Nicolas Cage is Dracula at UNIVERSAL PICS
BEATLES nixed DISNEY censorship of their docu / COMCAST sets Jan 1 price increases / Halle Berry gets NETFLIX home
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY December 1, 2021.
Where apparently it’s December… as the moose out front shoulda told us. Just 21 more days of decreasing sunlight to go.
ALSO: ADELE is doing a 4 month-long weekend residency at CAESARS in Vegas from Jan 21 thru Apr 16 called “Weekends With Adele”. She’ll play 2 shows a weekend at the 4100 seat Colosseum of Caesars Palace Hotel. No word if she’ll insist upon proof of vaxx amongst the Vegas crowds. /THR
AND: FOO FIGHTERS announced dates for their big Summer 2022 stadium tour - tix are on sale here for Citi cardmembers, everyone else on Friday.
AND AND: Alec Baldwin gave his first sitdown interview to George Stephanopoulos and ABC NEWS yesterday. No word on an airdate.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
UNIVERSAL sets Nic Cage as Dracula in their story of his henchman “Renfield”
Nic…olas Hoult is already set to play the title character.
Chris McKay (“The Tomorrow War”) is directing, Robert Kirkman did the story outline and Ryan Ridley (“Rick and Morty”) wrote the script which is described as “a modern-day adventure story that is comedic in tone”. /THR
Halle Berry sets multi-pic NETFLIX deal
No deal duration or film projects indicated - her MMA movie “Bruised” was the number 2 most-watched English language film globally on the service last week according to their own chart (behind “Red Notice” which became the most watched pic on the service ever according to… whatever metric they’re using these days).
She already has 2 upcoming film acting projects at NETFLIX as well (unrelated to this deal). /Variety
ALSO: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II sets up a production company with a Film deal at NETFLIX as well. No initial projects indicated… and while his first major role was at NETFLIX (“The Get Down”), this is a bit surprising as he has worked pretty much exclusively at WB (“Aquaman”, “Matrix 4” and HBO’s “Watchmen”) and UNI (“Candyman”, upcoming “Ambulance”) ever since as his career has ascended. Also interesting that he left WB’s “Furiosa” one day before this deal’s announcement 🤷♂️. /Deadline
ALSO IN MOVIES
DISNEY+ was insisting Peter Jackson remove any cursing from “The Beatles: Get Back” documentary. Paul & Ringo stepped in and said no f’ing way. Somehow the DISNEY brand did not implode over the weekend with the curses in there. /NME
20TH CENTURY STUDIOS sets director for must-we-reboot-everything? “White Men Can’t Jump” redo - Calmatic, who just did the new “House Party” at NEW LINE. Kenya Barris co-wrote the script & is producing. /Deadline
Sad news yesterday that Leah Newman, former HARPO exec and daughter of longtime WME Agent Robert Newman died last week from postpartum complications after the birth of her daughter. Robert and his wife Cindy are going to now raise Beatrice Violet Newman. /THR
IN SO MANY WORDS…
“I remember, I go, ‘It’s a nice knife.’”
- Bradley Cooper on being held up at knifepoint in an NYC Subway stop in the late 2010’s before booking past the young kid to escape, as told on Dax Shepard’s “The Armchair Expert” podcast. Or get the short version of the story in THR here.
📺 THE TV SET
AMC’s “Kevin Can F*ck Himself” will not go beyond its already-ordered 2nd season…
Although no reason specified for the unique “2 and done” approach. /TV Line
HULU’s “Pen15” also ending after its current season 2 - But sounds like this decision was made by the creators, and the door is open at HULU in the future. /THR
NETFLIX adds Rupert Grint to horror anthology series “Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities”
Andrew Lincoln and F. Murray Abraham are a few other names in the mix for the 8 episodes, 2 of which are written by Guillermo. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
STARZ orders Season 2 of “Men in Kilts” with “Outlander” stars Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish, which according to my IG feed had one of the most popular gift boxes for press members of 2021. #scotchyscotchscotch /Variety
HBO GOT prequel series “Tales of Dunk and Egg” gets a writer - Steve Conrad (“Wonder”, “Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, AMAZON series “Patriot”). /Variety
NETFLIX UK orders 5 series including an adaptation of the book “One Day” which previously was a 2011 film starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess with a much… discussed (?) ending. /THR
Former VIACOM Int’l exec Kelly Day joins AMAZON PRIME as VP of PRIME VIDEO Int’l. She’ll begin in January and report into PRIME VIDEO & STUDIOS SVP Mike Hopkins. /Variety
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
If you have COMCAST TV or Broadband - prices are going up about 3-5% on Jan 1 for most of you
Although kindly they’re not increasing TV bundle prices for most NYC area customers, since they dropped the MSG Networks in October, and will begin refunding $3 a month for their Regional Sports Networks charge. /TVAnswerman.com
Although as MSG points out… COMCAST has been charging people about $10/month for those networks so… your $7 differential is still going to the Roberts family AMEX bill. Not to mention your increased surcharge for the Broadcast networks. Which are literally free over the air. Can you tell I haven’t had cable in well over a decade? /NextTV
ALSO IN MEDIA
TWITTER to prohibit posting of non-public photos/videos of people without their consent. The “how” part… sounds a bit murky. But it sounds like if someone flags a post with a private pic of them in it, TW will remove it. Doesn’t sound like bot work and requires a human to evaluate to make sure the person requesting the removal is who they say they are - so we’ll see how this works out on a global scale. /US News & World Report
CNN suspends Chris Cuomo for helpin’ a brother out when he did some recon on the women accusing his brother Andrew of sexual misconduct. Suspension is “indefinite” while they continue their investigation. /THR
VIACOM gets $1.85 Billion for CBS Studio City production lot, as private equity’s huge appetite for the soundstage business continues, and VIACOM continues to sell off non-core assets (#BlackRock NYC CBS headquarters) for very essential cash (#PAR+💵💵). /THR
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
Omicron and impending interest rate increases to combat inflation pretty much took down all stocks around 2-4%.
Movie theater stocks took more significant hits in the 4-9% range.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
NETFLIX “The Power of the Dog” - Jane Campion movie hits streaming. Watch or Add to Your List here
NBC Rockefeller Christmas tree 🎄 at 8p, followed by…
NBC “Kelly Clarkson: When Christmas Comes Down”
NETFLIX “Lost In Space” 3rd/final season - Stream or Add to Your List here
ROKU CHANNEL “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas” special - I think you can stream it here?
FXX “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” Season 15 premiere. 2 episodes starting at 10p.
This season makes it the longest running live-action comedy ever. Sorry “Ozzy & Harriet”.
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
AMAZON PRIME “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Season 4 teaser - Premieres Fri Feb 18, although the 8 episodes will drop 2 at a time over 4 weeks. Meaning I’ll get PRIME again for a month sometime in early March 👍.
HBOMAX “And Just Like That…” series trailer - aka the “Sex and the City” reboot, although gotta say this trailer doesn’t give me much in terms of like, things that will happen in this show…🤔 other than it seems like Carrie is now a podcaster or radio personality? But it looks like all the familiar faces are returning. Well. almost. Premieres Thu Dec 9
APPLE TV+ “For Auld Lang Syne” trailer - The New Years PEANUTS special (was that name already taken or something? 🤔), where Charlie Brown and Carrie Bradshaw both say the… same exact line in each trailer oddly enough. Drops on Fri Dec 10 in case you wanna fast-forward past Christmas.
PEACOCK “Real Housewives of Miami” Season 4 trailer - Premieres Thu Dec 16 and the long-ago Seasons 1-3 are on the service now if you need a refresher.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
Not new music but this was fun: CLARKSON v GRANDE facing off to sing a medly of pop classics on Jimmy Fallon’s new show “That’s My Jam”.
If you need new tunes:
Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM