'House of the Dragon' Is HBO's Biggest Premiere Ever; Amazon-DirecTV Strike NFL Deal; Fox Nation Gets Into the Movie Business; FX/Hulu's 'The Patient' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( August 23, 2022 What's news: The HOTD hype was real as the show smashed HBO premiere records. Elon Musk's legal team has subpoenaed ex-Twitter chief Jack Dorsey. Julianna Margulies is returning for S3 of Morning Show. Netflix claimed the most California production tax credits — [Abid Rahman]( 'House of the Dragon' Is HBO's Biggest Premiere Ever ►The audience is coming. The premiere of HBO’s House of the Dragon pulled in a record-setting audience on Sunday. The Game of Thrones prequel drew nearly 10m viewers across all platforms in the U.S., HBO says. That’s the biggest series premiere in HBO’s history. HOTD also brought in the largest single-night audience for HBO since the series finale of its parent show drew 19.3m viewers in May 2019. The best single-night tally since then was season two finale of Euphoria in February, which had 6.6m cross-platform viewers. [The ratings.]( —🤝 Out-of-home deal 🤝 Amazon and satellite TV company DirecTV have struck a deal to bring Thursday Night Football broadcasts to bars, restaurants and other out-of-home venues this season. The deal will kick off with this week’s final preseason game and will continue for all 15 regular season games. It will also include Amazon’s pregame, halftime and postgame coverage. [The story.]( —Getting messy. Elon Musk's legal team has subpoenaed ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as the errant billionaire's takeover duel with the company heats up. Both sides have filed dozens of subpoena requests to investments firms, banks and the who's who of Silicon Valley executives tied to financing of the deal. [The story.]( —Back for more. Julianna Margulies will reprise her role as UBA news anchor Laura Peterson in the forthcoming third season of Apple TV+'s Morning Show. The Emmy winner will once again have a heavily recurring part on the series. News of Margulies’ return follows that of Jon Hamm joining the cast. The third season is in production now, with a premiere date yet to be determined. [The story.]( —"I went on the server and everything was blocked." Batgirl filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah have revealed they don’t have any footage of the film saved but are still hopeful that one day the film will be finished and released. In a new interview, the duo offered more details, from their perspective, of WB's shock decision to shelve the movie that was in the post-production phase. [The story.]( Fox Nation Gets Into the Movie Business ►Targeting the "female Fox News fan." The Fox News streaming service Fox Nation is debuting its first original film, The Shell Collector, in September, and has three more projects in the works. THR's [Alex Weprin]( looks into the streamer's rationale for its nascent movie offering. [The story.]( —🤝 Overall deal 🤝 Showtime has signed married Yellowjackets creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson to an overall deal. Under the multiple-year pact, the couple will continue to serve as showrunners on the Emmy-nominated drama (alongside Jonathan Lisco) and develop new projects exclusively for the cabler. [The story.]( —"This is a high-wire act of a play." THR's [Abbey White]( has the scoop on John Lithgow directing the off-Broadway run of Everything’s Fine, the one-man show from Douglas McGrath. The autobiographical play recounts the actor, writer and director’s life, starting at the age of 14 in Midland, Texas, the town made famous by the 1987 well rescue of “Baby Jessica.” [The story.]( —Late addition. ABC is adding to its 2022-23 series roster. The broadcast network has picked up The Company You Keep, a drama starring This Is Us favorite Milo Ventimiglia, for its midseason schedule. The show is the second ABC has added over the summer, following crime series Will Trent. [The story.]( —Helping hand. NBCUniversal is giving a big broadcast boost to Peacock's The Resort. The comedic thriller starring Cristin Milioti and William Jackson Harper will air this week on NBC as the media company looks to the broadcast network to increase awareness to the series that bowed July 28 on Peacock. [The story.]( —Getting the credit. Netflix led the way in the latest round of tax credits granted to productions by the state’s film office. The streamer was awarded $37.1m in incentives to shoot in California, besting MGM ($19.6m) and Warner Bros. Pictures ($12.6m), the California Film Commission said Monday. HBO led the way in the previous allotment of credits and Netflix twice before that. [The story.]( 'Top Gun 2' Director on Val Kilmer's First Reaction to His Beloved Scene ►"Movies are meant to be interpreted in a variety of ways." THR's [Brian Davids]( spoke to Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski about the explosion of fan theories related to the $1.4b film. Kosinski declines to pour cold water on one idea circulating about Tom Cruise's Maverick and addresses whether there’s foreshadowing in the “Great Balls of Fire” scene. [The interview.]( —"It’s tender and loving and sensitive." In a new Rolling Stone cover story that's all the talk of social media, man-of-the-moment Harry Styles spoke about navigating gay sex scenes in his upcoming film My Policeman. The loveable pop scamp also spoke about those Star Wars rumors and his future in Hollywood. [The story.]( —"It's not about being an asshole to everyone on set." Andrew Garfield has sought to correct some misconceptions about method acting, saying that it is about "living truthfully under imagined circumstances." Garfield reveals that his own process of starving himself of food and sex for roles has delivered "some pretty wild, trippy experiences." [The story.]( —"The longest TV negotiation I have ever seen." THR's [Georg Szalai]( goes behind the deal that saw Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" appear in Stranger Things. Warner Music Group executives break down the process and elaborate on how digital platforms have opened up new opportunities for artists. [The story.]( —Give him his flowers. Brendan Fraser, the veteran actor who has largely disappeared from the big screen in recent years, has been tapped for the TIFF Tribute Award for Performance at the TIFF Tribute Awards. The Batgirl debacle aside, Fraser is enjoying a career renaissance and is already garnering buzz for his performance in Darren Aronofsky’s A24 film The Whale. [The story.]( —Finally here. Nearly two years after signing an exclusive podcast deal with audio giant Spotify, the first series from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Audio is making its debut on the service. Markle will host Archetypes and the first interview features Serena Williams, with Mariah Carey to follow. [The story.]( TV Review: 'The Patient' ►"A top-notch Carell carries the twisty series." THR's chief TV critic [Dan Fienberg]( reviews FX/Hulu's The Patient. The Americans duo Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg return with a 10-episode limited series about a psychiatrist (Steve Carell) and his new serial killer client (Domhnall Gleeson). [The review.]( In other news... —What to read right now: [Timely books with Hollywood appeal]( —House of the Dragon: [Here’s what the Small Council’s balls are for]( —Charlotte Gainsbourg [to receive Zurich Film Festival’s lifetime achievement award]( —Margarethe von Trotta [to receive lifetime achievement honor at European Film Awards]( —AEG details [expansive renovation plans at Crypto.com Arena]( —Late producer [Steven Bochco’s longtime Palisades home asks $35m]( —Director [Benny Boom signs with Gersh]( What else we're reading... —Lucas Shaw reports that Netflix will say 'no!' to ads in kids programs and new movies [[Bloomberg]( —Flannery Dean writes that Better Call Saul was a love story [[Slate]( —Alison Herman tries to make sense of the finale of HBO's The Rehearsal [[Ringer]( —Sean T. Collins interviews Matt Smith who talks HOTD's Prince Daemon, a performance that partially makes up for his turn in Morbius [[NYT]( —Ryan Gilbey runs through the upcoming films that skewer the lives of the rich [[Guardian]( Today... ...in 1985, Michael J. Fox’s Teen Wolf took the court, going on to gross $33m in late summer. The film spawned a 1986 animated series, and a film sequel in 1987 starring Jason Bateman. The franchise was rebooted in 2011 as an MTV series and now has an upcoming Paramount+ film and spinoff series. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Park Chan-wook (59), Alexandre Desplat (61), Barbara Eden (91), [Ray Park]( (48), Shelley Long (73), Joanne Froggatt (42), Scott Caan (46), Jay Mohr (52), Andrew Rannells (44), Rick Springfield (73), Vaani Kapoor (34), Annie Ilonzeh (39), Charley Boorman (56), Lexi Alexander (48), Malaika Arora (48) This email was sent to {EMAIL} by Penske Media Corporation. Please add email@email.hollywoodreporter.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. Visit the [Preferences Center]( to update your profile and customize what email alerts and newsletters you receive. Copyright © 2022 The Hollywood Reporter, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved. 11175 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90025 [View in Browser]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Your Privacy Rights]( | [Ad Choices]( | [Terms of Use]( | [Unsubscribe](