LinkedIn is usually used by professionals for networking with people in their field, posting updates when they get a new job or congratulating friends on their promotions. These days, as one former industry type put it, “It’s become a therapy site for unemployed entertainment executives” who share their frustrations over the lack of opportunities in Hollywood amid a major contraction.
Over the past year, there have been waves of layoffs at Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Amazon MGM Studios, Lionsgate (which acquired eOne), Netflix, Sony, Fifth Season and most talent agencies including CAA and UTA.
The dire situation, “bordering on worst-case scenario,” one seasoned TV executive said, was created by a perfect storm of Covid, strikes and “poor management decisions coming home to roost.” >>>Legal & Marketing Hit Hardest |
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| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
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Monster Opening - Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros are set to shower cash on exhibition with the Easter weekend March 29 theatrical release of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. >>>$45M-Plus Projected
So You Think They Cannes Dance? - In the second installment of Deadline's exclusive look inside the jockeying for Cannes Film Festival slots, Melanie Goodfellow gauges the prospects of newer voices being heard in May's 77th edition. Openings could be created this year because a number of Cannes habitués are out of the frame, including Pedro Almodóvar, who is in production on Julianne Moore-Tilda Swinton teaming The Room Next Door , and Ruben Östlund, who is in development on airplane disaster movie The Entertainment System Is Down. Officials will announce the lineup on April 11 in Paris. >>>Johnny Depp Update Agency Takeover - YMU, the UK agency that reps Simon Cowell, Graham Norton, and Nicole Scherzinger, has confirmed its sale to private equity company Permira Credit under a £60M ($76M) deal. Permira has taken full control of YMU’s newly-created parent company, Yokozuna Newco Limited, with Trilantic Europe exiting the agency after five years, according to financial filings. >>>New Equity Mix
KMR Kerfuffle - After Deadline reported that KMR Talent is grappling with a set of logistical and staffing issues that have resulted in late payments to clients, KMR has left the Association of Talent Agents (ATA), the trade organization of talent agencies that negotiates agency franchise agreements with the major entertainment guilds. >>>Questions Arise
Mark Wahlberg's Misfire - How does a movie with an “A” CinemaScore and 4 1/2 star PostTrak that features a major star (and a dog) underdeliver at the box office? That's the question about adventure sports-charged, doggie-with-a-heart title Arthur the King from Lionsgate. >>>Streaming Factor
Jeff Daniels: The Film That Lit My Fuse - In an exceptional installment, Jeff Daniels describes specific great performances that guided his versatile approach, and events that fueled big pivotal moments in his career and helped him find his rhythm alongside that tornado of physical comedy, Jim Carrey, in the 1994 Farrelly Brothers classic Dumb and Dumber. >>>Watch
Soaring Conclusion - Masters of the Air was a labor of love for executive producers Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. The Apple TV+ series marks the third and final installment of the trio’s war drama miniseries, after Band of Brothers and The Pacific. “The best stories are from history,” said Goetzman during a discussion at the Deadline and Apple TV+ event Inside the Finale, joined by series cast members Barry Keoghan, Callum Turner, Rafferty Law, Josiah Cross, Nate Mann and Anthony Boyle. >>> Watch
Reopening 'Shop' - Iconic filmmakers Joe Dante and Roger Corman are teaming with Emmy-nominated veteran producer Brad Krevoy, CEO of MPCA, on Little Shop of Halloween Horrors, a reboot of Corman’s famed 1960 horror comedy, Little Shop of Horrors. >>>New Franchise Eyed
In Brief - Detective drama Grace in works at CBS from DeVon Franklin... Beef's Joseph Lee signs with Gersh |
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Max’s political dramedy The Girls on the Bus is less about the commonly depicted cutthroat world of politics and more about the unique friendships that can be cultivated in such a high-pressure environment.
The series, based on journalist Amy Chozick’s 2018 memoir Chasing Hillary, follows four female journalists — played by Melissa Benoist, Carla Gugino, Christina Elmore and Natasha Behnam— as they cover the successes and scandals of the presidential primary while on the campaign trail.
Here, Chozick and Julie Plec, who serve as the co-creators and executive producers, speak to Deadline about reliving a fictional version of the 2016 election, finding their leading ladies, the importance of journalistic integrity and the fun challenges of creating the series. >>>Read The Interview |
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Exclusive
Mariel Molino has been tapped as the female lead opposite Austin Stowell in CBS‘ Young Gibbs drama NCIS: Origins, a prequel to the venerable procedural, which has a straight-to-series order for the 2024-2025 broadcast season.
Exclusive
Charlotte Le Bon (Falcon Lake) has joined Season 3 of HBO‘s The White Lotus in a role that is being recast. She is replacing Francesca Corney, who had been originally tapped for the part.
Exclusive
Arian Moayed and Carmen Ejogo have joined John Krasinski and Natalie Portman in Apple‘s Fountain of Youth, a feature film based on an original idea that will be directed by Guy Ritchie and hails from Skydance Media.
Randall Park (Fresh Off The Boat), Ashley Johnson (The Last of Us), Yvette Nicole Brown and Elijah Wood are set to lead the voice cast of Among Us , an animated series based on the highly popular online game. |
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More News
⚾ Sports Illustrated owner Authentic Brands Group said it has reached a deal with Minute Media (whose portfolio includes The Players Tribune and FanSided) to run SI's digital operations and continue its print edition. The deal comes after most staffers were laid off and the future of SI was uncertain.
✂️ Bill Maher fired CAA after not being invited to a party at Bryan Lourd’s house over Oscar weekend.
💪 A live-action Teen Titans movie is in development at DC Studios, Deadline has confirmed. |
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Trending
 Kung Fu Panda 4 had a great second-weekend hold at $30M, down just 48%
🔻 Lionsgate’s dog adventure racing movie Arthur the King, starring Mark Wahlberg, opened below projections at $7.5M |
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Obituaries
🕯 Grant Page, the Australian stunt icon who performed in and coordinated stunts for the original Mad Max, sequel Beyond Thunderdome, the upcoming prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and more than 100 other films and TV series, died Thursday in a car crash. He was 85. 🕯 Larry H. Parker , a personal injury attorney whose aggressive motto of “We’ll fight for you!” was a staple of TV, radio, billboards and bus benches in Southern California for decades, has died at 75. 🕯 Veteran New York City broadcast news anchor Bill Jorgensen, remembered for his show’s nightly admonishment, “It’s 10 o’clock — do you know where your children are?” died on Wednesday at age 96. 🕯 David Breashears , whose mountaineering led him to climb Mt. Everest five times, died at his Massachusetts home on Thursday. He was 68. Breashears co-directed and co-produced a 1998 IMAX documentary for Universal, Everest. 🕯 David Seidler, best known for his Academy Award-winning writing on The King’s Speech, died on Saturday, March 16 while on a fly-fishing expedition in New Zealand. He was 86. 🕯 Steve Harley , the frontman of British glam rock band Cockney Rebel, died Sunday at 73 from cancer. His best known song was "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)," which went to No. 1 on the UK charts in 1975. Harley also sang the title song of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera alongside Sarah Brightman when it was released as a single in 1986.
Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2024 Photo Gallery |
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On the Radar
Mon - IATSE & Teamsters return to negotiations
Tue - March Madness begins
Sun - Kevin Hart receives the Mark Twain Prize |
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Bright 'Idea' - Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine lit up SXSW with the fest's closing night film, The Idea of You. |
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