Norman Lear, responsible for revolutionizing television in the 1970s with such groundbreaking hit series as All in the Family, Good Times, The Jeffersons and One Day at a Time, has died. He was 101. Lear died Tuesday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, a spokesperson said this morning. “Norman lived a life of creativity, tenacity and empathy,” his family said in a statement. “He deeply loved our country and spent a lifetime helping to preserve its founding ideals of justice and equality for all. Knowing and living him has been the greatest of gifts.” >>>Active Until the End |
|
| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
|
Inking A Pact At Last - SAG-AFTRA members have officially approved their new deal with the studios, which comes after a nearly 4-month strike, their longest ever. The guild, which opened the ratification vote on November 14, revealed that 78.33% of ballots were in favor of the November 8 tentative agreement with the AMPTP. That number is much higher than many expected given some of the noise on social media, particularly around A.I. >>> Drescher Declares "Golden Age" For Union
"A Very Good Start" - Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, National Executive Director of SAG-AFTRA and Chief Negotiator, spoke with Deadline about the ratification vote. He said he was happy with the results at the turnout. Crabtree-Ireland admitted that some people would not be happy about the deal, particularly around A.I., but said that SAG-AFTRA essentially got what it was asking for at the beginning of the process. He called it a “very good start to establishing a sophisticated and enforceable set of protections for our members.” >>>Read The Q&A
The Kids Are...Alright? - Local children’s TV in the UK is in hot water, according to the Children’s Media Foundation, due to stiff competition, the difficulties in attracting young audiences to broadcast TV, a sharp rise in production costs and a lack of commercial opportunity to sell shows around the world. >>>Major Summit Planned
'Dancing' With Taylor Swift - The Dancing with the Stars Taylor Swift-themed episode was the show’s most-watched multi-platform telecast on ABC since the September 2021 premiere. >>>7.8M Viewers
'Unstoppable' Production - The Artists Equity movie Unstoppable remains exactly that: After the production was shut down during the WGA strike, the sports movie directed by William Goldenberg and starring Jennifer Lopez and Jharrel Jerome will return to shooting. Don Cheadle, Michael Peña and Bobby Cannavale have now joined the cast. >>>Starts Next Week
Doc Talk Podcast: A DIY Oscar Campaign - Bad Press, King Coal, Joonam and Fantastic Machine are all award-winning documentaries, yet each has struggled to land distribution. Instead of throwing up their hands, the teams behind the four documentaries have taken the remarkable step of banding together to launch a joint For Your Consideration campaign, do-it-yourself style. >>> Listen To The Interview
Read The Screenplay: 'Anatomy Of A Fall' - Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Neon’s murder mystery Anatomy of a Fall. The Cannes Palme d’Or winner from French filmmaker Justine Triet (only the third woman ever to take that top prize) is co-written by Triet and Arthur Harari. Last week, it scooped Best International Feature and Best Screenplay at the Gotham Awards. >>> See The Script
In Brief - Pop star Sia has boarded The Journey, a reality series at the junction of music, healing and make-over TV…Fox has given a script commitment with penalty to Zoo P.D., an animated comedy from Family Guy executive producer Alex Carter, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Fox’s Bento Box Entertainment. |
|
Nimona has had quite a journey before arriving on Netflix.
After Disney got Blue Sky Studios as part of its $71.3 billion 21st Century Fox acquisition, the film was repeatedly delayed before being canceled in 2021 when the studio was dissolved.
Annapurna Pictures and Netflix picked up the film, which is based on ND Stevenson’s original graphic novel, and gave it a new life. In an interview with Deadline, Stevenson and directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane discuss the project's long development process and the large amount of support it got from people in the LGBTQ+ community. >>>Read The Interview |
|
Exclusive
Ariana Madix, the Vanderpump Rules reality star who made it to last night’s finale round on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, will make her Broadway debut in January as Roxie Hart in Chicago, producers announced today.
Exclusive
Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi will star in and produce the new animated feature Slime which will serve as animator Jeron Braxton‘s (Baby Demon) feature directorial debut. Brian Ash (The Boondocks) penned the script and will executive produce. |
|
More News
💃 Taylor Swift has been named Time magazine's Person of the Year. The pop superstar, who has made more than $1 billion from her sold-out Eras Tour, also became a top draw at the box office with the concert film based on the tour. Swift beat out Xi Jinping, Hollywood strikers, Trump prosecutors and even Barbie for the honor.
💘 Arrow’s Stephen Amell has amplified the effort to raise funds for the family of Dave McLean, The CW superhero series crew member who took his own life on October 9. Launched just before Thanksgiving, a GoFundMe appeal has been coordinated by Amell and the McLean family. Said Amell this week, “Dave is gone far too soon, for reasons that are entirely preventable… any donation helps, sharing this post helps because mental health is something we should all be discussing.”
🐭 The Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board, a Ron DeSantis-staffed entity that replaced Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District council, is set to consider a scathing report it commissioned that calls the media giant’s actions during its time in control over the area where Walt Disney World is located “akin to bribery.”
📺 Nearly three months after Charter Communications and Disney struck a landmark distribution deal, Charter CFO Jessica Fischer said it “absolutely” has created a template for future agreements. “We’re not willing to make our customers pay twice for content,” the exec said during an appearance at the UBS Media and Communications Conference in New York.
💰 Paramount Global will start 2024 with some big bills to pay and questions swirling about its creditworthiness, in the view of Naveen Sarma, S&P’s Senior Director and Sector Lead for the U.S. Media and Telecom Sectors. “A lot of other companies have given guidance on when they think break-even is” in their streaming businesses, Sharma said at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, he believes, “will be able to grow EBITDA. .. It isn’t as clear-cut with Paramount. Up until a couple quarters ago, we weren’t sure when that break-even point” would come. |
|
Trending
 Broadway's Sarah Paulson-starrer Appropriate filled nearly every seat at the non-prof Second Stage’s Hayes Theatre. The play, written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and co-starring Elle Fanning and Corey Stoll took in $483,124 for seven previews, with attendance at 98% of the venue’s capacity.
🔻 In a complaint filed in L.A., A3 chairman Adam Bold is being accused of “a campaign of chaos” by the agency’s CEO and president, as well as being a cocaine addict, a “creeping” lech who created a toxic and hostile workplace and a spendthrift who is steering “what remains of a once-great company into bankruptcy.” |
|
Obituaries
🕯️ Alecia Dixon-Kurschner, a TV distribution executive who held senior positions at MGM, Miramax and Starz before becoming an independent consultant several years ago, died of ovarian cancer at her home in the Minneapolis suburb of Excelsior, Minnesota, Nov. 23. She was 60. 🕯️ Denny Laine, guitarist and songwriter for iconic rock bands The Moody Blues and Wings, has died, according to a post from his wife. He was 79. 🕯️ Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries |
|
On the Radar
Wed - National Board of Review awards announcement; GOP debate
Thu - Frasier S1 finale
Fri - Biden L.A. fundraiser
Sat - NBA In-Season Tournament Championship; MPTF 'Lights, Camera, Action' telethon
Sun - Deadline Contenders Film: Documentary
Mon - Golden Globe nominations |
|
Dual Dianas - Elizabeth Debicki and Emma Corrin, who played Princess Diana in different eras on The Crown, were among those attending the Netflix drama's Season 6 premiere at London’s Royal Festival Hall. |
|
|
