Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + MediaBiz news to know on FRIDAY March 12, 2021.
Where Seth Rogen’s weed company HOUSEPLANT debuted in the US yesterday (well, California), and his website had to be taken offline temporarily due to overwhelming traffic.
But at least we can all finally get as high as Seth Rogen. Legally.
🎧 MUSIC TO READ BY
NICK JONAS – “This is Heaven”. Another smooth but enjoyably Pop new song from Nick.
If you need new tunes:
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, & Joel Edgerton lead Ron Howard’s MGM Thai cave rescue movie “Thirteen Lives”
Production begins in Australia and Thailand this month. UNIVERSAL has international rights, BRON a co-producer/financier. /Deadline
IMAGINE sets exclusive first-look film deal at APPLE TV+
“Multi-year”, no price attached, no new projects announced from Mr. Howard or Mr. Grazer. IMAGINE Docs already has a deal there since 2019.
IMAGINE’s home at UNIVERSAL ended in 2016, has been independent since. /Variety
NETFLIX pays $30 Million for (mostly) global rights to Dev Patel’s directorial debut
Called “Monkey Man”, Dev plays a guy who gets out of prison and takes revenge on those who wronged & stole from him before prison. Described by one exec as “John Wick in Mumbai”.
Dev also co-wrote script. Movie just finished shooting, will hit NETFLIX and theaters in other pre-sold territories (totaling about 10) in 2022. /Deadline
Toni Collette sets film directorial debut
Based on the NYT Best Seller “Writer & Lovers”, backed by TOPIC STUDIOS (“The Mauritanian”). Toni also co-writing script and producing.
Aspiring novelist in 1990’s Boston dealing with her mother’s sudden death, and a burgeoning love triangle. /THR
ALSO IN MOVIES
Kiersey Clemons set to co-star in WB’s “The Flash” movie opposite Ezra Miller. Will play reporter “Iris West”. She was cast in the role in “Justice League” but cut from the movie – however her appearance is restored in the 4 hour version dropping next week (Kiersey’s IMDB here). /THR
WARNERMEDIA CEO Jason Kilar made $52 Million for 7 months of work in 2020. $1.7 Million base, $49.2 Million in stock options. Unfortunately they’re in AT&T Stock 🔥. Come on… the stock has basically stayed between $27 to $32 thru the entire pandemic, that’s fair. /THR
China’s WANDA GROUP no longer has a controlling stake in the largest US Movie Theater chain, AMC. Their voting stake is now below 10%, still has 2 seats on the board.
📺 THE TV SET
SHOWTIME sets Dakota Fanning for Steven Zallian’s “Ripley” series
Based on the Patricia Highsmith books, Andrew Scott is playing “Tom Ripley” (aka the Matt Damon role in the 1999 movie).
Dakota is playing Gwyneth’s character and Johnny Flynn (“Emma”, his IMDB here) already set as the Jude Law character “Dickie Greenleaf”. /THR
Claire Foy & Paul Bettany set for Season 2 of AMAZON’s “A Very British Scandal”
Will center on the split of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll in the 1960’s, which apparently involved forgery, theft, and a provocative polaroid 🤔.
The 3 part series produced with the BBC will shoot later this year. /Variety
“The Boys” spinoff adds cast, nears series order at AMAZON
Will be set at “College for Supes” essentially, 2 of the leads are Jaz Sinclair (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) and Lizze Broadway (“Here and Now”). /THR
ALSO IN TV
FX on HULU orders 9 episode limited series “Fleischman is in Trouble”. Based on the Taffy Brodesser-Akner book, a newly single 40-something Doctor finds more success in the dating scene than when he was in his 20’s. But has to take care of his kids when his ex goes missing. /Variety
STARZ sets Snoop Dogg, LaLa Anthony & Serayah (“Empire”) to recur on 50 Cent series “Black Family Mafia”. Set in 1980’s Detroit, inspired by true story about the rise of a crime family centered around 2 brothers. Currently shooting. /Variety
HBO doing 2 part docu on Paul Reubens. Produced by the Safdie Bros. /Deadline
OWN orders “The Kings of Napa” series from “Claws” showrunner Janine Sherman Barrois. Will center on the transfer of power at a wealthy family run Napa wine estate. WBTV & HARPO producing. /Deadline
“MTV Movie & TV Awards” will be held May 16th in LA.
ROKU adding a 7 episode scripted FBI show to THE ROKU CHANNEL, called “Cypher”. ROKU bought exclusive US & Canada rights to the show. It was shot in 2019 and previously “aired” on NETFLIX South Africa last year. ROKU will promote it as an exclusive premiere for the ROKU CHANNEL, all episodes drop next Fri March 19th. “Cypher” IMDB page here. /B&C
ROKU also bringing in pair of former QUIBI programming execs to work on content (and implement QUIBI programming into ROKU). Still no timeline given by ROKU when QUIBI content will go up. /Deadline
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
FACEBOOK will allow creators to insert ads into videos just 1 minute long 🙇♂️
Previous minimum was 3 minutes (FB takes a hefty cut of all that ad $$).
Sure it totally has nothing to do with finding ways to generate more $$ in advance of FB likely losing Billions in revenue when APPLE soon ends ad tracking in the upcoming iOS 14.5 update. /TechCrunch
ALSO IN MEDIA
CAA formally creates Podcasting group, sets Josh Lindgren to lead it. /THR
NETFLIX testing a beta effort to cut down on password sharing. Very limited in scope, and it doesn’t bust people outright – more of a “We’re pretty sure you’re using someone else’s password… yes or no? Totally cool if ya wanna fix that now or later.” kinda vibe.
Either way, looks like NETFLIX is getting close to limiting its previously liberal stance on password sharing to help boost US growth as it levels off. Details and images of the new prompts here at GAMMAWIRE.VIACOM/CBS sets tentative return to office plan for after July 4th holiday, albeit 100% optional. WARNER MEDIA looking at September, as is DISCOVERY.
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
NETFLIX “This is a Robbery” 4 part docuseries. Centers on a $500 Million art heist from a Boston gallery on St Patrick’s Day weekend in 1990. So basically… a classiah version of “The Town”. Drops on April 7th
📰 GOOD READS
THR’s Jennifer Garner profile – Great work from writer Lacey Rose as always.
👩💻 THE FSS FEED:
(new Stuff to Watch this weekend)
FRIDAY:
NETFLIX “Yes Day” family comedy starring Jennifer Garner. Parents must say Yes to all family ideas for a day. Watch or add to your list here.
HULU “Kid90” documentary. Aka what you’ll DEFINITELY find me watching tonight. Soliel Moon Frye’s home videos from the 90’s with all of your favorite teen/young adult stars. Watch or add it to your list here.
CHINA is re-releasing “Avatar” – It may overtake “Avengers: Endgame” for the all-time Box Office title. It only needs to make $7.4 Million to do it.
SATURDAY:
NO New SNL
NICKELODEON “Kids Choice Awards” at 730p – Hosted by Kenan Thompson.
SUNDAY:
NCAA MARCH MADNESS selection show, 6p on CBS.
The GRAMMYS at 8pm on CBS. Harry Styles will be opening the show… but The Weeknd is boycotting The GRAMMYS going forward, because of the Recording Academy’s secretive nomination process.
A process that also failed to nominate his latest album or hit song “Blinding Lights”, which just set a record for remaining in the Top 10 of the US Hot 100 Singles chart for a whole year – straight.
Small Favor – if you like the newsletter, make your assistant read… I mean share it with your assistant! Or any younger staff at your company or people you mentor. Totally counts as their 1st quarter bonus.
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🕵️♂️ THE WEEK AHEAD
Mon – OSCAR noms announced by Mr & Mrs Jonas (uh Nick & Priyanka. Kevin sleeps in on Mondays)
Tue – Virtual SXSW kicks off
Wed – Buy some Guinness and watch the DROPKICK MURPHYS live concert from Boston. Ok that’s mostly a note for my Calendar… but I still recommend it to all.
Thu – MARCH MADNESS kicks off. I guess at least we won’t have to read all the stories about how much people are streaming games at work this year 🤷♂️. But it won’t include DUKE for the first time in 26 years… who has to drop out of the qualifying ACC tourney due to positive Covid test. /WSJ
Fri – LA Movie Theaters return for first full weekend in a year. 25% capacity or 100 person/theater limit.
That’s a wrap on the week! Email me anytime – just hit Reply to this email. Any ideas, cheers or jeers are really welcome and appreciated…
Have a great weekend!
-Sean McNulty
