General
Hollywood Races for Commercial Real Estate Spaces
Kathy A. McDonald, Variety
There’s no room in Hollywood. Unprecedented low vacancy rates in the single digits equals a competitive race from soundstages to Class A creative office space from the Valley to the Pacific.
“It May Be The Most Significant Scandal In American History”: The Epstein Case Is Spawning A Wave Of Media And Hollywood Projects
Joe Pompeo, Vanity Fair
“There were photographs. Ghislaine thought she was quite the photographer, and there would be photographs of, you know, like breasts, and not necessarily who they were attached to.”
As Podcast Industry Grows, Licensing Music Can Get Complicated — and Pricey
Steve Knopper, Billboard
A few years ago, when Ice-T was making his Final Level podcast for the independent company Loud Speakers Network, he decided to open it with his 1986 track “6 ‘N the Mornin’.” “It’s my song, don’t worry about it,” Chris Morrow, the network’s co-founder and CEO, remembers the rapper telling him.
Film
The Long Game: Super-Sized Movies Are Testing the Patience of Audiences
Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter
Movie theater owners may want to consider resurrecting intermissions. A decade ago, the top 10 movies of summer 2009 had an average running time of 116 minutes.
Box Office: ‘Joker’ Eyes Hefty $80 Million-Plus Debut
Rebecca Rubin and Brent Lang, Variety
Warner Bros.’ “The Joker,” an origin story about the notorious Batman villain, is shaping up to be a big hit despite being one of the darkest mainstream movies to hit screens in years. The film is on pace to debut to a sizable $76 million to $88 million when it hits theaters on Oct. 4, according to early tracking.
Oscars 2020: The Academy’s Identity Crisis Continues, Right on Schedule
Mark Harris, Vanity Fair
Meet the new Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: a house divided against itself, yet somehow still standing. The 2019 version of the Academy is not America; it’s actually whiter, older, and more male, although strides have been made in all three of those areas.
Television
‘S.N.L.’ Has Long Lacked Asian Players. One Just Joined the Cast.
Nancy Coleman, The New York Times
For all the comedians and actors who have come and gone from “Saturday Night Live” in its four decades, there has been a near-complete absence of Asian performers onscreen. The NBC show is taking a step toward rectifying that.
‘Game Of Thrones’ House Targaryen Prequel From George R.R. Martin & Ryan Condal Nears HBO Pilot Order
Nellie Andreeva, Deadline Hollywood
Hold your dragons, Game of Thrones fans, another prequel of the hugely popular fantasy series is eyeing a green light. I’ve learned that HBO is close to giving a pilot order to a GoT prequel from author and GoT co-executive producer George R.R. Martin and Colony co-creator/exec producer Ryan Condal, which is set 300 years before the events in Game of Thrones and tracks the beginning of the end for House Targaryen.
How Reality TV Has Become a Door-Opener for Women Behind the Camera
Margeaux Sippell, The Wrap
America’s hunger for reality TV appears to be paying off for women in Hollywood behind the camera. For every “Mindhunter” and “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” there are just as many reality shows like “The Bachelor” and “Queer Eye” to match — and more.
As ‘South Park’ Gets Renewed Through 2022, Matt Stone and Trey Parker Also Have New Movie Ideas
Ryan Parker, The Hollywood Reporter
Ever since South Park premiered in August 1997, the show has fielded complaints from concerned parents and advocacy groups who’ve occasionally asked Comedy Central to pull the cartoon from air. For decades, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have laughed and shrugged it off.
‘Fleishman Is In Trouble’ Limited Series Based On Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Novel In Works At FX & ABC Signature Studios
Anthony D’Alessandro, Deadline Hollywood
Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s hot summer New York Times bestseller Fleishman Is in Trouble has been scooped up by ABC Signature Studios after a 10-way bidding war that included such parties as HBO and CAA Wiip, and is being set up at FX as a limited series. Brodesser-Akner will write and executive produce the series with EPs Sarah Timberman, Susannah Grant and Carl Beverly. ABC Signature’s Tracy Underwood and Lisa Lang McMullen are the executives on the project.
Brian Jones Out as President of Fox Business Network
Jeremy Barr, The Hollywood Reporter
Brian Jones is leaving Fox Business Network only two years after being promoted to serve as president of the business channel. He will be replaced by Lauren Petterson, who has worked as senior vp, morning programming and talent development, for the last few years.
Technology and New Media
ViacomCBS Will Aim to Be a Content Arms Dealer to Major Platforms
Paul Bond, The Hollywood Reporter
CBS chief creative officer David Nevins made it clear Thursday that CBS, and a merged ViacomCBS, will be an arms dealer to the highest bidders while not hoarding content for their own streaming services. “There’s a lot of hungry mouths to feed,” Nevins told analysts at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2019 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference in Beverly Hills.
Walmart’s Vudu adds Family Play feature so viewers can skip sex, violence and substance abuse
Anthony Ha, TechCrunch
Vudu, the streaming service owned by Walmart, announced a new feature today that will make it easier for viewers to avoid sex and violence in movies. Anyone who’s watched an R-rated movie on broadcast television or on an airplane is probably familiar with films that have been “edited for content,” but Vudu’s new Family Play option give viewers more control over what they find objectionable.
Facebook Watch Relying on Interactivity to Compete in the Streaming Wars
Tyler Hersko, IndieWire
With the launch of Disney+ and Apple TV+ on the horizon, Facebook is stepping up to remind advertisers of their streaming content on Facebook Watch – and the inherent advantage they have over competitors in creating an active community of viewers.
Where’s the Apple Arcade, Music, and TV Plus bundle?
Julia Alexander, The Verge
Apple TV Plus and Apple Arcade will launch for $4.99 on November 1st and September 19th, respectively, but the company isn’t giving people a chance to subscribe to everything as part of a packaged deal. CEO Tim Cook didn’t mention anything about a potential subscription bundle for the company’s various services in the future, either.
The head of ESPN gets candid about the challenges of launching ESPN Plus and explains how he’s putting streaming into ‘every deal’ moving forward
Ashley Rodriguez, Business Insider Prime
Jimmy Pitaro stepped into the top job at ESPN one month before Disney rolled out its first subscription-streaming bet in sports in April 2018. One of his biggest worries, aside from whether the app would work, was whether there would be enough sports programming available on the platform to compel people to sign up and pay $4.99 per month.
Magnolia Pictures Launches Indie Streaming Service and 3 Genre Channels on Dish
Brian Welk, The Wrap
There’s another new streaming service making its way into the market. Magnolia Pictures announced Thursday that it has launched Magnolia Selects, an indie streaming platform boasting Magnolia’s library of independent films. Magnolia has also launched three subscription-based movie channels that will air via DISH in the U.S.
WarnerMedia’s Rooster Teeth Cuts 13% of Staff, Laying Off About 50
Todd Spangler, Variety
Rooster Teeth, for the first time in its 16-year history, has made a broad cutback in its workforce — laying off 13% of its employees, or about 50 staffers. The layoffs at Rooster Teeth, the sci-fi, gaming and fandom division of WarnerMedia’s Otter Media, were confirmed by the company Thursday.
Why the CBS-Produced Gina Rodriguez POTUS Series ‘Diary of a Female President’ Landed at Disney+ Instead of The CW
Tim Baysinger, The Wrap
One of the first series that will debut after Disney+ launches on Nov. 12 will come from a rival studio in CBS TV Studios, which is behind the Gina Rodriguez-produced “Diary of a Female President.” But the series could’ve landed with The CW, where Rodriguez called home for five seasons, starring in “Jane the Virgin.”
Roku beats Amazon, Google & Apple as the largest single US streaming provider
John Glenday, The Drum
Roku has extended its advantage at the top of the pile among US streaming providers after cementing its position as the platform to beat in the latest quarterly analysis to be compiled by Tivo. Roku topped the charts again as the largest single provider with a 21.3% market share, beaten only by the combined might of all smart TV manufacturers who pulled in a 27.6% slice of the market between them.
HBO Max Greenlights Unscripted Voguing, Design Competition Shows From ‘Queer Eye’ & ‘Amazing Race’ Producers
Denise Petski, Deadline Hollywood
HBO Max is making its first foray into unscripted programming with orders for two new series — voguing series Legendary and design competition show The Greatest Space (working title), from the producers behind Queer Eye and The Amazing Race. Both are set to launch on WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service which debuts in spring 2020.
Walt Disney Studios Teams Up With Microsoft to Make Movies in the Cloud
Janko Roettgers, Variety
The Walt Disney Studios has partnered with Microsoft to move key parts of its movie-making and distribution processes to the cloud. The 5-year partnership is being spearheaded by Disney’s StudioLab, and internal innovation incubation lab, and has the ultimate goal of using Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform all the way “from scene to screen,” as the two companies put it in an announcement Friday.
The People With Power at Apple
Wayne Ma and Aaron Tilley, The Information
Apple has undergone more changes to its leadership this year than in the past few years combined as it grapples with a slowdown of its most important product, the iPhone, the latest models of which were unveiled on Tuesday. Aside from high-profile departures, such as chief designer Jony Ive, Apple has elevated its heads of operations and corporate development to CEO Tim Cook’s executive team.
Opinions, Editorials, Perspectives and Research
Behind the Courtship of ‘Star Wars’ Director J.J. Abrams
Lucas Shaw and Christopher Palmeri, Bloomberg
With the world’s largest entertainment and tech firms circling, Sony Corp. decided to make an all-hands pitch for “Star Wars” director J.J. Abrams. The Japanese electronics giant — the owner of Columbia Pictures — flew the writer-producer and his senior staff on a corporate jet to the sleek compound of Sony’s PlayStation video-game division in San Mateo, California.
Apple Offered J.J. Abrams Far More Than WarnerMedia; Here’s Why He Said No
Lesley Goldberg, The Hollywood Reporter
After a nearly year-long courting process that saw J.J. Abrams and his wife and Bad Robot partner Katie McGrath take meetings with tech giants and traditional studios, the duo ultimately opted to take less money than they could have earned to stay with WarnerMedia.
Does Jennifer Lopez Have a Path to an Oscar for ‘Hustlers’?
Kyle Buchanan, The New York Times
Oscar voters, let me hear you make some noise: Are you ready for the one, the only, Jennifer Loooopez to take the stage? Many a highly hyped awards campaign has been launched from the Toronto International Film Festival, but with this year’s edition, which wraps up on Sunday, all anyone can talk about is whether J. Lo’s ferociously entertaining role as a stripper who runs a credit-card crime ring in “Hustlers” can earn the 50-year-old star her first Academy Award nomination.
With Streamers’ Clout Expanding, Hollywood Majors Regret Their Failure To Embrace A Smarter Web Strategy
Peter Bart, Deadline Hollywood
When Netflix first exposed its intriguing blueprint to the Hollywood studios some years ago, techno-nerds predicted the majors would likely embrace its bold ideas. They were wrong.
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