Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY April 5, 2022.

Where I at least have a half-legit excuse for any type-o’s today as part of this newsletter was written after the amazing MARCH MADNESS Championship game last night - congrats to KANSAS on their 4th NCAA Title. And to VILLANOVA 1985 for still being the only 8th seed to ever win the whole thing.

But equal if not greater cheers go the folks of FORTNITE and EPIC GAMES, who raised over $144 Million for UKRAINE relief in the past 2 weeks 💪.

Fortnite @FortniteGame

Our deepest thanks to everyone who joined us in supporting humanitarian relief efforts for people affected by the war in Ukraine. Together with the Fortnite community and @Xbox, we raised $144 million USD for @DirectRelief @UNICEF, @WFP, @Refugees and @WCKitchen.

April 4th 2022

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AND: YE pulled out of his COACHELLA headlining spot, leaving the fest sans a main headliner about a week and a half before the event.

PLUS: DIRECTV officially drops OANN today from their lineup and… replaces it with FOX NATION. Yeah that tracks.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

LIONSGATE sells US rights for JLo action pic “Shotgun Wedding” to AMAZON PRIME

This is the movie that Armie Hammer was about to do right before, well ya know - so Josh Duhamel came in to co-star with JLo to round out the about-to-be-married couple whose destination wedding party is taken hostage.

AMAZON already had rights in many International territories and sounds like AMAZON approached LGF about the deal with a sizable check in hand to make it worth their trouble, no word on the exact $$$ . /THR

KID CUDI co-starring in John Woo’s next movie “Silent Night” with Joel Kinnaman

Kinnaman plays a father avenging the death of his young son in the crossfire of gang violence on Christmas Eve. Mr. Mescudi is playing a detective.

• It’s Woo’s first US movie since the 2003 Ben Affleck pic “Paycheck”, THUNDER ROAD producing, no studio or streamer involved yet. /THR

ALSO IN MOVIES

• MGM sets Craig Gillespie (“Pam & Tommy”, “Cruella”) to direct GAME STOP stock market movie, based on Ben Mezrich’s book. Will shoot late Summer / early Fall. /Deadline

• A24 sets 2 movies for Summer:

  • “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” - June 24 (trailer below)

  • “Bodies Bodies Bodies” horror comedy with Pete Davidson among the cast- Aug 5

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IN SO MANY WORDS…

“First of all, it’s wrong to begin with. But that’s all people are talking about. And I don’t really care.

Hollywood gets really self-absorbed. There are babies getting blown up in Ukraine right now. We should be talking about that.” 

- Who’da thought it’d be director MICHAEL BAY ftw as the person giving some proper context to the Will Smith slap in HOLLYWOOD.

📺 THE TV SET

APPLE TV+ gets series starring & written by Jason Momoa

Called “Chief of War”, tells the story of the unification and colonization of Hawaii from an indigenous POV.

Justin Chon in talks to direct first 2 episodes (he did half of “Pachinko” at APPLE). ENDEAVOR CONTENT & CHERNIN ENT producing. /Deadline

Harrison Ford starring with Jason Segel in APPLE TV+ series “Shrinking”

10 episodes from Segel, Bill Lawrence & Brett Goldstein (“Ted Lasso”).

Segel plays a grieving therapist who starts telling his clients exactly what he thinks, which makes big changes to people’s lives. Harrison playing a “blue collar shrink” who also has recently developed Parkinson’s, and serves as a bit of a mentor to Segel’s character. /Deadline

GRAMMYS barely beat 2021 pandemic show audience size

Final ratings should come in today, pushing the audience to around 9.6 Million, just narrowly ahead of last year’s 9.2 Million.

2020 (pre-covid) was 18.8 Million, and the show has been around 17-19 Million for several years prior. /THR

FX sets Laurence Fishburne and Jackie Weaver for LA CLIPPERS / Donald Sterling limited series

6 episodes, called “The Sterling Files”. Fishburne playing CLIPPERS coach Doc Rivers, and Weaver playing Sterling’s wife Shelly.

Gina Welch (“Feud: Bette and Joan”) writing, based on ESPN’s “30 for 30” podcast of the same name. /Deadline

ALSO IN TV

• “Moon Knight” gets same first-5 day audience as “Winter Soldier” at 1.8 Million according to SAMBA TV #s. That’s ahead of “Hawkeye” (1.5 Million) but well behind “Loki” (2.5 Million). /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

TWITTER +27% ($49.97) as Elon Musk took a 9% stake in the company because… well let’s just say his new investment had a ton of hot takes on the subject yesterday. He’s now the largest individual investor in TWITTER.

ROKU +7% ($134.59) Wall Street was very happy they renewed their deal to carry the AMAZON PRIME app.

ROBLOX +8% ($50.02)

VIMEO +6% ($12.79)

SNAP +5% (39.34)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

HBO “Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off” at 9p

NETFLIX “Ronny Chieng: Speakeasy” - STREAM HERE

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

UNIVERSAL “Minions: The Rise of Gru” trailer - In theaters in July

A24 “Marcel The Shell With Shoes On” movie trailer - Ok gotta say I was skeptical when I read about this (hey I’m from Jersey) but any trailer that kicks in with 80’s Phil Collins right in the middle is a winner for me. Looks good! In Theaters June 24

FX “Mayans M.C.” Season 4 trailer - Premieres Tue April 19

HBO “Bill Maher: Adulting” comedy special trailer - Premieres Fri April 15

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Brand New WET LEG “Ur Mum”

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-SEAN MCNULTY

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