Today In Entertainment APRIL 01, 2021
What's news: Endeavor tries to IPO once more... this time with Elon Musk, Knives Out Netflix mega-deal, Krista Vernoff's moment, studios reckon with "toxic" fandom, CSI and Head of the Class reboots move forward at CBS and HBO Max, Daytime Emmys ink two-year deal with CBS. Plus: Nobody producers David Leitch and Kelly McCormick on Bob Odenkirk's action chops and making a Brad Pitt movie during COVID, and a review of United States of Al. --Alex Weprin Endeavor Files to Go Public (Again) ►Ari Emanuel is back to testing the waters for an initial public offering. A year and a half after Endeavor withdrew its plans to go public, the Beverly Hills-based entertainment and sports powerhouse declared its intention to try again, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. --Endeavor disclosed that it generated $3.478 billion in revenue in 2020 and a net income loss of $625 million for the year, down from $4.571 billion in revenue a year earlier and a loss of $530 million in 2019. The company also noted that it plans to buy out UFC, giving it 100 percent ownership of the MMA giant, and that Tesla mogul Elon Musk is set to join its board of directors. It plans to trade with the ticker symbol "EDR." --One big difference this time around: Endeavor isn't in a scorched-earth fight with Hollywood's screenwriters, a key part of WME's representation business. That protracted battle — which began in April 2019 when 7,000-plus scribes parted ways with their reps over business practices like packaging fees that the writers alleged were a conflict of interest for agencies — wrapped up officially in February when lone holdout WME became the final firm to come to terms with the Writers Guild of America. The story. +In other business news: Hopes for a business bounce back amid the pandemic — boosted by the vaccine rollout — and increased confidence in streaming growth prospects helped propel many Hollywood stocks during the first quarter of 2021, which wrapped up on Wednesday. --But it was also a volatile rollercoaster of a period as small investors faced off with big Wall Street institutions in showdowns over video game retailer GameStop and other stocks and Archegos Capital Management and its banks late in March began liquidating big positions in blue-chip companies, including ViacomCBS and Discovery, causing big recent drops. The story. 'Knives Out' Mega-Deal ►Knives Out is heading for full-fledged franchise status. Two sequels to the Rian Johnson-directed 'whodunit' movie have landed at Netflix in a massive nine-figure deal. The first film will start shooting this summer in Greece, with Daniel Craig set to reprise his role as detective Benoit Blanc. Johnson will return to direct, with he and Ram Bergman producing under their T-Street banner. --Media Rights Capital produced the 2019 feature, while Lionsgate distributed. The film went on the earn a massive $311.4 million on a $40 million budget, with Johnson garnering an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. MRC and Lionsgate had rights only to the first film, with sequel rights lying with Johnson and Bergman, leaving the filmmakers to shop the films around. The story. +Flashback: About a year ago, Lionsgate announced a Knives Out sequel on its qurtely earnings call, with CEO Jon Feltheimer calling it "a new Lionsgate franchise." Now, apparently, the company has been cut out of the picture altogether. ►Nobody producers David Leitch and Kelly McCormick on Bob Odenkirk's action chops and making a Brad Pitt movie during COVID. With multiple box office smashes under their belts, the married producing duo shares why it took two years for Odenkirk to train, what it was like for Leitch to direct Pitt's Bullet Train — as his former stuntman — and their thoughts on Deadpool 3. The interview. +In other film news: Origin pic Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is pushing back its theatrical release date from Sept. 3 to Nov. 24, the beginning of the Thanksgiving weekend. Screen Gems announced the change on Wednesday. More. Krista Vernoff's Moment ►Krista Vernoff on overcoming her past, overhauling Grey's Anatomy and (finally) emerging from Shonda's shadow. The ABC showrunner has had an envious résumé (including as Rhimes' top lieutenant) and a gripping backstory, but for 20 years she struggled to get her own show made — until Rebel. --"Grey's was a show I was personally rewriting forever — I'd sit at every table read and look at every edit, and it was killing me," says Shonda Rhimes. "And not because I didn't love the show, but because I had so much other work and I knew the only person I could hand it over to and trust to write it was Krista. So every year I'd check in with her, like, 'Is your deal up?' And finally one year it was." The story. ►From Justice League to Star Wars, studios reckon with "toxic" fandom. Hollywood majors are learning they can't be silent about what happens on social media, but as one rep cautions, "If you’re speaking out, you have to speak out for everyone." --"One rep of a lower-profile Disney actor, who has faced racist social media harassment, notes they in recent months asked the studio to intercede publicly, to no avail. The rep acknowledges it’s a tough situation for any studio, particularly given how vitriolic the Internet can be. 'You can only do so much," says the rep. "But if you’re speaking out, you have to speak out for everyone.'" The story. ►CSI is returning to CBS. The network has given a series order to CSI: Vegas, a revival of the flagship series in the franchise. William Petersen, Jorja Fox and Wallace Langham will reprise their roles in the drama. In the works for more than a year, CSI: Vegas comes from CBS Studios and Jerry Bruckheimer Television, which produced the long-running original show. In addition to Petersen, Fox and Langham, the show's cast includes Paula Newsome, Matt Lauria, Mel Rodriguez and Mandeep Dhillon. The story. +HBO Max is ringing the bell on a Head of the Class reboot. The streamer has handed out a series order to the multi-camera comedy from writers Amy Pocha and Seth Cohen and executive producer Bill Lawrence. The show is based on the former ABC comedy of the same name, which ran from 1986-91. The story. +HBO Max has also greenlit a limited series based on the true-crime documentary The Staircase, with Colin Firth set to star. The eight-episode drama comes from writers and showrunners Antonio Campos (The Sinner, The Devil All the Time) and Maggie Cohn (American Crime Story, The Girl Before) and Annapurna Television. Campos will also direct six of the eight episodes. The story. +Ordinary Joe is moving forward at NBC. Following a nearly 15-year development process, the Matt Reeves-produced drama starring James Wolk has been ordered to series at NBC. Ordinary Joe, based on the British concept that Reeves originally developed for ABC in 2006, marks NBC's second drama series pickup for the 2021-22 broadcast season and joins LaBrea at the network. The story. +CBS continues to solidify its 2021-22 schedule. The network on Wednesday handed out a series pickup for scripted comedy Ghosts, starring iZombie grad Rose McIver. More. ►CBS and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences have signed a two-year deal for the Daytime Emmy Awards. Under the terms of the deal, the awards ceremony will be broadcast in primetime on CBS, and will also stream live on Paramount+. The two-year deal brings some stability to the awards show, which had bounced around on a few networks like Pop and HLN before shifting to a streaming format for a number of years. CBS brought it back to linear TV last year amid the pandemic, and the new deal keeps it on the broadcaster and its streaming sibling through 2022. The story. +Grammys hope for normal in 2022: The 64th annual edition of the music trophyfest is set to take place on Jan. 31 from Los Angeles' Staples Center and air live on CBS and Paramount+, with the show set to be available later on demand on the ViacomCBS streaming service. However, for the first time since 2016, the show will air on a Monday night. In 2016, the show aired on Monday, Feb. 15. The Grammys have often aired on Sundays for the past 20 years, occasionally switching to Wednesday night, which was frequently when the awards ceremony took place in the '90s. The story. ►Writer loses Muppet Babies lawsuit because of old bankruptcy. While Jeffrey Scott alleged that the new version infringed elements of the original Muppet Babies production bible he created in the 1980s, the judge rules he has no standing to bring the case since he never disclosed the production bible in a long-ago personal bankruptcy. More. ►TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews the CBS sitcom United States of Al, writing that "if audiences stick with United States of Al through the four episodes sent to critics, they might start seeing a show that is surely well-meaning and aspires to admirable cultural understanding. But given that the beginning here is even bumpier than that of other recent Lorre shows, I really can't recommend waiting around. Trying to be inoffensive is better than trying to be offensive, but it opens the door to its own kind of stereotyping and laziness." The review. Casting roundup: 7th Heaven and Hart of Dixie actor Barry Watson is returning to The CW. Watson is one of five actors being added to Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship's pilot Naomi... The coronavirus-inspired filmmaking competition from Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios, The Six Feet Apart Experiment, has announced the cast for three of its features with talent that includes Elsie Fisher, Danny Trejo and Nat Faxon... Joel Kim Booster is hosting a new 88rising radio show Joy F*ck Club for SiriusXM... Matilda's 'orrible parents have been found, with Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough joining the cast as Mr. & Mrs. Wormwood... Revolving door: Actress Jaime King has partnered with producer Emma Comley and executive Sola Fasehun to form Hooligan Dreamers, to create what its founders call an interdisciplinary production company... Apple TV+ is adding to its executive team. Zennen Clifton is joining the streaming service as a creative executive... Frankie Jonas is following in his brothers' footsteps. The youngest Jonas has signed with UTA, the agency that represents his siblings Nick, Joe and Kevin... WME has signed chef and TV personality Matty Matheson... In other news... --Randall Park is set to make his directorial debut with a feature film adaptation of the Bay Area-set graphic novel Shortcomings. --Huu is getting into branded entertainment. The streamer wil debut a photography compettiion series, Exposure, developed by Samsung, which will see the tech giant's cameras used in the challenges. --Concept artist John Eaves — known for his illustrations and designs for the Star Trek series and other science-fiction realms — will receive the Art Directors Guild (IATSE Local 800) Lifetime Achievement Award during the 25th annual ADG Awards. --IFC Midnight has picked up the U.S. rights to Neill Blomkamp's Demonic from AGC Studios and STABILITi Studios. --Adam McKay is in talks to partner with Dan Le Batard and John Skipper's Meadowlark Media on future projects. --How L.A.'s Asian-American businesses are faring amid hate crime surge. --Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Kari Skogland, director of Marvel's new drama The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, are to participate in an 'In Conversation' series at the upcoming virtual Banff World Media Festival. What else we're reading... --"Comcast weighs pulling Universal's movies from HBO Max, Netflix" [Bloomberg] --"Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch heads to Australia as Fox News faces headwinds" [NPR] --"Vice Media is in advanced talks to merge with SPAC backed by 7GC" [The Information] --"Facebook shorted video creators thousands of dollars in ad revenue" [The Verge] Today's birthdays: David Oyelowo, 45, Susan Boyle, 60, Randy Orton, 41, Vitor Belfort, 44, Logan Paul, 26. One more thing: It's April 1, so don't trust everything you read on the internet (looking at you, "Voltswagon").
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