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Today In Entertainment DECEMBER 11, 2020
What's news: Disney's investor day unleashes an onslaught of new projects, Fantastic Four, a Buzz Lightyear movie, Patty Jenkins' Star Wars film, Harrison Ford's final Indiana Jones movie, more The Handmaid's Tale, the Kardashians coming to Hulu, an Alien TV series. Meanwhile: CAA calls out Warners as AMC Theaters warns it will run out of cash next month, an Emma Stone Showtime series, a Julia Roberts Apple series, inclusive animation, and how OnlyFans has become Hollywood's risque pandemic side hustle. --Alex Weprin   Disney's Jaw-Dropping Investor Day To say that Disney had a lot of news to share in its investor day presentation Thursday would be something of an understatement. Running more than four hours, including the question and answer session, the presentation was jam-packed with business updates, forecasts, and lots and lots of movies and TV shows, most bound for Disney's streaming services... ►Wall Street liked what it saw, as Disney stock soared to all-time highs in early trading Friday. Analysts were similarly bullish: "The sheer size and quality of the content tsunami headed to Disney+ was mind-blowing and frightening to any sub-scale company thinking about competing in the scripted entertainment space." The story. By the numbers... --86.8 million: The number of Disney+ subscribers as of December 2... 230-260 million: The number of Disney+ subsribers the company expects to have by the end of 2024... $1: The price increase for Disney+ beginning in March, to $7.99... 100: The number of new titles Disney expects to debut annually on Disney+... More than 4 million: The number of Hulu with live TV subscribers, making it the fifth largest multichannel video provider in the U.S. after Dish... $14-$16 billion: How much money Disney expects to spend on streaming content through 2024... ►The big story: "Disney used its time before investors and press to unleash a torrent of programming announcements that showed off the scope of the empire that executive chairman Bob Iger has built over the last 15 years," Natalie Jarvey writes. In its restructuring a few months ago, CEO Bob Chapek spoke of the company tilting toward streaming, and the presentation made that clear, with barely any mention of the company's linear TV channels or troubled theme parks business. The story. +Thoughts on theatrical: Chapek also addressed the company's view on theatrical distrobution, forging a different path than Warner Bros. The company will send many films straight to its own services, while others will debut simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ "Premier Access" PVOD. Big tentpoles, however, will still have an exclusive theatrical window. --“We had a $13 billion box office last year, and that’s not something to sneeze at. We built those franchises through the theatrical window,” Chapek said during the Q&A session. +Going all-in on Star: Disney will use the Star brand as a hub for Disney+ content outside the U.S., and in some markets will use it as a home for more adult fare within Disney+. In Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a few other markets, Star will become a new brand hub within the Disney+ app beginning on Feb. 23. Disney+ will get a price hike to account for the infusion of that content. (In Europe, for instance, the service will cost 9 euros.) --In Latin America, Star will become a standalone streaming service known as Star+. Launching in June 2021, the service will feature general entertainment film and television programming and a slate of live sports, including soccer and tennis. The story. Disney released a boatload of information about its upcoming movies, TV shows and streaming originals. There is a lot to go through, but below is an overview with some of the big news... On the features/theatrical/studios front... --Marvel Studios: Kevin Feige revealed a slew of new shows for Disney+ including Secret Invasion starring Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn; Ironheart starring Dominique Thorne; and Armor Wars, with War Machine actor Don Cheadle adapting the classic Iron Man storyline from the comics. All told, the studio is looking at unveiling 10 shows over the next few years on Disney+ in a push that will virtually make the Marvel Cinematic Universe a place for fans to visit year-round... On the theatrical front: Jon Watts, the director of the Tom Holland-starring Spider-Man movies, will helm a new Fantastic Four movie... Feige also paid tribute to late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, confirming the studio will not recast the role and assuring the audience that filmmaker Ryan Coogler was hard at work on Black Panther II, due out in July 2022... --Star Wars/Lucasfilm: Patty Jenkins, who is weeks away from the release of her Wonder Woman 1984 movie, will direct a Star Wars movie titled Rogue Squadron... Harrison Ford will reprise the role of Indiana Jones for one last movie... Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi will get another chance to deal with Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker in the Disney+ Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi series, with Christensen announced Thursday as playing Darth Vader in the project... On the streaming series side, Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy revealed two new series, which will come from The Mandalorian executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni: Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka, centering on Rosario Dawson's fan-favorite character. Both will take place within the timeline of The Mandalorian. Also in the works: a Lando Calarissian series... --Pixar: In addition to a new original Pixar TV series Win or Lose, and Disney+ series based on Cars and Up, the animation studio announced two new feature projects: Lightyear, an origin story for the character Buzz Lightyear (which in turn became the toy featured in the Toy Story movies), with Chris Hemsworth voicing Buzz, and an original film Turning Red... --Disney Studios: There are plenty of sequels and reboots in the works, including Sister Act 3 (fronted by Whoopi Goldberg), Hocus Pocus 2, a sequel to Enchanted (with Amy Adams), remakes of Cheaper By the Dozen and Three Men and a Baby, and animated features based on Night At the Museum and the Chip N' Dale characters. On the TV/streaming front... --Disney+: Animated series featuring the lead characters from Moana and The Princess and the Frog are headed to Disney+ alongside the Pixar series in 2023. Also in the works: A Baymax series based on the Big Hero 6 character and a sci-fi show set in Lagos, Nigeria, from African entertainment company Kugali... Then there's a Beauty and the Beast series, and a Swiss Family Robinson series from Jon M. Chu and Ronald D. Moore... --Hulu: Hulu ordered a fifth season of The Handmaid's Tale. The Handmaid's Tale renewal comes in advance of season four, which recently resumed production after shutting down amid the global pandemic... The Kardashians are coming to Hulu. Projects from Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian West, Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian, and Kendall and Kylie Jenner will stream on Hulu in the United States and Disney's Star platform worldwide. The first such effort is due in late 2021... Nicole Kidman and David E. Kelly will bring Nine Perfect Strangers to the streamer next year... --FX: Noah Hawley is working alongside Ridley Scott to bring the first-ever Alien series to the Disney-owned cabler... Additionally, FX is in advanced talks for a scripted drama series that explores the formation of the iconic rock band The Rolling Stones... It also announced that it has renewed the scripted comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia for four additional seasons. That takes the series through its 18th season and officially snaps Ozzie and Harriet's record as the longest-running live-action scripted comedy in TV history... --Nat Geo: Civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be the subject of season four of National Geographic's Genius. The anthology series will also become a Disney+ exclusive beginning with its fourth season... Nat Geo also unveiled two docuseries from Darren Aronofsky: Limitless With Chris Hemsworth will see the Thor star testing theories and practices to combat the aging process, and Welcome to Earth will feature Will Smith venturing to some of the "most extreme and exciting places" on the planet, including the lip of an active volcano and thousands of feet below the ocean... +Analyst Matthew Ball, who pitched the "Disney-as-a-service" concept in 2013, said of the presentation "I was astounded, shocked by slate's quality, range, volume... Not just a stronger Disney+, but one that hugely raises the tablestakes of competition, growth, press coverage, notability. Paramount+ plans new Star Trek year round. Feels quaint now. Peacock will have a Jurassic Park + Fast series eventually. Cool." And we didn't even get to ESPN poaching the SEC football TV rights from CBS Sports in a new 10-year deal...  War on Warners ►CAA slams Warners: In a letter from CAA president Richard Lovett to WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, the agency chief calls the deal to shift the Warner Bros. 2021 slte to HBO Max at the same time they debut in theaters a violation of "trust and boundary." --"Your determination to release our clients’ movies on HBO Max at the same time as in theaters effectively torpedoes the theatrical release and dramatically harms our clients’ ability to earn backend compensation, which they negotiated for, expected, and have every right to protect," Lovett wrote, adding "The bottom line is that you are trying to take advantage of our clients to benefit your company." The story. +Meanwhile, AMC Theaters said Friday it is raising $100 million in new debt, but will run out of cash in January. The company estimates it will need $750 million to survive the crisis, even with a vaccine on the horizon. Oh, and the Warners move "exacerbates" it's problems. The story. ►Showtime is moving forward with its comedy from the Safdie brothers. The premium cable network has tapped Emma Stone to star in The Curse, which has now been formally ordered to series. --Picked up to pilot in February, the comedy from the Uncut Gems duo is described as a genre-bending scripted comedy that explores how an alleged curse disturbs the relationship of a newly married couple as they try to conceive a child while co-starring on their problematic new HGTV show. Stone will star opposite co-creators Nathan Fielder (Nathan For You, How To With John Wilson) and Benny Safdie. Stone and Fielder will play the couple; Benny Safdie will portray the producer of the HGTV show. The story. ►Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon are teaming for a limited series at Apple. Roberts will star in and executive produce The Last Thing He Told Me, from Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine and Disney's 20th Television. The drama is based on Laura Dave's upcoming novel of the same title. The story. ►Ellen DeGeneres has become the latest celebrity to reveal that she has tested positive for COVID-19. A Telepictures spokesperson confirmed to THR that production on The Ellen DeGeneres Show will be paused until January following the news. The story. In other TV news... ►"Egregious" TV errors fuel native and indigenous groups' calls for better representation. Activists and leaders in the industry say that Hollywood has significant outreach work to do, Katie Kilkenny reports: "There's not parity in terms of the Native community getting an equal amount of support with what the other communities are getting." The story. +HBO is buying more stock in Industry. The premium cabler has renewed the London-set drama for a second season. The pickup comes on the heels of HBO parent WarnerMedia speeding up the release of the show on streaming platform HBO Max: The final five installments of the eight-episode season were released in a batch on Nov. 27. More. +The Amber Ruffin Show will stick around into the new year. NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming platform has extended the "late-night" show's run for 10 additional episodes, the first of which will debut in January. The show has two installments remaining on its initial 10-episode order; they're set to debut on Dec. 11 and 18. More.  Inclusive Animation ►"You want to see yourself in cartoons": Animation pros talk inclusivity, recasting roles and what still needs to be done. With Hollywood’s animation ranks loaded with traditional-track hires, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse director Peter Ramsey, Big Mouth new voice Ayo Edebiri, Sony Pictures Animation exec Karen Rupert Toliver and veteran actress Cree Summer discuss what it will take to ramp up representation with Carolyn Giardina: "What's on the screens — that's the artifice." --"I love cartoons, they're my lifeblood," Summer says. "I get to be everybody, but what I don't like is that when I get to be myself, it's not very often. People say, 'Why do you voice white characters?' Well, if I voiced only Black characters, I'd live in a shoe. There's not enough Black characters to take care of my kids." The story. ►How OnlyFans has become Hollywood's risque pandemic side hustle. A growing roster of musicians, influencers and onscreen talent are joining the pay-per-view social media site as traditional income streams remain stifled by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — and, no, they're not all posting nudes, Natalie Jarvey reports. The story. ►The seventh annual Game Awards were held Thursday night in a multi-platform digital livestream, recognizing the best achievements in studio and independent video games from the past year. Christopher Nolan awarded game of the year to The Last of Us Part II, beating out Hades, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, DOOM Eternal, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Ghost of Tshushima. The full list of winners. ►TV's Top 5 podcast: During this week's podcast, hosts Daniel Fienberg and Lesley Goldberg talk Disney's streaming blitz, speak with the showrunners for One Day At a Time, and are also joined by The Stand showrunner to preview the CBS All Access drama and Kim Masters breaks down the WarnerMedia backlash. Listen. Obituaries: Richard King, a founding partner of King World Productions, the syndication powerhouse that was behind such programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, has died. He was 79... Barbara Windsor, the bawdy and beloved British actress best known for her performances on the landmark BBC soap opera EastEnders and in nine Carry On films, has died. She was 83... In other news... --Brian K. Vaughan, the comics author behind Y: The Last Man and Saga, has been tapped to pen Legendary’s television series adaptation of classic pulp hero Buck Rogers. --David Koepp, the veteran scribe who penned Jurassic Park and Spider-Man, has been tapped to pen the script for The Green Hornet and Kato, the Universal Pictures and Amasia Entertainment’s feature take on the classic crime-fighting pulp hero. --Time, Garrett Bradley's portrait of the impact of a Black family torn apart by a questionably long prison sentence, scored a field-leading six nominations for the 14th Cinema Eye Honors, the documentary-celebrating organization announced Thursday, among them one for best feature film. --Susan Rice will step down from the board of directors of the streaming giant Netflix to join the administration of President-elect Joe Biden. --Recording Academy interim chief Harvey Mason Jr. has issued an apology to Tiffany Haddish after the actress went public with the fact that she had been asked to pay her own way as host of the Grammy Awards pre-show. --Super LTD, Neon's boutique distribution division, has acquired the North American rights to Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary Notturno after a debut at Venice and play at the virtual Telluride, Toronto, New York film festivals. --French cinemas and theaters will remain closed until at least Jan. 7, 2021. The French government Thursday announced it was extending lockdown measures, which were set to loosen Dec. 15, into early next year. --Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were named Time's Person of the Year. What else we're reading (special Disney investor day edition)... --"Forget it Jake, it's streamingtown" [Vulture] --"Disney thinks you’ll be ready to see Black Widow in theaters by May" [Recode] --"Disney reveals plans to turbocharge streaming offerings" [NY Times] --"ESPN signs $3 billion deal for SEC football as CBS era nears end" [Sportico] Today's birthdays: Jermaine Jackson, 66, John Kerry, 77, Mos Def, 47, Mo'Nique, 53, Hailee Steinfeld, 24. 
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