Welcome back to What I’m Hearing, coming at you from New York for a few days of Hot TV Upfronts Action.

No, I’m not in Cannes this year, so I’m missing all the micro-scandals, the bad formal wear, and the announcements of Nic Cage movies that will almost certainly never get made. But today I’m launching a new, occasional feature called “The Mailroom” where I answer reader questions that aren’t so businessy, and the first questions are Cannes-related! I’ve also got some Cannes restaurant recs from WIH’s occasional food critic, producer Jamie Patricof. So keep scrolling…

🚨🚨 Puck events PSA: The list for my sit-down with Roku’s Charlie Collier is officially closed, but What I’m Hearing+ author Julia Alexander is doing a separate event tomorrow night in NYC for Peacock’s The Traitors. It’s a screening and conversation with host and producer Alan Cumming. Puck members can click here to attend.

Programming note: I had a fun chat about the streaming wars with Ben Thompson at Stratechery. I did a Reddit AMA on the summer box office. And my full Milken Institute panel video is here. On The Town, Lucas Shaw and I debated who wins and loses in the Disney+/Hulu/Max bundle; Peacock president Kelly Campbell previewed her Olympics strategy, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Cathy Schulman explained why non-writing producers are becoming extinct. Subscribe here and here.

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Discussed in this issue: David Zaslav, Bob Iger, David Greenbaum, Robbie Praw, Brad Pitt, Doug Belgrad, Cesar Conde, Wes Ball, Natalie Portman, Shari Redstone, Jeff Zucker, Steve Asbell, Stephanie Jones… and my worst Harvey encounter at Cannes.

But first…

Runner-up: Robbie Praw, Netflix’s V.P. of standup and comedy formats, and curator of the Netflix Is a Joke festival. More than 600 comics, 542 shows, 360,000 tickets sold (up from 270,000 in 2022), and genuine breakouts on the service in the Tom Brady roast, the Katt Williams special, and the John Mulaney talk show. Profit for Netflix and Live Nation? Unclear, but a huge flex, and co-C.E.O. Ted Sarandos got to take a class photo with 71 of the participants around his pool. Let’s see Bob Iger organize that.

Second runner-up: Doug Belgrad, the producer and former longtime Sony exec, who nabbed the No. 2 job in Netflix film under Dan Lin. They’re now charged with making better and more popular films for less money.

A little more on this…

I’m already hearing griping from Netflix film people about another “dad” figure coming in to manage the reorganized unit, as if this isn’t what happens whenever there’s a change of leadership and strategy. Belgrad is a boring hire for a company with the wallet and potential to make interesting movies, but he’s got 27 years of Sony relationships, plus he’s tight with Netflix mascot Adam Sandler. And Lin’s boss, Bela Bajaria, doesn’t want interesting, she wants TV-style engagement. The layering will likely nudge the four genre-specific executives—Kira Goldberg (drama), Niija Kuykendall (YA/faith/holiday), Ori Marmur (fantasy), and Jason Young (comedy)—toward the door. (A couple of them wanted Lin’s job, and now they won’t even report to him.) That’s assuming options are available, of course. Apple TV+ is looking to replace departed film exec Jessie Henderson, for instance, and Amazon is said to be looking, but there aren’t a ton of these jobs these days.

Runner-up: “Without you, we cannot be who we are. Who the nation needs us to be. Together, we know that strong news organizations equal strong democracies.”
—Cesar Conde, the NBCUniversal news group president, in an unsubtle upfronts pitch to advertisers for why they should support his outlets and not, say, Fox News.

Second runner-up: “He asked me if I was in the original films... I was like, ‘No... I’m 18.’”
—Natalie Portman, recalling her awkward conversation with Prince Charles at the premiere of Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace in 1999.

Now, Scott Mendelson’s take on the Apes opening and Disney’s long and mostly fruitless quest to leverage the 20th Century Fox movie assets…

Sure, the 2019 merger has created obvious and not insignificant commercial value for Disney’s streaming business, but it has largely failed to produce new hit movies. Aside from James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water and Free Guy, the surprisingly successful Ryan Reynolds joint, the various attempts at expanding, continuing, or re-adapting properties and I.P. within the Fox catalog have amounted to little in the way of fortune or glory.

Disney did not greenlight any of the post-merger but pre-Covid films, which Stacey Snider and the other Fox film executives shepherded despite the announcement of the Disney deal in late 2017. Although to be fair, the mid-2010s (and beyond) were a challenging time for successfully promoting original or new-to-you franchise films or non-I.P. studio programmers. Ad Astra, a Brad Pitt sci-fi riff on Apocalypse Now that hit theaters in September 2019, earned just $127 million on a $90 million budget. The animated Will Smith/Tom Holland vehicle Spies in Disguise bombed on Christmas of that year, marking the beginning of the end for Blue Sky Studios, which shut down in April 2021. It was followed into oblivion the following month by specialty label Fox 2000, which spent decades producing the dreaded Movies Audiences Complain Hollywood Never Makes But Then Ignore When Hollywood Makes Them. In its final theatrical release, August 2019’s The Art of Racing in the Rain, Kevin Costner voiced a golden retriever. It failed to even double its $18 million production budget worldwide. Even X-Men: Dark Phoenix tanked, although the plan was always for X-Men to be rebooted into the existing MCU continuity.

Following the widespread theater closures of peak Covid, the 20th Century franchise theatrical slate in 2021 and 2022 was mostly a proverbial graveyard of big-budget, well-reviewed “movie movies” that died in theaters: Spielberg’s West Side Story; del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, from the Searchlight art house division; Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s The Last Duel; The King’s Man, an ill-advised prequel to the Kingsman series. Fox had issues with audiences not showing up for its midbudget fare (Keeping Up With the Joneses, A Cure for Wellness, Snatched, Widows, etcetera) well before Disney took over, but Disney wasn’t used to releasing so many titles that required work to sell to audiences (see also: their challenges with original animated features in the 2020s).

But now comes Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, a $160 million-budgeted fantasy with a chance at a $400 million finish. After all, Rise of the Planet of the Apes finished with $481 million in 2011, and War for the Planet of the Apes needed a now-implausible $112 million from China to get to $491 million in 2017 (this newest installment opened with $11 million there). More than anything, though, executives are likely relieved that it’s the first franchise hit from 20th Century Studios in years.

Ironically, many of the aforementioned Fox properties struggled in the late 2010s partly because of Disney’s sheer domination in the all-quadrant blockbuster department. Who needed another Independence Day when you had Star Wars triumphantly roaring back into theaters? The X-Men series, planned reboot or not, couldn’t help but play second banana to the MCU epics. Free Guy succeeded in 2021 partly because it opened against comparatively weak Disney fare, like Cruella and Jungle Cruise.

The Apes franchise, for its part, has a long track record of critical and consumer approval. It’s also following up on a predecessor that was itself a well-liked smash hit. Unlike so many franchise revivals, it doesn’t have to retroactively apologize for a critically panned prior installment, or pretend that this time everything will be different.

Whether the solid launch of this new Apes is an exception to the rule or the start of a relative theatrical comeback for Disney, most of the I.P. annexed by the Fox purchase wasn’t as valuable as hoped. David Greenbaum, the former co-head of Searchlight who recently began overseeing Disney Studios and Steve Asbell’s 20th Century Studios, handed out his first green light not to a superhero movie or a legacy sequel to a 30-year-old Fox hit, but to a Bruce Springsteen biopic. As we’ve seen with the blockbuster Bohemian Rhapsody (one of Fox’s last pre-Disney hits, with $910 million in 2018) and the more reasonably successful Elvis ($285 million for Warners in 2022), music-focused biopics can be a smart theatrical business.

Even if August’s Alien: Romulus fails again to successfully exploit the now-45-year-old Alien I.P., and even if X-Men and friends only somewhat revive the MCU, a case can be made that Disney wanted those properties, alongside Avatar and The Simpsons (which has consistently been among the most watched shows on Disney+ since launch), partially to prevent a rival like Comcast from getting them. For now, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is an example of what Disney was hoping for all along: a new installment of a well-known, once-popular, and seemingly viable franchise that didn’t originate at Disney and doesn’t necessarily qualify as a stereotypical Disney property.

Moreover, as was the case with Star Wars and the Avengers, the property may even become fodder for the Disney flywheel of theme parks and consumer products despite its origin elsewhere. When Fox released it in 1997, Don Bluth’s Anastasia was explicitly positioned as A-level competition to Disney’s mid-1990s animation resurgence. By late 2020, it was available on Disney+, with its title character implicitly becoming just another Disney princess. That kind of brand reassociation, over the long haul, may be worth all those billions Disney spent on Fox.

Also, don’t feel bad for Disney. Avatar: The Way of Water opened 13 years after its predecessor and almost offhandedly earned $657 million domestically and $2.3 billion worldwide. If the next three Pandora films each top $2 billion—not an absurd notion—they will arguably compensate for many of these theatrical deficiencies. In fact, maybe Disney could go on a little hot streak. If Deadpool & Wolverine, co-starring Hugh Jackman as an alt-world version of the character, performs as well as (realistically) hoped, it and Apes will mark only Disney's second and third “not Avatar” franchise success from the former Fox library. But a shift in momentum for sure.

I agree it’s ridiculous that a former president is on trial and the public is not allowed to watch the proceedings. [New Yorker]

Jeff Zucker (and his Emirati money) has become the latest savior figure for CNN stalwarts (and other potential RedBird acquisitions as well), Dylan Byers writes. [Puck]

Related: Would David Zaslav buy CBS from Paramount and combine its news operation with CNN? Bill Cohan makes the case. [Puck]

Get excited for a super-glamorous entity like Hackman Capital Partners or Square Mile Capital Management to own the Paramount lot if Shari Redstone decides to sell to Apollo and Sony. [Bloomberg]

Yes, I’m aware of the website and Twitter/X account attacking publicist (and WIH bestie) Stephanie Jones. No, I won’t link to it because it’s anonymous. Jones got the initial site taken down but it was quickly moved to another URL, and tonight the X account is suspended. But judging by my inbox, after years of enduring mistreatment and screaming, Jones’s former employees finally feel more empowered to talk about her.

“Your Trojan horse analogy is perfect for what Netflix did to Hollywood. Now they can turn the screws and there’s nothing we can do about it.” —A filmmaker

“Costs are out of control, from all sides. Why? Because networks faced off against streamers. Demand rose. Prices rose. Why else? Union contracts have risen steadily, and movie star talent is demanding [shoots in] L.A. or New York. There’s the same push for visual effects and genre that was working in movies. There’s the insane theory that stars make TV. For every Only Murders in the Building and Morning Show, there are 10 Reachers. But, alas, we hire fourth leads for $400,000 [an episode].” —An agent

“No one should feel sorry for Zaslav (and no one will), but of that $350 million in comp you referred to, $202 million was the value of stock options he received in May 2021 and January 2022. Page 32 of the 2022 Proxy Statement reveals that the options have a strike price of at least $35.65. Until WBD’s stock price increases fourfold, the options are worth zero. Not only is nearly 60 percent of that $350 million ‘aligned with the performance of the stock,’ but it’s currently worthless.

“In addition, much has been made of the use of free cash flow in Zaslav’s comp, but that metric is used only in determining the Performance Restricted Stock Units awarded to him. In 2023, the units (70 percent of which apparently aren’t restricted—the shares were delivered immediately) were valued at $23 million, vs. $12 million awarded in the prior year, accounting for most of the increase in his 2023 comp. (This is laid out, of course, in the 2024 Proxy Statement.) Dylan yucked it up over Zaslav’s statement that ‘the majority of compensation should be aligned with the performance of the stock,’ but in 2023, nearly half of Zaslav’s $49.7 million comp was stock.” —An executive

On that note: Warner Discovery pushed back on parts of my Thursday take about CNBC’s news that Disney is the lead “distributor” of the new Disney+/Hulu/Max bundle. Max will have access to customer data, WBD says. Point taken, but we’ll see how this relationship evolves.

So many threats and screaming fits. But the worst (and I realize this is small potatoes compared to Harvey’s atrocities) was probably when I was seated at a table directly behind him at the Charles Finch dinner at the Du Cap, which unfortunately featured Chiavari chairs. Harvey’s increasingly exposed butt crack was not only visible about two feet in front of me for hours and hours, it actually began to squeeze through the open back of the chair, forming a kind of giant mushroom tip of exposed butt and crack. Not pretty!

Why do the trades write dumb articles about the length of standing ovations at Cannes when every movie, good and terrible, gets a standing ovation?

It’s a simple answer, actually. The Drudge Report often picks up those stories, and when you’re in the web traffic game, as the Penske trades still are, you program for Drudge, not for industry readers who laugh at that stuff. Can’t wait to see the 10-minute ovation for Megalopolis!

And now, finally, Jamie Patricof, the prolific producer and creator of the influential food and culture newsletter With Jamie, offers his picks for where to eat in Cannes…

Although Cannes is one of the most luxurious places in the world, I hear a lot of grumblings about the food offerings. I first went in 2010 with Blue Valentine, and sadly, because I was so busy, my meals were whatever I could grab between or at events. On my second trip, with Captain Fantastic, I branched out a bit more and got some great Italian at Da Laura, ate on the beach at La Mome, and of course got to stop by the iconic Le Maschou. So check those out, or try one of these stellar recommendations from Cannes regulars:

Hotel Belle Rives: “White Lotus-esque old Cannes experience that is perfect for lunch.” —Tom Quinn, Neon

La Colombe d’Or: “A legendary, beautiful boutique hotel with great food, where Picasso famously paid his bill with paintings… and they make a great chicken.” —Jon Kamen, Radical Media

Fred L’écailler: “Daily fresh seafood bought at the fishmonger store and then served in outdoor seating in a small town square.” —Glen Basner, Film Nation

Got a question, comment, complaint, or an over/under on how many Disney upfront jokes Jimmy Kimmel will make about Nelson Peltz? Email me at Matt@puck.news or call/text me at 310-804-3198.