WED 3.10.21: Spielberg sets next movie
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WED 3.10.21: Spielberg sets next movie
Timbaland + Swizz Beatz sell VERZUZ to... TRILLER / RUSSIAN DOLL Season 2 adds cast / PEACOCK orders Dan Brown series
Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + MediaBiz news to know on WEDNESDAY March 10, 2021. Where… this happened yesterday.
In theaters November 24th from Ridley Scott.
🎧 MUSIC TO READ BY
AJA - “Red Button”. Some fun pop from North of the border. Yes, I mean Canada not Oregon. Gotta say it has a pretty catchy… kinda old school T-Swift’ish hook eh?
If you need new tunes:
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
Spielberg co-wrote a new movie with Tony Kushner; Michelle Williams cast in a lead role
Somewhat autobiographical, about a kid growing up in Arizona in the 50’s & 60’s. Michelle will play role inspired by Steven’s mom according to reports.
Casting underway to find child and teenage actors for main character at different points in the story. Will shoot this Summer. /THR
UNIVERSAL sets Elizabeth Banks to direct “Cocaine Bear”
Phil Lord/Chris Miller producing, based on a true story from the 1980’s about a bear that ate 70 pounds of cocaine parachutted into Kentucky, and then #SpoilerAlert dropped dead. Thinking that’s where the story kicks off.
Just me… or this woulda made for an amazing “Miami Vice” episode cold-open? Will shoot this Summer. /THR
ALSO IN MOVIES
LA Movie Theaters could open at 25% / 100 people a screen by next weekend if current covid case number trends hold for a week. LA had 9% of all 2019 Box Office revenue. NYC was 7.4%. DISNEYLAND also looking at late April re-opening. /THR
Elle Fanning to play Ali McGraw in Barry Levinson’s making of “The Godfather” movie “Francis and The Godfather”. Jake Gyllenhaal playing her husband, producer Robert Evans. /Variety
DISNEY CEO Bob Chapek gives the most corporate sounding answer in history to a Girl Scout when asked why “Raya” isn’t playing at the theater in her town. Also “Black Widow” (re)confirmed to stick with May 7 release date in theaters. /Deadline
And DISNEY+ hits 100 Million global subscribers at 1 yr, 4 month mark. They added 5 million new subscribers over the past month alone. Price increases rolling out this month. /THR
📺 THE TV SET
PEACOCK orders series based on Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol”
Called “Langdon”. Ashley Zuckerman (“Succession”) will play the “Robert Langdon” character that Hanks played in the “Da Vinci Code” movies.
Previously was a pilot for NBC. /Variety
Dominique Fishback (“Judas & The Black Messiah”) joins Sam Jackson APPLE TV+ limited series “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey”
Ramin Bahrani (NETFLIX’s “White Tiger” movie) will direct.
Sam plays a 91 year old with dementia, abandoned by his family who temporarily regains his memory, solves his nephew’s death & comes to terms with his life. /Variety
NETFLIX sets Gina Rodriguez & Jake Johnson for live action/animation 4 episode limited family series “Ollie's Odyssey”
Adaptation of William Joyce book about a lost toy that searches out the boy who lost him. Jonathan Groff, Mary J. Blige, and Tim Blake Nelson among voice cast.
Shannon Tindle (“Coraline”) wrote the scripts, currently shooting in Canada. /THR
ALSO IN TV
Annie Murphy (“Schitt’s Creek”) joins “Russian Doll” Season 2 at NETFLIX. No creative details released. /THR
Josh Holloway joins JJ Abrams HBOMAX show “Duster”. He’ll play a getaway driver for a crime organization in the 1970’s Southwest US. /Illuminerdi
More people under 45 years old watched the NBA ALL-STAR game on Sunday than the CBS Meghan & Harry interview (3.25 Million vs 3 Million). /Variety
CBS renews “The Equalizer” for Season 2. /Deadline
Angela Robinson gets $10+ Million, multi-year deal at WB TV. Coming over from a deal at PARAMOUNT TV. JJ Abrams said to have played a role in recruiting Angela (“True Blood”, “How To Get Away With Murder”). /THR
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
TIK TOK competitor TRILLER buys the VERZUZ InstagramTV music series
VERZUZ creators Timbaland & Swizz Beatz to become TRILLER “Brand Visionaries” and join their management team with equity in the company. The 2 are sharing (some of) that equity with the 43 artists who have appeared in VERZUZ battles so far. Sale price not disclosed.
VERZUZ will continue to air on IGTV, but the deal to simulcast VERZUZ events on APPLE MUSIC is over. /Rolling Stone
If you could uh… use a ‘refresher’ on VERZUZ - 2 artists “battle” each other playing their hits in a livestream for a couple hours on IGTV while people comment, born in the early days of the pandemic. The feed is here.
ALSO IN MEDIA
BUZZFEED lays off 47 people at newly acquired HUFFPOST. Represents 28% of newsroom staff. Was on track to lose $20 Million this year. HUFFPOST Canada also shut down, with additional 23 layoffs. /CNN
ESPN about to sign 7 year deal for NHL rights starting in the Fall, splitting games with another outlet TBD. (NBCU currently has exclusive US rights ending this season). ESPN will air 4 of the next 7 Stanley Cups and get streaming rights to games (for ESPN+). TBD other partner will air 3 Stanley Cups. /SportsNet Canada
Former EW Editor In Chief Henry Goldblatt joins SHOWTIME as… VP of Awards. Patricia Kollappallil joins as SVP Corp Comms (comes over from VICE). /Variety
Morgan Wallen still has the #1 Album in the country, for the 8th week in a row. /Variety
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
AMAZON PRIME “THEM” teaser trailer. 1950’s set suburban creepy horror series, drops on April 9th.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
FOX “The Masked Singer” new season at 8p. Guest host: Niecy Nash. Followed by premiere of “Game of Talents” at 9pm (guess the person’s talent by looking at them and a few clues. Hopefully one of them doesn’t involve singing - think FOX is out of sync budget $$ by now).
COMEDY CENTRAL “South Park” pandemic special at 10pm
NETFLIX “Last Chance U: Basketball” Season 1 drops today. The Junior College football docuseries shifts to Community College basketball in SoCal. Add it to your queue here.
That’s all for today! If ya dig this, here’s an easy way to share it:
Enjoy your Wednesday!
-Sean McNulty