PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Time and Blumhouse Television are teaming to produce 2 documentaries about the history and impact of gun violence in schools. The Walkout looks at the student activism that emerged after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting, and Enough examines the last 20 years of mass shootings, gun control legislation and the work being done to prevent more tragedy.
The untitled Marvel Television Deadpool series, which had Donald Glover (Atlanta) and Stephen Glover onboard to write and exec produce and got a straight-to-series order in May, is dead at FX. The net said it will no longer be involved with the project “due to creative differences.”
Acorn TV gave a straight-to-series order for UK-set crime drama London Kills, from Paul Marquess (Suspects). Acorn Media Enterprises will co-produce the series, set to go into production in May, with PGMTV.
FremantleMedia North America obtained the rights to DC Comics superhero series Astro City, spanning 16 (so far) standalone but connected story arcs. The pilot for the live action drama series is being written by Kurt Busiek and Rick Alexander, who will also serve as EPs with Gregory Noveck.
Margot Robbie and her Lucky Chap Entertainment, along with the Australian Broadcasting Company, Hoodlum and ABC Studios International, are developing a 10-part series retelling Shakespeare stories from a female perspective.
Entertainment One/Mark Gordon will develop, produce and finance a series adaptation of video game franchise Street Fighter. Joey Ansah, Jacquiline Quella and Mark Wooding, from web series Street Fighter: Assasin’s Fist, are set to exec produce.
Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: March 23-25, 2018
Pacific Rim Rising (Universal) $28.0 million, opening weekend
Black Panther (BV) $16.7 million (week 6), cume revenue $630.9 million
I Can Only Imagine (RAtt.) $13.8 million (week 2), cume revenue $38.3 million
Sherlock Gnomes (Paramount) $10.6 million, opening weekend
Tomb Raider (Warner Bros.) $10.4 million (week 2), cume revenue $41.7 million
A Wrinkle in Time (Buena Vista) $8.0 million (week 3), cume revenue $73.9 million
Love, Simon (Fox) $7.8 million (week 2), cume revenue $23.7 million
Paul, Apostle of Christ (Sony) $5.0 million, opening weekend
Game Night (Warner Bros.) $4.2 million (week 5), cume revenue $60.8 million
Midnight Sun (Open Road Films), $4.1 million, opening weekend
Source: comScore
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
In the season 3 premiere of Rock and Roll Road Trip with Sammy Hagar, Hagar heads to the Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco to perform his annual Acoustic-4-A-Cure Concert, and sit down with Foo Fighters Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins.
Nat Geo docu-series Once Strange Rock premieres tonight, looking at space from the perspective of those who have been there. It’s a “thrilling, out-of-this-world epic tale about our planet unlike one ever seen before,” says Tim Pastore, president, original programming & production. For more from Pastore on the passion project, check out the new Cynsiders.
Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here is slated to return for season 2 on Sunday, May 6. The standup comedy-focused series goes into production this month in LA.
Velocity’s Wheeler Dealers returns with a new season and new ways to watch. Starting Wednesday, April 4, viewers can catch the premiere on MotorTrend.com and the Motor Trend app, ahead of the linear launch Wednesday, April 11 at 9p.
What should fans expect from season 4 of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead? “This season is all about a journey from isolation to community, and it’s about people in a bleak and dark world looking for a shred of hope to keep fighting,” Andrew Chambliss told a crowd at Wondercon. Series returns Sunday, April 15.
Season 3 of Crackle’s SuperMansion arrives Monday, May 7. Bryan Cranston, Keegan-Michael Key, Chris Pine, Jillian Bell, Yvette Nicole Brown, Heidi Gardner, Tucker Gilmore and Zeb Wells will all be back for animated action.
COMING UP
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee special The Great American Puerto Rico premieres on TBS Wednesday, March 28 at 10p. The show explores the continuing efforts to restore power since Hurricane Maria, FEMA’s lackluster response, American millionaires using Puerto Rico as a tax haven and more. “Frontal Entero con Samantha Abeja” t-shirts produced by Puerto Rican businesses go on sale today at the TBS store, with proceeds going to the Hispanic Federation.
John Malkovich will narrate a one-hour special marking the 50th awarding of college basketball’s Naismith Trophy, airing Final Four weekend, Sunday, April 1 at 5p on CBS. The program, from Juma Entertainment and the Atlanta Tipoff Club, celebrates key moments from the last 5 decades. One person who’s excited about the show? Robert Horowitz, Juma president and exec producer. “I was a ballboy at UCLA during the Wooden era, so creating this Naismith 50 college basketball documentary was truly a labor of love,” Horowitz tells Cynopsis. “If you’re caught up in March Madness and are a college hoops junkie, this doc will truly rekindle some great memories. We let interviews with players and coaches and classic archival footage tell the story. Landing John Malkovich, and his iconic voice to narrate, was the icing on the cake.”
UPFRONTS
Wednesday’s snowstorm forced Crown Media Networks to cancel its Upfront event at the Rainbow Room, so CEO Bill Abbott, Ed Georger, EVP of ad sales & digital media, and Hallmark actresses Candace Cameron Bure and Danica McKellar swung into action, appearing on Facebook Live to share some Upfront announcements about Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, against the backdrop of snowy Central Park.
Hallmark Channel picked up When Calls the Heart for season 6 and docu-series Meet the Peetes for season 2, and will launch its first-ever interactive “Home & Family Dream Holiday Home Decorating Contest.” HM&M ordered 3 new original movie franchises. Together, the sister nets will air 34 original holiday movies in 2018, and 90 new movies throughout the year.
DIGITAL DATA
A new homepage for NBCNews.com launched in beta on Thursday, ahead of a broad redesign of all NBC News digital properties that will emphasize video and images, with channels that group stories around topics. The change also includes “high-impact, ‘sticky’ ads that are simultaneously more visible and more visually pleasing,” said the company.
Tech companies could have a rockier road ahead in Europe, as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation considers expanding consumer laws to free digital services for which consumers provide personal data instead of paying money. “Given the increasing value of personal data, these services simply are not ‘free,’” said the EU in a draft directive. “Hence, consumers should have the same right …regardless of whether they pay for the service with money or whether they provide personal data.”
U.S. broadband households have over 7 video devices on average, according to a study from Parks Associates, and nearly 40% subscribe to multiple OTT services. “Demand for connected AV experiences is opening new business opportunities for integrators and companies that can provide expert managed services across multiple platforms and locations,” said Elizabeth Parks, SVP of Parks Associates.
Netflix collaborating with Formula 1 on a docu-series following the 2018 FIA Formula One Championship, to air in 2019. “This partnership with Formula 1 furthers our mission of working with world-class brands and production partners to produce best-in-class unscripted series,” said Bela Bajaria, VP of content for Netflix.
Challenged by Twitter followers to delete the Facebook pages for his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk wrote, “Will be gone soon.” And they were deactivated shortly afterward, with their 2.5 million followers. “I don’t use FB & never have, so don’t think I’m some kind of martyr or my companies are taking a huge blow,” tweeted Musk on Friday. Earlier in the week, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton posted, “It is time. #deletefacebook.” The movement to exit the social media giant gained momentum after it was discovered that Cambridge Analytica gathered data from 50 million users without their knowledge to help Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
CASTING
Ed Begley Jr. landed a lead in Fox comedy pilot Bless This Mess, about a newlywed couple played by Lake Bell and Dax Shepard who move from NYC to Nebraska….Kearran Giovanni (Major Crimes) booked a lead role in NBC thriller pilot Suspicion.
