Maturity starts where drama ends

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details of the February 14 Season 6 midseason return of The Walking Dead There was good news and declining news for the explosive and brutal midseason return of The Walking Dead on Sunday. The zombie apocalypse blockbuster didn’t have to face the potential demo drain of the Grammy Awards this year, with the declining CBS hootenanny moved to Monda y. However, even if the high-scoring NBA All-Star Game and the debut of the Martin Scorsese-helmed Vinyl from HBO weren’t factors, the AMC series took a hit. Not that a lot of that hit came from the HBO opener. Vinyl , the drama series about the record industry of the early and decadent 1970s, drew 764,000 viewers for the premium cabler for its 9-10:54 pM ET premiere. That’s no Game Of Thrones obviously, but OK bordering on soft for an HBO debut. The opener is just a little up from what the Season 2 debut of The Leftovers pulled in on October 4 last year in a big drop from … [Read more...] about ‘Walking Dead’ Ratings Down In Midseason Return; ‘Vinyl’ Starts OK

Welcome to Global Breakouts , Deadline’s new strand in which, each fortnight, we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. So we’re going to do the hard work for you. We kick off with a buzzy resurrection drama breaking records in Korea , the nation that introduced the world to Netflix ’s Squid Game but in reality has been making smash-hit shows for decades. Name: Reborn Rich Country : Korea Network : JTBC Seller : Studio LuluLala Where can I watch : On Viu in Korea, South East Asia and the Middle East For fans of : Netflix’s Dark or Christopher Nolan’s Inception There had never been a “reincarnation drama” on Korean cable before JTBC’s Reborn Rich and local viewers had rarely seen anything quite like it, but that didn’t stop them watching this … [Read more...] about Global Breakouts: Korean Cable Hit ‘Reborn Rich’ Is Bringing The Reincarnation Genre Into The Mainstream

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details of tonight’s Outlander Season 3 finale & Season 4 of the Starz drama EXCLUSIVE: On the eve of the Golden Globe nominations being announced, tonight’s sweeping, sultry and almost human sacrificing Season 3 finale of Outlander has brought Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser to 18 th century America. After a viewership-high hitting season that played out the reunion of the Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan -portrayed lovers over time and space, the Ronald D. Moore -developed Starz series based on Diana Gabaldon’s novels is set to plant a flag on a very different landscape than before. With a move to Sunday nights and a fall premiere this season starting on September 10, the 2015 Golden Globe-nominated Best Drama Series saw double-digit increases overall and a multi-platform average audience of 5.7 million for its 13-episode run. “We saw evidence of people going back and discovering the show for the … [Read more...] about ‘Outlander’ EP Ronald D. Moore On Tonight’s Finale, Season 4, Golden Globes & Tobias Menzies Return

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details of tonight’s Season 6 midseason return of The Walking Dead The Walking Dead ‘s midseason return tonight had all the drama, spine-chillers and shockers that most series would save for a season finale. Back for the second part of its sixth season, AMC ’s original zombie apocalypse blockbuster finally unleashed one of the most wrenching twists out of the Robert Kirkman comic series on which it is based – and we’re not talking about the arrival of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan with his barb-wired baseball bat, yet. With explosive results and at great cost, tonight’s Greg Nicotero-directed “No Way Out” picked right up from the post-credits scene of last fall’s winter finale as Negan’s gang make their armed and threatening presence known to Norman Reedus’ Daryl plus Abraham and Sasha, who barely escaped with their lives. As the core survivors remained scattered, Rick Grimes, some of his group and a few of the residents of … [Read more...] about ‘The Walking Dead’ EP Gale Anne Hurd Eyeballs Midseason Shocker, Where Season 6 Is Going & More ‘Fear The Walking Dead’

With a good-ish portion of Season 1’s cast gone, and a somewhat sunnier reboot, the Season 2 opener of HBO ’s rapture-drama The Leftovers averaged 713,000 total and 413,000 demo viewers Sunday in Live+Same Day ratings for its time-slot premiere. On June 29, 2014, the series premiere of the high-concept post-rapture drama pulled in 1.8M viewers in its 10 PM slot on a Sunday. (Damon Lindelof‘s The Leftovers originally had been set to debut June 15 of that year , following the Season 4 finale of Game Of Thrones . But when the it took an unexpected hiatus after Episode 6, with HBO calling it “a short hiatus to prep our final episodes”), it lost that cushy launch platform, instead getting slotted after an episode of True Blood.) That difference between its S1 launch and S2’s starter is a precipitous 60% drop. HBO has, for some time, declined to discuss L+SD ratings, arguing, as do many other TV networks, the stats are irrelevant in today’s viewing environment. Others … [Read more...] about ‘The Leftovers’ Opens Season 2 With Early 713K Tuned In To Premiere In L+SD

EXCLUSIVE : German distributor-producer DCM , whose releases have included Spencer , Moonlight and The Artist , is teaming up with Berlin-based producer Flute Film on a film version of Édouard Louis’ acclaimed 2016 novel History Of Violence . The autobiographical novel, translated into 30 languages, is the second by prodigious French novelist Louis. Based on a real incident, it concerns a violent rape and robbery in Paris on Christmas Eve and the subsequent recounting of events to police and family members. The German-language film version has a script by Dan Kitrosser, best known for Sundance drama We The Animals . Igor Plischke ( Metamorphosis ) will direct. Liza Stutzky ( System Crashers ) is casting director and Saralisa Volm ( Silent Forest ) is associate producer. Producers Christopher Zwickler ( The Magic Flute ) and Dario Suter ( Kon-Tiki ), who optioned the book rights, will be discussing the project with potential finance and … [Read more...] about Germany’s DCM & Flute Film To Adapt Acclaimed Novel ‘History Of Violence’ By French Prodigy Édouard Louis — EFM

On the surface, it may not seem the most appropriate Valentine’s Day gift, but if you are as in love with rock’n’roll and storytelling from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger , and Terence Winter , then HBO ’s Vinyl is a TV kiss you don’t want to miss. Debuting on February 14 with a two-hour pilot directed by the Oscar winner, Vinyl , as I say in my video review above, literally and figuratively rocks. And yes, from its NYC circa 1973 mean streets to blasting the New York Dolls, drugs and a body in the trunk of a car, you could call this 10-episode season GoodRecordFellas – in the best way. With its once-in-a-lifetime behind-the-camera trio and power chord-strong cast led by Boardwalk Empire alum Bobby Cannavale as struggling and stormy label boss Richie Finestra, Vinyl is a near note-perfect swaggering re-creation of a time when the misfit-attracting music biz was at the center of American culture and at its most influential. Still, it is also a … [Read more...] about ‘Vinyl’ Review: Martin Scorsese & Mick Jagger’s HBO Series Rocks

Almost two years ago, Major League Wrestling founder Court Bauer had quite literally buried his face in the sand after learning that Tubi had walked away from their deal to broadcast his sporting events. “I was on vacation and I was just shell shocked,” Bauer recalls to Deadline. “We took the family to the beach and I just face-planted into the sand. For two solid days, I was like a computer rebooting. You go through the dance of media rights deals. There are a lot of wrinkles along the way and bumps on the road. So to go through that and then say, ‘we got to start all over again?’ It’s like you’re almost to the top of the summit and then you fall down.” But Bauer got back up and is now ready to start the biggest chapter yet in his pro wrestling career: starting tonight, the MLW will make its debut on Reelz , its biggest platform yet since forming in 2002. But he’s not about to forgive and forget about what happened with Tubi: the discovery period is expected to begin … [Read more...] about MLW Founder Court Bauer On His New Partnership With Reelz And His Lawsuit Against WWE: “It’s A Ruthless Business”

EXCLUSIVE : Ahead of the EFM , Michael Rothstein and Sam Hall’s Mossbank is launching international sales on action-horror film Azrael , starring Samara Weaving ( Ready Or Not ). CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group will co-rep domestic. Details about the movie have been kept under wraps to date but we can now reveal plot and a first look image. Currently in post-production, the film is set in a world in which no one speaks and follows a devout female-led community which hunts down a young woman who has escaped her imprisonment. Recaptured by its ruthless leaders, Azrael (Weaving) is due to be sacrificed to pacify an ancient evil deep within the surrounding wilderness – but she has other ideas. Pic was directed by E.L. Katz ( Haunting Of Bly Manor ) from an original script by Simon Barrett ( The Guest, You’re Next ). As we first revealed last year, Jason Cloth and Dave Caplan’s C2 Motion Picture Group ( Babylon ) won the rights to the project … [Read more...] about Mossbank, CAA & UTA Launch Action-Horror ‘Azrael’ With ‘Ready Or Not’ Star Samara Weaving & ‘You’re Next’ Scribe, First Look — EFM