Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY September 3, 2021.

Where it’s unsurprisingly a pretty quiet unofficial end Summer. So let’s relax with our Friday morning coffee at the bar in Neil Patrick Harris’s HARLEM townhouse, which comes complete with a private rooftop hot tub. Would you expect anything less from Barney Stinson? It can be yours for a $7.3 Million dollar check. Or cash. Cash is good.

ALSO: ABBA is back (anyone born after 1980 - ask your parents. It’s the band from “Mamma Mia”). Will drop their first new album in 40 years in November and also dropped 2 new songs yesterday. One is… oof. The other is… well, no “Dancing Queen” but not bad - you can check it out here on SPOTIFY.

AND: The model citizen who accosted an MSNBC reporter on-air in Mississippi this week was arrested in Ohio. Turns out that leaving Ohio… wait for it - violated his probation! In 2017 he was arrested for breaking into his former place of employment - not to retrieve his Employee of the Week trophy, but rather to drill holes in chemical tanks, causing an employee to go to the hospital. Benjamin Dagley faces 2 counts of simple assault.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Soderbergh dropping secret movie at TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL

No cast, plot or… any details whatsoever for the project. It’s likely not his next known film, HBOMAX’s “Kimi” with Zoe Kravitz but we’ll see. The way Steven shoots, he could’ve shot and edited a movie in the past 2 weeks.

It’s so secretive that TIFF also hasn’t said when the screening will be. (they will announce soon). /Deadline

Will Smith’s Venus & Serena movie “King Richard” wows Telluride

Granted, this is a film festival screening so it’s a hot crowd, but raves all around it seems. THR coverage here, Variety review here.

And remember “Dune” premieres in VENICE later this afternoon, as does the Kristen Stewart as Princess Di movie “Spencer”.

ALSO IN MOVIES

• NEW LINE adds Alfrie Woodard to “Salem’s Lot” movie adaptation. /Deadline

• Fran Drescher is the next president of SAG-AFTRA. My friend Joel Stein had a fun piece looking at the campaigning that went on, which is about as ridiculous as you might imagine. /THR

📺 THE TV SET

Just a laundry list of brief news really:

• Kate Walsh returning to “Grey’s Anatomy” this Fall, mutli-episode arc. /Deadline

• Snooki returning to MTV’s “Jersey Shore Family Vacation” for Season 5. Ok how old are these people now?? /Deadline

• AMC adds Rainn Wilson to “Dark Skies” series. Based on a book about 2 Navajo detectives investigating a grisly double murder in the 70’s Southwest. 6 episode Season 1 order. /THR

• FX orders a Season 2 for “Reservation Dogs”./THR

• DISNEY+ orders Season 2 of John Stamos high school basketball show “Big Shot”. /Variety

• BET+ renews “The Ms. Pat Show” for Season 2. /THR

• CBS’s “The Talk” adds 4th host - Akbar Gbajabiamila, host of NBC’s “America’s Ninja Warrior”. And yes I totally Cut and Pasted his name from the article vs retyping. /THR

• WARNER MEDIA launching a “Game of Thrones”-Con in Vegas in February. /Variety

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

• SPOTIFY hires former PAR+ Head of Programming Julie Montgomery as Head of US Studios & Video. She’ll oversee all the podcast production companies they’ve acqured (THE RINGER, GIMLET etc) and the ones they have deals with (Obama’s HIGHER GROUND, Harry & Megan’s ARCHEWELL etc). No clarity on what the “video” aspect might be - SPOTIFY tried adding video with little success a few years ago before shutting down the effort. Julie reports into Chief Content Officer Dawn Ostroff. /Deadline

• NETFLIX adds longtime HBO exec Lucinda Martinez as new VP of Multicultural Marketing, reports into NETFLIX CMO Bozoma Saint John. /Variety

• Former NETFLIX programming exec Brian Wright joins RIOT GAMES (“League of Legends”) as Chief Content Officer, to develop the game properties into TV, Movies and Animation. /THR

• Former NETFLIX programming exec Lisa Hamilton Daly is the new EVP of Programming at CROWN NETWORKS (HALLMARK CHANNEL). She developed shows like “Virgin River” & “Sweet Magnolias” at NETFLIX. /Deadline

• YOUTUBE’s VP of Content Partnerships Kelly Merryman resigns after 6 years. She led up YT’s relationships with Hollywood studios & networks, with a staff of 300. No next destination indicated. /LA Times

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

YOUTUBE MUSIC hits 50 Million paying global subscribers. ish

This includes subscribers to:

• YOUTUBE MUSIC ($10/month ad-free experience)

• YOUTUBE PREMIUM ($12/month for an Ad-free YT experience + YT MUSIC)

• People doing Free trials of either service

No breakout was given for the 3 different tranches. Ok fine - buckets. But I’ll give the benefit of the doubt the free subs aren’t large. Also no breakdown on how many are US vs International.

This gives YT MUSIC about 8% of the global paid music subscription market according to one analysis.

SPOTIFY has over 3X as many paying subscribers, with 165 Million. APPLE & AMAZON MUSIC still giving the proverbial 🖕 to sharing any subscriber # info. /Bloomberg

Today in CHINA Government crackdown news…

They’re banning “effeminate men” from TV shows. Although the real translation in the edict was

banning “sissy men and other abnormal esthetics” in TV content.

Turns out Covid may not end up being the thing that ends the China Box Office gravy train for US movies after all. This keeps getting darker. /Deadline

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

ROKU down almost 6%

SPOTIFY up over 6%, as APPLE will now let SPOT and other media apps like NETFLIX add links in their apps for people to sign up. Don’t think it’s gonna make a material difference in revenue… but Wall Street - you do you.

👩‍💻 THE FSS FEED:

(new Stuff to Watch this weekend)

FRIDAY

IN THEATERS:

MARVEL“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” - Only in Movie Theaters (for a 45 day / 6 week window)

STREAMING:

MOVIES

AMAZON PRIME “Cinderella” - Starring Camilla Cabello, Click here to Watch or Add to your List

NETFLIX “Worth” - Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Amy Ryan movie about compensating families that lost loved ones on 9/11. Click here to Watch or Add to your List

DISNEY+ “Happier Than Ever: a Love Letter to Los Angeles” - Billie Eilish concert movie shot at the Hollywood Bowl and co-directed by Robert Rodriguez. Click here to Watch or Add to your List

SERIES

NETFLIX “Money Heist” - Season 5, part 1. note: part 2 (final 5 eps) airs in early December. Click here to Watch or Add to your List

HULU “The D’Amelio Show” - All 8 episodes drop today. Click here to Watch or Add to your List

TV

SHOWTIME “Bitchin” - Docu on Rick James. Airs at 8p

SATURDAY

First College Football Saturday of the season

SUNDAY

SHOWTIME “Billions” - The rest of Season 5 Premieres at 9p

ADULT SWIM “Robot Chicken” - Season 11 Premieres at Midnight

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🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

NETFLIX “Red Notice” trailer. Action pic with The Rock, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. Pretty sure the word “subtle” wasn’t used in the notes process on this one. Premieres Fri Nov 12.

LIONSGATE “Moonfall” teaser trailer. The man who blew up the White House and froze Earth, now crashes the Moon from the sky. Pretty sure the word “subtle” wasn’t used in the notes process on this one. Ah dammit I just used that line didn’t I? In Theaters Feb 4.

PARAMOUNT+ “Yellowstone” Season 4 trailer. Premieres Sun Nov 7

HBO “Insecure” 5th and final season teaser. Premieres Sun Oct 24

AMAZON PRIME “The Wheel of Time” teaser trailer. To note - unrelated to the Wheel of Fortune (ok yes, that was bad - where’s the crickets emoji?). Fantasy series based on a very popular book series… but if you’re not familiar with it (like me), you may not be really sure what’s going on here - although look! Rosamund Pike. Nice. So we’ll all find out on Fri Nov 19.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

New STING “If It’s Love” - First single from his upcoming album, kinda easygoing Adult Contemporary tune with… whistling. Listen to it here on SPOTIFY

But his song title just makes me think of the NEW EDITION classic “If It Isn’t Love”, which in my opinion makes for a far better way to go into the last unofficial weekend of Summer 😎. All time classic.

See ya Tuesday! And Enjoy all the “Dune” takes this weekend…

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-Sean McNulty

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