Ewan McGregor doing EVEREST movie with BOURNE director
Cynthia Erivo takes on iconic Bette Midler role / APPLE TV+ drastically cuts Free Subscription / SPOTIFY launches CLUBHOUSE rival
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY June 17, 2021.
Where in honor of the recent “Friends” reunion, you could be living in the house that Chandler Bing built, as Matthew Perry sold his Century City apartment for a cool $21.6 Million. Sadly it doesn’t seem to have a recliner, a chick, or a duck. Come on Perry!
ALSO: Talent Agency UTA became the first major Hollywood agency to re-open its LA offices this week. Half the workforce returned, still on a voluntary basis, no visitors allowed, office closed on Fridays, and free lunch! Sadly it’s only on Fridays. London and NY offices will re-open around Labor Day.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
SEARCHLIGHT sets Cynthia Erivo to star in remake of “The Rose”
The original 1979 film of course starred Bette Midler (in her first Oscar nominated performance), and was loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin, telling the story of a musician dealing with fame and addiction.
Movie will be updated to current era, but no director or writer currently attached. /Variety
Ewan McGregor, Mark Strong, Sam Heughan set for movie about 1920s Mount Everest climbs
Will be directed by Doug Liman (“Bourne Identity”, “Edge of Tomorrow”), written by Sheldon Turner (“Up in the Air”).
McGregor plays Brit George Mallory who is recruited by Arthur Hinks (played by Strong) to climb Everest. Heughan plays Australian rival George Finch.
UTA repping sales at CANNES next month to US buyers. Will shoot in January. /THR
Rooney Mara & Claire Foy join Frances McDormand in MGM/ORION’s “Women Talking”
Will be directed by Sarah Polley, based on the book of the same name that topped many leading “Best of” lists back in 2018.
Revolves around women in an isolated religious colony as they try to reconcile their faith with sexual assaults made by the colony’s men. /Deadline
ALSO IN MOVIES
HBO sets Rafe Spall (APPLE TV’s “Trying”, “The Big Short”) as the husband for Natalie Portman movie “Days of Abandonment”, about a husband who leaves his wife and children, causing a dive into darkness. /THR
Will Ferrell’s GLORIA SANCHEZ PRODUCTIONS signs 3yr first look film deal with 20th CENTURY. Has existing 1st look TV deal at NETFLIX. /THR
📺 THE TV SET
Will Smith doing one-hour variety special on NETFLIX
No additional talent or info released yet, will air “later this year”. /Variety
JJ Abrams Exec Producing 4 part docuseries on UFO’s for SHOWTIME
Marc Monroe (“Icarus”) and Paul Crowder (“Rising Giants”) directing, will be called “UFO”. Sometimes the simplest idea is the best. Premieres Sun Aug 8. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
New episodes of DISNEY+ Original Series will now drop on Wednesdays instead of Fridays. Movies sticking with Friday premieres. /Variety
Gary Cole likely joining “NCIS” for season 19 on CBS. Mmmkay? Great…. /Variety
HULU adds Chris Lowell (“Bash” from “GLOW”) to cast of “How I Met Your Father” with Hilary Duff. /Deadline
“Mom” showrunner Alissa Neubauer will run Season 2 of FOX’s “Call Me Maybe”. /Variety
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
SPOTIFY launches CLUBHOUSE ripof… I mean rival product GREENROOM
Ah remember CLUBHOUSE? Man 2021 is going by fast… The Live Audio product in SPOTIFY operates pretty identical to CLUBHOUSE (you can bring people up ‘on stage’ etc), but:
Hosts can get a downloadable file of their chat right afterward (helpful for podcast use). This ease of use is available because SPOTIFY is gonna record all rooms. Which will also help with content moderation if issues/complaints come up after a live chat. And to know who’s talking shit about SPOTIFY.
Hosts can also activate a text feature for audience members to send them a note vs. requesting to come up on stage and talk.
Rooms capped at 1,000 people to start, only in English (for now) and in 135 of SPOTIFY’s 178 country distribution.
Images and product animations in the story link for the curious. /Tech Crunch
ALSO IN MEDIA
APPLE TV+ cuts free subscription with purchase of new APPLE hardware product from 1 year to 3 months starting in July. The Free APPLE TV+ “trial” that people who bought an APPLE product when the streaming service launched… 18 months ago, is finaly ending in July. Wow this could really affect the subscriber numbers that APPLE… never reports. /iMore
AND: If you’re thinking of getting one of those new super-thin desktop iMacs… watch/read this WASHINGTON POST (free to read) review. They took out a lotta things to get it that flat. Like the main kind of USB ports (this one only has the small USB-C ports) 🙇♂️ .
TIKTOK’s Chinese parent company ByteDance doubled their revenue last year to over $34 Billion. Somehow the company is still not technically profitable. /WSJ
Lin-Manuel Miranda bringing “Freestyle Love Supreme” improv rap musical revue back to Broadway for a 3 month stint starting October 7 at the Booth Theater. /Deadline
CNN launches its own NFT store “Vault by CNN”, to sell NFT’s of historical moments. Yeah this is all gonna end badly isn’t it. /THR
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
AMC Theaters -6.5%, otherwise pretty quiet day.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
PARAMOUNT+ “iCarly” reboot - find your own link… PAR+ only surfaced links to the old show when I search for it
HBOMAX “Genera+ion” - First 3 episodes of Season 1, pt 2 drop today. Watch or Add to your List here
PEACOCK “Intelligence” - Season 2 of the David Schwimmer UK comedy drops today. Watch or Add to your list here
ABC “Holey Moley” - returns for new season at 8p
E! “KUWTK” reunion - Part 1 airs tonight at 11pm. Pt 2 airs on Sunday
If you were sent this email or… just kinda found it (no questions asked):
And if you wanna send the newsletter to an industry colleague:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
NETFLIX“Too Hot To Handle” season 2 trailer. Premieres next Wed June 23.
HULU / SEARCHLIGHT “Summer of Soul” trailer. From director Questlove, about 1969 Harlem Culture Festival. Premieres in theaters and on HULU Fri July 2.
PARAMOUNT+ “Picard” Season 2 teaser. Coming in 2022.
APPLE TV+ “Truth Be Told” season 2 Teaser. Kate Hudson joins Octavia Spencer for the new season of the murder mystery series. Premieres Fri Aug 20.
SHOWTIME “American Rust” teaser. New series with Jeff Daniels as a rural town sherriff investigating a murder, with the prime suspect being the son of the woman he loves, played by Maura Tierney. Sadly not a Delco accent or WAWA in sight… this one’s set in SouthWEST Pennsylvania. Premieres Sunday Sept 12.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
New MAMMOTH - “Don’t Back Down”, first single from Wolfgang Van Halen’s new band.
Listen to the song here on Spotify or:
If you need new tunes:
Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-Sean McNulty
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
or also here on CLUBHOUSE