Today In Entertainment

MARCH 31, 2021

What's news: Thanksgiving Comic-Con faces uphill battle, AMC Networks' "boutique" streaming strategy, Godzilla vs. Kong to test revival of Hollywood tentpoles, Black News Channel preps primetime reboot, Game of Thrones to Broadway, Young Sheldon scores 3 season renewal, Oscars add venues in Europe. Plus: Meet the man behind the Echo Park closure, and why the Judas and the Black Messiah's producing team find Oscar success to be "bittersweet." --Alex Weprin

 The 'Bittersweet' Feeling of Making Oscar History

►On the cover: Despite history-making noms, Judas and the Black Messiah's all-Black producing team find Oscar success to be "bittersweet." Charles King, Shaka King and Ryan Coogler acknowledge the importance of their Academy Award nominations but still wrestle with the meaning of an honor that has excluded so many: "Why did it take 93 years?"

--"A colleague [of King's], WME agent Craig Kestel, gave Charles Coogler's Sundance lab script for Fruitvale Station, about the police killing of an unarmed Black man in an Oakland, California, train station. He doesn't talk about it publicly, but the first time Charles met Coogler, in 2012, he confided in the filmmaker about a painful personal experience he had had with police. 'I had never shared with anyone in our industry my reasons for wanting to blend my interest in entertainment and my activist side,' Charles says. 'We just bonded … and I wanted to see Ryan's vision fulfilled.'"

--"Coogler was in the midst of writing the Black Panther sequel when [Chadwick] Boseman died. 'It's difficult,' he says of proceeding with the film, which is slated to start production in July for a July 2022 release. 'You've got to keep going when you lose loved ones. I know Chad wouldn't have wanted us to stop. He was somebody who was so about the collective. Black Panther, that was his movie. He was hired to play that role before anybody else was even thought of, before I was hired, before any of the actresses were hired. On that set, he was all about everybody else. Even though he was going through what he was going through, he was checking in on them, making sure they were good. If we cut his coverage, he would stick around and read lines off camera [to help other actors with their performances]. So it would be harder for me to stop. Truthfully. I'd feel him yelling at me, like, 'What are you doing?' So you keep going.'"

--Warners' HBO Max streaming switch threw the producers for a loop: "I was initially focused on 'Are we going to break even? And are the most people going to get their eyes on the movie?' " Shaka says. He was particularly worried about Charles and MACRO recouping their investment. "Really look at the role that MACRO plays in shepherding movies like this," Shaka says. "If that company was not meaningfully compensated, the effect could be fairly disastrous to our filmmaking community."

As with other producers affected by the slate announcement, Charles was concerned by the financials of the new deal Warners was seeking. "The early indications of the deal were challenging," Charles says. "We were concerned. We have investors. We have fiduciary responsibility." After some negotiation, Charles says, "Ultimately, we're not at a place where we lost our capital." The cover story.

 Comic-Con Controversy

►Thanksgiving Comic-Con faces uphill battle with stars, producers. Convention regulars question the wisdom of the con's timing, with one studio source asking, "what actor or producer is going to give up their first post-vaccine Thanksgiving holiday with family to travel to San Diego to publicize a project?" The story.

►Black News Channel preps primetime reboot. The upstart cable outlet, launched in 2020, hopes to expand its audience by focusing on underserved communities "to fill a void" left by legacy media, and is betting that a new linep of Marc Lamont Hill, Yodit Tewolde, and Charles M. Blow will help viewers discover it.

--“I am just very excited that we get to create a space for Black news, that doesn’t have the architecture of the larger culture around it,” says Blow. “Rather, what would you present to a Black audience if nothing else existed?” The story.

+Cable news wave crests in first quarter as all 3 networks claim victory. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show ranks first among programs, while CNN scores a demographic win and Fox News tops primetime in total viewers. Rick Porter has the numbers.

►Box office preview: Godzilla vs. Kong to test revival of Hollywood tentpoles. Analysts believe Godzilla vs. Kong has a shot at crossing $30 million for the five days in North America, which would be a huge boost for the film and exhibition business as more theaters reopen and the appetite for moviegoing is tested. While that's not close to what a big-budget pic would hope to make in normal times, it would be a significant improvement. The preview.

►Westeros Side Story? Game of Thrones is headed to Broadway. A dramatic stage show spectacular based on George R.R. Martin’s fantasy world is now in development, James Hibberd reports.

--The play is from producers Simon Painter and Tim Lawson (The Illusionists), in partnership with Kilburn Live, and will have a story by Martin, who is working alongside award-winning playwright Duncan MacMillan (1984) and acclaimed director Dominic Cooke (The Courier). The team’s goal is to debut productions in New York City, London’s West End and in Australia. The first show is expected to launch in 2023. The story.

 From Broad To 'Boutique'

►AMC Networks' "boutique" streaming plan: Don’t try to compete with Netflix. The media company, led by CEO Josh Sapan, takes a different tack than most Hollywood giants by focusing on growing niche services (like Acorn TV) that have tallied 6 million-plus subscribers so far.

--“We want to get people’s passions with a clear proposition and have them served, because we do believe that there will be multiple streaming services in each household,” AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan says. “There will be competition for the consumer wallet, and we don’t want to compete with another big ‘here’s everything’ store. We want you to understand what [our niche brand] is, like it, identify with it, be satisfied with it and continue to buy it when you buy multiple other ones. So everything we do will be focused, defined and highly curated.” The story.

►Young Sheldon will continue to grow up on CBS. The network has handed out a three-season renewal for the Big Bang Theory prequel from creators Chuck Lorre and showrunner Steve Molaro. The pickup will keep the Iain Armitage-led single-camera comedy on the broadcast network through its seventh season and the 2023-24 television season. The story.

+ABC's long-running Dancing With the Stars will hit a milestone in the fall. The network has renewed the competition series for a 30th cycle to air in the 2021-22 season. Among unscripted shows on the broadcast networks, only CBS' Survivor and The Amazing Race have produced more seasons. More.

+Range Media Partners has staked out its first TV project. The seven-month-old company is partnering with Legendary Television to develop and co-finance a series based on best-selling author Ken Follett's novel The Evening and the Morning. The two companies outbid several other suitors to option rights to the book. The story.

►Oscars update: The Academy Awards will add venues in London and Paris and cover quarantine-impacted costs as the producers push for in-person appearances. "We can just promise you that we will be more transparent from this point forward," Steven Soderbergh, one of the producers of the 93rd Oscars telecast (along with Jesse Collins and Stacey Sher), told this year's nominees during a Zoom call on Tuesday morning. The story.

►Meet the man behind the Echo Park closure: "There will be no living at the lake." L.A. City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell — who oversaw the March 24 closure of the picturesque park immortalized in the movie Chinatown — responds to critics of his homeless relocation effort. The interview.

►Tyler Perry is weighing in on Georgia' new voting law. The Atlanta-based mogul, who runs a sprawling studio in the city, acknowledged that it's not the first time his state has passed controversial legislation. "As a Georgia resident and business owner I’ve been here a few times with the anti-abortion bill and the LGBTQ discrimination bill,"  Perry said in a statement. "They all sent a shockwave through Georgia and the nation but none of them managed to succeed." The multi-hyphenate says he's hoping that will be the case this time around, too. The story.

►TV's NFL rights gamble: Will the league opt out of its new deals? Broadcasters anted up $100 billion for 10 years to show football — but the league can pursue a new path after seven years. Here's why.

+Meanwhile: The NFL on Tuesday announced that it will offiically move to a 17 game schedule next season (up from 16 games), with only 3 pre-season games. The move will help broadcasters bring in more revenue to help offset the rich new TV deals.

►Will an investigation into Twitter's moderation decisions backfire because the Texas AG tweets? "Twitter is demanding an end to alleged harassment by Ken Paxton after the social media giant suspended Donald Trump's account. What's happening matters. But don't overlook WHERE the social media company is now seeking relief," Eriq Gardner writes. The story.

►SPAC of the day: Hollywood heavyweights, including former Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, ICM CEO Chris Silbermann and Fubo TV CEO David Gandler are on the board of Waverley Capital Acquisition Corp. 1, a new $300M SPAC led by Fubo chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. The SPAC will have a "singular focus on media."

Revolving door: 20th Television animation superstar Marci Proietto is going to oversee a new division for Disney. As part of the conglomerate's corporate reorganization, Proietto has been tapped to lead 20th Television Animation... UTA has signed social media and YouTube influencer Nailea Devora in all areas... Former CNN International anchor Isha Sesay has become the first woman to lead the global Black media company OkayMedia...

Casting roundup: Woody Harrelson is set to play the real-life physician of Heinrich Himmler — known as one of the main architects of the Holocaust — in WWII psychological thriller The Man with the Miraculous Hands...Naveen Andrews has been tapped to star alongside Amanda Seyfried in the streamer's Elizabeth Holmes-focused limited series The Dropout... Jeremy Strong has found his next role in Jonas Salk, the famed virologist that developed the widely-used polio vaccine. Strong will play the famed researcher in the feature Splendid Solution from Bron Studios and 21 Laps... Donald Faison is trading his scrubs for a lab coat. The Scrubs alum has joined the cast of The CW's Powerpuff live-action pilot from writers Diablo Cody and Heather Regnier... Jack Reynor has landed a leading role in The Peripheral, a sci-fi mystery show that Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are making for Amazon...

In other news...

--Universal Studios Hollywood on Tuesday announced the Los Angeles theme park would reopen on April 16. Tickets go on sale Thursday, April 8.

--Netflix revealed that it removed titles in Singapore and Turkey due to government takedown demands.

--Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications, which late last year sold a majority stake to an investor group led by former Viacom CFO Wade Davis, reported higher fourth-quarter revenue despite the coronavirus pandemic as its media networks unit returned to advertising growth thanks to political spending.

--Josh Gad (Frozen), Matthew Rhys (BoJack Horseman), Phillipa Soo (Over the Moon) and Eva Whittaker (Wolfwalkers) will be presenters for the virtual 48th annul Annie Awards for animation.

--Addison Rae has responded after she faced heavy backlash for not crediting the mostly Black creators of dances she recently performed on The Tonight Show.

--More than 420 women representing entertainment, business, politics, activism and music have come together and signed a letter organized by activist Raquel Willis timed to today's Transgender Day of Visibility and the end of Women's History Month.

What else we're reading...

--"Disney internal meeting underlines importance of diversity to its streaming business" [IGN]

--"For sports fans without cable, startup pitches 99-cent game snippets" [WSJ]

--Keyleigh McEnany was named the co-host of Fox News' Outnumbered [Politico]

--NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt accepted the Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism [Murrow College/YouTube]

--"Top Chef bakes in deeper brand integrations to reduce reliance on skippable ads" [Ad Age]

Today's birthdays: Al Gore, 73, Ewan McGregor, 50, Christopher Walken, 78, Jessica Szohr, 36, Rhea Perlman, 73.

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MARCH 31, 2021

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