Idris Elba doing WB action pic in $1 Mil spec sale
FOX orders 2 Fall series / WME partners start to sell ENDEAVOR stock / VICE's plan to go public
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY May 10, 2021.
Where if you were lucky enough to do so, I hope you were able to make mom smile yesterday.
Pretty quiet weekend, just a few things to note so this’ll be quick.
And just putting this here if inspired:
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
WB gets Idris Elba action-thriller project
Called “Stay Frosty” - Idris plays a guy who survives a gunshot to the head, has to track down his would-be assassin… while also making it home in time for Christmas with his son.
Sam Hargrave (“Extraction”) directing, script sold for $1 Million payday. Wait - a Christmas action movie? $1 Million payday? How is Shane Black not involved in this? /Deadline
BOX OFFICE
“Wrath of Man” : $8.1 Million ($25.6 Million global - $10 Million alone in Russia so far. Hits China this week)
“Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” : $3 Million ($40 Million US, $435 Million globally)
“Mortal Kombat” : $2.4 Million ($37.8 Mil US, $72 Million global)
“Godzilla vs Kong” : $1.9 Million ($93 Million US)
“Raya & the Last Dragon” : $1.8 Million ($43.8 Million US)
ALSO IN MOVIES
NETFLIX, AMAZON, some A-List actors and over 100 PR firms made announcements over the weekend that they will no longer work with the organization behind the GOLDEN GLOBES (the HFPA) until they make further changes to their membership and organization policies. /Variety
The ones they announced on Friday, endorsed by NBCU & Dick Clark Productions… didn’t impress. /THR
In news for GenX’ers who know what “Faces of Death” is - LEGENDARY is setting up a reboot! Chances are it won’t get a VHS-only release though. /THR
BLEECKER STREET buys US rights to SUNDANCE movie “Mass”, will release late Fall TBD. Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton star in the story of 2 sets of parents dealing with a tragedy. No sale price disclosed. /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
USA NETWORK greenlights 2 hour “Nash Bridges” movie
Don and Cheech returning, 6 additional cast members announced. No premiere/timeline given. The CBS show ended 20 years ago. /Deadline
FOX picks up 2 series for the Fall
“Monarch” - which kinda sounds like “Empire” set in the country music scene. 20th TV producing, as is Gail Berman. 12 episodes. Jason Owen, a big Country Music manager also among the producers so IRL country stars likely to appear.
“The Cleaning Lady” - Elodie Yung (“Daredevil”) plays a Cambodian doctor who brings her son the US for a life-saving surgery. Immigration being what it is these days… she’s forced to go incognito and becomes a “cleaning lady” for the mob. You know how messy they can be. 10 episode order, Michael Offer (“Homeland”) directed the pilot. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
Giuliana Rancic leaving E! red carpet coverage after 20 years. Seacrest announced he was out earlier this year. Rancic sets an overall production deal at NBCU, no projects specified. /Deadline
DISNEY TV hires longtime HBO Exec Tanya Owens as new VP Talent Relations. /Deadline
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
Partners at ENDEAVOR owned agency WME allowed to sell 20% of their stock
Apparently many of the 180-ish WME partners took advantage, as the next window to sell another 20% back to the company at market value won’t be for another 2 years.
Just hope they waited until Friday afternoon… the stock popped 10% to round out the week at $31 a share (it went public at $24).
VICE exploring going public via SPAC at $3 Billion valuation
Problem is… they were valued at almost 2X that in their last fundraising round 4 years ago, at $5.7 Billion. Existing investors (main one being private equity firm TPG) would get 75% of the company’s value, and the SPAC company takingthem public would get 25%.
Although, some investors like DISNEY already wrote-off their $400-500 Million dollar invesment as now worth… 0. But for those curious about VICE’s next steps as a business, worth a look. /WSJ
GOOGLE strikes back against ROKU, adds YOUTUBE TV access workaround
Essentially, you can now access/stream your YOUTUBE TV cable bundle subscription from within the main YOUTUBE app, which is still available on ROKU (vs. having to use the YOUTUBE TV app… which is no longer in the ROKU store for download).
ROKU issued a statement kinda saying “see - these are the kinda people we’re dealing with here”. (not a direct quote from their statement.. to be clear). /Deadline
ALSO IN MEDIA
HEARST offering voluntary buyouts to 600 of their 2200 Sales & Marketing employees. Cuts may be ahead soon depending on how many take the deal. /NY Post
Chances are… NCAA athletes will be able to sign endorsement deals next season. The NCAA Prez is now pushing for it. /NY Times
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
ROKU up 11% on Friday after Q1 revenue surpassed expectations.
AMC Theaters & CINEMARK up over 5%.
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
nothin doin today
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
HBO “The Crime of the Century” - 2 part docu on the Oxycontin/PURDUE PHARMA scandal from director Alex Gibney. Premieres at 9pm
A READ FROM THE WEEKEND: AMAZON’s free streaming service IMDB TV had a lot of announcements last week - Joe Adalian at VULTURE sat down with their programming heads if you wanna get a sense of what they’re looking to build. Sounds a lot like old school Network TV to me but look for yourselves of course.
ALSO: NYC readers - LINCOLN CENTER Plaza turns into a free Green space as of today. NY TIMES has details, looks pretty cool.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
New ONE DIRECTION “Run” - You can almost see the car commercial placements already…
If you need new tunes:
Have a fine start of the week - 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