Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY June 10, 2021.
Where let’s have our morning coffee in the chill vibes and blue skies at Billy Bob Thornton’s new house in Agoura Hills, CA that he recently picked up for $3.1 Million. And yes – It comes with a recording studio. But also – a tennis court. That Billy Bob is forever an enigma…
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
NETFLIX casts Harry Melling as Edgar Allen Poe in Christian Bale WEST POINT period movie
Melling played Dudley in “Harry Potter” and was also just in “The Queens Gambit”. Called “The Pale Blue Eye”, Scott Cooper (“Crazy Heart”, “Out of the Furnace”) directing.
Set in 1830 at West Point, Bale’s detective is investigating a murder with the help of young cadet… Edgar Allen Poe. /Deadline
NETFLIX adds Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Beau “Regular” Bridges to Queen Latifah thriller
Called “End of the Road”, Queen plays a widow who drives her family cross-country, and soon become the targets of a mysterious killer in the New Mexico desert. /THR
ALSO IN MOVIES
AMAZON STUDIOS head of Comedy marketing Christian Davin departing after a year. Came over from NETLIX to lead film marketing, but role was changed in a re-org and shifted to all Comedy (Film & TV). He ran the ubiquitous campaigns for the “Borat” and “Coming to America” sequels, no next destination indicated. /Variety
📺 THE TV SET
Sam Elliott, Laurence Fishburne, and Mickey Rourke joining the “MacGruber” series at PEACOCK
Highly recommend reading all the plot details in the DEADLINE story (click the headline above) for any Grubes fans, even if somehow you never saw the movie.
It lives up to what you hope it would be: Sam Elliott as MacGruber’s dad…Mickey Rourke as villain “Enos Queeth”… Fishburne as Vicky’s new husband and – just really check out the link. It was too fun to read.
I don’t know that I’ve ever attended a viewing party for a new scripted show, but that will change when this drops on PEACOCK. /Deadline
NBC cancels “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”
Couldn’t make a deal work to transition to PEACOCK, producing studio LIONSGATE now gonna try and find another home for it. /Variety
HBOMAX “SATC” new season bringing back other guys besides Big
Mario Cantone, David Eigenberg, Willie Garson and Evan Handler all returning to reprise their roles. Those roles being Stanford, Harry, Steve and Anthony – and if you don’t know who plays who… then this news probably was not of interest. /THR
ALSO IN TV
PARAMOUNT+ making of “The Godfather” show “The Offer” adds Giovanni Ribisi, Colin Hanks, and Dan Fogler, who will play Francis Ford Coppola. /Deadline
Oscar Isaac is playing Coppola in the Barry Levinson movie about the same topic.
ABC’s “Bachelor in Paradise” adds Lil Jon, David Spade, Tituss Burgess, Lance Bass plus more TBD guest hosts for the new season. Currently shooting, premiere date TBD. /Variety
APPLE TV+ casts Jessica Ann Collins (“Zero Dark Thirty”) as the central female character in upcoming international thriller series “Echo 3” from Mark Boal (“Zero Dark Thirty”). A Colombian scientist (Collins) goes missing and her brother and husband with military backgrounds played by Luke Evans & Michael Huisman go to find her. /Deadline. Also Jessica’s IMDb Here
SHOWTIME buys “The One and Only Dick Gregory” docu. About to play TRIBECA, will premiere Sun July 4 on SHO. /Variety
BET Head of Scripted programming Traci Blackwell departs, was at BET for about 1.5 years. Replacement expected soon. /Deadline
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
$20 Million to stick around for a year (or at least not quit) – Inside WARNER MEDIA CEO Jason Kilar’s deal
THR does a good dive into his contract, and the additional stock options and severance benefits/payouts he’s entitled to if he stays thru Feb 2022 (first 25% of his option grant vests), and especially May 2022 ($20 Million severance clicks in).
The WARNER DISCO deal isn’t expected to go thru officially until Summer 2022, so new CEO David Zaslav has to decide if he wants to:
Just cut the big Kilar check early, clear out any lame-duck execs and set his new team for the future ASAP to instill confidence in the new WARNER DISCO company on Wall Street – and leave the actual approval/completion of the deal as an afterthought…
OR
Wait for the ink to dry and let this drag on for a year til the deal goes through, have Jason continue to build out HBOMAX and do his thing for a year, then do big changes/floor the accelerator as soon as the deal is official in a year.
Letting questions, whispers and unsteady employee morale persist for a whole year about exec leadership and company direction for WARNER DISCO, and keeping execs around that people know won’t be here in a year is never a great move, but – obviously a lot of factors in play.
ALSO IN MEDIA
FACEBOOK’s head of Advertising Carolyn Everson resigns after over a decade tenure. Her boss David Fischer announced he was leaving at the end of the year, and FB promoted Marne Levine, VP Global Partnerships this week to Chief Business Officer instead of Carolyn so… here we are. /Variety
Also: FACEBOOK looking to launch their own FB Smart Watch next Summer. Which will pair great with the FB Portal device that I don’t have either. /The Verge
New London-based Talent Management / Production co formed called B-SIDE. Clients include Daniel Kaluuya, Rafe Spall, Karen Gillen, and Daisy Haggard. /Deadline
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
AMC THEATERS down over 10%
DISH down over 7% on a bad analyst rating/downgrade
AMC NETWORKS down over 7% in a slight back to reality check after an unexplained monster June so far.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
PARAMOUNT+ “Infinite” – Mark Wahlberg sci-fi thriller directed by Antoine Fuqua. I think it’s avail on both the ad-supported ($5) and ad-free ($10) tiers? Either way Watch or add to your list here (oddly… this was nowhere near the top of the “Movies” section on the website).
HBOMAX “Starstruck” – UK comedy about a regular gal who uknowingly hooks up with a famous actor and the… relationship (?) that ensues. Looks fun! Watch or add to your list here
E! says farewell to the Kardashians… final “KUWTK” airs tonight at 10p. Although… they’ll be right back next Thurs June 17 and the following Sunday for a 2 part reunion hosted by Andy Cohen #NBCUsynergy 🙌 (link to promo here where I had… no idea what anyone was referring to). But apparently some controversy will be addressed. Good to see them keeping the tactics fresh right up to the end.
HULU – they’re all yours end of year.
If you were sent this email or… just kinda found it (no questions asked):
And if you wanna share THE WAKEUP with someone who may dig it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
SEARCHLIGHT “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” trailer. Andrew Garfield as Jim Bakker, Jessica Chastain as Tammy and… yeah this looks good. Also good luck to any competitors in Best Makeup categories in 2022. Hits theaters Fri Sept 17
APPLE TV+ “Invasion” teaser trailer – Alien invasion seen across various perspectives around the world, with Sam Neill and Shamier Anderson in the ensemble. Hits AppleTV Fri Oct 22
WB / HBOMAX “Space Jam: A New Legacy ” 2nd trailer. Gotta say… not feelin the new version of the song “Pump Up the Jam” with autotune. Don’t mess with the classics ya’ll #Technotronic4eva. Hits Theaters and HBOMAX on Fri July 16.
HBOMAX “Gossip Girl” reboot trailer. Now with Instagram! Just me or – did the budget for this go up like… a lot vs. TheCW version? Some fantastic cinematography! Drops on Thu July 8.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
Lets do a #ThrowBackThursday and go old school 90’s hip-hop, as this classic recently came back into my playlist lately. PHARCYDE “Passin’ Me By”
If you need new tunes:
Have a swell Thursday!
Email me anytime – just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-Sean McNulty
@theseanmac on TWITTER or @TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
or also here on CLUBHOUSE
