NYPAA News

A “Veep” reunion is on tap this Sunday on the Emmy stage, as producers reveal the second round of presenters at this year’s ceremony.

Emmy nominee Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who’s poised to make history on Sunday if she wins (giving her the title for most Emmy wins ever by a performer), will be joined on stage by her fellow “Veep”-mates Anna Chlumsky, Gary Cole, Kevin Dunn, Clea Duvall, Tony Hale, Sam Richardson, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons, Sarah Sutherland and Matt Walsh.

Other casts presenting include the “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” trio of Kim Kardashian West, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner.

Also tapped to present at this year’s 71st Emmy Awards: Anthony Anderson (“Black-ish”), Ike Barinholtz (“Bless the Harts”), Cedric the Entertainer and Max Greenfield (“The Neighborhood”), Bill Hader (“Barry”), Gwyneth Paltrow (“The Politician”), Amy Poehler (“Duncanville”), Maya Rudolph (“The Good Place”), RuPaul (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”), Lilly Singh (“A Little Late with Lilly Singh”), Ben Stiller (“Escape at Dannemora”) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”).

Among those presenters, Anderson, Hader, Louis-Dreyfus, Poehler, RuPaul, Stiller and Waller-Bridge are also nominees.

They join a previously announced lineup of presenters that include the cast of “Game of Thrones,” Stephen Colbert, Viola Davis, Michael Douglas, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Billy Porter, Angela Bassett, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard, Peter Krause, Naomi Watts and Zendaya.

Producers Don Mischer Productions and Done+Dusted are behind this year’s telecast. The 71st Emmy Awards will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept. 22, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Fox.

[Pictured: Cast of “Veep” at the 2017 Emmy Awards.]

https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/kardashians-veep-emmys-2019-presenters-1203338511/

Viacom continues stuffing more library content into Pluto TV, its free, ad-supported internet streaming service, adding a range of African American and LGBTQ programming from VH1 and BET.

On Tuesday, Pluto TV launched seven new genre channels with content from its parent, including dedicated channels for VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” — with episodes from the first five seasons —  as well as “Love & Hip Hop” and “Black Ink Crew.”

The seven new channels — which play content in a linear, TV-like fashion — join Pluto TV’s current lineup of over 200 linear curated channels and thousands of movies on demand. Pluto TV’s other Viacom-supplied channels include those for flagship brands BET, Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon.

Since Viacom acquired Pluto TV for $340 million in January, Pluto TV’s monthly active user base has increased around 50%, standing at around 18 million for July 2019. The service has launched 28 new channels, including Pluto TV Latino, a suite of 11 channels with over 2,000 hours of programming in Spanish and Portuguese.

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The newest Pluto TV programming from Viacom reflects the ad-supported streamer’s efforts to “grow and diversify our content offerings to better serve cultural audiences with content that they know, love, and relate to,” said Amy Kuessner, senior VP of content partnerships at Pluto TV.

The new 24-hour channels are: VH1 Unscripted, VH1 Hip Hop Family, BET Her, BET Homecoming, VH1 Love & Hip Hop, VH1 Black Ink Crew and VH1 RuPaul’s Drag Race.

• VH1 RuPaul’s Drag Race: Classic episodes from seasons 1-5 of the Emmy-winning drag-queen competition show, as contestants compete in challenges, work the runway, and throw shade as they slay, sashay, and lip sync in a face-off for the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar.
• VH1’s Unscripted: Featured programming includes “Basketball Wives” seasons 1-6, “Chrissy & Mr. Jones” seasons 1-2, “K. Michelle: My Live” seasons 1-3 and “Leave it to Stevie” season 1.
• BET Her: Programming that “celebrates, inspires and supports black women” includes episodes of “According To Him & Her,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “Queen Boss” and “Rebel.”
• BET Homecoming: Dedicated to the legacies and culture of historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), with TV series, movies and music videos. Featured programming includes “College Hill” and “The Quad.”
• VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: Featuring “Love & Hip Hop: New York” seasons 1-5 and “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” seasons 1-6.
• VH1’s Black Ink Crew: Following watch the origins of a tattoo empire as Ceaser and the OG Crew navigate their lives and relationships while working to put their brand on the map. In Black Ink Crew Chicago, the team at 9Mag brings more tats and more drama to The Windy City. Black Ink Crew New York and Black Ink Crew Chicago – united in ink on Pluto TV. Featured Programming Includes: Black Ink Crew: New York & Black Ink Crew: Chicago
• VH1’s Hip Hop Family: Brings two famous hip-hop families together under one roof. “T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle” seasons 2-6 follows the Harris family navigating parenthood, their careers, and the next chapter of their lives; and “Run’s House” seasons 2-6 chronicles the family life of Rev Run, legendary rapper from Run-DMC.

https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/pluto-tv-free-viacom-channels-rupauls-drag-race-1203338717/

Late-night tv viewing is getting significantly more intense.

In an era when audiences have become increasingly polarized by politics and their viewing habits have been fragmented by a dizzying array of streaming-video technologies, TV’s growing spate of late-night programs face new challenges. What’s funny to one crowd can be offensive to another.

And with the internet and social media serving as universally accessible archives for a comic’s work, offensive statements can spark mass outcry long after they were initially made.

NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” on Monday reversed course on hiring Shane Gillis as a new cast member four days after racist remarks made by the comedian prompted protest. Gillis’ comments, delivered in a podcast, were resurfaced Sept. 12 by freelance journalist Seth Simons. “Let the f—ing ch–ks live there,” Gillis is heard to say in one episode about Chinatown. Though he and fellow comic Matt McCusker deleted the bulk of their “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast” library from YouTube later that day, a review of the material by Variety prior to its removal found that Gillis has an established history of making racist, sexist, homophobic and ableist remarks. In a 2016 interview with the Philadelphia news site Billy Penn, Gillis said that when deciding what jokes work with his audience, “you can be racist to Asians. That’s what we’re finding out.”

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In a statement Monday on “SNL” exec producer Lorne Michaels’ behalf, an NBC spokesperson said: “The language [Gillis] used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard.” In his own statement posted to Twitter minutes after NBC announced that it had parted ways with him, Gillis wrote: “I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL. That can’t be taken away. Of course I wanted an opportunity to prove myself at SNL, but I understand it would be too much of a distraction.”

Danna Young is an associate professor at the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication. “Increasingly, comic performances are accessible to the entire world via social media. This means people who never ‘signed the contract’ inside the comedy club get access to these jokes,” he says. “And sometimes they decide: ‘You don’t make the rules out here. We make the rules. And you broke them.’”

Indeed, “SNL” isn’t the only late-night program that’s had to contend with viewers taking offense.

In 2018, TBS’ “Full Frontal,” a weekly comedy program led by Samantha Bee, lost advertisers for a few weeks after the comedian used a charged epithet that refers to a part of the female anatomy to insult President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka. HBO’s Bill Maher came under intense scrutiny in June 2017 after the host delivered a racial epithet during a conversation with Sen. Ben Sasse in an attempt to make a joke. Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah ran into controversy when jokes he had posted on Twitter prior to being named host of “The Daily Show” were resurfaced and drew offense. All three apologized, and the controversies around them effectively blew over.

Even Stephen Colbert, whose CBS program, “The Late Show,” is the most-viewed weeknight program in the time slot, has run into headwinds. In spring 2017,
Colbert said on air that President Donald Trump was suited to be “Vladimir Putin’s c–k holster,” and the remarks triggered a short-lived social media campaign calling for the host’s ouster.

When Johnny Carson, then Jay Leno and David Letterman, held sway, late-night TV was watched differently. Viewers had to stay up after their local late news to check out what a host said — and if they missed an episode, they were unlikely to see it again. These days, a good chunk of viewing comes via clips that live on YouTube, Twitter and elsewhere.

Now even some hosts admit they are performing for fans more frequently via video clips. “In this day and age, at least the direct time slot competition doesn’t seem quite as urgent as it used to be,” David Spade, host of the recently launched “Lights Out” on Comedy Central, told Variety in July. “People are going to find clips or things they like and watch them the next morning.”

But sometimes social media and digital viewing can cause people to sink. (Simon’s tweets calling attention to Gillis’ racist history, for instance, were made just four hours after Gillis was announced as an “SNL” cast member.) Producers and networks will need to recognize that more fully as wee-hours comedy gets distributed in a new fashion.

https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/snl-shane-gillis-social-media-late-night-comedy-1203338417/

At the moment Amazon Music launched its new high-definition audio service on Tuesday morning, which it says offers the best streaming audio fidelity available, Spotify VP and head of investor relations Paul Vogel was speaking at Goldman Sachs’ Communicopia conference in Lower Manhattan.

While Tidal and Deezer have long offered a high-fidelity service and Apple has improved theirs, Spotify, the world’s largest streaming service, has shown little inclination to do so itself — a stance that Vogel says will continue.

“We haven’t talked much about [a high-fidelty option],” he said when asked whether the company has plans to launch its own high-definition service. “If you go back and look at it, it’s not really something that’s been a big differentiator among the different services. It’s really about user interface, algorithms, playlists, discoverability and those type of things.

“So I wouldn’t say never,” he concluded, “but we think that in terms of what consumers are looking for, it’s not something that’s really resonated.”

Amazon is betting otherwise, offering more than 50 million songs in High Definition, and millions of songs in Ultra High Definition, which it claims is the highest quality streaming audio available.

Amazon Music HD is available now for $12.99 per month for Amazon Prime members and $14.99 per month for customers, or an additional $5 per month for current subscribers on Individual or Family Plans. The service is available to stream in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan.

Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music, tells Variety that according to the company’s research, the three options that are most important to users of music streaming services are catalog, ease of use, and sound quality.

https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/spotify-dismisses-amazon-hd-high-definition-audio-1203338841/

MADRID  — The kernel, quality and qualities of David Zonana’s debut feature “Workforce” were already detectable in his very first short, 2014’s “Princess,” which prompted Variety to announce him as a Mexican director to track.

Four years later, he’s come good on that promise with the Wild Bunch-sold “Workforce” (“Mano de obra”), his feature debut.

Produced by regular Cannes laureate Michel Franco (“April’s Daughter,” “Chronic,” “After Lucía” ), “Workforce” won both top prizes at Los Cabos Festival’s 2018 Work in Progress, was acquired for world sales by Wild Bunch and selected for Toronto’s Platform competition, focused on bold emerging voices, before segueing to play in competition at San Sebastián.

“Princess” turned on teen Natalia, who is raped – or so she says – mopes around recovering with her mother, does HIV tests, has sex with her caring boyfriend. She then goes to a bar, meets two middle-aged strangers, has sex with them in a lavatory.

“Workforce’s” protagonist is another victim: Francisco, a construction worker, building a swanky home in Mexico City while living in a rain-leaking shack. After his brother dies in an accident on the site and his sister-in-law receives no compensation, Francisco takes justice into his own hands, occupying the home, and inviting his fellow construction workers to join him. Whether their community can be prove a more just society is another question. Variety chatted to David Zonana before the world premiere of “Workforce” at Toronto Film Festival in its Platform section. It now segues to play in main competition at San Sebastian – an impressive one-tow for a feature debut.

”Workforce” asks a disturbing question. Whether the poor, if they suddenly enjoy some of the privileges of the rich, will automatically adopt their mores as well. Could you comment?

I believe it is a moral problem, not an economical one. Regardless of your income, moral deficiencies such as voracious ambition, corruption, and the incapacity to feel empathy towards others have permeated into every economical system, at every level (blame the media, materialistic entertainment, politics or whatever you want). So regardless of each person’s income level or political views, I think it is their individual battle against this moral deficiencies, rather than a macro-economical solution, what can take us out from this loop. “Workforce” is such a loop.

One key to “Workforce” is the absence of foundations of a social democracy: State regulated work insurance; access to reliable legal advice- Workers such as Francisco seem totally helpless when appealing against injustice. Again, could you comment?

True, this kind of precarious working conditions happen all around Mexico and third world countries, where law is subjective and can be bended, via corruption, to the benefit of a few.

Your feature debut in some ways harks back to your first short “Princess.” It’s told with utter economy, unfussy direction, each scene advancing the story. With regard to direction, the key is the almost unbroken recourse to static camera shots. Why their use?

It is not a rule, and actually there are more frame movements than most of the people that have seen the film realize (twenty out of a hundred scenes or so). But yes, I’ve been inclined to make the camera a witness with none, or very subtle movement, trying not to take the attention from the spectators off from the story. I’ve never been a fan of hand-held camera, I’m too conscious about it when watching a film, but maybe it’s just my OCD (laughs).

Key events – a rape, a murder, a conspiracy – occur off-screen. Why this choice?

The films I enjoy the most are the ones that allow me to construct details in my head. I’m interested in allowing the spectator to create their own mental images. Via this interpretation, they project their own personality into the character, and the two blend in a way…

Formally the film restricts itself working mainly with wide shots even though it never looses its rhythm by a careful blocking where there’s always information all over the picture. The center of it being the main focus. What were your main guidelines when designing the blocking? 

Working mainly with non professional actors, the key was allowing them to fully understand what I needed from them in each scene in terms of tempo, tone and rhythm. Also trying to remind them to be themselves, to move as they would move in each space and make them remember they were standing in real rooms, in a real house, just doing what they would do if they were in such a situation. Then the camera would adjust to that.

You are a director with a strong auteurist voice working also at Michel Franco’s production house Teorema, and formerly at his Lucia Films, as a producer on films such as Gabriel Ripstein’s “600 Miles,” “The Heirs,” or Michel’s own “Chronic” and “April’s Daughter.” All have won significant prizes at Berlin or Cannes. Do you feel part of a generation of filmmakers in Mexico, and if so, does it have any señas de identidad? (hallmarks)

I have been very lucky to be surrounded by talented directors such as Michel, Gabriel and Lorenzo Vigas. Especially Michel has had a lot of patience with me (I started working as an assistant with him knowing absolutely cero about filmmaking, he had won Cannes Un Certain Regard by the time). Now a few years later I had the opportunity of making this film, which luckily earned attention. Although I think I have to continue directing films and in time, inspire young people the same way they inspired me.

https://variety.com/2019/film/festivals/david-zonana-talks-workforce-moral-challenges-style-1203338814/

AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson defended the $85 billion deal for Time Warner as the right strategy for the company in response to criticism from an activist investor.

Consumers are watching more content and more of that viewing is digital, so combining a telecommunications company like AT&T with a content powerhouse like WarnerMedia is the right vertical integration play, Stephenson said, speaking at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia conference Tuesday in New York.

“If you had asked me that question [about vertical integration] five years ago, I probably would have been hard-pressed to make a case for why that makes sense,” Stephenson said. “In the new world, we believe it makes all the sense in the world… All of the growth is happening digitally.”

He pointed to WarnerMedia’s HBO Max streaming service, which it will preview for investors at an event Oct. 29 and will launch in 2020. “This is not Netflix, this is not Disney [Plus], this is not Hulu,” he said. AT&T has the opportunity to drive uptake of HBO Max through its 170 million customer relationships and 5,500 retail stores. “Content is king, I’m an evangelical on that,” Stephenon said. “But distribution matters.”

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On Sept. 9, activist investor Elliott Management announced that it had taken a $3.2 billion stake in AT&T and called on the telecom giant to refocus on its core business. The hedge fund criticized AT&T’s “underperformance” relative to the rest of the market and argued that moves including its massive deals for Time Warner and DirecTV have hurt the telco’s financial health.

Stephenson said he and the AT&T board have reviewed Elliott’s letter, calling it a “mixed bag.”

“There are some things in the letter that we’ve looked at and say it makes a lot of sense,” he said. “There are some other areas you look at, and it’s not as clear in terms of how it would make sense for us. But these are smart guys, right and they put a lot of ideas into the paper that we need to sit down and engage with them on.”

AT&T’s appointment of John Stankey, a longtime AT&T exec who is currently CEO of WarnerMedia, as its new COO — positioning Stankey to succeed Stephenson — spurred Elliot Management to engage in its battle with the company, per a Wall Street Journal report.

Stephenson said Stankey was one of the few executives with a background to manage WarnerMedia for the new digital streaming era. “When we acquired Time Warner, it was recognizing that the business had to make a pivot and a change,” he said. “It’s a hard play, to take a legacy company on legacy distribution models and business models, and make a pivot to a digital distribution model. When you think of who can move that, it’s not a big list of people.”

Stankey has “done a really nice job of breaking down silos and getting the business reoriented toward HBO Max digital distribution,” Stephenson said. As for whether upping Stankey to COO puts him in line to succeed Stephenson, Stephenson commented wryly, “The board hasn’t informed me I’m retiring yet,” adding that “if Stankey is successful, he’s in a pretty good position if he executes this play.”

On the pay-TV front, where AT&T has been hemorrhaging customers for more than a year, Stephenson said the company has had “to make really hard decisions” about carriage renewal deals. “We said, we can’t just sign these price escalators,” the CEO said. AT&T engaged in contract fights with CBS and Nexstar this summer, which led to blackouts of both broadcasters. As a result, AT&T stands to lose as many as 300,000 additional pay-TV subs in the third quarter of 2019, Stephenson noted.

Stephenson also said the U.S. economy is slowing down as “trade issues are a burden on the economy” but he said he supported the Trump administration move to challenge China on trade. “Getting aggressive on [China], I actually applaud the administration on their approach, I don’t think it’s wrong-headed at all,” he said.

In addition, Stephenson said the Trump administration’s 2017 corporate tax reform resulted in great capital investments and has led to historic lows in unemployment and the first productivity gains in 15 years. “Employment [is] at crazy-low levels, across all demographics,” he said. “We ought to be doing high-fives.”

https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/att-ceo-defends-warnermedia-strategy-addresses-activist-investors-letter-1203338757/

Norman Lear often recalls the moment he became politically and socially conscious of the world around him. When he was 9, he discovered Father Charles Coughlin while tinkering with his crystal radio set. Coughlin was an infamously anti-Semitic broadcaster and considered the father of hate radio.

Lear, who is set to receive Variety’s Creative Conscience Award on Sept. 17, sees a parallel to the propaganda and hate speech that can easily be found today online and even on mainstream newscasts: “It’s so familiar to me as it washes over all of us. The hate that’s being spewed — the racial hate, the religious hate. I sure remember the feeling of this creeping hatred and racism back then, and I feel it all around us today.”

The Coughlins of the world “scared the shit out of me” as a young Jewish boy, Lear adds. “But it also helped me get my guard up.” As he became aware of Jewish quotas at colleges and the anti-Semitic furor in Europe, Lear embraced the U.S. Constitution — and felt a duty to enlist during World War II, ultimately flying 52 combat missions.

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“It was to fight the bad guys that drew him in,” says Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center at USC’s Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism. “In the war, that’s exactly what he was doing. In his gut he was so proud of what this country stands for, and to help it live up to its ideals has been so front and center in his life.”

Voices like Coughlin’s weren’t “in the American way,” Lear believed. That’s how he came up with the name People for the American Way, the advocacy group he founded in 1981 to combat hate speech and right-wing propaganda.

“There was a creeping far right that was consuming the culture, but I think we’re seeing that right now,” he says. “When I was a boy, civics was taught in every public school. So you learned about love of country, but also how we were going to love one another and care for one another politically and economically. But it’s no longer taught, and kids grow up without that understanding.”

His work as an activist is what earned Lear the Creative Conscience Award, which recognizes those in entertainment dedicated to humanitarian, cultural and charitable causes. Past recipients include Martin Scorsese, Halle Berry and Troye Sivan.

Kaplan describes People for the American Way as “a scrupulous record-keeper of the offenders who have dishonored the American dream. If you want a tour guide to the many hate groups of many kinds, [it is] one of the key sources you would go to. It has become an advocate for the First Amendment and our other fundamental freedoms.”

It was in that spirit that Lear, his wife, Lyn, and internet mogul David Hayden bought a copy of the Declaration of Independence in 2000 for $8.14 million. “He said at a meeting, ‘It wants to travel,’” Kaplan recalls. “From that was launched the idea of a 50-state tour. Imagine putting on a road show in which you took this precious document, in the archival condition it needs, to all 50 states and have people from all walks of life be able to come and see it.”

Lear’s production partner, Brent Miller, took part in the final portion of the road show, carrying the document in a big steel briefcase. The Declaration of Independence would even get its own first-class seat on airplanes as they traveled. “What was most amazing about it was the reactions of people who saw it for the first time,” Miller says. The Declaration of Independence tour later morphed into Declare Yourself, a campaign to register young voters that coincided with the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama.

Lear’s other efforts included co-founding the Business Enterprise Trust, a now-dormant organization that celebrated businesses for contributing to the social good, and the Norman Lear Center, which was founded after he grew interested in research Kaplan had conducted in how little local TV news covers municipal and statewide politics. “He said, ‘You’ve got to do more of this,’ and started contributing to our work,” Kaplan says. “Ultimately, he was so supportive of it that I said, ‘Norman, I can’t take any more of your money unless you let me name this thing after you.’”

And then there’s the American Civil Liberties Union, which Lear says he “couldn’t be more grateful for.” The ACLU came to his defense in the 1970s when he was attacked for supporting the right of a neo-Nazi group to march in Skokie, Ill. “I was called a Nazi lover and a Jew hater,” he recalls. “But that’s my America. Everybody has a right to be out there, and I hate the haters, but, son of a bitch, we’ve got to suffer them too because that’s who we are.”

In recent years, the Lear Family Foundation, which he and Lyn founded in 1997, has contributed to a wide range of causes, including Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, Imagen Foundation, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Ballet Hispánico and The Friends of the Saban Free Clinic. Much of the foundation’s attention has been on environmental issues, via Global Green, Heal the Bay, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Media Assn. and the Rainforest Alliance.

“It’s going to get us,” Lear says. “Climate change will end everything we’re talking about unless we get off our asses. The planet cannot go on forever as we, the humans, continue to do whatever we’re doing wrong.”

Kaplan says he hopes that Lear is still active and flourishing “when this current period is behind us and we come back to our civic senses.”

For Jimmy Kimmel, who produced “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” with Lear, the iconic producer is an inspiration: “To be 97 years old and looking to the future, and trying to make the world a better place, I think is a pretty unselfish thing to do.”

https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/norman-lear-people-for-the-american-way-1203337825/

Horror film “Midsommar” did it last year. A new adaptation of the Swedish classic “The Emigrants” will do it next year. Prestigious productions that could have taken advantage of beautiful Swedish locations and craft expertise continue to run away to foreign locations for lower costs and tax incentives.

Despite having a strong film industry creatively – recent Swedish films include Roy Andersson’s Toronto Film Festival player “About Endlessness” and Sweden’s Oscar entry in the International Feature Film category, Levan Akin’s “And Then We Danced” – Sweden is among a forlorn group of just four countries in the European Union and the European Economic Area that still don’t have a national government-funded film and TV filming incentive.

Whereas Finland, Norway and Iceland, with their 25% incentives, are more sought after location destinations for foreign producers, Sweden and Denmark – the most prolific countries of Nordic cinema – are still waiting for their first national rebates to be introduced.

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Recently, more than 10 key figures from different Swedish film and TV outfits and organizations came together to issue a joint-statement on the urgency to establish incentives in Sweden. The article, published in the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet on Aug. 23, drew on a 2017 parliamentary paper that recommended the setting up of a 25% cash rebate on qualifying film and TV production spend in Sweden. For this initiative, the government would need to earmark an annual budget of SEK 300 million ($30.3 million). The leading decision-makers of Swedish cinema are now lobbying the government to include a national initiative in the 2020 fall budget.

Mikael Fellenius, CEO of Film i Vast, is one of those lobbying for the incentives as he sees them as the best way to keep Swedish projects at home, and attract international productions.

In May, Film i Vast helped launch Sweden’s first filming incentive program, albeit a regional one. A rebate of SEK 6 million ($607,000) on a SEK 40 million ($4.05 million) spend, paid for by the local region, Vastra Gotalandsregionen, and administered by Film i Vast, went to Yellowbird’s TV reboot of “Irene Huss.”

Fellenius reports a great deal of interest in this “important pilot,” which could also pave the way for a similar launch on a national level. “Currently we’re in talks with regional politicians about the possibility to extend the project, and hopefully being able to achieve a fully built regional system of around SEK 18 million [$1.82 million], which also can be combined with national investments.”

A number of Swedish productions have moved outside the country – or not been made at all – due to the lack of a national incentive scheme, Fellenius says.

A major part of “Borg vs. McEnroe,” for example, one of Film i Vast’s coproductions, was shot in the Czech Republic, where the production profited from incentives. SF Studios, the film’s producer, plans to allocate all or major parts of the filming of its upcoming slate abroad, Fellenius says, for the same reason. He adds that Film i Vast had been ready to invest a substantial sum in Todd Haynes’ “Carol,” but the lack of incentives in Sweden led to the film being shot in the U.S. instead.

SF Studios’ CEO Michael Porseryd, another heavyweight behind the joint declaration, says that a big part of “The Emigrants,” produced by Fredrik Wikstrom Nicastro, would have been shot in Sweden if the conditions were better. “Parts of the film would still need to be done in the U.S. since the film requires American locations,” says Porseryd. “But the rest of the shoot, which is the main part, will now take place in the Czech Republic.”

The incentives are not just about the rebate, it concerns a wider issue, says Porseryd. “With production incentives we’ll be forced to build a vital film industry that offers both skills and efficient infrastructure. Given the rapidly increasing demand from TV channels and streaming services, it’s already a challenge today. Training of film workers has to be prioritized and stimulated,” he says.

B-Reel Films’ Patrik Andersson, both the producer and the originator of “Midsommar,” says that incentives could have led Ari Asters’ film to be shot in Sweden, rather than Hungary, where it shot in the end. The film, starring Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor and Will Poulter, was an indie film success, grossing $36 million worldwide. “Hypothetically, yes. We had a very precise time frame when we needed the film to happen, so it was more about having the time to create the film’s entire world,” says Andersson. “The advantage would of course have been the uniquely Swedish and amazingly beautiful nature. That compromise was the most painful for us all. The drawback at home would have been the insufficient infrastructure and the extra costs.”

Andersson agrees that incentives are the most obvious measure to keep productions within Sweden. “Now no international productions come to Sweden whereas bigger and more ambitious Swedish productions go abroad to get more money on the big screen. This means that Swedish film workers are kept further and further away from big productions and therefore miss out on invaluable experience, artistic input and an exchange of knowledge.”

Next year, Ruben Ostlund – best known for winning the Palme d’Or with “The Square” – starts the shoot for his SEK 100 million ($10.1 million)-budgeted “Triangle of Sadness” with a stellar international cast and a faithful Swedish crew. About 50% of the shoot will take place in Film i Vast’s studio in Trollhattan, says Plattform producer Erik Hemmendorff, whereas the rest will be in Greece, the production profiting from a cash rebate of 35% of the Greek spend.

“I will always try to shoot in Sweden if the story takes place here, since we want to hold on to the Swedish production model, and to be able to have continuity with the team that are part of our films,” says Hemmendorff. “But for a production like Mia Hansen-Love’s ‘Bergman Island’ [shot on the Swedish island of Faro, Ingmar Bergman’s home], which we co-produced, production incentives would have made it possible to work with a bigger Swedish team.”

NORDIC FILMS AT FALL FESTS
“About Endlessness”
Director: Roy Andersson
Producers: Johan Carlsson, Pernilla Sandstrom, Philippe Bober
Key cast: Martin Serner, Jessica Louthander, Tatiana Delaunay
Venice competitor and the only Nordic director in Toronto’s Masters section, Swedish veteran Roy Andersson adds to his cinematic oeuvre by weaving together multiple vignettes with a reflection on human life in all its beauty and harshness. Andersson’s previous film “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence” won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2014.

“The County”
Director: Grimur Hakonarson
Producer: Grimar Jonsson
Key cast: Arndis Hronn Egilsdottir, Sveinn Olafur Gunnarsson, Sigurdur Sigurjonsson
A David and Goliath tale about a farmer whose defiance of her local co-op brings her face to face with its dark underside. Grimur Hakonarson’s “Rams” won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in 2015.

“Disco”
Director: Jorunn Myklebust Syversen
Producer: Maria Ekerhovd
Key cast: Espen Klouman Hoiner, Fredericke Rustad Hellerud, Josefine Frida Pettersen
When a champion dancer begins to falter, her family questions her faith and requests her to search for more radical solutions. “Disco” looks at contemporary Christian cults through the eyes of teenaged Mirjam, played by Josefine Frida Pettersen from the hit series “Skam.”

“Hope”
Director: Maria Sodahl
Producer: Thomas Robsahm
Key cast: Stellan Skarsgard, Andrea Braein Hovig
A love story where the relationship between artists Tomas and Anja is severely challenged after she gets a life-threatening brain metastasis. Cinematography by Lars von Trier regular Manuel Alberto Claro.

“Maria’s Paradise”
Director: Zaida Bergroth
Producer: Daniel Kuitunen, Evelin Penttila, Kaisla Viitala
Key cast: Pihla Viitala, Satu Tuuli Karhu, Saga Sarkola
Based on a real-life scandal in 1920s Finland, “Maria’s Paradise” tells the story of a teenage girl who begins to question the life of the religious sect in which she has been raised. Zaida Bergroth returns to Toronto two years after her critically acclaimed “Miami.”

“My Life as a Comedian”
Director: Rojda Sekersoz
Producer: Martin Persson
Key cast: Johan Rheborg
Novelist Jonas Gardell adapts his own bestseller about growing up as a perceptive outsider in 1970s Sweden. Told in flashbacks by a comedian who’s reflecting on his youth. Rojda Sekersoz’s debut “Beyond Dreams” gained her the Best Newcomer Award at the Swedish Guldbagge Awards last year.

“Resin”
Director: Daniel Joseph Borgman
Producer: Katja Adomeit, Peter Aalbaek Jensen
Key cast: Peter Plaugborg, Vivelill Sogaard Holm, Sofie Grabol
Based on Ane Riel’s crime novel, “Resin” goes beneath the surface of the seemingly idyllic existence of a family living on a remote island. A brutal drama commences when the daughter of the family questions her parents’ worldview.

“A White, White Day”
Director: Hlynur Palmason
Producer: Anton Mani Svansson
Key cast: Ingvar Sigurdsson, Ida Mekkin Hlynsdottir, Hilmir Snaer Gudnason
Received with critical praise in Cannes’ Critics’ Week, the film centers on a grieving police officer in rural Iceland who turns his vengeful sights on a neighbor he suspects may have had an affair with his now-deceased wife. Delicate performance by lead actor Ingvar Sigurdsson and ace lensing from Maria von Hausswolff.

https://variety.com/2019/film/global/sweden-production-incentives-midsommar-1203338799/

The entertainment and sports media company Whistle and the digital content studio OTRO have announced a multi-year commercial partnership.

Together, the two companies will collaborate on programming strategy, co-creating premium original content and developing experiential activations. They will also work together on the development and monetization of content and IP formats globally.

“With Whistle’s deep understanding of how to think about IP and unlock revenue potential in today’s eco-system and OTRO’s star talent and production capabilities, there’s a mutual synergy here for a dynamic partnership given our shared objectives to create around the passion points of our audiences,” Michael Cohen, president of Whistle, said in a statement.

OTRO boasts a star-studded roster, counting David Beckham, Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane, Neymar Jr., and Eric Cantona among its talent. In addition to co-creating content, Whistle will also help manage OTRO’S online merchandise store, which has recently begun to sell direct-to-consumer products.

“Having seen a strong audience grow on OTRO’s social channels for our exclusive content, we’re thrilled to be strategically partnering with Whistle and know it will lead to exciting developments for both businesses,” OTRO CEO Adam Poulter said. “Whistle’s social-first mindset is perfectly suited to OTRO and alongside Claire McArdle, our chief creative officer who is leading the content delivery with Whistle, I’m already impressed by the premium content slate the combined forces are lining up.”

https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/whistle-otro-commercial-partnership-1203337864/

NBCUniversal will draw on its news, sports, cable unscripted and Spanish-language divisions to provide an array of programming beyond scripted series for the launch of the streaming platform that has been dubbed Peacock.

Nine months after she was tapped to lead NBCUniversal’s charge into the streaming wars, Bonnie Hammer on Tuesday offered the first glimpse into the programming vision for the venture, targeted for launch in April.

Hammer, NBCU’s longtime cable entertainment chief who was upped to chairman of direct to consumer and digital enterprises in January, revealed that programming plans for the advertising-supported streamer will involve more contributions from NBCUniversal’s in-house content engines than were previously disclosed. NBCU plans a big consumer marketing push for Peacock to kick in as NBCU mounts cross-platform coverage from July 24-Aug. 9 of the 2020 summer Olympic games in Tokyo.

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“We’re going to be scaling toward the Olympics,” Hammer said. “We’ll make a lot of noise about what we’re doing.”

Hammer said the guiding principle of content development for Peacock was to assemble a mix of “timely and timeless” programming, meaning an emphasis on news and sports-related fare with the urgency to drive live viewing, coupled with a deep library of TV classics to draw binge-watchers.

Augmenting the original and library TV series are movies from the Universal, Focus Features, Illumination and DreamWorks Animation archives, as well as Spanish-language library titles from Telemundo. There will also be a number of original and library unscripted and lifestyle programs that draw on existing NBCU talent and resources. For example, Amber Ruffin, writer and breakout comedian from NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” will host a weekly series, “The Amber Ruffin Show,” featuring her “smart and silly take on the week.”

“The whole conceit was built around being timely and timeless and really taking advantage of all the assets we have inside the company,” Hammer told Variety. “We are clearly connected to news and sports and celebrity news and on and on. There’s so much that we can put on that is timely that comes out of our news group, sports group, our E! operation.”

Hammer’s team settled on Peacock as a moniker after consider all sorts of acronyms and made-up words, Hammer said.

“It was right there in front of our noses,” Hammer said. “It’s tied to the company’s legacy but not so on the nose that it will limit us in what’s on the service. We love it and the marketing team is having a ball designing it.” 

To fortify Peacock, NBCUniversal has reclaimed what is believed to be one of the most popular library series in the streaming VOD arena, “The Office.” The NBCU-produced series that aired on NBC from 2005 to 2013 will relocate to Peacock from Netflix January 2021. It has also licensed long-running favorites from outside studios, including a deal with Sony Pictures TV for the rights to “Married With Children” and “The King of Queens.”

Details of how other news, sports and unscripted programming will be showcased on Peacock are still being sorted out, Hammer said.

For original scripted programming, Hammer used the lens of looking for shows that would be a tonal fit with the biggest titles in the NBCUniversal archives. In comedy, that means “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation,” which encouraged Hammer to nab a new project, “Rutherford Falls,” from “Office” and “Parks and Rec” alum Mike Schur and “Office” star Ed Helms.

In drama, Hammer’s team looked for shows in the spirit of library workhorses such as “House,” “Monk” and “Psych.” A smattering of reboots was also a no-brainer, given the IP riches that NBCU has its vault. Peacock will have the third iteration of “Battlestar Galactica,” this time with “Mr. Robot” creator Sam Esmail on board to oversee, “which takes it to another level,” in Hammer’s view. Revivals of “Saved By the Bell” and “Punky Brewster” are natural vehicles to tap in to 1980s and ’90s nostalgia and offer contemporary spins on vintage NBCUniversal IP.

Peacock at present has about 500 employees, mostly working on programming, marketing and technical development efforts. Details of pricing and distribution plans will be unveiled down the road. Hammer said the technical and design teams working on the project are focused on making the Peacock interface “as easy to use as possible and super-super consumer friendly.”

Hammer had been NBCUniversal’s longtime cable entertainment leader before NBCU chief executive Steve Burke tapped her to head direct to consumer efforts. NBCUniversal is taking a different tack from most of its major rivals by focusing on an ad-supported service. NBCU plans to make Peacock available for free via authentication for those who already pay a monthly MVPD bill — no surprise for the studio owned by cable giant Comcast — but it will also sell the package to non-MVPD subscribers for a monthly fee.

Disney made an aggressive move to price its well-stocked Disney Plus service (bowing Nov. 12) at $5.99 a month; last week Apple came in at $4.99 for a more limited number of shows launching Nov. 1. WarnerMedia’s pending HBO Max is expected to be somewhere north of $15 a month given that it has to incorporate the standing pricetag of $14-$15 a month for HBO service.

Hammer said her entry into the streaming wars, after Burke realigned NBCU’s top management in January, has been an invigorating reminder of her formative years in the early days of original cable programming.

“It’s exciting,” Hammer said. “It takes me back to my roots of starting at the ground floor of something. But it has the incredible advantage of working across the company with some of the best and the brightest in all divisions.”

(Pictured: “The Office”)

https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/bonnie-hammer-nbc-peacock-streaming-launch-1203338631/