PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
AMC renewed anthology series The Terror. Season two, an AMC Studios production produced by Ridley Scott, will be set during World War II and center on a specter that menaces a Japanese-American community.
Platform One Medie inked a first-look TV deal with Laura Dern (Big Little Lies) and her producing partner, Jayme Lemons, through their Jaywalker Pictures. First project to go into development via the deal is one-hour series Mr. & Mrs. American Pie, based on the novel by the same name.
Dear White People was picked up for season three by Netflix. Series narrator Giancarlo Esposito made the video announcement.
Kronicle Media’s Korin Huggins and Monique Nash inked a two-year project development deal with Universal Cable Productions. Kronicle will develop original scripted programming for the NBCU Cable Entertainmen group, as well as external networks and streamers.
Wilmer Velderrama inked a two-year, first look deal-with CBS Television Studios for his WV Entertainment, for scripted and unscripted projects with an emphasis on diversity. The pact also includes Valderrama continuing in his role on NCIS.
Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: June 22-24, 2018
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Universal) $150.0 million, opening weekend
Incredibles 2 (Buena Vista) $80.9 million (week 2), cume revenue $350.4 million
Ocean’s 8 (Warner Bros.) $11.7million (week 3), cume revenue $100.4 million
Tag (Warner Bros.) $8.2 million (week 2), cume revenue $30.4 million
Deadpool 2 (Fox) $5.3 million (week 6), cume revenue $304.2 million
Solo: A Star Wars Story (Buena Vista) $4.0 million (week 5), cume revenue $202.2 million
Hereditary (A24) $3.8 million (week 3), cume revenue $35.0 million
Superfly (Columbia) $3.4 million (week 2), cume revenue $15.3 million
Avengers: Infinity War (Buena Vista) $2.5 million (week 9), cume revenue $669.5 million
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Focus) $1.9 million (week 3), cume revenue $4.1 million
Source: comScore
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Story of Cool, a three-part docuseries from Part2 Pictures, Getty Images and LL COOL J Inc., premieres Sunday, July 1 at 9p on MSNBC. Each episode explores a new element of “cool” – the rise of prominent leaders, product advertisements, and how the battle for “cool” has the power to create rivalries and elevate cultural icons.
American Monster is back on ID Sunday, July 8 at 9p. First up: secret home movies uncover a shocking tale of deceit.
AXS TV’s premiere of UK series The Ronnie Wood Show has the Rolling Stones guitarist sitting down with Paul McCartney on Wednesday, July 11 at 8p.
Aspire grabbed cable rights to all five seasons to The Bernie Mac Show from Twentieth Television. The series, which aired on Fox from 2001-2006, launches with an all-day marathon on July 4.
ABC has ordered a Roseanne spin-off without Roseanne Barr. How should the Roseanne character be written off The Conners? Let us know what you think in the Cynopsis poll: http://cynopsis.com/poll/. (How are Cynopsis readers following the World Cup? In our last poll, 35% said, Which sport is that?, followed by 33% for watching TV, and 16% each for streaming and reading about it.)
ADVERTISING & AGENCIES
Havas Group’s cultural and entertainment practice the Annex is opening an office in Atlanta, to handle the social media accounts of Coca-Cola. The Annex is also expanding to LA and NYC.
Most adults think standard 15- or 30-second ads are more effective than the 6-second variety that have been gaining popularity, according to a survey from Research Intelligencer and Pollfish. 46.5% of respondents said 30-second ads were the optimum length to engage with advertising, and 26.5% said 15-second spots were best. The preferred media experience was “free access with a few long ads” (38.9%) followed by “free access with a lot of short ads” (31.5%).
DIGITAL DATA
Telemundo’s digital presentation of 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia set a new record with Thursday’s Argentina-Croatia match, which ranks as the most-watched livestream event in Spanish-language history with 4.3 million livestreams and 68 million minutes.
YouTube introduced new features at Vidcom 2018 last week, aimed at helping YouTubers grow their fanbases and make more money. Chief product officer Neal Mohan said the new YouTube Premiere feature for creators, fostering more real-time interaction between viewers and creators, will be “like the entire audience around the globe for that video will be together.” YouTube has also been testing Channel Memberships, with subscribers paying a monthly fee to get unique badges, emoji and access to custom perks by creators.
Netflix’s chief communications officer is leaving the company after seven years, after using the N-word in front of co-workers. “Leaders have to be beyond reproach in the example we set and unfortunately I fell short of that standard when I was insensitive in speaking to my team about words that offend in comedy,” tweeted Jonathan Friedland. “I feel awful about the distress this lapse caused to people at a company I love and where I want everyone to feel included and appreciated.” In a memo explaining the situation, CEO Reed Hastings said Friedland used the N-word several months ago during a discussion about sensitive words, and again a few days later in front of two black employees in the HR department when they were speaking about the incident. “Many of us have worked closely with Jonathan for a long time, and have mixed emotions,” said Hastings. “Unfortunately, his lack of judgment in this area was too big for him to remain.”
Most Americans would rather not accept help from robots, according to a survey from the Brookings Institution, with 61% of respondents saying they are somewhat or very uncomfortable with robots. Among those who are interested in non-human help, 20% said they were interested in an assist with chores around the house, 17% said they were interested in a security robot, and 9% said they’d consider using a robot to help with child or elder care.
Adobe is among the companies using new AI tools to edit videos and images, but in a research paper shown at the CVPR computer vision conference, Adobe demonstrated it is also developing technology to identify fake images. The research paper noted three machine learning can spot three types of image tampering: splicing, where two parts of different images are combined; cloning, where images are copy and pasted; and when an object is removed from an image.
Elastic, creator of data search software, has filed to go public. The company is anticipating a valuation between $1.5 billion and $3 billion.
CASTING
Lisa Edelstein, currently starring in the fifth and final season of Bravo’s The Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, will recur on season two of ABC’s The Good Doctor. The role reunites Edelstein with House EP David Shore.
Victor Williams (King of Queens) landed a series regular role on CBS’s Happy Together. Williams replaces Tim Meadows, who had the role in the pilot but is moving to ABC’s The Goldbergs spinoff.
Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years) and Ashley Romans (I’m Dying Up Here) will recur on season nine of Showtime’s Shameless.
