Today In Entertainment

OCTOBER 06, 2020

What's news: AMC and Cinemark say they will keep theaters open even as new movies slow to a trickle, box office dominoes keep falling as Warners makes big changes, Netflix cancels GLOW and Teenage Bounty Hunters, new Thomas and Friends and Alice In Wonderland flicks. Plus: Game of Thrones prequel series heats up, and Susan Rovner officially joins NBCU. --Alex Weprin

 AMC, Cinemark Say They Will Stay Open

➤AMC Theatres says it will stay open. The announcement by the world's largest theater operator came a day after rival Cineworld said it is going to shut all of its cinemas in the U.K. and U.S., where it operates the Regal Cinemas banner, because of a lack of Hollywood event pics. In a statement, AMC chairman-CEO Adam Aron said there are plenty of films to play in the weeks to come, including the Robert De Niro comedy The War With Grandpa, which 101 Studios opens Friday.

--Interestingly, AMC also says its deal with Universal gives it some flexibility. “Fortunately for AMC, our groundbreaking agreement with Universal Studios announced earlier this summer puts AMC in a position where we can open our theaters when others may feel the need to close," Aron said. AMC will share in the PVOD revenue with Universal. The story.

+Cinemark Theatres currently has no plans to close its U.S. cinemas again even as Hollywood studios continue to delay their 2020 tentpoles amid the ongoing pandemic. Cinemark is the country's third-largest circuit in the U.S. behind AMC Theaters and Regal Cinemas, respectively. Over the weekend, Regal parent company Cineworld left Hollywood reeling when revealing it is closing all of its U.K. and U.S. locations. Cineworld made the decision days after James Bond pic No Time to Die was pushed from Nov. 20 to May 2021. The story.

 Warner Bros. Shakes Up Its Release Calendar Once More

➤The box office dominoes keep falling: The Batman, which stars Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader, is on the move again. After a series of production delays, the superhero pic's release date in theaters is being pushed from Oct. 1, 2021 to March 4, 2022, Warner Bros. announced Monday evening. The tentpole was among a number of key changes made to the studio's release calendar as it grapples with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Warners isn't ceding the 2021 fall date entirely. Instead, it will now open Dune on Oct. 1. Dune had been set to open this December.

--Other major changes include the untitled fourth The Matrix movie moving up from April 1, 2022, to Dec. 22, 2021. On the DC front, The Flash, starring Ezra Miller as the speedy superhero, is moving back from June 3, 2022 to Nov. 4, 2022. Shazam! Fury of the Gods is leaving that Nov. 4, 2022 date and is shifting to June 2, 2023, while Dwayne Johnson spinoff Black Adam is moving off its Dec. 22, 2021  slot and is now undated. The story.

In other film news...

+Netflix visiting Wonderland: The team behind ultra-popular Netflix dance movie Work It will re-team for a musical reimagining of popular storybook fantasy Alice in Wonderland. Sabrina Carpenter will star in Alice and will also be producing under her newly launched At Last Productions banner. Carpenter previously served as an executive producer on Work It, but Alice will be the first project under the shingle.

--The movie will be a contemporary take on the classic Lewis Carroll story. While details are being kept under wraps, the modern-day musical will be set against the backdrop of a music festival called "Wonderland." The story.

+Marc Forster is hopping on board for a Thomas & Friends movie. The World War Z director will partner with Mattel Films to helm and produce a project based on the 75-year-old children's property about Thomas the Tank Engine and his locomotive friends going on adventures that occasional go off-the-rails. Thomas & Friends universe includes books, toys, games, and a TV series that is now in its 24th season. More.

➤The White House Correspondents' Association on Monday morning issued a tame response to the news Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tested positive for COVID-19; a revelation that came one day after McEnany removed her mask while talking to reporters.

--White House reporters took to Twitter to react to the news of McEnany's diagnosis, such as CBS News White House correspondent Ben Tracy, who tweeted, "I felt safer reporting in North Korea than I currently do reporting at The White House. This is just crazy." More.

+Meanwhile: Fox News' Chris Wallace has tested negative for COVID-19, six days after he moderated the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and a four days after it was revealed the president had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. More.

+Also: Meet MeidasTouch, the Super PAC that's gotten Hollywood's attention (and millions of views) with their anti-Trump videos. The Meiselas brothers launched their organization because they were tired of feeling helpless. Six months later, they've raised $2 million and made 80 political ads in their quest to defeat Trump, Ashley Cullins reports. The story.

 Netflix Shocker

➤Netflix has reversed a renewal decision on its dramedy GLOW, citing COVID-19 issues in not going forward with a fourth and final season for the series. The streamer has also canceled Teenage Bounty Hunters after a single season, though the decision there was not COVID-related. Both shows are executive produced by Jenji Kohan. The story.

+HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series is heating up. Following an extensive casting search, The Outsider star Paddy Considine has been tapped to topline straight-to-series drama House of the Dragon. Based on Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon is set 300 years before the events of the recently concluded fantasy drama and tells the story of House Targaryen. Considine will star as King Viserys Targaryen, chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed the Old King, Jaehaerys Targaryen, at the Great Council at Harrenhal. The story.

+Gilmore Girls is returning to The CW. In a rare streaming-to-broadcast licensing deal, The CW has acquired Netflix's Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life for a Thanksgiving run. The revival originally bowed on the streamer four years ago and will make its free TV debut on The CW and air over four nights starting Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. The series will also stream for free on the ad-supported CW app and CWTV.com for 30 days following its linear debut. The story.

+Epix and the creators of its Slow Burn docuseries are teaming up for another deep dive into U.S. history. The premium cable outlet has greenlit Fiasco, a documentary series that will examine pivotal historical events and bring to life the forgotten twists and turns of the past while shedding light on the present moment. More.

➤It's official: Susan Rovner is joining NBCUniversal in a new role in which she will oversee entertainment programming for a portfolio that includes Peacock, NBC and a suite of cable networks. Monday's formal announcement — which included her formal title as chairman of entertainment content, NBCUniversal TV and Streaming — comes three days after she exited as president of Warner Bros. TV. The story.

+Revolving door: Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson, a producer for 60 Minutes, is joining Nickelodeon in the newly created position of vp news programming and will also serve as the ep of the recently revived Nick News franchise... Directors and producers John Requa and Glenn Ficarra have signed a first-look broadcast deal with Fox... The WWE says that Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini has been elected to its corporate board of directors... WME Sports has hired NFL agent Ben Renzin away from CAA Sports to co-lead its football representation business... 

--Mary Lambert, the original director of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary movie for Paramount, has signed with APA... Woody McClain, one of the breakouts of Starz’s hit Power Book II: Ghost, has signed with APA for representation...

Casting roundup: Claire Foy and James McAvoy are set to star in My Son, the missing person thriller from ErosSTX Global Corp. and a remake of the 2017 French movie Mon Garçon (My Son)... Peacock's comedy Girls5eva, from Tina Fey, Robert Carlock and Meredith Scardino, has added Busy Phillips to its cast...

➤TV reviews: Daniel Fienberg reviews Fox's event series NEXT, writing that the show "exists in an almost hermetically sealed bubble where even if you know that its warnings are probably grounded in something plausible, it feels no more real or substantive than Bigfoot or a vampire." The review.

+Fienberg also reviews Disney+'s The Right Stuff, writing that it is "disappointingly...fine. Approach it simply as Hunky Young Astronauts in Love rather than a Wolfe adaptation — it's constantly adding things that aren't in the book and yet, like the movie, it still can't find time to dedicate a full episode to NASA's test monkeys — and you might even be able to dispense with some of the disappointment." The review.

In other news...

--The U.S. Supreme Court won't be reviewing the closely followed copyright battle over whether Led Zeppelin infringed a composition to create "Stairway to Heaven."

--No journalist has a legal right to belong to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. That's one of the arguments the HFPA is making in an effort to convince a California federal judge that he should dismiss a suit brought by a Norwegian journalist who sued after being rejected for membership.

--Kamala Harris and Mike Pence will be separated by a see-through barrier to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission at Wednesday's vice presidential debate.

--The 21st AFI Awards, which will honor the best film and TV achievements of 2020, will be held later in 2021 than expected, the American Film Institute announced Monday.

--Apple's Bruce Springsteen doc, which looks into the creative process behind his latest album, has a release date.

--Neil Marshall's The Reckoning, which stars his fiancee, Charlotte Kirk, is set to receive a U.S. premiere at the Beyond Fest in Los Angeles at the Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre on Tuesday night.

--Rupert Murdoch saw his pay fall at News Corp., after giving up his cash bonus due to the pandemic.

--Canadian broadcasters are no longer commissioning homegrown originals from too-white indie production teams as part of an industry-wide inclusion initiative.

--Inside the Veep virtual reunion that raised $500K (and ounting) for the Biden campaign.

What else we're reading...

--"Marc Maron is inviting us to grieve with him from his front porch" [CNN]

--"L.A. Times executive editor Norm Pearlstine to step down" [L.A. Times]

--"Don’t panic: NFL’s Rolapp uses memo to reassure team executives that ratings are still strong" [Sports Business Journal]

--"Meredith, an overachiever in the magazine business, now finds itself in trouble" [Poynter]

Today's birthdays: Gerry Adams, 72, Britt Ekland, 78, LeBron James Jr., 16, Steve Scalise, 55, Jazz Jennings, 20.

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OCTOBER 06, 2020

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