Today In Entertainment

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

What's news: ViacomCBS hypes Paramount+ to investors ahead of its March 4 launch. Plus: Netflix to spend $500 million on Korean content this year, HBO combines production, business affairs units for TV and streaming, Marvel's next Spider-Man movie gets titled and Brett Ratner's Milli Vanilli biopic is dropped by Millennium. — Erik Hayden

 The Paramount+ Pitch

For more than 100 years, the Paramount brand has stood as a symbol for the golden age of Hollywood filmmaking. On Wednesday, ViacomCBS execs made the case for why Paramount will be what pushes the entertainment conglomerate into the streaming era, reports Natalie Jarvey and Lesley Goldberg: 

The Paramount+ price: An ad-supported tier that features live NFL games, CBSN and on-demand titles will cost $5 per month. An ad-free tier that also includes more live sports and live CBS network programming will cost $10 per month and include 30,000 episodes of television. Details.

Mining big name IP: In the works are new takes on Paramount features Love Story, Fatal Attraction, Flashdance, The Italian Job and The Parallax View. Those join the previously announced Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies and making-of The Godfather entry The Offer. Classic MTV and VH1 music franchises Behind the Music, Yo! MTV Raps and Unplugged will get new versions. Also: a Frasier revival. I The reboots.

Keeping the theatrical window: Mission: Impossible 7 and A Quiet Place Part II, which are slated to be released in theaters Nov. 19 and Sept. 17, respectively, will debut on Paramount+ 45 days after their big-screen runs. Also, MGM movies, including the upcoming James Bond movie No Time to Die, will find a streaming home on Paramount+. The service will boast 2,500 movies. 

The Star Trek factor ... Star Trek: Prodigy, an animated series originally set for Nickelodeon, will join the service as well as Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks and the upcoming Strange New Worlds. The streamer will feature 726 episodes from the six classic shows as well as a selection of feature films. Franchise captain Alex Kurtzman's Q&A. 

... Yellowstone empire: Taylor Sheridan is adding a third show to the franchise — tentatively titled 6666 — for the service. The show joins prequel series, Y: 1883, on the service. At ViacomCBS, Sheridan now has six shows.

... And Comedy Central brands: The platform will lean into Comedy Central with new incarnations of Inside Amy Schumer and Reno 911, with made-for-streaming movies focused on Workaholics and Beavis and Butt-head and a new weekly show with Trevor Noah. More.

What Paramount execs emphasize: "91 percent of people in markets everywhere, non-English-speaking markets all over the world, knew the Paramount brand and recognized the mountain and the logo," says international ViacomCBS COO Kelly Day. "But 96 percent had a really positive association with it. And when you ask people what do you associate with the Paramount brand, they mentioned things like big blockbuster movies, awesome TV shows." Q&A. 

Also...

► Paramount+ will be the home of Halo series ... The long-gestating live-action adaptation of the beloved video game is moving from premium cable network Showtime to its streaming sibling. More.

... Younger is moving to the service. The seventh season will be the final one for the long-running Darren Star series starring Sutton Foster. And the comedy will be premiering on the streaming platform in 2021.

... Live-action Dora, Fairly OddParents in the works. The shows are being developed as part of a sizable offering of kids and family programming on the soon to launch platform.

► Nickelodeon is reviving Avatar: The Last Airbender. The ViacomCBS unit has launched Avatar Studios, a new division that will create series and movie projects based on the beloved animated show.

► Showtime plans Ray Donovan movie. Liev Schreiber will return to star alongside Jon Voight and Kerris Dorsey as Ray's father and daughter, respectively. Filming will begin later this year in New York. The plot.

► CBS All Access' Twilight Zone not moving forward. The anthology from exec producers Jordan Peele and Simon Kinberg has been canceled after a two-season run on the platform. Details. 

Meanwhile...

► HBO combines business units for TV and streaming. The merger of production and business sees Janet Graham Borba and Susanna Felleman taking on expanded roles, while Sandra Dewey and Pat Kelly are departing.

► NBC accused of having "demonized" Jews in Nurses episode. An episode of the medical drama has earned condemnation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center over a plot involving an Orthodox Jew. Details. 

► Disney+ sets Loki and Bad Batch premiere dates. The Tom Hiddleston-starring show will premiere on June 11 as Marvel Studios' third series on the platform, while the Star Wars property bows May 4. 

► ARRAY names marketing chief. Longtime Warner Bros. TV communications exec Jeff Tobler will depart the studio and take on his new role heading marketing for Ava DuVernay's collective.

In THR, Esq: Judge Judy dealt setback in packaging fees suit. Judy Sheindlin has 30 days to amend her suit against Richard Lawrence, who she claims isn't entitled to the fees he's collected for packaging the series.

Rep Sheet: TV chef, restaurateur Melba Wilson signs with Buchwald ... TikToker Taylor Cassidy signs with WME ... The Weeknd inks with CAA.

 Creative Space: Tim Story

The Tom & Jerry director, who resides in the Ladera Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, not far from his childhood home — is building a slate that includes a possible reunion with Kevin Hart and the adaptation of another children's classic, Corduroy, as well as a move into TV. Full story. 

Elsewhere in film...

► Netflix plots David Fincher's next movie ... The Mank director and Michael Fassbender are teaming up for The Killer, Fincher’s long-gestating assassin drama that may finally go before cameras before year’s end. Story. 

... Teams with America Ferrera for YA dramedy. The actress is set to make her feature directorial debut with an adaptation of the young adult novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter for the streamer. Details.

... And will spend nearly $500 million on Korean content this year. The streamer shared its plans at an event in Seoul and unveiled a pair of original film projects, Moral Sense and Carter. Story. 

► Marvel/Sony reveal title of next Spider-Man film. Stars Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon revealed the title as Spider-Man: No Way Home in a video posted Wednesday. Also: Fake names.

Quoted: "When we start with a movie, we hope there is a part two, we hope there is part three, but we aren't factoring that into the part 1," said Marvel chief Kevin Feige, who noted Wednesday he'd been at Marvel too long to say a definite yes or no to anything regarding Disney+'s WandaVision season two.

► Millennium drops Brett Ratner's Milli Vanilli biopic. The director, accused of sexual misconduct, had been criticized by Time's Up for his involvement in the project. Millennium now says it is parting ways with the project and "a group of private equity investors have emerged that are fully financing the movie to begin production shortly." More.

► Universal plans comedy from Keith and Kenny Lucas. The identical twin brothers are set to write and star in a semi-autobiographical comedy that has Judd Apatow attached to produce. More. 

► Berlin package: Ryan Gosling's The Actor. Duke Johnson will direct the film, an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake's novel Memory. The project will be shopped at the European Film Market. Reps.

► Samuel Goldwyn nabs The Marijuana Conspiracy. The indie drama, starring Julia Sarah Stone and Morgan Kohan, is about controversial 1970s cannabis use research on women, and is set for an April day-and-date release.

► Gravitas Ventures buys As Long As We Both Shall Live. The indie from director Ali Askari stars Josh Helman, Yael Stone, Jennifer Allcott and Paul Sorvino and is planned for a Feb. 26 release. 

► Book acquisition: Gigi Pritzker’s Madison Wells has nabbed the cross-platform rights to Emily Nagoski’s Come as You Are, partnering with Lisa Berger and Sarah Penna's Frolic Media on project development.

► Indie Corner Office unveils cast. Jon Hamm, Danny Pudi, Sarah Gadon and Christopher Heyerdahl are headlining the dark comedy, which is shooting in Vancouver through mid-March.

What else we're reading ... 

— "Shaka King grapples with Hollywood and history." Jelani Cobb writes: "The filmmaker discusses what he owes to the Black Panther Party, and to the Black directors who came before him." [New Yorker]

— "The rise of Phil Sun." Britt Hennemuth notes: "The talent manager is on the phone with Michael B. Jordan right now - or maybe Idris Elba, Gemma Chan, Donald Glover, or Riz Ahmed." [Vanity Fair]

— "Why did First Look let go of Laura Poitras?" Sarah Jones and Peter Sterne report: "The company says it didn’t fire her but chose not to renew her annual contract because she had been 'inactive' for more than two years." [New York]

— "Fight between Fortnite creator and Apple reels in more tech players." Tim Higgins and Sarah E. Needleman report: "Computer-game distributor Valve is the latest to be pressured into playing a role in a legal battle over app-store fees." [Wall Street Journal]

— "Ban all big mergers." Robert H. Lande and Sandeep Vaheesan write: "A simple law would stop the U.S. government from rubber-stamping corporate consolidation." [The Atlantic]

— "Twitter’s moment in the sun won’t last." Tae Kim asks: "Does the social-media platform really deserve the benefit of the doubt on its new ventures, given its checkered history on acquisitions?" [Bloomberg]

— "Can Clubhouse move fast without breaking things?" Kevin Roose writes: "The 11-month-old audio social network is compelling. It also has some very grown-up problems." [New York Times]

Today's birthdays: Jameela Jamil, 35, Rashida Jones, 45, Sean Astin, 50, Téa Leoni, 55. 

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