Today is the day!!! The Streaming Wars gets its official sinking of the Lusitania with the launch of Apple TV+. In fact, you’re probably not even reading this since your eyes are probably glued to your iPhone watching Jennifer Aniston’s return to “television.”
Welcome back to the Friday Edition of Studio Coffee Run where what is supposed to be one of two big streaming launches this month only seems exciting for those who got to attend the gala premiere of The Morning Show at New York’s Lincoln Center earlier this week. Doesn’t everyone look like they’re having fun?
We’ll just have to wait until later today or Monday to see if Apple TV+’s launch affected the opening weekend for Paramount’s Terminator: Dark Fate and a few other movies, but boy, will those movie studio execs have a good excuse for any movie that disappoints this month. (And yes, that includes Disney’s own Frozen 2 in just a few short weeks!)
It really feels as if the addition of all these major streaming services is going to be all the talk for a while. In fact, it was a big part of the conversation for The Hollywood Reporter’s unprecedented studio summit this past week where seven major studio chiefs met in the same room and somehow, no one was killed. (But if snark could kill… you go, Tom Rothman!)
In case you missed it…
HBO Max officially enters the streaming wars…
AT&T’s own entry into the Great Streaming Wars of 2019 has been a bit slower but after announcing the full Studio Ghibli library, HBO Max had a full-on event earlier this week where there were lots of another big announcements, including its May 2020 launch date and $14.99 price point. Disney+ might have The Simpsons, but HBO Max now has South ParkandRick and Morty, plus lots of new original series including two-comic related ones from Greg Berlanti: Green Lanternand Strange Adventures. Not sure what the former means for the WB’s long-planned Green Lantern Corpsmovie, but maybe the studio’s entire plan for a DC shared cinematic universe is going the way of streaming now. You can click on the link above to read Hussein Wasiti’s overview of the announced titles, both new and old.
It’s been a weird week for Game of Thrones fans…
While one of the prequel series was canned– the one starring Naomi Watts – another prequel series was greenlit directly to series. This new 10-episode spin-off series is calledHouse of the Dragon, and it’s essentially this prequel series, based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, which takes place 300 years before Game of Thronesand focuses on House Targaryen. It’s a little confusing that this announcement was made only a few short hours after the previous prequel was cancelled.
But the bigger news was that Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who had a planned “Star Wars” trilogy in the works for Disney and Lucasfilm – a trilogy that had already been scheduled for three dates between December 16, 2022 and December 18, 2026 – walked away from the whole thing. I mean, literally, they just said, “You know what? Nah.” Maybe it was the Netflix deal they just signed that made them realize that making these movies wasn’t possible. Who knows? We’ll have to see what Disney does to fill in those gaps. Also, Variety has a pretty detailed recap of the events that led to Benioff and Weiss leaving the franchise.
Pixar fans should find stuff to love on Disney+, too…
While lots of stuff about the impending November 12 launch of Disney+ has been released the past few weeks… and screeners of all the new shows other than The Mandalorianare now out there! More info about the Pixar series was just announced in the past couple days with trailers for Pixar’s short films collection SparkShorts…
A really fun-looking hidden camera series called Pixar IRL (In Real Life)…
The new short film series Forky Asks a Question, starring Toy Story 4’s new break-out character, voiced by the awesome Tony Hale from Veep…
And of course, all of (or most of) your favorite Pixar Animation movies (including many, MANY Oscar winners) will also be on Disney+ at launch, just in case you forgot a few of them…
A bit of 2nd seasonings…
The TV networks aren’t running as scared with the influx of new streaming content. In fact, AMC’s horror channel Shudder went ahead and re-upped for a second season of the anthology horror series Creepshow, which you might have seen reviewed by the Beat’s own Ricardo “Ricky D” Denis. I myself haven’t seen the show yet, but I do love the George Romero movie.
EPIX, which falls somewhere between being a cable network and streaming their own content, went ahead and greenlit a second 10-episode season of Pennyworth, which goes to show that even Batman’s butler Alfred is interesting enough to get his own TV series.
Casting Tidbits…
Daniel Kaluuya and Ryan Coogler are working on another Black Panther movie that has nothing to do with the regent of Wakanda but about actual Black Panther activist Fred Hampton, and Algee Smith from HBO’s Euphoria has just joined the cast, which also includes Lakeith Stanfield and Jesse Plemons. Shaka King is directing the story of how Hampton rose through the ranks through the eyes of Stanfield’s William O’Neal, a criminal who infiltrated the Panthers for the FBI. Smith plays a younger member member of the Black Panthers who is Hampton’s friend.
Trailers! Trailers! Trailers!
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was one of the surprise blockbusters of 2017, making over $400 million in North America alone and sticking around to attain the top spot at the box office over a month after its pre-Christmas release. Wisely, Sony quickly greenlit a sequel and got the entire cast of Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan back together for Jumanji: The Next Level, out Dec. 13. This time, they’re joined by Danny De Vito and Danny Glover, and Sony has just released the final trailer, which you can watch below.
I’m still pretty bummed that I had to miss the New York Comic-Con panel for Screen Gems’ upcoming movie The Grudge, directed by Nicolas Pesce (Piercing, The Eyes of My Mother), as I’ve been a long-time fan of the Japanese horror series. Just in time for Halloween, Screen Gems released the first trailer for the movie, once again produced by the great Sam Raimi, and it looks like everything I could hope for. The Grudge gets the post-holidays 2020 kick-off slot of January 3.
Netflix’s popular series The End of the F***ing World, based on the Fantagraphics graphic novel by Charles Foresman, has its own second season debuting on Tuesday, November 5, so Netflix released a trailer for it as well.
Also just in time for Halloween, Screen Junkies did an Honest Trailer for Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and if you’ve already read my review of next week’s Doctor Sleep then you already know I loved it.
That’s it for this week. Your favorite Studio Coffee Runner Josh Hilgenberg is back on Tuesday with the Tuesday Edition, and I’ll be back next Friday for more entertainment news to get you ready for the weekend.
