☀️HBO Taps its All-Stars for WB IP Shows
NEW LINE sets new comedy pic / YOUTUBE wants AI deal with music labels / HULU done with D'Amelios
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY, June 27, 2024.
Where the folks at MORGAN STANLEY have someone they’d like you to meet — their new secretary, Deb!
What’s that? Well yes, her full name is Debrief if you want to be formal about it 🙄 (I think she’s Italian?), and the Wealth Management group will be introducing the AI bot into its client meetings to take notes, do a summary and draft emails afterward (with your permission, of course).
Because if there’s one situation you want a “we’re still not exactly sure how this thing works” AI bot in your life, it’s when talking about the fine details of your personal finances. Don’t worry, it won’t tell the other AI bots that you sold NVIDIA in early 2023. 🤣
BUT: Sounds like Al Michaels is all-in on AI, or at least he’ll sound that way in about a month when NBCU generates an AI version of his voice to do daily “Your Daily Olympic Recap on PEACOCK” recaps of all the action. Al gets paid and doesn’t have to do a thing!
Is there a way we can get it with Al doing a French accent? 🧑🎨 I mean, what good is this stuff if we can’t have some fun? (Also gotta wonder if AMAZON is looking at this. #TNF🏈)
NBCU also recruited Spielberg to narrate and appear in a 4-minute video to kick off its Olympics coverage on July 26.
While we’re at it, Colin Jost is being sent to Tahiti to cover the surfing competition. Thinking he’d have a much better punchline to that than anything I’d come up with here.
PLUS: Add Time to the list of “yeah, let’s just cut a deal” news publishers with OPENAI according to Axios — no word on the licensing fee 💰 to access 101 years worth of work for an AI bot to harvest. Time will receive attribution and linking to its stories as part of the deal.
AND: YOUTUBE is in talks with the 3 major music labels to license their music for an AI tool that will clone the music of their artists. But, this isn’t a windowed licensing thing — rather just one lump upfront payment, and only for certain artists, all of whom would need to give permission per a few folks in the know cited by the FT.
Because ya know — “Hey Google, can you play me ‘Shake It Off’ . . . and then a bunch of made-up songs that sound just like it?” sounds like a really satisfying aural experience.
THEN: MARVEL’s new Fantastic Four pic will be a period piece set in a version of the 1960s, per Kevin Feige. The pic will begin shooting at the end of July.
MARVEL will also be returning to Hall H at Comic-Con this year, after taking last year off. #strikes This year falls on Deadpool 3 weekend, so yeah.
OH: See-thru uniform maker FANATICS just signed a 10-year contract to take over the production of NHL uniforms next season from ADIDAS. Thankfully hockey uniforms have a lot more padding underneath.
ALSO: DISH is offering free NETFLIX to anyone who signs a new 2-year contract for service (ad-tier of course — have you seen DISH’s finances?)
HMM: Your latest snapshot into the health of the American consumer from the Philly Fed . . . isn’t great. Over 33% of respondents said they were worried about “making ends meet in the next six months,” up from 28.7% a year ago.
It’s not just lower-income folks here too — from the Bloomberg piece: “About 30% of those making at least $150,000 reported being concerned about their finances in the next six months.”
And . . . note what’s on the top of the list here, which certainly supports intermittent reports we’ve heard about concert-going activities this summer.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL TWOFER
A Quiet Place: Day One is tracking broadly at $40M to $50M. As the previous 2 pics opened with $50M and $47.5M, anything below $40M would be a miss . . . and anything above $50M would be a big win for PAR.
However, those pics didn’t have a movie still likely to do $55M+ also on their opening weekends (granted, an entirely different demo than Inside Out here). So, will the June box office streak continue?
AND: It’s finally time to find out if Horizon is really a one-quadrant film, or if Hollywood is just missing something here. Tracking remains in the $10M to $12M range, so what say y’all?
A THANKS: To the folks at PARAMOUNT PICS for the invite to check out the new A Quiet Place pic last night — really enjoyed it! A great summer theatrical experience and Pig director Michael Sarnoski continued on the promise he showed from that film — excited to see what he does next.
Plus — any movie with pizza 🍕 as a plot point has my heart, and it’s always fun to watch a movie where NYC is destroyed . . . while being in NYC. Pittsburgh rarely gets this kind of treatment.
AND: Wait, there’s Chris, there’s Brian . . . uh oh — have fun cleaning up from George’s blowout kegger 🍻 in the Office of the CEO back in L.A. Plus hey, always fun when a movie poster tagline and a management style coincide. Back to work fellas!
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
