Netflix Orders a Bridgerton Spinoff
►Netflix is not wasting any time in expanding the world of its mega-hit Bridgerton. The streaming giant has handed out a series order for an untitled spinoff focusing on the story of the origins of Queen Charlotte (played in the flagship by Golda Rosheuvel). Shonda Rhimes will pen the script for what is being billed as a limited series.
The story.
►CBS has started making decisions on its remaining pilots. The network on Friday handed out series orders to Pete Holmes bowling comedy
Smallwood and Sophia Bush-led family medical drama
Good Sam. Both pilots had been frontrunners for the past few weeks and were expected to get the green light to join CBS’ 2021-22 schedule.
More.
+Also: Should
SEAL Team and
Clarice make it to the 2021-22 season, it may not be on CBS — at least not entirely. Sources tell
THR that the two dramas, produced by CBS Studios (MGM also produces
Clarice), are in discussions to move to Paramount+ next season. The ViacomCBS streaming service is continuing to bulk up its catalog of original series, and the two CBS shows could bring some potential built-in audience with a move.
More.
►Three days before Fox unveils its schedule for the 2021-22 season, Fox is getting a very early jump on 2022-23. The network has given a straight to series order to Accused, an anthology drama from House and The Good Doctor creator David Shore and Homeland creators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa. Gordon and Gansa are also veterans of Fox’s 24. More.
►ViacomCBS and former CBS CEO Les Moonves have settled their arbitration over the executive’s firing by the company. Under the terms of the settlement, $120 million that had been placed in a guarantor trust will be returned to the company, according to a securities filing Friday afternoon.
--“Leslie Moonves, CBS and a contractor to CBS have resolved their disputes,” Moonves and ViacomCBS said in a joint statement to
THR. “The cost of the settlement will be borne by the contractor. Mr. Moonves has decided to contribute the entire settlement amount to various charities. There will be no further comment regarding this settlement by Mr. Moonves or CBS.”
--Per a source, a law firm that led the investigation into Moonves is the contractor cited. A draft of the report was leaked to The New York Times before it had been received by the CBS board.
The story.
►Governor Gavin Newsom has added $30 million to the state’s film and television tax credits program, thanks to California’s $75 billion budget surplus. Newsom, who is facing a recall, announced the move as part of his $100 billion “California Roars Back” plan, which he laid out during a press conference Friday afternoon from Sacramento.
More.
►Is Jon Bon Jovi part of a music conspiracy? Are some of the most famous musicians on the globe actively participating in an antitrust conspiracy that could finish off the radio business? That might sound hyperbolic, but it’s exactly what attorneys at the prestigious law firm of Latham & Watkins told a California federal court on Thursday.
The story.
In other news...
--SAG-AFTRA’s longtime National Executive Director David White
will step down this spring, after 12 years in the role, the guild announced on Friday.
--Thomas Bezucha, who helmed last year’s crime thriller
Let Him Go, and Ali Selim, who worked on Hulu’s 9-11 drama
The Looming Tower, have been
tapped to direct Marvel Studios’ latest series,
Secret Invasion. --Gillian Anderson
will move from playing the prime minister of the U.K. to the mother of a future empress in her next TV role. Anderson (
The Crown, Sex Education) has joined the cast of Hulu’s
The Great in a recurring role.
--Wall Street analysts on Friday
shared their takeaways from the Walt Disney Co.’s fiscal second-quarter earnings report, with slower-than-expected Disney+ subscriber growth in the spotlight.
--
Indiana Jones 5 is
rounding out its cast with the additions of Boyd Holbrook and Shaunette Renée Wilson
--Robert De Niro
was injured at his home in Oklahoma—where he’s currently living to film Martin Scorsese’s big-budget period thriller
Killers of the Flower Moon—and is now en route to New York, where he’ll seek medical treatment.
--Chuck Hicks, the stuntman, actor and frequent Clint Eastwood combatant whose credits included
Every Which Way but Loose,
The Twilight Zone,
Cool Hand Luke and
Dick Tracy,
has died. He was 93.
--The star of
Mortal Kombat has accused Amazon’s upcoming
Lord of the Rings TV series of not having enough diversity in Middle-earth.
What else we're reading... --"The HBO Max boss's script for a new Hollywood" [WSJ]
--"How the Golden Globes canceled themselves" [Vulture]
--"What TikTok stars owe The Ellen DeGeneres Show" [N.Y. Times]
--"'He did good': Michael Che on Elon Musk's turn at SNL, freedom of his new HBO Max comedy series" [USA Today]
Today's birthdays: Madeleine Albright, 84, Mike Oldfield, 68, Brian Eno, 73, Stella Maxwell, 31, Sophie Cookson, 31.
