Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY August 30, 2021.

Where ya gotta give points to NY MAG for being on brand with their “Succession” multi-page fold out cover story out this week in their “Fall Preview” edition.

ALSO: A rest in peace goes out to a true one-of-a-kind Ed Asner, who died at 91 over the weekend. Scott Feinberg at THR just did a career-spanning chat with him last week that makes for a good read today.

Is it true that you once went on a date with Mary (Tyler Moore) in real life?
Yeah.
What’s the story behind that?
Dull.

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📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

NETFLIX sets Eddie Murphy + Jonah Hill for new comedy directed by Kenya Barris

Jonah & Kenya co-wrote the untitled movie, only broad plot details available - examination of how love and family dynamics, plus cultural and generational differences affect relationships. So take from that what you will.

Will be Barris’s feature directorial debut. /THR

APPLE TV sets Scarlett Johansson & Chris Evans for romantic-action pic

Finally “The Perfect Score” reunion we’ve all been waiting for 🙌. Oh right the “Avengers” thing. Dexter Fletcher directing (“Rocketman”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”) and the “Deadpool” writers are… well, writing. SKYDANCE producing.

Called “Ghosted” but no plot details reported, other than a “Romancing The Stone” vibe… which is also how the recently wrapped Sandra Bullock / Channing Tatum movie “The Lost City of D” at PARAMOUNT was described - although in that case, the plot is pretty spot on to “Stone”. /THR

H.E.R. to make acting debut in WB’s “The Color Purple” musical

She’ll play “Squeak” in the movie, originally played by Rae Dawn Chong in the 1985 film.

Oprah and Spielberg producing, Blitz Bazawule (BEYONCE’s “Black Is King”) directing, Corey Hawkins already cast. /THR

MIRAMAX signs Jason Statham for another action pic - “The Bee Keeper”

They paid $1 Million for the spec script, director is pending. It’s about a Bee Keeper. See - this is the kind of insight you come to this email for.

No other details except for a targeted start date of Sept 2022, so somebody check Guy Ritchie’s calendar avails.

Statham, MIRAMAX and Ritchie did the quite profitable “Wrath of Man” and have another action film fka “Five Eyes” in post-production. /Deadline

BOX OFFICE

“Candyman” : $22 Million ($27.5 Million global)
- It’s the third best last-weekend-of-August opening ever.
- Not bad for a film with a $25 Million budget.
“Free Guy” : $13.5 Million ($79 Million US, $180 Million global)
- Still has an incredible hold, only -27% from last weekend.
- Opened to a solid $24 Million in CHINA. 20% of theaters are currently closed.
“Paw Patrol: The Movie” : $6.6 Million ($24 Million US, $62 Million globally)
“Jungle Cruise” : $5 Million ($100 Million US)
- Only a -20% drop from last week, 5 weeks into its release.
“Don’t Breathe 2” : $3 Million ($24.5 Million in US)
- Movie will outgross “Respect” which opened on the same date (currently at $19 Million)

OF NOTE:

“F9” crossed $700 Million global total, now stands at $704 Million.
“Suicide Squad” crossed $100 Million international, now has $154 Million total, so hopefully they got a lotta HBOMAX signups out of this one.
DISNEY/PIXAR’s “Luca” now at $43 Million global total (all international naturally).

ALSO IN MOVIES

NEW LINE sets Lewis Pullman (Bill’s son) as the lead for their Stephen King “Salem’s Lot” adaptation. Shooting later in September, Gary Dauberman directing (he wrote the recent “It” movies). /THR

📺 THE TV SET

“Manifest” gets 4th and final season on NETFLIX

Will be 20 episodes, split into multiple parts to milk the franchise appropriately. The cancelled NBC show has been #1 / Top 5 on NETFLIX for the majority of the Summer in the US.

WBTV already had deals in place selling the NBC show internationally market-by-market to traditional TV partners (#oldTVBizModel) - but it seems they’ve reached deals so NETFLIX will have some exclusivity outside the US to roll this Season 4 out to various global territories to make this deal worthwhile for ‘em.

Also reinforces the power of NETFLIX:

PEACOCK could have written a big paycheck to keep it in the NBC family, but couldn’t justify a deal.
WBTV sister company HBOMAX was also out of the picture here.

Scale of distribution & usage matters - NETFLIX is still in almost 2X as many US homes as their nearest competitors - same deal worldwide (until AMAZON PRIME or APPLE TV give any meaningful stats, have to assume they don’t stack up).

Services like PEACOCK, HULU etc that are often talked about in the same breath as NETFLIX just don’t have this kind of firepower. /Deadline

If you want a play-by-play on the minutia of how this went down between NBC, WBTV and NETFLIX, Matt Belloni has a rather detailed outline for it here in his Sunday newsletter that you can sign up for yourself as there is no shareable link.

PARAMOUNT+ orders Esports series “Players”

Comedic faux-docu style show from the “American Vandal” team, will be themed kinda a la “The Last Dance”.

Centers on a LEAGUE OF LEGENDS eSports team pursuing their first championship, where a 17 year-old and 27 year-old have to find a way to work together. /Deadline

ALSO IN TV

NETFLIX renews “Cobra Kai” for Season 5. Season 4 premieres in December. /THR
AMC renews “Kevin Can F**k Himself” for Season 2. 8 episode order. /Variety
STARZ renews “Run The World” for Season 2. Rachelle Williams (“Love Life”, “Mixed-ish”) replacing Yvette Lee Bowser as showrunner. No episode count given. /THR

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

ESPN looking for $3 Billion to give its name to an online sports gambling service

Amazing what continuing revenue losses from cord-cutters will do to change one’s perspective on being associated with gambling…

Having talks about a multi-year deal with the owners of the CAESARS and DRAFT KINGS sportsbooks to create an ESPN-branded gambling app / brand.

Gambling services… Bill Clinton sex-scandal limited series… remember when people were worried that investing in VICE was considered risky to associate with the DISNEY name? /WSJ

China Government erases 2 movie stars from the internet

This is a wild read from THR… Two relatively well-known Chinese actresses Zhao Wei and Zheng Shuang had the following erased by the CHINA government:

All credits from their TV & Movie projects

All mentions of them on Chinese social media

All of their content from major Chinese streaming services

They also fined Shuang $46.1 million for tax evasion.

Wei has now reportedly fled to France… and since deleted an IG post saying she was in Beijing with her family when that French sighting news broke.

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

LIONSGATE came back to life after a couple month long decline, up almost 5%, otherwise a quiet Friday.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

US Tennis Open begins in Queens.

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🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

DISNEY+ “Doogie Kamealoha M.D.” series trailer. Premieres Wed Sept 8.

APPLE TV+ “The Problem with Jon Stewart” comedic teaser. Show will premiere Thu Sept 30, with a complimentary podcast

APPLE TV+ “Come From Away” trailer. Movie of a live performance of the Broadway show, Premieres Fri Sept 10.

🕵️‍♂️ THE WEEK AHEAD

TUE - HULU “Only Murders in the Building” premieres

WED - VENICE FILM FEST begins

THU - New Season of“What We Do in the Shadows” hits FX

FRI - MARVEL “Shang Chi…” hits theaters

SAT - COLLEGE FOOTBALL season kicks off in earnest.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

KANYE, YE, K-dog… whatever works - the new “Donda” dropped this weekend at long last. While personally not my kinda jams, you can Listen to The New Album here on SPOTIFY or here’s one of the… 26 songs.

If you need new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-Sean McNulty

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

or I’m also here on CLUBHOUSE

The Wakeup

APPLE sets Scarlett Johannson & Chris Evans…