☀️BLUMHOUSE & James Wan creating massive Horror powerhouse at UNI

CBS changes top execs / VICE cutting 15% of budget / Layoffs hit ROKU / LGF pairs JOHN WICK creator with classic SEGA game

Sean McNulty

Nov 17

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Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY November 17, 2022.

Where this is new (and very welcome) - HBO is going to air Howard Stern’s interview with SPRINGSTEEN as a 2 hour special. Catch it Sun Nov 27 at 10p (or on HBOMAX of course).

yeah people really seem to dig the HBO. via Giphy

PLUS: Jessica Chastain is coming to BROADWAY next year to do Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”. Dates/further details TBA.

ALSO: Producer Randall Emmett’s former assistant withdrew his racial discrimination & hostile workplace lawsuit, less than a month after filing it in court. It was ‘with prejudice’ so it can’t be re-instated, no reason was given, nor word of any kind of settlement.

AND: Just a little happy news for our UK & AUS readers courtesy of AMAZON to… balance out the rest of the news these days - FREEVEE has struck a deal to revive the very long-running series “Neighbors” which recently ended after 37 years when PARAMOUNT’s UK CHANNEL 5 decided to pull their share of the funding. FREEVEE will stream the new eps later in 2023 in the UK & US (plus feature the back catalog), and the show will stream on PRIME VIDEO in AUS, as well as air on its traditional broadcast (and still financial) partner there.

OH!: As expected, it was a SRO event on Tuesday night for the book talk / party for the new HBO Book by Felix Gillette & John Koblin, moderated by Ankler CEO Janice Min at the BLOOMBERG offices in LA (that I mentioned earlier this month) - many thanks to those of you who somehow found a totally casual way to work this newsletter into your chat with Janice after the event. And kudos to Felix & John (two OG Ankler subscribers) for capturing the internal culture of HBO, and for totally not including my name in the book about that thing that time while I was there.

IN TODAY’S EDITION:

UNI’s BLUMHOUSE is about to get a lot bigger
Today in Austerity: Budget cuts hit VICE significantly, layoffs hitting ROKU in Q4, and PARAMOUNT… initially (?)
CBS changes Programming leaders, DISNEY raises Theme Park prices again
LIONSGATE combines classic SEGA game with “John Wick” creator
APPLE TV sets their Pro Soccer Streaming pricing plan, and more

BUT HEY: TIKTOK is hiring! They’re looking to add 1,000 people to their US operations.

SO: Work for Elon Musk and sign a servitude pledge… or a company whom the FBI says poses real national security concerns. Gotta say, as dark as it may seem around town right now - HOLLYWOOD > SILICON VALLEY in the November job market.