WB's new WILLY WONKA is Timotheé Chalamet
WB's new WILLY WONKA is Timotheé Chalamet
Lindsay Lohan + NETFLIX holiday pic / AMAZON to buy MGM as soon as today / Martha Stewart getting NETFLIX docu
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY May 26, 2021.
Where I had a whole thing on the new hot tub streaming trend to kick off with (yeah it’s a thing - where do you think I write this thing from?). But the day is just too busy - so I’ll just open with a service announcement that the AUSTIN CITY LIMITS festival has set Billie Eilish, Stevie Nicks, Da Baby and George Straight to headline this year’s festival with several other acts over the first 2 weekends in October.
1 day passes go on-sale today here. (3 day passes sold out fast last week).
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
WB sets Timotheé Chalamet to play “Willy Wonka” in reboot
Will be directed by Paul King (the “Paddington” movies) and the musical will focus on Wonka before the chocolate factory. So, “Wonka: The College Years” 👍. /Deadline
UNIVERSAL moves “Boss Baby” sequel up to July 2, will also hit PEACOCK PREMIUM on the same date
Will hit both the $5 and $10 tiers, although presumably it won’t have ads on either 🤷♂️. Still gonna hit theaters internationally. /Variety
NETFLIX sets Lindsay Lohan for a Christmas rom-com
The untitled movie is about a spoiled hotel-heiress who gets amnesia in a skiing accident, is taken in by a blue-collar lodge owner and his kid, and then… well, I’d hate to spoil anything.
Sadly it looks like they’re gonna wait to shoot until real snow season in November (that’s what Method Acting is right?), so a Christmas 2022 premiere it is. But - gives plenty of time to start working on securing that Paris Hilton cameo. /Variety
ALSO AT NETFLIX: Debra Messing joins movie version of Broadway show “13: The Musical”. /Deadline
ALSO IN MOVIES
UNIVERSAL sets Adam Wingard (“Godzilla vs Kong”) to direct, co-write movie based on Robert Kirkman comic “Hardcore”. Centers on a soldier who saves the world ”without getting his hands dirty”🤔🤷♂️. Fun Fact: Adam directed the pilot for Kirkman’s CINEMAX series “Outcast”. /THR
LIONSGATE buys back Gerard Butler action movie “The Plane” from SOLSTICE STUDIOS. LIONSGATE dropped out when covid hit, SOLSTICE stepped in. Now LIONSGATE is back. Will shoot this Summer. /Deadline
This is the 2nd movie that SOLSTICE has dropped this week (sold Wahlberg movie “Joe Bell” to ROADSIDE on Monday).
Robert Pattinson signs overall production deal at WARNER BROS / HBOMAX. No projects announced. /Deadline
NY TIMES looks at the resurgence of video game adaptations coming from SONY PICTURES (and in the movie biz at large). This after the genre mostly disappeared in the late 2010’s because… yeah there were a lotta duds. But changes in SONY culture between Interactive/Playstation division and Pictures division seem to have helped to encourage the resurgence here.
📺 THE TV SET
SHOWTIME sets Joseph Gordon-Levitt to play former UBER CEO Travis Kalanick in new series
Called “Super Pumped”, from “Billions” creators Koppelman & Levine and Beth Schacter (“Quantico”). Will be an anthology show where each season will focus on a different story from the business world.
This first season is based on the book “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber” by Mike Isaac, but it sounds like the anthology series will keep the “Super Pumped” name for future installments. /THR
NETFLIX gets Martha Stewart docu project from director RJ Cutler
RJ did APPLE TV’s recent Billie Eilish docu, SHOWTIME’s recent John Belushi docu, and the VOGUE doc“The September Issue” among others. No timeline or price indicated. /Variety
ALSO IN TV
HBOMAX sets Jesse Plemmons to co-star with Elizabeth Olsen in their David E. Kelly limited series “Love and Death” about a Texas woman who murders her friend with an ax in 1980.
MTV STUDIOS sets Black Wall Street/Tulsa Massacre limited series, produced by Angela Bassett & Courtney B Vance. No word how/where it’ll roll out in the VIACOM universe. /Variety
NETFLIX breaking final season of “Money Heist” in two: 5 episodes in Sept, 5 in Dec. /Variety
LATE NIGHT RETURN: Colbert will return to Ed Sullivan Theater on Mon June 14 with crowds, Fallon to bring full audience back to 30 Rock in “early June”.
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
AMAZON to announce MGM purchase possibly “as soon as today” for $9 Billion /WSJ
1 week after a Phone company dumped the movie studio it overpaid for just 3 years ago, an E-commerce company is about to overpay for a different movie studio. But I’m sure this one will work out much better. Said every outside company who has ever done this in Hollywood history.
The $9 Billion price tag for the MGM studio and library (but not necessarily including James Bond) is definitely raising some eyebrows, as other companies who have kicked the MGM tires over the past few years have valued it at $5 to $6 Billion at best.
Then again those companies aren’t on track to make well over $25 Billion of profit in 2021 like AMAZON, a company who has likely also learned a lot about the value of existing IP to boost streaming service usage in the past 6 months with acquisitions“Coming 2 America” and the “Borat” sequel, and is thereby more willing to overpay by a few billion to own a library full of IP. However old that IP may be.
AMAZON also just spent $10 Billion over 10 years an NFL game package (albeit it’s least watched) so that, plus this MGM thing and its $400+ Mil LOTR series pilot… it looks like AMAZON has learned the lesson many Hollywood interlopers throughout time have found out one way or another - ya gotta spend big $$ to make a mark. (#HouseOfCards).
So what first?
Outside of setting up a promotional Rocky Balboa AMAZON PRIME account ASAP… first question has to be where will the layoffs be, and most directly related - Where does MGM STUDIOS Chairman Mike DeLuca & his team fit in?
I’d think he becomes AMAZON’s equivalent of NETFLIX FILMS head Scott Stuber (assuming AMAZON has enough foresight to keep him). But - does Mike report into:
AMAZON STUDIOS head Jen Salke…
Or her boss PRIME VIDEO head Mike Hopkins?
Or to Mike’s new boss, Jeff Blackburn who just rejoined the company to head up all Media & Entertainment and reports into Bezos?
The town awaits the org chart. Either way, the simplicity of the Ted-Bela-Scott trio at NETFLIX seems refreshing in comparison.
But, the one issue MGM is not likely to face at AMAZON, is a constraint on funding. Which leads to…. 👇
AT&T CEO John Stankey makes first public comments after WARNER DISCO deal announcement
Said at a JP Morgan conference yesterday that HBOMAX, a brand/service that AT&T created, would not be where it is today without AT&T 🤔.
John also said that essentially it was time to “unleash” WARNER MEDIA’s assets because the video streaming game is global, and AT&T is pretty much…US focused. Hey I mean, who knew amirite?
Especially way back… 3 years ago when the WARNER deal closed, or even when AT&T announced the deal back in 2016 - the same year that NETFLIX went live in 130 countries on one day. AT&T paid John Stankey $21 Million dollars last year - although at least he didn’t change the company name to CINGULAR. /THR
ALSO IN MEDIA
TIKTOK getting branded channels on SIRIUS XM and subsidiary PANDORA. Will feature music trending on the app, and have TOK talent guest hosting, curating playlists etc. /Variety
Some changes to the TIME Editorial org chart for anyone inclined. They now have 2 Million paying subscribers across all platforms btw.
US puts Japan on “Do Not Travel” list due to increasing covid #s, 2 months before the scheduled Opening Ceremony. /Deadline
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
AMC THEATERS +13% because that’s how AMC stock rolls, though CINEMARK & CINEWORLD each also up over 4%.
SNAP +6%, TWITTER up almost 5%, ROKU up 5% as the NASDAQ bounces back.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
Here on the one year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, ABC’s “Soul of a Nation” airs one of two new Summer “Soul” specials (the next airs around Juneteenth). These specials were really well produced this Spring, and you can catch this one Tonight at 10p
It’s preceeded by a 2 hour documentary on Mike Tyson called “The Knockout” at 8p. Which you can also watch on HULU as of tomorrow… a service Mike said “couldn’t be more tone deaf or inappropriate” and accused them of “corporate greed” after they announced a Tyson limited series project back at TCA in Feb, which is being produced without compensating or involving Mike 🥊.
NBC “The Voice” finale airs at 8p
If you were sent this email or… just kinda found it:
And if you wanna send the newsletter to a co-worker who might dig it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
DISNEY MARVEL “Eternals” teaser trailer - Hits theaters in November.
IMDBTV “Timewasters” series trailer - BAFTA nominated UK comedy series from 2018 picked up by AMAZON’s free streaming platform: Black jazz quartet finds a time machine back to 1920’s London, comedy and music ensue. Seasons 1 & 2 drop on Fri June 11
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
Where if you’re in the mood for…well, a lotta songs on the theme of breaking up with someone, be sure to check out the New OLIVIA RODRIGO. I kinda kept waiting for the “Joe Lies” cover.
Listen here to the album on Spotify or here’s one song that’s not about a relationship, although ironically its called “Brutal” - just a really fun punk take on being 17.
If you need new tunes:
Have a Tuesday ya’ll - Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-Sean McNulty
@theseanmac on TWITTER or also here on CLUBHOUSE or on IG @TheWakeupNews