Layoffs are coursing through the media and tech sectors of late, but Disney has not yet joined the list of companies implementing staff cuts. That could soon change, Deadline has learned.
Rumblings of a new org-chart unveiling are growing louder, given mounting pressure on the company (including from activist investor Nelson Peltz) to stage a rebound under recently returned CEO Bob Iger. A long-promised restructuring and details of staff reductions are likely to emerge soon and could coincide with the company’s next quarterly earnings report on February 8. >>>Specifics |
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| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
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'Elvis' Helmer Baz Luhrmann Still In The Building - As Warner Bros. Pictures continues to find its footing under new management, the studio secured the services of a cornerstone filmmaker, signing a first-look deal with its Elvis director-writer-producer Baz Luhrmann. >>>'Singular' Filmmaker
The Kang Effect - Disney/Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania arrived on tracking today with a projected 4-day $120M opening. The threequel arrives in theaters on Feb. 17 and is the first in an avalanche of tentpole fare. >>>What's The Draw?
Hello, Larry - Larry Wilmore is tapping into his experiences in late-night for a primetime comedy in development at ABC. Wilmore is writing, executive producing and is set to star in Lately, described as a behind-the-scenes look at the upstairs-downstairs dynamics of the people who work at a late-night talk show. >>>Details
The Covid Of It All - Hollywood’s unions and guilds are in talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers to renew their Covid safety protocols, which expire Tuesday amid mounting pressure to end a mandate that gives employers the limited option to require vaccinations as a condition of employment. >>>Debate
CK & CAA - Colin Kaepernick has signed with CAA for representation. In addition to holding the all-time NFL record for most rushing yards in a game by a quarterback, Kaepernick helped Nike win an Emmy Award for its “Dream Crazy” commercial; he created Colin in Black & White, a six-episode limited series on Netflix exploring his high school years; and he also became a bestselling children’s picture book author with I Color Myself Different. >>> More
Pushing The Boat Out - StudioCanal is returning to UK television production investment by backing Strong Film & Television, founded by the BAFTA-winning director of Vigil. >>>Close To Being Finalized
For AMPAS, Trouble Pays - It’s a weird but undeniable fact of Hollywood life that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its pet awards ceremony feed on their own mistakes, in the view of Deadline's Michael Cieply. Let things go well or follow an expected path, and the Oscars turn into a yawn. But screw something up, and suddenly it’s the Greatest Show on Earth all over again. >>>Cieply's Column
Flying Fremantle Nest - Amelia Brown, Managing Director of Britain’s Got Talent and Too Hot to Handle producer Thames, is leaving to set up an entertainment production company. >>>Second MD To Quit In As Many Weeks |
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“I’ve learned that this is a character who just really can’t stand bullsh*t. She just really doesn’t like it, doesn’t get it and can’t stand for injustice. We really enjoyed that aspect of her as somebody who was gonna right a wrong, even if it meant putting herself at risk. She just saw no other way to live,” Lyonne, who also executive produces the series, told Deadline. Lyonne also spoke about how she and show creator Rian Johnson built the series by paying homage to case-of-the-week mysteries like Columbo. >>>The Interview |
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Exclusive
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are attached to star in It Ends with Us , the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel, which is in development with Wayfarer Studios and Sony Pictures. Baldoni also is set to direct, with Christy Hall adapting the script. Exclusive
Ayo Edebiri, a breakout star of the FX dramedy The Bear, has landed her first major studio starring gig. She is set for a secret role in the Marvel Studios tentpole Thunderbolts, alongside Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen and Olga Kurylenko Ava DuVernay’s feature adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents has added Niecy Nash-Betts, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, Jasmine Cephas Jones and Connie Nielsen to the cast.
Exclusive
Willem Dafoe is set to reteam with his The Lighthouse and The Northman director Robert Eggers for Nosferatu , the filmmaker’s reimaging of the classic gothic tale of vampiric obsession.
Exclusive
Amy Ryan is set to star alongside George Clooney and Brad Pitt in an Apple Original Films’ upcoming feature film written, directed and produced by Jon Watts. The thriller follows two lone-wolf fixers assigned to the same job. Exclusive
I May Destroy You actor Paapa Essiedu will star opposite Melissa McCarthy in an untitled New York-set holiday movie from Universal and Working Title. It’s billed as a fairy-tale comedy about a workaholic man who enlists the help of a magical genie to help win his family back before Christmas. In Brief - Mark O’Brien will headline the indie drama Topper , with Paul Johansson, Bryan Callen, Erik Griffin and others also set…Living Oscar nominee Bill Nighy and Jeremy Swift have joined the voice cast of 10 Lives. |
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Pickups, Renewals, & Cancelations
Fox has handed two-season renewals to its Animation Dominations series The Simpsons (Seasons 35 & 36), Family Guy (22 & 23) and Bob’s Burgers (14 & 15) … Netflix has ordered a second season of its Noah Centineos-fronted drama The Recruit…Prime Video greenlighted The Ride , a docuseries about professional bull riders that will premiere this year… The syndicated version of Dateline has been renewed for Season 7 on NBC stations…CNBC has set Brian Sullivan to anchor Last Call, a new business show launching at the end of February. |
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More News
🦚 Streaming service Peacock closed 2022 with more than 20 million paid subscribers, helping Comcast slip past Wall Street estimates during a challenging fourth quarter.
🍿 Pedro Pascal is making his hosting debut on Saturday Night Live. The actor, fresh from the success of HBO’s The Last of Us and ahead of the third season of Disney+’s The Mandalorian, will host the NBC show on February 4. Coldplay will be the musical guest.
🚗 Jay Leno's three-decade affiliation with NBCUniversal has come to an end, as CNBC has opted not to renew Jay Leno's Garage, a source confirmed to Deadline.
🕳️ A parade of media and tech companies are apparently owed money by FTX which they will likely never see. An extensive list of creditors runs 116 pages includes banks, insurers, hedge funds, airlines and hotels to universities, federal agencies and every state in the nation from Alabama to Wyoming.
🤖 Toy maker Hasbro, a longtime partner of Hollywood via properties like Transformers and G.I. Joe, is cutting 15% of its workforce (about 1,000 staffers) in the wake of a dismal showing in the holiday-season fourth quarter.
⛓️ The screen adaptation of The 1619 Project, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times essay series that accelerated the vociferous debate over Critical Race Theory, makes its debut on Hulu tonight. If history is a guide – and that’s what the whole series is about – the documentary series will prove as polarizing and enlightening as the original version.
✍️ Phoebe Waller-Bridge is staying in business with Amazon Studios, renewing her overall deal. Under the pact, Waller-Bridge is developing Sign Here, based on Claudia Lux’s novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally).
🎂 NBC will pay tribute to Carol Burnett on her 90th birthday with Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love. The two-hour special will air on her birthday, Wednesday, April 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and will also stream the next day on Peacock.
📺 DirecTV is adding conservative channel The First to its lineup, after dropping Newsmax in a dispute that stirred the ire of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The First, which features personalities including Bill O’Reilly and Dana Loesch, will be available on DirecTV, DirecTV Stream and U-verse at no extra fees for subscribers.
🎶 Multi-platinum selling recording artist Zayn Malik has inked with UTA for representation across music, film and television, among other areas. The most recent album release for the British artist, who rose to fame as a member of the boy band One Direction, was 2021’s Nobody is Listening. |
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BY THE NUMBERS
5th - The place on the all-time global B.O. chart attained by ‘Avatar: The Way of Water'; Will it overtake ‘Titanic’ next? |
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Obituaries
🕯 Noah Cowan, former co-director of the Toronto Film Festival and executive director of SFFILM in San Francisco, died Wednesday of cancer in Los Angeles, Deadline has confirmed. He was 55. Cowan died of glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of brain cancer he was diagnosed with in December 2021. 🕯 Dean Daughtry , the keyboardist and co-writer behind Atlanta Rhythm Section’s two biggest hits, died Thursday of natural causes in Huntsville, AL. He was 76. Atlanta Rhythm Section was omnipresent on the radio in the 1970s, thanks to its Top 10 soft-rock hits “So Into You” and “Imaginary Lover.” >>>More 2023 Obituaries |
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On the Radar
Fri - Disney100 officially kicks off at Disneyland; You People debuts on Netflix; Sundance awards
Sat - AARP Movies for Grownups Awards
Sun - NFL Conference Championship games
Tue - Spotify earnings
Wed - Meta earnings |
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Family Matters - The teaser trailer for Season 4 of HBO's Succession picks up following the Season 3 finale when patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) betrayed his adult kids. In the trailer, Siobhan (Sarah Snook) says “This is not about getting back at Dad, but if it hurts him, it doesn’t bother me.” Adds Kendall (Jeremy Strong), “It’s a tightrope walk on a straight razor… 500-foot reputational drop.” |
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