'Ted Lasso' Stars, Writers Score Big Paydays for Season 3

►GOOOOOAAAALLL!!!!! THR's Lesley Goldberg has the scoop on the cast, producers and writers of Apple's monster hit Ted Lasso scoring sizable pay increases for the third season following recent negotiations with producers Warner Bros. Television. 

Sudeikis, sources say, has already closed a deal for season three that will pay him around $1 million an episode up from the $250,000 to $300,000 per episode sum he earned for seasons one and two. Key castmembers Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Juno Temple and Brendan Hunt all scored raises that take them from the $50,000 to $75,000 range to the $125,000 to $150,000 territory. 

Showrunner Bill Lawrence is also seeking an increase from the five-year, eight-figure overall deal he signed with Warners in late 2018, before Ted Lasso become a Peabody-winning cultural sensation. The story.

—El fin. Netflix’s drug cartel saga Narcos: Mexico will end with the previously announced third season. The final 10-episode season releases Nov. 5. The Mexico reset series will bring the Narcos franchise to its sixth season overall, as the cartel drama remains a top global performer for the streaming giant among its original series. The story. 

—Sold! AT&T’s WarnerMedia has sold the celebrity news and gossip brand TMZ to Fox Corp. The deal will see the notorious tabloid founded by Harvey Levin operate under the Fox broadcast network umbrella. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but someone familiar with the sale pegged the value of the deal to THR at less than $50 million. The story. 

—Good stuff bruv. Cynthia Erivo and Andy Serkis will star alongside Idris Elba in Netflix feature film installment of Luther, continuing the story of the acclaimed crime series. Netflix is making the feature in association with the BBC. The story. 

Met Gala: The Best and Most Outrageous Looks

►"Tax the Rich." After being cancelled in 2020, the Met Gala, New York's party of the year, returned with Timotheé Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Naomi Osaka and Amanda Gorman as co-chairs. And the outfits ran the gamut from stunning to what-were-you-thinking. The story. 

—"Research." Nicki Minaj didn't make an appearance at this year’s Met Gala and she took to Twitter to explain why. The rapper wrote, "They want you to get vaccinated for the Met. if I get vaccinated it won’t [be] for the Met. It’ll be once I feel I’ve done enough research. I’m working on that now." She later related the research as a story about her cousin's friend in Trinidad having swollen testicles that ruined his planned wedding. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The story.

—"My dear penguins, we stand on a great threshold!" HBO Max is in early development on a series centered on Batman villain the Penguin. The potential show would be a spinoff of Warner Bros. upcomig film The Batman. Matt Reeves and Dylan Clark, who are directing and producing the film, will be exec producers on the project. Colin Farrell plays the Penguin in The Batman and has been approached about continuing the role in the series. The story. 

—At last! Succession finally has a firm premiere date on HBO. After releasing a minute-long teaser in July and saying in August that the series would begin its third season in October, the network has revealed that the show will premiere on Oct. 17. The story. 

—Songs in the key of Keegan-Michael. Key & Peele star Keegan-Michael Key is set to join Timothée Chalamet in Warner Bros.’s Wonka, a big-screen reimagining of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The story. 

Hilary Swank to Star in Tom McCarthy Newspaper Drama for ABC 

►Oscar-winning pedigree. Hilary Swank and Tom McCarthy are headed to ABC for a newspaper drama. Swank will star with the show written, directed and exec produced by McCarthy.  ABC has picked up the untitled Alaska drama with a pilot order. The story. 

—Stacked cast. Freeform’s latest drama pilot, an untitled project from Grace and Frankie executive producer Julie Durk and Ryan Seacrest Productions, has lined up an impressive cast. Andrea Londo, Warren Christie, Kelly Bishop and Amy Acker have signed up for the pilot that is described as a modern-day Hitchcockian thriller. The story.

—Renewal. Disney+ has renewed High School Musical: The Musical: The Series for a third season. The pickup comes about six weeks after the show’s second season concluded on the streamer. The story.

—Found. Tanya Fear, a British actress who had been reported as missing in Los Angeles since Thursday, was found Monday afternoon, authorities confirmed to THR. The story. 

Jeff Bridges Reveals Cancer Is in Remission  

►"This brush with mortality has brought me a real gift." Jeff Bridges shared some much-needed good news Monday, saying that his lymphoma is in "remission." The Oscar-winning star also revealed a brutal battle with COVID-19. In a handwritten note on his website, the beloved Hollywood icon said his one-time 9-inch x 12-inch mass had shrunk to the size of a "marble" thanks to all his treatments. The story. 

—Awards play. Robert Greene's Procession, a doc about six men who survived childhood sexual assault at the hands of Catholic priests and clergy, has been acquired by Netflix, which intends to mount a full-fledged Oscar campaign for it. The story.

—"The ghost with the most." The Beetlejuice musical is going to reappear on stage and have its homecoming at Broadway’s Marriott Marquis Theatre next year. The musical held its final performance on March 11, 2020 and will return on April 8, 2022. The story.

In other news...

—TIFF film review: Ben Foster in The Survivor.

—TIFF film review: Terence Davies’ Benediction.
 
—Technicolor expands visual effects leadership. 

—Tokyo Film Festival to showcase Japanese director Keisuke Yoshida.

—Discovery CFO talks streaming strategy after WarnerMedia deal.

—Fox chief Michael Thorn on “curated” development, animation legacy and measuring success.

—Charter CFO: Programmers have made pay TV “unaffordable” for many.

—Commercial producers can mandate vaccines on-set, SAG-AFTRA says.

—George Wein, Newport Jazz Festival co-founder, dies at 95.

—Don Collier, actor on The High Chaparral, Outlaws and many other Westerns, dies at 92.

—The case of the Pulp Fiction movie poster: Who deserves credit for this image?

—Beyonce and Jay-Z Appear in “Moon River” Tiffany commercial, release details on HBCU scholarships.

What else we're reading...

—"When Wes Anderson Comes to Town, Buildings Get Symmetrical" [New York Times]

—"Nicki Minaj Defends Vax Tweets Amid Swollen Testicles Drama, Gets Tucker Carlson’s Support" [Daily Beast]

—"Music Copyright in the Age of Forgetting" [The Ringer]

—"Y: The Last Man Is A Gendered Dystopia" [Salon]

—"Dune Doesn’t Care If You Like It" [Vulture]

Today... 

Today's birthdays: Bong Joon Ho (52), Andrew Lincoln (48), Jessica Brown Findlay (32), Sam Neill (74), Robert Wisdom (68), Melissa Leo (61), Tyler Perry (52), Walter Koenig (85), Emma Kenney (22), Kimberly Williams-Paisley (50), Miyavi (40), Kristen Renton (39)