6 Million across platforms on Sunday, +54% from premiere and about on par with “Succession” audience. /Deadline
ABC sells out of OSCAR ad slots, and good news – there will be at least 4 Crypto ads!! 🤦♂️ 30 seconds sold for between $1.7 Million and $2.2 Million. Or at least that’s the price ABC was asking… 🤝 /Media Post
ROKU CHANNEL picks up Zoe Lister-Jones led comedy series “Slip”. Dakota Johnson producing, about a happily married but restless woman who goes on a journey of “parallel universes” and relationships, while trying to find her way back to her husband. Will shoot next month. /Deadline
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
YOUTUBE will add 4,000 ad-supported TV episodes
The shows are things like “Hell’s Kitchen” and the TBS sitcom “Are We There Yet?” – so not exactly the A… or even D-List library here (and those were the ones they actually promoted 😳), nor were any specific large studio library output deals mentioned here. #randos
This is in addition to some older movies they already stream on the service for free (ad supported) like “Gone in 60 Seconds” and “Legally Blonde”, a category which they’ll also continue to grow.
So… not exactly groundbreaking but: How long til YOUTUBE adds more libraries and creates an official free, “FAST”/AVOD version of YOUTUBE TV, with this content curated into “channels” and a scrollable Cable TV Guide-like interface to suck away ad dollars that PLUTO, ROKU CHANNEL, PEACOCK etc are increasingly pulling in? 🧐
Granted – they’ll need a lot more hours of content, but I hear GOOGLE makes a lot of money, and knows a few things about advertising. /Tech Crunch
INSTAGRAM bringing back ability to change your feed to chronological
Instructions on how to change it are in the link 👆. You can also create a Favorites feed of up to 50 accounts you’d like to prioritize seeing in your feed. (Update your app if you’re not seeing anything like what’s described). /HITC
ALSO IN MEDIA
HBOMAX adds a Shuffle function, so you can let the algorithm decide which episode to play of a given series. But… its only avail for a random list of 45 series. And only on the desktop browser version of the product. Luv ya HBOMAX… but seriously? #kindaweak /Deadline
SPOTIFY rebranding its CLUBHOUSE-ripoff GREENROOM as SPOTIFY LIVE since… no one understood wft GREENROOM meant 🥴. This as AMAZON MUSIC is about to step up their game in a big way in this space. /Ad Age
ALSO: GOOGLE will allow SPOTIFY to let Android users pay to subscribe either via SPOTIFY App or GOOGLE PLAY. Same price… but SPOTIFY keeps more of the cash if it goes directly to it. Will launch “later this year”. /THR
WWE has a new home in the Middle East and North Africa – a streaming service called SHAHID, which is part of the media firm MBC GROUP that is majority-owned by the SAUDI government. No word on deal duration or $$$.
SHAHID is thought to currently have about 2.5 Million paying subscribers, is neck and neck with NETFLIX as the top streamer in the region, and runs about $8 a month.
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
AMC THEATERS +13% ($20.74) lotta big Sandy Bullock fans out there on Wall Street this week…
BUZZFEED -7% ($4.91)
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👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
FX “Atlanta” – Season 3 premieres at 10p or STREAM HERE on HULU
PARAMOUNT+ “Halo” – STREAM HERE
PARAMOUNT+ “Jackass Forever” – STREAM HERE
HBOMAX “Starstruck” – Season 2 of the UK comedy about a “non-famous” woman who is in a relationship with a celebrity. STREAM HERE
MARCH MADNESS Sweet Sixteen across CBS + TBS, first game at 7:10p on CBS
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
PARAMOUNT+ “The Offer” Series trailer – PAR+’s first big swing at prestige (& the industry crowd). Kinda missing Matthew Goode’s Bob Evans in this spot tbh since he was great in the extended teaser, and odd how no one seems to smoke in the 70s… but count me in for the series 👍. Uh that is if someone wants to slide me a password – I do a free, no ads newsletter… not exactly swimming in streaming service subscription dough here. Premieres Thu Apr 28
HBO “The Survivor” movie trailer – Directed by Barry Levinson, starring Ben Foster as Holocaust survivor Harry Heft, who made a life as a boxer in the US post WWII. Looks powerful and to be quite a performance from Ben. HBO bought it at TIFF in Sept. Premieres Wed April 27
A24 “Men” trailer – Next pic from Alex Garland (“Ex Machina”), and looks like we have our first candidate for the feel good movie of the Summer 🥳. In Theaters May 20
HULU “The Hardy Boys” Season 2 – Premieres Wed April 6
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
FICKLE FRIENDS “Alone” – This song just puts a bop in your step! 💃 Been in high rotation for me this week.
If you need some new tunes:
Email me anytime – just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
