The Confusion and Frustration Hampering Amazon; UFC-WWE Merger Analysis; WGA Calls a Strike Vote; Live-Action 'Moana' in the Works; 'The Crossover' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( April 04, 2023 What's news: Apple and Sony plan a theatrical release for Ridley Scott's Napoleon. Legendary has acquired the screen rights to the Street Fighter franchise. Fox has ordered medical drama Doc. Disney's The Little Mermaid has secured a China release. Jinkx Monsoon has joined the cast of Doctor Who. — [Abid Rahman]( The Confusion and Frustration Hampering Amazon ►"There has been no sense of what the philosophy is." THR's editor-at-large [Kim Masters]( has yet another industry must-read, this time going inside Amazon Studios, a company that has taken some big creative and pricey swings in recent years but according to current and former Amazon execs, showrunners and agents is a confusing and frustrating place to do business. Among the many eye-opening revelations in Kim's story, Amazon's marquee fantasy series Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power had a 37 percent domestic completion rate among viewers. [The story.]( —🤝 Deal extended 🤝 In some good news for Amazon Studios, Lizzo has extended her first-look deal with the company. The Grammy and Emmy winner will continue to develop programming for the studio under the deal, which she first signed in August 2020. The extension comes after Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls won three Emmys in 2022, including outstanding competition program — becoming the first streaming series to earn a victory in that category. The show’s second season is currently casting. [The story.]( —The saga continues. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling for an investigation into an agreement that transferred the powers of Disney’s now-dissolved special district back to the company before the state assumed control of the board. In a letter to the state chief inspector general, DeSantis says that the deal suffers “serious legal infirmities” and questions whether it’s valid under Florida law. Responding to DeSantis' moves, Disney CEO said that the governor's efforts as "not just anti-business, but it sounds anti-Florida." [The story.]( —"I understood him to be a huge businessman." Leonardo DiCaprio testified in federal court Monday morning as part of a trial involving international money laundering, bribery and rapper Pras. The ex-Fugees member is accused of funneling money from fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low through straw donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. DiCaprio’s connection with the case comes from his years-long relationship with Low, who was one of the primary backers of the movie The Wolf of Wall Street. [The story.]( WWE-UFC: How Wall Street Views the Deal ►What about Vince McMahon? Mixed martial arts powerhouse UFC and sports entertainment giant WWE are betting that they are even stronger together. The opening bell for the new tag team and its stock, under ticker symbol TKO, is set to sound during the second half of 2023, when the deal is expected to close. Wall Street on Monday analyzed the deal details and initial management soundbites, with THR's [Georg Szalai]( reporting that analysts are finding some investor questions answered and while raising some others. [The analysis.]( —"We can launch entirely new franchises." After the $21b merger of the WWE and UFC was formally unveiled on Monday THR's [Alex Weprin]( spoke to Endeavor president and COO Mark Shapiro. The exec, who will serve as president and COO for both Endeavor and the combined UFC-WWE, said the deal will transform Endeavor, which had leaned on UFC to tell a growth story even as the talent agency WME served as the revenue backbone of the company. [The interview.]( —🏆 Best of the best 🏆 Apple, Netflix, HBO and THR are among the nominees for the 27th annual Webby Awards, the awards show that seeks to recognize top online content. Apple led the pack with a total of 22 nods, followed by MTV with 15, National Geographic and Netflix with 14 each. THR received a nomination in the diversity, equity and inclusion social video for the February 2022 Blackfamous Roundtable featuring Loretta Devine, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Larenz Tate and Lynn Whitfield. [The nominees.]( —Silenced. Spotify is shutting down its Clubhouse-like standalone live audio app, Spotify Live, at the end of this month as it turns away from live programming. The tech giant, which created its live audio offering after acquiring Betty Labs, canceled some of its live audio shows last year. [The story.]( WGA Calls a Strike Authorization Vote ►✊ "The studios need to respond to the crisis writers face" ✊ The Writers Guild is taking its first step toward a potential industry strike. The union has set a strike authorization vote, with online polls opening April 11 at 8:30 p.m. and closing April 17 at 12 p.m., the guild announced to members on Monday. While a strike authorization vote does not ensure a writers strike will occur, it does gauge members’ willingness to cease work if the union deems a strike necessary. [The story.]( —✊ "We thought we were making progress" ✊ Actors’ Equity has issued a strike threat against The Broadway League. The union, which represents more than 51,000 stage managers and actors, has been bargaining with the League, which represents industry producers, presenters and general managers, since mid-January to create a new touring contract. Now, Actors’ Equity has authorized leadership to call a strike on all Broadway national tours, if talks continue to stall. [The story.]( —🎭 "In a galaxy of comets and supernovas, here comes the biggest star of all" 🎭 Jinkx Monsoon, the actress, singer and two-time winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, will star the next series of Doctor Who in a major role, joining Ncuti Gatwa as the new Time Lord and Millie Gibson as the new companion Ruby Sunday. Monsoon joins Doctor Who after completing her sell out run on Broadway, where she made her debut as Matron ‘Mama’ Morton in Chicago. [The story.]( —🎭 Triple threat 🎭 Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley and Richard Madden are set to star in Killer Heat, a love triangle thriller from director Philippe Lacôte for Amazon Studios and Makeready. The film is based on Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo’s short story The Jealousy Man, with the screen adaptation to follow twin brothers caught in a violent love triangle on a remote Greek island. [The story.]( Live-Action 'Moana' in the Works ►Bring back Jemaine Clement! Disney has teamed with Dwayne Johnson to develop a live-action remake of its 2016 animated musical sensation Moana. Johnson plans to return to the role of Maui, the grandiose demigod of the wind and sea. He will produce via his Seven Bucks Productions along with Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia. Jared Bush, who wrote the screenplay for the original movie, is back to write the remake, along with Dana Ledoux Miller. No director is involved at this stage of development. [The story.]( —Sonic boom! Legendary has acquired the film and TV rights to the classic video game Street Fighter, and will work with publisher Capcom on future projects. Hollywood hasn't had much luck with the popular franchise in the past, with Universal releasing an ill-fated 1994 film that starred Jean-Claude Van Damme and 20th Century Fox's Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) also bombing. The video game franchise has sold 49m units worldwide, with a new installment, Street Fighter 6, due out June 2. [The story.]( —New drama incoming. Fox has given a straight-to-series order to Doc, a medical drama based on an Italian format. The show centers on the Dr. Amy Elias, chief of internal and family medicine at a Minneapolis hospital, who’s also recovering from a brain injury that has wiped out the last eight years of her memory. Sony Pictures Television and Fox Entertainment are producing the series, which comes from writer and showrunner Barbie Kligman (Magnum P.I., Private Practice) and fellow EPs Hank Steinberg and Erwin Stoff. [The story.]( Apple, Sony Set Theatrical Release Date for Ridley Scott's 'Napoleon' ►Leaning into theatrical. Apple Original Films is teaming with Sony to give Ridley Scott’s Napoleon an exclusive worldwide run on the big screen before debuting the movie on Apple TV+. The historical epic opens in cinemas Nov. 22, the eve of the lucrative Thanksgiving corridor. Directed by Scott from a screenplay by David Scarpa, Napoleon stars Joaquin Phoenix as the infamous French emperor and military leader. [The story.]( —"I really wanted to be able to not be the fat best friend. I don’t want to play that, and I think they didn’t want that either." Barbie Ferreira is addressing her exit following Euphoria's second season and the negative attention it garnered both in the press and among fans. While appearing on the latest episode of Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard, the Nope actress opened up about her decision to leave the show, which had brushed up rumors that there were on-set clashes with showrunner and writer Sam Levinson. [The story.]( —Wait, what? THR's Patrick Brzeski has the rather odd scoop on veteran French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud joining French president Emmanuel Macron's high stakes diplomatic trip to China this week. During the trip, Annaud will also be promoting his most recent film, the 2022 disaster epic Notre-Dame on Fire, which is getting a nationwide China release on Friday. It will be the first French film to open theatrically in China since the country declared the COVID pandemic over in January. [The story.]( —Potentially lucrative. Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid has locked down a release date in China on May 26, day-and-date with the film’s North American launch. The studio’s live-action remakes have tended to perform well in China, but they’ve been on a gradual downward trajectory in recent years. The Jungle Book earned $150m in 2016, followed by Beauty and the Beast with $85.7m in 2017. But Mulan (2020) made only $40m and Cruella (2021) $24m. [The story.]( TV Review: 'The Crossover' ►"A distinctive blend of very familiar elements." THR's chief TV critic [Dan Fienberg]( reviews Disney+'s The Crossover. Adapted from Kwame Alexander's novel-in-verse, the coming-of-age series features LeBron James among its producers and a cast led by Derek Luke and Sabrina Revelle. [The review.]( In other news... —Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One [second trailer reveals multitude of Spider-people]( —DC’s Blue Beetle trailer: [An alien encounter launches a superhero]( —Chris Hemsworth [takes on new deadly mission in Extraction 2 trailer]( —TV premiere dates 2023: [The complete guide]( —Super Bowl champion [Travis Kelce to launch His own music festival called Kelce Jam]( —SiriusXM [promotes Thomas Barry to CFO]( What else we're reading... —Nicole Sperling talks to Marian Lee, the third chief marketing officer at Netflix in three years, about the streamer's shift in approach to ads promoting its content [[NYT]( —Andrew Lawrence looks back at Ruby Bridges, the 90s Disney TV movie about racism that has caused a culture war in Florida [[Guardian]( —Luke Winkie writes that Zachary Levi’s online meltdown over Shazam 2 flopping at the box office is more entertaining than the movie itself [[Slate]( —Gillian Tett reflects on what the fight over TikTok really means [[FT]( —Natalie Weiner looks at how the shuffle button came to define modern-day media consumption [[Verge]( Today... Today's birthdays: Robert Downey Jr. (58), David E. Kelley (67), Natasha Lyonne (44), Hugo Weaving (63), Eric André (40), David Cross (59), Sarah Gadon (36), Amanda Righetti (40), Mary-Margaret Humes (69), [Barry Pepper]( (53), Craig T. Nelson (79), Lorraine Toussaint (63), Collette Wolfe (43), Gregory Thomas Garcia (53), Christine Lahti (73), Cherie Lunghi (71), Nancy McKeon (57), Aki Kaurismäki (66), Graham Norton (60), Jeanne Goursaud (27), Rachel Korine (37), Daniela Bobadilla (30), Carolina Gaitan (39) Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](mailto:tips@thr.com?subject=). 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 © 2023 The Hollywood Reporter, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. 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