A paralyzed warden (with puppies!). Netflix gloating. And some thoughts on the culture war reaction to Christopher Nolan’s War Odyssey.
loser: Warner Bros. Discovery Show. “That’s it?!” said attendees at the conclusion of the WBD show, which was full of familiar segments and light on substance, stars, news and everything else. It was like HBO The soprano End cut to black in advance. CEO David Zaslav? absent. HBO president Casey Blues? Not on stage. Bobby Voltaggio, head of Warner Bros. Discovery advertising, opened the show by pledging, with not-quite-convincing cheerfulness, to address “Ellison — I mean the elephant — in the room,” and then proceeded to essentially not do so (“We’ve been through change and challenges before,” he said optimistically of the upcoming Paramount merger).
It was surprising to see a company with so many popular streaming franchises – Harry Potter, game of thronesthe capital, Sand dunes – Don’t talk about it any Of them. The biggest reaction from the Madison Avenue audience was when the puppies were brought out on stage, pumping some oxytocin into the audience’s numb brains in advance, thanks to a company waiting to be told what to do.
Winner: Disney Show: The devil wears prada 2 Star Anne Hathaway introduced Disney’s new CEO Josh D’Amaro by saying, “The new boss claims he’s prettier than Miranda Priestly,” which made the audience think, “Wait, didn’t this guy just lay off 1,000 people?” D’Amaro then tried to impress the New York crowd by playfully pointing out that he was a Boston Celtics fan, which went about as well as you’d expect. At that point, I conspiratorially wondered if the straight-up Disney writers were intentionally sabotaging this guy. D’Amaro then astutely noted how the appeal of Disney’s brand — magical, if you will — is “what every audience, every sponsor, every brand in this room is actually trying to buy.” Basically: we have an entertainment culture.
The rest of the Disney show was packed with sports, especially with ABC taking home the Super Bowl next year. Dwayne Johnson has been promoting the upcoming live-action remake Moana Which still somehow feels like an animated movie. Trailer for Ryan Murphy’s film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel Splinters It totally sounds like something his fans would enjoy. And Jimmy Kimmel’s criticism of the industry was more forceful than usual (best of all: “It’s cost our company a lot of money this year, billions. Quite possibly no employee in the history of any company has ever cost an employer more than it cost me to hire me 24 years ago. From a pure mathematical standpoint, this was the worst personnel decision Disney has ever made.”)
winner: Netflix show: The social media streamer won red carpet photos of Millie Bobby Brown, Florence Pugh, Jennifer Lopez and a slew of press ads (such as a movie adaptation barbarity Comedy series and Kim Kardashian is producing an uplifting teen drama titled, of course, Calabasas). Netflix’s advertising plan now reaches a staggering 250 million users globally, and they have pledged to continue looking for more nooks and crannies of the viewing experience to push ads into. Netflix remains the streaming bunny everyone is chasing.
winner: Amazon offerWith its deep pockets, Amazon has packed the stage with Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pratt, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Michael B. Jordan—Jordan has three Projects with Prime Video (including A Doctrine transverse series). So what if Arnold was there to promote the same movie, The man with the bagWho promoted him last year? Surprisingly, nothing came on Blade Runner 2099which has been in the works for four years and is supposed to debut this year. After some tough times, Prime Video seems to be gaining some momentum.
He paints: YouTube show. Yes, YouTube took over TV, then podcasting, and is now the dominant streaming platform. Yes, they’re gearing up for a performance by Chapelle Rowan. But YouTube remains a creator platform without personality, which is kind of anti-Disney. Its brand is…Video Player. The most convincing thing MrBeast has ever made, Monster gamesAvailable on Amazon. This, admittedly, is not a a job problem. But at least Warner Bros. And Paramount are companies that want to succeed, not just algorithmic digital devices.
loser: NBC Universal show. Presentations should not last two hours. It’s as if someone were handing you a six-page resume — with two pages dedicated to promoting Peacock, the streaming service that lost $432 million last quarter. Otherwise, NBC had a huge ratings season thanks to the Olympics and the Super Bowl, and now faces the unenviable task of convincing those viewers to stay (“We took down CBS,” Seth Meyers joked. “Well, the Ellisons did, but I like to think we helped”). Perhaps the biggest headline was Vin Diesel’s ad four Fast & Furious shows in development, which look less like… a lot? Suitable for a company that lives a quarter mile away – and a quarterly report – at a time.
Drawing: The Fox Show: trailer for Baywatch The remake sounded fun (rescuers fighting plane crashes, hurricanes, wildfires – typical rescuer stuff). Hardest sell: “In the battle for attention, passion wins” — while promoting Tubi, the streaming app you’ve never clicked on for the first time (even though it has fairly impressive ad stats). Gordon Ramsay came out to bark: “People really like to watch other people do some stupid things!” – It is one way to promote your content. What was striking was how, a decade or so ago, Fox was still considered a relatively young network, but there were CBS-level gray hairs among its talent on display. When an anxious-looking teenager went out to promote a comedy series, someone feared she would be sacrificed for her collagen.
loser: Odyssey Race critics. Switch gears here. So, believe it or not, there are people looking Odyssey — a movie starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Jon Bernthal — and says, “No, I’m still not white enough!”
Backstory: I wrote a story on Tuesday about the confirmation that Lupita Nyong’o is Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra in Odyssey. then Daily Wire“I’m not a racist but…” Podcast host Matt Walsh captured the story and wrote: “There is not a single person on the planet who actually thinks Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.’” But Christopher Nolan He knows he will be called a racist if he gives the role of “the most beautiful woman” to a white womanThe richest person in the world, Elon Musk, amplified the tweet and wrote, “True.”
Thoughts: There is a ridiculous lack of awareness when you declare that you know true beauty while saying something that any healthy social person would consider very ugly (especially when it comes to something as trivial – yes, trivial – as a movie). The line I wrote in italics reveals their game – they are playing the role of the most beautiful woman He should Go to a white woman. Because…why? Helen’s story is partly a love story. Do you know who finds Nyong’o – or literally any woman – “the most beautiful woman in the world”? Someone who loves her. This is part of what love is. One suspects that many chronically online men, unfortunately, have not experienced this. Nolan, for his part, isn’t subtly drawn into this culture war.
