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Welcome back to What I’m Hearing, coming at you from New York for a few days of Hot TV Upfronts Action.
No, I’m not in Cannes this year, so I’m missing all the micro-scandals, the bad formal wear, and the announcements of Nic Cage movies that will almost certainly never get made. But today I’m launching a new, occasional feature called “The Mailroom” where I answer reader questions that aren’t so businessy, and the first questions are Cannes-related! I’ve also got some Cannes restaurant recs from WIH’s occasional food critic, producer Jamie Patricof. So keep scrolling…
🚨🚨 Puck events PSA: The list for my sit-down with Roku’s Charlie Collier is officially closed, but What I’m Hearing+ author Julia Alexander is doing a separate event tomorrow night in NYC for Peacock’s The Traitors. It’s a screening and conversation with host and producer Alan Cumming. Puck members can click here to attend.
Programming note: I had a fun chat about the streaming wars with Ben Thompson at Stratechery. I did a Reddit AMA on the summer box office. And my full Milken Institute panel video is here. On The Town, Lucas Shaw and I debated who wins and loses in the Disney+/Hulu/Max bundle; Peacock president Kelly Campbell previewed her Olympics strategy, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Cathy Schulman explained why non-writing producers are becoming extinct. Subscribe here and here.
Not a Puck member yet? Click here to fix that. Got a news tip or an idea for me? Just reply to this email.
Discussed in this issue: David Zaslav, Bob Iger, David Greenbaum, Robbie Praw, Brad Pitt, Doug Belgrad, Cesar Conde, Wes Ball, Natalie Portman, Shari Redstone, Jeff Zucker, Steve Asbell, Stephanie Jones… and my worst Harvey encounter at Cannes.
But first…
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| On some level, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes may seem like conventional summer blockbuster fare. The well-reviewed, Wes Ball-directed sci-fi melodrama debuted with a solid $58 million in North America and $131 million worldwide. But in another way, Apes is indeed a rare animal—a theatrical success bred from Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox.
Sure, the 2019 merger has created obvious and not insignificant commercial value for Disney’s streaming business, but it has largely failed to... |
