Apple Axes 'Mr. Corman' After One Season

►Brutal. Apple has canceled its dramedy Mr. Corman after a single season. The news comes as the A24-produced series, starring and created by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, debuted its final episode on Friday. While Apple, like other streamers, doesn’t release viewing data on its shows, sources tell THR's Rick Porter that Mr. Corman‘s audience fell short of some of Apple TV+’s other comedies. The story. 

—An offer he couldn't refuse. The Sopranos creator David Chase has signed a massive new overall deal with WarnerMedia. Chase has inked a five-year, first-look deal with the company to develop content for HBO, HBO Max and Warner Bros. Pictures Group. Alas, there is no statement yet on what Chase’s new content might be. The story. 

—Nothing beside remains, round the decay of that colossal wreck. A few days after NYT media reporter Ben 'Angel of Death' Smith wrote a damning exposé on Ozy Media, the digital media company is shutting down. The company, co-founded by former CNN contributor and MSNBC anchor Carlos Watson, said on Friday that it would close its doors for good following days of scrutiny. The story. 

—Black members, finally. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the scandal-plagued orgnization behind the Golden Globes, has added 21 new members in its efforts to inject diversity into its ranks and win back favor in Hollywood. Six of the new members are Black, and the HFPA reports that 10 are women, six are Latinx, five are Asian and four are Middle Eastern/North African. The story.

—New members, new boss. Right on the heels of announcing a new class of members on Friday, the HFPA also has a new CEO in Todd Boehly. Running the group on an interim basis, Boehly is already closely tied to the HFPA as his firm Eldridge owns production company MRC and Dick Clark Prods., producer of the Golden Globes. The story.  

NBCUniversal, YouTube TV Inking Carriage Deal 

►Edging closer. NBCUniversal and YouTube TV are finalizing an agreement that will keep more than 14 NBCU channels on the Google-owned platform, a source close to the negotiations told THR's J. Clara Chan. Terms of the new agreement were not immediately clear as of Friday evening. But the NBCU–YouTube TV deal was originally set to expire on Thursday at midnight after negotiations had appeared to reach an impasse. The story. 

—Reboot. Cruel Intentions is getting the TV treatment, again. Five years after NBC passed on a sequel to the 1999 hit, Amazon’s IMDb TV is developing a college-set reboot of the feature that starred Selma Blair, Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar. The new take is from writers Phoebe Fisher and Sara Goodman, who is behind Amazon’s upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer update. The story. 

—A Hollywood first. Prolific producers Tyler Perry and Jason Blum are teaming up for the first time on the feature thriller Help. Alan McElroy, known as a writer and producer on Star Trek: Discovery, will write and direct the film. The story. 

—Blumfest news. Staying with Jason Blum, Donald Sutherland and It star Jaeden Martell have signed on for Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, an adaptation of a Stephen King short story being produced by Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy. The story. 

AMC Soars, Disney Resets, Netflix Rebounds

►Hollywood stocks' 2021, so far. Many entertainment industry stocks that lost ground in 2020 have enjoyed gains through the first three quarters of this year thanks to an ad revenue rebound and the reopening of the economy amid the pandemic, including in the cinema sector. But some big Hollywood names are battling streaming and deal-related overhangs that have left them below their 2020 closing prices as trading wrapped Friday, the first day of the final quarter of the year. The analysis. 

—Box office milestone. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has scored another much needed win for the theatrical experience. Over the last few days, the Marvel superhero movie became the first title of the pandemic era to cross $200 million at the North American box office. The story. 

—Gott im Himmel, Dan Stevens speaks German! I’m Your Man, a sci-fi rom-com from director Maria Schrader, featuring Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens as a German-speaking romance robot, has won the Lola in Gold for best film at the 2021 German Film Prize, Germany’s top film awards. The winners. 

—First-look deal. Judas and the Black Messiah director Shaka King is setting up shop at FX Productions. The Oscar nominee has signed a first-look deal and with his producing partner Brandon Harris will develop TV projects for FX via their recently formed production company, I’d Watch That. The story. 

—Vaxx and masks. Broadway theatergoers must continue to show proof of vaccination and wear masks for performances through the end of the year, the Broadway League announced on Friday. The story.

'Venom' and the Return of the Superhero B-Movie

►"Starving for brains, but there’s enough to it to leave you hungry for more." Sony's very deliberate decision to lean into the watchable silliness of the first Venom film for the sequel has been all the talk on social media. Richard Newby considers the significance of the Venom films, a sort of return to B-movies, and how they add much needed variety to the superhero genre. The column.   

—What does it all mean? Graeme McMillan writes that the "mid-credit sequence of Venom: Let There Be Carnage was, in many respects, an unexpected pleasure," and he considers the implications for both Sony and Marvel. Warning spoilers. The analysis. 

—Maximum Tom Hardy. Venom: Let There Be Carnage rustled up $11.6 million in Thursday evening previews at the domestic box office. Shows started at 4 p.m. local time in 3,700 locations. The sequel is poised to open in the high $50 million range, if not north of $60 million domestically, a threshold few Hollywood titles have managed during the COVID-19 crisis. The box office report. 

In other news...

—Amazon debuts trailer for concert documentary Justin Bieber: Our World.

—The Independent Gamer: Narrative cooking game Epic Chef to release in November.

—Lionsgate boards Robbie Amell’s Wattpad romance Float.

—Neil Patrick Harris to launch lifestyle newsletter Wondercade.

—Seth Rudetsky revives virtual concert series with lineup of Broadway stars.

—New Line’s Salem’s Lot adds 3.

—Jane Fonda, Zazie Beetz and Jenny Yang join Women in Film honors gala.

—Emily Ratajkowski Instagram copyright suit steps toward trial.

—Directors Guild names negotiations committee leaders.

—Jodie Comer to make West End debut in one-woman play Prima Facie.

—Neon takes Rebeca Huntt’s Beba bio documentary.

What else we're reading...

—"Pure Nostalgia: The Oral History of That Thing You Do!" [The Ringer]

—"Facebook Struggles to Quell Uproar Over Instagram’s Effect on Teens" [New York Times]

—"Apple Doesn’t Make Videogames. But It’s the Hottest Player in Gaming" [Wall Street Journal]

—"The New Anti-comedy of Jon Stewart" [The Atlantic]

—"Patreon Battles for Creators by Investing in Original Content" [Bloomberg]

Today...  

...in 1992, the film adaptation of David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Glengarry Glen Ross was released in theaters by New Line Cinema. The film starred a murderer’s row of acting greats including Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin and Alec Baldwin. The original review. 

Today's birthdays: Lorraine Bracco (67), Maribel Verdú (51), Angelyne (71), Terence Winter (61), Joey Slotnick (53), Kelly Ripa (51), Ian McNeice (71), Avery Brooks (73), Lucy Cohu (53), Brianna Brown (42), Camilla Belle (35), Jeff Bennett (59), Sting (70)