Citi on Hulu sale / Amazon "Citadel" trailer / Peters and Hastings fireside chat / Uncertainty remains around VOD

Plus today's calendar, "Florida Man" trailer, "Cyberpunk" wins top Crunchyroll award, Clancy Brown joins "Penguin," and more

Inside.com Part of   Network March 06, 2023

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Hulk and Namor In a new note to clients, Citi analyst Jason Bazinet predicted that Disney may sell off its stake in Hulu, and use some of the funds to secure the rights to more Marvel Comics characters. Disney's 67% stake in Hulu would more than pay for the acquisition of Hulk and Namor distribution rights from Comcast's Universal. More: Disney owns all Marvel Comics intellectual property, but Comcast retains "distribution rights" on the Hulk and Namor characters. Citi reports that the Marvel acquisition costs would run around $300 million, a fraction of what Disney could earn for its Hulu stake. Comcast and Disney currently co-own Hulu; under the terms of the agreement, Comcast can force Disney to buy out its Hulu stake as early as January 2024, at a minimum value of $9.2 billion for its 33% stake ($27.5 billion for the company in total). Bazinet estimates Hulu's actual value at around $19.8-$27.5 billion. YAHOO FINANCE

Amazon dropped the trailer for "Citadel," a new big-budget spy thriller series from executive producers Joe and Anthony Russo ("Avengers: Endgame"). "Hunters" creator David Weil serves as showrunner on the series, which stars Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. More: The trailer was scheduled to debut earlier this month, but it was delayed following a train crash in Greece; some action seqeunces from the series are set on board a train. The series follows former operatives from a fallen global spy agency who must reunite for a new mission; Stanley Tucci co-stars. The budget for the show's seven episodes has apparently ballooned north of $200 million; original showrunners Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec were replaced during production by Weil. The first two "Citadel" episodes hit Prime Video on April 28. HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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DAILY CALENDAR MONDAY, MARCH 6 HISTORY OF THE WORLD: PART II: Four-part comedy series following up on Mel Brooks' 1981 film "History of the World: Part I," featuring sketches set throughout the history of human civilization. Brooks co-created the series with "Mindy Project" vet David Stassen. Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes, and Ike Barinholtz executive produced and make appearances; the cast also includes Johnny Knoxville, Zazie Beetz, Taika Waititi, Seth Rogen, Danny DeVito, Sarah Silverman, Kumail Nanjiani, and many many others. [Hulu] MOB PSYCHO 100: The anime series is based on a comic by ONE (aka Tomohiro), and centers on a seemingly-average middle school student who's secretly a powerful psychic. Season 3 premieres today on Hulu. [Hulu] PERRY MASON: The mystery drama series -- inspired by author Erle Stanley Gardner's classic character -- returns to HBO this week for a second season. Matthew Rhys stars as private investigator-turned-lawyer Mason, who's now taking on civil cases in 1933 Los Angeles. Juliet Rylance and Chris Chalk co-star. [HBO Max] RAIN DOGS: Debut semi-autobiographical comedy-drama series from the UK, from first-time writer/creator Cash Carraway. Daisy May Cooper stars as a devoted working-class single mother raising her precocious daughter (Fleur Tashjian) with a lot of help from her two closest friends (Jack Farthing and Ronke Adékoluejo). [HBO Max] OMEGA: THE GIFT AND THE CURSE: Five-part biographical docuseries looking back on the life and career of R&B singer Omarion from his own perspective, including behind-the-scenes anecdotes from his 2019 reunion tour with former B2K bandmates J-Boog, Raz-B, and Lil' Fizz. [ALLBLK] HOLDING: UK mystery-comedy series, which originally aired on ITV, based on TV host Graham Norton's 2016 debut novel. "Game of Thrones" vet Conleth Hill stars as lackadaisical Irish detective Sergeant PJ Collins, who's pressured to solve the first serious crime of his career when the dead body of a popular local is discovered in his village. [Acorn TV] RIDLEY JONES: The animated series for preschoolers comes from "Doc McStuffins" vet Chris Nee, and takes place at a history museum where all the exhibits magically come to life. Season 5 debuts today on Netflix. [Netflix]

Hastings, Peters Netflix CEOs Greg Peters and Reed Hastings held a fireside chat at the company's European headquarters in Amsterdam on Monday. The talk was moderated by Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands, the younger brother of Dutch king Willem-Alexander. More: Peters said that the company's top two priorities are "member satisfaction and profit." Hastings explained that Netflix opened its European HQ in Amsterdam due to its central location and the city's "high English fluency." Many European countries contribute extensively to Netflix's catalog of original shows and films; Spain was the #2 producer of Netflix content overall in 2022 after the US, while the UK ranked fifth. HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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"Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" Deadline's Dade Hayes discussed ongoing uncertainty in the film industry around theatrical and streaming windows. While most theatrical distributors once waited a standard 74 days to bring new films to home video, now studios plan out release schedules on a film-by-film basis. More: In 2022, rentals and sales of films via VOD platforms, digital sales, and physical media brought in a total of around $6.3 billion. Total subscription streaming revenue hit $30.3 billion, demonstrating the increasing significance of these services to media companies' bottom line. Release plans have become largely unpredictable: "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" hit both Disney+ and VOD services in February, but is still unavailable as a streaming rental, while "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" debuted as a premium VOD title three weeks after its debut in theaters, and comes to Peacock this Friday. DEADLINE

Netflix released a trailer for the limited crime drama series "Florida Man." Edgar Ramírez stars as an ex-cop who returns to his home state of Florida on a mission to find and return a mobster's runaway girlfriend. More: Anthony LaPaglia, Abbey Lee, Otmara Marrero, Clark Gregg, and Paul Schneider co-star. Jason Bateman executive produced the series through his company, Aggregate Films. "This is Us" vet Donald Todd created the series and serves as showrunner. "Florida Man" hits Netflix on April 13. COMING SOON

"Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" Netflix's "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" took the top prize at the seventh annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards, which were announced over the weekend in Tokyo. The winners are selected via an international popular vote. More: The standalone Netflix series is based on the 2020 video game "Cyberpunk 2077," and is set among mercenaries in the future megalopolis Night City. Crunchyroll's "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc" took home six awards, including Best Action, Best Animation, and Best Character Design. Best Film went to "Jujutsu Kaisen 0," while Crunchyroll's "Spy X Family" took the Best Comedy and Best New Series prizes. According to Crunchyroll, 18 million votes were cast for this year's awards by fans in 200 countries. HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

QUICK HITS Demonstrating security and compliance can be time-consuming and expensive. Until you use Vanta. Start a free trial.* Character actor Clancy Brown joined the cast of HBO Max's "The Batman" spinoff series, "The Penguin," as infamous Gotham crime boss Salvatore Maroni. "Game of Thrones" vet Bryan Cogman will serve as writer and showrunner for Disney+'s upcoming "Zorro" series, starring Wilmer Valderamma as the swashbuckling superhero. Apple released a trailer for "Silo," an upcoming sci-fi drama series based on a trilogy of novels by author Hugh Howey, set in an underground bunker years after an apocalyptic event; Rebecca Ferguson stars as an engineer investigating the bunker's mysterious origin. Netflix is developing a documentary profiling disgraced '70s pop star Gary Glitter, who was convicted of downloading child pornography and child sexual abuse in the late '90s and early '00s. According to former showrunner Chris Chibnall, BBC Studios seriously considered canceling the "Doctor Who" revival prior to its 13th season, due to the complexities posed by the pandemic. A new official YouTube channel features classic music and comedy performances from the '70s and '80s TV program "Midnight Special," including clips featuring David Bowie, Tina Turner, and Elton John. "Arrowverse" executive producer Marc Guggenheim revealed in a recent blog post that he didn't even get a meeting with new DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, despite his nine years of experience working on TV adaptations of the company's IP. Actor Troy Baker, who portrayed Joel in the video game series "The Last of Us," spoke with Deadline about appearing in the HBO adaptation as a different, and entirely original, character. *This is sponsored content

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 Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade.

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