WarnerMedia exec purge / Odenkirk joins "Straight Man" / Peacock gets Sunday Baseball / Apple's "Constellation"

Plus today's calendar, "Locke & Key" to end after S3, "The Wilds" S2 trailer, Lowes' "Unstable" to Netflix, and more

Inside.com Part of   Network April 07, 2022

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Emmerich and Zeiler Six more executives exited WarnerMedia on Wednesday, ahead of the close of the company's merger with Discovery. The staffers include CFO Jennifer Biry; CTO Richard Tom; and executive VPs Jim Cummings, Tony Goncalves, Christy Haubegger, and Jim Meza. More: HBO chief content officer Casey Bloys will remain in place, as will Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich. Gerhard Zeiler, President of WarnerMedia International, also plans to remain with the company; it's unclear how he will divide duties with JB Perrette, the CEO of Discovery streaming and international. The WarnerMedia-Discovery deal could close as early as this Friday; the new company's management structure under CEO David Zaslav is starting to come into focus just this week. VARIETY

"Better Call Saul" star Bob Odenkirk signed on for a follow-up AMC series. Odenkirk will lead the cast of a new comedy-drama series titled "Straight Man," based on the Richard Russo novel. More: Odenkirk will play the chairman of an English department at a badly-underfunded Pennsylvania college who's having a mid-life crisis. Aaron Zelman ("Silicon Valley") and Paul Lieberstein ("Space Force") will write the adaptation, serve as co-showrunners, and executive produce alongside Odenkirk. "Better Call Saul" will wrap up later this year, after a two-part sixth season; the first half debuts on April 18. Should the show receive a greenlight, it will likely debut in 2023. VARIETY

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DAILY CALENDAR THURSDAY, APRIL 7 TOKYO VICE: Debut crime drama series based on reporter Jake Adelstein's 2009 memoir about his experiences as the first Western journalist to chronicle the Tokyo Metropolitan Police in the 1990s. Ansel Elgort stars as Adelstein; the cast also features Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Ella Rumpf, and Rinko Kikuchi. Filmmaker Michael Mann executive produced the series and directed the pilot. [HBO Max] CLOSE ENOUGH: The animated comedy series from "Regular Show" mastermind J.G. Quintel is back for a third season. Quintel and Gabrielle Walsh co-star as a couple in their thirties raising their five-year-old daughter with some help from their divorced roommates. The voice cast also includes Jason Matnzoukas, Kimiko Glenn, Jessica DiCicco, James Adomian, and Danielle Brooks. [HBO Max] QUEEN STARS: Reality competition series from Brazil in which a group of drag queens face off in various challenges in the hopes of receiving the ultimate status symbol, "The Pop Crown." Drag queen Pabllo Vittar and singer Luíza Sonza host. [HBO Max] TRINITY OF SHADOWS: Mandarin-language crime thriller series from Taiwan about three very different people -- a veteran detective, a rookie cop, and a rising politician -- who join forces to investigate a murder with ties to a three-year-old cold case. [HBO Max] CURSED FILMS: The Shudder docuseries explores the real-life tales and infamous myths behind allegedly cursed movies, whose casts and crews were beset by all manner of misfortunate and tragedy. Season 2, which arrives today, includes looks at "The Wizard of Oz," "Rosemary's Baby," "The Serpent and the Rainbow," "Stalker," and "Cannibal Holocaust." [Shudder] SEE FOR ME: 2021 crime thriller starring Skyler Davenport as Sophie, a blind teen who's cat-sitting in a secluded mansion when it's invaded by three thieves. Her only hope to survive is Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy), an Army veteran with whom she's been paired on a mobile assistive app. [Shudder] RETURN TO SPACE: Debut documentary from "Free Solo" filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vsarahelyi, profiling Elon Musk and his company, SpaceX, with a focus on the team's long-term mission to send NASA astronauts back into space aboard American-made rockets. [Netflix] SENZO: MURDER OF A SOCCER STAR: Five-part true-crime documentary series re-examining the 2014 killing of South African soccer icon Senzo Meyiwa at the home of his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo's mother. Though initially reported as the result of a robbery gone wrong, questions have lingered for years about the case. [Netflix] QUEEN OF THE SOUTH: The fifth and final season of the USA Network crime drama series -- an English-language adaptation of the Telemundo telenovela "La Reina del Sur" -- aired in 2021 and hits Netflix today. Alice Braga stars as Mexican drug lord Teresa Mendoza. [Netflix] SERVING THE HAMPTONS: Debut reality series chronicling the work and personal lives of the staff of 75 Main, a restaurant and bar in Southampton, New York, that caters to an elite, celebrity clientele during the summer months. [Discovery+] AGNES: 2021 indie horror-drama from co-writer/director Mickey Reese about two priests investigating rumors of demonic possession at a strict religious convent. Ben Hall, Jake Horowitz, Hayley McFarland, Rachel True, and Sean Gunn co-star. [Hulu] PLATINUM END: Anime series -- based on the manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata -- about a suicidal student who's rescued by a guardian angel, and entered into a contest that will determine who becomes the next God. [Hulu] LAURA PAUSINI – PLEASED TO MEET YOU: In this hybrid of scripted feature and documentary, Italian singer Laura Pausini -- sometimes called the "Queen of Italian Pop" -- considers how her life might have changed had she not won the Sanremo Music Festival in 1993. [Amazon]

NBC Sports and Major League Baseball (MLB) signed a deal to bring 18 Sunday games to the Peacock streaming service. The streams will begin on May 8 and continue on consecutive Sundays, with start times of 11:30 am ET for the first six weeks. More: NBC Sports will produce the game streams, along with pre-game and post-game shows. The first game -- the Chicago White Sox playing the Boston Red Sox from Fenway Park -- will also be simulcast on the NBC network; the other 17 games will be Peacock-exclusive. Peacock also plans to stream the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game, featuring top minor league prospects, during All-Star Week in July. TV LINE

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Rapace and Banks Apple ordered a first season for "Constellation," a psychological thriller series from "The War of the Worlds" vet Peter Harness. Noomi Rapace will star as Jo, an astronaut who returns to Earth following a mission on the International Space Station, only to find that her life back at home has mysteriously changed during her absence. More: Jonathan Banks ("Breaking Bad") will co-star as a colleague of Jo's, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. Another "Breaking Bad" vet, helmer Michelle MacLaren, will direct the series; she also collaborated on the upcoming Apple TV+ series "Shining Girls." DEADLINE

The Netflix fantasy drama series "Locke & Key" will end after its upcoming third season. Netflix and showrunners Carlton Cuse and Meredith Averill first discussed plans to close out the series with an eight-episode third season years ago, after the completion of Season 1. More: "Locke & Key" is based on IDW comic books by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez, and centers on three siblings who move into their family's ancestral home and begin finding an array of magical keys. Season 2 debuted in October 2021. Cast members Darby Stanchfield, Connor Jessup, Emilia Jones, Jackson Robert Scott, Brendan Hines, Sherri Saum, Kevin Durand and Coby Bird will all return for the final season. DEADLINE

Amazon released a trailer for the upcoming second season of the YA thriller series "The Wilds." All eight episodes will hit Prime Video on May 6. More: The series centers on a group of teenage girls from different backgrounds who find themselves stranded on a mysterious island following a plane crash. Season 2 will introduce a new group of teenage boy survivors. Sarah Streicher ("Daredevil") created the series and wrote several episodes; Amy Harris ("The Comeback") serves as showrunner. DEADLINE

Rob Lowe and his son, John Owen Lowe, will co-star in the Netflix comedy series "Unstable." The pair created the series along with "Santa Clarita Diet" vet Victor Fresco. More: Rob Lowe will play an eccentric biotech researcher whose socially challenged son (John Owen Lowe) comes to work with him, in the hopes of preventing a disaster. The Lowes previously appeared together in the Fox legal comedy series "The Grinder" and the Netflix film "Holiday in the Wild." Prior to creating "Santa Clarita Diet," Fresco's credits include "My Name Is Earl," "Mad About You," "Better Off Ted," and "Andy Richter Controls the Universe." DEADLINE

"KillRoy Was Here" The next film from writer/director Kevin Smith -- the comedy-horror anthology "KillRoy Was Here" -- will be available exclusively as an NFT via the Legendao platform. 5,555 NFT owners will receive the film, behind-the-scenes footage, a commentary track, and exclusive art. More: Downloading or streaming the film will only be available to owners of the "crypto key" that comes with the NFT. NFT owners also have a chance to provide ideas -- and even potentially contribute footage -- for the planned "KillRoy" sequel. Reese Witherspoon's company Hello Sunshine is also experimenting with NFT partnerships; the upcoming Anthony Hopkins film "Zero Contact" will also be distributed via NFT, alongside a limited theatrical release. INDIEWIRE

QUICK HITS Hulu released a trailer for the three-part docuseries "Captive Audience," from producers Joe and Anthony Russo ("Extraction") and director Jessica Dimmock ("The Pearl"); the series relates the strange tale of Steven Stayner, a 7-year-old boy who disappeared in 1972 and then mysteriously returned 7 years later, sparking a media frenzy. Hulu also dropped a trailer for the teen rom-com "Crush," starring Rowan Blanchard as a shy girl who joins the school track squad to get closer to her crush (Isabella Ferreira), then falls for a different teammate (Auli’i Cravalho). Krysta Rodriguez ("Halston") and Laura Lapkus ("Good Girls") will co-star in the CBS comedy pilot "Sober Companion" from "Jane the Virgin" vet Jennie Synder Urman; Rodriguez plays an out-of-control alcoholic who's mandated to spend all of her time with a court-appointed sober companion (Lapkus). According to Nielsen's latest "State of Play" survey, around half of US streaming users report feeling "overwhelmed" by the amount of streaming content and services. Jessica Williams joined the cast of Apple's "Shrinking," the upcoming comedy series that also features Jason Segel and, in his first regular TV role, Harrison Ford. The 74th Primetime Emmy Awards will air on Monday, September 12, on NBC; no hosts have yet been announced.

Lon Harris is the writer and editor of Inside Streaming and was the very first person to ever write an Inside newsletter. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and also writes about TV and film for Fandom, Screen Junkies, Rotten Tomatoes, Gamma Ray and others. Plus he has a Game of Thrones podcast called "Casterly Talk" and competes on The Movie Trivia Schmoedown as "The Professor." Editor Jonathan Harris is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles.

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