APPLE TV+ buys another Tom Hanks movie
NBC adds another LAW & ORDER / NETFLIX drops HALSTON trailer / AMAZON getting NFL games 1 year early
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY May 4, 2021.
Where your September 2021 MET GALA chairpeople are: Timothy Chalamet, Billie Eilish… fresh off her VOGUE cover spin, tennis player Naomi Osaka and poet Amanda Gorman.
And your 2021 MET GALA parking valet… will be yours truly. Don’t worry Mr Chalamet, I’m a trained professional - your Ferrari’s in excellent hands.
And just putting this handy button here in case you forgot to get your friends something for May the 4th:
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
APPLE TV buys Tom Hanks “Finch” movie from UNIVERSAL (fka “Bios”)
Sci-Fi movie where Hanks plays a robotics engineer who survives a cataclysmic solar event, and creates a robot to take care of his dog as they embark on a journey into a now desolate American West.
Was set for an August release via UNI, currently TBD at APPLE. No price disclosed. /Deadline
ALSO: WB/HBOMAX now moving Hugh Jackman Sci-fi movie “Reminiscense” up to previous “Finch” release date, Aug 20.
ALSO IN MOVIES
Olivia Wilde casts lead in her Kerri Strug biopic “Perfect” at SEARCHLIGHT: Thomasin McKenzie (“Jojo Rabbit”). Yeah I can see a resemblance… /Deadline
PARAMOUNT PICTURES signs Ryan Reynolds’s production company to a 3-year first look film deal. No deal price terms released. /THR
📺 THE TV SET
NBC getting… one more “Law & Order” show
Pretty sure they get the next one free. This one’s called “For the Defense” centering on attorneys at a criminal defense firm. Carol Mendelsohn (“CSI”) showrunning here. TBD if it’ll be ready in time for the Fall schedule. /THR
HBOMAX sets Elizabeth Olsen to star in limited series about a 1980 murder
“Love and Death” centers on a Texas woman named Candy Montgomery who murders her friend and neighbor with an ax. David E. Kelly writing & Exec Producer alongside Nicole Kidman. Lesli Linka Glatter (“Homeland”) directing.
HULU and Elisabeth Moss also developing a project called “Candy” on the same story, but looks like this one will happen first. /Deadline
ALSO: HBOMAX is adding Jessica Williams (“2 Dope Queens”) and Chris Powell (“Detroiters”) for Season 2 of “Love Life”. William Jackson Harper (“The Good Place”) already set as the lead. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
“Succession” adds Alexander Skaarsgaard in a recurring role for Season 3. Will play a “successful, confrontational tech founder and CEO”. /Variety
NETFLIX’s most popular comedy in 2020… was originally a PARAMOUNT NETWORK show. “Emily in Paris” steals the crown with 56 Million viewers… after she of course, stole our hearts. Wait didn’t PARAMOUNT launch their own streaming service recently? That coulda come in handy.
SNL rounds out the 2 weeks after Elon… where it’s hyphens-only folks:
MAY 15: Keegan-Michael Key and Olivia Rodrigo
MAY 22 finale: Anya Taylor-Joy and Lil Nas X
CONAN to end TBS run on June 24. Will eventually shift to a weekly HBOMAX variety show & his travel specials for TBS/HBOMAX. /Deadline
APPLE TV+ sets Luke Evans to star in “Echo 3” series from Mark Boal (“Zero Dark Thirty”). A scientist goes missing at the Colombian border - her brother (Evans) and husband with… complicated military pasts go out to find her. /Variety
AMAZON’s free streaming service IMDB TV orders 2 series:
A half-hour Dick Wolf show “On Call” about 2 cops in Long Beach, CA. Snoop cameo TBD.
“High School” based on the memoir from musical sister group TEGAN AND SARA. The coming of age in the 90’s show will be written and directed by Clea Duvall (“Happiest Season”). /Variety
DISCOVERY puts it’s first scripted mini-series into development 🤔. A book called “Girls with Bright Futures” about a group of mothers in Seattle who go to great lengths to get their daughters into good colleges. /Variety
ABC renews “The Good Doctor” for the Fall; FX renews “Mayans MC” for Season 4; TheCW renews “Kung-Fu” and “Stargirl” for the Fall.
BBC’s “Line of Duty” gets 12.8 Million viewers for its season finale on Sunday in the UK. Same size audience as day 1 of the NFL Draft. /Deadline
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
AMAZON getting NFL Thursday Night Football one year earlier
Will now be the exclusive home for the franchise starting next year in 2022. FOX & NFL NETWORK will still have the games this season.
Although if your local team is playing… the game will be simulcast on a local TV station in your market (usually channel 9 or 11 in NYC).
NYC re-opening at 100% in 3 weeks on Wed May 19th
However - things like plays and professional sports in arenas are still limited by social distancing - unless vaccination or negative test proof is given… so we’ll see how all this works.
BROADWAY likely still targeting a Fall return for many reasons.
MOVIE THEATERS… kinda seem a little confused, and rightfully so. But thinking they’ll have it figured out by “A Quiet Place 2”/”Cruella” Summer kickoff weekend on May 28th.
ALSO: Zero Covid deaths for the 2nd day in a row in LA County 🙌.
ALSO IN MEDIA
TWITTER users with over 600 followers can now host (CLUBHOUSE-ripoff) “SPACES” chats. Anyone with a TWITTER account can join a SPACES room. Co-hosting is available and you can plan SPACES in advance. Soon - hosts will be able to charge for entry into their SPACES chats, but no exact timeline given. /THR
Apparently CLUBHOUSE downloads fell under 1 Million in April. They were over 9 Million in Feb. /Adweek
As expected VERIZON sells YAHOO & AOL: the buyer is the APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT private equity firm. They’re paying $5 Billion for 90% of the business. VERIZON is keeping 10% because hey - ya never know.
YAHOO SPORTS still has a huge audience, and APOLLO has extensive experience in the online gambling world according to AXIOS so… 🤷♂️ .
But with this sale, plus divesting HUFFPOST to BUZZFEED late last year, and the RIP status of GO90… VERIZON fully goes back to being a phone & broadband company.
MEREDITH sells their 17 local TV Stations to GRAY, who now becomes the 2nd largest owner of local TV affiliates in the US, covering 36% of the country. MEREDITH will now just be a digital publishing business (EW, BETTER HOMES & GARDENS etc).
MEREDITH’s daily PEOPLE TV show is currently only distributed on those MEREDITH stations they just sold… It was not scheduled to be distributed/sold outside of those stations until Fall of next year, so - curious if that distribution was included in the deal. If you know - reply to this email (just for my own edification).
LA TIMES sets new Executive Editor, Kevin Merida - the head of ESPN's The Undefeated vertical. /THR
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
AMC NETWORKS -4.6%, ya got me on this one, but VIACOM and DISCOVERY both down around 4% too.
GRAY TELEVISION +9% on the MEREDITH STATION GROUP deal.
ENDEAVOR +12%. This stock may be entering ROBINHOOD trader favorite territory (due to owning UFC, and Elon on the board). Which can blow up the price… but also lead to great volatility. Still early to tell though.
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
NETFLIX “Halston” trailer. Limited series starring Ewan McGregor as, well the guy in the title. Very nice use of Depeche Mode NETFLIX 👏. Drops on Fri May 14.
MARVEL Hype Reel - People were mainly excited about this because of the 5 seconds of “Eternals” footage so if that’s your thing have at it. But this is basically MARVEL saying get pumped for a return to the movie theater!
A bit ironic for a studio that moved their tentpole “Black Widow” from May to July… when it will simultaneously also put it on a streaming service the same day. But gotta say - this is one well done Get Psyched reel 👏. Woulda made a nice addition to THE OSCARS…
IMDB TV “Leverage: Redemption” series teaser. Reboot of the TNT show with Noah Wylie leading the crew. Hits the free streaming service on July 9.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
DISNEY+ “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” - Watch or add to your list here.
NETFLIX “Selena: The Series” Part 2 - Watch or add to your list here.
BRAVO “RHONY” Season 13 premieres at 9pm.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
ANITA “Girl From Rio” - This puts a fun 2021 pop spin on the Girl From Ipanema.
If you need new tunes:
Have a fine Tuesday - Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-Sean McNulty
@theseanmac on TWITTER or also here on CLUBHOUSE or on IG @TheWakeupNews