by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:
TELEVISION/POLITICS - From Deadline: President Joe Biden‘s 15-minute, Oval Office address on Thursday night (Oct. 19th) drew an estimated 20.3 million people across 10 networks. The President called for U.S. support for international crises in Israel and Ukraine.
TELEVISION - From Variety: NBC has given a series order to "Dr. Wolf," a medical drama starring Zachary Quinto. Because of the ongoing actors' strike, it is not known if it will be a midseason replacement or be held for the 2024-25 television season.
MOVIES - From Variety: By skipping movies studios and partnering directly with AMC Theatres to distribute "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour," Christopher Nolan says Swift has shown studios how "incredibly valuable" movie theaters are.
NETFLIX - From Deadline: Wall Street is hot over Netflix's latest quarterly earnings report.
STREAMING - From Variety: Director Baz Luhrmann took the over two million feet of film he shot for his 2008 film, "Australia" (starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman), and is turning that film into a six-part series, "Faraway Downs." Series debuts November 26th on Hulu.
TELEVISION - From THR: For the first time, the Walt Disney Company is revealing how profitable its sports network, ESPN, is. In fiscal 2022, the worldwide leader in sports made $16 billion in revenue and $2.9 billion in profit. In comparison, the rest of the "entertainment division" made $2.1 billion from $39.6 billion in revenue.
From Variety: The Walt Disney Company is plotting to move ABC's "Good Morning America" from its Times Square studios.
MOVIES - From Variety: In an interview, Austin Butler (Elvis) says that fellow Oscar-nominee, Tom Hardy (Venom), liked to joke around on the set of Jeff Nichols' motorcycle drama, "The Bikeriders." However, when the "Action!" was called, Butler says that Hardy turned very intense. The film's release may be delayed by the SAG-AFTRA strike.
DISNEY - From Variety: Rick Riordan, the author of the "Percy Jackson" book series, says that he is honored that some of his fans call him "Uncle Rick." He talks about bringing Percy Jackson to Disney+ and fighting racist trolls and reviving the series after 20th Century Fox's failed Percy Jackson film series, which began with 2010's "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief."
MOVIES - From Deadline: Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson ("Rain Man") will direct Oscar-winning actor, Al Pacino ("Scent of a Woman"), in "Assassination," a JFK-thriller written by David Mamet (Ronin).
SCANDAL - From Variety: New Mexico prosecutors will present a new case against Alec Baldwin in regards to his involvement in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western film, "Rust."
ANIMATION - From Variety: The English-dub voice cast of "The Boy and the Heron," the new film from the legendary Japanese director of animated film, Hayao Miyazaki, has been announced. The big names include Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Willem Dafoe, Mark Hamill, and Robert Pattinson, to name a few. Miyazaki's last film was 2013's The Wind Rises.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: Idris Elba is narrating and producing a National Geographic documentary series with the tentative title, "The Color of Victory: Heroes of WW2." The series will focus on people of color who fought in World War II.
NETFLIX - From Deadline: According to a recent interview she gave, actress Millie Bobby Brown is ready to move on from her breakthrough series, Netflix's "Stranger Things." She says that it is preventing her from telling stories that she is passionate about.
ANIMATION - From Variety: Adult Swim's hit animated series, "Rick and Morty," debuts new voice actors. Ian Cardoni is the new voice of "Rick Sanchez" and Harry Belden is "Morty Smith." Their names appeared in the credits for the Season 7, which premiered last night (Sun., Oct. 15th). Cardoni and Belden replaces series co-creator, Justin Roiland, who voiced both characters before he was fired in January 2023 by Adult Swim.
POLITICS - From MeidasTouch: Former Manhattan DA prosecutor, Karen F. Agnifilo, put together a comprehensive list of nearly all of Donald Trump’s threats against judges, witnesses, prosecutors and more ahead of his gag order hearing today. The list begins with Trump's Sept. 29th, 2020 debate call for the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by."
TELEVISION - From Variety: Recently, comedian Jerry Seinfeld teased a reunion of his beloved former NBC sitcom, "Seinfeld" (1989-98). Once of his co-stars from the series, Emmy-winning actress, Julia Louis-Dreyfus ("Elaine Benes") says that she does not know what the hell Jerry is talking about.
BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro: The winner of the 10/13 to 10/15/2023 weekend box office is AMC Theatres/Variance Films' "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" with an estimated total 97 million dollars.
AMAZON/ANIMATION - From Variety: Keith David, Stephanie Beatriz, and Kimiko Glenn are set to star in the new adult animated series “Hazbin Hotel.” The first season will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in January 2024.
MOVIES - From Deadline: Focus Features says that it will release "Lisa Frankenstein," the Diablo Cody-written horror film, Feb. 9th, 2024. Cody won an Oscar for writing the film, "Juno."
OBITS:
From Variety: American television actress, author, and businesswoman, Suzanne Somers, has died at the age of 76, Sunday, October 15, 2023. Somers was best known for the role of Chrissy Snow on ABC's former hit sitcom, "Three's Company." ABC fired her from the program in a contract dispute after the series' fifth season. She also starred in the syndicated sitcom, "She's the Sheriff" (1987-89) and on the long-running former ABC-CBS sitcom, "Step by Step" (1991-98). She earned a single Daytime Emmy nomination for her talk, "The Suzanne Show" (Lifetime, 2013).
From Variety: American film and television actress, Piper Laurie, has died at the age of 91, Saturday, October 14, 2023. Laurie was best known for roles in such films as "The Hustler" (1961), "Carrie" (1976), and "Children of a Lesser God" (1986), the three films for which she earned her three Oscar nominations. Her eight Primetime Emmy nominations came for her roles in such series as "The Thorn Birds" (1983), "St. Elsewhere," and "Twin Peaks." She won her lone Emmy for her role in the 1986 TV movie, "Promise."
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ACTORS STRIKE:
From Deadline: SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher says that the offer from top-earning Hollywood actors to chip in some money to help end the strike "isn't legally compatible with the union's contract.
From Deadline: Top earning Hollywood actors want to chip in some money to end the SAG-AFTRA strike.
From Deadline: George Clooney, Emma Stone, Ben Affleck, Tyler Perry and Scarlett Johansson were among a group of top talent guild members that spoke Tuesday (Oct. 17th) with guild president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland for a detailed debrief, we hear.
From Deadline: The movie studios via AMPTP have suspended their talks with striking actors via SAG-AFTRA. The snag seems to be that actors want "2 precent of potential profits" on streaming.
From Variety: SAG-AFTRA (the actors) and AMPTP (the studios) are to resume strike talks Wed., Oct. 11th, as the actors strike enters Day 88.
From Deadline: The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Hollywood studios CEOs met for strike talks for the first time since the actors went on strike July 14th. They plan to meet again, Wed., Oct. 4th.
BREAKING - From Deadline: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to end its strike after nearly five months. The parties finalized the framework of the deal Sunday when they were able to untangle their stalemate over AI and writing room staffing levels.
From WGAContract: The WGA contract page has additional information on the settlement.
From WGAContract: A summary of the new agreement.
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From Deadline: The actors’ strike is now in its 63rd day. Now, SAG-AFTRA leaders are ramping up their rhetoric against the studio heads, accusing them in the latest issue of the "SAG-AFTRA Magazine" of “behaving like petty tyrants,” “would-be feudal lords” and “land barons in feudal times.”
From Deadline: Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra says that Hollywood unions need to embrace AI.
From Deadline: Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav says the industry must focus and fight to resolve the writers and actors strikes.
From Deadline: Hollywood’s superstars are answering the call from the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, donating $1 million or more each to help their fellow performers during the ongoing actors and writers strikes. Among the big donors are Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, and Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
From Deadline: If you are interested, here is a list of the film and TV productions SAG-AFTRA has granted waivers to continue filming.
From Variety: International superstar, Dwayne Johnson, makes a seven-figure contribution to the "SAG-AFTRA Foundation Relief Fund." Foundation president, actor Courtney B. Vance, says the amount will remain confidential.
From Variety: Why haven't A-list stars joined the SAG-AFTRA picket line?, asks "Variety."
From Deadline: Author George R.R. Martin, whose works were the basis for HBO's "Game of Thrones," says the strikes will be long and bitter.
From Variety: Halted film productions due to the writers and actors strikes are costing each Hollywood studio at least 600,000 dollars per week.
From Variety: Said at a strike meeting: “Without a transformative change in SAG-AFTRA’s current contract with the AMPTP, the acting profession will no longer be an option for future generations of performers, and actors already working in the industry will need to pursue other careers in order to survive.”
From Deadline: If you are a "social media influencer" who is NOT a member of SAG-AFTRA, you can be barred from future membership for promoting a film or television series during the actors' strike.
From Variety: The SAG/AFTRA strike begins in New York and Los Angeles. Hollywood actors began striking today, Fri., July 14th.
From Deadline: The site has the video of the powerful strike speech given by SAG-AFTRA president, Fran Drescher, the actress best known for CBS' former sitcom, "The Nanny."
From Deadline: SAG-AFTRA is already preparing strike picket signs in case the actors' strike begins next week.
From Deadline: The Hollywood studios via the AMPTP has given Canadian actors a new contract, including a 5 percent raise.
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