Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY May 26, 2021.

Where I learned yesterday that it’s very important to hit the ‘Update’ button to your Substack draft when you change the incorrect spelling of Timothy Chalamet to Timotheé Chalamet… before sending a newsletter. My apologies on the headline misspell yesterday to the new Willy Wonka. Err and his publicist if you’re a subscriber 😬 👋.

But - Betcha that wouldn’t happen if I wrote THE WAKEUP here… anyone wanna buy Meghan Trainor’s house in Tolouca Lake for $6 Million and lemme crash? You can be the first WAKEUP sponsor! Free of charge - please, I insist.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

NETFLIX sets Charlize Theron to star in big-wave surfing pic

Niki Caro (“Mulan”) will direct, based on a NY TIMES article from Feb about 4 women looking to compete in the male-dominated world of big wave surfing. Script being written now so gonna be a minute. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• SEARCHLIGHT adds Jerrod Carmichael to “Poor Things” cast alongside Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo and Ramy Youssef in Victorian-era film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Favourite”). /Variety

• “Spiral” hitting STARZ just 5 months after theatrical release on Oct 8. /THR

📺 THE TV SET

PEACOCK sets Elizabeth Banks to direct, co-star in series based on the book “Red Queen”

Set in a Sci-Fi dystopian future where a group of humans with superpowers has replaced democracy with a monarchy… and sounds like they’re not that nice. An anti X-MEN if you will. A young girl commoner unexpectedly discovers she has powers and, ya know… I’m sure she just keeps it to herself.

Elizabeth had previously been working to develop it as a movie. And this is still awaiting an official production order so no timeline indicated yet. /Variety

ALSO IN TV

• DISCOVERY / FOOD NETWORK sets new $80 Million, 3 year deal with Guy Fieri. Apparently a bump of about $50 Million from his last deal. Who knew the Mayor of Flavortown salary was about $26 Million a year? Good breakdown of his overall 2021 media empire in the piece. /Forbes

• The CW Fall Schedule here for those incilned./Variety

  • And if seeing the complete Fall 2021 Broadcast TV schedule grid all together is your thing, THR has you covered here.

• NETFLIX sets production of first local series production in Russia, as the quest for world domination continues - a modern Day re-telling of “Anna Karenina” called “ANNA K”. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

Layoffs hit WWE

Don’t worry… Vince’s job is ok. Layoffs run across TV, Features, and Digital/Social divisions in CT and LA as they consolidate all 3 into 1 within WWE STUDIOS. No word on a layoff count ballpark, but sounds like significant. /Deadline

FOX NEWS to put Primetime Propagand… I mean Opinion shows on FOX NATION the next day

FOX NATION = FOX NEWS’s subscription streaming service ($6/month), the perfect home for a network with a median viewer age of 66. Hannity and fellow Nobel Prize winners will start being added with their Wed June 2 shows, so prepare now for any errant phonecalls from estranged relatives asking you how can they use their ‘clicker’ to access it. /Variety

Either way a bold and telling move for a network whose business model is deeply tied to the cable channel bundle, and the demographic who is keeping it alive.

Zero-sports streaming bundle PHILO raising price to $25/month

Only for new customers, existing 800k subscribers are grandfathered in at $20/month. But if they want to upgrade their virtual DVR storage from 30 days to 1 year, gotta pop up to the $25 rate.

PHILO keeps the rate so low by carrying only general entertainment networks - doesn’t include Sports nets, a primary cause of rising cable bills. /Deadline

ALSO IN MEDIA

• VIACOMCBS projects $7 Billion in annual streaming revenue in 3 years. Or - what NETFLIX made in the first 3 months… of this year. /THR

• INSTAGRAM exploring ability for creators to charge subscriptions for exclusive content. Basically PATREON or ONLY FANS for INSTAGRAM. Well. Maybe more PATREON than ONLY FANS. /The Information

• APPLE PODCAST Subscription function now active, with the latest 14.6 iOS update. /The Verge

• VERIZON adds APPLE ARCADE and GOOGLE PLAY PASS video game subscriptions for free to subscribers of their top Unlimited mobile service tiers. This is in addition to free DISNEY+, APPLE MUSIC and DISCOVERY+ subscriptions. Who needs vertical integration? /Telecompetitor

• Quincy Jones sets partnership with new, music artist-focused NFT company ONEOF that claims to have little-to-no environmentally-unfriendly crypto coin minting costs. Somehow. Doja Cat, HER, John Legend, Charlie Puth and others sign on to create items for auctions. /Variety

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

VIMEO -5.5% on its first trading day.

AMC THEATERS continues to ride the REDDIT trader bull… +20% yesterday.

CINEWORLD (Regal theaters) gets the overflow, also up almost 5%.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

FOX “Crime Scene Kitchen” - Baking competition show hosted by Joel McHale, airs after “Masked Singer” finale at 8p

ABC “Press Your Luck” - New season debuts at 8p, followed by “The $100,000 Pyramid”

FREEFORM “The Bold Type” - Final season premiere at 10p

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🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

FOCUS FEATURES “Last Night In Soho” teaser trailer - Director Edgar Wright goes… full thriller/horror with Anya Taylor-Joy. Not entirely sure what’s going here but intrigued to find out. Hits theaters in October.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

New TWENTY ONE PILOTS “Redecorate”. From their brand new album which… also dropped on Friday. Popular day. Was digging this one with kind of a chill trip-hop vibe called “Redecorate”.

Listen here on Spotify or here:

If you need new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Have whelmed Wednesday - Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-Sean McNulty

@theseanmac on TWITTER or also here on CLUBHOUSE or on IG @TheWakeupNews