EMMYS move mostly outdoors, further limit attendance

AT&T looks to sell TMZ / HBO orders WHITE LOTUS Season 2 with new cast TBA / Fall concert season begins to cancel

Aug 11, 2021

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY August 11, 2021.

Where Stevie Nicks and Limp Bizkit both canceled their upcoming concert dates due to increased Covid spread. Ok admittedly this isn’t really that important… but when am I ever gonna have an opportunity to put those two in a sentence again?

ALSO: When Florida cancels a big Country Music festival slated for early September… the Fall concert calendar is probably in serious jeopardy.

BUT: BONNAROO is still going on in TN the same weekend, tho requiring proof of vaxx or negative covid test for entry.

AND: GLOBAL CITIZEN LIVE is moving forward with their plan for a Sept 25 global concert event from 6 cities, proof of vaxx required, plus masks at all venues.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Good luck matching these moves Knuckles. via Giphy

PARAMOUNT sets Idris Elba for “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” as the voice of “Knuckles”

Although #truefans will know the character didn’t join until the “Sonic 3” game so - cue the social media outrage. All talent from the first movie is returning, film is scheduled for an April 2022 opening. /Variety

Margot Robbie joins Wes Anderson’s next movie

She joins Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody and Mr. Tom Hanks to shoot the movie over in Spain later this month. And yes, they’re still the only ones who know any other details about it. /THR

BLEECKER STREET picks up US rights to next movie from director James Ponsoldt (“The Spectacular Now”, “The End of the Tour”)

Called “Summering”, four adolescent girls make the most of their last Summer weekend together when they make a startling discovery at one of their favorite haunts, and decide to try and solve what happened themselves.

Megan Mullally, Lake Bell, and Sarah Cooper among the cast. Slated for Summer 2022 release. /THR

ALSO IN MOVIES

John Lithgow added to Scorsese’s upcoming APPLE TV+ movie “Killers of the Flower Moon”. /Deadline
A24 doing docu on Steph Curry’s memorable 2008 NCAA MARCH MADNESS run with DAVIDSON COLLEGE ⛹🏽‍♂️. Called “Underrated”, Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther”) among the producers, and Peter Nicks directing - he did the recent Coogler-produced HULU Oakland high school docu “Homeroom”. Steph Curry’s production company is also involved, to ensure impartiality. /THR
NY FILM FESTIVAL sets main slate lineup, tix go on sale Sept 7 (I’ll remind you then), but you can buy full Festival passes now here. /THR

📺 THE TV SET

HBO renews “The White Lotus” for Season 2, will have entirely new cast

And will also center on a different “White Lotus” resort property… that I likely can’t afford to stay at either. No word on a timeline but creator Mike White will be back for Season 2. /Deadline

EMMYS further limit nominated attendee counts, and move the show (mostly) outdoors

Will now be held at the LA LIVE Event Deck venue behind the MICROSOFT THEATER (where the GOVERNORS BALL would have been held), creating kind of an indoor/outdoor mix of a show, a la the GRAMMYS this year.

Also any nominated teams who have 3 or more people involved will only have 4 tickets total to divvy up amongst themselves (so - nominees like Late Night writing show staffs and overall Best Series nominees will be most affected).

Red carpet will also be limited to around a dozen press outlets. But how will I know what Lorne Michaels is wearing?? /THR

ALSO IN TV

NETFLIX adds Daniel Sunjata to “Echoes” limited series starring Michelle Monaghan as twins who swap between each others lives… unbeknownst to anyone else. That is until one of them suddenly goes missing 😳. Daniel playing one husband, Matt Bomer playing the husband of the other twin. /Deadline
NETFLIX renews African-American food culture series “High on the Hog” for Season 2. /Variety
Harry & Meghan set a Head of Scripted TV for their NETFLIX deal - Nishika Kumble is coming over from her VP position at Rashida Jones’s company. /THR
Ok this isn’t TV related… but I’m just gonna put this here since I think a 4th NETFLIX mention in a row gets me a free month - Their German “vampires on a plane” film “Blood Red Sky” got 50 Million views in it’s first month (views being the “someone watched 2-minutes of it” NETFLIX metric). Film is primarily in English.
- HOWEVER: They also released a rare completion metric: 90% of those users finished the movie, so pretty impressive. Still far from the US movies top 10 all time… but about the same as “Ginny & Georgia” so there’s that. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

DOMINION Voting Systems now also suing OANN, NEWSMAX over voting machine lies

Seeking over $1.6 Billion from each for defamation, in addition to their existing $1.6 Billion FOX NEWS lawsuit… who is also being sued by voting machine company SMARTMATIC for $2.7 Billion. /Variety

AT&T in talks to sell TMZ to FOX

If they have any money left after those lawsuits. But it makes sense - the TMZ show airs mainly on FOX affiliates. No potential price or further details at the moment. /The Information

YOUTUBE & GOOGLE update kids privacy measures

Uploads made by 13-17 year olds will be private by default (although changeable), and they’re gonna turn off the autoplay function as the default (again, changeable). Of course age verification on YT is also a bit… well, let’s just say circumventable.

At parent company GOOGLE, they’ll soon block ad-targeting based on age, gender or interests for anyone under 18.

Anyone under 18 can also request any image of themselves be removed from GOOGLE IMAGE results. Now, why someone over 18 can’t also do this… 🙄. /Variety

ALSO IN MEDIA

APPLE apparently planning big updates to the cameras in the iPhone 13 / next iteration this Fall. Portrait-mode Video anyone? /Bloomberg
BLOOMBERG MEDIA paid subscriptions grew 34% in the first half of 2021 to 325k. Revenue up even more at 52% vs first half of 2020 (which was likely pretty dismal from covid Ad slowdown). 40+% of subscribers come from outside the US. /Axios
NBC NEWS’s Kasie Hunt joins CNN as Chief National Affairs correspondent, and will host a daily politics show on CNN+ next year. /THR
TELEMUNDO launches production division devoted to streaming content, the majority of which will live on PEACOCK starting next year. Some shows will also be on TELEMUNDO broadcast channel. Competitor UNIVISION launched its own dedicated free Spanish-language streaming service PRENDE TV earlier this year. /Next TV

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

ROKU -4.5% and AMC THEATERS -6%, but overall a pretty quiet day.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

NETFLIX “The Kissing Booth 3”. Watch or Add to your List here or just wait til my sleepover viewing party on Friday night.

MTV “Cribs” reboot premieres at 930p

DISNEY+ “What If?” MARVEL show. Animated alt-takes on famous moments from MARVEL movies. Watch or Add to your List here

PAR+ launches in AUS for about $6.50/month. They plan to be in 25 countries by end of 2021 (currently exists in US, Canada, Latin America and the Nordic countries).

If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

NETFLIX “Lucifer” final season trailer. Premieres Fri Sept 10.

NETFLIX“Worth” movie trailer. Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci & Amy Ryan in the story of compensating the families who lost loved ones in 9/11, based on true events. Premieres Fri Sept 3.

AMAZON PRIME “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” trailer. British high schooler has dreams of becomming a drag queen, inspired by a true story and based on the musical. Premieres on Fri Sept 17

ADULT SWIM “Robot Chicken” Season 11 promo. Premieres Sept 6 at Midnight

HBOMAX “Sweet Life: Los Angeles” series trailer. Reality show about a young black female friend group in South LA, produced by Issa Rae. Premieres Thu Aug 19