HULU buys next series from MODERN FAMILY creator

APPLE TV in talks for MLB streaming deal / HULU gets Mahershala Ali limited series / WHITE LOTUS adds cast

Jan 11, 2022

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY January 11, 2022.

Where it’s… 16 degrees right now as I write this in NYC. Friends who left me here for LA, you win this round.

ALSO: The Kids beat the Olds on HBO/MAX Sunday night as “Euphoria” got an audience of 2.4 Million for its Season 2 premiere, more than 2X its Season 1 premiere, and handily beating the 1.4 Million for “Succession” this Fall.

No word how many were HBOMAX streams… but this gave me personal flashbacks to several Monday morning HBO meetings during the “GOT” era: there were still numerous TWEETS complaining that the app crashed / people couldn’t watch it.

AND: Congrats to GEORGIA for beating Insurance Spokesman Nick Saban and ALABAMA last night, 33-18 to win their first National Championship since 1980.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

NETFLIX orders ‘re-imagining’ of 2012 martial arts pic “The Raid”

Michael Bay producing, and original “Raid” director Gareth Evans is an exec producer. Patrick Hughes (the “Hitman’s Bodyguard” franchise) is co-writing and directing.

Original was about an elite Indonesian S.W.A.T. team trapped in a tenement of a mobster and his army of killers and thugs; this one will be set in Philly, approriately enough.

RANGE MEDIA PARTNERS represents all 3 principal talent. /Deadline

NETFLIX sets Cynthia Erivo to star in sci-fi pic “Blink Speed”

She’ll play a woman who gets a savant ability after a near-death experience, which may reveal what’s up with her fractured memory and past. Cynthia also producing. /Deadline

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

IMAGINE promotes Tony Hernandez and Lilly Burns to collective co-Presidents of Film & TV respectively.
- The duo run JAX MEDIA (“Russian Doll”, “Desus and Mero”, “Emily in Paris”) that IMAGINE has a majority ownership stake in. They will continue to run that label too, and keep their NYC home base. /Variety
PARADIGM book agent Alyssa Reuben leaves to join WME after 15 years, most recently heading up the PARADIGM book dept. /THR

📺 THE TV SET

HULU orders comedy series “Reboot” from Steve Levitan (“Modern Family”)

Johnny Knoxville, Keegan Michael-Key and Judy Greer starring (she replaces Leslie Bibb from the pilot).

The satire is about an 2000’s family sitcom called “Step Right Up” that’s rebooted by HULU, bringing its… dysfunctional cast back together. /Variety

HULU also gets Mahershala Ali limited series “The Plot”

Comes from DISNEY’s ONYX division, Mahershala will play a struggling author who does a bit o’ literary theft that changes his life… and ~~no one ever finds out~~ the secret is discovered by someone who begins making threats.

8 episodes, based on a novel, Abby Ajayi (NETFLIX’s upcoming “Inventing Anna” series from SHONDALAND) will be showrunner. /THR

APPLE TV+ orders “The Morning Show” Season 3

But it will have a new showrunner in Charlotte Stoudt (writer on “House of Cards”, “Fosse/Verdon”). Season 1&2 showrunner Kerry Ehrin staying on in a consultant role.

No word on a timeline, or creative direction (Season 2 ended just as Covid started). /THR

NETFLIX adds Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie to “All the Light We Cannot See” 4-part limited series

Shawn Levy (“Free Guy”) directing, based on the PULITZER PRIZE winning novel about a young WWII German soldier who meets a blind French teenage girl in occupied FRANCE.

Ruffalo will play the girl’s father, and Laurie her uncle who is part of the Resistance. /Deadline

FX orders “Kindred” series

It’s based on the 1979 Octavia E. Butler novel, about a Black woman who moves to LA to pursue writing… and finds herself pulled back and forth in time to a 19th century plantation that her family is linked to.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (”Watchmen”) is the showrunner, Janicza Bravo (“Zola”) directed the pilot. /THR

ALSO IN TV

HBO adds Aubrey Plaza to “The White Lotus” Season 2. She joins Michael Imperioli in the cast and will play a woman on vacation with her husband and his friends. /THR
NETFLIX orders Seasons 3 & 4 of “Emily in Paris”. /Variety
ABC hits re-order on “Grey’s Anatomy” again, will be back for 19th season this Fall. /THR
- Also orders another 4 episodes of “The Goldbergs” to make 22 this season thus matching “Home Economics” and “The Wonder Years” series orders this year.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

APPLE TV+ in serious talks with Major League Baseball about a streaming deal

This would be for the package of Monday & Wednesday MLB games that ESPN passed on when they amended their MLB deal.

The games were not exclusive in the local markets for the teams playing when ESPN had them (ie local market stations there could air them) - no word on what might happen here if this deal comes together by the time the season starts in April.

Well assuming that whole current MLB “lock-out” situation gets sorted.

APPLE TV is also in the mix for the NFL SUNDAY TICKET package which is up after next season at DIRECTV.

Obviously there are no signed deals here… but in case there was still any doubt - the streaming checkbook is fully wide open at APPLE TV+. /NY Post

ALSO IN MEDIA

If you’re an NPR “All Things Considered” fan - Audie Cornish is going to CNN+ to host a weekly TBD show and a podcast there, as well as appear on CNN on occasion. And will obviously no longer be on NPR. /THR
VARIETY now has Co-Editors in Chief - Ramin Setoodeh was promoted to co-run the joint with Cynthia Littleton. Current co-EIC Claudia Eller will hang out til her contract is up this Summer. /THR