| | | | What's news: Marvel Entertainment chief Ike Perlmutter is out at Disney. Netflix has renewed The Night Agent. Grown-ish will end with its sixth season. Paramount has picked up horror He'll Come Knocking. Lee Cronin will direct Thaw for New Line. Roku is laying off more staff. — Abid Rahman |
Disney Outmaneuvers DeSantis' Board ►Mouse of cards. THR's Winston Cho reports that a legal battle is brewing over an agreement that transferred the powers of Disney’s now-dissolved special district back to the company before Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis assumed control of the board. As it stands, the board is currently powerless beyond the ability to maintain roads and other basic infrastructure. The agreement restricting the new board’s rights is "in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England living as of the date of this Declaration." The story.
—Iger king. Marvel mogul Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter is out at Disney. The billionaire, who sold the comic book giant Marvel to Disney in 2009, was told Wednesday that the company is folding his Marvel Entertainment unit into other parts of the company and that he would be let go. Marvel Entertainment is focused mostly on consumer products and is not part of the lucrative Marvel Studios division led by Kevin Feige. Rob Steffens, the co-president of Marvel Entertainment, was also let go. The story.
—Back to earth. The value of WBD CEO David Zaslav’s compensation package for 2022, which saw the Discovery-WarnerMedia merger close in April, hit $39.3m. In 2021, the then-Discovery CEO had received a pay package worth $246m, an enormous jump compared with $37.7m in 2020 and $45.8m in 2019 that was driven by a May 2021 employment agreement that is set to keep Zaslav at the company through the end of 2027. The story.
—"The campaign is full steam ahead." The Army will run ads this Saturday during the NCAA Final Four Tournament using existing footage from older commercials and unused material instead of featuring Jonathan Majors. A day after the actor was arrested last weekend for allegedly assaulting a woman, the Army announced that it would pull ads from its new campaign aimed at enlisting Gen Z. The repurposed ads will help ensure the Army avoids losses in its planned $70m ad buy. The story.
—Trailblazer. Leo D. Sullivan, the groundbreaking Black animator who contributed to the iconic opening for Soul Train and to cartoons featuring Fat Albert, Transformers and My Little Pony during his 50-year-plus career, has died. He was 82. The Emmy-winning Sullivan also was a writer, producer, director, layout artist and storyboard artist at studios including Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros., Filmation, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, DIC Entertainment and Marvel Productions. The obituary. |
'Blue Bloods' Renewed as Stars, Producers Take 25 Percent Pay Cut ►All in it together. THR's Lesley Goldberg reports that CBS has renewed the venerable cop drama Blue Bloods for its 14th season after the cast and producers agreed to take what sources described as a 25 percent pay cut. Sources close to the production say the stars and key producers all agreed to the pay reduction in order to keep the show running and keep the hundreds of staffers employed for another season. The story.
—No-brainer. Netflix has handed out a swift second-season renewal to thriller The Night Agent. The Gabriel Basso starrer, from Sony Pictures Television and showrunner Shawn Ryan, debuted Thursday and immediately reached No. 1 on streamer's English TV list with more than 168m hours watched, making it the most viewed title this week. The second season will arrive in 2024 and consist of another round of 10 episodes. The story.
—Sex Bob-Omb assemble! Netflix's Scott Pilgrim anime series will bring back the cast of Edgar Wright's cult 2010 film, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Michael Cera will voice star as Scott Pilgrim and Mary Elizabeth Winstead will reprise her role as Ramona Flowers. Other returning castmembers include Satya Bhabha, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman, Johnny Simmons, Mark Webber, Mae Whitman and Ellen Wong. The story.
—Next up. Beef star Ali Wong will lead the voice cast of Netflix's Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld, a new supernatural action series from first-time showrunner Echo Wu. Lucy Liu, Bowen Yang, Jimmy O. Yang, Lori Tan Chinn, Sheng Wang and Woosung Kim are set to voice star. Titmouse serves as the animation studio for the 2D series, which counts Wong, Wu and Aron Eli Coleite as executive producers. The story.
—End of the –ish universe. Black-ish spinoff Grown-ish will end with its previously announced sixth season on Freeform. The final season will be split into two parts, with the first half airing at a date to be determined this summer and the final episodes airing sometime in 2024. Grown-ish marks the conclusion of the –ish universe that started with Kenya Barris’ ABC comedy Black-ish. The story. |
'Snowfall' Star On Character's Tragic Fate ►"It’s not a fairy tale." Without spoiling too much, or giving his name, THR's Hilary Lewis spoke to the Snowfall actor about learning his role would come to an end and how it serves as "a cautionary tale" as well as making his directorial debut with next week's eighth episode in the sixth and final season of FX's drama. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—The horror. The horror. THR's Borys Kit has the scoop on Paramount picking up buzzy spec horror package He’ll Come Knocking. There’s Someone Inside Your House's Patrick Brice is on board to direct the feature, which is written by Jordan Goldberg and Alex Paraskevas. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey’s Temple Hill Entertainment, which was behind the surprise horror hit Smile for the studio, is producing Knocking. The story.
—Rising talent. Borys also has the scoop on Lee Cronin, director of New Line’s upcoming Evil Dead Rise, reuniting with the studio to direct the original horror feature Thaw. Jeremy Passmore wrote the original spec, which Cronin will now rewrite. Set years after the polar ice caps have melted, Thaw centers on a group of survivors at sea searching for a new home. The story.
—Making moves. Popular strategy board game Terra Mystica is set for a screen adaptation by Cobalt Knight, the production company co-founded by Christopher Kaminski and Christopher Knox. Terra Mystica is set in a land with 14 different peoples in seven landscapes. As each group develops and grows, it has to terraform, or absorb, neighboring lands and build towns for dominance in competition with other groups. The story.
—Back in the game. BET is getting back into the daily programming game for the first time in almost a decade. The Paramount Global-owned cable outlet has partnered with iHeartMedia to air a daily broadcast of the syndicated Breakfast Club radio show, hosted by Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy on New York’s Power 105.1-FM. BET (and sister network VH1) will air a one-hour edition of the show at 9 a.m. ET weekdays starting April 17. The story. |
Potential WGA Strike Presents Disruption (and Opportunity) to Global Creators ►"[It would mean] sort of a forced vacation for a lot of us." If Hollywood writers go on strike the impact will be felt far beyond New York and Los Angeles. Insiders tell THR's Scott Roxborough and Etan Vlessing that a shutdown could boost demand for more international fare, but with so many U.S. shows shooting overseas, physical production could grind to a halt. The story.
—Oof! Warner Music Group, home to the likes of Ed Sheeran, Cardi B and Bruno Mars, is set to lay off 270 employees, or around 4 percent of its global workforce. On Wednesday, newly-installed CEO Robert Kyncl told staff via an internal memo that “we’re reallocating resources towards new skills for artist and songwriter development and new tech initiatives.” About 6,200 employees worked at Warner Music as of last September. The story.
—Oy! Roku is set to undergo another round of layoffs. The company says that it will cut another 200 jobs, or about 6 percent of its workforce, in the coming days and weeks. These would be the second round of layoffs at Roku in about four months, with the company previously having cut about 200 jobs last November, citing economic conditions. The story.
—Bah! Electronic Arts will lay off 6 percent of its workforce, or close to 800 jobs, the video game publisher disclosed Wednesday. This comes as part of the company’s restructuring plan, which will also include office space reductions and portfolio rationalization. In total, EA estimates it will incur about $170m to $200m in charges related to the plan. These actions are expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2023. The story. |
Bill Lawrence: "Everything Goes My Way" (He's Kidding! Sort Of) ►"Remember when a renewal was such a big deal? You’d sit around like this (crosses fingers), and now they tell you almost immediately if you’re doing another season." THR's Lacey Rose spoke to the prolific Bill Lawrence, the veteran showrunner behind the Apple hits Ted Lasso and Shrinking — not to mention sitcom favorites Spin City, Scrubs and Cougar Town — who revisits the ups, downs and biggest surprises of his long TV arc, including “the weirdest thing that ever happened to me” in Hollywood. The interview.
—🎭 In demand 🎭 The Joy Luck Club star Kieu Chinh has joined the ensemble cast of Apple TV+’s upcoming crime drama series Sinking Spring. The show also stars Brian Tyree Henry, Wagner Moura, Marin Ireland, Kate Mulgrew and Ving Rhames. Chinh will play a crime family matriarch in the series based on Dennis Tafoya’s book Dope Thief. Peter Craig is the showrunner and Ridley Scott will direct an episode and executive produce. The story.
—"There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of Friends and find them offensive." Jennifer Aniston recently opened up about how comedy has changed in the decades since Friends aired and sparked off some discourse on social media. While promoting her upcoming film Murder Mystery 2, Aniston explained that comedy is more complicated today than it used to be. The story.
—"I had a lot of laughs in between takes." On the heels of Renfield director Chris McKay saying Nicolas Cage went method on the set while playing Dracula, the veteran actor recalled his own version of events to THR's Kirsten Chuba at the film’s New York premiere. "I just don't have that recollection," Cage said of claims he went method, adding, "Maybe because I still had the fangs in my mouth that made me speak a certain way, but that wasn't my experience." The story. |
TV Review: 'Unstable' ►"Not very deep, but very, very funny." THR's Angie Han reviews Netflix's Unstable. An eccentric entrepreneur's son comes to work for him in a comedy Rob Lowe and son John Owen co-created with Victor Fresco (Santa Clarita Diet, Better Off Ted). The review.
In other news...
—Barry S4 official trailer gives a dire Look at final season
—Quinta Brunson needs to work on her pranks in SNL promo
—Brian Cox and Alan Cumming jam to Spice Girls in Carpool Karaoke teaser
—Madison Square Garden board approves spinoff plans
—Germany’s Bertelsmann hits revenue record, halves profit in 2022
—Film producers Bob Yari, Marvin Peart launch WonderHill Studios
—Wild Bunch International rebranded as Goodfellas
What else we're reading...
—Critic James Poniewozik reflects on Apple's Extrapolations and the peril of climate cringe [NYT]
—The always hilarious Marina Hyde gives her take on Gwyneth Paltrow's "ski massacre trial" [Guardian]
—In a wonderful piece, Jake Kring-Schreifels looks at the ways the John Wick franchise pays homage to the Hong Kong kung fu masters and stuntmen who came before it [Ringer]
—If Twitter finally does die, Matt Pearce wonders where the chattering classes will go to next [LAT]
—John Hendrickson looks at how pro wrestling explains America [Atlantic]
Today...
...in 1988, Warner Bros. unveiled Tim Burton and Michael Keaton’s Beetlejuice in theaters. The cult hit film later claimed an Oscar win for makeup at the 61st Academy Awards. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Céline Dion (55), Anitta (30), Warren Beatty (86), John Astin (93), Norah Jones (44), Simone Ashley (28), Katy Mixon (42), Pete Holmes (44), Fiona Gubelmann (43), Paul Reiser (67), Corey Cott (33), Jason Dohring (41), Donna D'Errico (55), Helena Mattsson (39), Gideon Adlon (26), Cassandra Scerbo (33), Juliet Landau (58), Mili Avital (51), Mark Consuelos (52), Patrick Brammall (47), Ian Ziering (59), Tessa Ferrer (37), Chelsea Harris (33), Bahar Soomekh (48) |
| N’Neka Garland, an Emmy-winning producer on General Hospital who spent the past 22 years with the venerable ABC soap opera, has died. She was 49. The obituary. |
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