Today In Entertainment

JANUARY 16, 2021

What's news: A Monster move-up, Ethan Hawke joins the MCU, a D&D TV show? The Film Academy changes the international feature Oscar shortlist selection process, James Murdoch slams "media property owners" spreading "disinformation." Plus:  Jimmy Kimmel Live's executive producer exits, and Warren Buffett, local TV mogul? --Alex Weprin

 Monster Moves

►A rare movie move-up. With the pandemic continuing to delay theatrical fils, Warner Bros. and legendary Entertainment made a move late Friday to deliver a film earlier than planned. Godzilla vs. Kong will move up two months to March 26. The tentpole had previously been set for May. Godzilla vs. Kong will be in theaters and on HBO Max day and date, as part of Warner Bros.' unprecedented deal, announced in December, to send its entire 2021 slate to the streaming service. The story.

More from Heat Vision...

+Ethan Hawke has made his Marvel. Making his comic book adaptation and super hero debut, Hawke has closed a deal to join Oscar Isaac in Moon Knight, Marvel Studios’ series for Disney+. Hawke will play the lead villain. More.

+D&D TV: Even as Paramount and Hasbro’s filmed entertainment studio, eOne, are in the casting stages of a live-action Dungeons & Dragons feature film, Habsro/eOne is also laying the groundwork for a television series based on the fantasy role playing game. Derek Kolstad, the creator and writer behind the John Wick franchise, has been tapped to pen and develop a pitch for a live-action series based on the Dungeons & Dragons universe. The story.

+HBO’s The Last of Us has found a new director. Russian filmmaker Kantemir Balagov, the Cannes darling behind drama Beanpole, has been tapped to direct the pilot for the adaptation of the hit video game. More.

 Notable Film Academy Change

►Academy changes international feature Oscar shortlist selection process due to pandemic. The Academy decided several months ago to invite all of its Academy members — not just those based in the Los Angeles area near the Academy's screening sites — to weigh in during the first phase of the selection process if they wish, since the pandemic had forced all screenings to take place via the Academy's online streaming service.

--However the Academy concluded that holding the executive committee's online deliberations via Zoom or a similar platform would leave them open to leaks or hacks, and decided not to take that risk. The story.

►Jimmy Kimmel Live! executive producer Sharon Hoffman is exiting the late-night show. The news comes some seven months after the announcement of her hiring, then characterized as a rare shakeup atop the ABC show. The story.

+Revolving door: Joe Biden named TJ Ducklo deputy press secretary and Adam Schultz White House photographer... CBS News says that Nancy Cordes, Ed O'Keefe and Weijia Jiang will be its new White House correspondent team...

Editor's note: Today In Entertainment will be off for Martin Luther King Day. We will be back in your inbox with a new edition Tuesday morning.

 Murdoch Talk

►James Murdoch's thinly-veiled criticism of the family business. Murdoch and his wife Kathryn Murdoch spoke to the Financial Times about his new ventue in India, but also gave a statement addressing the riot in the Capitol last week:

--"Spreading disinformation -- whether about the election, public health, or climate change -- has real world consequences. Many media property owners have as much responsibility for this as the elected officials who know the truth but choose instead to propogate lies. We hope the awful scenes we have all been seeing will finally convince those enablers to repudiate the toxic politics they have promoted once and forever." 

--James Murdoch, of course, stepped down as CEO of Fox Corp. after its entertainment assets were sold to Disney, and stepped down from the board of News Corp. last summer, citing "disagreements over certain editorial content."

►ViacomCBS files lawsuit to recover COVID-19 losses from insurer. The entertainment giant says that Great Divide Insurance Company is denying tens of millions of dollars in coverage by reading insurance policies in an "overly narrow and wrongful manner," Eriq Gardner reports. The story.

+In other legal news: Kanye West's apparel company Yeezy is suing one of its summer interns for posting confidential photos on Instagram — and it's seeking to enforce a half-million-dollar liquidated damages clause. More.

►After years of fighting on opposite sides, Netflix and the French film industry are making nice.  The streaming giant this week unveiled partnerships with the French National Film Board (the CNC) and the Cinémathèque Française, a non-profit group devoted to the preservation and promotion of French cinema culture. Netflix, together with CNC, will finance a new restoration of Abel Gance's 1927 silent French epic Napoleon, considered a classic of world cinema. The story.

►Warren Buffett, local TV mogul? Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, you may recall, is helping local TV station owner E.W. Scripps finance its acquisition of Ion Media. Thet deal included an option for Berkshire to purchase $23.1 million shares in Scripps at $13 each. With the stock trading at $14, Berkshire appears poised to execute that deal, per an SEC filing. It would give Buffett's company a 25 percent stake in the TV station owner. Berkshire currently owns one TV station outright: Miami's ABC affilate WPLG, which it acquired in 2014.

►TV Long View: Cobra Kai, Wonder Woman 1984 and the search for streaming transparency. Without context, the piecemeal release of data from streamers generates much more heat than light, Rick Porter writes. The column.

In other news...

--This year's edition of the Oscar Wilde Awards, which celebrates the work of those from Ireland — and some who are not — who contribute to film, television and music, has been canceled.

--Jon Orsini and Ruby Modine have joined John Malkovich, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Thaddeus Street in pandemic-inspired thriller The Survivalist for Yale Productions.

--Paul Patrick Quinn, a veteran visual effects producer and head of Barnstorm VFX Vancouver who contributed to several Marvel movies and TV shows ranging from The X-Files to Big Sky, has died. He was 63.

What else we're reading...

--"My friendship — and last phone call — with Joanne Rogers, widow of Mister Rogers" [LA Times]

--"Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott's job is in jeopardy, insiders say" [The Daily Beast]

--"Jemele Hill buils a podcast network at Spotify to elevate Black women" [Bloomberg]

--"How the YouTube giant behind the 'Kids React' videos fractured under 'toxic workplace' allegations and a resurfaced blackface video last summer" [Insider]

--"The fight to end the pettiest edit wars on Wikipedia" [The Ringer]

Today's birthdays: Lin-Manuel Miranda, 41, John Carpenter, 73, Kate Moss, 47, Debbie Allen, 71, Sade (62.

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JANUARY 16, 2021

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