NBA FINALS audience is not returning at ABC
PEACOCK orders BRIDGERTON-ish dating show / OLYMPICS very likely to be sans fans / Chris Pratt, SNL Shorts director team up for comedy film
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY July 8, 2021.
Where Brits may not know if they were suppressing tears of joy or sadness over their pints yesterday: ENGLAND won their EURO Cup match to advance to the finals, attracting a peak TV audience of 26 Million in the UK 🙌 … but Roger Federer lost at WIMBELDON, ending perhaps his final major run at a title there 😢. Eh gotta think football takes tennis in the UK based on the amount of beer thrown in the air after ENGLAND’s winning goal, plus Roger already won WIMBLEDON 8 times.
A NOTE about THE WAKEUP
Here on the 4 month (ish) mark of me starting to send this thing around to folks, just wanted to send a thanks to you all for taking time to initially check this thing out and, well signing up for it 🙏.
I’m still in the process of finding out if “Hey is this a thing?” (and if so - is there a viable way forward for it… but eh, that’s what the end of Summer is for). So please know that I really appreciate those of you who have taken time to send feedback and helpful ideas to make it better (as always just reply to this email to reach me), and a Huge thanks 🙏🙏 to those of you who have shared it. At this early stage, Forwards to friends & colleagues, Social posts and just mentioning it in conversation are really key for this thing to have a shot at being a thing.
Plus how often do you get to introduce something new and fun to people? I mean - several hundred Hollywood and Media execs can’t be wrong. Except for the group that thought DIRECTV was worth $50 billion in 2015. #ATT🔥.
Ok onto what you’re actually here for…
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
SONY PICTURES CLASSSICS gets “The Son”, follow up pic to “The Father” with Hugh Jackman & Laura Dern
Vanessa Kirby also starring, written/directed again by Florian Zeller. Movie is a follow up only in theme, entirely different story. Hugh is living with his new wife (Kirby) and their newborn when his ex-wife (Dern) shows up with their troubled and withdrawn teenage son, sending his new life into disarray.
SPC bought US rights and handful of global territories including China and India, no price disclosed., movie starts shooting next month. /Variety
SONY / TRI-STAR’s adaptation of “Guys & Dolls” to be directed by Bill Condon
One could say he’s pretty familiar with the genre… directed “Dreamgirls” and “Beauty & The Beast” live-action version in 2017, wrote “Chicago” and co-wrote “The Greatest Showman”. Yeah I think he’s got this. /Deadline
ALSO IN MOVIES
MARVEL & DC films skipping (virtual) COMIC-CON this month. /Deadline
However: AMC going all in with “Walking Dead” events and things for other genre series. /Deadline
Chris Pratt picks SNL video shorts director Paul Briganti to direct his new indie comedy “The Black Belt”. Chris plays an… unorthodox uncle guiding his shy teenage nephew on his quest to learn karate. Script was on 2020’s Black List, UTA repping film sales. /THR
2 GOOD NY TIMES READS
If you want a well-detailed picture of what CANNES opening night was like amid covid “protocols” - Kyle Buchanan does a pretty great job painting the picture from the big premiere to the parties. 🥳
MGM leadership Mike DeLuca and Pamela Abdy get the profile treatment in the midst of the (pending) AMAZON transition.
📺 THE TV SET
NBA FINALS ratings down over 40% vs 2019 on ABC
Game 1 got about 7.7 million viewers, which is also barely up from the crowdless 2020 Finals in the bubble.
It’s the first Finals without Steph Curry or Lebron in 11 years, so looks like Chris Paul and Giannis are not picking up the slack, at least to start with. Game 2 is tonight. /THR
PEACOCK orders dating show based on “Pride and Prejudice”
Takes place in a castle in the countryside so - think rowboat rides on lakes, handwritten letters and a lotta dudes saying the word “chivalry” and talking about how much they dig Jane Austen.
Or as DEADLINE succinctly put it - “Bridgerton” : The dating show. No timeline indicated.
ALSO IN TV
NETFLIX doing third season of stand-up show “The Comedians”. Your lineup for the 6 eps: Brian Simpson, Dusty Slay, Janelle James, Mark Normand, Melissa Villaseñor, and Naomi Ekperigin 🎤. /Deadline
BET sets Joy Bryant & Henry Simmons (“Agents of SHIELD”) to star in Season 2 of Ava Duvernay-produced anthology series “Cherish The Day”. /Deadline
DISNEY+ hires new head of Product, Commerce & Experimentation - former NETFLIX director of Product Innovation / Growth, Ajay Arora. /THR
Not TV but… Sara Bareilles returning to “Waitress” for a limited run on Broadway starting Labor Day weekend. 🤞 for Renee Elise Goldsberry to join.
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
36 States sue GOOGLE over policies & tactics for GOOGLE PLAY store
Essentially a larger version of the EPIC GAMES “Fortnite” lawsuit against APPLE for taking a 30% cut of their revenue, that’s still awaiting a decision. 🏛
Lotta allegations about GOOGLE making anti-competitive moves here, paying off competitors etc, and also insisting on a 30% cut of revenue. GOOGLE seems to be saying Hey we have a huge competitor that people can go to instead! Who also takes 30%. Although worth noting that ANDROID users can access/buy apps through other marketplaces than GOOGLE PLAY (unlike APPLE’s closed system). Also worth noting the vast majority for users do not.
So, we’ll see if all that’s illegal. GOOGLE made $18 Billion in profit in the first 3 months of this year 💰💰💰. /Bloomberg
TOKYO enters covid State of Emergency for duration of The OLYMPICS
All bars, restaurants etc that serve booze will be closed for a month starting Monday due to a continued rise in covid test positivity rates since mid-June, and this likely also means no fans at OLYMPIC events but they’ll make the official call on that by tomorrow. /Yahoo Sports
Under 30% of Japan’s population has received one shot of a vaccine thus far, with about 15% fully vaccinated. While having no paying spectators is a hit for The IOC, they make about 75% of their revenue from TV rights. /AP
ALSO IN MEDIA
Now that TIKTOK videos can be 3 minutes… you can now fast forward thru them. THE VERGE explains how.
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
AMC THEATERS down almost 10%, CINEMARK THEATERS down 5%.
SNAP down almost 6%
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
HBOMAX “Gossip Girl” reboot - Watch or add to your list here
FREEFORM “Grown-ish” Season 4 premiere at 8p.
NBA FINALS Game 2 at 9p on ABC. Phoenix up over Milwaukee 1-0.
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
HULU“McCartney 3, 2, 1” trailer - 6-part series with Paul and legendary music producer Rick Rubin going through Paul’s musicology and history. Premieres next Fri July 16.
MGM “The Addams Family 2” trailer. Hits theaters Fri Oct 1.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
New MAGDALENA BAY - “Chaeri”. This is a very specific reco for anyone into acts like ROBYN, KYLIE MINOGUE, ELLIE GOULDING, or perhaps the “Drive” soundtrack. So - if that’s up your alley, definitely check this out.
Listen to the song here on Spotify or:
And if you want to send the newsletter to someone, here’s a button:
Finally a rest in peace to Robert Downey Sr., who died yesterday at the age of 85 after battling Parkinsons for several years.
As always you can email me anytime with thoughts or ideas on how to improve the newlsetter OR if you found a particular email helpful - and many thanks to those of you who have already! Just hit reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-Sean McNulty
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
or I’m also here on CLUBHOUSE