FRI : Joaquin Phoenix + "Midsommar" director at A24

Kate McKinnon leaves HULU’s THERANOS project, New Movies & TV this weekend and more.

Feb 19, 2021

Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + MediaBiz news to know on FRIDAY February 19th, 2021. With some new emoji’s coming your way in the iOS 14.5 update (currently in beta). The “head in the clouds” guy is totally gonna be used for this instead right?

🎧 MUSIC TO READ BY

A MUST LISTEN BeeGees Cover: FOO FIGHTERS do “You Should Be Dancin”. You won’t regret the click. And if someone kindly forwarded you this email, you won’t regret this click either 👍

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Joaquin Phoenix + “Midsommar” director Ari Aster for A24 movie

Called “Disappointment Blvd”. Described only as “decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.” Will likely shoot this year. /Deadline

STX buys US rights to Chris Pine action movie, “Violence of Action”

Pine plays discharged Green Beret who is betrayed on a subsequent Black Ops mission in Europe, and uhh, has to find out what’s up.

No acquisition price revealed, Ben Foster and Gillian Jacobs among co-stars. /THR

Daisy Ridley starring in movie adaptation of the thriller novel “The Marsh King’s Daughter”

Daisy plays a woman dealing with personal demons when her father who kept her and her mother captive in the wilderness for years, escapes from prison.

STX distributing in UK and India, US rights available. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

NETFLIX sets Animated movie based on Lupita Nyong’o graphic novel series “Sulwe”. /THR
IFC acquires Aussie hit “The Dry” starring Eric Bana. Sets May 21 US release. /Deadline
In the EXECUTIVE SUITE:
- Greg Coleman is AMAZON’s new Head of Global Franchise Marketing, departing DISNEY Animation Mktg. /Deadline
- Miranda Higham named WARNER MEDIA Head of Int’l Comms. /Deadline

📺 THE TV SET

JUST A FEW QUICK ITEMS:

ABC orders 8 eps of “Celebrity Dating Game” hosted by Zooey Deschanel and… Michael Bolton. 🤔 No airdate timeframe given. /THR
Kate McKinnon out of HULU’s THERANOS/Elizabeth Holmes limited series “The Dropout” based on ABC News podcast series. No reason cited, she is (was?) also an EP, attached from the start back in 2019. /Deadline
“Killing Eve” producers set up 6 episode serial killer show “Ragdoll” at AMC. Will debut later this year. Some SHUDDER and ALLBLK streaming service projects in the link as well. /THR
SKY orders Season 2 of “I Hate Suzie”, no word if HBOMAX will also air S2 in the US. /Deadline
HISTORY CHANNEL orders 1921 Tulsa massacre doc “Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre”. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

THE SECOND CITY officially sold to ZELNICK MEDIA CAPITAL private equity fund

Price not disclosed, nor were any real plans as to what they’ll do with it… but definitely some real $$ backing.

Although - teachers are now making moves to unionize in case Private Equity gonna Private Equity. /NYT

Some ROKU numbers of note from their 4Q earnings call:

38% of Smart TV’s sold in the US are powered by ROKU software.
Avg Revenue Per User (ARPU) +24% in 2020, to almost $29/year.
Cleared a $62 million profit in the 4th Quarter, on $650 million revenue. 72% is from Ad revenue + their cuts of streaming service subscription fees.
No new user updates from end of 2020, still at 51 million.

ALSO IN MEDIA

Host PJ Vogt and senior reporter of GIMLET’s popular “Reply All” podcast stepping down after toxic environment and anti-union effort controversy. /NYT
Kevin Mayer can’t stop building new companies, post-DISNEY & TIK TOK. He and fellow former DISNEY senior exec Tom Staggs looking to launch another SPAC to acquire another company TBD.
They just advised/had a big role on a $300 million SPAC that bought digital fitness company BEACHBODY, and word from THR this week is Kevin’s looking to put together an entertainment business with Scooter Braun & Ben Silverman with $2 billion in funding from Blackstone.

📰 GOOD READS

😳

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

“Mortal Kombat” WB red band trailer. Now that’s a lotta blood, fire and ice… In theaters and HBOMax on April 16.

AMC’s sitcom genre-bending show “KEVIN CAN F**K HIMSELF” with Annie Murphy from “Schitt’s Creek”. Premieres this Summer TBD.

🙋‍♂️ MY ONE ASK

SEND a link to THE WAKEUP to one person you think might dig it. Co-worker, agency client, sibling, or Share in IG stories or Linked-In. Just please no skywriting. That’s my Summer marketing campaign. (Wakeup IG here and my Linked-In page here). And many 🙏 to those of you who already have shared it.

Share The Wakeup

Thank you! - Sean

👩‍💻 THE FSS FEED:

(new stuff to Watch this weekend)

FRIDAY:

“Nomadland” on HULU and movie theaters. Finally 🙌👏 Watch it Here.

“I Care A Lot” on NETFLIX. Dark comedy with Rosumund Pike, Peter Dinklage and Dianne Weist about a woman who swindles old folks out of their homes (Pike) and puts them in assisted living facilities… until she apparently does it to the wrong woman (Weist). Plus some pretty bad ass facial hair for Dinklage. Watch it Here.

“For All Mankind” on APPLE TV+. Episode 1 of 10 goes up today (APPLE does the weekly episode-drop thing), and the show leaps forward to the 80’s this season. Watch it Here.

“The Muppet Show” on DISNEY+. All 5 seasons of the original series go up today… so I’ll be going down that rabbit hole later today if you need to find me. Watch it Here.

SATURDAY:

AUSTRALIAN OPEN Women’s Tennis Finals: Live at… 3:30am on ESPN.

NHL HOCKEY Outdoors! Games from Lake Tahoe today & tomorrow at 3pm on NBC. Green Day is gonna premiere a new song during the Saturday game… though not sure exactly when. I’ll have it for ya in Monday’s WAKEUP of course.

NETFLIX is putting “The Trial of the Chicago 7” on its YouTube channel for free today & tomorrow. (commemorates anniversary of the verdict).

New SNL : Regé-Jean Page and Bad Bunny

SUNDAY:

“The Walking Dead” (extended) Season 10 premiere streaming on AMC+. Won’t premiere on linear AMC until next Sunday. Going forward, new eps will drop the Thursday before their Sunday Night AMC debut.

“Allen V. Farrow” on HBO. 4 part Docuseries about, well I’m sure you’ve figured it out already Columbo. Premieres at 9pm.

Have a great weekend! Hit the like/heart icon below my name so Substack knows that people uh… like this. They’re very judgemental. (hi Substack!)

-Sean McNulty