Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY July 29, 2021.
Where as of Monday – no quarantines needed for vaccinated US and European citizens entering the UK. Except if you’re from France, but I’m not sure if that’s based on science… or just somethin else goin on there.
AND: Bob Odenkirk is in stable condition with a good prognosis after suffering what seems to have been a heart attack on the set of “Better Call Saul” yesterday in New Mexico.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
Tiffany Haddish & LaKeith Stanfield in talks to star in DISNEY’s “Haunted Mansion” reboot
Justin Simien (“Bad Hair”, “Dear White People”) directing, Katie Dippold (“The Heat”) writing, no plot details released. /Variety
NETFLIX sets multi-film deal with Jennifer Garner to do “Yes Day” sequel and more
Will also star in a new family comedy “Family Leave” inspired by a book from the author of the book “Yes Day” was based on. No word on plot.
She’s also in a new NETFLIX Ryan Reynolds comedy “The Adam Project” which I think has already finished shooting. /THR
DREAMWORKS ANIMATION sets Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina & Anthony Ramos for “The Bad Guys”
A crew of animal outlaws tries to become model citizens… for their next con. Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, and Zazie Beets among the other cast announced.
UNIVERSAL will release next April. /Variety
ALSO IN MOVIES
HULU adds Margaret Cho to their Bowen Yang / Joel Kim Booster Summer vacation comedy “Fire Island”. She’ll play a homeowner on the island. /Variety
AND IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE
SONY PICTURES extends contract of their film Chairman Tom Rothman for… well no one knows. They didn’t say, which totally isn’t weird for a public company. But they also gave him the CEO title after 6 years at the studio. He still reports into SONY ENTERTAINMENT Chairman Tony Vinciquerra. /Variety
CBS sets new Head of Comedy Development – Jon Koa. He was SVP of Scripted at CONDE NAST, but previously worked in Comedy at ABC til 2015. He replaces longtime CBS exec, Julie Pernworth. /Variety
In PR – Michael Donkis’s recently formed ALOFT COMMUNICATIONS added Rebecca Taylor from JONESWORKS as a Partner (she was at ROGERS & COWAN prior to that). She primarily reps writers & showrunners, including those for “WandaVision”, “Physical” and “Made for Love”. /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
TBS orders “Stupid Pet Tricks” series based on Letterman franchise
Sarah Silverman hosting, 10 episode order. Production begins “later this year” – thinking you get the format… /Deadline
AMC sets Joe Manganiello for sci-fi utopian series “Moonhaven”
Set on future moon colony 100 years in the future that may hold the keys to preserving life on Earth, which… apparently doesn’t look great 😲. #whoknew? Newcomer Emma McDonald and Dominic Monaghan already set as co-stars.
Will premiere next year, further character details in the link for the inclined. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
AMAZON sets Delroy Lindo to lead just-announced Neil Gaiman series “Anansi Boys”. He’ll play “Anansi/Mr. Nancy”, series has 6 episode order, will shoot later this year in Scotland. /Variety
Dylan McDermott returning to NBC’s “Law & Order: Organized Crime” in a recurring capacity for Season 2. /Deadline
SHOWTIME sets DeWanda Wise (NETFLIX’s “She’s Gotta Have It”) as one of the 3 featured women in the series adaptation of the best-selling book “Three Women” starring Shailene Woodley. /Deadline
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS will air on both NBC and E! in December. Have been E!-only the past few years. /Deadline
NETFLIX requiring all actors & crew in “Zone A” on sets in the US to be vaccinated (Zone A – anything to do with shooting and the actors basically). An agreement between Studios & major unions / guilds only allows studios to mandate that for Zone A, and not B-D. NETFLIX considering doing this in the UK as well. /Variety
PBS cancels “Arthur” animated series after 25 years. Final season will air late 2022, so if you need an aardvark for hire… I know a guy. /Variety
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
FACEBOOK took in $29 Billion from April thru June, +56% from this time last year
That’s about half of GOOGLE’s revenue and almost 1/3 of APPLE revenue in the 2nd quarter. But 4X NETFLIX revenue.
Profits grew 100% to $10 Billion. Now, where to invest that money 🤔, Increased covid misinformation filtering and moderation or… something called a Metaverse? Think we know where Zuck’s vote is here.
FB Daily Active Users (DAU’s) up 7% vs this time last year to 1.91 Billion. Monthly users (MAU) to 2.9 Billion. There are 7.6 Billion people on Earth.
But… the APPLE iOS changes to eliminate tracking will cause revenue growth to “decelerate significantly” even as they plan to charge advertisters more 💰💰, so the stock was down over 3% in after-hours trading as a result. /Deadline
PEACOCK adds 12 million US new accounts over past 3 months, going international in Europe via SKY
54 Million people have now signed up for a PEACOCK account at some point… 20 Million of them have actually used it in the past month, so take that as you will. But that # is a 40+% increase of Monthly Users from the Spring. #ThanksOlympics
No breakout as for how many are paying for it (last reported number was about 3 Million accounts paying for PEACOCK PREMIUM earlier this year).
PEACOCK will go international in Europe as a free add-on for SKY’s 20 Million+ Satellite TV & Broadband customers, no date as of yet or further details on programming, or if there will be a paid subscription tier (PEACOCK PREMIUM). More on this tomorrow I’m sure.
COMCAST took in a FACEBOOK-like $28.5 Billion from April thru June overall.
$16 Billion was from COMCAST proper (+10% from a year ago), including a $3.7 Billion profit for the 3 month period.
They added 354k broadband subscribers in the 2nd Quarter, their most ever in 2Q (it’s typically a pretty weak quarter for that), and another 280k Mobile service customers, their best quarter for that yet.
But TV cord cutting continued at a pretty good clip, losing 399k video subscribers in the 3 month period. This puts totals at:
BROADBAND: Just over 29 Million subscribers (plus 2 million business customers)
CABLE TV: Drops them to 18.2 Million residential customers. Still the largest Cable TV provider in the country by a margin (CHARTER is second, around 15 million).
MOBILE: Now at 3.3 Million customers – still a rounding error to AT&T or VERIZON subscriber #s, but the growth is strong and increasing, and the division is in the black.
NBC UNIVERSAL added $8 Billion of revenue across all sectors combined (TV, movies, theme parks etc), just a bit more than NETFLIX ($7.3 Billion).
Their UK subsidiary SKY brought in $5.2 Billion, mainly from their Satellite TV / Broadband / Mobile service businesses, which serve around 23 Million people total across Europe. /Deadline
ALSO IN MEDIA
GAWKER.com came back to life yesterday, under the leadership of Leah Finnegan, a former writer at the site. BUSTLE DIGITAL GROUP bought GAWKER assets for about $1 Million after the whole Hulk Hogan sex tape bankruptcy thing a few years ago. /Variety
ICM buys NFL players agency SELECT SPORTS – They rep Kyler Murray, Andy Dalton and Colin Kapernick among others. Will be integrated into ICM’s existing STELLAR SPORTS group, which has a huge Soccer player client roster. /THR
DISH’s SLING TV streaming bundle raising prices for existing customers in August, from $30 to $35/month (for their basic “Orange” and “Blue” tiers). /NextTV
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
SPOTIFY down almost 6% on (narrowly) missing their 2Q Subscriber growth projections.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
PARAMOUNT+ “Behind the Music” premieres with Ricky Martin and LL Cool J. New episodes will drop weekly going forward. Watch or Add to your List here.
HBOMAX “F-Boy Island” – if ya know, ya know. Watch or Add to your List here.
NBA DRAFT begins at 8p on ABC & ESPN.
AMAZON and PINTEREST report earnings late afternoon.
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
WARNER BROS / HBOMAX “King Richard” trailer. Will Smith as Venus & Serena’s dad, In theaters and HBOMAX (ad-free) on Fri Nov 19.
MGM “Flag Day” trailer. Sean Penn directing and co-starring with his daughter Dylan, in the based on a true story… uh story of a young woman coming to grips with her relationship with her counterfieter father. In select theaters Fri Aug 20.
HBOMAX “The Prince” series trailer. Animated satire of the Royal Family from some “Bob’s Burgers” and “Family Guy” alums. All 12 episodes premiere… well I’m pretty sure they’re on there today actually, but I didnt see it promoted on the series page. Interesting lead time here.
NETFLIX “Untold” trailer. 5 part docu film series, each movie centers on a story from the sports world… so I guess the shorthand here is NETFLIX’s “30 For 30”. From the producers of “Wild Wild Country”. Films will uncharacteristically roll out weekly starting Tue Aug 17.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
ZZ TOP – “Rough Boy”. Rest in peace going out to bassist Dusty Hill who died yesterday at 72, so here’s one of my favorites from the “Afterburner” album that I haven’t heard in a long while.
If you need new tunes:
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-Sean McNulty
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
or I’m also here on CLUBHOUSE
