What's news: Netflix has a huge quarter, WarnerMedia plans to rethink its theatrical model as AT&T reports COVID-impacted earnings, inside Ryan Murphy's Hollywood, how VFX houses are still working, an interview with the CEO of Eros India about the STX merger, Hunger Games prequel details set. Plus: Scoob! goes straight to VOD and streaming, and THR's TV critics re-watch My So-Called Life. --Alex Weprin

 Ryan Murphy's 'Hollywood'

Ryan Murphy's (kinda) true 'Hollywood' story: 1940s meets gay stars, interracial romance and (gasp!) a female studio chief. The prolific TV creator and Netflix unveil a revisionist take on the golden age of movies, showing how much (and how little) has shifted in entertainment and beyond, Lacey Rose reports: "'Hollywood' can change the world."

+If Pose was Murphy's effort to champion the marginalized, Hollywood's his shot at imagining such marginalization was undone decades ago. "I've always been interested in this kind of buried history, and I wanted to create a universe where these icons got the endings that they deserved," says Murphy, 55, who's been waiting out the virus at his home in Los Angeles, with his husband and two young sons, who now require homeschooling. "It's this beautiful fantasy, and in these times, it could be a sort of balm in some way."

+On working with Netflix: "To date, Murphy claims he has yet to hear the word 'no' from his Netflix bosses, though he's definitely been nudged in certain directions. 'They don't want me to do small, niche things,' he says, acknowledging that not too long ago a project like Hollywood would have been deemed just that. 'But they know how to market this,' he explains, noting that Netflix will push his latest series on viewers who also like love stories, young adult series and LGBTQ fare." The story.

+Ryan Murphy's Hollywood: Meet the (familiar) cast of the Netflix period drama. From Darren Criss to Patti LuPone, the show's co-creator loaded his latest ensemble with a mix of stars his fans have seen before. Here's your guide to the cast.

And while we're on the topic of Netflix...



►Netflix adds nearly 16 million subscribers amid virus shutdown. Netflix had expected to add just 7 million subs during the first quarter, but the company forecast that growth before the full effects of the pandemic had been felt globally. CEO Reed Hastings wrote in a letter to investors that Netflix is seeing "temporarily higher viewing and increased membership growth," but "we expected viewing to decline and membership growth to decelerate as home confinement ends, which we hope is soon."

--What next? The company is forecasting that it will add 7.5 million subs during the second quarter, which spans the April-to-June period during which people largely have been sheltering at home but noted that the figure is "mostly guesswork" given the uncertainty around how long the shutdown will last.

--Also: Hastings praised Disney+, telling investors "I've never seen such a good execution of the incumbent learning the new way and mastering it," while content chief Ted Sarandos outlined the impact the pandemic is having on the service's production pipeline. The story.

+Netflix numbers. Let's cut right to the chase: Netflix says that 64 million accounts "chose to watch" Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, but the hot doc was bested by the fourth installment of the Spanish drama Money Heist, which was watched by 65 million accounts and the feature film Spenser Confidential, which was watched by 85 million accounts. The numbers.

+Netflix debt: The company said Wednesday it would raise $1 billion via its latest debt offering to boost its war chest for such things as content spending and potential acquisitions. Netflix's debt raises have in recent years typically come in April and October and have recently mostly been for around $2 billion each. More.

+Netflix exec pay: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' compensation reached $38.6 million, up about 7 percent compared with $36.1 million in 2018, the streaming video giant disclosed in a regulatory filing Wednesday. Chief content officer Ted Sarandos, meanwhile, got a compensation package worth $34.7 million, up 17 percent. That compared with $29.6 million in 2018. More.

►While Netflix gained, AT&T and its WarnerMedia business felt the pain. The telecom giant detailed a $430 million hit to quarterly earnings, and added: "The economic effects of the pandemic and resulting societal changes are currently not predictable." The company lost more than one million pay-TV subscribers at DirecTV and AT&T Now, while ad revenue and theatrical revenue at WarnerMedia fell by more than 20 percent year over year, owing to the canceled NCAA March Madness basketball tourney, and the closure of movie theaters.

--What's next? AT&T COO John Stankey told investors on the earnings call that WarnerMedia is “rethinking our theatrical model,” and expects more films to go to VOD and streaming platforms (see the plans for Scoob! below), at least until the future of theatrical is more clear. The company is also "continuing to explore" asset sales, even with the troubled economic environment. The story.

+Snap grows daily active users to 229 million. Snap Inc., which owns the messaging app, saw daily active users rise from 218 million at the end of the previous quarter, as usage grew during the first two months of the current corona pandemic as people shelter in their homes. More.

+"Flying as blind as everyone else": What Hollywood earnings season won't show. While most media and entertainment giants have withdrawn guidance, Wall Street tries to figure out what lost box office, TV advertising and delayed spending adds up to, Georg Szalai reports.

Quote: "In my view, the major clue as to what's happening will appear in the first-quarter balance sheets and cash-flow statements," says Hal Vogel, CEO of Vogel Capital Management. "My guess is that these will be horrible and suggest that the companies will need to borrow much more … and that the financial risks are amplified even if there's a turnaround and economic opening by the third quarter." The story.

 VFX Soldiers On

►How VFX houses are dealing with remote work, security concerns amid virus crisis. Smaller post-production companies are proving nimble players in adjusting to the new normal but some fear a downturn may be coming, Scott Roxborough reports.

Quote: "Productions that have wrapped are still keen to hit their delivery targets," says Florian Gellinger of German VFX house Rise, currently in post on season 3 of Netflix drama Dark (pictured above), Disney+ feature Artemis Fowl and the STX actioner Gunpowder Milkshake starring Karen Gillan, Lena Headey and Angela Bassett. "Some of the bigger productions are covering their bets by putting out work to multiple smaller VFX houses at once." The story.

In other business news...

+Abigail Disney slams Walt Disney Co. for protecting bonuses, dividends while furloughing 100,000. Responding on Twitter to news of the furloughs, the Disney heir said that the money would "pay for three months' salary to frontline workers," adding that it was instead going to "people who have already been collecting egregious bonuses for years." The story.

+Eros India CEO explains STX merger logic: "The bigger story is on the OTT side." Pradeep Dwivedi says the two companies can complement each other in a bid to expand in India, appeal to Chinese sensibilities and compete with the streamers, Nyay Bhushan and Patrick Brzeski report. The interview.

+Facebook invests $5.7 billion in India's Reliance Jio. The mobile telecommunications arm of the conglomerate Reliance Industries, Reliance Jio was established in 2016 and has quickly established itself as a dominant player in India with over 370 million subscribers making it the largest mobile telco in the country and third largest in the world by subscribers. The story.

"They've made it personal": How California is enlisting star residents for stay-at-home PSAs. Local officials have partnered with some of its most recognizable residents to help spread live-saving messaging, arriving at a time when disinformation about the virus is being spread by other stars, Chris Gardner reports. The story.

►How I'm Living Now: Jesse Eisenberg, actor-producer. As the shelter-in-place order came down in Los Angeles, Jesse Eisenberg, with his wife, Anna Strout, and their three year-old son, piled into an RV for an impromptu road trip. "It felt like the safest way to do it for us and others," says the Oscar nominee, who spent ten days in the camper making his way to Bloomington, Indiana, where he and Strout planned to volunteer and help with fundraising efforts for the local domestic violence shelter where his mother-in-law has long worked. The multihyphenate — who stars in two new films currently on VOD, sci-fi feature Vivarium and WWII drama Resistance— spoke with THR about the "out of the blue" text he got from Amy Schumer and selling ferns. The interview.



In other coronavirus-related news...

--Representatives for CNN and MSNBC denied a claim made by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign that the networks are intentionally delaying broadcasts of the president's daily coronavirus briefings as part of an effort to "silence him."

--The Freelancers Union is calling on legislators to expand virus loan relief to the self-employed.

--This year's Scripps National Spelling Bee has been canceled after organizers concluded there is "no clear path to safely set a new date in 2020" because of the coronavirus pandemic. The bee, televised by ESPN since 1994, had only previously been canceled in 1943-45 because of World War II.

--MTV on Tuesday announced that its iconic Club MTV franchise from the late 1980s and early '90s is returning for a live one-night musical event on April 25, featuring renowned DJ Derrick "D-Nice" Jones.

--European film distribution bodies have said that their representatives need urgent support during the ongoing coronavirus crisis if they are to avoid a "long-term catastrophe."

Obituary: Andrew J. Fenady, the writer, producer and novelist who worked on such TV shows as Branded and The Rebel and films including Terror in the Wax Museum and The Man With Bogart's Face, has died. He was 91...

 'Hunger Games' Prequel Details

►Hunger Games prequel movie in the works at Lionsgate. Suzanne Collins' new book will be turned into a movie by director Francis Lawrence, screenwriter Michael Arndt and producer Nina Jacobson, who teamed with the studio on four movie adaptations of earlier Collins' books — The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay — that took in nearly $3 billion in box office. The story.

►Warner Bros. sending Scoob! straight to on-demand in May. The studio has decided to scrap the film's theatrical release in order to make it available to families as soon as possible amid the coronavirus pandemic.

--In March, cinema owners were angered when Universal announced it was breaking the theatrical window in order to make Trolls World Tour available both in the home and in any theaters that remained open. The pic, which debuted April 10, scored the biggest first weekend of any digital title in history, according to Universal (no numbers were provided). The story.

 Sony is pushing back the Venom sequel release from fall 2020 to summer 2021. The studio also announced the movie's official title: Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The movie had been set to hit theaters on Oct. 2, 2020. It will now go out on June 25, 2021, the date formerly occupied by Warner Bros.' Batman reboot. The story.

+One Punch Man movie in the works at Sony. Sony Pictures is adapting the popular manga as a feature film, and has tapped screenwriters Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, the duo known for Jumanji: The Next Level and Venom. More.

+Comic Book publishers unite for fund to help stores. DC has teamed with Oni-Lion Forge as well as the Book Industry Charitable Foundation to assist businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. More.

+Also: Chris Pine is lining up another action role. The actor is in talks to star in Paramount's reboot of the spy thriller The Saint.

+One other date change: Warner Bros.' big-screen musical In the Heights has landed a new June 18, 2021 release date, the studio said Tuesday. The film had originally been set to dance into theaters on June 26, 2020, but was pulled last month from this year's calendar due to the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic. More.

►SXSW-Amazon virtual fest sets slim lineup for April 27 launch. All total, only five percent of the 135 feature films that were invited decided to opt in for the virtual event. Films with distribution, like Netflix's The Lovebirds and Neon's She Dies Tomorrow, were expected to turn down Amazon's offer. But the vast majority still looking for a buyer decided to opt out as well. The story.

+Venice festival director open to Cannes cooperation. Working with Cannes would be "sign of solidarity" during the COVID-19 crisis, Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera told Italian media on Tuesday. More.

+IFC's offer: As theaters across the nation reopen in the coming months after closures due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, IFC Films will offer library titles to indie houses and waive the rental fees. The company is calling the initiative the Indie Theater Revival Project. More.

+Neon to release Spaceship Earth doc in drive-ins, pop-ups and online. “Neon has never released a film without the benefit of theaters and Spaceship Earth is no exception to that rule,” Neon founder and CEO Tom Quinn said Tuesday in a statement.

--With the vast majority of U.S. movie theaters cinemas shut down due to the coronavirus, Spaceship Earth will play theatrically in participating drive-ins and on select pop-up projections safely accessible to self-distancing movie-goers. Neon has also arranged with exhibitors to promote the film on theater websites, while the release strategy includes simultaneous digital play on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, FandangoNow, Vudu, DirecTV, Dish and Hulu. The story.



^U.S. video game spending sees explosive growth in March, tops $1.6 billion. With a majority of states enforcing some form of "shelter in place" order amid the coronavirus pandemic, video game spending in the U.S. saw a 36 percent increase year-over-year, per the NPD Group. The number is the highest reported spend for the month of March since 2008, which topped $1.8 billion. The story.

 Two weeks ago, Mark Geragos filed a flurry of lawsuits in Los Angeles Superior Court aimed at forcing Travelers Insurance to cover his law firm from losses stemming from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's order to close non-essential businesses. Now, Travelers Insurance has gone on the offense. On Monday, led by Gibson Dunn partner Ted Boutrous, Travelers filed its own lawsuit against Geragos' firm in federal court and is seeking a declaratory judgment that Geragos' insurance policies doesn't cover the novel coronavirus. The story.

+Major League Baseball, Live Nation sued over coronavirus refunds. The lawsuit — which was filed by a New York Mets 2020 season-ticket holder and a woman who bought a pack of six tickets to a Yankees-Red Sox game that had been scheduled for May — targets the league itself; each individual team; StubHub; and Ticketmaster and its parent, Live Nation. More.

►TV ratings: The Voice ruled Monday's ratings, leading primetime by sizable margins in both adults 18-49 and total viewers. It also dominated the second week of The Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart on ABC, which was about even with its premiere. The numbers.

►Critics' re-watch: My So-Called Life, timeless classic or teenage wasteland? THR's TV critics Inkoo Kang and Daniel Fienberg revisit the 1994 teen drama that launched the careers of Claire Danes and Jared Leto, debating its resonance today, its treatment of a prominent gay character, the depressing relatability of Brian Krakow and more. The re-watch.

►TV reviews: Inkoo Kang reviews Mindy Kaling's new Netflix series Never Have I Ever. The review... Daniel Fienberg reviews Apple TV+'s Defending Jacob. The review...

Revolving door: Allie Goss, who made her mark as one of the earliest executives at Netflix, has joined Made Up Stories, the production banner run Bruna Papandrea...  Actor Shahab Hosseini, director Kourosh Ahari and producer Alex Bretow have formed the company Pol Media... Annapurna has become the latest entertainment company to shed staff members amid the coronavirus outbreak. CFO James Pong, assistants and junior staff members are among those who have been let go during the economic fallout that has ensued from the worldwide pandemic.

In other news...

--Enola Holmes, Legendary Entertainment's adventure movie centered on Sherlock Holmes' teen sister, has been picked up by Netflix.

--Apple TV+ has picked up a short-form reboot of the children's show Fraggle Rock.

--The cancelled Banff World Media Festival on Tuesday revealed its nominations for its Rockie Awards, with American and British TV producers dominating the competition.

--Michael Moore is expanding the scope of his Rumble Media banner with the release of an environmental feature documentary on YouTube.

--Jim Meyer, CEO of satellite radio company SiriusXM, saw his total compensation for 2019 rise 6.5 percent to $18.78 million, up from $17.63 million in 2018.

What else we're reading...

--"Vice Media document lays out plan for layoffs amid coronavirus pandemic" [WSJ]

--"NBA wants to finish rest of the season; start next season in December" [CNBC]

--"10 Million people watched the Dropkick Murphys play online. Is that a business model?" [WSJ]

Today's birthdays: Jack Nicholson, 83, Peter Frampton, 70, Machine Gun Kelly, 30, Sherri Shepherd, 53, Kaka, 38.