With Disney’s April 3 shareholder meeting — a virtual affair this year — less than two weeks away, some clarity is emerging about the company’s plans to lay off 7,000 staffers and achieve $5.5 billion in cost savings.
Insiders tell Deadline that multiple rounds of cuts are being prepared. The first one is being targeted for next week, we hear. (March 30 or March 31 have been floated as possible dates, but that has not been confirmed.) According to sources, there will be a big wave in late April, described as “the big one” or a “bloodbath,” when a large portion of the cuts are expected to come.
Information varies on a potential third round of layoffs. Some say it might come between the one in late March and the one in late April, while others note that it could follow the one in late April if it’s deemed necessary. >>>Managers Submit Layoff Target Reports |
|
| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
|
'Succession' Season 4 Review - Deadline's Dominic Patten says the hit HBO series' final season, which debuts March 26, is where Succession truly succeeds, taking fictionalized shots at Rupert Murdoch, Shari Redstone, and maybe even Murdoch’s Super Bowl buddy Elon Musk. >>>Final Season "A Haymaker"
Chicken Soup Is Taking Stock - Chatter has been growing louder as Chicken Soup for the Soul’s stock has skidded to an all-time low, but multiple sources familiar with management’s thinking indicated to Deadline that layoffs are not in the forecast for the company, which runs a number of ad-supported streaming businesses along with Redbox. In lieu of staff reductions, though, belt tightening will take place. >>> Exec Bonuses To Be Deferred
A Talent Takes Flight - Flight attendant-turned-tyro author T.J. Newman has been set to write the script for her debut bestselling novel Falling for Universal and Working Title. Now, her follow-up manuscript has leaked around town and could be the next hot auction title. The new one, Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421, starts with a watery plane crash. >>>Being Shopped Imminently
Bad Trip - A backpacker’s battle to escape the locked boot of a car and regain her memory is the crux of Amazon Prime Video’s latest German movie. In the high-octane thriller Trunk (working title), Sina Martens will play Malina, a woman who wakes up disoriented to discover to her horror that she is missing more than her memory. >>>"A Wild Ride"
In Brief - Oscar winners Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin and director Natalie Hewit have boarded the National Geographic documentary Endurance (working title). |
|
QUOTABLE
“There seems to be a Dobbs problem” - A judge overseeing Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6B lawsuit against Fox News over erroneous claims that the 2020 election was rigged as he spoke about then-Fox News personality Lou Dobbs’ amplification of such claims |
|
Exclusive A24 is reuniting with Green Knight director David Lowery on his next film Mother Mary and set Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel to star. Lowery is directing from a script he penned. The film will be an epic pop melodrama following a fictional musician (Hathaway) and her relationship with an iconic fashion designer (Coel). Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne will star in The Day of the Jackal series for Peacock and Sky. He will play The Jackal, a professional assassin hired by a French paramilitary dissident to kill French President Charles de Gaulle in 1962. The series is based on the Frederick Forsyth novel and 1973 film adaptation from Universal Pictures. Danny DeVito will return to the Broadway stage this October in a new play by Theresa Rebeck called I Need That. The It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor will star alongside his daughter Lucy DeVito and Ray Anthony Thomas in the Roundabout Theatre Company production. Exclusive Kat Conner Sterling has been cast in Blumhouse’s film adaptation of the popular video game Five Nights at Freddy’s. Cameras are rolling on the film in New Orleans. As previously announced, Josh Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard and Mary Stuart Masterson also have been cast in the film, which is being directed by Emma Tammi. In Brief - Actor-director Tom Cavanagh is into gaming now — specifically Hey Yahoo!, a game show that involves what users are searching for on Yahoo these days. |
|
Renewals, Pickups & Cancelations Exclusive
NBCUniversal Syndication Studios has renewed syndicated chatfest The Steve Wilkos Show for a 17th season.
Exclusive
Actress, writer and producer Diarra Kilpatrick has signed an overall deal with BET for its BET Studios division. As part of the deal, BET+ ordered eight episodes of the straight-to-series project Diarra from Detroit. |
|
More News
📺 DirecTV and conservative outlet Newsmax have resolved a two-month carriage dispute that had spilled into Washington. The channel will rejoin DirecTV's satellite, internet and cable bundles Thursday, at no extra charge for the provider's 13 million subscribers. Many Republican lawmakers had characterized the blackout of Newsmax as "an assault on free speech."
💃 Smash is finally heading to Broadway. In an announcement long awaited by fans of the 2012 NBC series, a stage musical adaptation is planned for Broadway during the 2024-25 season, with lead producers including Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg. A top-flight creative team is attached.
🚪 Top International execs from ZDF Studios, Fremantle, All3Media and Banijay have said the potential U.S. writers strike and changing market economics may create opportunities for new business. As Banijay Rights CEO Cathy Payne put it, “When one door closes, another one opens.”
✍️ James Patterson has inked an exclusive first-look deal with Skydance Television, which is in production on an adaptation of his Alex Cross series starring Aldis Hodge. As part of the deal, Patterson will develop a slate of series based on his top-selling books.
🚀 Lucasfilm’s top-secret Star Wars movie to be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has lost its screenwriters Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson, Deadline can confirm. Details as to the film’s plot are still under wraps, though we understand that Obaid-Chinoy remains at the helm.
In Brief - Fremantle has launched a premium documentaries label helmed by Mandy Chang... Leaders of SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 showed their support for the WGA on Monday, posing for a photo with WGA leaders shortly before the 11 a.m. start of the Writers Guild’s contract negotiations. |
|
Trending  Broadway’s total box office was up nearly 20% last week thanks to a combination of productions both old and new. The Phantom of the Opera (the old) posted a best-ever $3 million weekly gross. The Jonas Brothers (the new, to Broadway anyway) took in $1.6 million for their five-concert residency. In all, Broadway’s 29 productions grossed a total $34,124,422 for the week ending March 19.
🔻 GLAAD released its 18th annual “Where We Are on TV” report. It estimated representation of LGBTQ characters across broadcast, cable and streaming shows that have aired (or are expected to air) between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023. The survey found a decrease of 6.44% from the previous year, with all broadcast networks seeing a drop in their percentage of LGBTQ series regulars from the previous report. |
|
Obituaries
🕯 Peter Werner, the Emmy-nominated TV director who won a Best Short Film Oscar in 1977, died suddenly Tuesday morning in Wilmington, NC from complications following a torn aorta. He was 76. Werner’s extensive TV series directing credits include Nash Bridges, Ghost Whisperer, Medium, A Different World, The Wonder Years, Moonlighting, Boomtown, Justified, Grimm, UnReal, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, Elementary, Unforgettable, Six and Law & Order: SVU. 🕯 Willis Reed , the Hall of Fame NBA center who won two championships with the New York Knicks including his legendary hobbling return to the court in Game 7 of the 1970 Finals, died Tuesday. He was 80. 🕯 Ric de Azevedo, a King Family singer who later worked on the production teams of early 1980s series Private Benjamin and Enos but might best be remembered for a surprising, tearful moment during a Vietnam-era Christmas special, died March 14 of an undisclosed illness in Fruit Heights, Utah. He was 75. 🕯 Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries |
|
On the Radar
Wed - Brian Cox on Fallon
Thu - TikTok CEO testifies before Congress; NCAA Sweet 16 begins; Lille Dialogues
Fri - Daisy Jones & The Six finale
Sun - Yellowjackets S2 premiere |
|
"Former President Selina Meyer" - President Joe Biden handed out the 2021 National Humanities Medals and the 2021 National Medals of Arts – awarding 23 extraordinary Americans with two of the nation’s highest honors for contributions to the arts and humanities. Among the recipients was Julia Louis-Dreyfus, with whom Biden had some fun as he played off her Veep character's stints in the White House. "I’m going to talk to Julia later about whether she liked being VP or President better,” Biden quipped, before noting he still wasn't sure which he preferred himself. |
|
|
