The WGA’s current contract expires May 1. The DGA and SAG-AFTRA contracts both expire June 30. All three guilds have said they want more streaming residuals and higher minimum pay rates for their members. U.S. inflation is more than 7%, which means the usual 3% annual pay hikes may not cut it this time. So, is a strike inevitable? If history is any guide, a WGA strike is definitely overdue. From the first strike by writers in 1953 until the last one in 2007-08, the longest the WGA had gone between strikes was 12 years, eight months and 15 days – from June 19, 1960 to March 6, 1973. It’s now been more than 14 years and 10 months since the last WGA strike ended on February 12, 2008. >>>SAG-AFTRA Strike May Be Even More Overdue |
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| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
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Oliver Twist - The Television Academy has announced that it is replacing its Variety Talk and Variety Sketch Emmy categories with Outstanding Talk Series and Outstanding Scripted Variety series. The upshot is that Variety Talk juggernaut John Oliver — who has won the last seven years in a row — will face off against Outstanding Variety Sketch Series juggernaut SNL going forward instead of, say, The Daily Show. >>>Other Changes
"Alexa, Enable 'Avatar' Theme" - Buttressing the $441.6M global opening of Avatar: The Way of Water was a promo partner campaign assembled by Disney; a lineup that reflects the eco-friendly and technologically advanced sensibilities of director James Cameron. The value of media which advertisers paid for is estimated to be $170M+, per sources, far higher than the $100M promo campaigns of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Eternals . >>>James Cameron Involved
Double 'Cross' - Siobhan Murphy (Murdoch Mysteries) is set to recur in the Amazon Original series Cross. She will star opposite Aldis Hodge, who plays the titular Alex Cross. Murphy will portray Tania Hightower, a driven, unstoppable journalist who works as a news reporter for the Post. >>>Her Beat
Pinball Wizard - Vertical has secured North American rights to the MPI Original Film Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game, starring West Side Story's Mike Faist and Teen Wolf‘s Crystal Reed, slating it for a day-and-date release on March 17, 2023. The film centers on Roger Sharpe (Faist), a GQ journalist and pinball savant who, in 1976, helped overturn New York City’s 35-year ban on pinball. >>> Real-Life Story
Secrets Of 'The Deep' - C. Henry Chaisson is turning Nick Cutter’s underwater thriller The Deep into a series for Amazon. Set in the near future, The Deep centers on a research station at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, where a miraculous discovery signals a new hope for humanity – but secrets unearthed on the ocean floor might hold devastating consequences for the world above. >>> Carlton Cuse EP-ing
In Brief - The Border: Josué Guerra joins FX pilot as series regular…Streamer Documentary+ has set its first original series Picture Locked and In My Own Words. |
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QUOTABLE
"We have gone where the facts and the law lead us, and inescapably they lead us here." - Rep. Jamie Raskin on the January 6 Committee's decision to refer four criminal charges against former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department |
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More News
📣 Paramount Global is ditching its annual May upfront pitch to advertisers at Carnegie Hall, a longtime media business ritual, in favor of "intimate gatherings" with clients in April.
🌶 New DC co-CEO James Gunn was busy on Twitter yesterday, first responding to fans disgruntled about the decision to move away from Henry Cavill as Superman, then to Cavill's Justice League co-star Ray Fisher, who has long been critical of leadership at Warner Bros. and DC. His final comment was to question one fan's assertion that Gal Gadot was "booted" from the role of Wonder Woman.
🚨 The production company behind the series Criminal Minds has settled a lawsuit brought by the California Civil Rights Department over claims that male crew members were subject to retaliation when they complained that they were sexually harassed by the show’s director of photography, Gregory St. Johns. The state agency announced on Monday that ABC Signature, the producer of the show, will pay $3 million to resolve the claims against Disney, CBS and others.
🎸 Almost Famous, the stage musical adaptation of the 2000 Cameron Crowe film, will play its final performance on Sunday, Jan. 8. It's the latest casualty of a crowded Broadway scene and a New York tourist season still reeling from Covid. The musical opened to middling reviews Nov. 3.
✍ Hundreds of late-night comedy and variety writers have pledged support for the WGA's diversity initiative. |
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BY THE NUMBERS 7.4 million - The number total viewers for Taylor Sheridan's 1923 across Paramount+ and linear telecasts, which consisted of a premiere on Paramount Network, plus two encores and a run on CMT, surpassing the previous record by nearly 80% |
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Obituaries
🕯 Drew Griffin, CNN’s award-winning Senior Investigative Correspondent, died Saturday after a long battle with cancer, his family told the network. He was 60. According to CNN, Griffin worked on hundreds of stories and multiple documentaries over the course of nearly two decades on the network’s CNN’s investigative team. His reporting had been honored with such awards as Emmys, Peabodys and Murrows. 🕯 Terry Hall , the longtime voice of legendary ska group The Specials has died after what the band termed a brief illness. He was 63. Hall and the Specials reached their widest appeal with the haunting, socially conscious “Ghost Town,” which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the UK singles charts in 1981. The song was a commentary on economic strife in Margaret Thatcher’s England and the social unrest of the era. 🕯 Jame Lopez, star of WE TV’s Super Sized Salon and founder of Babydoll Beauty Couture, has died. The television personality was 37. No cause of death was revealed. An Instagram post concluded with an acknowledgment to the staff and crew of the production company behind the show as well as the cable network "for all their continuous support in this difficult time." 🕯 Rick Anderson , the co-founding bassist of the Tubes who was with the band for a half-century and played on "She’s a Beauty," "Talk to Ya Later" and "White Punks on Dope," has died. He was 75. "Rick brought a steady and kind presence to the band for 50 years," the band's statement read. "His love came through his bass. RIP." 🕯 See the 400-plus influential figures we've lost this year in Deadline's 2022 Hollywood & Media Deaths photo gallery. |
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Trending  After underperforming expectations, the tally for Avatar: The Way of Water's opening weekend moved upward from Sunday's $434.5M estimate to $441.6M, placing it in a virtual dead heat with Doctor Strange 2’s $442M, which is the highest global opening weekend of 2022 to date.
🔻 Harvey Weinstein was found partially guilty of multiple sex crimes yesterday by a Los Angeles jury. The panel determined the producer was guilty on all counts in relation to Jane Doe #1 (there were four accusers in all). As it stands, Weinstein is looking at a sentence of 18 to 24 years behind bars based on Monday’s guilty verdicts. |
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On the Radar
Wed - Oscar Shortlists released
Fri - Babylon premieres
Sat - Santa Tracker livestream on Hulu; It's A Wonderful Life on NBC
Sun - Christmas Day
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"The Biggest Story In Recent American History" - Just hours after the January 6 Committee recommended to the Justice Department that former President Donald Trump be prosecuted on four criminal counts — the first such recommendation in U.S. history against a former president — Fox News' Tucker Carlson spent the first 30 minutes of his show on the influx of migrants at the border, calling it "the biggest story in recent American history.” |
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