☀️DISNEYFOX sets 3rd Agatha Christie pic, with Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey

Next round of WBD layoffs rumored for today / Albrecht now 'on leave' at LEGENDARY / NETFLIX sets Ad-tracking firms

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY October 11, 2022.

Where it was a relatively quiet Monday. From word around town today though… it will likely not be a quiet Tuesday. #WBD👀

via Giphy

AND: Just a shout out to my homestate + a heads up for any Jersey/Tri-State readers - tix for the MONTCLAIR FILM FEST this month are now on sale and… really impressive lineup👏. “Glass Onion” opens it on Oct 21, and “She Said” will close it on Oct 30.

• Plus they’ll screen “Women Talking”, “White Noise” and A24 pics “The Whale” and “Inspection” and more.

IN TODAY’S EDITION:

• Pretty sedate start to the week so this’ll be quick. And Free for everyone! Not exactly a #TacoTuesday level of excitement, but I do what I can.

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📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

via Giphy

DISNEYFOX sets cast for next Agatha Christie pic

Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Michelle Yeoh, Jude Hill and Kelly Reilly are the principals.

Kenneth Brannagh is back to play lead detective “Hercule Poirot” and direct the pic, called “A Haunting in Venice”, inspired by the Christie book “Hallowe’en Party”. 🎃

Pic finds good ol’ Hercule retired in Venice, and attending a séance at a haunted palazzo as ya do… and one of the guests is killed. No word if everyone pivots to trying to ya know, contact that person instead at the séance to see what’s up.

Will begin shooting in a few weeks. Right about when “Knives Out 2” will be in full promo mode. I mean gotta wonder how “Murder She Wrote” IP is just sitting on the shelf at this point no? /THR

Previous 2 Christie pics:

• “Murder on the Orient Express” (2017): $102 Million US, $351 Million global

  • Budget: $55 Million

• “Death on the Nile” (2022): $45 Million US, $130 Million global

  • Caveats: Released during early Feb/end of omicron boom this year. It also starred Armie Hammer.

  • Budget: $90 Million

• What’s a reasonable budget to roll the dice on for a third pic here?

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ALSO IN MOVIES

• NETFLIX sets deal with UK theater chains VUE and CINEWORLD to show “Glass Onion” in theaters for the same week as the US stunt in November. No word on # of theaters. /Variety

• NATO (movie theater owners trade group) head John Fithian will retire in May. /Variety

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📺 THE TV SET

trying a new tactic with impending bad news. via giphy

Next WBD layoffs are expected this week

At least according to Deadline, with the WBTV group is thought to be a ‘main target’, perhaps with unscripted & animation being the first in line… but we’ll see how it shakes out. Good probability the moves will be made today according to trades reports.

ALSO: WARNER HORIZON head of Unscripted Brooke Karzen is departing at the end of the year after 22 years at the company. She was known as the driving force behind “The Bachelor” franchise. No word on what’s next. /Variety

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AMAZON “Thursday Night Football” hits sizable Week 5 drop

Granted, it was for an absolutely horrible DENVER vs. INDIANAPOLIS game, where even the local DENVER newscasters apologized for it in the newscast that followed the game 🤦‍♂️.

But it was 9.7 Million viewers total, the first 4 games have all been getting over 11 Million. It was also down -34% from the Week 5 game on FOX last year, but again the matchup here was pretty dismal.

However AMAZON is +67% in the 18-34 demo through the first 4 games last year (does not include this game). /SBJ

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ALSO IN TV

• Chris Albrecht has been put on a paid “leave of absence” by LEGENDARY TV, reportedly coinciding with a new book on the rise of HBO that’s coming out in Nov from Felix Gilette and John Koblin called “It’s Not TV”, including previously reported incidents of violence, one of which led to his resignation in the 2000s. /THR

• “The Man Who Fell to Earth” is 1 & done at SHOWTIME. /THR

• Director Todd Field (“TAR”) follows Keanu in departing “Devil in the White City” series project. /Variety

• NBC orders 6 additional episodes of “Quantum Leap”, making for a totalof 18. /THR

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💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

Thanks for the assist eh? Happy thanksgiving btw! via Giphy

JUST TWO THINGS

• YOUTUBE is enabling “@username” handles on the platform (both og YT and SHORTS), in a bid to further attract more creators to use SHORTS and foster community (make it easy to tag people in videos etc). #innovation /Variety

• NETFLIX has enlisted ad-viewability firms DOUBLEVERIFY and INTEGRAL AD SCIENCE (IAS) to track ad viewing for their ad-supported tier, according to Ad Agencies. However they’re reportedly not starting until January. We’re a week away from the NETFLIX Q3 earnings report and very likely some more color here. /AdAge

AND INTERNATIONALLY: AMAZON PRIME has set 6 new Australian unscripted projects for 2023, including a series of comedy specials. This in addition to 3 already announced scripted projects. #InvestLocal /Variety

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🏦 STOCK NOTES

Pretty quiet Monday

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

ESPN NHL Season Opener: Tampa Bay vs NY Rangers

NETFLIX “Hot Forever” Iliza Shlesinger special - STREAM HERE

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🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

NETFLIX “Wendell & Wild” movie trailer - From director Henry Selick, co-written by Jordan Peele. PREMIERES FRI OCT 28

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APPLE TV+ “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me” docu trailer - PREMIERES FRI NOV 4

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HBOMAX “Doom Patrol” Season 4 teaser - PREMIERES DEC 8

PARAMOUNT+ “Wolf Pack” teaser trailer - PREMIERES JAN 26

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🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

New song from GAYLE, “Snow Angels”.

If you need some new tunes:

Email me anytime at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM