Zack Snyder's big plans for next NETFLIX pic

TIKTOK testing CAMEO-ish feature for influencers / PEACOCK sets UNI PICS deal / Reese Witherspoon selling her company?

Jul 07, 2021

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY July 7, 2021.

Where Hollywood came roaring out of the post-holiday gates yesterday (or at least in CANNES), so we don’t even have time for a stop at Margot Robbie’s house in Hancock Park. Ok fine - yes, there’s always time for a stop at Margot Robbie’s house. I mean who else has a living room swing 🤷‍♂️? But if you wanna stay - bring a check for $3.5 Million.

ALSO: The NYC Hometown Heroes parade for first responders and frontline workers is uh… today, not yesterday. Still at 11a, and it’ll still be 90 and humid so I was close. Stream on any news service with local feeds (CBSN - New York feed etc).

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Zack Snyder sets next NETFLIX movie, a sci-fi epic “Rebel Moon”

A peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by some bad dudes from another place, so the colony reaches out to folks from other planets to uh, ya know help a brotha out.

Zack co-writing as well, plan is to begin shooting early next year, and the declared goal from the outset is to create a long running IP franchise/universe a la a “Star Wars”. Zack details more of the aspirations in the piece for the inclined. /THR

STX buys global rights to Gerard Butler “Greenland” sequel for $75 Million

STX released the first one and had the right to match any sales offer on this one. Movie took in $53 Million in peak pandemic, plus got a nice $20+ Million check from HBO for PayTV/streaming rights. This one has a $65 Million budget and will shoot first half of next year.

Will be called “Greenland: Migration” and center on the character’s search for life across Europe after the comet event of the first one. Director, writer and producer team returning. /Deadline

“Judas and the Black Messiah” director + producers re-teaming on new movie

It’ll be about American political insurrection…but no real details revealed. Lil Rel Howery is among the producers but not clear if he will be involved on-screen.

Shaka King will direct and co-write (collaborator/s tbd), and Ryan Coogler and MACRO’s Charles King producing. /THR

AMAZON closing in on deal for “Foe” with Saoirse Ronan, LaKeith Stanfield and Paul Mescal

Sci-Fi / near-future movie about an Irish couple living on a remote farm in a time of great environmental damage. LaKeith’s character shows up at their door and tells them Paul must come on a trip to an experimental space station (but first, a stop at the pub?), and Saoirse’s character must make tough decisions to survive on her own.

Garth Davis (“Lion”) directing and wrote the script adaptation with the author of the source book, AMAZON looking at global rights, no ballpark price reported. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

Reese Witherspoon’s company HELLO SUNSHINE exploring sale. Could be valued up to $1 Billion (👋 APPLE). In addition to Reese, husband Jim Toth, and private equity investor Seth Grodsky, AT&T and Peter Chernin’s OTTER MEDIA and Laurene Powell Jobs’s EMERSON COLLECTIVE hold equity stakes. /WSJ
Greg Berlanti sets movie production deal at NETFLIX. Still has over 2 years left on a huge WB TV deal, where he and his producing partner Sarah Schechter currently have 14 active TV series, and Greg is on board to direct the “Little Shop of Horrors” movie remake… also at WARNER BROS. 🤔 /Deadline

📺 THE TV SET

PEACOCK adds Kyle MacLachlan as “Howard Baskin” in their “Joe Exotic” limited series

Kate McKinnon of course already playing Carole. /Variety

ALSO IN TV

Michelle Yeoh joins “The Witcher: Blood Origin” prequel series at NETFLIX. Season has a 6 episode order. /THR
HBOMAX adds Lily Rabe to David E. Kelley limited series “Love & Death”, about the 1980 Texas murder of Betty Gore (Rabe), committed by her friend Candy Montgomery (Elizabeth Olsen). Jesse Plemmons and Patrick Fugit play the husbands. /Deadline
Creator / Showrunner for STARZ’s “Power: Book IV” Robert Munic departs over creative differences. Production on the show created around the “Tommy Egan” character (Joseph Sikora) will wrap in a few weeks. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

Troy McClure woulda cleaned up on Cameo. via Giphy

TIKTOK testing a CAMEO-like feature for creators called SHOUTOUTS

Essentially - pay your favorite TIK TOK uh… personality? talent? (🤷‍♂️) to send you a video with a message of your choosing. No official word from TIKTOK as to their overall plans on this. /AdAge

UNIVERSAL PICTURES flicks coming to PEACOCK 4 months after theatrical release

Although the exact description is “no later than 4 months“ so… there’s likely gonna be some flexibility here. UNIVERSAL still has the sliding 17 to 45 day post-theatrical release date window to put movies on PVOD for $20 streaming rental, and then I guess they’ll decide from there on the PEACOCK date.

No mention of an additional theatrical/PEACOCK same day release policy, a la what they just did with the “Boss Baby” sequel.

This will begin once UNIVERSAL’s PayTV output deal with HBO ends this year, meaning with movies that come out starting in 2022. No price or duration for the arrangement given (remember HBO paid a lotta money for this deal over the past decade… which UNI has now declined; $$ from which talent/producers with profit participation on UNI movies benefitted).

UNIVERSAL is also putting windows… in their “Pay 1” 18 month window:

Once a film hits PEACOCK, it’ll be exclusive for 4 months.

Then there’s a 10 month period where it can be licensed to other services (PayTV channels or I guess other streaming services if the check is big enough) while also still on PEACOCK.
Then the movie will be exclusive to PEACOCK again for the final 4 months of the window.
After that, UNIVERSAL can sell the movie to cable TV networks etc for the “Pay 2” window (about 2 years post-theatrical release). /THR

UNIVERSAL will also produce some Direct-to-PEACOCK movies starting next year. No titles specified… but I think contractually one of them has to have “American Pie presents” in the title.

TO NOTE: This all excludes movies from Spielberg’s AMBLIN, which get released theatrically by UNIVERSAL… but go to SHOWTIME in their PayTV window - that deal now extended thru 2024. /Deadline

ALSO IN MEDIA

DISCOVERY+ giving free 6 months of the ad-supported version to VODAFONE mobile customers in the UK. While it’s “free”… DISC+ will still make money selling ads to the freebie accounts - just in time for The OLYMPICS. DISC+ has the rights in Europe thanks to their EUROSPORT network. /Next TV
Britney’s conservatorship lawyers follower her manager in resigning this week. The court-appointed firm has represented her for the past 13 years. /TMZ
Megyn Kelly sets exclusive daily 2-hour radio show at SIRIUSXM. Will air on the “Triumph” channel, alongside former TV buddy Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace and Dave Ramsey. Megyn also already has a free daily podcast - content from the SIRIUS show will drop there on a TBD delay. Begins after Labor Day on Tue Sept 7. /THR
ROBLOX sets deal with SONY MUSIC to bring their artists into the game (they can hold concerts - LIL NAS X did this last year - or release parties etc). They set a similar deal with the 4th largest music label BMG earlier this year. /Variety
Emma Roberts sets monthly book reco deal for her BELLETRIST community with new subscription BOOKCLUB service (gives you exclusive video/audio content from authors, virtual discussions, exclusive book content etc for $12/month or $108/year). Emma runs BELLETRIST with her longtime friend Karah Preiss and they’ll both hold interviews/chats with the authors of their recommended book each month on BOOKCLUB. /THR

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

AMAZON up almost 5% 😮 as the US Government said they would now give half of a $10 Billion cloud computing contract to AMAZON (was previously going only to MICROSOFT).

AMC NETWORKS -7.5%, the DIS+ US growth slowing report affected a lot of other companies with streaming services for much of the day. Most rebounded, but not AMC.

IMAX and CINEMARK (Regal Cinemas parent) both down over 4%, as was ENDEAVOR.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

EURO Cup Semi-final at 3p on ESPN, ENGLAND vs DENMARK

NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS Game 5 at 8p on NBC or stream on PEACOCK. Tampa up 3-1 over Montreal, heading back to Tampa for this one.

CBS “Big Brother”, “Love Island” premieres starting at 8p.

TV LAND “Younger” Season 7 premiere at 10p, in case you didn’t already watch all episodes on PARAMOUNT+.

DISNEY+ “Monsters At Work” - New series based on the PIXAR movie. Watch or add to your list here

ALSO that new “Simpsons” / “Loki” crossover short “The Good, The Bart, and The Loki” drops today with the new “Loki” episode. Stream the 6 minute short here.

If you’re in a sharing mood… OR, perhaps owe someone money:
Share The Wakeup

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

HBO“Succession” Season 3 teaser trailer - The heartwarming family comedy returns “this Fall”. And given how many people seemed to post this to their IG Stories yesterday… I’m guessing this here is redundant.

AMAZON PRIME “VAL” documentary trailer. Val Kilmer shot a trove of home video footage of his life over the years, much of which is incorporated into this docu. Hits theaters on July 23, Prime on Aug 6.

NETFLIX “Naomi Osaka” docuseries. 3 parts covering the last 2 years of her life, premieres next Fri July 16.

NETFLIX “The Kissing Booth 3” trailer. You can be a proud trilogy completist when it premieres on Wed Aug 11.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

BOBBY BROWN broke out the big guns with this deep cut in his VERZUZ last week up against Keith Sweat… so throwing some 🙌 Bobby’s way for the no-holds-barred approach. Keith I’ll get you tomorrow.

Listen to the song here on Spotify or: