What's news: HBO Max orders a procedural set in the world of The Batman, AMC Theatres restructures its debt, Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy are adapting a Stephen King story for Netflix, Cate Blanchett and Thomas Kail ink Disney deals, Carina Adly MacKenzie out as Roswell, New Mexico showrunner, Disney World begins to reopen. Plus: Palm Springs Film Fest pushed back, and Run has taken its last steps at HBO. --Alex Weprin

 HBO Max Expanding The 'Batman' Universe

 HBO Max and Matt Reeves, the filmmaker behind the new Batman movie, have teamed up to develop a police drama series set in the crime-infested streets of the Caped Crusader’s hometown Gotham City. Terence Winter, who created the Prohibition crime drama Boardwalk Empire and cut his teeth on The Sopranos, will write and executive produce the series, which is coming with a series commitment from HBO Max. Batman producer Dylan Clark and Warner Bros. Television are also involved.

--Here’s the cool wrinkle: The show will operate in the same story universe as Reeves’ movie, The Batman, which stars Robert Pattinson as Batman. It also has Jeffrey Wright in the role of detective or police commissioner James Gordon. The story.

+Related: Richard Newby writes about how a The Batman TV show could explore policing in today's climate. The column.

+Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy are adapting Stephen King's Mr. Harrigan's Phone for Netflix. The story comes from the New York Times best-selling collection If It Bleeds and follows a young boy who befriends an older billionaire who lives in his small-town neighborhood. They bond over the man’s first iPhone. But when the man dies, the boy discovers that not everything dead is gone and finds himself able to communicate with his friend from the grave by leaving voicemails on the iPhone that was buried with him. The story.

+Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley tackling Little Monsters for Universal. The movie is a live-action hybrid monster feature that will be produced by Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman of Mandeville Films. The story.

+Monster Hunter movie delays September release to spring 2021. Screen Gems’ big-screen adaptation of the Capcom video game is pushing its theatrical release from Sept. 4, 2020, to April 23, 2021, becoming the latest Hollywood event pic to be delayed amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. More.

►AMC Theatres unveils new debt deal with bondholders. The proposed debt exchange includes the Silver Lake Group purchasing $100 million in new senior notes, a financial lifeline for the exhibitor amid the coronavirus pandemic. The deal to allow Silver Lake to get further up the repayment line in the event of a bankruptcy is expected to meet with opposition from rival senior lenders that include Apollo Global Management and Ares Management Corp. The story.

 Disney Deals

 Cate Blanchett is strengthening her ties to FX. The two-time Oscar winner and star of FX on Hulu's Mrs. America has signed an exclusive first-look TV deal with FX Productions through her company, Dirty Films. The agreement covers scripted and unscripted programming at FX and potentially other divisions of Walt Disney Television as well. The story.

+Hamilton director Thomas Kail, Jennifer Todd sign overall deal at Disney's 20th TV. The Hamilton director and Emmy-nominated producer have signed an overall TV deal at the Disney Television Studios unit. The duo have also formed a new television company that will develop projects across all platforms under Kail's Old 320 Sycamore banner. More.

►Carina Adly MacKenzie out as Roswell, New Mexico showrunner. According to multiple insiders, the first-time showrunner's relationship with studio Warner Bros. Television had been strained for some time. One of the latest points of contention came late last month when MacKenzie, who created the soapy drama renewed for a third season in January, fired off a series of tweets.

--One source, in particular, says that Warner Bros. had to do "damage control" with a foreign distributor after MacKenzie accused ITV in the U.K. of homophobia, biphobia and bigotry for cutting selective sex scenes from her show. The story.

 An independent filmmaker is challenging the ability of the government to charge fees for commercial shoots in national parks — and he's pushing back against its defense that the act of filming isn't protected by the First Amendment.

--Gordon Price in December sued U.S. Attorney General William Barr, along with heads of the National Parks Service and Department of the Interior. He had been cited by NPS for filming without a permit in public areas of the Yorktown Battlefield in Virginia's Colonial National Historical Park for his feature Crawford Road, which centers on a stretch of road in the area that is rumored to be haunted and is home to multiple unsolved murders. The filmmaker argues that charging a fee for commercial shoots in national parks is effectively an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech. The story.

+Tfue's California suit against FaZe Clan dismissed as New York trial approaches. The battle between the Fortnite star and his former gaming organization is currently set for an October trial. More.

 Film Fests Adjust Plans

►Palm Springs Film Fest dates pushed back due to pandemic. The 2021 fest, which was previously scheduled to run from Thursday, Jan. 7 through Monday, Jan. 18, will now take place from Thursday, Feb. 25 through Monday, March 8. Meanwhile, the fest's glitzy awards gala at the sprawling Palm Springs Convention Center — a major stop for top contenders on the road to the Oscars — has moved from Thursday, Jan. 7 to Thursday, Feb. 25. The story.

+Toronto Film Festival unveils plans for first-ever virtual industry conference. TIFF's online plans include industry conference sessions, networking events and digital showcases of film titles by national cinema agencies. Planning for a first-time online industry conference follows the physical edition of the Toronto Film Festival, set to run Sept. 10 to 19, being sharply reduced in size and scope due to the coronavirus pandemic. The story.

►The Moodys renewed for second season at Fox. The first season, centered around a dysfunctional Chicago family at Christmas, aired six episodes over three nights in December 2019. Season two, however, will not be centered around the holidays and will instead continue to follow the Moody family through their everyday lives. More.

+Run has taken its last steps at HBO. The dark comedy series from Fleabag and Killing Eve duo Vicky Jones and Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been canceled at the premium cable network after a one-season run. More.

►Nielsen reverses delay on out-of-home viewing data after network protests. The reversal comes a day after the data company said it would delay integrating out-of-home viewing into its "currency" data that's used to set ad rates for linear TV networks. More.

►Disney's reopening rules: A large portion of the Walt Disney World Resort will reopen this morning, and the company is making it clear the new health and safety measures in place are not suggestions, they are rules. "We have taken enhanced health and safety measures—for you, our other guests, and cast members. You must follow all posted instructions while visiting Walt Disney World Resort," a warning reads while entering the park. More.

►Awards Chatter podcast: Conan O'Brien, the current dean of late night TV hosts reflects on his 27 years in the format, his infamous experience with Jay Leno over The Tonight Show and why since 2018 — when he shortened his TBS show and launched a podcast — he's been having the time of his life. Listen.

►TV review: Inkoo Kang reviews Netflix's Indian Matchmaking, writing that "the series makes relatable a much-misunderstood practice that's been forced to contend with shifting gender roles, modernizing criteria for matches and stiff competition from the romance of 'love marriage.'" The review.

►TV Long View: Networks canceled a little less than half of their first-year scripted series, continuing a trend of patience with new shows, Rick Porter writes. With ratings for initial airings becoming a progressively smaller piece of a given show's total audience, the trend has been to keep more series that five to 10 years ago would have been jettisoned. The column.

►TV ratings: ABC's game-show lineup returned after a week off Thursday — and regained its place as the top network among adults 18-49 in primetime. Holey Moley, Don't and To Tell the Truth recorded the three top 18-49 ratings on the broadcast networks for the night. The numbers.

In other news...

--In the latest episode of her Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk, Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith sat down together to have a conversation about their relationship and recent headlines about her affair with singer-songwriter August Alsina.

--Netflix's inaugural comedy festival, Netflix Is a Joke Fest, has been canceled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

--A new multi-year deal between Shout! Factory and Mill Creek Entertainment will see Shout! Take exclusive SVOD and AVOD rights in the U.S. and Canada for roughly 1,100 episodes of television and 20 movies of Japan's Ultraman!

--While a guest on Thursday's SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, Ludacris tipped his hand and alluded that a portion of the highly-anticipated F9 will take place in space.

--ESPN said that an email sent by NBA writer Adrian Wojnarowski to Republican Sen. Josh Hawley was "completely unacceptable."

--Armie Hammer took to social media on Friday to announce that he and wife Elizabeth Chambers are divorcing after 10 years of marriage.

--Ethan Hawke brings light to innovator Nikola Tesla's life in the first trailer for Tesla.

What else we're reading...

--"Tucker Carlson's top writer resigns after secretly posting racist and sexist remarks in online forum" [CNN Business]

--"Amazon told employees to delete TikTok from phones, citing security risks, then changed its mind" [CNBC]

--"Facebook said to consider banning political ads" [NY Times]

--"Inside the epic one-shot finale of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist" [Vanity Fair]

Today's birthdays: Lil' Kim, 46, Giorgio Armani, 86, Joan Smalls, 32, Mindy Sterling, 67, Lisa Rinna, 57.