Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY December 15, 2021.

Where it’s 10 days til Christmas. Yeah that’s all I got today, this’ll be quick.

ALSO: A heads up tomorrow’s email may be a bit later than usual.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

OPEN ROAD picks up another Liam Nesson action pic “Memory” for US release

The 3rd Nesson - OPEN ROAD collab (“Honest Thief”, “The Marksman”). Will release April 29, no acquisition price revealed.

Liam plays a poet whose apple trees just aren’t looking as vibrant as they used to - an assassin with yes, a moral code who is of course asked to do a job that goes against it, and he has to go on the run etc etc. Although this time it sounds like his memory is failing him, hence the title. /Deadline

UNIVERSAL & SONY moving Q1 movies

Maybe it’s coincidence… Maybe it’s Omicron.

UNI moved Jake Gyllenhaal’s “Ambulance” from Feb 18 to Apr 8, a day after announcing “Marry Me” will hit PEACOCK the same day as theaters on Feb 11. Q1 they still have:

• “The 355” on Jan 7

• Blumhouse pic “The Black Phone” for Feb 4, both in theaters. For now.

More pandemic-averse SONY moved:

• Brad Pitt’s “Bullet Train” from Apr 8 to July 15.

• And a slight Summer move of“Where the Crawdads Sing” from June 24 to July 22.

SONY still has MARVEL’s “Morbius” on Jan 28, and Wahlberg video game movie “Uncharted” on Feb 18 on their slate as Q1 releases.

ALSO IN MOVIES

• NETFLIX / WB INT’L postpones UK shooting of Colin Firth WWII pic “Operation Mincemeat” from Jan to April, likely due to Omicron outbreak there. /THR

• WB sets Scott Mosier (2018’s“The Grinch”, producing partner of Kevin Smith) to direct family adventure “Meebo and Me” from the writer of “Free Guy”. About a divorced dad who gets his son the “it” robot toy… when the other toy robots rise up against humanity, and the dad and not-killer robot team up to save his son 🤖. /Deadline

• LIONSGATE’s new Yonkers, NY soundstage facility is ready to open next month, 14 miles north of Midtown Manhattan . STARZ's “Run the World” Season 2 will be the first show to shoot there. /Deadline

📺 THE TV SET

NBC sets SHAKIRA to lead dance competition show “Dancing with Myself”

Well that tracks. Groups of dancers compete to do dances choreographed by celebrity creators… so not sure what the “by myself” thing is all about 🤔. No timeline or judges mentioned. /Deadline

MONDAY Night Ratings of note

“The Voice” episode got 7.3 Million viewers on NBC, but less than half stuck around for “American Auto”, which had 2.9 Million viewers at 10p.

Monday Night Football got more viewers on ESPN than it’s simulcast on ABC… although they didn’t seem to promote the ABC thing very much at all. ESPN: 7.9 Million, ABC: 6.7 Million. ABC will show this Monday’s game as well. /THR

ALSO IN TV

• APPLE TV+ renews“Servant” for 4th and final Season. Season 3 drops in Jan. /Deadline

• HBO cancels it’s AXIOS show after 4 seasons. /B&C

• HULU adds Michael Ealy (“Think Like A Man”, “Fatale”) to co-star in new Kerry Washington-directed legal series “Reasonable Doubt” from ONYX COLLECTIVE division. Emayatzy Corinealdi (“Ballers”) is the main lead, an LA defense attorney who bucks the justice system. /Deadline

• TUBI makes deal with VILLAGE ROADSHOW and Kevin Garnett to produce a series of original movies under the banner of “Black Noir Cinema”, looking to reinvigorate the Blaxploitation movie genre in a new way. First movie shoots early 2022 starring Mike Colter (“Luke Cage”). /Variety

  • TUBI is also on track to make $700 Million in revenue next year (roughly same size as the new VOX / GROUP NINE company), on track for $1 Billion in 2023

  • Has 40 Million monthly active users, avg viewer is in mid-30s.

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

• FOX promotes Brooke Bowman to lead Drama Series as EVP. Current head Charlie Andrews is leaving after 4 years to test the waters elsewhere TBD, ideally with a bigger role. /THR

• BAFTA CEO Amanda Berry departing after a 23 year run, will leave in 2023 though. /THR

• NBCU sets new Head of Comms - Jen Friedman is coming over from huge investment group BLACKSTONE, after a previous tenure at GE and a role in Obama’s Press Office.

  • 2nd Hollywood conglomerate to appoint a head of Comms from outside the biz, after DISNEY brought their new one in from BP earlier this month, Geoff Morrell. /THR

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

Andrew Cuomo ordered to return the $5 Million paycheck he got from his covid book “American Crisis” last year

Ruling came from NY’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics who authorized him to do the book initially… but now gave this ruling due to his use of government staff & resources to do the book.

Shockingly… Cuomo said he’ll sue if the commission tries to enforce and get his $$. /THR

ALSO IN MEDIA

• Former THR & US MAGAZINE editor Janice Min is teaming up with Richard Rushfield who does a weekly (weekly? wait that’s possible?) $10 a month Hollywood newsletter called THE ANKLER (curious if any of you read it, find it valuable etc - email me if you have thoughts).

  • They’re becoming business partners, and looking to expand THE ANKLER brand into podcasts, events, etc. Hmm wonder if they need a daily email component…. /NY Times

• Some scoops from Sara Fischer’s weekly AXIOS Media email (a good read if media nerdery is your thing).

  • Graydon Carter’s AIR MAIL:

    • Now has 130k subscribers, but includes those on free trials. But 90% of those who do a free trial convert to paid at $80 a year.

    • Also raised $17 Million in additional funding 💰💰, making for a $32 Million total fund raise since it launched, but company is not yet profitable.

  • THE GUARDIAN now has 1 Million recurring paying supporters.

    • The site is free… but readers can subscribe to their apps, or choose to make a recurring payment in support #PBSmodel

    • Supporter # grew 2X since 2018, though no revenue figure was released to go with it.

  • Digital Publisher & E-comm brand FOOD52:

    • 3X’s value based on increased investment from majority owner Peter Chernin’s TCG - company founded by 2 NY TIMES journalists now worth $300 Million as business booms across all fronts.

• Legendary TV News anchor agent & UTA Partner Richard Leibner is retiring. He’s repped pretty much the biggest names in news over the past 40 years, from Rather to Wallace to Sawyer. /Variety

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

PELOTON back down 5%. Well that was fast. ($39.26)

AMC THEATERS +5% ($24.50)

BUZZFEED hit a new low, down over 7% ($5.77)

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

Animated film“Ron’s Gone Wrong” hits both HBOMAX and DISNEY+ as part of their revised 20th CENTURY STUDIOS output agreement. Will see if “West Side Story” is next.

• But oddly enough… links to the movie on either service didn’t show up in a Google search so - some work to do here.

NBC has holiday episodes of “Kenan”, “Young Rock”, and “Mr. Mayor” starting at 8p

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🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

LIONSGATE “The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent” teaser trailer - Nic Cage as… Nic Cage meta action-comedy. In Theaters April 22

APPLE TV+ “The Afterparty” series trailer - Dave Franco’s character is killed at his house at the afterparty for their high school reunion, Tiffany Haddish is the lead investigator, and episodes roll out from each character’s POV of the night’s events, Rashamon-style. I should probably mention this is a comedy. Premeires Fri Jan 28

FOX “Pivoting” series trailer - Sitcom about 3 best friends whose sudden loss of 4th bestie causes them to re-examine where their lives are at. Premieres Sun Jan 9

A24 “Everything Everywhere All At Once” trailer - Not really gonna even try and describe this one… but it stars Michelle Yeoh, thankfully involves something called the Multi-verse and not the Meta-verse, and is opening SXSW in March.

PEACOCK “True Story with Ed and Randall” trailer - Real people tell the guys stories from their life and re-enactments are acted out, so kinda “Drunk History” without the booze or the well known figures. Premieres Thu Jan 20

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Gonna have my buddy Josh Horowitz from MTV / COMEDY CENTRAL play us off today - he’s back doing his celebrity comedy sketches, and this casting session for Hailee Steinfeld in MARVEL properties was fun this week.

If you need new tunes:

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-SEAN MCNULTY

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