Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY April 1, 2022.

Where it may be April Fool’s Day, but it’s no joke that ADELE bought Sylvester Stallone’s house for $58 Million earlier this year in Beverly Park, CA. So let’s enjoy our Friday morning coffee somewhere classy, and what says classy more than statues of Rocky scattered throughout a multi-million dollar home?

No word if Sly was taking the shimmering poolside metallic boxer statue with ‘em… 🥊 but either way - finally something else in common between ADELE and Stallone other than memorable singing voices.

PLUS: The LA TIMES has a long-in-the-works piece interviewing 20+ people who have worked with Bruce Willis in recent years and were concerned for his well being, a piece whose existence likely prompted the official word from Bruce’s family this week before this piece came out.

ALSO: DISNEY+ is gonna drop “Obi Wan” on Fri May 27 instead of the 25th, and give ya 2 episodes for your trouble. This sets up a new-fashioned streaming face-off with “Stranger Things” Season 4 pt1. Man this woulda been a lot more fun in the days of Linear TV…

AND: DISNEY+ has apparently inspired me to give you 2 songs today - one of my favorite new ones is at the bottom, and here’s HARRY STYLES’s new one “As It Was” that dropped last night.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

APPLE TV+ gets Scar Jo, Chris Evans pic with Bateman directing

Called “Project Artemis”, not much known other than it takes place amid some sort of space race and… that APPLE cut a nice crisp $100 Million (plus) check for the package 💰. /Deadline

NETFLIX gets next pic from OSCAR-winning director Kathryn Bigelow

Known of course for “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty”, Kathryn hasn’t done a pic since 2017’s “Detroit”.

This one’s an apocalyptic pic called “Aurora”, based on an upcoming book by David Koepp (the OG “Spider-Man”, “Jurassic Park”) who will also write the script.

About a solar storm ☀️that knocks out most of the power on Earth, and a mom trying to protect her teenager & estranged brother, a tech CEO who has one of those pricey bunkers in the middle of the desert as ya do… which come in clutch when the world’s in total chaos. Let’s just hope I can still do this newsletter though right? /THR

Eddie Murphy playing P-funk legend GEORGE CLINTON in biopic

Or at least he’s “in talks” to. Very early stages for the project - they’re still in final stages of securing George’s life rights, then need to hire a writer.

Eddie producing with John Davis, no streamer / studio home yet… although Eddie has a deal at AMAZON, so figure it’s AMAZON. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• MGM sets director Rashaad Ernesto Green for “68”, the story of the 2 US OLYMPIANS who raised their fists in support of human rights on the medal podium.

  • Rashaad won the 2020 INDEPENDENT SPIRIT Award for Someone To Watch for his 2nd film “Premature”. MACRO and PARTICIPANT also producing. /Deadline

• MIRAMAX adds Carrie Preston (“The Good Fight”) to Alexander Payne’s next pic “The Holdovers” starring Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, about an unliked teacher chosen to watch students at a prep school not going home for the holidays in 1970, which ends up being just one kid. Pic currently shooting. /Deadline

HOLLYWOOD BUSINESS AFFAIRS

• RANGE MEDIA PARTNERS sets Film co-production deal with film financing, production & sales outfit FILM NATION. Plan is for 4 to 6 pics a year. No initial projects indicated. /THR

• LIONSGATE promotes Eric Kops to Head of Global Comms & Earned Media. Will lead both Publicity & Corp Comms efforts in the role. /Deadline

📺 THE TV SET

JUST 3 THINGS

• Bella Hadid will have a recurring role in “Ramy” Season 3 on HULU. Not yet clear if she’ll be playing a character named “Bella Hadid”. /THR

• If your show begins with “NCIS”, it’s getting another season at CBS this Fall. /Variety

• NETFLIX doing 8 episode docuseries on the 2022 TOUR DE FRANCE. /Variety

IN SO MANY WORDS…

“He used to mouth your words… And you would see him saying your line with you and you would have to say, ‘Bill, Bill, you’re mouthing the words again.'”

- HENRY WINKLER on the unique experience of acting with Bill Hader on “Barry” given Bill’s deep involvement in the show’s writing, from a new THR profile that’s a good read for any fellow Hader fans out there.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

JUST 3 THINGS

• Former FOX head Peter Chernin is looking to make major acquisitions his CHERNIN GROUP holdings - Word is he’s looking for a TV and/or Film Production entites to add to his Media company portfolio, with aims to go public in a few years. /The Information

• AMAZON PRIME secures exclusive rights (will not be on TV) to 21 YANKEES games this season, starting on Friday April 22. In fact most will be Friday games. Oh 👋 APPLE TV+, sorry didn’t see you and your Friday doubleheaders there. /NY POST

• Joe Adalian at VULTURE has a pretty great review of CNN+ at launch in his weekly Buffering column for the inclined. For starters - you’d think a product called CNN+ would have an option to watch a live feed of news… even if it’s not the CNN cable feed per se. CNN+ does not have that.

  • In case any NY MAG folks are reading #fwiw - finding Joe’s Buffering column on the actual VULTURE site from his email in my inbox took me 5 minutes - lotta useless links in the bottom of that email, including one to sign up for Nick Quah’s podcast instead.

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

A slightly down day for most but no big movers.

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👩‍💻 THE FSS FEED:

(new Stuff to Watch this weekend, Friday - Saturday - Sunday)

WEEKEND LISTENS

Author James Andrew Miller dropped a new 5 episode season of his podcast “Origins” about the story of HBO, drawn from his recent book on HBO - “Tinderbox”.

SMARTLESS needs a plug about as much as they need any more Ads jammed into the show, but their latest podcast with DAVID SPADE had me laughing quite a bit.

FRIDAY

IN THEATERS:

SONY “Morbius” - Only in Theaters, tracking at around a $40 Million opening but the less than stellar reviews put a big question mark either way.

STX “The Contractor” - Chris Pine action flick, former special agent turned mercinary gets doublecrossed on a gig in Europe. Only In Theaters

FOCUS FEATURES “You Won’t Be Alone” - Horror movie, In Theaters

APPLE TV+ “CODA” going into 600+ theaters, with open captions to be accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing.

STREAMING:

MOVIES

• NETFLIX “The Bubble” - Judd Apatow movie - STREAM HERE

• NETFLIX “Apollo 10 1/2” - Animated movie from Richard Linklater - STREAM HERE

SERIES

• AMAZON PRIME “The Outlaws” - 6 episode UK comedy with Stephen Merchant - STREAM HERE

• APPLE TV+ “Slow Horses”  - MI-5 Spy drama series with Gary Oldman - STREAM HERE

TV:

• MARCH MADNESS Women’s FINAL FOUR on ESPN starting at 7p

SATURDAY

• MARCH MADNESS Men’s FINAL FOUR on TBS at 6p and 850p ⛹️

• CBS “Whitney, A Look Back” special looking back at her life as it’s the 10th anniversary of her death, at 8p

• PEACOCK Wrestlemania, incl the return of Steve Austin 🥶. Hope he brings his beer! (he has a beer named after him, like all true icons). Starts at 8p

• SNL is Jerrod Carmichael and GUNNA. Gotta think this will be one of their most anticipated cold opens in some time. (for the record Chris Rock is playing shows in AC Sat night).

SUNDAY

• The GRAMMYS on CBS 🎙

• NCAA MARCH MADNESS Women’s Championship, 8p on ESPN 🏀

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

Nothing new… but for any MARKETING folks - this is a killer Trailer song in the right hands: MONDO COZMO “Electrify my Love” (wait for about the 1:33 mark for it to really kick in). This one’s a huge banger, like HBO’s “Winning Time” teaser trailer banger.

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

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-SEAN MCNULTY

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