Today In Entertainment

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

What's news: Universal and Cinemark strike deal that further shatters box office windows, Terence Winter exits HBO Max's The Batman spinoff, UTA details $150M pandemic losses, how ABC got David E. Kelley to make a cable show for broadcast, Taylor Swift's masters sold once more. Plus: Alec Baldwin and Kelsey Grammer team for ABC comedy, and President Obama's late night book tour. --Alex Weprin

 Box Office Windows Keep Shattering

➤Universal and Cinemark strike historic deal. Under the terms of multi-year pact, a Universal movie opening to $50 million or more at the domestic box office can be made available in the home via premium VOD beginning 31 days after it opens on the big screen. Cinemark, the country's third-largest chain, is okay with all other Universal, DreamWorks Animation and Focus Features movies being made available on PVOD after 17 days, similar to the history-making arrangement Universal struck with AMC Entertainment in late April.

--The Cinemark news is significant for several reasons. Not only does it introduce the idea of a 31-day window for tentpole or event fare, it means that two of the country's three largest movie theater circuits are on board with Universal's push to release movies in the home early and create a new PVOD window. Universal now has far more leverage. The story.

+Wall Street reacts: The deal provides "flexibility to the studio, while protecting theaters," says one analyst. It "improved upon the surprisingly short, all-encompassing 17-day window from Universal’s deal with AMC," adds another. More.

In other film news...

➤Songbird— the COVID-19 inspired thriller produced by Michael Bay— will premiere in the U.S. as a PVOD release. The STX feature will skip theaters and debut on Dec. 11 on all PVOD platforms for a home entertainment run, after which it will head to streaming on a yet-to-be-announced service. The story.

+Judd Apatow will be making his streaming directorial debut with an upcoming Netflix feature. The untitled meta-comedy will be about a group of actors and actresses stuck inside a pandemic bubble at a hotel attempting to complete a film. Apatow will direct the untitled feature from a script he will co-write with Pam Brady. More.

+Also: Filmmaker Steven Caple Jr. may be entering the ring with another franchise. The director behind Creed II is in talks to helm a Transformers film for Paramount and Hasbro. More.

 'The Batman' Spinoff Is Looking For a New Showrunner

➤Terence Winter exits The Batman TV spinoff at HBO Max. The Boardwalk Empire creator, who was poised to write and serve as showrunner on Matt Reeves' TV spinoff of The Batman has departed the HBO Max series. Sources tell THR's Lesley Goldberg and Borys Kit that creative differences are to blame for the split as Winter's vision for the drama did not match what Reeves and other producers had in mind. A search is under way for a new showrunner for the untitled drama. HBO Max and studio Warner Bros. Television declined comment. The story.

➤UTA says it has lost $150 million because of pandemic in suit against insurers. The agency is suing Vigilant and Federal insurance companies and says their parent company Chubb National Insurance has "adopted a universal practice of denying coverage."

--"At least 13 UTA employees, five spouses, and some of their dependents have tested positive for COVID-19," writes attorney Kirk Pasich in the complaint. "As a result of the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and the Closure Orders, UTA suffered losses from cancelled live events — including cancelled tours by Guns N' Roses, Post Malone, Toby Keith, Pitbull, Burna Boy, Monsta X, and 3 Doors Down — and cancelled television and motion picture production. UTA currently estimates that its financial losses, including lost profits, lost commissions, and lost business opportunities, approximate $150,000,000, and are continuing." The story.

+No encore for music publishers who say COVID-19 wrecked copyright trial. Music publishers were expecting to win huge damages in a five-year copyright battle over concert recordings. Did a health pandemic ruin these plans? More.

➤Taylor Swift says her masters have been sold once more. More than a year after Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group in a $300 million deal, and with it the entire catalog Taylor Swift released through Scott Borchetta's label, Braun has sold the master rights to the singer's first six albums. Swift says the catalog was sold to Shamrock Holdings, a company that was founded as the family office for Roy Disney. The story.

 'Big Sky' Backstory

➤Big Sky: How ABC got David E. Kelley to make a cable show for broadcast. ABC entertainment president Karey Burke talks with THR's Lesley Goldberg about courting prestige showrunners, while the prolific writer-producer opens up about why he ditched his penchant for cable and streaming to make the Montana-set thriller.

--Kelley: "I suggested that I was not inclined to go back to broadcast and I’m still not inclined to go back to broadcast. I'm still nervous about broadcast. I hate the commercial part of it, the eight-minute acts; it’s just not fun. This is just really project-driven. Karey has been unflinching in the support of the tone of the series, which is more cable-esque or streaming-esque than broadcast."

--Burke: "We vowed to protect his vision and wouldn’t rub the edges off, which is I think what he was feeling about broadcast television when he left. He is telling a compelling broadcast story that at the same time has a lot of the appeal of an elevated streaming or cable series in terms of its sophisticated storytelling and adult nature." The story.

+The review: THR's Daniel Fienberg reviews Big Sky. The review.

+ABC is bringing three comedy kings together. The Disney-backed broadcast network has handed out a straight-to-series order for an untitled multicamera comedy starring Alec Baldwin and Kelsey Grammer and from Modern Family co-creator Chris Lloyd. The series is earmarked for the 2021-22 broadcast season. The story.

➤Some significant revolving door moves: Netflix has found its new head of comedy. NBC co-head of scripted Tracey Pakosta has departed the broadcast network and will reunite with her former Universal TV boss Bela Bajaria at the streamer, where she will oversee all comedy originals... Beatrice Springborn is on the move. After more than six years as vp original content at Disney-owned Hulu, Springborn has been named president of Universal Content Productions... The Motion Picture Association has renewed chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin's contract for another three years, starting Jan. 1, 2021...

+Revolving door: Endeavor has hired former American Express branding exec Deborah Curtis as chief marketing officer for On Location, the premium hospitality firm it acquired in Jan. 2020 for around $660 million... Lynne Ramsay, who last directed the acclaimed thriller You Were Never Really Here, has come aboard to direct The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Village Roadshow Pictures' adaptation of the Stephen King novel... Polly Cochrane, WarnerMedia's new country manager for the U.K. and Ireland, on Tuesday unveiled her leadership team...

➤How Wisconsin democrats used Hollywood reunions to make a "critical difference" in the 2020 election. Ben Wikler, chair of the state's Democratic Party, speaks to THR's Jackie Strause about how a grassroots effort in August sparked the wave of entertainment and TV fundraiser events that raised millions of dollars in the run-up to Nov. 3. The story.

➤President Obama's late night book tour: Former President Barack Obama is making the late night TV rounds to promote his new book A Promised Land. His first stop will be ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday, then next week Obama will sit down for an extended in-person interview for CBS' Late Show with Stephen Colbert. That will be his only in-person late night appearance...

➤What's Tucker Carlson up to at Fox? During his show last night, the primetime host suggested that he had new projects in the work for Fox Corp. "Over the weekend we got a lot of calls asking if we're leaving Fox News. Ironically, at that very moment, we were working on a project to expand the amount of reporting and analysis we do in this hour, across other parts of the company. This show isn't going anywhere, it's getting bigger..."

➤TV review: Inkoo Kang reviews HBO's Between The World And Me, writing that "the film serves as a necessary reminder that the “normal” state of affairs that some voters hope to return to under a Biden presidency is still a grim one for far too many Americans." The review.

In other news...

--Hulu's live TV bundle is getting more expensive. The streamer is raising the price of its Hulu + Live TV service to $65 per month beginning in December. That represents a price increase of $10 per month.

--Russell Simmons has defeated a lawsuit from a Jane Doe who accused him of rape because the complaint was filed at least four years too late.

--ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS) unit has signed a first-look deal with Marc Anthony’s production company, Magnus Studios.

--Michael J. Fox details entering a "second retirement," health struggles in new memoir

--U.K. public broadcaster BBC on Tuesday vowed to "keep our audiences informed, educated, and entertained through continuing unprecedented times for the U.K. and the world" amid the coronavirus pandemic this winter.

--The British Academy has announced this year's crop of Breakthrough participants, 34 future stars — in front of and behind the camera — from the film, TV and video game industries, who have been invited to take part in its annual talent scheme.

--Color Farm Media, co-producer of Dawn Porter's award winning documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble, has signed with APA.

--How "negligence" claims at USC were tackled in a documentary by USC filmmakers.

--The British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) organizers said on Tuesday that their annual ceremony will happen in February instead of its traditional early December slot.

--Sinbad, the comic and actor, has suffered a stroke, his family informed THR via Sinbad's rep.

What else we're reading...

--"The race to out-fox Fox News" [Axios]

--"Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bids for Simon & Schuster" [NY Times]

--"David Lynch inspired a cross-country lawnmower race. Things got complicated, fast" [LA Times]

--"Jenna Lyons is back with a new HBO Max show. Does she still have what it takes?" [WSJ]

--"Academy Museum gives Debbie Reynolds her due as a costume conservator" [NY Times]

Today's birthdays: RuPaul, 60, Danny DeVito, 76, Martin Scorsese, 78, Rachel McAdams, 42, Justin Cooper, 32.

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NOVEMBER 17, 2020

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