Mendelsohn to star in King’s ‘Outsider’, Bateman to direct
‘Friends’ to remain on Netflix for now
LOS ANGELES, Dec 4, (RTRS): HBO has ordered a series adaptation of the Stephen King novel “The Outsider” with Ben Mendelsohn attached to star, Variety has learned.
In addition, Jason Bateman will direct the first two episodes and executive produce the series under his Aggregate Films banner.
In the series, a seemingly straightforward investigation into the gruesome murder of a local boy leads a seasoned cop and an unorthodox investigator to question everything they believe to be real, as an insidious supernatural force edges its way into the case.
Media Rights Capital is the studio and will produce along with Aggregate and Temple Hill Entertainment. Mendelsohn will also produce in addition to starring. Richard Price serves as writer and executive producer. Marty Bowen of Temple Hill will also executive produce along with Michael Costigan of Aggregate and Jack Bender.
Mendelsohn is well-known for recent film roles like “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”, “Mississippi Grind” and “Slow West”. He also had an Emmy-winning role in the Netflix drama “Bloodlines”. Mendelsohn starred as King George VI in director Joe Wright’s film “Darkest Hour” opposite Gary Oldman and will appear in the upcoming Marvel release “Captain Marvel”.
This marks the latest producing and directing project for Bateman. He has recently directed multiple episodes of the Netflix-MRC series “Ozark”, in which he also stars and executive produces, and directed the feature films “Bad Words” and “The Family Fang” in recent years.
After an internet uproar over the possibility of “Friends” leaving Netflix at the end of 2018, the streaming giant announced a renewal to keep the sitcom through the end of next year.
Fans of the NBC hit went into a tizzy over the weekend after customers spied a notice on Netflix’s page for the show indicating it would no longer be available to stream as of Jan 1, 2019. Netflix has now removed that expiration notice from its website.
New
In fact, “Friends” will not be dropping off Netflix on that date. Under a new pact with Warner Bros Television, it will be available in the US and Canada through 2019.
A Netflix rep confirmed the deal and the company tweeted the news Monday:
“Friends” has been one of the most popular licensed shows on Netflix, ranking in top 10 of the most-viewed licensed TV shows for the 12 months ending in September 2017, according to a data analysis from 7Park Data.
Netflix first bowed all 10 seasons of “Friends”, encompassing all 236 episodes of the show, to subscribers in the US and Canada in January 2015, under a deal with Warner Bros.
There had been industry speculation that Warner Bros would not renew a deal with Netflix for “Friends” and other top content as WarnerMedia plans to launch its own subscription VOD service in the fourth quarter of 2019. Separately, Disney is ending its film-output deal with Netflix, starting with 2019 releases, as it gears up to launch Disney+ later next year.
“Friends” stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer as a group of twentysomething pals living in Manhattan. The show, which originally aired on NBC from 1994-2004, was produced by Warner Bros Television in association with Bright/Kauffman/ Crane Prods.
“Friends” aficionados took to social media to complain about Netflix’s potential loss of the show and threatened to cancel their subscriptions – something that routinely happens when popular content leaves any service.
Rakuten Viki, a streaming provider specializing in Asian TV shows and movies, has reached deals with major Japanese broadcasters Nippon TV and Asahi TV to bring a collection of their shows to audiences outside the country.
The collection of new shows coming to Rakuten Viki under the pacts include 10 series from Nippon TV and six from Asahi TV.
The titles from Asahi TV, tentatively scheduled to premiere in the first quarter of 2019, are “Holiday Love”, “Adult High School”, “Anino Dating Agency”, “Age Harassment”, “Sumika Sumire” and “Good-bye, Enari-kun”.
Platform
Of the 10 titles acquired from Nippon TV, five are now available on Viki.com: “Overprotected Kahoko”, “Caution, Hazardous Wife”, “Criminologist Himura and Mystery Writer Arisugawa”, “A Girl’s Breakfast” and “Frankenstein’s Love”. In addition, five more from Nippon TV are coming soon to the platform: “May I Blackmail You?”, “SWIM!”, “Tokyo Tarareba Girls”, “Pretty Proofreader” and “Your Home is My Business!”
“These shows are a great fit for our platform, which has a proven ability to build communities around fandoms of content from around the world,” Sarah Kim, SVP of content and partnerships for Rakuten Viki.
Viki has specialized in K-drama programming, and Kim said there is “a lot of crossover among fans of Japanese and Korean dramas... Since a majority of our fans are avid K-drama fans, the J-drama stories resonate well with this passionate audience.”
For the shows from Nippon TV and Asahi TV, Rakuten Viki has streaming rights outside of Asia, mostly in the Americas and Europe, while some are also available in India and Oceania.
Titles on Viki are available to watch free with ads. Viki’s ad-free, HD service regularly costs $49.99 annually in the US. Viki Pass Plus, which includes access to Kocowa’s Korean programming, is regularly $99.99 per year (currently available in a special promo for $59.99 per year).
All told, Viki now offers more than 2,000 shows in the US, spanning content from Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China. Worldwide, Viki has over 17 million registered users.
Asked whether Rakuten Viki is looking to negotiate rights for titles that had previously been exclusively available in the US on DramaFever – the K-drama service that Warner Bros Digital Networks shut down in October – Kim said “we’re always looking to onboard more K-drama content, especially those that will resonate well with our audiences within the romance and romantic comedy genres.” However, she declined to identify specific shows Viki might be seeking to license.