The Fast Five: New Media Landscapes Offer New Storytelling Venues  

After months of campaigning, the Emmy® Award season is finally behind us, and the Academy Award® season can commence. The king is dead, long live the king. The rest of the week’s news includes profitable murderous clowns, Broadway audiobooks, and dating apps investing in original content. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s a unique time in the industry.

TINDER JUMPS INTO THE ORIGINAL CONTENT GAME

Right when it seems like every company has jumped into producing scripted television to drag eyeballs to their platform, a new contender emerges to prove there’s still plenty of ways to consume content. Tinder, the dating app that allows you to live out your real-life fantasies of getting people to go away by swiping on their faces, has secretly filmed Swipe Night. It’s being touted as an exclusive Choose Your Own Adventure—except not, because they legally can’t call it that—series in conjunction with the advertising agency 72andSunny.

Tinder’s endgame seems to be using your choices to help pair you up with matches who think the same way as you, while also luring users away from other dating apps because this is the only one where you can also watch a post-apocalyptic show. I would assume users would stick with whatever dating app is the best at getting them actual dates, but who knows? The last time I was on Tinder I lost a kidney and gained a new-found appreciation for the Canadian healthcare system. While this news is odd, it’s great for writers because it’s another place to pitch and sell a project. More buyers is never a bad thing, and it provides unique storytelling opportunities not available on other platforms. How the “totally not Choose Your Own Adventure” aspect is implemented remains to be seen, but we’ll all find out together on October 6^th. And as an added bonus, you now have the perfect excuse to give your spouse when they discover Tinder on your phone.

FLEABAG DETHRONES VEEP TO WIN BIG AT THE EMMYS

Creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge won three Emmys for the second season of Amazon’s British co-production Fleabag on Sunday night, snagging the awards away from the many Veep nominees who were seen as front-runners for that show’s final season. The show took home a total of four awards, while the night’s other big front-runner, Game of Thrones, was only able to win two awards despite its fourteen nominations. It did win Best Drama and Peter Dinklage won again for Best Supporting Actor, but it was shut out from winning writing and directing awards for creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Its loss in these categories may be due to the backlash from the last season, or maybe there were too many Game of Thrones nominees per category that they divided the vote. The two categories that Ozark won (Best Supporting Actress for Julia Garner and Best Director for Jason Bateman) had four and three Game of Thrones nominees respectively. Other big winners included Billy Porter for Pose, Jodie Comer for Killing Eve, and Chernobyl for Writing, Directing and Limited Series.

FROM BROADWAY TO AUDIOBOOK, HOW STORYTELLERS ARE EXPERIMENTING IN A NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE

“Content is King” is a phrase used by marketing execs and copywriters the world over to let their clients know that original material will always be the best way to bring in an audience. This is true in the entertainment industry as well, which is why studios and fledgling platforms are competitive when they snap up rights to the latest book, comic or podcast with a built-in audience. Because we live in a new media landscape, there are endless opportunities for writers to experiment with multiple forms, which is what will happen when the Broadway double-bill Sea Wall/A Life is adapted. Not for premium cable or streaming, and not as an award-contending feature film, but as a recording for the Amazon-owned audiobook store Audible. The two, one-act plays are directed by Carrie Cracknell and star Tom Sturridge in writer Simon Stephens’ Sea Wall and Jake Gyllenhaal in writer Nick Payne’s A Life. Randee Dawn at Variety recently hypothesized that we’re not in an era of “peak TV,” we’re in an era of “peak storytelling,” and moves like this, as well as Orphan Black’s recent comeback as an audio series on Serial Box, proves that there are more ways than ever for content creators to reach an audience and expand the storytelling artform.

DETAILS EMERGE ON NBCUNIVERSAL’S STREAMING SERVICE

Comcast has officially unveiled the name of its upcoming NBCUniversal streaming service as Peacock, after the long-time NBC mascot and logo. The service also revealed a lot of its programming, including streaming rights to most NBC sitcoms including The Office and Parks and Recreation. For the most part, the shows all sound like they would be right at home on NBC. While other media powerhouses like ViacomCBS, WarnerMedia and Disney use their network affiliated streaming services (CBS All Access, HBO Max, Disney+ and Hulu) to provide programming that separates itself from the main networks, Comcast appears to be taking the opposite approach. Shows like Rutherford Falls starring Ed Helms and written by Michael Schur, along with the Battlestar Galactica reboot executive produced by Mr. Robot’s Sam Esmail, will be right at home on NBC. As would A.P. Bio, a show that was on NBC before being canceled and revived by Peacock. With companies dividing their assets in a streaming world, Comcast appears to be taking the stance that people who want NBC will want more NBC, or want old NBC and the only place to get it will be on Peacock.

IT FRANCHISE CROSSES THE BILLION DOLLAR MARK

Just two movies in, the It franchise has already crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. It’s overtaken long-running horror mainstays like Saw and Paranormal Activity to become the second highest grossing horror movie film franchise of all time. It still trails the Conjuring shared cinematic universe by almost $900 million dollars, but that franchise includes three Conjuring movies, three Annabelle movies, The Nun, and The Curse of La Llorona, so it had something of a head start. With this kind of fanbase for an R-rated horror film, you can bet New Line and Warner Bros. will do everything they can to extend the life of this franchise. Expect an announcement for a Pennywise prequel film any moment now, followed by endless Pennywise movies until they stop opening to over $100 million worldwide.