The Rock sets Holiday-adventure movie at AMAZON
The Rock sets Holiday-adventure movie at AMAZON
MIRAMAX gets next Alexander Payne movie / HBOMAX adds 39 countries today / FACEBOOK escapes anti-trust, launches newsletter brand
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY June 29, 2021.
Where YOUTUBE bought the naming rights for the new 6,000 seat music venue opening in Hollywood Park near SoFi Stadium in a 10-year deal, beginning when it opens late Summer / early Fall. TBD if you’ll have to watch 5 seconds of a VRBO ad before walking in (or am I the only one who constantly gets shown those? 🙄)
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
AMAZON gets Holiday action-adventure pic starring The Rock called “Red One” 🎅
Chris Morgan (“Fast & Furious” movies) is writing the script to shoot sometime next year for a 2023 release (presumably at Christmas).
However - not too many plot details other than it’ll play broad (a la a “Jumanji”), and the announcement hinted that there are potential aspects outside of the film itself to exploit as a franchise… that utilize other things AMAZON can do.
So… a movie with super-links in it to buy Christmas presents via AMAZON PRIME? /Variety
MIRAMAX buys global rights to next Alexander Payne / Paul Giamatti movie
Called “The Holdovers”, about an unpopular prep school teacher who stays through the Christmas break in 1970 to look after students who begin departing for the holidays, and the one kid who stays behind, along with the school chef.
Will shoot this Winter in New England, no price disclosed. /Deadline
Vanessa Kirby joins Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern in follow up to “The Father”
Called “The Son” and… really just a follow up in theme, from the same filmmaker (Florian Zeller). Hugh plays a guy starting a new life with a new wife (Kirby) and a newborn, whose life is thrown for a loop when his ex-wife (Dern) shows up with their teenage son who is troubled and distant.
CAA is handling US sales for the pic. /Variety
ALSO IN MOVIES
IN THE EXECUTIVE SUITE: Adam Paulsen named Head of Film at ANNAPURNA, comes over from film financing outfit VALPARAISO PICS, and was a CAA Media Finance Agent before that. Will report to ANNAPURNA CCO Sue Naegle, and current VALPARAISO projects-in-motion now coming under ANNAPURNA. /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
John Lithgow joins “Dexter” reboot at SHOWTIME
Well… briefly. He’s gonna shoot a few days on the revival of the show, now shooting. His character was of course memorably killed off on the show back in 2009. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
HBOMAX renews Cristin Miliotti / Billy Magnussen / Ray Romano series “Made for Love” for Season 2. /Variety
NBC adds Harry Connick Jr to their “Annie Live!” event this December. Will play “Daddy Warbucks”, Taraji P. Henson already set as “Miss Hannigan”. /Deadline
SKY and James Corden’s production company FULWELL 73 doing documentary on the rise and immediate collapse of European Soccer’s SUPER LEAGUE. US home TBD (👋 PEACOCK). /Variety
VIACOM’s CMT awards moving to sister network CBS next year. The awards are entirely voted on by fans. /Variety
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
District Judge throws out 2 FTC lawsuits against FACEBOOK
Said the FTC failed to establish that FB has a monopoly in social media, FTC is welcome to re-present their case within 30 days. FB stock up over 4% on the news, up 30% for the year so far, and the company is now worth $1 Trillion. 💰
Other companies worth that much: APPLE, MICROSOFT, AMAZON, GOOGLE, and Saudi state-run oil company SAUDI ARAMACO. And - oddly this newsletter, but it’s mostly under the table 🤫. /Bloomberg
SPEAKING OF WHICH: FACEBOOK is also launching their new Newsletter initiative called BULLETIN today according to CNN. More details to be revealed today (presumably), but they’ve been recruiting writers for what seems like the past several weeks. So we’ll see what the launch lineup is.
This is not meant to be like a MAIL CHIMP or SUBSTACK service where anyone with an idea can sign up to do one… and FB is supposedly staying away from political content with whom they’ve chosen to work with #goodcall. Instead, focusing on things like Sports, Fashion and Local News. So - more soon. /CNN
ALSO IN MEDIA
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” returning to Broadway in November. Will be in one part instead of 2 if… that means somethin for ya. /THR
AMAZON leaves firing decisions completely to AI for its “Flex” drivers program. It’s going about as well as you’d think. I mean - everyone knows it takes the same amount of time to drive to a house on a rural, snow-covered road in Colorado as it does on a clear highway in Arizona right? /Bloomberg
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
LIONSGATE up another 4.5%
VIACOM up 5%, both possibly / likely related to speculation based on the WSJ piece end of last week about COMCAST having explored new acquisitions.
AMC THEATERS +7.5%. Thanks Vin!
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
Nothin’ new today… but if you’re in 1 of 39 LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN countries, you can now subscribe to HBOMAX starting today.
And it definitely will cost you less than $10 a month (most countries pricing between $3 to $6 a month).
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
NETFLIX“The Harder They Fall” teaser trailer - Idris Elba as one of the baddest dudes in the old West… in this “new school” Western - along with Regina King, Jonathan Majors, LaKeith Stanfield and an overall great cast. Fun spot! Coming this Fall TBD.
APPLE TV+ “Foundation” teaser trailer 2. Sci-fi series based on the Isaac Asimov novels, with Jared Harris and Lee Pace. Not entirely sure what this is about TBH… but they definitely spent a lotta dough on it. Premieres Fri Sept 24.
HULU “This Way Up” Season 2 trailer. UK comedy series with Aisling Bea and Sharon Horgan. This somehow missed my radar for Season 1… but the show looks fun! (esp if you’re a fan of “Catastrophe” and “Pulling”). Premieres Fri July 9.
FREEFORM “Grown-ish” Season 4 trailer. Premieres Thu July 8. (or Fri July 9 on HULU).
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
New song from an artists called UPSAHL -“Melatonin”. Kinda funky, but chill head-bopping pop tune.
Listen to the song here on Spotify or:
If you need new tunes:
And hopefully my only D’OH for the week - forgetting the E on the end of Naomi Ackie yesterday. My E game was definitely not on point in June…
Speaking of which, E-mail me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-Sean McNulty
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
or also here on CLUBHOUSE