English Entertainment
Halloween comes early on Star World Premiere HD
Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition and it seems to have arrived early on Star World Premiere HD. The channel that takes pride in bringing the biggest and most critically acclaimed shows to India is set to premiere the two spookiest shows of television – Ryan Murphy’s Horror Anthology series American Horror Story Season 6 and Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s horror drama The Strain Season 3.
The vampire drama The Strain is set to return for its third season on 3 September at 11 pm in India and stars Corey Stoll (House of Cards), David Bradley (Argus Filch in the Harry Potter film series and Walder Frey in Game of Thrones) and Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings) in the lead roles. The Strain comes from a trilogy of novels written by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Hellboy) and Chuck Hogan, who wrote the novel, Prince of Thieves that Ben Affleck used as the basis for The Town.
Regarding the concept, del Toro sought to de-romanticize vampires, which have been humanized and turned into love interests in recent years. During the launch of the series, del Toro had said: “Vampires have been romanticised. We’ve kind of de-fanged them. I wanted to do this not as a movement, but as an alternative. It is gory, but not gory for the sake of being gory. I would say it’s biologically curious. But the way the vampires breed is truly brutal.”
The thriller started with an investigation into a mysterious viral outbreak in New York City with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism. As the strain spreads, the head of the Center for Disease Control Canary Team and his team wage war for the fate of humanity itself. The season three begins with New York City being written off by the federal government, leaving the remaining residents fighting for survival on their own in this battleground.
Next in the line-up is the much-awaited Season 6 of American Horror Story that will mark its debut on 18 September at 11:30 pm in India. Each year, Ryan Murphy gives television it’s most bafflingly and sinister hour of television with American Horror Story and this year seems even more intriguing as the show creators have kept the theme of forthcoming Season 6 a closely guarded secret. However, the cast-members Evan Peters, Matt Bomer, Leslie Jordan, Cheyenne Jackson, Lady Gaga, Sarah Paulson and Angela Bassett have confirmed their involvement for season6.
Ryan Murphy had hinted on the Season 6 during an interview last fall, “We’re doing something we’ve never done before on a show where we’re doing two different groups of writer’s rooms. Some of our writers will be bouncing around, but a whole different group is coming in late August. The next thing we’re crafting up is very, very different than [Season 5]. Not smaller. Not just not opulent. More rogue and more dark.”
This year also marks many firsts for the series as it is the first time that the series is making a debut outside of October in its history and it is the first season to not release a subtitle, before the premiere, since its launch!
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
