Today In Entertainment

SEPTEMBER 03, 2020

What's news: Range Media Partners launches after agency exodus, UTA to reinstate pay but lay off staff, Disney prepares for its big Mulan experiment, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ink Netflix deal, SAG-AFTRA ratifies animation deal, the latest from Venice. Plus: A Pretty Little Liars reboot, and a new trailer for No Time To Die. --Alex Weprin

 The New Player in Town

➤After agency exodus, top reps unveil new firm Range Media Partners. A week after their high-profile exits, agents who represented A-list clients ranging from Michael Bay and Margot Robbie to Zac Efron and Tiffany Haddish have launched their new management and brand development company.

--Dave Bugliari, Mackenzie Condon Roussos, Rich Cook, Michael Cooper, Susie Fox, Sandra Kang, Rachel Kropa, Chelsea McKinnies, Peter Micelli, Lucinda Moorhead, Mick Sullivan and Jack Whigham, who left agencies CAA, UTA, and WME, are the founding partners in the new company. New York-based manager Byron Wetzel also joined last week. The initial focus will be on film and television talent, but the company said Wednesday that an additional founding member who will lead a music division will be announced soon. The story.

+UTA will reinstate pay, but lay off staff. In a memo to staff, United Talent Agency CEO Jeremy Zimmer delivered both "positive" and "difficult" news, writing that the agency would be reinstating full pay to its employees in the next two weeks, but would also be laying off 50 staffers. The layoffs will affect both current and some furloughed employees across several divisions, at both the assistant and agent level. The story.

 Disney Readies 'Mulan' Experiment

➤Disney's Mulan sets sail over Labor Day weekend on a historic dual premium VOD-theatrical journey as Hollywood struggles to rebound from the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic by testing new release models. The live-action adaptation of the classic animated pic will be made available to Disney+ subscribers in the U.S. and select international markets on Sept. 4 at a premium price. Those paying to watch the film will have access to it for as long as they remain customers of the streaming service. In the U.S., the cost is $29.99. Additionally, the studio announced Tuesday that Mulan will be made available to all Disney+ members at no extra charge on Dec. 4. The story.

➤Performers' union SAG-AFTRA has ratified a three-year TV animation contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, in a vote of 87.68 percent in favor and 12.32 percent opposed. "This is a strong, future-focused agreement with significant gains for our members," said SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris of the contract, which covers animated programs produced for network television, basic cable and streaming platforms. The story.

➤Venice Film Festival: Tilda Swinton paid tribute to cinema, "my true motherland" and, closing with a simple "Wakanda Foever" gave a graceful nod to her late colleague Chadwick Boseman, in a stirring awards speech Wednesday night as the British actress accepted a Golden Lion for career achievement at the Venice International Film Festival.

--Before Swinton's accepted the prize from Venice jury president Cate Blanchett, the audience heard a stirring tribute to Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who died earlier this year, and a powerful message of solidarity from the directors of Europe's major festivals. The story.

+Swinton, Pedro Almodovar on shooting The Human Voice under lockdown and saving cinema. "Despite the uncertainty we have to go on, we have to continue to make films. to make cinema," Almodovar said. "You have to tell people to go to the cinema, Because some things can only be discovered on the big screen, in the dark with people you don't know." More.

+Meanwhile in Toronto: As the Toronto Film Festival gets set to host a slimmed-down and virtual 45th edition in September, the traditional awards season launch pad for Hollywood is nearing gender equality. On Wednesday, TIFF organizers revealed that the 2020 lineup of around 50 movie titles will be 45 percent directed, co-directed or created by women. The story.

 Netflix Links Up With Harry and Meghan

➤The duke and duchess of Sussex are Hollywood players now. Britain's Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle have signed a multiyear overall deal at Netflix. The deal will cover scripted and unscripted TV series, documentaries, feature films and kids' programming.

--The deal comes seven months after the couple announced they would "step back" as senior members of the British royal family. Their signing with Netflix echoes the deal made by former President Barack Obama and wife Michelle, whose Higher Ground Productions produced the Oscar-winning documentary American Factory for the streamer. The story.

+A Pretty Little Liars reboot? Three years after Pretty Little Liars wrapped its seven-season run and a year after its second spinoff was canceled, Warner Bros. TV is ready to revive the legacy franchise. Sources tell Lesley Goldberg that Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is spearheading a new take on the former Freeform mega-hit. The new PLL is said to feature a new story and new characters, with Aguirre-Sacasa set to pen the script. No network is attached just yet. The story.

+Lisa Nishimura talks pandemic impact on Netflix's indie and doc businesses. The streamer's vp independent film and documentary features also opens up about Hollywood’s equality reckoning and the bygone "intimacy" of Netflix's early days. "The way that traditional distribution worked wasn’t always in favor of something that might be specialty or more nuanced. The beauty of Netflix is you can have a massive blockbuster next to an independent film, so it gives it equal opportunity. It allows the work to rise on its own merits." The interview.

+Paramount Network has canceled its dramedy 68 Whiskey after a single season. The M*A*S*H-esque show follows military medics at a base in Afghanistan. It debuted to decent ratings in January but faded some as the season wore on. Its 10-episode run wrapped in March; the series streams on CBS All Access. More.

+Star Trek: Discovery will introduce the franchise's first non-binary and transgender characters in season three. Blu del Barrio will play the show's first non-binary character, named Adira, in their television debut. Ian Alexander will play Gray, becoming the first transgender actor in the Trek universe. More.

+Marie Osmond is leaving CBS' daytime show The Talk after a single season. The decision comes as the show is gearing up for its 11th season on the network. It also follows news that executive producer and showrunner John Redmann, who had been with the show since its beginnings, is exiting. More.

➤Your 2020 preidential debate moderators: Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, C-SPAN host Steve Scully and NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker have been tapped to moderate the three debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, while USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page will moderate the VP debate. More.

➤No Time To Die trailer: Movie trailers, remember them? After an unexpectedly 007-less 2020 so far, with No Time to Die pushed from its original April launch date due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Universal has fired up the marketing motors of the 25th installment of Eon's spy franchise ahead of its delayed November release. Watch here.

➤TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews season two of Amazon's The Boys, writing that "if the team behind The Boys put half the time and thought into plot, characterization and action that they put into finding different ways to blow people to kingdom come, it would truly be one of the best shows on TV." The review.

Deals: Vertical Entertainment has picked up the North American distribution rights to Then Came You, a romantic comedy written by and starring Kathie Lee Gifford... Sony Pictures Classics has picked up the world rights, excluding Italy, to Luca Guadagnino’s Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams...

Revolving door: International star Famke Janssen has signed with APA for representation in all areas.... Comedy Central executive Kellyn Parker is headed to ABC Signature. Parker will be vp comedy development at the Disney Television Studios unit... Feature and TV Peanuts writing duo Cornelius Uliano and Bryan Schulz have signed with APA... Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris will star alongside John Boyega in Netflix's sci-fi mystery They Cloned Tyrone... Cooper Hoffman, the son of Oscar-winning actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman, is starring in Paul Thomas Anderson's untitled 1970s-set coming-of-age story...

Obituaries: W. Russell Barry, a former president of 20th Century Fox Television and chairman of Turner Program Services, died Aug. 26 of pulmonary fibrosis at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, his daughter Sharon announced. He was 84... Tom Seaver, the galvanizing leader of the Miracle Mets 1969 championship team and a pitcher who personified the rise of expansion teams during an era of radical change for baseball, has died. He was 75...

In other news...

--Altice USA, led by CEO Dexter Goei, on Wednesday unveiled a $7.8 billion offer to acquire Canadian cable giant Cogeco Co. with the goal of keeping its U.S. assets, which operate under the name Atlantic Broadband, for $3.6 billion.

--Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp., the special purpose acquisition company controlled by former MGM CEO Harry Sloan and CBS entertainment president Jeff Sagansky, has found a merger partner. The SPAC will merge with Skillz Inc., a mobile gaming platform, making it a public company on the New York Stock Exchange.

--New BBC director general Tim Davie on Thursday unveiled plans to cut 900 jobs and outlined other initial focus areas for his tenure.

--Audible and nonprofit educational organization Sesame Workshop unveiled on Wednesday an original Sesame Street podcast for kids and families.

--Pinewood Atlanta Studios is introducing an LED-equipped stage for virtual production, in partnership with MBSi, the innovation arm of MBS Equipment Company; technical services provider Fuse Technical Group; and staging and rigging design firm SGPS/ShowRig.

--NBCUniversal's Spanish-language division Telemundo Enterprises will bring its political information series' Politi¿QUÉ?, to Snapchat, in English. The show, to be produced by Noticias Telemundo and hosted by Miriam Arias, is part of Telemundo's DECISIÓN 2020 news and civic engagement initiative. It will be the first time the social-first franchise will launch in English.

--Politically active actress Alyssa Milano — who already has a podcast, Sorry Not Sorry, that tackles the hot-button issues of the day — is launching a webinar series this fall focused on election security and voter activation.

--Dwayne Johnson, his wife and two daughters have tested positive for COVID-19. The actor took to Instagram Wednesday to reveal that he and his wife, Lauren and their daughters Jasmine, 4, and Tiana, 2, contracted the virus after being around family friends.  

What else we're reading...

--"Advertisers seek right to cancel TV spending as pandemic roils fall season" [WSJ]

--"Facebook will limit some advertising in the week before the US election -- but it will let politicians run ads with lies" [CNN Business]

--"Netflix joins Putin ally's National media for Russian rollout" [Bloomberg]

--"At Voice of America, Trump appointee sought political influence over coverage" [NPR]

--Michael Jordan is joining DraftKings as a shareholder and board adviser [Front Office Sports]

Today's birthdays: August Alsina, 28, Kaia Gerber, 19, Charlie Sheen, 55, Redfoo, 45, Al Jardine, 78.

Is this e-mail not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser. 

©2020 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved.

SEPTEMBER 03, 2020

UNSUBSCRIBE 

MANAGE PREFERENCES

PRIVACY POLICY

TERMS OF USE