Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + MediaBiz news to know on THURSDAY Feb 25th, 2021.

Where the Drunk Driving charges against Bruce Springsteen were dropped because uh… as the judge noted - blowing a .02 BAC is just a bit under the .08 legal minimum. Great use of everyone’s time, thanks TMZ. He was fined $540 for taking a tequila shot in a closed area. When asked how long he needed to pay the fine, he responded “I think I can pay that immediately, your honor.”

🎧 MUSIC TO READ BY

CARLY PEARCE - fun Country song starting to take off called “Next Girl” Spotify / YouTube / Apple Music

All songs mentioned are here if you need tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

And if you want this info while driving… it goes up as a podcast by 11:30am. ish.

LISTEN to THE WAKEUP as a PODCAST

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Fincher + Fassbender for “The Killer” at NETFLIX

Written by “Se7en” writer Andrew Kevin Walker. An assassin begins to mentally crack as his work gigs pile up, based on graphic novel. May shoot this Fall. /THR

Ryan Gosling doing indie movie “The Actor”

Ryan plays an actor who has to rebuild his life with a damaged memory after being left for dead in 1950’s Ohio, based on a book. Duke Johnson (“Anomalisa”) directing, Ryan also producing. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

Next SPIDER-MAN movie will be called “No Way Home”. Refreshers: Currently has December release date…. Alfred Molina & Jamie Foxx returning… and will also feature Benedict Cumberbatch as “Doctor Strange”.
NETFLIX buys Halle Berry sci-fi movie project “The Mothership” from MRC. Her husband vanishes from their farm, one year later she finds extraterrestrial object under her house. Always the last place ya look. /Deadline
NETFLIX sets America Ferrera for feature directorial debut with “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter”. Based on best-selling book, daughter of Mexican immigrants must hold family together after death of her sister. MACRO & ANONYMOUS CONTENT producing. /THR
UNIVERSAL sets The Lucas Brothers for semi-autobiographical movie produced by Judd Apatow. Will focus on the twins life in Newark, currently writing script. /Variety
MILLENIUM drops out of Brett Ratner’s Milli Vanilli movie. Statement says project moving forward with “private equity investors”. 🤔 /Variety

📺 THE TV SET

JUST SOME QUICK ITEMS (PARAMOUNT+ stuff below)

“Ray Donovan” getting a movie at SHOWTIME. /Variety
DISNEY+ sets June 11th premiere for MARVEL“Loki” series.
NETFLIX signs up Ronny Chieng (“The Daily Show”) for 3 specials. /Variety
CNN renews “Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy” for a 2nd season next year. Assuming Stanley Tucci can actually get into Italy at some point this year. /Deadline
Tyler Perry sets strip club based show “All the Queen’s Men” at BET+. /Deadline
WB Comms vet Jeff Tobler leaving to head up Marketing for Ava Duvernay’s company. /Variety

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

All the PARAMOUNT+ Stuff:

PRICE: $10/month, ad-free, starting next Thursday, March 4th in the US. This will include a CBS live feed, many additional live feeds for CBSN, and additional live sports TBD that will not be available on the…

$5/month “Base” ad-supported version. But that won’t launch until June TBD.

PAR+ will also launch in Latin America on March 4th, and Canada - but it’s just a literal re-brand for the existing CBS ALL ACCESS service there: they won’t get new content for a while. Nordic countries launch March 25, Australia later 2021/TBD.

VIACOM is still not breaking out how many subscribers CBS ALL ACCESS - now PARAMOUNT+ actually has, even as it launches 🤔.
CBS ALL ACCESS (now PAR+) & SHOWTIME combined have 19.2 million.

But SHOWTIME and BET+ are still being kept as separate services… which PARAMOUNT+ will try and upsell you on adding for additional fees.

OF NOTE: SHOWTIME will be included in the International version of PARAMOUNT+ (anyone else noticing a pattern here? 🤔 #STARDISNEY).

App is avail on iOS and Android and you can stream from the website… but no mention of a Roku or Amazon Fire deal specified as far as I saw.

THE CONTENT:

MOVIES:

Some PARAMOUNT movies to hit PARAMOUNT+ 30 days after theatrical release (4 weeks); Tentpoles like “Mission: Impossible 7”, “Top Gun: Maverick” and “A Quiet Place 2” will get 45 day theatrical windows (6 weeks).
- UNIVERSAL’s theatrical window is 17 days (31 days once films open above $50 Mil again). WB is… window-less thru 2021. DISNEY 🤷‍♂️.
PARAMOUNT PICS output deal with EPIX extended 1 year to 2023, allows for PAR+ streaming window carveouts. Although some PARAMOUNT theatrical movies will debut on EPIX first for 90 days then go to PAR+. Seems like a fluid situation.
- PAR+ also sub licensing over 2000 movies from (MGM-owned) EPIX non-exclusively.
Recently announced“Paranormal Activity” sequel, and a “Pet Sematary” prequel (produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura) from new PARAMOUNT PLAYERS division will be PAR+ premieres.

TV:

“Frasier” reboot ordered w/Kelsey. No other details.
Jeremy Renner starring in Tyler Sheridan’s “Mayor of Kingstown” series about a family of power brokers in a prison-centered town.
- Sheridan also has 3 other shows in development for PAR+, one is “Yellowstone” related.
“Halo” TV series moving from SHOWTIME to PARAMOUNT+. Expected in 2022 TBD.
“Criminal Minds” getting another season. No real details yet, except it’ll be 1 case over 10 eps. Original cast deals pending.
“Star Trek: Prodigy” kids animated series. PAR+ will be home for all things Star Trek just as CBS ALL ACCESS was.
A weekly exclusive “60 Minutes” piece (transitions their Quibi show resources/talent to PAR+). “Inside the NFL” also moving from SHO to PAR+.
BUT “The Twilight Zone” series is now cancelled.
Reboots of PARAMOUNT movies as TV shows in development:
- “The Italian Job” from EP of “Hawaii 5-0”. Wahlberg’s character’s grandkids (??) search for the buried treasure. DeLine producing.
- “Love Story” from Josh Schwartz & Stephanie Savage (“The OC”).
- “Fatal Attraction” from EP’s of “Dirty John”.
- “The Parallax View” no writers, so if ya got a take on it… call Paula Wagner.
- “Flashdance”, the making of “The Godfather” series “The Offer” and “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” already announced.
MTV / VH1 / TV Land stuff:
- “Yo! MTV Raps”, “Unplugged” and “Behind the Music” getting reboots.
- New show “From Cradle to Stage” about musicians and their moms. Directed/hosted by Dave Grohl and mom Virginia, based on her book.
- New “Road Rules”, an All-Star edition of “The Challenge”, new editions of “Ink Master” and “Dating Naked”. Plus “RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars” going from VH1 to PAR+.
- “Younger” final season will premiere on PAR+ later this year.
- No word on how the newly re-branded PARAMOUNT MOVIE CHANNEL may fit in here. “Yellowstone” still only streaming on PEACOCK. 🤦‍♂️

COMEDY CENTRAL / NICKELODEON stuff:
- Five “Inside Amy Schumer” specials and a “Reno 911: The Hunt for QAnon” supersized event.
- “Workaholics” and “Beavis & Butt-head” movies.
- 6 episodes (to start) of “The Weekly Show with Trevor Noah”
- Live action versions of ”Dora the Explorer” and”The Fairly OddParents”.
- “Rugrats” getting a new season with the original voice cast.
- More shows based on the “Avatar: The Last Airbender” franchise TBD.

SO - All this sounds great but…. what new stuff is actually premiering on PARAMOUNT+ next Thursday?

They really didn’t specify a DAY 1 Premieres List 😳. So unless I’m missin somethin - I think it’s just the already announced “The Real World: Homecoming” NYC cast reunion, and that new “Spongebob: Sponge On the Run” movie.

Otherwise… gonna be quite a while before we see a lot of things on this list. I’m guessing the first new content dump will come in 3+ months when the $5 ad-supported tier launches.

But - if you wanna bookmark a handy guide, here are All of the PARAMOUNT+ TV PROJECTS announced to date, by genre - Thanks /Deadline!

CNBC reports AT&T near deal to sell “significant minority stake“ 🤷‍♂️ in its DIRECTV & U-VERSE satellite/cable TV business

Private equity firm TPG looks to be the buyer for around $15 Billion, the price that has been rumored for months.

What’s still not known - how big that “significant minority stake” is. AT&T paid $48.5 Billion plus about $20 Billion in debt for DIRECTV just 7 years ago, arguably the 2nd worst media deal of the century. 👋 AOL/Time Warner.

ALSO IN MEDIA

FACEBOOK pledged to pay $1 Billion over 3 years to news organizations for their content. FB made $11 Billion in profit in the last 3 months of 2020. /Variety

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

HULU “kid90” docu trailer. If you grew up in the 90’s, you now have plans on Fri March 12th. Awesome trailer for this new Soliel Moon Frye home-movie footage docu of teen stars from the 90’s.

HULU “Solar Opposites” Season 2 trailer (show from “Rick & Morty” co-creator). 8 episodes drop Fri March 26th.

DISNEY+ “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” series trailer. Lauren Graham and Emilio Estevez are the adults. Premieres Fri March 26.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

FIRST - If anyone you know sounds lost about all the PARAMOUNT+ stuff - SHARE the newsletter with em!

Share The Wakeup

Otherwise PEACOCK Premium gives us the “Punky Brewster” reboot today. 10 new episodes, and you can also watch all episodes of the Original show as well. Watch It Here.

That’s all ya’ll - Have a great Thursday!

-Sean McNulty

The Ankler.

All the new PARAMOUNT+ stuff in one list