There was plenty of geek TV news over the last week, and it's time for another round-up!
Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Corporation, revealed on the company's quarterly earnings call that Disney+, ESPN+, and basic Hulu can be purchased as part of a discounted subscription package for Disney's new streaming service when it launches in November. The discounted bundle will be priced at $12.99, which is a $5 discount compared to purchasing each service individually. This matches the subscription price of Netflix, which is clearly Disney's primary competitor in the streaming space. Disney+ is slated to feature the entire Disney movie library as well as a number of original Marvel and Star Wars series (see "'The Falcon and The Winter Soldier', 'WandaVision', 'Loki', 'What if...?', 'Hawkeye' TV News"). Netflix signed the creators of Game of Thrones to an exclusive content creation deal according to Deadline. David Benioff and D.B.Weiss have signed onto a five-year deal worth up to $300 million dollars to write, produce, and direct new films and series for the Netflix streaming service. Even with the new exclusive deal in place, the producer duo will honor all prior obligations to other studios, such as the new Star Wars trilogy they have been developing for Lucasfilm (see "'Game of Thrones' Creators' 'Star Wars' Movie Next"). Producers at Nickelodeon better hide their leftover lasagna from lunch! Their parent company, Viacom, announced that it will acquire Paws Inc., the owners of the rights to Garfield and the U.S. Acres properties. Once the acquisition is complete, Nickelodeon will make a new Garfield animated series. Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield, will continue to produce the comic strip even after the license portfolio changes hands. This is another add to the growing Nickelodeon portfolio of kids' licenses that already includes PAW Patrol, Blue's Clues & You!, and the ever-popular SpongeBob Squarepants (see "SpongeBob's 'Birthday Bash'"). AMC has attached Nico Tortorella to a lead role in the third The Walking Dead series. according to Deadline, Tortorella will be playing a character named Felix who is "an honorable man of his word who isn't afraid to fight for others' safety and acceptance." He joins the previously announced cast that includes Annet Mahendru (Huck), Aliyah Royale (Iris), Alexa Mansour (Hope), Nicolas Cantu (Elton), and Hal Cumpston (Silas). The new series will premiere in Spring 2020. Recently, ICv2 reported on the departure of Dania Gurira from the original The Walking Dead (see " Dania Gurira Leaves 'The Walking Dead"). HBO Max has acquired exclusive streaming rights to the long-running BBC series Doctor Who. It is a part of a long-term deal between HBO Max and BBC Studios that also include 700 episodes of other mainstay British titles like The Office, Luther, The Honorable Woman, and the ever-popular test drive show Top Gear. WarnerMedia's streaming service continues to build towards its Fall premiere (see " WarnerMedia Streaming Service Takes Shape"). Finally, not to be outdone by either Viacom or WarnerMedia, CBS Corporation is adding a line of children's programming to CBS All Access, to include new seasons of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Danger Mouse as well as more than 1000 catalog episodes of older series such as Inspector Gadget, The Adventures of Paddington Bear, Madeline, and Heathcliff.Geek TV News Round-Up
Posted by Jeffrey Dohm-Sanchez on August 12, 2019 @ 10:07 pm CT