I hope everybody had a great Easter holiday considering the circumstances. It was a good time to embrace being home and enjoy the brand-new streaming services, brand-new movies, and brand-new celebrity poker tournaments that are all on offer. As you can guess, with the majority of the world still under some form of lockdown, it’s no surprise that all of last week’s industry news was about at-home entertainment.
SHORT FORM QUIBI LAUNCHES EXCLUSIVELY TO MOBILE
In what will go down as one of the biggest gambles in the history of entertainment, Jeffrey Katzenberg finally launched his new streaming platform, Quibi. Its first day install base of between 300,000 to 700,000 users is nothing when compared to juggernaut Disney+, but it’s off to a pretty solid start when compared to other short form streaming services. Among the highlights are Chris Hutton and Eddie O’Keefe’s When the Streetlights Go On, which was originally a feature that turned into a Hulu pilot based on the writers’ Black List screenplay. The show did not go ahead at Hulu, and was redeveloped and re-filmed for Quibi. Nick Santora’s Most Dangerous Game, starring Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz, and Richard Abate and Jeremy Ungar’s adaptation of the novel Survive starring Sophie Turner, are the other big scripted titles.
Quibi is offering a 90-day free trial and it’s worth taking a look to see how different creative teams adapt to the platform’s 10-minute max episodes. Some have embraced the structure, while others have chosen to chop up a feature length story into smaller episodes. For instance, if you only watch the first three episodes of Survive, you would think it was a suicide drama reminiscent of 13 Reasons Why. It’s only in episode four, when the main character’s plane crashes, that you realize it’s a wilderness survival drama. On the other hand, the Most Dangerous Game’s first episode was a scene from later in the narrative where the rules of the game are explained so that audiences will know what the show is about. Studying how different writers adapt their work to the new platform can be informative, especially if Quibi becomes the success Katzenberg envisions and inspires a slew of imitators.
STEVE CARELL AND GREG DANIELS’ THE OFFICE FOLLOW-UP IS ANNOUNCED
While fans of The Office were devastated that the show is being pulled from Netflix for the greener pastures of corporate synergy, it turns out the streaming giant had been planning on a way to keep those subscribers around. And what better way than by reteaming Steve Carell with The Office creator Greg Daniels for a brand-new show they’ve created. Space Force stars Carell as a military general who is forced to head up a new branch of the military tasked with protecting outer space. The idea stems from a real speech given by President Trump where he announced his intentions to create a Space Force. Lisa Kudrow, Ben Schwartz and John Malkovich are also on board to lure over fans from their own NBC staples Friends, Parks and Recreation and pirate classic Crossbones. Netflix is about to lose most of its 100-episode comedies for competing streaming services and, thanks to its mandate of canceling shows after three seasons, doesn’t have any long-running shows of its own. To fill the void it’s been buying rights to independently owned sitcoms like Sony’s Community and Carsey-Werner’s That ‘70s Show. But with so many shows under the Viacom, Comcast, Disney or AT&T banners, Netflix will have to start creating its own laughs.
BEST PICTURE WINNER PARASITE IS NOW AVAILABLE ON HULU
You can now watch two of last year’s best movies, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite and Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, over on Hulu. Parasite is best known for being the underdog that came out on top and upset 1917 for Best Picture at the Academy® Awards a couple of months ago. Hulu has been having some fun at the expense of Twitter users who are upset with the lack of an English language track, telling them to learn another language if they don’t want to read. And if you’re one of the many who saw Parasite last year and were amazed by the foreign film, Hulu has you covered, because the service added three of the filmmaker’s earlier films: 2000’s Barking Dogs Never Bite, 2006’s The Host and 2009’s Mother as well. The Host is probably the most familiar of the three, as it received a theatrical release in North America—probably because it was about a giant monster attacking people.
WILL TROLLS: WORLD TOUR’S VOD PREMIERE CHANGE THE INDUSTRY?
All eyes in the industry were shooting a sideways glance at Universal over the Easter weekend as Trolls: World Tour became the first major theatrical motion picture to release straight to VOD instead of pushing its release date back. But will it be successful? Studios have long wanted to decrease the theatrical window and we may see that push get even more aggressive if audiences become accustomed to seeing major movies immediately. STX Entertainment’s My Spy was acquired by Amazon to stream on Prime Video, but so far, most studios have remained quiet on plans to send major theatrical releases straight to VOD. But that may change, depending on how long cinemas remain closed. Eventually, we may see a balancing act where studios need to release movies to bring in an income and have to decide which ones can be sacrificed to VOD and which ones need to be held back for a theatrical release. Disney has already done some balancing when it announced a shift in schedule that will also see Artemis Fowl go directly to Disney+. With Warner Bros. and Universal’s owners about to launch streaming services of their own, it would not be surprising if they were pressured to offer up a film to HBO Max or Peacock to give those services a boost.
CELEBRITIES PLAY VIRTUAL POKER FOR A GOOD CAUSE
Anybody who wanted to hassle Ben Affleck for appearing in late-90s horror classic Phantoms or yell “Pizza Time” at Tobey Maguire got their chance on Saturday as the two appeared, along with other celebrities like Jon Hamm, Adam Sandler and Tom Brady, to play Texas Hold ‘Em on Twitch for the charity Feeding America. This is only one of the unique ways celebrities are raising money while providing entertainment for people stuck at home. The tournament was won by professional poker player Ebony Kenney, who knocked out Kevin Smith and Matt Damon on her way to beating Kevin Pollack in head’s up play to take the entire tournament. In the end, over a million dollars was raised for the charity that helps low-income families put nutritious food on their tables. And just moments after I texted a friend to tell them that Jon Hamm was my pick to win the whole thing, he busted and was eliminated from the tournament.