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The Wakeup

MON 2.1.21 : CLOVERFIELD lives! and more

"Willow" DISNEY+ show gets director, WeWork gets Mini-Series, and a $25 Million Sundance acquisition lead this morning’s news.

Sean McNulty

Feb 1, 2021

Mornin! It’s MONDAY February 1st, 2021. Brand new month! Same old virus… with a few things to catch up on from Friday evening and the weekend.

Email me at Wakeupodcast@gmail.com with any ideas to make this email work better for ya. Or to tell me your snowfall counts!! Preferably in corgi measurments. - Sean

MUSIC TO READ BY

ARLO PARKS “Hope” Apple Music / Spotify / YouTube

Arlo’s a young British singer who’s getting some momentum, this is just a nice song if you’re feeling a little down. Good Monday pick-you-up. Or me-up. Works for both.

Also - remember it feels good to share, even if just a newsletter…. trying to make it’s way in this cruel, cruel world:

Share The Wakeup

THE SILVER SCREEN

New “Cloverfield” sequel gets a writer (THR)

Its Joe Barton, the British guy who recently became the new showrunner for “The Batman” TV series on HBOMAX.

JJ’s producing, director Matt Reeves (who’s directing WB’s “The Batman” movie) is not involved. No plot/direction given, nor indication if “10 Cloverfield Lane” or “Cloverfield Paradox” will be incorporated/acknowledged. Only note is it won’t be “found footage” style.

The original came out… in Obama’s first year in office, 2008 with “unknown” actors Lizzie Caplan and TJ Miller among the cast. WW gross of $172mil, on $25 mil budget.

APPLE TV+ makes $25 Million SUNDANCE acquisition (DEADLINE)

Looks like somebody brought Tim Cook’s checkbook to the film festival… as they picked up worldwide rights the teen deaf family drama “CODA” (Coda = children of deaf adults).

Who needs a packed theater in a town with low oxygen levels to create a bidding war? Amazon was the other main player in the mix… with likely not a traditional studio to be found. Tough to compete with an outfit whose parent company made $28 Billionin profit from Oct to Dec 2020 alone.

APPLE TV+ paid $12 Million last year for the docu “Boys State”.

Also fwiw:

NEON picks up animated docu “Flee” at SUNDANCE for $1 Mil (ish) pricetag. Riz Ahmed & Nikolaj Coster-Waldau among the EP’s. AND a docu on Alvin Ailey called “Ailey”, no price disclosed.

BOX OFFICE REPORT (THR)

“The Little Things” opened with $4.8 million for first place, “The Croods 2” continues to take in $1.8 million a week, now at $44 Mil in the US.

“The Marksman” and “Wonder Woman 1984” each earn $1.3 mil ; to note this was the first weekend where “WW84” wasn’t also avail on HBOMAX.

44% of US movie theaters are currently closed

In the worldwide view, Pixar’s “Soul” has taken in $85 Million in the countries where there’s no DISNEY+ (mostly China and Russia).

”The Croods 2” is at $144 Million and “WW84” global total now stands at $152 million. It cost $200mil+ to make, not including marketing.

ALSO IN MOVIES

“Justice League” 4 hour version coming to HBOMAX on Thu March 18. No word if all 4 hours drop that day… or if (more likely) it'll be broken up.
“Dear Evan Hansen” will hit movie theaters on Sept 24th this year from UNIVERSAL.

THE TV SET

WeWork 8 episode limited series a go at APPLETV+ with Anne Hathaway & Jared Leto (THR)

Called “WeCrashed”, based on a Wondery Podcast. Leto playing founder Adam Newman, Annie plays his wife Rebecca Newman. Apple producing in-house, no timeline given.

“Willow” DISNEY+ series gets a new lead director (THR)

Jonathan Entwistle (“The End of the F***ing World” and “I Am Not Okay With This”) is gonna replace Jon M. Chu, who left over family (new baby!) and schedule conflicts.

ALSO IN TV

NETFLIX gives “On My Block” a 4th & Final 10 episode season.Main cast salaries went from $250k/ep in S2… to $850k/ep in this upcoming S4. Would have topped $1mil/ep in S5. Production begins in March.

THE MEDIA BIZ

COACHELLA & STAGECOACH dunzo for 2021 (THR)

Turns out no one wanted to do it anymore. Oh no wait - it’s because of Covid. But I already hear the 2022 show is gonna be totally epic.

Remember FACEBOOK Groups? Yeah maybe not so much of that going forward (WSJ)

FB made a major push to emphasize Groups as recently as last year’s Super Bowl (remember the huge “I Wanna Rock” ad with Chris Rock?).

Turns out - they played a key role in spreading election misinformation… and in the Jan 6th Insurrection at the Capitol. This is why we can’t have nice things.

TRAILER HOUSE:

“The Courier” from LIONSGATE. Cumberbatch as a British salesman enlisted by MI 6 to spy on the Soviet missile program in the 60’s. Spies, intrigue, accents… definitely checks the 3 boxes you want - plus, that mustache. In theaters March 19th.

NEW TO WATCH

Ummm. Well, I watched a lot of old Simpsons reruns on DISNEY+ this weekend and that was fun? Otherwise yeah I got zilch.

Which gives you plenty of time to share this newsletter! I’m nothing if not an optimist.

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Have a day everybody! Maybe even a great one.

-Sean McNulty

Follow THE WAKEUP on Instagram and LinkedIn to humor me.

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