Today In Entertainment OCTOBER 27, 2020
What's news: Inside the MGM-Apple talks around No Time To Die, a Richard Pryor biopic is in the works, Adam Sandler's next project, Netflix orders an Assassin's Creed TV series and picks up Concrete Cowboy, Oscar Isaac to topline Moon Knight for Disney+. Plus: Alberto Barbera will stay on as Venice director, and Vancouver's pandemic production bounce. --Alex Weprin A (Streaming) License To Kill For? ➤Behind MGM's Apple overture: How much is a Bond movie worth? Multiple sources say Apple kicked the tires on Daniel Craig starrer No Time to Die and mulled an offer in the $350 million to $400 million range for what would have been a 12-month license. That was far short of the $650 million to $700 million — one source tells THR that even $800 million was mentioned — that MGM was hoping to get to make such a deal worthwhile. --"[T]o streamers such as Netflix, the numbers were a nonstarter. 'Bond is a one-shot kill,' says one top executive, 'but is it worth it? You’d be setting up a need for a Bond-like movie once a month and for $500 [million] or more, it’s not worth it. You’re better off focusing on your own originals.'” --"Complicated things is the fact that MGM only owns part of Bond. Half is controlled by EON Productions, co-run by Barbara Broccoli, daughter of original Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli. Multiple sources say that Broccoli was initially unaware of the streaming-rights fishing expedition for No Time to Die, and when pitched by Ulrich, quickly took the boats out of the water, so to speak. 'This was definitely not a meeting of the minds,' says a top-ranking studio exec with knowledge of the overtures." The story. In Other Film News... ➤Netflix has picked up worldwide rights to Concrete Cowboy, the Idris Elba-Caleb McLaughlin drama that generated acclaim when it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September. While no release date has been set, the streamer is penciling in a debut in 2021. The story. +A biopic of boundary-breaking comedian Richard Pryor is in the works with Kenya Barris set to write and direct. Pryor's work spanned television, film and stand-up with credits that include Blazing Saddles, The Richard Pryor Show and Pryor's Place. He was the first recipient of the Mark Twain Humor Prize for humor and earned numerous Emmys, WGA Awards and Grammys. MGM landed the project in a competitive situation. More. +Adam Sandler, who is starring in broad comedy Hubie Halloween, is going to new space. The actor is taking one of his offbeat turns, coming aboard to star in the untitled adaptation of Spaceman of Bohemia, a sci-fi novel by Czech author Jaroslav Kalfar. Netflix has picked up the project that will be directed by Johan Renk, the helmer behind HBO’s acclaimed Chernobyl mini-series, and is written by Colby Day. The story. +Also: Netflix has picked up Born to Be Murdered, a thriller starring Tenet headliner John David Washington and produced by Luca Guadagnino. No release date was given but the streamer is penciling in a debut in 2021. More. +And: Lionsgate has tapped Victoria Mahoney — the history-making Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker second unit director — to direct the Hollywood studio's action two-hander Shadow Force, with Sterling K. Brown and Kerry Washington to star. More. A Slew Of Notable Streaming Shows In The Works ➤Oscar Isaac is in negotiations to topline Moon Knight, the latest Marvel series for Disney+. The dealmaking sets up a return for Isaac to the four-color world of Marvel, as he played the blue-skinned titular villain in Fox’s 2016 Marvel movie, X-Men: Apocalypse. Jeremy Slater, who developed and wrote Netflix’s comic book adaptation Umbrella Academy series, has been tapped to develop and lead the writing team on Moon Knight. The story. --Analysis: Richard Newby breaks down what the show and Isaac's casting means for the MCU. The column. +Netflix and Ubisoft are teaming to bring Assassin's Creed to television and will develop a slate of properties based on the best-selling game. The first project under the pact is a live-action, genre-bending adaptation of the game. A search is under way for a showrunner for the project, which is currently in the development stages. The deal for Assassin's Creed will also see Netflix and Ubisoft mine the game's trove of stories for other live-action, animated and anime series based on the global franchise. The story. +Netflix has greenlit a horror series based on the found-footage podcast Archive 81. The eight-episode series, loosely inspired by the podcast, will star Mamoudou Athie and Dina Shihabi. Rebecca Sonnenshine will serve as showunner, and James Wan is an executive producer. More. +Also: Netflix continues to go big on Japanese anime. The streamer on Tuesday unveiled plans to produce five new original anime series, adding to a slate of 11 original anime projects that were already in the works. The new projects were teased during a live-streamed fan event called the Netflix Anime Festival 2020. More. ➤Alberto Barbera will remain director of the Venice International Film Festival for at least another four years. La Biennale di Venezia, the parent organization that oversees the Venice Fest, announced Tuesday that it was re-upping Barbera as its head of cinema for another four-year term, from 2021-2024. More. In other awards news... +Awards chatter: The entire cast of The Trial of the Chicago 7 — among them Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance and Jeremy Strong — will be pushed for awards in the supporting actor category, THR's Scott Feinberg has learned from sources close to the film. More. +The first Feinberg Forecast: Feinberg gives his first assesment on who this year's Oscars contenders are shaping up to be, in 10 categories. The forecast. ➤OWN has given a second season to Ava DuVernay anthology Cherish the Day. The series, which tells the story of one couple over several key dates during the span of their relationship, debuted its first season in February. Keeping with the series' intended format, the sophomore run will focus on a completely different story and feature an entirely new cast. More. ➤Joel Stein mourns Quibi: "I'm the only one who didn't sell them stuff." A writer laments the death of the streamer before he could personally cash in: "I worried that my career would be over if people heard I couldn't even sell a show to Quibi." The guest column. ➤Multiple Fox News employees have tested positive for COVID-19. Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and president Jay Wallace informed staff of the positive tests Monday morning. The channel will limit the number of people coming into the studio and is planning enhanced testing and sanitary measures ahead of election night. More. +Correction: Yesterday I wrote that Fox News employees on a charter flight from New York to Nashville were told to quarantine. In fact, the flight was from Nashville to New York. ➤Critic's notebook: On the Borat sequel's fresh, fierce feminism. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is just as funny as its predecessor, but a crucial new character lends the film's satire greater substance and timeliness, Inkoo Kang writes. The column. In other news... --After the COVID-19 crisis shuttered all U.S. production in Vancouver in March 2020 and this past summer the Americans slowly relaunched local film and TV shoots, British Columbia has now surpassed pre-pandemic production levels in terms of the number of projects before the cameras. --Fox has cast the lead role in its comedy The Texanist: Emmy winner and Lone Star State resident Thomas Haden Church. --The Cinema Audio Society, Motion Picture Sound Editors and Association of Motion Picture Sound have stepped up their combined Sound Credit Initiative, launching a website urging members of the sound community, filmmakers, studio representatives and others to sign up in support of this effort. --HBO's limited series The Undoing premiered to solid numbers on Sunday, putting it in line with Lovecraft Country and other recent HBO series. --Actor Noah Centineo has opened a voting-themed art house and virtual experience. --Peacock on Tuesday unveiled the first full-length trailer for its upcoming Saved by the Bell sequel series. What else we're reading... --"Kazakhstan, reversing itself, embraces Borat as very nice" [NY Times] --"TikTok and the party police" [Vanity Fair] --"BuzzFeed expects to break even this year, thanks to heavy cost cuts" [WSJ] --"The Lincoln Project is becoming a media business" [Axios] --"U.S. agency targets its own journalists' independence" [NPR] Today's birthdays: Kelly Osbourne, 36, Vanessa Mae, 42, John Cleese, 81, Ivan Reitman, 74, Roberto Benigni, 68.
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