Tessa Thompson in 'Westworld' (HBO) |
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Warner Bros. Discovery is tidying up its 2022 books with some last-minute HBO Max write-offs. The spree Monday included the removal of all four seasons of sci-fi drama Westworld as well the cancellations of The Minx (reversing its Season 2 renewal), anthology Love Life after two seasons and The Nevers after one, with the period drama’s second part yet to run. All of The Minx, Love Life and The Nevers’ existing episodes also are being removed from HBO Max, as are those of Gordita Chronicles, whose pullout Deadline reported Friday.
The HBO Max slate has been undergoing end-of-year financial review by WBD, leading to the slew of cuts. (The merged company has promised Wall Street some $3.5 billion in cost savings.) Love Life, Minx and Gordita Chronicles come from outside studios, which will be looking to find them new streaming homes. But word is that WBD may use Westworld and possibly The Nevers, both high-end company-owned drama productions for HBO proper, to anchor potential FAST channels CEO David Zaslav has been looking to launch. >>>All The Changes |
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| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
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“I Would Love To Set The Record Straight" - While attending the Hollywood premiere of Avatar: The Way of Water, Zoe Saldana addressed her comments about feeling "stuck" in movie franchises like Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Trek . She said it doesn't have anything to do with the movies themselves, but the competing challenges of career and family. "I would love to set the record straight,” she said. "I think that once I started my family, it just became really hard for me to sustain both worlds and also then cater to this curiosity of playing other different characters or playing earthlings." >>>Watch Her Full Interview
52,000 Total Viewers - Starz announced a Season 2 renewal for Dangerous Liaisons ahead of the series’ Nov. 6 debut, but with the show bottoming out at a 0.02 rating and 52,000 total viewers for the Thanksgiving weekend episode, network brass decided to cancel it. It's the second period drama to be dropped by Starz of late. Freshman series Becoming Elizabeth was cut in November. >>> Producers Out Shopping The Show
A Big City With The Soul Of A Small Town - Colin Kaepernick is executive producing Killing County, a three-part series exploring Bakersfield where, according to the logline, things are not always what they seem. The project comes from the fledgling docuseries production division at ABC News. >>>One Of Three Series
Tanya Talks - The White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge was just as surprised as everyone else when she learned of Tanya McQuoid’s fate on the hit HBO series. She said series creator Mike White opened his pitch with "Sicily is incredible. That’s where we’re going to film White Lotus 2. You’re going to lose your mind, Jennifer. It’s so beautiful here." >>>Then He Dropped The Bomb
In Brief - The debut of Blake Shelton's Barmageddon was the network’s most-viewed series premiere in nearly three years...Rodney Barnes, exec producer of HBO’s Winning Time, is prepping a horror podcast devoted to legends and myths stemming from Black folklore called Run, Fool...The Emmy-winning Fraggle Rock: Back To The Rock has been renewed for a second season at Apple TV+. |
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Stephanie Hsu has a whole heap of challenges to deal with in the Daniels’ hit Everything Everwhere All at Once. Not least of which are the infinite versions of her character she has to hold from scene to scene -- from Joy, the disenfranchised daughter of Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn, through to Jobu Tupaki, an all-seeing, all-knowing supervillain who’s as hellbent on destroying the world as she is completely disinterested in bothering. Released in the Spring, the film has become that rarest of hits: firing up mainstream and indie audiences alike, and perhaps becoming the most likely “popular movie” to take down Oscar’s biggest prizes. >>> Read The Interview |
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Exclusive Raising 'Caine' - Emmy nominee Jake Lacy (The White Lotus) is set to star opposite Kiefer Sutherland in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Deadline has learned. He is set to portray Stephen Maryk, Queeg’s (Sutherland) executive officer, and the officer who relieves Queeg of duty. >>>William Friedkin Directing
Exclusive True Crime Tale - Lily Gladstone (Certain Women) has joined Under The Bridge, rounding out the series regular cast of Hulu’s limited series based on Rebecca Godfrey’s book. Under the Bridge is the true story of fourteen-year-old Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta) who went to join friends at a party and never returned home. Writer Godfrey (Riley Keough) delves into the hidden world of the seven teenage girls and a boy accused of the savage murder. >>> Unlikely Killer
'Witch' Craft - Disney+ has given a formal pilot order to Witch Mountain, a reimagining of the popular Disney film franchise, with Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World Dominion), Isabel Gravitt (The Watcher) and Levi Miller (Streamline ) set to star. The series is a modern reinvention of the Disney franchise that takes place in the shadow of Witch Mountain. It follows two teens, Tia (Gravitt) and Ben (Miller) who develop strange abilities and discover their sleepy suburb may not be as idyllic as it seems. >>>Based On 1968 Novel
Mr. Mom And...Mrs. Dad? - Emma Myers (Wednesday) and Brady Noon (The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers) have signed on to star alongside Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms in the body-swap comedy Family Leave. The Netflix film centers on a couple doing their best to keep their family connected as their children grow older. >>>Fateful Encounter |
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BY THE NUMBERS 110% - The rise in viewership between the Season 1 finale of The White Lotus on HBO and Sunday’s Season 2 finale |
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More News
👆 Fifth Season, formerly Endeavor Content, has bolstered its television ranks, hiring Amazon’s Jill Arthur and promoting Noah Greenshner. Arthur, who was previously a Senior Development and Programming Executive at Amazon Studios, joins as EVP, TV Development and Production. Greenshner has been promoted to EVP, TV Development and Production. He was previously SVP.
💰 Former CNN and NBCUniversal chief Jeff Zucker has formed a joint venture with RedBird Capital and the AbuDhabi-based International Media Investments. The venture is backed by $1 billion in funds earmarked for "large-scale" investments in media, entertainment and sports opportunities in the U.S. and globally. Zucker left his role overseeing news and sports for WarnerMedia last February amid turbulence prior to the company's merger with Discovery. >>> A New Chapter
🎭 The 2023 Tony Awards will be held in a new location -- the United Palace, a historic movie house and performance venue in Washington Heights. The site is 8 miles north of the Broadway theater district. CBS will broadcast the June 11 show, which will also stream on Paramount+.
💉 SAG-AFTRA is polling members about the industry’s vaccination mandate in advance of the January 31 expiration of the Covid protocols. SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher has voiced concerns about the oft-extended agreement between the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers and Hollywood’s unions.
🐝 Samantha Bee is taking her stage show Your Favorite Woman on the road. The tour – Bee’s first – will start in Newark on April 7 before moving on to 14 other cities. Bee said that the "obscene vanity project" will remind people that women are "inherently magical beings despite what six Supreme Court justices and your Instagram feed wants you to believe." >>>Tour Dates And Details
🎶 There’s a game of executive musical chairs going on at A&E Networks. History’s Amy Savitsky is moving to Lifetime to oversee unscripted programming. Savitsky was previously SVP, Development and Programming for History and will become SVP, Unscripted Development and Programming at Lifetime. She will work alongside Brie Miranda Bryant, who shares the same job title.
😈 Former enfant terrible of British rock Peter Doherty and his keyboard-playing producer-filmmaker wife Katia de Vidas gave a surprise private concert at the Les Arcs Film Festival in the French Alps on Monday evening. Doherty and de Vidas, who live in northern France, are on a mini-French tour and also recently performed in Strasbourg.
👀 The PGA Awards announced its nominees for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures today, and there were some snubs and surprises. Omitted from the list was All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, the strong Oscar contender which was just named Best Non-Fiction Film by the New York Film Critics Circle. Also missing out on a PGA Award nomination was Moonage Daydream, the David Bowie doc that is far and away the top-grossing documentary of the year theatrically. In a surprise, Nothing Compares , Kathryn Ferguson’s documentary about Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor did earn a nomination. The film has been well reviewed and performed well in the UK and Ireland, but hasn’t been a major player in many pre-Oscar documentary awards contests.
🦊 Fox Business Network is adding two new shows to its daily lineup starting Jan. 23. The Big Money Show, slated for the 1 p.m. ET hour, will feature breaking financial news and analysis, with Bloomberg TV’s Taylor Riggs joining the network to co-host with Brian Brenberg and Jackie DeAngelis. At 6 p.m. ET, The Bottom Line will focus on major issues in business and politics with hosts Dagen McDowell and Sean Duffy.
⚓⚓ GMA3 anchors Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes remain off the air as ABC conducts an internal review following the revelation of a romantic relationship between the two. Last week, ABC News President Kim Godwin told staffers in a memo that the relationship between the two anchors had become an "internal and external distraction." 👄 Drag Race is expanding again. Three new editions are planned for Brazil, Germany and Mexico that will air on MTV/Paramount+ in their respective territories. As part of the expansion, RuPaul’s Drag Race heads to MTV for its 15th season in January, while RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race will return for Season 3 in 2023 on VH1. In Brief - Haymaker Content has relaunched as Haymaker East…VMI Releasing tapped Jonathan Barkan as Head of U.S. Distribution…Fernando Meirelles and RZA are among those behind eco doc Blue Carbon… |
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Trending ▲ Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has made its annual, year-end migration to the top of the chart, dethroning Taylor Swift after her 6-week reign.
🔻 FTX crypto bro Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and will be extradited to the U.S. on charges related to securities violations. |
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Obituaries
🕯 Stuart Margolin, who won back-to-back Emmys for his recurring role as Evelyn “Angel” Martin in The Rockford Files and racked up more than 120 career screen credits, died Monday, his stepson Max Martini wrote on social media. He was 82. 🕯 Angelo Badalamenti, the composer whose music for Twin Peaks gave television one of its most haunting and memorable themes, died of natural causes Sunday. He was 85. His other collaborations with David Lynch included Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway and The Straight Story. He also composed for Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Liza Minnelli. 🕯 Albert Brenner, a production designer and/or art director on such films as Bullitt, The Turning Point, Pretty Woman and Backdraft who racked up five career Oscar nominations, died December 8 in his sleep at 96. Brenner scored Best Art Direction/Set Decoration Academy Award nominations for Beaches, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, California Suite, The Turning Point and The Sunshine Boys. |
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On the Radar Wed - Critics Choice Film Awards nominations
Thu - Brendan Fraser on Kimmel
Fri - Avatar opens
Sun - World Cup Final; First day of Hanukkah |
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Two - Timothée Chalamet celebrated the end of production on Dune: Part 2 by sharing a photo of himself and his father, Marc Chalamet, with the caption "DUNE 2 WRAPPED (with desert dad !!)." The image garnered more than 2.5 million likes in 12 hours. |
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