What's news: Is the Hollywood-China romance officially over? Kaley Cuoco inks Warner Bros. deal, Disney orders a Hocus Pocus sequel, U.K. TV scandals fallout, AT&T and Discovery's $1.7 billion break-up fee. Plus: Barry Diller on the merger, Bob Iger and Netflix, and reviews of In Treatment, Solos, and The Me you Can't See. --Alex Weprin
Hollywood's Future In China
►From deal frenzy to decoupling: Is the China-Hollywood romance officially over? Five years after an unprecedented era of frenzied East-West dealmaking, cash flow has stopped, Donald Trump's trade war lingers, censorship is on the rise and human rights abuses in the Middle Kingdom have upended business prospects for the U.S. film industry: "It's hard to know what's going to happen."
--“Disney should have the ability to say, ‘We don’t stand for what’s happening in Xinjiang province as a company,’ ” says Chris Fenton, the former U.S.-based president of DMG Entertainment, which was an active player in the Beijing boom period, co-producing Disney’s Iron Man 3. “And they should be able to make that statement without fearing that their theme park’s going to get shut down or they’re never going to be allowed to exploit their IP in that market again.” But how that ideal can be realized in a global industry of ruthless realpolitik is anything but clear.
--“Clearly, a lot of very smart, well-connected people on both the Chinese side and U.S. side thought this collaborative vision of the film industry’s future was worthwhile enough to receive major investment,” says Aynne Kokas, the author of the book Hollywood Made in China and a nonresident scholar in Chinese media at the Baker Institute of Public Policy at Rice University. “More than anything,” she adds, “what all this wreckage underscores is just how rapid the descent in the U.S.-China relationship has been — as the result of both Xi Jinping’s policies and Donald Trump’s policies.” The story.
In TV News...
►Kaley Cuoco is extending her long-standing relationship with Warner Bros. TV. The Flight Attendant star and executive producer has signed a new, multiyear overall deal at the studio she’s worked with for the past 14 years, dating to the beginning of her long run on The Big Bang Theory.
--Under the deal, Cuoco’s Yes, Norman Productions — led by executive vp Suzanne McCormack — will develop programming for all platforms, including WarnerMedia’s streaming platform HBO Max, home to The Flight Attendant. The story.
+Amazon will keep The Wheel of Time spinning for a second season. The streamer has renewed the fantasy series based on Robert Jordan’s best-selling novels. The pickup comes as production is wrapping on season one in the Czech Republic. (A premiere date for the series hasn’t been set.)More.
+The WWE is going back on the road. More than a year after the novel coronavirus pandemic shut down its live shows, the WWE will return to touring in July. It's good news for TV partners NBCUniversal and Fox too, who have been hoping that the energy of the live shows can boost the ratings of their programming. Fox's Smackdown will originate July 16 from the Toyota Center in Houston, Money In The Bank will stream on Peacock July 18 from Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, and USA's Raw will air on July 19 from American Airlines Center in Dallas.
►Fallout from two U.K. TV scandals: Comcast-owned pay TV giant Sky has canceled British police drama Bulletproof, starring Noel Clarke, a company representative said Friday. Sky had paused work on Season 4 of the show and any other projects with Clarke in late April after BAFTA suspended the Doctor Who actor from its membership in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations by 20 women. The story.
+And: There is growing pressure to reform the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC, following a report that found a journalist used lies and deceit to secure a famed 1995 television interview with Princess Diana.
--Prince William, Diana’s son and the future king, has condemned the interview and the BBC’s actions in securing it, saying the Panorama report “contributed significantly” to the “fear, paranoia and isolation” of his mother in her final years. Prince William added that the Princess Diana interview should never be broadcast again and criticized BBC staff’s “woeful incompetence when investigating complaints.”
In response, to the report and Prince Williams’ comments, British culture secretary Oliver Dowden has said “further governance reforms” may be needed at the BBC. Former BBC chairman Lord Grade agreed... “The BBC has got a lot of questions to answer on the way its journalism is structured,” he said. The story.
Disney Magic?
►Disney+ is officially conjuring up a new Hocus Pocus movie, with the streaming service announcing the sequel will be released in 2022. Disney+ also confirmed that The Proposal filmmaker Anne Fletcher is taking over directing duties from Adam Shankman, who previously was attached to direct and remains on as an executive producer.
--Hocus Pocus 2 is a follow-up to the 1993 feature that starred Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy as three witches who were resurrected in Salem, Massachusetts, and who are bent on becoming immortal. All three are returning for the sequel, which begins production in the fall. The story.
+Eric Bana on new film The Dry and why he won’t produce movies with a darker edge. As the actor and director-producer Robert Connolly prepare for crime drama's May 21 U.S. premiere, the Melbourne-based creative duo talk about not giving up the theatrical experience and wanting "people to feel better for having seen something that I am involved in." The interview.
+Also: The castings keep rolling in for Knives Out 2, with Kate Hudson the latest to join the sequel. More.
►Barry Diller on Warner-Discovery, Disney, and more. The media mogul was interviewed Friday morning by CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin from "Little Island" in New York City, a public park he has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to fund.
--The merger: Diller calls it "The great escape for AT&T." "It is certainly in better hands, how could it have been in worse hands?" Diller said of the Warner assets. "[David] Zaslav is the kind of creative executive they need, and he is scrappy, he built Discovery from relatively nothing to something, he is exactly the right person to try and develop it."
--On the streaming wars: "Netflix won this several years ago, they are the only ones with the scale and momentum to keep making these somewhat lunatic investments in programming," Diller said. "Disney is certainly going to do ok... it is not that they are terrible, but you cannot compete with the momentum and the scale."
--About Disney: Diller said that Disney chairman Bob Iger is "now being somewhat pushed to the sidelines by his successor, not very nicely by the way, he certainly doesn't deserve it." "That is what happens at companies, it is an age old thing. The successor usually kills the father, kills the boss," Diller added. "I do know that he is now kind of forgotten, it is Bob [Chapek], and his guts and courage, that said 'I have to go direct-to-consumer, no matter the costs.'"
--And Amazon: "Amazon is in a different world than anyone else. They are not in the media business, they are in the Prime business. If they give media, meaning if they give their consumers who like Prime, really good video, that is justifiable. But for someone who has been in the entertainment business, where your job was to 'put asses in seats,' in the old vernacular of theaters, Amazon doesn't care. They care if you subscribe to Prime. A side result is you may get to see John Krasinski."
+AT&T-Discovery break-up fees: AT&T will owe Discovery Inc. $1.77 billion if it terminates the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery. Discovery, meanwhile, would owe the telecom giant a $720 million breakup fee if it backs out of the merger. However, if U.S. regulators kill the deal, there will be no termination fees. The termination fees were detailed in the Plan of Merger between the two companies, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. More.
+Want to buy the Greenwich Village townhouse where the deal was hashed out? Discovery CEO David Zaslav has listed what appears to be the home where he held secret meetings with AT&T CEO John Stankey. More.
►TV reviews...
+Daniel Fienberg reviews season 4 of HBO's In Treatment. "Of all the rebooted and remade pieces of intellectual property being recirculated through the Hollywood pipeline at any given moment, HBO’s In Treatment may make the most sense," Fienberg writes. "The adaptation of the Israeli BeTipul was never the network’s biggest hit or awards player (despite winning a pair of acting Emmys), but it could be the perfect show for our current moment on both thematic and practical levels." The review.
+Inkoo Kang reviews Amazon's Solos, writing that the pandemic-shot show is "a monologue-driven, single-set, vaguely sci-fi anthology drama that might inspire even the most earnest acting student to roll their eyes at its lazy self-indulgence and overwrought intensity." The review.
+Sheri Linden reviews Apple TV+’s 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything, writing: Devoid of talking heads, 1971 consists entirely of archival footage, augmented by the audio from interviews both vintage and newly recorded. As a work of curation, it’s endlessly eye-opening, even for those well versed in the period..." The review.
+Inkoo Kang reviews The Me You Can't See, writing that "There are moving testimonies from Lady Gaga, basketball player DeMar DeRozan and Zak Williams (son of Robin), as well as ordinary people with moderate and severe disabilities. Winfrey discusses her own childhood traumas, but inserts herself into the documentary mostly as a model of empathy and ongoing learning — someone who thought she knew a lot about mental health, only to discover she didn’t know anywhere near enough to help those around her." The review.
►TV's Top 5 podcast: Master of None co-creator and co-showrunner Alan Yang joins hosts Daniel Fienberg and Lesley Goldberg during this week's podcast, which also examines the latest news at the broadcast networks. Listen.
In other news...
--In its third Snap Partner Summit Thursday, Snapchat announced that it has paid out more than $130 million to 5,400 creators since launching Spotlight in November, including over 250 people who have been paid more than $100,000.
--CNN says that “it was inappropriate” for primetime anchor Chris Cuomo to participate in calls with his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and his brother’s staff, as they sought to push back on sexual harassment claims leveled against the politician. “It was a mistake, because I put my colleagues here, who I believe are the best in the business, in a bad spot," Cuomo said Thursday night. "I never intended for that, I would never intend for that, and I’m sorry for that.”
--In the past decade, Project Veritas has repeatedly stirred the pot by surreptitiously recording community activists, abortion clinics, union leaders, prominent media figures and others. Now, the outfit founded by James O’Keefe aims much higher — a petition before the Supreme Court to vindicate secret recordings from government overreach.
--Eugene and Dan Levy’s Schitt’s Creekwon big at the virtual Canadian Screen Awards on Thursday night as the homegrown series won for best comedy, while Catherine O’Hara earned the best comedic actress crown.
--The 10th edition of the ATX Television Festival has added a host of programming to its lineup.
What else we're reading...
--"David Cronenberg’s Crash, 25 years after its controversial Cannes showing" [The Ringer]
--"Trump Justice Department seized CNN reporter's email and phone records" [NY Times]
--"How do you play a notoriously guarded musician? Agree to take his secrets to the grave" [LA Times]
Today's birthdays: Mr. T, 69, Al Franken, 70, Lisa Edelstein, 55, Ronald Isley, 80, Kayla Itsines, 30.
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