| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
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Unscripted, But Not Unplanned - Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group Chairman & Chief Content Officer Kathleen Finch opened up about the challenges and opportunities the newly-merged entity faces during a Deadline-moderated keynote at the Realscreen conference in Austin. "Painful Decisions"
'Hot' Property - Mattel is putting gas in the tank of its Warner Bros-Bad Robot movie Hot Wheels. Writers Dalton Leeb and Nicholas Jacobson-Larson are boarding to pen the live-action adaptation of the still popular racecar IP. >>>Dynamic Duo
Apple Bites - Apple TV+ has picked up Drops of God, a series set in the world of fine wine based on a Japanese manga property, from Legendary Entertainment. The streamer beat out a number of suitors to land the international series, which is in multiple languages including English, French and Japanese. It marks one of the first times that Apple has dipped its toe into international co-productions and licensing. >>> Eight-Part Series
Fox Scoops Up 'Buckets' Fox is developing the single-cam comedy series Get Buckets from executive producers and writers Stephen Falk (You’re the Worst), Allen Maldonado (Heels), Darrell Britt-Gibson (The Wire) and Brandon Mychal Smith (Four Weddings and a Funeral). Maldonado, Britt-Gibson, and Smith will also star. Get Buckets follows three estranged brothers who must band together following their billionaire father’s untimely death to figure out how to run the professional basketball team he left behind. >>> Details
Berlin Stories - Berlin Film Festival Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian and Executive Director Mariëtte Rissenbeck unveiled the International Competition and Encounters lineups on Monday. "It's quite an eclectic selection," Chatrian told the press conference in Berlin this morning. "You will see we tried to include as many genres and cinematic forms as possible." >>>Q&A
Rebel In A Bow Tie - Former Head of Production at Pressman Films and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Alessandro Camon writes that his former boss, the late Ed Pressman, had the gift of an open mind, and the fundamental understanding that creativity doesn’t grow in the hothouse but out in the real world, often off the beaten path. >>>A Tribute |
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Emmy-winning directors Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok sat down with Deadline to talk about their doc Judy Blume Forever and to reveal what they wanted viewers to get out of their film, on a multitude of levels. >>>The Interview |
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Exclusive
Francis Ford Coppola has added Giancarlo Esposito to the all-star cast of his long-gestating project Megalopolis, which is shooting in NY.
Exclusive
Two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz has been set to star in action-comedy Old Guy. Simon West is aboard to direct the movie which has been written by Greg Johnson (The Last Son).
FX has rounded out the series regular cast for its hourlong pilot The Answers, the network’s adaptation of Catherine Lacey’s novel. Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) is set to star alongside Raul Esparza (Retreat), Krys Marshall (For All Mankind), Melanie Field (A League Of Their Own), Pallavi Sharda (Wedding Season) and Kineta Kunutu (Citadel).
Exclusive
Peacock has set its recurring cast for Season 2 of Dr. Death, adding Rita Volk (Faking It) Judy Reyes (Succession), Jack Davenport (Ten Percent), Annika Boras (Succession) and Sandra Andreis (Snabba Cash). Season 2 of the anthology series will feature the “Miracle Man” storyline based on the most recent third season of the Wondery podcast.
In Brief - The Venery Of Samantha Bird: Finn Jones, Embeth Davidtz, Brenda Strong among those cast in Starz series...Tony Award winner Adrienne Warren will star in the Broadway American premiere of Room, written and adapted for the stage by Emma Donoghue, based on her 2010 novel which she also adapted into the award-winning 2015 film. |
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BY THE NUMBERS
+22% - The rise in viewership for ‘The Last of Us’ from Week 1 to Week 2, an HBO record for a drama series |
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More News
🐻 The Berlin Film Festival on Monday unveiled the titles selected for its official competition including Christian Petzold’s latest film Roter Himmel (Afire), Margarethe von Trotta directing Phantom Thread star Vicky Krieps in Ingeborg Bachmann — Journey Into the Desert, and Philippe Garrel returns with a new feature titled The Plough.
🚨 A performer at Universal Studios Hollywood in the Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular was hospitalized after an accident during one of the shows at the theme park on Monday, a park spokesperson confirmed to Deadline.
🎟️ Amazon Studios is getting back into the wide theatrical-release business with Ben Affleck’s Nike movie Air, starring his Good Will Hunting co-Oscar winner Matt Damon. This will be the first wide theatrical release from Amazon since 2019.
✍️ ITV’s evergreen presenting duo Ant & Dec will make it to 25 years with the UK network. The pair, whose real names are Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, will extend their current exclusive relationship for another three years, taking the partnership to a quarter century.
👀 Moviegoers were only expecting a double bill of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns at The Prince Charles Theatre in London on Friday. However, the star of the films showed up while the lights were still on to introduce the films. "We didn’t know if it was a drama or a comedy or an action or a horror picture or a romance… all the above," Brendan Fraser told those in attendance. "We had no idea…until it tested in front of British audiences. Thank you for that."
👋 Joe Schlosser, who is EVP, Communications at Banijay Americas, is leaving the company and its various iterations after more than a decade. The veteran comms chief is set to open his own communications shingle and will still work with a number of aspects of the Banijay business.
Netflix is making a doc series about Jill Dando, a beloved British TV presenter who was murdered in 1999. Empress Films is making the currently-untitled series, which looks into her life and tragic death. Series producer Emma Cooper previously made Netflix true crime series The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
🛑 Adam Klotz, a meteorologist for Fox News, Fox Business and Fox Weather, was beaten by a group of teenagers on a New York subway early Sunday. Klotz suffered bruised ribs, black eyes and facial cuts, as well as other injuries.
🐀 TBS will end Rat in the Kitchen, which was described as a cross between The Masked Singer and Hell’s Kitchen, after one season. Kathleen Finch, Chairman and Chief Content Officer of Warner Bros. Discovery’s U.S. Networks Group said the show was redundant now that WBD has Food Network and Cooking Channel in the family.
🚪 Aloke Devichand, Netflix's Head of Asian Original Documentaries, has exited the streamer. After joining in 2018, he ordered docs such as Blackpink: Light Up the Sky and Naomi Osaka. He also worked on Thai International Emmy winner Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice. He's now working on a Netflix doc on Euro 2020. |
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Trending  Howard Gordon’s new drama Accused on Fox was the highest-rated and most-watched debut across broadcast and cable in the last three years.
🔻 Blonde leads the Razzie nominations with 8, including Worst Picture, Director & Screenplay. |
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Obituaries
🕯 Yoshio Yoda, who portrayed Fuji, the sweet-natured Japanese prisoner of war befriended by the irreverent gang of American sailors at the center of the 1962-66 ABC World War II-set sitcom McHale’s Navy, died Jan. 13 in Fullerton, CA. He was 88. 🕯 Leopoldo Roberto Garcia Pelaez Benitez, the Mexican comedian known as Polo Polo , died today in Mexico City. He was 78. His son sad the comedian had been suffering from vascular dementia following multiple strokes. 🕯 Andrew Leynse, whose 21-year tenure as the artistic director of the Off Broadway theater company Primary Stages saw the production of works by such prominent playwrights as Terrence McNally, A.R. Gurney, Theresa Rebeck, Charles Busch and Donald Margulies, died Jan. 20 after a sudden illness. He was 53. |
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On the Radar Tue - How I Met Your Father Season 2 premiere
Thu - Netflix & Comcast earnings; Gossip Girl series finale; George Clooney on Kimmel
Fri - Disney100 officially kicks off; Sundance awards; You People debuts on Netflix
Sun - NFL Conference Championship games; Sundance ends |
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Making A Splash - It was the end of an era Sunday at Walt Disney World as the Florida theme park shut down its popular Splash Mountain attraction to start work on its replacement, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. The Orlando-area revamp will open in late 2024, though an official date has not been set. Fans flocked for a final ride in the familiar log carts this weekend. The demand pushed the wait time for Splash Mountain to a record 220 minutes, but no one seemed to mind. A crowd was still around cheering when the last logs rolled through. (Getty) |
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