Inside the Leadership shakeup at WARNER BROS Pictures

PAR boots Owen Wilson pic to PAR+ / Amanda Peet joins FATAL ATTRACTION series / NFT's get Insider Trading case

Jun 2

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY June 2, 2022.

Where the $10 Million / $2 Million Depp-Heard verdict was obviously split to a degree yesterday… as was the reaction at the vaunted Network News level.

As far as I saw, ABC and CBS kept with their regularly scheduled afternoon programming - but NBC NEWS & Savannah Guthrie decided to do the same as uh, TMZ LIVE and Harvey Levin on FOX for what seemed like a good hour+ of “Breaking” live “Special Report” coverage waiting for the verdict.

See ya at the appeal!

BUT: Canadians really get all the fun this week… as Biebs goes all EMINEM 2001 in his look for this new 60 sec TIM HORTONS ad promoting his “Biebs Brew” - a “signature” vanilla cold brew.

Don’t forget to make it a “Biebs Bundle” with 10 Timbits mini donuts in Justin-approved “Chocolate White Fudge, Sour Cream Chocolate Chip and Birthday Cake Waffle” flavors to round out a sugar intake that… only a 28 year-old’s body could handle.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

PARAMOUNT moves Owen Wilson family-adventure pic “Secret Headquarters” to PAR+

The Bruckheimer-produced film had an August 5 release date in theaters so… gotta think the test screenings didn’t go great?

It’s about a group of kids who find the world’s most powerful superhero’s headquarters beneath one of their homes, and must team up when villains attack.

Will also hit PAR+ globally where the service is avail on Aug 5, and I guess theaters in other territories. /THR

WB PICTURES head Toby Emmerich out, Mike DeLuca & Pam Abdy to run WB & NEW LINE

The execs are coming over from MGM, after being relieved of their duties there by AMAZON last month. Move could happen sometime in July - Mike & Pam’s exit date was slated for ‘later in the Summer’ when AMAZON announced they were out at MGM.

There will be separate TBD heads for DC FILMS and ANIMATION film groups, with all 3 (well, 4) heads reporting into Zaslav.

DC FILMS Prez Walter Hamada will report into Mike & Pam until Zaslav sorts out the situation there.

AS FOR THE WHY - Gotta think the duo’s emphasis at MGM on working with respected filmmakers from the Hollywood establishment (Ridley, PTA, George Miller etc) carried a lot of sway with Zaslav (who seems to be choosing to ignore the lack of huge box office column to go with it there).

But if Zaz was looking for a clear signal to the creative community that this is not the same Kilar/HBOMAX streaming WB PICTURES, this certainly backs up that line of thinking (in addition to restructuring the direct report setup to mirror DISNEY’s with MARVEL/STAR WARS, PIXAR and DISNEYFOX).
Also the shift to creating 3 different Film division heads reporting into Zaz likely had something to do with it on Toby’s end - previously all WB movie divisions were under him.

No word if NEW LINE head Richard Brenner is staying on, although obviously he and DeLuca go back a ways.

Emmerich is segueing to a customary production deal at WB, said to be 5 years for movies & TV.

AMAZON has still yet to announce their new plans & strategy for MGM leadership and… kinda how it’ll all work overall under AMAZON STUDIOS head Mike Hopkins and direct report Jen Salke. /THR

ALSO IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXEC SUITE

NETFLIX Director of Comms Jonathan Bing departs to be Chief Comms Officer at VICE MEDIA. /Deadline
WME had 18 covid cases in the past 2 weeks according to county data, close to LIONSGATE’S 21 after CINEMACON earlier in May. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

A24 adds Orlando Bloom to Pete Davidson stoner pic ”Wizards!” about 2 beach-bar operators who stumble across stolen money and… thinking hijinx ensue. /Deadline

If you’d like to Share or Repost this newsletter 🤝 - here’s a handy button:

Share The Wakeup

📺 THE TV SET

2021-2022 TV Season Final numbers

In case there’s any question remaining about how much the NFL and Cop shows still mean to Nielsen TV ratings… let the 2021-22 season speak for itself (these are Live + 7day audiences).

Also there are just 2 comedies in the top 30 (“Young Sheldon” and “Ghosts”) if you’re wondering why there were so few on the Fall Schedules (and none on NBC).

For any fellow numbers nerds - some great charts in the VARIETY link showing where overall TV audiences are, and where the younger ones are across Broadcast & Cable (yeah… they’re not in the same places).

PAR+ adds Amanda Peet to “Fatal Attraction” series

Will play the wife of Josh Jackson’s character (played by Anne Archer in the movie). Lizzy Caplan is playing the Glenn Close character. /Variety

ALSO IN TV

Soccer’s CHAMPIONS LEAGUE final got 2.75 Million viewers on CBS Saturday afternoon. #RealMadridvLiverpool /AP
- That’s over 2X what the final match for NBC’s UK PREMIERE LEAGUE got the week before. Both figures do not include PAR+ or PEACOCK streaming.
APPLE TV+ plus renews “Slow Horses” for Seasons 3 & 4. Season 2 will drop later in the year. /THR
HBOMAX renews “Our Flag Means War” for a Season 2. /THR

📝 IN OTHER WORDS

“If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”
- ELON MUSK channeling 90’s era Katzenberg in a memo to employees that they’re all expected back at TESLA offices, working 40 hour weeks. (40? ha right). Sure this went over really well at the “work wherever the hell you want” policy that TWITTER employees currently have.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

Sheryl Sandberg leaving FACE META this Fall

The COO been at the company for 14 years, first 7 were great… but since 2016 - maybe not so much, and definitely not the past year+. #ThanksiOS

No next destination or plan indicated other than she intends to work on her philanthropy, but let the META succession contest begin. #notyouGreg

Speaking of the “meta”, sounds like she wasn’t too involved in it, and likely did not have much interest in this phase of the company according to the WSJ, so now was the time to go.

She will remain on META’s board, and I’m guessing get to keep all of her real estate next to Zuck’s house in the Metaverse. /Variety

ALSO IN MEDIA

The US’s 3rd largest movie theater chain CINEMARK hit 1 Million paying subs for their $10 a month Cinemark Movie Pass subscription program. /Deadline
- Pre-pandemic it stood around 850k.
The RED SOX & BRUINS sports cable network NESN is launching a stand-alone streaming version called NESN 360 for $30 a month (or $330 a year). Juuuust in case there was any question how much everyone’s cable bills truly subsidize sports programming.
- 360 will be free for any cable bundle subscribers, but geotargeted to the New England market only. /NextTV
Former Head of Product for top NFT trading site OPEN SEA was arrested for insider trading, reportedly putting NFT’s that he just bought in top prominence on the homepage… and making 2X to 5X sales margins.
- Is it weird that I find it a bit refreshing that fraud looks absolutely no different in Web3? And that the old-fashioned “front page” matters as much there as it did to… print media for hundreds of years? /Quartz

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

CINEWORLD (REGAL CINEMAS) +6% ($0.34)

AMC THEATERS -10% ($12.81)

PARAMOUNT -6% ($32.35)

BUZZFEED -5% ($3.39)

If you don’t already get THE WAKEUP, sign up here:

Hits your inbox weekdays by 830a (ish) East Coast time

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

HULU “The Orville: New Horizons” - STREAM HERE

PARAMOUNT+ “South Park:The Streaming Wars” - next PAR+ movie, no Google-able link

ABC NBA Finals Game 1 at 8p

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

NETFLIX“The Man From Toronto” movie trailer - Kev Hart as a guy who gets mistaken for an infamous torturer / assassin (enter Woody Harrelson) in this action comedy that was once set up at SONY. PREMIERES FRI JUNE 24

PEACOCK “Rutherford Falls” Season 2 trailer - Premieres Thu June 16

SHOWTIME “American Gigolo” series teaser - Jon Bernthal notches the 2nd mark on his 2022 PayTV network punchcard (come on STARZ! #freesub!), in the leading role for this series adaptation of the early 80’s Richard Gere movie. Listed as COMING SOON

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Brand new YEAH YEAH YEAHS “Spitting off the edge of the world”

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Email me anytime - just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

The Wakeup