MGM & AMAZON PRIME team up to buy Gyllenhaal war pic
NETFLIX buys Will Arnett semi-improv'd comedy / Award show season sets new dates / Weekend TV & Movie preview
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY January 14, 2022.
Where those of you who read my email intros are finally getting a benefit… #itsAboutTime - 20% off HBOMAX for a year! Ok fine yes they’re giving it to everyone. But hey I am including a link ($8/month for ad supported, $12/month for ad free, and it looks like cancel anytime). Only good til Jan 25.
AND: Here are the WGA Award nominations for TV. Awards given out Sun Mar 20.
PLUS: It was evidently AWARDS Ceremony rescheduling day yesterday 🏆:
Fri Mar 11 is the new date for the AFI Awards luncheon
Sat Mar 19 is the new date for the PGA Awards
Sun Mar 13 is the new date for the CRITICS CHOICE Awards, same day as the BAFTA’s in London now hosted by Rebel Wilson… so I can finally not be invited to 2 awards shows on the same day.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
MGM & AMAZON PRIME team up to buy Jake Gyllenhaal - Guy Ritchie war movie
Untitled Afghanistan war movie about a Sergeant whose Afghan interpreter saves his life, but then returns to the country to rescue the interpreter and family when he learns they’re being targeted by militias.
Begins shooting this month, MGM will handle US release (with AMAZON streaming after), and AMAZON PRIME gets international rights in AUSTRALIA, CANADA, LATAM and some EUROPE territories.
So looks like the confidence in the MGM sale clearing anti-trust is riding high, and this is the first indicator as to how the whole MGM - AMAZON PRIME synergy may work going ahead.
Producer STX is selling off the remaining global territories for the $55 Million budgeted pic, No price disclosed here for this deal. /Deadline
Kendrick Lamarr and Matt & Trey from “South Park” producing comedy at PARAMOUNT
Written by veteran comedy writer Vernon Chatman, about a Black man interning as a slave re-enactor at a history museum who finds out his White girlfriend’s ancestors once owned his 😳.
Plan is to shoot this Spring but still needs a director first if you have someone… /Deadline
ALSO IN MOVIES
CAA-ICM merger postponed til Q2 as the Feds dig around on the deal. Also CAA majority-investor TPG went public yesterday, shares up 15%. /THR
CANDLE (the Mayer / Staggs SPAC) hires UTA partner Brent Weinstein as their Chief Development Officer… meaning he’ll focus on biz development in digital platforms. /THR
Jersey expands tax-credit program (esp. if you wanna venture into South Jersey #noThanks. Or build soundstage facilities in NJ). Good thru 2034. /THR
The deadline to evaluate NETFLIX’s bid to build a huge soundstage homebase in Central Jersey has been pushed a few weeks to Jan 31 fyi.
🎤 IN OTHER WORDS…
“So, JARED [LETO]’s doing that, AL [PACINO]’s doing his thing, and LADY GAGA’s doing her thing on set, and I’m going, ‘Fuck, I’m going to have to take my hands off the wheel and just go around the bend.’”
- RIDLEY SCOTT describing the on-set directing experience on “House of Gucci” in a new THR profile
📺 THE TV SET
NETFLIX picks up Will Arnett improv cop show spoof “Murderville”
6 episodes, based on a UK format - no scripts… only scene outlines.
Each episode has a guest co-star to pair with Arnett’s mustachio’d detective “Terry Seattle” : Conan O’Brien, Annie Murphy, Ken Jeong, Kumail Nanjiani, Sharon Stone, and… Marshawn Lynch . Ok I’m in for that last one.
Will hit the service Thu Feb 3. /THR
HBOMAX rebooting “Degrassi”
Gonna keep it real and shoot in Toronto 🇨🇦, to debut in 2023.
Also picked up US rights to all 14 existing seasons of “Degrassi: The Next Generation” starting this Spring.
The franchise’s most recent iteration NETFLIX’s “Degrassi: Next Class” is stayin put there. /THR
ALSO IN TV
HULU adds Murray Bartlett (“Armond” from “The White Lotus”) to their CHIPPENDALES limited series “Immigrant” starring Kumail Nanjiani. Murray will play charming show choreographer, Nick de Noia who took the show to new heights. /Deadline
EPIX renews “Godfather of Harlem” for Season 3. Will shoot this Summer. /THR
NETFLIX cancels “Gentefied” after 2 seasons. /Variety
PAR+ cancels “60 Minutes+” shortform series that was transitioned over from QUIBI.
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
DAZN sports streaming service likely to buy UK’s BT SPORT for $800 Million
DAZN has 11 Million paying subscribers, BT SPORT has about 5 Million…but it also has UK streaming rights to a package of PREMIERE LEAGUE games.
DAZN started out as a boxing-only streaming service but has ventured out into other genres the past few years, further helped by the deep checkbook of former oil magnate, Billionaire Len Blavatnik who used some of the additional Billions he made when his WARNER MUSIC GROUP went public to become a primary backer of DAZN.
Deal is not final - DISCOVERY’s EUROSPORT service has also been in the hunt, and COMCAST’s SKY would have to approve the deal due to a PREMIERE LEAGUE rights deal thing. /Reuters
SINCLAIR cuts streaming deal with NBA to include games on their upcoming SVOD service
SINCLAIR is one of the country’s largest local TV affiliate station group with an… enthusiastically (?) Republican ownership that made all of their local affiliate newscasters read Trump-supporting #fakeNews “Commentaries” on-air in local newscasts during his Presidency.
In Summer 2019, they bought FOX’s group of Regional Sports Networks that FOX had to sell when DISNEY bought them. SINCLAIR overpaid for them and got caught short when the pandemic hit. Then cut a deal with BALLYS in late 2020 to re-name all of them as BALLY’S SPORTS NETWORKS for a nice check.
They’re now looking to launch a regional Sports Streaming network to increase revenues, and this deal gives them the rights to stream their biggest asset, local NBA Games. They air games from 16 teams in total and games from all of them are included in the deal, although will be geographically restricted.
Service launch still TBD but I’d expect to see it in 2022. Trump guest-analysis appearances in the highlights show pending. /NextTV
ALSO IN MEDIA
PEACOCK launching a TELEMUNDO-backed hub on the service called TPLUS, with scripted & unscripted content catering to a younger Hispanic US audience. /THR
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
ROKU -5% ($168.30) as their very bad month continues (began the year at $234)
SNAP -10% ($38.38)
AMC THEATERS -9% ($20.66) as retail investors follow CEO Adam Aron in exiting their positions
ROBLOX -10% ($80.18) also not having a great January…
VIMEO -6% ($15.15)
👩💻 THE FSS FEED:
(new Stuff to Watch this weekend, Friday - Saturday - Sunday)
WEEKEND READS & LISTENS
Not a biz read, but if you could use a little life perspective, just read this from the NY Times. I’m gonna miss this annual check-in piece on people they’ve followed since 2015 - best thing I’ve read this month.
If you’re wondering WTF “Web3” is - this was a great podcast from Peter Kafka at RECODE Media making some sense of it (it’s essentially a dumb name for building things on the blockchain, but this helped me better wrap my head around it. And understand it’s all highly theoretical in terms of adoption).
TV & MOVIES - FRIDAY
IN THEATERS:
PARAMOUNT “Scream” - Only in Theaters
STREAMING:
MOVIES
APPLE TV “The Tragedy of Macbeth” - Stream or Add to Your List here
AMAZON PRIME “Hotel Transylvannia: Transformania” - Stream or Add to Your List here
SERIES
NETFLIX “After Life” Season 3 - Final season, Stream or Add to Your List here
NETFLIX “Archive 81” - New horror-thriller series, Stream or Add to Your List here
TV:
SHOWTIME “Ray Donovan: The Movie” - Airs at 9p
SATURDAY
NFL Wildcard games
430p on NBC: RAIDERS at BENGALS
815p on CBS: PATRIOTS at BILLS
SNL returns with Ariana DeBose and THE BLEACHERS
SUNDAY
New “60 Minutes” at 7p on CBS
NFL Wildcard games
1p on FOX: EAGLES at BUCS
430p on CBS: NINERS at COWBOYS
This is also on NICKELODEON, so get ready to explain gambling apps to your kids and what it means to “Be a Caesar”.
815p on NBC: STEELERS at CHIEFS
HBO “Somebody Somwhere” - Bridget Everett comedy series premieres at 1030p
MONDAY
ABC & ESPN NFL Wildcard game
815p: CARDINALS at RAMS
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
FOX “Welcome to Flatch” series trailer - Docu-style ensemble small town comedy with Seann William Scott and Aya Cash. Premieres Thu Mar 17… but the first half of the season (7 episodes) will also drop on HULU the same day.
HBOMAX “Raised by Wolves” Season 2 trailer - Drops Thu Feb 3
HBOMAX “Take Out with Lisa Ling” docuseries trailer - Lisa highlights Asian-American contributions to food in the US. Premieres Thu Jan 27
D’OH!
It’s Shirley MacLaine not McClain. Can I pull an Irish-blinders card on this or… 😬
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
New DAUGHTRY “Changes Are Coming” - Ok yes this is probably just for the… what I’m guessing is a very slim demo of people here who were also raised on 80’s Rock.
But dammit it’s Friday… time to let the hair down 🤟. And yes I know both DAUGHTRY and I are bald - let us have this 👴.
For recent new tunes to check out:
Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM