Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY June 22, 2021.

Where today get to know LAS VEGAS RAIDERS defensive end Carl Nassib, who became the first publicly gay active NFL player in the sport’s 101 year history yesterday.

He also said he’s giving $100k to the TREVOR PROJECT, which helps LGBTQ youth - 🍻 Carl!

carlnassib

A post shared by @carlnassib

AND: A congrats to WME agent Richard Weitz and his daughter Demi on the conclusion of their RW QUARANTUNES streaming events after 15 months this weekend. Their effort began in the early days of the pandemic, doing Zoom events with live music performances and special celeb appearances to raise money for worthy causes, and ended up raising $26+ Million dollars over 58 events. 🙌 Richard & Demi!

rwquarantunes

A post shared by @rwquarantunes

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Spielberg’s AMBLIN PARTNERS sets NETFLIX deal for at least 2 movies a year

AMBLIN will also maintain it’s deal with UNIVERSAL so… this should be interesting.

To note: Spielberg’s mostly-autobiographical film that’s about to shoot will come out via UNIVERSAL, and it’s unclear if any films actually directed by Spielberg will go the NETFLIX route.

No upcoming AMBLIN films/projects for NETFLIX were specified/announced in the deal. And - no word on a duration or a pricetag for it either. /Variety

Jake Gyllenhaal & Vanessa Kirby doing couple stranded on an island movie

Called “Suddenly”, a couple’s true dynamics are revealed when their dream vacation turns into a struggle for survival on an island in the South Atlantic, based on a French novel.

STUDIOCANAL is producing, rights will sell at CANNES next month. Jake also a producer on the film. /Deadline

Bryan Cranston & Annette Benning doing Lotto-manipulator movie for PARAMOUNT+

Based on an IRL retiree couple who discovered a loophole in the Massachusetts Lotto rules and won $27 Million, but used it to help out their small town in Michigan.

David Frankel (“The Devil Wears Prada”) directing; Gil Netter and MRC’s “films for older people” 👵🏻 division LANDLINE PICTURES among the producers. /Variety

Kaley Cuoco & Pete Davidson to (likely) star in indie rom-com

Called “Meet Cute” - looks at what happens if you could travel to your significant other’s past and fix their problems to make them into the perfect partner. Well I’m guessing you’d be all set then no? Is this a short film?

Akiva Goldsman (all the new “Star Trek” series plus numerous other A-List credits) among the producers, final deals not locked according to Deadline.

ALSO IN MOVIES

• Nathan Lane, Patti LuPone, and Amy Ryan join Joaquin Phoenix’s next movie at A24, “Disappointment Blvd”. Not many plot details, just that it’s a “decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time”. Will be directed by Ari Aster (“Midsommar”). /Deadline

• AMC THEATERS offering free popcorn refills during “Cinema Week” promotion June 22 -30. Because there’s nothing like eating a 700+ calorie bag of popcorn… except for eating 2 of them. /THR

📺 THE TV SET

NETFLIX passes on picking up NBC’s “Manifest”

Sounds like that’s the end of the road for the show. /Deadline

ALSO IN TV

• Wanda Sykes joins PAR+ “The Good Fight” in recurring role for Season 5. /Deadline

• James Michael Tyler (“Gunther” from “Friends”) shares that he has stage 4 prostate cancer. /Variety

• TV academy allowing actors to be referred to as “Performers” vs an Actor or Actress in EMMY nominations. (Categories will still be called Actor / Actress, just a matter of how each person would like to be formally referred to).

  • Also any Docu that pursues an OSCAR nomination will not be considered for an EMMY. /THR

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE:

• The new (somewhat more definitive) PARAMOUNT+ exec leadership is looking like:

  • David Nevins as Head of Scripted and keeping SHOWTIME and BET programming duties (Nicole Clemens would keep PARAMOUNT TV and also work on PAR+ scripted, reporting into David).

  • MTV NETWORKS head Chris McCarthy as PAR+ Head of Unscripted.

  • VIACOM Kids & Family prez Brian Robbins as Head of PAR+ Family/Kids programming

  • CBS Head George Cheeks leading PAR+ News and Sports content.

  As for who’s leading PARAMOUNT+ overall… 🤷‍♂️ . Still more to come this week. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

UNIVISION hires NETFLIX exec Rodrigo Mazon to launch new Spanish language pay streaming/SVOD service

Will begin in 2022 in US & Latin America once their TELEVISA merger is complete.

Gonna be paired with their free/AVOD service PRENDE TV, and the pay service will give access to the TELEVISA telenovela library and 30+ new originals. Launch date and pricing TBD. /THR

ALSO IN MEDIA

• ALLURE MAGAZINE editor in chief Michelle Lee joins NETFLIX as VP of Editorial & Publishing, reporting into NETFLIX CMO Bozema Saint John.

  • No real details given on… exactly what that position entails at a video streaming servicej, other than she’ll work on Social Media and Podcasts - But guess we’ll see what it’s all about once she starts at the end of July. /Adweek

• Half of all podcast listeners only listen to 1-3 podcasts a month according to NIELSEN (who declined to share the actual size of that group). GenX leads the podcast listening audience with a 42% share. /Digiday

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

not much doin… even AMC THEATERS only had a -6% swing.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

NBC “Capital One College Bowl” - Hosted by Peyton Manning, Airs at 10p

OWN “David Makes Man” - Season 2 premieres at 9pm

Today’s the last day that “Seinfeld” is on HULU.  NETFLIX premiere date tbd.

AMAZON PRIME DAY 2

If you were sent this email or… just kinda found it (no questions asked):

And if you’re open to sending the newsletter to an industry colleague:

Share The Wakeup

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

APPLE TV+ “Ted Lasso” Season 2 trailer. Premieres Fri July 23.

PARAMOUNT “Snake Eyes” trailer. The “GI JOE” universe movie Hits theaters Fri July 23.

DISNEY+ “Turning the Tables with Robin Roberts” trailer. Think Jada Pinkett Smith’s FACEBOOK “Red Table Talks”… still involving a table, but the talk is DISNEY approved. Premieres Wed July 28.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

The new LORDE single “Solar Power” apparently has a lot “rhythmically in common” with George Michael’s “Freedom 90” and Primal Scream’s “Loaded”.

LORDE checked with PRIMAL SCREAM before releasing the song and they were down, and GEORGE MICHAEL’s estate said he would have been flattered.

Here’s a mashup of all 3 which is kinda cool:

If you need new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

And apologies on behalf of my auto-correct yesterday for changing Julia Stiles to Julia Styles 🙇‍♂️. Although if there was ever a fashion line name ripe for the taking… 😮

Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-Sean McNulty

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

or also here on CLUBHOUSE