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  • All Blogs/ Entertainment Industry Insights: Jan. 31 2023

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New Projects Casting - Production Growth - Vaccine Mandate - TV Cancellations

By Abigail Hardin, January 31, 2023

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Happy Tuesday, UTD!

I don't know about you, but this January has felt like a wave of productivity and at times like I'm stuck standing still. One month in, I'm wrestling with my New Year intentions and goals. In a way, my biggest goal for 2023 is not a tangible one. Yes, I have clear career wants, forecasts, and plans on how to get there. I have enough Up-To-Date Actor new feature ideas to keep me busy well into 2025, but the common thread between all of these goals comes down to changing small personal habits that affect my ability to manifest the career and life that I desire. That being said, my biggest goal for 2023 is to release fear and old paradigms that are holding me back and to go one step further and fully visualize the career and life that I want. What does a day in this future look like? Where am I? Who am I with? What am I doing?

In our workshops, Annie and I often talk about Vision Boards and how this simple yet effective tool can help you set clear goals and intentions. As with everything that we discuss on the Up-To-Date Actor, specificity is key! General goals and intentions will get you nowhere. We so believe in this vital tool, we wrote a blog on how and why to create a vision board. If you're like me and have had a rollercoaster January, take a moment to read about how vision boards can help you shake the cobwebs off of this new year and move forward with specificity.

Also, check out one of our upcoming free workshops! We hope you can join us!

The news cycle was a bit quiet this week, but we saw an uptick in pilots and TV series begin actively casting. Make sure to add projects to your Up-To-Date Actor targets list so that you can learn of casting information as soon as it is announced!

Create a great week! 🌷

Production Growth: Domestic & Abroad
New Jersey Breaks Spending Records

New Jersey Film & TV production had a record year with spending topping $650 million in 2022. NJ Gov. Phil Murphy disclosed the milestone earlier this week, touting the success generated since he reinstated the state's production tax incentive program in 2018. Production activity is poised to grow significantly in the coming years as New Jersey expands its infrastructure and soundstage availability. Netflix is building out a large studio complex in a long-shuttered Army facility in Fort Monmouth, N.J. Lionsgate has teamed with the state to build out a studio and performing arts complex in Newark.

Guadalajara, Mexico Luring Hollywood

Spain's Roots Group, the real estate developer behind Madrid Content City, the site of Netflix's European Production Hub, unveiled that it is developing plans for a Guadalajara Content City, to be built in Mexico's second biggest city.  The development is one part of a larger push to lure Hollywood to the Jalisco region of Mexico. Production costs in Guadalajara are 20% below the average in Mexico, 50% below Latin America's, according to Filma Jalisco. The Guadalajara Content City will be just a two-hour flight from Hollywood, Roots Group chair Raúl Berdonés acknowledged. "We aim to attract big Hollywood productions. With the talent in Mexico and its technicians, many of whom already work In Hollywood, all the stars align. Guadalajara Content City makes a lot of sense," said Berdonés.

SAG-AFTRA Vaccine Mandate

According to a recent SAG-AFTRA survey, 67.1% of SAG-AFTRA members surveyed say they "approve of employers requiring Covid vaccination as a condition of access to the set," with 26.1% saying they disapprove, and 6.8% expressing no opinion. On Friday, Hollywood's unions and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers agreed to extend the Covid protocols, which contain the mandate, until April 1. SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher had called for the survey. Drescher, who says that she herself has been vaccinated, is a leading opponent of the mandate. "I continue to fight on behalf of our members who feel discriminated against because of the Covid unvaccinated or un-boosted status, which is keeping them from working in major studio productions," she wrote in the latest issue of SAG-AFTRA Magazine. "For those members not being fairly considered by studios with regards to their religious or health exemptions, help is on the way!"

TV Cancellation Trend Continues

Last week we covered the recent trend of networks canceling shows after production but prior to airing. The alarming rate and scale of these cancellations have many industry insiders wondering if this trend is here to stay. Canceling a show after months of work is devastating to the cast and crew that devoted so much time to something that will never be seen. Yet another network was added to the list this week with Showtime announcing the cancelation of the completed drama THREE WOMEN as well as the second seasons of both LET THE RIGHT ONE IN and AMERICAN GIGOLO all as part of their consolidation with Paramount+ (read more below).

However, the industry seems hopeful that this cancelation trend is a one-time occurrence. "I don't think those companies are going to want to make a practice of this on an ongoing basis," a partner at a talent agency tells Deadline. "They've done it and they weren't burned to the ground by the town, but the reaction was really, really strong. So barring any further kind of financial apocalypse or whatever, I think they're going to want to reassure people this is a one-of-a-kind based around this unique moment of interest rates shift leading to a change in perception from Wall Street around streaming."

Showtime Rebranding

Speaking of Showtime, Paramount Global revealed Monday that the company is rebranding the premium cable network, Showtime, as "Paramount+ with Showtime" as part of a wide-ranging change that also brings the two brands together in the streaming world. As part of the changes, the company will "divert investment away from areas that are underperforming" and that account for "less than 10% of our views. [...] We have already begun conversations with our production partners about what content makes sense moving forward and which shows have franchise potential," said Showtime President and CEO Chris McCarthy.

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