Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY April 15, 2021.

Where be sure to save this photo for when you’re invited over to DISNEY CEO Bob Chapek’s pool party at his new modest house in Westlake Village (more pics in link). Ya know, so you can pick out which house it is and not go to The Miz’s house by mistake (he’s a neighbor). But just shows what a $14 Million 2020 compensation package can get you... with $1.5 Million left over to throw the best BBQ ever amirite? Oh? Were you not invited? 😬

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📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Hugh Jackman & Laura Dern doing next movie from “The Father” writer/director Florian Zeller

Called “The Son” , it’s an adaptation of another of Zeller’s plays (he also did one called “The Mother” so that explains the motif here).

This one focuses on adolsecent depression - Hugh plays a re-married new father whose life turns to disarray when his ex-wife (Dern) re-enters his life with their troubled teenage son. No studio/streamer attached as of yet. /THR

Renee Zellweger & Michael Patrick King ("SATC” showrunner/director) teaming up for a golf comedy “The Back Nine”

Former golfer hangs up the clubs in her prime for her fellow pro-golfer hubby & their kid. Marriage goes south, kid goes to college, she makes an attempt to go back out on the PGA tour. Just me or is this a pretty similar logline to the Natalie Portman HBO movie from yesterday, + golf and comedy?

Will be first movie at the newly created LANDLINE PICTURES, aka the “films for GenX and Boomers” division at MRC. No studio/streamer currently involved. /Deadline

STX buys US rights for Dave Bautista pic “Universe’s Most Wanted”

A spaceship with the universe’s baddest criminals crashes in smalltown America, where the sheriff & his son team up with intergalacitc peacekeepers to prevent the baddies from leaving town. And make sure they all get their Covid shots - safety first.

Brad Peyton (“Rampage”, “San Andreas”) directing, shooting in Australia this Summer. STX also bought UK & India territories (STX is owned by Indian company EROS). /THR

ALSO IN MOVIES

• SONY’S STAGE 6 Films label releasing Billy Crystal / Tiffany Haddish movie “Here Today” on May 7. Billy also directed it, he plays a comedy writer who forms an unlikely friendship with Tiffany’s singer character in NYC. /Variety

• Jacob Tremblay (“Room”, “Good Boys”) joins Peter Dinklage in “The Toxic Avenger” reboot… er, “re-imagining” at LEGENDARY. No streamer/studio on board yet. /Deadline

📺 THE TV SET

HBOMAX picks up former CINEMAX series “Warrior” for a Season 3

Seasons 1 and 2 were added to HBOMAX just this January (watch it here - highly recommend). Also - series lead Andrew Koji will return for this new season as a much more well-known name after his SONY action movie with Brad Pitt “Bullet Train” comes out.

No word on a timeline, but can we now add “The Knick”, “Banshee” and “Strike Back” to HBOMAX? 🙏🙏 /THR

3 time“Bachelor” franchise… talent (?) Colton Underwood doing a NETFLIX reality show on his new public life as a gay man

This after the announcement from “the virgin Bachelor” on GMA yesterday that he is gay. /Variety

ALSO IN TV

• Rob Delaney (“Catastrophe”) joins SHOWTIME’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth” series starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Naomie Harris. Chiwetel plays an alien who comes to Earth at a pivotal moment, Rob plays the black sheep of a rich family who got too obsessed with the work of the last alien visitor to Earth, causing him to lose everything. /Deadline

• NETFLIX adds Common to “Never Have I Ever” Season 2 in a recurring role. Season drops this July TBD. /Deadline

• Popular French NETFLIX series “Call My Agent” planning a movie, then one more season. Movie may not shoot until 2022. /Variety

• CBS renews reality competition show “Tough as Nails” for 2 more seasons. /THR

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

Some TIKTOK user numbers from a “found” TIKTOK Ad $$ pitch deck

As of Oct 2020: 732 Million MAUs (Monthly active users). That’s (likely) about 2X larger than SNAP, but around 1/4th of FACEBOOK’s.

100 million of those MAU’s are in the US.

The Average user opens the app 19 times a day, and watches it for 1.5 hours daily. That’s the average user.

60% of TIKTOK users are between 13-24 years old. 7% are 45+. /MBW

ALSO IN MEDIA

• In the “well that was fast” category - CBS NEWS EVP Kimberly Godwin was officially named President of ABC NEWS. Kim will be the first black woman to lead a network news division ever. /THR

• White House Correspondent’s Dinner aka #NerdProm canceled for 2nd year in a row. /THR

• Couple more details on the big TELEVISA / UNIVISION deal:

  • Plan to launch a global Spanish language streaming service under one brand in 2022 (combining their variety of current streaming properties)

  • John Malone’s global cable empire LIBERTY MEDIA, GOOGLE and SOFTBANK own a combined 17% of this new company. TELEVISA owns 45%, and 2 private investment firms own 38% together. /THR

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

DISCOVERY dropped another 5%, but AMC THEATERS popped back almost 6%. No real news for either - unless this 👇 got Wall Street bros super psyched about going to the movies this Summer…

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

UNIVERSAL “F9” trailer. 8 movies, 536 mentions of family (give or take)… and we’re just finding out now that Dominic Toretto has a brother?? Then again pretty sure that’s not the focus here when you have magnets that pull cars through buildings. Mark June 25th as the date a lot of “the movies are back!” headlines really proliferate.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

PAR+ and HULU “Younger” - Final Season premiere.  First 4 episodes drop on both services today.  The season will also air on TV LAND later this year TBD. Watch or add to your list here

BET+ “American Skin” - Movie directed by Nate Parker, who also stars alongside Omari Hardwick.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

CANNONS - they’re doing the chill, sleek, sexy cover thing again with great success! (uh did not mean to sound like Borat there). This time its an alt version of the KINGS OF LEON classic “Sex On Fire”:

Watch on YouTube

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Enjoy your rainy Thursday NYC folks. I should probably check LA weather sometimes too but… 🤷‍♂️. Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect on LINKED IN - my name below goes to my profile.

-Sean McNulty