Latest news with #Succession-style
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner view: Guinness and co are in need of a masterplan
Netflix may have its critics, but its sense of timing is usually good. Whether that is positive news for the Guinness brewing dynasty, and the brand's parent company Diageo, is something we will discover next month. That's when a new eight-part drama hits our screens recounting the creation of a global business empire which has become synonymous with Ireland. The House of Guinness is set in 19th-century Dublin and New York and unfolds the complexities of a Succession-style plot following the death of Benjamin Guinness and the Machiavellian impact of his will on the lives of his four adult children: Arthur, Edward, Ann, and Ben. The vice-president in charge of content at Netflix explained the attraction of the story: '...wealth, poverty, power, influence, and great tragedy are all intertwined to create a rich tapestry of material to draw from. I've always been fascinated by their stories, and am excited to bring the characters to life for the world to see.' That responsibility falls to someone with an impressive CV in shows with cult potential — the writer Steven Knight who has delivered memorable scripts for SAS Rogue Heroes and, of course, Peaky Blinders, the iconic six-instalment series which showcased the adventures of a mixed heritage Birmingham, Romany, and Irish gang in the UK in the years following the First World War. There's an impressive cast, with a major role undertaken by James Norton, who played the chilling sociopath Tommy Lee Royce from Happy Valley, exchanging his (natural) West Riding accent for training in the tones of 19th-century Dublin. Norton plays Seán Rafferty, a company hardman whose job it is to keep the Guinness workforce on their toes. Other cast members include Dervla Kirwan, Anthony Boyle, and Cork-born actor Jack Gleeson, memorable for his portrayal of the sinister and sadistic Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones. Knight has a ready plotline should he be tempted to use it with the emergence of southern rivals, Beamish and Murphy's, who bridle against the dominance of the capital city's favourite tipple. But perhaps he has already been there and done that with his account of the power struggles between the Shelbys, the Sabinis, and Alfie Solomons's Camden Town gang. Whether Guinness benefits from this publicity, and whether it is brand-enhancing, we will be able to discern more clearly by late autumn. But it comes during a period when there have been some uncharacteristic lapses in the company's usual stately progress. On the plus side, it ousted Budweiser in 2024 to commence a four-year stint as 'the official beer of the Premier League'. It is also the 'official beer' of the Six Nations international rugby competition. This week it moved further into club competition by agreeing separate partnerships with Arsenal and Newcastle, the latter in a city which has its own legendary beverage, Newkie Broon ale. While Guinness may be everywhere, with countless memes about 'splitting the G', there are signs of shareholder discontent with its parent company. It is less than a month since its CEO Debra Crew stepped down without a succession plan. Ms Crew, who had been in place since June 2023, received a total pay package equivalent to €4.17m for the financial year ending June 30. The company's shares have lost a third of their value since the summer of 2023. Diageo reported a drop in both sales and profits in the six months ended December 2024, according to figures released this week. This was despite growth in demand for Guinness which resulted in supplies running out or being rationed in the UK last Christmas. We all noted the news that spending by Cork's hurling fans plummeted by 13% on July 20, the day of the All-Ireland defeat by Tipperary. No doubt the reason for raising a glass by some visitors to Dublin was undermined by that dispiriting defeat. It's down to Oasis fans to make up for that shortfall with the concerts in the city today and tomorrow, and there's every chance that they will. But for Guinness and Diageo, a renewal of confidence requires, in the words of Noel Gallagher, a masterplan. And just like that, soccer is back It may stick in the throat of GAA diehards but there won't be many Irish sports fans who haven't noticed that, with the appearance of champions Liverpool at Anfield last night, the Premier League is back.. And so, after one apparently interminable season, we are about to commence on another which will finish on July 19, 11 months from now, with the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in New York and another photobomb opportunity for US president Donald Trump. Before then, there will be 380 games in the Premier League plus countless subsidiary divisions; the League of Ireland; the Champions League; the Europa League; the Conference League; assorted cup competitions; and internationals, friendly and otherwise. Plus the burgeoning and increasingly popular women's game. No wonder Sky is pioneering a new multi-view service which allows you to watch four games at once. A small hint to broadcasters. This isn't enough for computer game veterans who are adept at multitasking. And where's the soco-bot which can be sent out to watch all the matches the viewer doesn't want ... those 0-0s on a rainy night in Stoke? Arguments over identifying ethnic origins There is no indication, as yet, of any great support for the proposition that the ethnicity or nationality of suspects should be drawn to the attention of the general public at the point at which they are charged and enter the criminal justice system. Indeed, the whole issue of court procedure is one on which there are wildly varying opinions. One contributor to the Irish Examiner this week took the view that defendants should not be named until a trial has ended, and only when a conviction is secured. The media (and social media), he wrote, 'could lead the way by doing the right thing and have a shred of humanity and not name or identify any suspect unless or until they have been found guilty of the crime with which they were charged'. While it is possible to construct mighty arguments around this proposition, it is enough to note that ordinary people are thinking about the administration of justice and whether it can be made better. Or, given the law of unforseen consequences, worse. In Ireland, An Garda Síochána does not usually release the ethnicity of individuals charged with crimes. Sometimes restrictions are cited for reasons of privacy or data protection, although these arguments are increasingly governed by the law of diminishing returns for some citizens. There are exceptions where it is deemed necessary to assist investigations or head off potential public order problems stimulated by the circulation of misinformation. In Britain, the College of Policing and National Police Chiefs' Council says forces should consider releasing the ethnicity and nationality of suspects at the point of charge. This follows mounting public concerns and is part of a review to ensure processes are fit for purpose in an age of rapid information spread. The touchstone was last year's knife murders of three small children and serious injuries to 10 others at a Taylor Swift dance class in Southport. The murderer, 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, was born in Cardiff to an evangelical family from Rwanda. In the information vacuum which followed his arrest, Britain experienced serious rioting. That data blackout is now perceived as a serious error of judgement. The complexities were underlined this week when the family of six-year-old Bebe King, one of the three girls killed, urged ministers to reconsider their support for disclosing the ethnicity of serious crime suspects. Michael Weston King, the victim's grandfather, said such information is 'completely irrelevant', and that 'mental health issues and the propensity to commit crime happens in any ethnicity, nationality, or race'. This is true, but we would be naïve to think that such demands for 'disclosure' and 'transparency' will not gather strength in our own country. Each one of us, rather like our letter writer on Monday, must decide where we stand.
News18
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
Steve Carell Says Mountainhead Is ‘Succession-ish': ‘It's Darker And Chilling'
Last Updated: Steve Carell reacts to the internet comparing Mountainhead to popular TV series, Succession, and expresses worry over living in a high-tech world where AI rules the roost. Following Succession, which ended two years ago, creator Jesse Armstrong returns with Mountainhead, set to premiere on HBO on May 31. While Jesse once said he wasn't sure if he wanted to make a follow-up to his iconic series, his upcoming outing is drawing attention for its Succession-style exploration of male ambition, power, wealth, and greed. Mountainhead is set in a world dominated by AI, tech bros, and Meta-style giants, who also hold the power to trigger eco-political instability. Speaking exclusively to News18, Steve Carell, who plays one of the protagonists in Mountainhead, responds to comparisons between the show and Succession. He says the Hiam Abbass, Nicholas Braun, and Brian Cox-starring series was 'dark," but that Mountainhead is 'darker" and 'crazier." 'I think it's Succession-ish in the sense that it's created by Jesse Armstrong. But it's different. It's different in terms of its tone," The Office star tells us. Steve actually prefers to compare Mountainhead to Stanley Kubrick's 1964 Cold War satire Dr. Strangelove, which also tackled themes of power and ambition. 'I loved Succession and that's the reason I signed on to this. I was and am a huge fan of Jesse's. But tonally, they're a little bit different. To me, Mountainhead feels like a modern-day Doctor Strangelove, and that's one of my favourite films of all time. The darkness and the tether Mountainhead has to reality in this moment is chilling," he states. The trailer touches upon the far-reaching consequences of AI and deepfakes, evoking growing AI-related anxieties. One scene portrays a violence-engulfed Asia following a deepfake outbreak that further distorts the perception of reality. 'To a degree, it's terrifying. The fact that this technology not only exists but is further along than most of us understand and that the timeline between where we are and what's depicted in the film might not be that far is terrifying," says a concerned Steve. Mountainhead is already receiving rave reviews for its satirical depiction of a tech-ruled, high-stakes world. Elaborating on the film's core themes, Steve remarks, 'That's why there's a bone-chilling essence to it. This is potentially a real issue we'll face as a society going forward. I loved the way Jesse crafted this film. It's incredibly frightening, but there's also some kind of a palette cleanse with very, very funny moments. I think he has it both ways." First Published: May 31, 2025, 04:37 IST
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Richard II at the Bridge Theatre review: Jonathan Bailey is electric as the flawed king
Jonathan Bailey gives the best performance I've ever seen of Shakespeare's flawed monarch, an erratic tyrant who gains dignity once deposed. This might sound like faint praise since major London productions of the play are rare. But the two other Richards I recall are David Tennant and Fiona Shaw, so props to the star of Bridgerton and Wicked. Bailey inhabits and humanizes the king in a clean, clear, martial staging from Nicholas Hytner that feels right for our times. Altogether this is a winningly bold combination of casting, programming and cultural curation to follow the Bridge's joyful post-Covid moneyspinner, Guys and Dolls. There the actors rubbed shoulders with the audience. Here we make up a horseshoe of spectators around an oblong stage thrusting into the auditorium; at one point, we become witnesses at a show trial. Bailey swaggers on to Succession-style music, in a simple crown but with a bespoke frock coat and sockless feet in velvet slippers, setting him apart from courtiers in suits or jeans. A saturnine beard gives an impish frame to his imperious behavior. In short order Richard exiles his troublesome cousin and potential rival Henry Bullingbrook (striking newcomer Royce Pierreson) and seizes Bullingbrook's late father John of Gaunt's estate to undertake a foolish war in Ireland. Where he loftily believes his divine right justifies any caprice, Bullingbrook is more plain-spoken and pragmatic in courting nobles' favour. Yet when he challenges Richard – in this case, by training a massive field gun on the theatre's balcony where Bailey stands spotlit in a white shift – he becomes a traitor. Richard, meanwhile, is transformed through grief over the loss of his kingdom into a kind of Christ figure, a metamorphosis Bailey achieves with great skill. As Hytner has said, he speaks Shakespeare's verse as if born to it. The play has some of Shakespeare's finest poetry (including Gaunt's 'This England' speech, delivered well by an understudy at the performance I attended due to the indisposition of Clive Wood). There are echoes of Hamlet in Richard's reflective soliloquy on landing back in Wales, and of King Lear in his character arc. The ruthless plotting and politicking – opponents here are dispatched with a bullet to the back of the neck - spark associations with Shakespeare's other Tudor history plays: it's boggling to remember he wrote them in seemingly random order over two decades. Still, Richard II, with its rigid structure and strict double-narrative about two different styles of kingship, is never going to be a crowd-pleaser unless it's by star casting. Hence Bailey. He commands the stage and even allows a little camp to seep into the character (Richard's marriage to his shopaholic wife may be transactional). He doesn't sugar the king's brattish reluctance to cede the crown but in later speeches attains a stricken grandeur. Hytner's production brims with top-notch character actors, including Michael Simkins as a dogged Duke of York and Christopher Osikanlu Colquhoun as a suave Duke of Northumberland. It also has a future star in Royce Pierreson. Bullingbrook is only his third professional stage role: he brings to it a great sense of command. At the end, Bailey quite rightly called him on stage to share his join his solo curtain call. Bridge Theatre, to May 10;
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Final Flicker of Cable News As We Know It
At a moment when the news cycle is moving at a breakneck pace, top cable news executives are grappling with an uncomfortable reality: The future of the business has never been more uncertain. As one veteran executive argues, it is more likely than not that by the end of President Donald Trump's term, CNN, MSNBC and, yes, even Fox News will have new ownership as the power structures that have defined media for the past four decades break down. MSNBC is already set to be spun off from Comcast and NBCUniversal, joining sister channel CNBC at 'SpinCo,' a cable-focused venture to be led by Mark Lazarus. And at Warner Bros. Discovery, a restructuring has placed CNN into a 'global linear networks' division, seemingly destined for future dealmaking. More from The Hollywood Reporter What Happened to Those Streaming Bonuses? Who Will Stand Up to Trump's Broligarchs? An Obituary for TikTok Even Fox News, with its relative financial and ratings strength, isn't immune from speculation. Rupert Murdoch, who effectively controls Fox through an irrevocable family trust, has been trying to amend that trust to give his son (and Fox CEO) Lachlan Murdoch control. Should that legal effort fail, multiple Wall Street sources believe that Murdoch would engage in sale talks or work with Lachlan to figure out a way to buy out his siblings, thus avoiding a Succession-style public battle for the family empire. 'We believe there is a near zero percent chance that Rupert wants to leave planet earth with the future of the assets he spent his life building left in limbo,' Lightshed Partners' Rich Greenfield wrote in a note in December. 'If Lachlan is unable to cement control through a buyout, we suspect Rupert would look to sell Fox's assets.' It's not hard to understand why the cable news business is seemingly on the edge of a precipice, despite the fact that there's more news than ever with a president who is an avid viewer and has stacked his Cabinet with TV veterans. As CNN CEO Mark Thompson told staff Jan. 23, there are 'profound and irreversible shifts' in the way consumers get their news, and the product needs to reflect that. Those shifts are even more stark when looking at the troubled economics of cable TV. By now everyone knows that the challenges that cord-cutting has wrought, with younger consumers largely opting not to pay for TV, and instead spending their dollars on streaming platforms. And while cable news channels suck up a higher percentage of cable's declining viewership (MSNBC viewership has increased 57 percent during the past decade despite 33 percent fewer pay TV households, for example), the business challenges remain stark. The finances of cable news channels have traditionally been obscured, buried within larger divisions of their parent companies. A recent defamation lawsuit against CNN, however, brought those finances (or at least a partial version of them) into the open. According to the data disclosed at trial, revenue at CNN fell from $2.2 billion in 2021 to $1.8 billion in 2023, and while profits remain robust, those too are slipping fast. CNN earned net income of $600 million in 2021 and $400 million in 2023. A CNN spokesperson says that 'the numbers represent the plaintiff's interpretation of a subset of data as presented in litigation, and they do not represent financial data for the whole of CNN's business.' The finances will be different at MSNBC and at Fox News (especially at Fox, which has far higher subscriber fees and substantially more viewers), but the overall trend lines are still driven by the fortunes of pay TV, and that pain is being felt everywhere. CNN's decision to cut some 200 jobs in January is just the latest example. All this is reflected in the 'new normal' for talent deals, according to multiple sources. Some, like Rachel Maddow, are signing new contracts for less money or in other cases new deals without a pay increase (i.e., CNN's Wolf Blitzer and MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire). Still others opted to abandon their respective channels after being presented with new deals that offered sharply slashed salaries, with Fox's Neil Cavuto and CNN's Chris Wallace among the high-profile examples. 'I think what the networks are looking at is 'the way we had been doing things was wonderful for us, but it's gone and it's never coming back,'' says Ben Bogardus, an associate professor and chair of the journalism department at Quinnipiac University. 'Younger generations especially get their news and information online. They enjoy the podcast model, where they hear the unfiltered views of people in a longform interview, or they like the short clips of real people on social media.' That reality is not lost on cable news channels, which are already beginning to pivot accordingly. Thompson has prioritized vertical video at CNN, while at MSNBC, a flurry of podcasts (many of them hosted or produced by Maddow) have found significant audiences. And sources at multiple outlets say that there is interest in inking deals with podcasters and other digital-native hosts, either in the form of outright acquisitions or content partnerships. Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway's Pivot podcast, for example, has been holding talks with multiple media companies, including CNN. In fact, the podcast revolution is already finding its way to the legacy TV product, in aesthetic form, if not function. After Cavuto left Fox, the channel gave his timeslot to Will Cain, who also hosts a podcast for the company. His afternoon show features 'a signature podcast style,' per Fox, with a microphone on the desk in front of him, and a format familiar to anyone who watches talk shows on platforms like YouTube or Spotify. It is in some ways a back-to-the-future moment for cable, where lower-cost radio simulcasts used to fill otherwise undesirable hours. Before Morning Joe, for example, MSNBC simulcasted Don Imus' radio program. Now the format is seeping into far more lucrative time slots. And across the board, news executives are scrambling to figure out how news fits into the streaming future that is taking shape across the rest of media, subsuming entertainment and now sports. Thompson told staffers that his channel's objective is 'to shift CNN's gravity toward the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting.' What that looks like remains somewhat opaque, though Thompson said that it will include a new CNN streaming service and lifestyle-focused subscription offerings to complement its digital news report. He added that WBD is investing $70 million in the effort. At CNN, Thompson told staff that the channel's objective is 'to shift CNN's gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN's future as one of the world's greatest news organizations.' Fox, meanwhile, is in many ways ahead of the game, having launched its Fox Nation streaming service in 2018. Still, that service, geared toward super fans, still only has about two million subscribers as of a year ago, and its content lineup is heavy on entertainment fare. Now it has decided to take the biggest leap of them all. On Feb. 4, Fox said that it would launch a streaming service by the end of 2025, one that would include sports and, yes, Fox News programming. Lachlan Murdoch said his company is still committed to the pay TV bundle, but added that 'we do want to reach consumers wherever they are, and there's a large population, obviously, that are now outside of the traditional cable bundle.' While executives at the company have long maintained that they could 'flip a switch' and start streaming Fox News' full lineup, the company will now need to grapple with the same questions facing ESPN, which will make its full programming lineup available via streaming later this year: How do you take one of the most lucrative wholesale products of all time and price it for retail consumers without destroying the business? When every pay-TV consumer is paying for every channel, a company like ESPN or Fox News can make billions annually. But if you have a product that appeals only to fans of the brand, pricing and retention strategy becomes a much bigger problem to solve. And at MSNBC, the spinoff could end up being a saving grace. Until now, MSNBC's streaming strategy has centered on Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service. But freed from that corporate structure, MSNBC can figure out its own path forward in streaming, whether that be a licensing deal, or a direct-to-consumer offering like its sister channel CNBC has developed for its (smaller, more niche) audience. The clock, however, is ticking. 'I think they're saying, 'yeah, we're making money now, but in 10 years, we are not going to be making more money than we are now,'' Bogardus says. 'So how can we get ahead of the game? How can we make sure that in the next 10 years we aren't losing 100 percent of our audience as more and more American life does move to social platforms and online and user generated content.' And despite the agita and anxiety permeating newsrooms, there remain pockets of optimism. Fox News has, since the election garnered some 70 percent of the cable news audience, drawing numbers more comparable to broadcast TV networks. It's an astonishing feat in an era of cord-cutting. Fox 'burnt off the cable news competition,' CFO Steve Tomsic quipped at a UBS conference Dec. 9. Those numbers give it a runway to figure out a digital path forward that MSNBC and CNN may not have, and Fox's strong balance sheet also lends itself to being a buyer of digital programs or platforms, with Murdoch telling Wall Street analysts last November that Fox will engage in 'thoughtful M&A.' Still, both executives and talent on the other channels are hopeful that there is still a path not only for their brands to survive, or even thrive. If they can figure out the product that appeals to an audience, the business can follow, they argue. 'If you look at Morning Joe, if you look at CNBC, because we have audiences of influence, people come to us, advertising comes to us, sub fees come to us,' MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough says. 'That should be the goal of people that want to stay relevant. Serious news sells, you've got to get the right audience.' The challenge will be figuring out where those audiences of influence are in a world where pay-TV is a shadow of its former self, and who, exactly, is footing the bill. This story first appeared in the Feb. 5 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
