Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY March 15, 2022.
Where a combined Congrats 👏 and WTF 😵💫 goes out to the PARAMOUNT+ marketing department, who one-upped the crypto SUPERBOWL ad by creating a QR code in the sky over Austin using drones for SXSW (it linked to the “Halo” trailer – you can check out the new one here). Thanks for freaking us all out… in the good way?
ALSO: Pete Davidson is going to space on BLUE ORIGIN. Just gonna leave that there but can’t wait for the YE video about it.
AND: The NBR Gala finally takes place tonight after a 2+ month postponement, and man… my tux rental late fees are not gonna be pretty. 🤵♂️
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
PARAMOUNT adds Sara Gilbert to Tom Brady movie “80 for Brady”
Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Sally Field already set to star as the 4 women who road tripped to see Brady in the 2017 SUPERBOWL.
Brady producing in addition to appearing in the film…. guessing before training camp starts this year. /Deadline
ALSO IN MOVIES
Dianne Wiest joins Julia Garner in her PARAMOUNT psychological thriller “Apartment 7A” produced by John Krasinski & Michael Bay’s respective production co’s. Of note this originated at the just-folded PARAMOUNT PLAYERS unit. /Deadline
“Top Gun: Maverick” screening at CANNES in May, in advance of May 27 US opening. CANNES runs May 17-28. /THR
📺 THE TV SET
ABC renews “Abbott Elementary” for Season 2
Tied with CBS’s “Ghosts” for largest 18-49 audience among broadcast comedies this year. /THR
NBC’s “New Amsterdam” ending with Season 5 in the Fall season, a 13 episode order
NBC ordered 3 seasons back in 2020 but the show’s ratings have gone pretty far south of late. /Variety
ALSO IN TV
“The Daily Show” is moving back to its old studio and with an IRL audience for the first time since the pandemic next month. /Deadline
Florida judge permanently seals Bob Saget’s death photos & videos and other records taken by officers on site, per the request of his family. /THR
IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE
HGTV Prez Jane Lantman takes over FOOD NETWORK lead as well, as current Prez Courney White departs to start her own production co. /Deadline
Reena Mehta is leaving HBOMAX as VP of Content Strategy to join ABC News as SVP of Streaming & Digital Content. /Deadline
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
Soon-to-be WARNER DISCO CEO David Zazlav gets $246 Million compensation package for 2021
Roughly $202 Million of that was in stock options that will vest over the duration of his new contract which ends in 2027, and if you divide that by year… it only works out to about $35-ish Million annually. Ok yeah that’s not helping, my bad.
Also note – that doesn’t include his annual salary compensation package, which in 2021 was $43 Million:
$3 Million Salary
$13 Million Stock
$22 Million Bonus
Plus another $4.4 Mil on top just for a “Great job!” on the WARNER MEDIA thing.
That makes the ratio of the DISCOVERY CEO’s total annual compensation to the total annual compensation of the median-paid DISCOVERY employee: 527 to 1.
TO NOTE: That $202 Million worth of options is dependent upon the stock price rising to hit certain marks over the next 5 years…. including the $35 mark to unlock one big tranche (price is currently at $23, and hasn’t hit $35 since ironically right before they announced the WARNER DISCO deal).
So get ready to hear the term “cost savings” thrown around a lot as the year progresses, which definitely doesn’t mean a lower check for the CEO. #layoffs /Deadline
WARNER DISCO will eventually fold DISCOVERY+ into HBOMAX
The soon-to-be company’s CFO said the 2 services will be bundled pretty much as soon as they can once the merger officially closes, a la DISNEY+ & HULU (and ESPN).
No timeline given for the eventual merge of DISCO+ into HBOMAX, or what it may do to the HBOMAX prices. Also no word on how CNN+ might figure into the picture.
DISCO+ had 22 Million global subs to HBOMAX’s 74 Million globally at the end of 2021, and as I detailed here last month… the DISCO+ Growth rate is slowing quarter by quarter, and the service is now about the same size as ESPN+. /Variety
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
PARAMOUNT +10% ($35.77) – no idea what was up here
AMC NETWORKS +7% ($41.19)
AMC THEATERS -5% ($13.56)
ROBLOX -6% ($36.68)
SNAP -7% ($28.00)
VIMEO -8% ($10.24)
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👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
NBC “Young Rock” – Season 2 at 8p
NBC “Mr. Mayor” – Season 2 at 830p
HBO “Phoenix Rising” – Pt 1 of Evan Rachel Wood docu airs at 9p, pt 2 tomorrow at 9p
And… if you really need to start your MARCH MADNESS asap – TRU TV has 2 “First Four” round games at 640p and 910p tonight with teams competing for 16 and 12 ranked positions in the field of 64. Two more games at the same times tomorrow night.
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
HULU “The Kardashians” trailer. Premieres Thu April 14
HBOMAX “Tokyo Vice” series trailer – Ansel Elgort as an American reporter at at Japanese publication who gets involved in Tokyo’s… underbelly? Basically he gets mixed up with some bad dudes. Premieres Thu April 7
And HBO did a trailer dump over the weekend so here’s a few to catch up on:
“Gentlemen Jack” Season 2 teaser trailer – Coming in “April”
“How to Survive a Pandemic” trailer – Docu on the road to creating a covid vaccine from the “Welcome to Chechnya” director. Premieres Tue March 29
“Tony Hawk: Unitl the Wheels Fall Off” docu trailer – This looks good, I’m in. Premieres Tue April 5
PARAMOUNT “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” final trailer. In theaters April 8
NETFLIX “Metal Lords” film trailer – Keeping with today’s HBO theme – This pic counts “GOT” showrunners Dan & Dave plus Tom Morello, and the “Harold & Kumar” guys among the producer team. And if you’re up for an underdog high school band movie – this looks fun. Premieres Fri April 8
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
New MAREN MORRIS “Nervous” – Maren going a little Sheryl Crow rocker on us… nice. Album drops next Friday.
If you need some new tunes:
Email me anytime – just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
