by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:
ANIMATION - From Deadline: Warner Animation Group is now Warner Bros Pictures Animation, and that is just part of the rebranding from new President of Feature Animation, Bill Damaschke.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: NBC has cancelled the sitcom, "Young Rock," after three seasons on the network. The series focuses on different chapters in the life of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
MUSIC - From Variety: Grammy-winning legend, Madonna, and Grammy and Oscar-winner, Sam Smith, drop their new collabo, the single, "Vulgar."
SCANDAL - From THR: Actor and voice performer, Jay Johnston, has been arrested by the FBI for his alleged participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Charged by the Department of Justice in connection to his presence at the Capitol, Johnston was arrested Wednesday in Los Angeles. Johnson is best known for his voice role as "Jimmy Pesto Sr.," a pizzeria owner on Fox's long-running animated series, "Bob's Burgers," and for appearing on such series as "Mr. Show with Bob and Dave" (HBO) and "The Sarah Silverman Program" (Comedy Central).
ANIMATION - From Deadline: Due to its recent rise in ratings, Cartoon Network is giving its "Adult Swim" banner an extra hour of programming each evening, starting in late August.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: For the first time, the NFL highlights and analysis TV series, "Inside the NFL, moves to The CW, beginning Sept. 5th. The series began in 1977 on HBO (1977-2008). It moved to Showtime (2008-21), and then most recently was on Paramount+ (2021-23).
NETFLIX - From Variety: Zack Snyder days that his epic sci-fi film, "Rebel Moon," will be two films, and each will have two versions. There will be a version that "anyone can enjoy," and there will be a version that is explicit and for "adults only."
DISNEY - From THR: ABC has defeated a lawsuit from Ingo Rademacher over his dismissal from the daytime soap opera, "General Hospital," for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Rademacher left or was fired from the series around November 2021.
SCANDAL - From THR: Disgraced director, Bryan Singer (Fox's "X-Men" franchise), is planning a documentary film that would address the sexual misconduct accusations against him. A 2019 expose in "The Atlantic" magazine detailed accusations against Singer by four accusers.
BREAKING - From THR: 98 percent of the members of Hollywood’s largest union, SAG-AFTRA, have given the green light to their negotiators to call a strike if deemed necessary in upcoming labor negotiations with the Hollywood studios.
APPLE - From Deadline: Apple has announced its first major device launch in nearly a decade its VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) headset and platform, "Vision Pro." Apparently, the starting price will be $3499.00
BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro: The winner of the 6/2 to 6/4/2023 weekend box office is Sony Pictures Animations' "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" with an estimated take of 120.5 million dollars.
From Deadline: "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" grosses 88.1 million dollars at the international box office. Combined with its 120.5 million at the domestic box office, that is a global total of 208.6 million dollars.
MOVIES - From Deadline: Oscar-winning directors Francis Ford Coppola and Kevin Costner talk about risking their fortunes bankrolling passion projects. For Coppola, it is "Megalopolis," his epic, troubled sci-fi film. For Costner, it is "Horizon," the first of four films set in the pre- and post-Civil War expansion of the American West.
DISNEY - From Deadline: The Disney layoffs have hit Pixar with 75 jobs being made redundant at the legendary animation studio. Among those let go are Angus McLane, the director of Pixar's "Lightyear" and Galyn Susman, the film's producer. Susman had been with Pixar since 1995 and is apparently the person who saved "Toy Story 2."
DISNEY - From Deadline: British actor Hugo Speer, one of the original actors from the 1997 film, "The Full Monty," was dropped from the forthcoming Disney spinoff series because (according to him) a few people saw him... naked.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: The CW's "The Winchesters" is officially dead, as Warner Bros. has not been able to find another home for the series, which The CW cancelled after one season. It is a spinoff and prequel to The CW's long-running "Supernatural."
MOVIES - From Variety: Harrison Ford says he takes some of the blame for his clash with Brad Pitt over the script for the 1997 film thriller, "The Devil's Own."
LGBTQ+ - From Variety: Elliot Page reveals in his upcoming book, "Pageboy," that a famous actor threatened to force sex on when he came out as gay over decade ago when he was "Ellen Page." The forced sex would prove that he wasn't gay - just afraid of men...
CELEBRITY - From PerezHilton: Reality television star family, the Duggars, will always be with us. Hilton details how family patriarch, Jim Bob Duggar, stole his children's reality TV money. The post starts off funny and then, starts to read like an expose on a cult leader.
MOVIES - From TheWrap: Universal Pictures is in active development on an untitled new “Fast & Furious” film starring Dwayne Johnson as "Luke Hobbs." The film won’t be a sequel to 2019's “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” or a spinoff. Instead, it will be a direct continuation of the main “Fast Saga” story, serving as a bridge between the recently released “Fast X” and and its follow-up, “Fast X: Part II.”
From CBR: Star Vin Diesel is reportedly upset with another "Fast & Furious" co-star over stealing attention from him.
DISNEY - From CBR: Disney and Lucasfilm have revealed seven new "character posters" from "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."
HARRISON FORD - From Variety: Harrison Ford told a trio of stunt workers on the set of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" the following: "Leave me the f**k alone." Why? Read and find out.
From CBR: Harrison Ford has now changed his stance and agrees with "Blade Runner" director, Ridley Scott. Ford believes that the film's lead character, "Rick Deckard," is a replicant.
AWARDS - From Deadline: Here is your 2023-24 award season calendar, beginning on May 31, 2023 with the "Television Academy Honors" ceremony and ends on ends on March 10th, 2024 with the 96th Academy Awards.
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WRITERS STRIKE:
From Deadline: The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has reached a tentative new three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). So what does the Writers Guild (WGA), currently on strike and negotiating with the AMPTP, think of that deal.
From Deadline: Netflix shareholders declined to support the 2023 pay packages of top executives during a non-binding vote at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday. The vote won't prevent these execs from getting their loot (an total of $166 million), but this is a rare public rebuke. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has urged shareholders to vote "No" because the pay was "inappropriate" at this time.
From Deadline: Warner Bros Discovery chief David Zaslav gave the commencement address at Boston University. There he was met with jeers and also chants of "pay your writers" from picketers and from some in the audience.
From Deadline: President Joe Biden speaks on the Writers Guild of America strike.
From Deadline: Retaliation! The studios have starting informing writer-producers who have "overall" and "first-look" deals that such deals are being suspended.
From Deadline: Retaliation! Prolific HBO creator, David Simon, who is best known for "The Wire," is one of the many writers who have had their overall deals suspended the studios due to the WGA strike. Simon has been with HBO for 25 years.
From Deadline: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is on strike.
From Deadline: Disney, HBO/HBO Max, and CBS have sent letters to showrunners (the TV equivalent of film directors) instructing them to return to work, inspite of the writer's strike.
From Deadline: The WGA's chief negotiator, Ellen Stutzman, talks about the state of the writers' strike, including the lack of engagement on the part of the strike's other party, AMPTP.
From Deadline: What went wrong between the WGA and AMPTP? What could they not agree on that led to a strike?
From Deadline: The site explains the WGA strike: the issues, the stakes, movies and TV shows affected, and how long it might last.
