Small Screen: DGA Reaches Deal, Netflix Shareholders Reject Proposal
Deborah Mailman - Sam Tabone
Broadcast: The Australian Broadcast Corporation’s political drama Total Control is entering its third and final season. The award-winning woman-led series is written by Stuart Page, Julia Moriarty, Pip Karmel, and Meyne Wyatt and produced by its stars Deborah Mailman and Rachel Griffiths. The storyline of Season three will take place nearly two years after Season two, seeing “kingmaker” Alex Irving (Mailman) under threat from her rival, but occasional ally, Rachel Anderson (Griffiths). As Rachel explores establishing her own political party, Alex struggles to define her legacy while her enemies stir up career-ruining controversy. Alex is faced with a choice: stay true to her moral code and acquiesce to defeat or fight back. Reprising their roles this season are Rob Collins, Wayne Blair, Anthony Hayes, Wesley Patten, Steph Tisdell, Daniela Farinacci, Lisa Flanagan, Benedict Hardie, Anita Hegh, Huw Higginson, and Trisha Morton-Thomas. The new cast for the third season includes Catherine McClements, Fayssal Bazzi, Josef Ber, Lisa Hensley, Rosie Lourde, Maya Stange, and Ursula Yovich. Mailman is excited about the last season, saying,
“I can’t wait to step back into the character of Alex Irving one last time. It’s personally been a wonderful journey over the last two seasons to play such a gutsy, smart and unapologetic woman.”
Griffith agreed, saying,
“Total Control was groundbreaking in reflecting the operating environment for women in politics in this country. That conversation has caught up, but we are only beginning to understand the weight that First Nations people in public life carry and the discourse they are subjected to.”
Season three will premiere on ABC in 2024.
Recording artists Kelly Rowland, Omarion, Latto, and NLE Choppa are set to guest star in the sixth and final season of ABC’s Grown-ish. Rowland will play tenured professor Edie, who heads the psychology department at Cal U. Latto portrays Sloane, a wine representative with Doug as one of her clients. Omarion and NLE Choppa will play themselves. The artists join previously announced guests Lil Yachty, Anderson.Paak, and The Free Nationals. The final season of Grown-ish will premiere on June 10 on Freeform and will stream the following day on Hulu. The season will be divided into two parts, the second of which will premiere in 2024.
John Harlan Kim - Leon Bennett / Stringer
Streaming: Lashana Lynch is set to star in The Day of the Jackal on Peacock opposite Eddie Redmayne. The Day of the Jackal is based on the eponymous Frederick Forsyth novel and subsequent 1973 feature film. The logline reads,
“[The Day of the Jackal] is a bold, modern reimagining of the beloved and respected novel and film. This contemporary drama will stay true to the DNA of the original story while delving deeper into the chameleon like ‘anti-hero’ at the heart of the story in a high octane, cinematic, globetrotting ‘cat and mouse’ thriller, set amidst the turbulent geo-political landscape of our time.”
Lynch will play Bianca, a law enforcement agent hell-bent on catching the Jackal, played by Redmayne. Lynch has appeared alongside Viola Davis in The Woman King, alongside Daniel Craig in No Time to Die, and as Maria Rambeau as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She has also appeared on the small screen with Still Star-Crossed, Death in Paradise, and Crims. Jackal is written by Ronan Bennett and directed by Brian Kirk. Gareth Neame, Nigel Marchant, and Redmayne will executive produce. The series will be available on Peacock in the US and Sky in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
Amazon has announced the main cast for Cruel Intentions, its adaptation of the eponymous 1999 film. Among those announced are Myra Molloy as a lead character and Sara Silva, Sean Patrick Thomas, and John Harlan Kim as series regulars. Sarah Catherine Hook and Zac Burgess were also announced as leads. The adaptation, set in Washington, DC, follows two stepsiblings fighting their way up the hierarchy of Greek life at an elite university. When a “brutal incident” rattles the Panhellenic system, the siblings commit to maintaining their power and reputations by whatever means necessary… even seducing the daughter of the Vice President of the United States. Hook plays Caroline Merteuil, the “queen of Delta Phi.” Burgess plays Lucien, her stepmother. Molloy will portray Annie, the daughter of the Vice President of the United States, who is a model student with an impeccable reputation. Silva will play Cece, Caroline’s good friend at Delta Phi. Thomas will play Professor Chadwick. The 1999 film by the same name starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair, and was followed by a prequel in 2000 and a sequel in 2004, along with a musical in 2015. Cruel Intentions will air on Prime Video.
A new Horowitz research study shows that among Asian viewers, streaming content represents 6 out of every 10 hours, or 60%, of viewing time. Horowitz’s Focus Asian Volume 2: Viewing Behaviors study conducted a study among 500 Asian TV content viewers in April. It concluded that 69% of Asian viewers are subscribed to at least one SVOD, with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney Plus taking the lead as the most popular broad services. Streamers Zee5, Voot, Rakuten Viki, and OnDemandKorea are the most popular Asian-targeted SVOD services. The survey also found that seven in 10 Asian viewers watch free streaming services, with 45% using FAST platforms like Tubi, Pluto TV, and Samsung TV Plus. The survey found that Asian-language content is important to Asian viewers, with six in 10 watching such content “at least occasionally” and two in three bilingual consumers reporting that Asian-language content is important to them. Horowitz Research Insights and Strategy Lead and executive VP Adriana Waterson noted,
“Clearly, there’s been an explosion of interest in Asian content – driven not only by Asian audiences but audiences in general. As media companies continue to lean into the Asian content opportunity, we anticipate that this will lead to even more varied and diverse stories that represent the entirety of Asian experiences, cultures and communities globally and in the U.S.”
Mara Brok Akil - Tommaso Boddi / Stringer
Industry: Disney has reached its goal of 7,000 layoffs. On the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, the company notified the remaining employees affected by the third and final round of job cuts. Disney hoped to finish company-wide layoffs by the summer but still has plans to eliminate more roles outside of the US until February. The layoffs have mostly impacted media divisions, sparing most park staff. The layoffs began March 27, with the second wave occurring the week of April 24, and the third wave ending on May 26. The 7,000 layoffs represent 3.2% of Disney’s 220,000 worldwide employee base and are part of the company’s goal of $5.5 billion in savings. $2.5 billion of that figure is made up of “non-content costs,” which includes labor, $1 billion of which was already underway by February. Disney is aiming for annual reductions of $3 billion in non-sports content cost cuts over the next several years, according to CEO Bob Iger. Over the last few months, the company has announced sweeping content cuts across its streaming platforms and a reorganization of its three core business segments Disney Entertainment, ESPN, Disney Parks, and Disney Experiences and Products.
The Spring 2023 cohorts of Mara Brock Akil’s screenwriting residency Writer’s Colony have been announced. Rhema Boston, Paris Crayton III, Latasha Mercer, and Tosin Morunfula will participate in this season’s residency, which will see them develop, workshop, and consult on original scripts. Boston, a Summa Cum Laude graduate of NYFA, was a semifinalist at last year’s Pilotpalooza. They have worked on plays, films, and TV shows. They categorize their work as fringe, saying,
“I write for the backroom dwellers—the people who’ve always shrunk themself into the small boxes others have made for them. Through my work, I aspire to give them a voice, encourage them to take control of their fate.”
Crayton is a playwright, actor, and director, who appeared on ArtsATL 30 under 30 and Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Artist to watch. In 2014, he was named Best Local Playwright by Creative Loafing. Of his work, Crayton says,
“I seek to find beauty in the trauma and forgiveness for the unforgivable. I tell stories of the LGBTQ+ experience throughout history and the struggles of acceptance from our world, church, family, and most importantly, ourselves.”
Mercer, a screenwriter, has had her work on Coverfly’s The Red List, was a recipient of the 2022 Roadmap Writers Diversity, and was a 2022 OTV Writing Fellow. She writes,
“My work dares viewers to look their wounds directly in the eye, and sort their way through the mess to discover their empowered self on the other side.”
Morunfula, the son of Nigerian immigrants who hails from Kansas, is a filmmaker with several festival appearances under his belt. His films Endowed and On Sight have been screened at festivals, and he is currently in development on The Pulpit, a thriller. He says,
“I love to address [i]dentity and duality and who we perceive ourselves to be.”
For her part, Akil is excited about this year’s newcomers, telling reporters,
“Writers are not cogs in the machine. Writers craft complex stories that not only entertain, but reflect the times and human experience. Writers are the architects and the needed first step in our collaborative art form in the TV/film industry. And now, more than ever writers need support. That is what we are nurturing at the Writers’ Colony. I’m proud of what we were doing prior to the strike and am convinced of [its] necessity even more now. The Writers’ Colony’s approach is process-driven and community based. It allows burgeoning writers the time and space to hone their unique voice. It’s my belief that what distinguishes one writer from another is their specific point of view. Understanding one’s voice leads to compelling and urgent storytelling, thus allowing our next generation of writers, storytellers and perhaps eventually showrunners to have the staying power that could shape the industry.”
Verizon Wireless customers in the US will soon have access to a Netflix-Paramount+ discounted bundle. For a limited time, the rival streamers will offer Netflix Premium and Paramount+ With Showtime for $25.99/month through Verizon’s +play subscription-aggregation service, $5.99 less than the combined price of the two. Netflix Premium includes up to four simultaneous streams and is priced at $19.99/month, while Paramount+ With Showtime will run customers $11.99/month when it launches later this month. Customers will still need two separate apps to use each service. The move is Verizon’s latest attempt to remain neutral in the battle of the streamers: their +play portal includes over 30 services and offers a free one-year subscription to Netflix Premium with the purchase of another service on the platform. Erin McPherson, Verizon’s chief content officer, said when announcing the deal,
“With partners like Netflix and Paramount+ With Showtime on +play, we’re leading the industry in offering customers the content they want in completely new formats, with never-before-seen bundles they can’t get anywhere else.”
Paramount Streaming’s chief strategy officer and chief business development officer Jeff Shultz added,
“This new and distinctive streaming bundle on Verizon’s +play is yet another example of our commitment to offering consumers universal distribution and industry-leading deals. By partnering with Verizon, we are making our broad and popular streaming offering on Paramount+ With Showtime just that more accessible.”
Sofia Vergara’s Latin World Entertainment has promoted former Development and Partnerships Executive Tatiana Castro to the role of VP of Content & Partnerships. Castro, who has been with the company for more than three years, joined from the UTA. She has previously worked with ex-Disney executive Ben Sherwood and Sugar23 Spotlight producer Michael Sugar. Of Castro’s appointment, Kate Presutti, EVP of creative development at Latin World, said,
“Tatiana has been instrumental in tracking and acquiring IP, her hard work and passion can be felt in every area of our company. We’re very excited to have her step into this new role with us.”
Latin World Entertainment is a media company specializing in client management, production, and licensing. LWE has partnerships with a handful of major brands, including Walmart, and recently worked on Netflix’s Griselda.
Following the removal of dozens of titles from Disney+ and Hulu, Disney has announced it will incur a $1.5 billion impairment charge for the June quarter. Removing “certain produced content” from its services resulted in the charge on its third quarter statements “to adjust the carrying value of these content assets to fair value.” The company anticipates scrubbing even more content from its streamers during this quarter, resulting in up to $400 million in further impairment charges. On an earnings call in May, CFO Christine McCarthy said Disney expects to take a write-down in the June quarter of between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion. Writing down the value of its content assets allows the company to remove it from the balance sheet and reduce its tax bill. CEO Bob Iger said that he is “confident” in the decision to pull more than 50 titles, calling it the right move for “long-term profitability.” He also expects to raise the price of Disney+ without ads “to better reflect the value of our content offerings.” According to Iger, Disney will launch an integrated Disney+/Hulu service later in 2023 and will likely purchase Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu. Comcast chief Brian Roberts noted,
“I’m pretty certain if and when we sell our Hulu stake, it will be for more than what we have in it.”
Strike Watch: Netflix shareholders have rejected the approval of compensation packages for company leaders, including co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, in line with the WGA’s request. At the June 1 annual shareholders meeting, investors voted against proposed pay packages for 2023 – packages that Netflix’s board had unanimously recommended. The vote, however, is a “say-on-pay” measure, meaning it is taken as an advisory measure rather than a binding decision. The board is thus allowed to disregard the result of the vote. Though many “no” votes had already been cast, some votes came after a May 30 letter wherein the WGA rebuked the compensation plan. Sarandos’ pay package will be worth up to $40 million (unchanged from 2022), of which $3 million is a base salary, $17 million is a performance bonus, and $20 million comprises stock options. Peters will receive up to $34.65 million, of which $3 million is a base salary, $17.325 million is stock options, and $14.325 million is a performance bonus. Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann is set to make $14 million, half of which is a base salary and half of which comprises stock options; CCO Rachel Whetstone will receive $6.5 million, $5.7 million of which is salary and $800,000 of which is stock options. In the Guild’s letter criticizing the plan, WGA West president Meredith Stiehm wrote,
“While investors have long taken issue with Netflix’s executive pay, the compensation structure is more egregious against the backdrop of the strike. Shareholders should send a message to Netflix that if the company could afford to spend $166 million on executive compensation last year, it can afford to pay the estimated $68 million per year that writers are asking for in contract improvements and put an end to the disruptive strike.”
A similar letter was sent to Comcast investors ahead of their June 7th shareholder meeting. Even without the WGA’s input, 73% of Netflix’s shareholders voted against proposed executive compensation plans last year.
The Directors Guild of America has reached a tentative deal with the studios as of June 3. The deal provides pay increases and a 76% increase in foreign residuals for the largest platforms, but the Guild’s summary does not mention pegging the streaming residual to viewership. This key omission suggests that residuals on streaming platforms will stay the same, regardless of the show’s performance. The residual term is a key provision as it creates a precedent for “pattern” bargaining. Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are after viewership-based residuals but have not provided the data required to reach such an agreement. Both unions have hinted that they won’t be limited by DGA terms. Another noteworthy term in the DGA deal is the minimums increase: the DGA won a 5% increase in the first year, to be followed by increases of 4% and 3.5%, the halfway point between the requests of the WGA and the studios. The increases are higher than usual due to recent inflation. Protections from artificial intelligence also made it into the deal, which states that “AI is not a person, and that generative AI cannot replace the duties performed by members,” but stops short of a prohibition on AI training as sought by the guilds. Further details on the deal are expected on June 6, and the WGA has yet to respond. The Writers Guild, which has called for a “fair contract” between the DGA and the AMPTP, has clarified that there will likely not be a repeat of the 2008 strike when the achievement of the DGA deal was enough to end the work stoppage. Co-chair of the WGA negotiating committee Chris Keyser said,
“Any deal that puts this town back to work runs straight through the WGA and there is no way around us. We are strong enough — we have always been strong enough — to get the deal we need with writer power alone.”
The WGA is also seeking a minimum staffing level for TV writers’ rooms, guarantees on minimum lengths of employment, and surety that TV writers will remain employed through production. The AMPTP has outwardly rejected what it refers to as a “hiring quota.” The WGA has been on strike since May 2, with no plans to re-initiate talks with the AMPTP; SAG-AFTRA is set to begin its bargaining on June 7th, with its current contract expiring on the 30th.