A Walter Mercado TV series is in the works and we can’t wait

Molly Smith Metzler was first handed a copy of Stephanie Land’s book Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive during her time in the Shameless writers’ room.

Netflix’s subscriber growth slowdown at the 222 million mark portends things to come for other major streamers is one of the biggest unknowns fueling media stock volatility. Hollywood has staked its hopes for growth over the past few years on drawing subscribers from the global market thanks to streaming’s ability to reach beyond geographic borders.Indeed, the mere suggestion that Netflix’s subscriber base may plateau at around a quarter-billion subs — after the company invested more than $87 billion in content since 2013 — contributed to Wall Street’s latest wave of sell-offs in the media and tech sector.

That in turn will have a major ripple effect across Hollywood’s creative community and the global content production ecosystem, which in recent years has been primed to operate in an environment of seemingly endless demand for new TV shows and movies. Morgan Stanley this month projected the rate of content spending by the 14 largest players in global media to expand at a 13% compound annual growth rate from 2022-25, when the tally will top $200 billion.

The rise of streamer content has created anxiety for talent and their reps, because of models that require ownership of a project in perpetuity. Because product starts on a streaming site and then never leaves, there is no chance of backend windfalls. Just look at the creators and cast of Squid Game to see what that can mean: a billion-dollar property for Netflix, embarrassingly tiny paydays for the artists who made it, and little hope of making up the shortfall in subsequent seasons.

Christopher Vourlias Russia may have been cut off from much of the international film community, but here at Cannes, members of the country’s media business are quietly trying to line up deals.Nearly three months into the war in Ukraine, the leadership of the film festival has spent its opening week fielding questions about its stance on Russia. Festival chief Thierry Frémaux, for instance, was grilled over the inclusion of competition title “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” a movie with financial ties to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix might have had a bumpy few weeks, but the streamer is poised to strike the first major Cannes deal on a hot market package.

Variety.Matt Corman and Chris Ord are attached to write and executive produce the new series.Most recently, Daredevil (Charlie Cox) showed up in big-screen blockbuster “Spider-Man: No Way Home” while Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), the main antagonist from “Daredevil,” made his debut in “Hawkeye,” the Disney+ series based on the arrow-obsessed Avengers character.After Daredevil popped up in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the “Daredevil” series became one of the most-watched shows on Netflix. But the Netflix series have a harder edge, too, which could place them outside of the type of content usually associated with Disney+; “Jessica Jones” in particular deals with sexual assault in a fairly frank way.The collection of Netflix’s Marvel television series – including “Jessica Jones,” “Daredevil,” “The Punisher,” “Luke Cage” and “Iron Fist” – came to Disney+ in March.Launched back in 2015, the Netflix/Marvel series were meant to be complementary to the Marvel Cinematic Universe series of films (they frequently refer to the events of 2012’s “The Avengers,” but none of the characters from the movies ever show up), introducing all-new characters who exist in their own pocket of that larger continuum.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterA new “Daredevil” series is moving forward at Disney+, with Variety having exclusively learned from sources that Matt Corman and Chris Ord are attached to write and executive produce.Rumors have persisted for some time that a Disney+ series about the Man Without Fear was in the works, especially considering that two of the stars of the Netflix “Daredevil” series — Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio — have appeared in recent Marvel projects. Cox played Matt Murdock, the secret identity of Daredevil, in the film “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” while D’Onofrio reprised the role of Wilson Fisk, a.k.a.

Bridgerton will have less sex in the third series due to a huge storyline shakeup, according to Simone Ashley who plays Kate Sharma in the hit Netflix programme. Actress Simone's revelation comes after it was revealed the new series will focus on Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington.The second series of the popular period drama has already toned down on the racy scenes compared to the debut series focussing on Daphne Bridgerton and the Duke of Hastings.

Ava DuVernay’s Wings of Fire, an animated series adaptation of the family fantasy books which had been in development at Netflix since 2021, is the latest victim of animation cuts at the streamer, sources close to the project confirm to Deadline. We hear several other projects are not moving forward as well.

Manori Ravindran International EditorA new series of “Black Mirror” is in the works at Netflix, Variety can reveal.It’s been almost three years since Season 5 of the dystopian drama premiered on the streaming service in June 2019, but sources indicate that a new anthology series of “Black Mirror” is shaping up, and casting is now underway.While details about specific stories are being kept under lock and key, Variety understands that Season 6 will have more episodes than Season 5, which comprised of just three instalments and starred Andrew Scott, Anthony Mackie, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Topher Grace and Miley Cyrus.A source close to the production tells Variety that the latest season is even more cinematic in scope, with each instalment being treated as an individual film. This is, of course, in line with recent seasons of “Black Mirror,” for which episodes usually exceeded 60 minutes and had incredibly high production values.

Netflix’s FYSEE Space’s opening night ATAS panel on Sunday night showcased Shondaland’s Bridgerton season 2 and revealed big news about Season 3.

Nothing eventful ever happens in the peaceful New Raccoon City, right? Yep, that’s right, after a long shelf-life on the big screen with Milla Jovovich, the “Resident Evil” franchise seems to have exhausted itself in the realm of blockbusters. But that doesn’t mean, you can bleed the blood from a stone, yes? That seems to be the thinking over at Netflix, who have bought the rights to the franchise for a small-screen TV reboot and an eight-episode long series.

Wilson Chapman editorJust a year after the premiere of its last live-action adaptation, the “Resident Evil” franchise has risen from the grave in the first trailer for the upcoming Netflix horror series.Based on the long-running Capcom survival horror franchise, “Resident Evil” stars Lance Reddick as Albert Wesker, one of the main antagonists of the original video game series. Tamara Smart and Ella Balinska portray the younger and older versions of Wesker’s daughter Jade, while Siena Agudong, Adeline Rudolph, Paola Nuñez, Ahad Raza Mir, Connor Gossatti and Turlough Convery round out the cast in undisclosed roles.The plot for the new series has been kept under wraps, but the teaser trailer, set to the famous 1971 pop song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony),” reveals that the show will be split in between two timelines.

EXCLUSIVE: We will likely see more of Francesca on Bridgerton next season, and she will look a little different. Hannah Dodd (Anatomy of a Scandal) is set to play the the elusive Bridgerton sibling in Season 3 of Netflix and Shondaland’s Regency-era period drama series based on Julia Quinn’s romance novels. She is joining the hugely popular series in a recasting, taking over the role from Ruby Stokes who left and is the lead of another Netflix series, the upcoming Lockwood & Co., an adaptation of Jonathan Stroud’s books.

Note: Spoilers ahead.“Ozark” ended its four-season run with Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) dead and the Byrde family intact — just barely — as 14-year-old son Jonah (Skylar Gaertner) joined the show’s long list of cold-blooded killers.Or did he?In the show’s final scene, reminiscent of that WTF? “Sopranos” series ender, Jonah aimed a shotgun at pesky private investigator Mel Sattam (Adam Rothenberg), who broke into the Byrdes’ lakefront house to steal the ceramic-goat cookie jar containing the ashes of Wendy’s (Laura Linney) unstable brother, Ben Davis (Tom Pelphrey), contract-killed by his sister in Season 3.Sattam told Marty (Jason Bateman) that his crematorium did a subpar job burning Ben’s body and that he had enough DNA evidence (bits of teeth and bone) to prove that Ben was murdered. Jonah emerged from the shadows, pointed the shotgun at Sattam and the screen suddenly cut-to-black — the silence shattered by a shotgun blast that left Mel’s fate and Jonah’s intentions open to interpretation.Gaertner, 18, answered a few questions from The Post about the shocking finale and how Jonah evolved over the four seasons since “Ozark” premiered in 2017.Did you know how it would play out for Jonah going into Season 4?Well … not entirely.