Today In Entertainment

MARCH 12, 2021

What's news: AT&T sets a release date for ad-supported HBO Max as it ramps up subscribers, Netflix testing out a crackdown on password sharing, Los Angeles movie theaters cleared to reopen, Grammys producer previews Sunday's show, Apple inks first-look deal with Imagine Entertainment, Paul Reubens doc coming to HBO, Fleishman is In Trouble and Bon Appetit series in the works. Plus: When filmmakers ignore the political right, is that financially wrong? And Kim Novak on healing after leaving Hollywood. --Alex Weprin

 Streaming Strategy

►AT&T is raising its subscriber estimates for HBO Max, and expexts to debut a cheaper ad-supported version in June. The company said Friday that it now expects to reach 120-150 million HBO Max and HBO subscribers worldwide by the end of 2025, well above its October 2019 forecast of 75-90 million. It expects to end 2021 with 67-70 million subscribers worldwide, up from about 61 million at the end of 2020. It also shared further details on the global rollout of the service, saying: "AT&T expects to launch HBO Max in 60 markets outside the United States in 2021." Details will be shared during an investor day later this morning. The story.

+Related: WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar earned $52.1 million in 2020 after being appointed during the year, beginning with the company on May 1. Kilar earned a base salary of $1.66 million, and added $49.2 million in stock awards to his overall pay.

Meanwhile...

►Netflix is beginning to crack down on password sharing. Some viewers attempting to use somebody else's account are now being stopped by a screen that says, "If you don't live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching," James Hibberd reports. Netflix confirmed the new feature, which is getting a limited rollout at this time. "This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so – both by the member who owns the account and under our Terms of Service," a Netflix spokesperson said. The story.

+Flashback: In 2019 Eriq Gardner predicted that password sharing crackdowns could bcome the next turf in the streaming wars. More.

 L.A. Theaters Set To Reopen

►Los Angeles movie theaters have been cleared to reopen next week, although capacity will limited at 25 percent. The county's department of Public health said on Thursday that cinemas, along with certain other businesses, will be allowed to once again welcome customers in the coming days. Once New York and Los Angeles theaters are back in  operation, film distributors will begin to feel comfortable releasing their big-budget tentpoles. However, studios will want to see capacity grow to 50 percent. The story.

+AMC Theatres' lifeline has been extended. According to the company's annual report, which it filed Friday morning, it estimates that it has enough cash to make it through the end of March, 2022. "This requires that the Company achieves significant increases in attendance levels beginning in the third quarter of 2021 and ultimately reaching 90% of pre COVID-19 attendance levels by the fourth quarter of 2021 and through the first quarter of 2022, as the vaccine rollout continues and more Hollywood product is released in its theatres."

►Dramatic re-enactments fuel Operation Varsity Blues doc: "You're getting a window into a world." Relying on transcripts of wiretapped calls between college-admissions counselor Rick Singer and his wealthy clients, director Chris Smith and a cast that includes Matthew Modine re-create the 2019 scandal, Rebecca Keegan writes. The story.

►Apple has struck a first-look deal Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. The multi-year pact will see the banner produce a slate of scripted features, exclusively for the streamer. Apple has also extended its existing first-look deal with Imagine Documentaries, first inked in Jan. 2019 prior to the launch of the streaming service. The two companies have since partnered on a couple of projects, including Bryce Dallas Howard's Dads, one of the first docs to debut on the streamer. The story.

+A two-part documentary about Pee-wee Herman actor Paul Reubens is in production at HBO Documentary Films and the Safdie Brothers. Matt Wolf (Spaceship Earth) will direct the features, which are described as, "a kaleidoscopic portrait told in two parts" and "traces the life of the imaginative artist behind one of pop culture's most celebrated and unlikely icons: Pee-wee Herman." The story.

+Mission: Impossible 7 has added five more actors to its already sprawling ensemble cast: Cary Elwes (Princess Bride), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), Rob Delaney (Catastrophe), Charles Parnell (The Last Ship), and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock) have joined the upcoming action-adventure film. More.

+Kiersey Clemons has closed a deal to star opposite Ezra Miller in Warner Bros.' DC movie The Flash. The actress will reprise her role as Iris West, the romantic interest of Barry Allen, aka The Flash. Clemons portrayed the intrepid reporter West in Justice League but her role was cut by director Zack Snyder back in 2017 before he turned the film over to Joss Whedon. Snyder added her character back in recently for his upcoming cut, which debuts on HBO Max on March 18. More.

+The dark, sightless world of Netflix's Bird Box is expanding. The streaming giant has hired Alex and David Pastor, the filmmaking brothers behind sci-fi thrillers Carriers and Self/less, to write and direct a Spanish-language spin-off of the 2018 hit. More.

+And: Netflix rom-com alums Gina Rodriguez and Damon Wayans Jr. are returning for a new romantic comedy at the streamer, starring alongside Tom Ellis in Players. More.

►When filmmakers ignore the political right, is that financially wrong? Conservative creatives say the industry is "leaving a giant pile of money on the table" by neglecting Trump supporters and other right-leaning moviegoers, Tatiana Siegel reports. The story.

 Grammys Plans

►Grammys producer on reimagining music's biggest stage amid pandemic protocols: "We are going for it." Late Late Show executive producer Ben Winston talks about booking Prince Harry, speculation over James Corden's future in the U.S. and how the pandemic is no excuse to literally phone in the Grammys.

--"The live element of it makes me more nervous than I would be on The Late Late Show. Sure, there'll be elements of it put on tape in the week leading up to that night, but it's still very much a live show — a really ambitious show as well. Somebody told me the other week that making television now is doubly hard. It really is. You feel like you're walking through treacle." The story.

►FX has ordered a limited series based on Taffy Brodesser-Akner's best-selling novel Fleishman Is in Trouble. The nine-episode series, in development for 18 months, will run on FX on Hulu, the Disney-owned cabler's streaming hub that's also been home to such originals as Mrs. America and Devs. ABC Signature is producing. Brodesser-Akner will adapt her book for the series, marking her first foray into TV. She executive produces with Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly and Susannah Grant. The story.

+Bon Appétit's unraveling is getting the scripted treatment. HBO Max is developing a new comedy series Enjoy Your Meal that satirically examines the toxic culture of the food media industry. Per the logline, the half-hour show will "draw inspiration from the multiple media scandals of summer 2020 and today, focusing on a cohort of young assistants of color who rise up to tear their cookie cutter corporate culture apart." The story.

+The Boys spinoff is closing in on a series order at Amazon. In addition, Jaz Sinclair (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Lizze Broadway (Here and Now) have been cast in lead roles in the series. More.

+Showtime's Ripley has cast its leading lady. Dakota Fanning will star opposite Fleabag favorite Andrew Scott in the drama series based on Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley novels. More.

+Grey's Anatomy killed off another one of its doctors last night. Here's the backstory.

+Also: Discovery+ is bolstering its roster of nonfiction series in the United States with some 90 hours of programming from Vice Media. More.

►"What I want out of life is to be loved": Kim Novak on healing after leaving Hollywood. The icon of Vertigo — and Trump target at the 2014 Oscars — reveals what liberated her after years of studio system abuse, her bipolar diagnosis and the untold story behind her rumored romance with Sammy Davis Jr in an interview with Scott Feinberg. The interview.

►Blurring fact and fiction: How a handful of Berlin titles force viewers to "wonder what's real." In films like Netflix's A Cop Movie and the Daniel Brühl-directed Next Door, there is no easy division between drama and documentary, Scott Roxborough writes: "It's fiction, but a lot of it is true." The story.

►Oliver Stone recalls Doors inspiration as Jim Morrison biopic turns 30: "Strong peyote."

--"By this time, I had been taking so much flak. I don’t mean to self-pity, but my God, I had just done Born on the Fourth of July, Talk Radio and Wall Street. I was exhausted by trying to be realistic. This was freedom. It was like tearing your clothes off and breathing. It was about going out and having fucking fun making a movie. After JFK and Heaven & Earth, I did Natural Born Killers. Again, I wanted to be free. I get off on those films." The interview.

Revolving door: Two months after acquiring the Quibi library, Roku has tapped a handful of the defunct mobile app's former executives to manage the rollout of that programming on its platform... Michael Lumpkin, who oversaw AFI Fest for the past three years as the American Film Institute's director of AFI Festivals, the other being AFI Docs, has retired... Scott Feinberg, THR's longtime awards columnist and the host of THR's Awards Chatter podcast, will join Chapman University’s film school as a trustee professor in the fall...

►TV's Top 5 podcast: Generation Co-creators Zelda Barnz, 19, and her father, Daniel Barnz, join podcasts hosts Lesley Goldberg and Daniel Fienberg for an interview about their new HBO Max dramedy. Listen.

In other news...

--The American Cinema Editors announced the nominees for the 71st ACE Eddie Awards, which will be presented during a virtual ceremony on April 17 at 11 a.m. PT.

--The Weeknd (real name Abel Tesfaye) has stated he will boycott the Grammy Awards moving forward, including no longer attending the ceremony or submitting his work for consideration following his 2021 nomination snub.

--Cliff Simon, the South African character actor who starred as the villainous Ba'al in the sci-fi series Stargate SG-1, died Tuesday after a kiteboarding accident. He was 58.

--Soleil Moon Frye revisits life as a Hollywood kid with new doc.

--The rise of celebrity-backed SPACs has now spurred the Securities and Exchange Commission into issuing a public warning: Don't buy into a SPAC just because a celebrity is involved.

--Seth Rogen's newly launched cannabis lifestyle brand site, Houseplant, crashed on Thursday due to the overwhelming demand. The site was so inundated, Rogen said it needed to be taken down temporarily.

--Vimeo was entitled to delete the account of a pastor who posted videos about sexual orientation change efforts, according to a federal appeals court, which affirmed a decision that the video-sharing site is protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

--Meghan Markle sparked a boom at one L.A. frozen yogurt shop.

What else we're reading...

--"The fall of Armie Hammer: A family saga of sex, money, drugs, and betrayal" [Vanity Fair]

--"Marketers are underpaying Black influencers while pushing Black Lives Matter" [Bloomberg]

--"Awards shows are dying. Then COVID shoveled on the dirt. Cue the 2021 Grammys!" [LA Times]

--"What is an NFT, and how did an artist calld Beeple sell one for $69 million at Christies?" [Washington Post]

Today's birthdays: Liza Minnelli, 75, Andrew Young, 89, Mitt Romney, 74, Darryl Strawberry, 59, Courtney B. Vance, 61.

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MARCH 12, 2021

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