H'wood's Most Dangerous Franchise?; 'Joker' Targets 'Venom'; TikTok Stardom; 'Sesame' Maxed; ‘Mr. Robot’ Finale

What's news: How high can Joker go? is Resident Evil the most dangerous franchise in Hollywood? The rise of TikTok stardom, Robert De Niro and James Franco face new lawsuits, the Academy Museum gets a new director, Sesame Street moves to HBO Max, and a new threat from President Trump. Plus: John Malone exits Lionsgate, and the Paramount Ranch one year after the wildfires. --Alex Weprin [The Hollywood Reporter]( [The Hollywood Reporter]( Today In Entertainment OCTOBER 04, 2019 What's news: How high can Joker go? is Resident Evil the most dangerous franchise in Hollywood? The rise of TikTok stardom, Robert De Niro and James Franco face new lawsuits, the Academy Museum gets a new director, Sesame Street moves to HBO Max, and a new threat from President Trump. Plus: John Malone exits Lionsgate, and the Paramount Ranch one year after the wildfires. --Alex Weprin What's news: How high can Joker go? is Resident Evil the most dangerous franchise in Hollywood? The rise of TikTok stardom, Robert De Niro and James Franco face new lawsuits, the Academy Museum gets a new director, Sesame Street moves to HBO Max, and a new threat from President Trump. Plus: John Malone exits Lionsgate, and the Paramount Ranch one year after the wildfires. --Alex Weprin [Hollywood's Most Dangerous Franchise?] Hollywood's Most Dangerous Franchise? ►Is Resident Evil Hollywood's most dangerous franchise? Stuntwoman Olivia Jackson nearly died on the set of 2016’s The Final Chapter. Her colleague was killed. And over the course of the billion-dollar series, many others have been injured. What happened — and who might pay for it? Scott Johnson digs into the film franchise's troubled history, and the challenging environment for stunt performers as a whole. +What happened? "[Jackson] alleges that she was instructed not to wear a helmet, that she was excluded from key safety meetings and that she was not permitted to wear a communication device in her ear to stay in touch with the crew during the stunt. The most damaging allegation, supported by publicly available court testimony, is that the crew changed the timing of the stunt without her knowledge." +The franchise: "Injuries, even serious ones, have always been part of stunt work. Nevertheless, with the hospitalization of at least 15 people, the Resident Evil franchise stands out as particularly treacherous. 'That's an extremely high rate of injury for one movie or franchise,' says a veteran stunt performer who has worked on dozens of productions around the world over a 30-year career. 'Typically there are no injuries on set, and that's what we strive for.'" [The story](. ►Box Office: How high will Joker go? The dark Warner Bros. supervillain origin story will win the weekend box office, but the film also has its sights on a record held by a film starring another supervillain: Venom. Pamela McClintock [tweets]( that Joker Thursday preview grosses "could exceed $11M, besting Venom ($10M)," and that "nearly 70% of ticket buyers for Thursday night previews are male, with most between ages 18-34." Venom ultimately delivered $80.2 million domestically over the three-day weekend, an October record. Will Joker get the last laugh? +Joker landed in its first international markets Wednesday, earning $5.4 million from four territories including previews. [More](. +The FBI is monitoring threatening online posts revolving around Joker, which opened to the public last night. The agency has been notified of numerous threats tied to the film, but, so far, none have been considered credible, Ryan Parker reports. [More](. +Joker, The Man Who Laughs and the birth of a villain: Richard Newby looks back at the 1928 silent film that inspired the DC Comics villain, and how Phillips' film may have taken inspiration from the horror classic. [The story](. +In other box office news: A special three-night event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the hit NBC sitcom Friends attracted over 230,000 fans and grossed an estimated $2.9 million from more than 1,600 theaters across the U.S., making it the second highest-grossing U.S. event cinema release of 2019. It's also among Fathom's all-time biggest earners. [More](. ►A year after the wildfires, can a Hollywood western set rise from the ashes? Scott Johnson visits the Paramount Ranch, which was destroyed in November's Woolsey blaze. The iconic Western town — used over the decades in films and TV series from The Love Bug to Westworld — hopes to rebuild for a "more usable" future. [The story](. ►New video series: Quizzed. In the debut episode, Downton Abbey's Allen Leech quizzes singer-songwriter and Downton super-fan Josh Groban about the TV series. [Watch](. ►Academy Museum has tapped Bill Kramer as director. Kramer will be stepping in for Kerry Brougher, who stepped down from his post after five years in August, the museum's Board of Trustees announced on Thursday. Kramer, the former managing director of development and external relations at the Academy Museum from 2012 to 2016, will start his post at the beginning of 2020. [More](. +Revolving door: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, WME's head of worldwide literary, speakers and conference divisions, is [taking on]( a new role at the company to focus on building her brand partnerships and live events platform... James Wan and his Atomic Monster production company are joining Hivemind[in bringing]( the Image Comics title Gideon Falls to TV... Josh Greenstein and Sanford Panitch have [been named]( co-presidents of the Motion Picture Group at Sony Pictures Entertainment... Elsewhere in film... --Disney CEO Bob Iger [dishes on]( Tom Holland's Spider-Man return: "He cared so much." --How moviegoers [can experience]( Ang Lee's Gemini Man, from standard 2K to the "whole shebang." --Here's the[first trailer]( for Clint Eastwood's Richard Jewell. --Geena Davis [unveils partnership]( with Disney to "spellcheck" scripts for gender bias. --The King's Man director [calls it]( a "love letter to movies." --The Banker — the Apple feature starring Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony Mackie — [will close out]( AFI Fest on Nov. 21 in Hollywood. Hollywood's Most Dangerous Franchise? ►Is Resident Evil Hollywood's most dangerous franchise? Stuntwoman Olivia Jackson nearly died on the set of 2016’s The Final Chapter. Her colleague was killed. And over the course of the billion-dollar series, many others have been injured. What happened — and who might pay for it? Scott Johnson digs into the film franchise's troubled history, and the challenging environment for stunt performers as a whole. +What happened? "[Jackson] alleges that she was instructed not to wear a helmet, that she was excluded from key safety meetings and that she was not permitted to wear a communication device in her ear to stay in touch with the crew during the stunt. The most damaging allegation, supported by publicly available court testimony, is that the crew changed the timing of the stunt without her knowledge." +The franchise: "Injuries, even serious ones, have always been part of stunt work. Nevertheless, with the hospitalization of at least 15 people, the Resident Evil franchise stands out as particularly treacherous. 'That's an extremely high rate of injury for one movie or franchise,' says a veteran stunt performer who has worked on dozens of productions around the world over a 30-year career. 'Typically there are no injuries on set, and that's what we strive for.'" [The story](. ►Box Office: How high will Joker go? The dark Warner Bros. supervillain origin story will win the weekend box office, but the film also has its sights on a record held by a film starring another supervillain: Venom. Pamela McClintock [tweets]( that Joker Thursday preview grosses "could exceed $11M, besting Venom ($10M)," and that "nearly 70% of ticket buyers for Thursday night previews are male, with most between ages 18-34." Venom ultimately delivered $80.2 million domestically over the three-day weekend, an October record. Will Joker get the last laugh? +Joker landed in its first international markets Wednesday, earning $5.4 million from four territories including previews. [More](. +The FBI is monitoring threatening online posts revolving around Joker, which opened to the public last night. The agency has been notified of numerous threats tied to the film, but, so far, none have been considered credible, Ryan Parker reports. [More](. +Joker, The Man Who Laughs and the birth of a villain: Richard Newby looks back at the 1928 silent film that inspired the DC Comics villain, and how Phillips' film may have taken inspiration from the horror classic. [The story](. +In other box office news: A special three-night event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the hit NBC sitcom Friends attracted over 230,000 fans and grossed an estimated $2.9 million from more than 1,600 theaters across the U.S., making it the second highest-grossing U.S. event cinema release of 2019. It's also among Fathom's all-time biggest earners. [More](. ►A year after the wildfires, can a Hollywood western set rise from the ashes? Scott Johnson visits the Paramount Ranch, which was destroyed in November's Woolsey blaze. The iconic Western town — used over the decades in films and TV series from The Love Bug to Westworld — hopes to rebuild for a "more usable" future. [The story](. ►New video series: Quizzed. In the debut episode, Downton Abbey's Allen Leech quizzes singer-songwriter and Downton super-fan Josh Groban about the TV series. [Watch](. ►Academy Museum has tapped Bill Kramer as director. Kramer will be stepping in for Kerry Brougher, who stepped down from his post after five years in August, the museum's Board of Trustees announced on Thursday. Kramer, the former managing director of development and external relations at the Academy Museum from 2012 to 2016, will start his post at the beginning of 2020. [More](. +Revolving door: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, WME's head of worldwide literary, speakers and conference divisions, is [taking on]( a new role at the company to focus on building her brand partnerships and live events platform... James Wan and his Atomic Monster production company are joining Hivemind[in bringing]( the Image Comics title Gideon Falls to TV... Josh Greenstein and Sanford Panitch have [been named]( co-presidents of the Motion Picture Group at Sony Pictures Entertainment... Elsewhere in film... --Disney CEO Bob Iger [dishes on]( Tom Holland's Spider-Man return: "He cared so much." --How moviegoers [can experience]( Ang Lee's Gemini Man, from standard 2K to the "whole shebang." --Here's the[first trailer]( for Clint Eastwood's Richard Jewell. --Geena Davis [unveils partnership]( with Disney to "spellcheck" scripts for gender bias. --The King's Man director [calls it]( a "love letter to movies." --The Banker — the Apple feature starring Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony Mackie — [will close out]( AFI Fest on Nov. 21 in Hollywood. [TikTok Stardom] TikTok Stardom ►TikTok stars go Hollywood. With almost 120  million (mostly young) users in the U.S., the quirky video-sharing app has become a surprisingly effective launchpad for unknown talents — and a valuable marketing platform for brands seeking to court Generation  Z, Natalie Jarvey reports. Quote: "A lot of talent on that platform are, I would argue, aspiring off platform," says CAA digital packaging and talent agent Andrew Graham. "They view their career as a ladder, and one of the rungs of the ladder is TikTok." [The story](. There was no shortage of legal news Thursday... Robert De Niro was accused in sex bias suit of treating company's ex-vp as his "office wife." Graham Chase Robinson, who was the target of a lawsuit from De Niro's Canal Productions in August, strikes back with a lawsuit that alleges De Niro initiated unwanted physical contact and "took a page out of the Bill O'Reilly playbook." Tom Harvey, De Niro's attorney, had this response to the suit: "The allegations made by Graham Chase Robinson against Robert De Niro are beyond absurd." [The story](. +James Franco, through his acting school, is being sued for sexual harassment, discrimination and a host of other claims by two former students. The class action complaint filed Thursday by Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal quotes Franco's public statement from 2018 when such allegations first surfaced. "If I have done something wrong, I will fix it," he said. "I have to." In a statement, Franco's attorney said that "This is not the first time that these claims have been made and they have already been debunked." [More](. Much more legal news, further below... ^Sesame Street is moving to HBO Max. The beloved children's series is moving from HBO to the streaming platform for its 51st season. The deal includes five new seasons of Sesame Street, several spinoff series and specials and the show's 50-year library. As was the case with the HBO deal, the episodes will continue to be available on PBS stations a few months after they debut on HBO Max. [The story](. +Context: Kids programming has become a vital part of any mainstream streaming service. Netflix and Amazon have spent millions to acquire shows based on known IP, with Disney set to enter the fray with Disney+. Sesame Street, however, is arguably the king of kids shows, and can serve as a backbone to HBO Max's children's lineup. +Meanwhile another WarnerMedia streaming service is adding to its programming: DC Universe, which combines original programming and a vast online comic book library, will expand in 2020 with the addition of a new anthology series combining animated and live-action content based on some of DC’s more obscure characters, as well as more animated movies from WB Home Entertainment’s back catalog. [More](. ►CNN won't run a 30-second advertisement purchased by Donald Trump's re-election campaign after the network decided it does not meet its standards. The advertisement, which was tweeted by the president last week, relates to Joe Biden's conduct toward Ukraine while he served as vice president. In it, a narrator derisively refers to CNN personalities Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo and Jim Acosta as "media lapdogs." [The story](. +President Donald Trump said in a speech on Thursday that his administration is considering starting an internal broadcast network to counter the dominance of CNN around the world. "CNN is a voice that really seems to be the voice out there, and it's a terrible thing for our country, and we ought to start our own network and put some real news out there because they are so bad for our country," he told a crowd in Florida. [More](. +CNN political correspondent Dana Bash will be a consulting producer on a Washington-set drama in development at NBC, The Hill. [More](. +Fox News anchor Chris Wallace once dinged CNN's Jake Tapper's question to Steven Mnuchin as "fake news," email reveals. [More](. Pickups and renewals: ABC has given a put [pilot order]( to Cupcake Men, inspired by the real-life story of former NFL players Michael Griffin and Brian Orapko.... Starz is [developing a series]( based on the 2018 movie Blindspotting, with Jasmine Cephas Jones set to reprise her role from the critically acclaimed film... CBS has [handed out]( a 10-episode, straight-to-series order for Tough as Nails, a reality competition series created and hosted by The Amazing Race's Phil Keoghan... Florida Girls has [been renewed]( for a second season on Pop... Netflix has [given a series order]( to Human Resources, another animated comedy from the team behind Big Mouth... Elsewhere in TV... --Tim Goodman reviews season four of [USA's Mr. Robot](. --Cult comedy and recent Emmy nominee Schitt's Creek is [headed into syndication](, anchored by Fox's local stations. --Silvio Berlusconi's media empire, Mediaset, [has struck]( a multiyear deal to co-finance seven feature films for Netflix, with the streamer expected to contribute the majority of funding. --Ratings: The Masked Singer [came down]( from its season premiere last week, but the show still carried Fox to a victory among adults 18-49 Wednesday night... TNT's All Elite Wrestling debut scored [a ratings pinfall]( over WWE NXT... TikTok Stardom ►TikTok stars go Hollywood. With almost 120  million (mostly young) users in the U.S., the quirky video-sharing app has become a surprisingly effective launchpad for unknown talents — and a valuable marketing platform for brands seeking to court Generation  Z, Natalie Jarvey reports. Quote: "A lot of talent on that platform are, I would argue, aspiring off platform," says CAA digital packaging and talent agent Andrew Graham. "They view their career as a ladder, and one of the rungs of the ladder is TikTok." [The story](. There was no shortage of legal news Thursday... Robert De Niro was accused in sex bias suit of treating company's ex-vp as his "office wife." Graham Chase Robinson, who was the target of a lawsuit from De Niro's Canal Productions in August, strikes back with a lawsuit that alleges De Niro initiated unwanted physical contact and "took a page out of the Bill O'Reilly playbook." Tom Harvey, De Niro's attorney, had this response to the suit: "The allegations made by Graham Chase Robinson against Robert De Niro are beyond absurd." [The story](. +James Franco, through his acting school, is being sued for sexual harassment, discrimination and a host of other claims by two former students. The class action complaint filed Thursday by Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal quotes Franco's public statement from 2018 when such allegations first surfaced. "If I have done something wrong, I will fix it," he said. "I have to." In a statement, Franco's attorney said that "This is not the first time that these claims have been made and they have already been debunked." [More](. Much more legal news, further below... ^Sesame Street is moving to HBO Max. The beloved children's series is moving from HBO to the streaming platform for its 51st season. The deal includes five new seasons of Sesame Street, several spinoff series and specials and the show's 50-year library. As was the case with the HBO deal, the episodes will continue to be available on PBS stations a few months after they debut on HBO Max. [The story](. +Context: Kids programming has become a vital part of any mainstream streaming service. Netflix and Amazon have spent millions to acquire shows based on known IP, with Disney set to enter the fray with Disney+. Sesame Street, however, is arguably the king of kids shows, and can serve as a backbone to HBO Max's children's lineup. +Meanwhile another WarnerMedia streaming service is adding to its programming: DC Universe, which combines original programming and a vast online comic book library, will expand in 2020 with the addition of a new anthology series combining animated and live-action content based on some of DC’s more obscure characters, as well as more animated movies from WB Home Entertainment’s back catalog. [More](. ►CNN won't run a 30-second advertisement purchased by Donald Trump's re-election campaign after the network decided it does not meet its standards. The advertisement, which was tweeted by the president last week, relates to Joe Biden's conduct toward Ukraine while he served as vice president. In it, a narrator derisively refers to CNN personalities Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo and Jim Acosta as "media lapdogs." [The story](. +President Donald Trump said in a speech on Thursday that his administration is considering starting an internal broadcast network to counter the dominance of CNN around the world. "CNN is a voice that really seems to be the voice out there, and it's a terrible thing for our country, and we ought to start our own network and put some real news out there because they are so bad for our country," he told a crowd in Florida. [More](. +CNN political correspondent Dana Bash will be a consulting producer on a Washington-set drama in development at NBC, The Hill. [More](. +Fox News anchor Chris Wallace once dinged CNN's Jake Tapper's question to Steven Mnuchin as "fake news," email reveals. [More](. Pickups and renewals: ABC has given a put [pilot order]( to Cupcake Men, inspired by the real-life story of former NFL players Michael Griffin and Brian Orapko.... Starz is [developing a series]( based on the 2018 movie Blindspotting, with Jasmine Cephas Jones set to reprise her role from the critically acclaimed film... CBS has [handed out]( a 10-episode, straight-to-series order for Tough as Nails, a reality competition series created and hosted by The Amazing Race's Phil Keoghan... Florida Girls has [been renewed]( for a second season on Pop... Netflix has [given a series order]( to Human Resources, another animated comedy from the team behind Big Mouth... Elsewhere in TV... --Tim Goodman reviews season four of [USA's Mr. Robot](. --Cult comedy and recent Emmy nominee Schitt's Creek is [headed into syndication](, anchored by Fox's local stations. --Silvio Berlusconi's media empire, Mediaset, [has struck]( a multiyear deal to co-finance seven feature films for Netflix, with the streamer expected to contribute the majority of funding. --Ratings: The Masked Singer [came down]( from its season premiere last week, but the show still carried Fox to a victory among adults 18-49 Wednesday night... TNT's All Elite Wrestling debut scored [a ratings pinfall]( over WWE NXT... [John Malone Exits Lionsgate] John Malone Exits Lionsgate ►Billionaire investor John Malone has dumped his remaining voting shares in Lionsgate, with Liberty Global and Lionsgate chairman Mark Rachesky coming forward to increase their own stakes in the Hollywood studio. Malone had once been one of the studio's biggest investors, at one point owning more than 8 percent of the company. [More](. In other legal news... --Global Music Rights filed a copyright suit against Entravision Communications, which owns and operates dozens of predominately Spanish-language radio stations across the United States. The suit accuses the broadcaster of violating performance rights on 130 songs, including Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run," Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" and Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters." [More](. --Jordan Peele's production shingle, Monkeypaw Productions, has become[entangled in a lawsuit](involving warring members of a century-old secretive society of explorers and scientists.... --STX [has been hit](with a multi-million-dollar breach of contract suit for allegedly backing out of a film it agreed to distribute and tanking its chances of finding other distributors.... --Katie Marsh will [have to re-plead]( her fraud claims against Gaumont Television. On Wednesday, a Los Angeles judge ruled Marsh needs to show more in her suit against the French studio behind such shows as Narcos, Hannibal and Hemlock Grove... +Also: Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford's lengthy battle with former company legal counsel Wade Callender has [come to an end](: The two parties have reached a settlement, according to a filing in Dallas County (Texas) district court on Thursday... Two years after a shooter rained gunfire on country music fans from a high-rise Las Vegas hotel, MGM Resorts International [reached a settlement]( that could pay up to $800 million to families of the 58 people who died and hundreds of others who were injured, attorneys announced Thursday... Harvey Weinstein [has lost]( a long-shot bid to move his sexual assault trial out of New York City as a state court on Thursday rejected the movie mogul’s concerns that he wouldn’t get a fair trial in the world’s media capital. In gaming news... --The WGA Awards have [opted to drop]( the category honoring writing in video games, adding that "the category will be reinstated when there is a critical mass of videogames covered by the WGA." --Activision Blizzard's second annual Overwatch League Grand Finals, held in Philadelphia over the weekend,[reached an audience]( of 1.1 million average viewers, a 16 percent increase over the 2018 event, the company revealed on Thursday morning. Casting roundup: Tiffany Boone [has joined]( George Clooney's sci-fi Netflix feature based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight... The new cast set to play the townsfolk of Maycomb, Alabama, for the second year of the blockbuster Broadway drama To Kill a Mockingbird is[now complete](... Awkwafina has [been tapped]( to host the Motion Picture & Television Fund's eight annual Reel Stories, Real Lives Nov. 4 in Los Angeles... Rachel Brosnahan, Travis Fimmel and Christina Ricci [will topline]( episodes of Sam Raimi's 50 States of Fright for Quibi... Cynthia Erivo [will play]( Aretha Franklin in season three of Nat Geo's anthology series Genius... Series Regular podcast: This week Josh Wigler speaks to Angela Kang, showrunner for AMC's The Walking Dead, who tees up season 10 of the series. [Listen](. TV's Top Five podcast: In this week's episode, Lesley Goldberg and Daniel Fienberg talk about WarnerMedia's strange programming decision's regarding Snowpiercer, and interview Sorry For Your Loss creator Kit Steinkellner. [Listen](. What else we're reading... --"Investors are worried about AT&T’s content game" [[Bloomberg](] --"Short clips, big risk: This mysterious startup wants to turn streaming on its head" [[CNN Business](] --"Watergate was a TV spectacle. Just wait for the reboot: Trump" [[LA Times](] --"Amazon clashes with Disney over terms for offering apps in Fire TV" [[WSJ](] --"Bob Woodward interviewed the She Said authors at a book event. Things got tense. Then there was heckling." [[Washington Post](] From the archives... On October 4, 1990 a new show made its debut on Fox. Beverly Hills, 90210 went on to become a pop culture phenomenon, turning Jason Priestly, Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry into household names, inspiring spin-offs like Melrose Place and Models Inc. [The Hollywood Reporter’s original review](. Today's birthdays: Alicia Silverstone, 43, Anne Rice, 78, Christoph Waltz, 63, Dakota Johnson, 30, Liev Schreiber, 52, Russell Simmons, 62, Susan Sarandon, 73. John Malone Exits Lionsgate ►Billionaire investor John Malone has dumped his remaining voting shares in Lionsgate, with Liberty Global and Lionsgate chairman Mark Rachesky coming forward to increase their own stakes in the Hollywood studio. Malone had once been one of the studio's biggest investors, at one point owning more than 8 percent of the company. [More](. In other legal news... --Global Music Rights filed a copyright suit against Entravision Communications, which owns and operates dozens of predominately Spanish-language radio stations across the United States. The suit accuses the broadcaster of violating performance rights on 130 songs, including Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run," Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" and Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters." [More](. --Jordan Peele's production shingle, Monkeypaw Productions, has become[entangled in a lawsuit](involving warring members of a century-old secretive society of explorers and scientists.... --STX [has been hit](with a multi-million-dollar breach of contract suit for allegedly backing out of a film it agreed to distribute and tanking its chances of finding other distributors.... --Katie Marsh will [have to re-plead]( her fraud claims against Gaumont Television. On Wednesday, a Los Angeles judge ruled Marsh needs to show more in her suit against the French studio behind such shows as Narcos, Hannibal and Hemlock Grove... +Also: Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford's lengthy battle with former company legal counsel Wade Callender has [come to an end](: The two parties have reached a settlement, according to a filing in Dallas County (Texas) district court on Thursday... Two years after a shooter rained gunfire on country music fans from a high-rise Las Vegas hotel, MGM Resorts International [reached a settlement]( that could pay up to $800 million to families of the 58 people who died and hundreds of others who were injured, attorneys announced Thursday... Harvey Weinstein [has lost]( a long-shot bid to move his sexual assault trial out of New York City as a state court on Thursday rejected the movie mogul’s concerns that he wouldn’t get a fair trial in the world’s media capital. In gaming news... --The WGA Awards have [opted to drop]( the category honoring writing in video games, adding that "the category will be reinstated when there is a critical mass of videogames covered by the WGA." --Activision Blizzard's second annual Overwatch League Grand Finals, held in Philadelphia over the weekend,[reached an audience]( of 1.1 million average viewers, a 16 percent increase over the 2018 event, the company revealed on Thursday morning. Casting roundup: Tiffany Boone [has joined]( George Clooney's sci-fi Netflix feature based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight... The new cast set to play the townsfolk of Maycomb, Alabama, for the second year of the blockbuster Broadway drama To Kill a Mockingbird is[now complete](... Awkwafina has [been tapped]( to host the Motion Picture & Television Fund's eight annual Reel Stories, Real Lives Nov. 4 in Los Angeles... Rachel Brosnahan, Travis Fimmel and Christina Ricci [will topline]( episodes of Sam Raimi's 50 States of Fright for Quibi... Cynthia Erivo [will play]( Aretha Franklin in season three of Nat Geo's anthology series Genius... Series Regular podcast: This week Josh Wigler speaks to Angela Kang, showrunner for AMC's The Walking Dead, who tees up season 10 of the series. [Listen](. TV's Top Five podcast: In this week's episode, Lesley Goldberg and Daniel Fienberg talk about WarnerMedia's strange programming decision's regarding Snowpiercer, and interview Sorry For Your Loss creator Kit Steinkellner. [Listen](. What else we're reading... --"Investors are worried about AT&T’s content game" [[Bloomberg](] --"Short clips, big risk: This mysterious startup wants to turn streaming on its head" [[CNN Business](] --"Watergate was a TV spectacle. Just wait for the reboot: Trump" [[LA Times](] --"Amazon clashes with Disney over terms for offering apps in Fire TV" [[WSJ](] --"Bob Woodward interviewed the She Said authors at a book event. Things got tense. Then there was heckling." [[Washington Post](] From the archives... On October 4, 1990 a new show made its debut on Fox. Beverly Hills, 90210 went on to become a pop culture phenomenon, turning Jason Priestly, Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry into household names, inspiring spin-offs like Melrose Place and Models Inc. [The Hollywood Reporter’s original review](. Today's birthdays: Alicia Silverstone, 43, Anne Rice, 78, Christoph Waltz, 63, Dakota Johnson, 30, Liev Schreiber, 52, Russell Simmons, 62, Susan Sarandon, 73. [Image] [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( Is this e-mail not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( ©2019 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. 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