Disney's Entertainment Restructure; 'Fantastic Beasts' Update; 'Water Dancer' Movie; 'Scorpion King Reboot

[The Hollywood Reporter]( Today In Entertainment NOVEMBER 11, 2020 What's news: Disney restructuring continues, Water Dancer movie in the works, Scorpion King reboot too, Mads Mikkelson in talks to replace Johnny Depp in Fantastic Beasts franchise, Netflix renews Umbrella Academy, HBO cancels The Outsider. Plus: The backstory behind Jingle Jangle, and L.A. film permits on the rise. --Alex Weprin [Disney Entertainment Restructures] Disney Entertainment Restructures ➤Disney unveiled the next wave of its company-wide restructuring Tuesday as Peter Rice outlined a wave of changes to his general entertainment division. The chairman of Disney's General Entertainment Content unit is ditching the company's longtime legacy structure in favor of creating centralized groups that are instead focused on content. That means that departments including marketing, publicity, scheduling and media planning are being consolidated into three distinct groups overseen by Shannon Ryan (Hulu and linear networks), former Twitter head of global creative Jayanta Jenkins (Disney+) and Stephanie Gibbons (FX/FX on Hulu). --Rice has also vastly expanded Disney Channel president Gary Marsh's responsibilities. The longtime Disney executive, whom sources say recently renewed his deal to remain with the company, will now serve as president and chief creative officer of Disney Branded TV. His purview will now expand from kids programming to all non-theatrical Disney-branded TV content made for tweens, teens and families, including live-action and animation. He will also oversee the Disney+ unscripted content and production teams. Marsh will continue to report to Rice. --Courteney Monroe, the president of National Geographic Content, has similarly been given an expanded purview that sees her add oversight of NatGeo content on Disney+ as well as linear networks. (NatGeo is a one of the centralized channels on Disney+.) She will join Rice's senior leadership team and continue to report to Nat Geo Partners chairman Gary Knell (who also answers to Rice). Dana Walden, Rice's longtime No. 2, has also been given a new title and will serve as chairman of entertainment at Walt Disney TV. [The full story](. +WarnerMedia restructuring update: Natalie Jarvey writes that the layoffs, which were announced by CEO Jason Kilar yesterday morning, will result in 5-7 percent of the company's workforce losing their jobs. That amounts to as many as 1,750 employees. Among those let go Tuesday was Warner Bros. TV communications veteran Scott Rowe, who had been with the company for 27 years. [More](. ['Water Dancer' Movie In The Works] 'Water Dancer' Movie In The Works ➤Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt are teaming up to adapt The Water Dancer, the best-selling novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates, for MGM. Winfrey’s Harpo Films and Pitt’s Plan B are producing along with Kamilah Forbes, who previously developed and directed the theatrical event of Coates’ Between the World and Me at the legendary Apollo Theater and Kennedy Center. --Coates adapted his own novel, which was Winfrey’s first selection of her revived Oprah’s Book Club in partnership with Apple and was listed as one of the best books of the year for 2019 by Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Vanity Fair and Esquire, among others. [The story](. In other film news... +Dwayne Johnson's The Scorpion King is looking to reign once again. Universal is developing a reboot of the 2002 film. Screenwriter Jonathan Herman, who earned an Oscar nomination for Straight Outta Compton, is penning the script for Johnson and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions. [More](. +Warner Bros. is in early talks with Mads Mikkelsen to replace Depp in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. The movie, directed by David Yates, is currently in production and stars Jude Law and Eddie Redmayne as Albus Dumbledore and Newt Scamander. Depp played the central villain, Gellert Grindelwald, a role that needs to be filled quickly in order to make the movie's new July 2022 release date. [More](. +Jingle Jangle: David and Lyn Talbert create a Christmas film for all families. The married director-and-producer couple behind Netflix's movie wanted to create a holiday film in which their son can see "people flying who look like him." --"We really had to hammer home the idea that this was for a global audience, so they could think as big as they possibly could," says Netflix vp original film Tendo Nagenda. "All too often, underrepresented talent isn't free to think that way because there's a predefined lane where seemingly they can participate in the commercial marketplace. We're trying to upend that." [The story](. +Indoor movie theaters in San Diego and Sacramento are among public-facing businesses ordered to close down again due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. California Secretary of Health and Human Mark Ghaly announced the edict on Tuesday in a setback for the film and exhibition industries as they try to mount a box office recovery despite the challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic. [More](. ➤AFM news: Saban Films has doubled down on projects from Constantin Film, the producers behind the Resident Evil movies. Out of the American Film Market, Saban has acquired thriller Tides from the U.K. and North America and the North American rights for horror reboot Wrong Turn. [In TV News...] In TV News... ➤Netflix is re-enrolling at The Umbrella Academy. The streamer has handed out a third season renewal to the drama from Universal Content Productions and showrunner Steve Blackman. Production on the next batch of 10 episodes will begin in February in Toronto. [More](. +HBO is finished with The Outsider. The premium cable outlet has canceled the show after a single season, which enjoyed strong viewership during its 10-episode run earlier this year. The decision comes eight months after The Outsider's finale aired in March. MRC Television, which produces the series based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, will try to find a new home for it. Showrunner Richard Price remains attached to a possible second season. [More](. +NBC is adding a second Canadian drama to its 2020-21 schedule. The network has acquired rights to Nurses in a competitive market. The medical show from Entertainment One and ICF Films follows five young nurses on the front lines of a busy city hospital. The series aired on Canada's Global TV earlier this year and has been renewed for a second season there. [More](. +ABC has set premiere dates for several unscripted series, including stalwarts The Bachelor and American Idol. A half dozen series, including a trio of new game shows, will premiere in January and February. [More](. +Fox has locked in its slate with premiere dates. Eight series, including both shows in its 911 drama franchise, The Masked Singer spinoff The Masked Dancer and the final season of Last Man Standing, will debut in late December and January. First-year comedy Call Me Kat and dramas Prodigal Son and The Resident are also on tap. [More](. +Matthew Morrison is set to star as the Grinch in a two-hour production of Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Musical on NBC this December. The theatrical event, set to air on Dec. 9 at 8 p.m., will be taped at London's Troubadour Theatre. [More](. ➤Los Angeles sees film permits rise 24 percent in October. Over the last twenty weeks, FilmLA has received roughly 2,500 film permit applications spanning close to 2,000 unique projects. Monthly application intake increased 24 percent in October (to 880 permits) compared to September (711 permits), and FilmLA’s daily intake now averages around 40 new applications per business day. [More](. ➤Will Biden and Harris finally call out Hollywood’s diversity hypocrisy? The leadership mix at Hollywood's biggest companies is little better than the Trump administration, but Biden and Harris are uniquely positioned to "nudge and shame" their big-dollar donors on the issue, Kelli Goff writes in a guest column. [The column](. +Biden transition team includes Hollywood and tech veterans. The Biden transition announced the people who will be overseeing its transition within various federal agencies, and [the list]( includes some employees of major Hollywood and technology firms. --Former Time editor and NBC contributor Richard Stengel is the team lead for the Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America. Disney security executive Carmen Middleton is listed as a liaison to the intelligence community, while Directors Guild of America head of government affairs Celeste Drake is on the team assigned to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, others on the list include staff from Salesforce, LinkedIn and AirBnB. ➤Hustlers producers beat libel suit by woman who inspired Jennifer Lopez character. Samantha Barbash, who was a host at Score’s Gentleman’s Club and Hustlers Club and pled guilty in 2015 to conspiracy, assault, and grand larceny, alleged that Hustlers exploited her likeness without her permission and defamed her. [More](. ➤TV reviews: Inkoo Kang reviews season 4 of The Crown, writing that "the fourth season is the first in which the domestic tensions among the royals is anywhere near as interesting as the British history that unfolds outside the palace gates. Creator Peter Morgan and his writers remain impressive in their ability to condense national events into dramatically compelling crises-of-the-week and flesh out real-life personages through just a few scenes..." [The review](. +Daniel Fienberg revies Netflix's The Liberator, calling it "a limited series made very watchable by the decision to use rotoscope-flavored animation, but rendered vaguely infuriating by inconsistent focus and narrative choices." [The review](. ➤Awards Chatter podcast: Alex Gibney, the Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentarian reflects about being a late bloomer, how he manages to be so prolific and what he learned while making his latest doc, a portrait of Trump's bungled response to COVID-19. [Listen](. Revolving door: Erin Underhill, a homegrown talent who has been with NBCUniversal for two decades, [has been promoted]( to serve as president of Universal Television... Twitch [has appointed]( former Microsoft executive Angela Hession as global vp of trust and safety... Professional gamer Ali Hassan, better known as SypherPK, [has signed]( an exclusive streaming deal with Twitch... Filmmaker Christopher Nolan and three-time Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Robert Legato are [among the members]( of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers' new creative and technology advisory council... Casting roundup: Leah Lewis, who starred in Netflix’s The Half of It, [has joined the voice cast]( of The Tiger’s Apprentice, Paramount Animation’s adaptation of the best-selling children’s book... Rising actors Reign Edwards and Charlie Gillespie [are starring]( in Love You Anyway, a drama being made by Wayfarer Studios and first-time director Anna Matz... In other news... --The upcoming romantic-comedy Marry Me — starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson — has [decided to shift]( its release date in favor of early summer nuptials as Hollywood continues to rearrange its calendar amid the ongoing pandemic and Monday's news that a vaccine could help life and commerce return to normal in March or April. --Netflix has [picked up the right]( to another festival indie — the Jennifer Hudson and Kelvin Harrison Jr.-starrer Monster. --AMC Networks, the cable networks company that operates AMC, IFC, WE tv, BBC America and SundanceTV, has much streaming upside left and [feels good about its position]( in a consolidating industry, CEO Josh Sapan said on Tuesday. --Apple [has unwrapped]( a new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini, its first products using the M1, the computer makers' first chip designed specifically for the Mac. With Tuesday's news, some in Hollywood already believe the new tech could have sizable impact on many content creators. --Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar and 2K Games, has [reached an agreement]( to purchase British developer Codemasters. The $994 million deal is exepected to close during the first quarter of next year. --Tayshia Adams on her [unprecedented starring turn]( on The Bachelorette. --Britney Spears fears her father and [will not resume her career]( so long as he has power over it, her attorney said in court Tuesday. --The Media Access Awards — an event designed to honor disability and its depictions in film, TV, and new media — [will go virtual]( Nov. 19 with Nyle DiMarco on board to host the Easterseals-presented show. --The International Documentary Association on Tuesday [unveiled the recipients]( of its 2020 honorary awards. What else we're reading... --"Quibi founders $1.7B failure is a story of self-sabotage" [[Bloomberg](] --"What's going on inside Fox as the networks seem to turn against Trump" [[Business Insider](] --"TikTok asks court to extend U.S.government's divestiture deadline" [[WSJ](] --"Why a Trump loss may be no match for Rupert Murdoch's realpolitik" [[NY Times](] Today's birthdays: Leonardo DiCaprio, 46, Stanley Tucci, 60, Calista Flockhart, 56, Demi Moore, 58, Tye Sheridan, 24. [Image] [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( Is this e-mail not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( ©2020 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. NOVEMBER 11, 2020 [UNSUBSCRIBE]( [MANAGE PREFERENCES]( [PRIVACY POLICY]( [TERMS OF USE](