ICYMI: Age, Apple + Disney, Our Award Nom!
First, happy holidays! To those celebrating the many currently occurring around the world, we hope your days are filled with family and friends.
To kick things off today… The Ankler scored a Webby Awards nomination for best Independent Publisher! 🎉 Called the “internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, the Webbys are first decided by a 2000+ member judging body, and then turned over to the public for a popular vote. Please, continue to support great independent publishing and cast your vote for us here! Thank you in advance!
On to this week: The Ankler’s hard look at the most taboo of Hollywood topics — age — was forwarded and shared all over. Wunderkinds and upstarts once were given positions of huge responsibility, with room to remake Hollywood in their image. Now, our C-suites are filled with seasoned veterans. As Peter Kiefer wrote, “It wasn’t totally uncommon for [those at the top] to step aside and allow his or her deputies whom they’d mentored to take over. That doesn’t seem to be happening very much anymore. Industry leaders are working well into their sixties and even into their seventies and eighties.” Former CAA Co-Chairman Rick Nicita pointed a finger at those ostensibly in the wings. “There are no term limits in Hollywood,” he told Kiefer. “Nothing is handed to you in this industry and it never has been. You have to take it — that's the deal.” The piece is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the state of power right now.
Read: Everyone Who Ran Hollywood Used to be Young. What Happened?
🎧 Listen to The Ankler podcast, where Peter joins to discuss Hollywood’s New Grey Ceiling (transcript here)
More can’t-miss columns and listens that had the town talking:
Proof that Studios (and Streamers) NEED to Release Films in Theaters: Our Entertainment Strategy Guy delivered 11 charts that detailed the illogic of the streaming film model.
Apple + Disney - Maybe Not So Crazy? Richard’s reasons why the mother of all Hollywood mergers might make perfect sense.
🎧 Martini Shot: Write Yourself Back In In this business you never really know when your last day will be, says Rob Long, in a hilarious and poignant 12-minute take about never giving up (transcript here).
Still in her first month with us, we were thrilled to see Elaine Low on CNBC talking about Hollywood’s current, uh, “risk-averse” choices in creative content. Check out her first appearance here.
☀️ 5 Days of The Wakeup
Shout-out to Sean McNulty on his smart dive into the mark-your-calendar milestones coming in Bob Iger’s two-year tenure atop Disney this second time around in The Coming Years in IGER: What (May) Lay Ahead for DISNEY.
Also:
Breaking down the ENDEAVOR / WWE deal, as PAR'S DRAGONS tops expectations
SHO scraps & shops a $90 Mil TV series; APPLE sets SONY deal for Ridley pic
Sandler rules NETFLIX again, as DeNiro sets 2nd TV project in a row
APPLE gets Keanu & Jonah dark comedy with industry undercurrents
The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood
🎧 Will the WWE-UFC Merger Amp Up the Streaming Arms Race? Sean McNulty joins host Sonny Bunch to talk about the merger of the WWE and UFC into a $21 billion sports-entertainment company.
🔎 The Optionist
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