Today In Entertainment

JANUARY 22, 2021

What's news: No Time To Die, Morbius, Ghostbusters: Afterlife all pushed in latest theatrical delays, HBO has another Game of Thrones prequel in the works, Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the (inaugural) ratings, Netflix renews Bridgerton, what's with the Olympics? Ava DuVernay's Spotify deal. Plus: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on why he participated in Biden's inauguration, and the THR Producer Roundtable. --Alex Weprin

 'Time' To Delay

►The first Hollywood film to delay its release because of the novel coronavirus is once again pushing its theatrical debut. The James Bond pic No Time To Die is pushing back its release amid the ongoing pandemic and widespread theater closures in many major markets across the globe. It was set to open on April 2. Now, it is planning to hit the big screen on Oct. 8 as Hollywood reckons with more delays before moviegoing resumes in earnest. In early 2020, No Time to Die became the first Hollywood tentpole to become a casualty of the COVID-19 crisis when its original April 2020 release date was pushed back to November 2020 (it was subsequently pushed to April 2021).

--Universal separately made several other changes to its calendar, including pushing back Nobody from Feb. 26 to April 2021, and Edgar Wright's Focus Feature title Last Night in Soho from April 23 to Oct. 22. The story.

+Sony followed suit: Minutes after MGM announced the Bond delay, Sony announced a raft of high-profile changes to its spring and summer calendar amid the ongoing pandemic. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway is moving from April 2 to June 11, while Ghostbusters: Afterlife is being pushed from June 11 to Nov. 11. Cinderella, which had been set to open Feb. 5, will now go out July 16. Sony further revealed that it is pushing Uncharted out of 2021 entirely.

--Several hours after its initial announcements, the studio pushed back Morbius, the Jared Leto movie based on the Marvel character. It will open Jan. 21, 2022, back several months from October of this year. The story.

+Universal and Amblin are also moving back the Tom Hanks feature Bios as studios continue to contemplate date shuffles amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The film will now open Aug. 13. It previously was slated for April and initially was supposed to bow in October 2020 before pandemic-related theater closures delayed it. The story.

In other film news...

+Netflix has acquired worldwide rights (with the exception of China) to The Mitchells vs. The Machines from Sony Pictures Animation. The animated comedy, which was previously titled Connected and is now back with its original name, was produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the creative team behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The Lego Movie. The streaming service plans to release the movie later this year. Under the name Connected, the film was scheduled for a 2020 theatrical release, but Sony took it off the schedule amid the pandemic. The story.

►Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the ratings. Nearly 40 million people watched Joe Biden become the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, the most for an inauguration since Barack Obama in 2009.

--From 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. ET Wednesday — the time covering Biden's swearing-in and his inaugural address — broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC and cable news channels CNN, Fox News and MSNBC drew 39.87 million viewers, according to fast national ratings. That's about 1.52 million more people than watched Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017. The numbers.

 Another 'Game of Thrones' Prequel is in the Works

►Another Game of Thrones prequel is in the works at HBO. The premium cabler is in early development on Tales of Dunk and Egg, based on a set of novellas by George R.R. Martin. The stories are set about 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones and follow the exploits of Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and a young Aegon V Targaryen (Egg). The story.

+Netflix is officially returning to Bridgerton. The streaming giant has handed out a second season renewal for the period drama from executive producer Shonda Rhimes. Season two will resume production in spring 2021 in London. The pickup arrives after the drama, based on Julia Quinn's best-selling novels, launched on Christmas to impressive reviews. Netflix noted that the Shondaland drama was on pace to be seen by 63 million households across its first 28 days of release. The story.

+Spotify has added another top filmmaker to its podcasting ranks. The music streaming giant has inked a deal with Ava DuVernay and her ARRAY arts and social impact collective. Under the exclusive, multi-year deal, the Selma director is expected to produce scripted and unscripted podcasts in collaboration with Spotify-owned studio Gimlet, which is run by former HuffPost editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen. ARRAY Filmworks president Sarah Bremner is overseeing the relationship for the company. More.

+Showtime has added a second A-list actress to its anthology series The First Lady. Michelle Pfeiffer will play Betty Ford in the series, which will also star Viola Davis as Michelle Obama. Emmy winner Susanne Bier (The Night Manager, The Undoing) has also signed on to direct every episode of The First Lady — which is produced by Showtime and Lionsgate Television — and will be an executive producer. More.

►What's up with the Olympics? Thursday evening Reuters reported that the Japanese government privately concluded that there is no way it will be able to host this summer's Olmpic games in Tokyo, and that the games would need to be canceled altogether. In a statement earli Fiday, the International Olympic Committee said that the report was "categorically untrue." "All parties involved are working together to prepare for a succesful games this summer."

--If the Olympics don't go forward, it would be a major blow to two U.S. entertainment giants: NBCUniversal, which was set to earn billions in advertising dollars and use the games to ush its Peacock streaming service and Discovery Inc., which has European rights, including streaming.

 THR Producer Roundtable

►THR Producer Roundtable: Andy Samberg, Ashley Levinson, Charles King Dede Gardner, Marc Platt and Eric Roth talk the streaming rise amid COVID and their awards contenders, and also discuss adapting to a year of seismic changes in the film industry: "We started rethinking everything."

--Eric Roth on Warner Bros.' decision to send its films (including Dune) to HBO Max: "It was a major disappointment, particularly the way it was presented. I hope it will rectify itself, but it's a much longer conversation. I'm an advocate of streaming in many, many ways because of the opportunity for many, many people to see things that they wouldn't have seen. On the other hand, I grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant and went to the Brooklyn Paramount Theater at 8 years old and was enveloped in the theater experience. So, I think it's a complicated thing."

--Marc Platt (Trial of the Chicago 7) had a different experience: "Chicago 7 was intended for a theatrical exhibition. One of our goals in making that film was to actually get it out before the election. The acceleration of the business to a streaming business was actually a gift in certain ways, for that particular film... It wasn't really until the picture was completed, even in post in July, that we actually asked Paramount if we could look around. They were happy to do so because they also recognized that there was no theatrical world, really, because of the pandemic at the time. So, it was full transparency, and I think everyone was actually happy the way that it went down."

--Andy Samberg: "In some strange way, it was actually beneficial for us, the pivot that we were forced to take. Obviously, we were really excited for [Palm Springs] to have a theatrical release, and that was a big part of the deal we made at Sundance. That's why we did a sort of co-deal with Neon and Hulu together, so that Neon could handle the theatrical. But because we came out in the summer, right in the first few months of [the pandemic], I think we had a much more captive audience. It wasn't the way we wanted people necessarily to be seeing it. After seeing it play in a theater at Sundance and feeling that reaction, how exciting and crackly that can feel, it was disappointing. But because it was in the summer when all these blockbusters were supposed to come out and didn't, all of a sudden it got a lot more attention." The THR Producer Roundtable.

►Parler lived by the sword of free speech, and now it may die by it too. On Thursday, a federal judge in Seattle, Washington refused to make Amazon restore hosting services for Parler. The social media platform was taken down after Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol, and now a Washington federal court finds the public interest isn't served by forcing Amazon to host "incendiary speech." The story.

►Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Why I took part in the Biden-Harris inauguration. "I felt honored to be an active part of the relaunching of the ship of state with a real captain at the helm," writes the THR columnist, who helped introduce the new leaders with words first recited by Abraham Lincoln. The column.

►Film review: David Rooney reviews Malcolm & Marie, writing that "unlike other high-profile pandemic shoots (looking at you, Locked Down), there’s no whiff of gimmickry here. Levinson and his collaborators, including several principal crew from Euphoria, have fashioned a self-contained drama that unfolds realistically in and around an isolated house over the course of one night, much of it in real time." The review.

Revolving door: President Biden has tapped Jessica Rosenworcel to be acting FCC chair, and Rebecca Slaughter to be acting FTC chair... Lisa Cooke has been elected the first woman chair of the Visual Effects Society, succeeding Mike Chambers, the society announced on Thursday...

►TV's Top 5 podcast: This week WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer joins hosts Daniel Fienberg and Lesley Goldberg for an interview about Marvel's first Disney+ TV series. Other topics during this week's podcast include how cable news networks will pivot under a new administration with special guest Josef Adalian. Listen.

In other news...

--Dave Chappelle has tested positive for COVID-19 and canceled the remainder of his scheduled shows in Austin, Texas this week.

--Film Independent said Thursday that its Spirit Awards, which are typically held during the daytime in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica the day before the Oscars, will now "break tradition" and air in a primetime ceremony at 10 p.m. ET on April 22, three days before the Academy Awards.

--Just as podcasters have found innovative ways to continue making their shows amid a pandemic, the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards forged ahead with a virtual show on Thursday evening. Office Ladies, the podcast from Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, took home the award for podcast of the year on a night that also recognized Crime Junkie, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Pod Save America, Articles of Interest and several other shows. 

--The reboot of Punky Brewster held a press event where the stars sat with cardboard cutouts of members of the media.

--Mediaset, the Italian media group controlled by controversial mogul and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has increased its stake in Munich-based ProSiebenSat.1, giving Berlusconi sufficient control to block major corporate decisions by the German broadcaster.

What else we're reading...

--"Paramount+ marketing push will rely heavily on ViacomCBS networks" [WSJ]

--"Inside the stretch limo where Tiger King star Joe Exotic's team waited for a pardon that never came" [Washington Post]

--"Fox News foes face uphill fight in getting cable network dropped" [Bloomberg]

--"The next stop for deprting public officials? Hollywood" [WSJ]

--"How about a little sobriety, please?" [Politico]

--"Into the Gaines-verse" [The Ringer]

Today's birthdays: DJ Jazzy Jeff, 56, Linda Blair, 62, Balthazar Getty, 46, Christopher Masterson, 41, Logic, 31.

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JANUARY 22, 2021

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